Next Sunday (the 20th) is our Christmas Party!

We’ll be making our own entertainment this year so make sure you bring your best festive floorspots with you.

We are also proud to announce that the Folk Club will be taking on the Quiz Next Door in the very first Captain Birdseye’s Yuletide Challenge! No point in going into too much detail but suffice to say it’s a great oppotunity for us to kick some Pub Quiz arse!!

Admission is only £3. See you there!

The centenary celebration for the William Morris Hall on Sunday the 13th December is now taking shape.

There will be a rally at the hall itself in Somers Road E17 from two o’clock in the afternoon with speakers and music and we’ll adjourn to the Olde Rose and Crown in Hoe Street at around three for more informal celebration and music.

And part of that afternoon will be an informal tune session.

So bring your instruments to the Olde Rose & Crown from 3:pm on Sunday for a session and then onto the Plough for Leon Rosselson in the evening.

See you there!

Here’s some information about the hall

Here’s the website for the Rose & Crown

Here’s a heads up about an event happening on Sunday afternoon (the 13th December).

We’ll be providing a scratch band so if you fancy bringing an instrument and joining in let me know.

Appropriately enough our guest that night is a huge admirer of William Morris and one of the best songwriters in the world – the fabulous Leon Rosselson

A centenary celebration for a building

The William Morris Hall

Somers Road E17

Sunday 13 December
Assemble at 2 pm
Music and words,
then walk to Ye Olde Rose and Crown for more celebration

Tuppence a brick (old money)

On 13 December 1909 artist and socialist Walter Crane opened the William Morris Hall: bringing to joyous conclusion six years of fundraising, preparation and hard voluntary labour.

In 1903 the brothers Ben and Charles Buck started the idea of a home for the socialist, radical and trade union people of Walthamstow. Funded by workers buying a brick for 2d (old money), sponsored bike rides and social events, the collective organisations of the Social Democratic Federation, Walthamstow Socialist League, the William Morris Club, the Clarion Cyclists, the trades council, anarchists, suffragettes and many more, the hall was built by volunteer craftsmen on Sunday mornings on squatted land.

The William Morris Hall for the 30 years was the centre of political and cultural life in the town. Amongst the many speakers who came over the years were: dock worker’s leader, Ben Tillet, the Countess of Warwick, H M Hyndman, Will Thorne, new Labour MP for West Ham South (1906), Sylvia Pankhurst, George Bernard Shaw, Victor Grayson, lion tamer, adventurer, folk hero, firebrand independent socialist MP and Walthamstow’s own Val McEntee. From day one it housed the Socialist Sunday School, where over a hundred children each week come together in secular fellowship to learn the socialist 10 commandments.

In the early 1920s the William Morris Brass Band and the William Morris Orchestra were formed. One for street marching and open air meetings, the other for concerts and dancing. The Hall had its own choir. In 1923 Charles Buck started a theatre group; performing plays by Ibsen and Shaw.

The building is a now home to the Limes Community and Children’s Centre. The inside has changed but most of the bricks are the same. I want to celebrate it’s 100 years with words and music. The pioneers who campaigned for a fairer, different world did it with verse and song, as well as marches and struggle. Let’s celebrate the building, the Buck brothers and countless others, but most of all let’s celebrate our past into the future.

Please bring banners

The nominations for the BBC Folk Awards 2010 came out yesterday. In the past I’ve not exactly found the selection that inspiring but this year there are some that are absolutley spot on, in my opinion.

I’m particularly chuffed to see Jackie Oates nominated as best singer, Damien Barber and Mike Wilson as best duo and best of all our pals Mawkin:Causley who make the list twice, once for best trad song with Cutty Wren and once for Best Group. Well done guys and about time too!

Here’s the list:

FOLK SINGER OF THE YEAR:
Cara Dillon
Jackie Oates
Jon Boden
Martin Simpson

BEST DUO:
Belshazzar’s Feast
Damien Barber & Mike Wilson
Megson
Show of Hands

BEST GROUP:
Bellowhead
Lau
Mawkin:Causley
The Unthanks

BEST ALBUM:
Here’s The Tender Coming – The Unthanks
Hill of Thieves – Cara Dillon
Hyperboreans – Jackie Oates
True Stories – Martin Simpson

BEST ORIGINAL SONG:
Arrogance Ignorance and Greed – Steve Knightley (performed by Show of Hands)
Home Again – Martin Simpson
One Day – Martin Simpson/Martin Taylor (performed by Martin Simpson)
The Testimony of Patience Kershaw – Frank Higgins (performed by The Unthanks)

BEST TRADITIONAL TRACK:
Cutty Wren – Mawkin:Causley
Sir Patrick Spens – Martin Simpson
Spencer the Rover – Cara Dillon
The Isle of France – Jackie Oates

HORIZON AWARD:
Hannah James and Sam Sweeney
Katriona Gilmore and Jamie Roberts
Nancy Wallace
Sam Carter

MUSICIAN OF THE YEAR:
John Kirkpatrick
John McCusker
Martin Simpson
Saul Rose

BEST LIVE ACT:
Bellowhead
Edward II
Lau
The Bad Shepherds