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Phoenix About to Fly
[press release, 18 November 2003]
A new folk and roots venue for Sheffield
The folk and roots music scene in Sheffield is about to get another boost with the launch of the Phoenix Music Club at the Blind Institute on the 27th November. With a dazzling line up of rising local stars and national talent promised for the first event, Phoenix's organisers hope to show more people just how rich the traditional arts are in South Yorkshire and provide a much-needed city centre platform for them.
There has been a huge surge of popular interest in English folk arts recently, with Eliza Carthy and Dog Rose Morris appearing on Later with Jools Holland and the Government moving to encourage morris dancing through changes in licensing laws. The Phoenix Music Club will attempt to claim some of this limelight for the unique and vibrant folk arts scene in Sheffield and surrounding areas.
The organisers of the Club are themselves local folk artists and activists, aiming to increase the opportunities and audiences for the folk arts. Artistic Director Simon Heywood said, "We want to preserve the feel of a really good, thriving, smallish folk club - the informality, the sense that the performers and audience are all in it together, the willingness to take chances with experimental and diverse programmes, and the way the performance absolutely monopolises attention and takes centre stage - the intensity you can achieve when people are really interested in engaging intimately with the performance."
However, The Phoenix Music Club will be a folk club with a difference. Simon and his co-organisers Jo Maher and Mark Gibbens are keen to represent the full range of folk arts and cultures in the area. Jo explained, "Sheffield has many fantastic storytellers, dancers, performance artists, and writers, as well as musicians, and we want to provide a platform for those as well. We want to function as a kind of 'crossroads' between artists who wouldn't normally share a stage - bringing together people from the many traditions, styles, cultures and ethnic groups which reside in, or visit, the city."
The club is expected to draw a large and varied crowd, and has been working hard to catch as much attention as possible, Mark said. "Word-of-mouth is the best publicity, so we're talking about it a lot! We're doctoring spin for all we're worth, leafletting the city, and contacting the national and local media. We have a brand new website (www.phoenix.lowtech.org), for which we're dreaming up various features. We're having fun and being imaginative with the extras and details, because it all adds to the feel of it. The local press have been very interested. There's something about the idea that seems to strike a chord and we have a definite feeling that there's an audience."
The launch event for the Phoenix Music Club will be held at the Blind Institute, Mappin Street on Thursday 27 November (doors open at 8pm and tickets cost £6/£3.50). Topping the bill will be Mojo Folk Album of the Year winner Pete Morton, and the pulse pounding, cross-cultural melting pot of the Angel Brothers. In addition, there will be a host of superb rising-stars from the area, including Crucible and many more.