History Editor CJ DeBarra (history@leftlion.co.uk)
Literature Editor Andrew Tucker (literature@leftlion.co.uk)
Food Co-Editor Lucy Campion (food@leftlion.co.uk)
Distribution Dom Martinovs
Illustrators
Zarina Teli
Lily Keogh
Jim Brown
Zhara Millett
Freepik
Emily Catherine
Natalie Owen
Featured Contributor
Charlotte Pimm-Smith is a creative writing student at The University of Nottingham. Charlotte writes about art and literature, and for three months has contributed to LeftLion with art exhibition reviews and Pick of the Week blogs. Her involvement in Nottingham arts began with volunteer work at Surface Gallery where she coordinates group exhibitions and exhibits her own visual poetry projects.
Growing up with generations of writers before her, the gene has long been in Charlotte’s blood. From plotting the seemingly revolutionary ‘it was all a dream’ stories in primary school to studying fiction and poetry practice in her undergrad, and having found a practical use for her passion with LeftLion, she hopes to pursue a career in journalism upon graduating this summer.
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of internationally
enterprise
Outstanding in their field
We hear from Evil Scarecrow, one of the city’s most eccentric live acts, about Beat the Streets, their theatrical performances and the krakhen.
A trans person in Notts
Ever wondered what it’s like growing up transgender? Local lad Liam Pearce shares his experience of coming out and transitioning.
Art Works
Artist Rachel Carter tells us her inspirations behind Standing In This Place, a new sculpture to be unveiled in the Green Heart park in February.
Wonder of the Wild
After battling chronic fatigue, Poppy Wilding tells us about the benefits of forest bathing and therapy through nature.
Happy new year LeftLion readers! Just a quarter of a century ago we were all sighing in relief that the millennium bug didn’t get us all with whatever entomological chaos it was supposed to rain down on us. Now it's 2025, the insects are in decline and chaos seems to be the main theme of the age.
But never fear, we’re here with another issue of LeftLion to cheer you up and shed some light on the lovely things happening around Notts. What with January generally being a bit on the dismal side, this month we thought we’d share some stories to uplift and inspire.
We had a great chat with Notts legend Marcellus Baz on p12-13 about his journey to starting Switch Up, a social enterprise that aims to empower and mentor disadvantaged young people. Over on p27 we heard about the benefits of forest bathing from Poppy Wildman of Wild & Wonder, and on p35 Nottingham Counselling Service gives us
Food reviews
Our trusty food editors head to two very different small plate restaurants, Hockley’s Mesa and Shio in Hurt’s Yard.
ALT BLK ERA
We catch up with the alternative sister duo to hear about their highly anticipated debut album Rave Immortal and collabs with Wheatus.
Take The Stand
Human rights barrister, social justice campaigner and author of The Law in 60 Seconds Christian Weaver talks about his new book, The Right To Protest
Moving on up
Only the boring get bored. We look at some interesting courses, classes and hobbies in Notts for 2025.
some sage advice about the importance of community.
There’s also some cracking music content this month. We step back to Notts in the 80s on p16-17 with The Garage nightclub, while on p18 you can read about the lovely Gig Buddies community. I also very much enjoyed hearing from wonderful Notts duo ALT BLK ERA, who shockingly I’d somehow neglected to listen to before, but are now going to be a permanent fixture on my current listening playlist.
I hope you head through January with high spirits for the year ahead, and we’ll see you again in Feb.
Saved by the Bell Local legend and founder
recognised social
Switch Up Marcellus Baz talks about his work and lifting people out of disadvantaged backgrounds.
The Garage
We take a look at The Garage nightclub, a fixture in the Lace Market during the 1980s opened by Selectadisc founder Brian Selby.
Gig Buddies
We heard how the Notts Gig Buddies group brings together people from different backgrounds, ages, and interests, through their passion for music.
“I
drank so much I kindaspikedmyself.”
Someone on Channel 5: “I miss the Queen’s speech at Christmas, she’s been there my whole life. Someone in Lenton: So have f-ing verrucas.”
“Why are the emojis so big?” (said in a voice of panic by a student)
(angrily down the phone)
“Yeah I’m on cloud nine. Stood next to the [censored] hazelnut stall.”
“It’s f-ing cold. Might set fire to a tree and stand behind it for half an hour.”
Pick Six
For this month’s Pick Six, we turned to Pudding Pantry co-owners Anthony and Emma Quinn, with Emma telling us about her favourite things…
a“Haveyoueverbeento
“That’slaundrette?”howyoutalktogirls.”
“You know Bob Marley?”
“Never heard of him”
“You know. The “Jammin” man”
“Jam? Like strawberry jam? I thought you were talking about music.”
Film - Pitch Perfect
If two people on opposite sides of the world each drop a piece of bread, the Earth briefly becomes a sandwich.
Ooh this is a tricky one. I'm going to go with a film that I can watch over and over again, without paying too much attention. I feel like it lifts my spirits, the characters are old friends and it makes me laugh, and that is Pitch Perfect (all three of them, I couldn't possibly choose between them).
Holiday Destination - Italy
I love to travel. There's so much world to explore and so little time when you're running a business, so we try to choose a new adventure each time. If I had to choose though, Italy would be high on my list. The food is always absolutely delicious - who doesn't love pizza and pasta? The old towns are beautiful. I love exploring the little streets and finding eateries off the beaten track, or enjoying a glass of wine and people watching.
Book - Memoirs of a Geisha
I love reading, buying books, talking about books and most evenings you will find me curled up with a story. I have recently been on a total roman-tasy binge after reading A Court of Thorns and Roses (Cassian has my heart). But my all time favourite book is Memoirs of a Geisha. I love the way it's written, the storytelling is second to none, it feels like the lines of fact and fiction are blurred.
Notts Spot - Sherwood Pines
It has got to be my favourite park in Nottingham, though it is a little drive out of the city centre, it's worth it. You step out of the car and you are surrounded by woodland - it makes you feel instantly relaxed and refreshed. Miles of walking or bike riding can be done or just a little play on the trail of parks is what my little ones love.
Song - Don’t Stop Believing by Journey
I know it's not everyone's cup of tea but I love it so much. I have so many lovely memories of dancing with friends to this song, at uni, when we were travelling, at our wedding, the list goes on. For me, there's nothing better than belting it out on the dancefloor, whilst busting some moves.
Meal - Bar Iberico
It just never gets old. The atmosphere is lovely, the food is the perfect combination of totally delicious, a little bit different and unpretentious. The team is also great - friendly but professional. The Jerez Chicken has my whole heart. We've been many, many times before and will go many, many times again.
words: Dani Bacon
In association with
My grandma’s flushed & jovial when scalped taters glup-glup on the stove.
Today, seeing me jobless & eager to please she commandeers me to hand-crank the mincer
make it drip worms of meat onto a white plate which says Stoke-On-Trent on the back of it.
The windows run with the blood of slaughtered cabbages. This is the world, & there is love in it.
Darth Vader can’t see in. He’s in the front garden loafing.
words:
Rich Goodson
UNDERCOVER ARTIST
This month’s cover artist Paula Reid tells us about her inspirations, projects and love of Brutalism…
Tell us a bit about yourself...
I am a 2D visual artist who loves colour, pattern and buildings! Originally from Leicester, I studied 3D Design Ceramics at Bristol Polytechnic before eventually moving to Nottingham in 2000. My work mostly relies on a combination of digital and traditional techniques which I use to create quirky imaginary landscapes. When I’m not busy making art or working as a college technician, I enjoy swimming at my local pool and going for long walks with my gorgeous cocker spaniel George.
What is the story behind the cover?
This is a design I completed in 2023 called The Garden of Brutalist Delights. The title is based on Hieronymus Bosch’s painting The Garden of Earthly Delights and depicts a utopian landscape of brutalist structures nestled within a twilight garden. It’s one of my favourite pieces of work and was a real labour of love due to the lengthy time it took to draw. It was partly inspired by my mum, who sadly passed away in 2022. She was a keen gardener, passionate about plants, and her favourite colour was green! I think she would have absolutely loved it, so this is a tribute to her.
What Inspires you as an Artist?
nottinghampoetryfestival.com
Gigs
Nottingham’s most opinionated grocers on...
We always go with Liz Baxter. In 1996, we went to see the Hell Freezes Over tour, which was the original Eagles at Wembley. They opened with Hotel California - fantastic. But we paid 55 pounds a ticket, and we said then we will never ever pay more than that again. Well, Lizzie Baxter buys all our pop tickets now. So we see heavy metal, like Def Leppard, Alice Cooper, White Snake, all that sort of ilk with her. A month ago, we went to see Alice, Cooper, and at Birmingham and she treated us. So we buy her gorgeous champagne and something from Molten Brown.
Statues
Brian Clough shouldn’t be there, he should be outside the Forest Ground. They could have Jimmy Sirrel, he was just as famous. He was the manager of Notts County, and he got them from the fourth division to the first division. But they should have Jesse Boot. Or one of the typical housewife. Until 1976, men earned enough money to keep the family, but women kept the house and organised the finances. A thankless task. But men do more these days. A month ago we had five men in the shop and they were all doing the cooking. Years ago you never saw a man in the kitchen.
Nightclubs
We always think nightclubs are strange places. It’s the dead of night - you should be in bed. It’s not normal. When Victoria Centre was built, they had this nightclub and Bill Haley and the Comets opened it. They had a revolving dance floor. Surely you’d break your neck. In the 70s there used to be 300 nightclubs and pubs in the square mile of Nottingham. There are probably that many now but we don’t know where they all are.
My inspiration comes from many places, but mainly from architectural forms and the urban landscape. I love the compositional quality of cityscapes, the bold graphic lines of industrial buildings, tower blocks and skyscrapers, and the elegant curves of art deco. More recently I’ve become captivated by Brutalist architecture with its expressive and unusual shapes. This has led to many an hour wandering around various cities with my camera! Brutalism might not be conventionally beautiful, but I love it, partly because some of it is pretty wild! It sits perfectly with some of the quirky shapes and ideas swirling around in my head, and I enjoy the playfulness of chucking in a bit of colour and pattern.
Tell us about some things you’ve worked on in the past…
Last year I was lucky enough to be part of an exciting three-week exhibition at Surface Gallery called ‘Circus of Life’. Organized by fellow artist @maximillionsurrealist, the show brought together the diverse creativity of six local artists exploring through their work, the collective experience of being human. To attract visitors into the gallery we ran a series of weekend events which included a coffee & cake stall (courtesy of Nuno Coffee and Tough Mary’s Bakehouse!), an artist’s Q&A, and a closing charity auction. Our aim was to create a vibrant and accessible show of work and more importantly to have fun, which we certainly did!
Do you have any tricks for getting started and staying inspired as a creative?
During my time in Nottingham, I’ve met lots of other creative people and feel that being part of a community of other like-minded individuals is one of the key things in being able to flourish as an artist. Feeling supported and getting feedback on your work from others can be incredibly powerful in your creative journey. That’s why it’s so good to exhibit your work, as well as going to see the work of other artists. I would also say that it’s important to just keep on working, as this is where most inspiration comes from. Finally… take your art seriously, but not too seriously. You need to enjoy it, otherwise what’s the point?
If you could sit down and chat with any artist in your field, who would it be and what would you talk about?
There are numerous creatives across many disciplines whose work I admire, many of them painters, as painting has always been my first love. The artists, Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky and Georgia O’Keefe are enduring favourites. However, none of them are still alive, so I’m tempted to go a bit left field with this question and say that rather than chat with a person, I’d like to go and chat with a Brutalist building instead... I have a fairly long list of contenders, but one that has been a bit of a mild obsession is the iconic Geisel Library at the University of California. Completed in 1970 and named in honor of Theodor Seuss Geisel, aka children’s author Dr Seuss, I think it’s strikingly beautiful. It would be fascinating to go look around and have a chat!
Is there anything else you’d like to tell the LeftLion readers?
The front cover image is available to purchase from my Etsy shop @paulareidart, along with all my other designs, so please feel free to check them out! Other than that, I would just like to wish everyone a very happy and very peaceful 2025.
Nadia on...
the future of the high street
Last month, in the festive lead-up to Christmas, I had the pleasure of visiting some of our first-rate small businesses in Nottingham. I stopped by Five Leaves Bookshop, Miss Lou’s arts cafe and shop, Broadway Cinema and the Christmas market, which boasted a wide array of independent sellers. The vibrant atmosphere and bustling shops reminded me just how special our city is. We’re fortunate to have such fantastic businesses bringing life to our local area. Yet, I also know that these businesses are often navigating financial pressures and changing spending habits. I was sad to hear that Braderie, a vintage shop in Hockley, announced it will be closing in March this year. This comes on top of several other closures of beloved establishments in recent years – Annie’s Burger Shack, K Fines, and PRYZM, to name a few.
