Around the UK in 80 Venues: The Black Swan Folk Club, York

Posted on Mar 20th 2010 12:00PM by Barnaby Smith
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Location: Black Swan Inn, Peasholme Green, York, YO1 7PR.

Website: http://www.blackswanfolkclub.org.uk

Capacity: 55.

Come to see: Quite simply, some of the country's most important -- and often unheralded -- folk musicians, in the tiny upstairs area of a pub that has been in use as such since 1763, with the building itself erected in 1417.

The folk club here is world-famous, and won the Folk Club Award at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards in 2009. It all takes place on a Thursday night, with a steady stream of touring artists passing through all the time, from jugbands and ceilidh bands to protest singers, and the younger generation of folk instrumentalists. In 2009, the venue catered to both the venerable old brethren of the folk world with sold-out appearances from Dave Swarbrick, John Renbourn and Martin Carthy, as well as acknowledging the newer voices in British traditional music, such as Londoner Sam Carter and Spiers and Boden. The brains behind the Black Swan Folk Club is one Roland Walls, and it is a testament to his ingenuity that the club carries on from week to week despite financial pressures. The club also hosts its own yearly folk weekend, which this year falls on June 5 and 6, with the line-up yet to be confirmed.

The atmosphere: The artists who play the Black Swan can vary from dazzling players on all manner of instruments to impassioned singer-songwriters with a cause to simple folk groups here for a good knees-up. The atmosphere will vary accordingly, though the pervading mood is one of immense respect for both the performer and the material, albeit it one that smells very strongly indeed of real ale.

You saw them here first: No one in this particular family (because it is a family) of musicians is going to trouble the charts any time soon, but the Unthank sisters, of Rachel Unthank and the Winterset and then simply the Unthanks, played shows here before they were catapulted to a modest sort of fame. Bella Hardy, another contemporary folk revivalist, also graced the Black Swan's stage before her star rose and she was playing at the Royal Albert Hall, when she was a student at York University. The Black Swan is still waiting for its first superstar.

Claim to fame: What with one of the main tenets of the folk movement being egalitarianism, there isn't much room for fripperies of fame at the Black Swan. They have their fair share of folk legends pass through of course, but arguably of more interest is the fact that there is a secret passage leading from underneath the pub to a nearby church, used for who knows what, and evidence of secret room once allegedly once used for cock-fighting.

You should also know: Somewhat inevitably, the Black Swan gets its fair share of ghost sightings. One apparition is of a gentleman in a top hat. Another is of a woman in a long white dress with her entire face obscured by her black hair, who sits and stares into the fire. Perhaps most interesting though, is a pair of disembodied male legs that apparently wander the place.

Booking now: Edwina Hayes, Clive Gregson, Eddie Walker, Will Kaufman presents 'Woody Guthrie - Hard Times & Hard Travellin'.'