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

Est: 1956

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Topic Newsletter Archive

TOPIC FOLK CLUB, BRADFORD

At The Merchant Bar, 25 Peckover Street, Little Germany, BD1 5BD

Newsletter No 215  May 2020  

Hello all, once again I sincerely hope you're all keeping well and safe. 

There's nothing much to report or say about future Topic happenings for the moment.

Zbig continues to provide 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. You can contact him on queensbury.unplugged@gmail.com.

Live streamed events continue to proliferate, I'm sure many of you will be finding it easy to follow your favourite artists.

The following are just a few who have performed at the Topic either recently or over the years.  

Ninebarrow are doing a second concert on 2nd May at 7 pm: details of how to watch are on their website https://www.ninebarrow.co.uk/, or this link should take you straight to the info about it https://www.ninebarrow.co.uk/live

Karen Pfeiffer & Paul Walker continue to do a regular afternoon spot on Tuesdays and Fridays at 4pm 

 https://www.paulwalkermusic.co.uk/ 

and Honey & The Bear bring their excellent music every Sunday evening at 7.30 pm https://honeyandthebear.co.uk/

Most of these live concerts seem to be available to watch after the event, just check out their facebook page  or youtube.

Pete Morton was due to play at the Topic in July, no doubt he would gave been promoting his excellent new CD, A Golden Thread. As that won't be possible I'll give you some details from his flyer. Buying CD's etc is one way of supporting musicians through this difficult time: it is of course available to purchase from his website. 

QUOTE

www.petemorton.com

A Golden Thread (Further 003) - is the brand new album from highly acclaimed folk singer-songwriter Pete Morton. His first collection of new and original material since 2015 features 8 self penned songs, 2 traditional ballads, and the title track by Pete Seeger.

Morton is joined on this album by Sarah Matthews (fiddle, octave violin, viola, and vocals), George Sansome (guitar and euphonium), Alice Jones (piano, clarinet, and vocals), Matt Quinn (banjo, mandolin, concertina, melodeon and vocals), Justin Twigg (double bass), Mark Woolley (percussion and whistle), and The Peace Through Folk Choir.  There are also two duets; a re-working of an older Morton song (Emily Dickinson) with Jude Rees, and ‘I Live Your Love’ with Julie Wigley. 

A Golden Thread looks far onto the horizon with global themes encompassing human migration, the arms trade, climate change, and universal basic income, sitting amongst the two traditional renditions of the Farmer’s Boy and Barbry Allen.

UNQUOTE

I'll leave you on a lighter note: how do you deal with the situation if you're in a successful 4 piece band and have had to cancel your tour and retire to your own homes in isolation in different parts of the country?

Local Topic favourite Bella Gaffney has the answer: form a pop-up band. See here: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8w6MaiVuww&feature=youtu.be

Best wishes to everyone, continue to take care of yourselves, stay safe and well.

We'll be back to normal one day, even if it's a new normal!

Tony Charnock

Topic Folk Club

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02 May 2020

Hello again,

Since sending my latest newsletter yesterday - probably because of it - I've been asked to pass on details of a couple of items that may well  interest you.

Firstly from Kieran Halpin, as most of you know now living in Germany. It will be easier and quicker all round if I just quote you his email in full, there's a lot of detail in it:

QUOTE

As we’re all aware at the moment we live in very difficult and dangerous times. Nobody seems to really know what the future holds. Many people are short of money with jobs lost and businesses closing. Musicians have also been hit very hard by the spread of this Corona Virus. All venues, clubs and pubs are now closed and will remain so for some undefined time so musicians have limited avenues available in which to earn a living.

As most of you will be aware many have taken to YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to broadcast live concerts from their homes. To this end we will also be broadcasting three concerts on YouTube on May 3, 17 and 31. These concerts will feature only older songs that Kieran has written over the years.

On Sunday May 3 at 18.00 (CET) we will broadcast the Looking Back Concert Part One. With this email/message we will enclose a link that will become public at this time and you may view this concert as often as you wish:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFujozwaMBs 

It is set as a YouTube Premiere, which means that the first time round it can be watched like a live concert, no scrolling forward but you can go back. Also there will be a live chat to join others online. After that the premiere video will automatically turn into a normal video.

The same process will take place on May 17 at 18.00 (CET) and prior to this we will send you the link you need to view Part Two. This concert will feature a different set of songs from Part One. And the same process will take place for the May 31 Part Three concert.

Details will be made clear if you wish to donate to help support Kieran Halpin with all three videos. There will be a PayPal link as well as details of Kieran’s bank account in case you do not use PayPal. We have also reduced the price of all CDs, DVDs and Songbooks due to the Corona Virus.

Quick & easy donation: www.paypal.me/kieranhalpin                                                           

Please feel free to forward this email to anyone you think may be interested.

For those of you who do not use PayPal:

Kieran Halpin - Kreissparkasse Tübingen

IBAN: DE72 6415 0020 0004 2706 30

BIC: SOLADES1TUB 

 www.kieranhalpin.com 

 UNQUOTE

NB CET is the same as BST as far as I can make out!!

This from Tom Bliss (who used to appear regularly at the Topic), a bit shorter!

QUOTE

Your members might enjoy the new recording of an old favourite:

https://youtu.be/ssn04pEAcU0

UNQUOTE

Whilst on, so to speak,something I could have mentioned in the newsletter: for anyone whose eyes might be glazing over watching youtube etc, if you want a good read I can't recommend this highly enough:

Seasons of Change: Busking England by Tom Kitching

Tom is an established fiddler on the folk scene. An excellent musician, he has appeared at the Topic several times and has been booked to come again in October, though of course we don't know if that will happen. Visit http://www.tomkitching.co.uk/ to find out about the project and how to buy the book with or without accompanying CD. It's much more than a book about busking.

This is a personal recommendation: I enjoyed reading it so much the least I can do us help promote it.

Hope you don't mind the bombardment of messages!

Best wishes

Tony Charnock

Topic Folk Club

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03 May 2020

For those interested in the Kieran Halpin item in my email of yesterday, please note that CET is Central European Time and is one hour ahead of the UK.

My mistake, I hang my head. I did check, but obviously not properly!!!

No excuses, only apologies...

Tony

Topic FC