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1. What is the Topic Folk Club?
A Bradford pub-based weekly live music club that provides a stage for performers broadly in the area of folk music and song (but not folk dance). The Topic books a lot of professional artists but also, like most folk clubs, offers amateurs and budding professionals of various levels of experience a chance to perform in public. A typical annual programme has about 35 Main Guest or Double Header evenings, 15 Singers' and Musicians' evenings (including all of August), plus an evening set aside for the Annual General Meeting. For the meanings of these terms (well, except Annual General Meeting, which should be self-explanatory) see Section 10.
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2. What type of music is "broadly in the area of folk"?
Quite a variety, from traditional unaccompanied to contemporary electrified. We have singer-songwriters like Jez Lowe, sometimes alone and sometimes with his band, singers with a guitar and a political attitude such as Roy Bailey, all-women acapella groups like Soundsphere or Wench All, folk-rock bands like The Durbervilles, The Queensberry Rules and Entropy, solo interpreters of Americana like Judy Cook, duos specialising in fiddle and accordion dance tunes like Richard Heacock and Becky Price, 60's blues-veterans like Wizz Jones and Roger Sutcliffe, shanty specialists like Kimber's Men, bands influenced by Slav music, such as Banoffi, specialists in the Scottish, Irish and English folk tradition, a band made up of folk music course graduates from Newcastle (CrossCurrent) and writers and performers of American folk like Dana and Susan Robinson. Guests are mostly from the UK (many from Yorkshire and the North East) but also from the US, Canada, Australia, South Africa and, in 2005, Bulgaria. Some are fairly big names in the folk world - Vin Garbutt, John Wright and Jez Lowe, for instance. Take a look at the links to websites of some of our past guests
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3. Where is the Topic?
In the Bradford Irish Club (Rebecca Street, Bradford BD1 2RX, tel 01274 732000), which has a stage and a licensed bar, plenty of seating and CCTV-monitored car parking. A map and directions are available on the website.
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4. When is Club Night?
Every week, on Thursdays, at 8.30. The club is closed only very rarely, generally only when it clashes with Christmas Day or New Year's Eve. As of writing, we have not missed a club night since Christmas Day 2003, and have only missed 33 in our entire existence.
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5. Can anyone come along?
Yes. As a club the Topic has all the formal accoutrements, such as members, elected committee, an annual general meeting, treasurer and a club chequebook, but anyone can come along to club nights without being a member (subject, that is, to normal pub licensing laws regarding entities like young children).
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6. Does it cost to get in?
Prices at the door are usually £4 for members, £5 for non-members. It can be £1 more for big names, and some artists, such as Vin Garbutt, necessitate a minimum entry price of £8. If you are performing a floor spot on guest nights you still pay the normal amount. Singers' and Musicians' nights, though, are free for everybody. Club membership is £5 for a year, and the year starts from November 1.
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7. Where does the money go?
We pay our professional guest artists, of course, and that accounts for all the entrance money taken at the door - the club gets none of that. The club itself is financed out of membership fees and the raffle (and the occasional T-shirt sale) which pays for things such as the Featured Support artists' expenses, ads in Tyke's News, printing flyers, paying web costs, and an emergency pot in case the audience take does not reach the agreed minimum guest fee.
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8. So how does a typical night pan out?
It varies according to the type of night (See Section 10 for types) but the evening starts at 8.30. On guest nights, the MC will perhaps introduce the floor singers, and/or a Featured Support artist, and then the main act will perform for 40 minutes or so. After a short break the structure will be repeated - floor spots, main guest - with the aim of finishing up around 11pm. There will also be the raffle. By contrast, Singers' and Musicians' nights are informally organised, and no money changes hands (well, except at the bar).
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9. Can I perform at the Topic?
Yes. Floor singers are welcome to on every club evening (though we can't guarantee a turn), but please sign in before 8.30. The easiest time to get a chance to play is on a Singers' and Musicians' night when everyone can have a go; see the next section (10) for more details. If you want to play on a professional basis as Main Guest, on a Double Header evening or as Featured Support, first see our Bookings Policy in Section 13 and then please contact John Waller or Rahel Guzelian via the club.
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10. What do you mean by all these terms like "Double Header" and "Featured Support"?
We have a variety of club evenings and types of performer, with levels ranging from solo first-timer having a go to international touring professionals, and here they are:
Singers’ and Musicians’ evenings.
These are sometimes called singarounds and are about once a month (and every week in August) and are very informal, with attendance anything from five to around 30. In some clubs you go to the front and standup to perform, but here participants take it in turns to tackle a song from wherever they are sitting. Usually some sort of theme is announced in the website or publicity - say, Burns night, or Death, or The Sea - but it is not in the least compulsory and is simply intended to give a bit of inspiration. Sing what you like. Not many people turn up just to listen, but you can if you want to, for fun or, for instance, if you want to get a feel for what goes on before tackling a song at a later gathering. There is no admission charge and there is a raffle only if there are enough people there. If you're new, just show up and introduce yourself and see what happens.
Floor singers.
