SCE changes: new venue; new day; new start-time

Dear Song Club East follower,

As of 2016, we're moving on and up.

New Venue
Our new home is The Urban Bar (formerly The London Hospital Tavern) on Whitechapel Road. It's in a great location, directly opposite Whitechapel Tube and rail station and well-served by buses.

The staff are friendly and music-orientated and have been very positive and supportive about our re-location. We're looking forward to working with them.

It has a dedicated music room complete with stage and lighting and will be a lovely venue for our event. There's great food and booze, there, too!

New day
We will be meeting on the second Thursday of the month - first gig on 14th January (watch this space.)

New start-time
The concert will start at 8.30 pm and will have mid-gig break, finishing around 10.45 pm.

Join us; you'll be welcome and you'll love it.

'Unmissable'

In Adam Beattie and Jack Harris, Song Club East was host last night to two exceptional song-writing and guitar-playing talents. If you weren't there, you passed on a special song-based musical treat interlaced with intelligent and informed discussion on the art and craft of the songwriter.

We had extinct birds, a 100-year-old man, 'stealth misery', songs that should have been sung in Welsh, some that were misunderstood, some that were comprehended and much banter.

Jack was moved to song-writing by the delta blues of Mississippi John Hurt, whereas Adam remembers Tom Waits' influence. Both have strong ideas about how songs should be written and both back them up with material of the very highest quality.

The Same Boat, a Beattie song, proposes that we see things from the point of view of a refugee. His piece The Man Who Loves Too Much considers the social position of a man with too great a capacity for affection.

In Vanished Birds and The Oldest Man Jack demonstrates his breadth of song-writing vision and a profound interest in this world and the lives we lead.

The host (me) also waded in with material from his back catalogue, always pulled hither and thither in his choice of song by the powerful material produced by two first-rate writer-performers on the top of their games.


NOTE: NEW VENUE - THE URBAN BAR, WHITECHAPEL ROAD 
Please note that from January we will be in a new venue;

Next concert: Thursday, 14th January, 2016

Venue: The Urban Bar, 176, Whitechapel Road, E1 1BJ
Web: www.theurbanbar.co.uk
Time: 8.30pm

Entry: £5.00

Travel: Whitechapel Tube/London Overground
            Buses, 254, 25, 205 and others

9th December 2015 (SCE #4)

The Details

Date: Wednesday, 9th December, 2015

Venue: St Margaret's House, Bethnal Green E2 9PL

Time: 7.30pm

Entry: £5.00

Travel: Bethnal Green Tube, 254, 388 and others

The Performers

Adam Beattie has been active since 2003 and has recorded three studio albums. He is about to release his fourth. Career highlights include supporting Bert Jansch and Jolie Holland, as well as touring in Germany, Ukraine, France, Italy and Cyprus. His distinctive voice ties together an eclectic mix of 'folk stews and dirty blues'. He performs varied, emotional shows including philosophical musings of the modern life of a Scotsman living in London. His popular song 'A Song of One Hundred Years' is a ballad written for his grandfather who lived to that age. 

Website

Jack Harris was a South by South-West showcasing artist at 17. He was also the youngest, as well as the only non-American person ever to win the New Folk song-writing award at the Kerrville Folk Festival, Texas. Previous winners included Gillian Welch, Steve Earle and Devon Sproule. Those days are gone, along with most of Jack’s youth and vigour, but he’s still pleased to find himself in such company. And he still writes literate, compassionate songs, about subjects as disparate as Caribbean drinking festivals, the colour of a potato flower and the lives of great poets like Elizabeth Bishop. His live show is a riveting mix of song-craft and theatrical story-telling, delivered with warm voice, dry humour and nimble, string-picking fingers. Come on out. You'll see. 

Website

Simon Hopper is the founder and host of Song Club East. See earlier posts in this blog.

Website

Compelling stories, angst and lovely London folk songs

Harry Harris and Theo Bard are testament to the vibrancy of the London singer-songwriter scene. Troubadors both, they inject their own knowledge of the history of their craft into the songs they write. They perform and tell tales of life in the capital city, whales in rivers, love and what it means to live in this particular here and now.

To see life from another's point of view and communicate that to an audience through song is a special talent and Harry Harris does this. Families at war, a little boy's most memorable day and a footballer's greatest hour are all grist to his mill. And it's lovely stuff.

Theo Bard busks the street markets of east London and writes about his life in the capital. He sang songs from his new CD, You Give, and demonstrated his own take on bluesy, urban folk-style guitar playing.

Together with the host of Song Club East, Simon Hopper (that's me), Harry and Theo discussed the pros and cons of writing in the first person, seeing through a stranger's eyes and the difficulties of the bearing of the soul in verse. Bert Jansch got a mention as an influence as did Ron Sexsmith and Warren Zevon. Folk songs were mentioned as was pop, blues and Appalachian mountain music. No narrow church, this.

SCE #3 was another lovely evening. Three singers, three guitars, three different ways of connecting with the great ongoing flow that is the history of singer-songwriting.

Come and join us on December 9th for SCE #4 with Adam Beattie and Harry's brother Jack.

11th November 2016 (SCE #3)

The Details

Date: Wednesday, 11th November, 2015

Venue: St Margaret's House, Bethnal Green E2 9PL

Time: 7.30pm

Entry: £5.00

Travel: Bethnal Green Tube, 254, 388 and others

The Performers

Theo Bard is a man on a mission. Whether rocking late-night shows with his band, spellbinding listening audiences with his beautiful, heartfelt songs and storytelling to match, or singing his unique urban folk songs as a vagabond one-man-band busker, Theo always brings a music and a vibe that feels just right.

Website

 

Harry Harris has been writing songs for 10 years, influenced as much by English and American folk music as by indie-rock bands like Eels, Counting Crows, and The Hold Steady. Signed to Wild Sound Recordings, his latest album, Songs About Other People, is listed as one of the Telegraph's best folk albums of 2015, and is exactly what it says it is - 10 story songs about other people, some real, some made-up, some somewhere in between

Website

 

Simon Hopper is the founder and host of Song Club East. See earlier posts in this blog.

Website

The bar's been raised...

It was a night of lovely contrasts, beautiful songs and outstanding playing. Our guests Michael Garrett and Louis Brennan were both magnificent last Wednesday at our second SCE concert.

Michael Garrett

Michael's voice is light and  mellifluous; Louis' can make Tom Waits sound sweet. Michael draws us in with intriguing stories of historical characters and their devious deeds; Louis dares to tell the truth of his own heavyweight life experiences and challenges us not to look away. Both are consummate songwriters. Michael crafts his songs of others very finely, betraying a precise skill. Louis has an ear for a heart-skipping, 'did-he-really-sing-that?' line which demands a different kind of attention. They're both great artists and we were treated royally by their performances of the songs they've written.

Louis Brennan

We also found out a little about the what, why, when, how, where and who of their writing as they patiently responded to the host's (my) prompting. We learned that Louis likes to create in the prone position, that he listens to Leonard Cohen and that alcohol may play some part in the process. Michael is a fan of country music and loves writing as much as performing.

The host (me) played, too; a mixture of new and old, stories of London and California and sad songs with happy tunes (or 'Stealth Misery' as they're now known).

Our second evening was a top-quality affair. The bar's been set high.

Now for SCE#3: November 11th, 7.30 featuring Theo Bard - complete with recently released EP - a second guest TBC and yours truly.

If it's as good as SCE#2, it's going to be great.

14th October 2015 (SCE #2)

The Details

Date: Wednesday, 14th October, 2015

Venue: St Margaret's House, Bethnal Green E2 9PL

Time: 7.30pm

Entry: £5.00

Travel: Bethnal Green Tube, 254, 388 and others

The Performers

Louis Brennan is a Singer Songwriter from Dublin, Ireland based in London. His songs deal with anxiety on public transport, dissatisfaction in the workplace and the minutiae of modern despair. He enjoys a cool drink on a warm evening as much as any man and his dulcet tones and mellifluous plucking have graced the stages of many notable watering holes. A long player record of his sad ballads has been mooted for 2016.

Website

Michael Garrett is new to the folk circuit, pairing soft, powerful melodies with a distinctly narrative songwriting style. With  influences from traditional Irish folk, and occasional hints at Americana, Michael is quickly gaining popularity in London's growing folk music scene. 

Website

Simon Hopper is your host.

