A listing of upcoming mediated NSW folk events for you to enjoy during your isolation

Events 18-24 May 2020

Although there are no 'live' folk events taking place, there are plenty of 'mediated' experiences for us to enjoy including community radio and more active Zoom on-line meetings/sing-alongs.  Do let me know of other such on-line meetings/sing-alongs that we should be telling people about. - Julie

Please Note - New items are in yellow and this week's calendar, starting with Monday 18 May, is at the bottom.

Community Radio

1st Saturday every month - Focus on Folk, 5-6pm, Fine Music 102.5 FM, with presenters John Milce, Paul Jackson, Kate Delaney, Carole Garland, Gerry Myerson, Roger Fyfe.  These programs are pre-recorded.

Every Saturday - Worldwide Folk, 2-4pm, VOX FM 106.9, with presenters Russell Hannah, Roger Fyfe, Yvonne O’Grady, Rod Cork.

Every Sunday - Whirled Wide, 1pm, Fine Music 102.5 FM, with presenters Carole Garland, Ian Carswell, Linda Marr, Orli Zahava. These programs are pre-recorded.

Every Wednesday, 9-10pm, 2NURFMClassic Folk program, with Phil Bates and Jane Klein.

Online Meetings/Sing-alongs/Sharing

Isolation Consolation Concert with Anonandon

Do you remember the legendary folk venue The Dungeon or Purple Parrot back in the early '80s? Anonandon was an experimental folk/ renaissance/ blues band that performed there a number of times - Peter Smith, Susan Wright, Ross Brown. Several shows were videotaped. The tapes disappeared for over 30 years. Found under a house in Brisbane, one tape survived just enough to be digitized & clips are now on YouTube. To find a variety of individual songs & tunes search inside YouTube for ‘Anonandon smith wright brown Dungeon’. Or click on this link for an entire show. Picture quality is not great - but sound is surprisingly OK.

Time listings in the notes let you jump between items. By the way - at the half way point & the end - you may see yourselves 30 years younger. Hope you enjoy what we thought was timeless music. - Pete Smith

Alistair Hulett Tribute Concert - Watch Kate Fagan performing at this special tribute concert in Sydney, on YouTube.

Friday Lunchtime Online Choir - 12.30-2pm, Fridays. 8 weeks (started Friday 8th May).  No previous experience necessary. All voices welcome.  Course run through North Sydney Community Centre and conducted by Scottish singer Mary Kiani.  Cost: $170/$127.50 (pensioners/full time students). You get to choose the songs - anywhere from 'A White Sportscoat' to 'Zippity Doo Daa'. And then join us for virtual coffee afterwards.

SongsOnLine - In these difficult times I think it is REALLY important for people to connect with each other, and especially for singers, songwriters and musicians to have an opportunity to perform, and to see and hear others perform. It's a good opportunity to play your original songs, if you have them! Zoom allows you to connect with people all around the world FOR FREE! If you don’t know how to use Zoom, or have any technical problems, please let me know. I am more than happy to have a 1 on 1 session with you to sort it out, any time that is convenient for you.  I worked on an IT HelpDesk for 9 years, so I am pretty good at problem solving, and pretty patient, too! - Russell Neal

Here is how to join the sessions on your computer or your phone/tablet using Zoom:

  • If using your computer, just click on the meeting link for the session (see below) and Zoom will automatically install the software.
  • If using your phone or tablet, go to your app store, search for Zoom and install it. Then click on the meeting link for the session (see below) to enter the meeting.

For more information go to my Facebook page or to book in to play contact Russell Neal.

Corona Choir - Thursdays at 7.30pm. 9 week course (ends: 25th June) presented by Rob Bullen.

World Music Singing for Mums & Bubs - Wednesdays & Fridays at 9am.  With Miriam Lieberman.  Carers & kids also welcome. Live streamed via Zoom, Launch week free!!  Email Miriam to register your interest. 

Newcastle's Acoustic Folk Lounge is now meeting on-line via Zoom with details on Facebook before the regular meeting time - first Wednesday of the month, 7-10pm. A circle style session where we take turns to sing a song or play a tune. All welcome. Further information, Catherine 0437 556 864.

The vibrant Newcastle Ukulele Community who used to attend ukestras has now quietly retreated to five Zookestra sessions a week, led by Mark & Jane. We've even got some international visitors!

Massive Singlets - In a Massive Singlet, you'll join up to 500 participants worldwide in warmups, the learning and singing of a song (or two), a little drink break, and then a bit of sharing: thoughts, knitted things, flags, or snippets of music from you, possibly finishing with a dance track. You'll see everybody, but mostly you won't be able to hear everybody, due to latency (delay). But sometimes you will, for a moment, be able to hear everybody. Stephen Taberner will take you through all the things, the warmups and the main song. This is what he's been doing for 27 years, only usually in the same room as people! You have control over what you see, and whether people see you (though they will see your name). Bookings (& donations). (If we go really well with donations, we’ll end up assisting covid work in the third world.)

