On the right tracks: Wokingham Music Club marks 10th anniversary
WOKINGHAM Music Club turns 10 years old this month.
The first gig to be arranged by Stan Hetherington took place at Cantley Lodge Hotel in April 2012.
Since then, the club has grown to run regular live music nights in three venues around Wokingham.
It has attracted the likes of Toyah, Kiki Dee, John Otway and Chris Difford to perform on its stages.
It has also been an adventure for Stan.
“Back in December 2011 when I was thinking about launching this, I had no idea where it would go,” he says.
“I would never have imagined that I would be on friendly terms with one of my idols Martin Turner, or have Paul Young sitting at my kitchen table singing me happy birthday, because of Wokingham Music Club.”
Stan explains how he was inspired following a trip to Hereford Festival in 2011, and a chance stay at a village pub.
“My wife Jo and I were staying at the Linton Arms near Ross-onWye, and I saw a poster up for a music festival they were running at the pub in June the following year.”
“Tickets were already selling out, that far in advance, and three of the acts on the bill were from my youth.
“And I thought, if a tiny place like this can do it, why can’t I do it in Wokingham?”
The idea for the music club was first discussed on Stan and Jo’s journey home, as Stan had noticed a decline in live music venues in the town centre.
It was an idea he kept revisiting over the following months.
“Eventually Jo go so fed up she told me to either do something about it or drop it,” Stan explains.
“So I called my friend Maurice Monk at Cantley Lodge, and he agreed we could do something there.
“The first acts were Adam Smith and Never the Bride and we had 95 people turn up.”
Stan has experienced the highs and lows of running music venues since the initial gig.
A low point was in 2013, when the members of the band performing outnumbered the audience.
But overall, Stan says that the club has “gone from success to success.”
It now run events at Emmbrook Social Club, The Whitty Theatre and the Royal British Legion in Winnersh.
Following covid, people who have told him they feel safe at WMC gigs or that it is the first time they have been out for two years. But it has been difficult to predict how well attended events will be.
“It’s been swings and roundabouts,” Stan says.
“But I would not have got involved with this in the first place if I were a pessimist, and the club is in a good position to keep going.
“I do it to support local music artists, and I have had a bloody good time doing so.
“And it has opened doors to opportunities and experiences I can take into my dotage.”