Shania Twain

Shania Twain is not just a girl. The documentary told us so. The sales stats told us so. But more importantly, her infectious presence told us so.

Critically-Acclaimed “Disability Taskmaster” For Kids Comes To Sheffield

The critically-acclaimed kids game show Blue Badge Bunch is coming to Theatre Deli Sheffield on Saturday 7th October as part of its 2023 UK tour, fresh off the back of a hit Edinburgh Fringe run at The Pleasance.

The Reytons Triumph With Homecoming Show

Since the release of their debut album Kids Off The Estate in November 2021, Rotherham band The Reytons has gone from strength to strength, the word-of-mouth sensation spreading like wildfire throughout the UK. Setting The Reytons apart from the competition is their fiercely independent approach to the way they work.

Poem Of The Week: Baldwin Road By Cliff Yates

Baldwin Road Patches of melting snow on the sodden lawn the other side of the coal bunker we built and demolished. Horses shiver in the field. Dad cycles up the hill on his way to work, haversack on his shoulder, beret pulled low. It’s his last day. Next door but one, the John Denver lookalike is burying something in the garden, watched by his new dog, ears back, tail moving.

Classical Music: Credo

On this marvellous disc, Māris Sirmais distinctively portrays the orchestral sounds of his choir, drawing out the quality of the rich textures of the choral writing with performances that are captivatingly warm, with a beautiful intensity that immerses the listener into a listening experience where one feels the power of each chordal progression and suspension.

Albums: Esther Abrami Cinéma

While the collection is a very different selection of songs from her debut recording, the depth of her artistry is clear throughout the album's fifteen songs. Diverse in its selection, the album highlights the tender delivery of her playing, and it is easy for the listener to be transported into the emotion of each of these powerful musical moments.

Falstaff: Setting The Attractions Of My Good Parts Aside

Verdi's Falstaff opens Opera North's new season at Leeds Grand Theatre. As Falstaff himself said: "Setting the attractions of my good parts aside, I have no other charms.". Fortunately for us Opera North's latest production of Verdi's Falstaff has plenty of charms of its own.

Albums: Princess Goes Come of Age

Interestingly, despite the more 'radio'-driven sound of the singles, the album as a whole manages to strike an interesting balance between mainstream desire and spacey indie rock individuality. The rich tone and storytelling nature of Hall’s vocal are truly transportive, taking the listener on an insightful trip into the minds and lives of three fascinating characters.

Reaction: New Report Finds The Arts An Area Of Considerable Disappointment For Many Black Britons

The largest ever survey of Black British people has found that the arts and media are areas of considerable disappointment for many Black Britons. Despite clear efforts to reform ‒ and increasingly common references to ‘blind’ casting ‒ theatre, film, television, publishing and the mainstream media are all depicted as sources of longstanding disappointment to Black communities.

Our Land : Rural - The Lives Of The Working Class Countryside By Rebecca Smith

You could be forgiven for thinking that the working classes, as portrayed in historical non-fictional literature, were all raised in urban slums, susceptible to the vagaries of cholera and tuberculosis, and generally hungry. The disparity between wealth creation and reward – starkly illustrated in Henry Mayhew’s documentary examination of the poor of Victorian London*, and realised in E. P.

And Then There Were None

Pick Me Up Theatre’s current production of And Then There Were None, is based on the world’s best –selling mystery novel by 'Queen Of Crime' Agatha Christie.

And Then Come The Nightjars – Bea Roberts

Establishing shot: dusk over bleak countryside; in the distance, occasional headlights suggest a tentative road link to civilization—where are we? Why so remote? In fact, we are on a farm on the edge of Dartmoor, and the irascible Michael (David Fielder) is emptying a can of disinfectant over a pile of straw, then scrubbing the farm gate.

Remember Teenage Dirtbag? Brendan B Brown Chats About Wheatus

It’s hard to believe it’s now been well over 20 years since Wheatus released their million-selling eponymously titled debut album as well as their still ubiquitous single Teenage Dirtbag. Yes, that’s right—"Dirtbag"  is no longer a teenager.

Radio 2 In The Park: Chatting With Sharleen Spiteri From The Band, Texas

Scottish band Texas rose to fame in 1989 with the hit single I Don’t Need a Lover, which paved the way for a string of hits, including Summer Son, Black Eyed Boy, and Say What You Want among others.

50 Years Old But Rocky Horror Still Going Down A Storm

I find it difficult to believe that The Rocky Horror Show is 50 years old, where did the time go? Things have changed over those years, but one thing hasn’t, the audience reaction, we were laughing from the first scene and all on our feet dancing by the fourth song with very little encouragement, and it just continued from there.

