Enjoyable entertainment at a traditional musicians joining in pub folk music tune session at the Globe Hotel, Topsham, Exeter, Devon on the 1st Thursday of the month

Invited by John Stephens, whom I met at the Bampton Folk Festival 2011 and is one of the organisers of the Sunday evening Folk Club at the Globe Hotel, Topsham, Exeter, Devon,  I enjoyed a pleasant 1st Thursday of the month pub folk music tune session last night (3rd November 2011), also at the Globe Hotel. A particular bonus was to bump into folk dance musicians Pete and Nicole Mac and Sue Mentz of the Pete Mac Band whom I played alongside for the evening (see photo).

Tunes flowed fast and furiously and were mainly traditional English folk music with brief excursions into tunes from further afield. (One rather Irish sounding tune was actually Hebridean). There was a good mixture of instruments, including melodeons, violins, whistles and piano accordions, and the strong brass contingent, including trombones and a tuba, gave a rich depth to the traditional music that was very enjoyable.

Starting at 8pm, this session is obliged to finish at 10.30 pm promptly so I was able to get away early and head back to West Somerset with the expectation of getting back for midnight. Topsham, Exeter, is handily close to the M5 motorway.

The Globe Hotel, Topsham, Exeter, Devon is approached from a really narrow (and rather quaint) street. When I was there, it was lined on one side by cars leaving only just enough room for my car to get through on the other side of the road and the entrance from the street at the front of the hotel was extremely narrow. I managed to get in to the very crowded car park at the back but it was a squeeze. Thank goodness I was driving the Ford Focus and not my campervan which would never have made it. Access from the back of the hotel car park would have been somewhat easier but I would recommend anyone visiting the pub session to consider using the public car parks nearby instead. I needed two friendly and helpful guys to help me insert my vehicle in amongst the others and Pete and Nicole Mac kindly helped me extricate my car again at the end of the session, thankfully without accident.

All in all, the traditional pub folk music tune session at the Globe Hotel was a very pleasant evening playing traditional tunes in a friendly traditional hotel which I look forward to revisiting in the future. Currently this folk music session is the 1st Thursday of the month at the Globe Hotel, Topsham, Exeter, Devon but, as always, it is worth checking before travelling in case of changes to arrangements.