The list of people wanting to join the Guitar Workshops in Clitheroe is growing but, although I want to keep the groups fairly intimate, there is room for more. If necessary we’ll start a second group to deal with the numbers so first of all please e mail mikegkneafsey@gmail.com if you want to be put on a mailing list and kept up to date with everything.

The first Clitheroe Guitar Group will meet on Tuesday November the 3rd from 8pm (to start at 9pm) upstairs at The Alehouse, which is an independent micro pub on 12-14 Market Place https://www.facebook.com/The-A%C5%82e-House-Clitheroe-1535941033345720/. I would recommend parking on Lowergate car park opposite the Key Street bar (the one with the green guitars embellishing its front) because it’s free after 6pm and you can walk round the corner to the bar http://carparkmaps.co.uk/carparks/view/18671

The most important thing to emphasize is that these workshops are not open to the public and not free, though the public can listen in, be warned. Five workshops cost £40 with no refunds for absentees and I need everyone to sign up on the first or second weeks. So please have your cheque books ready and I will provide a receipt. I am registered with the Inland Revenue and CRB checked, by the way.

I hope you appreciate that I have to do this as I earn my living as a full time professional musician and guitar teacher on a daily basis. I happen to think it will work much better and we’ll improve together if we’re more focused and committed. Though it’s essential we have fun!

I also recommend getting a lift or walk if you live locally so that you get chance to sample some of the excellent craft beers and real ales on rotation at the bar. But that comes with a warning…they are really nice.

So which songs are we going to do…?

I got as much feedback as I could from my students, checked out all the YouTube guitar teaching celebrities, contemplated the introduction of frightening B minor, strumming patterns, fingerstyle, tab,  awkward F shapes, bar chords, all of it,  but after eight years of tutoring (and longer in teaching) I’ve turned to a good old fashioned book – The Step by Step Guitar Book by Tom Fleming – which I think I bought cheaply at The Works in a shopping centre in Blackburn. I’m going to adapt the first songs from that for us because  i think Mr Tom Fleming has got it bang on for progressing from easy to hard, step by step as his book title suggests. That is no easy thing to do – so well done Tom!

Don’t buy the book though I’ll sort out chords and lyric sheets for us and the 4/4 guide pattern…and post them to you online before we even start…

My reasoning is this – to get to know each other – we need to start as simply and effectively as we can to sound effective as a group before we find out who gets the complex lead guitar parts and who likes to sing, if ever, and who hates or loves The Eagles (for example). So if you can keep a 4/4 time and swap between the D, A and G we’re off. We can belt out Bad Moon Rising by Credence Clearwater. https://youtu.be/w6iRNVwslM4 If you want to sing it and find that John Fogerty has one of those high rockin out rock n roll voices that’s too high for your liking we can always transpose it to a different key and swap between A, E and D.

BUT DON’T WORRY about the way they play it. You can do four down strums for D, then two down strums for A and two down strums for G. The repeat…in the verses. It works. And you can get more complicated if you want to.

After that “Stand By Me” and “Killing Me Softly” are songs with very simple chord patterns and chords which work their way through simple progressions. I will send you the chords and lyrics. Once we’re up and running we can judge which songs we can do as a group, though I have plenty in mind.

Trust me – it’s simple but effective which works best for a group. To begin with. Famous songs we are all likely to know, which are tried and tested, will also work better.

You may need a capo, having your own tuner helps and definitely plectrums for these first songs…

Very much looking forward to meeting you all.

Mike Kneafsey

PS Feedback very welcome

Can I also mention that I will be playing a series of December gigs with ace guitarist Oliver Day at the Derby Arms on the Chipping Road, Longridge. We will be playing songs you know but also a handful from our forthcoming album “Colourful Language.” On Friday December the 4th, Friday December the 11th and Friday December the 18th at 9pm until closing.

The Derby Arms is a Gastro Pub with a good reputation for excellent food and I know it has great beer. But you don’t have to be a diner to come along and see us play. 

On the first week in November 2015 I’ll be starting up the first “get together” of a guitar group in Clitheroe, near Blackburn, Lancashire. It’ll take place upstairs at The Alehouse, an independent micro pub which also acts as a venue for solo performers and duos.

The idea is to offer acoustic guitarists (relative beginners) the chance to meet up, strum out some songs together as a group, drink a pint if they want to, play some lead if they can, learn some new tricks, meet some new people and have a nice evening.

My role, as a full time professional guitar teacher since 2007 and a regular gigging musician since 1997, will be to provide the chords, tabs, songs and guidance. Having run my own bands and taught a huge range of students in schools and in private homes, I am happy to help and advise so that we can arrange our own songs together as a group.

