Stan Graham's Leisure Guide for North and West Yorkshire
It was great to cover an event within walking distance of home, especially on a summer evening. It did seem a bit incongruous, slapping on the factor 50 to go see a presentation which would obviously culminate in the details of this year’s pantomime, still, I thought to myself, enjoy it while you can –…
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Kiele Sacco, or Ki as she is known to her friends, and me, is an American harpsichordist based at Morley College, London, specialising in historical performance and early music. The concert began at 1.00pm which I suppose is pretty early really. The programme, being works from Renaissance England to refined French Baroque was perfectly suited…
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In 1965, when I was 15, I used to get the New Musical Express every Friday to check on my favourite acts. The LP chart was mainly occupied by the Beatles and the Rolling Stones until, one week, 17th April, The Sound of Music Soundtrack suddenly appeared, rubbing shoulders with the aforementioned groups, The Pretty…
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Thursday, 3rd July, 2026 saw the official launch of the inaugural Yorkshire Fringe. To celebrate this eight-day long series of events throughout the county, we were gathered in Leeds Conservatoire for a briefing, some snippets from the works on offer and a networking opportunity for those in the various strands of the arts featured to…
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There can be fewer more incongruous places to hold a Baroque concert than The Old Woollen at Farsley, especially one dedicated to music from the Restoration Theatre. This was the period immediately following the restoration of the Monarchy – obviously – after the rule of Oliver Cromwell and The Protectorate, who later went on to…
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I usually try to post my reviews within a couple of days of seeing the work, but, as this play runs until 11th July, and I don’t have an editor screaming at me, I thought I would take an extra day or two to do it justice. It is always difficult reviewing a piece which…
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Now here is a useless fact about ABBA, only tenuously connected with this show. Before curtain-up, there was the usual reminder regarding mobile phones etc, before a trigger warning that the show contained platform boots and white lycra. The reason that they wore such outlandish outfits was not a fashion statement per se, but came…
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After my culture shock on Tuesday at Legally Blonde, where everyone was so young and speaking in weird American sorority girl accents with voices that could strip paint, I thought that my visit to Howard Assembly Room to see Teddy Thompson, might redress the balance when it came to my facing up to impending doom.…
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I approached this show with a degree of trepidation in that, although never having seen the film of the same name, I had read the blurb on Leeds Grand Theatre website in order to write my monthly theatre preview for Welcome To Leeds and discovered it to be aimed at the age demographic about half…
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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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Tyke It To The Limit 