The Bradford Review | Issue 35 | Apr/May 2018 by Festival Publications

Issue 35 Apr|May 2018 FREE

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Bradford Review

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Contents News & Updates News �� 7

Business Events Bradford BID ��10

Sport Paying the Penalty �� 12

Science & Media Thresholds ��17

Food and Drink Bradford Curry Awards �� 18

Arts Saltaire Arts Trail �� 33

Music

Film Golden Years Film Festival ��20

Steven Wells ��34 Events Listings ��41

Theatre and Performance This Space is Occupied ��24 The Believers Are But Brothers ��27 Theatre Listings ��29

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News and Updates

A collective of world-renowned artists and leading Bradford cultural figures have urged the Culture Secretary to award Bradford Odeon significant funding from the Government’s Northern Cultural Regeneration Fund.

Bradford art gallery shortlisted for top museums award Cartwright Hall Art Gallery’s David Hockney Gallery has been shortlisted for a prestigious Museums & Heritage Award. The Bradford Council art gallery is in the running for a Permanent Exhibition Award which recognises excellence in the creation of a new museum, redevelopment of an existing one or a new permanent exhibition. The innovative David Hockney Gallery transformed Cartwright Hall’s largest space into a vibrant, inspirational permanent display dedicated to the life and work of the Bradford-born artist.

News & Updates

Cultural icons back Bradford Odeon funding bid

Presenter and comedian Dara Ó Briain, Bradford-born actor Timothy West, and awardwinning director Clio Barnard are among 30 prominent figures in entertainment and the creative industries who have signed an open letter to Culture Secretary Matt Hancock, calling on him to back Bradford Odeon’s bid for funding and support Bradford’s creative industries. The letter has also been signed by representatives of Bradford’s leading cultural institutions, including the National Science and Media Museum, Impressions Gallery and Bradford Theatres.

Hockney was inspired by Bradford’s public art collection. He reflected that, when a young man, “Cartwright Hall was the only place in Bradford you could see real paintings”. The gallery uniquely combines Hockney’s original artworks with a personal narrative, linking his life and art to his local roots. Cartwright Hall Art Gallery will compete for the top spot with the National Army Museum, National Science and Media Museum, Brooklands Museum, The Postal Museum, Ashmolean Museum, and Natural History Museum.

News & Updates

News and Updates

Bingley Music Live launches its Emerging Talent contest Ahead of announcing this year’s headliners, Bingley Music Live is once again on the hunt for music’s next big thing with the launch of its annual Emerging Talent competition.

Bradford will build on its shortlisting to host the Great Exhibition of the North with a summer programme of complementary events supported by £50,000 of Leeds City Region (LCR) pool funding.

The Bradford Council-run festival, billed as the ‘North’s Last Party of the Summer’, has gained a reputation of supporting up-and-coming artists. This year will be no exception, as they give unsigned acts the chance to play on the same stages as international mega stars.

Bradford was shortlisted to stage the Great Exhibition of the North and the district is now working with the successful bidder – NewcastleGateshead Initiative – to stage a programme of complementary and connected activity between June 22 and September 8 2018.

The Myrtle Park festival has once again teamed up with The Exchange arts venue in Keighley to host the contest which will take place over May and June to find the best artists and bands from across Yorkshire.

Buildings and other spaces around Bradford will be transformed into venues for an exciting programme of activities showcasing the district’s cultural creativity.

The format of the competition remains the same as previous years. Applications will be whittled down to a shortlist of 24 artists/ bands drawn into four heats. One act from each heat will go through to play in the final and will be joined by four other acts from across the heats. The eight acts will battle it out in the final and four acts will be selected to play at the festival. All winning acts will be determined by a panel of judges.

Funding for Great Exhibition of the North cultural events

The closing date for applications is 5pm on Thursday 5 April.

Art, design, innovation and playfulness are the central themes of the Great Exhibition and the aim is to support creative/cultural industries, celebrate creativity, raise the district’s confidence and aspiration, as well as inspire future generations and encourage Bradfordians to get involved with the Great Exhibition. The project is one of three promoting the best of the region’s sport and culture to local, national and international audiences being supported with money from the Leeds City Region business rates pool.

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Business

University boost for Bradford BID plans

He said, “The University of Bradford is a fantastic institution and a key player in the future of the city and the city centre.

Bradford’s proposed Business Improvement District has been expanded to take in the city centre’s ‘Learning Quarter.’

“It’s staff and students play an important part in the life and economy of the city’s retail heart, both shopping and enjoying its leisure facilities, as well as contributing greatly to its vitality.”

The campaign to establish the BID was given a huge boost with the announcement that the University of Bradford is fully behind the scheme. Professor Brian Cantor, the University’s Vice-Chancellor, said, “We are delighted to become part of the Bradford BID Development Group and to join colleagues in playing our part in establishing a business improvement district for our city. “Bradford is a city where much is happening and being developed, and there is huge potential for the future. “The establishment of a BID will enable our businesses and major organisations, including the University, to have a strong voice in shaping this great city and to provide clear direction in its development and progress.” The announcement was welcomed by Ian Ward, chairman of the BID Development Board.

He said the University’s location in the centre of the city made it a natural partner for the BID. “As one of the district’s biggest organisations and most important players, it is incredibly important to the city’s future development and the fact it believes so strongly in the BID should go a long way towards convincing other businesses and organisations that this project is essential,” said Mr Ward. The project will go to a ballot in September when more than 600 retail, leisure and hospitality businesses, professional services companies and other firms and organisations will be asked to vote in favour of a fiveyear project to breathe new life into the city centre. If they are successful, an annual levy will raise about £2.5 million to improve the safety, cleanliness, vitality and marketing of Bradford’s retail heart.

2018 is the Year of the BID Bradford’s planned Business Improvement District will help keep the city centre CLEAN, help make it SAFE for visitors, brings its streets ALIVE and ensure it is well PROMOTED. The project could see £2.5 million being spent over five years on schemes to market the area, encouraging investment, bringing in new events, smartening up neglected areas and improving safety and security. Read the proposals in detail – and learn how YOU can Back the BID - at bradfordBID.co.uk

