SIDETRACKS & DETOURS, Sunday 16th August 2026, including R:I:P Jimmy Cricket + the film MICHAEL that allows art to be enjoyed for art´s sake + new name for old street

ON LOSING A WONDERFUL HUMAN BEING JIMMY CRICKET: a personal tribute by Steve Cooke from all across the arts. Laughter, having its evolutionary roots in creating social bonds that help individual and group survival, is a powerful tool…

SIDETRACKS & DETOURS Sunday 9th August 2026: Town Poet Laureate Sammy Weaver looks back on her year of laureatship and Rochdale shapes its future.

all across the arts news, previews & reviews published by Steve Cooke and passed on by sidetracks & detours THE TIMES THEY…

SIDETRACKS & DETOURS 2nd August 2026: Songwriters & Invisible Angels, Chapter 3 by Peter Pearson & Norman Warwick featuring Kate Wolf and Julie Mathews & Christine While + another annual festival in our Island Life

Songwriters Chapter 3 part 1 KATE WOLF - AN UNFINISHED LIFE by Peter Pearson When Kate Wolf succumbed to leukemia in 1986, at the age of 44, her star was on the rise. The previous year she…

SIDETRACKS AND DETOURS 26th July 2026: Jazz and classical musician Winton Marsalis explores themes of unity and social progress + Karla Harris announces high profile shows + Duo Bravo have a new date at Famara, and friends in the Uk share news from alla cross the arts.

WYNTON MARSALIS LETS JAZZ JOINS US TOGETHER by Norman Warwick It would have been around twenty five years ago, when Steve Cooke (left) was partnering me in presenting two articles a week that took readers of the Rochdale Observer,…

SIDETRACKS & DETOURS Sunday 19th July 2026: WORKING IN A COAL MINE or a car repair shop with LEE DORSEY + PARRANDA JANUBIO celebrate 40th anniversary of music, + the closing football games of The World Cup

LEE DORSEY working in a coal mine and Norman Warwick decided to Lendanear No singer in the Big Easy had a more easy-going manner than Lee Dorsey (right).. The rhythms behind him could…

SIDETRACKS & DETOURS Sunday 12th July 2026: Lendanear to Duo Bravo in an exclusive interview + we seek the truth about diversity + Manchester UK Folk Festival + UK folk music album charts

LENDANEAR TO DUO BRAVO down sidetracks & detours with Norman Warwick sidetracks & detours first came across Duo Bravo on May 13th 2026, when my wife, Dee, and I stepped into The Tourist Information Office in the Timple…

SIDETRACKS AND DETOURS Sunday 5th July 2026: Coal Mines & cobbled streets & Lava Tunnels featuring The Radio Ballads Of The Miners´Strike BBC Radio John Tams, Barry Coope, Sally Ward, Rube Leonard, Julie Matthews, Jez Lowe, Ray Hearne, + Lendanear to Rochdale, Town Of Culture (?) + Lendanear to sounds from the centre of a volcano

Chris Maume, in his review of the programme for The Independent reminded us that On the Home Service in the Fifties and Sixties, Ewan MacColl (left) and Charles Parker put together a series of "Radio Ballads" in which different…

SIDETRACKS & DETOURS 28th June 2026: Revival: In Search Of Where Truth Lies + We LENDANEAR To Applause for The Good That People Do

sidetracks & detours IN SEARCH OF WHERE TRUTH LIES by Norman Warwick Some Americana singer-songwriters are occasionally unreliable narrators and some seem to always be unreliable narrators. Americana is not,…

SIDETRACKS & DETOURS 21st June 2026: Town Of Culture Excedes All Expectations and awards its ´creatives´ + news, interviws, previews and reviews of Jason Isbel and the 400 Unit + review of ACATIFE IN LAS BRENAS

Rochdale, Town Of Culture EXCEDED ALL EXPECTATIONS by Steve Cooke Our coverr picture today is also included at the top of this article shows Rochdale Town Hall packed the town´s elite creatives. We decided to do…

SIDETRACKS & DETOURS 14th June 2026. Classical Music In Portsmouth profile ALEXANDRA PEEL, violinist and Jazz in Reading preview THE BLACKHAWKE QUINTET

MUSIC IN PORTSMOUTH ALEXANDRA PEEL, VIOLINIST previews a concert with the Havant Symphony Orchestra, and updates her profile shared by Norman Warwick Alexandra Peel recently (right) played Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy with…