Where did January go?

As I said in the last blog, life seems very busy at the moment and before we know it we will be Into February and beyond. In the meantime, there are lots of good things coming up, (and that’s leaving aside the Six Nations rugby!) in the form of several concerts in our locality, starting with another reminder about Royston Live on Friday 26^th January featuring The Bounty Hounds and with the new management team of Bryan Causton, Penni Maclaren-Walker, Guido Rincón & Jeremy Harmer providing support.

You will have to be quick to catch the Burns Night celebration at the Four Rivers Folk Club in Hertford tonight but they also have a Ronnie Lane Night going on tomorrow Friday 26^th January and now all their club nights can be found as an entry in the Unicorn Diary which is one of The Listings on the main Unicorn Folk website. The same is also now true of the Acoustic Club Bishop’s Stortford following the publication of its programme concerts, mostly at the new venue the South Mill Arts Centre. Their next concert night is a ‘6 Acts 4 Songs’ evening on Thursday 1^st February.

Next Wednesday 31^st January Baldock Folk Club features Elizabeth & Jameson with support from Adam Cooney and the following Wednesday 7th February there is another great night folk lined up for the audience at  St Andrew’s Church in Hertford featuring the Sharon Shannon Trio details of which can be found on the main Unicorn Folk website where it is a featured concert, but you’ll need to hurry as it is almost sold out! If that’s the case, then perhaps you should try for the night before that, Tuesday 6^th February, when Fairport Convention open their Wintour 2024 at the Stables, Milton Keynes. You can read a review of their Harpenden concert from Wintour 2023 on the Unicorn Folk website HERE.

I was saddened to see the news that Standon Morris are officially calling it a day and winding down. This decision was reached unanimously at their most recent AGM in September of last year following many years of struggle to recruit new dancers from the local area, despite repeated campaigns. They are now in the process of creating a consolidated archive which will hold photos, videos, newspaper cuttings and other bits and pieces from over the years. Select media from their archive will be posted to their Facebook page and they warmly welcome any media, footage, information, anecdotes or tales of the side that former members or followers are happy to share.

Amongst the responses to the post by Standon Morris was one by Trevor Jenkins who posted a copy of the front page of ‘The Times’ from Monday 27^th June 1977. This showed Standon Morris dancing in the Winster Processional as part of the 1977 Morris Ring meeting in Thaxted over the weekend just ended. I was reminded on seeing the photo that I was at that Ring Meeting, my first, as a dancer with Bath City Morris. We were led by Tubby Reynolds & Roy Dommett and missed out on the front page of The Times by only about 50 yards! Sadly, the Bath City Morris ‘university’ side has also been defunct for many years. We used to have an archive on a website somewhere and if anyone who is reading this has any connections with Bath City Morris as was, or knows someone who does, I would be interested in putting up another commemorative website for that side. Please get in touch using info@unicornfolk.uk.

Whilst genuinely saddened at the demise of any group keeping alive the old dance traditions, all the above is also an excuse to mention again the Dance Diary in The Listings on the main Unicorn Folk website which provides a FREE listing of events for all EFDSS or Morris sides to allow them to publicise their activities.  This is provided simply to do what little Unicorn Folk can to keep these old traditions going. Do take advantage if you can and send your details to info@unicornfolk.uk ideally using the either Word or Excel forms (still labelled 2023 but fine to use) which makes it a lot easier to collate than just plain text in an email.

Finally, if you enjoy listening to folk music, try ‘Filby’s Folk’ at 6pm on Sunday evenings on  Royston Radio with a repeat at 1pm Tuesdays. The beauty of radio is that you can listen and do other things, such as cook, at the same time! The show features a wide range of folk music including traditional, acoustic, Celtic, European, Breton, Indie and folk rock (or ‘Frock’ as Fairport apparently now refer to it!) the latter being a particular favourite of mine. Do give it a listen and if you like it spread the word please. Thank you!

Happier New Year

I don’t know about anyone else but where I am usually a bit fed up at this time of the year, post-festive season and with at least a couple of months of cold weather to look forward to, the fact that life seems very busy seems to have mitigated my usual post-festive blues.

Maybe it’s the knowledge that there is lots of good music in store for us soon and to that end there is a new version of the Unicorn Diary in The Listings on the main Unicorn Folk website which covers the first three months of events at music venues in the local area in 2024. If your venue is not listed then do be sure to send in details of your events preferably in either Word or Excel format by downloading and completing one of these forms. A plain text list in an email to info@unicornfolk.uk is also fine.

One highlight of the coming month is a concert that is taking place next Thursday 18th January at St Andrew’s Church in Hertford featuring Eliza Carthy. You can find all the details on the on the main Unicorn Folk website where it is a featured concert and also an entry in the Unicorn Diary which is one of The Listings. Some of the clubs listed in the Union Diary have only booked artists for the first month or less but the Unicorn Diary will be updated as soon as we have the details.

I’m also looking forward to the first concert under new management at Royston Live on Friday 26^th January featuring The Bounty Hounds where the new team of Bryan Causton, Penni Maclaren-Walker, Guido Rincón & Jeremy Harmer will hopefully also be providing a few tunes.

Did you know that The Stables, Milton Keynes runs music-based workshops and courses year-round which offer sociable and stimulating opportunities for people to become musicians?Amongst these is the Ceilidh Experience, which is a chance for anyone interested in traditional and folk music to play in a band and play at a ceilidh. The courses run every Sunday from 28 January and you can find more details HERE.

Also part of The Listings on the main Unicorn Folk website are the Festival Finder and Gigs & Tours which have both been updated for 2024. Why not see if your favourite band is listed or perhaps even your own band if you are going on tour. Just drop a line to info@unicornfolk.uk if you wish your details to be included and the same goes for anyone organising a festival with at least some ‘folk’ music in it. Links to 100+ festivals are included in the Festival Finder though some, as indicated, don’t yet contain details of their 2024 event. There is also a Dance Diary in The Listings which provides a free listing of events for all EFDSS or Morris sides to publicise their activities, though take up of this service was very disappointing last year. Do take advantage if you can and send your details to info@unicornfolk.uk ideally using the either Word or Excel forms (still labelled 2023 but fine to use) which makes it a lot easier to collate than just plain text in an email.

If you are reading this blog then you probably enjoy listening to folk music, in which case, try listening to  ‘Filby’s Folk’at 6pm on Sunday evenings with a repeat at 1pm Tuesdays. You have missed the Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve specials but can always catch up on podcasts, now to be found under ‘Rewind’ on the Royston Radio website around a week after the original broadcasts.

Finally, let me wish you all a very Happy New Year in 2024.