Cellar Upstairs folk club
Traditional music and song
in central London
Monday evenings at 8pm
Venue:
The club meets in the Alpaca,
84-86 Essex Road, N1 8LU (020 3417 7224). Nearest underground: Angel; nearest railway station: Essex Road; various buses
Access: The club is in an upstairs room.
Entrance: Pay on the door (cash only), no need to book. Members: £8, non-members: £10, except on nights marked *, when it will be £9 and £11 respectively.
Membership: £4 for the year (from September)
Access: The club is in an upstairs room.
Entrance: Pay on the door (cash only), no need to book. Members: £8, non-members: £10, except on nights marked *, when it will be £9 and £11 respectively.
Membership: £4 for the year (from September)
Information:
E-mail sheilamiller55@yahoo.co.uk or phone the organiser on 020 7281 7700
Resident performers:
Peta Webb & Ken Hall, Amanda MacLean, Frankie Cleeve, Dave East & Doreen Leighter, Alison Frosdick
Floor-performers are always welcome.
TONY – A SAD LOSS
Tony Whitford, who took the money on the door at the Cellar Upstairs folk club for 34 years, died unexpectedly over the Christmas and New Year break. His death was a real shock, and he’s a great loss to the club as well as to his friends.
If you usually get your Cellar updates from cellarupstairs@aol.com and want to continue to receive those, please contact me at sheilamiller55@yahoo.co.uk and ask to be put on my list instead.
Sheila Miller (organiser, Cellar Upstairs)
Sheila Miller (organiser, Cellar Upstairs)
Programme from 5 January to April 2026
5 Jan: James Findlay
comes from a family of folk singers, and his enthusiasm lies firmly within the English tradition. He is particularly passionate about songs from his home counties, Dorset, Somerset and Devon. He has an extensive repertoire and love for song, and this really shows in his knowledge and understanding of the material. Since winning the BBC Young Folk Award when he was 20, he’s been nominated for a number of awards, made several albums and worked as an actor and singer. On first hearing him, Jon Boden said, “Bloody hell, what a voice!” and “He’s warmly charismatic with that sparkle of personality that draws a crowd along with him.”
12 Jan: Sarah Matthews & Doug Eunson are an excellent younger duo from Derbyshire, who draw on some of the finest English folk song repertoire and sing in glorious harmony. They also play English and European dance music in beautiful, flowing instrumental tune sets, on melodeon, hurdy-gurdy, fiddle and viola, using their natural, expressive musicality to craft their arrangements with style and intuitive elegance. “They are a duo that performs like a much larger group with dynamic vocals, great harmonies, warm stage presence and first-rate instrumentals” (Warren Robinson, co-founder of the Goderich Celtic Roots Festival in Ontario, Canada).
19 Jan: Liz Simcock is one of the country’s finest female singer-songwriters. Her beautifully crafted songs – often autobiographical and highly personal – are immediately accessible to audiences and injected with poetry, emotion and splashes of humour. Since she featured on the Playpen Album of New Acoustic Music alongside Eliza Carthy, Billy Bragg, Eddi Reader and Kathryn Williams in 1999, she has trodden an independent path, gaining a growing reputation as a performer and songwriter. She counts Richard Thompson, Clive Gregson, Boo Hewerdine and Joni Mitchell among her songwriting influences.
26 Jan: Annie Winter & Paul Downes: Annie is well known in traditional singing circles; she regularly appears at Whitby and Sidmouth festivals and has worked with Nick Dow, Cohen Braithwaite-Kilcoyne and Bob Askew, among others, on various projects concerning some of the best-known source singers in the south of England. Paul is widely regarded as the best accompanist on the folk scene. Playing guitar, banjo and mandolin, he currently works with Mick Ryan, Phil Beer and Crows, and was previously with the Arizona Smoke Revue and the late Maggie Boyle. Paul and Annie started working together when she was stranded in Devon at the start of the pandemic and never went home to Chichester, where she was known as the “Sussex nightingale”.
2 Feb: Scott Gardiner is one of Scotland’s great traditional singers, and has been performing at concerts and festivals across the country since his schooldays. Brought up on a farm in historic Forfarshire, he is best known for singing the bothy ballads and songs of north-east Scotland, but he also has a wide range of serious and comic material, including songs from elsewhere, some of them more modern. Career highlights include representing Scotland at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in the USA; winning the Bothy Ballad World Championship in Elgin; and three nominations for Scots Singer of the Year at the BBC ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards.
