Scalby Fair News

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, everyone, as Charles Dickens used to say.

I think our Scalby Fair Committee members will agree that year 2019 was a pretty good one where we have put in a lot of hard work, enjoyed ourselves and restored our bank balances. On the downside we have lost two doughty members in Sally and Jenny but, on the upside, they will both still be at Scalby Fair itself. Well done, ladies.

The Nag’s Head remains a problem for us because it’s closed for urgent repairs and renewals and will not reopen until Saturday, 18 January 2020. However the new tenant, one Richard Durham, is keen to take on a new lease and has already put up his window boxes! He is also very keen to continue the excellent relationship that The Fair has always enjoyed with all the landlords on The Nag’s over the last 42 years

The first casualty of the closure was the Christmas tree which Scalby Fair usually erect. This was never going to happen this year because we do not have insurance nor an electricity supply.

The first Fair committee meeting of the New Year will be held at 11am on Sunday 12 January and the venue is The Temperance Hall where we can have a little look around before the meeting.

Best wishes

Tom Cathcart
Chairman
Scalby Fair Committee

Venue: Scarborough Rugby Union Football Club

Meeting Starts at 6.30pm promptly

Agenda

Welcome by the Chairman
Apologies for Absence
Chairman’s Report
Secretary’s Report
Treasurer’s Report
Officers for 2020
Donations
Any Other Business
Closing Summary from the Chairman

Scalby Folk Weekend is to be held on Saturday, 31 August and Sunday, 1 September this year.

More details will follow including the printed programme for the weekend. Here are this year’s performers arranged so far, plus – below – something about them.

Saturday – in the Marquee

10am  Musical workshops
11am  Open session
2pm  Dirty Windows
3pm  Yorkshire Coast Morris
4pm  John Drakes
5pm  Martin Heaton
6pm  David Swann
7pm  Annie & King
8pm Parrot Man
9pm  2 Black Sheep & a Stallion
10pm Carrie Martin

Saturday in the Lounge

11am Open mic (acoustic)
2pm Sophie Kelly
3pm Bob & Lindsey
4pm Eddie Lawler
5pm Beth Burrows
6pm Lucy Spencer

Sunday in the Marquee

11am Open sessions
2pm Tony Morris
3pm Cabin Fever
4pm David Stych
5pm Woolgatherers
6pm Rattlin Sheiks
7pm David Swann

Close

Annie and King

Annie and King are a popular talented local duo who play a huge range of music. They are both guitarists and enjoy playing all their music in their own style. They have recently written and produced their first original album ‘When All is Said  and Done’ which is available on all digital platforms.

They love adding different twists to old favourites as well as to current music and their own work. They perform regularly in pubs, restaurants and cafes as well as parties, weddings and festivals in Scarborough and beyond.

Beth Burrows

Beth has a love of music which embraces many genres, but her main love is discovering old “not so well known” traditional poems and folk songs which tell a story or present a message, researching their origins and bringing them into the limelight.

She enjoys songs about local people and places by local songwriters both old and new, but also likes to include well loved favourites such as Dylan ,Fairport Convention, Mary Black…loads more, too many to mention here.

Having spent many years in Suffolk as a regular performer at various venues and weekly singarounds she moved back “home” to the North York Moors a few years ago. She has become a member of several local folk clubs and is establishing herself in the North East.

Beth is keeping very busy with appearances at The Great North Folk Festival. Whitby SeaFestival. Eye of The Wind (Richard Graingers Folk Opera). Saltburn Folk Festival. Yorkshire Day, and many more local venues, with others such as Whitby Pirate Festival and other venues further afield still to come.

Quote from the lady herself “My love of music and singing comes not from instruction or formal teaching, but from a place of pure emotion and a love of words and notes. Gathered from life experiences and observations I sing what touches my heart. The world is full of wonderful music and there is not enough time to listen to or sing it all!!!”

Beth has her own unique style, singing a capello, relying solely on her voice alone to captivate the audience with various musical folklore tales both traditional and contemporary.

This quote from a fellow artiste sums it up nicely, “ Beth sings unaccompanied in a voice which, if it were a wine, could be described as full bodied with a hint of ginger, lemon and honey”

Another compliment was “I’m glad I made the effort to come last night. A superb, well thought out, well crafted set. Delivered with aplomb and professional skill. You keep getting better. Was a total pleasure to listen. Thanks, Alan.”

