FANTASTIC FESTIVAL FUN FOR 2022

FANTASTIC FESTIVAL FUN FOR 2022

by Norman Warwick

2022 to date

A story in film

On air sign background

Why not pour yourself a cuppa or pop a can, (it must be five o´clock somewhere) and settle down to read our exhaustive (and exhaustiung) look at live music festivals coming up arpound around the world in 2022. You´re going to need some accompanying music, too, so we recommend this week´s Hot Biscuits jazz show, featuring a live set from Frank Griffith Quartet at the Creative Space, Manchester. Music also includes Jay Riley Music, Tom Haines leading the Birmingham Jazz Orchestra, Rob Lee Thompson and Sue Barron. All leading up to a lively show. If this sounds interesting, share the word (and perhapos mention Sidetracks & Detours as well?) and tune in 24/7 for the new weekly shows presented by Steve Bewick, (who, in May, will be visiting our offices here on Lanzarote with his wife Marlene),.

Hot Biscuits, starting Mondays at

www.mixcloud.com/stevebewick/

It might seem strange to open a piece about live festivals with a passage about a film but it is appropriate because the film in question joyfully celebrates live jazz festivals of the past. The film Jazz Fest: A New Orleans Story, released earlier this year, directed by Frank Marshall and Ryan Suffern. The film was shown to open the SXSW festival held in the USA (Austin, Texas) earlier this month,

Joan Amenn began her on line review by waxing lyrical.

As Wordsworth wrote, “The world is too much with us…” and he didn’t even know about social media. With the heaviness of these days, it is a comfort to turn to music. “Jazz Fest: A New Orleans Story” (2022) brings us a respite in its depiction of the fifty-year history of this legendary annual event. Like last year’s “Summer of Soul” (2021), “Jazz Fest” is a glorious kaleidoscope of different musical styles but this film also provides insight into the resilience and culture of the people of New Orleans.

The city has had its share of sorrows and celebrations as anyone who has visited in time for Mardi Gras knows. Some tantalizing scenes of the food offerings at Jazz Fest will make you run to place an order at Goldbelly, so be warned if you watch without some form of snack food handy.  Directors Frank Marshall and Ryan Suffern certainly know how to make viewers envious of those who actually attended the festival in its fifty-year run. It looks like a nonstop party for over a week straight, not just onstage but throughout the entire city of New Orleans.

My only quibble with the film is that it has a lot of talking and describing but is a little light on the actual music. When the entire musical family of the late, great Ellis Marsalis, Jr. take the stage and play together, it would be nice to hear more than just a few snippets of their performance. Jimmy Buffet playing his standard about still not finding his saltshaker may be trivial by now, but there are many more musicians who could have been showcased in more depth.

The exception to this (left) is Bruce Springsteen’s appearance at the festival the year that Katrina hit the city of New Orleans. When he sings “My City of Ruins” and he shouts out the refrain, “Rise up!” you’ll be reduced to a mess or you’re just not breathing. It hits like a tsunami, even more so in light of the recent images in the news from Ukraine. Jazz Fest started out as focusing on jazz musicians living in or from Louisiana but has grown to embrace so much more diversity in musical genre and culture. It is a breath-taking achievement in organizing and outreach that is even more impressive in that it has continued for so long, pausing only for Covid-19 in 2020 and 2021.

“Jazz Fest: A Story of New Orleans” is a swinging good time for any music lover and a great way to learn more about a wonderful city full of history and culture. A little more of the infectious sounds the place is known for would have made for a stronger film, but it still sweeps a viewer up into its “joie de vivre”.

Editor´s note. Have a listen to I Never Got To See New Orleans from the John Stewart album The Day The River Song.  

country music festivals UK       

Earlier this month Europe’s biggest country music festival (left) finally returned to UK shores.

Following a two-year break due to the pandemic, Country to Country Festival (C2C) will once again take place in the UK and Ireland from March 11-13th 2022

As per the previous eight editions, the beloved celebration of all things country music headed to London’s O2 Arena, Dublin’s 3Arena, and The SSE Hydro in Glasgow.

