Cornelscourt Parish Hall

Cornelscourt Parish Hall
The Location of Foxrock Folk Club

THE FOXROCK FOLK CLUB

As Luke Kelly remarked when he played the club in December 1972, a folk club in the suburb of Foxrock was a somewhat unlikely combination. Probably even more unlikely was the fact it was organised and run by teenagers and managed to attract to Foxrock some of the biggest names on the Irish music scene (see Folk Club History & "Local and Visiting Artists").

The aim of the Foxrock Folk Club Project is to (1) research the history of the club (2) develop a club archive and (3) create a space in which people who played at the club or attended some of the sessions can share their memories of what was an unique musical and cultural experience.

Contact: jeremy.kearney40@gmail.com


Sunday 12 April 2009

MEMORABLE SESSIONS


Some people writing on the blog have mentioned particular sessions or artists they remember. It would be very interesting to hear more about the most memorable sessions or artists that you remember hearing.
Two particular ones for me were the appearance by Roger McGough ( I think he must have been brought to the club by Peter Fallon), who at the time had had top ten hits with the Scaffold (Thank U Very Much & Lily the Pink) and had appeared on Top of the Pops. He was also well know for being part of the 'Mersey Sound' group of poets. Yet here he was in Cornelscourt!
He was a genuinely entertaining and witty performer and I particularly remember one poem called 'Conservative Government Unemployment Figures' which went:
'Conservative Government.
Unemployment?
Figures.'
(Thank to Pete & Angela for rescuing the poster from a lamp post)

People have already mentioned the 'special session' which took place on 19th December 1971 with the Chieftains, Danny Doyle and Louis Stewart. This session was amazing for many reasons but one was that Danny Doyle enjoyed himself so much he played for an hour and a half and didn't finish until 12.30am. He even sang a song called 'Monday Morning' to celebrate going past midnight.

2 comments:

  1. Jer,
    .....Another Artist who appeared twice was
    Headley Kay. Headley played acoustic guitar,he
    had played on BBC Folk programme a couple on times. He wrote all his material and a couple of
    numbers for Roger Whitaker, he now is an organist
    for a church in Kent.

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  2. Pete,

    I played with my brother Niall at the start of a musical journey which has never ended.I still love music and am constantly going to gigs which keeps me young.I am a vet in Monaghan and Niall works in Canada and is disappointed he cant be at the Pavilion.My memories of Cornelscourt are vague but Lar Cassidy was a giant in every sense of the word.

    Michael Heelan

    ReplyDelete