Our Folk Factory clubs have had a busy start to 2018 with performances, workshops, song commissions and much more! The year began with a wonderful song commission written especially for our Soundpost Folk Factory clubs by the fabulous Sean Cooney of the multi award winning Folk Trio, The Young’uns. Inspired by the gas powered lamp post on Brincliffe Edge Road in Nether Edge, Sean wrote this about his song:

“Dear Folk Factory, I’ve written you a song about a lamp post! I never thought I’d ever write a song about a lamp post. But this is a special lamp post. It’s never gone out in over one hundred years. That’s because it’s not powered by electricity, it’s powered by gas that comes straight out of the sewer. It’s on Brincliffe Edge Road in Nether Edge near Chelsea Park, high up on a hill looking down over Sheffield.

In Victorian times the foul smells and explosive gas that seeped out of Sheffield’s poor sewers was a huge problem so Joseph Webb from Birmingham invented the Sewer Gas Destructor Lamp to turn the gas into light and 84 of them were put up across Sheffield. There’s only a few left now.”

We are looking forward to performances later in the year of Sean’s song and hope that you enjoy it as much as The Folk Factory have enjoyed learning it!

Following our new song commission, Sean joined Carfield and Dungworth clubs for a workshop session on creative song writing. The Folk Factory had a fantastic, inspiring evening working with Sean and we can’t wait to share some of our new songs in our upcoming performances.

February also saw our first Folk Factory Music for Youth Performance. After weeks of hard work, Nicola and Robyn set off with our Dungworth club to Hope Valley College for an unforgettable performance at the Festival’s Regional round. Our club director, Nicola Beazley, said about the day:

“We had a fantastic day at Music for Youth and really enjoyed playing on such a big stage. We were the youngest band there and played without our music, and got a great round of applause at the end. We also had great fun hanging out together, and are chuffed to bits with our certificate which will hang on the village hall wall."

The fun doesn’t end here, we have huge plans for our clubs this year including a performance at DERT on March 24th in Sheffield Cathedral, workshops with Greg Russell, Tom Chapman, Sheffield Steel and much more!

If you are interested in joining one of our clubs, contact Nicola Beazley on nicola@soundpost.org.uk. Or, if you’ve been inspired by our children’s workshops, check out our next adult workshop weekend, The Wanton Seed in June!