Sidcup Calling

Sidcup Calling Come and be inspired! The ones who lift others up, live our "plug and play, play and stay" mantra, and inspire others whilst doing so.

Sidcup Calling is an annual all-dayer that celebrates and showcases the hidden gem of a community at The Iron Horse's open mics and jams, while raising money for Community Hospice, on August Bank Holiday Mondays at The Iron Horse. Since 2017, we have held an annual all-day charity music festival on Bank Holidays at The Iron Horse in Sidcup, where we all come together to celebrate the growth and ex

traordinary talent of our musical community, with 9 hours of non-stop live music - hosted by Tom Monks. This all-day live music event showcases a cherry-picked selection of standout regulars at the Iron's acoustic-ish open mic and band jam nights, who've helped to shape our nights in recent years - not just through talent or presence, but with genuine mutual support and community spirit. As well as celebrating our community, we also like to use this day as an opportunity to raise as much money as we can for smaller charities who rely on all the support they can get. Since 2019, our chosen charity has been Community Hospice (reg. 1017406), a tremendously personal cause for many of us - and we have subsequently raised over £4,000 for them! So if you'd like to celebrate or even discover the local music scene which has put our hometown on the map, have a drink or ten, and raise funds for our local hospice, clear your diaries and come down and be a part of it! And stay tuned for our open mics and jams in the meantime, they're a hoot!! (Please note that we don't accept sign-ups to perform - especially not from outside our events, which would not only defeat the purpose but be a HUGE kick in the teeth for those we can't squeeze in. The only way to get involved is to be involved - and if the criteria is you, keep being you. You're on our radar!)

FREE ENTRY | BRING CASH FOR DONATIONS
⚠️ Under 18s are welcome until 8pm if with an adult and not at the bar area. If you're lucky enough to radiate youth but want to stick around, please have your ID's at the ready just in case ⚠️

📍 Address: The Iron Horse, 122 Station Rd, Sidcup DA15 7AB
🚂 Nearest train station: Sidcup (opposite!)
🚌 Nearest bus routes: 51, 160, 229, 233, 269, 286, 492, Superloop SL3
🅿️ Cheap parking is available via the Sidcup Station car park, and free on many side roads nearby. Be mindful of restrictions - we want to raise money for the hospice, not the traffic wardens x

We are astoundedly delighted to share that the grand total raised at Sidcup Calling 2025 for Community Hospice is an ENO...
11/09/2025

We are astoundedly delighted to share that the grand total raised at Sidcup Calling 2025 for Community Hospice is an ENORMOUS £1,029.76!

This is our biggest amount yet, the first time we've crossed the thousand mark, and brings our running total for the hospice (since choosing them as our charity in 2019) to over four grand!!

Every penny will provide dignity, peace and comfort for the people of Greenwich and Bexley at the end of their lives, and vital support for their families and loved ones. It's a personal cause to so many of us, and to make such a difference is a poignant achievement.

Despite the official-sounding name, Sidcup Calling is the tiniest huge event in town. No press, no sponsors, but run by one person dependent on our community coming together in all its strength. Which you ALL do, EVERY time, without fail - making this total, and this festival, all the more incredible.

So you should all be SO damn proud of yourselves. It's hard to overstate how special this is.

And once again, thank you to every single person who made this year's Sidcup Calling the most thriving and emotional one yet - whether you performed, worked, watched, provided backline, donated raffle prizes, or immortalised it in photo and video. What a brilliant day it was, and you made it what it was.

Again, Sidcup Calling is just a glimpse of the thriving community we've built together at our open mics and jam nights, with the talent you saw on the 25th August and so much more. Our jam night is this coming Wednesday, with the acoustic open mic on opposite Mondays.

With all the love and gratitude in the world
Tom xx

So Sidcup Calling 2025... well I think I've recovered now! But I still can't find the words to do any justice to how ove...
29/08/2025

So Sidcup Calling 2025... well I think I've recovered now! But I still can't find the words to do any justice to how overwhelmingly special it was, except.... WOW. Just WOW. Anyway here's a billion more words.

Every single act got the spirit of the event, and delivered the best sets in the world. The turnout was our hugest yet, absolutely unprecedentedly packed to the brim of utterly lovely people.

John, Janet and I did a rough tally of the funds raised today, which are now safe in the hands of the hospice. We can't say the exact amount til the hospice does it all formally (which can take a few weeks), but we were utterly OVERWHELMED by how much was in the buckets alone. It's the most yet!!

