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At: The Merchant Bar, 25 Peckover Street,
Little Germany, Bradford, BD1 5BD Tel: 01274 721100

Est: 1956

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Topic Newsletter Archive

Newsletter No 232 - October 2021    

Hello all, I hope you're keeping well, as always. 

Firstly I would like to thank all those of you who have been responding to our little survey, it's a great help to hear your thoughts. It's just as helpful to see negative comments as well as positive, so don't hold back, all your views are giving us a clearer idea of where we stand as we look into the possibilities of restarting live music at the club. Of course there are still a lot of unknowns out there, with winter approaching etc etc, and we can't be sure how covid is going to behave in the coming months.

For the final time I'm going to make a separate attachment for the usual streaming stuff that I always include, as many artists are now getting back to live performing and may well have suspended their streamed shows. At least you can keep the information: many of the streamed shows can be viewed more than once.

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FOLKY STUFF ON LOCAL RADIO

Tim Moon is running the following folk programmes:

Folk Us on Mondays 9 – 10 pm 106.6 FM and net etc

Coast and County Radio on Tuesdays 8pm – 10 pm 96.7FM and net etc

Ken Hudson's Roving Folk programme on Phoenix Radio (based in Halifax)  is broadcast on the fourth Sunday of the month from 10.00am to 12.00 noon on 96.7 FM, and is then available via the station's podcasts and via Mixcloud.

From Robbie Martin:

"Into the Buttercup"  BCB 106.6fm Listen again bcbradio.co.uk on Monday 13th September . No further details as we speak.

THE TOPIC IN CYBERSPACE  

There is one Topic Facebook concert this month:

Ben Ashton      Thursday 14th October 8 pm

See the attachments for details. 

PLEASE NOTE: as I have pointed out previously all the donations to the tip jar at these concerts normally go to the performer, not the club. However Ben does not have a paypal account: he says he is "more than happy that any donations go to the Topic" (05-04-49 a/c 17703951 Topic Folk Club for BACS payments).

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TOPIC YOUTUBE CHANNEL 

Here is the link if you wish to access the channel, which now includes the Topic performers session for July.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCe1S_4ASeMXzo2RnYqGn4jw

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Check out The Live Room Saltaire - https://theliveroom.info/  who are starting to present socially distanced live concert.s Lots of great acts coming up this month, including  Heidi Talbot & Boo Hewerdine (15th October though nearly sold out!); Spiers & Boden (22nd); Hannah Sanders & Ben Savage (31st). 

The Live Room has installed a Virus Killer, a highly regarded and widely used air purification unit, in the club concert room: they are still taking all the usual covid safety measures as well.

HEART (Headingley Enterprise and Arts Centre) in Leeds are back with a full programme of music events, including Den Miller (5th October 7 pm) and Lisa Marie Glover (26th October 7 pm). Lots of other good stuff too. See their website https://www.heartcentre.org.uk/ for details.

Other Items of Interest

The Folk Forecast  advertises all sorts of folky stuff going on (with some big names) which you might find very useful, self explanatory of you follow this link:

https://thefolkforecast.substack.com/people/17173534-the-folk-forecast. Thanks to Graham Smout for the info.

Early warning...the date of this year's  AGM had been  provisionally set for 2nd December. We will let you know of the format hopefully in the next newsletter.

Best wishes as always, stay safe and well.

Tony Charnock

Topic Folk Club

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Streamers for newsletter (ongoing)

OTHER ONLINE STUFF

A reminder about Roger Sutcliffe's Zoom singers and Musicians Nights from his part of the world for anyone who would like to join in. They take place on a Tuesday: Here is the link: info@cuttywrenfolkclub.com. and the website is https://www.cuttywrenfolkclub.com/.

Dougie McLean does a series of online concerts, some free, some longer ones for which you have to book and pay to watch. He has lots of website/contact pages which you can find by googling him, but this one seems to give most of the info about these concerts: https://www.facebook.com/ButterstoneTV

Pete Coe's club - Ryburn Folk Club, https://www.ryburn3step.org.uk/. Not sure what's coming up, but bound to be something good. To find out

email ryburn3step@gmail.com. or phone 01422 823099.

There's the usual regular stuff going on online: NB some artists may be taking a rest from regular streaming, but by following the links you can usually watch past sessions.

Kath Reade, singer songwriter, has been using lockdown as an opportunity to broadcast her songs live on Facebook and they have been getting thousands of views. Kath has a facebook page, Kath Reade's Songs, so all her songs can be found in one place.

Skinner & T'witch, a Leeds-based duo who have been to the Topic on a singers and musicians night, have a facebook page which is well worth visiting. They have different stuff going on regularly, eg "Pick & Mix" sessions with some well-known performers, and what they call "Garden Sessions", plus lots of other stuff.

The Grove Folk Club is running sessions every Friday on their group Facebook page at folkatthegrove. The club has contacted me to say anybody is welcome to send in a video to take part, see the fb page for details.

Karen Pfeiffer & Paul Walker continue to do a regular afternoon spot on Fridays at 4pm.https://www.paulwalkermusic.co.uk/

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

Winter Wilson's "Live from the Lounge" every Thursday, 8.15 pm, see their facebook page.

Phil Snell, a frequent visitor to the Topic over past years, has made a selection of lockdown videos: tunes and songs "in an attempt to cheer folk up". You can check them out on: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcNdcfcxVq8-9b6aF0aAYsG8KmBqBeBbn