It’s no secret that, on top of the online retail boom, UK businesses of all sizes have faced mounting challenges in recent years: Brexit with its impact on supply chain disruptions, import costs, and delays at borders; the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, with its reduced footfall, enforced social distancing measures, and prolonged periods of economic uncertainty. Just as some of these short-term problems improved, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine delivered another devastating blow, this time to energy bills that increased operating costs and pushed many to the brink, forcing some to even close permanently. I never imagined I’d see the closures of high street staples like Debenhams and Topshop.
In recent years, high streets up and down the country have lacked the resilience to withstand such shocks, a vulnerability exposed by this perfect storm. Consumers too have found themselves in the midst of a cost of living crisis, largely driven by increasing prices of goods and services. This has led to brick-and-mortar outlets further struggling with sales and closing, triggering the loss of in-person interaction vital to fostering a sense of community. It seems that without a much-needed intervention on this issue, not only do we risk losing more businesses, but also the unique vibrancy in our towns and cities – a major source of social cohesion. It’s clear that in the short-term, we need a multipronged approach to save the high street, including increased government financial support for local councils, policies that address the cost of living crisis
and a review of business rates to ease the burden on retailers. Yet in the long term, resilience requires a reimagining of their purpose.
Our high-streets have long been propped up by an overreliance on consumerism, an uncomfortable truth which carries significant environmental and ethical costs. A radical rethinking of the high street involves creating spaces that don’t just sell products and services, but also offer free, enriching spaces for social interaction – parks, libraries, sports complexes, art galleries and community centres. In 2018, an expert review concluded that UK high streets must stop relying on retail and instead, they should be reinvigorated by focusing on alternatives to retail, including housing, leisure, entertainment education, arts and commercial office space. “Town centres need to be repopulated as community hubs,” Bill Grimsey, who the review is named after, told The Guardian at the time.
A radical rethinking of the high street involves creating spaces that don’t just sell products and services, but also offer free, enriching spaces for social interaction – parks, libraries, sports complexes, art galleries and community centres
I’m pleased that Nottingham already offers excellent examples of how a diverse range of businesses as well as public spaces, from parks and libraries to arts centres, can foster such community engagement. The regeneration of Broad Marsh, for example, includes the Green Heart project, which provides a green public space with huge biodiversity benefits. Similarly, the transformation of Sneinton Market has become a space where local makers, food vendors, and artists thrive alongside community events. These spaces demonstrate the potential of thoughtful urban design that prioritises the local community’s needs.
The trouble is that sustaining and building on this great
work will be difficult without addressing the basics – the needs of independent businesses now.
Firstly, it’s evident that we need more government funding to save struggling local councils, which have in-depth knowledge of their local economies. This would enable them to allocate resources more effectively and target specific regional challenges. Councils are stuck in impossible positions – fuelled by decades of underfunding. National investments into local economies would not only help restore public services, they would create jobs and attract further investment into the city. This funding must be directed towards revitalising public spaces and providing long-term support to ensure high streets remain vibrant and functional.
Then the government must commit to eradicating the cost of living crisis, which continues to squeeze household budgets and dampen consumer confidence. This includes not only addressing energy costs but also housing, wages and childcare costs. Investments in public services and infrastructure that lower everyday expenses – such as transport, water and energy –must also be prioritised, alongside policies to support sustainable economic growth.
And finally, I’m pleased that the Labour government has already committed to replace the business rates system in England to level the playing field between the high street and online giants, better incentivising investment to tackle empty properties and support entrepreneurship. But we can’t stop there. It’s time for a comprehensive review of how we tax businesses, learning from successful examples around the world to build a system that’s fair, sustainable, and fit for the challenges of a modern economy, supporting small businesses while ensuring large corporations pay their fair share. Our economic system must work for everyone – not just those at the top.
Saving our high streets and re-imagining our public spaces is no small task, but as we enter the new year, I’d like to see bold action and a real commitment to immediate and long-term government support, so that our public spaces can thrive again.
words: Nadia Whittome photo: Fabrice Gagos
I’ve seen how magic happens when you bring people together from different walks of life to think about the same thing, and look at how we can make meaningful change in our communities
Marcellus (centre) with two Switch Up members outside of the Nottingham School of Boxing
The story of Dr Marcellus Baz BEM is stuff of Nottingham legend. From a kid weighed down by poverty to the leader of an internationally recognised social enterprise, he’s lifted countless people out of disadvantaged backgrounds while inspiring others along the way. Having started collaborating more often with businesses and charities across the city, he made time in his busy schedule to chat with us about the credo behind his long career.
As a young man, Marcellus Baz constantly struggled with mental health issues, substance problems and clashes with the law, until one day, while running from police, he discovered a boxing gym, which changed his life.
“It was a level playing field where you could speak to people who you would never meet in your normal life. Teachers, lawyers and doctors would all come in and train,” says Marcellus. “I can remember doing situps and learning about people who had jobs, went on holidays and could walk down the street without carrying a weapon. I was astonished and thought ‘Wow, I want to be like that’. Then your mindset starts to change and you want to be a different person.”
Marcellus has well-and-truly turned his life around today. Having founded and led social enterprise Switch Up along with the associated Mansfield and Nottingham Schools of Boxing, he’s one of Nottingham’s most successful and internationally recognised public figures, sought after for his expertise on social action and poverty alleviation.
I was first introduced to him at Uniting Nottz: a community event organised in collaboration with actor Vicky McClure, during which he brought together public figures to discuss Nottingham’s leading social issues. For me there were similarities between that event and the way by which he describes that boxing gym of his younger days. When I bring this up in our subsequent conversation, Marcellus agrees.
“I’ve seen the power of collaboration,” he says. “I’ve seen how magic happens when you bring people together from different walks of life to think about the same thing, and look at how we can make meaningful change in our communities. That’s how the magic happened in that gym, and it must have been a strong factor in giving me the confidence to do events like Uniting Nottz.”
Marcellus felt that the more times he attended the boxing gym, the more that magic emerged, as the sport became an outlet for internal struggle and a source of mental discipline. Then, on the verge of going professional, he was sent to hospital at 23 by an attack by four local gang members. Recovering from a near death experience, he was told that he might never box again.
His main desire then, he says, was
to break the cycle and do something different with his life. After getting a sports therapy qualification from South Notts College and later volunteering at a sports centre, the nascent seeds of Switch Up as a social enterprise were sown.
“My manager put in a good word for me so that I could get a job at a sports centre on Carlton Road. I eventually became the manager there, because I understood the people there, and spoke their language: it was an area of deprivation, with a lot of people who were traumatised. I can remember looking at them thinking, ‘These kids remind me of myself’. They were asking me questions like ‘What’s it like to get a job? When do you get paid?’ - simple things, but they were intrigued. I thought to myself ‘What helped me?’ and tried to create an environment that would help them. That was the birth of Switch Up.”
Since founding Switch Up Marcellus has certainly got his flowers. In 2016, he was named Unsung Hero at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year. In 2017, he received a British Empire Medal for his services to Nottingham. In 2022, Invest in Nottingham named Switch Up their charity of the year, after it supported 559 people in only a year. A big factor in this success was Switch Up’s Five Pillar Model, used to bring young people out of disadvantaged backgrounds.
“When people are referred to us, we look at five areas: first, have they got food, shelter, and do they feel safe at home?” explains Marcellus. “The second thing is beliefs and perceptions. If they believe that they can beat their girlfriend because they saw it happen to their mum, or if they have an altercation they’ll stab somebody, we need to challenge that. Third is therapy and support, supporting them to deal with trauma and providing support networks so that they can bounce back without relapsing. Fourth is skills and training, and fifth is employment training. If you don’t address the first three areas, then skills, training and employment won’t be sustained. It’s about addressing root causes. Not symptoms.”
The success of Switch Up’s Five Pillar Model has drawn international attention, with Denmark, Norway, Brazil and California asking for Marcellus’ views on similar programmes. For him this shows that tackling poverty from the grassroots, like he has, is the way to go in most locations.
“We need to address poverty and inequality. We need to look at the education system, the judicial system, the health system… there’s lots of things, and we need to look at how we support people with trauma; how we can nurture and cultivate lived experience and to be able to drive meaningful change. It’s important that Nottinghamshire starts to thrive, rather than survive, but these root causes need to be addressed.”
With his decades of experience in social action drawing his attention to these wider, large-scale issues, Marcellus felt driven to start organising events like Uniting Nottz, which have put him in dialogue with business and charity people from across the county. That particular event also kickstarted a new venture for him, as he launched a new, upcoming podcast, alongside his longtime mate Vicky McClure, called Under the Hood. The podcast, he hopes, will help the public to feel more connected with leading figures in Nottingham.
“We want to speak about certain issues. It might be mental health: I know a few people whose kids are on suicide watch, but with long waiting lists. If we’re talking to a parent who will be telling us about it, we can bring on someone from the health sector to advise them. That can give our community hope, and a light.”
Finishing my conversation with Marcellus, it becomes clear that, however much national and international attention his work might get, serving the local community stays at the forefront. He’s a very public figure, that much is clear, but still someone enduringly connected to the grassroots of social action, a rare quality nowadays.
“Nottingham’s a great city, a resilient city, a vibrant city, a creative city. When the going gets tough, we stand together. We are a city of social justice and moral compasses, which you see with Switch Up, which came from resilience, courage and strength,” he says. “I never thought that I could do this; I thought that I would be dead by 21. I had a criminal record, I couldn’t read or write properly. I never thought that this was possible, but anything is possible. And that’s what makes Nottingham Nottingham: when something needs to happen people come together and make it happen.”
marcellusbaz.co.uk
words: Caradoc Gayer
photo: Switch Up
Outstanding in theirfiffiifield
With over two decades under their belts and a record for theatrical live performances, Evil Scarecrow are one of Nottingham’s most eccentric and entertaining live bands. Playing Beat the Streets later this month, Iulia Matei caught up with them to see what wickedness we have to look forward to.
How would you describe Evil Scarecrow for anyone who doesn't know the brand?
What are we?… We’re ridiculous, sort-of-comedy, very heavily prop-based, community dance combo with heavy metal vibes. ‘Existential crisis metal’ - that’s what I’m gonna call it! We used to call ourselves something like ‘theatrical black metal’ but that doesn't feel quite right. People should just come and see us and make up their own minds. Then send us a postcard saying what they think we are, and maybe we'll find out.
Can you introduce the band members and mention one thing each of them like or love?
I’m Dr. Hell, I do shouting and guitar. I also love gaming - especially Dungeons and Dragons. You can find some references to DnD in our songs. There’s an entire track just about it.
Which track?
Antartarctica. It's done with the voice of a Dungeon Master. Everything is ‘you do this, you do that, you’re clawing at your face,’ so it’s as if the DM is describing what’s going on with the player character, which is Brother Pain in the story.
Next up, Count Gravedigger. He is obsessed with the 80s. There is nothing he loves more than 80s references. It’s been really cool having him as a recent addition to the band. He joined us on the new album and he is such a talent. There are now even more 80s references, for people who like that.
Kraven Morrdeth plays bass. He does like cheese. He even does little cheese reviews on social media. He’s pretty good at that. We should probably bring that into the stage show. I think it’ll go down really well.
Ringmaster Monty Blitzfist, what does he like… [answer redacted!]
You've got so many props and puppets on stage; robots, giant chopsticks, inflatable unicorns - where does the love for puppets and costumes come from?
When I first started doing live music, the bands that I loved the most were those that just did everything. If a band just stood still and played one instrument each, I always admired the musicianship but I'd be like ‘why aren't you running around? Why haven't you at least got a hilarious hat on?’ So when I first started performing, I thought ‘I'm just going to throw everything at it.’ Which is probably to my detriment, because if I maybe just focus on being a good guitarist, I’d be a better guitarist! But instead it was like 'let’s throw everything at a show and give everybody something to do all the time, non-stop'. So it came from there. Our present guitarist joined the band originally to help us with our props and he really upped the game. They were very, very poor quality to begin with. Now they’re pretty good! Certainly better than my guitar playing.
If a band just stood still and played one instrument each, I always admired the musicianship but I'd be like ‘why aren't you running around?
That’s not true! So, what is in store for Evil Scarecrow in the near future?
We have finished our fifth album. It's done, it's ready, it's mastered. We're just now going into production for that and looking to try to find a release date. There's a new video we've been working on with an amazingly talented animator, who we've worked with before. It's very, very pink and cyan neon, which is an odd mix with our own sort of black metal look. It's for a song called Nuclear Fallout Machine Sentience We’re excited to release that soon and we will be releasing more tracks and videos over the next year. Keep your eyes peeled because new stuff is coming.
I've got a silly question now. Okay!
If you could keep any of the creatures from your songs (the krakhen, the crab, the slug from Antartarctica) as a pet, which one would you choose? Laughs Not the krakhen!
The hen is a menace. Constantly pecking me on stage. Our giant robot has a little alien called Roswell, who used to throw out Space Raiders into the crowd. So, you know, he’s a giver. I pick him.
Aw, I like him. What is the best crowd participation move to watch from on stage?
