Great musician, great song, but I love this video most for the opening shot of our lovely hall…

Anthony John Clarke to play Whangateau Hall

and opportunity for a young local performer

I’ve just learned that the Irish singer and songwriter Anthony John Clarke is playing the final concert of his latest New Zealand tour at Whangateau Hall on the 21st of February at 7:30 pm.

From Belfast, Irish singer/songwriter A J Clarke started writing at the age of 9 inspired by the 60s hits. His last visit to New Zealand was in 2011, he returns with a host of albums and a songbook. A gentleman, he has been warmly welcomed on his many tours of the UK, Europe, Australia and the USA.

The Belfast Telegraph described him as “A born comic and a keen observer of the idiosyncratic; Brilliantly original. Magnificent.”
Folk Group Fairport Convention claimed him as “…. a National Treasure.”
Irish musician Colum Sands describes him as “the real drop.”
You can learn more about him at www.anthonyjohnclarke.com.

Tickets are $15 for adults, $6 for students (13 and up). Children under 13 are free.

If you are a local young solo or small group performer interested in doing a 15 to 20 minute warmup set for Anthony, please e-mail Kevin Meehan at harrier@paradise.net.nz.

Not too late to see Tattletale Saints!

Did you miss Tattletale Saints at the Hall? You have a second chance to see them, and the best part is it’s FREE. They will be playing at the new Matakana Vintage Market Sunday Sessions from 1:00pm to 3:00 pm on Sunday, February 15th.

Folk Club Night

Get out your guitars and warm up your voices for the next Folk Club Night on Wednesday, February 26th. Doors open 6:30. Floor singers from 7pm to 8pm. After a short break for tea and bikkies the Pipi Pickers will play a couple numbers then lead anyone interested in an informal and fun bluegrass jam. If you’ve ever wanted to learn more about bluegrass picking and try your hand in a jam session, come along.

The Pipi Pickers are coming back after hosting an extremely successful bluegrass hospitality tent at the Auckland Folk Festival where their “pickin’ parlour” jam session was joined by many of the festival guest performers and expert pickers from all over New Zealand and Australia. Festival attendees kicked back in the hospitality tent comfy chairs and beanbags enjoying that sweet bluegrass music until very late every night. Find out what it’s all about and join in the fun on the 26th.

Entry to club night is $5.

What do you do when you’ve got a beautiful wooden 110+ year old hall with amazing acoustics in your neighbourhood? You invite talented musicians to come play there, of course. And then you invite everyone in the community to come out and watch them and hang out together.

Folk Club

The Whangateau Music Series began in 2013 with 3 shows. For the first two years it was very casual and intermittent. But as word of our lovely venue spread we began receiving more requests from visiting musicians to play. And it also became apparent that there were enough musicians and enthusiasts in the area to warrant more frequent engagements.

In November 2014 we started the Whangateau Folk Club. Folk club runs on months when we don’t have a full concert guest. Club nights begin with one hour of floor singers. All musicians* are invited to put their name down to perform two numbers. In the second half, we will either have a local guest band perform for an hour or local bluegrass band The Pipi Pickers will lead a bluegrass jam for beginners and experts alike. Everyone who wants is welcome to join in. Anyone who would rather sit and chat and listen is welcome as well.

* Acoustic musicians only, please. No drum kits or keyboards. And definitely no laptops. We will have microphones and a rudimentary PA, but no amplifiers. If it can conceivably be played at a campground, it’s probably OK.

There is no committee. There is no plan.

If you know of or are an amazing musician who would like to play at the hall, read the Info for Artists Page, then contact me to book the hall and make it happen.

When we do not have visiting musicians we will have a club night, typically on the 4th Thursday of the month, though we are going to be flexible about that for the first year at least.

Nobody is getting rich off this.

All money taken at the shows goes towards hiring the hall, providing your tea and bikkies at interval, and the rest to the visiting artists so that they can continue to make great music.

If you enjoyed the show, please stick around afterwards to help clean and tidy the hall and return the chairs to their storage locations! There is no hired help coming around afterwards!

Who is Responsible for this Nonsense?

My name is Jenine, I’m a local musician living at Ti Point, been here permanently since 2005, married Nat Torkington (who you probably already know if you’ve been in the area any length of time). We have a bluegrass band, The Pipi Pickers, you might have seen us around. I’m a huge fan and supporter of folk and acoustic music. I’m also big on community projects, especially anything that gets people away from their TVs and out mingling with their neighbors, so this seemed like a pretty good idea for me.

