Sad News + Masher Outings + Acoustic Rotherham News

It’s been a sad week.  I have learnt of the death of two of my all-time Music heroes.   Diz Dizley and Fred Wedlock. 

Apparently Fred Wedlock died on the 4^th March, so this is by way of catching up.  Fred was a master of the comic song, he was very much part of my formative years on the South Coast Folk scene, where he would ply his jokes. 

He was performing to the end, although more recently he could be found doing after dinner speaking. 

His leaving came as a bit of a surprise as he great plans for 2010, touring and with one or two projects up his sleeve.  Apparently he had gone into hospital for a few days to recover from a bout of pneumonia, only have a massive heart attack.

A naturally funny man, you just had to look at him to laugh, he’s going to be missed by many fans out there especially around his beloved Bristol. 

But he leaves a catalogue of great material all of it still available so head to his Web Site and get ordering before it’s lost forever.

http://www.fredwedlock.com/recordings/

At the other end of the musical spectrum, although Fred would have loved to have had his guitar playing mentioned in the same sentence as this man, is the sad news that after quite a long illness Diz Dizley has departed this World.

Personally I’m no fan of the clever guitar player, looking on with extreme envy as I do.  But Diz was different to the average clever show off, in fact he was no show off at all, he was a natural, both as musician and man – or that’s how I found him while he was working the Folk Clubs on the South Coast.  Easy to talk to, easy to get along with and one famous Christmas, easy to have a drink with.

Diz was a virtuoso of the Jazz, / blues / swing guitar.  He made it all look so effortless and easy.  I’ve seen Diz do solos where you had a feeling that the guitar was singing, almost talking, all with a smile on his face.

As he once said after a particularly brilliant blues solo at The Railway Folk Club in Southsea, “I don’t know where that came from”, that was the genius of the man.

He was an unassuming man, playing with many of the Worlds greats, most famously with Stephane Grappelli with whom he toured the World, with his band the Diz Dizley Trio. 

Diz was one of those truly international people and you can read about the man’s life and the various strands of his career here

http://www.jazzeddie.f2s.com/GJdiz_disley.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diz_Disley

While they will not have known it, both Fred and Diz made an impact on a very young Dickie Masher’s life.

And so to various Masher rambles during the week.

Sunday night I crawled across to my local Club to see Rawmarsh / Parkgate’s own Billy and The Boys.  Wheeled out every March as a passing gesture to St Patrick’s Day. 

I’ve seen Billy and The Boys at the Club on several occasions now and as my memory served me they had always  held the audience in.  Given the Mashers and Friends night in the same venue and our abject failure to hold the audience after the bingo was over, I was hoping to get a few pointers.

Unfortunately, this time they fared worse than the Mashers had, and one could not even point to sizzling temperatures keeping the hordes outside.   

Folk,  it seems, of any sort, is not for this Club.

Then again it might be that everyone was just Irished out, having had a week of Paddy Day  Celebrations.

For those who don’t know Billy and The boys, it’s a sort ad hoc collection of lads from the Rawmarsh / Parkgate Folk scene – sorry they are the Rawmarsh / Parkgate Folk scene, and roll themselves out annually for an extensive tour of locals and Clubs.

I’ve got to be honest, much that I love the boys and their performances as individuals, collectively for me it doesn’t work.  It might be the poor quality sound engineering, one that turns one of the classic baritone voices into one that sounds as if it’s coming from the bottom of a cast away Bake Bean tin – it could be that the session type completely loose performance style, doesn’t cut it for me in a Club environment, or simply the staid song arrangements, or the feeling that it’s not right to jump off the stage to re-fill glasses during the performance – I don’t know.  But for me the act don’t work. 

I know it does for some – and in the right place like the small snug of a pub, it has worked for me, but on the Club scene nop, nor as something that is being promoted by Pubs and Clubs as Pro entertainment.

Attention to the basics like “sound” is crucial, and some togetherness would help. 

My argument is that if you’re being paid to perform, there has to be responsibility to do some work to produce something people can listen to and I know they know about their problems with sound yet still they do nothing about it.  Just plugging everything in the right sockets and knowing that it’s coming out of the speakers is not enough.

OK – I’m being harsh – the boys are having a good time and all power to them for that.  And as individuals, we love you and really enjoy the music.

So it was onto Nellie Folk at The Bridge on Monday night.  A small yet select group gathered…… one thinks the five Monday month caught many out yet again.

A lovely evening of music with some super individual performances.  And congratulations to Sue and Barry who were celebrating their forty fifth wedding anniversary – and as if to prove that romance never dies she shared the image of her falling into the arms of a young Barry, dressed we heard in cord hot pants (not Barry)an image I’m finding hard to delete from the mind!!!   Or was it Sue shouting at the end of the night, “right let’s get you home to bed”.

And we had another great night on Friday when we went across to The Venue in Stocksbridge to join the hordes at The Last Friday Folk Club. 

