Rhyl Folk Club meets on Friday nights at 8:00pm
Venue:
Spendloves
Rhyl Football Club "Belle Vue"
Grange Road
LL18 4BY
Map
| Pete Kay. 7th. September '07 When my initial thoughts of the Showcase were spawned, I had in mind artists not readily known to the club, but are given an opportunity to show what they have to offer (musically of course} to the Rhyl club Although Pete is a regular at Conwy FC. not everyone at Rhyl knew of him. That is now not the case and after his scintillating performance, he is a stranger no more. |
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| Petes' powerful voice and aggressive guitar style was tempered by his knowing cheeky facial expressions that guided the listener to the true meaning of the lyrics. Pete is a purveyor of traditional folk songs that are often, to me a tad boring, but his unique style brings across the message to perfection unlike many so called traditionalists. I have seen him many times over the years, but this was without doubt his best performance . He had the packed house in the palm of his hand from the first song to the last, absolutely brilliant and just what the Showcase is all about. Many thanks Pete. - Nick Gausden |
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MORE STORY FOURS - SHOWCASE. 24th. August '07 Steve Ferbrache and Siobhan Watts, collectively known as 'More Story Fours' were invited to do a showcase at Rhyl F.C. due to Steve's past attendances at the old Bee & Station Hotel. To my recollection 'young' Steve was a complete novice on the guitar in those days, but must have sucked in every ounce of info' from the likes of Jeff Blythin, Kevin Wardman, Dave Costello, Alun Rees Jones and the absolute master of being yourself while performing - the late Mike Hand. |
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Packing his bags full of necessities and memories of Rhyl, he toddled off to Uni. On his return to the 'Bee' Steve was an accomplished Guitar player, much to the surprise of many, who had struggled - strived and failed over a much longer period to attain such a high standard. Frequently Steve attended Conwy Folk Club which furthered his experience of performing to a live audience. Life and the need to earn a living moved Steve to London and he was off the 'Rhyl radar' until I spotted an email of his on the Jim Reynolds website. I susequently got in touch hence the Showcase spot. Steve and Siobhan put together an entertaining set of mainly self penned songs and the blend of guitar and banjo was spot on and a perfect accompianament to Steves voice. The set was well recieved by the large audience and I'm sure we will see more of the talented pair in the future. The ultimate compliment was paid a few weeks later, with Kevin Wardman turning up and singing 'Funny Things' a song written by the duo, praise indeed. My favourite however was Underground. Well done you two and many thanks for the visit. |
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 Showcase Night - 20th. July '07 - The Rochdale Mashers |
During their showcase night the 'Rochdale Mashers' owned up to not actually hailing from the gem of the north, but from a lesser known village called Manchester. Does this mean that Stanley Accrington is from Crewe, Kate Rusby from Bedford or heaven forbid - Martin Alcock from Ballsover. But what's in a name the lads entertained with a variety of well known humorous northern ditties and monologues, with the odd -not so well known aside thrown in by the reverand Killian to befuddle the faithful. |
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With more sweat being produced with each song than the floodwaters in Worcester, Row - Row - Row your Boat would have been more apt than - 'And the sun shone down on Charlie Chaplin' The lads were in fine voice however and seemed to be enjoying the event, although a visit to 'Specsavers' could be on the cards soon to help navigate the idiot boards. All in all a good relaxed night of Folk Club Fun, well done boys, I hope you managed to eventually get dry. Nick Gausden |
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 Lord Jackson of Baboon |
Nick Jackson - as Lord Jackson of Baboon and the lost member of the Jackson 6 prefers to be known - hit the stage with a bang on Friday with his first song: Algenon - which provided the motif for many of Nick's songs, the quality joke turned into a narrative comic song. Usually concerning Animals, or Sex, or Food, or in this song - all three! |
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Nick has been singing this song for many years and delivers it perfectly.
As a Spanish speaker I'm always impressed that he pronounces the Spanish names correctly, no-one else I've heard in North Wales gets it right! Silver Tasee was Nick's next song, Nick has arranged this song from a Robbie Burns poem, and no night in a folk club with Nick playing is complete without it. One of Nick's own love songs "The Exception That Proves The Rule" followed, and probably displaced another song in his set that I like slightly more "Play It By Ear" but they are both great songs. The Jake Thackery song "The Bantum Cock" is always keenly anticipated by Nick's fans, and this rendition was as good as ever, with the great line in the song "He winked at me, The way that rapists do" - classic! Returning to the main motif of the Jackson ouvre, some evergreen comic songs came flying out in rapid succession, "The Gorilla on the Bird Table", the unfortuneate tale of Colin the retreiver and his friend Fluff the rabbit and finally "The Rotheram Gardner", who 'said it with flowers'. Closing his showcase set, Nick bravely did a monologue, "The Charabanc Trip" by Ivor Biggun, [full text] which he not only got through without putting a foot wrong, but produced as fine a rendition as I've heard of this classic story. Brought back for an encore, Nick gave a bravura performance of his very own "Coconut Surprise" again marrying two of the standard three themes of Sex and Food. This was a splendid night's entertainment, and we look forward to seeing Nick at Rhyl, whenever he can make it. Tony Franks 1July 2007 |
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Watch out Dafydd Iwan, Des Owen is in town. Not only is Des Owen better looking than Dafydd Iwan but he also sings and plays better than him.Friday May 25th |
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SHOWCASE NIGHT: Virginia Barrett with Stewart Lupton |
Friday 2nd. March.`07
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What a fantastic turn out for the clubs first 'Showcase Night'and what a quality performance Kevin & Lauren Wardman gave their eagerly awaiting audience. With a varied song list of favourites from Tom Waite and Steve Earle, to Mary Black and Eddie Reader, both voices were in fine form, and Kevin's 'Gibson' responded to the occasion, as all top class instruments should do in the right hands.Un-known to the audience, a major gremlin was discovered at the sound check, by way of a speaker cable being faulty. It was brand new and had only been fitted in the roof space the previous night, which effectivly knocked out two units. |
However a temporary solution was achieved by `Professor Blythin` and the sound quality did not suffer greatly.
The now to be expected solid start by the Resident`s kicked off the evening with added floor spots by Finbar McKeown in the first half and Brian Bull post beer break. In the main event, Lauren sang to perfection Mary Black's No Frontiers written by Jimmy McCarthy which I feel is one of her favourites to perform.
However for me, the show stopper was Kevin's masterly rendition of Dougie McClean's Down Too Deep which held the room silent but spellbound and I'm sure I heard half a dozen pins drop during the song, or were they tear drops?. The result, another cracking nights entertainment at Rhyl which sent the crowd home full of good beer and good cheer, but most of all good music.
© Nick Gausden