I’m also a part of a network of independent musicians who support each other by helping organise gigs without the benefit of a recording label or PR/management company to sort things like venues, PA systems and accommodation.

What sort of music can be part of the series?

The hall being what it is, lovely and made of wood, it suits some types of music better than others. And seeing as I’m doing this so I can hear the music I like without having to drive to Auckland, I’m probably going to prefer acoustic and folk acts. This is a really broad category, and can be stretched to include almost anything. Suffice it to say we probably won’t have a lot of thrash metal, hip-hop, rap, or anything that tends to get played really loud.

Why isn’t the Sawmill good enough for my local music needs?

It usually is.

Being connected to the folk music communities in New Zealand and Australia through our band, I get inquiries from independent musicians who want to play in the area. Quite often I will refer them directly to the Sawmill. The Leigh Sawmill Café is an internationally renowned musical venue, hosts amazing bands nearly every weekend, and it’s right around the corner from Whangateau. They treat visiting performers really well and have a great publicity program. Our band has played there many times, and it’s wonderful.

When it comes to musical performance, there’s a difference between a café or club where people are eating, drinking, and chatting while a band plays, and a dedicated music hall where the audience is there specifically to listen to music. Also, music at the Sawmill on Fridays and Saturdays can’t start until after the dinner service, which ends at 9:30pm.

In addition to making great use of our local hall, and providing an opportunity for the local community to gather together, The Whangateau Hall Folk Music and Social Club provides an outlet for music that is best enjoyed in a quieter setting, and with an earlier show time.

Is alcohol allowed in the hall?

Yes, feel free to bring your own beverages.

Comedy on this week at Whangateau Hall

“The Thwarting of Baron Bolligrew”

Local drama group “Work in Progress Players” are presenting a Monty Python-esque comedy this Wednesday, December 10th, at the hall. Entry is by gold coin donation. BYO refreshments. The show begins at 7pm. I can say without a hint of bias* that these performers are brilliantly hilarious, particularly the young man playing the Baron. If you need a bit of live dramatic comedy in your life, come check this out.

Tickets now available for Tattletale Saints

http://www.eventfinder.co.nz/2015/tattletale-saints/auckland/leigh

I’ve been quite heartened about the chatter around the area about folk club. I think it’s going to be a thing. We won’t have one this month, because DECEMBER, but we’ll see you back at the hall on January 22nd at 6:30pm for award winning folk duo Tattletale Saints (plus extra band members!) for a very special new show. This will be a concert-only night at the hall. We’ll have a club night again in February with floor singers and a jam session.

If you would like more information about Tattletale Saints, check out their website, www.tattletalesaints.com. Ask anyone who has seen them the past two years, they are amazing and not to be missed.

Whangateau Hall Country Faire

The Sunday after the Tattletale Saints show is the Whangateau Hall Country Faire, 9am-2pm, 25 January, which is the main annual fundraiser for the hall. Car boot sale, bouncy castles, yummy food, lots of quick fire raffles and heaps more. It’s a great day out and a great way to support our hall and the wonderful committee that looks after it. This past year they used the money to refinish the floors and aren’t they just stunning? We owe them a debt of gratitude for their stewardship of this community treasure. Come on out and support them on the day.

Please drop me a line if you have any questions. Or you could have a poke around whangateau.co.nz for general information about the hall and music concerts there.

Yours,

Jenine
* ok, I might be just a tiny bit biased.

Whangateau Hall
Wednesday, November 26th
7pm Start time (doors open 6:30 pm)
Tickets $10. (Buy tickets here)

Whangateau Folk Club debuts on 26 November with guest artists folk duo “No Bones About It.”

Folk club opens at 7pm with an hour of “floor singers.” All musicians are invited to put their names down to perform two numbers. Make sure you’re there by 6:45pm to put your name down before the hour fills up. Musicians should be prepared to play acoustically, though some amplification for singers will be available. No “back end” (drum kit) will be provided.

Our local area is rich with both musicians and immigrants from diverse foreign shores. Folk music is a broad category, and while most clubs tend to stick to traditional forms of British, Irish, Scottish and Americana folk styles, the Whangateau Folk Club will welcome all folk traditions.

After a short intermission where snacks and drinks will be available for purchase (tea and coffee are provided free) our guest act will perform.

You can request advanced tickets here, but there will be plenty available at the door on the night. Your $10 covers the cost of hiring the hall and printing of posters, the rest will go to our guest artists.

We have confirmed that Tattletale Saints will be returning again this year with their amazing form of beautiful acoustic folk. The show is on Thursday, 22 January, doors open at 6:30. Tickets will be $20 and go on sale December 1st. I’ll update this post with the link.

From Vanessa:

“We’ll be recording a new single to release digitally and as a 7” before the next tour and will hit the road with drummer/percussionist Tom Broome (Anika Moa, Hollie Smith) who we were playing with a lot in Auckland as part of our honky-tonk band Bolo before we left for Nashville. The shows we’ve played so far as a trio have always included a portion of the night as the duo still and on the NZ tour we plan on doing the same, with parts of the sets the acoustic duo as the NZ audiences are used to hearing us.”

Really looking forward to this great show!

Ticket sales are now open for Rachel Dawick’s “Boundary Riders” concert with FULL BAND.

http://www.eventfinder.co.nz/2014/the-boundary-riders-show-with-band/auckland/leigh

I am SO EXCITED about our next act booked for the Whangateau Hall. We will be having Rachel Dawick performing her 2 act historical musical stage show, “Boundary Riders,” tales of New Zealand pioneer women. Rachel will have the full band backing her up, only one of two such shows to be held! Supported in part by the New Zealand national library and archives, Rachel has performed these stories in libraries, halls and clubs all around the country, but usually not with the full band. We are very fortunate that we will be getting the Full Monty, with her supported by such amazing performers as Dave Khan and Jon Sanders, amongst others.

This isn’t just a concert, it is theatre. It is history. It is amazing!

From the US, Acoustic Duo “No Bones About It” are coming to Whangateau for one show on November 26th. This night also sees the inauguration of the Whangateau Folk Club.

“No Bones About It” are American guitarist Alex Rubin and “Pride of New Zealand” banjo player, Catherine “BB” Bowness. Together, Alex and BB explore the roots of acoustic music, playing a collection of folk songs, bluegrass tunes, and their own compositions which reflect their wide range of influences, including bluegrass, jazz, old-time and celtic music. Using diverse styles of banjo, guitar, vocals, fiddle and mandolin, they seamlessly blend genres in their arrangements of traditional and original tunes.

Before Alex and BB’s set, all local musicians are invited to come and sign up to perform 2 numbers “open mic” style. Folk Club memberships will also be available at this time, $15/annually for a family, $10 for an individual. Your membership gets you discounted concert tickets, priority billing for “open mic” club nights, and many many more fun benefits! THIS IS TOO HARD. WE AREN’T DOING IT.

Tickets will go on sale in October. Price TBD.

As part of the Auckland Heritage Festival Rachel Dawick (www.racheldawick.com) brings you her musical tales of NZ Pioneer Women for two special one off shows with full band to celebrate the launch of her new album and book “The Boundary Riders”. The premiere will take place on 2nd October at 8pm at The Vic Theatre in Devonport (Tickets available at http://www.thevic.co.nz) with the second show on the 11th October at Whangateau Hall at 5pm (Tickets available at EventFinda)

‘The Boundary Riders’ show follows the journey of a range of infamous characters whose names largely unknown in our history pages reveal stories that would slip easily into any Wild West Adventure Book. From prostitutes to missionary wives, goldminers to magicians these beguiling tales are of conquests, survival, persistence, and the merging of peoples and cultures from far distant lands into the birth of New Zealand as we know her today. The music like the characters moves across the genres adding to the musical landscape of the stories as our narrator unfolds their tales in one magical journey.

Tickets available at: http://www.eventfinder.co.nz/2014/the-boundary-riders-show-with-band/auckland/leigh

No details are known yet, but last night we had a terrible tragedy in Whangateau when the Rodney Rams Club rooms, just across the field from our dear Hall, burned to the ground.

The Rams Club has provided an important community focal point since the closing of the Pub and Top Shop in Leigh. The food provided by the kitchen improves all the time, and has been great on nights when we have events on at the Hall. It is heartbreaking to have lost this community resource.

Hopefully there will be a local effort to rebuild and reopen, and rest assured when there is, the Whangateau Music Hall committee will be there.