Wow, what a night of top quality folk music, from contemporary to traditional with notable outstanding performances all introduced by the lovely Charlie Barker.

It’s strange, when the evening was billed as an open mic night attendance was limited, yet under the Folk Club label it has bucked all recent trends as far as we have experienced and now is packed out – and if you want a floor spot, get there early or it could be getting close to the bewitching hour before you get called.

And in October, as if to confirm the success of the Club, The Second Friday Folk Club will be launched in the same venue.

 Well done Charlie.

Onwards to the future.  Plans for both Acoustic Rotherham 7 25th April and the Festival for the 31^st May are progressing.   Of the later I’m still looking for people to come on board – so if you want a spot or have something else to offer the day then please contact me at springfestival@jmucreate.com.

This coming week,  The Mashers will be joining Phillip Hartley, Paul Pearson, Tina and Matt at The Riverside to support David Pascal’s Haiti Appeal evening.   It all kicks off around 8:00pm so get down to Mowbray Street Sheffield  S3 8EN and join the fun.

We’ll also be at Stainton on 6^th April at The Three Tuns, helping Sue and Barry contend with the missing John, who we think may be up in Scotland on holiday, tut tut.

Those in addition to our practice on the Monday nights at The Bridge.

Don’t forget all the rest of the news and Easter fun can be found on the Acoustic Rotherham News page HERE with local and National happenings all covered.

The David Kidman Reviews can be found HERE, if you’ve not yet caught up with the Jude Cowan review etc or any of his latest thoughts now is the time.

And of course you’ll find CDs from many of Acoustic Rotherham’s artists, plus those reviewed by David in our CD Shop HERE or our Amazon connection HERE

And if you’re looking to open your wings a bit this year and take your music further afield then there is the very cheap “Making Your Musical Footprint” guide HERE and listings of Folk Clubs and Open Mic evenings in the Rotherham South Yorkshire area HERE.

Have a great Easter folks. 

Personal Note + Masher Adventures and New Stuff

We’ll start this week with a personal note. Thanks to all those who have been sending their good wishes about my health, they’re much appreciated.


I don’t want to get too heavy, but it really is good to know that there are so many nice folks out there, many of whom I’ve never even had the opportunity of shaking the hand of.
The current slowdown has been caused by a flair up of type two diabetes which is complicated by the other condition. Unfortunately it’s in the gene’s and despite diet and exercise it’s taken a hold at the moment. Worse, the tablets I’ve been given, only the normal stuff, have made me feel even worse, but I’m assured that if I persevere I’ll feel a lot better – for an impatient bugger like me this cannot happen quick enough.

So energy levels are running at very low.

And just at this moment I could do with them being very high as besides the music side of life I’m fire fighting business and personal issues that have reached crisis point.

Therefore The Mashers are sorry if some Folk Cubs and Open Mics in the Rotherham area are feeling that we’re neglecting them, once life returns to some sort of equilibrium The Mashers will be more active.

But we are getting out at least once a week for a sing. On Monday we put our “Practice” to one side and headed out to the Boostrapes Club which meets at The Commercial, Chapeltown on Mondays.

We’ve been meaning to make a visit for some time, being regulars at the Chapletown August Bank Holiday Festival and having made a couple of visits to the No Smoke Club which meets at the same pub every Friday night.

While this was a first visit to Bootstrapes for The Mashers, Myke Masher had once been a regular and dare I say after twenty odd years was remembered. Well, once seen never forgotten.

And if a return of the prodigal son was not enough history for one night then there was at least one other returning hero.

With the exception of George Hill, always good to see him and hear his songs, and yes we did note that he had a CD available, well done George, and a Folk Club regular, it was rather strange to discover a local Club that had not heard of The Rawmarsh Mashers – it just goes to show.

It was good to see a couple of young lads in as well, a novice dragged along by his more accomplished and refreshing, musically, friend. Excellent stuff.

But even with our youngsters, the average age would still have been in the top fifties at best.

I really like to be positive about our experiences when we’re out and about but unfortunately I have to say that my feeling by the end of the evening was rather flat. Well, it’s horses for courses I suppose. Perhaps also my reflections are coloured by the positive reaction to Saturday’s Gig at The Bridge.

The Mashers did the new songs, with Cows With Guns and Dance on The Grave Of Mrs Thatcher going flat on their faces, despite a rather interesting dance routine we’ve added to the later (lol) – while the more traditionally based Matt McGinn numbers, Rich Man’s Paradise and We’ll Have A May Day at least getting a singing reaction.

What was clear though, is that this was one Club where our music did not quite fit with the normal musical diet. It would have been nice to have raised the odd smile though……………

My impression though was that people were not listening. Really listening. I don’t know if this will make sense…………. But sometimes you come across Clubs where there is a sort of closed atmosphere, yes you’re welcomed as new faces etc., but that essentially the members are there to do their own thing, and ears are not tuned into new musical experiences. I might be being a bit harsh, I’m sure I am, but that was the feeling we left Bootstrapes with.

