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 cellarupstairs@aol.com 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.
Programme from 5 January to Easter 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: David Campbell: Son of Ian Campbell, grandson of singers Dave and Betty Campbell, David Campbell is the only member of Birmingham´s most celebrated singing family still active in traditional music. He is known primarily as an unaccompanied singer, but also accompanies himself on banjo or ukulele. He has avoided the family repertory, as it tends to be Scottish, and he isn't. Instead, he sings whatever he fancies, his sources ranging from Joseph Taylor and Harry Cox to Bert Lloyd and Steve Tilston; from Alfred Reed and Cliff Carlisle to E.Y.Harburg and Steve Earle.
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: Rosie Stewart is a renowned and popular singer from County Fermanagh with a great repertoire of serious and funny songs. She has won various awards, including TV station TG4’s singer of the year, and has sung all over Europe, in Canada and the US, and for two presidents of Ireland. When younger, she and her siblings performed as the McKeaney Sisters, inspired by Irish traditional lyrics they’d learnt from their father.
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: David Campbell: Son of Ian Campbell, grandson of singers Dave and Betty Campbell, David Campbell is the only member of Birmingham´s most celebrated singing family still active in traditional music. He is known primarily as an unaccompanied singer, but also accompanies himself on banjo or ukulele. He has avoided the family repertory, as it tends to be Scottish, and he isn't. Instead, he sings whatever he fancies, his sources ranging from Joseph Taylor and Harry Cox to Bert Lloyd and Steve Tilston; from Alfred Reed and Cliff Carlisle to E.Y.Harburg and Steve Earle.
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: Rosie Stewart is a renowned and popular singer from County Fermanagh with a great repertoire of serious and funny songs. She has won various awards, including TV station TG4’s singer of the year, and has sung all over Europe, in Canada and the US, and for two presidents of Ireland. When younger, she and her siblings performed as the McKeaney Sisters, inspired by Irish traditional lyrics they’d learnt from their father.
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.
27 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.
20 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.
27 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.
20 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.
