New Folk Programme in Manchester 2

Subject: RE: New Folk Programme in Manchester 2
From: Harry Basnett
Date: 15 Aug 03 - 03:59 PM

Hi, Allan ( John????????),

       How are things going at Radio Shropshire? Our club is starting earlier now so no time to listen at all these days. Nice to see you taking an interest in GMR...must be nice sitting on the outside of this thread looking in. :0)

Are you still decorating the studio?

All the Best........Harry.

Subject: RE: New Folk Programme in Manchester 2
From: Alio
Date: 18 Aug 03 - 05:31 AM

Yes, it is possible to do outside broadcasts - Mike's told me that I should judge all requests on individual merit, bearing the cost in mind - someone would have to come with me of course. So get any good ideas to me in writing. I can think of some I'd like to do, but I need the request to come from someone else!

It's going to be more difficult takling calls after the show now, as I've changed studio. GMR Country follows me in the same studio, so the handover is very brief. I'll either have to take calls during the show, or have them diverted to another room - it's not impossible. I've always received a few calls, so I don't want that to stop.

Ali

Subject: RE: New Folk Programme in Manchester 2
From: Watson
Date: 18 Aug 03 - 08:13 AM

Hi Harry - it would make me feel very guilty to hijack Ali's thread, otherwise I would tell you that we are thriving in Shropshire.
I might also explain for those who don't know that we always consider the studio looks a bit utilitarian on the webcam without some embellishment.
Last night you would have seen Genevieve dancing in her greenwood bower.
After Warwick festival, having had no time at home for domestic chores, you would have seen me doing the ironing.
A couple of weeks ago we filled the studio with many and various hats.
Alan Surtees of Bridgnorth Festival took a fancy to the pith helmet. (He would have taken it home but we told him not to take the pith).
But since this is a thread about a wonderful new show in Manchester, all that will have to remain unsaid...
...especially the bad joke.

PS - we have no objection to you recording the show on a Sunday to listen to in the week - but you wouldn't have much luck in the phone-in competitions.

PPS - who is John?

Subject: RE: New Folk Programme in Manchester 2
From: Alio
Date: 18 Aug 03 - 09:07 AM

It sounds good, Watson - I'll have to come over and pick up some tips!!

Ali

Subject: RE: New Folk Programme in Manchester 2
From: Watson
Date: 18 Aug 03 - 09:50 AM

You'd be very welcome Ali.
Talking about OBs, I should be taking the radio car to Bridgnorth next week for some live inserts into the show.

Subject: RE: New Folk Programme in Manchester 2
From: Harry Basnett
Date: 18 Aug 03 - 02:28 PM

Probably best not to ask, Allan....probably best not to ask...

Ali's been moved to a different studio but I still doubt whether she'll have much room for a forest setting!

Love to Genevieve and Amy.....

Subject: RE: New Folk Programme in Manchester 2
From: Watson
Date: 19 Aug 03 - 05:29 AM

Thanks Harry, I'll pass that on.
Incidentally, it might be worth saying that you manage to listen to Genevieve's show - or you did when you were at home on Sunday nights.
A few people seem to be able to pick it up in Manchester and Liverpool - probably on one of the Radio Stoke frequencies. If anyone else fancies joining us there is some good music to be heard.

Subject: RE: New Folk Programme in Manchester 2
From: Harry Basnett
Date: 19 Aug 03 - 02:16 PM

You're quite right, Allan - - it is one of the Stoke frequencies and usually involves trundling round the room with the radio pointing the aerial at all compass points till you get a decent reception -- but its worth it in the end!!

Bear in mind after all this plugging of Radio Shropshire I fully expect a decent mention for Extravaganza 5 in October! :0)

Cheers.........Harry.

Subject: RE: New Folk Programme in Manchester 2
From: treewind
Date: 19 Aug 03 - 04:41 PM

Ali - I've emailed Doug Bailey at Wild Goose studios to put your station on his circulation list. Your BBC neighbours in Merseyside and Shropshire have received copies of Sharp Practice (Mary Humphreys and myself) and as Mary, a long term Manchester resident, is well known to some of your listeners you really should have one!

And hello Allan - when I got your email I hadn't really been paying attention and didn't notice that you were here too!

We'll be looking out for you at Bridgnorth...

