FROM LOCKDOWN TO CLOSED FOR REFURBISHMENT By Norman Warwick Graham Marshall, an occasional contributor to these pages, (see left) and Dr. Joe Dawson were pretty much the leading proclaimers in the Borough for classical music, each writing regularly in various outlets like church pamphlets, music society programmes or even The Rochdale Observer. Today´s post is […]
CATS, CANARIES, MUGWUMPS & DYLAN et al By Norman Warwick That title of The Lovin´ Spoonful hit, Nashville Cats, was a reference to the studio session musicians in Nashville who laid down guitar sounds with such precision across the country music recordings of the era. One line in the song claimed that ´there´s thirteen hundred […]
SHAKESPEARE LIKED THE WINE AND DANCED THE CANARIO By Norman Warwick We have written on these pages of the annual Fiesta De Los Dolores which commemorates the cessation of the lava flow in the most recent volcanic eruptions on Lanzarote of a couple of hundred years ago. Dance and the drinking of wine each play […]
ORQUESTA FILARMONICA DE CAMARA DE MINSK Annual Festival Internacional De Musica De Canarias, Teatro Victor Fernadez Gupar ´El Salinero´ Arrecife By Norman Warwick with help from Iain & Margaret Having already heard Cuarteto De Cuerda Quiroga and The London Concord Ensemble and Orquesta Baroque De Tenerife play at earlier concerts on Lanzarote as part of […]
MUSIC & MASTERCHEF & VIXEN OF VERSE By Norman Warwick She was a member of a creative writing group I facilitated in the UK and was an over the top performance poet, unafraid of dressing up if costume was essential to the show. She was a regular at slam events at The Baum in Rochdale […]
DANCE WITH ME down Sidetracks & Detours An invitation from Norman Warwick It was one of Rochdale´s revenue funded arts organisations, part funded by the local council and also by any matched funding it could achieve from its own initiatives. There were various caveats to being granted local funding, most of them stipulating governance compliance […]
A DANCE AROUND THE WORLD By Norman Warwick The footage we saw during lockdown showed uplifting and transformative clips of Revelations, a project by Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre (AAADT), and was posted to us on facebook by Romina Thornton, one of the management team at Dance United Yorkshire. Exclusive learning guides to go along […]
STORIES IN DANCE By Norman Warwick When I led a poetry night, for instance, to raise awareness of homelessness issues in our area, we collaborated with local artists. We collected the rhythmic skills of Pandemonium Percussion with the linguistic artistry of Touchstones Creative Writing Group, the verse-making of Just Poets and the choral abilities of […]
STOMPING AND SKIP JIVING SOON TO RETURN? Norman Warwick reads Alan Lawless to remind him of live jazz Alan Lawless once reminded readers of all across the arts in the UK that Rochdale Jazz Club on Dixon Street, (check http://jazznorthwest.co.uk/rochdale.htm?i=1) had something of a tradition of ringing in the New Year of their Jazz On […]
PROCESSION TO CALVARY By Andrew Moorhouse. The Flemish artist Pieter Bruegel lived and worked in the middle of the 16th century. He died in 1569 at an uncertain age, his birthdate either unrecorded or lost to history. ‘An uncertain age’ may equally apply to the tumultuous times he lived through. In the 1520’s Martin […]
SIDETRACKS & DETOURS: 7 / 12 / 25 classical, jazz, folk, rock, americana; songwriters & invisible angels7th December 2025 - 7:00 am
SIDETRACKS & DETOURS Pass It On 2/11/2025 Jenny Bray, Nash and Asher, Opus 222nd November 2025 - 7:00 am
A LITTLE BUNDLE OF SUMMER. sidetracks & detours 3rd September 2025 featuring Jazz Artist, Jenny Bray. Broadcaster and writer, Steve Bewick, Expo Folk and Sound Roots3rd September 2025 - 7:00 am