Meet the team...

Initial contact with the club should be made to:
Jim Welsh (secretary) email / tel 0131 554 4510

Jim Welsh (secretary)
jwwelsh@btinternet.com

Jim has been involved in music promotion in Edinburgh for many years. He has served on the Committees of Edinburgh Folk Club and the late-lamented Edinburgh Folk Festival; he runs – along with LFC’s soundman Kenny Delaney – Edinburgh Jazz Projects, who for the last 14 years or so have put on a wealth of jazz and blues concerts at venues ranging from tiny cellar bars to the Queen’s Hall. They have promoted gigs as part of the Edinburgh International Jazz Festival, the Jazz Fringe, Edinburgh Festival Fringe and Edinburgh’s Official Hogmanay Celebrations.

Fozzie Sayers (Chair)

Fozzie is a weel-kent face around the Edinburgh folk circles, and has been singing his way round the session bars for many a long year. One of the founder members of the club, we reckon he's seen more bands in the last three years than most of us see in a life time. As a good friend once said, the Folk Club just wouldn't be the Folk Club without Fozzie's smiling face. Well said!

Ray Main

Born in Morpeth, Northumberland (north of Castle Douglas!!).  An ex-psychiatric nurse.  His favourite instrument is acoustic guitar but is open to all kinds of music.  In 2003, he found his creative juices were released (at Queen Margaret’s College) resulting in some “wild and wonderful” abstract paintings.  His enthusiasm for painting is now via acrylics at Leith Academy where he also enjoys playing guitar at the Improvers Class.

He is very pleased and proud to be part of LFC.  His enthusiasm for good music and a great atmosphere can be found at the Village of a Tuesday evening.  He feels the committee of LFC is a “strange crew” but believes they all aim to please the customer. 

Doreen Brady (Treasurer)

Doreen is a cornerstone of club without whose quiet diligent work every week we would not be the success we are. Everyone who comes to the club on Tuesday evenings knows her as friendly face by the door organsing the tickets, but behind the scenes she runs the finances with an iron fist!.

Kenny Johnstone


One of the dedicated stalwarts of the team, Kenny has been with us from the outset. A keen photographer and a fine artist, he enjoys the wealth of diverse acts that the club has attracted.

He can be seen most club nights wrestling the PA onstage (or off!) or standing stageside with camera in hand. Thanks to him we  now boast an extensive collection of artist's pictures  - some of which can be seen on the Gallery pages and the village noticeboard.
He also produced the Leith Folk backdrop you see behind stage, all drawn by hand. Always willing to help even if it involves 'leafleting the Dudleys' in an early PR attempt at attracting people to the club, he is a indispensible member of the team.

 

Catriona "Geraldine" Smyth

Catriona joined the committee recently, and has been helping the club across the whole range of activities including helping running the raffle, minding the door, taking her turn as MC, and taking down the PA at the end of the evening.

Martin Finnigan (publicity)

Martin joined the committee earlier this year and now looks after the club's publicity activities. This involves maintaining the website, circulating details of gig listings to our many media and music industry contacts, and making sure our posters and flyers are distributed.

Lachlann Finnigan

Lachlann is the newest member of the committee, and delights in the sheer variety of the music in the club.

A flick through the tracks on his iPod is like taking a trip round the backstreets and closes of the music world: blues oozes from a basement bar, the high lonesome sound of a mountain fiddle sings out from a session pub, while bebop drifts from a sleazy latenight jazz joint. The sound of silence is defined by the sweet absence of drum'n'bass.

Morag O'Dea

David Hossack

 

Friends of LFC (previous committee members)

Steve Hamilton, Martin Krievs, Allan Johnston, Barry Stalker

Leith Folk Club is run by volunteers on a not-for-profit basis. Our income comes only from ticket sales and the proceeds of our weekly raffle. Any financial surpluses remaining after the artists have been paid are retained within the Club and used to maintain our PA equipment and publicity.