Anahata

Subject: RE: New Folk Programme in Manchester 2
From: Watson
Date: 20 Aug 03 - 05:14 AM

Plugging Harry? Is that what we're doing? I do apologise.
I think your extravaganzas are fine events, well worth a mention. Although we haven't experienced them first hand, people tell us what a good format it is - thoroughly enyoyable events.

...and yes Anahata, we'll be at Bridgnorth most of the weekend - look forward to meeting you.

Now can we get this thread back on track - it's supposed to be about a rather fine new Folk Programme in Manchester I seem to remember.

Subject: RE: New Folk Programme in Manchester 2
From: Harry Basnett
Date: 21 Aug 03 - 05:39 PM

Just before we get fully back on track....Anahata - - make sure Les Bond at Lancashire Drift has a copy of the CD...

Right, Ali....over to you......

All the best........Harry and Sara.

Subject: RE: New Folk Programme in Manchester 2
From: GUEST,Les the .............
Date: 22 Aug 03 - 01:51 PM

I think its a cheek the way people keep using these really interesting threads for their own purposes.I would never mention........ unless it was really relevent

Subject: RE: New Folk Programme in Manchester 2
From: Harry Basnett
Date: 22 Aug 03 - 07:43 PM

Yeah, Les....and your silence speaks volumes........

Subject: RE: New Folk Programme in Manchester 2
From: GUEST,Les the confused
Date: 23 Aug 03 - 02:25 AM

I am really pleased Greater Manchester has a folk programme again. It seems a thousand years since Mike Billington's show and what about that Harry.......... on Picaddily, what was his name then?

Seems a bit of an unfortunate ding dong in the middle of a great thread.

Sunshine, sunshine, a happy day,
Off to the Cricket match, I'm away,
Somebody else can work for me,
I'm the happy absentee.

Subject: RE: New Folk Programme in Manchester 2
From: Mark Dowding
Date: 23 Aug 03 - 04:20 AM

Les

Harry Ogden was the bloke who did a Sunday night folk programme on Piccadilly Radio called "Folkspan". I spoke to him not so long ago. He told me that when Owen Oyston took over the company he could see the writing on the wall for programmes like his so he got out before he was pushed. Harry did another programme on one of the other local stations - Century FM I think - for a while but I don't think he's doing anything now.
Cheers
Mark

Subject: RE: New Folk Programme in Manchester 2
From: GUEST,Les in Chorlton, Manchester
Date: 23 Aug 03 - 04:34 AM

Yes, Harry Ogden indeed. I seem to remember he played a lot more recorded music and lots of excellent Irish stuff at the time when the BBC Radio 4 programme was a bit dull. Mike Billington's GMR show had lots of local interest which is what the new programme looks like it will have.

I know Mike Harding gets some stick for some of his countryish stuff, on his show but he does play some fantastic music and he does know and love everybody.

If the new GMR show is to survive it has to entertain a wide collection of people than us folkies. No criticism, honest, but things can get a bit parochial and then can exclude non-folkies who would probably enjoy the music.

Subject: RE: New Folk Programme in Manchester 2
From: Harry Basnett
Date: 23 Aug 03 - 06:36 AM

There's a country music programme on right afterwards, Les...let's not go down that path, eh?

Subject: RE: New Folk Programme in Manchester 2
From: GUEST,Les in Chorlton, Manchester
Date: 23 Aug 03 - 07:21 AM

Me neither, but I do think that Mike Harding has done a lot for Folk on 2 and am prepared to forgive most of the Irish and Western he slides in. I suppose Irish Traditional music slides into pop and country much more easily than English Trad music has and so all those great International Irish women who started in traditional music sing what sounds like country.

Subject: RE: New Folk Programme in Manchester 2
From: Harry Basnett
Date: 23 Aug 03 - 07:43 AM

'Sounds of Folk' is sandwiched between 'The Parlour' and the country music programme and to exist in its own right must continue as a folk programme and not fall into the trap of merely becoming some sort of crossing point between the two.

Ali has done a fine job with 'Sounds of Folk' which has rapidly become established in a permanent slot and I'm a great believer in "if it ain't broke, don't fix it....."

Cheers.........Harry.

Subject: RE: New Folk Programme in Manchester 2
From: Bernard
Date: 23 Aug 03 - 08:08 AM

Agreed. Folk music is too often a 'Cinderella' subject which people feel needs to be 'watered down' to be appealing to the masses.