9 Feb: Anne Lister is a singer, songwriter, storyteller and researcher whose songs (including Icarus and Moth) have been covered by artists from Martin Simpson and Nic Jones to Rocco Rosignoli (listen at https://annelister.bandcamp.com). She is based in Wales, but her work is known internationally, and she has made eight solo albums, plus one as half of the duo Anonyma with Mary McLaughlin; they worked together for five years, touring the UK, the US and Ireland. She also researched the 13th-century Tale of Jaufre for her PhD and recorded a podcast of that fascinating story.
16 Feb: Belinda Kempster and Fran Foote are a mother and daughter from Essex, sharing songs and singing together. Belinda began singing traditional songs in the ’60s and has always preferred English country songs. Fran grew up immersed in the local folk scene, learning songs from her parents from a very early age. Their family has a history of farming and working on the land, and these songs come from the work and recreation of that way of life. Belinda’s “Uncle” Ernie Austin, an agricultural engineer, was recorded by Topic and appeared on the album Flash Company in 1974.
23 Feb: Peter & Barbara Snape have a well-deserved reputation for researching varied and interesting songs and performing them with commitment, passion and enjoyment. Their songs, mainly from the north-west of England with melodeon accompaniment, are infectious. You’ll be immersed in the stories behind the songs from this deservedly popular duo, who are entertaining and convivial company.
2 March: Rattle on the Stovepipe is probably Britain’s best old-time band playing old American songs and tunes, but Dave Arthur, Pete Cooper and Dan Stewart also perform British songs and tunes, on banjo, guitar, melodeon and mandolin, with harmonies. Shirley Collins says, “This engaging trio inspires in me the same devotion that old Virginia musicians like Wade Ward and Uncle Charlie Higgins do. There is that same sweetness, ease, subtlety and good humour, every song and tune so well understood, so deftly played and so perfectly paced.”
9 March: Rumpled Muslin are Scottish singer Amanda MacLean, known for her haunting ballads and wry Glaswegian humour; Alison Frosdick, traditional a-capella singer and previous member of the folk duo Alison & Jack; and Wendy Lanchin, whose background includes not just folk but theatre, jazz and blues. Together they sing a wide-ranging repertoire of trad and more contemporary pieces in close harmony.
16 March: Kathleen O’Sullivan, Carlene Anglim & Andrew Warminger: Traditional singer Kathleen learned to sing from her mother, and all her family sang and played traditional Irish music. She toured with the London Lasses for many years before returning to her unaccompanied singing roots. Fiddler Carlene is an exceptional and acclaimed musician who has won numerous awards and accolades, including BBC2 Young Traditional Musician of the Year and All-Ireland Fiddle Champion. She has performed at countless major music and folk venues, recorded solo and toured globally, backing the great and the good of Irish music, such as the Fureys and Niamh Parsons. Multi-instrumentalist Andrew’s music reflects the rich and varied canopy of influences he was raised under – trad Irish, folk, country, pop, rock, soul, classical and everything in between.
23 March: Bird in the Belly are a Brighton-based folk group consisting of folk-duo Hickory Signals (Laura Ward and Adam Ronchetti), alt-folk singer-songwriter Ben Webb (Jinnwoo, Green Ribbons), and multi-instrumentalist and producer Tom Pryor. Together they have collected little-known and forgotten lyrics, poems and stories from around the UK, and set them to “hypnotically original compositions” (fRoots). Their sound is raw and bare-boned with “distinctively contemporary and earthy vocalising” (R2 Magazine) – and harks back to the 1960s folk revival sound. Their debut album, The Crowing, was met with critical acclaim across the board from fRoots, R2, Songlines, Louder Than War, Northern Sky and Folk Radio UK, and the Sunday Express gave it 5/5 and called it the folk album of the year.
12 Jan: Sarah Matthews & Doug Eunson are an excellent younger duo from Derbyshire, who draw on some of the finest English folk song repertoire and sing in glorious harmony. They also play English and European dance music in beautiful, flowing instrumental tune sets, on melodeon, hurdy-gurdy, fiddle and viola, using their natural, expressive musicality to craft their arrangements with style and intuitive elegance. “They are a duo that performs like a much larger group with dynamic vocals, great harmonies, warm stage presence and first-rate instrumentals” (Warren Robinson, co-founder of the Goderich Celtic Roots Festival in Ontario, Canada).
19 Jan: Liz Simcock is one of the country’s finest female singer-songwriters. Her beautifully crafted songs – often autobiographical and highly personal – are immediately accessible to audiences and injected with poetry, emotion and splashes of humour. Since she featured on the Playpen Album of New Acoustic Music alongside Eliza Carthy, Billy Bragg, Eddi Reader and Kathryn Williams in 1999, she has trodden an independent path, gaining a growing reputation as a performer and songwriter. She counts Richard Thompson, Clive Gregson, Boo Hewerdine and Joni Mitchell among her songwriting influences.
