Rhyl Folk Club

A quiet night in terms of numbers, but plenty of entertainment – no Christmas songs, thankfully, as it’s far too early for stuff like that.

When we arrived, Fred said he’d been “humping tables”; he’s uploaded it to YouPorn if you’re interested in that sort of thing.

We had two cracking sets from Dave and Rose. After playing that banjo with the enormous neck, Dave can now scratch his left ankle without bending down.

Terence read Rachel Reeves budget in Gruffalo style, better than the leaked original. A couple of songs from me and the lovely “Hector the Hero” from Lesley, now back on 2 legs.

“Loch Tay Boat Song” from Geoff P and the best version of “Matt Hyland” that you’ll ever hear from Mike.

“Make or Break Harbour” is a Stan Rodgers song about the demise of the fishing industry in Canada, sadly a world wide phenomenon, made worse by the fact that it was written in 1976. Nicely sung and played by Geoff D.

For Lesley, Christmas begins when Alun sings “Bleak Midwinter. For me, it’s when I hurl a roll of Sellotape across the room and tell it to !*!* Off.

Kevin had obviously been listening to his Alarm LP this week, with a selection of their songs. Hopefully he’ll be back next week with “Fairytale in New York”

It’s our Festive bash next week with butties and some raffle prizes that you will be wanting to win. Not to be missed.

On a very sad note, I have to tell you that we lost Chas Jenkins this week, after a long drawn out illness. One of the loveliest human beings I’ve ever been privileged to meet. Chas and Jan had been club members for decades, but their Friday commitment to Rhyl Scouts made it difficult to actually get to the club nights. Thoughts are with Jan.

Hopefully I’ll now be able to return to the weekly blogs. Last week while you were enjoying yourselves down at Ffordd Las, I was watching multi millionaires urging people who could ill afford it to shell out £20, albeit for charity (ok, I switched it off).

Last night we were treated to our special guest, Steve Tilston. Steve hasn’t been to the club for about 20 years. Time has been fairly kind and, although he’s gone grey, he still has a fine head of hair and, I suspect, all his own teeth. He also still has the charisma and the voice. Guitar playing is also every bit as good.

Forty five minutes of excellent floor spots got the juices flowing, before Steve’s two 45 minute sets.

A scouser by birth, he had a misspent youth, learning guitar when he could have been out with his mates playing footie and trashing phone boxes.

With years of songwriting behind him, he obviously has a large back catalogue from which to choose. Lots of newer songs, but he was never going to be able to leave without playing “Oil and Water” and “Slip Jigs and Reels” (this with ARJ on accordion). How does anyone have the vision to write a song like that? For the benefit of Birthday Boy Silas, this is what a 10 shilling note looked like.

Guitar was predictably awesome. Much was played in standard tuning, but where “knob twiidin'” was involved, this was done quickly and unobtrusively. Perhaps a minor point, but excessive retuning can prove irksome.

All too soon, we were on the way home. We don’t have all that many guests at the club, but you must admit we make up for that with quality. Thanks to Steve for braving the Black Friday traffic (what a con that is!) to give us a memorable night’s entertainment.

John’s Top Tip…………..Start preparing for Christmas early by falling out with family and friends now!

Rugby to watch this afternoon on S4C – wonder how that’ll turn out? No club next Friday but we’re back on the 12th for a singers’ night and again on the 19th for our Xmas bash.

For those unable to get there last night, as Jim Bowen would have said, “Look what you could have won”.

A nice sized crowd welcomed our guest for tonight, our old chum Terry Hiscock. Sorry we were a bit late arriving but the A55 traffic was some of the worst I’ve ever encountered (half term, but it’s October!). A plethora of top notch floor singers provided the warm up, plus me. Rachel and Glenys both got “Happy Birthday”, although it transpired that it wasn’t Rachel’s birthday at all, she probably said it was to get people to buy her drinks.

Terry has been booked for 4 years in succession; singer, songwriter, guitar player, lifelong West Ham supporter and all round nice guy.

90% of his songs were ones wot ‘e ‘ad rote, with the odd addition of chorussy things such as Buddy Holly’s “Everyday”.There are plenty out there who think they can write songs; few get close to Terry’s calibre, and even fewer of those can keep an audience captivated for 90 minutes.

Alun joined him for “Sweet Marie” – Mr H knew he’d be walking back home if he hadn’t sung that one.

Not like you John, being nice about someone! I hear you cry. OK, he left a nice bottle of wine in the room before he left; I’m easily bought. I’m sure we’ll be seeing him again before too long. What a thoroughly enjoyable night, thank you Terry, on behalf of all at the club.

Clocks go back tonight. If you forget, or you are one of those who refuse to alter their timepieces, we start at 8.30 next week, but for everyone else it’s singers’ night at 7.30. I often wish my clock could take me back to a time when people, especially politicians, had moe morals, values and kindness.

We saw him, we heard him, we touched the hem of his garment and were healed. It was our chum Terry Hiscock back again.

It’s pretty obvious why we’ve booked him 3 years in a row since our first meeting on Zoom in lockdown. Singing his beautifully crafted songs with intricate but sympathetic guitar accompaniment (take note Alun, not too many notes!) and charming us with his stories . The gags need a bit more work Terry, I’ll e mail you a few.

What’s this John! I hear you cry – being nice, not your style. Don’t worry, he gets plenty of stick off me at other times.

Songs about pretty much everything you could think of, from being almost killed in the London tube bombing to songs about musicians, including Robert Johnson, the blues singer who allegedly sold his soul to the devil. Which brings me to……..

The blues part 6 (final chapter). Miscellany.

Blues beverages include whisk(e)y, bourbon, dirty water, warm flat beer and nasty coffee. Not Earl Grey or green tea, Perrier, Moet & Chandon or Pinot Grigio.

Good Blues deaths can include being shot or stabbed by the woman you cheated on, drug overdose ( especially in a grubby motel room) or the electric chair. Death while skiing or undergoing cosmetic surgery don’t feature here. If you any form of internet access, you cannot truly sing the blues.

Looking back over my past 30 years at the club, I would put Terry in my top 6 “turns”, alongside Dave Burland, the (original) John Wright Band, Jez Lowe, Kimber’s Men and, though I don’t like to admit it, Keith Price.

A memorable night, finishing off with “Where are you now, Sweet Marie”. A big thanks to Terry for travelling to Rhyl to play for us again. I can’t upload video on to this site but I’ll put a link to a YouTube clip on the end.

Andrew forgot to mention that next week is first Friday of the month so THERE IS NO CLUB ON THE 2ND AUG.

As many of you know, someone at the club has been going out of their way to piss me off, so I’m taking a couple of months away, hopefully see you mid September. Here’s Terry.