POET LAUREATE REACHES FOR LYRICISM Several poets laureate of modern history have released recordings of their work, and current holder of the post, Simon Armitage has now increased the number of their company. None previously, though, can ever have released an album described as providing ´ambient post-rock passages, jazz flourishes and atonal experimentalism´. Bob Dylan […]
Whispers In The Wind Lanzarote has so little light pollution and so much silent, open countryside that we are afforded wonderful views of meteors and falling stars all across the constellation and, almost on a nightly basis, are able to follow Tom Paxton´s advice to ´listen to stars spreading rumours.´ We seem able to hear […]
CONCERTS IN CAVES AND CONVENTS 36th Festival International Classic Music Canarias BEETHOVEN AT EASE, MUSICIANS AT PLAY Cuarteto de Cuerdo Ornati Inglesia de San Roque, Tinajo, January 11th 2020 As genuine lovers of chamber music and as a String Quartet, Cuarteto de Cuerda Ornati find themselves in the best space to express that love and […]
SINGING WITH THE CHOIR: Anne Rees We brought you a review recently of a performance by Lanzarote Gospel Choir (see archives) and mentioned an English lady in the choir, called Anne Rees who charmingly agreed to sit through one of our hugely interrogative, but always polite, interviews. Sidetracks and Detours are delighted to now include […]
HEART AND MIND AND FINGERTIPS by Graham Marshall l Rochdale Music Society LUKA OKROS pianoforte Heywood Civic Centre 2020 review This was the third in what is proving to be a musically most rewarding 40th Anniversary Concert Series promoted by the Rochdale MUSIC Society. The young Georgian pianist, Luka Okros, brought his Eurasian take on […]
MUSIC FOR THE REST OF THEIR LIVES A Meeting Of Timples, Teatro Tias, January 2020 review The annual La Canderlaria and San Blas religious festival in Tias always presents a plethora of arts that showcase the town and its artists and their guests during a week of events for all the family. The festival also […]
SONGS OF PRAISE GOSPEL STYLE ! Lanzarote Gospel Choir, Teatro Tias, January 2020 review My wife and I had spent the previous hour in a wonderful new restaurant Arreyate un Millo, just around the corner from Teatro Tias, extolling the virtues, to our friends Margaret and Iain, of The Lanzarote Gospel Choir we were about […]
DINOSAUR ROAMS ROCHDALE I lived in what was a hot-bed of hot bed of artistic creativity in the UK for sixty years of my life, and as an adult collaborated with other artists I much admired to produce works that were intended to be both entertaining and educational. Several of those I worked with are […]
SLEEPING BEAUTY UNDER A MUCKHEAP How closely Lanzarote might resemble the desert island for which BBC Radio 4 castaway Sir Ernest Hall once selected his musical and literary preferences with Kirsty Walk is hard to say. Certainly, he brought music with him to this island when he bought and renovated his home here in Macher. […]
ARTS: BETWEEN COMMUNITY & DIVISION The story turned about to be about a travelling production of a play called Trojan Horse that was playing at the time at Oldham Coliseum Theatre as part of a national tour. Two years ago the play had won the Amnesty International Freedom Of Expression award for its story of […]
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