This programme isn't aimed at entertaining the masses - it is educating them by showing them what they are otherwise missing!!

Lots of people are turned on to Folk by hearing it done properly - and in a proper context.

Yes, the programme is somewhat parochial. How else will it get its message across?! Non-folkies are only people who aren't folkies - yet!!

The programme's slot is only an hour - of which fifty minutes (or less) is actual programme. If Ali starts filling time with other stuff that, as Harry has pointed out, happens on either side of the slot, the fifty minutes will be eroded further.

Better still, why not harangue 'The Parlour' and the country slot to include more folk?!! ;^))

Subject: RE: New Folk Programme in Manchester 2
From: GUEST,Les in Chorlton
Date: 23 Aug 03 - 01:14 PM

I think their is a genuine problem with what is the smallest audience before the programme gets taken off and how far can you dilute before it misses the point entirley.

Ok I will wait until Monday and see how it rolls.

Subject: RE: New Folk Programme in Manchester 2
From: GUEST,Les in Chorlton
Date: 26 Aug 03 - 12:14 PM

Blackburn 2 Manchester City 3.

Which takes City to the top of the Premiership for the first time since Cecil Sharp stumbled into a quarry in Oxford, well nearly.

Subject: RE: New Folk Programme in Manchester 2
From: GUEST,Alan
Date: 26 Aug 03 - 12:38 PM

This is all very interesting, but when I tuned in on Monday so that I could listen and form my own opinion, I could only get football.

Could it be that the programme has been taken off because the contributers to this thread, who are supposed to be the ambassadors of folk music, can't agree amongst themselves?

Subject: RE: New Folk Programme in Manchester 2
From: Mark Dowding
Date: 26 Aug 03 - 12:55 PM

The show may have a permanant slot now but it (and the other shows either side of it) still have to move out of the way when one of the local teams plays on a Monday night. Hopefully this won't be too often - depends on the whims of the people at Sky Sports!

Like Bernard said - the show isn't for mass appeal - it's a programme specialising in folk music in its many forms just as the country show caters for followers of C&W music (spits on floor). Ali has played a wide range of styles since she started the show and I'm sure as the weeks progress we'll hear the full spectrum of the genre - we even had Kate Rusby the other week and people moan at Mike Harding for playing her stuff (week after week admittedly!). If the Houghton Weavers start getting played that's the time to complain!

Anyway why are you talking about taking the programme off?!! It's not so much number of listeners as number of people who write in with (preferably good) comments to the station that keep the show in the mind of the managers. That's why it got the permanant slot in the first place.

Cheers

Mark

Subject: RE: New Folk Programme in Manchester 2
From: GUEST,Alan
Date: 26 Aug 03 - 01:02 PM

Good point Mark. I've already written in complaining that the programme was moved. Not that it'll make any difference, but at least it lets them know that we are listening.

Subject: RE: New Folk Programme in Manchester 2
From: VIN
Date: 27 Aug 03 - 04:58 AM

By definition 'Parochial' = Provincial = Local. Sounds of Folk is a locally broadcast programme, see wot i mean? Mike's is on national radio so will cover a broader spectrum (eh?). Nowt against country music personally (or country & western, if you like). Perhaps radio 2 should revive the old 'Country Meets Folk' programme that went out years ago (remember Wally Whyton - gawd rest is soul - the Yetties, Johnny Silvo and Brian Brocklehurst on bass?). Oh well, each to their own.

Any road up, as Bernard sez, you only get fifty mins or so which narrows the scope of the programme a bit and it is a folk programme......so lets enjoy and 'now be thankful to your maker' as the song goes!

Subject: RE: New Folk Programme in Manchester 2
From: GUEST,Les in Chorlton
Date: 27 Aug 03 - 12:04 PM

Sorry if I was a bit obtuse with 3 -2, but being a City fan has quite a bit in common with being a folk music fan. So all though we lost the folk prog for a week City went top for 24 hours, rather like the way excellent folk pops up on mainstream TV, about once in a lifetime.

I guess we need to take the advice and write saying what is good then add gentle crits, because all crits could do much damage?

Subject: RE: New Folk Programme in Manchester 2
From: Bernard
Date: 27 Aug 03 - 01:49 PM

Yup!

Constructive criticism is, more often than not, helpful, particularly if the critic is offering a workable alternative.

