Information for performers at the Loaded Dog
Loaded Dog information for performers

By Sandra Nixon
Posted Friday, December 30, 2011

The Loaded Dog Folk Club is Sydney's finest acoustic folk venue - showcasing the best acoustic folk music has to offer, from guitar to autoharp, solo voice to community choir. (No amplification! No mikes!)

It is an acoustic folk club run by volunteers which meets once a month (4th Saturday) 10 times a year (Feb-Nov) in the upstairs room of the Annandale Neighbourhood Centre, 79 Johnston Street, Annandale, an inner-west suburb of Sydney.

The venue is the former Annandale Town Hall - a splendid example of a late Victorian public building with superb acoustics due to the 20' (6m) ceilings and wooden floor. There is really no flexibility in the dates nor an opportunity for us to move our dates to fit in with a visiting artist's tour, though we do move if Easter clashes with our usual date.

The club meets on the fourth Saturday of each month, from February to November, with occasional changes due to competing festivals. We are unable to put on extra concerts.

Two acts are booked, usually a support act given 30 minutes, and a main act which does two sets of 30 and 60 minutes. We start with 2-4 short floor spots - usually 2 songs each, and we have a 30 minute break for a light supper.

The room holds 80+ people seated in concert formation (it is licenced for a maximum of 100 people) and the club runs from 8pm - 11pm. Our door charges are: $15 full and $13 concession. We can only offer door deals to performers - after expenses the money is divided among the booked acts, we do not keep money back to top up future acts. We advertise on our own list, and on local and national lists, and rely on performers to also inform their fans about their appearance at The Dog.

The most important thing to know about the Loaded Dog is that we have a singing audience. They have a preference for traditional folk songs or music composed in that tradition. Generally our guests have minimal instrumentation and we have a fair percentage of unaccompanied singers.

Audiences are quick to pick up choruses and like to add harmonies. The "right" performer will rise to the occasion and be mightily uplifted by the response. We have had overseas artists - Jez Lowe, Martyn Wyndham Read, George Papavgeris and others who are delighted at the response they have to their narrative songs.