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The Play That I Wrote - Slapstick At Its Best
Emilie Moon and Claire Haddleton
continue to enjoy fun filled trips out to York's Theatre Royal this time enjoying a tribute to the one and only Morecambe and Wise
Next Seven Days In The Arts (Thu 30th Jun - Thu 7th Jul)
Darlington Hippodrome
Rumours of Fleetwood Mac
Hull New Theatre
Les Miserables
O2 City Hall Newcastle
Sam Fender
Sunderland Empire Theatre
Mamma Mia!
Artist's Tribute To Harry Gration MBE
Jan Harris
Deputy Group Editor
Shany Hagan is a Celebrity Charity Artist and she has just finished her painting of Harry Gration MBE, who sadly died suddenly last Friday at the age of 71. She said that Harry loved his coffee in the morning with his family and so decided to use coffee as the medium for her painting.
3:06 PM 27th June 2022
Chasing Clouds - To See The World Through Poets’ Eyes
Jonathan Humble
Features Writer
It is now one year since I wrote a blog entry about the possibility of setting up a web-based poetry bank to help plug a publication gap for poets who write for children.
7:02 PM 26th June 2022
Interview With Brooke Law
Jeremy Williams-Chalmers
Arts Correspondent
Singer songwriter Brooke Law recently released her new song
We All Need Saving
within Mental Health Awareness Week (9-15 May 2022), writing about how our mental health was affected during the pandemic lockdown. As she starts to build towards live shows, we caught up with her to find out what inspired her to write the release.
2:00 AM 26th June 2022
International Busking Day Is Back
Over 120 performers - including The Shires and Seth Lakeman - 10 stages - 1 day - A big celebration
2:00 AM 25th June 2022
Interview with Hatari
Hatari are best known for bringing their anti-capitalist BDSM techno punk rock to the Eurovision stage in 2019. The Iceland representatives were firm fan favourites in the build-up to the contest and finished in a respectable 10th place. Since then they have released their debut album, Neyslutrans, and continued to build on their solid fanbase.
2:00 AM 25th June 2022
The Best And The Absolute Worst:
The Dressmaker’s Secret
By Lorna Cook
It’s true that war inspires the best and the absolute worst in people; brave heroism is juxtaposed with cruel atrocity on a regular basis. Inspired by information which has come to light in the last decade,
The Dressmaker’s Secret
tells the story of Coco Chanel’s war, as seen through the eyes of her assistant.
2:00 AM 25th June 2022
Poem Of The Week:
The Wireless
By Jean Stevens
The wireless
Kathleen Ferrier on the wireless. It’s my father’s way of getting close. I hold my breath to listen.
3:00 AM 23rd June 2022
Burned By Light:
Dovetailing - Gathered Notes
Never underestimate the simple pleasure of contemplative quiet. Several visitors to
Dovetailing
- a collaboration of artwork, installation, music and word, which was exhibited at the Quaker Meeting House of Farfield near Addingham in the Summer of 2021- were moved to feelings of ‘calm and wellbeing’.
6:30 PM 20th June 2022
Download Festival Welcomes Home The Rock Community
Graham Clark
Music Features Writer
Frank Carter at the Download Festival
Every June thousands of rock music fans gather at Castle Donington for what is unquestionably the rock event of the year - the Download Festival. Held over three days alongside the famous racing track the festival attracts the biggest names in rock music.
10:35 AM 19th June 2022
Classical Music Album: Reynaldo Hahn Poèmes & Valses
Andrew Palmer
Group Editor
The cover photograph from the series of ‘Scattered Dreams’ by Susannah Baker-Smith sums up the spirit of this album. Hahn’s beautifully evocative and delectable miniatures are ethereal which Pavel Kolesnikov conveys so brilliantly.
1:13 PM 18th June 2022
Inspired By Morecambe And Wise
Diane Parkes speaks to the stars of
The Play What I Wrote
prior to its visit to the north
2:00 AM 18th June 2022
Harrogate International Festivals Announces Spectacular Summer Programme
Harrogate International Festivals is bursting back into life this summer with a blistering programme featuring world-famous writers, flamboyant musicians, samba dancers, burlesque artists, Shakespearean performers, children’s entertainers and one of the best-known names from the Manchester rave scene.
2:00 AM 18th June 2022
Top Gun Is The UK’s Favourite Tom Cruise Movie Of All Time
Top Gun
has been crowned the UK’s favourite Tom Cruise movie of all time, according to new national research released.
