17th December 2007

The report is that the open-mic session last time was fine .. so hurrah ! Sadly my absence has meant that recordings and pictures are lacking .. so performers are requested to bring there songs and good looks to another session in 2008 for posterity.

After having had a second look at the calendar we have realised that trying a get-together on the 1st Thursday of January is a mistake as no body will feel like doing anything except stay in after a long holiday and a return to work/school/open-prison/institution of your choice.

Also the Arboretum may be unavailable early January, and we don’t want to advertise something we can’t follow through on.

So basically .. ignore Christmas and write new songs before January 17th. If the seasonal dysphasia or post Christmas-trauma doesn’t motivate you, then just think about February .. there are fewer song about February than any other month .. FACT ! (actually I just made that up .. but it might be true) so write one sharpish and get it played before the month comes around

Anyway .. thanks for your kind thoughts and support throughout the year .. 2008 will doubtless surprise us, but there will always be little to beat beat some ‘up-close and personal’ originality.
 

Mind those reindeer ... they are hoofed bastards.


7th December 2007

Sadly I had to drop out of the open-mic last night for health reasons (I was safely tucked up in bed by 8.30 ;-) so a match report will have to wait until I get details from Andy.

In the mean time, I’d like to draw your attention to the gig on tomorrow at the Grinning rat. This is definitely one to support if you can.

29th November 2007

Performance recordings from last time are out .. so if you haven’t heard where to get the 1’s and 0’s yet and you played last time, then you either need to check your e-mail / myspace, or we don’t have your contact details ..( in which case send and e-mail to chris@suffolksongwriters.co.uk and see what happens.)

See you next week for our final outing of 2007.

20th November 2007

Last Thursdays open-mic was a nice event all round, some new faces, and good songs (one dedicated to the plant in the gents .. sadly several years too late to aid its recovery)

(Don’t forget that the next open mic is on December 6th, and that will be the last of 2007 as we won’t try and fight it out with Xmas and the last day of late-night shopping at the end of December)

11th November 2007

A friendly guy called Pete has contacted us to let us know about an acoustic music organization called ‘The acoustic Kitchen’ in Kings Lynn some of you might be interested in if you have the transport. Check it out here.



2nd November 2007

Well last night was fun .. albeit somewhat quieter than usual. (We always seem to get this when the first Thursday falls on the 1st or 2nd of the month)

We were delighted to have a 3 new faces turn up and play for us .. all 3 were obviously relatively seasoned performers and a pleasure to watch and listen to.

In a fit of efficiency, pictures are up already and can be found here. MP3s will follow soon(ish)

30th October 2007

Pictures from last time are up .. at last. (and if you really really must, the ‘audience song’ lyrics are here). MP3s will be available tomorrow .. provided my crappy cold/cough doesn’t get any worse. CU Thursday


23rd October 2007

Sorry for the delay in updating the site and getting photos etc up ..( I suddenly found myself in that world of computer hell I find I have to go through every 3 or 4 years when you have to start from scratch and reinstall everything.)

I have also been away in Sunny Yorkshire for the past week (it was raining) but media type things will start flowing again soon - and certainly before this Thursdays next open-mic - promise.


23rd October 2007

Last Thursday open-mic had rather a lot to commend it, including a song in a foreign language, a ukulele, a performance of one Suffolk songwriters song by another performer (yes I know, technically a cover - but I don’t have a problem provided the person who wrote it is in the room at the time.), and the inaugural song from our ‘write the lyrics on the night by passing a piece of paper around the audience’ section bravely performed by Ian.

We hope to see you all again next time on November 1st .. so don’t get caught out by November coming round before you notice.

CU



18th October 2007

A few random ramblings.

Firstly we are very much looking forward to tonight .. see you all there.

Secondly, I’m aware I haven’t added much to the mp3 page on this site for a while .. this absolutely due to lack of time on my part, and not the absence of any cracking performances. I‘ll get around to it soon. 

5th October 2007

Well last nights open-mic was rather tickerty-boo. Those in the audience will certainly agree that the performance by Adrian Nation was an especially fine treat. The spontaneous creation of ‘the percussion sofa’ was a rather delightful feature we may carry forward to future nights.

The award strangest musical moment was a tie between Ian’s kazoo solo and Johns Clouds rather fine looking but weird sounding 6-string banjo/guitar thing.

As usual, photos, MP3s, commemorative mugs etc. will be forthcoming when I get a moment.