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Paying the Penalty Sport

The Story of Fairbank United’s 2016/17 season by Akif Waseem by Rob Grillo

Senior men’s grass roots football across the country seems to be dying out. That’s no more evident in the Bradford district by the fact that not only are there less teams playing on a Saturday and Sunday than perhaps any time since WW2, but the number of leagues itself is also falling sharply. On a Saturday, local teams would, until recent times, play in the Bradford (Red Triangle/Grattan) or Spen Valley Leagues, or, if they were a bit better, the West Riding County Amateur League. The former two leagues are now no longer in existence, and the County Amateur League will no longer exist at the end of this season. On a Sunday, there’s only the Wharfedale Triangle (hanging in there with two divisions) and Bradford Sunday Alliance, which haemorrhages a full division each season. It’s a sad state of affairs, but one affecting all manner of other sports too. Local cricket and Rugby League are experiencing a similar decline as organised sports and pastimes are replaced by more sedentary forms of exercise that don’t have to put up with the rising costs of pitch hire, insurance and conflicting interests of retail therapy, computer games and Premier League footy on the box. There are a good deal of people – dwindling in number, I know – who are swimming against that tide. They might not be part of a well oiled football league machine that attracts thousands of paying fans a year, but they part of the same thing. They will go that extra mile (and further) to keep their own teams battling along, the purely amateur ones that rent the local parks pitches and

keep going through the paying of weekly subs, the ones that play week in, week out in front of the proverbial man and his dog, as well as a handful of WAGs who can be bothered to brave the weather, and yet provide an immense sense of satisfaction in that it’s their team – the one they play for, the one they pay subs to, the one they run: their team. In recent years, Bradford’s very own Fairbank United have switched to the Yorkshire Amateur League, which, since renaming itself (from the Yorkshire Old Boys League) has mopped up many of the teams left over from the defunct leagues and consists of half a dozen or so divisions. This is the world of Norristhorpe FC, East Ardsley Wanderers, Churwell Lions and Leeds Medics & Dentists’ fourth team. Teams like this might not be front page news in the national press but they are the lifeblood of the game. Akif Waseem is a player, secretary,

Sport

supporter and mainstay of Fairbank. Nobody can say he doesn’t go that extra mile. Somehow, and despite a very busy job, he found time to pen his account of what turned out to be a rather eventful 2016-17 season for himself and his team-mates at Fairbank. It’s a hugely readable, passionate and often hilarious subjective account, written from his perspective as club secretary as well as second string goalkeeper and occasional outfield player. Fairbank are up for promotion. It’s overdue, but as with the very best footballing tales there are trials and tribulations a-plenty, dramatic last gasp equalisers, controversial offside winners, the odd car crash (quite literally), suspicious poaching of players, and – hopefully- a happy happy ending. I had the advantage of knowing what the outcome was, I had a week-by-week blow of the highlights of each game on a Monday morning. The story in print is every bit as intriguing. Akif admittedly might not be as agile in goal as he once was, maybe a yard or two slower than he was in his prime, but he

has lost none of his enthusiasm for the game. His well-illustrated book is a testament to all the hard work he and his contempories put in for up to nine months a year. A photograph that depicts a dramatic late equaliser for Farnley Sports reserves is notable for the fact that it shows the wide open spaces of local league football, no sign of a huge cantilever stand or imposing Kop in sight. Or spectators come to think of it. And yet, to every one of the players in the photograph, this is what football is about as they play out their very own six-pointers, cup finals and local derbies with the same passion as those in an Old Firm of Manchester derby. If nothing else, the book represents a dying breed of club, and club official, and amateur player, aspects of the nation’s favourite sport that we have always taken for granted, but which we see less and less of every year. Akif can be contacted at akif26@hotmail. com if you’re interested in a copy of Paying the Penalty.

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Science & Media Science & Media

Thresholds 2 March – 7 May 2018, National Science & Media Museum In 1839 the world’s first major public exhibition of photographs took place at King Edward’s School in Birmingham, presenting examples created by one of the founding fathers of photography, William Henry Fox Talbot. From 2 March – 7 May this historic event will be restaged at the National Science and Media Museum in Thresholds, artist Mat Collishaw’s virtual reality installation which plunges visitors directly into the environment of Talbot’s event, nearly 180 years ago. Thresholds is a fully immersive portal to the past; visitors can walk freely through a digitally reconstructed room where they are able to marvel at Talbot’s inventions, touch the furniture and fixtures, and even feel heat from a recreated coal fire. Infrared sensors track each person’s movements, creating ghostly avatars that show their position and enhance the feeling of travelling through time. To complete the sensory experience Collishaw has created a unique soundscape, as Chartist protesters who rioted in 1839 on the streets of Birmingham can be heard (and seen) outside the room. The VR experience will be accompanied by Immersion, a curated selection of objects exploring immersive technologies in our collection—from 19th-century stereoscopic images to the very latest innovations. Thresholds (available to 13-year-olds and over, £3 entry) is a collaboration between Somerset House, the Blain Southern Gallery, Library of Birmingham, and features imagery recreated from original Talbot photographs and equipment held at the National Science and Media Museum. scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk

Food & Drink

New curry awards to celebrate Bradford’s culinary heritage Nominations have flooded in for the inaugural Bradford Curry Awards launched to promote pride in Bradford and profile the industry’s rich heritage. The Awards – taking place for the first time this year – will recognise Bradford’s best restaurants and the people who work hard behind the scenes to create the city’s nationally-acclaimed culinary reputation. Curry lovers across the district were invited to nominate their favourite eateries in eight categories, with well over 1,000 votes received in the first few weeks and more being counted up to the closing date on Sunday, March 18. All public votes were then verified and shortlisted for consideration by a panel of esteemed judges from within the industry - who are now out and about mystery dining to assess the finalists. The winners will be revealed during a prestigious awards ceremony at the Cedar Court Hotel, in Rooley Lane, Bradford, on Tuesday April 17. It will feature an entertaining evening of music, inspirational speakers, comedy and, of course, great food. Food fans from across the community are invited to join the celebrations and network with business leaders, politicians, and above all the crème de la crème of Bradford’s curry industry.

WAY MORE STYLE

Film

Ready Player One

An exciting programme of film screenings, talks and events make up the the 2018 Golden Years Film Festival at Picturehouse Bradford.

Director: Steven Spielberg

The five day festival hosted by Bradford UNESCO City of Film in partnership with Picturehouse at the National Science and Media Museum will run from Monday April 16 to Friday April 20. The festival â&#x20AC;&#x201C; aimed at an older audience but open to all â&#x20AC;&#x201C; has a retro theme for 2018 featuring iconic films, people and places from the sixties and seventies. The programme includes a documentary on ice skating king John Curry, feature films including a special widescreen Cinerama experience and an opportunity to delve into the Marks and Spencer archives with a look at fashion from the era. Leading film experts will be hosting talks including Professor Duncan Petrie from the University of York and experts from the Remembering 1960s British Cinema-going project at University College London. bradford-city-of-film.com

Starring: Olivia Cooke, Ben Mendelsohn, Mark Rylance, Tye Sheridan The film is set in 2045, with the world on the brink of chaos and collapse. But the people have found salvation in the OASIS, an expansive virtual reality universe created by the brilliant and eccentric James Halliday (Mark Rylance). When Halliday dies, he leaves his immense fortune to the first person to find a digital Easter egg he has hidden somewhere in the OASIS, sparking a contest that grips the entire world. When an unlikely young hero named Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan) decides to join the contest, he is hurled into a breakneck, reality-bending treasure hunt through a fantastical universe of mystery, discovery and danger.