The festival boasted superstar headliners: Miranda Lambert, Darius Rucker, and Luke Combs.

The likes of Ashley McBryde, Runaway June, and Hayley Whitters featured further along the road, with C2C also presenting the eagerly anticipated Introducing Nashville series, showcasing the best of Nashville talent to global audiences.

Paste on the calendar !

On Tuesday, March 15 2022, Paste on-line began celebrating 20 years since the launch of Paste Magazine  with a four-day party at The Pershing in Austin, Texas, March 15-18, from 1pm to 7pm CT. Each day of the Paste 20th Anniversary Showcase, (left) presented by Ilegal Mezcal featured performances from 11 bands, which were also shown  at PasteMagazine.com, for those who were unable to attend in person..

Paste was launched as a print magazine in 2002, covering music, books and movies. Each issue came with a sampler CD of some of the staff´s favourite songs. To further commemorate that Paste also  releasing a limited-edition vinyl sampler album with some of those favourite songs  recorded at the Paste Studio over the years. They give away the vinyl samplers to the first 100 people in the doors each day who had RSVP’d to the party.

Featured artists on the vinyl sampler include Keb Mo’, The Wood Brothers, Seratones, Warren Haynes, Valerie June, Julia Jacklin, Courtney Marie Andrews, Half Waif, Lunar Vacation and Wheatus. Two of those artists—Seratones and Lunar Vacation—will also be playing the party.

On Tuesday, March 15, Paste partnered with Women That Rock to present an incredible femme-forward line-up, fulfilling their mission to “amplify the voices of female and non-binary artists.” The rest of the week featured a range of up-and-coming and established artists all of whom Paste were excited to showcase.

Bluegrass Music in text Festival 2022

Last week here at Sidetracks And Detours we took part in the annual newsgatherings (not unlike England´s rushbearings) and we bundled all our collected news into a sheaf that we called the Bluegrass Music in text Festival 2022 (right) and archives of each day´s activities remain in our music archives.

the next three quarters of 2022

Music That´s Going Places: Jazz In April UK

Jazz At The Merchants´House Made a welcome addition to Glasgow´s live jazz scene when it began bringing high quality performances to the aptly named Grand Hall on West George Street and is now picking up agai n where it left off when the pandemic brought promotions to a halt. Dutch violinist, Tim Kliphurs trio (left), with Nigel Clark on guitar and Roy Perry on bass is revered across Europe and beyond for taking the Hot Club de France essence of Stephane Grappelli and Django Reinhardt into an exciting, high end style that embraces swing, classical, folk and world music influences. The trio plays Merchants House on Sunday 3rd as part of a tour that also includes Nairn the previous evening

The Fergus McCreadie Trio (right) launch the pianist’s third album, Forest Floor at the Queen’s Hall in Edinburgh on Friday 8th and Ronnie Scott’s in London on Tuesday 19th. They then play concerts in West Kilbride Village Hall on Friday 22nd and Perth Theatre on Saturday 23rd (a double bill with saxophonist Helena Kay) and a prestigious showcase at the Jazzahead! international trade fair in Bremen on Friday 29th. More concerts follow in May and June, including the trio’s debuts at Merchants House in Glasgow and the Lemon Tree in Aberdeen. A new video is available if you’d like a taste of the album.

Tommy Smith’s solo saxophone (left) celebrations of melody continue at St Margaret’s in Braemar on Friday 8th. This is part of the Scotland on Tour project to bring live music back from its pandemic-enforced silence and to take musicians into venues that they might not visit on their regular rounds of concerts. Information on more concerts in the series will follow in upcoming newsletters.