3rd October 2007

I popped in to the arboretum this evening, and everything is open and ready for us tomorrow (Thursday) - so I hope to see you all there.

22nd September 2007

Thursdays open-mic proved to be the quietest in living memory (horribly quiet right at the start, but picking up to something more sensible after 9.00) Its probably a combination of back to school and college week/ a beer festival at corn-exchange, and (sadly) the onset of windy dark autumn weather.

No matter .. it was fun.

Photos are up, MP3s of some rather fine performances will emerge in due course.




20th September 2007

MP3s from last time are now available. if you played and haven’t heard from me, its probably because I forgot, or couldn’t find your contact details. Drop me a line and I’ll point you at the ones and noughts.

See you all tonight.

 

7th September 2007

Thanks to all the performers from last night .. pictures are now up, mp3s will be available at some-point .. but not soon as I’m off a weeks holiday now ;-). (The SSW performance mp3 server will also be unavailable for a week so I don’t spend the holiday worrying about it setting my house on fire.)

I hope to see a selection of you next time around on Thursday 20th.


28th August 2007

It turns out that a kind audience member has videod some of the acts from Friday, and stuck the footage here. The acts filmed are :-

Hope Augustus and Greg Palmer (from the forthcoming New Wolsey production ‘Blues in the Night’)
Debs Warren and Rich
Emma Cherry.
Sam and Daisy

26th August 2007

Friday nights alfresco event at the New Wolsey all went pretty well. We had acts, sound, audience, and (rather amazingly) good enough weather for it to all happen outside.

Many thanks to the New Wolsey people for making this happen .. a good night was had by all.


24th August 2007

MP3s of the last open-mic are slowly becoming available. Sorry for the delay .. I have been trying to get a proper digital link going for importing the recordings into a PC, and its been giving me major problems.

Don’t forget tonight is the special open-mic at the New Wolsey theatre.. see you there.
 

18th August 2007

Because of the way things fall, our next regular session at the Arboretum is in THREE weeks time on September 6th. Don’t forget though that we’ll be doing a one-off open-mic in association with the New Wolsey on the terrace of the theatre this Friday (24th August), or inside if weather looks bad.

We don’t really know what’s going to happen - it may be quiet, it may be mayhem .. but come on down and find out - this may be your only chance in life to play to a concrete cow.
 

17th August 2007

We are having some rather good nights at the moment aren’t we :-) After a slow first 1/4 of an hour we suddenly had a deluge of performers fighting to get their names down. If you were there you will know we had some marvellous bits, if you weren’t - then sorry.

For light relief, a clip of the inaugural meeting of the SSW male voice choir is here on youtube.


9th August 2007

The MP3s from last Thursday are now available (except from the epic performance of the Justin Lee Jones combo which I will attempt to resurrect when my new minidisk player arrives). If you played and I haven’t already contacted you through myspace, it will be because you aren’t on myspace (no bad thing), you are on myspace but aren’t a ‘friend’, or you are a myspace friend and I just can’t put a face/name to your funky myspace personna. In any case .. just drop us a line and I’ll direct you to your own personal ‘1’s and ‘0’s.

3rd August 2007

There were acoustic gigs going on at the Steamboat and Railway last night, so we obviously knew it was going to be a quiet evening at the open-mic.

In typical fashion it was a riotously busy night and we were oversubscribed.

Lots and lots of new faces to listen to (if you see what I mean).

Marvellous :-)


29th July 2007

We’ve had meeting with the rather nice New Wolsey people, and we are going to try running some acoustic happenings with them in the next month or so. As musical guinea pigs, Andy and I are putting on our ‘Caution horses’ masks (should be ‘Caution guinea pigs’ really) and we’ll be performing acoustically on the New Wolsey Terrace (looking over the spiral car park - the romance of it all) from 8.00 pm onwards this Friday 3rd August - unless it rains (as if !!) in which case we’ll be inside. Support will obviously be welcome - the new Wolsey do some very exciting stuff, and we certainly owe them our support - and its a good opportunity to show off our local performers. Who knows what may come of it all .

We’ll be doing a Suffolk Songwriters event on there on Friday 24th August, so keep tuned and keep your diaries free - or even better collar us about it at the open-mic on Thursday, or better still at the New Wolsey gig the next night :-)


23rd July 2007


As we mentioned at the last open-mic, in addition to a couple of events at the Arboretum in August, we will also be running something in association with the New Wolsey theatre. More details later this week.

