Radio Tyne (From The Northern Echo)

Radio Tyne

3:24pm Thursday 3rd December 2009

• Print
• Email
• Share
• Comments(0)

Viv Hardwick reports on a musical theatre tour which aims to bring back the nostalgia of the Fifties.

THIS month sees awardwinning North-East songwriter Jez Lowe and North Yorkshire’s Badapple Theatre combining on a national tour which harks back to the old Tyneside radio shows of the Fifties.

Badapple were awarded £5,000 from the Northern Rock Foundation for this seasonal presentation, entitled Geordie’s Winter Almanac Radio Roadshow. Audiences across the country will be taken back to the days when listeners were invited to gather round the winter firesides of the cottages and terraces in the shadow of the dockyard cranes and the pit-wheels, for an evening of songs, tunes, recitations and comedy, with a backdrop of archive film and photographs.

Lowe, hailed for his contributions to the recent Sony award-winning BBC Radio Ballads, and whose songs have been covered by the likes of Fairport Convention and The Dubliners, will be joined by his longtime band The Bad Pennies, with Kate Bramley (vocals/ violin), Andy May (Northumbrian Pipes) and David De La Haye (bass), plus special guests Tyneside balladeer Benny Graham and young multi-instrumentalist Andrew Cadie for a night of homespun revelry.

Lowe says: “The Winter Almanac show is a follow-up to the 2007 show we did called A Song For Geordie, which itself was inspired by a radio series of that name that I produced for BBBC Radio 2 in 1999.

“Throughout the research for both projects I kept hearing mention of an old radio series called Wot Cheor Geordie, that was broadcast in the Forties and Fifties from Newcastle, that was very much responsible for the continued popularity of Geordie songs and humour.

“That tradition stretched back for a century or more, and was then taken up by Bobby Thompson, Mike Neville, and so many more. In The Winter Almanac we’re framing a bunch of local songs, some old some new, all with a season feel, within the framework of a fond pastiche of the Radio Show. There’s more accent on the songs and music than the humour, but often the two go hand-inhand.

“The whole thing is being produced by Badapple Theatre, who have established themselves as a leading exponent in presenting local theatre around the North in the past three years.”

Tour dates: Wednesday, Bishop Auckland Town Hall, Box Office: 01388- 602610, 8pm, tickets: £8 bishopauckland.org.uk December 16, Saltburn Community Theatre, Box Office: 01287-622623 8pm, £8 badappletheatre.com December 18, Reeth Memorial Hall, 01748- 884759, 8pm, £15 on door, £13 advance from Reeth Post Office.

December 27, The Sage Gateshead, 0191-443-4661. 2pm start. £10 with thesagegateshead.org

• Print
• Email
• Share
• Comments(0)