NETTLEBED FOLK CLUB

Nettlebed Folk Club is now one of the best known folk venues in the UK and is highly regarded by the country's main folk hierarchy - BBC’s Mark Radcliffe introduced the Folk Awards live on air from the Royal Albert Hall by saying that the RAH was ‘..very much the Nettlebed Folk Club of the South Kensington area!’ and from said that we were "Probably the best Folk Club in the Country” - but he is our Patron!

The Club has also won the prestigious BBC Radio 2 Folk Club of the Year Award.

The Club is a volunteer run, non profit organisation and it takes over 12 people to keep it running smoothly as average audience numbers are usually around 120.

Concerts are held on Monday evenings from 8pm at The Village Club, High Street, Nettlebed, nr Henley on Thames, Oxfordshire, RG9 5DD. All will be welcomed and for information give us a call on 01628 636620 or visit the website www.nettlebedfolkclub.co.uk

The acts that are staged encompass the different types of traditional and contemporary music and song from the British Isles with occasional acts from Europe & North America. Coming up in May are and Còig from Cape Breton, Canada – Còig are one of today’s most exciting Celtic groups. They have a combined total of over 30 group and solo awards and nominations - Vocals, fiddles, piano, , , , viola, bouzouki, whistles.

Most of the major folk acts have appeared ranging from headliners like Fairport Convention, , , Ralph McTell, , , Richard Thompson and Show of Hands to Club Acts like , John Kirkpatrick, & our local BBC Award winning Megan Henwood.

The Club's Patron is Phil Beer of Show of Hands and we also have three resident acts - Terry Page, Bruce Gomersall and the BBC Award winning .

The Club is also famous for promoting young 'up and coming’ artists and its unique special performances such as 'Feast of Fiddles' and Showcase concerts where we mix leading national performers with local artists to provide unique themed evenings.

We also have been involved in several episodes of ‘Midsomer Murders’ - including ‘The Ballad of Midsomer County’. We were asked to provide over a dozen performers and 100 audience extras, over several days filming at 3 venues including the Village Club, to create a Folk Festival which was central to the plot. Bentley Productions who produce the series not only made the usual DVD of the episode but also CD which involved all our performers going into a London studio to record. The CD which is on the Silva Screen Label includes Seth Lakeman, Lucie Jones (Last years UK Eurovision artist), Paul Downes, Jackie Oates and several others as ‘The Nettlebed Collective’.

Mike Sanderson Chairman Nettlebed Folk Club