The Raven Folk Club

Looking forward to seeing lots of you at Pete Morton’s guest night tomorrow (Sunday 22nd Septembe) at 8-30pm in The Bear & Billet. A goodly number of people have bought tickets in advance but it looks like you will (in all likelihood) be able to pay on the door. (Admission is £10) Any change to that status and we’ll let you know in good time. Cheers, Nick M.

Just a reminder to all of you out there in Folkie EtherLand that our Guest Artist at The Raven Folk Club this coming Sunday 22nd September is none other than the amazing Pete Morton who is of course one of the finest songwriters the British Folk music scene has ever produced not to mention one of the most outstanding singers. We will be convening at The Bear & Billet, 94, Lower Bridge St. Chester CH1 1RU at 8-30pm and Admission is £10. Members of resident band Full House will be supporting. There are still some tickets left and if you want to be certain of securing a seat (or seats) you can contact us via this page and we will arrange for you to pay online. Cheers Everybody….hope to see you on Sunday. Debbie, Chris & Nick.

The Essential Information: Date- Sunday 22nd September. Artist-Pete Morton (Singer/Songwriter/Raconteur extraordinaire!) Venue- The Raven Folk Club, Bear & Billet, Lower Bridge St. Chester CH1 1RU. Admission Price-£10. Start Time 8-30pm. Debbie Lee’s list is starting to fill up but there are still tickets (i.e. places on the list) available. You can purchase these in person at The Raven Folk Club this Sunday 15th September (a Singers’ Night) or contact us on this very page, via which we can guide you along the path of enlightenment (well £10 lighter to be precise!) that will enable you to pay online. That’s all you need to know for now. Looking forward to seeing you there. 😊 Cheers & Beers, Q.O’B.

Just by nature of an enquiry….and in the interests of being honest and ‘above-board‘ and all that…..does anyone know how a Suddenly-Appearing Bob Dylan Compilation Album….er….suddenly appeared on the folk club table at the Bear & Billet early on Sunday night at The Raven FC? It’s a very nice one….Bob Dylan 1965-1966 The Best Of The Cutting Edge…..but it was not one of the albums that I’d brought with me to raffle and it didn’t belong to Wools or Jonesy….so it’s appearance was somewhat mystifying! If it’s yours and you’d like it back then let us know and we’ll give it you back…..we didn’t mean to pinch it…..honest!😂 If it’s a donation….then that’s lovely and you are very kind! Just thought you should know. Cheers & Beers Q.O’B.
PS. It’s this one below. 😊

Looking forward to seeing some (hopefully lots😊) of you at A Band On Ship’s Music & Song Session at Telford’s Warehouse tomorrow night, Thursday 5th September, starting at 8-30pm. An informal acoustic session to which all our welcome, Musicians, Singers and all who would like to simply listen and enjoy….the more the merrier! We play in the main bar and admission is free of course. Sláinte! Nick M.

On Sunday 22nd September, our second Guest Night of the 2024 Autumn Season sees the very welcome return of one of our favourite performers on the planet, the one and only Pete Morton! A truly brilliant Singer/Songwriter with a charismatic stage presence, Pete has been coming to The Raven FC (and Chester Folk Festival) since the 1980’s (he was very young when her did his first Guest night I should add!😊)and is a very popular guest artist at Folk Clubs and Festivals all over this country and in Europe and beyond. Debbie started taking money and putting names on her Ticket List last Sunday and we will be selling seats at this coming Sundays Singers’ Night too. Admission is £10. If you are unable to buy a ticket in person at either of the next two Raven FC nights, please contact us through this page and we’ll sort out online payment for you. Cheers, Nick M.

We’ve just had a message from excellent Singer/Songwriter/Guitarist Heidi Browne to say that she’s playing in Chester on Friday at That Beer Place, 116, Frodsham St. Chester CH1 1HB at 8-00pm. As Heidi comes highly recommended by our good friend Ashley Fayth, this might be a very good gig to check out and of course, supporting live music is what we are all about! Cheers & Beers, Nick M.
Photo: Courtesy Heidi Brown’s FB page.

