Every month I struggle to adequately advertise the wonderful music we have on at the hall, and it’s just a shame. I am sure more people really would have loved to see the concerts we’ve had on recently, if only they knew about them. I’ve made up what I think is a very nice poster covering the next couple of months. Quite pleased with how it turned out, really. I printed out a few and left one at the library and iSite in Warkworth, and a couple other places, but I just don’t have time to get them to everyone everywhere, or the budget to cover the printing? Can you help? If everyone who reads this printed out one copy and put it up at work, or their gym, or pretty much anywhere, that would be really helpful. You’d be helping to keep ticket prices for shows down, because we don’t have a budget for printing or advertising, and we like all the ticket money to go to the amazing artists who come perform for us, and to the Whangateau Hall Committee to help maintain our beautiful hall.

Thanks!

Jenine

the local vocals choir inc.
is delighted to present
RHYTHM & DRUMMING

Sunday 20th March 2 – 4.30pm

Drumming, rhythm & singing workshop with Jaqui

“Everything vibrates and has rhythm. The very first sound we all heard was the constant rhythm of our mother’s heart beat. Connecting with rhythm in the form of drumming will quickly reduce stress, free the mind of its chatter, energize the body and create unity within groups.” – Jaqui rhythmdotcom.com

Wellsford District Community Centre
LVC financial members $20, others $30
further details & registration contact: singlvc@gmail.com, or ph. Anna 4237740

Unless otherwise noted, club nights are on the last Monday of the month, 7pm start sharp, $5.

• March 29th (TUESDAY!! $15!!): Daniel Champagne.
• http://www.danielchampagnemusic.com
• http://www.soundcloud.com/danielchampagnemusic
• http://www.facebook.com/danielchampagnemusic
• http://www.twitter.com/dchampagnemusic
• April 25th (Anzac Day): The Pipi Pickers.
• May 30th: No guest, lots of floor singers.
• June 27: John Hayday and Vaughan Morgan.

What a string of amazing music we’ve had at the hall! Rachel Dawick played the guest spot for our first folk club night of the year. She last played at the hall for the launch of her Boundary Riders project, which has since gone on to being adapted as a musical theatre piece in Scotland. Rachel played a delightful solo set, including tales of her many travels and adventures and songs from her numerous musical projects.

On the 2nd of February we had Kirsty Bromley, Gillian Boucher and Bob McNeill. Kirsty is a UK folk singer who has been touring NZ and Australia since October, to great acclaim. She performed a solo a cappella set of traditional and original songs. In the second half, noted fiddler Gillian Boucher and Tui Award winner Bob McNeill played a lively set of traditional celtic fiddle tunes and original songs written by Bob.

On Waitangi day we had a very special treat when Fiddle Pie brought their old time country music dance and variety show to the hall. It was an evening of the most infectious and exciting music. The show started with a lovely piano recital from band member Hannah. The six members of Fiddle Pie are very talented multi-instrumentalists and singers, and they swapped instruments between nearly every song. Band member “T” is a professional square dance calling and had most of the audience up and dancing. He also lead us in a waltz and Texas two-step. It was an all-around fun evening! We very much hope they’ll come back again next year!

Next folk club is Monday, February 29th, doors open at 6:30pm, floor singers start at 7pm sharp. Special guest is Keith Levy.

Also on at the Hall on February 22nd, a workshop on Urban Farming with “rock star market gardeners” Curtis Stone.

Curtis is an Urban Micro-Gardener, farmer and founder of Green City Acres in Canada. He will discuss profitable, small-plot urban farming with Curtis Stone.

Specialising in multiple site farming (backyards, front yards, spare lots) within the one enterprise, the Green City Acres model proves that urban farming CAN create a profitable livelihood, if the enterprise is designed well.

You can get more information on registering for the workshop at http://www.sixfigurefarmingnztour.com/

January 31st is our annual hall fundraiser, the Country Fair. This is a great opportunity to get more involved with the hall. Please e-mail me if you can volunteer to help on the day or if you can donate anything for the quick fires!

