Shades of Grey

Tonight legendary BBC Journalist Kate Adie gave a very entertaining and thought provoking talk in Morley Town Hall as part of the Literature Festival. Hers is a name that has passed into legend- indeed it became a running joke during the first Gulf War that soldiers would write letters home saying All quiet here- still no sign of Kate Adie…

I hadn’t realised that she first became known as the voice of the Iranian Embassy Siege in 1980. She tells us that the snooker fans still haven’t forgiven her for interrupting the championships! She isn’t quite as “RP“ as she sounded then although she is still well spoken, especially for a Wearsider.

There was pretty much a full house and she talked for 45 minutes, taking questions for another 20 minutes or so. (She was only asked three questions but she gave lengthly answers).

There was a raffle afterwards, although no-one had sold us tickets up on the balcony. Also the stage lighting left a lot to be desired, not very bright, at too low an angle and overly pink.

Here is the 1980 seige-

Lots of Kate on Youtube.

Blue Peter is 50 today. I remember being a fervent watcher from roughly 1968 to 1972, the reign of Valerie  Singleton, John Noakes and Peter Purves.

Some moments stick in the mind, like the time Noaksey took us up Big Ben, or when Peter’s dog Petra died, the imitation log fire caught fire at the Christmas Carol service, or when Lulu the elephant ran amok in the studio. It was live in those days other than the location footage so anything could happen but it was mostly calm and well ordered, or it looked it. I made advent candle calenders out of coat hangers, collected milk bottle foil tops for the appeals, made pen holders out of washing up liquid bottles and useless objects covered in sticky-back plastic.

My favourite Blue Peter Book was the book of Television and I always got a Blue Peter Annual of Father Christmas. (I particularly liked Bleep and Booster).

One year, I was surprised (and delighted) to get an envelope with the BBC logo on it. Inside was a letter from Biddy Baxter, congratulating me for doing so well in the Annual competition. The prize was a…

Blue Peter Competition winner badge!

(I don’t have it any more.)

One day, Peter Purves came to Newcastle, visiting a bookstore. I managed to get him to sign my Blue Peter annual, on a photo of him and John Noakes wearing the trousers of Britain’s biggest man. I realised all was not perfect in Blue Peter land when Peter offered to sign all over Noakesey’s face!

This takes me back,,,

This morning, David went to sit the practice entrance exam at Heckmondwike Grammar. He did very well- but he certainly should have done, as it was the same paper he had been practising since their open evening!

It wasn’t totally wasted, as it gave him the opportunity to do it under exam conditions whilst we did the shopping. We nearly spoilt it all by giving him beans on toast made on mouldy bread (he had a dicky tummy earlier in the week and we suspect it was some past its best Weetabix).

We then nipped into Morley for the big book swap, an advance literacy festival event. (We will be going to three shows during the week).

For the afternoon, we visited a Circus who had set up their tent in nearby Tingley. Circus Mondao is in its third year and brings back animals to the big top- horses, shetland ponies, camels, llamas, goats, zebras, doves, a dog and a very furry rabbit. This went down very well with the children and the 50p visit to the stables afterwards was very popular. The show was rather good although the generator tripped at one point during the show.

Having animals in the Circus upsets the righteous (indeed Blackpool Tower and Yarmouth gave up animal acts under pressure many years ago) but they seemed to be well looked after in the ring and well cared for behind the scenes (& DEFRA seem to agree).

If you’ve ever wanted to watch a big top being erected in three minutes, here is their video.

A few snaps from the day.

Denisa Marsa, the Lucky Stars Lady, has put up a love song on YouTube. Originally, embedding was turned off, but it has now been opened up so I am delighted to feature it here. It is one of those songs that grows on you, but at the end when Andy & Trevor join in I think it sends it a bit flat.

I notice in the comments that her forthcoming new album which was originally going to be called Romantic Lives is now to be called I’m still here and is due early in 2009.

Denise has a new website with some great music on it, including a really tight studio version of the above, check it out. (I don’t like that drawing of her on the front page though, she looks much better than that).

Last night we went to see the Morley Operatic performing at Leeds’ new amateur theatre, the Carriageworks. This opened two years ago and this is the second time that MAOS have put on a show there.

The theatre seats up to 349, although several side seats are restricted view and seating capacity drops if the orchestra pit is ued.

The theatre is opposite the Civic Hall on the Leeds Patio Millennium Square and here is a shot of the building from last week.

The entrance at ground floor level has the box office and stairs down to an internal courtyard area that has various bars & restaurants known as the Electric Press Courtyard.

The theatre is actually two venues and several meeting rooms spread across four upper floors. On one of the half landings, I was pleased to find a painting of the former civic theatre which has now been changed back into its original format to become the Leeds Arena within the Leeds City Museum, as mentioned last weekend.

There was some form of private function going on in the first floor foyer (patrons and Councillors) so we went up to the 2nd floor bar that has great views out onto the square.

David spotted that they were selling Revels and as he reckoned he hadn’t had any before, persuaded us to buy him a bag to munch during the show.  (He had heard about the “eviction” and definitely suggests coffee flavour to go).

Inside the theatre, it feels very intimate, although the proscenium arch is a full 31′6″, a very good width for most shows. The rows are rather cramped though and the seats bounce when people move in the stalls area as the rows behind the cross-aisle are on put-away bleachers.

I was delighted to see a dozen musicians in the orchestra pit, the standard MAOS musical fare for shows I have previously seen is for three keyboards and a drummer but it never sounds  as rich (or unsynthesised) as individual musicians. I noticed that one lady didn’t actually have an instrument and I eventually twigged that she was the prompter!

The theatre has three galleries either side. The tiered stalls area rises to the second level (with extensive control rooms beyond) and the third level becomes a shallow balcony of about five rows. This courtyard style of seating is at its best by papering the walls with people, but as the show wasn’t sold out he side rows were somewhat empty.

I was also delighted to see a rich set of red velvet tabs (tableaux curtains) flown in and used for the interval and curtain calls. They were entirely without embellishment (as was the plain false proscenium above.

The show was Cole Porter’s Anything Goes and it has certainly stood the test of time, with its opening in 1934 and many of the songs still well known today. The set was on the foredeck of an ocean liner, with scenes held within on a selection of (rather wobbly) stage trucks. The show was very well performed, the singing varying from OK to excellent. Yorkshire accents would occasionally infect the trans-atlantic twang however…

MAOS are able to put on a much better show in this theatre than the Morley Town Hall and the lighting is several magnitudes of quality better, having an extensive rig to call on.

The sound was mostly OK, but some of the cast wearing clip-on radio mics managed to catch them on occasions, causing a brief sonic earthquake.

I had heard mixed reviews of this theatre but I decided that I liked it, it felt theatrical and that is what counts.

You can see a Carriageworks 360 degree near-sphere photo-thingy of the main venue here,., from the venue virtual tour. Canadian residents, try and not get too dizzy… 

By th way, here is the latest on the Revels…

Rats, I like the coffee ones!