Website

It was all about the songs

Congratulations, and celebrations - as someone once sang - to all who attended and performed at the inaugural Song Club East concert last night. It was a warm, intimate occasion, fitting for the playing and appreciating of original songs about people and the things they do. Three artists occupied the stage together for the evening, taking turns to sing and sometimes accompanying each other.

Black*Scarr sang their songs of life, strife and all its vicissitudes, and told us insightful tales of how they write together and why being a songwriter means 'you're not ordinary'.

Gabriel Moreno brought his poetic soul to the evening, singing and accompanying himself on Spanish guitar, explaining his choice of chord progressions and presenting to us a rarely sung song about his father.

Your host, Simon Hopper, spoke of how Bob Dylan uses rhyme to underpin the power of his songs ('Once upon a time / You dressed so fine / Threw the bums a dime / In your prime') and how he steals Dylan's ideas to incorporate them into his own songwriting and sung a song about Bethnal Green and its inhabitants.

The audience arrived curious and left having been royally entertained by artists who care about their stories and educated, just a little, about what songwriters think about and the tricks of the trade they employ to communicate more effectively through their songs.

It's the first of a series of monthly concerts - every second Wednesday. The next is on 14th October.

Your host as always will be Simon Hopper, the guests are:

Michael Garrett @mikegarrettfolk

Louis Joseph Brennan @loubrennanmusic

Join us!

The stage is set...

... only the audience is missing.

Songwriting masterclass with Gabriel Moreno, Black*Scarr and Simon Hopper (see older posts).

It's gonna be cool, it's gonna be songwriterly, it's gonna be a great evening of songs and song-craft.

You coming?

Date: Wednesday, 9th September, 2015

Venue: St Margaret's House, Bethnal Green E2 9PL

Time: 8.00pm

Entry: £5.00

Travel: Bethnal Green Tube, 254, 388 and others

9th September 2015 (SCE #1)

The Performers

Black*Scarr are Johnny Black and Emma Scarr, an East London duo formed by two singer songwriters with different styles and influences, but whose co-writing has collided to produce a collection of songs that move audiences to laughter and tears. Honest and gritty, this urban folk/country duo produce songs full of stories and themes that are modern but classic-sounding and timeless, personal and everyday, still universal.

Website

Gabriel Moreno. A published poet and singer songwriter from Gibraltar. His songs fuse Mediterranean rhythms with Indie/folk arpeggios performed with a classical guitar. Based on his literary publications, Gabriel versifies lyrics of love, loss and desire, which are transmitted in sheer emotional nakedness. Gabriel runs The Lantern Society.

Website

Simon Hopper is the founder and host of Song Club East. See earlier posts in this blog.

Website

Date: Wednesday, 9th September, 2015

Venue: St Margaret's House, Bethnal Green E2 9PL

Time: 8.00pm

Entry: £5.00

Travel: Bethnal Green Tube, 254, 388 and others

Everyone needs a banner

Banner #1

Things are progressing satisfyingly here at SCE HQ. The banners have arrived. We always think that a stage needs a presence - don't you agree?

First gig Wednesday 9th September, 8.00pm.

See you!

The founder, the players, the audience and the room

Your founder

'Songwriting is story-telling. Stories are important because they are how we understand ourselves.'

Who am I?
Hello, I'm Simon Hopper, the founder of SCE. I've been writing songs for 40 years. I'm fascinated by the art and the craft.

My musical references are predictable for someone born in the mid-1950s who likes a solo performer playing acoustic guitar, singing songs about their life and experience. Of course this includes Dylan, the daddy of them all, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, etc.

(You can find an insight to my musical hinterland here, and if you want to know more about me: blog, songs, videos, website.)

I recently arrived in east London wanting to create an event to give me regular involvement in music. The idea was to make an opportunity to meet and play with others. SCE is the result.

So let me tell you what's in this for you.


The room / the stage
You'll have a room with a great vibe and a sympathetic audience. I've bought new stands for my stage lights and ordered two banner backdrops for the stage. It'll look cool. I'm a fussy bugger when it comes to my performance spaces and I'll make sure this one is just right for the gig. The pics of you singing there will be great on your social media.

We're going to go acoustic to begin with. We'll be in a chapel, with lots of stone and wood in a room that seats max 45. It'll be a listening audience and we won't be competing with external noise so I think it'll work that way. With those acoustics and a quiet audience, it'll sound lovely.

If we find we need some reinforcement, we can use my Bose column PA and Sure SM58 mics. The PA is the mutt's nuts.


Fellow performers
You'll meet and perform with other skilled writer-players. It'll be a great learning experience as well as a brilliant celebration of our art and craft. Together, we'll build a community in which we can support and encourage each other as well as polish our artistic skills.

Younger writers will be able to tap into the nous of the more experienced. Those longer in the tooth will be able to keep in touch with what's current. As well as song-writing savvy, there'll be a wealth of knowledge about recording, self-publishing, gigging, touring, whatever.


Money
All the door-take (after expenses) will be shared amongst the performers. You won't get rich, but you'll know that the income generated by the gig will end up in your pockets.


The Audience
By definition, since the event is in a dedicated room for a singer-songwriter event, the audience will be a listening one. Your songs and your singing will be properly appreciated and respected.

I'll be relying on you to bring some followers with you and hopefully some of them will become regulars. Perhaps some of our performers will drop in when they're not playing themselves.


You
You're a rounded songwriter of some depth. You have something to offer in terms of your body of work and your grasp of technique. If you want to be part of SCE and will enjoy talking a little about your songwriting chops to an interested audience, tell me where I can see you play - because that's how I'm going to select our performers.

If you'd say you're a developing writer come to the club and introduce yourself to me. If you think you have something to offer, let's talk.


It's going to be fun and it's going to be interesting. It's going to be a quietly special songwriting happening. Get on board!

@SongClubEast

For performers

THE CONCERT
Format
This will be a songwriters' circle: three artist on stage taking turns to play. They may contribute to each others songs (see below). There'll be two 45-minute sets with a 20-minute interval. You'll probably need half-a-dozen songs. It will take place on the second Wednesday of each month.

Craft Corner
I'm encouraging performers to talk a little about their writing:
Why you write
How you write
What it means to be a songwriter
Which songwriters you admire and why
Which song-writing forms/styles/techniques you use and why
Anything else you thing an interested audience would be interested in

At some point in the evening it would be nice, too, if you chose a song and briefly talked about one aspect of songwriting technique relating to it and why you chose it for this song. It could be the musical style or genre, the chord changes, the rhyme scheme, choice of chorus/refain, etc. (The story, the tale of the song, is not what this is about. That is usually addressed in the performance. What we're interested in here is songwriting craft and technique.)

Co-performing
Perhaps you could find a couple or more songs that your co-performers could contribute to on the night; a harmony, a little rhythm guitar, a lead line. If you could arrive a little early to chat things through, it would be good.

THE ARTISTS

Solo
The club will generally major on singer-songwriters performing solo.

Before you play
Please let me have a biog, a photograph and links to websites and web-based songs - at least one month in advance.

THE ETHOS

Community
It's hoped that we can built a roster of artists who will re-visit and perform on a regular basis - perhaps six or twelve-monthly. As a performer at SCE you'll be part of a community. Be kind and look after it like you would your neighbourhood.

Audience
The club will always rely on you to bring some audience with you. Eventually we hope to build a 'club' following, but this event is your thing, and we need your help with bodies. And it would be lovely if you felt moved to tell your other audiences about it - even when you're not doing the gig.

Social Media
Please give your attendance at the club maximum exposure on social media. Include this blog and our Twitter moniker - @SongClubEast - in any posts.

Attending as audience

It would be good if artists who are not performing will drop in to see others at work - bring friends!

Clearing away
The room will need to be tidied. Many hands...


THE MISCELLANY
Money
The door-take will be split evenly between the players after expenses are deducted.

And: rules...
... are made to be ignored when appropriate.

Welcome to Song Club East

Songwriting, Songs and Singers

Song Club East exists to celebrate the craft of song-writing as found in and around east London and to act as a nest of practitioners and enthusiasts to promote this craft through a monthly concert.


Venue: St Margaret's House, Bethnal Green, E2 9PL (2 mins BG Tube)

When: Second Wednesday of each month, 8.00pm (See below - starts 9th Sept '15)

Performance: Songwriters' circle - three performers on stage simultaneously

Host: Simon Hopper

Entry: £5.00. The takings will be split between the singers after expenses


To perform: Contact Simon with details of how he can see/hear you play live.