Helen Jerome

BFI Flare Festival 2025: Every time the BFI Flare Festival comes around, it feels bigger and bolder, and plunges into all sorts of genres with just their LGBTQIA+ flavour linking them. This year’s schedule was chock-full of fun and thrills, and if I hadn’t been struck down with illness halfway through, I would have seen many more features. But as it is, I am giving you my own take on where the festival sits now, through the seven choice cuts that I did see.

Charles Wesley Godwin is beaming. He’s just released something frankly epic in the shape of his 19-track, third studio album Family Ties. Every record he’s made is imbued with a sense of his home state, West Virginia, and allows his influences – from Springsteen to Kristofferson – to seep into the songs. His longtime band, the Allegheny High, make his vision happen live, but when he’s in the midst of creating new material he’s very much on his own. Luckily, he says, it was a great writing year.

Patsy Cline - ‘Crazy’ Label: Decca Release Date: October 16th 1961 Album: Showcase Producer: Owen Bradley Songwriter: Willie Nelson Chart Performance: No. 2 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs No. 2 on Billboard's U.S. Adult Contemporary No. 9 on Billboard's Hot 100 On November 8 1961, Patsy Cline stepped into the spotlight on ABC’s American Bandstand, singing ‘Crazy’ to a TV audience of 20 million households – three weeks after the song’s release – which helped propel it into the pop and easy...