SIDETRACKS & DETOURS Sunday 12th July 2026: Lendanear to Duo Bravo in an exclusive interview + we seek the truth about diversity + Manchester UK Folk Festival + UK folk music album charts

LENDANEAR TO DUO BRAVO

down sidetracks & detours

with Norman Warwick

sidetracks & detours first came across Duo Bravo on May 13^th 2026, when my wife, Dee, and I stepped into The Tourist Information Office in the Timple Museum in Teguise. We enquired about any forthcoming concerts and the kind and lovely lady behind the counter pointed out a male and female couple on the stage at the back of the room. She advised us (in Spanish) to introduce ourselves to the couple on stage as they would be performing in this very theatre in ten nights hence.

After informal introductions had taken place Duo Bravo offered me a very presentable and professional publicity sheet. It was refreshing to meet such a newly formed duo already aware of the benefits of generating their own publicty and sharing it with the likes of sidetracks &/ detours so that it can be carried to new recipients.

ssdetracks & detours will of course benefit from enjoying a synergy with a noteworthy and credible act emerging on the arts scene. We can offer, in return, to carry free news, previews, interviews and reviews about the progress of Araceli and Fran.

Indeed, when we saw them in concert at The Convento de Santo Domingo some ten nights later, we realised that Araceli had a voice we would never forget: a charisma that fills everything. She is much more than a singer: she is a magnetic stage-presence, an impeccable professional, and an artist with a unique sensitivity. Her voice is her instrument.

Her sweet, personal, unmistakable voice connects directly with the hearts of the audience,  always leaving a deep and lasting impression.

Fran turns every note into pure emotion. His sensitivity at the piano creates the perfect space for Araceli’s voice to breathe, soar, and move the audience. His musical connection with her goes beyond the stage: it is complicity, intuition, and constant dialogue.

He is a tireless professional and a natural-born creative, lasting impression.

The programme on the night we saw them on stage in the Convento de Santo Domingo in Teguise showed us that these two musicians specialize in creating unique and elegant moments for a special occasion. We enjoyed an immersive, relaxed, yet dynamic atmosphere. Duo Bravo turn each moment into a truly unique and special experience. Their repertoire is irresistible for venues like this historic, beautiful but cavernous hall, that dream of a magical and entertaining moment, where the audience look for a sense of wonder.

The audience were held spellbound by the quality of the songs, the singing and the playing but at end of the concert they gave the duo a very warm ovation. It was wonderful, then, to see Duo Bravo step down off the stage to speak to the whole audience to thank them, somehow individually, for their support. The couple clearly recognise that how to build and sustain a fan base

sidetracks & detours took the opportunity to conduct an exclusive interview that we could share with our readers

**Who are the members of Dúo Bravo?**

We, Araceli Bravo and Fran Mauri, are the members of Dúo Bravo. (above)

**How would each of you describe yourselves? Could you tell us how you met and why you formed the duo?**

**Araceli:** I am a simple, outgoing, sensitive, and affectionate person. My way of expressing my feelings is through music.

**Fran:** I am an approachable, sensitive, emotional, and patient person who expresses his true self through the piano.

We met while working at different hotels on the island; at that time, each of us was performing solo. Two years ago, we were given the opportunity to work together on a new piano and voice project.

**What kind of group is Dúo Bravo, and what are your ambitions? Do you plan to record, for instance, or look for radio airplay or more gigs? Reading your promotional material, one perceives two facets of Dúo Bravo: on one hand, you can deliver wonderful concerts, like the one you recently gave at the Convento; on the other hand, you also perform at special occasions such as weddings and anniversaries. We would also like to know how the Town Hall or the Cabildo helps emerging artists like yourselves, and how you can grow your audience beyond Lanzarote?**

Dúo Bravo is a project that adapts to any setting and type of event. Our goal is to keep growing as a group and to take our project to many places both within and outside the Canary Islands—and hopefully, we will get the chance to reach anywhere in the world. We also have it in mind to record an album with our own original songs.

