Barleycorn Anyone??

Looking for a fant­astic way to spend you Monday even­ing? Well then I have the answer for you - Barleycorn, held every Monday even­ing at the Rygersdal Sports Club ( just off Belmont Road in the Southern Suburbs of Cape Town).  It was a great way to spend my even­ing and any­one who has the slight­est interest in music will enjoy this.

Let’s take a quick look at where Barleycorn comes from and then we can get into what you’re really inter­ested in — who per­formed and rocked the crowd ...

Barleycorn con­cep­tu­al­ised by Bob Denton from the USA, when he and a few musi­cian friends met up on a reg­u­lar basis and had some jam ses­sions, while encour­aging more people to join them. In 1977 when this cas­ual meet­ing of like minds was form­al­ised the Barleycorn Folk Club was born. The word Folk was removed from the title in the early 80’s in order to show that it wasn’t only “folk” music being played.

Every week local and vis­it­ing tal­ents are given the oppor­tun­ity to per­form to a will­ing and sup­port­ive crowd and since they are a not-for-profit organ­isa­tion the R20 entrance fee you pay on arrival is used to pro­mote local music and musi­cians. The volun­teers who run Barleycorn are hard work­ing and enthu­si­astic (as well as unpaid – it’s for the love of music) their aim is to cre­ate aware­ness of the fant­astic tal­ent that Cape Town and the rest of South Africa has to offer.

Monday 13 July’s per­form­ance was a made up with per­form­ances from Heather Pierce-Jones, Zac Smith & John Bartmann, Hugh Coutts and Soulfire.

Arriving late - in true Cape Town style - I man­aged to miss Heather’s debut but those who were there to wit­ness it enjoyed the per­form­ance. I’m sure she’ll become a Barleycorn reg­u­lar.  It was an even­ing of debuts as the duo of Zac and John was also new to the Barleycorn scene, this duo has some intel­li­gent folk-rock and enter­tained the crowd. Hugh Coutts, former com­mit­tee mem­ber of Barleycorn and win­ner of pre­vi­ous Barleycorn song­writers com­pet­i­tion enter­tained with his all ori­ginal set. Another crowd pleaser!

The last act to per­form that even­ing was Soulfire and I am not ashamed to say it, I am a groupie, I know the words to the songs and scream just as loud as the other groupies in attend­ance. If laid­back, soul­ful, acous­tic rock excites you then Dave Starke and Duncan Breen are the duo who will get your fin­gers tapping. 

Dave is now based in Eshowe and Duncan is based in Gauteng and they were in Cape Town to start record­ing their new album. Joining them was Gavin, a really tal­en­ted musi­cian, and together these three enter­tained the packed house with a mix of old and new num­bers. When it was all over and the crowd called out for more and Soulfire dili­gently obliged with their rendi­tion of 'My Fat Horse' to get the crowd clap­ping and end the even­ing on a high note.  For more details about Soulfire and a chance to listen to what they have to offer visit their My Space page (links below).

Also spot­ted in attend­ance was Wayne Pauli, lead singer of The Stremes, another local band who is mak­ing waves in the music industry. Have a listen to these guys via their My Space page, they’ve got a great sound! (Links below)

If you’re try­ing to find some way to keep busy and warm on Monday nights this winter and any other Monday of the year, then get your­self down to Barleycorn. R20 gets you in, there are plenty of seats, but make sure you get there early, a large bar with a friendly bar­man and if you’re hungry you can even get a bite to eat. Just remem­ber to be cour­teous to the artists on stage per­form­ing so if you’re plan­ning to chat to your friends all even­ing it’s prob­ably best to stay at home. Otherwise come and sup­port the local tal­ent — you never know you might be wit­ness to a South African star in the making.

Useful links:
Barleycorn Music Club: http://www.barleycorn.org.za/
Soulfire: http://www.myspace.com/soulfirecapetown
The Stremes: http://www.myspace.com/thestremes
Find accom­mod­a­tion: Cape Town Accommodation
Other fun stuff to do: Things to Do in Cape Town