Sunday 3 April 2011

All the Week's News, Claws out!!. and some great music for April


A special night at Nellie Folk on Monday night to celebrate the life of Doreen who had her funeral that day.  

A great turn out with people coming from around the County to join in the evening.
So big was the turn out that poor Rob was under pressure from the word GO to get everyone fitted in on the night, not helped, dare I say, by the length of the songs that some of the performers had chosen for their two song spots.Everyone got to sing, so hats off to Rob.
 
Congratulations to everyone though, a splendid evening, and rounded off as it should have been, with Roy Blackman performing at the top of his form.

Our sympathies go out to Roy.
 
Doreen’s Obituary Blog will remain available on line HERE in the News Blog Section.

And remember April’s Nellie Folk is on the Wednesday, 27th April.  You can keep up with Club changes we’ve been notified of HERE

Thursday evening turned into a bit of fun being interviewed, along with many of the local singers and performers as part of a project for a Student.  Every now and again it’s good to be challenged and remind oneself as to why you’re “doing it”.  Very interesting and we look forward to viewing the finished film.

This was a bit of a change in plan, as the original intention was to help out by performing a few songs with Welsh Geoff  (he of the broken hand) at The Princess Royal.  Those keeping up with the Update Email will be aware that somewhere along the line communications broke down, or confused.
 
Normally we would have just let the matter rest, but in view for the rather personal nature of the comments made in the Emails to us, it was decided that to stay away and not taint the atmosphere of the evening for those going along to see Welsh Geoff. 

Email is a dangerous tool sometimes, and quite often people bash off responses without thinking through how the person at the other end might respond or read the words that are written.  In this case we were particularly peeved.  Here we offered to help someone out, and were lead to understand that a third party would be left to make any changes (a wrong reading, but one shared, as it turns out, by others who had spoken to the person concerned) and the offer was made and accepted by them, hence our note that we would be helping Geoff out.
This upset the Club Promoter who thought we had over stepped the mark and wanted to make it plain that only he booked acts in for his Club.   But even having pointed out how the misunderstanding had come about failed to pacify, and he felt the need to be rather personal in his comments, more hurtful was learn that he had shared his perceptions with other people. 

What made it worse is that the person concerned was also considered a friend, someone we respected and does a lot of good for the Folk Music scene in the area.

And yes we all have bad moments and get things wrong, but this happened to be the second occasion on which I had received an Email containing a personal attach from this person over something.  On the first occasion I called to find out what was going on, and he was as nice as pie, it was as if he had not written the Email and to my face he has always been as nice as pie.  But I’m afraid, twice bitten and all that. 

I think what we cannot trust any longer is the idea that he is a friend of The Mashers, if he considers us in need of being kept “in control” at Folk Clubs, disrespectful and generally acting like a “Prima Donna”, and feels the need to share this with other people.  It might go to explain a few things that we have found a little strange recently.  

Over the past week we’ve had time to examine ourselves, not that we need to too much, and only because the thoughts were shared.  Yes, our performances are brash, often disrespectful, mainly to politicians, and hopefully energised, it makes up for the lack of talent musically, well certainly in Dickie’s case.   But we stick to time or number of songs, and take our turn in the round.  The rest of the time we sit quietly, and speak when spoken to.  Neither do we go round seeking plaudits or anyone to “massage our ego”.  We do it for fun, and if others share in our sense of fun then great.

We do have the Web Site – but besides getting basic information across, The Masher Zone is mostly tongue in cheek. 

Of course, we could ask, are these comments actually being made by a person who only fairly recently was asked to show some respect to artists by not walking around the room handing out fliers? During a Club night.  People in glass houses, etc. 

So perhaps we can all learn something about writing Emails and how we need to be careful in the choice of words we use, they can hurt, even if read on a screen and not delivered face to face. 

There ends this week’s rant!!!  For what it’s worth. 

So, what great news that a young talent who entertained us Royally at a recent Acoustic Rotherham, Dylan Brierley, has won the Seth Lakeman Young Musician’s  Rising Star prize at the Barnsley Acoustic and Roots Festival this weekend.  I’m sure it will be the first of many, and great to see such young talent making an impact.  You can find out more about him HERE

The final line up for Acoustic Rotherham 11 is now up HERE and I’ll be adding the full detail in the week ahead.  
 
The Web Site continues with the improvement programme, the main page to undergo the face lift since I last wrote is the Demo Page.  HERE

Please let me know if you are hitting any blitches on any of the new pages by Emailing at acousticrotherham@jmucreate.com  While I do check for major crashes in all the major Browsers sometimes things can sneak through.  I’ve minimised the Flash content on pages which had been one of the main problems with the old site, but I’ve had a report that a problem might still exist for some.  So please keep me informed about your experiences. 

Can you really believe we are into April 2011 already?  The Festival Season, if there is a clear one these days, is underway.  

I’d draw your attention this week to three coming up, The Working Class Life and Music Festival in Liverpool organised by Alun Parry has over five hundred events going on throughout the City.  You can check out the full Programme HERE

The Yorkshire Blues Festival to be held at Magna at the end of the Month, looks as if it’s going to be a special event, organised by local hero Rudi.  Full details HERE

And there’s the First Shanty Festival to be held at the Waterways Museum, Ellesmere Port, over the Easter weekend looks a classic of it’s type, with our good friend David Kidman doing a couple of spots.  For more details head to the April Listings HERE.

I’ll get May up this week, time allowing. 

And this week we’ve only got one outing planned.  The Three Tuns at Stainton (Nr. Maltby) on Tuesday night.

And in our public service section.  Don’t forget your Census Form should be in.   

Oh, and The Archers Festival is and was a long running April Fool – brilliantly done by Rob Thompson.  If you check out the Facebook page you’ll find some classic contributions. 


So whatever you’re doing this week keep it live and have fun.


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