And finally “It takes great skill to sing unaccompanied and hold the attention of an audience. Some can do it. Many can’t. Beth Burrows can, and how!” (Tony Haynes, FAB Folk and Blues Radio Show. Tempofm.com).

Bob and Lindsay

Bob and Linds are best known as members of York-based Alt-Celtic/Gypsy band Leather’o. As a duo they play a mix of traditional and original tunes on guitar, Celtic whistles and flute. They draw heavily on the New Celtic tradition that is revitalising traditional tunes.

Cabin Fever

Cabin Fever’s rock-steady bass man is Roy Piper, well known for playing in many top line ups including Hamps Tramps and with BBC award winning singer/songwriter Anna Shannon. Anna’s songs are performed by many international folk artists. Together with talented Steve Suggitt of ‘Chapel Guitars’ who has achieved great acclaim for his quality hand made stringed instruments, Cabin Fever bring you rootsy mountain songs and authentic Cajun tunes from Americas Deep South with fiddle, guitar, bass, banjo and a wall of harmonies.

Carrie Martin

You may or may not know the name, but one thing is for certain – you should. Hers is a true story of rags to – well, not quite riches maybe, but certainly success and critical acclaim in the world of contemporary acoustic- based folk/rock music.

Born in Hull, Carrie developed something a local reputation while still in her teens, as an acoustic guitarist and singer/songwriter of no mean ability. Local radio support and popular live shows were left behind as she reached her twenties, however, as her stubborn nature led her into fronting rock bands as a singer, and the guitar was largely dropped. Music then became completely put aside as she abandoned it in order to raise her children, and her guitar went untouched for some two decades until a chance meeting with guitar virtuoso Gordon Giltrap changed her life.

With the support and mentoring of Gordon, and also a very supportive relationship with Vintage / JHS guitars, she picked up the threads of her long‐ dormant career, with an EP, Luna, and a full-length album, What If, appearing in 2011 and 2014 respectively. While widely praised, however, these releases served as the warm up to her definitive work, 2017’s Seductive Sky album, on which she was joined by guests such as her great friend Gordon Giltrap, keyboard maestro Oliver Wakeman and legendary guitarist Elliott Randall, along with Daniel Karl Cassidy, younger brother of the late Eva Cassidy, with whom Carrie has sometimes been compared herself.

The album is a magnificent snapshot of an artist at the peak of her creativity, and determined not to let this second bite of the musical cherry go to waste. Join her on her journey; it is Seductive indeed…

David Stych

With the aid of a veritable multiplicity of instruments  (though not quite all played simultaneously!), David busks out boldly where few musicians even fear to tread, peddling his strikingly individual, nay brilliantly eccentric treatments of songs you thought you’d forgotten (but now wish you hadn’t!), from the 60s, 70s, and 80s, chart hits to altogether more folkier and bluesier material including a few originals.

David Swann

David is a folk singer and songwriter from Pickering in North Yorkshire. He writes story and comic songs about the people and places of North Yorkshire as well as songs about love lost and found. David accompanies himself on guitar and ukelele and he always likes to get his audiences involved by getting them to sing the catchy choruses he writes. David runs the Ryedale Songwriters Circle which aims to encourage and promote songwriting in the area through workshops and concerts. During his career David has won the BBC Radio York ‘Song For Yorkshire’ competition, the anthem writing competition for the Yorkshire Air Ambulance and the inaugural songwriting competition for the Harvey Blogg Cup at Bedale Acoustic Music Festival.

Dirty Windows

Dirty Windows are a four-piece ukulele band, who push the boundaries of what is possible with 4 ukuleles, ranging from concert and tenor, through banjo and baritone to bass. Constantly challenging expectations, we play rock, pop, jazz, blues and reggae. We never play George Formby….hence our name! We have just recorded our first CD, appropriately named ‘ It Ain’t George’. You can listen to us playing our own composition on YouTube. Look for ‘Dirty Windows Death Café’. Follow us on Facebook.

Eddie Lawler

Greetings from Eddie Lawler, aka “Bard of Saltaire” (find the missing syllable, bollard?) now living in Scarborough. I write songs, musicals, poems and plays. My work mixes fun with ‘serious’ social comment, offering thought-provoking entertainment.

