Two new members of the team!

We’re pleased to introduce two new members to the Live & Local team, Fiona as Projects and Partnerships Officer and Becky as Marketing Assistant. Here is a little more about them.

Fiona & Becky enjoying the beautiful gardens near the Live & Local office.

Before joining Live & Local as Projects and Partnerships Officer Fiona has been managing arts and heritage projects in the Midlands for the last 15 years, working in both urban and rural areas. Much of her work has involved the creation of partnerships to achieve community objectives, and supporting volunteers in the delivery of community-led activities.

Fiona’s looking forward to discovering our Shindig and Live & Local venues across Staffordshire, Derbyshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire. She confesses “I have a liking for traditional timber-clad Village Halls with corrugated tin roofing, but I am also very excited about low-energy new-builds with ground-source heating and rain water collecting systems”.

Becky has recently joined the team as Marketing Assistant, having previously worked at advertising agencies and as part of in-house marketing teams. Becky is excited to be part of the Live & Local team, whilst also continuing to build The Sewing Cafe, a social sewing shop in Hinckley, which she runs with her friend.

She says “I am really looking forward to working in the community arts sector, something which is completely new to me, as well as discovering a whole host of new performers, artists and venues (and getting the Live & Local team stitching!)”.

Swinging Italians cook up a treat

During March we had a very special tour of ‘Spaghetti Swing’ direct from Italy. The show featured charming, charismatic Italian performers, great easy-listening swing jazz and pasta cooked on stage for some of the lucky audience members to enjoy!

Here are some photos from the performance at Feckenham Village Hall, nr. Redditch, on Sunday 25 March. On the same evening a member of the audience brought his Velocette scooter to show the band. It made a great prop and it’s captured in one of the pictures below!

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Images copyright @ 2012 attitudewithstyle https://www.facebook.com/attitudewithstylephotographybymaxinemelson

Shindig Promoter Meeting 2012

Shindig’s first Promoter Meeting took place at Alfrick & Lulsley Village Hall on 29^th February. What a fantastic turnout and great atmosphere! The Shindig team introduced the new menu, discussed funding and took a look at exciting projects for Shindig this year. We also enjoyed a really entertaining perfomance, ‘Anything to Declare’ by The Gramophones who had the audience getting involved in ‘chair-lates’.

A big thank you to the promoters at Alfrick & Lulsley Village Hall and to everyone who came along, we hope you had an informative, fun and useful evening!

An Artist’s Perspective

“Things are going great! I have another solo tour in South America, another new album on the way, I’ve completed more concerto work with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and have recitals booked in all over the UK and into Europe. It’s a comfortable life, all running like clockwork with all the years of practise paying off. I’m cruising!

At least that’s what it looks like from the outside. The reality has a different nuance. Hidden from view there is frantic work going on and my calm walk onto stage each night is easily the most relaxing, peaceful and controllable part of an otherwise hectic life.

Luckily there is a healing force at work in the UK. Its call the National Rural Touring Network – a national network of locally run, tiny venues, often in remote parts of the country. These venues are always packed full of music and art loving, ordinary people – and this is the perfect audience for any musician in need of nourishment after blocks of commercial touring. A rural touring audience will have often simply popped in from around the corner, just like they would pop into their local pub. The difference is that they will have come to explore something different, to experience something artistic and will often get to discuss this with the artist after the show. For me it is all positive. I get to meet lots of wonderful folk, build my audience list and develop my shows. This grass roots development really does work.

And never forget that playing a house concert to 30 people in deepest Cumbria should be taken as seriously as playing in the Albert Hall. Take my word for it!”

Richard Durrant

Richard recently visited Harvington Village Hall with his show, The Guitar Whisperer. The local Promoter said, “An electrifying show. None of us expected such quality guitar playing.”

www.richard-durrant.com

 

The show must go on!

Thank you to all the volunteers, performers and audiences that braved the snow and ice last weekend. We’ve recieved some great stories and thought we’d share them…

This came in from Heightington Village Hall Committee about their New Budapest Cafe Orchestra performance on Saturday 4th February:

“Despite difficult conditions, the show went ahead as planned. Being fairly high and exposed we tend to get snow when other places at lower levels get rain and Saturday was no exception. It started to snow in the early afternoon and continued late into the evening. Two band members arrived at about 5pm, but the other two rang in to say they were stuck in the snow. Richard, my husband, and another committee member went to find them in our 4×4 and eventually managed to tow them back to the village hall.

We began serving supper at 7pm to those who had turned up. By the time the show started at 8pm about 40% of the audience had arrived – by various means, on foot, on tractors as well as by car!! The New Budapest Cafe Orchestra was brilliant and we had a most enjoyable evening. Those there had excellent value for money, enjoying an excellent show and having ‘seconds’ and even ‘thirds’ of goulash.

At the end of the performance the husband of one of our committee members guided the band down the hill on minor roads away from Heightington to the safety of gritted roads so that they might make their way to their accomodation south of Worcester.”

Live & Local staff give their top picks from the new season of shows

Can’t decide which shows to see this spring? Some of the Live & Local office team reveal what they’re most looking forward to this season:

John our Director can’t wait to see The Way of the Drum by the Mugenkyo Taiko Drummers: “Mugenkyo have to be one of the most exciting and dynamic groups we have ever used. I won’t ever forget being in the front row at a village hall where they first used their largest drum about 10 feet away from where I sat and I could feel my chest vibrating. And yet they also have a delicate and gentle side to their music.”

Sarah our Marketing Officer’s top pick is The Lion Tamer: “I’ve only heard great things about Bash Street Theatre and I want to see them for myself. I also have fond memories of the circus as a child and have recently discovered all those silly silent comedy routines by Buster Keaton so I think this will be a match made in my theatre heaven!”

Suzanne, our Administration and Marketing Assistant chose Eddie and the Gold Tops by Badapple Theatre Company: “Set in the 1960s, this humorous theatre show looks certain to be a great night out! Eddie the Milkman is dreaming of musical stardom but life just keeps getting in his way…!”

Carly our Marketing Assistant is looking forward to Spaghetti Swing: “Somehow it seems most exciting watching international shows; getting an insite into their take on rural touring…and with gypsy jazz and pasta thrown in too, everyone is a winner!”

Emma our Development Officer chose Much Ado about Wenlock: “2012 is perfect timing for this show which celebrates the birth of the modern Olympic Games. I really enjoyed Vamos Theatre’s last production of Nursing Lives and can’t wait to see them again.”

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Click here to take a look at the full list of shows coming up this spring.

Which ones are you most looking forward to?

Happy Christmas from Shindig

On the twelfth day of Christmas Shindig gave to me

Twelve drums-a-drumming

Eleven plates of pasta

Ten Days That Shook The Kitchen

Nine infectious grooves

Eight comic cartoons

Seven trumpets blazing

Six circus stunts

Five gold rings

Four Zulus dancing

Three movie legends

Two folk rock icons

And a great show in a village hall

Christmas Wishes from Shindig