KentFolk News December 2008

2009-01-07 :
The Drum at Stanford North is now shut and I understand that there is a regular gig there and am wondering if you would like to come to The Black Horse, Monks Horton, which is 3 miles down the road regards Harry Willett

Hi Folks,

Sad news, The Drum has had to cease trading!

We have had an offer from The Black Horse at Monks Horton to host us and I shall be going there in about an hour with Maureen and Dave to have a look at the facilities which sound as if they will suit us.
It is therefore most likely that we shall meet there tomorrow night. I will send more details later but either way Dave Jones will be at The Drum tomorrow to redirect people.
What I would request is the maximum possible turnout tomorrow night to support our club wherever we may meet.
Please pass the word as not everyone reads their e-mails that quickly.
I only heard of the pub closure when I read my e-mail at about 1600 when Beau Webber www.kentfolk.com forwarded an e-mail from the landlord of the Black Horse.
More later

Regards

David

Hi Folks,

I have done the recce and we shall be meeting at The Black Horse, Monks Horton ( www.thebestpubintheparish.com ). Performance will start at 2030 as usual but don't worry if you are running late. A word of warning the pub only serves food in the evening at weekends so Roger, don't expect to get any chips! There is very useful info on the website including an extract from the Ordnance Survey map which you can print out, also, as promised, Dave Jones will be at The Drum from 1930 with diagrams for those who are not sure of the way and to pick up anyone who has not heard the bad news about The Drum closing.
All being well, we shall be there for the foreseeable future. The room we shall be using is much larger than either The Drum or The White Hart and the acoustics are good!
I will not do a route card now to save time but if you wish I will happily give directions over the phone or by e-mail if requested. My numbers for anyone who doesn't have them are: 01797-320518 or Mobile 07890-292467. I will break my usual rule and leave my mobile on until about 2100 tomorrow.
I can't think of anything else to add at present but if there is additional info which you would like please don't hesitate to contact me. See you there!
Regards

David

We are losing music pubs and music-friendly Landlords at a frightening rate
- and the evidence is that the Licensing Act 2003 is responsible.

I have been doing the KentFolk web page since the year 2000, and the fall off in gig numbers is very evident from my data - but my research gets in the way some months, and that causes scatter in the numbers, so for good figures I went to Chris Ashman of www.kentgigs.com and asked if I could data-mine his Gig Archives :

"Hi Beau,
I would suggest that you should look at our lists also in the light of the number of venues that are prepared to pay to promote their events rather than expecting bands to act like "rent a crowd". ......
We can say without doubt this is the worst period we have seen for Kent bands since we started supplying the media in 1981,
Chris"

So I pointed my programs at his gig archive, and this is the graph I get; I plot the number of live music gigs per week in Kent and East Sussex that are listed on www.kentgigs.com over the years Summer 2004 to Christmas 2008 :

Are Kentish and East Sussex Live Music Gigs Coming to an End ?

At first look we have a quite a lot of scatter, then we can see that in fact some of the variation is a regular dip of some 20 or 30 gigs per week over the Christmas weeks, which makes sense.

But the main feature is that a steady live-gig-rate of about 70 per week has been about halved. What has caused this ? - we can line-up events on this time-graph with major events that have recently happened :

1. The Credit Crunch - starting late Summer 2008 into Autumn - There is a definite dip, but surprisingly the graph seems to have gone up again by Winter and the time of the regular Christmas dip - perhaps people are in need of compensation, and live music is a good option?
2. The Smoking Ban - came into effect 1st July 2007 - Possibly there is a slight dip, but I do not believe there is any statistically significant change.
3. The Licensing Act 2003 - came into force on 24 November 2005 - We see that what was a regular and fairly steady live music gig-rate of about 70 per week has turned within a month or two into a steady and apparently uniform slide towards zero.

Now I am not one of those who found no merit in the Licensing Act 2003 - I agree the licencing fee takes most of the possible profit from the gigs I sometimes put on, but I do get a piece of paper that makes the gig legal.
However what is totally unacceptable is that it would seem that for the publicans and musicians the scheme is unworkable, such that if everything is equal - and it won't be - we can expect no live music over the Christmas weeks next year (2009) - down from a recent 40 to 50 gigs per week over the Christmas period - and before the end of 2011 live music gigs will be effectively over or too far away to drive to.

There is an urgent need to get this data to those who can make a difference, and also your real stories about publicans who are being thrown out and musicians who are losing their trade - this data is unequivocal :
- The Licensing Act 2003 is destroying live music in one of the most musically active counties in the UK.

However the real question is :
What is it about the Licensing Act that is destroying pubs and the music ?
Suspicions :

• Longer opening hours : Pushes up costs for the smaller pubs.
• Longer opening hours : No need to go to the pub just yet - oh it is too late ....
• Easier sales of booze in supermarkets : No need to go to the pub at all now.

This is what I was saying already : We are losing music pubs and music friendly landlords at a frightening rate - the major music venue in Canterbury, Simple Simons lost its music-friendly landlord, changed its name to The Parrot, and stopped doing music since the Summer - but the good news is that they now host a Celtic Session on the 1st Sunday of the month, and I have just been and chatted with them, and they will now be hosting gigs on Saturdays, and I hope to be sent the gig list.
On the other hand the down side is that the regular weeky Celtic Session on Wednesdays that has now been in the Anchor, Wingham, for a number of years, will end on Wednesday 7th January 2009.

