At: Hullabaloo, 41 Westgate, Shipley, BD18 3QX

Est: 1956

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Topic Newsletter Archive

TOPIC FOLK CLUB, BRADFORD

NEWSLETTER No 74 – late February 2008

Greetings:  and here is the long awaited newsflash. 

28 Feb       Emily Smith and Jamie McLennan
This will be a big one.  Emily has received and been nominated for a string of awards on both sides of the Atlantic (including Young Traditional Musician of the Year and Scots Singer of the Year): who specialises in traditional ballads from her own native Dumfries and Galloway region, interleaved seamlessly with her own material.   Jamie is a classically trained pianist, but accompanies her on guitar and fiddle.    Featured Support comes from Leeds-based singer-songwriter John Parkes, a former Indie rock musician who has come home to acoustic, and who boasts over 200 songs to his name: on love, life, lust, longing, politics and religion with touches of black humour.   This will be a great evening: come and make it memorable.  £5 / £6 to come in: MC John Waller.                 Please come and make this a great occasion, not least because .....

THE ABOVE CONCERT WILL BE THE LAST AT THE TOPIC’S CURRENT VENUE, THE  C.O.C.K  A.N.D  B.O.T.T.L.E.

Your Committee has decided to move to a new location in central Bradford as of the start of March 2008.  To quote from the Club News letter in the Spring Edition of Tykes News (which some of you will already have seen):

“First news: the Topic is moving to a new venue: the BRADFORD IRISH CLUB.  This is situated on Rebecca Street, Bradford BD1 2RX.  For those who know Bradford moderately well, it is right behind the New Beehive pub, just off Westgate, and (if you are coming up from town) about 200 yards short of our earlier venue The Melborn.  Full maps and directions will be on our website www.topic-folk-club.org.uk <http://www.topic-folk-club.org.uk/> on Friday 29 February.

The new venue will give us greater capacity for larger attendances without losing the intimacy for smaller gatherings, and also some possibility of additional interest from existing users of the Irish Club.  We will be using a comfortable, recently refurbished room with benches and a “tables and chairs” cabaret atmosphere.  There is a permanent stage, and opportunities for better lighting and PA when required.  The bar is reasonably well stocked and competitively priced (Mick Walker is promising to arrange one Guest Real Ale each Thursday), and our new hosts are very supportive of live music.  The Bradford Irish Club is central to Bradford, on good bus routes, easy to find (honest); and with plenty of relatively secure CCTV-monitored parking.

Some of us will be sorry to leave the Coc.k and Bottle: in so many ways an iconic location for the world’s oldest folk club.  But the pub has changed from what it promised to be when we moved in just over two years ago, and some found the pub’s atmosphere intimidating.

See you all this Thursday 28 February 2008 at the C.ock and Bottle; for the last time.   8.30 start.  Let’s make it a great evening at Bradford’s oldest pub! 

John Waller   
Topic Newsletter Editor       
john@john-waller.co.uk              
www.topic-folk-club.org.uk

Topic Newsletter No 74: late-February  2008