Destructive criticism rarely helps - 'I don't like balloons, so I will burst them all!' - which doesn't help people who like balloons!!

What I'm trying to say is the critic who offers destructive criticism is often (but not always!) out to destroy that which they are criticising - sometimes for personal reasons.

It is difficult to be objective about something which is close to your own heart, and it sometimes takes an 'outsider' (for want of a better word) to point out the obvious. The trick is to listen to all arguments, and try to come up with a balanced solution.

Of course we would all do it differently - 'one man's meat is another man's poison'!

So far, Ali seems to be doing as good a job as anyone could be expected to do, especially given the constraints she obviously has to work with - and the amount of support she is receiving bears this out.

As Mark quite rightly pointed out 'That's why it got the permanent slot in the first place.'

At least the programme is generating a healthy discussion amongst those at whom it is aimed...!!

Long may she run!

Subject: RE: New Folk Programme in Manchester 2
From: Harry Basnett
Date: 27 Aug 03 - 04:22 PM

If only we'd beaten Portsmouth!!!

There has possibly been nothing more character building than being a folky and supporting Manchester City...facing sneers regarding one and jeers about the other.

I agree with you, Les....if we had to lose the programme on Monday the wondrous 87th. minute winner made it all worthwhile!!

Now let's all be happy bunnies again!

Subject: RE: New Folk Programme in Manchester 2
From: VIN
Date: 28 Aug 03 - 04:28 AM

And when we beat Arsenal on Sunday, the world'll be our lobster!?!
Blue mooooon....da da deee da da dee dooo, scithereee idle deee dooo........sorry!

Subject: RE: New Folk Programme in Manchester 2
From: Alio
Date: 28 Aug 03 - 06:35 AM

Treewind - thank you!

LestheConfused - I don't choose the jingles - honest!! And if I did - cricket would be the LAST thing I'd mention!

Alan - the programme was only taken off because it was Bank Holiday, which means sport, and lots of it!! It will happen again unfortunately! I wasn't the only one to suffer - sport replaced all programmes from 2 - 8p.m.. Anyway, back next Monday with 2 guests - John Howarth is popping in to talk about the Tinkers new CD, and Martin Stimson to tell us about a new festival in Mossley which is taking place on Saturday. And yes Harry, the Extravaganza will bet good coverage...and quite rightly too!!

I try to cover all aspects of 'folk' on the programme, and hopefully the music I've played has reflected that - traditional, contemporary, local artists, blues, musicians, even poetry. What else should I be doing please? Re any criticisms, Mike Shaft told me quite early that there will always be those, and that whilst taking them on board they have to be put into context.

See you on Monday - I'm playing lots of new-ish artists who've sent me their CD's.

Ali

Subject: RE: New Folk Programme in Manchester 2
From: GUEST,Les in Chorlton
Date: 28 Aug 03 - 12:24 PM

Harry, the joy of Tuesday, shamed it didn't last a bit longer but they are looking good are they not.

Sorry I have been in trouble for this before...

.... what else could the programme feature? Well, it siunds very promising as it is and it makes a cracking start to the week. Lots of other community music exists in Greater Manchester; Eastern European, Afro-Caribean, tons of Asian stuff. How about a some of them?

I seem to remember reading Bert Lloyd on collecting tunes before the war in the Balkans. When he(?) went back after the war the contact with other cultures during the war had enriched the music. Is community music alive, what do Mancunians of Asian origin do with their music and is it changing by being played here?

Subject: RE: New Folk Programme in Manchester 2
From: Mark Dowding
Date: 28 Aug 03 - 01:04 PM

Hi Les

Thought I was on the GMR Sport forum for a minute there!

GMR caters for all types of music from various backgrounds if you have a look at the weekly schedule:
GMR Schedule
Plenty to have a listen to there I'm sure.

One of the reasons I stopped buying Southern Rag... err...Folk Roots ...err.... fRoots was that it was - and maybe still is for all I know - ignoring British folk music and concentrated more on "World" music. Very rarely was there an interview with somebody I'd see at the local folk club. - not that "World" music isn't any good - dig out the CD "We are the burning fire" by Howard Goodall - excellent - but we've been fighting to get a programme that features music from people that we listen to on a regular basis. OK - play the odd track of something different now and again to broaden our musical horizons but if you're not careful then the show can diversify too much and go away from what we wanted.