We've done so many mad, stupid things with the audience. We used to pull out something called 'the wind stick'. We pointed it at the crowd and when the stick pointed towards you, you had to put your arms in the air and make farting noises. That was just amazing; an entire crowd going *fart noise*. More often than not, though, the guys at the front will do something funny that makes us - the idiots on stage - come up with silly ideas. So the moves are really born from the most important part of our band, which is the people who come and see us play live.
You’re playing Beat the Streets this January, are you looking forward to it?
Yeah! We’re so excited. Last time, there was a young guy playing an acoustic guitar on before us, with loads of girls right at the front, all looking at him dewy-eyed. Then we marched on in all of our ridiculous get-up and they looked at us like ‘what is this mess?’. But we love festivals like Beat the Streets. Not just because of the good cause, which we are so behind, or because it’s at Rock City, which is the best venue in the country, or because it’s done with DHP, who are the best people to work with, but because we get an opportunity to play for people who’ve never seen us before. Winning over that kind of crowd is one of the best feelings in the world. We got such a great reaction last time, even from the dewy-eyed girls! They were crab dancing at the end. We’re so grateful to be asked back to that brilliant, brilliant event.
There you go. You must be doing something right! That's all the questions I've got - you answered some before I even asked them!
Well, I’m a pro. That’s how you can end it: I’m a pro, definitely not an idiot.
Catch Evil Scarecrow and many more acts at Beat The Streets, taking place on Sunday 26 January at Rock City, Rescue Rooms, The Bodega and Rough Trade.
words: Jared Wilson
photos: Bryn Jones
Nottingham Music Haven
We take a look at The Garage nightclub, a fixture in the Lace Market during the 1980s opened by Selectadisc founder Brian Selby and home to live bands, house music, and much more besides…
In the 1980s Brian Selby was quite the man about town in Nottingham. Not content with his growing Selectadisc record shop empire and his new American-themed Hockley eatery Zuckermans, in 1983 he decided to invest in opening a new nightclub and music venue.
The space Brian took over was located at 41 St Mary’s Gate, a recently closed reggae club called Ad-Lib. He decided to rebrand it as The Garage and early flyers for the club ran with this theme, with the club’s logo featuring two Firestone tyres.
The club’s basement floor had quite the heyday in the 1960s, in its original incarnation as The Beachcomber Club. On 14 January 1967 they welcomed The Jimi Hendrix Experience along for Jimi’s first appearance in the city (the band would also go on to play both the Sherwood Rooms and the Theatre Royal later that year). The support act that night was Jimmy Cliff & The Shakedown Sound. Sometime in the 60s the Ad-Lib club opened above it and over the next few years they merged into one venue.
The opening night of The Garage was on Friday 7 October 1983 and featured the bands American Actors and Red Go Red. In a world before the internet, entry tickets were sold in person at both Selectadisc and at the venue itself. It cost just 50p to get in and entry included a free drink. Following this over the next week they put on acts like The Milkshakes, Loose Hearts, The Linkmen, The Howdy Boys and Fatal Charm.
The club was open from 10pm-2am every night except for Sundays and, unlike many late night hotspots of the era, this was a ‘dress down’ venue with no membership required. There were two rooms of music and the décor of the club was notable for having black and white artwork on the walls. They also had a smartly dressed elderly doorman and Maître D’ known as Basil 'The International Scene Man', who came as part of the deal when Brian bought the club and always had a bag of sweets to hand out to punters.
Between 1983-87 The Garage regularly put on live nights with touring bands, usually on Wednesdays and Thursdays, including; SPK, H20, Billy Bragg, The Redskins, Perfect Crime, Serious Drinking, Marc Riley, Half Man Half Biscuit, The Long Riders, The Mekons, The Membranes, The Three Johns, Ted Hawkins, Tones On Tail, The Wedding Present and The Jesus and Mary Chain.
Legend has it that footballer Kevin Keegan once turned up with an entourage and wasn’t allowed in for being too smart. Joe Strummer also once went in as a punter on a Friday night and was so impressed that he busked outside the venue the night after.
However, the club was perhaps best known and loved for its weekend club nights, offering up an eclectic mix of tunes from garage rock to reggae to pop, rock, house music and more besides. Perhaps most famously in the mid to late 80s it became known as a haven for early lovers of house music and launched the career of DJ Graeme Park. Graeme was working in Selectadisc at the time and DJed there from the opening night until 1988, when he moved on to become a
dance music legend as resident at Manchester’s Hacienda nightclub.
“I didn’t really want to DJ at first, but I also didn’t want to say no to Brian,” Graeme told us in an interview last year. “After my first gig at the Garage I got paid £25 and it was all mine. Soon after I left being in bands behind to give it a proper go. The club scene in the late 80s brought everybody together and it just didn’t matter if you were gay, straight, bi or whatever. I lived in Nottingham at such a pivotal time in my life between the ages of eighteen to my mid-twenties. I didn’t go to university, but Nottingham is like those years to me.”
Legend has it that footballer Kevin Keegan once turned up with an entourage and wasn’t allowed in for being too smart. Joe Strummer also once went in as a punter on a Friday night and was so impressed that he busked outside the venue the night after
The first manager of the club was Philip Mulhaire. ”We were just making it up as we went along,” he explained. “We wanted The Garage to be a haven for anyone who didn't fit in at the big clubs in Nottingham with their smart dress codes and meat market ambience. You could get gloriously lost in The Garage and people often did.”
In 1987 Ian Gardiner (who later went on to run Dubble Bubble, The Lofthouse and now Fisher Gate Point music and arts hub) took over as manager, initially working for Brian Selby before buying the club off him and rebranding it as The Kool Kat. He told us:
“The Garage was unique in its time in that it catered for two sides of the youth cultural divide having two separate dance floors. Upstairs the vibe was cool, danceable, jazz-tinged post punk and in the basement there were indie rock-based stompers. In between were the bars where crowds happily mingled together, lots of relationships blossomed and many heads were opened by the mixing of cultures.”
The venue was later transformed into the Lizard Lounge in the 1990s and operated by Andy Bentley. Finally, it was re-branded as BZR, which closed in 2015 after an incident at the venue where two people were stabbed. In 2021 it was converted into an office complex and renamed as The Garage Studios, which it remains as to this day.
Our thanks to John Flood, Jim Cooke, nottsmusicarchive. com and jimihendrix.com for help with this article. All photos were given to us by Dorothy Selby, Brian’s widow, late last year. They were commissioned by Brian Selby and we believe they were taken between 1983 and 1987 by photographer Bryn Jones. We hope they bring back many happy memories to anyone who attended.
words: Lewis Oxley
illustration: Lily Keogh
Gig Buddies
Starting in 2009, and now with nearly 6,000 members to its name, the meetup.com social group Nottingham Gig Buddies (NGB) has been a life changer for many, bringing together people from many different backgrounds, ages, interests, through their passion for music. To understand the success behind the growth of this group, we got to know the people behind it.
One of the essential purposes of live music, as someone who has been regularly going to gigs since I was fourteen, is to achieve a collective sense of belonging among the crowds thronging venues up and down the country. As members of this crowd, we feel that music has the obligation to help us belong to these phenomena and bring us together. However, for some of us, it can be very difficult; we are unable to find our tribe with whom we can enjoy live music. This can have drastic effects on our mental health when we don’t have people to share the same experience of live music with, such as loneliness, seclusion and a lack of self-confidence.
On a bristly cold Tuesday afternoon, Craig Chambers and I scramble around Sherwood trying to find the quietest spot to chat. It turns out the centre of the pub may not be the best place to do it. Craig is the unofficial custodian of NGB and has been since 2015. In that time, he has seen 750 events. The group started on the Meetup.com platform; a platform designed for people to do very much what it says on tin. NGB also has an additional Facebook page with over 2,000 members. Craig admits that, despite the Meetup group having a lot more members, the Facebook group is a lot more active simply “because more people use it”.
“The group started back in 2009, but it had problems to begin with due to a lack of activity,” explains Craig. “We had a lot of people in the group who weren’t active and didn’t post much. I asked one of the original admins if I could become one. I would go to about two or three gigs a week so that was a factor in me wanting to get more events advertised in the group.”
“We now have about 400 active members in the Meetup group and we’ve had five RSVPs a day this month. In November we hosted 35 events, but we usually average about 25 a month across the whole year - so we definitely have a lot going on.”
The growth of the group is reflective of the number of live events that have seemingly increased in the past few years. The likes of The Old Cold Store, The Level, Metronome, The Old Bus Depot, Saltbox, Carousel and The Grove have sprawled up to offer a depth of choice from the mainstays of Rock City, Rescue Rooms and Bodega. The variety of music ensures that members of all ages can have a sense of belonging to their musical tribe of choice, but also be partial to the exposure of new music genres.
I put this to Di Tunney, another of the group’s organisers and a longtime friend of Craig’s. “The group is very welcoming and no one is bothered about age differences,” says Di. “They are into all sorts of music and there is definitely a cross-section of ages. With the way that the group functions now, someone into a certain type of music joins, then it will be Craig or I who’ll look at what events we’ve got on for that particular type of genre. We’ll point them to it and the people who are also into that type of thing and it’ll spiral from there. That’s the great thing about Gig Buddies really - there’s something for everyone.”
The emphasis on inclusion within the group has been paramount to its success. Everyone I’ve spoken to has said the same thing about how the group has been a welcome door to exploring new music and expanding their friendship group.
Nick, who has been in Gig Buddies for a couple of years since moving up from London,
tells me that “The people in the group made me feel very welcome at the start and it has helped me in so many ways. The thing that I love about it the most is getting the opportunity to meet other gig buddies and find like-minded people who enjoy the same type of music that I do. My wife and I have very different tastes in music and so I would usually drag her along to see bands I like such as The Snuts and Sham 69. But now I can meet like-minded people from the group who love the same music as me.”
Eion is also a long time Gig Buddies member. He says it has “transformed my social life and helped me regain self-confidence. Most of the bands I've seen this year have been with people from NGB and I will have seen nearly 300 bands by the end of the year.”
Eion is also keen to stress an emphasis on price and why he thinks the smaller venues are a lot better value for money. “I saw Marvin’s Revenge at Saltbox and it was £6 to see a total of 5 bands, at just over a pound a band.” He keeps a diary of the bands he has seen, and he’s worked it out at £5.50 a band if you go to a gig where ticket prices are around £20-£30.
The emphasis on inclusion within the group has been paramount to its success. Everyone I’ve spoken to has said the same thing about how the group has been a welcome door to exploring new music and expanding their friendship group
This element adds another layer to the group and its impact on local acts at the grassroots. Christy, the maternal figurehead of Phlexx Records and I’m Not From London, emphasises the importance of the group spreading awareness of local acts, especially at smaller venues.
“A lot of young bands struggle to get a foothold into the music scene,” she says. “From my work at Phlexx and I’m Not From London, we try to give a foot up to those bands. If we can put on an event via Gig Buddies and another ten people get to a gig, it is such a boost for that band. Nottingham has such a wealth of music now and with all of these smaller venues, it shows just how vibrant and healthy the music scene has become. I have no doubt that with the help of people like Di and Craig, it will get more people out to gigs and supporting local artists.”
NGB is a pioneering forum for live music fans. By speaking to those who've been its driving force, it is clear they have been life changing for people of all ages. Forums like this help people find friends old and new, reconnect people with past hobbies. Others see it as a crane to lift them out of an apathy with socialising. If it wasn’t for people like Craig, Di and Christy, then forums like this couldn’t be sustained. If you're going to have a new year's resolution, then joining Gig Buddies would certainly be the one to keep.
Find fellow music lovers and become part of the Gig Buddies community via meetup.com/NottinghamGigBuddies [ Q @NottsGigBuddies
NOTTS SHOTS
Want to have your work featured in Notts Shots? Send your high-res photos from around the city (including your full name and best web link) to photography@leftlion.co.uk or tag #nottsshots on Instagram.
Pigeon Square Nick Archer
View from the Chambers Phil Howcroft @phil_howcroft_nottingham
Reflecting in the Bath Angela Shephard
The Monster at Woodthorpe Park 'Big Bob McPlop'
The Shire Mike Carter
Follow the Tramlines Andrew Taylor
A Crow's Coffee Break Eddy
In the summer of 2017, I came out to my mum as trans with a hastily-written letter on paper ripped out of a notepad I had used earlier that year to study for my GCSEs. When I opened the door and saw her sitting on the sofa reading the last few pages of her book before the inevitable crawl to bed, I knew I had passed the point of no return. I had to commit, and I could not turn back.
And what a wonderful thing it was to commit. Seven years later – after several reassurances that it would be okay to de-transition if I were to ‘change my mind’, and several more instances of my heels being dug deeper into the ground that no, actually, this is who I am – I sit on the bus on my way to work and reflect on these past seven years. The lows are certainly there but compared to the wonderful community I get to be a part of, the feelings of euphoria when a T-shirt fits just right, and seeing the best of people come out when the worst almost comes out in others… The lows pale in comparison. A few bumps in the road wouldn’t stop a car continuing its journey.