19th July 2007

Don’t forget the second open-mic of July is tonight at the Arboretum. Also, don’t forget that Hachfest is this weekend featuring more local acts than you can shake a rain-stick at.


12th July 2007

MP3’s of most of the performances are now available. I have however temporarily mislaid the disk holding the last few performances of the night - which I’m rather annoyed about as there was much i was looking forward to re-listening to. Hopefully it will surface soon.



7th July 2007

Somewhat to our surprise given the weather, Thursdays open-mic turned out to be a complete delight, with a bursting bill of great acts, some new faces, and some welcome returns for some artists after extended absences. It also happened to be great fun, including the welcome return to the stage of a ukulele, and imaginary trombone solo, and a badger (for no reason anyone could quite work out).

Hooray !

Bad pictures are here. (Hopefully) better mp3s are to follow when Chris can find some blank C90’s.


30th June 2007

Short of torrential rain, all right-thinking people will be in Christchurch park tomorrow for Ipswich music day 2007. See you there.

22nd June 2007

The last open-mic proved a thoroughly excellent affair, including the welcome return of a ‘pity the fools’ (compact edition), and the excellent Laura Younger, and a triumphant SSW debut for ‘Sleeper cell’ ...... and a song about a potato of course.

A few pics are up on the ‘previous nights page’. MP3s will emerge shortly.


 ‘a potato’

13th June 2007

There is yet another events on Saturday (16th) we’d like to plug. The wonderful female 3 piece ‘the floozies’ are playing at our home from home ‘the Arboretum’ that night .. so if you aren’t playing at any of the other events that night, please support the Arboretum in their quest to promote original live music.


8th June 2007

There are some forthcoming events we’d like to plug. Next Saturday (16th) there are not one but two big music events going on in Ippo - strangely both organised by Saints !!

The St Augustine's Festival people are doing their thing at the Steamboat from 1pm onwards, with a number of familiar faces playing (including myself and Andy)

At ‘the grinning rat’ ‘St Genesius’ are hosting even more familiar faces from 8pm onwards in an event raising money for an orphanage in Kenya.

I n addition, familiar face ‘I hate Dave’ will be hosting a birthday bash at Lloyds tavern also feature Justin Lee Jones and Dave Green.

.. so absolutely no reason to stay in a Saturday then :-)

(As an aside, I’m part of a country/folk thing at the steamboat on Thursday 14th, so its a busy week :-)


8th May 2007

All things considered last nights open-mic was a rather wonderful little affair .. although predictably a little quiet as there was a lot of acoustic events happening around Ipswich on the same night.

There was also a bizarre ‘comedic sex’ theme running through the night which gave it the air of a 60’s British concept album. (For those concerned with such matters, last nights performers were around 30% ‘Daves’.)

Photos / Mp3s / commemorative pottery will be appearing soon.


29th May 2007

I’ve added some mp3s from last session to the ‘mp3’ page. Photos from last time are up as well (thanks David E)

 

18th May 2007

Last nights goings on had a lovely relaxed and attentive vibe .. and everyone got to do their stuff .. so that was great.

Because of the way the dates fall, the next open-mic is in 3 weeks on June 7th, but don’t miss ‘pity the fool’ doing a full gig at the arboretum on June 1st (they got booked on the strength of their 2nd performance at SSW).

Photos, mp3s and the commemorative crystal decanter for last night will be available soon.


11th May 2007

Photos from last week are now up, and MP3s available (drop us a line).

Analysis of last week suggests that 45% of all musicians (and photographers) are called Dave. It has been suggested that we change our name to ‘Suffolk Daves’, or that we alternate and run the first Thursday of the month as a ‘Dave free’ night, and the 3rd Thursday as a ‘Dave only’ night - but this may not work on sexual discrimination grounds. (It must also be pointed out that there were a reasonably large number of Chris’s running around last week.)

Thanks to Dave E for the photos .. the tediously repetitive red lighting is entirely my fault, and will be rectified next week -(and replaced by another colour - possibly green, possibly blue, you’ll just have to come and see)

4th May 2007

Many thanks to everyone for their support at last nights open-mic, and sorry to Dave G and Emma for getting cut short due to lack of time. It felt like a good night all round.