**When you play live, I imagine you both must be very aware of what the other is doing, whilst at the same time concentrating on singing or playing. How would you describe the way you work together on stage?**

With just a look, we know exactly what we need from each other. It is pure musical connection.

**When you perform in large venues like the Convento, or in smaller rooms like the Casa de la Cultura in Yaiza, you must notice differences in the way you play and how the audience receives you. Can you explain that? For example, when the recent concert ended, we saw that you both came off the stage and personally greeted almost every member of the audience. Some of those people were surely already friends or followers, but your attitude, and of course your performance, will surely attract new fans as well. Why is that important to you?**

**Every venue transmits a different feeling to us when we perform. Obviously, in smaller spaces, the listener is closer and the experience is more intimate, but we believe that every place has its own unique charm.

For us, closeness with our audience is very important, and we always appreciate them taking the time to listen to our concert. That is why I believe interacting with the public is essential.**             .

**Why do you choose the songs and music you perform? Why does certain music move you, and who are the songs, composers, or artists that have influenced you? At sidetracks & detours we cover a wide musical spectrum, and my main collaborator, Peter Pearson, and I share a love for the Americana genre, which encompasses singer-songwriters, folk, and country sounds. Perhaps you could give us some insight into the songwriters and lyricists who influence you.**

** In every concert, we want the audience to be moved, but we always try to stand out by choosing songs that hold emotional value for us. Our main reference artists are both Spanish and English-speaking (Adele, Frank Sinatra, Vanesa Martín, Serrat…) **.

**Those names a very different from those on your set list from the Convento concert (see below)

** Convento Setlist:**

 1. Aires de Lima de Valsequillo

 2. Lucía

 3. Por fin

 4. Arráncame

 5. Sabor a mí

 6. No te pude retener

 7. El Viaje

 8. Contigo aprendí

 9. Lo que en ti veo

 10. Cuando yo quería ser grande

 11. Gracias a la vida

 12. Contigo en la distancia

 13. A un milímetro de ti

 14. La mala costumbre

that we saw a few weeks ago, so I´m guessing that you feel free to perform in very different genres, such as classical, folk-lore and contemporary music.

** Yes, we do love music of all kinds. We would definitely like to become known here on Lanzarote, then to become known around The Canary islands. We look forward to live and recorded opportunities that will enable us to do so, and also to perform on Mainland Spain, and even further into Europe. We think our fan base will enjoy our diversity and that will help us reach out to new audiences, and we really do consider our audience members as our friends**.

LENDANEAR

DUO BRAVO

,Casa De La Culture, Yaiza

1st Auguest, 2026 at 8.00pm.

So, indeed, it seems that Duo Bravo can even build and sustain a fan base in very different genres and of very different attitudes. This is because they also provide live music entertainment (piano and voice) for wedding cocktails and dinners, as well as music for private events such as anniversaries, hotels, corporate celebrations, ceremonies, and more.

With a versatile style ranging from romantic classics and boleros to acoustic versions of international pop, they tailor their repertoire to the essence of the event and guarantee a professional, discreet, and high-quality service, all with full interaction with the audience.

We will be seeing Duo Bravo in concert again soon and will publish our review in a future edition of sidetracks & detours .

Meanwhile, for further

INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT.

+ 34 609 86 52 58

+ 34 636 64 83 00

Morrisey recently spoke to Paste, saying  

DIVERSITY IS A LIE

Norman Warwick feels diversity is to be celebrated

Steven Patrick Morrissey (left) , or simply Morrissey ( born May 22, 1959 rose to prominence as the The Smiths´ frontman, a rock band active from 1982 to 1987. Since then, he has forged a commercially successful solo career. His music is characterized by his distinctive vocal style and lyrical content, with recurring themes of emotional isolation, sexual longing, self-degradation, all in a darkly humorous style, whilst declaring anti-establishment stances. 