It is far from controversial to say that without pain, we wouldn’t know true happiness. While minding my own business, just walking home along Sherwood Rise after having missed the bus after work, a man drove past me, called me a slur, and threw water (at least, I hope it was water) out of his car and drenched me while I still had another mile before I could change clothes. He was longgone by the time I had processed what had actually happened, and I think even if he’d been right in front of me, I would have had to concede and just allow him to get away with it. It’s an unfortunate fact of life when you’re a minority that any act of aggression – even actions made in self-defence –will be used against you and your entire community. Indeed, had I yelled at him, had I sworn at him, or made any impolite gestures, all trans people would be painted as violent and reactionary. This is far from the worst thing to have ever happened to a
trans person. Every day, I feel a sense of survivor’s guilt for that incident being the most physical hate crime I have ever had to endure.
The lows are certainly there but compared to the wonderful community
I get to be a part of, the feelings of euphoria when a T-shirt fits just right, and seeing the best of people come out when the worst almost comes out in others… The lows pale in comparison
Microaggressions and verbal assaults happen far more frequently. But my favourite example is a true testament to how we truly don’t know happiness until we know pain – and to extend, we don’t know safety until we know fear. I was using the men’s toilet in a club after having mistakenly broken the seal and, through all the rowdiness that usually accompanies drunk men in a nightclub, I overheard some men talking about how much they hate trans people, having to share bathrooms with them, having to share a gender with them. I left the stall with my head down, feeling like I had a target on my back. In a panic, I looked through the crowd to find my friend (who is not trans) and when he found me, such a sense of relief overcame me that I just had to hug him. Without a question, but clearly with a knowledge that something had shaken me, we stood in the middle of the crowd just hugging. When words can describe the sense of relief and genuine, real safety I felt in that moment, then I will write them. Until then, we must only imagine.
One of my favourite experiences as a trans person was while I was working as a waiter in the city centre. An older gay couple – two men – and their
two women friends came into the restaurant for a late lunch. The four of them were some of the loveliest, friendliest, sociable people I’d ever served and it was a quiet day, so I enjoyed the moments of chat between us. At this time, I was wearing a pin badge of the iconic trans pride flag on my uniform along with a badge that simply said ‘he/him’ – my pronouns. When they noticed it, the two men immediately informed me that they were a couple as an act of solidarity and, truth be told, I had never felt more seen; being just twenty years old and straight out of the pandemic, I had never really met older queer people so for these men to do what they could to relate to me just meant the world. They complimented my hair (thanks to my mum who had so kindly cut it for me at home) and told me that I have ‘such a lovely voice’. They also tipped me £20 on top of their £10 service charge and to this day I’m convinced it was because – at least in part – I’m part of their community.
In the summer of 2017, I came out to my mum as trans with a hastily-written letter. I was only fifteen and had so much fear, so many questions, and had no knowledge of what was going to happen to me. Back then, I was armed with nothing but shirts two sizes too big and a dream. In the summer of 2024, I look back on all the experiences I’ve had since then and am so lucky to be able to smile. I wish we lived in a world where every trans person’s worst experience could be having a bit of water thrown at them but we are not so lucky. But, we are so lucky to live in a world where even people who aren’t trans will show up to protests and protect us from the worst of things. I am lucky to have friends who can just see that I need some comfort and will not hesitate to provide it. I am lucky to live in a city where I am not lost in a crowd, where I am seen and – for the most part – I am loved. I truly, truly wish that all trans people can live in peace, friendship, and genuine love.
words: Liam Pearce illustration: Jim Brown
Out of time: The previous life of Union Road
There is a certain sadness and curiosity that surrounds Union Road. The small side street off Huntingdon Street is now predominately home to student accommodation and car parks but it was once a busy part of St. Ann’s. While one side is shiny, modernised and full of apartment buildings, the other is boarded up, closed and contains the ghost signs of businesses long gone. There is little information on what its future may hold.
So what changed?
There are lots of reasons behind the street’s changes but the biggest one has to be the demolition of St. Ann’s in the late sixties and early seventies. Union Road was one of the streets affected by this and over the years, it has failed to hold on to businesses that were based there. Even Lidl has abandoned its corner building in recent years.
It’s hard to picture it thriving but it was once home to lively pubs, businesses and family homes along with the usual array of local characters. A dig into the archive reveals snapshots of the people and places that once existed on the street.
It wasn’t just about the pubs when it came to entertainment. The Victorian craze for billards also saw a state-of-the-art facility open on Union Road. Billard tables were a common feature of upper-class Victorian homes whereas more working-class areas had to rely on public venues to play. While it was predominately men who played, women were also involved. The ‘Harold Holt Billard Rooms’ opened in April 1921 featuring ten tables that had been made by the Holt factory in Halifax.
“When in town, visit the Harold Holt Billard Room,” the advert demanded. It opened with a showdown between owner Holt and T.A. Dennis who would also display fancy and trick shots for an excited public.
If you didn’t fancy Billards then there were enough pubs on the street to keep you entertained. The Napier Inn was one such popular place to go. It is unclear when the Napier opened but it appears in newspaper records as early as 1859. The pub had a piano where local singers would perform along with a front and back bar. In a more gruesome twist, the pub was occasionally used for inquests into deaths. This is common for Nottingham in tight-knit communities in the Victorian era including St.Ann’s and Carrington but feels strange to imagine today! Pubs were used when civic mortuaries lacked space. They often had space to store a body until the inquest was held and were the closest places to the scene of the death.
Conditions in St.Ann’s were tough so local businesses did what they could to support families in the area. The Napier often organised buses for as many as seventy children to go on day trips to places such as Drayton Manor Park or Calverton Lido. There the children would be treated to food, gifts and fun activities before being brought back to their families throughout the 1950s. The nearby Foxhound Inn also offered free food on occasion for the children.
The Napier passed through many different owners over the decades but Nora and Jim Osbourne were the last to own the pub before it was demolished. The pub had a curious mix of locals and curious characters. The back room was also occasionally used as an LGBT+ space popular with butch and femme lesbian and transgender women. Nora would often come in to throw unsuspecting straight customers out of the back bar where they had accidentally wandered. She would do the same with new LGBT faces in the front bar kindly informing them, ‘I think you want the back room.’
In an oral history account, journalist and campaigner, Ray Gosling remembered that it wasn’t just the Napier but the Union Inn was also a safe space for gay people at this time. He recalled that he used to go to the area to smoke weed. Indeed the Union Inn was raided for drugs in January 1969. The drug squads visited the pub and ordered sweepings of the floor to be taken for analysis along with searching 32 people who were on the premises. The owner Charles Wooton, who had been running the Union for six years by then, appeared in court and was fined £20.
The pubs at this time were deemed fit but it was thought that it would be easier to redevelop the area if they were demolished. So many from Union Road disappeared at this time including the Union and Napier. Nora and Jim were reaching retirement age so may not have wanted to fight to keep the pub. Sadly, just as the demolition plans reached their peak, Nora passed away in 1969.
The shops were another big feature of Union Road as many living in St. Ann’s would not have to leave the area to get food, supplies or clothing. It felt like there was a pub on every corner or a shop selling everything you needed.
Nora would often come in to throw unsuspecting straight customers out of the back bar where they had accidentally wandered. She would do the same with new LGBT faces in the front bar kindly informing them, ‘I think you want the back room.’
It was more common to make things last rather than replace so there were often tailors or cobblers on the street. One such shoe repair shop was run by Mr. J.E. Stevenson and his wife in the early 1930s. Oral history accounts record Stevenson as a blind man who had lost his sight in World War I. Post-war the men who were injured in the war, especially those who were blinded were retrained in different vocations, one of which was shoe repairs. He would sit downstairs mending the shoes while his wife ran the shop. They employed local boys to run between the two for eight shillings a week.
The war did change the street as many of the men were conscripted into the armed forces. Some made it home again but others sadly didn’t. Edward James Taylor, the owner of the Foxhound Inn never came home from Malai. He, like many others, had signed up in 1940 and left England shortly after. He was taken prisoner after the fall of Saigon in June 1943 but died just three weeks later in a camp from amoebic dysentery leaving his wife and a four-year-old son behind.
Another business on Union Road was Allsops, the book binders which managed for 43 years before moving to Ilkeston in 2007 when their lease ran out. The ghost sign for the shop remains on the black exterior even though the lettering has been removed. The business is still going today.
Other such signs that remain on the road are for The Factory, a shisha bar that opened in 2009 but has since closed. Long before it was a shisha lounge, the site was the location for the Coachmakers Arms. If you walked up St Ann's Well Road as far as Commercial Square, then you could see the curved Coachmakers Arms at the junction of Union Road.
words: CJ De Barra photo: Allsopps
Send Me a Postcard
words: Charlotte Pimm-Smith
This month Surface’s International Postcard Show unites artists across the globe with an inclusive exhibition showcasing a multimedium array of postcard-sized artworks, created by artists as far-flung as Japan. Charlotte Pimm-Smith talks to exhibitions coordinator Jez Kirby about it.
The International Postcard Show is the longest running exhibition in Surface Gallery’s history, spanning at least twenty-two years of its operation, from Surface’s time as Turtle Arts on Mansfield Road in 2002 to its current residence on Southwell Road. According to Exhibitions Coordinator Jez Kirby it’s a “staple not only in our exhibitions calendar, but also Nottingham’s.”
The only prerequisite is that the submission conforms to the standard dimensions of the postcard, so long as you meet this criterion, you’re in. All postcards, whether created by established artists or those who are just starting out, will be hung in the Main Gallery. Schools, charities and other organisations are also welcome to submit in groups for half of the ‘already affordable’ submissions fee. “We often have young and inexperienced artists, children, exhibiting side-by-side with quite established artists”, says Jez.
There are four prizes on offer for which exhibiting artists will compete. The first is £100 donated by Opulent Art, a £25 Etsy voucher is
Old haunts:
second, third is a year’s subscription to Aesthetica Magazine, and the fourth is The People’s Prize. This is where visitors vote for their favourite postcard, depositing their choice in the Surface post-box. The winning artist is then awarded a free exhibition in Surface’s exhibition space, Le Loovre.
During the exhibition all postcards are on sale for £15 each and when the show comes to an end the unsold pieces are randomly swapped between participants, connecting artists and communities from different parts of the world together in a mass artistic exchange. If you haven’t already got involved this year, fear not, as the show will be back to kick off 2026, according to Jez.
“I think the postcard show has become synonymous with Surface,” he says, adding, “so it’ll probably keep going as long as Surface does, well into the next century!”
The International Postcard Show opens on Friday 10 January at 6pm and will run until 8 February. Entry is free.
The Mechanics Institute on North Sherwood Street
For some of us, it will be hard to imagine the Mechanics Institute anywhere other than North Sherwood Street, but it has actually had a few locations. The first premises at No.17 St. James Street ran from 1837 to 1845. Institutes were built all over England and the movement was created at the end of the 18th century to improve the literacy of the working class and provide lectures on different subjects aimed at improving education. The first Mechanics took this so seriously that it offered free admission to body dissections at Nottingham General Hospital to its members if they joined.
The movement was created at the end of the 18th century to improve the literacy of the working class and provide lectures on different subjects aimed at improving education. The first Mechanics took this so seriously that it offered free admission to body dissections at Nottingham General Hospital to its members if they joined
The Mechanics moved to Milton Street and it was here that Charles Dickens appeared to read his A Christmas Carol in 1858. It was one of three appearances at the hall and possibly one of the times that he famously stayed at the George Hotel on George Street. The hotel, which had been built in 1822 was then named The King George the Fourth Inn. The back bar was later named after him with pictures of his characters lining the walls. A signed cheque for £36.17s covering his stay and his travelling company at the hotel on a previous date of 1852 was later discovered at the hotel in 1987.
Before his infamous trial, Oscar Wilde appeared at the Mechanics in 1883 to give a lecture on his impressions of America. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle also appeared but his visit was a sad one. Arriving in Nottingham, Doyle was told about the death of his son in 1918. His son, Arthur, died at St. Thomas's Hospital, London, from pneumonia during the start of the Spanish Flu pandemic which lasted from
1918 to 1920. Despite how awful this must have been for him, Doyle completed the talk at the Mechanics, lecturing on death and spiritualism. He spoke of there being no death, but only a passing beyond a veil. Almost immediately afterwards, he left Nottingham to travel home to mourn.
The Mechanics moved one more time to a new home on North Sherwood Street where it remains today.
In this month’s Old Haunts we head to the Mechanics Institute, where Charles Dickens and Arthur Conan Doyle were both visitors… words: CJ DeBarra illustration: Natalie Owen
words: Rachel Carter images: Pangolin Editions Foundry
With just 17% of statues in the UK depicting women and only 2% dedicated to people belonging to ethnic minorities, there is a clear need for more varied representation in public art. Luckily, one local artist is looking to change this in Nottingham, whilst also representing the long and diverse history of our city’s textile industry.
