1/9/14 Post Hop Festival
It seemed to go well and I've not heard any negative comments.
We now enter what is a quiet time for PiF as there is not a lot coming up on the website. But if previous years are anything to go by - that may well be to do with pubs not looking further than Hop Festival and it may take them a couple of days to sort themselves out. There are a few dates for later this month that I know need inputting but first it is holiday time!
25/8/14 Hop Festival 2014
Less than a week to go to Hop festival 2014!
This is the 4th year that PiF has covered the Hop Festival and although still time consuming it has been slightly easier than the last couple of years. This might be due to the pubs being better organised and there being less changes to their line-ups (though there's still time yet). It may be because I've kept the formats drafts of all last year's entries.
I still have feelings of uncertainty and guilt over covering the Hop Festival in case it detracts from the number of paid adverts in the official programme and website. This guilt feeling is slightly tempered by the fact that for the second year I've told the organisers that if requested PiF would not cover the festival but they didn't seem to think there was a problem. That was a few months ago and I've had no communication from them since.
This year many of the pubs, venues or those people organising the music for them have contacted PiF directly with details of their line-ups (with a couple of notable exceptions). This has saved me the time and hassle of having to search for the information. My thanks to all those people.
Dancing In Faversham . . . Once again I've tried to incorporate the Morris and other dance teams in to the PiF coverage - I know it could be done better.
So . . . . the 'hits' on the website are already far in excess of normal traffic and growing daily. The current trend indicates that the total 'hits' will exceed last year which itself was a bumper year! I hope that the PiF site will be able to cope with the traffic.
Thanks to all the people who take the time to look at PiF. Thanks for all the kind comments PiF has had.
Have a great Hop Festival 2014!
23/8/14 PiF goes on holiday soon!
The day after Hop Festival, PiF takes to the air and returns to the mountains of Andalucia. So . . if anyone wants an event added for the first part of September, please let me know very soon.
23/8/14 No news for a long time!
Perhaps I was being over confident in thinking I would be able to keep this news page updated!
There has been quite a lot happening but I don't intend to attempt a catch-up.
My apologies for letting this page moulder!
19/3/14 Pub Rock
There have been some changes in management of Faversham and surrounding pubs over recent weeks and months that have an effect on live music.
The Anchor - has gone through a few changes in management over the past year or so and that has meant that the pub went very quiet music-wise through January and February. However, it is good to see that the pub is now booking some interesting bands for what looks like to be a return to fortnightly Sunday music sessions.
The Chimney Boy - having closed last New Year's Eve for refurbishment, the pub is now open again. Whilst the Folk Club have returned for their regular Wednesday slot, it looks like there will be no return to having live bands on Fridays. The Folk Club took temporary refuge at The Brents Tavern and we know the club are very grateful to them. We are not sure what has happened to the Thursday informal folk sessions that used to be held at the Chimney Boy.
The Swan & Harlequin has been sold and will become a 'gastro pub' and hotel. It looks like that will spell the end to live music at the pub. PiF would like to thank outgoing landlord Mark for all the support he has given us over recent years.
The good news is that village pubs: The Dove at Dargate and The Carpenters Arms at Eastling have started having regular live music sessions. See the PiF listings for more information.
Just to say that recently PiF celebrated it's 3rd birthday. So now we are in our 4th year!
PiF's Future - update
Last spring I wrote on this page that I was considering closing down PiF. Since then I have been amazed by the number of people who: a) must have read this page - and b) have pleaded that PiF continues.
So, in no small part thanks to those people - PiF will continue.
What I have learnt is how stimulating getting positive feedback (or any feedback) is! I have operated PiF deliberately is a fairly impersonal information service but I have discovered that I get a real glow of satisfaction when someone thanks me; comments on this site; 'likes' PiF or posts on Facebook or comments on Twitter.
I do have to apologise over the fact that I have not been good at reciprocating 'likes' and comments. This is partly because I have (had) a view that PiF is just an information service. Partly because I know very little about how to operate on Facebook and Twitter. And partly because of a feeling of embarrassment! I will try and do better!