2:00 AM 18th June 2022
The Railway Children Return To New George Clooney Movie – A Young Yorkshire Actor’s Star Is Rising
At the age of just 13, Austin Haynes has a seriously impressive body of work under his belt. The Leeds youngster has worked with the likes of Jim Broadbent, Tom Courtenay, Christopher Eccleston and Sheridan Smith - and was recently directed by George Clooney in his forthcoming movie The Boys in the Boat.
2:00 AM 18th June 2022
Ukulele Orchestra Of Great Britain Strikes A Chord
Has Panto season come early? No, it's the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain who graced the stage at York's Theatre Royal last night to a rapturous reception from the locals. And we were treated to a new joke! Yes, the band had clearly not wasted their lockdowns.
11:25 AM 16th June 2022
Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel Of The Year 2022 Shortlist Revealed
The shortlist for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2022, presented by Harrogate International Festivals, has been announced today, with six bestselling authors competing to win the UK’s most prestigious crime writing prize.
3:00 AM 14th June 2022
Night Swimming:
Towards A General Theory Of Love
By Clare Shaw
Steve Whitaker
Literary Editor
Clare Shaw
A paradox lies at the heart of Clare Shaw’s shattering new collection: striving, almost childlike, to order love in an anxiety of intractable images, her disclosure of unease is counter-intuitively strident. For performance is one of Shaw’s strongest suits and the banging of a resounding drum is a sincere means of attempting to negotiate a passage towards self-understanding.
7:37 PM 13th June 2022
Classical Music Album: William Bolcom The Complete Rags
Andrew Palmer
Group Editor
Marc-André Hamelin provides an opportunity to momentarily forget the woes of the world with a fun-filled, entertaining album celebrating the high-spirited world of ragtime.
6:50 AM 12th June 2022
Poem of the Week: 'Together' By Robert Gibson
Steve Whitaker
Literary Editor
Together
flax jute cotton wire willow wool raffia grass bamboo even a ripped newspaper’s weasel words may be twined braided or knotted woven into a common bond warp and weft synergy from vibrant difference As if to illustrate a sense of natural overlap and complementarity, Robert Gibson’s fine poem of condensed, serpentine power is rendered entirely without punctuation.
6:48 AM 12th June 2022
Classical Music Album: Schubert
Die Schöne Müllerin
Andrew Palmer
Group Editor
This CD, telling the tale of the emotional difficulties of a young journeyman Miller’s infatuation with the miller maid, her acquiescence and subsequent rejection of him for a glamorous huntsman and his suicide in the millstream, completes Gerald Finley and Julius Drake’s survey of the great Schubert song cycles.
2:00 AM 11th June 2022
Crimson Soil:
Only Killers And Thieves
By Paul Howarth
Sometimes a book comes my way which, under normal circumstances, I would not look at twice but which I am persuaded to read for other reasons. This is one such, the debut novel of Paul Howarth, and it is very different from my usual reading matter, falling as it does into the broad genre of the Western. It did not, however, disappoint.
2:00 AM 11th June 2022
What The Hell!
Shows do not come bigger, bolder or more brash than Bat Out Of Hell. Based on the songs of Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman the jukebox musical is not just a run through of the songs from the three Bat Out Of Hell albums. The songs from the trilogy were always theatrical so it is no surprise that they translated well to the stage.
4:00 AM 8th June 2022
Review: Voices of Craven's Summer Jubilee Concert in Skipton
The moment at which all other considerations melted away, towards the end of Saturday night’s shimmering concert at Skipton Town Hall, was pivotal: collectively bearing the symbolic weight of a blue and yellow national flag, the ladies of the Voices of Craven joined with their male colleagues to deliver an emotionally-charged rendering of a
Prayer for Ukraine
.
3:00 AM 6th June 2022
Interview With Michael McKell As We Will Rock You Comes To The North
Queen and Ben Elton’s smash hit musical
We Will Rock You
is back for 2022 to celebrate its 20th anniversary with a new tour that arrives in the north. The worldwide smash hit musical arrives at Stockton Globe from Monday 6th June until Saturday 11th June before visiting Newcastle, Sheffield and Manchester.
11:47 AM 5th June 2022
Opera North’s Parsifal: An Achievement Of Considerable Grandeur
Mike Tilling
Arts Correspondent
Toby Spence as Parsifal. All photos by Clive Barda
Whether an opera lover or not, you probably have an opinion about Richard Wagner. Wasn’t he the favourite composer of Adolf Hitler? Yes he was. Wasn’t he that paranoid anti-Semite? Yes he was. Didn’t critics in his own time describe his music as ‘immoral’, ‘poisonous’ and ‘degenerate’? Yes they did. However, wasn’t he also one of the greatest musical theorists of the European tradition?