SEASON PASSES are also now available for the Thursday ukulele and kid’s singlets for those people who are confident that they’re likely to come to most or all of these sessions . . . because they aren’t full, and because we’re noticing many of the same faces. We hope this will save you some kerfluffle!

Alone Together Choir - Mondays 1-2pm.  Time to sing!  A wide range of songs, great harmonies, free your voice. Presented by Christina Mimmocchi.  All welcome - no previous experience necessary. Email to register.

Choir on a Wire @ NSCC - 7.30-8.30pm, Mondays. 9 weeks starting Monday 27th April.  No previous experience necessary. Course run through North Sydney Community Centre and conducted by Christina Mimmocchi.  Cost: $180/$135

We celebrate the songs of the great songwriter and poet Leonard Cohen with the return of Choir on a Wire (a nod to his famous song "Bird on a Wire" which started here back in 2007).  

Part-choir, part joyous singalong, this course will bring together people from all walks of life who love to sing Cohen's wonderful songs that celebrate life and love and laughter.

Newcastle & Hunter Valley Folk Club Virtual Floor Spot

We can’t have in-person “Come All Ye” but that doesn’t mean we can’t connect.

The idea is to do something as if you are performing for a “Come All Ye". We’re not looking for pre-recorded and edited videos, or videos done for promotional purposes. Just use your phone, video camera or laptop.

We want to make it as easy as possible for people to participate and we’re looking for genuine performances.

  1. Go to our Facebook page and click on the photo/video icon under the "Create Post" button. Select your video to upload.
  2. Write a short description in the space about your video. Use the heading ”Come All Ye"
  3. Your floor spot should appear soon after it has finished uploading.
  4. Press "Post". That's it!
  5. "Follow" this Newcastle & Hunter Valley Folk Club Inc. Facebook page so that it appears in your own Facebook news feed.

We’re looking forward to seeing you in a Newcastle & Hunter Valley Folk Club Virtual Floor Spot.

Covideo Folk Club

The idea is to post self-filmed smart phone videos of folk club-going folkies singing the songs they usually sing at their local folk club - no studio produced videos or videos of gigs or live streaming you have previously recorded.  Hopefully this will create an online club which gives some of the feel of those real world folk clubs. Your video should include you providing the title and name of writer (just as you would have done in a real folk club). There are lots of folk club type performances, usually by a single performer, from different parts of the world, it seems, as well as from Australia.

If you'd like to participate, go to our Facebook page and join the group.

Monday 18 May

Alone Together Choir - 1-2pm. With Christina Mimmocchi.  Go to web site for info.

Figgy Folk Session - 7.30pm. As originally scheduled BUT via Zoom. Join.

Meeting ID: 825 4387 3338
Password: 028217

Figgy Folk Session Online is now funded through the Creative Wollongong Quick Response Grants from Wollongong City Council. Many thanks to the people at WCC. - Neil Rowsell

Poetry NOT at the Pub - 7.30pm. (Newcastle), the very first live one. Join us on Zoom - the link will be posted on Facebook five minutes before start time of 7.30pm. A reading & launching 3 fantastic collections of poetry by some of our members with Flying Island Books.

Clark Gormley - 'Not What You Think'
GIllian Swain - 'My Skin Its Own Sky'
Keri Shying - 'Knitting Mangrove Roots'

Book launch will be followed by an open set. To sign up please email.

REMINDER - Prior to this reading we will be holding our AGM on Zoom from 6pm. All paid up members are encouraged to join. Register to attend.

The feature Poets:

Clark Gormley is a Newcastle poet & singer songwriter. He has been heavily involved in organising & promoting local poetry readings for over 20 years; & has been published in several anthologies including Visions from the Valley, A Slow Combusting Hymn and Brew: 30 Years of Poetry at the Pub Newcastle. He has written & performed 3 nerd-themed one-man shows & a bunch of nerdy wordy songs. Gormley pursues these creative endeavours in an effort to counterbalance the stodginess of a career in chemical engineering.

Gillian Swain spent her childhood exploring the Lake Macquarie waterfront & has lived in Newcastle, Northern NSW & Ghana. She studied at University of Newcastle & has been writing poetry for many years. She has appeared as feature poet at several events in the Hunter Region, Sydney & NSW north coast. Gillian’s poetry is published in A Slow Combusting Hymn (ASM & Cerberus Press, 2014), The Grieve Anthology (Vol 2, Hunter Writers Centre, 2014) & Brew: 30 years of Poetry at the Pub (2018). Her poems also appear in annual Poetry at the Pub anthologies & the Australian Poetry Collaboration (#28, 2019). She is currently poet in residence at Organic Feast café & (by invitation) holds poetry workshops for primary & high school students at Linuwel Steiner School. My Skin its own Sky is her second published work following Sang Up (Picaro Press, 2001). Gillian lives in East Maitland with her husband & their four children, where they run their successful coffee roasting business, River Roast.