Featured Film

Golden Years Film Festival 2018

Film

Vintage Sundays presents Ingmar Bergman: The Touch 6 May, 1pm National Science and Media Museum Now restored in its original bilingual version, Bergman’s rarely seen chronicle of a passionate affair is a major rediscovery. A happily married mother of two, Karin (Andersson) surprises herself by responding in kind to an unforeseen profession of love from David (Gould), an archaeologist visiting Sweden whom her doctor husband Andreas (von Sydow) has befriended. But love, however toxically exhilarating, is seldom simple, and deceit and David’s volatile temperament take their toll…

Royal Opera House live: Macbeth 4 April, 7.15pm Picturehouse, National Science & Media Museum Phyllida Lloyd’s 2002 production for The Royal Opera is richly hued, shot through with black, red and gold. The witches – imagined by designer Anthony Ward as strange, scarlet-turbaned creatures – are ever-present agents of fate. Lloyd depicts the Macbeths’ childlessness as the dark sadness lurking behind their terrible deeds. The Royal Opera’s production uses Verdi’s 1865 Paris revision of the opera, which includes Lady Macbeth’s riveting aria ‘La luce langue’.

Grease: 40th Anniversary singalong 19 April, 6.15pm Picturehouse, National Science & Media Museum It’s 1958, summer is over and the hormonallycharged seniors of Rydell High are reluctantly returning to school, ready to fall back in with old friends and trade stories of the previous months’ conquests. Join the gang for a special sing-a-long screening to celebrate the 40th anniversary of this stone-cold classic!

Howl’s Moving Castle A Nightmare On Elm Street 16 April,8.30pm Picturehouse, National Science & Media Museum Several people are hunted by a cruel serial killer who kills his victims in their dreams. When the survivors are trying to find the reason for being chosen, the murderer won’t lose any chance to kill them as soon as they fall asleep.

8 April Picturehouse, National Science & Media Museum In Miyazaki’s enchanting freestyle adaptation of Diana Wynne Jones’s novel, young hatter Sophie is transformed into a 90-year-old woman by a wicked witch. Pragmatically undeterred, she finds work as a cleaning lady in magician Howl’s clanking Hieronymus Bosch-esque mobile abode. As visually intricate as you would expect, Howl’s Moving Castle also packs an antiwar punch.

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This Space Is Occupied How far have we really come? By Mick Martin & Jude Wright

This Space Is Occupied is Bent Architect’s brand new sitespecific theatre piece for Bradford, opening at the Brick Box Rooms (aka The Old Crown) on Ivegate in May. Set in 1971, This Space is Occupied brings to life the world of an anarchist squat which plays host to an arts and music community who are planning a radical ‘happening’. The audience will be free to wander round the building, upstairs into the former living apartments to discover quirky characters and stories as they pass through the building, steadily developing into an overall narrative. Following on from our last show, The Northern School, when we took over the Bradford Playhouse and went back to the New Wave of the late 50s/early 60s, we once again delve into Bradford’s historical cultural cache. You may not know it, but Bradford was once really cool. In the early 70s Bradford was at the cutting edge of the radical arts and politics scene, which was itself was at the cutting edge of theatre practice. Bradford Art College, led by hugely important luminaries of the underground like Jeff Nuttall, a giant of the counter culture, yet barely known at all today. There were writers of national and international prominence like David Edgar, Howard Brenton and David Hare, all living and working in Bradford. The late 60s had exploded all across the world with the Paris riots, the Black Panthers, violence in Northern Ireland, anti Vietnam and ban the bomb marches. All this fused with passionate women’s and gay movements demanding to finally be heard. Meanwhile the National Front,

encouraged by Enoch Powell, grew and prepared to march through Bradford, only to be confronted and chased out by organised youth, made up of artists and young Asian activists, the forerunners of the Asian Youth Movement. It was a volatile, even dangerous time. It’s interesting to note just how much of what fired up the activists of the early 70s is the precise same today. Racial, gender and class tensions rage as ever, the environmental questions have only got more complex and alarming since the early 70s. If we thought nuclear Armageddon was old history from the cold war, well, Donald Trump and North Korea have even put that back on the table! But the late 60s and early 70s were charged with a dynamic, youthful and highly political vigour, and this found form in the arts, theatre and music of the time. A new generation of artists and political activists wanted to make their mark. Bradford, already a post industrial, decaying, culturally diverse and economically struggling city (yes, even then) became the place to be. But, like so much else in our city, this brash and exciting artistic history is largely forgotten. It shouldn’t be, not least because the issues they were talking about then are even more relevant now. Jude and I are proud of and passionate about Bradford, and like our work to offer it something and find ways to sing what is unique about it. The more we looked at

this moment, the more we saw a new Bent Architect project coming into focus. This Space Is Occupied explores and celebrates this moment in our city’s history as we recreate an anarchist commune in 1971, and bring to life the heady mix of politics, arts, music and sexual liberation. It’s explosive, angry and fun, it centres around the enigmatic Boz Lockwood, a would-be John Lennon cultural activist who believes that what began with the anti-capitalist Paris riots of 1968 will finally come to fruition and succeed with a revolution in Bradford, in 1971. But Lockwood’s revolution soon spins off in a variety of directions he doesn’t quite foresee as his fellow rebels, led by Hari and Shaz, both Asian, and Ann Marie, an Irish Catholic lesbian from Keighley, join his plans for a wildly ambitious adventure. It’s a story that is very Bradford – and very universal. There’ll be film and video, psychedelic party happenings, live music, food from the 1 in 12 and a full cast of interesting characters to tap into.

This Space Is Occupied is fundamentally about now. It asks questions of how far we have really come on so many issues and challenges. It is the most exciting and challenging show we’ve ever done, politically engaged, very serious, yet about a bunch of people having the time of their lives. They are young, free, they want to change the world and believe not just that they can – that they must! This project also celebrates the work of people like General Will Theatre Company, The John Bull Puncture Repair Kit, Welfare State and many others who opened doors and created new spaces for us to live and express ourselves in the now. We want the next generation to think they too can and should make their mark, out, loud, and proud! Wed 23 May - Sat 26 May & Wed 30 Jun Sat 2 Jun. 7.30pm at The Brick Box Rooms, Ivegate, Bradford. Tickets £12/£10 available from www.bentarchitect.co.uk

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Wed 23 May - Sat 26 May & Wed 30 Jun - Sat 2 Jun 7.30pm at The Brick Box Rooms, Ivegate, Bradford Tickets £12/£10 available from www.bentarchitect.co.uk or in person from The Brick Box Bar