This Thursday, September 5th 2024 is A Band On Ship’s monthly Music & Song Session Night at Telford’s Warehouse. The Estimable Russell Mabbutt Esq. will be in the Ringmaster’s chair (does a Ringmaster have a chair??….well this one does!) and the fun begins at about 8-30pm. All are welcome, whether you wish to join us in playing and/or singing or whether you wish just to sit back, relax and enjoy the atmosphere and the music. The session is held in the main bar and admission is, of course free. Hope to see you there. Sliánte! Quintus O’Baggins (Q.O’B.)
PS. I’ll also try to take a new picture of the session if I remember so I don’t always have to put up the same one up each time I do this announcement….😊

Lovely Guest Night on Sunday with the very fine Wet The Tea which saw Andy, Anita & Richie regale us with fine songs, great tunes and wryly amusing stories. In spite of being a man down they produced a tight, punchy sound and gave us a mighty evening of music, mirth and entertainment. Full House (also minus one member) thoroughly enjoyed themselves too (well I did anyway…..and the others seemed very cheery too!) in support and kudos as always to Chris Lee on the sound and Debbie L. for managing the room with her usual calm and aplomb. Thanks too to the staff at The Bear & Billet for their good service and cheerful forebearance when we overran slightly at the end of the evening….my fault! All in all a grand night. Thanks to all who attended. Cheers & Beers. Nick M.

Hi All. Just to let you know that Wet The Tea’s Guest Night this Sunday (1st September) is now officially SOLD OUT! A popular band indeed. We are very much looking forward to the evening and hope to see all of you who have purchased tickets there. Sliánte! Debbie, Chris & Nick
PS. Our next guest is Pete Morton who will be appearing on Sunday 22nd September. Tickets on sale at the club from this Sunday.

Singers’ Night tonight at The Raven Folk Club and an opportunity to secure yourself a ticket (or a place on Debbie’s list to be precise) for our Guest Night next week (Sunday 1st September) with the wonderful Wet The Tea! Admission for next week is £8-00 and start time is, as always 8-30pm. If you are unable to come down to the club tonight you can also secure a seat by contacting us through this very page. Hope to see you there. Cheers & Beers, Q.O’B.

Hi All! Two weeks tomorrow night, on Sunday 1st September 2024 to be precise, The Raven Folk Club welcomes our first guests of the Autumn Season (a tad early perhaps….but only just😊) the very mighty Wet The Tea!! WTT are surely one of the finest bands in the North-West and they were originally going to be our last guests of the Summer Season but due to their engagement coinciding with ‘The Euros’ Football Competition Final we had to postpone the gig.
Accordingly, Debbie Lee began selling tickets for WTT‘s appearance at last week‘s Singers Night and they will be available from us in person at The Raven FC on the two remaining Singers’ Nights before 1st September is upon us i.e. Sunday 18th & Sunday 25th August. If you are not able to come to the club in person to buy a ticket and secure a place on Debbie’s List then please contact us via this page and we’ll arrange for you to pay online and assure yourself of a seat for the gig. Ticket price is £8-00, the venue is, of course The Bear & Billet, Lower Bridge St. Chester and we start at 8-30pm. We’re really looking forward to welcoming Wet The Tea back to The Raven and to see you there.
Don’t forget also that it’s a Singers’ Night tomorrow evening….all welcome! Cheers, Nick M.

Just under four hours until a Singers’ Night tonight at The Raven Folk Club in The Bear & Billet Lower Bridge St. Chester, at 8-30pm. All are welcome of course, singers, players, listeners and watchers. Admission free. Hope to see you there!

