This particular Friday 13th turned out to be a beautiful day for na-mara to visit the seaside and Seaford Folk Club. Seaford is a pretty little coastal town sitting between Brighton and Eastbourne and held in an upstairs room above a large and well-appointed British Legion Club, the Folk Club must have one of the best views of any folk club in the land. It takes some concentration not to be distracted into watching what is happening out on the water, especially when it lies shimmering in glorious Spring sunshine.
Although we are very familiar with the general area, this was the first time we had had the honour of performing at the Seaford Folk Club. With the usual Friday evening shenanigans on the Heathrow section of the M25 we opted to come the ‘wrong’ way round the M25; a choice that was vindicated with us arriving successfully in Seaford in very good time.
Our timely arrival afforded us the opportunity for a cuppa, some sarnies and a stroll along the promenade to take in the stunning views, inspect the impressive white cliffs at the edge of town and watch the Newhaven ferry leaving port on its way to Dieppe. Fully rested, we made our way across town to a very busy British Legion Club.
The striking thing about the Seaford Folk Club is the depth of folk knowledge and talent it possesses amongst its membership. Before each of our sets, club regulars Liz Randall, John Cave, Steve and Diane Nevill, Derek Seed, MC for the evening Roger Resch and others all delivered songs and tunes, all to a very high standard and many we had not heard before. Of course, Roger, Liz and Derek are well known collectively across the folk scene in the south east, playing as threesome Hard Pressed and Roger is also one of the club organisers at Nellie’s Folk Club in Tonbridge and a lead organiser of Travelling Folk, a song and tune collective that takes folk music into selected pubs around West Kent and East Sussex.
In terms of the evening itself, both of our forty-minute sets seemed to be well received and the willingness of the Seaford audience to join us in chorus was obvious from the outset. This was an intimate gig with a friendly audience who were good listeners and good singers.
We thoroughly enjoyed our evening at Seaford Folk Club and, following a rendition of The Maid of Culmore as an encore, we packed up our gear, said our goodbyes and turned for home – this time going the ‘right’ way round the M25.
Thankfully, there were no motorway surprises on the return journey, but we did discover a new party game for long journeys. Serendipitously plugging in my tablet to recharge, the audio system began to play music tracks stored on it – in alphabetical order, beginning with ‘A’. Playing our own game of ‘guess the track’ made the long journey home feel much shorter and we heard everything from Richard Thompson to Tejedor to Mozart to Indian band, Vas. I can see us picking a random letter for many of the long journeys that face us in our busy year ahead.
Many thanks to John Cave, Roger Resch and all at Seaford Folk Club for their very warm welcome and for all their expert accompaniment. We had a splendid evening at what is a lovely folk club, and we hope one day to return to the club and to the town of Seaford itself.