Musicology

Information about and links to interesting folk-related resources.

Note: Bearwood takes no responsibility for the content of external web sites.

“Musicians’ Gallery”
Colin from Bearwood is on Instagram and you can find on his page lots of pictures of local and national musical artists

https://www.instagram.com/colinbaileybeat/
“The Bailey Beat”
Colin’s newly launched blog – mainly folk and acoustic music reviews

http://thebaileybeat.wordpress.com
“Folking.com”
Top online UK folk resource – reviews, festivals, tour dates …

http://folking.com
“Narrative Song Writing Within The Folk Tradition In Great Britain”
By Colin Bailey, Bath Spa University – School of Music and Performing Arts
MMus Songwriting – History of Song Module
Presentation (33 minutes) to accompany 1500 word research document
A study of the various influences and precedents identified within my own songwriting. Link below.


http://vimeo.com/57327446
Songwriting Survey
Are you a songwriter? PhD student would be very grateful if you could contribute to his ongoing research. Link below.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/SongwritingSurvey2012
GB Folk Clubs Survey, Spring 2012
Colin Bailey, Bath Spa University

As part of a Master’s degree research project into the folk music scene in Great Britain a survey of folk club organisers was conducted to take a ‘pulse check’ of the folk club in Great Britain. Organisers at 50 folk clubs were polled and responses were received from 40. Questions were asked mainly concerning what took place in calendar year 2011.

An extract from the paper showing sumarised results is given below.

Most clubs ran on a weekly basis –

There was a mixture of club types – a quarter never ran ‘Singers’ Nights’ (evenings where only local amateurs perform). The same number ran an equal number of ‘Singers’ Nights’ as ‘Guest Nights’, where paid visiting performers headlined. A slight majority had more ‘Singers’ Nights’ than ‘Guest Nights’ –

The majority of such headline acts were professional artists, making a living full-time from music –

The most highly represented age range attending the clubs, by some margin, was 50-60 year olds –

Numbers have on the whole stayed the same over the last three years, with more clubs reporting an increase in attendances rather than a decrease –

The most typical audience size (for a guest night) was 31-40. In the case where a club never ran a guest night they were asked to answer in respect of singers’ nights –

Generally guests were paid with a fee, though a number of clubs reported in the comments deals like a guaranteed minimum / percentage of the door takings, eg whichever the greater –

The vast majority of guest artists were paid over £100. In these cases, numbers from £100 to £1800 were reported.

The typical entrance price was “£6 or over but less than £10”. Clubs were asked to answer in respect of non-member prices, so it should be borne in mind that if a membership discount were offered then club members would be paying even less –

In the last financial year most clubs broke even –

(c) 2012 Colin Bailey, Bath Spa University

One Reply to “Musicology”

  1. The most disturbing aspect of this is that there exists a huge gap in the age ranges that attend. There is now new wood to replace the 50 + age range. There are a number of young acts but if a club is runm by a load of olf farts then they tend to book safe old fart style acts.
    Maybe a poll on university folk clubs would provide an interesting result on this which should be the spawning ground of young folk followers. It’s not after all finger in the ear music. !
    Mike.

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