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The Catweazle Club

About

The Catweazle Club is Oxford’s legendary performance space for music, poetry, story and song & all manner of acoustic artistry, founded by song writer and musician Matt Sage in 1994

 

An intimate and magical space for musicians, singers, poets, storytellers and performance artists of every imaginable hue, who grace the stage every week. A chance to sit, to listen, to connect, to inspire and to be inspired …

 

Matt says:

 

“I started the Catweazle Club after I moved from London onto a boat on the Oxford Canal and couldn’t find anywhere that I wanted to play and hang out and meet other players.

 

Amazingly, back at the beginning of the 90s, there was absolutely no acoustic or intimate music scene in Oxford, which nowadays is happily overrun with promoters, players and nights, as befits a City with such a strong musical reputation.

 

So I took over the snug of the Victoria Arms in Jericho, put up a few posters, and people came along, musicians, singer and poets looking for a respectful audience, and those who wanted to have an intimate cultural experience that didn’t involve big crowds and noise and expensive shit lager etc.

 

It didn’t take long for the room to pack out, forcing a move to the larger Upstairs Room. No microphones, no stage: just a spotlight and a chair, with the audience hanging on the every word and every note of the performer.

 

An intense and often otherworldly atmosphere soon developed, and still more people came to gather round the flame, responding to that integral part of themselves which had hitherto remained malnourished by the bigger, better, faster world that seemed to be sinking its teeth into every aspect of modern life in the middle of the nineteen nineties.

 

Another move saw the Catweazle Club commence what was to become a three-year residency at Jude The Obscure in Walton Street. People met, fell in love, had babies, joined bands, jammed into the wee hours, care of the wonderful landlord Noel Reilly’s Irish “hospitality”.

 

This was also the time of the Newbury Bypass, when Catweazle became something of a hub and telegraph post for the various campaigns and protests, with news of planned actions and who had been nicked/released/evicted from the trees. It was a time when many previously unconnected groups swirling around Oxford began to connect up, circles upon circles upon circles overlapping.

 

When the walls of Jericho could no longer contain the multitude, the whole circus moved to Northgate Hall in St. Michael’s Street, where we spent seven fantastic years before finally crossing Magdalen Bridge and over onto the East Side, where we took up residence for the following 15 years at East Oxford Community Centre.

 

Covid came along and invited us to take a couple of years out, and we have lately reconvened at the wonderful Common Ground space on Little Clarendon Street, back in Jericho, where it all began, running the first and third Thursdays of the month.

 

Over the past 30 years it has been my privilege to witness  literally thousands of performances – from nervous first timers going onto achieve real class within their chosen crafts – to seasoned pros with the audience rapt in the palm of their hands.

 

Long may it continue.

 

Here are just a few of the things other people say about The Catweazle Club:

 

“Britain’s most intimate performance space” - The Times

 

“One of five essential cultural interludes in Oxford” – The Guardian

 

“Oxford’s best-loved performance night” - BBC

 

“The atmosphere is magic” - Virtually Acoustic

 

"Catweazle - no trickery, just pure heart and soul wisdom for ears that hear the bells of angels, even when they don't." – Core Luminous

 

 

Catweazle encompasses community love. The atmosphere is elusive where real raw talent meets the magical ambience shining through sound, music, poetry and story-telling.

Sacha Mokenen

 

The CatweazleClub is Oxford's longest-running Acoustic evening where songwriters,players,bards,storytellers and miscellaneous trobadours can make their manifold musings manifest in a respectful and electrickery-free space. The password is love. – Simon Davies

 

"Stripped-down acoustic music served in the simplest and most honest manner to a hushed and appreciative audience. In other words - a songwriter's dream venue!" – Luke Jackson

 

Catweazle reminds me of some great graffiti I kept gratefully seeing on the way to Port Meadow: 'Resistance is Fertile.' It keeps hope alive, it also fertilises and cross-pollinates art, humour breaks out, and good will abounds. And the mixture of all ages & all cultures is so enjoyable, and so healthy.- patti dale, poet

 

Catweazle: It’s a purposefully homespun experience….under the naive spell of performing it pulls the heart strings and spells ones cynicism away it’s utterly charming – Marcus Hirsh

 

Vampires, jugglers, angels, ghosts,
Wood, wire, words, fire,
Dancing hip cats of the now,
Burning with visions of high heaven/sweet hell
And this wonderful dangerous in-between, our good green mother.
CATWEAZLE: not for the faint of art.- joe martin ricke

 

The ultimate in social mobility- anyone may occupy the hallowed glittering chair and sermon the people at their feet, through speech or song. – Tom Swinburne

 

Catweazle is brilliantly hosted. Candlelit. Glamourous. Mercurial. Quality performances and quality listening as no amplification. Friendly and egalitarian space encouraging to all participants – Pauline Sewards

 

Organic wonky basement of sharp talent amuses many a person through minty eyes of Music, Poetry, dancing and Singing with arms of chairs and the body of a cushion – Eliot Vanderhyde

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