Stan Graham's Leisure Guide for North and West Yorkshire
Just because Glastonbury is lying fallow this year, it doesn’t mean that there are no get togethers available. In fact, odd as it sounds, this year’s Leeds International African Arts Festival could be just the right alternative. There is music, dance, food and, should the weather turn wet, there are even muddy fields to wallow…
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Being an only child I tended to do a lot of reading and Enid Blyton was one of my first go-to authors. It is probably the Yorkshire influence that, whilst the other readers I knew were into The Famous Five books, I opted for The Secret Seven series. Buy 5 get 2 free! I was…
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If ever a show differed from expectations it is this one. It should have been obvious before the curtain went up when the usual mobile phone warning against recoding and photography was issued, as it contained the pearl of wisdom that ‘memory is the best camera’. I avoided seeing the 1984 film as I was…
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The Zombies is one of the early 1960s groups (that’s what we called bands in those days) I missed out on seeing. I can only think that they were not on any of the packages whose tours took in Leeds Odeon cinema, as I saw most of those which did. It was really good to…
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After all the articles I have written about theatre you would have thought I had seen about everything, so did I, but here I was, leaving York Theatre Royal, munching on a piece of caraway bread that I had just seen been baked live on stage. The thing is that it wasn’t done during a…
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The wonderful Leeds Grand Theatre is going through a purple patch at the moment insofar as the variety of its presentations is concerned. The last three productions have been a conventional 1920s drawing room comedy, a juke box musical, a ghost story and this evening, we have a gritty prison drama, not for the faint-hearted.…
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This is the second time I have seen Mr Kouyate and his wife, Amy Sacko, at Howard Assembly Room and it could hardly have been a more different set. The last time they were backed by a quartet of musicians and the music was rocking, this evening it was just the two of them with…
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The stars have aligned this year to enable me to see both of Mikron’s 2026 productions at the beginning of their national tours. After Top Of The Wold, dealing with a mobile library serving East Yorkshire, we have this cheese-based offering set in the North of God’s Own County. Actually God played a big part…
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After seeing some, so called, ‘thrillers’ at Leeds Grand Theatre which have descended into farce, I was sceptical about this, but, as it has had successful runs at various theatres throughout the world, both in residence and on tour, I thought I would give it a shot. On balance I am pleased that I did,…
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Before I begin I must send a word of thanks to the legend that is Jools Holland who has been responsible for two of the best gigs I have seen. The first was at Harrogate Conference Centre just pre-Covid when I went along to see his annual pre-Christmas Rhythm and Blues show; the second was…
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Tyke It To The Limit 