The Club was formed more than thirty five years ago, and became The Marsden Inn Folk Club after settling into that venue, but now that we've moved out of The Marsden we've reverted to the original name. The South Shields Folk Club's current home, The Old Ship , is at the junction of Marsden Road and Sunderland Road, about half a mile south of South Tyneside College. It's not precisely on the doorstep, but I can't find a code that gets any closer. We like to get there early to have a music session before the singing starts, and we've got some excellent young resident musicians who are well worth coming from miles around to hear.
New faces are always welcome, and old and new performers especially so.
Our resident singers' and musicians' material is mostly traditional, as are nearly all the guest performers we book. That's what we ourselves are most at home with, and in fact there are often more squeeze-boxes than guitars in the room. We do like to hear other kinds of music as well, and very much appreciate visitors who perform contemporary, country, or their own material. We keep our admission charges as low as we can, because South Tyneside isn't an affluent area, and an increasing number of young musicians are coming along, often as part of a family group, so we don't want our door prices to exclude anyone. He does a great guest night, and is more popular than ever.