The main aim is to have fun and enjoy the music.

Thanks to the landlord Simon Forster, who encourages and supports live music, learning music and for running great festivals every year, we have a great space to do it in.

The workshops will run as a course in blocks of five weeks at £10 an hour with the first introductory session for free. So the course require £40 fee for five lessons in advance.

Students must be able to change open chords reasonably quickly, bring their own guitars and be happy to play to the likes of Van Morrison and acoustic folk and rock. Singers are welcome but you don’t have to sing if you don’t want to.  Really looking forward to meeting you all.

To sign up please send an e mail to mikegkneafsey@gmail.com with your contact details or text 07760888050

The groups will meet on a Monday or Tuesday night at around 8pm.

The Ale House is a micro pub in Clitheroe (12-14 Market Street, 07530 045365) It sells cask ale, ciders and craft ales on hand pulls and in bottles.

Available for bookings…

Available for bookings from November 19th, 2022.

A professional music duo based in Manchester, Darwen, and everywhere in between. We play famous acoustic songs to suit your occasion.

Hamish Barry is based at the Royal Northern College of Music Manchester. He plays cello and electric bass professionally at function events, restaurants and bars.

Mike Kneafsey is a full-time singer, guitarist, and guitar teacher. He has been playing professionally since 2005. His experience includes bars, cafes, restaurants, weddings, festivals, support for national acts, songwriting, live performance on BBC Radio and in the recording studio.

For bookings message us on mikegkneafsey@gmail.com or leave a message on our Facebook Page “Mike Kneafsey & Hamish Barry”

Time of Our Lives – Green Day

A Team – Ed Sheeran

Shotgun – George Ezra

A Wondrous Place – Billy Fury

Wonderwall – Oasis

Daydream Believer – the Monkees

Stand by Me – John Lennon/Ben E King

Take Me Home Country Roads – John Denver

I Saw Her Standing There – the Beatles

Perfect – Ed Sheeran

Something – George Harrison

Come Together – the Beatles

Folsom Prison Blues – Johnny Cash

Brown Eyed Girl – Van Morrison

I’m A Believer – the Monkees

Live Forever – Oasis

Chasing Cars – Snow Patrol

Moondance – Van Morrison

Sit Down – James

Sweet Caroline – Neil Diamond

Fairytale of New York – The Pogues

Don’t Look Back In Anger – Oasis

Well I haven’t written these yet…but it’s on it’s way…

Sweeney @the mooorbrook, Preston

In 2025 and 2026 I have played weddings, parties and events in Liverpool, Bacup, Blackpool, Lytham, Lancaster, Preston and Burnley.

In 2024 I was playing solo and as a full band with professional agencies throughout the UK (see my gig updates page for details).

2023 gigs – played live in Leyland, Wigan, Preston, Warrington, Darwen, Skipton, Blackburn and Chorley. Playing live in August at the food festival and Foxy Fest in Clitheroe. Recorded a show reel video at the Royal Northern College of Music with On The Tracks duo in July.

2022 gigs included The Ale House, Clitheroe; The Cardwell, Adlington; Marvin’s South Bar Blackpool; The Tree House, Skipton; Tempo Wine & Ccocktails Bar, St.Anne’s; Brew & Bones, Poulton; The Inn at The Prom, Lytham.

In 2019 and 2020 (before the pandemic) I worked as a soloist on The Grand Princess for Princess Cruises travelling from San Francisco to Mexico and Hawaii. I am still registered with Holland America.

Previous gigs include playing live at Cloudspotting Festival 2017, Plungington Gin Festival 2017 and in the BBC radio tent at Lytham Festival 2017 (our third appearance this year on the Sally Naden and Bret Davison morning show). Closing Ribchester Music Festival 2015 with Sweeney Astray. I also performed as a solo artist regularly at Seafood Pub Restaurants in the north west.

Sweeney Astray played six venues over the weekend of Lancaster Music Festival October 2017. Our line up has included Katie Ritson (RNCM music graduate); Hannah Dacey (graduate of the Royal College of Music London) who plays piano, violin and double bass; Anna Ashworth (drums/percussion); bassist Shug Millidge and guitarist Jamie Brewer.

Sweeney Astray single Sunshine & Swimming/The Rooks of Kathmandu is available on bandcamp for download Bandcamp link

and on sale at Action Records in Preston…

Check out my professional cruise ship audition video on YouTube by clicking on this link. It features short snippets of covers by Ed Sheeran, Michael Buble, Stereophonics and traditional jazz.

https://youtu.be/VhvfQe_7T1https://youtu.be/31qS1QbPq1A?si=GMoTPFI4FTAQEfuv

Click on the link below to watch Mike Kneafsey playing with cellist and bass player performing a showreel video at the Royal Northern College of Music rehearsal space.

