Member Biographies

A place for club members to tell us a little bit about themselves.  If you'd like to be on here, please email a short biog to Keith.

Julie May

At the club:

PETER

At the club:

Unaccompanied singer

BIOG:

Born in Nottingham, returning after a few years down south.   An economics and business teacher to 16-19s for 20 years or so after 6 years lazing in higher education.

Discovered the White Cow Folk Club about 1995.   The only other notable survivors from then are ex-chair John, volunteer barman Dave and silky-voiced Kathy-Anna.   A regular ever since apart from 5 years or so abroad, I have lived in Colombia, Malawi and Togo, and spent time in Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru and Guatemala (Latin America) and Zimbabwe, South Africa and Ghana (Africa), and all over Spain.

Influences:

Used to like Bob Dylan and Van Morrison but have graduated to Martin Simpson and Martyn Wyndham Reed, plus the legendary Watersons and Coppers. In the last 10 years 

KEITH

At the club:

Club member since 2000, Committee Member, Web Master and regular MC.

Does:

Plays Guitar, Mandolin, Bodhran, Sings. I am one third of the Irish folk trio To Be Sure

Biog:

Born in 1955 on Newcastle Street in darkest Market Warsop (not actually in the street you understand inside no 2), born into a non musical family which explains my late development. I have worked as a car mechanic, Miner, Lorry driver and spent 20 years as an AA patrol were I met my alter ego Hairy Dave. I am now semi-retired I work freelance for an internet company and make wrought iron things for fun. I was taught to play by Hairy Dave, Ian Scott and Colin Harrigan and I have been playing since about 2000 (My fingers are really tired now). I now Live in Huthwaite on the Notts Derbyshire border with Lynn the better half, six dogs, 7 horses, 3 Donkeys and a rabbit, not all in the house.

Influences:

I have so many it is hard to pick just a few but I have been influenced greatly by: Colin Harrigan, (who still persists in trying to get me above the fourth fret) Jim Vincent, a very early Joan Baez album, The Beatles, and countless performers at the many clubs and festivals I have been to, I lean towards comedy and admire such diverse people as Ken Dodd, Vin Garbet, Mike Harding & Bernard Manning I have the dubious honour of assisting Bernard on to the stage at one of his last gigs before his sad death (God Bless you Bernard).  I love to see someone perform, the material almost doesn't matter when the performance is good.

SUZE

At the club:
Member since 2001. Club secretary which entails drawing little 
pictures and paying no attention during committee meetings. It was a 
difficult job to grasp but I think I've got the hang of it now.

Does:
Sings, plays guitar, plays banjo occasionally just to annoy Keith.

Biog:
Born in 1964, wandered aimlessly through life ever since. Found 
Ilkeston Folk and Blues Club in 2001. Dazzled by the musical talent in 
there (especially Julie May), I then went out and bought a guitar and 
learned to play. Outside of my folk club life: I was born, I went to 
school, I left with few qualifications, I worked in several jobs 
including being a fishmonger at one point. I then took a break to have 
children and raise them, I went back to college, then on to take a 
BA(Hons) ready for my return to the working world. This, I figured, 
would secure me a good working position and a respected place in 
society. I am currently unemployed.

Influences:
Joan Baez, Emmylou Harris, Gillian Welch, Julie May. Largely inspired 
by coffee and chocolate

PAV

At the club:

Member since 2000, part time MC & ex-chairman.  I enjoyed the chairman’s job because it prevented the power mad trad folkie members from taking over this role and bleeding the fun from the Ilson folk & blues club.

Does:

I make Simon Cowell sound polite, even though my only real skill at the folk club is to balance on a tall wobbly stool after drinking 10 pints of strong lager. Jesus (Alan) once tried to teach me the guitar but failed. He insisted I learn right handed as it should make no difference to a man who has never played before. I told him that I’ve been left handed all my life and had to suffer that very same ignorance 35 years ago at school. Then I hit him (with my left hand)

Biog:

Born 1967 in Nottingham,I attended Gilthill & Kimberley Comp where I met and asked the 15yo Sara for a date, she’s been Mrs Pav for the last 24 years. We have one 14yo daughter who has just turned Gothic but loves Johnny Cash (she thinks he was an early Goth because he’s known as the man in black). I once lived on the same street as Alan and Cookie for 10 years and never spoke to either of them. I now live in Ilkeston and work as a lorry driver/builder and run a car parts business through the Internet www.mx5rollbars.com & www.mgrollbars.com I am one half of a comedy double act with our Jesus(Alan), and I’m the resident host/compare at the notorious Nottingham Variety Club www.vclubnotts.com (don’t follow this link if you are of a sensitive nature! Keith)

Influences:

 The Watnall one, The Tolpuddle Martyrs and lets not forget the Diggers,Liverpool Dockers, Miners..ect

CLIVE

At the club:

Club Member since Adam was a lad, staunch supporter of the club, regular performer.

