BBC RADIO 2 "FOLK CLUB OF THE YEAR" AWARD 2008

PRESENTATION ACCEPTANCE SPEECH

The trophy was presented to Pam and Alan by Jez Lowe on Monday 4 February 2008 at The Brewery in London.
Alan Colls accepted the Award with a thought-provoking speech, which in some people's opinion, far surpassed the words of many accomplished speakers!




The 'hardware'
A trophy for Pam & Alan's hard work and dedication over 35 years

Here is a transcript of the presentation recorded on 4 February 2008 and broadcast on the Mike Harding Show BBC Radio 2 on 20 February 2008.

Mike Harding:

You’re listening to Mike Harding with the very best in folk, roots and acoustic music. Now, at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards this month there was an award for Folk Club of the Year. This goes, quite obviously, to the people who spend their lives, for no money at all, running the many, many folk clubs up and down this country, which are the backbone of the folk organisation. I’ve got to say that if it had not been for the folk clubs, yours truly would never have made it onto the stand-up comedy scene, because that’s where I learnt my craft, singing and doing my bits of stand-up. Well, to present the award for Folk Club of the Year, came a guy who many of you will know well – for his moving songs about his native northeast of England and he of course also wrote 23 new songs for the BBC Radio 2 radio ballads in 2006. He is, of course, Jez Lowe and here he is…

Jez Lowe:

Thank you. Folk Club of the Year… I think there are a lot of people amongst us here tonight, and people listening at home as well, maybe, who love folk music as much as I do, but they rarely go to folk clubs, which is a great shame because, as Mike said, it’s the backbone of the whole thing. And now it is apparently we’re told that audiences are spending less money on CDs and more money on live gigs. So we should keep the folk club thing going because it’s such an important part of what we do and… [applause] …and the whole thing’s typified by the winner of the award this year. It’s a folk club I’ve played many times – a lot of us have played at the folk club and a lot of us have been to this particular folk club and it’s run by great people and long may it continue. The winner for this year is Dartford Folk Club… [cheers and applause] …Pam and Alan here… [cheers and applause as Pam & Alan make their way to the stage] …

Alan Colls:

Well, thank you everybody. There’s a big list really of people to thank. And this award, coming in this year, is really the icing on the cake for us because this year the folk club is 35 years old since Pam and I have been organising it… [applause] …It was going a long time before that as well, because I remember going to see Rambling Jack Elliott there in the Fifties, I think it was, and that sort of sparked our enthusiasm for the music. Just to say thank you for all the people that sort of help. We’ve got a good bunch of enthusiastic and great friends that help us to do it and we couldn’t do it without them. And, of course, there’s the audiences who come year in and year out and they are very important because it wouldn’t be here without them. And, they come along to see all these fantastic artists. We really do appreciate you. You spend nearly all day getting to the venue, you sort of write the songs, you sing the songs, you back the songs, you even tune your own guitars!… And, at the end of the evening, you’ve always got time for the audience, which is great. There’s one other group that I would like to… not forget, and that’s all the people who can’t be with us: the Alex Campbells, The Ewan McColls, the Steve Benbows and lots of people that set the foundation for this wonderful thing we call the British Folk Scene. Thanks very much. [Cheers and applause].

Mike Harding:

Jez Lowe there, presenting the Folk Club of the Year Award to Pam and Alan Colls and Dartford Folk Club at the Folk Awards this year.

(Photo courtesy of BBC)

Pam & Alan receive the Award from Jez Lowe

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To read more about the evening and view pictures taken at the event, please click on the links below: