A special concert to celebrate the reopening of Newport Folk Club, after a lengthy closure due to the COVID lockdown, took place on Thursday the 2nd September. The celebration concert featured two outstanding and popular performers who have long associations with the Club, namely Huw Williams and Paul Lloyd Nicholas.

This is a video of Huw Williams singing two songs from his outstanding and entertaining set. Please enjoy.

This video is of Paul singing his own wonderful composition “Ernest and Adeline”, which he performed during his set at the Club’s reopening concert.

With care home residents denied visits from loved ones, we decided to produce a concert of singalong songs to bring a little joy into dark days. Our performers put aside their usual repertoires in favour of songs where everyone could join in. It was never going to be a substitute for hugging and holding hands, but we’re told that a lot of care homes in the area had a good afternoon. And we can’t let this moment pass by without saluting the care home staff and all frontline heroes who make sure that every day is as good as it possibly can be.

At the height of the country’s first lockdown in 2020, the National Folk Museum of Wales at St Fagan’s, near Cardiff, reached out to the public asking for memorabilia of a nation at standstill. We decided that there should be a record of how musicians were still keeping the flame of creativity alive…and the museum agreed. Which is why we produced these two compilation videos. Volume One includes performances by our patron Huw Williams, our club chairman Bryn Millichip, Phil Millichip, Greg Rowlands, Liz Harris and Cris Bartlett, Tanglewood, Mike Johnson, Derek Millichip, Paul Chilcott, Ann and Terry Parsons, Roy Zeal, Kath Lynch, Broadside, Steve Davies, Cwtch Galore, Paul Lloyd Nicholas, Alan Jones, and Sian Francis and Dom Barry. It’s a feast of great music we know you’ll love. And for new visitors to our club…this is a taste of what you can expect.

As we sifted through our footage for the National Museum of Wales, we realised we had far more great stuff than we could fit on one video. So we made two! Volume Two contains more club favourites plus some notable visitors. Performers here include the award-winning Calan (pictured above), along with Beth Williams and Sam Humphreys, The Chartists, Alda and Paul Brown, Ronnie Three-Chords, Mick Pearson and Steve Wride, Diane Williams, Tim Crahart, Andrew Clode, Mac Perrett, Marilyn and Dave Fowler, The Lockdown Buddy Band, Patrick O’Riordan, and Linda Hall. Enjoy!

It looked like being a bleak Christmas as various stages of lockdown engulfed the country. And with our physical Christmas party cancelled we decided to make things a lot brighter (well, as bright as possible) with a virtual Christmas party. To be honest, whatever time of year you play this video (again, just click on the image and it’ll pop up) we’re pretty sure you’ll have a great time…though maybe in high summer you can leave off your Santa sweater!