Stan Graham's Leisure Guide for North and West Yorkshire
I was looking forward to seeing this show, which I last saw in 2022, and wondered what someone else would do to it. As it happens it was basically the same production but with a few small changes. What hadn’t changed, however, was that the story is told in flashbacks, the opening scene depicting the…
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I don’t use a star system to grade the things I review. My reasoning for this is that the top rating would mean, should something come along which was palpably better than those to which I had allocated five stars, I could not do it justice. In 1999 the Jumeirah Burj Al Arab was so…
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After last week’s visit to Howard Assembly Room to see a South African cellist who had the audience up on their feet and rocking, this concert could not have been more different. That is the attraction of this venue, apart from the staff and the building itself. Arve Henriksen is a Norwegian trumpeter and tech…
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Anyone who regularly reads my articles will know that, apart from them needing therapy, I hate having the classics messed around with. If you think you can do it better then write your own play, even if you have to use the original idea. This is almost what happened here, the concept of Shakespeare’s Romeo…
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I have recommended this series of hour-long recitals by members of the Orchestra of Opera North before and this one did nothing to change my mind, it was wonderful. What I didn’t realise was that the chap who drove the bus which carried me to Leeds was a fan too. I presume that is the…
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Any concert by Manchester Collective or Abel Selaocoe is well worth seeking out, but one which includes them both transcends the term concert and becomes an event and one which should not be missed. I first saw this collaboration in March 2022 in a work called The Oracle, and was more than impressed. That ensemble…
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What better way could there be on a November evening when the sun has chosen not to appear for several days, leaving us only in the company of grey, dank and moist weather, than to enjoy the fun and sheer exuberance of a band from sunny Senegal, where the smiles shine brighter than the star…
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The power of advertising never ceases to amaze me. There is a car dealership who used to, and maybe still does, run ads on TV, with an ear worm jingle which I can’t help but recall every time I see anything connected with this show. Their name is Evans Halshaw, so you too can suffer…
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What a brilliant way to get children into opera. My first experience of live classical music was back in the Sixties at grammar school, when the second form was herded into a building in Rossington Street, just opposite where the Merrion Centre stands today, and made to shut up and listen to a string quartet…
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Before I write this review I must admit to not being a big fan of Gilbert and Sullivan. I was introduced to their work at school via The Pirates of Penzance and, even in my early teens, I thought that the humour was very childish. I realise that it was supposed to be satirical, but…
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Tyke It To The Limit 