An up-side is that the excellent pub the Yew Tree in Barfreston is again starting to do music - on Sundays - currently Jazz on the last Sunday, but watch this space :

Hello there,
My name is Ben Bevan and I am the owner these days of The Yew Tree in Barfreston.
I understand that it was a popular venue for folk music. I was wondering if I might offer my pub on a sunday evening for the use of the Kent Folk community. As it stands we have Jazz on the last sunday of each month. The other sundays are all free. They are the only evening that we do not serve food so the whols pub is at your disposal.
We still pride ourselves on our real ales, most of them from Kent. ...... The pubs website is now www.yewtree.info and the pub telephone number is 01304 831000
We have just won Uk pub newcomer 2009 in the good Food Guide and we have spruced the place up a little but essentially not changed the traditional nature of the pub.
Best wishes
Ben

STOP PRESS : The Yew Tree and opera-singing Ben will be featured on BBC S.E. TV, on Monday 29th lunch-time and 6pm News.
Excellent local bitters in the Yew Tree, including Gadds, all at £2 per pint.
We are looking to get some open stage events in place, and Happy Trails will be there on Sunday 1st February, so expect some good music - and Cajun dancers.

Jazz Notes are the last Sunday of the month house-band at the Yew Tree.

Packed to bursting, the Wrotham Arms gave an enthusiastic welcome to the excellent local duo The Dealers.

Selling individual MP3 tracks, and complete Digital Albums, over the web :
For some time KentFolk has been using PayPal to sell local musician's CDs. A new technology that I have wanted for some time, is now in place: - KentFolk can now sell individual MP3 tracks, either directly from the KentFolk web pages, with payment by CC or PayPal, or via the highly respected eFolkMusic www.eFolkMusic.org, in the States.

If you are a musician, group or band that would like to sell your tracks over the web, and of course this is particularly good for both CDs that have all sold out, as well as new tracks that are not yet on a CD, then please email me : Beau@KentFolk.com

I am limited in my time available to "turn the handle" on these, and it is very time-consuming, but will do what I can. As a preliminary offering, the 2003 Deal LifeBoat House shanty recording were the first available on the web - both in the form of a few individual tracks, and the complete recording - all net profit to the NLRI, after the CC/PayPal deductions.

MP3 music currently available on KentFolk, at www.kentfolk.com/#Mp3music :

• "The LifeBoat Men come ...."
  13 sea shanties recorded by KentFolk during the 2003 Deal Maritime Festival, at a live concert by Shanty Crew, Bosun's Call and the Deal Hoodeners, in the LifeBoat House, Deal on the 7th of September, 2003. - all net money to the RNLI!

• "The LifeBoat Men come ...."
  13 sea shanties recorded by KentFolk during the 2003 Deal Maritime Festival, at a live concert by Shanty Crew, Bosun's Call and the Deal Hoodeners, in the LifeBoat House, Deal on the 7th of September, 2003. - all net money to the RNLI!
• "Reasons to Rhyme"
  Two tracks from members of the Deal Folk Club : CD: "Reasons to Rhyme" - "He Rode the Waves" and "Mother Nature", with Sue Watson singing and Stuart Maclean on the guitar.
• "The Rattlaz : Songs of Peace & Protest"
  England is still experiencing hard times and the crow is still well and truly fixed to the cradle. Deportees are still with us in the form of migrant workers ... The voice in all these songs is the voice of compassion and understanding, the voice of hope and determination. We ignore this voice at our peril.
  Originally produced as a Concert for the Folkestone Literary Festival, 2006. Chris Tophill : Accordion / Piano / Mandolin / Vocals. Kevin Richards : Djembe / Percussion / Guitar / Vocals. Jack Pound : 6 & 12 String Guitars / Banjo / Harmoonica / Vocals.
• "Relig Oran : Tracks From The Dark Side"
  These three lads - all deeply experienced in Traditional Celtic and European music - are creating a genre of their own - I am using the term "Euro-Celt" to describe the music they are writing and playing. It looks back to our roots when the Celts were pan-Europe, and makes a strong statement for the present when the Tribes of Europe are re-finding what they have in common.
  Gordon Jackson - Andy Renshaw - Martin Sutcliffe
• "Martin Long : The Climbing Boy"
  "Martin Young : Botany Bay"
  Martin is a lad who has been around on the Faversham Folk scene for longer than I have known it, variously as Martin Long, and Martin Young.
  Martin is I feel very much in the old troubadour mold, in that the music can not let him rest, it very much defines who he is.
  The songs he sings, sometimes intensely personal, sometimes with local Kentish references, are mostly self-penned, usually both the tunes and the lyrics.
  The Climbing Boy: Title Track: Often small boys were taken in by Chimney sweeps and in return for a home were forced to climb chimneys and scour them out as they ascended. Rochester has an annual Sweeps Festival.
  Botany Bay: Title Track: is a double reference - to both the Botany Bay in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia - it was the site of a landing by James Cook - and also to the Botany Bay near Broadstairs in Kent - see cover photograph.
• "Happy Trails : White Sands"
  Choice Americana in harmony from a group of musicians who have been giving Kent top quality music for many years - Blues, Cajun, Appalachian, Country and now Americana from the South.
  13 songs where this Kentish band - Happy Trails - take an honest and affectionate view into what they have seen and heard on some of their many visits to the Southern States.

The KentFolk page on eFolkMusic is at : www.efolkmusic.org/ArtMusic/ViewArtist.aspx?a=0&AID=1570
Then go to the MP3 and Digital Album links.

Multi-level directories of News :
Do keep sending me news and items for both the calendar and this news section -
Please see the info at the bottom of the news pages for guidance as to good formats to send me news items for these pages, and for event listings for the calendars.
cheers, Beau.