WHY does this romanticised telling of the short, highly successful life of American rock’n’roll legend Buddy Holly – it only lasted around three years before he was tragedy killed aged 22 in and air crash – conjure up images of TV’s The Good Old Days from the City Varieties Music Hall, Leeds? The answer lies…
A NEW free exhibition at Poole’s Lighthouse arts centre, RNLI: Stories of Courage 1939-45, running until 28th February, explories the way the volunteer lifeboat crews saved lives at sea in dangerous conditions, including a lifeboat that was one of the famous “little boats” that rescued soldiers pinned down on the beaches at Dunkirk. The exhibition…
PANTOMIME audiences at Theatre Royal Bath raised more than £12,600 over the festive season during 14 post-performance charity collections between Thursday 18th and Friday 26th December, after matinee and evening performances of The Further Adventures of Peter Pan. Audience favourite Jon Monie – who wrote the script and starred as pirate Smee – made an…
SARAH McQuaid is a singer-songwriter with an international background and a reputation both for the quality of her singing and multi-instrumental musicianship. She is coming to Dorset for a short tour with Artsreach, starting on Thursday 22nd January at Shipton Gorge village hall. On Saturday 24th she is at Studland and the last concert is…
THE third Shaftesbury Festival of Baroque takes place at the arts centre, St Peter’s Church, St James’s Church and other venues from 20th to 26th January. The programme ranges from film to dance to a “battle” of 17th century playwrights. Professional musicians from the region and beyond (even Cumbria) will be taking part in this…
DORSET folk musician Alastair Braidwood is leading several folk events in Dorchester over the weekend 9th to 11th January, starting with an evening of European folk dancing at the Brownsword Hall at Poundbury on Friday from 7pm. The weekend is a celebration of folk music and traditional customs with something for everyone, whatever their age…
BATH Festivals has announced some of the highlights of next year’s international music festival, with tickets for five concerts released early – a perfect post Christmas gift for the music-lover in your life! The international music festival will run from Saturday 30th May to Sunday 7th June, and the first of the newly released events…
SHUTE Festival, a celebration of books, ideas and music, based in the little village near Honiton, began in 2016, but now, at the end of its tenth year, the organisers said goodbye. In their pre-Christmas announcement Sam Knights and Bijan Omrani say: “It is hard to believe that a decade has gone by since we…
IN 1880, a famous (and frequently censored) Italian political satirist, Carlo Collodi, created a story about a poor woodcarver who made a wooden boy puppet as a companion for his old age. That puppet, Pinocchio, wanted to be a real boy, but he had to contend with a nose that grew every time he told a…
ALL I want for Christmas is … a good murder mystery! And if that comes with a generous dose of laughter all the better. Strange creatures that we are, there is apparently nothing we enjoy more than dead bodies piling up in a splendid country house, crumbling castle or remote island hideaway. Agatha Christie was…