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ELIZABETH FOLK CLUB YEARS
Dermott Ryder 

ELIZABETHAN PICTORIAL

The sign on the outside wall - Alison greeting the punters - © Dermott Ryder 1972

Our first club night was Wednesday 14th November 1973. That night I rather nervously introduced Maureen Cummuskey, Tony Suttor, Paul Lawler, Rhonda Mawer, Bob Pomeroy, Warren Fahey, Declan Affley and Sean Gilroy to a quickly filling room. In many ways it was a memorable evening. All the performers arrived on time and gave of their best. The audience came in sufficient numbers and was a very receptive gathering. The sound system didn't fall to pieces mid-song and we achieved the folk club organizer's dream - everybody got paid and we broke even. We were off and running with 'The Wednesday Elizabeth' folk club.

Good Evening Audience - Dermott Ryder 1974

People who run folk clubs have to be able to turn to and do something to entertain the punters when the need arises. Emergencies occur in the best-run organizations. If you can keep your head and sing a song when the next act on is stuck in traffic or struck down by alcohol or amnesia, then you too can be a folk club organizer. If you can keep your wits about you the terms pear shaped and down the gurgler need not be part of your vocabulary. In short, just like the boy scouts, folk club organizers must be prepared.

Jan in Splendour - Albert Abercrombie 1974

We resolved to always start the show on time and we booked people, in advance, in writing, for a stipulated time and duration and at a small but guaranteed fee. If it was a well-supported night, and many nights were very well supported, the performers were paid more than the guaranteed fee.

Leon Campbell guarding the door - John Bartlett [visiting Canadian Brit] getting ready to sing - © Dermott Ryder 1975.

Attracting a regular audience is always a challenge for any small limited interest activity. Getting the message 'come up and see us sometime' out to the world at large is especially difficult in a big city with so many activities to bedazzle the punter. Our publicity budget could run to a column half inch in the Saturday Morning Herald and even though they often gave us a column inch and sometimes a double column inch for the same cost it just wasn't enough to reach an audience very far beyond the faithful few. We needed to branch out.

Peter Parkhill and John Smith -  © Dermott Ryder 1974

Serendipity smiled upon us and provided a trademark, a brand, and a symbol that defined us and set us aside from other folk clubs. The heraldic device, the coat of arms, of the Elizabeth Folk Club, an acoustic cuboid guitar over a white shield on a blue background sporting and the magic words, Darts Kelimocum, simply emerged in a few magic moments of chance. It became the centre point of our efforts to get our message out to the punters, and it worked.

 John 'Huffy' Greer in the doorway

To keep faith with the paying customers we made every effort to present the players advertised. We required the performers to be at the club at least ten minutes prior to their performance time and to be adequately prepared and in a condition to give a good performance.

Bill Morgan [of the mansions] and Keith Jenkins [of 14 Darling Street Glebe], where are they now, I wonder, © Dermott Ryder 1974.

As the marketing of the 'Liz' gained momentum we attracted support from audience, performers and friends. Jane Heruval, a fine singer of traditional ballads, introduced us to the obliging screen-printer Eng-Fin who produced a test run of T-shirts to sell to the members and a banner to hang behind the small stage.

Derrick Chetwyn an irrepressible stalwart of the traditional folk scene in Sydney through the 1970s and Freddie Richardson a refugee from the destruction of Darwin by 'Tracy' in 1975.

From the very first time 'Darts Kelimocum' appeared on a poster, sign or T-shirt it became subject to the most imaginative and often creative misinterpretations. One American visitor asserted that it was pre-Christian Roman greeting in a corrupted form of Latin, the pagan equivalent of ‘have a nice day’ perhaps.

 

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'Elizabethan Pictorial' - from 'Elizabeth Folk Club Years' By Dermott Ryder, The Screw Soapers, Liverpool, Australia, is published by permission of the copyright owner. Any persons or organizations wishing to reprint this work, in whole or in part, are invited to contact the editor. email: screwsoaper@optusnet.com.au

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