‘Floorsinging for Beginners’ is a slightly modified version of the document that has been available for some time from one of my personal blog sites and more recently on Sabrinaflu and this site. (And originally from another site – or probably sites – that I no longer have.) A version also appeared many moons ago in fRoots (at that time called Folk Roots: it was the issue from July 1998, No. 181).
At the time it was entirely focused on advice to floor singers in folk clubs, but some of it may helpful to people performing at open mics and such, too.
Version 1.1b incorporates an information update kindly forwarded by Paul Clarke of focsle.org. The last section is reproduced here so you don’t have to read the entire document, if you don’t want to. 🙂
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[Thanks to Paul Clarke of focsle.org for his update on the Brian Hooper booklet and Folk On Tap.]
Another area which seems to interest people is running clubs, especially in terms of MC-ing. Apparently Brian Hooper of Southampton published a booklet a while ago called “So you want to be a Folk Club MC”.
Paul Clarke tells me that “Brian Hooper’s book on MC-ing is still available, and I’m sure he’d post a copy in exchange for a small fee to anyone who asks … Brian is our longest-standing club member (about 45 years) and is the nearest thing we have to a “Mr Focsle” (or a Mr Central-South-Coast-Folk-Music, for that matter). He was our immediate predecessor in running the club.” You can contact Brian via:
By George Publications
44 Janson Road
Southampton
Hants
SO15 5GJ
Paul also tells me that Folk on Tap, formerly referenced here, is “long defunct, and won’t ever get resurrected, given the dominance of the Net as a resource for much of its material.”
Folk on Tap was published by SCoFF, the Southern Counties Folk Federation, a confederation of clubs from Somerset to East Sussex/Kent and from Bucks/Oxon/Berks to the Channel Islands including Dorset, Hampshire, Sussex, Wiltshire, and Surrey. Sam Satyanadhan, 3 Cranbury Road, Woolston, Southampton SO19 2HZ. tel/fax 023 80 570082. Paul says that “the Satyanadhans run the Woolston and Bursledon Folk Club, across town from us, and they must still have a lot of connections with others in the folk world. They may have back copies available, of archival interest to some.”
I’ve retained this information regarding ScOFF – slightly edited in the light of what Paul has told me – as a courtesy, but I won’t be adding contact information regarding other folk-related organizations and publications to this article unless it’s of direct relevance to the topics addressed here. However, I’ve also added the SCoFF contact info to the Links page here and to the Events Listings/Resources page, where it should feel more at home. 🙂
David Harley
Wheal Alice Music 