Sunday, 10am – 2pm.

Food Stalls ✦ Live Music ✦ Book Stall
Car Boot Sale ✦ Quick Fire Raffles ✦ Cake Stall
Produce Stall ✦ Bouncy Castles

Pipis will be providing the live music on the day.

Thanks to everyone who has come to the folk club this year. Special thanks to the musicians who have signed up to perform floor spots. We had a pretty good first year, so I guess this is going to be a thing. We’ve had lots of interest from performers and music lovers, it should be another great year.

Your $5 door charge has gone into a fund to make sure we can pay visiting musicians a decent amount for showing up and sharing their talents. Right now we’ve got about $500 in the bank, and I made a donation of $40 to the Whangateau Hall Committee Fund to buy an electric kettle and emergency water storage containers. This will make sense to anyone who was at the November folk club meeting! Still not sure what happened there, but it is being looked into and sorted.*

Please have a look at the upcoming events, we’ve got some truly amazing musicians coming our way in 2016.

Have a happy, safe, and fun holiday, everyone! Enjoy the summer weather, go to the beach and play some music!

See you in 2016,

Jenine
*at the November meeting the water supply filled with clay silt, and then disappeared entirely, leaving us with muddy cups of tea, and then no way to wash up. Gotta love country life! (And we do!)

By popular request, we will be having a bluegrass jam tonight in the second half. We’ll start off with a slow jam tune, allowing anyone who wishes to give it a go a safe opportunity to play. Then we’ll turn it over to the experienced pickers to let ‘er rip while everyone else can enjoy some socialising as an end-of-year send off.

See you there!

Folk Club report for September: OUTSTANDING. We had a surprisingly large crowd, all there no doubt to hear John Hayday and Vaughn Morgan again. It was wonderful to see so many new faces there. We had a wonderful set of musical offerings during the floor singer session, including two first time performers who we hope to see more of in the future.

Coming in October: Folk Club on Monday, October 26th. Jenine won’t be available, so John Hayday will be running the club.

Ever wanted to learn Celtic Fiddle? Nova Scotia, Canada, produces some of the finest Celtic fiddlers in the world. Gillian Boucher of Nova Scotia has recently relocated to the Kapiti Coast in Wellington and she is giving lessons online. She promises she can get you from beginner to expert quickly and inexpensively. Check out her website for more information: www.gillian-boucher.com/learncelticfiddle. She’s playing in a duo with Scottish singer/songwriter/guitarist Bob McNeill, maybe we’ll be lucky enough to get them up to our club some day.

See you all at the hall!

Hello, music-loving friends and neighbours!

Next folk club is MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 28TH, 7pm.

I hope everyone who attended folk club in August had as much fun as I did. We have such lovely and talented people in this area, it was a delight.

We bumped into a common trap of Folk Clubs everywhere, however, illustrated very well by this old cartoon:

In order to keep things flowing smoothly on club nights, we’re going to have to ask that floor singers keep their two numbers to around a total of 6 or 7 minutes total. It’s a matter of courtesy for our other floor singers and guests. If you have a beautiful song that you must absolutely share, but it takes 10 minutes to sing it, we’ll ask you to limit your set to the one song, and if you can speed it up just a tad, everyone would be grateful.

We have settled recently on the last Monday of the month for our clubs, but I have been getting feedback from locals saying there are a lot of other things on that night, and they are sad because they cannot attend folk club. I also have been struggling with artists who wish to play the hall on non-folk club nights. This is bumping against my increasingly busy schedule. So please be understanding if our schedule varies a bit from month to month. I will try to keep you informed via e-mail, posters put up locally, and on whangateau.co.nz.

Whangateau Hall Committee has said farewell to long time secretary Doug Guthrie. If you would like an opportunity to become more involved with the local community, please consider joining the Hall Committee. Contact me for more info.

Jenine