Royston Folk LIVE is a constituted ’not for profit’ Club with a committee of volunteers.
Its aim is to help build a friendship community for those who like to regularly gather together and enjoy listening to live music with those that enjoy playing live music.
The committee consists of:
Jeremy Harmer – Chair
Bryan Causton – Secretary
Lesley Walls – Treasurer
Penni Mclaren Walker
Guido M Rincon
Chris Walls
Mark Gamon
Royston Folk LIVE is held on the last Thursday of the month at
The Plough, 12 High Street, Shepreth, Royston, SG86PP
Those wanting to be considered for spots in future events
should now drop an email to a NEW EMAIL ADDRESS
Info@roystonLIVE.org … If not already a friend of the club it is always best to include some video if possible.
Supported by
unicornfolk.uk
The Royston Folk Club has been running since 2012
allegedly after a 30 year break – before which myth has it that it was famous for visits from such as Nick Drake and Paul Simons.
We enjoy an eclectic mix of music taking in all kinds of roots and “folk”. We enjoy, trad, contemporary and originals from the latest singer songwriters, as well as a bit of classical, jazz, ragtime, spoken word and blues. In fact …
“For Folk music read “Good” music”
We are predominantly an acoustic club but welcome a well tempered electic guitar, bass or keyboard. We love to see and hear more unusual instruments, harps, pipes, dulcimers etc.
We value our “Roystoneers” who are, just as important as the musicians, as they just love to listen to live music.
We pride ourselves on being a friendly place where you can meet new friends and become part of a community. We showcase musical talent (on the second Friday of the month) with visits from near and far.
We especially welcome and encourage young talent.
Many of our showcase performers return with new original material, as well as, well chosen, well known songs, new instruments and new collaborations with other musicians.
From our showcases we aim to source talent for our concerts (on the last Friday of the month) though in our concerts we also regularly present big well known names.
Try our Facebook Group to meet our community of Roystoneers, followers and musicians and hundreds of great pictures from Mike Wells and Livestreams from Mark and Chris ….
OUR VENUE
The Plough, 12 High Street, Shepreth, Royston, SG86PP
Tickets for our CONCERTS …
Reserve them on our ‘Tickets’ page … Pay cash or card at the door It is not essential to reserve seats – but to be sure of your seat and to let us know how many to cater for PLEASE DO reserve on our ‘Tickets’ page … We are not taking advance payments as Covid still provides much uncertainty … If we lose any of our booked acts to covid we will continue with the help of our local musicians and the door price will be adjusted. It is of course possible that we are restricted by government with vaccine passports, tests or even further lock downs – to which we will of course comply. This why we are only taking money – on the door – on the night.
HUSH We expect silence during concerts on the “Last Thursday of every month” and believe it good etiquette to wait for gaps between songs to pop over to get drinks etc. We set the place up so that this is easy to come and go at any time.
CONCERT SOUND CHECKS are at 6:30pm doors open 7:30 Support spot starts at 8pm to 8:50pm Headline spots are from 9:10pm to 11pm with 20 min break in the middle
HOW IT STARTED IN 2012 After a 30 year hibernation Royston Folk Club was re-started in March 2012 by Mike Farrow with the support of his partner Elaine.
The first few events proved that the time and the place was right. Mike recruited his Guitar teacher Tony Buch who had a wealth of experience to host the club. Another of Tony’s guitar students
Chris Walls was recruited on the first night of the club. With considerable experience of club, management and promotion Chris had much to share with the team. Chris provides and operates the sound system. Chris also manages and maintains this web site.
THEN – ALL CHANGE IN OCT 2013 In 2013 Mike announced he and Elaine were moving to Wales….. “I was hoping you’d keep it going Chris” he said !!!! They completed their move with to North Wales from where he still guides us to find headline acts. During 2014 we very sadly lost Tony Buch to cancer. Chris Walls stepped up to bankroll and head up a team to keep the club going.
Chris had many skills but what he lacked was local contact being at the time new to the area. Mark Gamon on the other hand had been a regular at many of the clubs in the area as a singer song writer. Mark was the perfect person to look out for showcase talent and promote the club.
Chris now assisted by his partner Lesley Walls, and Mark Gamon, Becky Wears, have constituted a “not for profit” organisation so Royston Folk Club has a bank account and is “official” with help from Mike and Liz Wells, Brian Harvey, Janet and Dave Bubbins Carl Filbey and Martin Kaszac the club is growing from strength to strength.
Until Covid 19 … As we walked away from The Old Bull Inn in March 2020 we had no idea when or how we might meet again. Our musician friends struggled but found new ways of performing “on line” … Eventually 18 months later, restrictions eased, and still wary, we were able to hold a socially distanced night of live music. We asked for dates into 2022 to be told that we traditionally did not make the Old Bull as much money on our showcase nights as birthday discos etc. It was clear that we would be accused of the same thing if restricted to the socially distanced capacity of 40 at our concerts. After much research we were pleased to be welcomed by Royston Royal British Legion with all our regular Friday dates and capacity for 100 socially distanced in groups round tables. We moved the club on the last Friday of January 2022.
At the end of 2023 Mark Gamon and Chris Walls decided to step back a little from planning of our 2024 future events and so from January 2024 Bryan Causton, Penni Mclaren Walker, Jeremy Harmer and Guido M Rincon joined the team. Lesley continues to look after ticketing, keep the books and do the banking.