Bid to release lynx in Kielder is launched
THE heady days of punk in the provinces is to be celebrated as part of this summer’s Whitley Bay Film Festival.
The festival runs from August 10 to September 3 and includes a two-day event at the Exchange in Howard Street in North Shields from August 25 highlighting the film, art, design and attitude of punk rock.
There will be a live show from punk band Penetration, a free exhibition on the genre and a rare showing of the 1980 film The Great Rock ’n’ Roll Swindle on the big screen.
To mark the 40 years since their founding in Ferryhill in County Durham, Penetration will be playing at the Exchange on August 25, with projected archive pictures and film footage.
The band released singles like Don’t Dictate and Firing Squad, plus two albums – Moving Targets and Coming up for Air.
There will be a solo set by Jilted John (Graham Fellows), who will also be appearing on August 24 at the Crescent Club in Cullercoats with his Southern Softies show.
On August 25-26 The Exchange will also stage an exhibition which includes:
Historic punk – Graphic material curated by punk historian and graphic design specialist Russ Bestley
Pauline Murray’s original handpainted and dyed clothing, press cuttings and photographs from throughout her career dating back to 1977 with punk group Penetration
An exhibition of Punk Art, curated by Gaye Black, former bass player for the Advert.
August 26 sees a screening at the Exchange of The Great Rock n’Roll Swindle, based on the Sex Pistols, with a panel discussion.
In the first two weeks of August, The Exchange will exhibit punk inspired artwork from Tyne Metropolitan College students titled The Future Belongs To Yesterday – Visual Concepts For An Exhibition Of Punk Art & Design 1976 – 1979.
On August 30, the central hall of the National Trust’s Seaton Delaval Hall will be the setting for the festival’s screening of the 1920 German film The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, who uses his hypnotic skills to dastardly ends.
The film will be accompanied by the live music of the Old Police Collective, who performed this year at Glastonbury.
Two films with a seaside setting feature in the festival. Brighton Rock (1947) opens the festival on August 10 at the seafront Rendezvous café in Whitley Bay, followed by Wish You Were Here (1987) loosely based on the early life of notorious madame Cynthia Payne, at the town’s Jam Jar cinema on August 16.
There will also be two outdoor film shows. The railway stationbased 1945 film Brief Encounter will be shown at the Whitley Bay Station Master’s community garden while on September 1 a free showing of Mama Mia! will take place on the seafront plaza.
There is a double helping of archive nostalgia. On August 23 at the Crescent Club, the Kinetoscope Show will present film from BBC North East’s news and documentary archive.
On August 28 at Whitley Bay Playhouse, the British Film Institute’s Britain on Film tour spotlights the film heritage of the North East coastline, with Whitley Bay and surrounding areas featuring prominently.
St Mary’s Lighthouse in Whitley Bay is the venue for several film showings, including Cat People, Song of the Sea, The Seventh Seal, and The Boat That Rocked. ■■Full 2017 festival line up and ticket information at https://www. whitleybayfilmfestival. co.uk/2017-programme AN application has now been made to reintroduce the lynx to the Northumberland countryside on a trial basis.
The Lynx UK Trust has submitted an application to Natural England to bring six of the wild cats from Sweden to Kielder Forest.
If permission is given, four females and two males wearing satellite collars to monitor their movements will be released into the forest for five years.
No date has been set for the proposed reintroduction, but the trust said it could be by the end of 2017 if the plans are approved.
The chief scientific adviser on the project, Dr Paul O’Donoghue, said: “Tens of thousands of man-hours of work by a huge team of people have gone into consultations shaping this final application which marks a significant milestone in the history of UK conservation – potentially the first return of an extinct predator, which could prove to be a really keystone species for our ecosystem.”
Dr O’Donoghue said the reintroduction of the lynx could bring economic benefits to the Kielder area, suggesting it could be known as “the kingdom of the lynx”, a unique eco-tourism destination in the UK.
He said his team has had positive feedback from local businesses, with the Angler’s Arms pub, in Kielder, already sporting a life-size replica lynx above the bar.
He said: “We’ve now reached a point where we feel every piece of research has been done, every concern that can be raised has been raised, and the only way to move truly forward is with an intensively monitored trial reintroduction of a small number of cats.
“That can tell us exactly how suitable the lynx would be for a larger reintroduction.”
The last British lynx, closely related to the north European lynx, disappeared around 700 AD – most likely due to hunting and deforestation.
The trust said there are no recordings of attacks on humans by lynx anywhere in the world.