Use the sauce Henderson’s Relish-inspired print

3 12 2008

Number two in a series of six

Artist Jim Connolly has released another Sheffield-related silkscreen print through the Archipelago Gallery.

Earlier this year he gave us the TERROR…! At Tinsley Towers! print, and his latest work is inspired by another Sheffield institution, Henderson’s Relish:

Use the sauce Henderson's Relish-inspired print

Use the sauce by Jim Connolly

There are to be a total of six prints in the Sheffield/comic book satirical series, and the Star has reported that a Dawn of the dead-inspired Meadowhall poster could be a future subject.


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Jarvis Cocker at the Carling academy, Sheffield

26 11 2008

Hometown glory for DJ Jarvis and his disco

I’ve been beaten to writing about it by this review, but Jarvis Cocker opened his new UK tour at the Carling academy last night to an appreciative hometown crowd.

As well as playing a mix of new material and songs from his debut album, he also ‘lectured’ the crowd using a selection of slides, many of which depicted Sheffield sights.

We saw a photo of a gleaming Roxy/Fiesta development, now of course the Carling academy and Odeon cinema, and also a picture of a slide built in to a hill in a playground. He described this as the slide at Endcliffe park, but if I’m not mistaken, surely he was referring to the slide at Forge dam?

After two encores he popped up in the DJ booth and treated fans to an hour-long disco, playing a eclectic range of stuff, including MC Hammer’s U can’t touch this.

Another review is here from today’s Independent.

Jarvis Cocker

Jarvis Cocker DJing at the Carling Academy, Sheffield


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BarCamp Sheffield 2.1: the Joy of Techs

8 11 2008

Calling all grass-roots geeks, creative visionaries, innovative entrepreneurs and talented technologists

I’m not sure anyone would choose to give themselves any of those titles, but if you are (take a deep breath) a developer, designer, creative, educationalist, technologist, blogger, student, entrepreneur, writer, artist, academic, geek, marketeer, investor or gamer then you should get yourself down to BarCamp Sheffield 2.1: the Joy of Techs later this month.

As explained on the BarCamp Sheffield website, a BarCamp event is an ‘unconference’ that typically takes place over a weekend. The focus is technology in its widest possible sense, and usually features demonstrations, workshops and seminars which attendees are encouraged to run themselves with the intention of maximising knowledge-sharing and learning.

It has grown out of the monthly GeekUp Sheffield events (which also come highly recommended) and takes place at the Showroom cinema cafe bar from 28-30 November. If you can’t commit to the whole weekend then you can drop in just for one of the sessions.

And whether you can attend or not, if you are on Twitter then make sure you follow @barcampsheff to keep up to date with goings-on.

BarCamp Sheffield


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Categories : arts, beer, design, digital industries, festivals, marketing, media, sheffield, technology

Live music at Don Valley stadium, Sheffield

5 11 2008

A list of concerts at the stadium from 1993 to 2006 - with videos

A previous post that mentioned getting more live music at Don Valley stadium caused me to search* the internet for some videos of shows at the venue.

Some of the clips I found are from the height of summer which seems a long way off following the dark and foggy weather Sheffield has had over the last couple of days.

So think back to summers gone by and the artists that have played at Don Valley stadium - although I seem to recall that it threw it down when the Stones played back in 2006.

* by the way, I didn’t search that hard for Celine Dion clips

Def Leppard
6 June 1993

Rocket

Let’s get rocked

Bon Jovi
28 June 1995

Rolling Stones
9 July 1995

Michael Jackson
9 July 1997
(I did find a video of Scream/They don’t care about us from this show but it has since been removed from YouTube)

Paul Weller
26 July 1997

Spice Girls
11/12 September 1998

Celine Dion
6 July 1999

Tina Turner
13 July 2000

Red Hot Chili Peppers
6 July 2006

By the way

Under the bridge

Tina Turner
18 July 2006

Rolling Stones
27 August 2006

Honky tonk women


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Categories : arts, bands, festivals, live, music, sheffield, videos

Devonshire Green’s dancing digger

27 09 2008

Transports Exceptionnels start their tour in the Sheffield sunshine

Over the last couple of days the freshly-revamped Devonshire Green has played host to a dancing mechanical digger with accompanying dance partner.

Devonshire Green's dancing digger

Hanging on: Phillipe Priasso

I joined a packed crowd this afternoon to watch the choreographed routine unfold between French dancer Phillipe Priasso and his mechanical digger, to the background sound of opera singing.

I have no knowledge or real appreciation of dance, except when I am forced to watch Strictly Come Dancing on a Saturday night, and although sceptical beforehand, I was quite impressed by the end.

The show lasted about 20 minutes, during which we saw the relationship between one man and his digger unfold, each mimicking the other and the digger taking on a life of its own, reminiscent of an animal or dinosaur.

I don’t know whether it was Danceworks or the council that took the lead in organising this, but it was good to see this kind of event in Sheffield, especially one being used to help showcase a regenerated site in town.

Devonshire Green digger dancer

Transports Exceptionnels on Devonshire Green

Here is a video of a similar performance on the South Bank in London last year:


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Categories : arts, dance, live, regeneration, sheffield, videos

Sandman goes digital

23 09 2008

The magazine is dead; long live sandmanmagazine.co.uk

Sandman is a bit of an institution in Sheffield music circles. For over six years it has been providing music fans in the city with reviews, features and listings about hundreds of bands and artists - and most importantly, the inclination to go and see them live.

Its influence shouldn’t be underestimated: many people agree that the fact that we have seen a major resurgence in the Sheffield music scene within Sandman’s lifetime is no coincidence.