MP3s of performances will be forthcoming when I get myself together, and our new unofficial official photographer Dave E may be able to shortly provide some photos of massively superior quality to my recent attempts .. even with a non-broken camera.

Don’t forget Sunday is Mayday fun and music in Alexandra park, Ipswich.


1st May 2007

More random items.

Firstly, don’t forget we are running the first open-mic on the month this Thursday at the Arboretum.

Secondly, MP3s of both sessions from last month are now available .. drop me a line if you’d like a copy of your performance.

Thirdly, thanks for the ‘out of Ipswich’ venue suggestions. We’ll see if we can arrange a few ‘one off’ road trips for the summer.



19th April 2007

A few random items.

Don’t forget we are running the second open-mic on the month tonight at the Arboretum.

Andy is being delayed by work commitments tonight, so the wonderful Debs Warren has kindly stepped in to host the first 1/2 of tonight’s shenanigans.

Photos from last time are finally up, Mp3s kind of exist on a computer somewhere, and I can get these to interested parties soon - let us know if you’d like a copy of your performance.

Fourthly, we’d like to do some SSW stuff away from Ipswich at some point over the summer. Could you let us know of any classy venues you might know of in places like Woodbridge, Manningtree, Stowmarket etc. Even if they don’t normally do acoustic original music, running something under the SSW banner might open some doors.


7th April 2007

Thursday open-mic was predictably unpredictable. All our worries about too many acts ended up being unfounded, and we could happily fit everyone in. there was also a ‘Friday vibe’ to things as a result of the bank-holiday the next day, as well as birthday stuff happening.

What will happen on the April 19th - we’re not guessing.


Photos and mp3s to follow when I’m back off hols.


3rd April 2007

A quick heads-up. An (apparently rather nice) boat is mooring near the tide mill in Woodbridge over Easter, and is running a series of acoustic gigs. We’ve been contacted as they have yet to find most of the acts. We’ll have some full details soon, but if you are interested in playing, drop a line to boatgigs@suffolksongwriters.co.uk and we’ll keep you informed.


17th March 2007

A quick update on what’s going on. people seemed to like the ambience of the Arboretum last time, so we are going to run things there for a while and see how it goes.

It was obviously somewhat too busy last time, which made getting drinks, and finding the loo tricky, but there were also 12 acts who turned up who didn’t get to play (we’ll be giving priority to those acts next time by the way), despite us managing to squeeze 16 acts onto the bill.

Moving to a larger venue would help with the space issue, but we’d be stuck with being oversubscribed - so that wouldn’t be a full solution

What we will be trying instead, is running a couple of events each month instead of just one.

We’ll be running open-mic nights at the Arborteum on Thursday 5th and 19th in April, so hopefully that will take the pressure off each event. People are obviously welcome to play, or just attend both events each month .. but we obviously won’t be offended if you don’t.



16th March 2007

Local music person and good-guy ‘Steve Mann’ will be running some live sets on his ICR FM show. he’s asked for any Suffolk-Songwriter types who are interested in playing on radio to drop him a line here.


12th March 2007

Some photos from Thursday are here. On sorting through the photos, it became obvious there was a ‘hat’ thing going on .. very strange.

More stuff soon.

9th March 2007

Thanks to everyone who found us at the arboretum last night after some hasty reorganisation. We managed to fill the pub, and had too many performers to be able to fit everyone in, so that can be considered a success ;-)

A full match report with photos will follow soon.


5th March 2007

Good news .. we have a venue so its all systems go for an open-mic this Thursday (8th March)

A couple of performers had suggested we contact 'the Arboretum' in Ipswich, as they have some history of hosting original music, and have been associated with those nice Ipswich Community radio people - and happily the Arboretum will be happy to have us on Thursday - (thanks Ed).

I've stuck full location and transport details about the venue here, but the address is :-

43 High Street, Ipswich, Suffolk, IP1 3QL

Its basically 5 minutes walk up Fonnereau road from McGintys, or 3 minutes walk up from town. (Think Ipswich museum/Greyhound pub/back of crown multi-storey)

Please pass the word around to anyone you know who planned to attend at McGintys .. thanks

See you there for what I know will be a good night


4th March 2007

Everything seems to be going pear-shaped this week.

We have today found out (courtesy of a local performer - not the pub!) that mcGinty have double booked for Thursday 8th march, and we cannot do the open-mic night.

This is despite having been shifted from the previous week, and having been reassured several times that everything was fine for this week.

