During the 52nd season, we booked a number of guests who were new to the club, including The Birdscarers, Laura Smyth and Ted Kemp, Sound Tradition and Jill Pidd/Doc Rowe. All of them gave us excellent nights, with the presentation of the making of “The Transports” by Doc Rowe being particularly interesting. The other big highlight of this season was the 52nd Birthday Night, when a full house for the Wilson Family had the clubroom shaking with the combined voices of the guests and the audience.
We also saw the last visits to the club by both Quartz, as well as Life and Times, who were disbanding soon after their visit to the club. On a sad note, following falling numbers, the club had to cancel the Christmas Ceilidh, which has been running since 1977, due to lack of support. The difficult decision was also taken to cease running Ceilidhs for the foreseeable future.
Our 53rd year kicked off with Hissyfit, who gave us a wonderful night. Unfortunately, it was to be their last visit to the club as they were calling it a day soon after their gig at the Diamond. During the 47 week season, we booked 4 guests who were new to our audience - Jimmy Hutchison, Barron Brady, Jody Kruskal and the newly formed JIB. We also featured a number of guests who had not been to the club for a while in the guise of Jimmy Crowley (last booked in 1999), Chris Foster (on tour promoting his latest CD) and Dick Miles (last booked 1993). As far as our singers’ nights go it was a great year, with many of them attracting 20 plus performers.