Theatre & Performance Theatre & Performance

The Believers Are But Brothers written and performed by Javaad Alipoor Writer and theatre maker Javaad Alipoor presents his 2017 Scotsman Fringe First Award-winning play The Believers Are But Brothers at Theatre in the Mill 25 April -28 April. The show’s use of WhatsApp live group chat, putting technology at the core of the performance, has been shortlisted for The Stage newspaper’s Innovation Award. The performance has gained wide ranging and diverse national and international acclaim including a recent 5 star review from the Financial Times and feature in the New York Times. We live in a time where old orders are collapsing: from the postcolonial nation states of the Middle East, to the EU and the American election. Through it all, tech savvy and extremist groups rip up political certainties. Amidst this, a generation of young men find themselves burning with resentment, without the money, power and sex they think they deserve. This crisis of masculinity leads them into an online world where fantasy, violence and reality collide. Co-director Kirsty Housley comments, ‘In times of increasing political polarisation, where the way we communicate and the way we receive information is changing faster than we can keep pace with, we have tried to look at how these things are connected. How the way we communicate and the tools we use to interact with the world are in turn shaping the world we inhabit. Is there something about the internet that favours the extreme? What do we even mean by extremism? Believers creates different groups in different forms, and begins to nudge at what can only be said online, and what can only be said face to face.’ The Believers Are But Brothers envelops its audience in this digital realm, exploring the blurry and complex world of extremists, journalists and fantasists in an electronic maze of meme culture, 4chan, the alt-right and ISIS. This bold one-man show weaves together their stories to reveal a vast

web of resentment, violence and power just one click away. As part of the performance, audiences will be invited to join a WhatsApp group for the show. This is optional but will enhance the experience. (After each show, the WhatsApp group is cleared and phone numbers deleted from the phones used by Front of House). Writer and performer Javaad Alipoor comments ‘After taking this show to London, where it played at one of the country’s most important new writing venues, I feel really honoured to be able to bring it to my home town, and my home theatre. This is the first play that I have ever made somewhere else, and then brought back to Bradford and it feels like a real homecoming. I wrote and researched it here, and think it will land the most here, that’s why I’m so excited to begin its national and international journey in Bradford.’ After touring to Plymouth Theatre Royal and Theatre in the Mill, the show goes on to tour across the UK as well as to Sweden and Canada.

25 April – 28 April at 7.30pm, Theatre in the Mill, University of Bradford. For tickets visit bradford.ac.uk/theatre or call 01274 233200.

Theatre & Performance

Be My Baby

Flashdance

2 - 5 May, Bradford Playhouse

3 - 7 April, Alhambra Theatre

Amanda Whittington’s debut play Be My Baby sheds light on teenage pregnancy in 60s Britain.

Flashdance - The Musical tells the inspiring and unforgettable story of 18 year old Alex, a welder by day and ‘flashdancer’ by night, who dreams of going to the prestigious Shipley Dance Academy and becoming a professional dancer.

Set in a Mother and Baby Home in 1964 in the north of England, the play follows the fortunes of Mary Adams, aged 19, unmarried and seven months pregnant. Forcibly sent there by a mother intent on keeping up appearances, Mary – along with the other girls in the home – has to cope both with the shame and the dawning realisation that she will have to give the baby up for adoption whether she likes it or not. Despite this, and an overbearing matron, the girls’ youthful effervescence keeps breaking through, as they sing along to the girl-group songs of the period. bradfordplayhouse.org.uk

Based on the Paramount Pictures film (screenplay by Tom Hedley and Joe Eszterhas, story by Tom Hedley) Flashdance is an inspiring musical about the power of holding onto your dreams and love against all the odds. Prepare to be blown away by this astonishing musical spectacle and phenomenal choreography to an iconic score, including the smash hits Maniac, Manhunt, Gloria, I Love Rock & Roll and the sensational title track Flashdance - What a Feeling.

bradford-theatres.co.uk

Theatre Listings Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde

4 April, 7pm The Underground Bradford

17-21 April The Alhambra

Teechers is a hilarious play brought to life by three students of Whitewall High School as they document the unfairness they face in their last year at school. Based on a true story, they gleefully imitate characters in their school, playing over 20 characters.

A twisted tale of nerve-jangling horror, this adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic gothic thriller stars Phil Daniels as the extraordinary Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

Crazy for You 10-14 April The Alhambra Theatre High energy, high kicking and gloriously glamorous, the acclaimed Watermill Theatre production of Crazy for You is the ultimate feel-good musical.

20th - 21 April Theatre in the Mill

Meopause The Musical

A new artistic experience being developed by Duncan Speakman. The work takes you on a sonic walk through Bradford, combining the sound of your immediate surroundings with recordings of distant locations. www.brad.ac.uk/theatre

Qawaali performance

www.brad.ac.uk/theatre

Adam Hess & Glenn Moore

Evita

A double bill of stand up comedy with Adam Hess and Glenn Moore. www.bradford-theatres.co.uk

30 April The Alhambra The hysterical and uplifting Menopause The Musical will have you laughing, and singing, all the way home. Starring Cheryl Fergison (EastEnders), Maureen Nolan (The Nolans), Rebecca Wheatley (Casualty) and Hilary O’Neil (ITV’s Copy Cats). Menopause the Musical is heading out on another UK wide tour.

21 April, 7.30pm Kala Sangam Arts Centre

www.kalasangam.org

14 April, 8pm The Studio, Bradford

Javaad Alipoor’s Fringe First award-winning play envelops its audience in a digital realm, exploring the blurry and complex world of extremists, journalists and fantasists. www.brad.ac.uk/theatre

Oil and Water is a performance about women, mental illness and religion; the beauty and absurdity of faith in the face of an illness. What happens when we suspend our disbelief?

12 – 13 April, 7.30pm At Theatre in the Mill

25 April – 28 April Theatre in the Mill

Duncan Speakman Only Expansion

With members aged 18 to 53, Shah e Mardaan Qawwals concerts take the traditional 800 year old qawaali style of singing and present it in a way that will appeal to all music lovers. Featuring flue, clarinet, saxophone, ney, harmonium, tabla, African djembes and mesmerising singing, a Shah e Mardaan performance is an intense and incredibly upbeat experience.

Demi Nandhra - Oil and Water

The Believers Are But Brothers Theatre & Performance

Teechers

24-28 April The Alhambra Following its smash hit run at London’s Dominion Theatre, Bill Kenwright’s production of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s Evita is set to thrill audiences once again across the UK.

20th Century Boy 1-5 May The Alhambra This hit musical, inspired by the life of rock legend Marc Bolan, returns to the stage to mark the 40th anniversary of the iconic star’s untimely death. Featuring some of the greatest rock songs ever written, 20th Century Boy tells the life story of the legendary Bolan and his band T. Rex. This show exposes some of the myths and takes the audience on a tearful yet feel-good journey through Marc’s fascinating life, cut short by a cruel twist of fate. www.bradford-theatres.co.uk

Theatre Listings Theatre & Performance

Dancing Bear, Dancing Bear - Gameshow

Dance Discoveries

Jersey Boys The Musical

12 May, 7.30pm Kala Sangam Arts Centre

22 May - 2 June

Dancing Bear, Dancing Bear is a show about ‘men’ and ‘women’ and how we all relate to each other. Audiences listen on headphones to Hannah Ringham (co-founder of SHUNT) who draws you into a hypnotic world of immersive sound and music.