It is an understatement to say that we are annoyed.

The root of the situation seems to be that the landlord is leaving in the next few weeks so has just been saying anything to anybody because it doesn't matter who he upsets of how much mess he makes.

We are taking a day to work out what we are going to do, then I'll post on myspace what we can do.

For this month, we are definitely NOT on McGintys on Thursday, (but we may be somewhere else..)

We'll let you know soon .. all we can say for the moment is sorry :-(


8th February 2007

Some photos from last week are now up and here.

2nd February 2007 again

www.suffolksongwriters.co.uk is up an running again, and e-mail to Andy or Chris @suffolksongwriters will work as well.

We’ll keep the myspace site as well, as some people seem to prefer it.


2nd February 2007

Our first night at McGintys went OK last night - with lots of new and old faces finding their way upstairs OK - thanks everyone.

The first night was always going to be a bit experimental, and there are some things we will endeavour to get sorted for next time, including :-

- Getting some stage lighting set up so that the performance area isn’t the darkest bit of the room.

- Arranging for more chairs and stools, less tables so we can fit more people in.

- Gaining some modicum of control over the radiators.

We also need to play with different speaker placement to see if there is a better way of doing things.

Its a bit of a learning experience I’m afraid, but bear with us !

As we mentioned last night, next months open-mic can’t happen on the first Thursday of the month as normal due to a booking clash. This is just a one off, and we don’t foresee it happening again now that we are ‘in’ as it were.

We’ve decided to hold the open-mic the week after instead (March 8th), - principally so we can get the date into the march grapevine (which we wouldn’t be able to do if we held it a week before instead.)It should also work better for anyone we can’t get word of the date change to, as its less upsetting turning up to find you are a week early rather than turning up and finding it all happened last week.


16th January 2007

Andy is being interviewed tomorrow (Wednesday) between 6 and 7 PM on BBC radio Suffolk(Stephen Fosters show). He’ll be talking about Suffolk Songwriters, the move, etc

Give it a listen if you fancy.

 

15th January 2007

The recordings from the last open mic are now available .. let us know if you’d like a copy of your performance.

 

6th January 2007

Photos from Thursday are here.


5th January 2007

Thanks to everyone who attended or performed at last nights open-mic night - it proved a marvellous night and very busy - especially for just after New-year.

 As those who did will know, that was the last Suffolk songwriters event at the Milestone .. after 7 years we are moving ! (Last night was billed in the Grapevine as ‘the last Suffolk Songwriters’ - which was rather overstating things !)

The new tenants of the Milestone want to try some different things, and we miss the comfy ‘lounge’ feel of the old decor and furniture - the new set-up and interior isn’t ideal for acoustic acts. We are also very keen to reinstate regular ‘showcase’ nights which we have been unable to get dates for at the Milestone for the last year.

From February onwards, we will be running events at ‘PJ McGintys’ instead.

We though long and hard about where we would like to move things to, but decided on McGintys for a number of reasons.

1. Many separate performers have commented on how they would love a venue for acoustic music in Ipswich similar to the ‘Music house’ in Norwich and the ‘High-barn’ in Essex. While these are very different venues, their common link is that they offer a dedicated and seated performance space away from the distractions of general pub noise.


We will be running things upstairs at McGintys - so while general pub-goers are obviously welcome to drop in and listen, we will be separate from anyone who just wants a pint and a chat.

Initially we will be the smaller of their 2 upstairs rooms (comparable in size to the main ‘music house’ vault for those who know it) .. but this should be fine for a few months.

Ultimately though we would like top move into the larger ‘blue lounge’ which could be a great space for acoustic events.

2. McGintys can offer us dates for showcase nights, plus other events.

3. It’s only a few minutes walk from the milestone, so is pretty central and easy to get to.


We are also aware that many musicians drink Guinness - but this is just an added bonus!

Open-mic dates stay the same : always the first Thursday of the month 8.30 PM onwards. (We hope to sort out some showcase events soon) .. so come and see us at our new home !


4th January 2007

Don’t forget its open-mic night tonight at the Milestone.
 

8th December 2006

Last night open-mic was a predictably quiet affair with people avoiding the rain and late night shopping. Thanks to all performers for some particularly memorable performances. The monthly ‘song title of the night award’ was split between ‘Reindeer love’ and ‘Toast’. Photos are here.

