COMMITTEEAM FOCSLE!

second & fourth Tuesdays
at The Guide Dog, Bevois Valley,  Southampton  SO14 6SF

FOCSLE Music has no membership structure right now (and may not revert to that, depending on demand), thus no formal committee, but there IS a team.

Lin Rayner — main Admin. co-Organizer

Jonathan Klein — occasional M.C.

Pete Brennan — Website

Ben Walker — main M.C.

THANKS to:— Paul Clarke and Jon Ellis, who ran the body as FOCSLE Music, in its recent homes at The Guide Dog and The Wellington Arms, from mid-2017 until COVID hit in early 2020;  with admin. support from Lin Rayner and M.C.-ing help from Jonathan Klein, Paul ran the club as it emerged from the Pandemic, until Nov. 2024;  from 2012 to 2017, Brian Hooper ran The Fo’c’sle Folk Club at The Richmond Inn with a committee of Kevin Barlow, Dave McGlade, (the late) Stroph Rayner and Dusty Withers;  from 1997 to 2012, (the late) Trevor Gilson and Jane Allison (and their committee) ran it at and oversaw its move to The Richmond, also occasionally at outside venues like the S. S. Shieldhall and the Turner Sims Concert Hall, University of Southampton;  finally, from 1993 until 1997, Debra Chesman, with Trish Carn for part of that time, picked up the reins at the point of its previous closure and found the Old Tauntonians Social Club venue in Highfield, and initiated its no-smoking policy (a rarity at the time).
ONLINE:— Since April 2020, Debra C. and Paul C. have co-run Virtual FOCSLE Music as a Transatlantic, sometimes worldwide, convention, attracting 375 visitors in five years, of whom over 80% have performed.  By Zooming widely, Paul has introduced songs from our area to audiences in Europe, Asia, America and Oz/NZ.  Even after the resumption of FOCSLE Music’s ‘live’ events, it continues twice-monthly, separately from the in-person version.  Since late 2024, Terry SoRelle, in Austin TX, has set up a mailing-list and taken on half the Zoom Hosting duties, otherwise split between Debra, Paul, Pete Grassby, Maggi Huyton & Mark Dowding, and Dawn Berg, Anchorage AK, with tech backup from Mike Goodall (a previous Focsle F C regular) and Rick Pollay, Vancouver BC.

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