Thirty years ago South Yorkshire was in the middle of the Miners Strike. The award winning documentary, Still the Enemy Within, is being shown again to mark this historic working class struggle.
Thirty years ago South Yorkshire was in the middle of the Miners Strike. The award winning documentary, Still the Enemy Within, is being shown again to mark this historic working class struggle.
Karen Sherwood, is a local artist, who abseiled by the side of Andrew Motion’s poem to raise money for the Red Cross. The poem by the former poet laureate is on the Owen Building in the Centre of Town.
The GMB held a picket today at the Beighton Road recycling site. They are asking for better facilities, fairer pay and against alleged bullying. Veolia and Sheffield City Council said they are continuing to support the Green Company and are encouraging discussions so that issues can be resolved quickly.
Parents and children, from Anns Grove School in Heeley, who have to cross a busy main road to get to school held a protest to support their lollipop lady who is being moved to another school and not being replaced. The parents stopped traffic for 3 minutes at a time and things got tense when drivers found the road blocked.
Stuart Gray admits Wednesday are looking at bringing new players in to the squad and how his team is going to play against Norwich.
Nick Clegg, MP for Hallam, launched Tech North in Sheffield this week. Over 200,000 people are working in the creative and technical industries in the North. The scheme aims to see this number doubled.
Thursday saw hundreds of people gathering in Sheffield to celebrate Diwali, the Festival of Lights. Candles are lit and there is singing, dancing and fireworks to mark the occasion.
Some of you may have read my less than favourable review on the new album from The Horrors (Luminous) and how I had concluded that I was sincerely hopeful that the gig would make at least some kind of impression.
Well… although I still am yet to be even slightly moved by their latest effort, the new tracks gave a relatively enjoyable “hold music” while I waited for their better tracks.
The Leadmill was absolutely busting at the seams and even when I found myself at times less than enamoured there were a considerable amount of people that clearly were. Despite a slightly awkward amount of interference, there is no denying that the group as a whole delivered a fairly wonderful performance.
My appreciation was given mostly to the Primary Colours tracks (Scarlet Fields, A Sea within a Sea etc.) which just had much more energy and substance to them than the new songs which, as I say, felt more as if they acted as interlude music until the next “proper” track was played.
As the Horrors have gradually appeared to have toned things down since Strange House (the album that nobody talks about) it may very well be possible that I was expecting just something a little more exciting and perhaps shouldn’t have been. I understand that there comes a time for a band to mature or perhaps even explore a new path, it is just unfortunate that for me, The Horrors have lost a lot of their uniqueness and magic along the way.
The main room at Sheffield’s finest alternative nightclub was filled to the brim for Kids in Glass Houses on the 12th October. The silence broke and a familiar yet unusual tune began to play. It was “Non, je ne regrette rien” by Edith Piaf – and it halted every conversation in the room. The tension skyrocketed after the classic had come to an end and there was a brief silence before the excited cheers and squeals of fans.
On came Kids in Glass Houses and began one of the most fun gigs I have attended in quite some time. Aled Phillips (lead singer) addressed the audience and kicked things off with Artbreaker I from the 2010 album Dirt. I was surprised and elated at the pure talent he possessed singing live with each track sounding like a recording taken from a studio perfected album.
I was wooed by impressive showmanship, Aled climbed on stage equipment and hung on to metal bars. There was absolutely no barrier between audience and performer as he responded to peoples’ shouts and made jokes with the crowd. When Aled pointed the microphone towards us, the entire room sang back, it was truly delightful. There was a perfect mix of songs from old to new as the group conjured up a near perfect set list containing songs from four studio albums.
Not once did it look as if performing that night looked like a chore and in return the crowd reciprocated the same passion and energy, when the band said bounce, the room moved in unison. It was an extraordinarily exciting gig, upon arrival I wouldn’t have expected myself to have been dancing and shouting lyrics along with everybody else but it was irresistible. It was clear that the band and the audience had the same agenda – to have a great time, and this was exactly what happened.
Towards the middle of the night, the group slowed it down a little for an acoustic song which promoted a sea of waving arms and a couple of cheeky lighters in the air, then things exploded to finish on a wonderfully high note. It is a huge shame that this will be the last time that Kids in Glass Houses will be playing with the announcement of a breakup in February 2014. These guys are not normally my cup of tea musically but if I left every gig I went to with that same level of happiness and excitement the world would be a better place.
The four Police and Crime Commissioner candidates were invited to speak at a hustings event held at the Central United Reform Church on Norfolk Street, and jointly organised by Sheffield for Democracy and South Yorkshire Neighbourhood Watch.
Conservative candidate Ian Walker, English Democrat candidate David Allen, Labour candidate Alan Billings, and UKIP candidate Jack Clarkson all had the chance to speak for five minutes, followed by questions from the audience.
Vicky Seddon, co-ordinator of Sheffield For Democracy said: ‘Rotherham has shown how supposedly democratic structures can fail. This is certainly true of the Police and Crime Commissioner post, and if we have to have this official in this way then we need to be careful who we choose.’
The election takes place on Thursday 30 October, with the count on Friday 31 October.
Kathryn Smiles was at the PCC hustings event, reporting here for Sheffield Live.