1st December 2006

Assorted Suffolk songwriter regulars can be heard on this years BBC Radio Suffolk Christmas CD ‘Cool Yule’. Details here.

21st November 2006

We are continuing to have problems getting the Suffolk songwriters domain

 www.suffolksongwriters.co.uk

to point to anything useful. Normal service will be resumed ASAP. In the meantime I have (against my better judgement) stuck a (minimal) myspace presence at

www.myspace.com/suffolksongwriters


4th November 2006

Thursdays Suffolk songwriters open-mic at the newly redecorated (and bright !!) Milestone was a relatively quiet but quality affair. Thanks to all the performers.


1st November 2006

Due to an administrative mess over the domain name, this site may not be accessible at www.suffolksongwriters for a few days. The determined can find it at http://www.howagent.co.uk/suffolksongwriters in the meantime (but you probably knew that If you are reading this !)
 

6th October 2006

Cheers to everyone for making last nights open-mic busy and successful. We had a packed running order, but happily managed to fit everyone in. Photos are here as always.
 

9th September 2006

A brief request. We would like to run some more showcase nights, but the Milestone can’t give us any dates for a while. If anyone can suggest a venue, we’d be glad to look in to it. Also, suggestions for ‘out of town’ venues for a SSW Suffolk tour would be appreciated. Suggestions to venue@suffolksongwriters.co.uk.

Ta

8th September 2006

Thursday open-mic was a very enjoyable affair with once a gain a great mix of experienced and first time acts for us. (There was also a first in that one song had the audience performing a matching set of accompanying hand movements. Quite surreal.)
 

4th August 2006

Thanks to everyone who played or watched at last nights open-mic. We had a mass of new faces, which is great. Kudos to Andy for trying the first ‘audience participation’ number we have seen at SSW for a while.


19th July 2006

The BBC have written a short article on SSW here.

7th July 2006

We had expected last nights open-mic to be quite quiet with people recuperating from football, heat, and Ipswich music day, but it ended up being a marvellous night with a full but not overflowing line-up. Thanks to all performers. Photos are here - we’ll get the captions sorted ASAP.

3rd July 2006

For some reason, the Grapevine has something else listed for the milestone on Thursday. This is a mistake .. Thursday is open-mic night as usual.


28th June 2006

Don’t forget Ipswich music day this Sunday. Lots of SSW performers will be doing their stuff there - with a special session from 12.00 to 1.00pm on the BBC radio Suffolk stage.

16th June 2006

Thanks to everyone who played or watched at last nights showcase. It was more fun that the football !


5th June 2006

We can now confirm the line-up for next Thursdays showcase (15th June at the milestone) Its :-

Al Lindsay - song maestro from Bury St Edmunds



Ben Walker - fresh from BBC Radio Suffolk.



Syd Arthur - fresh from somewhere strange.

1st June 2006

Tonight’s’ open-mic proved a far more typical night than last months chaos, and we were happily able to accommodate all comers.

Thanks to all the performers - and we hope to see lots of you all at the showcase night in a couple of weeks.
 

25th May 2006

We can confirm that there will be a showcase night on June 15th at the Milestone. We’ll let you know the details as soon as we have sorted them !

5th May 2006

Last nights open-mic caused us some problems .. but in a good(ish) way. In previous months, maybe a couple of acts per month have called up Andy to sort of ‘book a slot’ in advance. This kinds of makes sense for people travelling from a distance away (last night we had acts from Leicestershire, London, and Australia !), or performing as a large group .. in both cases not getting to play would be a pain.

Before we even started last night, a dozen acts had already contacted Andy and asked for slots, so we ended up not being able to put on 8 or so acts who just came along last night.

While it is obviously great that so many people want to play (and the standard last night was superb), we don’t want to get in the situation where the ‘open-mic’ night isn’t really open to people who just turn up.

It could be that last night was just exceptional, and a bit of good weather had kicked everyone into action. If the level of interest continues though, we will obviously have to rework things a little to keep things working OK.

We’ll have a think about this in the next few weeks. For next month, we are obviously giving priority to any act who turned up last night but didn’t get to play.

Be assured that we want open-mic nights to be popular, truly open to anyone, and friendly - and we’ll be working to ensure it remains all those things.

.. there is of course the chance that next month everyone will be at home watching to world cup .. and no-one turns up !  We shall see.....

