Stan Graham's Leisure Guide for North and West Yorkshire
Can’t get to Glastonbury or afford Glyndebourne but still crave music in an exotic location with an open air element this summer, then fret not, there is a feast of live concerts in and around Leeds, and best of all they are free! The ones at Lotherton Hall and Meanwood Valley Urban Farm require that…
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27th April saw the launch of Leeds International Festival of Ideas which, unlike previous years, will be staged over a single weekend between 22nd and 25th September, and also in a single venue, Howard Assembly Room. Some of the events will be run concurrently utilising the Mantle Music Studio in the same building. In all…
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On a fairly sunny but chilly evening in Leeds it was great to be transported to the more balmy climate of Havana for a magical evening of music from Roberto Fonseca and his fellow musicians; Yandy Rodriguez on electric bass and double bass, and Ruly Herrera on drums. Despite the music taking us to the…
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2022 sees Mikron Theatre Company celebrate their 50th Anniversary, and what better way to get things rolling than by reviving the 2015 production of Raising Agents, a play marking 100 years of the W.I. The company specialise in performing in venues not normally associated with theatre, although Holbeck W.M.C. is no stranger to putting on…
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Weather forecasters take 1st March as being the first day of Spring whilst the official kick-off is the Spring Equinox around 21st March when there are an equal number of daylight hour to night hours. In Leeds we know that the real beginning of the season is the opening of Chow Down at Temple Arches.…
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In the late 1960s there was an American television programme called ‘Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-in’ which was required viewing for we college kids of the time. It was a sketch show comprising lots of catch phrases including, ‘Marshall McLuhan, what are you doing’. Marshall McLuhan was the Canadian philosopher who coined the phrase ‘The medium…
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My trip to the Leeds Whisky Festival was not only to sample my favourite spirit, but to right a wrong which had been eating away at me for several years. More of that later, first there was booze to savour. Rolling Social Events have already had Rum Festivals, a Gin Fair and a Christmas Market…
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Bloody typical, you wait 72 years for a throat singer and then two come along at once! Unlike the Asian version I saw last week, this was of the African variety and only a single register, the deep growl, was sung at one time. Here it was employed in moderation unlike last week where it…
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Hedwig And The Angry Inch is a show which works on so many levels. It is a comedy, a tragedy, a rock show, a drag act and a parable all rolled into one. It is ostensibly a story of a genderqueer musician but is a metaphor for everyone who struggles with their identity for whatever…
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Looking at the credits for School of Rock – The Musical, I could think of no stranger pairing to come up with for this adaptation of the 2003 film than Lord Andrew Lloyd Weber and Julian Fellowes. It just goes to show that appearances are not everything and great talent is transferrable. I must not…
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Tyke It To The Limit 