A floating bar restaurant had
recently been moved in from Conwy Harbour, and it was proposed by one of the group that this would make an ideal venue for a Folk Club. The ship was known as the "Frigate Conwy" and it was agreed that a steering group approach the Management of the Frigate with the view of starting a Folk Club in the "Orlop Bar", that being the lowest of her decks. This proposal was welcomed and with borrowed P.A. equipment and a great deal of faith the first Folk Club night was set for Monday 12th August 1996.
This sounds as if it was easy, but actually involved much heated debate. First a day had to be chosen that did not conflict with other Clubs and sessions in the area. We finally chose Monday, almost against our better judgement, by a process of elimination, but did so with grave doubts of the viability of a Monday Club.
Then came the arguments over funding - to charge or not to charge, that was the question - it was decided that a door charge might exclude the unwaged and these people could be our main supporters in an area renowned for it's seasonal workers. We opted for a "Raffle and a Hat Pass", both of which would be optional, so that if necessary a person could come, sit with a glass of water all night and pay nothing, we therefore relied on those that could pay supporting the Club. In hindsight this was the right decision, we now have a healthy bank balance and a goodly number of young people who would be deterred by door charges.
More discussion ensued over format, it was decided from the outset that there would be no resident singer, duo or band, that all would be equal with no one hogging the limelight. Hosting of the Club would be shared initially on a rota of four, but now on a rota of possibly more than a dozen. The idea behind this was to try to avoid the same boring presentation. We also decided on a maximum of two song's / tune's per act, although one would be enough if that was all you had, we wanted to encourage people to get up and have a go, and over the year's some who got up with just one song have gone on to be our star performers.
We still stick to the two song rule but now more so because of the singers that we attract, often having difficulty in giving everyone a spot !!
As the Club grew out of a session we thought it would give a nice welcome to people if our session musicians filled in the gap at the "Beer Break" and at the beginning of the evening, this proved very popular and continues to this day, it creates a nice atmosphere and you feel that you are entering a place where things are happening.
Finally we had to have a name and "Conwy Folk Club" seemed obvious , we were in the Conwy Harbour on the "Frigate Conwy" and as we were in Wales it would be nice to have a bi-lingual name hence "Clwb Gwerin Conwy" which is "Conwy Folk Club" in Welsh, join the two together and you have "Clwb Gwerin Conwy Folk Club" - perfect.
Over the years since there has been several change's, the "Frigate Conwy" moved on and we re-located to our present venue "The Malt Loaf" on Rosehill Street, Conwy. We eventually purchased our own Public Address system, which has now been replaced !!. We still maintain the same funding system we had at the outset on the basis of "if it ain't broke don't fix it". We now have a constitution and a committee, but our ethos is still unchanged, "to provide a relaxed venue where the experienced and the beginner alike can feel comfortable and at home", we hope we have succeeded.