Does:

Currently plays Guitar, D/G Melodian & Bodhran, sings with feeling and is often accompanied by Carol his lovely wife, a fine singer and percussionist. Can play loads of things often turns up with different accordions etc, a proper musician

Biog:

Born in 1949 in a small farming village (Hemington) on the Leicestershire Derbyshire border to a Scottish father & English mother. Dan his father was a fine button accordion/melodeon player. Clive has packed a lot into life so far including a spell in the Guards, he has stood outside the palace wearing a Busby (sorry a bearskin) it is not recorded if he had a melodeon with him at the time, he is a well known busker both locally and in Whitby, famous for breaking strings outside the Middle Earth, and his capacity for fine Scotch.

Influences:

Clive was fed on organically grown produce and Jimmy Shand later progressing to solids such as The Corries and The Dubliners.

BRENDA

At the club:

Joined in late 2003 by accident when he went "somewhere new" for a change and someone stuffed a membership registration slip in his face.
He thought it was a cheap beer token so being a cheapskate he signed it and handed it in to someone who he was later to discover Keith on a covert press-ganging (Recruiting) mission.

Does:

Plays guitar in weird tunings (one day he'll learn how to tune it properly) in order to look better than he actually is.
Writes songs that he hasn't got a hope of being able to sing properly and has to ask someone else to sing them for him in order to find out how they actually go.
Currently engaged in hand to hand combat with the bottleneck in a last ditch attempt to become versatile and get one over on Lightnin' Pete.
He's learned that Jo, his other and much better looking half, is a better singer than him so he has mercifully learned to shut up and stick to the guitar, letting Jo do all the clever "voicy" stuff instead.
Unfortunately he will insist on singing when Jo has a cold, so for God's sake keep taking the vitamin C Jo.
One day, when Jo has vetted, airbrushed, and finally sanctioned release of a photo of herself this bio will become "Jo & Steve", but until then it's just his lordship.

Biog:

Born in January 1959 (so he says) in Nottingham, making the sensible move to Ilkeston eleven years ago (we think he was "asked" to leave Nottm). Spent most of his musical life jumping around like a silly bugger in heavy rock bands until finally realising he was too old to play at being young any more, so he layed down his electric guitars in quiet graves and took up the more sedate acoustic guitar, which now dominates all of his playing and writing.
The club has christened him BRENDA due to his propensity for wearing little black dresses and stockings on special occasions, even though he would insist that it's simply because he's got long hair (which IS NOT falling out).

Influences:

In the early days he was influenced by the usual rock culprits, Led Zeppelin, UFO, Floyd, etc, but is now far more beguiled by acoustic/folk music. Truth is, the club has been a massive influence over the last couple of years, and his new heroes are local ones, like our very own Lightnin' Pete, Chris Smith, Clive, Bob Stokes, Julie May, Alan, Cookie, Pat when he's around, and many others.

Vincent

At the club:

Valued member of the club sometime performer, when not falling off motorcycles

Does:

Plays guitar, mouth organ

Biog:

Derbyshire artist producing in his own unique style, semi-abstract compositions of urban landscapes with some use of an airbrush to create some of the striking sky effects, but uses a different technique in his figurative paintings, still with his own unique style. If you look closely at some of his paintings you will see people, giving them the human touch. He is always looking for new ideas and modern techniques.

Born in Hackney the east end of London in 1934 and studied under the artist John Flaving at Hornsey College of Art London from 1958–1962 and St. Albans College Of Building Herefordshire in 1969. He served two year National Army National Service in Malaysia and Singapore from 1952 to 1954. For a number of years, he worked in the building industry as a tradesman and eventually as a qualified building surveyor, still painting at the same time. His invigorating style was self-developed by a forward thinking and innovative artistic technique.

His earliest paintings were mostly figurative and were influenced by his love of people, the countryside and also his life in the East End of London as a child growing up during the Second World War and also after the war where he played on the bombed sites around Hackney. In his early years, he spend a considerable amount of time drawing in London’s Docklands, the poor down and outs around Aldgate and Whitechapel Road, East London.

This lead to his first London, one-man exhibition, in 1976. His paintings were semi-surrealistic, almost theatrical and mainly figurative. His landscapes of his adopted Derbyshire are another source of inspiration. He is still influenced by his city life and sometimes the introduction of figures into his landscape paintings, giving them that human touch.

His landscapes and figurative work have been exhibited in Derby City Art Gallery, Buxton Art Gallery, Bradford City Art Gallery, London’s Guildhall Art Gallery and also one-man exhibitions in London, Staffordshire and Derbyshire. He has paintings in collections in Erewash Museum Derbyshire, USA, Canada, London, England and Wales. He has been heard discussing his work on BBC Radio Derby. His last one-man exhibition was at The National Brewery Museum Burton-upon-Trent Staffordshire in 2003. His painting can very often be seen in the Derby City Art Gallery’s Open Exhibition. His exhibition at Erewash Museum in 2007 will be his second exhibition at the museum.