Stan Graham's Leisure Guide for North and West Yorkshire
RIOPY, birth name Jean-Phillippe Rio-Py, like a lot of the performers I have seen at Howard Assembly Room, was someone I had not heard of before my visit. He is a French pianist and composer who has the most amazing back story. He was raised in a secular cult in France and taught himself to…
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I remember reading the volume of Spike Milligan’s memoirs which dealt with his army service during the war. It was called Adolph Hitler: My Part In His Downfall. The main reason it sticks in my mind is that I was banned by my wife from reading it whilst she was watching TV as I would…
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I think that I have discovered a new hero, Leoš Janáček, the man responsible for the work currently being performed by Opera North at Leeds Grand Theatre. He has made my list of good guys on two counts; firstly he has broken the mould when it comes to the practice of anthropomorphism, and secondly, he…
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On Friday 27th January Phoenix Dance Theatre held a presentation to celebrate the first 40 years of the company. Being good Yorkshire folk they opted to get value for money by highlighting two brilliant announcements at once. Although the company was set up in 1981, the 40th Anniversary Tour began in November 2021 and so…
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Last year’s concert held to mark Holocaust Memorial Day was focussed on the works of three composers who perished in one of the most reviled concentration camps during the Second World War, this year the spotlight shifted to the lives of ‘ordinary’ people – the clue is in the title. Although the object was to…
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After a mini lockdown due to my recovering from a knee replacement operation and the lack of new shows opening since Christmas, it was great to get back to the beautiful Grand Theatre for a classic opera, albeit in modern dress – both the opera and me. As usual, the work covered love, betrayal, murder,…
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This was a very fitting title for the last show I will be covering before Christmas. Next Friday, strikes permitting, I am going into hospital for a knee replacement, so one week on I will be Stick Man, probably Two Stick Man, Crutch Man, but we won’t go there, or even Dylan, the real name…
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Sunday evening was very strange. I got on the bus to take me to Leeds, which it did, but it also seemed to have transported me back to 1973! As with any decade the music was, shall we say, of variable quality and this concert by Jesca Hoop reminded me that there was a school…
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I’ve always enjoyed a good after hours session but it has usually meant a lock-in at the local pub for a couple more illicit pints, tonight, however, it was a much more sophisticated affair being the launch of Royal Armouries Gin. Not only that, but the chaps at Rolling Social, Lee and Ben, had devised…
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Another first for me, the opening night of a sculpture exhibition. The subtitle is Race, Sexuality and Disorder in Victorian Sculpture so pretty intriguing. Fortunately we were treated to an introduction to the works on show by Laurence Sillars, Head of the Henry Moore Institute, who said that the exhibits raised questions about the Victorians’…
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Tyke It To The Limit 