On the other hand they probably feel the same about us. In some Clubs The Mashers brand of humour is simply lost.

So everyone there on Monday will be less than happy to learn that we’ve put last Saturday’s “political set” up on the Web Site HERE and as a Reverbnation Tune Pack HERE

OK the recording is a little naf and poor Myke is lost in the ether somewhere. It seems the recording device was only picking up the vocal mic and not the full sound going through the mixer. We’re hoping that poor Phillip who made the recordings might give it another go, but with more of the sound content at the Haiti Appeal Gig on 30th March.

Acoustic Rotherham now has a Facebook Group Page. Find the link on our Facebook Profile page HERE

I’ve intentionally left it open so that members of the Group can put up their own Gig listings etc. However, it will be monitored regularly and if people are taking advantage.


Also, for those interested their will soon be a Group Page for The Rotherham Political Forum. This will be a page for discussing local issues, and will jointly carry details of the Spring Engage With Youth Festival.
The confirmed date is Spring Bank Holiday Monday 31st May. Venues etc. still to be confirmed.

A number of acts etc. have already offered their services and we’re hoping for more soon. If you would like to be involved then Email springfestival@jmucreat.com

You can read about the basic concept in a Blog which you can find listed HERE

The progress with the Web Site continues, if slowly. The main Site has now reached the 790,000 mark World Wide according to Alexa who do these things.

The hits on the CD Shop page are going up, but we could do with a bigger catalogue, so please if you’ve a CD get the details to us and we’ll get the CD featured on the site.

The download of The Making Your Musical Footprint – basic guide to getting yourself out there, be you serious about developing your profile or just wanting bit of fun, are going quite well, if you’ve not already got your copy you can find details HERE

Don’t forget to keep your Gig listings coming in – or minor Festival details Email acousticrotherham@jmucreat.com

That’s it for another week.

You’ll find us at Nellie Folk at The Bridge on Monday, and if all goes well Last Friday Folk at The Venue, Stocksbridge on Friday.

New Song : Great Gig : Th Mashers Keep Going - Just

Keeping the old body moving has been the central theme to this week.

Ever since the Doctor added to my medication to combat the diabetes (genetic , not self-inflicted he adds defensively) I’ve not been too good. In fact all the symptoms I’ve never had have raised their ugly head, which I find just a little ironic.

It’s been hard to concentrate on anything, and just been completely washed out, this besides the complicating effects of the other condition.

So not a lot was done.

Monday Myke and I polished up the songs for Saturday’s Gig, focussing upon the new material. And that was it for me – until Saturday that is.

The Rawmarsh Mashers and Friends night was I think a resounding success, despite most of Rotherham’s folkies concentrating their energy on Kiverton Park’s Folk Club Fortieth Birthday Celebrations. My spies tell me it was a great success too. So well done KIverton Park on your magnificent Land Mark.

Of course it would have been nice if as was suggested all the local Folk Clubs had been invited to join in, but then, as I know so well, phone numbers and emails addresses do tend to get lost.

But to my surprise The Bridge was quite full on Saturday Night for an acoustic based event, when their Musical Saturday Nights have almost exclusively been rock / blues based.

It was nice to see so many familiar faces, and some new ones as well.

Myke and I were particularly pleased with the reception to our second set. Broadly labelled “the Political Set”, with the new additions to the rep. in the form of songs by Matt McGinn and John McCullagh being real hits with the audience. We could hear folks singing along and generally making noise which is what it is all about.

It must have been good as we even dragged in folks from the other bar for the set.

And what support we had to. Tina McKevitt and Matt Hegarty were on really great form producing a magical mixture of sounds – brilliant stuff, while Phillip Hartley produced one his well poilished live performances that mark him out as a talent to watch.

Thanks to both for adding so much to the evening.

The full set of photographs including those taken by Linda Gamston can be found as a slideshow HERE

We also hope that we might have some of the tracks from the night for you to listen to. Our Phillip is working hard with his recording gizmo’s to see if he can make sense of the recording levels.

The first of these, Cows With Guns, is now on the players and will be available as a FREE DOWNLOAD on a Masher page soon.

So turning to the Web Site.

I know from some comments made that some of you get frustrated not being able to turn down immediately on the music players when going to the main pages. The first thing we are doing about this is to place the player in the same place on every page, and in a position where it will be instantly accessible.

So as I get around to updating pages you’ll find the player in the top right hand corner of the page. The sound is adjusted by simply clicking on the speaker – once cuts it – twice brings a low volume.

It does mean though that you will have to accept the random playing of songs.

On the main News Page for Acoustic Rotherham and the Mashers I will place a full Player from which you can select songs – as soon as I can.

We’re shooting up – or is it down the World Charts according Alexa – they are the people who measure these things – we’ve reached the 880,000 mark this week. Brilliant stuff.