Born in Davyhulme. a town near Manchester in the UK, to a working-class Irish immigrant family. As a child, he developed a love for literature and pop music. In the late 1970s, he fronted the punk rock band The Nosebleeds with little success before embarking on a career in music journalism and writing several books on music and film in the early 1980s. Together, he and Johnny Marr formed The Smiths in 1982, achieving national recognition with their first, eponymous, album. As the band’s frontman, he was known for his pompadour and his witty, sardonic lyrics. Deliberately avoiding archaic machismo, he cultivated the aesthetic of a sexually ambiguous, celibate social outcast . The following three further studio albums:  spawned several hit singles. The band was critically acclaimed and attracted a cult following, before personal differences between Morrissey and Marr resulted in the Smiths’ breakup in 1987.

He is often considered one of the greatest lyricists in British history, with his lyrics becoming the subject of academic study. He has generated controversy early in his musical career, supporting vegetarianism with other more ourspoken opinions on animal rights and criticism of the monarchy and prominent politicians, and championing a particular vision of English national identity. 

In a 2006 BBC poll for  The Culture Show , he was voted second amongst Britain´s cultural icons.

Morrissey took to his website this weekend to express a complaint few would expect him to voice: “Diversity is a lie,” he wrote in his latest grievance. Upon closer inspection, though, his complaint is not exactly as it seems.

In fact, Paste writer Miranda Wollen suggests that the “diversity” he’s referring to is that often-dreaded “diversity of ideas,” a type that the Smiths´ frontman claims the BBC is neglecting by refusing to give his new track, “Notre-Dame,” any airplay. 

In a statement on his website, Moz complained that “Notre-Dame” had been blacklisted by the BBC, despite its #6 position on the UK charts.

 “The public wants to hear the song,” he said, “but the BBC will not play it even though their stations are a public service duty-bound to reflect public taste. Obviously not! If the song is suspected of independent thought – God forbid! it is not played, therefore, under these circumstances, any station that pledges allegiance to diversity is lying. When people say ‘Diversity is our strength’ they fail to mention how their notion of ‘diversity’ entails very strict Third Reich regulations and punishments. I wonder why people can’t simply be honest about these things?”

Notre-Dame, a track from Morrissey’s recent Make-UP Is A Liealbum Make-Up Is A Lie, repeats the refrain Notre-Dame, we know who tried to kill you, and vaguely references a presumed conspiracy to burn down the iconic Parisian cathedral. The French police found no evidence of terrorism in the fire, instead attributing it to either a discarded cigarette or an electrical short circuit—probably because they didn’t have Morrissey on the case to uncover the true, dark secrets of the incident. A lyric in Moz’s initial performances of the song baselessly accused the fire of being an act of “terrorism,” but Moz has since dialed it back. He may want to turn those investigative skills on himself: while the song is ranked sixth on the Official Singles Sales Chart, it is not the Official Singles Chart itself. The charts are a lie, too!

UK FOLK MUSIC ALBUM CHARTS  July 2026

collated by English Folk Expo & Sound Roots

shared by Norman Warwick

New at No. 3 is 10 by Scottish highlanders Tide Lines. Released exactly ten years after the band’s debut single, this album brings together recordings from some of their most memorable live performances between 2021 and 2025. At the heart of the album is the bond between band and audience and this release reflects the energy, emotion and connection that have defined their journey.

