Whangateau Folk Club Night: Monday, November 27th.  7:00pm start, $15. 

Our special guest this month is David Shanhun.  (https://www.davidshanhun.com/home). David Shanhun has opened shows for Heart, Foreigner, and Three Dog Night, toured internationally, and had the #1 song on iTunes NZ with ‘Jessie’.  He has shared the stage with Grammy Award winner Bryan White, and been a nominee for the NZCMA Horizon award.  And on top of all of this, he is a truly wonderful human being who I rate very highly.  I am so pleased he has included us in his current tour of the North Island.  I know you are going to love him and his show.  Please do come along.

This is a standard club night with first half floor singers, so warm up those fingers and tune up your guitar!  You can email me at jenine@torkington.com to sign up for a slot, or just sign up at the door on the day.

Richard Grainger is a ‘widely respected songwriter and guitarist with a clear and ‘captivating’ vocal style’. His songs are performed widely by performers at home in his native England and abroad. A prolific and diverse artist, Richard is a singer, songwriter and musician who has been performing on the British Folk Scene since the 1980’s.

I saw Richard at Wellington Folk Festival and his show was engaging and poignant and funny.  Since then he has been playing to packed houses all over New Zealand.  We are lucky to have him for his penultimate New Zealand performance on Friday, the 17th of November.  Tickets are $15 and available at the door or by emailing me at jenine@torkington.com to reserve your seat for what will be a very special treat.

Doors open at 7:00pm for a 7:30pm show.

About 300 years ago (relative time, things got confusing somewhere around 2020) this great multinational band came to play for us at Whangateau.  On October 17 they return for a full concert with a new line-up but the same outstanding performance.  Tickets are $20 and you can pre-purchase by emailing me at jenine@torkington.com.

Doors open at 7pm for a 7:30pm show.  Tickets are selling fast for this show, and pre-booking is very much recommended.

Club Night Cancelled

I am very sorry that we’re having to pull the plug on club night this month due to work commitments.  It’s a perfect storm of big projects all happening at the same time and even the backups for our backups are unavailable.  So we will reconvene in October for club night.

But before that …

Himmerland returns!

I’m finally home!

Whangateau Folk Club meets Monday, 28 August. Doors open at 6:45pm for a 7pm Club start. No guest artist, all local folkies are invited to sign up to perform 2 numbers.

$10 on the door, all proceeds going towards the hall chair renewal project! Light supper served at intermission (hot drink and a bikkie).

I am so excited to finally be back. Looking forward to seeing all y’all tomorrow night. It was hard missing 4 whole club nights!

Whangateau Hall and Reserve Committee

The Hall and Reserve Committee meets quarterly to discuss the management needs of the hall and Domain. We’re a locally run hall, which means we have a lot more say over how things happen than other Council owned properties. If you love the Hall as much as I do, and want to be part of managing this community taonga, join us at the Hall at 7pm on Tuesday, August 29th. We’re a friendly bunch!

~ Jenine

Hi Everyone,

Winter is nearly over YAY, Jenine will be back next month YAY and we have a very special guest band this month: TWEED, YAY.

I have had the privilege to work with TWEED in the past and I guarantee you will be wowed by this incredibly musical and dynamic trio. Since its inception, Tweed has honed a distinctive style of catchy melodies, poly-rhythms, and tight-knit, complex vocal harmonies. Tweed’s music has a harmony-rich vintage sound reminiscent of Crosby, Stills & Nash, and Joni Mitchell, and cites the Punch Brothers, Joan Armatrading, and Ani diFranco as main influences. As well as their own songs they will be bringing their unique touch to a bunch of well-known classics, especially for this show.

Check them out here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BC7JK1ewQSY&t=155s

The evening begins at 7:00pm, $15 on the door.

Anyone wanting to book a spot to perform in the 1st half please email me (Andy) at andyhamilton@xtra.co.nz or turn up early enough to get on the list. We have had some great new performers recently and I hope you all turn up again.

Hope to see you on Monday

Kia kaha

Andy

The Matariki Bucket raffle and day at the Whangateau Hall to celebrate Matariki and help raise money towards the cost of re-covering the chairs was a huge success-we raised just under $4,000 which is more than half the $7,000 bill. The day itself was wonderful (no rain until it was finished) and everybody enjoyed the Kapa Haka performance by Leigh Primary School children, the various games, activities in the morning and the overall positive atmosphere.

