Welcome to the website of the Willows Folk Club! The Willows meets every Wednesday at 8:00pm in the function room of Arundel Football Club, Mill Road, Arundel in West Sussex. The club is committed to offering fine music at the best value prices, and also prides itself on its welcoming atmosphere - we are always pleased to welcome friends both new and old.
The Willows offers a diverse range of music to appeal to a variety of tastes - traditional & contemporary folk, singer-songwriters, Celtic music, bluegrass, acoustic country, skiffle, acoustic blues & ragtime, even some acoustic, folky versions of 1950s & 1960s rock & pop! We run regular guest nights, and are also very proud of our fortnightly Come All Ye - Open Stage Nights, featuring some of the best local singers & musicians performing folk music in its broadest sense. We look forward to welcoming you!
QUOTES:
Guest Artists:
"The Willows has the vitality and atmosphere that first drew me to the folk clubs of the 1960s...It's at the top of my list of favourites."
--- Julie Felix
"The Willows Folk Club is something you should be proud of...the audience was one of the most attentive and appreciative I've played to"
--- Keith Potger (of The Seekers)
"The Willows Folk Club is without doubt one of the best in the country. Brilliant crowd, great organisers, one of the youngest and most enthusiastic MCs we've ever seen, and a real sense of keeping acoustic music live and vibrant. As well as booking an imaginative guest lineup, the club's local talent is excellent and, most importantly of all, the Willows encourages and fosters young musicians."
--- Nancy Kerr & James Fagan
"We travel to many, many folk clubs internationally and The Willows Folk Club at Arundel is one of the very best anywhere."
--- Mundy-Turner
Audience Members:
"...thank you for extending a warm welcome and the chance to sing when we visited your club...we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and look forward to visiting you again"
"Fantastic night! Many thanks...your enthusiasm is magnificent!"
"Thank you so much for making [us] so welcome on Wednesday when we came to the club"
"Just a note to thank you all for giving us great entertainment on Weds at the Willows' famous Christmas Party night! ...All the effort you made was much appreciated by us, and I can vouch the same for everyone sitting within earshot, who were saying the same thing"
"What a fabulous night we had last Wednesday...I`ve said it before and it does no harm to repeat it-----it`s always a pleasure to come to The Willows, probably the best club around"
LATEST NEWS:
Monday 30th January | The sound of Scotland comes to the Willows!
The club had a great Burn's Night Special with special guests THE TANNAHILL WEAVERS last Wednesday - the band played up a storm with a powerhouse combination of hard-hitting instrumentation and sweeping vocals. Thanks to the near-capacity crowd (105 people!) who came along to support the evening!
Thanks to the band's great gig, we have two more YouTube videos to present to you! This first video features the band's great rendition of the traditional song "When The Kye Come Hame" (which translates into "When The Cows Come Home"):
This second video shows what a powerhouse sound the Tannahills make - we'll let the music do the talking for this one...
The only thing that has overshadowed recent evenings at the Willows has been the news of the sudden and unexpected death of Willows' regular (and our close personal friend) John Brown. John was killed in a tragic car accident just over a week ago, having played a floorspot at the Willows only a week earlier. Since the accident there have been several tribute pieces about John that have featured in local papers such as the Worthing Herald and The Argus.
John was a very dear friend both to the Willows and to us personally, and we are devastated by his loss. We shall miss him a great deal.
John's funeral takes place this Tuesday (31st January) at Worthing Crematorium. If anyone is interested in further details, please send us an e-mail.
Sunday 15th January | The Blue Coconuts rock the house!
We started off 2012 as we mean to go on last Wednesday with a barnstorming performance from one of the south coast's leading acoustic bands, THE BLUE COCONUT ORCHESTRA! Presenting a great mix of folk, blues, country, bluegrass, jazz and more, the band gave a virtuoso performance!
Courtesy of the Coconuts' great performance, we have the Willows' first YouTube videos of the year to share with you! Here are the band performing the classic blues song "Polk Salad Annie":
This second video features the Blue Coconuts performing the well-known song "Star of the County Down" before launching straight into a blistering instrumental:
A very HAPPY NEW YEAR from the Willows Folk Club! We hope all of you are enjoying a happy & healthy 2012 so far. We had a fantastic Christmas Party, and are now rested up after our Christmas and New Year break!
We have an exciting programme lined up for the coming months, and details of all our evenings from now until the end of April have just been added to our What's On page. We hope we'll have the pleasure of welcoming you again soon!
Monday 5th December | Festive entertainment from a great duo!
We had a superb evening's entertainment last Wednesday from BELSHAZZAR'S FEAST, a.k.a. Paul Sartin & Paul Hutchinson - performing a festive-themed gig for us, the "two Pauls" served up a mixture of serious and comic and thoroughly entertained everyone who braved the rather nasty-looking weather to be there!