Landing at No. 4 is Fink’s ninth studio album The City Is Coming to Erase It All. Recorded in Zennor, Cornwall, the album was made with a strict era-specific approach. Imagining a record Michael Chapman might have made, right down to the guitar strings. City is a product of this hunger for discovery and idolatry of the album as a form – like it was in 1974.  Unthanks are bringing their

Reconstructing some of the oldest songs in the English canon with fractured, future-facing production, Frankie Archer’s debut album The Dance of Death arrives at No. 8. Working from archival ballads of obsession, devotion and loss, she warps fiddle lines, processes her own vocals and drives the material with pulsing drum machines and colourful synth arrangements. bitters

London-born son of Richard Thompson,  Brooklyn-based Teddy Thompson’s tenth album Never Be The Same (right) comes in at No. 11. Across the ten tracks, Thompson explores the tension and pull between comfort and change through his longstanding commitment to songwriting as a form. The album was produced by renowned Grammy Award-winning musician and producer David Mansfield.

At No. 17 is From The Edge, a long-form musical work shaped by the acoustics, history and atmosphere of Dover by Richard Bundy and Anna Phoebe. The project reimagines and quietly subverts the accepted narrative of this UK coastal border town, by using music to open up hidden, overlooked historic spaces and let them be heard again. 

Karine Polwart’s latest album, Windblown, enters at No. 27, co-written with sound designer and composer Pippa Murphy and featuring Dave Milligan on piano. The album is a farewell to a beloved old Sabal palm, on the eve of its felling at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and a hymn to the gardeners who looked after it across the arc of two hundred years. 

At No. 32 is Laura Cannell’s Live At Café Oto, which captures her sold out show at the London venue in 2025. The album harnesses the raw essence of Laura Cannell as she digs deep into her intense sounds on overbowed violin, double recorders and bass recorder. Throughout Cannell draws the audience into moments of rasping, chordal, landscape drenched music.

Scottish fiddle-player Ryan Young’s third studio album In The Quiet After enters the chart at No. 33. Across ten tracks, Young re-imagines traditional material with a deliberate shift in tone, transforming lively reels and jigs into slow-burning, melancholic meditations. With this album, Young moves further into his own voice – shaped by tradition, instinct and a deeply personal sense of expression. 

UK MANCHESTER FOLK FESTIVAL 2027

announcements and previews presented by English Folk Expo

shared by Norman Warwick

After a record-breaking 2026 spring event, which saw the number of sold-out shows double and attendance soar by 50%, we’re pulling out all the stops for Manchester Folk Festival 2027!

For the first time, we will be expanding to four days, taking place from Wednesday 10th to Saturday 13th March 2027, as we toast to ten years of the finest folk, roots and acoustic music. 

We’re thrilled to announce our first wave of artists include Spiers & Boden, Leveret, Pokey LaFarge, ((left, an artist we have previously featured in sidetracks & detours, Catrin Finch & Aoife Ní Bhriain, Fionn Regan, Olivia Chaney, Steve Knightley with Daniel Salvatore, The Wellermen, Kris Drever & Cahalen Morrison, Tarren, Chris Brain, Rewild: Kantos Chamber Choir x Stevens & Pound and Cohen Braithwaite-Kilcoyne & John Kirkpatrick.

Manchester Folk Festival 2027 will unfold across Band on the Wall, Hallé St Peter’s, Hallé at St Michael’s, The Smithfield Market Tavern, Cutting Room Square and Stoller Hall, with two new stages being unveiled at the latter venue. 

Following the storming success of this year’s Friday Night Ceilidh, we have announced that we will be upgrading the 2027 ceilidh venue to the much larger Hallé St Peter’s, adding yet another reason to celebrate when the “springtime staple for music lovers” (Tradfolk) returns!

“Arguably the UK’s leading urban folk festival, which given its relatively short history is a real endorsement of the event” – BBC Radio

First-release four-day Festival Legends 2027 wristbands, which provide access to all festival shows, are now on sale after the early-bird ticket allocation sold out. We’d encourage festivalgoers to secure their wristbands early for the best value, before prices increase again in September.

Festival Legends can curate their own festival experience, moving effortlessly between intimate venues and main stages while enjoying performances from more than 20 artists each evening.

Alongside exclusive concerts and an opening reception, wristband holders will also gain full access to the newly added opening day on Wednesday 10 March at Stoller Hall, featuring concerts across three stages, kicking off our tenth year in spectacular fashion.

