Warwick folk club appealing for help in finding new home

A Warwick music club that has been running for around 45 years is appealing for help in finding a new home so '¨members can save their club.
Warwick Folk Club needs a new home.Warwick Folk Club needs a new home.
Warwick Folk Club needs a new home.

The Warwick Folk Club has used many different venues in the town over the years but for the last ten years they have been using the Warwick Arms Hotel, which is on High Street, for their song nights and events.

The club does not operate on a member basis but openly invites people to come along to one of its fortnightly sessions to have a sing and meet some new people.

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They also hold “performers’ nights” where the club hosts anyone who wants to sing, play or recite something.

At the end of the year the club will no longer be able to use the room members have used at the hotel and are now appealing for help to find another suitable venue.

Norman Wheatley, from the Warwick Folk Club, said: “We have been in the town for more than 40 years and we have been at the Warwick Arms Hotel for 10 years but we only have use of the room until the end of the year.

“The staff there have been extremely helpful and always made us welcome but from the end of this year, we’re in need of a new home - or the club faces closure.”

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Over the years the club used venues such as local pubs for their sessions, including the upstairs room at The Globe in the early 70s.

“Years ago pubs had upstairs function rooms but they just don’t have them anymore because they have made them into rooms or something else.

“There are a number of things that go to making a successful folk club venue - it has to be separate from anything else going on, space for 80 or so chairs and preferably a few tables, good acoustics for singing (most of the time we don’t use P.A.) and most of all - that the venue wants a folk club to be there.

“These criteria are proving hard to fulfill and we’re looking for help.

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“Does the Warwick and Leamington area actually want a folk club?

“We’ve had some wonderful sell-out nights with guests of all kinds - Bob Fox of “War Horse” and Les Barker, comic poet extraordinaire.

“We’ve also made a point of providing a venue for local performers to get up and sing, whatever their experience. We’ve also given guest bookings to many local singers and groups over the years.

“If anyone can assist with finding a new suitable venue - somewhere in the vicinity of Warwick (not necessarily in the town), their help would be gratefully received or this long-standing institution may have to close its doors for good.”

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Anyone that can help should contact Norman Wheatley via the Warwick Folk Club website at www.warwickfolkclub.co.uk or email on [email protected]. Anyone interested in joining should also email.