Catching up! Hop Festival 2013
I think that PiF's Hop Festival coverage was pretty good! And the 'Handy Hour by Hour Guides' were again very popular. But it was an enormous piece of work! So much so that it is only now, 3 months later, that this news page is being updated.
The Hop Festival official site linked to PiF for information on the 'non-stage' events. This produced a lot of extra hits on the site which can only be good.
I do, however, have an uneasy feeling about PiF providing a free publicity service for pubs and venues when perhaps they should be paying the official Hop Fest site for advertising. If the HopFest organisers prefer that PiF does not cover the 2014 event then I think PiF will agree. Other options could include PiF charging pubs and venues for inclusion for next year with the proceeds going to HopFest funds. Or, as I offered this year, that PiF directly keeps the official site updated. I think there is an element of the HopFest organisers wanting to keep some distance between what they organise and what goes on in the pubs and venues in the town and I think, if this is the case, that I can understand their reasoning.
Although PiF remains a completely free service there is an argument for using the PiF coverage to contribute something to HopFest funds.
6/8 Back From Holiday - HopFest Looms!
PiF arrived back from holiday a few days ago and it is now only 3 weeks to Hopfest. This will be the third HopFest in PiF's life and although some of the site structure from last year's festival has been saved to use again, it is amazing how difficult and complex it still is to work out how all the links etc work! There is still an awful lot of work to do and that includes trying to get information from the pubs and venues (not an easy task at all). There has been some talk of PiF supplying and inputting information to the official Hop Festival website, this would be the listings of live music in the pubs and other 'non-official' venues. PiF would be more than happy to do this work but it does not look like it is going to happen!
13/6 Hop Festival 2013
Hop Festival does seem a long way off yet PiF has started work on setting-up the rather complicated background infrastructure needed to cover the event. For a while there will be venues with dates listed but no details of band / artist playing.
PiF would be very grateful for any information from pubs and venues on who they have playing. Also any ideas or views on what people would find useful in PiF's coverage of the event. Just email:
One of the reasons for the need to start now on the Hop Fest coverage is that PiF will be taking its annual summer holiday in the last couple of weeks of July which is in only 5 weeks time and when PiF returns to these shores the festival will only be 4 weeks away.
The Swan, Teynham
The Swan have asked to be included on PiF and have suppled a list of gigs. PiF has, in the past, attempted to include Swan dates but has found it difficult to get information. So, welcome on board The Swan!
PiF's Future?
The long cold Spring has been very depressing. Maybe this has caused a certain amount of lethargy on the part of this PiF writer? It seems to have become more of a struggle to keep PiF updated and thoughts turn to whether it might be better to close the site down. However, PiF will continue to, at least, past the Hop Festival. Perhaps a taste of summer will bring about renewed vigour and interest!
Sundays Are Quieter
What with the Sun Inn stopping having live music on Sunday evenings and the Phoenix having its summer break from regular live music, the Sunday live music scene is now much quieter.
Not Quite Faversham
Sadly, this experimental idea of listing 'interesting' music events outside of Faversham has come to an end. I think it was a reasonably good idea but I just could no keep up with the work it entailed.
The BIG Gig follow-up
The final tally came to just a whisker short of £3000 which has been donated to The Teenage Cancer Trust. This money represents ticket sales, donations on the night, a raffle and a charity quiz night at the Phoenix Tavern. Our only real expense was the cost of security. So thanks to Shepherd Neame, the bands and the volunteer crew!
The BIG Gig
For the past few months PiF has been working with a small dedicated group of people to stage an event in support of The Teenage Cancer Trust. This will be, of course, the BIG Gig. Details of this event are all over PiF including a special page and there are now posters around the town. I won't bore you with the details except to say that it will be on the 9th March at The Old Brewery Store at 7pm, tickets are £7.50 available online from the Old Brewery Store or they can be purchased direct from The Brewery Shop or from the Phoenix Tavern.
Being involved in the organisation of this event has been quite a learning experience for PiF - it's more complicated than you would believe! Thankfully the rest of the 'small group' have shouldered most of the work.
The aim has been to stage an event with bands / musicians that will appeal to a wide age range and for this reason we have pitched our tickets at a price that is more affordable to younger people.
