Strictly Ballroom Bradford Alhambra
Our winter love affair with ballroom dancing through the TV series Strictly Come Dancing seems destined to make this show a box office hit. Indeed, if this opening night audience is anything to go by, tickets are going to be at a premium, and the cast certainly deserve it. They turned up for a night in the spangled world of the dance floor and were not disappointed.
The show is based on Baz Luhrmann’s 1992 film of the same name, itself…
Showaddywaddy 50th Anniversary Tour
With the iconic Teddy-boy style dating back to 1973, Showaddywaddy is back and as brilliant as ever! With an endless jukebox of songs, vivacious choreography and dazzling outfits - what isn’t there to love?
Showaddywaddy certainly rocked Bradford last night, showering us with sweet music. With incredible showmanship from Andy Pelos and Billy Shannon, it was a marvel to watch them play. Without a doubt they had the crowd hopping and bobbing along to classic songs such as Under The…
Classical Music: Brodsky Quartet Golden Oldies - More Favourite Encores
Golden Oldies - More Favourite Encores
Bach Prelude X; Beethoven Moonlight Sonata (first movement); Debussy Préludes VI and IX / Deux Arabesques; Fauré Après un rêve; Saint-Saëns Les Cygnes; Elgar Adieu; Joplin Solace (Habanera); Shostakovich Elegy and Polka; Bazzini La Ronde des lutins; Satie Gnossiennes Nos 1, 2, and 6; Khachaturian Sabre Dance; Poulenc Prélude (from Sonata for Piano Duet) Isidora Žebeljan: An Intimate Letter from the Judean Desert; Pablo Casals El cant dels ocells (Song of the Birds)…
Albums: Fall Out Boy So Much (For) Stardust
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After releasing four studio albums in the space of five years to capitalise on their huge global success, Fall…
Virtuosic Black Dyke Band Delights Bradford
For over 165 years the Black Dyke Band has enriched the world with its unrivalled skill and professionalism. With elegance and pomp, it is the pinnacle of brass band playing. It has been 13 years since the Black Dyke Band has graced us with its presence in Bradford, and the wait was definitely worth it!
With the grandiose backdrop of Victorian architecture, St George’s Hall, Bradford, was our scene. At its forefront, thirty immaculately dressed musicians poised with shimmering…
Poem Of The Week: A Point of Logic By Kingsley Amis (1922-1995)
A Point of Logic
Love is a finding out:
Our walk to the bedroom
(Hand in hand, eye to eye)
Up a stair of marble
Or decently scrubbed boards,
As much as what we do
In our abandonment,
Teaches us who we are
And what we are, and what
Life itself is.
Therefore put out the light,
Lurch to the bare attic
Over buckets of waste
And labouring bodies;
Leave the door wide open
And fall on each other,
Clothes barely wrenched aside;
Stay only a minute,
Depart separately,
And use no names.
Kingsley Amis’ cold-blooded, misanthropic examination of what ‘coupling’…
Classical Music: Morales
Between the death of Josquin in 1521 and the rise of Palestrina and Lassus taking over the mantle in the 1550s, Cristóbal de Morales was the most famous composer of sacred music in all western Europe. But according to Kenneth Kreitner, Morales remains a mysterious…
Albums: Hack-Poets Guild - Blackletter Garland
Folk music has been undergoing a massive overhaul in the recent years. While there are still many artists who loyally reinterpret classics or faithfully compose new material to emulate those classics, there are also those…
Classical Music: Strauss Also Sprach Zarathustra & Debussy Jeux
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Strauss’s nine part (actually eight and two halves) tone poem is largely known for its opening three notes. Its use by Stanley Kubrick in 2001 A Space Odyssey, and subsequent deployment as a signifier of a new dawn as a family opens a box of breakfast cereal, might have weakened its power.
Aaron Copeland’s Fanfare for the Common Man has suffered a similar undignified…
Albums: Mark De Clive-Lowe, Melanie Charles, Shigeto - Hotel San Claudio
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This intoxicating new album mixes jazz, dance and hip-hop resulting in one of the most interesting album releases of the year.
If you can imagine Massive Attack mixed with Sade set against some soulful house beats you will be much the wiser…
Silver Screen Weekly - What's Coming Up At The Cinema From Friday 24 March 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!