Jazz at St James in Leith’s April concert on Saturday 23rd features four musicians who have appeared in the series previously but not all at the same time (right) . Bassist Mario Caribe formed Fret with the group Bass Desires that bassist Marc Johnson put together with guitarists Bill Frisell and John Scofield in the 1980s in mind. Joining Mario is the formidable, contrasting guitar partnership of Graeme Stephen and Kevin Mackenzie and drummer Tom Bancroft. Strong melodies and creative interaction across reflective soundscapes and deep grooves are on the cards.

photo 10  International Jazz Day on Saturday 30th sees the arrival of a new duo, comprising saxophonist Konrad Wiszniewski and pianist Brian Kellock (left) , in the excellent studio theatre at Beacon Arts Centre in Greenock. Konrad and Brian have worked together on the same stage before, with the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra, and may well share some of the music they’ve played on those occasions. Whatever they play, though, this is going to be a meeting of two of UK jazz’s most resourceful and expressive musicians who are bound to inspire each other.

photo 11 Saxophonist Matt Carmichael will be touring with his group later in the year but it’s worth highlighting a concert Matt played in Germany recently. The WDR Big Band were so impressed with Matt’s first album, Where Will the River Flow, that they commissioned Yellowjackets saxophonist Bob Mintzer to arrange Matt’s music for the band. This is an amazing accolade but one that’s totally deserved. If you’d like to listen to the concert, it’s available free here until 18th April. 

Karen Marshalsay plays Scottish Harp Music at Beacon Arts Centre, Greenock, Friday 8th April 8pm. Playing tracks from her album The Road to Kennacraig (4 stars-The Scotsman) on all three Scottish harps (gut-strung, wire-strung and the buzzing, distinctive-sounding bray harp). Tickets from beaconartscentre.co.uk or 01475 723723




April Diary

Aberdeen Blue Lamp
Sun 3: Marisha Addison Qrt/Rainer Goldbeck Qrt Thu 7: Louise Dodds
Thu 14: Paul Harrison – In Motion/Alice in Wonderland
Thu 21: Helena Kay’s KIM Trio + Peter Johnstone
Thu 28: James Lindsay – Torus


Dundee
The Caird
Sun 10: Paul Greenwood Qrt
Sun 24: The Sunnysiders 
    Edinburgh
Jazz Bar
Wed 6: Louise Dodds
Wed 13: Fraser Urquhart Trio
Fri 15: Alyn Cosker
Wed 20: Cahill-Costello Duo
Thu 21: Trio HLK
Wed 27: Marilden
Thu 28: Boptimism 

Queen’s Hall
Fri 8: Fergus McCreadie Trio

Riddles Court
Sun 3: Moishe’s Bagel

St James Scottish Episcopal Church
Sat 23: Fret

Traverse Theatre
Sun 24: Helena Kay’s KIM + Pete Johnstone


Glasgow
Blue Arrow
Sat 2: Josef Akin
Sat 9: LSU Tuxedo Swing
Fri 15: Tom Harris feat Norman Willmore
Fri 22: Helena Kay’s KIM + Pete Johnstone
Sat 23: Figiro Trio

Merchants House
Sun 3: Tim Kliphuis Trio


Greenock
Beacon Arts
Sat 30: Konrad Wiszniewski & Brian Kellock


London
606 Club
Sun 10: Liane Carroll
Sat 16: Alex Garnett
Thu 21: Anita Carmichael
Fri 22: Beverley Skeete
Sat 23: Georgina Jackson
Wed 27: Oxley-Meier Guitar Project

Hampstead Jazz Club
Sat 16: Tristan

Ronnie Scott’s
Mon 4: Henry Spencer
Wed 6: Josef Akin
Thu 7 – Sat 9: Monty Alexander
Tue 12 – Wed 13: Mike Westbrook’s Uncommon Orchestra 
Sat 16: Jason Rebello
Mon 18: Dee Dee Bridgewater
Tue 19: Fergus McCreadie Trio
Wed 20: Melissa Aldana
Fri 22 – Sat 23: Yellowjackets


Nairn
Sat 2: Tim Kliphuis Trio


Perth
Perth Theatre
Sat 23: Fergus McCreadie Trio & Helena Kay’s KIM + Pete Johnstone 


Southampton
The Brook
Thu 14: Tristan


Southend
The Jazzmix
Wed 13: Tristan

 
West Kilbride
Village Hall
Fri 22: Fergus McCreadie Trio


 

Jazz In Reading

Purdy’s Pop Up is delighted to welcome highly acclaimed Radio 2 rising Jazz star – Jo Harrop of whom DJ Jo Whiley is a big fan.