Floor singers are unpaid performers on the nights when professional acts are booked. Floor spots are not booked, though you might want to let someone know in advance if you want to perform (especially if it involves lugging a double bass over to the venue...). We can use between two and six floor singers in an evening, but with the advent of Featured Support acts and Double Header evenings (see below) the opportunities are fewer than they used to be, and are usually more available in the first half of the evening. Floor singers generally perform two numbers, and come to the front of the room to perform to the audience. As well as there being no fee payable, floor singers pay the normal entry charge to come in. Please be sure to sign in before kickoff at 8.30 on club nights, so the MC can work out a running order. There are some online tips for what to do/expect in Floorsinging for Beginners; some of the contributors to that have, as it happens, played the Topic in their time, but there's no other connection.
Featured Support.
This slot gives a chance for better-quality floor singers, potential headline guests or exciting new talent to showcase their material over a slightly longer period. They perform either two 15-minute slots, or (more rarely) one 25-minute slot, just prior to the Main Guest. You can't just walk in - Featured Support acts are generally booked several weeks in advance. They get a notional contribution to expenses for their trouble.
Double Header.
This is a relatively new idea and features two acts of equal billing, each performing two sets of about 25 minutes each. Double Header slots are only offered to performers of a standard similar, or very close, to full Main Guest ability, and are generally booked six months in advance. The arrangement is much as for a single headline guest: there will be floor singers on the night and they split the door take, but there is no Featured Support slot.
Main Guest.
This is the standard format for professional artists, who perform two 40-minute slots. Such bookings are reserved for well-established performers and/or performers who have worked their way up through one or all of the stages outlined above. Main guests can be booked approximately 9 to 12 months in advance, and all the door money goes to them.
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11. Who has played at the club?
Quite a few over the years including, in the old days, Peggy Seeger and Ewan MacColl, Ramblin Jack Elliott, Bert Jansch, Shirley Collins, Robin Williamson and his Incredible String Band, Dave Swarbrick and Simon Nicol, Martin Carthy, Tim Hart and Maddy Prior, Billy Connolly and Gerry Rafferty, Christy Moore, Mike Harding and June Tabor. More recently Julie Felix, Kate Rusby, Jez Lowe, Vin Garbutt, Banoffi, Artisan, cloudstreet, Pete Morton, The Durbervilles, Maggie Boyle, Kirsty McGee and Wizz Jones have played.
There is anecdotal evidence that a very young Bob Dylan, on tour with Ramblin Jack Elliot, once played a floor spot, to very limited contemporary approval. However, it looks as though Paul Simon never did show up - despite the persistent legend that he was refused even a floor spot, presumably on his "tour of one-night stands". On the website there is a list of 350 weblinks to various known past guests, and also a comprehensive gig list since 1970 - and we're hoping to take that back to the 1950s if possible.
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12. When was the club started up?
September 1956, by Alex Eaton and friends. It was not the first folk club in the UK, but it is the only survivor from then and now claims to be the oldest continuously-operating weekly folk club of its type in the world. By our reckoning, it has only been shut on 33 out of more that 2,500 possible club nights in that time (mostly for Christmas and New Year). It has been in eleven venues, having moved to the Cock & Bottle in January 2006. See the History page of the website for more background. Alex Eaton is still around, though he has not come to the club in a while.
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13. What is your booking policy for professional guests?
a. First performance
We could fill our schedules two or three times over, and while we don't want to get stuck repeating the same programme over and over again, we only have a little room to experiment with artists who are unknown. The best route to a headline booking if we don't already know you is by advancing through the various performance possibilities beneath headline guest. The highest level at which we would be willing to take a gamble is, at present, Featured Support: this is a reality imposed by ever-increasing numbers of people wanting to perform.
Headline performers who have followed this route to Headline status include Duncan McFarlane, Tom Bliss, Emily and Ben, Hamish Currie, Julie Ellison and Wench All. All these now-established Main Guest artists appeared at the Topic first at Singers' and Musicians' evenings, and most then also performed as Featured Support before being booked as a main guest.
b. Return policy.
It is rare that a Main Guest will be invited back or booked again earlier than 18 months after their last performance. Policy for Double Headers and Featured Support is more relaxed, but as demand for these slots increases, it is unlikely that a booked return earlier than a year later could be expected. Floor singers perform according to demand; and absolutely anyone can come and perform any time at a Singers' and Musicians' evening.
c. Payment.
Main and double-header guests are paid the door take on the night (subject to an agreed minimum). All other club costs, including token expenses for featured support artists, are paid out of the cost of membership and the raffle. Due to the capacity of the room, audience size is unlikely to be above 50 (unless special measures are taken, like taking out all the seats and tables...).
d. How to approach us.
If you’d like to appear at the Topic, please do get in touch. You can just turn up at a Singers’ and Musicians' evening (though it is as well to contact us first to see who is going to be there); or email to request a floor spot at a guest night to john@john-waller.co.uk
If you are looking for a more formal booking, by all means send a demo CD (they will be returned, or paid for, on request). This should be accompanied by as much informative blurb as you can muster: performance style, history, previous performance venues, reviews, website address and so on, including your geographical location - all grist for the marketing mill. Write to John Waller at john@john-waller.co.uk .
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