From Friday 24 March 2023
John Wick: Chapter 4 (15)
Yeah...we're thinking he's back. John Wick Chapter 4. Keanu Reeves' unkillable, dog-avenging, former hitman returns, in the fight for his life in the explosive fourth outing in what many are now calling the greatest action film franchise ever. As the price on his head ever expands, a way…
Exploring Catalan Literature - Part Two: The Past Defines The Present
Understanding any individual and their weltanschauung requires that we have an objective and truly holistic appreciation of their lived experience and the forces, both historical and contemporary, acting upon them. The same axiomatic truth applies to a country, and its cultural outpourings. Though Catalonia is not a country, but an autonomous state within the borders of modern-day Spain, if we are to understand its literature and those making it, it is imperative that we comprehend its past and the factors…
Rock Music’s Underdogs Show Prove Their Mettle With Powerful Live Return
“I have not travelled all the way from California and missed my son’s birthday for you all to just sit or stand there – get up!” exclaimed Papa Roach’s lead singer Jacoby Shaddix when the American rock band played Leeds Arena. With an order like that you definitely have to conform.
Although the band has been performing and recording for thirty years, beyond their core fan base they are not widely known. If you wanted the consummate frontman, Shaddix…
Tom Grennan Shines On His First Arena Tour
The one thing that propelled Tom Grennan to chart success and BRIT award nominations was the quality of his songs. When he released his album Evering Road in 2021 it signalled the start of a bigger picture.
The next logical step was to play an arena tour though some questioned whether Grennan would have the personality, charisma and allure to fill a 20,000 seater arena, however the likeable singer packed out the Manchester arena with ease.
There is a new album on…
World Poetry Day: How Poetry Can Help You Learn Another Language
From the great fall of Humpty Dumpty to the beautiful collection of written words by T.S. Eliot, poetry certainly does hold a significant place in the world of English literacy.
To mark World Poetry Day today, Daniele Saccardi, a language expert at Preply, has highlighted five ways of how immersing yourself in poetry can help you learn a new language.
Encourages engagement and self-awareness
With devices such as alliteration and rhyming being used in a typical piece…
The Slow Readers Club Open A New Chapter With Live Return
The Slow Readers Club are one of the best self-made stories in British rock music and one of the biggest cult bands to emerge in the last few years.
Their recently released album Knowledge Freedom Power saw the Manchester band turn over a new page with a sound not too dissimilar from early eighties synth rock; imagine OMD mixed with a touch of Inspiral Carpets you might get an idea of how the band sounds in 2023.
As “Aaron, Aaron” rang…
An Interview With Barry Jones
Having recently reviewed The Book of Niall for our readers, I had an insatiable desire to delve further into its paradoxical penumbrae. Given that its author is a magician by profession, interviewing Barry Jones was an unmissable opportunity to break The Magic Circle’s most sacred rule …never tell the audience how the trick was done. The legerdemain, or ‘trick’ in this case being his sublimely scintillating debut graphic novel, and therefore not something to trouble the venerated guardians of illusion…
Exploring Catalonian Literature: Introducing A New Seven-Part Series
Honoré de Balzac wrote, ‘Reading brings us unknown friends’. Many of my own such friendships have come about thanks to the beneficence of serendipitous chance, or the imperative urge to engage with minds free from the calcified, culturally normative walls of my own. My book shelves are a heterogenous collection of authors from around the world, echoing Emily Dickinson’s famous quote – ‘There is no frigate like a book to take us lands far away’.
Ann Morgan in her wonderful…
Albums: Tristan Seven
Tristan is a jazz, soul and funk band which has just released its seventh album, aptly named Seven. If you are a fan of Incognito, The Brand New Heavies, Shakatak and to a lesser extent Matt Bianco and Basia this…
Classical Music: Shostakovich Symphonies 12 And 15
Under the baton of John Storgård, who took up the post of the BBC Philharmonic’s Chief Conductor last year, the orchestra delve into Shostakovich’s mind in two exciting symphonies.