After moving to London, Jo quickly established herself as one of the most unmistakable voices in British jazz. Having signed to London-based jazz label, Lateralize Records, she recently received a raft of rapturous reviews for Weathering The Storm, her debut with guitarist, Jamie McCredie. The Guardian dubbed it ‘a little gem of an album: simple, modest and perfect’,whilst BBC 6 Music’s Iggy Pop fell in love with her voice, calling her a ‘superb and unimaginably good vocalist’.

Born in Durham and raised on a heady musical diet of Nina Simone, Billie Holiday and Aretha Franklin, Jo Harrop cut her teeth as a session singer, working with a host of iconic artists including Neil Diamond, Rod Stewart and Gloria Gaynor.

Beyond the mellifluous perfection of her chocolate and cream voice, there is always a beautifully bruised intimacy at the very heart of Jo Harrop’s music. It’s almost as if she’s staring directly into your soul when she sings; she sounds as if she’s already lived a thousand lifetimes.

Venue: The HAODS Studio | 19 New Street, Henley-on-Thames, RG9 2BP
When : Saturday 2 April | 8pm, doors 7:30pm
Tickets: £21 | Information and tickets here | Seating is first-come, first-served. However, for parties of 6 of more, we can reserve seats. Email mail@purdymusic.co.uk to request this after booking.

Ribble Valley Jazz And Blues Festival

We know, for instance that Ribble Valley Jazz and Blues Festival. held in the north west region of England is already advertising its line up for 2022.

The 13th annual Ribble Valley Jazz & Blues Festival is planned for the May Day Bank Holiday, 29th, 30th April, 1st & 2nd May. It howcases the very best of Jazz & Blues in all it’s genres and brings together performers from across the world to focus upon Clitheroe.

In previous years (take a look at Festival web site…) the festival has presented stars such as Jacqui Dankworth, Liane Carroll, Soft Machine, Claire Martin, James Taylor, Courtney Pine, Dennis Rollins, Snake Davis, Stacey Kent, Arun Ghosh and many, many more. In fact each year RVJB hosts over 500 performers mainly from the brass, drum, swing and big bands scene, to participate in the Festival´s  Saturday Street Party, Sunday picnic at Holmes Mill and a grand finale on bank holiday Monday.

The Festival organisers bring to their online stage local singers and bands and highlight up-and-coming youth talent and give them the chance to perform to a wider audience. They also have a number of “home grown” bands, like The Ribble Valley Jazz Big Band and the BluFunk Syndicate, formed out of a local monthly jazz club.

Clitheroe is a great setting for a visit to browse the local shops and hidden away courtyards, the Saturday market, the great places to eat, the award winning historic pubs, the amazing Holmes Mill, home to Bowland Brewery, and of course the splendid castle and beautiful park and nearby river Ribble. 

Despite the euphoria of seeing covid seemingly evaporate and live music festivals reincarnate in the UK, and indeed here on Lanzarote, the health status of other countries around the world. My son in South Korea tells me that Seoul, where he lives, has a fantastic festival calendar for 2022, but dramatic spikes in the country´s pandemic figures still threaten the viability of such events. For now , the internet still appears to be carrying and promoting the  fact that  For the last few years, Korean music has become extremely popular and gained lots of fans not only in Korea but all over the world.