Kala Sangam presents an evening featuring a range of South Asian dance styles performed by some of the region’s very best dancers. Before each dancer takes to the stage you will get a change to hear from them about what to look for and the history of each beautiful dance style.

The internationally acclaimed stage sensation Jersey Boys is working its way back to Bradford! Jersey Boys tells the true life story of four boys from the wrong side of the tracks who wrote their own songs, invented their own unique sound, and sold 100 million records worldwide.

www.brad.ac.uk/theatre

www.kalasangam.org

4 May, 7.30pm At Theatre in the Mill

Fat Friends The Musical 14-19 May The Alhambra

Matthew Bourne’s Cinderella 8-12 May The Alhambra Following the sold-out and critical success of The Red Shoes and Sleeping Beauty, New Adventures return to the Alhambra Theatre with one of their most popular and beloved productions, Matthew Bourne’s Cinderella.

www.bradford-theatres.co.uk

www.kalasangam.org/ breakingtradition

Suicide Notes... the spoken word of Christopher Brett Bailey 18 May, 7.30pm Theatre in the Mill

Footloose

www.brad.ac.uk/theatre

Pauline Mayers and Jax Griffin - Nameless 24 May, 7.30pm Theatre in the Mill This is a first-time collaboration between choreographer and theatre-maker Pauline Mayers and filmmaker and photographer Jax Griffin. Using multi-disciplinary methods, this work-in-progress piece explores the dominant culture in the UK. www.brad.ac.uk/theatre

25 May, 7pm and 26 May, 2pm Kala Sangam Breaking Tradition, the UK’s leading folk and hip hop dance company come together with award-winning folk powerhouse The Demon Barbers to invite 7-12 year olds and their families on an unforgettable adventure.

A different-every-night, shouting & reading show... stories, poems and black humour.

Based on the 1980s hit film that took the world by storm, and featuring classic hits including Holding Out for a Hero,Let’s Hear It For The Boy, Almost Paradise and the unforgettable title track, Footloose, Footloose the musical sizzles with the same spirit of youth, rebellion and romance.

Quest - Breaking Tradition

The hit TV show Fat Friends from award-winning national treasure Kay Mellor (creator of Band of Gold, The Syndicate and In The Club) bursts onto stage in a brand new musical, with original music by Nick Lloyd Webber.

www.bradford-theatres.co.uk

10-12 May Bradford Playhouse

The Alhambra

Arts

Exhibitions

City Girls

Sarah Harris - Coast to Dale

Until 1 June, National Science and Media Museum

10 May - 10 June, Bradford Cathedral

The thrill of anticipation, a sharp intake of breath, ecstatic celebration: Nudrat Afza’s photographs capture the awesome highs and crushing lows of matchday at Bradford City Football Club. Over two years, Afza has photographed hundreds of female fans, capturing evocative portraits and atmospheric crowd scenes which offer a glimpse of real lives enriched by football. City Girls is a celebration of the passion, commitment and camaraderie of these women and their team. scienceandmediamuseum.org. uk/halfterm

Sarah Harris’s latest collection of screen prints, Coast to Dale, celebrates the diversity of her home region, paying particular attention to the relationship between manmade and natural elements that are entwined into our landscapes. The exhibition will go on show at Bradford Cathedral from 10 May to the 10 June, with an artist talk being held on the 18 May. Working from her original pen drawings, each print is a limited edition and hand printed by the artist in her Rawdon studio. The work is often mistaken for other printing processes due to the use of fine line and detail that is not often associated with the medium of screen printing. Harris has developed an approach which utilises this method to create contrast and depth alongside an often limited colour palette to evoke feelings which are both modernistic and nostalgic. Having lived most of her life in Shipley, Harris had originally trained as a fashion designer going on to work in marketing and design, until an evening class at Leeds College of Art, and a period of unemployment, led her to sell her prints six years ago. Since then she has had her work shortlisted for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, won an award at the New Lights art prize and People’s Choice at the Flourish Award for excellence in printmaking. Last year her solo exhibition in the Cellar Gallery at Cartwright Hall proved to be one of the gallery’s most successful shows. sarahharrisprints.co.uk

Arts

Saltaire Arts Trail 5 - 7 May, Saltaire Saltaire Arts Trail returns slightly earlier this year, bringing the UK’s finest artists, makers and designers to the unique spaces of Saltaire. The famous Open Houses trail challenges the concept of art galleries; residents and local artists across Saltaire village open up their Grade II listed homes, providing the chance to see art and meet artists in an intimate, domestic setting, whilst getting a glimpse of life behind the doors of the UNESCO World Heritage Site. In Victoria Hall, The Makers Fair promotes the best independent artists, makers and designers from across the UK, displaying and selling their contemporary and original creations. Showcasing new designs in ceramics, jewellery, glass, silver, metal, books, paper, leather, wood, plastics, furniture, textiles, accessories, printmaking and photography, this year’s Makers Fair is the biggest yet, with 70 exhibitors across three rooms. The weekend will be packed with a programme of specially commissioned installations and exhibitions, from artists responding to Saltaire’s unique spaces and heritage. Salts Mill will host a specially commissioned piece, The Work of Salts by Alke Schmidt, as part of her Wonder and Dread exhibition, currently showing at Bradford Industrial Museum. For the third year, the open Postcard Exhibition offers everyone a chance to exhibit a miniature artwork, and the programme will also feature exhibitions from local groups, including Saltaire Primary School, Saltaire Art Group and Leeds Photographic Society. saltaireinspired.org.uk

WUR Bradford: We are Here Exhibition Launch 19 April, 7pm Kala Sangam Grassroots arts collective Wur Bradford (Wur means our or we are) present an exhibition of material from their ongoing project We are Here, a collaboration with the city’s Oastler Market exploring it’s unique history, communities and stories. Wur Bradford will be working with market traders and members of the public to produce guided walks, interventions, installations, maps and sound recordings, to map and document the rich life of the market and its people at a time of change and uncertainty.

STEVEN WELLS THE LATE STEVEN WELLS - SWELLS TO HIS FRIENDS - WAS RAISED AND EDUCATED IN BRADFORD. HE STARTED OUT AS A RANTING POET AND FANZINE WRITER CALLING HIMSELF SEETHING WELLS. AS A REGULAR WRITER FOR THE NME HE BECAME PERHAPS THE BEST ROCK JOURNALIST OF HIS GENERATION. JAMES COLLINGWOOD SPOKE TO HIS FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES - JOURNALIST, NOVELIST AND COMEDY WRITER DAVID QUANTICK (NME, HARRY HILL, THE DAY TODAY, VEEP), AND JAMES BROWN (WRITER, PRESENTER AND FOUNDER OF LOADED AND SABOTAGE TIMES) ABOUT THEIR PAL.

