GU Now in it's 6th year!

Goring Unplugged came into this world almost fully formed in April 2003. It was the result of a chance meeting between Chris Hawes, Howard Timberlake and Mark Baker. Chris longed for a chance to recreate the halcyon days of his youth, when he played at Bristol's Troubadour Folk Club, as warm up to many a famous folk-name and even more not so famous. Howard had just finished recording a CD. Mark was still licking his wounds after trying to get an Irish music session off the ground in the unforgiving environs of Goring Social Club, which had run up against the immovable obstacles of the wide-screen football and staff who didn't like the idea of anything that disturbed the pinging of the fruit machines.

Why didn't we just hire a local venue, and see if we could drum up some interest in a sort of 'all-purpose' music night? Chris could perch on a stool and sing, Howard could refine his live act, and Mark could inflict some of the dread diddly-diddly on whatever audience might turn up! We thought we might get a few people interested through Streats Ahead, the local youth drama group, and maybe some performers the same way. Lots of amazing talent was pouring out of Langtree School at that time, courtesy of Moira Green, music teacher extraordinaire. There were also plenty of old(er) fogeys in the area that we knew we could tap for a tune or three.

The obvious venues were the Village Hall and the Morrell Room, or the Free Church Hall. The Village Hall was deemed to be much too big, we didn't really envisage more than about 30 people turning up, at best, and the Free Church turned out not to be as free as its name suggested - they were particularly worried about the demon alcohol, blasphemy, and the omnipresent threat of fornication. So The Morrell Room it was - we could always bunch up down one end, and keep the lights down low!
We booked the hall for a fortnight ahead and put up some posters. Patricia from Streats ahead emailed her database of pupils, ex-pupils and parents, Chris and Mark contacted a few musos, and sat back to see what would happen.

First night of Goring Unplugged arrived and the Morrell Room was heaving! There were over 80 people there, not including the performers! Patricia and Jeanette had put candles on the tables, and Howard rigged up a pair of spots pointing roughly at the piano. Mark had volunteered to be first on, to 'break the ice'. He'd brought along Jerry (mandolin) and Val (fiddle), having told them it would be a small scale event, 'just like a session really'. It wasn't. The wonderful Abbie Lathe provided impromptu guitar accompaniment. As the band of diddlers picked up their instruments, it went deadly quiet. You could have heard a pin drop. Jerry looked like someone who was facing a firing squad. He obviously badly needed a blindfold. Never have three sets of reels and jigs been played so fast!

Many cans of Guinness went down without touching the sides that evening as the evening passed in a blur. Mark introduced all of the acts, but shipped rather too much of the black stuff along the way and by the second half was quite incomprehensible and couldn't even pronounce people's names. Everyone came on and played at an amazingly high standard. Chris, Howard, the wonderful harmonies of Chrysalis (Rachel, Charlotte and Hannah), the irrepressable Jamie Russell (Goring music would not be the same without the Russell dynasty), the charismatic Ben Scriven, The Bacuma Boys - Stop here - The Bacuma Boys merit a very special mention, as the only act ever to have brought a barrel of beer and donated it to Goring Unplugged. They consist of Dave Maggs (Head Brewer and Guitar), Howard (deep voice, recorders and Saxophone) and Andy Baum (Mandolin and voice). We could have listened to them all night, but they only did three tunes (including the wonderful 'Ghost of the St. Louis Blues', and made their excuses and left, claiming they knew no more. Unfortunately for them they left behind their set-list, so we knew differently and determined to get them back. Abbie Lathe sang a great set, and the evening was rounded off by the very blistering rock harmonies of Satellite (Now The Lightyears) Goring's top band.
We sort of knew by the end of the evening that we weren't going to get away with this being a one-off event. But how on earth could we maintain this level of excellence?

Since then, Goring Unplugged has moved to the much larger Village Hall, which has occasionally been even more crammed with people (200 up) than the Morrell Room was that first night! We've had People playing Classical Music, Modern Jazz, Not so Modern Jazz, Moldavian Gipsy Wedding Dances, Reggae, Acoustic Rap, Dadaist Improvisations (Hello Clucking Clucking Trout Trout), a certain number of men with guitars - some perched on Stools, Andrews Sisters type Middle Of The Road Swing, Every Shade of Blues you can imagine, Recitals of Jake Thackray Songs, Flying Fiddle Players, Recitals Of Tom Lehrer Songs, A George Formby Impersonator, and a smidgen of Bluegrass. Yet after all these years, new people continually pop out of the woodwork to entertain and amaze us!

If you would like to participate in a future event, please contact us via the link on the Performer Info page.