NFC at The Queens Hall boasted a separate bar, separate toilets, a separate downstairs entrance and a professional Sound Engineer. There is often locally brewed FRESH Real Ale from Church End available on hand pulls every first Wednesday. Rich Burlingham was a supportive and engaged guv'nor. Most Bands and Artistes loved playing the venue. But despite our Facebook Group Page numbers passing the 545 point, on Wednesday 7th July 2023, a maximum of 23 people were in the room at any one time. Of those,15 were audience members. Over 500 Facebook Group "members" professing an interest in the Club did not attend. Most are never there. June had seen an almost identical pattern. It was never full up to when I finally let go in February 2024.
Immense thanks, love and admiration to the handful of people who turned up regularly. Those committed enthusiasts who continued regularly to support Nuneaton Folk Club. Songs old and new. Blues, Trad Arr and some Americana. Choruses you could sing along to. Jigs and reels. All played by people of extraordinary technical musical ability.
In these circumstances, some of the online protests about losing art and cultcha in the region, vociferously raised elsewhere on social media platforms, ring a little hollow. Objections about the permanent closure of Bedworth Civic Hall for instance. It is often said of venues that we should " use them or lose them." This was never more true than NFC immediately post-Pandemic, during a Recession and in a Cost of Living Crisis. I began to ask myself: was asking top drawer professional musicians to travel in from afar to play to a nearly empty room fair? It was certainly not financially sustainable. We had to add our own money to the meagre collection some months.
Despite nights of brilliant musicianship on first Wednesdays plus the the enthusiastic involvement of paid and volunteer staff, not many local people voted with their feet and turned up to see it. This is surely cannot be a reflection on the artistes we brought in? They are top class and some of the best on the Folk Circuit. We have put on 125 different acts at NFC since we first relaunched. Browsing the Gallery section on the NFC website will show the calibre of those who who have played there. Ex-members of Bellowhead, Dando Shaft and The Dubliners. Artistes who have appeared on t.v. and radio. Artistes who headline mainstream festivals. Artistes who have written songs for and performed with, Fairport Convention. They all want to come and play this fabulous venue..
There comes a time when running a Folk Club becomes an expensive hobby rather than a service to the community. It seems that at NFC I was heading towards that point. Inquests and analyses seem increasingly pointless. Was it the weather? The "LIve" counter attractions nearby? Is it because we have a few stairs leading up to the venue? Was it because Arsenal or West Ham were on t.v. and Warwickshire was suddenly awash with faux Cockerneys? No. None of these. The fact is that there are more Deliveroo drivers than members of the public in Nuneaton Town centre on First Wednesdays at 7pm. Therein lies one of the problems. Only Greggs, McDonalds and Wetherspoons are usually open by then-the rest of the area is a pigeon infested wasteland. The town centre dies after 8pm -and that is exactly how some people want it.
But there is venue overload. Across Warwickshire. I spoke about this at a workshop held at The Temperance in Leamington. Periodic ticketed events are laid on regularly elsewhere. Sometimes within only 48 hours of our own event. So we are in direct competition with wonderful but often subsidised guest lists with some budgets being propped up by Arts Council funding. There can be as many as six out of seven days a week in Nuneaton when live and acoustic music is operating in various venues. Some insist that, we are not in competition. But we are. However much local people like Folk or acoustic music they have neither the money or the desire (nor the time!) to go out several nights a week.
So it became a choice between Ted and Ernie playing Kazoo and Whistle in The Dog and Whistle or high calibre Guests prepared to travel well over 150 miles for the proceeds of a jug collection. Having all of these venues operating simultaneously in a small town with a reluctance to consult, co-operate or collaborate on some form of co-ordinated approach is simply unsustainable. It's a matter of who blinks first before there are casualties. In the case of me running NFC, I just hit the wall. My wife's illness and Jury service accelerated my decision-but it became inevitable each time I saw that half-empty hall.
I've given it my best shot since 2014 but that was evidently not good enough. I don't want a Turf war. I'm too tired and disillusioned. Someone else has an opportunity to demonstrate how it is done properly. (Good luck with that).
