About The Folk Club
Milford Folk Club was established in 2007 – more or less with a wing and a prayer. The organiser hadn’t been inside a folk club since the smoky, dingy, hand over ear sessions of the 1960s but had always loved traditional music, both folk and blues.
So, it was with these 60s type back room of pubs / clubs that she remembered and therefore set about running the new Milford Folk Club along the same lines.
We couldn’t replicate the smoky, dingy atmosphere but we did have converted portakabins and beer!
So much support was enjoyed from other clubs, although at that time there were few outlets for acoustic music – not so thirteen years on.
Milford Folk Club was so fortunate to attract the Goodthyme Brothers, Jim Palmer and Bill Hesp.
Bill has stayed the course and is now our regular host and all time walking encyclopedia of folk knowledge: he knows who wrote and recorded everything.
Bill organises the evenings – usually a couple of songs from him, welcome floor singers and guest singer.
In 2010 the folk club moved into the new Community Centre in Milford on Sea – quite posh, really.
The club meets on the second Thursday of each month and still usually follows the format of host, floor singers and guests.
We try to keep the entrance price down although occasionally have to charge a little more if we brave it and book expensive guests.
The folk club is also very pleased to organise the occasional special evening in partnership with Lymington Folk & Blues Club.
Our room has a stage, brilliant lighting and sound systems if needed and we are always keen to listen to all sorts of music. One exciting ‘spin off’ is the regular Blues evenings organised by Bob Long.
The acoustic/traditional scene locally seems to be thriving and, despite many other venues now operating locally, Milford Folk Club often attracts an audience of around 60 or more.
Our guests always say what a great venue it is, what great audiences Milford provides – and we would add how lucky we are to have so much local talent who come along, support the club by singing a few numbers and of course how lucky we are to have a great venue and a great audience.