However, as a free paper magazine, Sandman is coming to an end. The editorial in the current, final issue explains that they have thrown off the shackles of expensive print, with all its limitations, in favour of concentrating on revamping their website, sandmanmagazine.co.uk.

I’ll miss the aesthetic quality of the paper edition and not being able to read it on the bus (unless of course I now upgrade my mobile handset) but overall I think they have done the right thing. As well as offering an almost infinite amount of space for more depth and breadth, being on the web offers far more potential for immediacy, interactivity and rich-media content, which for a music offering is surely key.

At the moment, the site does seem to have quite a basic, web 1.0 feel about it, but hopefully with all energies being channelled into the digital version of Sandman, this will improve.


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SoYoScape by The Designers Republic

17 09 2008

A South Yorkshire landscape

A work of art caught my eye the other day, a piece called SoYoScape (2006) by the world-renowned Sheffield design agency, The Designers Republic.

This (digital?) illustration contrasts night-time splashes of neon colour and defining Sheffield architectural landmarks against a backdrop of the seven hills and a jet-black sky.

One of the few online references I could find to it was on the University of Sheffield School of Architecture’s website. It seems that this piece played a central role in a recent exhibition to celebrate the school’s centenary:

‘SoYoScape’ by Sheffield-based The Designers Republic combines the mundane and everyday with the iconic and produces a condensed and vibrant image of Sheffield as it presents itself at the beginning of the 21st century.

If you look closely you’ll be able to pick out plenty of recognisable elements from the city’s landscape (click the image for a slightly larger version)…

Soyoscape by The Designers Republic

SoYoScape (2006) by The Designers Republic


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Categories : architecture, arts, design, sheffield

Sheffield’s Grin up north comedy festival

15 09 2008

It is back and looks set to keep growing - but could do with a better website

The annual comedy festival returns next month, and it could be final one to be located solely in Sheffield. From 2009, the organisers have plans to expand it into Rotherham, Barnsley and Doncaster, which should further raise the profile of the festival in future years.

When it comes to comedy, I’m quite picky over what I enjoy, and even more picky over who I would go to see live. However, I’m looking forward to Grin up north, so decided to ask my friend - a writer for BBC Radio 4 and BBC3 and who has just returned from Edinburgh - what he recommends this year.

So, apart from the people you have probably heard of (Jimmy Carr and Dylan Moran), his picks include:

  • Jason Cook (The Lescar, Saturday 11 October) - hilarious and really moving
  • Rhod Gilbert (Memorial Hall, Sunday 12 October) - surprising that he didn’t win the main prize at Edinburgh this year
  • Rich Hall (Memorial Hall, Monday 13 October) - an all-time favourite
  • Tim Minchin (Memorial Hall, Wednesday 15 October) - one of the best shows in Edinburgh this year; a properly-done musical comedy
  • Plus Mark Steel (Memorial Hall, Wednesday 1 October) and Comedy Store Players (Oval Hall, Thursday 2 October) would be well worth seeing

Or for another person’s recommendations, you can read a Sheffield student’s picks in their (new) blog.

The Grin up north festival brochure, bundled with a recent Sheffield Telegraph, is a good guide to who is appearing, but the website needs a bit more attention. Several of the shows from last year are still promoted on there (the text links need updating on the homepage), the website browser bar title still shows 2007 (getting this right essential for good search engine optimisation) and nowhere is an at-a-glace list of all performers. And can you not book tickets online?

When comparing this to the website for the upcoming Off the Shelf reading and writing festival, I soon realised that this also wasn’t much better. Likewise, there doesn’t seem to be a basic list of all events and the only way to view what is on is by downloading a pdf of the festival brochure - again, not at all search engine or user-friendly. By all means offer a pdf download, but surely the festival listings should be on the site as a minimum?

I really want these festivals to succeed as they are an important part of the cultural life of the city, but instead of being exploited as a key marketing tool, it appears that the internet basics are not being done well at all.


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Categories : arts, comedy, festivals, marketing, promotions, sheffield, websites

Last of the Summer festival with Nat Johnson

1 09 2008

A plug for the one-day festival and Nat’s debut single

I previously wrote about Sheffield band Monkey Swallows the Universe disbanding and singer Nat Johnson going solo.

Since the split, Nat has been playing on her own at various acoustic nights but now has announced her first full band show at the Carling Academy. It will take place on Saturday 27 September to tie in with the release of her debut single Dirty Rotten Soul on Sheffield independent label Thee SPC. The video to the song was filmed at various locations in and around the city:

The gig at the Academy is going to be an all-day event, with nine other bands appearing throughout the afternoon and evening, including David Thomas Broughton, I Concur, The Kabeedies, Champion Kickboxer, Smokers Die Younger, The Yell, Urgent Talk, Mayor McCa, Rory McVicar, Laura Groves, Stereo Horizo and The Bon Bon Club.

Nat’s acoustic shows, which you can see a taster of below, have so far been a treat so it will be great to see her playing with a full band. And ten bands for ten quid is good value for money.


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Light Night in Sheffield, September 2009

27 08 2008

Showing the city’s most iconic buildings in a different light

It may be over a year away, but something to look forward to in 2009 will be the arrival of Light Night in Sheffield.

Six UK cities have been selected to host Light Night, starting with Birmingham next month. The idea is that for one night only, the key buildings in each city centre are illuminated using high quality light projections in order to show the environment from a different perspective.

To accompany this, areas in the city are also opened up for some sort of cultural, community festival.

Exact details at the moment are sketchy, but it’ll be worth keeping any eye on the other Light Night events before the Sheffield one to see what sort of thing we can expect.

Sheffield, lit up

Image by mikesm and used under Creative Commons license


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Categories : arts, design, environment, festivals, live, music, sheffield

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