Three videos. One is a live rehearsal of Sweeney Astray, the second a snippet of a pub in Earby and the third Mike practising 7/8 time for the band Propori.

Sunday September 20th RM Hubbert plus MIke Kneafsey & Oliver Day live at Korova Arts Cafe & Bar Preston £5 advance tickets online only here: http://www.wegottickets.com/event/332147
£7 on the door

RM Hubbert

RM Hubbert is a guitarist and (sometimes) singer from Scotland. He writes music about love, death, friendship, mental illness and occasionally a dog called D Bone. It’s not as depressing as the previous sentence suggests.
RM Hubbert has been active on the Glasgow scene since 1993, first attracting wider attention with UK math rock pioneers El Hombre Trajeado between 1997 and 2005. Following their demise, Hubbert took a break from playing live and began studying a host of different musical forms, including flamenco and samba, before returning to solo gigging in 2008 and self-releasing his debut solo album First & Last, in March 2010.
Lauded Scottish record label Chemikal Underground, home to The Delgados, early Mogwai, Arab Strab etc picked up the album for rerelease in 2011 and have put out three more since then. ‘Thirteen Lost and Found’ won the prestigious Scottish Album of the Year award in 2013 and ‘Break and Bone’ was shortlisted for the 2014 award.
Stunning live sets during this time highlighted Hubbert’s technical prowess as a guitarist but, perhaps more importantly, his considered and subtle strengths as a composer. Consequently there’s been a big demand for RM Hubbert’s performances, and he’s toured with God Speed You Black Emperor, Twilight Sad and Mogwai as well as selling out his own shows..
September 2014 saw the release of Ampersand Extras; A collection of rarities, b-sides and unreleased pieces taken from the sessions for the previous three albums.
Last in Preston in 2013 playing with Emma Pollock, we’re delighted to welcome RM Hubbert back for an intimate show at Korova.
http://rmhubbert.com/
https://www.facebook.com/rmhubbert?fref=ts

Mike Kneafsey and Oliver Day

Mike Kneafsey, frontman of the respected Lancashire folk/indie group Sweeney Astray, teams up with another talented guitarist, Oliver Day, multi-instrumentalist for singer-songwriter collective, Winter Springs, to display Mike’s compositions in a different setting. A new combination, the duo are currently in the midst of recording a debut album, Colourful Language.
Praise for Mike Kneafsey:
“His songs are a unique mix of poetic balladry, catchy melody, acoustic songwriter and alt indie folk. Every song tells a story, whether it’s about love and the ocean, backpacking, drinking or fighting in a war. It’s about good music, togetherness and holding onto that inner strength. ”
https://www.facebook.com/SweeneyAstray
http://sweeneyastray.co.uk/index.htm

September the 26th…playing a Classic Covers solo Mike Kneafsey gig at the Brown Cow in Clitheroe as part of the mod weekend.. Free entry 2.30 in the afternoon….

“Lancashire singer-songwriter Mike Kneafsey plays Classic Covers by the likes of James Taylor, The Verve, Van Morrison, Otis Redding, Paul Simon and more as part of the Mod Weekend taking place in Clitheroe.

Expect fingerstyle guitar and acoustic rock outs from an experienced performer who has been organising and playing gigs in the Ribble Valley since 2008. Mike also works as full time guitar tutor in Lancashire and recently closed the Ribchester Festival 2015 with indie folk trio – Sweeney Astray”

Saturday October the 3rd Korova Arts Cafe & Bar, St Wilfrid’s, Preston

Running a night at Korova Arts Cafe & Bar featuring The Diableros, James Bailey and Mike Kneafsey (solo)

(previous summer gigs below)

Saturday May 16th Welcome The Spring Garden Party (private party) David Jaggs of the Ragamuffins plus Mike Kneafsey (of Sweeney Astray) 

https://www.facebook.com/events/715370051894694/

Friday June 5th Fruitless Forest, Sweeney Astray and Gaunt Story, live at the Ferret, Preston, doors open 8pm, free entry

http://theferret.info/event/fruitless-forest-more-tbc/

Sunday June 28th  Ribchester Music Festival 2015, Festival Lunch, Stydd Gardens, Ribchester, Sweeney Astray plus    support, time 12.30, tickets £15

http://www.ribchesterfestival.co.uk/home/4583729274

Sunday July 5th GlastonFerret at the Ferret, Preston, Sweeney Astray, doors open 12pm, day tickets £6

http://theferret.info/event/glastonferret-2015-3/