Don’t forget you can find all sorts of services on the site – we particularly recommend that you take a look at the Printers. It’s a brilliant idea and the price is more than reasonable.

Also the CD Shop and the related section for demo tracks – it’s up to you to make use of these services, the more we have on line the more interesting it is to the folks who visit the site and the more the more likely they will be to buy the CDs.

Don’t forget the 30th March over at the Riverside in Sheffield, Dave Pascal has put together a bill that includes Tian Mckevitt and Matt Hegarty + Paul Pearson + Phillip Hartley + The Rawmarsh Mashers to raise money for the UNICEF Haiti Appeal.

Thanks to all of you who have contacted me about the Festival being planned for the 31st May to Engage Young People. There’s still room for a lot more artists and if you have other skills like song writing and feel that you can share this with young folks then we would love to hear from you.

Yes the date is now confirmed for 31st May - that’s Spring Bank Holiday Monday, the one where most of us are either broke or simply Bank Holidayed out, following Easter and May Day.

This week the Mashers are out and about a bit – is your Club on the target list? Watch out.

Our Future - Young Folks

I’ve been enjoying the sunshine and filling my lungs with freezing air.   Not sure that it’s done me much good, but there you are Mac Masher needs to be walked.

And it’s a busy News Blog this week. 

It’s not often that I bother picking up The Sun, but on Friday during a trip around a shop I happened to pick a copy up, just to flick through the pages, he says.  I’m glad I did, and not just because Amanda from Tunbridge Wells featured in seemingly 3D effect on page three – not that I noticed while reading their deep analysis of why Gordon is a moron.

Friday’s cartoon was a stunner, and basically making the point of my theme of the week, the alienation of Youth from the political process.  

My thoughts were first shifted this way on Wednesday evening where by accident I caught the end of a Programme on BBC 3 called Pre-Election Question Time. It was hosted by the chap who does the links on X-Factor, proving that first impressions can sometimes be completely wrong; very quick witted with a grasp of the issues, unless there was some production chappie shouting unseen into his ear.

This version of Question Time was aimed at young people, and the audience was made up of eighteen to twenty five year olds asking questions of a big panel of “experts”.  

What disturbed me was that while the audience was clearly quite intelligent, with an interest in “current affairs” over three quarters were clearly completely alienated from the political process. 

OK many of us older buggers like The Mashers don’t exactly feel at one with our decision makers and prefer to keep them at arms distance, or further, but most view the democratic process as being important, so much so that at least 65% – 70% will go out and vote come the named election day.

But you see age and experience has warped our view of the democratic process – hasn’t it? 

There was a time though where being a rather strange boy by modern standards, I was a starry eyed who believed that by being a part of the process, by being involved, one could influence the decisions of our Town’s Aldermen.  The idealism of Youth.

That idealism still burns a bit to day, which is why I was so disturbed by the complete lack of idealism amongst the gathered young people for the programme.  So what would these young people be like by the time they reach my age.

Even more frightening was that they appeared to have little grasp of the “political” issues affecting their lives, be it unemployment or student loans, and absolutely no idea as to how they could attempt to change the status quo. 

From my point of view this is a failing of our Education system, and poor History teaching in particular – sorry History teachers – but your failure to discuss in any detail the development of Working Class Movements, left and right, leads to a lack of understanding about what it is all about.

It was this that moved me to pop along to a meeting of Left Groupings in Rotherham on Thursday night.  I had been invited many times, but always had a really good reason for not going, but Thursday I changed priorities for a day.

I’m glad I did. 

Nine people around the table, seven well above the age of fifty or more.  Now that says a lot in itself.

No one under thirty.

But it was good to be amongst folks with similar ideals, and a desire to try to do something about it. 

It’s true, if folks like us sit back and do nothing and simply bemoan the lack of youth interest, then carry on as if nothing can be done, then quite simply we’re as guilty as the young people who simply vote with their feet.

Which is where the idea of a small music Festival with a theme geared towards issues affecting young people, was aired. 

Two dates for the Festival have been aired, May Bank Holiday or Spring Bank Holiday. 

It looks as if we will be heading towards the latter being 31^st May as many people are already committed over the May Day Holiday.  A firm date will be announced soon – and we hope to able to use The Bridge Inn for the event.

The idea is to have a day of music, supplemented by Workshops / Discussion Groups, and the odd speaker, around the theme of Youth Issues.

Anyone wanting to be involved Email me at springfestival@jmucreate.com.   All offers from artists or offering other skills will be much appreciated.

Thanks to those who have already responded.

PRINTING

Sharpe eyed Acoustic Rotherham watchers, will have noted a new advertisement on our pages, from Secprint.  We’re happy to introduce this service to our friends, especially as Brian the proprietor, and his family has been a supporter of Acoustic Rotherham events. 

It’s quite an inventive service, offering the opportunity to create your artwork online or simply complete with your own for a quick turnaround print service at a reasonable price.  Click through on the ad and take a look at the site.