Dan Francis, M.T. Pockets, Mason Pearce, Matthew & Jonathan Hart, Nathan Persad Trio, Nova Halo, radioSilence, Ryan Barquilla, Simmons & The Stags, Special Branch, The Galactix, The Spiders From Sidcup and Tim Springett... thank you ALL. Everyone was captivated start to finish. If this was Live Aid, you're ALL the 'Queen' of the event, in the sense of how much you got the spirit of it, and how well you delivered.

Of course this lineup only scratches the surface of The Iron Horse's enormous community... and we're talking the WEEKDAY open mics and jams. There's so much more brilliance to discover. We wish we could've squeezed more in, but if we went with the original shortlist we'd have finished at 5am 🥴

I'd love to thanks Mr Wednesday Night, Dan Murphy, for helping with the sound and tech, providing the house guitar amp, and to his lovely Sam for helping gather up cash for the hospice throughout the day.

A huge thanks to Reece Bailey and Christopher Finnigan, for generously loaning out their bass rig & drum kit respectively - zero hesitation, full trust, and luxuriously enormous setups to boot!

I'd also love to thank "Sidcup Colin" Richardson for video recording, and Dave Patten for photographing, the entire event. Magical moments come and go, but the visual evidence will last for an eternity.

John Reid, the guvnor - thank you so much for taking charge of the charity side and gathering the fundraising equipment, and for providing us with a place we can call our musical home.

And huge thanks to the lovely bar staff, who worked so hard and did so brilliantly in keeping up with the intensity of an unprecedentedly busy bar, not just with lovely drinks but the food on the day - and the lovely security staff for looking after us in such a caring and supportive way.

And each of every one of you who came to watch, on the busiest Bank Holiday of the year, being such an enormous delightful, emotional, and life-affirming audience to play to!

Yes we will do it again in 2026! But the magic's more than once a year - it's every week. Join us at our acoustic open mics on fortnightly Mondays, and our full band jam nights on opposite Wednesdays. There's live music weekends too. And if you're particularly dedicated, brilliant, embrace the "plug and play, play and stay" mantra, and are genuinely supportive... maybe there'll be a slot next year with your name on it!

Whether on stage, from the crowd, or from the wings, we've got something truly special in Sidcup. Thank you ALL!!

Lots of love
Tom Monks xx

Tomorrow is going to be magnificent, and we can't wait. To ensure everyone's happy and nobody is caught off guard, there...
24/08/2025

Tomorrow is going to be magnificent, and we can't wait. To ensure everyone's happy and nobody is caught off guard, there's a few things we would like to give you a heads up about.

‼️ Under 18s are welcome until 8pm if with an adult and not at the bar area. There will be security looking after us. So if you're lucky enough to look youthful but want to stay for the remainder, please have your ID's at the ready just in case!

🚗 The Iron Horse has a small designated car park via Greenwood Close, shared with M&S. If you park there, register your plate inside the pub to avoid any fines. Additional parking is available nearby, but be mindful of restrictions - we want to raise for our hospice, not traffic wardens! The Sidcup Station car park, right by the pub, is spacious, with all-day parking for just £3.50 on Bank Holidays.

🚍🚂The pub is VERY well served by public transport - opposite Sidcup Station and served by the 51, 160, 233, 229, 269, 286, 492, and Superloop SL3 buses.

⏰ If you are performing, please aim to arrive at least an hour before your designated slot, just in case - and advise your fans, friends and followers to do so too. Or even better, make a day out of it! If you're running late, let Tom know with as much advance as you can, so he can plan around it.

Now that's out the way, let's focus on fun, music, and charity, and we can't wait. See you tomorrow between 2:30pm and late-pm!! X

We see tomorrow as an "open day" for the public to experience the magic we've built up at The Iron Horse. Tell everyone ...
24/08/2025

We see tomorrow as an "open day" for the public to experience the magic we've built up at The Iron Horse. Tell everyone you know. In the meantime, let me introduce you to the final batch:

One day in 2012, Matthew Hart got his dad's old Westone guitar down from the loft and seemed to learn to play it, sing, and write catchy as hell songs in an instant. It was like that scene in Walk Hard. He started gigging and packing out prestigious venues with his band, with opportunities becoming very serious before his dayjob of engraving in Hatton Garden started to seriously pick up. Matt was actually at our very first open mic back in June 2014 ten years ago, and came back to our scene in 2021, voice and songwriting stronger than ever, and has gone strengh to strength ever since. With his brother Jonathan Hart on bass and schoolmate Tom Monks hitting the drums, they're launching the 'band' segment of the event just before 5pm.