This Thursday evening (1st August) being that it is the first Thursday of the month, will see some or all of A Band On Ship (Russell Mabbutt, Chris Lee, Clare ‘Fluff’ Smith, Nick Mitchell and Mark Woolley when all are present) gather together to host a lively, eclectic and very informal Music & Song session in the main bar of Telford’s Warehouse. We kick-off at 8-30pm and all are welcome whether you wish to sing and/or play or whether you wish just to listen, relax and enjoy the atmosphere, the beer and the music. We’d love to see you there! Q.O’B.

Tonight at The Raven Folk Club at 8-30pm we have a Singers’ Night following on from a cracking ‘first night back at The Billet’ last week that featured a superb ‘big spot’ from The Love Music Trust Folk Ensemble who once again excelled! Many thanks again to the LMTFE who were joined by Fluff and Wools for their performance. That was in addition to a fine selection of floor singers who all not only ’walked the walk‘ and ’talked the talk’ but also ‘sang the sang’ and ‘played the play’! Tonight I’ll certainly be there in spirit but not in person I’m afraid, as I’m away ’Down South’ in Sunny Hertfordshire doing the Grandparent thing….there are birthdays you see…. Debbie and Chris Lee will be the resident musicians and we’re hoping that the field of floor-singers will be as impressive as it was last week. All are welcome of course. ‘Onward and Upward!’ as a musical colleague of ours would say. Cheer & Beers, Nick M.

This Sunday 21st July 2024, The Raven Folk Club returns to the superb venue that has been its home base since May 2009, The Bear & Billet, 94, Lower Bridge St. Chester CH1 1RU. For the last five Sundays we have been ensconced at The Brewery Tap just a little further up the hill while ‘The Euros’ were running but the time has now come to re-locate! So, with many thanks again to Will-the manager of The Tap who along with his staff made us very welcome in their beautiful pub we kick-off back at the Billet with a Singers’ Night with a difference.
Members of resident band Full House and resident duo Chris & Debbie Lee will hopefully be joined by a good selection of our excellent regular floor-singers but they will definitely be joined by The Love Music Trust Folk Ensemble, a group of superb young musicians brought together and tutored by Music Teacher and fiddler-extraordinaire Claire ‘Fluff’ Smith. The LMTFE made a couple of sensational appearances at Chester Folk Folk Festival 2024 in May (see video below courtesy of Peter ‘Simmo’ Simmons) and we thought you would enjoy hearing an extended, ‘Big Spot’ from them before they disappear in different directions for the Summer! There won’t be as many of them as appeared at the festival but Fluff is bringing a ‘core’ group of them to play for you on Sunday.
There will be room for floor-spots, so if you fancy singing and/or playing please bring your instrument with you…if you have one, you may be an unaccompanied singer of course! Anyhow it should be a cracking night. Hope to see you there. We are reverting to our old starting time of 8-30pm. Admission Free. Cheers & Beers! Debbie, Chris & Nick.

Love Music Trust Young Folk Ensemble @Chester Folk Festival 2024

Hi All! It’s that happy time again (1st Thursday of the Month) when that merry ensemble A Band On Ship hold their informal acoustic Music & Song Session at Telford’s Warehouse. Tomorrow night, Thursday 4th July 2024, due to circumstances entirely beyond our control, will be our Election Night Special! The music will kick-off at about 8-30pm in the Main Bar. Admission is free and all are welcome whether you want to play, sing or just sit and listen and enjoy the music, atmosphere and excellent consumables! Hope to see you there. 😊Cheers & Beers! Q.O’B.