WEB SITE

Five, yes five new Reviews to the pages of Acoustic Rotherham from our writer David Kidman have been put up.  Jude Cowan’s, Doodlebug Alley; jiva’s Best Friends; The Troubadors Stolen Time; Tina McKevitt and Matt Hegarty’s  Dew Drop on the Barley; and Chris Milner’s Four Fields Meet; get the Kidman ears.

If you want your CD reviewed by David or listed on the CD Shop page then email acousticrotherham@jmucreate.com or go to the site pages.

In the CD Shop itself in the Free Demo Download area you’ll find a couple of tracks from South Yorkshire’s base out in Australia, John McCullagh, including, I’m sure you’ll be pleased to learn, the studio version of “Dance on The Grave of Mrs Thatcher”.   Rather apt I thought, for a week in which we learnt of the death of Michael Foot. 

THE RAWMARSH MASHERS AND FRIENDS

We hope that as many of you as is possible will turn out on the 13^th March for The Mashers and Friends evening at The Bridge Inn Rotherham.  It promises to be a super evening, with our special friends Tina and Matt along with Phillip Hartley all joining in.   We’re throwing in a few extra Irish songs and the last half hour or so will be given over to a full on sing song, so bring your voices.  

It all starts at around 8:30pm.

HAITI APPEAL EVENING  - date correction

Whoops – a classic Dickieism – got the day and date wrong in my mailing on Friday.  It’s at the Riverside on Tuesday 30^th March.  A super evening of music, from all of the above + the magical Paul Pearson.

 And that I think is that for another week.

Have fun folks and if you can help with the Festival in any way please get in touch.

Technology sends me mad

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It’s been one of those strange weeks’, busy, yet when sitting down to work out what progress has been made, little or nothing has progressed.

It all started, as usual, with a shorter than usual Masher practice at The Bridge.  Well, in all honesty it was a quickie before the main event of the night, Nellie Folk.  But we did manage to get two of the four new songs planned in to some sort of shape.

Our repertoire is beginning to have a very political look to it as the big boy Politicians gird their loins for the General Election.   We think it’s important to get the message out there that there really is an alternative to the three main Parties if people are prepared to empower themselves. 

If nothing else the songs do at least have some brilliant choruses for folks to join in with.

Nellies, and all the usual suspects could be found in residence, supplemented by a surprise appearance from Paul Pearson.  A super evening of music again though, with some great songs.  Well done Rob and Roy.

On Thursday The Mashers had the honour of being Special Guests – their term, not ours, - of the Princess Royal Folk Club at Crookes, Sheffield.  We always enjoy taking our music to the unwashed who live on the other side of the M1and this trip was no exception. 

The Princess Royal is part of the South Yorkshire Folk empire run by the hard working Pete. 

We were treated to a veritable feast of excellent singing and playing before making our contribution to the evening which appeared to go down quite well, me thinks.

To end both evenings we tried out one of our new songs, the classic Matt McGinn Number, We’ll Have a May Day.  We’re told it’s one of our better songs, hmmmmmm , we’re not sure how we ought to take that.  Anyway people seemed to enjoy it and so I’m sure it will feature in our Spring collection quite a bit.

The Mashers were also doing their bit for Sports Aid.  Yes, we were!!!   We were wearing Sports Relief sweat bands throughout the entire performance.  

If you were execting news of The Mashers having run all the way from Rawmarsh to Sheffield or swimming ten lengths of the local pool – forget it.  We might look and sound mad – but not that mad.

Pictures of those attending will soon be with you – except for the concertina player who was a little camera shy – not wanting to be a part of the Acoustic Rotherham picture collection.   “I’ve seen the site” he said “and no thanks”.  Oh well.

Of course no trip to a new venue for The Mashers would not be complete without us getting completely lost, reading Maps from all angles except the correct one and so it was on this adventure.  Strange, we travelled eighty miles for Kirkby Fleetham and went door to door; ten miles and we’re totally out of our depth.   

We had an excuse though.  Myke was feeling under the weather with a touch of Man Cold, while that day The Doctor had prescribed me new tablets, and having warned me about the consequences of taking the medication proceeded to tell me that they would make me feel a little strange for a couple of weeks until my body adjusted to them.  He wasn’t wrong.

All just what I needed.

You see it had been one of those weeks.

It all started with a switch in our communication supplier, having come to the end of my patience with Virgin. 

We’ve actually switched to Talktalk who initially had a pretty poor reputation in our area but as they’ve sorted out their technical problems it is now considered to be a reliable service and a lot cheaper than Virgin. 

Mobile phone and and my very slow (it needs a big memory boost) Laptop computer linked in two minutes flat.

Main problem for me was that the connection to my main computer had to be Radio.   Apparently a line from the living room of Masher Towers to the Office at the top back would bankrupt BT (who have to put the line in) and the charge would have had to be paid by me, Bankrupting me, so Radio Hub it is.

Problem, my version of Windows XP had decided to delete all the files that handle wireless networks.  Nightmare!

