BUT WHERE ARE MY BLUE PLAQUES?
In those days, there was a a zoo in Heaton Park, down near the huge boating lake and disused viaduct. After some good finishes in my school cross country runs through The Clough, (because I was one of the few kids who didn´t stop for a fag half way round) I was eventually selected to run for the town and subsequently made my debut at sixteen for the Lancashire County Schools team, and I immediately realised I had hit the big time, when I learned the race would be through Heaton Park rather through Prestwich Clough. At the foot of the quarter of a mile finish up one of the steepest hills in Heaton Park I was in fifth place and could see the group of four leaders retreating towards me. The trouble was that about thirty five runners overtook me as I went running up that hill long before Kate Bush and I finished almost in last place and still just behind those four early leaders. I could only walk the last few yards to the finishing line, and I´ve heard there´s a plaque there somewhere that defined that stretch of road as being where Norman Warwick ran two races in one day. He ran his first race for Lancashire Schoolboys and his last race for Lancashire Schoolboys on the same day,…and at the same time!
ONLY GOD WAS ABOVE US
Vampire Weekend also riffs on their own past cleverly with "Mary Boone," an update on their choral ballads named for the influential gallery owner imprisoned for offenses connected to tax fraud, and "The Surfer," which continues the legacy of Modern Vampires of the City's "Hudson" with its mournful allusions to famous waters (in this case, the Water Tunnel 3 project). The band balances all of this looking back with a significant step forward: making peace with the existential questions they raised on their previous albums. Nowhere is this move towards acceptance more apparent than on the closing track "Hope." Steady where the rest of the album is volatile, its eight-minute litany would be crushing if it wasn't for the liberation Koenig finds in admitting "Our enemy's invincible/I had to let it go." Similarly, the ease with which the band raises the bar is equally impressive and appealing. Only God Was Above Us isn't just a great album in its own right -- it's one that enriches the understanding of Vampire Weekend's entire history.
OPPENHEIMER wins big at Oscars
The 2024 Oscars undoubtedly felt less exciting than some previous years. After all there were no big shockers like the Moonlight mishap, no major underdog vindications like the culmination of last year’s Everything Everywhere campaign.
GEORGE ORWELL & Stephen Fry
I would say to Alice that a performance of 1984 at The Royal Exchange Theatre fifteen years ago was perhaps the most harrowing night I have ever spent in a theatre. It was loud in voice and scaring in depiction with some scenes of a violent and sexual nature, in this small theatre in the round.
review by Hilary Dawes ANIMAL FARM at the Octagon Bolton
An incredibly talented and strong cast
THE ATLANTIC MUSEUM RE-OPENED
His art objects are therefore positive examples of nature conservation. His works contribute to improving environmental awareness and at the same time offer the opportunity to admire the natural beauty of the fascinating underwater world.
MUSICAL FOLKLORE IN TIME AND SPACE
The programme celebrated the joy of creating the new to meet a need. the joy of creativity and that moment when we realise somehow creat something new
PLAYERS PICK THREE COMPOSERS
It felt strange to be sitting in a Lanzarote theatre waiting to welcome Britsh musicians to the stage. This was not a full size St. Martin In The Fields, but was of eight representatives who played beautifully
Sidetracks and Detours present PASS IT ON 40 Sunday Supplement 18 2 2024
In the album liner notes Darrell Scott says " My wish is for you to slow down for 52 minutes. I believe there is pure beauty here. These songs are perfect examples of song as literature. Ben's songs are timeless. I loved getting right in the middle of these songs and offering my best. These are great songs: period."
ILDEFONSO AGUILAR, ARTIST
Aguilar is an artist who has shown his vision of Lanzarote internationally and has received numerous awards and exhibitions of his works in different countries inside and outside Europe, such as: Germany, Belgium, Holland and the United States