It's an honour to welcome back the wonderful radioSilence to Sidcup Calling this year! Lead singer John Leigh is one of the loveliest guys ever, and one of our most dedicated and sound supporters in Iron Horse history. His taste is immaculate and his bass-baritone voice strikes right through the heartstrings. We can't wait to host his band at this year's event for a dose of indie rockers and the (very) odd classic. Armed with a full band in the form of radioSilence, they'll be on around 5:20pm.

Tim Springett has an aficionado level of music, and more stamina than what seems humanly possible. His repertoire is LIMITLESS. Pick a random CD in your collection, point at a random track on the back, and he's probably done that. And he does marathons. Yes, he runs them as well, but also musically - when virtual gigs were a thing he did a livestream for FOUR HOURS. NON-STOP. And seemingly had no plans of ending it when his signal gave in. This was almost at sunrise by the way. A rock'n'roller, balladeer, multi-instrumentalist, and pure entertainer packed full of stamina, he is a local legend and we can't wait to welcome him on stage for Sidcup Calling, around 4 o'clock.

What an amazing lineup this is, and we'd love to thank every single one who's stepped up to demonstrate the power of their community. There's so many more we wish we could've squeezed on too, but we're confident this line-up offers a sufficient glimpse into the magic you've all built.

Free entry, but bring dosh for Community Hospice. Any amount, no matter how small or generous, would be enormously appreciated.

See you TOMORROW!

Tomorrow there's not just booze, food, and a raffle, but also music! Here's some more acts we have lined up.Tom Monks is...
24/08/2025

Tomorrow there's not just booze, food, and a raffle, but also music! Here's some more acts we have lined up.

Tom Monks is putting so much of his all into this event, he's writing about himself in third person. Hosting the open mic since emerging from sixth form in 2014, since then he's played a lifetime of shows - sharing stages with Nine Below Zero, Peter Doherty, The Molotovs, Laurie Wright, Dr Feelgood, Nova Halo, The Galactix, The Aim, Nathan Persad, and well over a THOUSAND other musos - earning the crown of King of Lamorbey & Penhill. Described as Noel Gallagher as "like Jools on the piano", he's launching the event just after 2:30pm, but if you miss it, fear not he's in nearly every other single bloomin' band!

We are honoured to have Ryan Barquilla as a core fixture of our open mic and jam night community! Ryan is an enormous force of nature - a guitar virtuoso, a soaring and sultry voice, as happy to regularly play down our local Sidcup pub as he is to play Wembley Stadium. Over the couple of years he started a supergroup of his own, 'Nexus Leap', who regularly grace the Iron Horse to emotional acclaim - but this year he's treating us to a solo set, around 7:40pm.

Simmons and the Stags will be taking the stage around 6:15, just before the raffle. Sean's songs are so catchy that it's been on more than one occasion where I'm trying to fall asleep at night and one of his various choruses appear in my brain, delaying my kip by an hour or four. On stage, he's a wild animal. And off stage, he's incredibly nice, supportive, encouraging, and puts his all into his local scene. During the last few years he's shared stages with 'The Stags', who have been taking the London scene by storm and are churning out hit after hit. He's even made it onto the iTunes charts.

Bring dosh for the hospice, ID if you're blessed with youth but wanna drink or stay after 8pm (security will be looking after us), and all of your lovely friends. See ya tomorrow x

More for Monday!!The Galactix are the Iron's resident whippersnapper group - young and energetic, teleporting from retro...
23/08/2025

More for Monday!!

The Galactix are the Iron's resident whippersnapper group - young and energetic, teleporting from retro anthems to fever-dream originals in their loudest attire, taking you on a sonic journey through SPACE and TIME. Since forming in late 2024, they've been handpicked to open up for the legendary Small Fakers, formed a one-off supergroup with Nine Below Zero, and headlined the 2025 editions of Dartford's March Of The Mods and Great Welling Beerfest. They're on at like 8:45 or something.

It is with pleasure to host Dan Francis back this year. He appeared at our open mic around late 2019 and modestly asked if he could play a couple of original songs on the house piano. He quietly stepped on, sat down, and unleashed his soaring voice, ivory mastery and SERIOUSLY sophisticated songs - like Elton John or Billy Joel golden era level. Like "wait, he WROTE THAT?!" level. To our pure joy he's been coming down near every fortnight ever since. It's a serious honour to have him on board. He's the second at on, around 3:10pm - even more reason to make a day out of it.