The support that The Big Gig has received has been amazing. All the bands are playing for free and Shepherd Neame have been very generous in facilitating the use of The Old Brewery Store.
We hope to be able to raise something in the region of £2,000 for The Teenage Cancer Trust but to do this we must sell tickets! So buy now!!
7 Feb Nearly 2 Years!
PiF's second birthday is fast approaching. This momentous occasion really deserves a special commemorative header picture. Just got to get some inspiration and time to do it!
6 Jan Sunday's Cool in Faversham
So . . . further to the earlier PiF ramblings on Sundays, PiF is trying to design a poster for Sundays in Faversham. The first attempt is very basic and not very good! PiF would welcome any help and advice on how to make it better. 'Faversham's Cool' is a take on Sunday School but it does give a bit of a chilly feel to it at this time of year.
The aim is to encourage more people to come to Faversham on Sundays - to enjoy the music, enjoy the food and enjoy the surroundings. The vision is that Faversham becomes known as the place to be on a Sunday. There will be a broad range of music in the pubs from midday to midnight. There will be music in the Market Place, buskers etc. People will be sitting outside the cafes, there will be a Sunday market. People will be strolling through the historic town between pubs, cafes, shops, restaurants and pubs. Everything will be wonderful !!??
Anyway, here's the naff poster, please email PiF with thoughts / ideas.
2013
A NEW YEAR!
PiF has a new 'header image' to celebrate the new year. Basically it attempts to visually demonstrate the broad range of live music happening in and around Faversham. More details about the image, including a higher resolution version are available on the 'Header Image' page : http://www.playinginfaversham.com/p/blog-page_30.html
15 Dec 2012 Ends On A High
A few weeks ago PiF was questioning whether there were too many venues competing for the same audience. Happily it seems that PiF was wrong!
- Live music on Sundays appears to work even though there are at least 4 different pubs in the town with music every Sunday.
- The Swan & Harlequin has been successfully filling the Saturday gap in live music.
- The Alexander Centre and The Old Brewery Store have staged successful music events with more planned for 2013.
- More village pubs are staging live music, most recently the Sondes arms.
- The Frolic summer festival and their New Year's Party at the Red Lion, Badlesmere bring a refreshing focus on music appealing to a slightly younger audience.
Perhaps the most powerful indication of the strength of live music in Faversham occurred this weekend. Hamish Stuart and The Bunch of Anchors played to a sell-out audience at The Alexander Centre. Despite this the band Wildfire played to a packed Sun Inn!
So it occurs to PiF that just maybe 'in the field of opportunity it's plowin' time again' (to quote Neil Young).
- Could music on Sundays be developed and advertised to bring people in from outside of the town? 'Sundays for live music and good food in the ancient market town of Faversham'.
- What about a music weekend or week involving all the pubs and venues? This could be on similar lines to the Broadstairs Blues Bash that is held over a weekend in February. It could focus on blues or jazz or folk.
The above could bring economic benefit to the town with the only cost being in advertising and a little organising.
14 Dec Wintertime Blues
It might be the cold weather or the short days but it has been a bit of a struggle keeping Playing In Faversham updated over the past month. PiF likes to try and keep a couple of months ahead on the listings but at this time of year most people don't think beyond Christmas and, therefore, getting information on events in January and February has been difficult.
PiF apologises for having not kept things like 'Not Quite Faversham' properly updated and for not always responding to emails. However, the bad times are now past, PiF is now pretty much up to date and the future's so bright, you've got to wear shades!
7 Nov. Anchor Update
There was some confusion last Sunday as to the start time for music on Sundays. Just to be clear:
.. live music at the Anchor on Sundays starts at 4.30pm and runs to 7.30pm
The Anchor will have live bands every other Sunday, the schedule so far is:
- 18th November - The Pepper Set
- 2nd December - The Strumbums
- 16th December - The Blue Devils
Of course, this information, and a bit more, is available by selecting 'The Anchor' from the 'What's On - Music In Faversham By Venue' drop-down menu on the left of the screen.
6 Nov. Playing In Sittingbourne
PiF now provides a very basic guide to live music in pubs in Sittingbourne. However, it has been very useful to refer to Playing In Faversham as PiF. There is a slight problem in using an acronym when referring to Playing In Sittingbourne for obvious reasons!