David Quantick Can you tell us a bit about the early days at the NME and how you first met Swells. Was he a regular presence at the NME office in the early days? Swells was based in Bradford at first, writing as Susan Williams (NME even ran a photo of him in stockings as ‘Susan’). Then he appeared in London and was increasingly around. I think he was still doing live shows as well as writing reviews.

How did the comedy writing come about? Is there anything in particular you’re most proud of collaborating on? Steven and I were writing our own stuff, and then one day in the office he came up to me and said something like, “You’re the least crap writer here, we should do something together.” So we wrote a big piece called TV:OD, about pop culture and kids’ TV and all that. And that became the column Culture Vulture, also known as Ride The Lizard, and Ride The Puffin. Armando Iannucci read it and offered us work on his radio pilot, On The Hour. We worked on that and then The Day Today on TV.

I’m proud of everything we did. Ride The Lizard was funny and rude and smart. Swells invented the word ‘saddo’ for it. We also came up with ‘SexKylie’ and, best of all, ‘shitgibbon’, which I revived years later for Veep, and it became an insult for Donald Trump.

The impression I got at the time and from rereading some of his reviews and interviews is that Swells didn’t like music that didn’t say anything (he specifically says in a Belle and Sebastian Stuart Murdoch interview, if it’s just about the music then what’s the point?). That’s a simple way of putting it but do you agree that was one of the ways he judged music? Did he really dislike certain bands with a vengeance? Swells did love music that said something, musically or lyrically, whether it was AC/ DC or Public Enemy. He had a strong dislike of ‘twee’ music, like Belle and Sebastian, but he loved pop, soul and anything with attitude.

Can you tell us what Swells’ principles were as a writer? Who were his influences, in your opinion? Steven was a left-wing writer, aggressively so. He was a republican, he was pro-feminism, he was a socialist (SWP for a long time) and he could argue his corner and frequently did. But he was also very intelligent, and very funny, which meant he could never be tied down to one way of thinking or one attitude. Swells wasn’t an unthinking left wing mouthpiece. He wasn’t an unthinking anything.

Can you tell us what Steven thought of his Bradford roots and upbringing? Was he glad to get out is what I’m trying to say! Do you think his Bradford background influenced the way he wrote? Steven was very proud of his Bradford roots. His Northernness was really important – he was always explaining to people that it wasn’t homophobic to call someone a ‘Southern pouf’. He was also funny about the North – he once said of a friend of ours, “She’s from Yorkshire, and you know what they say in Yorkshire - laughing’s all right for them as likes laughing.” He was the funniest and smartest person I’ve ever known. I literally owe him my career. I wish he was still here. He’d be having a great time commenting on Donald Trump and Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn and TV and the charts… and we’d be having a great time listening to him.

HE BECAME PERHAPS THE BEST ROCK JOURNALIST OF HIS GENERATION. 35

James Brown I first met Swells in about 1981/2 when he was doing a ranting poetry performance at Roots in Harehills, Leeds. It was a political benefit, I was with my dad, I was about 15 or 16. Swells sold us a copy of Molotov Comix, the fanzine he did with Little Brother, Joolz and Jon Langford. A while later I met him on this day course about DIY publishing. He was one of the people leading the course, I was on it trying to find something to do instead of school. When I started my own fanzine shortly afterwards I interviewed him for issue 2. Then I would bump into him at gigs and on marches. He would loved to have been ‘one of the kids’ but when he came up against an audience of kids at The Jam at The Queens Hall he was pretty much shouted and chanted off. I’m not sure he ever forgot that. He always called me Jamfan Brown after that.”

In the early to mid ‘80s there was a great mix of politics and music, ranging from the mainstream with the Specials and the Potternewton Park RAR gig, right down to the anarchist squat gigs and clubs like the 1in12, which was a must-visit place. Nick Toczek and John Keenan were promoting a lot of gigs so a lot of smaller bands came through the region. Invariably at these events one of Swells, Joolz, New Model Army or Chumbawamba or all of them would be performing. My favourite of those poets was Little Brother but Swells was the most polarising. For both Swells and I there was also a proliferation of music writers, like Chris Dean of the Redskins, Don Watson, Amrik Rai and Lucy O’Brien, who had made it into the NME from the area, so becoming music journalists seemed feasible if you could get your foot in the door. He did it eventually by pretending to be a woman, Susan Williams, and I got my first NME review when he was late for a GLC gig in Brockwell Park London and he asked

me to cover for him and review the first three bands, which I think were The Fall, Strawberry Switchblade and Spear of Destiny. So I owed my break to his tardiness.”

There were three levels to Swells at the NME I think. Firstly how he got in was brilliant. Pretending to be this really prolific poetic punk woman writer championing new bands like Sid Presley Experience and King Kurt. They were must-read pieces and when it emerged who it was it was even funnier because he was too good to get rid of, even if the NME had felt duped by him. The NME did a fanzine special and Swells told me they’d commissioned a drawing of me with my fanzine for the cover, which would have been amazing - I was only 18 at the time - but in the end they ripped up a load of fanzines, including mine, and made a collage out of it. Swells came up and interviewed me for that and I was just pestering him to try and get me in there but he said it was a closed shop and that Quantick was going to be the next staffer. After that we did our last Molotov Comix and Attack On Bzag! fanzines together as one issue. A couple of years later when I was freelancing and writing a lot of covers for Sounds he called me and said, “The NME want you to be their next staff writer, come in and meet the editor.” Thinking about it now it was probably the most important conversation in my life. Certainly up to that point. After I joined in 87, there was his period of really self indulgent performance comedy columns he did with Quantick which just seemed to be covering the gap between where he used to do poetry and the fact that times had become less political and he had run out of new bands he liked to write about. They were long, deranged flights of fancy and when he wasn’t doing them he

was writing about speed punk like Napalm Death. David was very into mainstream pop like the Pet Shop Boys and Kylie but Swells just liked things he could write about in capitals. When the new generation of writers came through after me - Bob Stanley, Barbara Ellen, Stuart Maconie, Steve Lamacq - he almost became

surplus to requirements but then one day he delivered a brilliant piece with Phil Collins, whose music he hated but had got on with - they

played tennis together. I was in charge of commissioning the features and suddenly the editor, Alan Lewis and I, and Swells himself, realised that this was what he could be. A really funny profile writer of very famous but uncool people like Gary Numan and Mike Oldfield who hadn’t been in the paper for years. And he was off on his third wave. No stopping him. Cover stories with world famous heavy metal bands, outlandish tales from Ozzy Osbourne. He was excellent at it and became a must-have in the features mix, and a must-read. The key to it was, he was honest with them and told them exactly what he thought of them and then gave them a fair hearing. He wasn’t slating them, as he would have been doing for years as targets in his reviews. I read the Pop Will Eat Itself on the Public Enemy tour interview in Holland recently and I was in tears of laughter.

