15 December, 2024

Folk Club mainstay steps down after three decades

Hilary Worsfold (pictured), a driving force behind the Devonport Folk Club and Auckland Folk Festival, has retired after 30 years.
Music and more specifically folk music became Worsfold’s focal point after she emigrated from the UK to New Zealand in 1967.
With the end of six o’clock closing, pubs had begun having live music, including folk artists playing songs she remembered from her school days.
The Devonport Folk Club had been established in a bunker on Takarunga in 1966. Worsfold, who was living in Balmoral, started attending its Monday night sessions regularly from the mid-1970s.
“I enjoyed it immensely. Someone nominated me [as secretary-treasurer] – I was terrified. I’d never been secretary of anything before.”
She found herself working closely on administration with the larger-than-life club and Auckland Folk Festival president, Roger Giles. The pair became friends and in the 1990s he asked her to move into his Cowper St home.
They never married: “We were like hippies really. Why muck everything up?” But they were together until Roger died in 2020.
With Roger around, dull moments were few and far between. Folk singers from all parts of the globe would often stay at Cowper St when playing at the Bunker.
Worsfold remembers a particularly memorable night when Roger and Irish folk singer Andy Irvine were “dancing around the kitchen in their underpants”.
A highlight was the club’s 50th anniversary in 2016, attended by folkies from around the globe.
In recent years, Worsfold was determined Giles’ legacy would continue. “When Roger died, we had to keep it going. I was determined not to drop the ball.”
She has been unwell over recent months, but was looking forward to seeing the Wild Women play at the Bunker earlier this week and hopes to turn out regularly on Monday nights in the new year.