3rd May 2006

Sadly the local-elections campaigns have failed to mention ‘Suffolk Songwriters’, so I’m afraid this is no help in deciding how to vote - but why not stop in at a polling station on the way down to tomorrows open-mic night (even better -write a song about it as well.).

21 April 2006

Don’t forget that the regular may day festivities will be going on in Alexandra park this year on the Sunday of the May day bank-holiday weekend. In addition to the usual range of entertainment, they’ll be loads of bands - including some SSW regulars.

7 April 2006

Last nights open mic ended up being as busy as we expected - apologies to Tanya, and to the beat collective for being unable to squeeze you into the schedule - we hope to see you both next month. We all had a great time .. with a wonderful mix of new and familiar faces.

A few other random announcements :-

Congratulations to Andy and Simone on the birth of a baby daughter (albeit badly timed to be on the same day as SSW, leaving Chris to set everything up :-)

Thanks and good luck to Tim who has been running the Milestone for donkeys years, and is moving on when the pub changes hand next month. (We understand that the new landlord will be continuing promoting live music, and as long as the vibe is good and the beer is good, we are happy for SSW to remain there.)

5 April 2006

It looks as if tomorrows open-mic night could be really busy .. lots of acts have let us know they’ll be there. if you’d like to play, please let us know as soon as you can on the night so we can schedule things accordingly. CU.

7 March 2006

Many thanks to Tim for supplying what can only be described as ‘an heroic’ number of photos from Thursday. Some are now up on the ‘previous nights’ page.
 

3 March 2006

Last nights open mic went well (apparently) with several first time appearances. (Many thanks to ken for filling in on PA for me .. I absconded down the road to see my heroes ‘The Mighty Boosh’ at the regent.)

(In a similar vein, the April showcase night will now be moved a little latter in the year, as the wonderful ‘Buena Vista Social Club’ are playing the Regent on the planned date, and it seems a little unfair to put the showcase performers in competition with some of the best musicians on the planet!)

16 Feb 2006

Tonight’s showcase worked out exactly as planned .. excellent acts, and a great audience .. cheers. Due to one dead camera, and another camera with dead batteries, we were denied pictures for the ‘previous nights pages, but we are hoping a passing ‘courtroom artist’ will supply a sketch of events.

The Gallery.

If you were there, feel free to send in your photos, pictures, sketches, or etchings. (Please note that we are unable to return any)

6 February 2005

We now have a confirmed line-up for the showcase night on the 16th. At the risk of repeating adjectives we have :-

The Excellent ‘low-noise design’

The Excellent Belinda + Kaye

The Excellent Hannah Scott

What more could you ask:- Admission : zero, Quality : high.

3 February 2005

Again, lots of new faces last night .. and a first (I think) with the appearance of a Cornet at Suffolk Songwriters. Marvellous.

(Insert your own cornet joke here)

6 January 2005

We were expecting last nights open-mic to be fairly as people recuperate after the holidays, but after a somewhat slow start it proved to be an excellent and busy night, with quite a few faces we had not seen before providing some excellent performances.

2006 should be good !

31 December 2005

A very happy new year to all SSW performers and attendees (.. and frankly everyone else as well.)

2 December 2005

We greatly enjoyed last nights open-mic which was typically atypical (if you see what I mean). It was encouraging to see several new faces on stage, and great to see Al straight from his appearance on BBC Radio Suffolk earlier in the day.

The night also saw us starting a process of ‘cultural exchange’ with an acoustic night in Bury organised by Claire who was recruiting acts last night. We’ll post some contact details when I can find some.

4 November 2005

Last nights open-mic proved a particularly frantic affair .. with lots of acts coming turning up fairly late on to squeeze our schedule to bursting point. (please do let us know as early as possible if you wish to play.)

 It was great to see a wide range of styles abounding .. ‘the pancakes’ use of kazoo, saucepan, and a small squeaky toy in one song probably took the prize for strangest moment of the night though.

Thanks to everyone .. and we hope to see you for the next open-mic in December.

15 October 2005

It looks as if we WILL be running open-mic nights in December and January (historically SSW has taken those months off) .. so there is no need to go cold-turkey with your turkey. It looks as if the next showcase night will be in mid February .. but we hope to confirm this soon.

14 October 2005

Last nights Showcase went well after a day of dodgy weather which dumped on the John Peel Day event on the Cornhill somewhat. It was great to se the first outing of the band SSW performers Danny Storey and Ian Parsons have put together - all they need now is a name! (Thanks to all involved.)