(The Howard Goodall CD is a selection of songs that he came across as he's been touring different countries. From his website www.howardgoodall.co.uk:

'We Are The Burning Fire: songs from a small planet'
Howard's travels have taken him all around the world, and in visiting countries as far apart as Iceland and Japan, Italy and Brazil, he has discovered a musical world with roots far different from the classical ones of his training. The recording We Are The Burning Fire is the result of Howard's exploration of music from around the world. Rather than simply a collection of songs from around the world, however, the album features Howard's new, original arrangements of worldwide folksongs, performed by Christ Church Cathedral Choir, Oxford. "I came across songs that I had to respond to as an arranger," explains Howard, "making it my own and introducing this wonderful music to a much larger audience through the medium of solo and choral singing. The selection is itself a journey round the world." - Well worth a listen to)

Cheers
Mark

Subject: RE: New Folk Programme in Manchester 2
From: GUEST
Date: 28 Aug 03 - 02:11 PM

Thanks Mark. I agree with the general point you are making and the cautions others have made earlier. The range of music looks good whilst still staying in that area we call folk from these Islands or some such thing.

Irish people have been bringing music to Manchester for hundreds of years, they still do and it's wonderful. But to just push the idea a bit further Ukranians and Sikhs, to name but a few, have been playing music in Manchester for something like 50 odd years and its just as exciting as lots of other stuff and it is now Greater Manchester community music, just as much as Irish music is. So can we have a bit now and again?

Subject: RE: New Folk Programme in Manchester 2
From: Harry Basnett
Date: 28 Aug 03 - 02:39 PM

I stopped listening to Mike Billington's programme when it got more than a little bogged down with World Music. A few years ago there seemed to be so much of a rush to embrace music from other cultures we ended up seriously neglecting our own.


As Mark has already pointed out if you check the GMR radio listings you'll see the diversity of music and culture in the Manchester area is well catered for....if you listen to Radio Lancashire's folk programme on Thursday between 8 and 9pm. you will find it heavily features music and song from the local artists and venues with a bias to the Lancashire tradition. Ali has already pointed out that she wishes to follow much the same format with regards to the Manchester folk scene...emphasis on the Folk!!

I'm not being disparaging about your ideas, Les but you'll find other ethnic music is quite well catered for....let's be greedy and hang onto our 50 minutes!

Subject: RE: New Folk Programme in Manchester 2
From: Alio
Date: 29 Aug 03 - 04:56 AM

It's a good point though, isn't it? I definitely want to celebrate what's on / who's in in the GMR area, and that will always be my focus, but it would be good to have a flavour of other cultures on occasion, don't you think? Not sure where I'd get CD's from though.

Ali

Subject: RE: New Folk Programme in Manchester 2
From: GUEST,Les in Chorlton, Manchester
Date: 30 Aug 03 - 04:28 AM

Alio,
sounds good to me. If the programme is to have a sense of individuality and local interest, as local radio generally does, then local music and local clubs are essential. But it won't be long before the programme begins to sound, well with no disrespect, a bit dull.   

Most local clubs feature musicians from all over the country and from Ireland, Scotland, Wales, North America, Australia, Canada.......... see a pattern here? It is a consequense of having a programme about Traditional music of largely English origin that this will be the case.

But we do love that Irish music don't we. So, I re-state my case for those old Mancunian Ukranians and Sikhs who have been playing music here longer than the current generation of Irish musicians.

I am more moved by the Four Loom Weaver and the Rocky Road to Dublin but the little bits of Sikh music hits the same spot and it is alive here Manchester. So, lets have a little bit now and again?

Subject: RE: New Folk Programme in Manchester 2
From: GUEST,Peter Hood
Date: 30 Aug 03 - 01:44 PM

I just came back from the Western Isles--You wouldn't blelive the amount of music on the radio. BBC Radio Gael, nearly non stop trad music. I heard more folk music on the radio in a week than I'd hear in a year here.
And all the BBC. They don't seem to get bored up there, neither did I.
I'd think the new digital channels could possibly find room for a dedicated station.
Keep playing the stuff Ali, we won't get bored!
Peter

Subject: RE: New Folk Programme in Manchester 2
From: Alio
Date: 02 Sep 03 - 03:59 AM

Thanks for the info last night Harry. I wonder how many people would know what an "oleograph" is? As I said, it's a poor day when you learn nowt!!

