Wales Feed

The life and times of Ivor Emmanuel

Phil Carradice — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 16:51:51 +0000

People may not know about the heroic defence of Rorke's Drift during the Zulu War of 1879 when more Victoria Crosses were won in a single day than in any other military action.

It was a terrifying battle, with just over 100 British soldiers – many of them Welsh – defending the mission station against 4,000 Zulu warriors. But the one thing people will certainly remember is the 1964 film Zulu. And in particular they will remember the stirring scene when Stanley Baker persuades Welsh baritone Ivor Emmanuel to sing Men Of Harlech at the advancing enemy.

The incident was, of course, totally fictitious but it gave Emmanuel, in his role as Private Owen, immediate credibility and instant stardom. Not that he needed it. Ivor Emmanuel was already a star.

Ivor Emmanuel with The Gentlemen Songsters, 1967

Emmanuel was born in Pontrhydyfen, just outside Port Talbot, on 7 November 1927. The son of a miner, he was orphaned during World War Two when a stray German bomb killed his father, mother, grandfather and sister.

He was just 14 years old and was sent to live with an aunt in the village. In due course the young Ivor left school and went down the mines to earn his living. He might have had to make his living underground but his heart was always in music. He loved singing and, from an early age, it was clear that he had a marvellous voice.

It is said that he used to take an old wind-up gramophone onto the hills above the village and play the songs of the great Caruso where only he and the wheeling birds could hear them. Apocryphal, probably, but a great story.

Ivor Emmanuel was certainly a member of the Pontrhydyfen Operatic Society for several years and, with ambitions to succeed on the professional stage, in the early 1950s he auditioned for the famous D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in London.

The audition was unsuccessful and he sought solace in the company of his friend, actor Richard Burton – also from Pontrhydyfen – who was then appearing in a play in the West End. After pouring out his woes, Emmanuel went back to south Wales and thought no more about it until, two weeks later, a telegram arrived, asking him to audition at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane. Burton had used his influence to get Ivor a second chance.

This second audition was successful and he gained a part in the theatre's prestigious production of Oklahoma. He was on his way, although for a while the roles were small. Emmanuel was soon taken on by the D'Oyly Carte and gradually the parts became bigger.

Ivor Emmanuel

Emmanuel's career on the London stage was both long and distinguished. But he also found time to appear on Broadway and to make many television appearances. He was, for six years, a regular on the Welsh TV show Dewch I Mewn but for the people of Britain he was the face – and voice – of the popular show Land Of Song. He also appeared on the Royal Variety Performance and was a regular at summer shows across the land.

Ivor Emmanuel made many recordings, his rich brown voice being perfect for the medium. He remained popular long after the advent of the Beatles had consigned many singers of his type and style to obscurity.

His appearance in Zulu was really the highlight of his career, however. It was a sterling performance, one that remains in the imagination and the memory – indeed, it is hard to think of the battle around Rorke's Drift without conjuring up the image of the singing Welshman. He has become part and parcel of the whole affair.

Ivor Emmanuel retired to Benalmaderia in Spain in 1982. Ten years later he lost most of his life savings in the collapse of his savings bank. He struggled on, dying of a stroke on 20 July 2007. Married three times, his image at the rampart walls of the mission station in South Africa remains a quintessential part of Welsh history – in its own way as important and as lasting as the battle itself.

New collaboration for Bangor artists

Polly March — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 12:38:15 +0000

Ever wondered what could become of all those shops left empty by the economic downturn?

Well for the past few years a group of artists and performers in Bangor have been using the neglected spaces as a forum to express themselves and bring their artistic work to the masses.

Bangor Greadigol was set up in 2009 with the aim of filling disused buildings in the city with exhibitions, performances and "happenings" - although not of the supernatural kind.

Jaci Atkinson

The thrust of the project was to transform non-traditional spaces and attract new audiences to the arts, but also to play a pivotal role in how Bangor develops culturally and aesthetically in the future.

Over the years they’ve produced a variety of exhibitions and performances, with their latest involving a collaboration with the Nigerian performance artist Jelili Atiku at The Old Goods Yard in Treborth, where some of the Bangor Greadigol artists also known as The Old Goods Yard Group (TOGYG) have studios.

The site, near Treborth Botanical Gardens, opened in January this year with the aim of becoming a local arts hub. It is a community of local artists, musicians, film makers and performers.

Jelili is a sculptor, actor and video artist who has a fierce interest in human rights and justice issues and uses his work as a form of protest art.

Artists Lisa Hudson and Jaci Atkinson with Jelili Atiku

On 12 August TOGYG opened their studios to the public for the day while they worked with Jelili to devise a performance together under the title One Person Seven Hurdles.

The piece used an enormous costume Jelili wore, crafted by the artists out of found materials and some of their own recycled sculptures.

Those taking part included Wanda Zyborska, the sculptor from Anglesey, the illustrator Femke Van Gent and local artists Jaci Atkinson, Jo Alexander, Richard Houghton, Andrew Agace and Lisa Hudson.

The materials used included performance threads, stuffed stripy stockings protruding from some of Wanda's sculptures, which are all made using industrial materials like tractor inner tubes, car and bicycle tyres and parcel tape.

Wanda Zyborska

The idea of the performance was to help viewers reconnect their lives with their environment and saw each artist swapping items to devise a costume.

Wanda said: "We were delighted to have an artist who is so internationally renowned visit us but he is really into the sort of work our group is doing and the way we use discarded materials.

