THERE is avant-garde … and there is avant-pop, and it doesn’t get more avant-pop than the Penguin Cafe, making a return to the Marine Theatre, Lyme Regis, on Friday 1st December with music from their most recent album, Rain Before Seven, which was released in July. Avant-garde pushes back the boundaries of contemporary classical and…
SINGER and songwriter Sarah McQuaid has three more concerts before Christmas, over the coming weekend at Bemerton near Salisbury, Box and Swindon. The Spanish-born, Chicago raised Cornish resident makes her second visit to two interesting venues – the renovated former church built in 1860 at Bemerton on Saturday 25th November, and the little performance space…
CINEMA Obscura returns to Wiveliscombe Town Hall on Sunday 22nd October with a screening of the film credited with giving birth to the horror genre – FW Murnau’s Nosferatu. It will be screened, at 4pm, with a new live score played by Chris Green. Nosferatu was the first cinematic interpretation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula and…
HUNDREDS of people from Yeovil and the surrounding area showed their backing for the Octagon Theatre at a meeting at Westlands entertainment centre on 10th October. The Yeovil Town Council was called to discuss a possible partnership with Somerset Council to ensure the future of the project to refurbish the Octagon Theatre and enable it…
GERTRUDE Lawrence, best known for her dazzling partnership with Noel Coward, is brought to the stage in a solo cabaret show at Langton Matravers on Thursday 19th October and Nether Compton on Friday 20th with Artsreach. Performer Lucy Stevens tells Gertie’s story in her own words. A Lovely Way to Spend an Evening, described as…
PLANS for an ambitious redevelopment of Yeovil’s Octagon Theatre have been put on hold by Somerset Council, because of the impact of rising interest rates on the council’s borrowing to fund the £30 million scheme. Yeovil Town Council called a special meeting at Westlands to discuss the way forward. Councillors on Somerset Council have asked…
THE Artsreach autumn programme gets under way with the Scottish folk group Firelight Trio, playing music from across European traditions, at Cranborne’s Cecil Memorial Hall on Friday 6th October, Buckland Newton village hall on Saturday 7th and Drimpton village hall on Sunday 8th, all at 7.0pm. With more than 25 years of experience as professional…
SALISBURY’S Autumn vocal festival is all ready to Celebrate Voice again from 19th to 28th October in the city, marking its tenth year by welcoming the BBC Singers to the Italianate church in Wilton, and all other events to the Guildhall. Founder and director, Lynsey Docherty is delighted that the festival, which has recently become…
THE Kronos Quartet, probably the world’s most adventurous string quartet, mark five decades of barrier-breaking, border-crossing music with a 50-date world tour in 2024 – and Bristol’s reconstructed Beacon Centre, reopening in early December, has one of only two UK dates, on Thursday 18th January. The programme, called Five Decades, draws on a fascinating snapshot…
IT seems hard to believe that it is ten years since the first performances of the Ridgeway Singers and Band, and the anniversary is being celebrated with a concert at Bridport on Sunday 29th October. The group’s concerts of traditional (and new) Dorset songs and tunes feels like an ancient part of the cultural fabric…