Standing In This Place, a sculpture by Rachel Carter will be erected in the Green Heart park in February. We asked Rachel to tell us more about the piece, how she became an artist, and what it’s like to work as a sculptor.
I was born in Heanor and I’ve always lived on the Derbyshire/Nottinghamshire border, but I've lived on the Nottinghamshire side for most of my life.
Art was not something I had set out to do when I was at school, I knew I enjoyed making things with my hands and loved lessons in woodwork and metal work. However, my teacher at the time suggested that taking woodwork for GCSE would not be suitable as I was a girl. He felt it would not be fair on the boys as he felt he would have to give more time to teaching a girl! Being quite a shy child, I instead chose cookery and went off to catering school to begin a life in hotel management.
In 2000 I saw an advert for an AS level in fine art at Nottingham College. This rekindled the love of making, and the AS-level became a full A-level, then onto a foundation degree, and then a degree. I think that the tutors at Nottingham College must've seen something in me and encouraged me to follow this passion for creating. 24 years later, I'm still creating.
Since graduating from the Sustainable Applied Arts degree I have been driven by
titled Standing In This Place, which looks at the cotton connection. Framework knitters and lace makers were heavily reliant on raw cotton supplies being imported from areas of the world that were dependent on enslaved labour.
During lockdown, I responded to a volunteer post to help the Black-led community group the Legacy Makers to research cotton spinning mills of the Midlands. We were discovering where the working-class millworkers like my own ancestors migrated from to work in this industry.
During this project, I saw the connection of my ancestors to the ancestors of the Legacy Maker's community, who may have been enslaved. We discovered we were two descendent communities coming together to discover the story of cotton. This story felt so powerful and personal that four years later, we are still working together and about to bestow a gift to the city of Nottingham. A life-size bronze statue of two women, a white mill worker/lace maker, and a Black enslaved woman uprooted to the Americas.
I often wonder after I'm gone, if my work will still remain in our city, and which bit will be shiny from decades of human touches
Working in bronze is a very time-consuming medium as your work passes through multiple phases from concepts and sketchbook work to creating scale models. Working with the foundry is so inspiring, to walk around the foundry floor and see works of art in production from some of the most amazing artists of our time is so special. From the first piece of bronze that I cast back in 2014 to this one, every single piece has such unique qualities, but one of the things that I love about bronze is how it traces the touch of the human hand. Every time somebody caresses an area of the sculpture, we slowly rub away the protective coating and replace it with oils from our own skin. Over years touching from human hands creates shiny patches, like the Robin Hood sculpture that sits outside the castle. I think they have to repaint the top of his head every ten years, everybody wants to caress the top of his head, and he gets a very shiny patch. I often wonder after I'm gone, if my work will still remain in our city, and which bit will be shiny from decades of human touches.
I find it fascinating to read about other artists, such as the late great Barbara Hepworth, to hear her struggles as a female artist, bringing up four children and the decisions she made resonates with myself as a mother of two. People often ask me, ‘Have you always known you wanted to be an artist?’ and I always respond in the same way. I've never known what I wanted to do with my life that was never clear, but what was clear to me is that I wanted to make with my hands, and it just happened to be sculpture.
Head along to the unveiling of Standing in This Place by Rachel Carter in the Green Heart park on Sunday 9 February. Speak Her Name, an exhibition delving into the lives of one hundred historic women, is also open at Ruddington’s Framework Knitters Museum until 31 January.
wonder of the wild
words & photos:
When Poppy Wildman was struck down with a disabling illness that left her immobile and isolated from social activities, access to a wild garden became a lifeline. So when she finally made a recovery she headed for the hills and forests, determined to live a life in touch with nature while sharing its benefits with others. Here, Poppy talks us through her journey to starting Wild and Wonder, who offer forest bathing and other therapeutic nature-based experiences in Notts.
In the summer of 2020, as the world struggled through the confusion, stress and grief of the first covid lockdown, I was facing a personal challenge of my own. My body felt like it was not working. I was eighteen, a keen party-goer and a competitive athlete on a sports scholarship to the University of Birmingham, but suddenly I found myself so shrouded in intense fatigue I could barely walk down my street. By the end of year, the fatigue had gotten so bad I could not sit up unaided, and I would spend the next eighteen months lying on my sofa, barely able to speak. Eventually, I was diagnosed with severe ME, for which the doctors told me there was no cure and very little help. I would just have to learn to live in this way.
ME is short for myalgic encephalomyelitis, also known as chronic fatigue syndrome. It’s a long-term condition associated with changes in the nervous and immune systems, with no known cause. It can affect different people in different ways, sometimes involving nausea, dizziness, and pain, but it’s most commonly associated with the extreme, debilitating tiredness that I felt.
It was during this time that I first found solace in nature. I was very lucky that, living with my mum, I had access to a wildlife friendly garden. I also began using a wheelchair, in which my mum could help me access the park and green spaces around where we lived once a day. Alongside the time I spent cuddling my cat, Natasha, who sadly passed away last year, it was in these moments spent lying in the grass, surrounded perhaps by a few trees and some birdsong, that I truly felt happiness, gratitude and love for life in spite of everything.
While a difficult time in my life to reflect on, despite doctors’ bleak prognosis and the lack of medical support that is unfortunately typical of those experiencing chronic illnesses, I was incredibly fortunate to make a rapid recovery in the summer of 2022. Within a few months, I was climbing mountains and enjoying my life, determined not to be ‘back to normal’, but rather to live an extraordinary life, with genuine happiness and joy,
and to teach other people how to do the same. For me, this meant embracing nature.
I think we all know that spending time in nature is good for us, but I do believe many of us still underestimate the extent of this. We as humans are nature; we evolved with the trees and the flowers and the birds, not with concrete and bricks and car fumes. Countless peer-reviewed studies continually show that spending time in nature has a tangible effect on our physical, mental and emotional health, from reducing blood pressure to helping with depression. I know anecdotally myself that being in nature significantly reduced my feelings of anxiety and depression, as well as reducing my symptoms of pain and fatigue, and still today I feel more energised, calmer and happier when I am in a green space or woodland, even if it is just my garden.
We as humans are nature; we evolved with the trees and the flowers and the birds, not with concrete and bricks and car fumes
It is for this reason that I decided to train as a Nature Therapy Practitioner and as Forest School Leader. Inspired by the powerful nature wellbeing events I attended when I was just recovered from my period of illness, earlier this year I started a nature wellbeing project under the name Wild and Wonder as a means of encouraging more people in my community to engage with and spend time in nature. Primarily, I run forest bathing events, or Shinrin-Yoku as it is called in its native Japanese.
The idea behind forest bathing came about in Japan in the 1980s as doctors began prescribing the practice in response to the country becoming more and more urbanised. Forest bathing is all about time spent in nature disconnected from our phones and technology and reconnected instead to our senses. It can be practised alone, simply by
mindfully going out into a forest or green space, and it can also be practised as part of a group guided by a trained facilitator. As a guide, I run regular sessions in Nottinghamshire, primarily based in Rushcliffe, where we practise forest bathing either as a stand alone guided mindfulness practice, or in combination with other mindful, nature connection activities, such as nature crafts or fungi forays.
As well as connecting to nature, forest bathing sessions are also brilliant ways of socialising in a calm and friendly environment with like-minded people, and a fantastic way to connect to ourselves through mindfulness. As well as being good for the wellbeing of us as humans, these experiences are great for our natural environment, which is becoming increasingly in need of our support and protection. This is because the first step to taking action to protect something is to feel the motivation to want to protect it.
By allowing people to see for themselves the positive impact spending meaningful time in nature can have on their physical, mental and emotional wellbeing, we encourage people to develop a deep love and respect for their natural environment and green spaces, which encourages more people to get involved with measures to protect and support wildlife locally across Nottinghamshire. I currently run sessions once or twice a month, usually at Rushcliffe Country Park, each with a different theme or focus to reflect the season, and anyone is welcome along.
I sincerely hope my story has inspired hope for those experiencing difficult situations, and has provided inspiration to seek out nature, whether through my work or independently. If you are interested in getting involved with what I do, you can find out more on my Instagram.
Find out more by searching ‘Wild and Wonder’ on Facebook and Eventbrite, or follow Poppy via her Instagram.
Poppy Wildman
Stroll down the vibrant Hurts Yard, one of Nottingham’s hidden alleyway gems, and you’ll spot the discreet entrance to Six Richmond House. Upmarket, dark, sexy and sophisticated, this venue serves some of the city’s best cocktails and modern-Asian small plates…
Step through the heavy-weighted, velvet curtains into the windowless bar and restaurant, and Six Richmond House could easily be an exclusive New York basement cocktail bar. Whether or not that was the intended vibe, it’s exactly what they’ve achieved with the intimate, low-lit atmosphere, cosy booths and an industrial edge, featuring open ceilings and exposed metal accents.
For me, it’s the ultimate date-night spot if you’re looking to be a little fancy (always, in my case). What elevates it further is the addition of Shio in the kitchen, serving modern-Asian small plates. Shio is the venture of chef Billy Mantle, a young chef whose experience with Asianinspired cookery spans some years - I even recall a memorable trip to Carlton in lockdown to collect a Japanese sando from Albies back in the day.
I’ve dined here before, but my most recent visit truly blew me away – a testament to Billy's creativity and growth in developing the menu
I’d say this is a spot that, in my opinion, just does not get the recognition it deserves like some other restaurants in the city, and this is one of those food reviews that is easy to write. One of the perks - or drawbacks, depending on which way you look at it - of being a food writer is that I occasionally get to sample every dish on the menu (all in the name of research purposes, of course).
Favourites comprised of the perfectly grilled, silky aubergine skewers cooked over the coals, and it may be a simple dish, but I couldn't stop bothering the refreshing Vermicelli noodle
salad - the fragrant aroma of fresh herbs and zingy lime lifted the dish, making it impossible to put my fork down. The chargrilled broccoli with aged parmesan was a triumph of cheesy perfection too, alongside a perfect confit potato topped with Gruyere. Any chef who can turn humble vegetables into such standout dishes gets five stars from me.
For seafood lovers, the mildly spiced monkfish with Thai satay sauce was beautifully balanced and light. Meanwhile, meat dishes like the teriyaki beef onglet skewers packed bold flavours, and the giant pork cutlet grilled over coals was a showstopper – its succulent juices paired perfectly with a lustrous sansho pepper seasoning.
For those looking for something a little more familiar, crispy fried chicken or cauliflower with citrussy yuzu and shio sauce hit all the right notes. Everything had vibrant flavours and spot-on textures. And if you have room, don’t miss the Basque cheesecake – a perfectly indulgent way to end the meal, without it being too sweet.
Pair the above with any of Six Richmond’s cocktails (tip: try the Thai Colada if you visit) and you have a world-class meal.
Nottingham can proudly add another jewel to its crown because Shio deserves every bit of praise. I’ve dined here before, but my most recent visit truly blew me away – a testament to Billy Mantle’s creativity and growth in developing the menu. That, in itself, is something to celebrate.
Visit Six Richmond House at 6 Hurts Yard, Nottingham NG1 6JD
Like every menu at Hockley’s Mesa, the latest is full of surprises, with each dish paying homage to the very best seasonal produce. Lucy Campion put the autumn menu to the taste test on her most recent visit to Nottingham’s leading small plates restaurant.
An evening at Mesa never fails to wow, which is why this restaurant on Goose Gate in Hockley is one of my most recommended dinner destinations. Mesa’s expertly curated selection of small plates and wood-fired dishes have established the restaurant as one of the best Nottingham has to offer.
On my latest trip to Mesa, I was having dinner with other food bloggers, so we decided to go all out and order one of everything on the menu. A slightly ambitious choice in hindsight, but I’ve learned the hard way that limiting yourself to three or four small plates at Mesa will only result in post-dinner FOMO and, inevitably, a second visit very soon after your first. It’s far better to rally your foodie friends and enjoy the menu as it was intended, with each dish shared and savoured together.
The secret to Mesa’s success is knowing when to keep things simple. Their seasonal menus are always a great mix of imaginative creations with outstanding flavour combinations and stripped back plates that allow a standout ingredient to really shine.
Take the sharing steak, for example: a 10z, dry aged picanha cut. Served with just a ‘sauce of the week’ on the side, the steak takes centre stage, letting the superior quality of meat do all the talking.
Another small plate with a classic, uncomplicated offering is the ex-dairy cheeseburger, which has earned itself a permanent place on a menu that otherwise changes several times a year. If you haven’t eaten at Mesa before, you’ll probably be surprised to hear that this cheeseburger is
widely considered one of the best burgers in the city!
In an era where burgers are often stacked to dizzying heights with an assortment of toppings, Mesa’s strikes gold in its simplicity - American cheese, onion, gherkin, burger sauce and the most succulent smashed beef patty. Is it the number one burger in Notts? I’ll let you be the judge, but it’s certainly up there with the greatest.
