Dunfermline Folk Club

Club history - The Story of Folk Music in Dunfermline.

An abridged version of an article by Bill Livingston

It's over 40 years since the opening of Dunfermline's first folksong club and folk music over the years has always been very popular in the Dunfermline area. It can boast not only of bringing to the town some of the biggest names in the folk world, but also of producing some top recording artists. Local printer's son John Watt opened Scotland's first folksong club outside of Glasgow and Edinburgh in October, 1961, in a disused cellar at 38 Chalmers Street. He called the venue, "The Howff," and, when full it could hold no more than 70 at a squeeze.

The club officially opened on Thursday, 5th October, and that first night proved to be so popular with the townspeople that more than 100 turned up. The opening a folk club in the Auld Grey Toun seemed like a good idea and it was officially opened, by Hamish Henderson from the School of Social Studies. The guest singers on the first nights included Dolina MacLennan, Robin Gray and Roy Guest. But in those early days of the folk music scene, you never really knew who the guest artist would bring along with them. Ray and Archie Fisher were early regular visitors to the Howff and they would often bring along people such as Hamish Imlach or Matt McGinn or Robin Williamson who would later form The Incredible String Band, who played nearly every big music festival of that era, including the legendary American Woodstock Festival of 1967.

Early visitors to the club included Joe Heeney, Josh MacRae, Jimmy MacBeath, Ray and Archie Fisher, the Corrie Folk 4, Jean Redpath, Alex and Rory McEwan, Hamish Imlach, Louis Killen, Ann Briggs, Bert Jansh and my favourite, Matt McGinn, who would write a couple of songs in the bus journey from Glasgow on his way to a gig and sing them that same night.

By January, 1964, the Scottish and Fife folk music scene had mushroomed into a thriving movement and many of the clubs were run in licensed premises, so a decision was taken to move the Howff Folk Club from the cellar in Chalmers Street to the Brucefield Hotel, which was situated to the south of the town and the new venue opened in February, 1964, with the appearance of Louis Killen. The club remained at the Brucefield Hotel until late 1965, when it moved to the newly opened Belleville Hotel, but over that short pace of time it played host to some of the biggest names in the folk music world. They included not only most of the big acts who had appeared at the cellar but also Owen hand, the Ian Campbell Group, the Islanders, John Renbourn...not forgetting the night Tom Paxton appeared at the popular venue. Tom would go on from appearing at small venues such as the Brucefield Hotel to filling concert halls all over the world, including the Carnegie Hall in New York.
Another magic moment was the night that Cyril Tawney appeared at the Brucefield Hotel. A young local girl got up to sing a couple of songs and took the place by storm. The local girl turned out to be none other than Barbara Dickson. Barbara is now a big international star, not only as a singer but also as an actress, and the town is very proud of her achievements and also proud that she has never forgotten her roots. Barbara teamed up with Jack Beck who would later become a recording artist both as a solo artist and as a member of Heritage not long after her appearance at the Brucefield and she later moved with John Watt, Tommy Bonnar and a few other members of the club to the Rosyth Hotel (The Goth) and formed the Rosyth Folksong Club in October, 1965. They would all later move back to Dunfermline and the Kinema Ballroom in 1966 and take folk music to another level. Even though the boom of folk music is well and truly over, the Dunfermline Folk Club still survives and meets every Wednesday at the Thistle Tavern.