We went along to Romford Folk Club on Tuesday, and had a good old time of it as usual. I know the basement room is a bit of a dive but the conviviality or the regulars is always cheerful, and slightly edgy as the evening draws on due to the tradition of well humoured banter.
It wasn’t a guest night, just an ordinary sing a long, and often these are the best. I’d hate to start recording a performers list but from memory there were at least the following:
Kriss Pouch
Smolowic
Micky Brown & Richie Barratt
Clive and Linda – Ploughman’s Lunch
Rocking Bob Cash
Helen Islip
Andy Roberts
Margaret Brown
Len Reeder
MickaNora
Pam
I took along my Archtop Guitar and played one of my own songs from The Andy Roberts Tapes:
followed by my version of Chuck berry’s classic anthem for estranged fathers:
Memphis Tennessee
Thanks to Linda for capturing these videos. On playing them back it’s unfortunate that balance between guitar and vocals isn’t right so either the archtop is just too loud for my voice or I simply wasn’t singing loudly enough myself, I wonder why?
Right at the end I was honoured with the opportunity to wind up with one final song so I performed Bob Marley’s Redemption song but it wasn’t practical to record that one as the general merriment peaked.
Andy Roberts Podcast episode #48 features six songs performed live at the opening night of the new renamed “Haverfolk” club at the new venue, the White Horse on London Road, Chadwell Heath. Full address is
The White Horse, 118 High Road, Chadwell Heath, Romford, Greater London RM6 6NU
I quite like The Stables Function Suite as a room, the acoustics are bright and loud unlike the previous venue The Moby Dick, which deadened everything. It could be a bit on the friendly and intimate (small) side if everybody turned up at once, but that’s better than shrinking the audience through having an unsympathetic atmosphere, which the White Horse doen’t by any means.
So Wednesday August 24st signified the first night for the old Havering Folk Club – Now Haverfolk at the White Horse, at which I can arrive promptly by taking the train to Chadwell Heath station and then walking around the corner for about ten minutes. No need to take an additional bus, which makes it less hassle to get from as well of course. Being August, several of the regulars were away including a contingent visiting the Whitby Folk Week, so there was enough time to do two sets, and I was invited to perform an extended 2nd set to end the evening, which is how I come to have enough material to make into a podcast episode, a collection of six songs in total, four of which are self compositions and two are traditional.
Here is the download podcast link, file details show notes and set list for podcast number 48:
For this week’s podcast I wanted to experiment with using Google+ , a new(ish) social networking site which has a feature they call “hangout” for bringing groups of people together by video link. It’s kind of like a group video call with a text chat, so superficially not that disimilar really to the ustream and livestream systems that I’ve been using for the weekly Tuesday night broadcasts up until about April this year.
The Google+ service as a whole is getting a lot of attention even though it only launched to the public this month, and even though the circles metaphor can be a bit cumbersome, there’s a tendency towards fuller conversations and better discovery that makes it interesting for musicians, I think. But all that could change as the new platform develops, we’ll have to see. What intrigues me though, is the way that Google is integrating many of their popular services together, and Google of course is behind youTube. I’ve been waiting for youTube “Live” to open up but for the time being that seems to be open only to a few international TV stations. There is some confusing talk about youTube live being available on Google+ hangouts but thsi always turns out to be about taking the existing youTube live streams and relaying them into a Hangout, rather than using the Hangout to generate a new livestream that can be relayed out into youTube live, and saved as youTube videos in a channel, which the direction I’m probably looking for.
Google+ Hangout
So we planned to try out the ‘Hangout’ feature within Google+, this Sunday afternoon just gone at 3.00pm, and the result has been incorporated into this Andy Roberts podcast episode #47.
Google+ Hanging out
If you wanted to take part in future Google+ events with me, or just listen in as it happens, then you would need to activate a Google+ Profile if you don’t already have one, and add me to a circle. Again, if you need a Google+ invitation you can get one here
Sunday Afternoons, 3.00pm
Oh yes, and the other thing that’s changed is that we’ve moved to Sunday afternoons for the regular weekly spot, at 3.00pm UK time, which is currently GMT+1 with daylight saving. That’s 10pm in Beijing. The Sunday afternoon 3.00pm time slot will continue throughout the month of August.
It was around the first week of May on a Sunday evening when Gemma Salter and Stephen Lloyd held another of their excellent “Royal Knees Up” cabaret evenings at the Theatre Royal bar in Stratford. I had been immobilised for weeks beforehand but reckoned I could make it along by getting a minicab there and then just taking it as it comes. I’d signed up through the Facebook group and arranged with Gemma to do a couple of my acoustic Captain Beefheart covers, but when we arrived I was asked to do a longer set than that, as the theme for the evening was going to be acoustic / folky anyway. By Cabaret, it means there are some standup comedy acts on the bill as well, and sometimes weird and wacky stuff. I’ve seen musicians playing to the theatre bar crowd when I’ve been out to see a show at the Theatre Royal – “Reasons to be Cheerful”, “Takeaway”, “Come Dancing” and others, and I must admit to being intrigued by the prospect of playing on that little stage in the corner of the not insubstantial theatre bar area now, with the exterior terrace and carribean food.
Theatre Royal Bar Stage
My allocated time slot was to be either side of the break, so that meant two or three songs, then the break, then come back on and do a few more if I like. A cool way to organise proceeding, I thought fetching a bottle of Becks and choosing a seat with a table and a good view of the stage, so Linda could preserve my set on video with a view to putting it on the podcast later. And here it is:
After a year and a half of playing regularly at the Golden Lion Romford, totally unplugged, I’m not so well used to singing miked up these days, but the sound check seemed to work fine. Of course things always sound different when there are lots of bodies in a room, to when it is empty and you can never be sure how much noise they are going to make themselves, but Gemma was at the back of the room operating a mixing desk so I could be confident that what was going out through the PA into the room would be at the right levels.
So the source for this podcast’s songs comes from Linda’s stills/video camera which does record in pretty good quality stereo sound in theory, but seated as we were amongst a large group at the tables, it does pick up a lot of background noise which is a little unfortunate and gives a slightly false impression of how the audience behaved on the night. If we’d sat right next to the speakers though, we might not have obtained a good line of sight for the video on youTube, so you can’t have everything. Well, you can but need an external directional microphone of access to the PA soundboard, or a team of engineers….
I played mostly my own songs again, having recently done a whole evening of self-penned material and iIn the event, I only did one Captain Beefheart song, Grow Fins. That went down well so I added in “The Last Subway Home” which can have a similar feel form a performers point of view.
Gemma and Steve are busy starring in 188 , the Jack The Ripper musical in the West End at present so there may not be a Knees Up this month, or last due to rehearsals, but when they do resume it’s a fun evening in Stratford and with free entrance too.
As for my own podcasts, well I’ve taken a bit of a break due to several factors but I’m hoping to resume the regular webcasts soon, either on Bambuser or Google+ Hangouts, which would be very experimental. If you need a Google+ invitation just let me know your email address by one means or another and I’ll send one over and if you’re already on Plus then please circle me at
Andy Roberts podcast episode 45 presents the final set of original songs from the guest night at Romford Folk Club back in April 2011. The audio is taken with thanks from Johnnie Durrant’s digital audio recorder, placed strategically on a mic stand in front of the performance space.
Episode 44 of the Andy Roberts Podcast continues the soundtrack from the Romford Folk Club guest night of April 12th with six more self written songs performed live.