Must get out more often!
As PiF continues to develop the 'Not Quite Faversham' page (see story further down this page), it is quite startling to see the range of diverse, unique, interesting, experimental live music across East Kent. One would expect a university city like Canterbury to have a lot of choice in music events but Deal? Sandwich? And to some extent Whitstable? There are some vibrant music clubs, independent promoters and community arts projects operating in these towns providing something different to pub rock.
Of course, Faversham pubs try hard to book bands that people will want to see. Faversham has the Folk Club, The Arden Theatre, The Alexander Centre and various music related societies. We have the Faversham Festival and the Hop Festival. For a small town Faversham does have a lot going on music-wise. But . . . . is there a way of developing a platform for music in the town that is a little less main stream, that perhaps aims to combine elements of folk / rock / blues / classical etc. Perhaps aims at a wider age range that includes younger people. Perhaps, perhaps . .
I'll get me coat!
6 Nov. Did Sunday Go With A Bang?
There were 7 pubs with live music in and around Faversham on Sunday, all starting at different times from 2pm to 8pm. Did they all manage to get an audience? So far, PiF hears that the newly re-opened Anchor did well in the afternoon and The Sun had a good crowd dancing in the evening. It will be interesting to find out how the rest of the pubs got on.
PiF October News Round-Up
- 30/10 - The Anchor re-opens its doors to live music with Ben Russell And The Charmers playing Sunday 4th November, 3.30 to 6.30!
- PiF has had a tidy-up - read more further down this page
- The Sunday Band Wagon - read story further down this page
- Not Quite Faversham - read story further down this page
- The Anchor closed for refurbishment to re-open with new management - There's a lot of rumour going around about the Anchor. Some say it will re-open week commencing 23rd October - Some say they will continue with music on Sundays - Some say it will concentrate on food - Some say they will not do music every week - Some say - Some say.
- The Sun Inn starts live music on Sunday evenings - read story further down this page.
- Swan & Harlequin have bands booked every Saturday over the next 2 month
- Live music red tape lifted for small venues - read story further down this page
- TV production company films a new drama series for Channel 4 in Faversham - As part of the plot they are likely to need an audience for at least one live music session.
- Rock Club at The Old Wine Vaults appears to have been discontinued, at least, temporarily.
- The Phoenix has re-introduced its 'Jazz in the Bar' sessions on Sunday afternoons.
- The re-opened Sondes Arms in Selling has live music, Davey Ralph & The Road Band, on the 21st Oct. Not sure if this will be a regular event.
PiF Has Had A Tidy-Up
24/10 The PiF programmers at PiF Towers have been working overtime to improve the look and user-friendliness of the site.The main changes have been in reducing the long lists of venues and bands into simple drop-down menus. So, at the top of the left-hand sidebar one can click on to the 'What's On Music By Venue' to get a list of all venues, clicking on a venue will bring up details of live music at that venue. At the top of the right-hand sidebar is the drop-down menu for 'Bands / Artists Playing In Faversham', selecting a band / artist will bring up all that artists gigs in Faversham over the next month or so.
By reducing the space taken-up by the old menus other information should be more visible and create space for more info.
Well, that's the theory! Not sure if people will like the changes??
The Sunday Band Wagon
23/10 . . . It has taken a while for the opportunity to be realised but the Sunday evening music gap is about to be more than filled! As mentioned further down this page, The Sun Inn starts live music on Sunday evenings from the 4th November and PiF now hears that The Chimney Boy will also start having live music every other Sunday evening starting on the 4th November. Add to this Crossfire playing at the Swan & Harlequin on Sunday evening 2nd December and we will be spoilt for choice!With the Anchor rumoured to be re-opening this week and the possibility that they will resume their popular Sunday evening music sessions, one wonders if all this is too much, too late??
Update 29/10 - OK - the latest gig list from the Chimney Boy only has a band on Sunday 4th Nov., so perhaps they are not planning to do this regularly. But the Market Inn website is now carrying a poll asking whether it should move its regular Sunday afternoon music sessions to Sunday evenings. Meanwhile, there is no news from the Anchor.
