Music and festivals aplenty in past year
MY musical highlights of the year reflect the numerous opportunities in our borough to enjoy music across a wide spectrum of genres.
The Saturday lunchtime concerts at St Chad’s and the Wednesday lunchtime concerts at St Mary in the Baum brought us classical musicians of the highest quality, playing music from the popular to the avant-garde.
Rochdale Music Society continued to thrive and gave us the Brixi Singers at Bamford Chapel.
Jazz on a Sunday ensured that our rich heritage in this form of music was enhanced by some outstanding performers.
In the world of rock, folk and blues, I was inspired by singersongwriter Althea Petrides.
The Lol Goodman Band launched a new CD and announced the band is booked for the Great British Rock Blues Festival in 2017.
Drummer Kev Whitehead gigged all over Europe with Dare and Barclay James Harvest, still finding time to do session work on Lisa Stansfield’s upcoming album and form a new duo with his wife, singer-songwriter Rebecca.
Guitar Star Becky Langan amazed audiences with her amazing technique and released an EP.
Oakenhoof Folk Arts performed a mixture of traditional song and dance to great acclaim across the borough.
In festival news, Rochdale Feel Good Festival gave us the opportunity, all be it a very wet one, to see a sample of homegrown talent, including Becky Langan, Oakenhoof, Andy Kelly’s The Scattering, M6 Youth Theatre, Turner’s Dance Academy and Multicultural Arts and Media Centre.
The Rochdale Literature and Ideas Festival brought us such luminaries of the literary world as Joanne Harris, Ian and Andrew McMillan, Lesley-Ann Jones, Mark Billingham, John Connolly and Anne Cleeves.
All Across the Arts’ fringe event was highlighted by Touchstones Creative Writing Group Pulling Threads, Seamus Kelly, Eileen Earnshaw, Robin Parker, members of Weaving Words and musicians Tapestry Road and Becky Langan.
What an amazing year - and I have only covered my personal highlights!
Across our borough, there are ample opportunities for everybody to enjoy the local talent alongside an eclectic programme of national and international names. We at All Across the Arts can’t wait to see what 2017 brings. We are looking forward to bringing you previews, reviews and interviews. To submit your own review, email steve@aata.me.