Music and Song in South Korea

It may be because of Gangnam Style that boomed a couple of years ago or because of the growth of the American Korean population, but

considering the growing popularity of this authentic style, the number of diverse music festivals in South Korea also increased dramatically.

The Seoul Jazz Festival (left) is annually held at Seoul’s Jamsil Olympic Park. Usually, there are lots of popular singers and bands that perform at this festival. If you want to visit this event, you have an opportunity to buy a multi-day pass as the event is very popular among locals as well as tourists.

The Greenplugged Festival is one of the greatest music events in South Korea. Recently, the festival has become incredibly popular and attracted lots of visitors. As a result, the organizers decided to hold it twice a year – in July in Seoul and in the fall in Gyeongju. It also should be mentioned that the festival is known for its environment-friendly policy.

Ultra Music Festival was held in 1999 in Miami for the first time.

Now, it is one of the most significant music events in the world.

Nowadays, there are EDM festivals that are held on almost every continent. Started in 2012, Ultra Korea is an annual event that is held in Seoul. I´m tol, though, that it can be hard to buy a ticket to this festival as they are usually sold within a day.

Rainbow Island festival is an annual event that is held on the remote island that is called Jaraseom-ro. The festival has its own camping site as well as a cafe and even a marketplace. There is a variety of venues around the island so you can enjoy numerous performances of different artists.

Dream Concert was held in Seoul.for the first time in 1995. Nowadays, it is the most popular event among real K-Pop fans. It should be mentioned that this festival is one of the largest in the country so usually, you can see the most popular artists there. Every year the festival is visited by thousands of fans from all over the world. Usually, fans like to wear some colorful clothes that represent their favorite artists and prepare some dances so they can have during their favorite songs.

The Pentaport Rock Festival is one other annual festival that is located in Incheon, where our son first settled when he went to Soth Korea twenty years ago. Located not far from Seoul, this beautiful city has its own unique vibe. While being pretty crowded, the city has a laid-back atmosphere due to its proximity to the sea. Despite being known as a rock festival, the Pentaport Rock Festival attracts not only rock artists but EDM artists as well. Nine Inch Nails, My Bloody Valentine, Hoobastank, Walk the Moon, Dua Lipa, Bastille, and Charlie XCX performed at this festival previously.

The K-Pop World Festival – it is a combination of a music festival and a game show that is held in Changwon, one of the largest cities in the country. This festival is supported and sponsored by the government of South Korea. Usually, organizers spend lots of time looking for the most talented fans all over the world that take part in the show.

On the other hand, not every festival that is South Korean is held in South Korea. However, While being held in the USA, the Korea Times Music Festival has an absolutely authentical Korean vibe. The event is very popular and it is held annually at the Hollywood Bowl in LA.

Considering a huge amount of Korean-Americans, the festival attracts a very big audience every year. A variety of the most famous K-Pop artists perform during this festival. Among the artists that performed at this festival, there were Red Velvet, Rain, and Kim Bum-soo.

So, what is still a very new year is already signalling that it is confident of being fondly remembered by music fans in years to come.

Black Deer festival

Not only are established festivals in the UK returning to live performance but they will also be joined by boisterous newcomers such as the Black Deer Festival Aboveto be held at Eldridge Park In Kent in the middle of June. Check out their elaborate and informative web site and just glance acrss the lines here at their advertising flyer. There are dozens of names on there that we surely all must know.

Festivals for the folkies

Folk on The Quay and Folk In The Front Room

Folk music is heavily represented on the festival scene back in the UK, with the Tobermory Free Folk Festival, for example, taking place on the Isle of Mull over four days from 21st April.

The Front Room Folk Festival in Leigh On Sea, a two day event on Sunday 2nd may and Bank holiday Monday 3rd May sounds very cosy even if the Folk On The Quay Festival in Poole Dorset, towards the end of June might still require scarf and gloves.