In terms of being around him in the office he was a nightmare. Just relentlessly winding people up, shouting, utterly inflexible in his opinions. It was like someone putting a

load of fucking bees in your underpants. It was often funny but various people tired of it. Indie champion Neil Taylor twatted him one day, which was unexpected. He turned all Adrian Thrills posters upside down. He slowly cut the legs off David Swift’s toy sheep. It was like being at school basically, with a really weird kid. I was really amazed later, long after my time on the paper, that he started to be taken seriously as a music critic but I think he became a

standout voice against the mainstream again.” On a personal level he was pretty secretive about his family. He didn’t think Hebden Bridge, where they lived, was working class enough for his SWP image. He did once tell a very funny story about his brother, Clive I think he was called, killing some chickens or something. When I started Loaded, and it very quickly became clear it was going to be a big hit, I called him and asked him if he wanted to do some interviews as we were doing people from all areas of entertainment. We’d just interviewed Kathy Lloyd, who we all loved, and I could tell he was touched but our political incorrectness wasn’t going to sit well in his radical feminist knitting group.

He said, ‘Thanks for asking but I probably better not.’ I’m not sure if we spoke again. Our lives went in different directions. I must have seen him somewhere but I don’t remember. I knew a woman who went out with him for a few years, which always amazed me someone could manage that, and I’d always ask her how he was. We also had some good mutual friends in Brighton and Chicago. When he was writing the column when he was dying, I would read it sometimes and I remember thinking I should write to him saying thanks. I hope I did but I was blocking a lot of feelings out about people dying at the time. I know I wrote to his wife afterwards.” I contributed to the Guardian obits of him and made the mistake of reading the comments. Some twat wrote - about my comment that Swells didn’t like music so much as writing about it - “what the fuck does he know about Swells”. As you can see from these memories the answer is a fair bit.”

Music

Record Store Day 21 April, The Record Cafe, Bradford

This year, there’s over 500 new releases hitting the shelves including limited edition picture discs, unreleased tracks, remixes and one-off artworks.

For those that don’t know, Record Store Day is the one day of the year when over 200 independent record shops all across the UK come together to celebrate all that’s great about their shops.

The anticipation of rare releases has seen people queuing down streets from the early hours, even the night before, around the country, around the world, and in Bradford. It has been a fine sight opening up the last few Record Store Days to see a larger queue each year outside The Record Café. A queue that’s also been forming earlier each year.

Special vinyl releases are made exclusively for the day and many shops host artist performances and events to mark the occasion. Thousands more shops celebrate the day around the world, in what has come the biggest record buying event on the music calendar. What started out as a campaign in the US in the dark, vinyl-less, internet days of 2007, to get people interested in buying physical music from the surviving ‘bricks and mortar’ stores has become a monster. Last year an extra 32,500 vinyl albums were sold in the week of the event. 12” single sales rocketed from 2,000 to 89,000.

One of the reasons The Record Café was founded was to bring Record Store Day to Bradford. To end the frustration of having to travel to Leeds, Huddersfield or Manchester to take part in the event. They have grown, and learnt, each year, and hopefully, with live music from Liverpool’s Nick Ellis (possibly one of the finest musicians in Liverpool right now) DJs all day, great people and a great selection of records, 2018 will be the best Record Store Day Yet.

Featured Event

Record Store Day is in its eleventh year, and everyone at The Record Café is delighted to be bringing this annual global event to Bradford for the fourth year in a row.

Music

Matana Roberts & Kelly Jayne Jones

Topic Folk Club Louise Jordan

20 May, Fuse Artspace

31 May, Glyde House

A very special series of sonic episodes bringing together US mixed-media composer/saxophonist Matana Roberts& UK improviser and flautist Kelly Jayne Jones: two artists from disparate backgrounds, finding affinity in practices charged by fiercely personal philosophies on sound and its potential within a patchwork of genre, texture and meaning. Roberts and Jones will weave their own approaches into live collaborative works informed by deeply expressive playing, tactile electroacoustic interplay and a broader shared politics of resistance/defiance.

Louise Jordan, an established performer in the folk world, who has visited the Topic Folk Club club several times, is bringing her production of No Petticoats Here to the Topic. It tells remarkable stories of inspirational women during WW1, stories which have never been told, in narrative, anecdotes and Louise’s own songs. Her painstaking research, songwriting and development of the project took 18 months and her dedication to and passion for the subject is evident throughout the production. We are delighted that Louise has chosen to showcase No Petticoats Here for her gig at our club: it will be an evening with a difference, both in presentation and content.

Matana Robertsis an internationally renowned composer, band leader, saxophonist, sound experimentalist and mixed-media practitioner. Kelly Jayne Jones m akes use of varying combinations of prepared recordings, text, rocks, found sounds and flute. Her work beckons a tussle with uncertainty, inviting exposure and vulnerability in performance, chasing experiences that open our chasms within, without restraint.

nopetticoatshere.co.uk

Music

Music Listings Issimo

G.O.D Soundsystem

1 April, 8pm Al’s Dime Bar

7 April, 10pm - 4am The Mill, Bradford

Marc and Abi take their influences from an eclectic range of genres, reggae, ska and even latin, and write thematic pop songs, that are lyrically driven and rhythmically charged.

The G.O.D Soundsystem return to the Mill nightclub for a night of jungle, drum & bass and dubstep.

Organ Recitals:Spring 2018

6 April, 8pm The 1 in 12 Club

The Cathedral hosts a popular series of lunchtime concerts; The concerts are a great opportunity to take some time out, enjoy some refreshments and catch up with friends in the beautiful surroundings of the Cathedral.

Coffee Concerts 10 April, 11am Bradford Cathedral

5 April, 8.30pm Glyde House, Glydegate, Little Horton Lane

The Cathedral hosts a popular series of Coffee Concerts. The concerts are a great opportunity to take some time out, enjoy some refreshments and catch up with friends in the beautiful surroundings of the Cathedral.

Singers & Musicians night. 8.15 pm start. Free entry.

Ducking Punches

Topic Folk Club

www.topic-folk-club.org.uk

11 April, 7pm The 1 in 12 Club

The Fargo Railroad Co.

Ducking Punches are a punk rock four piece from Norwich. They’ll be hitting up the 1in12 Club for the first time as a full band!

7 April, 8pm Al’s Dime Bar The Fargo Railroad Co. are a southern rock / americana inspired four-piece band from Sheffield. Established in 2013 they have already gathered a loyal fan base and continue to add to their numbers playing shows throughout the UK.

Acoustic folk duo We are the Giant spring visit the 1 in 12 on their UK tour.