2:32 PM 4th June 2022
Classical Music Album: Greig Lyric Pieces Vol 1
Andrew Palmer
Group Editor
Peter Donohoe has chosen a lovely selection of Grieg's
Lyric Pieces
on this first volume. Starting his recital with
Klokkeklang
, he immediately sets the scene for what is to follow, delicate, expressive playing with well-controlled crescendos and diminuendos. Donohoe’s playing has an aura of warmth is immensely lyrical and intimate.
2:29 PM 4th June 2022
Music At The Jubilee
Andrew Palmer
Group Editor
Around the world it is widely acknowledged that the British do pomp, pageantry, and ceremonial extremely well. Whether it be the Trooping of the Colour or a service in our de facto national cathedral, St Paul’s, the grandeur of the music from the Kneller Hall State Trumpeters, military bands, organs, or our cathedral choirs, make us proud of our long traditions and our heritage.
10:14 AM 4th June 2022
HRH Queen Elizabeth
Jan Harris
Deputy Group Editor
A North Duffield artist called Shany Hagan has just finished a painting with a difference. The painting is called
The Jubilee High Tea
. Shany Hagan is a mum to one son and spends her time painting and donating her art to different charities, so far raising over £250k for some 30 charities. She paints for the NHS, celebrities and their charities, film covers and Royal commissions.
8:41 PM 3rd June 2022
Jubilee Poem Of The Week: 'The Patriarchs - An Elegy' By Simon Armitage
The Patriarchs – An Elegy
The weather in the window this morning is snow, unseasonal singular flakes, a slow winter’s final shiver.
2:00 AM 3rd June 2022
Liam Gallagher In Fine Homecoming Return
If you had to name the last big band to come out of Britain in the last twenty years or so then Oasis would definitely be one to spring to mind. The Manchester group provided the soundtrack for a generation whist even today their music resonates with a younger audience - as witnessed at The Etihad Stadium in Manchester - when Liam Gallagher made a memorable homecoming return.
1:04 PM 2nd June 2022
Brooding At Twilight:
Vinegar Hill
By Colm Tóibín
Colm Tóibín is both present and not present at moments of immense significance to the teeming protagonists of his poems. As otherwise invisible as the bronzed figure of Icarus in ‘In Los Angeles’, as seemingly extraneous as the boy who falls into the sea in Auden’s ‘Musée des Beaux Arts’, the novelist contrives an invaluable detachment in his first poetry collection.
3:00 AM 31st May 2022
Classical Music Album:
Nazareno
Celebrating The Union Of Classical And Jazz
Simon Rattle and his band of musicians certainly seem to have enjoyed performing this toe tapping, finger clicking, fun infused repertoire that traverses jazz and classical music.
3:54 PM 29th May 2022
A Sower In The Desert:
Smoke
By Ivan Turgenev (1818-1883)
Paul Spalding-Mulcock
Features Writer
Cover of First Edition. Image - Wikipedia.
Nestled amongst my collection of often tenebrific Russian classics, the works of Turgenev seem to pulse as soft lucent beacons. His novels do not scar the retina of the reader with the blinding, dramatic lightning of Dostoyevsky or Tolstoy, but instead offer us the altogether more subtle tones and hues of a literary sonata.
2:00 AM 29th May 2022
Jazz Album: Hot Lips Page: A Retrospective Perspective
Andrew Liddle
Features Writer
If your taste in popular music is Jazz, Blues, Swing, Country or, more broadly, what these days gets called Nostalgia thenthe Retrospective label, brought out by Nimbus Records,might well be for you. Out on the 1st of June is a fine budget-priced 2-cd collection of 48 of the best of the legendary jazz trumpeter Hot Lips Page.
2:00 AM 29th May 2022
Album Review: Will Young 20 Years: The Greatest Hits.
Jeremy Williams-Chalmers
Arts Correspondent
Will Young
20 Years: The Greatest Hits.
CD 1
Evergreen; Light My Fire; The Long and Winding Road with Gareth Gates; You and I; Leave Right Now; Your Game; Friday's Child; All Time Love; Who Am I; Changes; Grace; Jealousy; Come On; Losing Myself; Love Revolution; Joy; All The Songs; Daniel; Why Does It Hurt – New Track; Breaking Free – New Track.
CD2
Leave Right Now - Z…
2:00 AM 28th May 2022
Ordinary Evil:
A Spoonful Of Murder
By J. M. Hall
Artis-Ann
Features Writer
Coincidences do happen. I was house sitting for a friend recently and, investigating the area, I discovered Thirsk Garden Centre. Well worth a visit with its lovely café and shop. When I got back to relax in the sunshine, I picked up my new book and it began in….Thirsk Garden Centre! Now that’s spooky.