In an era where burgers are often stacked to dizzying heights with an assortment of toppings, Mesa’s strikes gold in its simplicity - American cheese, onion, gherkin, burger sauce and the most succulent smashed beef patty
My star dish on the current menu has to be the celeriac pastrami, with its assortment of different textures like crispy focaccia and crunchy cornichon. The addition of sauerkraut gave the ‘pastrami’ extra tang, resulting in a tantalising blend of sour and salty.
My parting advice to anyone visiting Mesa for the first time is don’t overlook the vegetarian and vegan dishes. This is where the kitchen team’s creativity is at its best and their plant-based plates will have even the most carnivorous of meat-eaters doing double takes between bites.
Follow Lucy on Instagram for more local food recommendations: @luceinnotts
a new era
From a MOBO award nomination and TikTok fame to playing packed tents at the country’s largest rock festivals, alternative duo ALT BLK ERA became one of the breakout Nottingham acts of 2024. With their highly anticipated debut album Rave Immortal set for release at the end of January, 2025 is shaping up to be an even bigger year for sisters Nyrobi and Chaya. We sat down for a chat to find out more about making the record, Wheatus collabs, and their plans for the upcoming year…
Before we move into what you have coming up in 2025, I just want to take a quick look back at 2024 as you had an absolutely massive year – I’m curious to know, what has been your biggest highlight of the last twelve months?
Chaya: For me I would say Download Festival, because I wasn’t expecting the tent to be so full! The performance was also one of my best - I had a lot of fun on stage.
Nyrobi: I think mine would probably be getting the album back, once it was mastered and everything. Just because we put so much…no blood, but lots of tears!
Chaya: …just tears! (laughs)
Nyrobi: Yeah, no blood or sweat, just straight tears! (laughs) So finally having it back after so much work was a really beautiful moment. Blasting it out on the speakers and it finally being in our hands! So yeah, that was my highlight.
And My Drummer’s Girlfriend has blown up a bit on TikTok and you’ve since released a version of the song with the mighty Wheatus – how did that come about?
Chaya: It was at Download – after we performed they followed us on Twitter, and we thought it was just a fan account at first because quite a few celebrity fan accounts follow us! (laughs) We did some stalking and realised, “Oh no, this is their actual account!” So, we just texted them saying, “Thanks for the follow, we really love your songs and music…” and it just kind of went on from there. We were really scared to show them My Drummer’s Girlfriend
Nyrobi: …because it was our first indie rock song and they’re indie rock legends! It was the ultimate test, them signing off on My Drummer’s Girlfriend
We asked them if they would be interested in working on it – hands shaking typing that message! Then, long story short, they came over from New York just to work with us on the song. We spent two days with them – they are gorgeous human beings. In the industry, you hear so much about gatekeepers or people of their status and history and them being horrible, but they are so lovely and so respectful of mine and Chay’s ideas; there was no ego in that room at all. They’ve set a real standard for us, especially as it was our first full collaboration
where we’ve worked in the same room with them. That’s been one of our most valuable experiences of the year, because we learnt so much from them. The lead singer Brendan (B. Brown) was helping me with my breath control on the microphone and that’s literally something I’m going to use for the rest of my career.
Nottingham allows new artists to start out, grow and be seen regularly. You know with all the venues that we have here at different levels, you can always find someone, which I think is really important
You have your big album launch show coming up at Saltbox on 25 January. You gave local fans a bit of a preview with your Hockley Hustle set there back in October – what can fans expect from the night?
Nyrobi: I think it was really important for us to do a hometown show, just knowing that these people have been backing us from the very beginning. The people that were commenting on our Facebook posts and coming to the first shows, seeing the progression of us, our music and our live performances. So, a lot of people are going to know all the words, [even for] all the old songs! Most people found us with My Drummer’s Girlfriend, but the hometown show, these people have the 2022 receipts! So, if you’re new to ALT BLK ERA, I think just the community of that. It’s strange but it does almost feel like an extended family, and I think any new people joining will get that sense of familiarity. Obviously, there will be the new music from the new album, where you’ve only got a day or two days to learn [the words] – it’s not long is it?! But you know, I’m convinced people are going to learn it. Chaya: Yeah, I mean we’ve got some pretty catchy tunes!
Nyrobi: And the Nottingham base is dedicated. (To Chaya) Is it your favourite place to play?
Chaya: Yeah, because in new cities when we perform, I’m still pretty scared, because I don’t know what’s going to happen. But in Nottingham I’m like “YES!”(pair laugh)
I feel you’re one of the bands right at the forefront of this wave of great Nottingham artists getting national exposure at the moment. What would you say it is about the Nottingham music scene that has made it such a successful breeding ground for musicians in recent years?
Nyrobi: I guess I would say it’s the genuine love and support. I never grew up anywhere else so I can’t speak for other places, but there’s just something about Nottingham that feels genuine. Like people speaking to you after the show – it’s just so real.
Chaya: There’s a lot of festivals like Dot to Dot, Hockley Hustle, where you can catch new artists too…
Nyrobi: Yeah, I think it’s that exposure as well. Nottingham allows new artists to start out, grow and be seen regularly. You know with all the venues that we have here at different levels, you can always find someone, which I think is really important. I also just think the people here are nice!
Chaya: They genuinely are!
So you have the album release and the launch show at Saltbox – but what else is on the horizon for 2025?
Chaya: Well, we have a record store signing / acoustic set-up that we’re going to be doing across the UK. Then around April time we have a UK tour that I’m very excited about, which will be our first UK tour!
Nyrobi: A lot of collaborations coming up for 2025 – a lot of big ones as well, like huge! So loads more new music in 2025 – we’re not stopping. We’re not disappearing for three years, we’ll still be here dropping new music throughout 2025, mixed in with festivals. Then we’ll probably be getting ready for album two… but that’s another story!
ALT BLK ERA’s debut album Rave Immortal is released on 24 January 2025, followed by their big album release show at Saltbox on 25 January 2025. Find an extended version of this interview on the LeftLion website
words: Karl Blakesley photo: Cassie B Photography
Jude Forsey I’ll Wait For You (Single)
Jude Forsey has unveiled his new single, I’ll Wait For You, a brief yet electrifying indie rock track from his new EP. The release follows his recent performance at the Circle of Light album launch and arrived just in time for his set at Hockley Hustle where he took the stage at The Old Bus Depot. Showcasing a shift towards heavier indie rock influences, the track highlights Jude's growing experimentation with guitar, an element he's recently begun incorporating into his live performances. Gemma Cockrell
Warren Ireland The Highs and Lows of Being Normal (Album)
The Highs and Lows of Being Normal is a beast of an album. From the very first track, you instantly know that Warren Ireland has created something special. Eleven tracks plus a bonus one, and all strongly crafted and produced songs and with powerful vocals that are impossible to pigeonhole. My personal favourite songs from the album are Paddy Said, Make It Out and Dear Me, but ask me tomorrow and I'll probably choose three different tracks – the album is littered with great sounds. This is a must listen from a local artist in 2025. Bassey
Grain Mother Peripatetic (Single)
With the Grain Mother project, Alice Robbins has settled into a new era of ever-more wistful, personal folk-tinged writing. Expressing memories and hopes through beautifully poetic song, Peripatetic combines warm, enveloping sounds: rich with piano and muted guitars and overlaid with Alice's delicately floating vocals. Meanwhile, the band's harmonies hum in support, adding further depth. Listen closely to the lyrics and there's something tough and bold burning there, too, reminding us never to jump to conclusions. Phil Taylor
Divorce Antarctica (Single)
Nottingham’s upstart newcomers have taken the year by storm and new track Antarctica is further proof of that. The synchronicity of Tiger Cohen-Towell and Felix Mackenzie-Barrow on lead vocals is a masterclass on how melodies should be performed. The bristling jangly riffs wrap up warm and seek refuge from the cold while the piercing violin provides a whirlwind cacophony of noise associated with the howl of winter wind. The track has an eagerness about it, an energy to start an engine. The song deals with travel and its many perils on both a physical and mental level, but it is wrapped together by love and unison. The forthcoming debut album Drive to Goldenhammer is much anticipated for what promises to be a highlight in Nott's new music chapter. Lewis Oxley
Wizards Can’t Be Lawyers
Ladies Night // Gay Bowling (Single)
The latest WCBL track is a jangly expression of freedom and hedonistic intent. Americanasoaked guitars lead the charge, with a stomping rhythm quickly taking hold. And it never relents, joined by whoops and hollers as the song develops. "Ladies night, revolution! Gay bowling, revolution! I kinda like it..." is the tongue-in-cheek, rowdy flavour WCBL are keen to deliver. It's infectious, forward-pushing and just a little bit silly – exactly what we've all come to love about this band. Phil Taylor
If you’re from Nottingham and want to get added to our list of music writers, or get your tunes reviewed, hit us up at music@ leftlion.co.uk
pretty polly
Pretty Polly tights have been adorning the legs of stars and the general public for over 100 years, with its hosiery having broken world records and pushed social norms along the way. Today, the brand is still thriving with innovation, and our Addie caught up with product and marketing manager Charlotte Hanna to find out more about this iconic Notts brand, its traffic-stopping marketing campaigns and how a pair of tights could be the key to taking Veganuary to the next level this year.
Notts powerhouse hosiery brand Pretty Polly is no stranger to innovation. In fact, it has a long history of breaking down barriers that dates back more than a century. Launched in 1919, the company has come a long way from where it first began, making stockings with a team of ten people and two machines in Sutton in Ashfield. In an ever-changing market the brand has turned heads with its bold marketing campaigns and innovative product launches.
Highlights from over the years include in 1959 when Pretty Polly introduced the first non run seam free stocking and 1967 when the brand introduced holdups, which eliminated the need for suspender belts, and were so ahead of their time that they were even featured on BBC’s Tomorrow's World, a show which regularly explored inventions of the future. The company then went on in 1973 to invent Stand Easies, enabling women to have sheer support stockings instead of the thick ones normally available, meanwhile the 80s saw Pretty Polly introduce the world to the first ‘5 denier’ ultra sheer tights.
More recently, the 00s saw the brand partner with renowned fashion designer Henry Holland, to bring a range of ultra-cool coloured and patterned tights to the hosiery world, elevating the humble tights from one of life’s day-to-day conveniences, to a must-have fashion accessory that could elevate any outfit.
“From a fashion perspective, tights are amazing because you can switch up that outfit,” Charlotte explains. “You can go to the office by day in a little black dress and then your tights can just switch that outfit into an evening outfit.”
And, it’s that ability to stay relevant that has helped Pretty Polly stand the test of time, even today.
“We’re a really lovely heritage brand that sits in the Midlands,” Charlotte says. ”We are still here, and we are still going in a very competitive market. Back in 1919, when Pretty Polly was established, it was just us, whereas now there are probably a hundred tights brands out there.”
Across the decades, the company has also drawn international attention for its celebrity collaborations which include partnering with the likes of Eva Herzigová, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Sugababes, Jessie J, Little Mix, Paris Hilton and Rhianna, with its tights
even worn by Beyoncé during one of her Super Bowl performances.
“There's always been a connection between Pretty Polly and celebrities whether that’s when Little Mix were on X Factor and we made tights that spelt out ‘Little Mix’ or when we had a TV campaign with Holly Willoughby in the 1980s,” Charlotte adds. “There was definitely a desire to work with Pretty Polly and to be seen in Pretty Polly.”
Launched in 1919, the company has come a long way from where it first began, making stockings with a team of ten people and two machines in Sutton in Ashfield
Meanwhile, its creative larger than life campaigns have garnered attention from press around the world for years, including in 1996 when a huge vertical poster ad was flown over London, making headlines on the ten o'clock news, or in 2006, when the company made history by erecting a record-breaking, traffic-stopping, 64ft billboard on London’s M4 motorway of Polish model Anna Torkarska.
And, while hosiery has gone in and out of fashion over the years, over the past century its tights are still talked about and worn by so many today, which is testament to its ability to adapt and bring fresh perspectives and innovations to the hosiery world.
“From our perspective, it's about trying to stay relevant and that's why we introduced our fashion ranges, but we’re also a very trusted brand and we have strong brand recognition,” says Charlotte. “So it's always about straddling that line between innovation. We don't want to just put things out there for the sake of it.”
Today, Pretty Polly is still pushing the envelope for the way hosiery is perceived and worn. One new innovation in recent years for the brand is the introduction of its fully vegan tights.
The tights were actually a happy accident borne out of the way in which its eco-wear and active-wear tights were manufactured and the partnered factory they worked with to produce them. The new manufacturing allowed the brand to offer a range of tights which have
no animal products at any stage of production and are more sustainable than other tight options.
Explaining more, Charlotte said, “The materials used in producing tights are all vegan, but the production process is usually the issue, as most machines need to be lubricated using animal fats. One of the manufacturers that we work with has converted their machines to be able to work with vegetable fats which in turn means their products can be vegan.
The eco-wear range and the active-wear range, were really innovative ranges and were the first to market where we've worked on biodegradable products using biodegradable yarn. Those yarns are made with recycled elements, and the vegan element is a byproduct of the production process.”