From the outset of Symphony 12 (‘The Year 1917’) it is thrilling all the textural colouration shining through. It was a project…
Just Desserts? : The Killing Song By Lesley McEvoy
This is the second in the Dr Jo McCready series and it cements the leading character as a force to be reckoned with. A Forensic Psychologist offers the police invaluable help in identifying and catching killers. Jo McCready is better than most; she has a particular talent - she can study people, yes, but she takes it so much further. She can see what the murderers see. Visiting a crime scene she can think as they do, immersing herself in…
Albums: Esbe - Blow The Wind Southerly
I am not sure where the fan base is for an album that is beautifully arranged and sung a capella, but features nursery rhymes and traditional folk songs. Additionally, given that the average length of a CD is seventy-four minutes, the ten tracks…
Belly Laughing Fun Menopause The Musical 2
Rewind to ten years ago; who would’ve thought that we would be sitting in a theatre amongst hundreds of middle-aged women (and a few brave men!) watching a musical about the menopause?! This play dealt with a traditionally taboo subject with the sensitivity of a sledge hammer……and the York audience absolutely loved it!
There were belly laughing moments from start to finish.
The story tells of 4 women from different walks of life heading…
Euan Shields Wins The Siemens Hallé International Conductors Competition 2023
Euan Shields has been announced as the winner of the Siemens Hallé International Conductors Competition 2023.
The second Siemens Hallé International Conductors Competition took place in March 2023 over three days in Manchester.
More than 200 conductors from six continents had applied to take part, and eight semifinalists were selected for the competition days. Of these eight, three candidates made it into the final on 14 March.
In The Bridgewater Hall, they guided the Hallé through four works…
Mikron Theatre To Premiere 'A Force To Be Reckoned With'
Mikron Theatre to premiere new Amanda Whittington play about the pioneering women of Britain’s Police force
Mikron Theatre is thrilled to announce that it will be premiering playwright Amanda Whittington’s new play ‘A Force To Be Reckoned With’ which explores the story of the pioneering women of the British Police force.
The new play will open at Marsden Mechanics Hall on 13th May and then tour nationally by canal, river and road until 21st October including a performance at the Greater Manchester…
South African Dance And Rhythms In Bradford
The opportunity to experience a new dance piece rarely comes around, let alone one that is rooted so deeply in African traditions. Dada Masilo’s enthralling The Sacrifice was therefore something not to be missed. Brought to the UK for a short 14 date visit as part of a worldwide tour by The Dance Consortium, how privileged we are to have this amazing company visit Bradford.
The Company of The Sacrifice
Based on the ballet The Rite of Spring, The Sacrifice uses…
Cian Ducrot Tour
The queue for Nottingham's Rescue Rooms said it all. While Cian Ducrot is still relatively fresh in the charts following the success of his truly likeable TikTok presence, the audience turned out in their masses and waited in the rain to experience Ducrot in person. Having enjoyed a #2 charting collaboration with Ella Henderson (All For You) and with his latest single, I'll Be Waiting, climbing higher in the charts by the week, there is little doubt that his…
Film: The Whale
Hot off his richly deserved Oscar win last weekend at this year’s Academy Awards, it’s official, we are living in the Brendanaissance. Few people deserve this moment like Brendan Fraser, who has been through hell, to get back to main stage of cinema, and particularly audiences of my generation could not be happier to see it.
However, what about the film that got him there? Based on Samuel D. Hunter’s 2012 play of the same name (who also writes this feature…
Ribbons Of Song: Swimming Between Islands By Charlotte Eichler
The narrator of many of Charlotte Eichler’s poems could be a small girl. Sitting cross-legged on the floor, she tells stories, and those stories are delivered with an ingenuous disregard for boundaries of metaphorical interpretation. This is fitting: unselfconscious, children do not fear the making of bold connections.
The pyrotechnic brilliance of Eichler’s poetry resides in leap-making, a fearless embracing of the unlimited possibilities of form and style, but most, of figurative suggestion: the gorgeously visual tercets of the opening…
Lizzo - A Special Treat With A Strong Support
Joy Crookes had the daunting task of opening for Lizzo at the Manchester Arena; the London-based singer, songwriter, producer and performer came into the limelight a few years ago with the gorgeous Don’t Let Me Down, a tender ballad in the mould of Ella Fitzgerald.
Crookes’ brand of sophisticated soul with a dash of jazz is better suited to smaller, more intimate venues than a sprawling arena. That Crookes pulled the feat off with total ease says something of her talent.…