Topic Folk Club 12 April, 8.30pm Glyde House, Glydegate, Little Horton Lane Kieran Halpin. Prolific songwriter whose songs have been covered by a multitude of artists all over the world. A stalwart of the folk scene. £6 (£5 for Topic members) www.topic-folk-club.org.uk

1 in 12 Club The 1 in 12 Club celebrate 30 years on Albion Street this April, during which it has been the beating heart of Bradford’s anarchist community. The club is unique in that it is owned, managed and run by its members, founded on their founding values of selfmanagement, co-operation and mutual aid. While the club is probably most famous for its legendary punk parties, which continue to attract visitors from across the north. But it is also home to a print collective, a record label, cafe collective and library. A series of events to celebrate their anniversary kick off on 27 April and continue for 11 days. For more information visit www.facebook.com/1in12

Featured Venue

4 April, 1pm (Every Wednesday thereafter) Bradford Cathedral

We are the Giant Spring

Blend 14 April, The Mill, Bradford

Waiting For Wednesday (Full Band) 13 April, 8pm The Underground Bradford Waiting for Wednesday will bring their full band to The Undreground and will be playing all the tracks from their new EP live for the first time. With support from Felka.

Black Thunder Revue

Morass of Molasses, Psychlona, Earthen Ritual & Son of Boar!

Disco Machine Gun

21 April, 7.30pm The Underground Bradford

Legendary Bradford band Disco Machine Gun make a welcome return with special guests.

Swamp master generals of the Reading scene; they create the kind of lumbering Heavy blues riffs which induce involuntary head nodding and a deep stirring of the loins. Effortlessly establishing themselves as a force to be reckoned with.

13 April, 8pm The Black Thunder Revue are a Sheffield based dirty, bluesy Rock n Roll band. With influences firmly set in Mississippi blues they bring a fresh, exciting sound that’s full of passion and melody.

Topic Folk Club 19 April, 8.30pm Glyde House, Glydegate, Little Horton Lane Paul Walker & Karen Pfeiffer. A Topic debut for this multitalented Anglo-German duo with contemporary and original songs and an array of instruments. £6 (£5 for Topic members). www.topic-folk-club.org.uk

Music

Blend returns to The Mill on 14th April to get you warmed up for the summer festival season. Alongside our residents, we’re pleased to announce that legendary Speedqueen resident Simon G , UK Mondos Radio Benny Strafford, party animals Skanky and Lanky . Also the fabulous Bongo Dave providing live percussion for the evening will ensure this party goes off big time.

Jupiter Falls 21 April, 9.30pm Trash Bradford Get ready for Jupiter falls to hit the trash stage this April. This awesome West Yorkshire based band have had an amazing 2017 picking up Best New discovered band & Best Album 2017 from moshville times.

Topic Folk Club 26 April, 8.30pm Glyde House, Glydegate, Little Horton Lane The Twangles. Three fine musicians,Kevin Loughram, Phil Snell and David Bowie Jnr, all known individually to Topic-goers, bring heir exciting sound for a group debut. £6 (£5 for Topic members). www.topic-folk-club.org.uk

27 April, 8pm The Underground, Bradford

The Wolves 27 April, 8pm Al’s Dime Bar The Wolves have sprung out of old and new friendships. The amalgamation of four musical careers that span a wealth of genres and experience. This band has evolved its music from a mutual appreciation of blues, funk, R&B, soul and taken it somewhere new & fresh. You’ll certainly hear references to all the Kings ; BB, Albert & Freddie but at the same time there’s nods towards The Meters, Delbert McClinton, Robert Cray, Ry Cooder, Taj Mahal & Wilson Pickett.

SID celebrate The 1 in 12 Buildings 30th Anniversary 27 April, 12pm - 1am The 1 in 12 Club Sloths In Docs are proud to be part of the celebration of The 1 in 12 Buildings 30th Anniversary of being knee deep in shit on Albion Street. A whole day starting with chilled acoustic punk rising throughout the day to a loud and boisterous close.

Music Listings Music

John Boden & The Remnant Kings 27 April, 8pm Victoria Hall, Saltaire Former lead-singer of Bellowhead Jon Boden visits Saltaire on his Aftergolw album tour with the newly extended 11 piece Remnant Kings line-up.

Revolving Door of Chaos presents : 30th Anniversary Of the 1in12 28 April, 5pm The 1 in 12 Club This gig is part of a full 11 days to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the opening of the 1in12 Club’s premises on Albion Street. Starting on Friday 27th April through to Monday 7th May, incorporating a number of different gigs and events on every day.

Dead:Fest 28 April, 7pm The Black Swan Red Eye Revival are joined by Hoof Knuckle, Kringer and The Battlekatz for a night of metal music at the Black Swan.

Skank N Skran Celebrating 30 Years of 1in12 on Albion Street 29 April, 12pm - 1am The 1 in 12 Club Celebrating 30 years of the 1in12 Club on Albion Street, activities, food, and music throughout the day, open to all ages, and then taking a heavier turn come evening playing some heavier dubs and a bit of jungle.

Topic Folk Club

3 May, 8.30pm Glyde House, Glydegate, Little Horton Lane

17 May, 8.30pm Glyde House, Glydegate, Little Horton Lane

Singers & musicians night. 8.15 pm start. Free entry.

Peter and Barbara Snape. Peter and Barbara bring their traditional songs, mainly from the North of England, with a highly individual approach to their music. £6 (£5 for Topic members).

Carpe Noctum: Homecoming 5 May, 6pm - 2am The 1 in 12 Club the North’s biggest monthly dark alternative club/live night, launched in 1999 at the 1 in 12 Club. Now resident at The Lending Room in Leeds, they’re popping back to help celebrate thirty years on Albion Street!

Topic Folk Club 10 May, 8.30pm Glyde House, Glydegate, Little Horton Lane Phil Hare. Long-established on the folk scene, with inimitable vocal style and fine guitar accompaniment, humorous and entertaining. £6 (£5 for Topic members).

Zang 12 May, 9pm Wireless Bar ZANG are a four-piece instrumental band playing a random hip heavy hammond organ hybrid of acid jazz, soul, blues, r&b, pop, dance and much more.

TLR Present...Birds of Chicago 13 May 7.30pm Caroline Street Social Club, Saltaire Birds of Chicago, the collective centered around Allison Russell and JT Nero, reassert the simple notion - radical in these times that beautiful words and music can still tap deep veins of emotion.

TLR Present...Gilmore & Roberts 18 May 8pm Caroline Street Social Club, Saltaire Contemporary folk/acoustic duo Gilmore & Roberts combine award-winning songwriting with astounding musicianship and their trademark harmonies to create a powerful wall of sound.

Topic Folk Club 24 May, 8.30pm Glyde House, Glydegate, Little Horton Lane Plumhall. Long-established local duo with superb original songs and well-chosen covers, favourites on the local acoustic music scene. A great night guaranteed. £6 (£5 for Topic members).

Topic Folk Club 31 May, 8.30pm Glyde House, Glydegate, Little Horton Lane Louise Jordan. - No Petticoats Here. Established folk artist Louise’s highly acclaimed presentation: stories and original songs about remarkable women of WWI. which has received outstanding reviews nationwide. A unique event. £6 (£5 for Topic members).

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