Thank you to everyone in the ratepayers and wider community for your support either by selling or buying tickets, filling up a bucket, giving donations or just attending on the day-We have a fabulous and generous community and the committee is extremely grateful for the support given by so many.

May Club Night

Whangateau Folk Club this month is on Monday, May 29th. This is a casual evening with no special guest, so it is the perfect opportunity for all you living room players to sign up and warble a tune or two. All levels of ability and musical genre are warmly welcomed, with the caveat that you be fully acoustic and able to play into our microphones. Each performer is allowed 2 songs for no longer than 8 minutes, so we have enough time to give everyone a try. The evening begins at 7:00pm, $10 on the door, with all proceeds going to the chair recovering project.

Songwriting Workshop

If you’ve ever wanted to write a song but just don’t know where to start, delve into the inner workings of a song writer’s mind, or spend an hour or two simply soaking up stories and songs and the stories behind them, then this workshop is for you.

Come along to this free 90 minute workshop with Andy Hamilton and the Dirt Road Orchestra. Andy has been writing, recording and performing his own songs for over 40 years.

The aim of the workshop is to unlock the creative song writing process and set you on the path to realise your own song writing potential through discussion, interaction and performance.

https://youtu.be/IO7FUHiGIeo

https://youtu.be/NijxcM92qI4

Please feel free to bring along your own instrument.
Saturday May 20th 11am Warkworth Library

Songwriting Workshop May 20 11am

Where in the World is Jenine?

So, you’re gonna find out eventually, I might as well confess now. I’ve fled winter yet again for the warmer climes of Colorado. I’ll be here looking after my mum, visiting with friends, and hopefully making some music until the 1st of August. I’ll still be your point of contact for most things Whangateau, but club nights will be run by Andy Hamilton and Nat Torkington. And Petrina Brenchley at the Campground is a better point of contact for questions about hiring the hall.

Everyone stay safe. Make lots of music and I’ll see you in August, all going well.

Yours,

Jenine

Whangateau Folk Club cancelled this month due to the tree down across Leigh Road at Upper Whangateau and no power in the area. The story is it’ll be cleared before club time, but no idea when the power will be restored. Best everyone stay home nice and safe, and we’ll try again next month!

Club night is tomorrow, Monday the 27th of March! 7pm, $15 at the door.

We have a very special second half guest act this month!  Described as an ‘intricate, complex, but warm-hug kinda experience’, Where Water Meets are folk duo Emily Sheppard (violin/viola/vocals) and Yyan Ng (guitar/vocals). Touring New Zealand for the first time, they are bringing music from their critically acclaimed first album River Islands, with songs and tunes inspired by the Tasmanian wilderness. They combine alternatively tuned guitars, violins and violas with ethereal vocals to create shimmering, visual worlds both Tasmanian and interstellar.  How exciting is this?

The evening starts at 7pm, Monday, 27 February, with half time bikkies and a hot drink included.  $10, door sales only, no pre-booking necessary. You can email Andy directly, or come early to sign up for a floor spot.

Radio New Zealand coverage

I have noticed that a lot of people tend to only come to shows that have been advertised on Radio New Zealand.  I would like to point out that getting onto RNZ is very difficult if you don’t know the right people or have the right connections.  A lot of great bands come through without having done an RNZ appearance.  This month’s guest is no exception!  So have your tea a little early, come down, and enjoy some truly unique and transporting music.

New Zealand String Quartet

After a sold-out concert in Wellington on St Patrick’s Day, we’re delighted to bring Irish Airs & Graces to Auckland next Friday 31^st March for a performance at Unitarian Church, 1a Ponsonby Road.

Irish Airs & Graces is a concert blurring the boundaries between traditional Irish music and contemporary classical music and featuring Irish composer Dave Flynn, the New Zealand String Quartet, and guest traditional Irish musicians: Tracey Collins (accordion) and Marian Burns (fiddle).

The New Zealand String Quartet (NZSQ) is renowned for its versatility and has enjoyed collaborating with musicians and artists from all over the globe, in a range of classical, jazz and world music and dance genres.  The NZSQ first performed one of Dave Flynn’s works (‘Slip’ from String Quartet no.2 ‘The Cranning’) during our 2022 national tour, and we are delighted to collaborate with Dave on this special concert.

The programme features traditional Irish music arranged for string quartet, accordion, fiddle, and guitar. The ‘airs’ represent the famed melodies of Ireland, while the ‘graces’ represent the distinctive ornamentation techniques unique to Irish music.