{"id":121,"date":"2021-07-04T11:49:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-04T10:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/coventrygigs\/2021\/07\/04\/city-arms-folk-club-earlsdon\/"},"modified":"2021-07-04T11:49:00","modified_gmt":"2021-07-04T10:49:00","slug":"city-arms-folk-club-earlsdon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/coventrygigs\/2021\/07\/04\/city-arms-folk-club-earlsdon\/","title":{"rendered":"City Arms Folk Club (Earlsdon)"},"content":{"rendered":"
City Arms Folk Club (Earlsdon)<\/b><\/div>\n
by Pete Clemons<\/span><\/b><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/b><\/div>\n
\n
<\/a><\/div>\n

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\n

The City Arms, for
\nthe last 20 years a part of the Wetherspoons chain, has been a popular pub in
\nEarlsdon for over 150 years. The current building has stood since 1930 but a
\n‘City Arms’ has been on the site since the mid 1800s.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/span>50 years ago the
\nCity Arms Folk Club, which attracted some of the country\u2019s most talented
\nmusicians to Coventry as well as entertaining a generation of fans, staged its
\nfinal event. The club first sprang up in 1966 and was initially hosted by Paddy
\nRoberts.<\/span><\/p>\n

By 1967 it was in
\nthe hands of popular musicians Rob Armstrong and Rod Felton who successfully
\nran this popular club for a good number of years. The pair had already become
\npopular guests at the venue.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/span>The British folk
\nscene of the 1960s and 1970s has a fascinating history. The highs including the
\ndiscovery of some genuinely wonderful singer songwriters. The lows must have
\nbeen the endless financial difficulties, that the clubs seemed to be in,
\nrequired for keeping them going.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/span>The following
\nquotes I collected while researching the Earlsdon club. My apologies for not
\nremembering from where and who:<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/span>‘Been going to
\nthe folk clubs since 1963. First to Coventry – Barry Skinner, The Kerry’s, Rod
\netc \u2013 and then Earlsdon. Since 1971 I went to Bedworth and other clubs before
\nthey all closed. These included Barwell, Brinklow and Nuneaton. I remember
\nRoddy, Dave Bennett, Barry Skinner, The Gaels, Sneaks Noise, too many to
\nremember’.<\/span><\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/span><\/i>‘I remember when
\nthe Gaels had Owen on fiddle before Brian Patten, do you remember Geoff Smedley
\nand Bennie Christie who were residents at the City Arms?.  Benita could down a pint in less than 3
\nseconds!. And Barry at the Binley Oak, that was the first club I went to, with
\nRoger Bullen who I used to work with’.<\/span><\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/span><\/i>‘Rod was always involved with the City Arms, his lovely Mum May used to actually ‘run’ the club, but she did it in Rods name. More or less, Rod and Rob Armstrong were both the residents before they formed the Grunt Band, as was Gentle Touch (Geoff and Benita) and June Tabor was a regular singer there too’.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

‘There were some top acts at the Earlsdon club. I don’t know who actually booked them, but May, Rod’s Mother, saw to the financial side of things’.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Finally a very brief history of some of those who appeared the City Arms Folk Club. These were in addition to the local artists who put in an appearance. Regarding the above quote, which mentions the booking of artists, I cant help but think that Rob Armstrong did a lot of the leg work in that department:<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
1966 \u2013 Initially it appeared to be a monthly club. But things soon stepped up and the club became a weekly event. Guests included: Dicken Reed, The Arden Folk, Rod Felton, The Embers, Sandy Denny<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
1967 \u2013 The Hibernian’s Folk Group, The Kiandra Group, The Folklores, Mick Stuart<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
1968 \u2013 New Modern Idiot Grunt Band, Sneaks Noise, Mike Chapman, Alex Campbell, Martyn Wyndham Reed<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
1969 \u2013 Martin Windsor, Gilly Darbey, Jasper Carrot, Robin Dransfield, Hamish Imlach<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
1970 \u2013 Shelagh McDonald, Diz Disley, Don Partridge, Colin Scott<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
1971 – Gothic Horizon, Roger Williamson, Dave Turner, April,<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The final club night appears to be when Dando Shaft appeared during September 1971.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/a><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Beverley Kutner (Martyn)<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
More on the Coventry Folk scene from Hobo<\/div>\n
https:\/\/www.blogger.com\/u\/1\/blog\/posts\/7661724268174147724<\/b><\/a><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

City Arms Folk Club (Earlsdon) by Pete Clemons The City Arms, for the last 20 years a part of the Wetherspoons chain, has been a popular pub in Earlsdon for over 150 years. The current building has stood since 1930 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/coventrygigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/coventrygigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/coventrygigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/coventrygigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/coventrygigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/coventrygigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/coventrygigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/coventrygigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/coventrygigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}