Kerri Shying is a poet of Chinese & Wiradjuri family who received the NSW Writers’ Centre Emerging Writer Grant in 2017. Kerri’s poems have appeared in Snap Journal, Cordite, Verity La, Ear to Earth, & Women of Words, 2016. She is the author of a bilingual pocketbook of poems 'sing out when you want me' (2017, Flying Islands/ASM/Cerberus Press). Kerri was shortlisted in the Helen Anne Bell & Noel Rowe Prizes in 2017 & was recipient of Varuna Dr Eric Dark Flagship Fellowship for 2019 for her collection Know Your Country. Kerri’s chapbook Elevensies (in the Slow Loris series) was published by Puncher & Wattmann in 2018. The elevensies form was invented spontaneously during a conversation between Kerri & Kit Kelen, who noticed that this was how things were tending for her, & that an eleven-liner could become a respectable form in its own right. Five lines either side & the middle line’s the title.

SongsOnLine Songwriters/OpenMic - 7-10.30pm. Zoom Session hosted by Russell Neal. Acts so far: John Maddox, Kenneth D'Aran, Allan Crew, Jo Kerr, John Wright, Rodney Rockhopper, Russell Neal (host).

Choir on a Wire - 7-10.30pm. Week 3 of a 9 week course. With Christina Mimmocchi.

Tuesday 19 May

Massive Singlet - 8pm. Bookings (& donations). We are . . . finally . . . DOING IT. You know what I mean. We could only wait so long. This week, with our regular special guests, our song is….. “Don’t stop me now”, by Queen. I would say . . . book sooner rather than later. It’s going to thrum. Song suggestions, photo or video shares, at Facebook.

Wednesday 20 May

World Music Singing for Mums & Bubs, 9am.  Presented by Miriam Lieberman 

Newcastle's Acoustic Folk Lounge - 7-10pm. A circle style session where we take turns to sing a song or play a tune. All welcome. Details on Facebook. Further information, Catherine 0437 556 864.

Australian Songwriters Association Wax Lyrical - 7-10.30pm. Zoom Session hosted by Russell Neal.  Contact Russell for more information or to book in to play! Acts so far: Lucie Tiger, Angie Thornton, John Maddox, John Chesher, Allan Crew, Kenneth D'Aran, Russell Neal (host). 

Classic Folk, 9-10pm, 2NURFM, with Phil Bates and Jane Klein. 

Thursday 21 May

Massive Kid’s Singlet - 7pm. The one where you need to be accompanied by a minor, or where they can even be unaccompanied by you. best, we think, for the 7-13 year old age group: songs, clapping games from Samoa, some bits where the kids have to make up things, a chance for the kids to show their musical skills . . . and crazy dancing to finish! Bookings (& donations).

SongsOnLine Songwriters/OpenMic - 7-10.30pm. Zoom Session organised by Russell Neal. Acts so far: Gia Clarissa, Les Matthews, Kenneth D'Aran, Tim Leach, Jo Kerr, Russell Neal, John Chesher (host)

Corona Choir - 7.30-9pm. Week 4 of 9. Presented by Rob Bullen

Massive Singlet (ukelele version) - 9pm. Taberner dares, once again, to show his own particular ideas about ukelele strumming & non conventional but entirely logical nomenclature. We will SING SONGS. So you’re welcome to come for that. Ukelele wise, it’d be handy if you already knew 6 or 7 chords - this is not really a beginner’s class - there is even . . . HOMEWORK (which you’ll find out about, if you join). Bookings.

Friday 22 May

World Music Singing for Mums & Bubs, 9am.  Presented by Miriam Lieberman 

Friday Lunchtime Online Choir - 12.30-2pm. Week 3 of 8.  Course presented by Mary Kiani.

Laura & Susie Bishop & Johan Delin. + Gaia Scarf - 6.30pm. Live stream on Rhythm Hut Facebook.

Saturday 23 May

Worldwide Folk, 2-4pm, VOX FM 106.9, with Russell Hannah.

Massive Spooky Singlet - 8pm. This week’s Spooky singlet will graced by superior technology to last week’s (sorry about that!) and be topped off by a proposed performance in the Lawson railway underpass, a place of most extraordinary acoustics. The Spooks are slowly reassembling from the sofa bound slumber of lockdown, and the results may be worthy of your attention . . . this one is likely to sell out, so be strategic, I say! Bookings.

Sunday 24 May

Whirled Wide, 1pm, Fine Music 102.5 FM, with Linda Marr.

SongsOnLine Songwriters/OpenMic - 2-5pm. Zoom Session organised by Russell Neal. Acts so far: Kenneth D'Aran, Russell Neal (host)

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