So I dutifully went about backing up all my stuff – including Email client etc.   Getting serial numbers etc.  

And then the main task, reinstalling Windows, oh what fun that is.  I think there’s a song all about that, I might have to see if I can find it.

You would have thought that by now Microsoft would have come up with an Operating system that allowed one to repair the critical areas without having to undertake a major reinstall.  But no. 

And then of course the software has to go back on.

Worse still when I came to import the Email client I discovered that the file had been considered too large and corrupted itself!!!  

So the cry goes out please – if you’ve had any business with The Mashers or Acoustic Rotherham please send me an Email so that I can rebuild my data base.

And now everything looks different.  It’s strange isn’t it how some of the programmes take on a completely different appearance as they are re-installed.    Strange – I’m sure there is a reason for it, but I can’t think what it is.   Just the magic of those digital files.

So folks, there is nothing new to tell you about the Web Site this week.   Those amongst you who are keen on the statistics might like to know that with a little push we might just slip through the million trap door in this coming week.  That would be quite something for the Jmucreate site.

So pop across and bounce through Reviews or even check out our Pete’s Animation page, listen to the music and help send us soaring up or is it down the charts – a bit like my map reading not sure which way to read it.   Jmucreate HERE

On the Reverbnation scene, The Mashers made it to number one for a few days again before being beaten off by our good friends, he says between gritted teeth, Jacks Rake.   The Acoustic Rotherham page has slipped just a bit having enjoyed that long run in the number one spot.

If you’ve not already done so you might find that a visit to The Mashers Influences page quite interesting, a real trip down memory lane, with links to loads of interesting acts.  Who were the Yetties?  And not the rock band of the same name.  Find out HERE

And don’t forget the Cd Shop and the Amazon Associate Shop – the best place to buy all your listening and music accessories. 

The Mashers next major outing is of course The Rawmarsh Mashers and Friends night at The Bridge, (formerly Nellie Deane’s) Rotherham, - it’s the pub on the bridge near the Railway Station.  Saturday 13^th March.   We’re bing joined by our good friends, Phillip Hartley and or course the amazing duo Tina Mckevit and Matt Hegarty.

And guess what, March 30^th will find virtually the same crew, with the addition of Paul Pearson playing a Fund Raiser for the Haiti UNICEF Appeal at The Riverside, Sheffield, organised by Dave Paskell.   Should be a super night for a great cause.  

The 13^th March also sees a special Festival to Celebrate the 30^th Anniversary of The Kiverton Park Folk Club.

The event will be going off at The Kiverton Park Folk Club home at The Cricket Club.  Always fun to try and find when you’ve never been before – or in the case of The Mashers – even when you have been before.   It promises to be a fantastic event with Clubs from all over the Borough coming together for the knee’s up.  It all starts at twelve noon.  

Plenty of time then to pop along and get back to The Bridge to join The Mashers night.

This week is quite quiet – we’ll be practicing hard at The Bridge on Monday Night and then it’s open – so who knows where we might spring up.  Keep an eye on the status bar for any news.   Tuesday night at the Three Tuns, Stainton, has a ring to it, but it’s a clash with that big England versus Egypt match………   oh alright we’re try to get the Folk session into the number one priority spot.

Winter Certainly Feels Warmer Now

I look from my window this Sunday morning and once again the landscape has been turned white by a 1.5 inch thick layer of snow and I can’t but help wonder where the bright sunshine and green fields of rural North Yorkshire had gone.

It was a tiring day for The Mashers as we made our way up the M1 to join in with the Winter Warmer festivities in Kirkby Fleetham. To help beak up the duo syndrome, we were joined on our travels by Phoebe, she of Wyrd Witch fame.

Paul Arrowsmith, he of banjo playing fame, mainly with Blind Summat, puts together a couple of weekends a year drawing on the Folk talent of Yorkshire and for the evening concert, well beyond.

The day session we attended was a five hour sing around. A veritable feast of music from across the spectrum of folk music. And it was so good to hear and meet up again with Acoustic Rotherham friends and other friends of The Mashers. It was also good to put faces to people that up to now we had only met via the pages of Facebook and Myspace.

With Joolze Cavel in solo mode and Husband Glyne keeping us all in order, we were able to relax to the classy sounds from the likes of Barbara Helen, Heather Woodhead and the very entertaining Hamish Currie who also demonstrated his, I think immense was the word he used, talent by becoming MC for the main concert.

It’s hard to be critical – but I think Hamish’s showcase did deserve to be part of the main concert performance, as it was interesting to see that many people did not arrive until the main billed Evening Concert.

The atmosphere for the main Concert was crackling, and what a kick off with the unlikely duo of Canadian fiddler Sophie Lavoie and her Irish Bag Pipe expert Flachra O’Regan whirling us through a series of Jigs and reels. Where they got the energy from I don’t know, it certainly left me completely exhausted.