Further artists and free traditional sing-arounds and sessions, workshops, Morris dancing and emerging stages spotlighting must-see talent will be announced this September, alongside individual concert tickets and enue information. 

UK FOLK MUSIC ALBUM CHARTS  July 2026

collated by English Folk Expo & Sound Roots

New at No. 3 is 10 by Scottish highlanders Tide Lines. Released exactly ten years after the band’s debut single, this album brings together recordings from some of their most memorable live performances between 2021 and 2025. At the heart of the album is the bond between band and audience and this release reflects the energy, emotion and connection that have defined their journey.

Landing at No. 4 is Fink’s ninth studio album The City Is Coming to Erase It All. Recorded in Zennor, Cornwall, the album was made with a strict era-specific approach. Imagining a record Michael Chapman might have made, right down to the guitar strings. City is a product of this hunger for discovery and idolatry of the album as a form – like it was in 1974.  Unthanks are bringing their

Reconstructing some of the oldest songs in the English canon with fractured, future-facing production, Frankie Archer’s debut album The Dance of Death arrives at No. 8. Working from archival ballads of obsession, devotion and loss, she warps fiddle lines, processes her own vocals and drives the material with pulsing drum machines and colourful synth arrangements. bitters

London-born son of Richard Thompson,  Brooklyn-based Teddy Thompson’s tenth album Never Be The Same (right) comes in at No. 11. Across the ten tracks, Thompson explores the tension and pull between comfort and change through his longstanding commitment to songwriting as a form. The album was produced by renowned Grammy Award-winning musician and producer David Mansfield.

At No. 17 is From The Edge, a long-form musical work shaped by the acoustics, history and atmosphere of Dover by Richard Bundy and Anna Phoebe. The project reimagines and quietly subverts the accepted narrative of this UK coastal border town, by using music to open up hidden, overlooked  that tistoric spaces and let them be heard again. 

Karine Polwart’s latest album, Windblown, enters at No. 27, co-written with sound designer and composer Pippa Murphy and featuring Dave Milligan on piano. The album is a farewell to a beloved old Sabal palm, on the eve of its felling at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and a hymn to the gardeners who looked after it across the arc of two hundred years. 

At No. 32 is Laura Cannell’s Live At Café Oto, which captures her sold out show at the London venue in 2025. The album harnesses the raw essence of Laura Cannell as she digs deep into her intense sounds on overbowed violin, double recorders and bass recorder. Throughout Cannell draws the audience into moments of rasping, chordal, landscape drenched music.

Scottish fiddle-player Ryan Young’s third studio album In The Quiet After enters the chart at No. 33. Across ten tracks, Young re-imagines traditional material with a deliberate shift in tone, transforming lively reels and jigs into slow-burning, melancholic meditations. With this album, Young moves further into his own voice – shaped by tradition, instinct and a deeply personal sense of expression.

editor´s note.  In today´s edition we have previewed a Lanzarote based musical collaboration, Duo Bravo, who pride themselves on their willingness to address different musical diversities, from pop ballads to classical. We have followed it with a glass half-empty complaint that ´diversity is a lie´ !, and I seem to recall that he was making very similar sounds when the consistently morose sounds of The Smiths, given plenty of air time on radio, had a string of hits. Indeed, Morrisey´s  current solo album sits at number 6 in the UK Charts.

sidetracks & detours, and of course the major magazines we so admire, such as Paste, celebrate diversity wherever we see or hear it and would love to see the proof of the truth of diversity rubber stamped by an international act like DUO BRAVO being invited to bring their diverse sets to a future Manchester UK folk festival, at which I am sure they would be well-received and adopted by the audience. Meanwhile we will attend their concert in Yaiza on August the 1st and publish our review on Sunday 9^th August.  We have been looking forward to this concert for a good while now.