Press Release                                              January 2008

Folk is returning to The Old Cannon

The Old Cannon Brewery is delighted to be welcoming Bury’s folk performers back to the pub for what is hoped to be the first in a regular series of traditional folk music sessions.

Once reputed to be one of the finest folk venues in the country, the folk club at the St Edmund’s Head (now The Old Cannon) hosted some of the nation’s very finest artists, among them: Anne Briggs, Bert Lloyd, Nic Jones, Martin Carthy, Peter Bellamy, The Young Tradition, Diz Disley, Derek Brimstone - even Jasper Carrot!

The Bury Folk Club started in the 1960s at a pub called The Cricketers (later demolished to make way for Parkway) and it was this club that moved to the St Edmund’s head in 1972.  It had many successful years meeting regularly in the ‘Buffalo Lodge Room’ (now the Old Cannon’s bed & breakfast accommodation) before the pub closed, but then led a rather peripatetic existence moving between Everard’s Hotel (now Pizza Hut), the Bury Rugby Club, The Griffin and The Priors public houses before disappearing into local folklore.

Mike Shallow, current landlord of The Old Cannon says “we’re delighted to be able to help reinstate a piece of lost Bury history and contribute something worthwhile to the vibrant Bury music scene.  We hope the inaugural session on Monday 18^th February will be the start of a new folk tradition in our pub”.

The inspiration for the return to The Old Cannon came from local folk performer Dave Bartlett.  Dave hopes the round the room folk session will provide a friendly informal setting for performers and listeners alike to spend an enjoyable evening.

“It seems somehow fitting that the tradition should be continued, albeit after such a long absence, in a place whose walls and timbers have resonated with the sounds and voices of such national folk heroes”, Dave says.

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First session: Monday 18^th February 2008, 8pm ‘til 11pm 

Venue: The Old Cannon Brewery,86 Cannon Street, Bury St Edmunds IP33 1JR

And thereafter on the 3^rd Monday of each month:

Monday 17^th March

Monday 21^st April

Monday 19^th May

Monday 16^th June

Monday 14^th July

Further dates to be advised