And it was then we had to leave to make our way back down the M1 – with those lucky enough not to have such a long drive able to stay on and enjoy the songs of Dave Gibb followed by the Ruth Notman Duo.
I’m told we missed a real treat.

We’re also proud to say that South Yorkshire reigns supreme as Champions for the “No finger In The Ear” Singoff competition. The Wyrd Witch took on all comers from around the World including The North East and North Yorkshire to take the Kirkby Fleetham title.

This is said to be an ancient County Durham thing, where two singers, face to face, with only eighteen inches to separate them sing a song of their own choice, importantly different to their opponent. The winner is the singer who can hold melody, key and timing throughout and not choke.

So well done Phoebe.

But where was the prize? Come to that where are all our raffle prizes?

And while we were all enjoying ourselves poor Wendy, violin safely packed away, was slaving away in the kitchen preparing all sorts of goodies to keep those of us who made a day of it going, except that is for a short interlude at the end of the singaround when a banjoles Paul provided us with a song accompanied by Wendy on guitar and then Wendy gave us a song.

It’s worth checking out the Kirkby Fleetham Folk Club programme for the year, a special line up of talent and I’ll add the list to our Gig section on the Acoustic Rotherham News page later in the week.

Oh go on then, typically, just as we were leaving, our Terry (Ferdinand) gate crashed the Party. Great to see him and I think his Mrs. What a supporter of local talent and events that man is. Hats off to you Terry and keep the good work up. And you North Yorkshire lot, get tuned into Bishop FM Do we get that spot now mate?

Earlier in the week The Mashers had one of those surreal experiences at the end of their practice session on Monday.

We tuck ourselves away in Conference Room at The Bridge where quite clearly we are forgotten by everyone, including it seems, the Land Lord, Ben.

You might well be able to guess the look of total confusion on our faces upon attempting to leave the Pub to discover that all the doors were firmly locked against us. Worse, the dogs were a barking, sounding a little less than friendly.

I think Myke had made up his mind that he was in for the night and was already eyeing the optics very closely, but the barking dogs had him on edge so I boringly went and knocked on Ben’s door praying that he would not let the dogs free before finding out who it was.

Fortunately he had not got into his PJs so it was only a couple of minutes before he had kicked us out into the cold night air.

Thursday and we both made an appearance at the Thursday session at The Bridge for the first time in ages. It was a bouncing evening with everyone in Party mood to celebrate Phil’s sixtieth birthday. Yet another of our number hitting official “Old Bugger” status.

It almost seems churlish to comment upon the childish antics of some who clearly still hold a grudge against The Mashers for having ended Stan’s short involvement with us. Neither Myke nor I understand what it is all about, and I won’t pretend that we do not notice the little antics, we do, but to be honest if people do not discuss the issues they have with us then there is very little we can do about it.

On a more positive note The Mashers Influences page has been fully updated, and at last all the Links work. HERE It's a trip down memory land.

As many will already know The Mashers are great fans of Matt McGinn the song writer / poet from across the Northern boarder. While I was updating I noticed that his Web Site has undergone a major face lift. It now boasts some super video of film associated with some of Matt’s songs, and video from the various Tribute Shows that have recently been taking place of other artists singing some of Matts songs. Well worth a visit. HERE

Currently the Jon Isherwood site is down, but I’m told that it will not be long before it is back on air.
Big thanks to the guys who are down loading the Making Your Musical Footprint E- booklet, your donations to the Acoustic Rotherham cause are much appreciated. By the way, if anyone did not get the download message and are wondering when I’m going to send it please Email me and I’ll Email the file over to you. And if you’ve no idea about what I’m talking about GO HERE

A big welcome to Chris Milner, who joins the artists listed in the Acoustic Rotherham CD Shop with his latest CD Four Fields Meet. If you’ve not come across Chris in the Clubs then check out the sample track from the album HERE

And the message goes out to all you artists with a CD to sell. The more the merrier. And if you are listed on Amazon and would like your CD listed in our Amazon Associate Shop then please Email HERE You’ll find Anna Shannon’s Over Land MP3 version in the shop now for an amazingly low price of £5.99.

Incidentally, you Winter Warmers will also find offerings from Barbara Helen and Heather Woodhead in the Shop – go listen and buy.

I’m told by The Barnsley Folk and Acoustic Club that their meetings will continue at The Shaw Inn, certainly in the short term. So all you Barnsley Folk your Monday nights remain unchanged.

While in Barnsley, make a note in your diary for the 1st May when Barnsley Folk and Acoustic / Folk Against Fascism is putting on a short afternoon outdoor session near the market place. Look out for the Mashers, we’ll be there somewhere.

This week you will find The Mashers at Nellie Folk on Monday Night and on Thursday we’re doing a spot at the Princess Royal, Crookes, Sheffield. Go to their Web Page for directions………….. Here

And I think that covers another week in the life of The Mashers and Acoustic Rotherham.