“Tracking The Brontës” has arrived on the coast after lots of West Yorkshire performances. It’s been well received in Scarborough at Woodend, and at Whitby U3A. It goes to Hull U3A and Whitby Fine Arts Society in 2019.

John Drakes

I have been playing acoustic guitar since I was 19 years old. I heard Ralph McTell’s classic song “Streets of London” on the radio and immediately went out and bought an old Spanish guitar. My journey had begun.

As well as McTell, other early influences were Donovan, James Taylor, Paul Simon, Dylan and just about anyone with an acoustic guitar and a story to tell.As well as picking my way through McTell songs, I began to write my own, along with a developing fingerpicking style. I am entirely self taught and every time I pick up the guitar I am surprised and delighted by the tunes that are hiding in there! I write about social issues, about things that have happened to me, and about people I have known over the years.

I have a fair number of love songs and also some slightly more “edgy” environmental songs. I love strong melodies, moving base lines, and the warm rich sound of my beloved 1954 Gibson J50. I cannot walk past it without picking it up and running my fingers over the strings! Someone once asked me if I considered myself to be a poet or a song writer. My answer was …..that I try to find poetry in my songs.

Since coming to live in Yorkshire 11 years ago, I have found a wonderful thriving folk scene and play regularly in local folk clubs. I was lucky enough to win the Graeme Miles song writing contest at the Saltburn Folk Festival in 2016, and also was joint winner of the Robin Hood’s Bay folk weekend song contest in 2018.

Lucy Spencer

Lucy is quickly establishing herself as a top class act. Currently studying at the University of Leicester, Lucy is also in demand as a wedding singer where she performs a range of songs from a variety of genres and eras. As an accomplished ukulele player, Lucy’s voice and presentation of her songs are both charming and an absolute delight. 

Martin Heaton

Let me introduce myself. I am an award winning singer songwriter from Pickering. Since being a boy I have written songs and played guitar and also with others in a country rock band. By the late 1990s I realised what I wanted to listen to didn’t really exist, so I set about writing songs for my own benefit. These progressed and developed to where I am today. Writing, playing guitar and performing what hopefully other people will enjoy.

Mike Parrot or Parrot Man

Singer-song writer and quite a few other things too. Debut CD Born in the Head, CD2 Waking in the Head, on the way.

Available for music and entertainment (fire-eating, stand-up, compere. talk/lectures etc).  travelled from Loftus to Leicester to Liverpool and beyond. Recently been collaborating with violin players.

Love songs, happy ditties, political and joke songs . . . .come and listen and jig along, it’s different. 

Website: www.parrotman.xyz – Links to music for listening. 

The Rattlin Sheiks

Recreating the exciting and varied acoustic music of 1930s America, The Rattlin Sheiks repertoire includes a wide range of popular urban and rural styles from this era including jazz, swing, rag time, old time and country. Major influences are the black string bands ‘The Mississippi Sheiks’ and ‘The Memphis Jug Band’ and also dance bands like “The Harlem Hamfats”.

Not entirely living in the past they mix in a few more recent classic songs and dance tunes. (some from as late as the 1950s!)

Music to put a smile on your face, a swing in your step and a tear in your eye.

Tony Morris

Tony Morris was brought up listening to classical music and the popular music of the 1940s and ‘50s. He did his fair share of bar room and pub singing in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s. Marriages and family intervened so he missed ‘The Folk Revival’. From the ‘80s to the ‘90s he gained a great deal of experience in Amateur Theatre. He did not appear on the Folk Club scene until the mid ‘90s when, as a poet and improvising musician,  he was a regular at the Black Swan Folk Club in York.

2 Black Sheep and a Stallion

Unaccompanied English Traditional Folk, Sea Shanties and Working Songs from this amazing acapella group.

Sophie Kelly

As a relative newcomer to the music scene, Sophie Kelly is certainly a rising star as a performer in the singer-songwriter genre. Sophie grew up in London with influences such as Bob Dylan and Van Morrison from her father, but also the richness of Irish and Scottish folk music and gospel, which has been a strong influence in her life and in her choice of music. Initially Sophie trained at a performing arts school, and has recently turned her focus to music, playing at various open mics in Scarborough, and also singing in a duo from London, but mainly as a backing singer. Her music now is based on covers from artist such as Roo Panes, Van Morrison, and Laura Marling, and is beginning to work on her own music. Her performances are to be cherished.