Nathan Persad Trio hit the stage at 5:45pm. Nathan is a GENIUS and has released TEN albums which are not only sophisticated and catchy as hell, but are also written, performed, produced and arranged entirely by him (par the occasional obscurity or guest). And a YouTube series. And an infinite repertoire of hits - in all the years he's been coming to our open mics I've never heard him play the same song twice. If you're a musician, he'll inspire you. If you're a spectator, he'll captivate you.

Bring dosh for the hospice, ID if you're blessed with youth but wanna drink or stay after 8pm, and all of your lovely friends. See ya Monday x

3 days to go, and let's introduce you to the next batch of acts!!We are so excited for Special Branch to make their Sidc...
22/08/2025

3 days to go, and let's introduce you to the next batch of acts!!

We are so excited for Special Branch to make their Sidcup Calling debut, to bring you a locally brewed dose of Maximum R&B! Dave Patten is one of the most supportive and beloved faces of the community, as is lovely Paul Lowther who has been on the house kit for the jams since shortly after the world reopened. And combined with Andy and Rob they're a force! They don't so much "cover" songs as grab them by the scruff of the neck and give them a damn good hiding. They'll be on after the raffle, just past seven.

Mason Pearce has been an iconic fixture of our events since becoming old enough to drink, and we've been so lucky to see him go from utter strength to strength, constantly outdoing himself and upping his bar. Nowadays you often find him as a passionate sideman of The Spiders and The Stags, but he's also utterly exceptional in his own right. A true aficionado and expert in his craft, with covers getting you boogieing and his own songs tugging on your heart, he's taking the stage around 4:25ish.

It's an immense pleasure to welcome Nova Halo back to Sidcup Calling. Nancy Dean's songs and voice are enormously acclaimed on our local scene and beyond, and deservedly so. From haunting melodies to shoegazey bops, love and outer space, saving the world with reverb and silks, her songs and style are utterly captivating. With tons of streams and shows under her belt and a beautifully pure and acrobatic voice, her band will be on about quarter past eight.

There's also gonna be food, a raffle, and as per Iron Horse tradition, a BAR! Don't forget to bring cash so we can raise money for the Community Hospice x

Let's introduce you to some of the wonderful acts we have in store for you on Monday!!It wouldn't be Sidcup Calling with...
21/08/2025

Let's introduce you to some of the wonderful acts we have in store for you on Monday!!

It wouldn't be Sidcup Calling without The Spiders from Sidcup, so of course... they're playing! These are an Iron Horse formed supergroup, united in a love of David Bowie on a mission to celebrate his music. Lead singer "Sidcup Colin" Richardson was destined to become a Spider since getting "picked" by the man himself through a television set in 1972, graduating from singing in his car to the Iron Horse stage eight years ago, flourishing ever since. Catapulted into a sonic spectacle with one of the hottest backing bands around, they'll be our pentultimate act of this year's event, from around 9:20.

M.T. Pockets are the Iron Horse's house band, running our beloved jam nights since 2015, and we're so excited to see them close this year's Sidcup Calling from 10ish. Frontman Dan Murphy is an unbelievable force of nature, a true aficionado in funk and rock and soul, and his energy, enthusiasm and passion is truly contagious - with a rhythm section tighter than a peanutted tie. M.T. Pockets lift the atmosphere tenfold of any venue they grace, bringing a raunchy, funky, soulful PARTY!

Belinda Doherty is also making her Sidcup Calling return! Belinda has been an infectiously enthusiastic fixture of our open mics over the last two years, gifted with a charmingly amazing voice and becoming part of our nights initially with the keenness to grow it in a live environment, which she instantly accomplished and then some. Her ability was always there but what's been real special is that we've seen her grow in confidence, and incredibly deservedly so, beloved for her talent and versatility. From show tunes to heartfelt ballads, please be sure to catch the "Hello Kitty Ambassador of Sidcup" around 3:35pm!

What a day it's gonna be. And the best thing? We're only scratching the surface x

Just under a week to go and we're super excited to reveal THE 2025 LINEUP!It’s never easy narrowing it down from such a ...
19/08/2025

Just under a week to go and we're super excited to reveal THE 2025 LINEUP!

It’s never easy narrowing it down from such a huge & talented community, but we're confident that this year’s selection can represent a small glimpse of the sonic magic we're proud to host at our open mics and jams.

Please note timings are approximate - the nature of all-dayer's means things can shift around or change a little. So arrive in good time - or even better make a day out of it!

See you all Monday and don't forget to bring some cash for the raffle and donations to support our Community Hospice x

Address

Sidcup
DA157AB

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Sidcup Calling posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Share

Category