Loads of stuff From Acoustic Rotherham and The Mashers

We like to think that The Mashers tell it as it is without the “bullshit” (sorry to those of a delicate imposition) and so it is with the Acoustic Rotherham Guide To Making Your Musical Footprint, published this week.

Over quite a long period I’ve been looking at a lot of the material available on the Internet claiming to help musicians to make a lot of money and become stars of their genre. It’s expensive advise to, you can spend a mini fortune down loading Directories and Manuals, all leaving one feeling a little ripped off as the bottom line is that essentially they are passing on nothing more than some common sense solutions that often cost even more money.

We also found that much of the material assumes that people have more than just a little basic knowledge of how their computer works and how other Web Sites work, which we now know from experience, is not the case.

So we’ve put together this small booklet of 50 pages to get people going. No fills or anything. It tells it as it is was for the musician currently playing every week in their Folk Club or Open Mic but would like to take the next step – and perhaps for those of us who have taken that next step, a basic reminder of what we should be doing.

We’ve packed the booklet with links to other mainly FREE sites that we have found to be valuable in helping to get our music heard by a wider audience: there’s illustrated step by step guides for some of the basic computer procedures needed to bring your various profiles together: we look at the useful tools available on the main Social Network sites: we even throw in the basic hmtl code you need to make some of the profiles look a little more slick: and there’s loads of advise about how to use all the tools, build publicity packs, get your own Web Site up, find Gigs etc.

It’s not just about Rotherham.

And it’s only £2.50 – with automatic updates when we amendments are made. With every penny going to keep Acoustic Rotherham up and running.

We make no promises of stardom tomorrow, or huge Bank Accounts in twelve months. We do give you the starter tools that if you are prepared to spend the time working on can help to push you on your way.

So go and down load, even if you think you know it all, there’s bound to be something new, just as we in The Mashers are always finding something new.
So that’s the “no bullshit” advert out of the way. HERE
The Mashers had a nice week. Our normal Monday Practice went off according to plan at The Bridge.

On Thursday we packed our instruments into the back of the Mashermobile and headed out to the wastes of outer Sheffield. Crooks to be exact.

Remarkably we found Crooks Social Club quite easily, only two wrong turns, not bad for us, in fact the most difficult bit was finding somewhere to park, the Club Car Park and surrounding roads being jammed packed with parked cars.

The Crooks Social Club appears to be a hive for the local community activities, which is great to see in these days when WMCs appear to be suffering so much, if for some different reasons to the Pubs.

The acoustic music night hosted by Jacks Rake, who on their own can fill most car parks, is clearly very popular. I’m not sure what the format is suppose to be, but the Band did one of their fantastic thirty minute sets before inviting guests to make a contribution, which included music as diverse as traditional Irish numbers to Neil Young and of course Paul Pearson – no session is complete without one of Paul’s super sets.

And of course there was The Mashers.

Best of all there was an audience, not one made up of the performers only, an appreciative one at that. Even the Mashers went down well.

To return to the Club though – activities on Thursday included, everything from Pool / Snooker to Community Meetings and of course Speed Dating – and no I didn’t “pull”. Myke didn’t try as he’s still in love. Speaking of which there’s a nice lovey picture of the man himself on Facebook somewhere.

So it was a pity that Sainsbury’s Long Life Batteries failed to live up to their name thus making the camera defunct. I think they might also have something to do with my guitar not sounding quite as it should. Well, it’s a good excuse to visit Crooks again sometime.

This is a session that deserves to go from strength to strength and our congratulations to Jacks Rake for a super enjoyable evening.

On to other things.

Monday 15th – and a land mark CD launch day. Anna Shannon’s “Over Land” has a bottle of Champagne cracked over it and finds it’s way out to a wider audience than those of us who have been lucky enough to enjoy the live previews she has been doing around the Folk Clubs. HERE

There’s a David Kidman review + extra’s to be found on our special Anna Shannon page, including a track from the CD for you to enjoy.

Not forgetting links to where you can buy the CD. It’s available through our Amazon Associate Shop for only £9.99 – and it’s post free. HERE

The 19th February – 21st should see you heading for Kirkby Fleetham for The Winter Warmer. I trust you already have your tickets – I’m told The Mashers tickets are safely tucked away somewhere. Go to the news page to reserve / book yours.
The overall rebuild of the Acoustic Rotherham site continues. I’ve had so many folks say that there is so much information on the site now that I’ve added a site search engine which should throw up items you are looking for a little quicker than sometimes heading for the main navigation buttons. HERE

The site seems to be working quite well at the moment, we’re closing in of the one million mark for world wide sites and 28,000 in the UK for the most visited sites. We can still do a lot better though, and would really appreciate it if you can link us in somewhere on your Social Networking Profiles and Web Pages.

Lots coming up this week – so check out the Gig Guide HERE

And don’t forget the CD SHOP – there’s some great albums listed and what’s not there you’ll find via the Amazon link up. HERE

Thanks to all you folks for your continued support.