22 July 2020
'What is the connection?' asks Simon Bennett, compiler of this week's playlist.
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15 July 2020
Judy Dyble, a founder member of Fairport Convention, has died aged 71. She was born at the North Middlesex Hospital and educated at Minchenden School.
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and forum comments
15 July 2020
This week we return, at long last, to a line-up full of people who play at St Harmonica's Blues Club. Like what you hear? Come and find us in Southgate on a Friday night when we are eventually able to re-open. In the meantime, find some more of their YouTube videos, and visit their websites to see what else they've been up to!
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08 July 2020
Greetings, and welcome to another weekly playlist from St Harmonica's Blues Club. Last time we did an Ask the Audience playlist we received so many requests and recommendations we couldn't fit them all into one list. So here comes Part 2. Many, many thanks to all the contributors..
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30 June 2020
This week's St Harmonica's playlist was compiled and annotatedby 'Little Paul' Besterman. From the honking and wailing of Gatortail Jackson through the downhome of Dr.Ross Sonny Boy Son House Willie Mctell stopping off in Chicago for Muddy Junior Wells, to the Screaming of Jay Hawkins, a trip of various styles possibly driven by Memphis Minnie's chauffeur. Listen, bop, or weep - it's all Blues.
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24 June 2020
This week's virtual St Harmonica's features music selected by John Crowther: 'When I started getting seriously into music as a spotty teenager with an acoustic guitar in the early 1970s, there were two distinct strands. On one hand, contemporary folk music; on the other, hard rock. Eventually I realised both strands had at least some elements (and in some cases, complete songs!) that led directly back to much earlier American blues, often via 1960s bands and musicians. They are the theme of this playlist. I hope you enjoy it.'
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17 June 2020
This week's playlist features songs nominated by members of the St Harmonica's virtual audience.
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09 June 2020
This week's recordings have been chosen by Simon Bennett, who asks: 'Which British band borrowed heavily from these numbers?'
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06 June 2020
Thursday 11th June will be the last chance to listen to Tig Trafford playing and singing outside his house in Palmerston Road.
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03 June 2020
This week's playlist, selected by Chrissie and Dave Thomas, gives you a flavour of what would have been at St Harmonica's over the last few weeks, and finishes with a train set for you to play with. Is there light at the end of the tunnel or is it just one of those on coming trains? We live in hope; enjoy the offering..
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26 May 2020
This week's St Harmonica's playlist was compiled by local musicologist Nick Wall. In his own words: 'Here's my selection of blues and some of its neighbouring musical areas, with music from the 1920s to the beginning of the 1960s. There's a core of Louisiana music, but it strays up to the Appalachians and down around the Gulf Coast. It embraces the contradiction at the heart of the blues - an expression of pain or an exuberant music for enjoying the good times.'
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20 May 2020
This week's playlist was compiled by David Sinclair: singer, songwriter, guitarist and bandleader of the David Sinclair Four (DS4) and a sometime music journalist. He says: 'I was looking forward to bringing the DS4 to St Harmonica's on Friday May 22. We have had to put the gig on hold, but we'll be there as soon as we can. Meanwhile, here are some of my favourite performances by great musicians I've met over the years.'
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and forum comments
12 May 2020
This week's blues playlist was compiled by regular St Harmonica's attendee and locked-down percussion maestro, Pete Abernethy. He describes it as 'an attempt at charting the changes of the sound, techniques, and styles of drummers/percussionists and bass players over time'. It definitely has rhythm ...
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06 May 2020
The sixth St Harmonica's lock-down playlist has been compiled by John Crowther and features music by people who have played at St Harmonica's - including a performance commissioned specially for Virtual St Harmonica's (recorded at the musicians' home, of course)..
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28 April 2020
This week's St Harmonica's playlist, entitled The Lady Sings The Blues, was compiled by Mark Hawkins. The theme speaks for itself! Mark adds: 'While we are without live music at St Harmonica's the live vibe can be maintained by these nine songs with a blues or blues rock background'.
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22 April 2020
Missing Friday nights at the Southgate Club listening to the great bands playing at St Harmonica's? Well, we can't do anything about the lockdown, but we can do our best to recreate St Harmonica's in the comfort of your own home.
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14 April 2020
For Week 3 St Harmonica's goes international. We start south of the Mason-Dixon line, where the Blues originated, and end up on a railway station in Lancashire, calling en-route in Africa and Turkey.
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08 April 2020
This week's St Harmonica's Online brings you recordings bands that would have been playing at the club in Southgate, and footage of some of the musicians who inspired them.
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04 April 2020
Locked down we may be, and cut off from attending both professional and amateur theatre and music events, but ever more interesting opportunities are being made available online. One that I've just heard of, courtesy of Alexandra Park Neighbours, is a recording of a semi-staged production of Mozart's opera The Marriage of Figaro, performed at St James Muswell Hill by Fortismere Community Orchestra and Choir and directed by Joseph Winters from the Almeida Theatre. The Count is a certain MP for Oxbridge, who has recently been made Foreign Secretary by the PM. He has been trying to seduce his cleaner...
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31 March 2020
Missing Friday nights at the Southgate Club listening to the great bands playing at St Harmonica's? Well, we can't do anything about the lockdown, but we can do our best to recreate St Harmonica's in the comfort of your own home.
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