Name: Folk Saves The Day - The Railway Inn Fundraiser
Start: 2025-09-05T19:30:00+01:00
Location: 3 St Pauls Hill, SO22 5AE Winchester, United Kingdom

Folk Saves The Day - The Railway Inn Fundraiser

This is urgent. The Railway needs your help.
We don’t say this lightly. In a sea of rising costs and falling revenues the last few years have been tough for almost everyone in the grassroots music scene. As you probably know, venues have been closing at an alarming rate. For a long time we have been trying to manage alone, but The Railway is at severe risk of closure and we can’t do it without you. It’s that simple.
This show is fundraising for our crowd funder to ensure that we can remain open and putting on the music and events that you love! If you can’t make the show please consider donating to the crowd funder.
If you are unable to donate then we would be very grateful if you’re able to share our social media posts to help raise awareness of the cause!
We’re incredibly lucky to have an amazing community of musicians who have graced our stages over the year, the three featured on this line up all have heard of our troubles and wanted to collaborate on a fundraising show to help contribute to keeping live music in Winchester for us all. There will be a raffle for some donated goodies held on the night, there will be a mix of seating and standing room for attendees – please let us know if you can’t stand for the whole gig as seating will be limited.
The legendary touring folk artists performing on this show are…
Megan Linford
A folk / roots musician from Portsmouth, Megan‘s music pulls from a fusion of inspiration from both Traditional folk music and the Joni, Sandy Denny, Dylan songs of the 60s and 70s. A seasoned performer with 12 years under her belt. Studying at ACM in 2013 and going on to develop her sound through years of hard work and growing. Megan’s supported many Folk artists over the years including; Emily Barker and Mary Watersson, Martha Tilston, Greg Russell and Ciaran Algar, Luke Jackson and Dan Bettridge.
Jack Francis
Singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Jack Francis’ second album ‘Early Retirement’ is another example of his impressive work. Shining a spotlight on Francis’ unique brand of Soulful Folk, ‘Early Retirement’ explores a broad range of influences, touching on great British, Irish and American songwriting.
The lyrical content demonstrates the writer’s acerbic wit and attention to detail and compounds his experience navigating modern society and fallen dreams. The singles from his sophomore record were picked up on national radio and championed by the likes of BBC Radio 2, Radio X and BBC Radio Scotland – the album itself appearing in both the Official Americana and Official Folk Charts upon its release in March 2024. The song ‘Failure’ was subsequently nominated for ‘Song Of The Year’ at the UK Americana Awards in 2025.
Jack’s reputation as a stunning live performer has also put him in good company, opening shows for the likes of Flyte and Courtney Marie Andrews to name a couple, whilst also appearing at several festivals across the UK and Europe, including Glastonbury Festival in 2024.
Rob Clamp
Having supported the likes of; Frank Turner, James Walsh (Starsailor) and The Bluetones, Rob Clamp is making a name for himself as a dynamic and captivating performer. Hailing from Southampton, Rob has been featured on BBC introducing, has won the highly regarded ‘Purbeck Rising 2022’ imprinting himself onto the UK folk scene, and won the ‘Sofia International Singer Songwriter Festival 2022’ in Bulgaria. Heavily influenced by the likes of; Ben Howard, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers and Bruce Springsteen – Rob’s music is filled with real life experiences, performed in his own compelling storytelling style, with acoustic guitar accompanied by a variation of foot percussion.
Recent years have been eventful for Rob, selling out numerous shows across the South of England and Germany. His debut album ‘Lost Soul’ was released in 2024 featuring his longstanding supporting band, ‘The Ashmen’. The band consists of; Sam Weeks (drums & banjo), Ben Reid (piano, guitar and mandolin), Ed Bentley (bass) and Dave Elliott (violin & harmonica). The group have become synonymous with dynamic and powerful performances and have been touted as having a sound big enough to work well in front of several thousand people.