Ali

Subject: RE: New Folk Programme in Manchester 2
From: Harry Basnett
Date: 02 Sep 03 - 02:29 PM

Cheers, Ali...thoroughly enjoyed the programme and it was nice to hear the track from El Greko!

Subject: RE: New Folk Programme in Manchester 2
From: Bernard
Date: 02 Sep 03 - 05:57 PM

Another meaning for oleograph is 'the pattern formed by a drop of oil spreading on water' - according to Collins.

I imagine that is more probably what Larry had in mind... ;o)

Subject: RE: New Folk Programme in Manchester 2
From: Harry Basnett
Date: 03 Sep 03 - 01:58 PM

Whatever gives you that impression, Bernard?

The sleeve notes, whether written by Bert Lloyd or Larry, for the song 'I Mean to Wait for Jack' mention a nineteenth century oleograph (most definitely a print made to resemble a painting in oils) depicting the story of a boy and a girl reunited after the Peninsular War...the song itself being taken from a broadside published by Bebbingtons of Oldham Road, Manchester about 1880.

Can't quite see where the oily water pattern comes into this, me old mucker...

For anyone not really sure what we're going on about, Ali interviewed John Howarth of the Oldham Tinkers on Monday's programme and was asking the meaning of the word 'oleograph' in the sleeve notes pertaining to the above mentioned song. :0)

Subject: RE: New Folk Programme in Manchester 2
From: Harry Basnett
Date: 03 Sep 03 - 02:09 PM

Whatever gives you that impression, Bernard?

The sleeve notes, whether written by Bert Lloyd or Larry, for the song 'I Mean to Wait for Jack' mention a nineteenth century oleograph (most definitely a print made to resemble a painting in oils) depicting the story of a boy and a girl reunited after the Peninsular War...the song itself being taken from a broadside published by Bebbingtons of Oldham Road, Manchester about 1880.

Can't quite see where the oily water pattern comes into this, me old mucker...

For anyone not really sure what we're going on about, Ali interviewed John Howarth of the Oldham Tinkers on Monday's programme and was asking the meaning of the word 'oleograph' in the sleeve notes pertaining to the above mentioned song. :0)

Subject: RE: New Folk Programme in Manchester 2
From: Harry Basnett
Date: 03 Sep 03 - 02:28 PM

Oops...."Seeing double"....(same album I think..)

Subject: RE: New Folk Programme in Manchester 2
From: Alio
Date: 04 Sep 03 - 03:49 AM

As I said, it's a poor day when you learn nowt! I thought John Howarth was brilliant - he's great to interview.

Ali

Subject: RE: New Folk Programme in Manchester 2
From: VIN
Date: 04 Sep 03 - 04:40 AM

There's a nice picture of John with Lonnie Donegan on the Tinkers web-site with some interesting historical notes. Check it out.
www.oldhamtinkers.com

Subject: RE: New Folk Programme in Manchester 2
From: GUEST,Les in Chorlton, Manchester
Date: 06 Sep 03 - 03:28 AM

Great stuff Alio.

What's the chance of a repeat at another time or better still the programme being available through the week on the BBC website?

Subject: RE: New Folk Programme in Manchester 2
From: Alio
Date: 08 Sep 03 - 08:57 AM

Not sure Les - I'll have to ask about that one.

I've got Bernard Wrigley in tonight, which should be another hilarious night, judging from his new CD! (Providing Virgin Trains get him in from London on time!!)

Ali

Subject: RE: New Folk Programme in Manchester 2
From: GUEST,Les in Chorlton, Manchester
Date: 09 Sep 03 - 12:11 PM

Great to hear Bernard, what a talent and what a nice bloke. My wife once danced with him at the Royal Exchange in Manchester, during the interval of a play in which he was appearing. I first saw him with Dave Brookes in a club in 1927 or possibly 1937, well anyway. What of Dave does he still play tunes?

Subject: RE: New Folk Programme in Manchester 2
From: Alio
Date: 13 Sep 03 - 08:49 AM

Don't know, sorry.

I agree about Bernard - he's a real gentleman, and hilarious with it! I'd have like to go to the Lowry, which is apparently sold out, although I think it clashes with Whittlebury Song and Ale, which I won't miss!!

Ali