Each year sees many people across the world rethink their consumption habits, often opting to take part in Veganuary, an annual holiday that sees people challenge themselves to eat plant-based foods for the entirety of the month. However, it’s a trend which together with a move towards more sustainable clothing options, is now filtering into the fashion world too.
The Vegan Society published a report in 2021 which revealed that 48% of British shoppers want to see more vegan options across all fashion categories. Meanwhile, according to recent figures, 57% of Brits still see sustainability as important for fashion and still factor it into their shopping habits.
Over the coming year, Pretty Polly has its sights set on further innovation, with 70% of its new additions set to be vegan.
“Wherever there is new innovation, we are looking for the best way to make that as environmentally friendly or vegan as we can,” Charlotte says.
In addition to its vegan eco-wear and active-wear ranges, Pretty Polly also stocks a wide range of non-vegan tights, stockings and hold-ups, including patterned fashion tights, body shaping and control tights, heat generating and cooling tights, plus size tights and compression and support tights.
Check out Pretty Polly at prettypolly.co.uk
words: Addie Kenogbon-Harley
illustration: Jim Brown
This month I’ve been going on an information diet. I am nil-by-ear - I don’t want to know. Back in the summer of 2011, Charlie Sheen was having a meltdown, and the phrase du moment on Blackberry Messenger was TMI: Too Much Information. Now that applies to everything, we are all-informed, we’re eating at TMI Fridays every day of the week.
Bong, says the BBC app. Breaking news: ‘duck egg blue’ Sabrina Carpenter’s favourite colour. Bong. Crops fail, ten million dead. Bong Trump appoints horse as Secretary of Veterans Affairs. What can you do about it? Very little. How should you feel? Tense.
Neil Postman nailed this problem with his ‘Information-Action Ratio’ concept, familiar to fans of leather-clad Yorkshiremen Arctic Monkeys, who namechecked it in one of their songs. The gist is that, back in our berry-foraging days, all the news happened in earshot. A shiver running through the leaves of a bush meant you were about to be spread on toast: so, get your spear sharpened and your slingshot whirling. All the news was useful, because it came at you fast, usually with its claws out. But you could understand it as a personal danger, and so you could fight it.
As time has marched us into complexity, the news has got bigger, more notional: inflation is down, the planet is dying, sausage rolls cause cancer. It’s all TMI. And to integrate it - to count up the net total of worldwide strife every morning, is to forget the parts of our lives over which we still have a supreme ability to change.
If you took none of that in, then I’m really proud of you: you’ve begun your Information Diet, and all that stress is going to melt off you.
Q]@andrewtuckerleavis
taking a stand
interview: Andrew Tucker photo: : Mieleous Photography
Rising Nottingham star Christian Weaver was named Legal Aid Newcomer of the Year in 2023 for his tenacious work addressing dangerous public housing. The Secret Barrister called his first book ‘exceptional‘ - we join him now as he releases his second, Your Right To Protest
Christian, what’s been the most impactful project in your career so far?
I’d say that it’s been representing Awaab Ishak’s family and campaigning for ‘Awaab’s Law’ - Awaab was a two-year-old boy who tragically died due to prolonged exposure to mould in his home in Rochdale, and his case brought national attention to the dangerous living conditions many people face in social housing.
As their barrister, I worked closely with Awaab’s family to address not only their unimaginable loss but also to push for much-needed reforms in the housing sector. Awaab’s case exposed several serious issues in society - ranging from poor housing conditions to powerlessness and deep flaws in our legal system.
During the inquest, the landlords initially suggested that cultural practices, such as the family’s cooking methods or so-called ‘ritual bathing,’ might have contributed to the mould in their home. These assumptions were not only unfounded (the family was never asked how they bathed) but also deeply problematic. The landlords have since apologised for making these assumptions, but without legal representation, harmful narratives like these might have stuck. The real issue - serious failings in social housingcould easily have been overshadowed.
What was the family’s situation like?
Awaab’s family were refugees from Sudan with limited English, and without legal support they would have faced a legal team far better resourced than their own - this case clearly illustrated an inequality in that families like Awaab’s don’t have an automatic right to legal funding. While legal aid was eventually granted, the initial lack of funding put the family at a severe disadvantage.
That’s why there are growing calls for better legal aid provision - so that access to justice isn’t dependent on financial resources. Awaab’s Law, which began with this case and has received commitments from both the former and current governments, seeks to ensure that landlords are legally obligated to fix reported damp and mould issues in social housing within strict time frames, preventing further tragedies like Awaab’s. Over 180,000 people signed a petition calling for this law, and it’s that public pressure which, in my view, has truly made the difference.
You worked on Awaab’s case while studying law at NTU, and you’re a local lad, having grown up in Carlton - does Nottingham’s rebellious attitude make its way into the way you do things?
Absolutely. Growing up in Nottingham - especially seeing the way people here stand up for what they believe in - has definitely shaped my approach to work. It’s something I’ve come to appreciate more as I’ve gotten older. One of my earliest memories is of my grandfather’s activism, and that connection has only grown stronger as I’ve witnessed movements like the Black Lives Matter protests of 2016 here in Nottingham, where activists blocked the tram system - it was a powerful moment and reminds me that Nottingham has always been a city that speaks out and takes a stand.
I also think of the Occupy Nottingham protests, where tents filled Market Square for months. I’d pass by them every day
on my way to college… and, of course, anytime I mention the city to someone from outside, Robin Hood comes up. He’s become the iconic figure of resistance. Maybe those stories shape the way we think, consciously or not.
Rishi Sunak’s government introduced new laws to ‘clamp down on disruptive protesters’. Does protest need to be disruptive?
In some ways, yes - if you look back at the civil rights movement, women’s suffrage, or anti-apartheid protests, they all created significant disruption to everyday life. That’s the point - protests draw attention to issues that aren’t being addressed by the usual political processes.
The idea that protest should be completely non-disruptive misunderstands its purpose. When done right, disruption can be a force for positive change, as it pushes society to reflect on its priorities and question the status quo
In many cases, people protesting may have already tried less disruptive routes, like writing to their MP or engaging in consultations, but when these methods fail to bring about change, protest becomes one of the few remaining ways to be heard. The idea that protest should be completely non-disruptive misunderstands its purpose. When done right, disruption can be a force for positive change, as it pushes society to reflect on its priorities and question the status quo. What we need are not laws that stifle protest - but systems that better respond to the issues people are protesting about in the first place.
I think John Locke said that the law should ‘preserve and enlarge freedom’... does that sound right, and does freedom motivate you?
Yes, that sounds about right, and freedom absolutely motivates me. Freedom isn't just about personal liberties; it's about creating systems that allow individuals and communities to thrive. True freedom means people have the protections, resources, and avenues to express themselves and be heard. That’s something I feel strongly about - when people know they have a voice, the need for disruptive actions often decreases because they’re no longer fighting against an unresponsive system.
There’s a delicate balance to maintain. The Human Rights Act, which protects our right to protest, acknowledges that this right can be limited in specific cases, such as for public safety. This balance is essential because the law and our freedoms don’t exist in isolation - they must be aligned with the rights of others and the broader public interest. But ultimately, while the law may set certain limits, it should never reduce our fundamental freedoms and any attempts to restrict them must be closely scrutinised.
Your Right To Protest by Christian Weaver is available at Five Leaves Bookshop.
[Q @christianweaver60
Friends of Meadows Library
words & photo: Rose Mason
Set up to support the library in the Meadows, Friends of Meadows Library has provided an essential hub for almost 100 years. Thanks to community togetherness and smart campaigning, the Meadows Library was recently saved from closure. We met Jackie and Di from the group, to find out what Friends of Meadows Library is there for, and why this special library was so worth saving.
“The library is essential. Basically, it's a tool where people can have the opportunity to better themselves and to do well,” says Di. “Without libraries, it would be hard for some children to have access to books for free,” Jackie adds.
Yes, children can have their own books, or Kindles, but there are lots of people that just can't afford these things. This access to literacy can lift the next generation out of a cycle of deprivation, which is crucial in an area like the Meadows.
But libraries are more than just books. Sitting around a table in the adult section, Jackie and Di share the many activities that happen here, including arts and crafts, lego club, science club and quizzes.
“Children come here after school because they feel safe here, and the parents know they're safe here, they can do crafts and whatever they want to do,” says Jackie. “All the primary schools come with the teachers to choose books, and someone will read them stories.”
“The councillors are here on a Wednesday morning, same time that we do the sewing group, they hold their surgery here so people can come in and see them,” she continues. Some people come in just to use the computers or printers, an essential for those without this access at home.
Jackie tells me that during COVID, “as soon as they said you can meet outside, we used to sit in the garden with our coats on. Then it was such a relief when they said you can come back into the library now. Everyone was happy. Because to a lot of them, it's the highlight of the week, where they can come and talk to each other. Some of them come for years. So it's like a library and community hub and community centre all rolled into one”.
The library is essential. Basically, it's a tool where people can have the opportunity to better themselves and to do well
Yet sadly, libraries across the country are struggling. “Local government has been starved of finance for such a long time,” says Di, and until very recently the Meadows Library was under threat. It was only when a retired lawyer came on board that the library was saved. He helped to obtain deeds from 2009 when the library was refurbished, stating that for twenty years, the building can't be used for anything else other than being a library.
Friends of Meadows Library is a self funded organisation separate to library services. Like so many
How community can alleviate loneliness
groups in Nottingham, they wouldn't exist without volunteers. They raise funds which go back to the library, put on events and have paid for face painters, Christmas trees and things for the garden. They put posters out in the community, to reach out further because they know a lot of people in the Meadows aren't online.
They are currently writing Memories of Meadows Library, a community history book with memories and photographs, and making plans for their 100 year celebration on 8 March, where they will unveil a wall hanging created by the local community.
The building itself, with its iconic dome, was originally funded by the Carnegie Trust, and the current Trust Chair will be coming to the centenary event. A ramp leads to the entrance today, but looking over the side you can see the original steps. Jackie and Di tell me that it is tradition for libraries to have steps up to their entrances, as you walk up towards knowledge and enlightenment.
So what can we do to keep the library safe? “We've just got to try and bolster people's involvement with the library,” says Di. “Sometimes it can be quite daunting for people to come into a place they haven't been before, but it's all about getting people through the door, realising what a friendly place it is.”
Q @FOML16
How are you feeling after the buzz of the festive season has subsided? It can be difficult to go from a few months of high stimulation – noise, lights, crowds shuffling through Market Square inch by inch – to one that’s quieter and calmer.
This contrast can feel stark and can leave us feeling lonely. We may not have the same people around us, as visiting friends and relatives head back to their usual routines – and we do too. We might not be going out as much, having spent up the month before. Or we may have had a difficult Christmas, spent alone or, sometimes worse, spent with people who don’t understand us.
We feel lonely when we don’t have the quality or the quantity of the social relationships that we need. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution with loneliness; some of us need one or two people in our lives and others need a party. If you’ve been feeling lonely, ironically, you’re not alone. Shoana Qureshi-Khan, Executive Director of Nottingham Counselling Services (NCS), tells me it’s far more common than we might think. “People feel lonely at all ages and across all backgrounds. People in their 20s, early 30s, late 50s, tell us that they don't have people in their life and they're so isolated.”
In fact, 12.8% of people in Nottingham feel “often or always lonely” according to the Office for National Statistics Opinions and Lifestyle survey.
It’s not a mental health problem in itself, but loneliness and mental health are connected and can worsen or support each other. I ask Shoana how we can alleviate loneliness and she tells me about the importance of community.
“Community is vital. It's crucial,” she tells me. “Human beings are not isolated creations. We aren’t animals that are fed for a few days by a parent and then off we go, to fly into any area. And even in those scenarios, birds will cluster together.” It’s clear that building a community is just part of our DNA.
I think we've forgotten that humans need each other. We're not machines. We need to stop pretending we are
If you’re in need of more connections – or better quality connections – you can search for groups, activities and mental health support locally on websites like Ask Lion and Notts Help Yourself. Volunteering is also an often-overlooked way to improve your social life and mental health, as you develop a sense of community by working with others towards a common goal. It’s also free and travel expenses are sometimes covered, so you needn’t be out of pocket.
If you’re in a good place, Shoana recommends reaching out to others who might not be. “I think we've forgotten that humans need each other. We're not machines. We need to stop pretending we are.”
Nottingham Counselling Service is a charity that believes good mental wellbeing should not be restricted by circumstance or background. One-toone therapy: £18-£58 per session. Visit nottinghamcounsellingcentre.org.uk to self-refer.
words: Frances Danylec illustration: Zhara Millet
Moving On Up
Once again, January has sprung upon us like an unwelcome morning alarm. The new year, with its best intentions of changing habits and fresh starts, can seem cruelly placed back to back with the gluttonous festivities of December, but once the Christmas debris has been cleared and desire for revelling abated, it’s time to look ahead and see how you can decorate your days over the upcoming year.
