Blow The Fuse

Blow the Fuse ‘On Air’ 2020 – 2021
We were awarded funding by the Arts Council of England to produce a series of online concerts recorded exclusively by Blow the Fuse from the Vortex Jazz Club in Dalston plus archive film footage and interviews. We’d like to thank everyone who’s supported us through these extraordinary times and to all of you who became a BTF Patron through donations. Your support was crucial and helped us to produce TEN shows in all. A very steep but rewarding learning curve.

All shows can now be viewed anytime on our You Tube channel HERE

Carol Grimes • Deirdre Cartwright • Liane Carroll • Annie Whitehead
D’n’A present vintage Guest Stars • Martha & Eve + The  DaDa Dandies
Back to the 70s • The Casimir Connection + Add3io • Ian Shaw • ARQ

Please join our club by clicking here and receive links to the shows. Subscribe to our YouTube channel and look on our fb page for more updates. See you ‘On Air’ soon!

Many thanks to the Arts Council Of England for their support….

We’ve won the 2020 award for ‘Services to Jazz’ at the All Party Parliamentary Jazz Awards.
Thanks to everyone involved, it means a lot to us. Congratulations to all the other winners, we’re really honoured.

Our new season of Tomorrow the Moon, supported by PRS Foundation’s The Open Fund began in January 2020.

We were also delighted to have been awarded funding to record the new ARQ album ‘Short Stories’ and for a national tour promoting the album.

Both of these projects are being rescheduled as a result of Coronavirus measures.
See you live again in 2021.

and to the equally wonderful people working at the PRSF for the Women Make music fund.

Thank you to all our supporters and watch this space for more news…

C R E A T I V E    •   C U R I O U S
•  E X P E R I E N C E D  •

In May 2019, Blow the Fuse celebrated 30 years. Started in 1989 by musicians and composers Deirdre Cartwright and Alison Rayner who were members of the internationally acclaimed jazz group The Guest Stars, BTF have played a crucial role in raising awareness about women jazz musicians and importantly giving them support, a space and opportunity to perform in times which have sometimes been very challenging.

BTF have been very much part of the new resurgence of jazz musicians, which contain many talented young women. Beginning in 2012, Blow the Fuse seasons Tomorrow the Moon ‘one small step for women’ have featured groups led by composers Laura Jurd, Yazz Ahmed, Laura Cole, Dee Byrne, Shirley Tetteh, Lauren Kinsella, Roz Harding, Nikki Iles, Shama Rahman, Daphna Sadeh, Flo Moore, Chelsea Carmichael, Camilla George and Nubya Garcia.

BTF have managed many UK jazz tours with new musical works, innovative collaborations and educational projects and run the Blow the Fuse record label. This year we produced Blow the Fuse ‘On Air’ a series of online performances recorded live from The Vortex. We’ve had over 10,000 views for these shows on You Tube and Facebook.

 Performances for the ‘Resistance’ and ‘Tomorrow the Moon’ seasons take place at the Vortex Jazz Club and the Old Church on Stoke Newington Church Street. See our gigs page for details on all our events.

ARQ new album ‘Short Stories’ London launch was in February 2020.
We’ve now been able to resume the tour Autumn 2021

In the meantime  ‘Croajingolong Bushwalk’, the first single from ‘Short Stories’ is still available as a FREE download on
iTunes/ Apple Music and Spotify.

2021
Thu 11 March Newcastle University
Live Concerts at Home

Thurs June 10 Cambridge
Sat August 21 Derby Jazz
Mon Sept 6 Ronnie Scotts

Wed 27 Oct Sheffield Lescar
Thurs 28 Oct Nottingham Bonington Theatre
Fri 29 Oct Wakefield Jazz Club
Sat 30 Oct Lincoln The Blue Room
Sun 31 Oct Newcastle The Globe
Wed 3 Nov London Pizza Express Jazz Club
Tues 16 Nov Southampton Jazz Club

2022

Fri April 1 Nottingham Peggy’s Skylight tbc
Sat April 2 Scarborough tbc
Sun April 3 Leeds Seven Arts tbc
Sat May 14 Birmingham Jazz Festival
Sun May 15 Colchester Arts Centre Jazz Club
Fri June 17 York NCEM
Sat June 18 Gateshead The Sage
Sun June 26 Orpington Naturist Jazz Festival
Fri July 8-Sun 10 Swanage Jazz Festival

“Bright, open jazz music that rejoices in human experience without sentimentalising it. A collection of eight perfectly formed originals that makes the most of three standout soloists.”
BBC Music Magazine ★★★★

‘A Celebration of life itself ‘ LondonJazzNews

LIVE preview of songs from new album
‘Short Stories’ released October 2019

New ARQ website HERE