26 Jan: Annie Winter & Paul Downes: Annie is well known in traditional singing circles; she regularly appears at Whitby and Sidmouth festivals and has worked with Nick Dow, Cohen Braithwaite-Kilcoyne and Bob Askew, among others, on various projects concerning some of the best-known source singers in the south of England. Paul is widely regarded as the best accompanist on the folk scene. Playing guitar, banjo and mandolin, he currently works with Mick Ryan, Phil Beer and Crows, and was previously with the Arizona Smoke Revue and the late Maggie Boyle. Paul and Annie started working together when she was stranded in Devon at the start of the pandemic and never went home to Chichester, where she was known as the “Sussex nightingale”.
2 Feb: Scott Gardiner is one of Scotland’s great traditional singers, and has been performing at concerts and festivals across the country since his schooldays. Brought up on a farm in historic Forfarshire, he is best known for singing the bothy ballads and songs of north-east Scotland, but he also has a wide range of serious and comic material, including songs from elsewhere, some of them more modern. Career highlights include representing Scotland at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in the USA; winning the Bothy Ballad World Championship in Elgin; and three nominations for Scots Singer of the Year at the BBC ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards.
9 Feb: Anne Lister is a singer, songwriter, storyteller and researcher whose songs (including Icarus and Moth) have been covered by artists from Martin Simpson and Nic Jones to Rocco Rosignoli (listen at https://annelister.bandcamp.com). She is based in Wales, but her work is known internationally, and she has made eight solo albums, plus one as half of the duo Anonyma with Mary McLaughlin; they worked together for five years, touring the UK, the US and Ireland. She also researched the 13th-century Tale of Jaufre for her PhD and recorded a podcast of that fascinating story.
16 Feb: Belinda Kempster and Fran Foote are a mother and daughter from Essex, sharing songs and singing together. Belinda began singing traditional songs in the ’60s and has always preferred English country songs. Fran grew up immersed in the local folk scene, learning songs from her parents from a very early age. Their family has a history of farming and working on the land, and these songs come from the work and recreation of that way of life. Belinda’s “Uncle” Ernie Austin, an agricultural engineer, was recorded by Topic and appeared on the album Flash Company in 1974.
23 Feb: Peter & Barbara Snape have a well-deserved reputation for researching varied and interesting songs and performing them with commitment, passion and enjoyment. Their songs, mainly from the north-west of England with melodeon accompaniment, are infectious. You’ll be immersed in the stories behind the songs from this deservedly popular duo, who are entertaining and convivial company.
2 March: Rattle on the Stovepipe is probably Britain’s best old-time band playing old American songs and tunes, but Dave Arthur, Pete Cooper and Dan Stewart also perform British songs and tunes, on banjo, guitar, melodeon and mandolin, with harmonies. Shirley Collins says, “This engaging trio inspires in me the same devotion that old Virginia musicians like Wade Ward and Uncle Charlie Higgins do. There is that same sweetness, ease, subtlety and good humour, every song and tune so well understood, so deftly played and so perfectly paced.”
9 March: Rumpled Muslin are Scottish singer Amanda MacLean, known for her haunting ballads and wry Glaswegian humour; Alison Frosdick, traditional a-capella singer and previous member of the folk duo Alison & Jack; and Wendy Lanchin, whose background includes not just folk but theatre, jazz and blues. Together they sing a wide-ranging repertoire of trad and more contemporary pieces in close harmony.
16 March: Kathleen O’Sullivan, Carlene Anglim & Andrew Warminger: Traditional singer Kathleen learned to sing from her mother, and all her family sang and played traditional Irish music. She toured with the London Lasses for many years before returning to her unaccompanied singing roots. Fiddler Carlene is an exceptional and acclaimed musician who has won numerous awards and accolades, including BBC2 Young Traditional Musician of the Year and All-Ireland Fiddle Champion. She has performed at countless major music and folk venues, recorded solo and toured globally, backing the great and the good of Irish music, such as the Fureys and Niamh Parsons. Multi-instrumentalist Andrew’s music reflects the rich and varied canopy of influences he was raised under – trad Irish, folk, country, pop, rock, soul, classical and everything in between.
23 March: Bird in the Belly are a Brighton-based folk group consisting of folk-duo Hickory Signals (Laura Ward and Adam Ronchetti), alt-folk singer-songwriter Ben Webb (Jinnwoo, Green Ribbons), and multi-instrumentalist and producer Tom Pryor. Together they have collected little-known and forgotten lyrics, poems and stories from around the UK, and set them to “hypnotically original compositions” (fRoots). Their sound is raw and bare-boned with “distinctively contemporary and earthy vocalising” (R2 Magazine) – and harks back to the 1960s folk revival sound. Their debut album, The Crowing, was met with critical acclaim across the board from fRoots, R2, Songlines, Louder Than War, Northern Sky and Folk Radio UK, and the Sunday Express gave it 5/5 and called it the folk album of the year.