Thanks to the duo's great performance, we have two more new YouTube videos to present! This first video shows the duo performing a mixture of weird & wonderful tunes, including a unique version of "Walking In The Air":
This second video shows Belshazzar's Feast leading the audience in their own reworkings of "Silent Night" and "Good King Wenceslas":
Big thanks to Belshazzar's Feast for their amazing performance - and, don't forget that we still have one more Willows evening to bring you this year, as tomorrow night (Wednesday 21st December) we present the Willows' Christmas Party! Don't miss it!
Monday 5th December | Another stonking Showcase Special!
Once again we had another superb Showcase Special evening last Wednesday, featuring two great local bands, bluegrass / Americana outfit HATFUL OF RAIN and an acoustic set from folk rockers BUCKLER'S REEL! Both delivered really diverse and exciting sets to a packed-out crowd, and the positive feedback that both acts received was fantastic!
Courtesy of these two performances, we have no less than four new YouTube videos to share with you all! These first two videos feature HATFUL OF RAIN performing original compositions, an instrumental for the first one and the song "Strawberries" for the second:
This next pair of videos feature BUCKLER'S REEL performing two classic songs - Ewan MacColl's "Moving On Song" followed by their acoustic reworking of America's hit song "Horse With No Name":
Thanks again to both of these fantastic bands for lending their talents to our Showcase Special evening, and to everyone who came along to support them!
We had a terrific evening of bluegrass last Wednesday with special guests THE SOUTHDOWN RAMBLERS (standing in for Johnny Silvo) - the band played up a storm with some fantastic songs and tunes! Unfortunately Jon Wigg was unable to appear with the band as scheduled owing to a nasty virus, but the band were joined by bluegrass multi-instrumentalist Rick Townend who added banjo, fiddle and autoharp to the Ramblers' sound!
Photos courtesy of Graham Dyer
From the Ramblers' performance last Wednesday we have this great new YouTube video to share, featuring the band's barnstorming performance of their original song "South Bound Train":
Huge thanks to everyone who came along, a staggering 97 people! Even though the band were very pleased and excited to play, and went down a storm, nevertheless everyone was very sad that Johnny Silvo wasn't well enough to appear. Unfortunately Johnny has been diagnosed with cancer and is very unwell - everyone involved with the Willows Folk Club, and indeed we're sure the entire folk scene, sends their love, thoughts and prayers to Johnny and his loved ones at this difficult time.
We enjoyed another great Come All Ye - Open Stage Night last Wednesday, with a very healthy turnout, loads of great singers & musicians, and a fun atmosphere! Amongst the performers last Wednesday were Davis & Griffiths who performed two numbers originally recorded by The Shadows and given a re-working on guitar & mandolin! This performance was recorded by our friend Tony Simpson, which he's uploaded to YouTube - we're pleased to present the two videos here!
Tony is a musician himself and a meber of local band Work In Progress - they performed a couple of songs for us at our Open Stage Night a couple of weeks ago, on Wednesday 26th October, and these were also recorded and uploaded to Tony's YouTube channel - again, we're delighted to feature these here!
Big thanks to Tony for featuring the Willows on his YouTube channel, and an equally big thanks to everyone who supports our Come All Ye nights - it makes a big difference to the club!
Tuesday 8th November | A classic evening from a classic folk artist!
Last Wednesday we had the honour of welcoming the legendary VIN GARBUTT back to the Willows! Vin played up a storm with his trademark hilarious between-song anecdotes and powerful, hard-hitting, beautifully sung songs!
Thanks to Vin's awesome performance, guess what? You've guessed it, we have two new YouTube videos to share with you! This first video shows off a sampling of Vin's hilarious banter before he launches into "Punjabi Girl":
This second video features Vin singing two great songs, "The Fear of Imperfection" folllowed immediately by "Lynda":
Big thanks to Vin for a great performance, and to the near-capacity audience (114 people!) who came along to support Vin's night, our best-attended evening of the year so far!
Last Wednesday's Willows featured a great guest appearance from superb country/bluegrass band THE ACOUSTIC ASTRONAUTS, serving up a strong mix of great instrumental skill and delightful, harmony-laden vocals that wowed everyone in the audience!
Thanks to the band's electric performance, as ever we have two new YouTube videos to present to you! This first video shows off the band's tender side, with some lovely harmonies:
This second video shows off the band's more up-tempo side, with an energised version of the classic country song "Walking The Floor Over You":
The only thing that has overshadowed recent evenings at the Willows has been the news of the sudden and unexpected death of Willows' regular (and our close personal friend) John Brown. John was killed in a tragic car accident just over a week ago, having played a floorspot at the Willows only a week earlier. Since the accident there have been several tribute pieces about John that have featured in local papers such as the Worthing Herald and The Argus. 
