Our originally scheduled guests for January, Pat Smith and Ned Clamp, are unable to travel from the UK to NZ due to health issues, so we have had to make some changes to the calendar.

Frank Burkitt Band

Instead, the fabulous Frank Burkitt Band will be coming straight from their guest appearance at the Auckland Folk Festival to play at Whangateau. Frank Burkitt is well known for entertaining story-telling, tightly arranged songs and delicious harmony and a set list that contains blues, country, bluegrass, swing and some Scottish folk. It is good old fashioned original song-writing backed up by a band that understands perfectly how to add infectious rhythm and groove (Geluk’s bass), varied and skilled solo breaks (Burnell and Jackson on mandolin and fiddle) and endorphin-exploding harmonies (Filbey on backing vocals). $15.

More about the band: The Frank Burkitt Band.

In honour of the fact that our next concert guests, No Bones About It, were our first ever club night guests, we have decided to switch their full concert to a club night concert with floor spots in the first half. So get out the guitar and come out for this special mid-month musical opportunity!

And thanks to Frances Dickinson, who his compiling the “rules of folk club.” First rule is, “everyone come to folk club.” The second rule so far is, “Everyone sing along!” Do you have any “rules” for folk club? Ah, I have one, “never stack a hook-side chair on a smooth side chair!” That one just isn’t as fun as Frances’ rules, is it?

Jenine

In October, Janette Thompson of Local Matters came to folk club with her camera and put together a little feature video about our club. I think it sums it up pretty well! Have a look and see if you can spot yourself!

Help us spread the word by printing out this poster and hanging it out at your workplace, or anywhere else you might think be handy!

September 2nd, class and culture come to Whangateau Hall with a classical guitar recital from Polish guitarist and composer Marek Pasieczny and New Zealand classical guitarist and lecturer Jane Curry.

Concert starts at 7pm. Tickets are $25 and available at the door, or you can prebook through us.
 

This month, our club night guest is the Dirt Road Orchestra from Puhoi. These funky fellows have been delighting listeners at our club nights for a while now, with their bluesy, folky, rocky fun. Everyone who has seen them is very much looking forward to hearing an entire set from them, be sure you don’t miss it!

Monday
July 25
7pm. Floor singers in the first half, please come early to put your name down for a floor spot.
$10

Whangateau Residents and Ratepayers invite you and your family to our Annual Mid Winter Pot Luck Dinner on this Friday June 24th at 6.30pm. Held at the Whangateau Hall, this is a BYO event so bring something to share with your community

RSVP by e-mail or text to elise@syfir.com,  021 659 799 with your numbers attending.

We received an e-mail from NZ folk power duo Brenda Liddiard and Mark Laurent saying they’re doing a mini tour in June, coinciding exactly with our club night. John Hayday and Vaughan Morgan have generously offered them their guest spot for the night. John and Vaughan will now be playing the August club spot.

April club night was held on Anzac Day. Many of our floor singers presented Anzac Day themed songs, and none so beautifully as John Hayday and Vaughan Morgan with “Remembrance Day.” Many thanks to John and Vaughan for being part of our club and sharing their lovely music with us.

Pre-sale tickets for Daniel Champagne are finally live. Woopee! It’s going to be a great show!

In the mailbag

A message from Alan Wagstaff in Puhoi:

Greetings Singers, Dancers, and Musicians! I’m starting a folk/Celtic ‘session’ in Puhoi to be held in the Puhoi Sports Club rooms, which are in the centre of Puhoi Village. The dates we have booked so far are all Thursdays: 31st March, 7th April, 21st April, 5th May, 19th May, 2nd June. The session will run from 7.00 pm to 10.00 pm. This is a ‘session’ – not a performance evening. We have about 20 musicians interested at this point and if you play the spoons, the bodhran, the linoleum, banjo, guitar, mandolin, fiddle, accordion, the whistle, bass – or anything else for that matter – or you just like to sing this kind of stuff, you’re invited to join in. We expect about a 2 to 1 ratio of tunes to songs. There’s a $2 charge to cover room hire and to pay the bar staff. We’ve got a Dropbox set of about 30 music charts and sounds files (PDFs and aiffs) to get us going. Anyone who wants to join us will be given access to the Dropbox. From there you can print the music and/or listen to the sound files (aiffs). So, if you want to join us for a roistering, rollickin evening of music making please send me an email: Alan Wagstaff alanw@ihug.co.nz or call +64 (0)274 836 023.