Hello

Beautiful Autumn days are turning into chilly but bright Winter as we continue to enjoy our splendid BTF Autumn 2025 season. Celebrating Jazz Voice with three of the UK’s most talented, original and entertaining singers.

The first concerts with Carol Grimes and Ian Shaw were wonderful evenings. Early Bird tickets have now sold out for Liane! so book now as we expect this concert to be hugely popular!

Deirdre is recording an album with ORGANIK in a couple of weeks time to be released on Blow the Fuse records in 2026.

Also look out for Alison’s group ARQ with new dates just announced for 2026 – plus our Jazz in the House season at Lauderdale House. All details below and our gigs page.

OCT 3 CAROL GRIMES ‘Wild, declamatory soulfulness’ John Fordham The Guardian

NOV 1 IAN SHAW ‘The leading male jazz singer of his generation in the UK’ Jazzwise

DEC 5 LIANE CARROLL ‘She seems in some magical way to be made out of music’ The Observer

Ian Shaw (Saturday Nov 1) and Liane Carroll (Friday Dec 5) will be performing with us and solo in the beautiful setting of St Matthias Church, Stoke Newington’s only Grade I listed church. 

Friday 5 December Liane Carroll BOOK

Liane has enjoyed huge critical acclaim and is now considered to be one of the top jazz vocalists both in the UK and worldwide.

Her first four albums all enjoyed four-starred reviews, and ‘Ballads’ received ***** from Jazz Journal, while ‘Seaside’ won CD of the year at the 2015 British Jazz Awards.

A winner of the British Jazz and Parliamentary Jazz Awards, she received the 2016 Gold award from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors. Music commentators are unanimous in their praise.

‘One of the UK’s leading jazz vocalists… often matching raw emotion with jaw-dropping technique’. Jazzwise 

‘A powerful, soul-inflected performer with an Ella Fitzgerald-like improv athleticism and an emotional frankness on ballads’ The Guardian

St Matthias Church
Wordsworth Road, N16 8DD
Doors & Bar 7pm | Music 8pm
Easy ground floor access and street parking available.

Mrs Dates Diary: Autumn 2025

• Thurs 9 Oct ARQ The Lighthouse Deal, Kent CT14 7DX BOOK
• Thurs 9 Oct Pete Oxley | Nicolas Meier Group Lauderdale House N6 5HG
• Sat 11 Oct ELECTRIC LANDLADIES + DJ RITU Filia Women’s Conference Brighton Centre BOOK
• Tues 14 Oct Deirdre Cartwright/Steve Kirby Group Brecon Jazz BOOK
• Thurs 23 Oct ARQ Torbay Livermead Cliff Hotel, Devon BOOK
• Thurs 23 Oct Sarah Moule | Simon Wallace Lauderdale House N6 5HG
• Fri 24 Oct ARQ Lerryn Memorial Hall Lostwithiel, Cornwall PL22 0QB BOOK
• Sat 25 Oct ARQ Calstock Arts Centre, Cornwall BOOK
• Sat 1 Nov Ian Shaw St Matthias Church BOOK
• Thurs 6 Nov Andrea Vicary Quartet Lauderdale House N6 5HG
• Fri 7 Nov Deirdre Cartwright’s ORGANIK Hull Truck Theatre BOOK
• Tues 18 Nov ARQ Watermill Jazz, Dorking BOOK
• Wed 19 Nov ARQ London Jazz Fest Cadogan Hall, Lunchtime BOOK
• Thurs 20 Nov Monk & Mingus Malcolm Earle Smith Lauderdale House N6
• Fri 21 Nov Emily Saunders Lauderdale House N6
• Thurs 4 Dec Zoe Francis / Jim Mullen Lauderdale House N6
• Fri Dec 5 Liane Carroll St Matthias Church BOOK
• Sat 20 Dec ELECTRIC LANDLADIES XMAS PARTY Walthamstow Trades Club BOOK

Blow the Fuse ‘On Air’ 
In 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 at a LIVE gig soon.

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

‘Wild is the music of autumnal winds Amongst the faded woods.’ William Wordsworth

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 and we’re now in our 36th year!
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. In 2021 after lockdowns, we produced Blow the Fuse ‘On Air’ a series of online performances recorded live from The Vortex. We’ve had over 15,000 views for these shows on You Tube and Facebook.

Performances for the ‘Resistance’ and ‘Tomorrow the Moon’ seasons took place at the Vortex Jazz Club and the Old Church on Stoke Newington Church Street.
In 2022 we began presenting regular events St Matthias Halls N16 8DD.
In 2023 we began programming  ‘Jazz in the House’ Lauderdale House, Waterlow Park, Highgate, London.

See our gigs page for details on all our events.