The internet even carries somewhat skletchy details of a folk festival to be deleivered in my old home town of Rochdale (Greater Manchester), with performance sites located around the Borough, and sure to be featuring some of my old buddies from the town´s former plethoria of folk clubs at The gallows in Milnrow, The Spring Inn, The Ring O´Bells in Middleton, The Kings in Heywood and The Fisherman´s Inn at Hollingworth Lake.

The Fylde Festival was always my favourite folk fest of the year when I lived in the UK, but I bet the Settle Folk Gathering in September will a very pleasant,  pastoral event.

and then there´s GLASTONBURY

The enormous English music festival that is Glastonbury has revealed its initial 2022 line-up, adding Kendrick Lamar and Paul McCartney to its headlining slate alongside Billie Eilish. The festival’s first iteration since 2019 (the past two years’ events were cancelled due to the pandemic) is set for June 22-26 on Worthy Farm in Pilton, Somerset.

Lamar and McCartney join a stacked line-up that also features Diana Ross, Olivia Rodrigo, Lorde, Megan Thee Stallion, Mitski, Little Simz, Charli XCX, Primal Scream, Phoebe Bridgers, St. Vincent, Big Thief, HAIM, Doja Cat, TURNSTILE, Wet Leg, Fontaines D.C., Herbie Hancock, IDLES, black midi, Kacey Musgraves, Clairo, Arlo Parks, Caroline Polachek, Dry Cleaning, Wolf Alice, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, Squid and many more.

That ´Glastonbury 2022 supports “Oxfam, WaterAid and Greenpeace and other worthy causes including the Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal´, is prominently mentioned in the festival’s announcement. Their website also notes that ´tickets for the 2022 Festival are sold out, with deposits paid for the 2020 Festival having rolled over for a second year, following the cancellation of the 2021 Festival´.

Featured artists on the vinyl sampler include Keb Mo’, The Wood Brothers, Seratones, Warren Haynes, Valerie June, Julia Jacklin, Courtney Marie Andrews, Half Waif, Lunar Vacation and Wheatus. Two of those artists—Seratones and Lunar Vacation—will also be playing the party.

Arts Festival Of Chichester

Festivals range in size and scope, of course, but The Festival of Chichester has a wider hinterland than we might expect. I met the other day with Larry Yaskiel, honorary editor of the glossy quarterly magazine Lancelot, that aims to show visitors to the island not only its tourist spots but its history and culture. He and his wife Liz have done so much to open corridors between Lanzarote and Great Britain, and although it may be true that only those born on the island can be anointed a Favourite Son Of Lanzarote, (a prestigious knighthood style honour) Larry surely deserves a one-off Favourite Adopted Son Of Lanzarote Award.

In yet another example of the strange serendipity that often occurs when writing about the arts our friends Iain and Margaret, regularly featured in our reports, sent us a leaflet about this year´s Chichester Festival in the UK and, to our amazement, the new Spring 2022 edition of Lancelot came out the following day carrying a huge article celebrating a 25th anniversary of the Campus of Chichester University that exists here on Lanzarote. It is a fascinating piece that Larry has given me permission to editorialise, not only for afute  Sidetracks And Detours edition but also for my weekly column in Lanzarote Information. In any Venn diagram of readers of Lancelot, Lanzarote Information, Sidetracks and Detours and the Chichester Festival UK newsletter there would be at least Iain and Margaret in the shaded section and perhaps now many of you, too.

The Festival of Chichester is a month-long celebration of the arts running from mid-June to mid-July each year in the historic city. Classical music, rock, blues, jazz, folk, pop, cinema, spoken word, community concerts and shows, arts & crafts, dance, theatre, church, food & drink, walks and tours, sport and a lot more. There is even a talk from an Urban Spacemen, as Tim Peake discusses his time in orbit.

The 2022 festival will run from Saturday 11 June to Sunday 10 July.

It will present a truly exciting and varied line-up of over 100 events every summer, combining a brilliant programme of classical music with the best in jazz, blues, folk, rock, pop and world music.