Update 30/10 - The Anchor re-opens its doors to live music with Ben Russell And The Charmers playing Sunday 4th November! . . . In a change to the old regime, the band will play from 4.30 to 7.00. This change in time is bound to upset some of the dedicated Sunday Night Anchorites. PiF also hears that The Anchor are looking to book top quality musicians / bands from further afield i.e from across the Southeast.
Correction 31/10: It now seems the band are on from 3.30 to 6.30
Not 'Quite' Faversham
Not 'Quite' Faversham is a new page on PiF that lists music events that take place out of the geographical area that could reasonably be called Faversham.
The inspiration for this page comes from requests by bands, artists and promoters to PiF to list events outside of Faversham. PiF greatly values its relationships with bands and artists so this page is a way of realising those requests.
In addition, other music events listed here have been carefully chosen because of the exceptional quality of the band/artist and/or the rarity of that band/artist performing in this part of the world. This all sounds rather grand but It is not the case that the bands/artists featured on this page have paid PiF large sums of money to be included . . . (but we are open to offers!)
Not Quite Faversham will include listings for 'Folk In The Barn' (Canterbury) and events staged by 'So What Promotions', we do this because we respect these organisations energy and passion in the music they stage.
Thanks to 'The Strumbums' for coining the phrase 'Not Quite Faversham'. Apologies to the Faversham Society for the alterations made to the Guildhall in the image above.
If you, your band, your venue would like to be listed on the 'Not Quite Faversham' page, send PiF an email and we will see what we can do.
The Sun Inn Starts Live Music On Sunday Evenings
As from the 4th November, The Sun Inn starts having live music on Sunday evenings at 8pm. PiF understands that initially this will be for a trial period. Gary of The Sun said that his focus in booking bands for Sundays will be "to concentrate on bands that play music that people can dance to". Bands so far booked include 'Under The Wood', 'Jacuzzi Soup', 'The Nagasaki 3' and 'The Zedheads'.
PiF would guess that the success of this venture will be influenced, to some extent, by the future plans for music at The Anchor. However, we wish The Sun and Gary good luck and, of course, PiF will carry full listings of all the live music at The Sun.
For details of live music at The Sun Inn on Sundays and Fridays click HERE
LIVE MUSIC RED TAPE LIFTED FOR SMALL VENUES
UK Music, which represents the music industry, estimates that the Live Music Act could enable 13,000 more venues to start holding live music events.
It will be interesting to see if the change will increase the number of venues staging live music in and around Faversham. Of course, there are those who will not like this change in the law!
For more information on the changes click HERE
Post Hop Festival 2012 Blues
15/10 The PiF Hop Festival coverage for Hop Fest actually took a lot of work to achieve, hence a period of recovery was required and it is only now that this news page is being updated a bit.
We like to think that our Hop Fest coverage was pretty good, certainly the 'hits' on the site were very, very high, if that is anything to go by. We also know the data for how many people downloaded the 'PiF Handy Hour By Hour Guides' and they seem to have been successful.
PiF would like to thank the organisers and volunteers for all their hard work that once again made the Hop Fest a success.
There has been some criticism this year, and last, that not enough time and space was given to Morris Dance teams and traditional folk music. Why a festival celebrating the hop harvest should have any relationship with morris dancing is debatable. If morris dancing does have any true historical place in rural society (which is doubtful) that relationship would have meant little to the hop pickers who often came from cities. As for folk music, true a lot of the pubs featured 'pub rock' bands but not exclusively so. There has been a great increase in recent years in the popularity of 'modern folk music' (for want of a better word) and acoustic duos and bands, that increase was reflected at this year's Hop Fest and in the number of venues staging such music year round.
The Saturday of the Hop Fest was, if anything, too busy! It was difficult to move around and some of the pubs were too packed (PiF's view). So . . . . One wonders if it is time to consider expanding the Hop Festival to a week long event??? Perhaps there would then be more room for morris dancers, more opportunity for traditional folk evenings, more chance to use some of the great venues this town has, maybe a hop festival market even???? Other towns, such as Broadstairs have events running over a full week. Could the carnival be moved to coincide with that week? True, it would take a lot more organisation and maybe PiF would be willing to help.