30 March & 6 April: closed for Easter
13 April: Ruth & Sadie Price and Lisa Oliver: Ruth and Sadie were brought up in West Yorkshire and were heavily influenced by traditional song from an early age. They sing mainly unaccompanied songs from a wide repertoire, which includes songs from their family tradition, from West Yorkshire, from the family’s associations with North America and some contemporary stuff. Over the past decade their spine-tingling sibling harmonies have become increasingly in demand at folk clubs and festivals. "Ruth and Sadie’s voices and harmonies are exemplary, they are superb exponents of quality song, and an opportunity to hear them should not be missed." Tonight they will be accompanied by Lisa Oliver, a fine musician, on the harp.
20 April: The Klezmer Klub have been playing freylekhs, bulgars, horas, hongas, sers and other eastern European dance tunes since 1989. Although the dances and songs came out of poverty and oppression, they contain joy, exhilaration and wit alongside the sadness, anger and defiance. While respecting the tradition of the bitter-sweet sound that is klezmer, the band brings them to life from their own perspective of modern life in London, with all the inter-cultural mixing that goes with it.
27 April: Peta Webb, Ken Hall and Simon Hindley: An evening of top-class singing is in store from local legends and long-time club favourites Peta and Ken, joined once again by Simon on guitar and vocals. The material is mainly American, brother duets and country music, in two- or three-part harmony, sometimes a cappella, but more often with guitar and fiddle, or even kazoo, accompaniment. Expect also some solo blues from Simon's driving voice and guitar. The Crouch End Nightingale, the Wigan Warbler and the Finchley bluesman will put a smile on your face and then break your heart in three places. This is a rare chance to see them.
20 April: The Klezmer Klub have been playing freylekhs, bulgars, horas, hongas, sers and other eastern European dance tunes since 1989. Although the dances and songs came out of poverty and oppression, they contain joy, exhilaration and wit alongside the sadness, anger and defiance. While respecting the tradition of the bitter-sweet sound that is klezmer, the band brings them to life from their own perspective of modern life in London, with all the inter-cultural mixing that goes with it.
27 April: Peta Webb, Ken Hall and Simon Hindley: An evening of top-class singing is in store from local legends and long-time club favourites Peta and Ken, joined once again by Simon on guitar and vocals. The material is mainly American, brother duets and country music, in two- or three-part harmony, sometimes a cappella, but more often with guitar and fiddle, or even kazoo, accompaniment. Expect also some solo blues from Simon's driving voice and guitar. The Crouch End Nightingale, the Wigan Warbler and the Finchley bluesman will put a smile on your face and then break your heart in three places. This is a rare chance to see them.
4 May: Andrew Frank
is an entertaining singer with a lovely voice, a quirky repertoire of serious and comic songs and a facility with the songs of the music hall, Cole Porter, Gershwin, Coward and others. In the past he has plied his trade with Mike Mann, the Fabulous Salami Brothers, Cosmotheka and Michael Hebbert, and in the West End in Godspell. He has a penchant for one-word-per-note comedy songs, but he’ll also do a pleasing job on several more lyrical offerings.
11 May: Awake Mother is a new duo from the south of England, made up of Minnie Birch and Kathleen P, two critically acclaimed, award-winning musicians who have joined together to present something new and special in the folk tradition. They are keen to share music from that tradition, reigniting old favourites and introducing you to new songs and tales from times gone by. Expect to be invited to sing and stamp along one moment and have your heart strings pulled the next. Fatea said, “I think every folk club in the country will be beating a path to their door.”
18 May: Ken Wilson, from Teesside, sang with his siblings in the Wilson Family for many years, appearing with them at folk clubs and festivals throughout Britain and Europe, making several albums and performing with Sting on the project The Last Ship, which took them to New York to launch the CD and perform the show.
25 May: closed for bank holiday
11 May: Awake Mother is a new duo from the south of England, made up of Minnie Birch and Kathleen P, two critically acclaimed, award-winning musicians who have joined together to present something new and special in the folk tradition. They are keen to share music from that tradition, reigniting old favourites and introducing you to new songs and tales from times gone by. Expect to be invited to sing and stamp along one moment and have your heart strings pulled the next. Fatea said, “I think every folk club in the country will be beating a path to their door.”
18 May: Ken Wilson, from Teesside, sang with his siblings in the Wilson Family for many years, appearing with them at folk clubs and festivals throughout Britain and Europe, making several albums and performing with Sting on the project The Last Ship, which took them to New York to launch the CD and perform the show.
25 May: closed for bank holiday