Add thrilling theatre, book events, talks and poetry, exhibitions, walks, tours, cinema, open days and galas and there really is something for everyone. Grounded in the Chichester community, the Festival aspires to the stars and is pleased to welcome local and international performers of the highest calibre. In doing so, Chichester Festival enjoys continuing support of its distinguished Festival Patron, Dame Patricia Routledge.

The full and final list of events to be included in this marvellously eclectic festival will be posted and line and released to the press on April 6th 2022, although details are already available of theatre events, as detailed below.

This year´s event also includes it usual festival within a festival that is the Chichester Theatre Festival, as it presents an intensive acting class course and the Theatre will show daily performances of two plays, Crazy For You and Sing Yer Heart Out For The Lads.

The acting course is only available to those aged 16 to 25. For details of opportunities for other age groups, please visit our Take Part page.

 This is a six-day intensive short course for anyone interested in exploring the fundamentals of acting, or anyone looking to apply for drama school. You will use contemporary and classical texts to explore the craft, imagination and humanity that’s required to be truthful in other people’s shoes. Led by Deputy Director of LEAP Brodie Ross, whose experience includes Head of Acting at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Bursary places are available for £50; please email leap@cft.org.uk to apply for a bursary place.

 The play, Crazy For You, (RIGHT) looks at Theatre-mad Bobby Child, , torn between his show-business dreams and his rich, demanding New York fiancée and rich, demanding New York mother who want him to run the family bank. On his mother’s insistence, he reluctantly heads west for the bygone mining town of Deadrock, Nevada, to foreclose on a mortgage.

There he finds the mortgage in question is on a dilapidated Victorian theatre and the owner’s daughter Polly is the girl of his dreams. Desperate to prove his good faith and win her love, Bobby lights on the idea of putting on a show – complete with glamorous dancers from New York’s Follies – to save the theatre and renew the town.

This hilarious, riotously entertaining musical is packed with glorious Gershwin melodies (including Someone to Watch Over Me, Embraceable You, I Got Rhythm and They Can’t Take That Away from Me), with stunning tap dance routines guaranteed to set the spirits soaring. The witty book and dialogue are written by Ken Ludwig, who also wrote this season’s Murder on the Orient Express and is the author of the Tony Award-winning Lend Me a Tenor.

This brand new production, which celebrates the work’s 30th anniversary, is directed and choreographed by Susan Stroman: true Broadway royalty and winner of five Tony and two Olivier Awards for productions including The Producers, Contact and The Scottsboro Boys.

Charlie Stemp plays Bobby, returning to Chichester where he played Arthur Kipps in Half A Sixpence in 2016, for which he won the WhatsOnStage Award for Best Actor in a Musical and received Olivier and UK Theatre Award nominations. The production transferred to the West End, and was recently broadcast on Sky Arts as Kipps – The New Half A Sixpence Musical. He has starred on Broadway in Hello, Dolly! opposite Bette Midler and Bernadette Peters, and at the London Palladium in Dick Whittington, Snow White and Pantoland at the Palladium. He is currently playing Bert in Mary Poppins in the West End, for which he received his second Olivier Award nomination.

Crazy for You™ is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals Ltd on behalf of Tams-Wittmark LLC. concordtheatricals.co.uk

Sing Your Heart Out For The Lads takes us back to an  October Saturday when Gina, landlady of The King George pub, has a lot on her plate. The England vs Germany World Cup qualifying match is about to start, the pub football team is about to charge in and the TV’s on the blink.

Over the next few hours, national defeat looms and xenophobic tensions rise, fuelled by the inarticulate fury of the pub team captain, Lawrie, and the insidious propaganda of right-wing extremist Alan. And while policeman Lee struggles to keep the peace, disillusioned squaddie Mark and Gina’s bullied son Glen are fighting their own demons.

Premiered at the National Theatre in 2002, Roy Williams’s ferocious, funny and disturbing play takes aim at what it means to be black, white and English in twenty-first century Britain. Scoring high on foul language, threat and vulgar humour, Sing Yer Heart Out for the Lads is definitely not for the faint of heart.