Changing The Face Of Opera

After 100 days in his role as Executive Director of Opera North, Henry Filloux-Bennett chatted with Group Editor Andrew Palmer about the changing face of the arts, how we consume culture, and what the future of opera could look like. Henry Filloux-Bennett had not quite anticipated just how different theatre and opera were as two different live art forms.

ADHD – The Musical: Can I Have Your Attention Please

It is difficult enough when confronted with a stage show that has a worthy cause as one of its themes, far more recondite when a cause is the raison d'être of the whole production. It is stating the obvious that, under these conditions, the action has designs on the audience and its opinions that are clearly didactic.

Poem Of The Week : do you remember vienna by Nora Iuga

do you remember vienna a city where you can fall in love a city with a thousand churches and a thousand brothels where among pieces of the host scattered on the cobblestones the hooves of horses from the spanish school are women’s high heels The collection from which Romanian writer and poet Nora Iuga’s poem is taken is a sensual excursion through the central European hinterla…

Classical Music: Parry Scenes From Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound

The Crouch End Chorus have the advantage of a new full score by Parry biographer Jeremy Dibble, who also offered his academic insights throughout the recording process as well as providing excellent and fascinating notes, especially regarding the issues that the original chorus and orchestra had with the copying of parts, a long rehearsal lasting many hours, and how a chorus drawn not only from Gloucester but also from London, Bristol, and Oxford had their morale lifted after a contingent of singers from Huddersfield arranged for a private rehearsal.

Reward And Punishment : Shrines of Gaiety By Kate Atkinson

‘Oh what a tangled web we weave’ and this novel is certainly a tangled web. Intriguing and compelling, twisted in so many knots, it’s hard to see how it will untangle – and indeed, there are still a couple of threads left dangling at the end. It’s another inimitable novel by Kate Atkinson. It is 1926, eight years after the end of the Great War and England is still recovering.

Albums: Chouk Bwa And The Angstromers – Somanti

If you want to discover something completely different, then perhaps it is time to discover this new album where two groups from very different traditions come together to create a compelling mix of avant-gard…

Silver Screen Weekly - What's Coming Up At The Cinema From Friday 22nd September 2023

Our film critic and media correspondent has been looking and trawling the new releases. Here's what you can see on the big screen this week.

Beware The Bewitching Hour! 2:22 – A Ghost Story

Staying up late might not have the same appeal after a performance of 2:22 – A Ghost Story, an acclaimed West End thriller now passing through the UK. The countdown is underway as time hurtles relentlessly to the bewitching hour in a plot imbued with diverse themes and powerful social dynamics.

Poem Of The Week : Wine By Stephen Littlejohn

The ‘half-dropped’ parasol in Stephen Littlejohn’s fine poem of elegant inertia is totemic; it is fixed, like Larkin’s ‘steamer’, in an infinite present, in the pinioned suspension of a fly in amber. A pivotal point in a poem of close, considered, observation, the slow perambulation of the narrator’s mind’s eye roves an Italian lakeside tableau, whose backdrop of mountains overshadows the town that clings to the water’s edge, and renders the ‘necklace of lamplight’ a distant chain of twinkles, as inconsequential to the night sky as a twitchy candle’s flame.

Academy Of Ancient Music Celebrates 50th Anniversary With Short Film

On 17 September 1973, musicians gathered at All Saints’ Church in West London to record overtures by Thomas Arne, under the baton of Christopher Hogwood. This was the very first meeting of Academy of Ancient Music, an orchestra which would go on to redefine period instrument performance.

BBC Radio 2 In The Park – A Musical Feast

{14}The Radio 2 In The Park live event arrived in Leicester’s Victoria Park for a weekend that offered a line-up of some of the biggest names in pop music, including the live return of one of the genre’s biggest stars, Kyle Minogue.

Albums: Mae Muller Sorry I'm Late

Although she was criticised for her live vocals at Eurovision, Muller has since shown how powerful her vocals can be with a series of live performances around the country. It is her distinctive vocal that is the star of the show on the diverse collection that is Sorry I'm Late.

Classical Music: Fauré Nocturnes & Barcarolles

Hamelin knows how to communicate the beauty of these pieces and is a perfect interface between composer, instrument, and pianist. He caresses each piece with a sensitivity that is at times so delicate that the listener is ensorcelled. The pace of each is expertly judged, and the attention to detail in each of the varied nocturnes captures the textural colour and warmth with poise.

Albums: The Hoosiers Confidence

Having grown hugely as creatives in the last 16 years, Confidence is a very different record from their debut release, and while it has echoes of all their subsequent releases, it feels very much like a band who are comfortable in their current skin and are not seeking the opportunity to chase old soundscapes.

Albums: Madison Beer Silence Between Songs

Madison Beer may only be 24 years old, but she is a veteran of the US industry.