What’s On at Focsle Music, Southampton

Wednesday evenings at The Guide Dog, Bevois Valley, SO14 6SF.
Occasional guests at another Southampton venue

Guest:  ROBIN IRENE MOSS (U.S.A.), at The Guide Dog

  Yet another artiste new to the Focsle Music audience, “New American folk” singer-songwriter ROBIN IRENE MOSS, accompanies her blend of emotion, intelligence and poetry on guitar.  Currently based in New York, she’s over this side on a wide-ranging tour, ping-ponging across all parts of Britain as well as several Continental breaks before the late autumn.  Plenty of full-length song-clips on her website.

  Format matching usual guest nights at The Guide Dog:  a round or two of performances from any musically-inclined audience, then a couple of supporting spots, followed by the main act.

   Pass-the-Hat collection for our guest (recommended donation:  £5+;  some of her ticket-only gigs are already sold out, so we consider ourselves lucky to secure her on a generous pay-as-you-feel basis).  Also, our raffle (participation optional) with, as minimum, a confectionery or alcohol prize.

Singaround, at The Guide Dog

  In months with five Wednesdays, we still meet, but usually in a different format.  Time has run out on us to fix something different for today, so it’ll be in singaround pattern this time, and target Oct 31st’s meet to be less in-the-mould.

  With a US (Focsle) débutante on the bill the week before, we’re going for an American-ish evening tonight, so brush up your U.S.A.-leaning, sourced or -referenced songs and give them a blast for us.  This will give our late summer / early autumn run a consistent Transatlantic flavour (FRICTION FARM, also débuting, are on Sept. 12th), something we’ll try and reflect in our choice of support acts.

  No entry charge, but we’ll run a raffle (preferably in £ sterling:  please don’t get TOO into the spirit of the evening!) with a bottle and – depending on attendance – confectionery prizes.

Guest:  FRICTION FARM (U.S.A.), at The Guide Dog

  Focsle Music débutants from the eastern seaboard of the USA, Aidan Quinn and Christine Stay are FRICTION FARM, "a modern folk duo of singer-songwriters with thought-provoking, socially-conscious and humorous songs, with inspiration ranging from books to poignant observations on people and nature" [from their own blurb].  They have 5 CDs to their credit.  Interesting lyrics, in our opinion, with an unusual clarity of sound.  More details when we have them.

  Gate price t.b.a., but not on Pass-the-Hat basis this time.

Guest: STANLEY ACCRINGTON, at The Guide Dog

  Ex-railwayman ACCRINGTON, from Rochdale, makes a long overdue return to The Focsle.  Expect surreal humour, sung and spoken, including from a catalogue of some 450 songs written since he last visited us in 2003 (that number is in addition to his oeuvre existing by then).  His most widely-covered song, Last Train (to Bacup), is an elegy for the lost railways of his native North West, but rather gives the lie to most of his output.  A merry evening in store.

  This, from a recent e-mail where I asked for our entry in his gig-list to be edited, to reflect our new name, gives a flavour of the man’s patter;  I explained that we’d dropped all the apostrophes in the name Fo’c’s’le and hinted that I guessed he was the sort to be aghast at such dumbing down:
  “I am a cyber-dinosaur, and only have a website for contractual reasons and mis-placed street-cred.  I refuse to do internet banking, refuse to use supermarket self-checkouts, and keep pigeons for any urgent messages.  I prefer the term “neo-Luddite” but it's all the same.
  “Did you need a license to drop the apostrophes?  Where will it end?  No commas nocapitalletters colonsremoved and endless rhetoricalquestions?”
  The message had a new Subject Line:  “Accpostrophes”.

  People, you canNOT claim you weren’t warned!

Singaround, at The Guide Dog