WET THE TEA-GUEST NIGHT POSTPONED
Due to the ongoing ‘Euros’ situation and our temporary re-location to The Brewery Tap, we have reluctantly decided to postpone our upcoming Sunday June 30th Guest Night with the wonderful Wet The Tea (pictured at The Bromborough Folk Club in March) until Sunday 1st September, which will be the first Guest Night of the new Autumn Season. It will be a corker of course!
Incidentally our second night at ‘The Tap’ was even better-attended than the first with four-fifths of resident band Full House in attendance to kick-off the fun. Our thanks to all who turned up and helped to make it another memorable evening. Unfortunately the lovely room at The Brewery Tap, perfect for an intimate Singaround or a Session is not really suited to a pay-on-the-door Guest Artist event hence the postponement noted above.
We expect to be in our very impressive new surroundings until the Euros Competition is over….the last match is on Sunday 14th July and then we hope to return to The Bear & Billet on Sunday 21st July (of which more in the near future!)…..that’s the plan anyway. See you all at ‘The Tap’ next Sunday (30th June) at 8-00pm I hope for another intimate Singers’ Night. Many thanks again to Will and his Team for making us so welcome. Sláinte! Debbie, Chris & Nick

After an excellent first night in our new, temporary home at The Brewery Tap (52-54 Lower Bridge St. Chester CH1 1RU) last Sunday, The Raven Folk Club will meet again tomorrow night (well…looking at the clock actually, technically tonight!) in the same venue at 8-00pm for an informal evening of folk music and song. Admission is free and Singers and Musicians and Punters are all most welcome of course! Finishing time for the evening is technically 10-00pm but….watch this space. Our thanks to the manager Will for making us so welcome last week. I attach a photo of last Sunday’s well-attended event featuring Debbie Lee in full flow in her unaccompanied mode! Hope to see you all tomorrow! Cheers & Beers, Q.O’B.

This Sunday The Raven Folk Club will be in its new (temporary) home-base of The Brewery Tap, Lower Bridge St. Chester- operating in informal, Acoustic Singaround/Session mode and starting at the ‘slightly-earlier-than usual‘ time of 8-00pm while we shelter from The Euros! We’ll be finishing earlier too at 10-00pm as that is the time ‘The Tap’ finish on a Sunday evening. Nick Mitchell and Debbie Lee would welcome as much support as possible to help get this new arrangement off the ground (we may have to do it for several weeks) as with it being the height of the Festival Season some key members of our resident band Full House (Chris, Fluff, Ian and Wools….OK all of Full House bar ‘Yours Truly’!🤣)will be absent this Sunday as they are performing elsewhere in various other capacities. So Singers/Players are welcome indeed as are listeners of course! Admission is free….Hope to see you there. Cheers, Q.O’B.

THE RAVEN & THE EUROS 2024
This Friday sees the start of the 2024 UEFA Football Championship (The Euros) and this coming Sunday evening 16th June sees England play Serbia in a match that starts at 8-00pm. We have been advised by the staff at The Bear & Billet that this event is likely to prove very popular with football fans and that our our scheduled Singers’ Night will therefore be competing with two packed floors of noisy punters! This is obviously not ideal for our purposes. So, very reluctantly, we have sought an alternative venue for the night.

In these sort of circumstances in the past we would have repaired across the road to The Cross Keys but unfortunately these days they close at 9-00pm on a Sunday. When we were faced last year with the Rugby World Cup we tried The King’s Head further up Lower Bridge St but they run a Ghost Tour out of their Function Room on a Sunday night. Happily, Will who is the manager of The Brewery Tap (53-54 Lower Bridge St. CH1 1RU) has kindly said that we can use the smaller of their two rooms for an informal acoustic Singaround & Session this Sunday. We will be starting earlier than usual at 8-00pm as The Brewery Tap (like many pubs in Chester now) closes at 10-00pm on a Sunday. This is far from ideal of course and we apologise to you all for the inconvenience but it’s better we think than cancelling the Raven Folk Club altogether for that night.

The Euros tournament goes on for a whole month until 14th July, so we don’t know if this Sunday’s relocation is a ‘one-off’ or something that will last for several weeks. It will depend apparently on how well England do (the other matches are unlikely to be as busy in terms of pub turnout) and Debbie, Chris and myself will be keeping a close eye on developments at The Bear & Billet and liaising with the staff there….it is our desire to return to our usual venue as soon as possible and if it turns out the problem is not as serious as we are afraid it might be then we will go back asap.