Roy Williams’s award-winning plays have also been staged at the RSC and the Royal Court.

Nicole Charles’s much-praised production, which earned critical and public acclaim when it was staged in Chichester’s Spiegeltent in 2019, returns for a run in World Cup and Women’s Euro year in the Minerva Theatre, part of which will be transformed into a pub setting to create an immersive theatrical experience.

Contains strong language.

editor´s comment don´t forget to watch out for a forthcoming post on The Chichester Campus On Lanzarote, to be published in Sidetracks And Detours as well as Lanzarote Information or check out the Spring edition of Lancelot, if you live on or are visiting the island of Lanzarote.

Don´t forget your Canadian Whiskey.

I love the sound of music but I´d also happily sit in the audience and watch Shania Twain at The Boots And Hearts Festival in August that also features Priscilla Block and The Florida Georgia Line, All this takes place in Burl´s Creek Event Gardens in Ontario in August. The artists have yet to be announced for the Calgary folk and cowboy song festival 2022 but the festival has long established its ability to attract artists of the likes of Ian Tyson. I´ve been listening to him since the ian and Sylvia Days and some of his songs are way up in the stratosphere of my playlists.

I grew up on the songs of Buffy St. Marie, not only Universal Soldier, though the world seemed to prefer the Donovan version, but Soldier Blue that was the title track to a film of the same name. I wonder if I put it on my bucket list, my dear wife might buy me a ticket to Edmonton in Canada to see Buffy on the opening bill with Allison Russell. If so, I might see you there in August. Or should I wait until the full line-up is officially announced in June?

It Starts With A Song

American Songwriter Festival in Nashville

It Starts With A Song

If you do go to Festival this year, why not write a song about it?

American Songwriter have just announced another fantastic festival I would love to put on my bucket list. I have often dreamed of writing a songwith any one of my favourite writerts such as John Stewart, Townes Van Zandt or Guy Clark

photo crowell According to the excellent magazine with exploration of song as its unique selling point there is to be a four day song-writing festival called It Starts With A Song, that will feature an all star-ensemble that includes Rodney Crowell (Stars On The Water, Keys To The Highway), Roseanne Cash (Tennesse Flat Top Box, about her father´s guitar), Neko Case (The Next Time You Say Forever) and Patty Griffin (Gonna Miss You When You´re Gone).

That all sounds like pretty high cotton, to me.

Rodney Crowell’s It Starts With A Song is an event for songwriters, players, lyricists, and music-lovers of all ages, levels, interests, and tastes! Please join us for 4 days and nights of songwriting, singing, and collaborating with our incredible ensemble of talent.

Registration for It Starts with a Song includes:

  • Performances every evening by incredible instructors
  • Master sessions with Special guests: Rosanne Cash & John Leventhal, Patty Griffin, and Neko Case.
  • Perform at Camper open mics every night
  • Breakout groups led by a team of singer-songwriters including David Baerwald, Matraca Berg, Beth Neilsen Chapman, Mike Reid, and Lera Lynn.
  • Learn from the top producers every day, all day. The experience that both Tony Brown (Reba McEntire, Trisha Yearwood, George Strait, Steve Earle, Lyle Lovett, Vince Gill, Wynonna to name a few) and Paul Worley (Dixie Chicks, Lady Antebellum, Big & Rich, Mariana McBride to name a few) have is incomparable.
  • Great food every day!
  • Great company and collaborating

editors comment. Sidetracks And Detours are grateful to Jazz In Reading, Ribble Valley Jazz And Blues Festival and Music That´s Going Places for providing us with listings to share with you and also to the always helpful, ())even when he must have many more important things to do) Larry Yaskiel and the Lancelot magazine where is Honorar Editor, and Iain And Margaret for news of the Chichester Festival and to Paste magazine for being such an incredible fund of news and arts entertainment.

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