The Woolgatherers

The Woolgatherers were first formed in 2009 when several musicians from a variety of bands playing in the Scarborough and York area got together to record some original songs written by singer-songwriter Phil Hooley. Later that year they released their first album, entitled “Long Way To Indigo” recorded and produced by Simon Wright at the Imphut Studios in York. The album, released in 2009, received impressive reviews from Sam Inglis in Sound On Sound, and also in The Link magazine.

The second album “ I See”, recorded by Sam Forrest (from Nine Black Alps and The Sorry Kisses) and produced by Dave Keegan, was released in July 2013. Four of Phil’s songs, Desperate To Dance, One More, The Till and The Key have been played on BBC Radio Introducing.

After several changes to the line up, the band are now in rehearsals with new members. Roy Piper, a familiar face to all fans of Hamps Tramps, has joined on bass guitar, along with drummer Dave Elvidge, who has played every music style from big band to rockabilly, and Mike Womack on guitar. Country music enthusiasts may remember Mike’s Knopfleresque guitar playing with the ever popular Country Sunshine. Survivors of the original line up, Phil and Richard Thwaites complete the line up, while other musicians such as Dave Kemp, the Rattlin Sheiks and Pete Everett often make guest appearances.

While currently writing new material, the band are also reworking some of their old songs, and include their own interpretation of some classic country covers in their live set. The new line up went down a storm at Staxtonbury, and they have already been booked for a further appearance on the main stage in 2019. The Woolgatherers have also appeared at various country shows and at the annual CAMRA festivals in 2016,2017 and 2019. In November 2018, Phil supported Chris Difford as part of his solo tour.

The Woolgatherers music is available as a download from a variety of reputable sources such as Amazon, CD Baby and Bandcamp. It can also be heard on Spotify, Soundcloud and several digital radio stations. CDs are also usually available at Woolgatherers gigs or by contacting Phil at philhooley@aol.com

Yorkshire Coast Morris

We are always happy to welcome new members, dancers and musicians. If you’d like to come and join us at a practice to try it out, please call or email us.

We meet on Thursday evenings, for practice in Scarborough from September to May, and dance out locally in the summer. We do, of course, dance at weekends and special events on other days.

Contact us at: yorkscoastmorris@gmail.com or call: John 01723 890913  Julia 01723 373778

Scalby Fair Committee put up the village Christmas tree, just outside the Nag’s Head, every year. Permission to place the tree and lights is kindly given by the Nag’s Head.

Once again, the combination won first prize in the annual Christmas Lights Competition, jointly sponsored by Newby and Scalby Parish Council and Proudfoot Food Stores.

The cash prize will be used to augment the prizes for the Scalby Walk later in the year.

Hi Everyone ,

Well, 2018 draws to a close and the Festive Season is upon us!

I hope that our growing membership has enjoyed 2018 as much as I have and I think our Club is in fine fettle.

The Fair’s support of the Tour de Yorkshire in June showed us at our best – turning out to festoon Scalby Village with bunting as well as putting up a stunning bike display outside the Nags Head. I think locals really appreciated the leading role that Scalby Fair members played in making the event so memorable.

Scalby Fair Week was wonderful, in my view – the weather helped of course, but there was a terrific turnout of members to help with events and the feeling of ‘bonhomie‘ was palpable.

The Fair BBQ kindly hosted by Richard and Mary in late August was good fun though slightly sparse on turnout.

The AGM at the Rugby Club went down well with a big turnout.

For those hardy members who turned out to put up the Christmas tree I think our investment of a quarter of a ton of concrete and steel to build a proper base last year was a good deal.  Putting the lights on the tree was best done in the dark as it turned out.

We made yet another big donation to the Scalby Toilet Trust this year which was hugely appreciated.

So, 2019 beckons.

Personally I hope that is as good as 2018 or even better and I’ll finish this by saying that our wonderful club simply couldn’t operate without lots of us giving our time and effort freely to make Scalby Fair the success that it it is today.

Happy Christmas

Tom Cathcart
Chairman