Club Constitution, History,
Memoirs, Records,
Facts & Trivia
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Club Constitution
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Club Safeguarding Policy
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The Club's Beginning
By Alex Eaton. A report on the earliest years of The Topic Folk Club written for 30th Anniversary and published in 1990 in Tykes' News in three parts.
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The First 12 Years
By Denis Sabey, Tykes' News 1968
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The First 25 Years
Booklet produced by the club in 1981
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The Club in 1970-72
By Trevor Carolan. A personal memoir with some photos
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The Topic at 60
The view from 2016, by John Waller
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Three T&A Articles
Written by John Waller in 2022
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Historic Photo Gallery
A selection of photographs from the very early days of the Club
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Songs for The Topic at 60
Songs written by club members to celebrate The Topic's 60th anniversary, performed 3 November 2016
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Gigs List
Club nights from 1957 to last week
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Compiling the Records
Trevor Charnock on tracking down sources for the gigs listed
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Guest Artist Links A to Z
Web links for 732 Topic acts
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Club Night
For nearly 40 years the club met on Fridays - also with Saturday concerts in some of the earlier years - but it has been Thursday nights from March 24 1994.
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Logo & Straplines
June 1995 - first appearance of the Wandering Fiddler logo
September 1995 - "Probably" dropped from "Probably the oldest Folk Club in the World".
January 2009 - Wandering Fiddler dropped. New strapline
"live-acoustic-folk"
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Drinking & Smoking
The club was a non-booze venue at the very start, with a lot of school-age attendees, but moved to a pub (the Fox and Goose) in 1959, so U-18s no longer allowed. March 1995 saw "Thank you for not smoking" appear, and 1st July 2007 smoking in pubs was made illegal.
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Raffle
The raffle started on 26th August 1966, after the Committee had noticed funds depeleting. The first prize was a 15/- record token, and £1 6/8 was taken in ticket sales (a little under half what was taken on the door that night). It has continued ever since.
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Secretaries & Bookers
Club Secretaries
1958 to 1982
Isobel Arlott
Sept 1958 - Sept 1959
AM (Molly) Brown
Sept 1959 - ?
Sandra A Kitchingham
April 1961 - ?1962
Malcolm McGeorge
?1962 - Aug 1964
Hilary Stevenson / Tideswell
Sep 1964 - March 1966
Pat Butterfield
April 1966 - June 1967
Jan Heatherington
July 1967 - March 1968
H Denis Sabey
April 1968 - May 1970
Jim Boyes
May 1970 - Nov 1971
Roger Sutcliffe
Nov 1971 - June 1972
Ken Hall
July 1972 - March 1974
Mick Wheeler
March 1974 - March 1976
Trevor Charnock
April 1976 - April 1982
Booking Secretaries
1982 to now
Ronnie Wharton
May 1982 - May 1988
Deanna Norman
June 1988 - March 1992
Brenda Baldwin
March 1992 - March 1993
Roger Sutcliffe
March 1993 - Nov 1994
Philomena Hingston
(sometimes with Finola Hingston)
Nov 1994 - Dec 2003
John Waller
Dec 2003 - Dec 2008
(with Simon Alexander Jun-Dec 2006)
Rahel Guzelian
Jan 2009 - Dec 2010
Joe Grint
Jan 2011 - Jan 2012
Anthony Charnock
Jan 2012 - Sep 2013
Sue Gaffney
Oct 2013 - Dec 2015
Rahel Guzelian
Jan 2016 - Jan 2018
Sue Gaffney
Jan 2018-Jan 2020
Martin Richards
Jan 2020 on
NB: The first few months of a new booker's reign were generally booked by the previous incumbent.
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