This visit to Maidenhead Folk Club marked our last foray of 2011. I had been along to the club’s folk song competition evening back in April and had met Tony, Pearl and other very friendly members of the club, and had had a thoroughly enjoyable evening. On that visit, Rob was not able to come along and, so, this was his first trip to the club. As part of our plan for getting better known in some new clubs, Maidenhead was a very obvious club for us to visit.
The M25 was again kind to us – that 7.00pm-ish period seems quite a good time to be travelling. As a result, we arrived early before even the organisers had arrived. So, we had a very nice pint of Brakspears in the bar and waited a brief while until the first members of the club arrived.
The club is held in a rather atmospheric adjoining room – often used as a skittle alley I think. However, for folk club nights, the lanes are moved to one side to leave a lovely high vaulted room with good acoustics.
Being December, the room was a ‘bit parky’ (to use the Middlesbrough vernacular) when we first arrived. However, radiators, gas heaters and the like soon took the chill off it. Sadly, for a variety of reasons, a number of club regulars were not able to make it and I was very sorry not to make Pearl’s acquaintance again.
With numbers down a little for this singers’ night, it made space for everyone to be able to do that little bit extra. The club is full of talented singers, songwriters and instrumentalists. There were impromptu sessions around some very fine fiddle playing, there were excellent two part harmonies, and there were some excellent traditional and self-penned songs performed.
In addition to performing a couple of songs in the first half, the organiser for the evening was kind enough to allow us to finish the evening off with a set of four songs. We received some excellent feedback at both the ‘beer break’ and at the end. By this time the weather had turned really nasty and we drove home through a constant curtain of rain.
Despite the drive home, this was a lovely way to conclude 2011. We were once again most grateful for the warm welcome club members had given us and we sincerely hope that we can get back to the Maidenhead Folk Club some time in 2012.