12 October 2005

Sadly Ripley have had to pull out of tomorrows showcase, as singer Reb is ill and voiceless. Instead we are delighted to have Danny Storey + Ian Parsons and full band on the bill.

7 October 2005

The open mic night last night proved to be particularly classy, with a 3 acts who hadn’t played before (or for quite a while) giving top-quality performances. It is also the first time we’ve tried sorting out the sound for a cello, or a 4 piece band who need lots of mics and inputs - but happily it all sounded lovely. Thanks to everyone.

The line-up for next weeks John Peel Day Showcase is (we think) fixed, Dave Baalham and Kimberley Moore (who both played last night) will be playing longer sets, along with bands ‘Ripley’ and the ‘the Caution Horses’. Come along if you can.

28 September 2005

As part of ‘John Peel day’ to commemorate the life of John Peel, We’ll be hosting a special showcase event at the milestone on Thursday 13th October. BBC Radio Suffolk are hosting a special event in the afternoon, and we felt we would like to do something in as well .. and what could be better and more fitting than an evening of original live music from Suffolk (and hopefully some special guests from further afield). We’ll let you know the details as soon as its all fixed up.

21 September 2005

The showcase night last week proved a big success, so we are trying to sort out some similar events for the very near future. Thanks to all performers and audience.

7 September 2005

Daisy from the floozies and Hannah Scott (who are both performing at the showcase night on the 15th) will also be performing along with Andy on the Cornhill Ipswich from 11.30am to 2pm on Sunday 11th September.

2 September 2005

Thanks to everyone who played last night .. it was a quality evening all round. (If you performed and want a copy of your performance, then just drop us a line. If you want us to erase you performance forever .. we can do that too.)

The line up for the showcase on September 15th is (kind of) set now. See the calendar page for details.

1 September 2005

We may be doing recordings of some things tonight to see how live recordings at the Milestone pan out. (If it works out we’ll bring in some serious recording gear and see what we can do in later months.)

11 August 2005

A couple of new dates for your diaries.

Thursday 18th August sees a one off ‘nearly unplugged’ appearance by familiar SSW faces Andy Heasman, Ian Parsons, Simon Lambent, and some others TBC at the Steamboat tavern Ipswich.

Thursday September 15th sees the occasional return of a ‘showcase’ night at the Milestone .. where we get to host a few longer sets by some SSW participants (and perhaps any other interesting songwriters from further afield)

5 August 2005

Thanks to everyone at the open mic last night, especially the many ‘first time’ performers. All the performance slots had pretty much all been booked by the time we started - which is great .. the first time that had happened.

The lesson is though .. let Andy know as early as you can if you want to perform so we can schedule things as fairly as possible.
 

27 JULY 2005

Apparently Stephen Foster was so impressed with Hannah Scotts’ performance at the last open mic that he signed her up for an appearance on his BBC Radio Suffolk drive show on the spot. Well done !
 

8 JULY 2005

Last night open mic went very well .. especially considering the sombre mood caused by the tragic events in London earlier in the day. Thanks to everyone.
 

3 JULY 2005

I spotted SSW regulars Aaron Short, Fly66, the Floozies, Jezzer, and Andy Heasman at the wonderful ‘Ipswich music day’ Christchurch park. (Andy and the Floozies even got to play live on the radio). As ever, it was good to see local songwriters getting some exposure.
 

3 JUNE 2005

Again thanks to everyone who turned up last night for the open mic session, and thanks to Ken for filling in with PA duties.

Playing while its light outside doesn’t seem right though :-(
 

6 MAY 2005

Thanks to everyone who turned up last night for Andy first go at hosting the night. A fine night seemed to be had by all. Especially thanks to the 3 ‘first time performers’ who played.
 

4 MAY 2005

Debs and Andy will be appearing on Stephen ‘Foz’ Fosters BBC Radio Suffolk show on 5th May to talk about Suffolk song writers and play a few songs.

They will be on air from 6.15 PM onwards.
 

2nd May 2005

It was good to see lots of SSW regulars appear at the acoustic CSV stage at the Alexandra park May Day celebrations yesterday. It didn’t even rain (much)
 

7th April 2005

Tonight is the last open mic night being run by Debs and Rich.
From next month, local song writer Andy Heasman will be handling the organisation.

 Many thanks to Debs and Rich for running things for the past years.