All of this may affect our next Guest Night with Wet The Tea on Sunday 30th June, we will just have to see…it may be necessary to postpone that gig. Please ‘watch this space’ carefully and we’ll let you know as soon as we know something. So once again apologies for the disruption, we will get through this. See you all on Sunday hopefully at The Brewery Tap at 8-00pm…we could really use all the support we can get in these unusual circumstances. Cheers and thanks in advance. Chris, Debbie and Nick.

Well now…..it’s nearly two weeks since the wonderful craziness that was Chester Folk Festival 2024 and things (for me at least) are starting to come back into focus. Tonight, some of us (as many members of A Band On Ship and Full House as are able to make it basically) are convening at Telford’s Warehouse at around 8-30pm for our usual 1st Thursday of the Month informal Music & Song Session. All are welcome and admission is free. We would love to see you there whether you want to play and/or sing or just listen and enjoy the music and the very atmosphere and bar. More musicians is always good as it makes for a greater variety of songs and tunes. Maybe see you there? Hope so! Cheers, Nick ‘Quintus O’ Baggins’ Mitchell. 👍

A huge thank you to Toria Wooff for an excellent ’Big Spot’ last Sunday (12th May) at The Raven Folk Club. Toria played a half-hour set of her superbly atmospheric compositions, in which she impressed all mightily with her singing and guitar-playing as well as her songwriting. A name to watch and no mistake. Let’s hope we can still afford her next time round! Many thanks again Toria. The Old Firm meanwhile got in some very useful practice for a gig which in the end, never transpired….postponed due to unforeseen circumstances!

The Old Firm were joined for a couple of instrumentals by the ever-excellent Ian Jones, Chris & Debbie Lee turned in their usual sparkling performance and we had grand floor-spots from Capt. Andy Hignett, Jackie Gresham and Will Riding. All in all a fine evening indeed. This Sunday (19th May) is a Singers’ Night, the last one before the mighty musical jamboree that is Chester Folk Festival! Hope to see you Sunday. Cheers & Beers, Nick M.

The Vagaries of Chance are always throwing little problems our way of course but problems are also opportunities and so it is at The Raven Folk Club this Sunday 12th May with a late and unforeseen change of programme bringing us another ‘different’ night at the RFC! We had hoped to welcome Dave Spittal all the way from Scotland as our Guest but circumstances beyond his control have caused him to have to cancel his visit….we’ll reschedule in due course.

As Chance would have it Lancashire-based Singer-Songwriter Toria Wooff dropped in on last Sunday‘s Singers’ Night and made a grand night even better with a couple of her superb compositions. So…we are delighted to announce that Toria has agreed to come and play a ‘Big Spot’ for us on Sunday so we can hear more of this remarkable emerging artist! In addition The Old Firm (Dave Russell, Chris Lee & Yours Truly) will be doing the Resident Band bit in preparation for their appearance at The Dragon’s Breath Folk Club in Treuddyn, North Wales on Tuesday evening. There will however also be a limited opportunity for some floorspots…about 4 or 5, so if you fancy performing, please contact Debbie Lee during the next 48 hrs either directly or via this FB page. Admission is free on Sunday. Phew!….that’s it for now. Cheers, Q.O’B.
PS. We won’t be doing the tricorns! 😊

Tomorrow night is the first Thursday evening in the month and that can only mean one thing….that on that very night a Music & Song Session will kick off at about 8-30pm in the main bar of Telford’s Warehouse! It will be led of course by some (or all) of the members of A Band On Ship, a slightly mysterious ensemble with a somewhat salty flavour. Four of ABOS are present in the attached picture…which was lifted, slightly nefariously, from the FB page of one Rusty Mabbutt (aka Rusty Mahone), under whose benign but rascally eye tomorrow’s proceedings will…er…proceed. It’s a relaxed and informal acoustic session to which all are welcome whether to play or sing or to watch and listen. Admission is free. Hope to see some of you down there. Sliánte! Q.O.B. 👍👍