Acoustic Cabaret ....

A slightly different sort of musical experience . A variety of voices , instruments and musical styles.
Can be anything from Folk to Jazz to Country to Old time Music Hall to 'World music' to ..... ?

Featuring our regulars : Nicky Howarth , Tony Dargan &
"The Grand Cru" plus guests.

(Special offers on bottles of quality wine)

Second Saturday evening in month starting at 8.30 pm.

All welcome (Door charge varies).


Click Here for forthcoming concerts
 

(Artistes should contact Nick Howarth on 01924-385000 or click here to email Nick to discuss bookings.)

How it all Began ....

Dave Hanvey gives a brief account of the origins of the 'Acoustic Cabaret' phenomena :-

.... It was really all started by Nicky Howarth. 
Nicky has been running clubs, festivals and one off gigs for years really, in and around Wakefield. About five years ago, well before it was called the Acoustic Cabaret, Nicky ran a monthly concert at The Grove, it was a nice room but an awful pub. 
He asked myself and Grog(John Gregson) and my wife Moira if we would play there, as Grand Cru. We said of course but we would like to be more involved and along with another musician, Tony Dargan, we started to help run it.

 
Shortly after this we all decided that the venue was not attracting people so we moved to the Grey Horse. This also wasn't good, but at the time, the Red Shed was looking to promote more music so we decided to go there and see how it ran. It was of course successful there, a great atmosphere was generated, and we never looked back.

The aim is for a non profit making venue to promote live music, all the money from the door and raffle goes to pay the guests, one or two of the people who help out even pay !! 
I suppose the music is generally acoustic based, but we have had bluegrass bands, blues players and poets.

We book nationally known names as well as top local people (many people round here fall into both categories). We have had people like The Tannahill Weavers, John Strong, Dave Burland, Stanley Accrington, Jez Lowe, Gina Le Faux, and many other well known names from the folk scene and beyond.
We have coming up, amongst others, Clive Gregson, Peter Bond, and Emily Druce ....

More information available here on the New Acoustic Cabaret Web site

Open Mike Night ....


On the last Saturday of each month we have an Open mike session run by Steve Cowan and Simon Meltham of the band "Three 19's" .

Starting time 8.30 pm (-ish) .
Admission Free - All welcome .

Bring along your voices and any musical instruments you would like to play and join in, or just sit, listen & enjoy !
 


Click here to view some of our recent performers in action.


 
Monday Music Club ....

Commencing Monday 28th January and then every 2nd and 4th Monday in the month.

Why not meet up with us for an informal workshop to sing & play music, exchange ideas, chat and generally have an enjoyable evening.



Folk, Trad, Blues & all popular music are our themes, everyone is welcome - 8:30pm onwards.



Red Shed Readings ....

The Red Shed is currently hosting a series of high quality poetry events which commenced in May 2008.

Siobhan MacMahon was our first featured guest performer.
 
 
 
 The Red Shed is back!!!

December's Red Shed Readings is a real cracker. This month mega author, David Peace (Red Riding Trilogy, The Damned United, GB 84 and The Tokyo Year Zero series) is our guest. In our humble opinion he's Britain's greatestliving writer and he's local!!!!

Demand is likely to exceed supply, so we've had to raise the price to £5 (this month only) and take the unprecedented step of selling tickets via the Wall Gallery on Kirkgate. 
Malc at the Wall is a supporter of the Readings and has sponsored our national competition and it's a lovely gallery.

Support comes from Leeds novelist Robert Endeacott, who will be reading excerpts from his book "Dirty Leeds"

Music is from local polish folk prodigies Conrad, Adam and Patrick and there will be the usual competitions, open mics and cheap drink. Get there early. We might even start on time.

If you can't get enough of poetry in Wakefield, the week before sees the launch of the last Red Shed's support act, Pete Lancaster, who will be launching his book, The Blue Bridge, on Tuesday 24th November upstairs at Henry Boons. There will also be support readings from Wakefield's Black Horse poets, but if you want to read there too, Pete's a nice guy and he'll probably let you.
 
Admission at the Shed on December 3rd will be £5.
I don't know how we do it at this price.

Please Note :- We don't operate an age limit, but our events are best enjoyed by adults - Younger audience members who attend should be comfortable with a full range of language and subject matter, including death, sex, relationships and spats with bus drivers.
We suggest younger people over 16 will get most out of it.

Click here to request further information on our events.



Quiz Night ....

Quiz Night is a regular feature in the club diary .
It is every Wednesday evening , starting at 9.15pm.

Entry is 50p per person .
Winner gets a fistful of Red Shed beer tokens.



Other Special Events ...    

For details of our one-off forthcoming Special Events
Please click here when available



Souvenir Badge ....

Mark has come up with a smart pin badge for the Club.

Why not commemorate your visit to the Red Shed with one of these attractive badges?
Only £1 - ask at the bar for details.

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