Festive fun

2:59pm Thursday 29th November 2007

Two musical events are helping to put Middlesbrough on the map next weekend. Viv Hardwick reports

MIDDLESBROUGH has again been added to the impressive list of New York, Philadelphia and Santa Barbara as one of the venues taking part in New Yorkbased composer Phil Kline's magical Unsilent Night this year. The international artist continues his love affair with Teesside, when he brings his contemporary take on Christmas carolling back to the streets of the town next Sunday. First performed in Greenwich Village in 1992, this is the fourth year Phil Kline has brought Unsilent Night to the town, the only UK venue.

Unsilent Night is a unique audience participation work and anyone, no matter what age, with a portable CD or cassette player can take part.

No musical knowledge is necessary.

Kline will give out pre-recorded tapes and CDs to the players and, following a countdown, everyone will switch on at the same time. They will then stroll round the town and shopping centres, passing through the Centre Square, into mima (Middlesbrough Institue of Modern Art) - where the wonderful hard surfaces will help reverberate the sound. The composition includes a range of instruments from bells and harps to electronic synthesiser effects and 16th century carols with each participant playing a different part.

The whole melds together to produce a surreal and unpredictable soundscape.

The performance lasts 40 minutes.

Kline says, "The composition was made for an infinite number of CD and cassette players. It's almost like everybody involved is playing a part in an orchestra."

Bob Kerr, deputy mayor of Middlesbrough, who first saw the performance in New York and was determined to bring the event to the town says: "This is the fourth performance of Unsilent Night in Middlesbrough. The magic of the piece attracts people of all ages and backgrounds for a celebration to cheer us up in mid-winter and to bring us together to create wonderful sounds.

And each time it's different - a simple idea that produces a cloud of music. I can guarantee that you won't ever have had an experience like it."

The free event starts at 3.30pm on Sunday, December 9. Participants should meet outside mima in Centre Square, Middlesbrough, TS1 2AZ at 3pm. Bring a CD or tape player. Just turn up, or register by ringing Middlesbrough Council events team on 01642-729138 or e-mail liz_james@middlesbrough.gov.uk MIDDLESBROUGH football commentary legend Alastair Brownlee is one of three guests confirmed for the Beer Pigs first Town Hall gig on Friday, December 7, alongside TFM's Graham Mack, and former Hope Springs Eternal frontman Bill Angus also adding to the special atmosphere on the night.

Brownlee has recorded a voiceover to introduce the band onstage. Mack will be greeting fans as part of his mission to create a new world record by shaking 100,000 hands before next July.

The band will be celebrating 20 years together after childhood friends Dave Mackin and Ian Erving discovered a shared passion for music while walking home from St Peter's school in South Bank. Their first gig, under the name of The Guests, was upstairs at their local pub, The Normanby Hotel, on March 14, 1987. An independent record deal and an album, Bottle Green, soon followed.

During the last eight years, The Beer Pigs have concentrated on playing songs by other bands, from The Jam to The Killers, and have played everywhere from pubs, tents to medieval castles stretching between Inverness to Salisbury.

Mackin, founder member of the fivepiece band based around the Eston and Normanby area, says: "We've had a fantastic time over the last 20 years, and this looks like it's going to be a really special night."

Erving, the band's singer and guitarist, adds: "We're all thrilled that Bill will be playing at the Town Hall with us. Bill and Hope Springs Eternal really made the national music industry and music press sit up and take notice."

■ The Beer Pigs play at Middlesbrough Town Hall, on Friday, December 7. Show begins: 8pm.

Tickets, £12, available from Middlesbrough Town Hall Box Office on 01642-729729.

www.thebeerpigs.com ■ If you'd like to invite Graham Mack to your office or event to add to his world record handshake attempt, email graham.mack@tfmradio.com ■ Alastair Brownlee's new book, Voice of the Boro, charts his 25-year journey covering Boro games home and away with BBC Radio Cleveland, Century FM and now Tyne Tees TV. The book, £12, is available from all good local bookshops