The Martlets Hall in Burgess Hill closes its doors on Saturday 30th June 2018 and “a proud tradition of live shows will come to an end,” says arts promoter Robert Eggleston.  A key part of the music scene at the Martlets Hall has been folk music with acts like the Dubliners, Ralph McTell, Martin Carthy, Dave Swarbrick, Faustus, Spiers and Boden, and Show of Hands featuring across the years.
“Bringing down the final curtain on folk music at the Martlets Hall is going to be very poignant”, says Robert. So for one last time the venue will play host to folk with a double header on Saturday 9th June 2018 featuring Americana group The Orange Circus Band and Folk Rock legends Home Service.

The Orange Circus Band is a raucous country Americana collective based in Wales and Kent, with roots in Virginia, USA. They are set to headline one of the main stages at this year’s Cambridge Folk Festival.
 
Having a hand in roots, rock and gospel music, and updating traditional songs taken from The Blue Ridge Mountains - The Orange Circus Band produces original music that has a wholly unique, fresh sound. You can expect wild playing, beautiful harmonies and boundless energy guaranteed to raise the roof and warm the hearts. They have  played with the likes of Noah and The Whale’s Urby Whale, Michele Stodart of The Magic Numbers, The Grahams, and Born Crooked and many more.
 
Home Service, one the greatest ever folk-rock ensembles was formed in the early 1980s by a core of musicians who had been part of the influential Albion Band in the previous decade. The band released a single and three albums; by the time of the last of these, "Alright Jack", the band had    attained genuine legendary status. Reuniting in 2011 and very much back in business they won the BBC Radio 2 award for Best Folk/Roots Live Act in 2012.

Fronted now by the legendary John Kirkpatrick (Steeleye Span, Albion Band) and with a first album of entirely new material for 30 years winning them 5-star reviews, they are going from strength to strength!

Home Service live is still the very mightiest of sounds that could grace any stage, with nothing
remotely comparable in the folk-rock arena in terms of maximum visceral and emotional impact which combines traditional folk rock with a great brass section.

The night is part of the Burgess Hill Summer Festival and not to be missed. Tickets can be purchased via www.live-arts.co.uk at £17.00 adults, £15.00 concessions and children (16 and under) £7.00.
 

The Martlets Hall in Burgess Hill has been part of the town’s live arts scene since the 1970s but it is to close in June to make way for a town centre revamp. So you might think that this was not the time to launch a programme of live shows dedicated to traditional music. Live-Arts is doing just that as its way of saying farewell to a venue that has given a lot of joy to people over the years

Robert Eggleston the founder of Live-Arts has been a supporter of traditional or traditional inspired music since his teens and has promoted live shows for a number of years. His vision is to make Burgess Hill in Mid Sussex a thriving centre for this form of music and other music genres.

This is a great time for folk music. There is a new crop of highly talented artists emerging alongside the established names, exciting and original song writing, and a willingness to fuse folk with other genres. It is a vibrant scene which we should be nurturing locally – not just in Burgess Hill but across Mid Sussex.

Saying farewell to the Martlets Hall was always going to be a difficult pill to swallow.  However, a new venue in the town in the not too distant future could soon be on the cards and this is a cause for hope and cautious optimism.The design of the proposed new building  would make a great home for live shows with a true regional appeal.

But there will be a gap of maybe three years between the loss of the Martlets Hall and the opening of a new venue. Of course, as an arts promoter Robert would like to see a seamless transfer from one building to another but you never get everything you want in life apparently.

So in addition to staging three farewell shows at the Martlets Hall to wish his old friend goodbye Live-Arts is going on the road to other venues as well.

​But the farewell shows at the Martlets Hall are well worth booking> The first of these is on Sunday 18th March with Lady Maisery, a closely knit vocal trio with immense multi-instrumental talents. They are part of the new breed of folk artists destined for high honours (The Guardian said of their last album that it was “some of the most exquisite, thrilling vocal harmony work in the English folk scene”). A further two shows are booked for Saturday 5th May (Show of Hands) and Saturday 9th June (Home Service)