Coronavirus/ Covid-19: Club Suspension

_{Monday 16 March 2020 -}

_{Due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, The Topic has reluctantly decided to suspend its advertised programme with immediate effect.  There will be no performance this Thursday 19th March, nor for the following Thursdays until further notice.   This decision has been taken in the light of today’s government advice about social distancing, and the need to avoid unnecessary gatherings in pubs and clubs.}

Newsletter

No 214
April 2020

Hello all, I sincerely hope you're keeping well and safe in these truly difficult and worrying times.

There's nothing to say about up and coming Topic nights because there aren't any, not for the foreseeable future.

There are things happening, though, in cyberspace.

Zbig, one of our resourceful members and a regular at our singers nights, has organised an opportunity for anyone to make a video and put it up as a sort of virtual performance slot on his Queensbury Unplugged site which is supporting unplugged music and poetry replacing live music events in Bradford.

Zbig says " in the interests of encouraging new performances and writing new material, any short sets folk want to video, if they put them on youtube or facebook I'll pick them up and compile them into a group of performances called Queensbury Unplugged. Just mail Zbig on queensbury.unplugged@gmail.com or ping me on facebook". Here's a link to the latest Queensbury Unplugged .

So get creative...

Of course the health of the nation, the welfare of the economy and peoples' lives and futures are of overriding importance in this unprecedented crisis and beyond: people are dying, and against this the future of our local music scene might seem trivial. But music is a huge and integral part of our daily lives: we want it to be there when this is all over. There are things that we can do to help musicians  through these dark days when for many of them their income has dried up completely, suddenly. Some will be organising online concerts from their homes for which you can buy a ticket or donate whatever you want to in various ways. One which I know about - and which involves performers we have had at the Topic: Ninebarrow on 4th April at 7 pm: details of how to watch are on their website https://www.ninebarrow.co.uk/, but there will be many more out there, just keep an eye out for them.

There is also an online 2 day Home Festival coming up on  11th/12th April. The line up includes Alden Patterson & Dashwood, Greg Russell, Ciaran Algar, Katie Spencer (all who have performed at the Topic), and Steve Knightley (who as far as I know hasn't!): go to www.kirstymerryn.com/home-festival-2020 for details and how to obtain tickets.

If anyone hears of any other similar "events", please share them as much as possible. The people who so often bring us the music we love need our support now, more than ever.

Well, not much else to say really, except take care of yourselves, stay safe and well.

Best wishes to everyone

Tony Charnock

Topic Folk Club

A History of The Topic
An outline of the History of The Topic from 1956

Topic Historic Photo Gallery
Pictures from the 50s, 60s, 70s and more on the website in a single gallery here.

The Topic at 60
The view from 2016, by John Waller. This is not a comprehensive history - instead John has put together a snapshot of the Topic as it is now, telling the story of how those currently responsible for the club's running came to be involved.

Topic Club Membership
£5 a year from 1st January. That gives you £1 off concert tickets, and you can get more involved with running the club too if you are interested.

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