2:00 AM 28th May 2022
Album Review: Hanson
Red Green Blue
Sibling trio Hanson may still be best remembered by the majority for their break-out single MMMBop, however, over the last 30 years of their recording career, they have proved time and again why they are one of the world's biggest ever independent acts.
2:00 AM 28th May 2022
Diana Ross Doppelganger Stuns!
When an impersonator walks on stage and your heart momentarily skips a beat because the resemblance with the original artiste is uncanny, you know you are about to witness something between stunning, disappointing or interesting!
8:00 AM 27th May 2022
The Killers Give The North A Night To Remember
After the absence of big outdoor concerts for the last three years, Las Vegas-based The Killers brought the sunshine and glitz of the Nevada state to South Yorkshire in a concert that never failed to entertain.
8:59 AM 26th May 2022
Harold Pinter:
The Homecoming
Theatre Correspondent Ruth Spurgeon was at York Theatre Royal to watch Harold Pinter's
The Homecoming.
3:00 AM 25th May 2022
Overall Winner Of Small Press Of The Year Announced At This Year's British Book Awards
Sheffield-based adventure books publisher Vertebrate Publishing has been announced as the overall winner of the fourth annual Small Press of the Year Award. The award, which is sponsored by CPI Books, was announced at The British Book Awards winner ceremony last night at Grosvenor House London in the first in-person British Book Awards ceremony since 2019, and the biggest yet.
12:30 AM 24th May 2022
Classical Music Album: John Ireland Orchestral Works - Sinfonia Of London
Andrew Palmer
Group Editor
What a treat! The superb coupling of John Wilson and the Sinfonia of London raising the profile of an unjustly neglected composer. This thoroughly enjoyable disc features a mix of John Ireland's well-known gems and some of his unfamiliar works.
7:11 AM 23rd May 2022
Album Review: Harry Styles:
Harry's House
Jeremy Williams-Chalmers
Arts Correspondent
Harry Styles has always been something of a phenomenon. As a member of third placing X Factor contestants, One Direction, he and his band mates proved that winning a television talent show is not the key ingredient in commercial success.
7:09 AM 23rd May 2022
Poem Of The Week: 'Sonnet 29' By William Shakespeare
Steve Whitaker
Literary Editor
William Shakespeare. Image by WikiImages from Pixabay
Sonnet 29
When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes, I all alone beweep my outcast state, And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries, And look upon myself and curse my fate, wishing me like to one more rich in hope, Featured like him, like him with friends possessed, Desiring this man's art, and that man's scope, With what I most enjoy contented least; Yet in these thoughts myself…
3:01 AM 21st May 2022
Mikron Theatre's Wild And Wonderful World Of Weather
In a bright and breezy new play by Mikron newcomer Lindsay Roden, the uber-talented and always hard working cast of just four treat us to a whirlwind history of the weather / climate change and all things meteorological. For those who don't know Mikron (where have you been?), they are a delightfully small and permanently touring force of nature.
3:00 AM 21st May 2022
Album Review: Mamas Gun - Cure The Jones
UK based soul outfit Mamas Gun return with their fifth album - a lush, nuanced and contemporary meditation on a world that…
3:00 AM 21st May 2022
The Weekender: Julia Donaldson Talks Zog And The Flying Doctors
Best known for her popular rhyming stories for children, especially those illustrated by Axel Scheffler, Julia Donaldson is the multi award-winning author of some of the world's best loved children's books, most notably the modern classic
The Gruffalo
which has sold over 18 million copies worldwide.
3:00 AM 21st May 2022
Kleinwort Hambros Announces Sponsorship Of Emerging Artist Prize Winner Ayo Akingbade
Kleinwort Hambros has announced that it will serve as the headline corporate sponsor of Ayo Akingbade’s debut solo exhibition, a year after the bank awarded the artist, writer and film director one of its prestigious, annual Emerging Artist prizes.
3:00 AM 19th May 2022
Bryan Adams – Still Cutting It Live
Graham Clark
Music Features Writer
photo credit Graham Clark
Bryan Adams arrived on stage at the Manchester Arena with a huge catalogue of songs to choose from.
Kick Ass
, a track off his last album
So Happy It Hurts
kicked off a consummate, joyful and engaging show. The fans really though wanted to hear his older tracks such as
Can’t Stop This Thing We Started
which swiftly followed.
5:48 PM 18th May 2022
Classical Music Album: Weinberg String Quartets Vol 2
Andrew Palmer
Group Editor
The Arcadia Quartet write that classical music tends to categorise composers…
3:00 AM 18th May 2022
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