History of the Topic Folk Club

The Topic was founded by Alex Eaton and friends in 1956, once he had left the local Young Communist League choir. It was the height of the Cold War, with Suez and the Hungarian Uprising dominating the headlines. It was still going as a weekly concern in 2006, when Suez Crisis and Hungarian Uprising 50th Anniversary TV documentaries dominated the schedules...

Alex has no note of the exact day or date of the first meeting, but it was sometime in September of 1956 in Laycock's Rooms in Albion Court. See here for more from Alex on this period. However, for a long time the club celebrated its birthday in early November - including the 25th anniversary party in 1981 - probably recognising when things became more formalised. From its very beginnings as a fairly informal opportunity for like-minded youths to get together and talk politics and sing it was - and has remained - a weekly club. One spur to creating a formal club that charged money was a desire to raise funds for refugees from the Hungarian Uprising of 22-24 October 1956.

Since that time there have been peaks, slumps and shifts in the popularity, influence, styles and purpose of what is broadly called folk music, the definition of which is still argued about and which (arguably) encompasses traditional harvest songs with unknown authors, 60s protest songs by very well-known authors, international roots music, Mississippi blues, electrified folk-rock, Irish pub songs, songs of the industrial tradition, skiffle, sea shanties, travellers' songs, Celtic new age, various European strands and a capella harmonising groups, among others. With all this the Topic has survived and adapted when all the other clubs formed before it (and many since) have folded up, and now it claims to be the oldest folk club in the world - certainly the oldest continuously-operating weekly folk club.

How do we justify this? Googling "the oldest folk club in the world" all you get is Topic references (admittedly many of the references come from this site...) Well, Ewan MacColl had founded the first English folk club, the Ballads and Blues, in London in 1953; later known as The Singers' Club, it closed in 1991. The Good Earth, also in London, was founded in 1954 but had gone by 1959, by which time, according to Alex Eaton, the only provincial clubs listed in Sing along with the Topic were Wayfarers in Manchester and Spinners in Liverpool, both now long gone (though it seems The Bridge, see below, should also have been mentioned).

The Cornell Folk Song Club in New York was founded at some point in the 50s, maybe only as a university society to start with, and even now seems only to be fully-functioning during term-time. The Bush Music Club, Inc in Sydney was founded in 1954, but seems to be less a weekly folk club than an EFDSS-style organisation with publications along with dance and music - specifically bush music - workshops. The Bridge Folk Club in Newcastle was founded by Louis Killen and Johnny Handle in 1958, putting it in the same sort of ball-park era as the Topic. Its claim to fame is that it has been in the same venue from the start - apart from a 6-month gap for refurbishment of the pub - which the Topic certainly can't claim.

The Topic is certainly now in a venerable venue. From early 2006 the club has been based at The Cock & Bottle in Barkerend Road, up the hill from Bradford's cathedral and across the road from the Old Paper Hall, Bradford's oldest house. It's a historic 1820-built pub with an ever-changing slate of real ales, built on (or near) the site of an inn where drinking and brewing has taken place since 1747.

Although it's moved a football team of times in all (see sidebar) fully two thirds of The Topic's existence has been at just two venues - 22 years at the Star (1969-1991) and 10 years at the Melborn (July 1995 to the end of 2005, when the Melborn announced it was closing as a pub). Pics of the Melborn, Peel and Star are here.

The Topic has always been weekly, and according to records including the 1981 Silver Jubilee History and the Gig List 1970-Now, has been closed on only 33 club nights (usually Xmas and New Year) in its 50 years. Over the years there have been over 2,400 club nights and hundreds of people have appeared on the Topic stage - paid guests, semi-professional support acts, visiting club exchanges, and local singers and musicians. In its very early days the club was a place for young people to meet and talk folksong and politics and sing for themselves, and it was a while before paid guests made an appearance. We do have a comprehensive record of gigs going back to 1970 and it would be nice to track down information from the late 1950s to 1970 as well. If anyone has old diaries, programmes or other documents, get them to Trevor Charnock, who is collating the information.

We also have links to the websites of or other online references to about 350 individuals and bands who have appeared on the Topic stage since the 1950s. Well-known visitors over the years include John Hasted, Peggy Seeger and Ewan MacColl, Bert Lloyd, Ramblin Jack Elliott, Vin Garbutt, Bert Jansch, Shirley Collins, Robin Williamson and his Incredible String Band, Dave Swarbrick and Simon Nicol, Jez Lowe and the Bad Pennies, Martin Carthy, The Ian Campbell Folk Group, Jerry Silverman, Tim Hart and Maddy Prior, Ashley Hutchings, Billy Connolly and Gerry Rafferty, Christy Moore, Gordon Giltrap, Richard Digance, The Watersons, Mike Harding, June Tabor, The Oyster Band, Roy Bailey, Show of Hands, Kathryn Tickell, Alan Hull, Bob Pegg, Dick Gaughan, Kate Rusby, Davy Graham and Alexis Korner. And many others - Roger Sutcliffe made his 40th anniversary appearance in 2004. There is anecdotal evidence that a young Bob Dylan made a floor-spot appearance once, though it looks as though Paul Simon never did show up - despite the legend.

There is now a pretty full roster of guests, from the US, Canada, South Africa and Australia as well as all over the UK and Ireland, supported by featured support acts and local floor singers, and when there are no visiting artists there are loosely-themed singers' and musicians' nights. On any Thursday night you can just listen or you can contribute a song or two and continue the traditional ethos of the earliest days, with people making music for themselves and each other right there, live.

In 1981 the Topic committee produced a 25th anniversary leaflet containing a brief history of the Topic to that point. At the end of it the committee looked forward to the next 25 years. We got there, and marked the landmark not with a big party or weekend concerts but with an Autumn Season of guest bookings including blasts from the past such as Wizz Jones, Vin Garbutt, Allan Taylor and Julie Felix.

That second tranche of 25 years is now also in the past, so on to the third - and on present form we'll be celebrating the 75th anniversary in the autumn of 2031. (However, by the centenary we may be posthuman machine-minds so no guarantees for 2056).

Come along, show support and join in. In a world where commoditised entertainment is pumped to consumers' homes so that global corporations can lever money out of your pocket and drop it into their revenue streams, it is good to do something for real.