Want to run away with the circus in 2025? Fancy brushing up on your Spanish in time for your next holiday? Feel like it's time to learn those outdoor survival skills for when the revolution comes? Look no further. In Nottingham there are dozens of classes, courses and groups to join, offering valuable skills and time well spent in the company of likeminded people. To brighten up the dark nights as we trudge towards spring, we thought we’d shine a light on some of the things you can get stuck into.
Curious minds…
If you have a curious mind and enjoy discussing art, history and the world, over at the historic Nottingham Mechanics Institute you can take a range of courses in all manner of unusual subjects. Learn about Mediaeval kings and queens of Britain, life in Nottingham during the Georgian period, the history of highway men, cutthroats and pirates, the art of movie soundtracks, mystery authors, economics, Japanese culture and lots more. Courses last four to ten weeks and begin at around £8.50 per class. nmi1837.com
Pottering about…
Ever fancied yourself a potter? If you’ve ever sat down to watch The Great Pottery Throwdown, you’ve probably wondered if getting your hands on that soft, silky clay is as therapeutic as it looks. At the Nottingham Ceramic School you can learn how to throw on a wheel or roll clay and produce bowls and other clay objects, with options to fire and glaze your creations. Six week courses start at £170 with levels for beginners to intermediate, and taster sessions available too. nottinghamceramicschool.co.uk
Green fingers…
If you dig deep enough, you’ll probably find a small thriving community in your local green space, whether that’s a park, allotment or community garden. Some, like Bulwell Forest Garden, offer a range of courses for both families and adults that encourage growing, playing, socialising, cooking, and caring for the land, whilst enjoying a bit of peace in the great outdoors. Check out their website to see what’s on, with topics like bird watching, medicinal plants, and sustainable gardening. bulwellforestgarden.co.uk
Tinkering and making…
Are you a budding inventor? Or maybe you just enjoy making and tinkering? For a monthly membership, over at Sneinton’s Hackspace you can use all manner of equipment and machinery, including 3D printers, laser cutters, wood and
metal-working tools, electronics, sewing and embroidery machines. There’s also a pretty cool community, with hack-athons, robot building and gaming events. Taster tours run each Wednesday at 7pm and membership is based on a ‘Pay what you think is right’ system, with a small minimum fee. nottinghack.org.uk
Pulling stunts…
If you want to spice up your exercise routine by adding some theatrics, why not try a bit of circus? Over at Sneinton Market’s Circus Hub you can have a go at aerial hoop and silks, trapeze, and swing in a friendly and supportive environment. Starting in January, their Lost Performers sessions are a safe, non-judgemental space for the neuro-diverse, Disabled and LGBTQ+ community, and there are lots of other classes available, for adults and young people, with beginners, improvers and advanced options. Check out their website for all the info. circushubnotts.com
Get crafty
If a mug of tea, a natter, and an afternoon of creativity sounds like bliss to you, get yourself down to a Crafternoon at Debbie Bryan in the Lace Market. With an ongoing variety of projects, you can choose from candlemaking, clay play, dried flower embroidery, pot or plate painting, knitting, lace embellishment and lots more. Not only will you be instantly inspired by the gorgeous interior, but you can also enjoy sweet treats, afternoon tea or a grazing platter as you while the hours away. debbiebryan.co.uk
Sing your heart out
Singing is one of those things - great for lifting the spirits, but easy to feel selfconscious about. Meeting each month, Crazy Little Sing Called Pub provides a solution. Aiming to make ‘a harmonised choir out of a bunch of total strangers’, this isn’t a night for the perfectly tuned. Instead, you can communally belt out rock and pop anthems, get a little guidance from choir leader Abi Moore, and enjoy a drink if so desired. Their next event is Sunday 19 January at The Malt Cross, and
you can check out their website for more dates. Tickets cost £12 with £4 going to YMCA. crazylittlesing.com
Back to basics…
If you’re feeling the encroaching dominance of technology over your existence, it might be time to check out Back2Basics, a bushcraft experience located in the countryside just near Arnold. Check out their two or four hour survival courses, during which you can learn about making fires, creating shelters and other principles of survival. They also provide overnight courses, events for corporate, stag and hen dos, and outdoor laser tag games! back2basics.org.uk
Big screen business
Not only is Broadway Cinema a brilliant destination for watching movies, you can also go further and join one of their excellent film courses. Choose from one off talks or weekly courses popping up throughout the year, with expert course leaders and the opportunity to chat to other film enthusiasts. Options coming up include practical courses such as screenwriting and filmmaking, or the chance to delve deeper into different genres and directors, such as Tarantino, fantasy and spectacle in cinema, detective films, Oscar Wilde adaptations and more. www.broadway.org.uk
Let’s dance
If you enjoy dancing and want to get the blood pumping without formal classes, perhaps a ceilidh night is for you. Pronounced Kayleigh, this upbeat Scottish dancing isn’t a highly technical dance - a dance leader will be there to shout out the moves, so you don’t need to worry too much about remembering choreography. Described as ‘fun, social and inclusive’, Schuggies Ceilidh’s are taking place at Copper City on Thursday nights throughout January and are free to attend, with a separate Burn’s Night celebration. schuggies-ceilidhs.co.uk
words: Sophie Gargett illustration: Zarina Teli
The news is normally negative but here are some nice things that have been happening in Notts in the last month.
Productive Climates
From the start of December, the Nottingham Climate Assembly crowdfunder got into full swing, as local figures, including LeftLion’s own Adam Pickering, started raising money to support a city-wide assembly, involving two way communication between the public, City Council and local businesses/organisations, so that the city can more easily achieve net zero emissions by 2028. We’re very pleased that climate ambitions in Notts are being expanded; please do chip in to help, if you’re able.
Byronic Breakthroughs
Over at Southwell, local writer Geoffrey Bond has started a big tourism initiative to get the town recognised as one of the long-term residences of Lord Byron. Having lived in Byron’s old home Burbage Manor for 33 years, he’s started filling the house with Byron memorabilia, published previously unpublished Byron writings in a new book, and opened up his property’s gardens for visitors. Let’s hope this gets Notts even more on the map for world literature.
Community Action
Christmas also saw Nottingham City Ground collaborate with local charity Himmah by turning their Nottingham Forest Fan Zone into a food bank, at which fans were encouraged to drop off food and non-food essentials. Donations were used to help out individuals and families struggling to make ends meet, well and truly playing into the spirit of generosity that’s so important to the festive season.
Toliet Humour
Something made you laugh in the lavs? Send your funniest quips to editorial@leftlion.co.uk
Can you guess the answer to this Notts themed riddle?
They said I was mad and bad, And some called me dangerous to know, I made the ladies and men swoon
With my prose and deathly glow
Rumours chased me far and wide
And eventually I fled
My family seat is in the north
Once a holy stead
In Greece I died a hero’s death
My heart remained afar
But through my words I live on As a literary rock star Last month’s answer was of course Ye Old Trip To Jerusalem.
TRUTH
THE CASE OF The Wollaton Gnomes
In last month’s Truth or Legend, we retold the spooky tale of the White Lady of Wollaton, an apparition that two Wollaton Park rangers thought they encountered back in 1971. This month, we fancied returning to the deer park and recounting a story from 1979, one fairly light-hearted, even-more surreal, and strangely well-documented.
One Sunday evening in September 1979, seven kids from Southwold Primary School, in Radford, visited Wollaton Park for a stroll. They said later that while playing by the woods, they heard the sound of bells, before roughly thirty small cars emerged from the darkness, driven by no less than sixty white bearded gnomes (two per car of course), who proceeded to chase the kids all the way out of the park.
The kids said afterwards to their school’s headmaster that the gnomes wore blue tops, green bobble hats, and either laughed joyfully, yelled at each other in an indecipherable language, or said nothing at all, with some even emerging from trees, depending on who you asked. Despite the fact that the beings were in hot pursuit, the general consensus was that they were more friendly and playful than malignant.
The story was covered well by local media, with two of the kids even appearing on John Craven’s Newsround on TV and the ‘Fairy Investigation Society’ writing a report, but subsequently wasn’t taken further.
If you head down an internet rabbit-hole, like we did for this column, you’ll find a lot of corresponding accounts and proposed explanations. The cartoon character ‘Noddy’ saw a big growth in popularity among young kids in the 70s: with a blue bobble hat and a tiny car of his own, he could of course been the main inspiration for young kids just making it up, despite the fact that Southwold School’s headmaster told the local press, “They are not the type of children that would normally make up something like this.” Fairy tale fanatics have also noted similar accounts of little gnome characters with the same coloured clothing, driving tiny cars in places like Cornwall, and the story is evocative of the famous Cottingley Fairy sighting of 1917. Despite no photo evidence, the children drew two pictures to depict the gnomes.
Back in 2017, folklore historian Simon Young told Notts TV that he’s hoping to speak to some of the adults who were part of this group in Wollaton Park. If you’ve got info, he’s probably the person to go to. In the meantime, we can’t do too much more than speculate and enjoy how the magic of Wollaton Park can sometimes manifest itself in amusing anecdotes like this, whilst also creating one of the oddest urban legends Notts has ever seen.
The gnomes wore blue tops, green bobble hats, and either laughed joyfully, yelled at each other in an indecipherable language, or said nothing at all, with some even emerging from trees, depending on who you asked
words: Caradoc Gayer
best oF tHe montH
Backyard Festival
When: Saturday 11 January
Where: Bodega
How Much: £11
The lovely folks over at 23 Pelham Street are greeting 2025 with an exciting showcase of some of the best Nottingham talent around. With a line-up featuring grunge-y trio Marvin’s Revenge, shoegaze-tinged quartet Swallowtail and selfproclaimed ‘disco demons from hell’ Soaphead, among others, the Bodega team are promising an afternoon and evening full of high energy-riffs and plenty of dancing, a guaranteed musical antidote to any January blues.
Beat the Streets
When: Sunday 26 January
Where: Various Venues
How Much: From £15 to £30
DHP Family’s pioneering charity festival returns for its seventh year running this month, the team set to increase the £409,000 that they’ve already raised for local homelessness charity Framework. With an exciting array of genrespanning acts like Paddy Considine’s Riding the Low, Jayahadadream, Revenge of Calculon and The Hoplites on the line-up, plus more to be announced, this highlight of our city’s festival calendar remains one of our biggest sources of pride.
Pastel
When: Sunday 19 January
Where: Rough Trade How Much: From £15
Rising Manchester guitar outfit Pastel are celebrating the release of their debut record Souls in Motion with an acoustic set and signing over at Hockley’s Rough Trade. Described on BBC Radio 6, by Steve Lamacq, as “latter day shoegaze with a bit of swagger to it”, and frequenters of the Nottingham-Bristol Dot2Dot gig circuit, these guys have gained a huge following in recent years.
Burns Night When: Thursday 23 January
Where: Copper City How Much: £35
If you want to welcome the new year in the most Celtic way possible, then Copper City, a cafe-bar over on Market Street, is the place to go this month. On three occasions, the venue will be hosting a free ‘Celidhs’ for those interested in getting involved in some traditional Scottish dancing. After three of these events, there will be a Burns Night, celebrating poet Robert Burns with all of the traditional speeches, along with a two-course-haggis-featuringdinner and even more dancing.
Slàinte Mhath!
Bowie Show
When: Monday 27 January
Where: Royal Concert Hall
How Much: From £28
Over at the Royal Concert Hall, audiences will be treated to a kaleidoscopic, multimedium voyage into the mind of the boundary-pushing rock legend himself. From the Ziggy Stardust era, to the ambient, darkness of the Berlin era to the joy of Let’s Dance, attendees will be taken through the stages of David Bowie’s life through music, dance, elaborate costuming and vivid visuals.
Romance on 35mm film
When: Tuesday 28 January
Where: Savoy Cinema
How Much: From £5 (students) to £7.50
Throughout 2025, our city’s resident art-deco cinema, The Savoy is hosting ‘Films on Film’: reshowings of some classic drama and action films on stunning 35mm film. The series will start at the end of this month with a showing of True Romance, the classic Tarantino written action-romance guaranteed to start your year off with a bang.
Just the Tonic
When: Saturday 25 January
Where: Metronome
How Much: £18
More often than not, January is a month in which we’re all in need of a belly laugh, and there’ll be few better sources for it this month than the return of Just the Tonic comedy club to Metronome. Presenting all the best up and coming headliners from across the country and abroad, like always, this 25-year-old event, lauded by The Times as having ‘the most interesting lineups in the country’ will almost definitely be a highlight of your month.
When: Friday 31 January
Where: Albert Hall
How Much: £31
After two stints of touring the UK, Ireland and Germany in the last two years, Flamenco musician Daniel Martinez is bringing his acclaimed show to Nottingham, accompanied by renowned dancers Angel Reyes and Gabriela Pouso. This evening will definitely be a memorable and transporting one, promising a celebration of flamenco dance and a vibrant journey into the rich culture of southwest Spain.
