A Short History of Hitchin's Famous Folk Club

"Arial","sans-serif"">In the 1960’s, two people had a dream – a dream to open

one of the most unique and much loved folk clubs around. That dream was the

wish of Roger Pearson, reporter with Hitchin & Letchworth newspaper ‘The

Pictorial’ and Mary McGannan, student and part time singer from Luton.

During this time, Hitchin already had two folk clubs, one

at the Hermitage Ballroom and the other at the Railway Hotel. However it was

these two clubs that gave influenced and gave birth to the idea of Roger and

Mary creating and opening ‘their’ own club.

Obsessive about their passion, the two opened up their

first venture at The Tudor Café in Upper George Street in Luton; encompassing

acts such as Davy Graham and Shirley Collins, Alex Campbell, John Renbourn,

Bert Jansch and Martin Carthy, the club was hugely successful. At the same

time, the other two clubs in Hitchin as suitable venues in Luton were becoming

increasingly hard to find, however in November 1963, the club moved to the Railway

Hotel in the famous Walsworth Road to give birth to the Hitchin Folk Club!

As Mary decided to move to Ireland and Roger moved down

to Kent in the fabulous World Cup winning year of 1966, the club was

subsequently left in the safe pair of hands of Maureen Ryan who has been its

organiser for over 40 years now!

The influence of Roger didn’t necessarily diminish when

he moved to Kent as his younger brother Keith Pearson – a very talented

guitarist and songwriter – became the clubs first ever resident singer. Along

with Patrick Rogers, they formed numerous musical combinations locally,

providing fantastic entertainment for all those enthusiastic people into folk

music.

As the years went by, the club started to have a healthy

band of local performers and built up a fantastic resident team. Hitchin’s home

grown talent regular gave the professional artistes booked a run for their

money. The likes of Flak Pastry emerged from the ‘local’ talent becoming an

huge success with audiences both locally and nationally, putting folk on the

match with the drawing of large crowds.

The Hitchin Folk Club had moved to the Nightingale Public

House, the members had realised that the space was just too small for the

wonderful talent and crowds to enjoy the very best of the music on show.

Through the personal invitation of the Manager at the Sun Hotel, the club moved

to the Ballroom at the hotel, and after 30 years, the show still goes on.

Recognised as the most comfortable folk club in the country by singers and

musicians alike, the club will be celebrating its 47th birthday in

November this year.

Today, folk music is extremely popular and the town of

Hitchin has played host to the likes of Paul Simon and Billy Connolly. Thanks

to the likes of Kate Rusby, Eliza Carthy and Seth Lakeman, folk music is

getting the praise it finally deserves in today’s music culture, but thanks to

the wonderful artistes that have performed most Sunday evenings on the stage at

the Hitchin Folk Club, folk music lives on in more ways than one.