"Over the weekend we had about 100 visitors and the performance was rather impromptu but it was great as Jelili is very inspiring and encouraged three of us who had never performed before to take part."

The Old Goods Yard Group artists with Jelili Atiku

Jelili Atiku is currently visiting the UK as part of a tour of Europe and recently took part in the new Tanks at Tate modern. He is also performing during the Manchester Festival.

Related links:

Store offers entertainment for Wrexham shoppers

Laura Chamberlain — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 14:10:47 +0000

A new pop-up shop with a difference opens in Wrexham next week: rather than tinned or packaged goods, the commodities on offer at Store are live performances.

Michikazu Matsune and David Subal during a performance of Store in Bangor. Photo: Dewi Glyn Jones

After being invited into the shop at the Eagles Meadow shopping centre, audience members will be offered a menu from which they can choose one of any 60 mini performances - costing from as little as 50p per performance.

Artists Michikazu Matsune and David Subal perform especially for each shopper, and during their performances they often create a physical product which the customer can take away with them.

Store has previously been performed as far afield as Vienna, Paris, Kyoto and New York.

Llanrwst-based company Migrations, who have been organising contemporary dance and performance events in north Wales since 2004, bring the production to Wrexham in collaboration with Wrexham County Council.

Migrations director Karine Decorne said, "Store is such a fantastic project, we're thrilled to be able to bring it to Wrexham.

"The performances are great and really affordable too, so everyone should get a bargain at Store. All are welcome to come and browse - it's a completely new way to experience performance."

Matsune during a performance of Store in Bangor. Photo: Iwan Pritchard

Store opens at 10am on Wednesday 25 April and will run until to Saturday 28 April, and is open from 10am-4pm each day. For more information visit the Migrations website.

Elis on BBC Radio Wales with Mal and Lisa

Elis James — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 10:11:31 +0000

Listen to a clip from my final appearance on the Jamie and Louise Show on BBC Radio Wales, this time presented by Mal Pope and Lisa Rogers.

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Elis on BBC Radio Wales with Mal Pope and Lisa Rogers

Elis James — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 09:23:54 +0000

Here's a short clip from my latest appearance on the Jamie and Louise Show on BBC Radio Wales, this time presented by Mal Pope and Lisa Rogers. I'll be back again next Friday for another chat.

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Water. The only drink for a wise man?

Elis James — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 08:22:45 +0000

Most people can empathise with that feeling of not realising how drunk you are until you try doing something you usually do sober (ie 'why am I in my kitchen trying to make a cup of tea in a pint glass?').

It quite often happens when you're sat in a nightclub having drinks bought for you in succession (I'm aware this only really applies to Page Three models and people who drink in enormous rounds), and you think 'wooooah' on getting up to go to the toilet, as the nightclub dancefloor starts to feel like you're walking on a catamaran.

Anyway. I always perform stand up comedy sober, but I got this feeling on Monday night when there was late show I'd forgotten about... which I had to do hammered.

Now then. I don't drink at all before stand up. I am funnier sober, my timing is better and my ad-libbing more sharp. The least I can do is turn up for work without being drunk; after all I talk for a living and everyone knows a slurring newsreader is probably quite a bad thing, so I work on that principle.

However, while it's occasionally possible for footballers to look graceful and fat (Jan Molby immediately springs to mind, Lee Trundle during his early years at Swansea and John Barnes at the end of his career, when I thought he was both cuddly and effective), it is possible for some stand ups to be incredible whilst inebriated.

In fact, there can be something quite exhilarating about a drunk yet lucid comic freewheeling their way through a hazy flight of fancy, spittle flecked moments of genius being punctuated by sips from a glass of wine or beer.

Dylan Moran drinks on stage, Johnny Vegas has clearly had a pint before performing, and these are two of the most lauded stand ups of their generation.

Unfortunately, I am one of the comics who proves the rule, as demonstrated on Monday.

Following my solo show at 7.40pm, I met a friend for something to eat. The show had gone well and I decided to drink a bottle of red with my salad, being fairly health conscious during the festival (that's my five-a-day if you include the grapes in the wine).

We talked about comedy, football and everything in between, at which point I thought 'I love the taste of expensive premium lager,' and had a few of those. A couple of lagers later I got a text saying 'as you're closing the show, you don't have to arrive until 12.15am,' at which point I thought 'oh dear.'

I turned up, a few espressos sloshing around my stomach just to make my insides think that I'd had a breakdown, and as I was announced I was beginning to think 'well this should prove no significant problem,' until I walked on stage and the mic stand wasn't quite where I expected it to be (ie about three feet away from where my hand was flailing).

I said 'hello' and the audience said 'hello' back. I then said 'hello' again and mumbled desperately 'why aren't you saying hello to me?' before somebody replied 'because you're drunk!' I took a moment to steady myself before delivering a retort that would shake artistic foundations in London, New York and Swansea.

'Yes!' I replied. 'I'm drunk... because I had a drink!'

The gig went pretty badly. I decided to do some 'greatest hits' material, thinking 'I can just get my head down and bash these out' in the way pub covers bands hastily decide to do Mustang Sally instead of Miles Davis if there are mini kievs being thrown at the bassist.

Unfortunately, I gave away the reveal to my best routine (ie the punchline, and thing the routine rests on) about five minutes too early, thus rendering the whole set up pointless. I carried on with the set up regardless, however, displaying a titanic lack of judgement.

So, that's five minutes of the gig wasted, now it's time for some banter. I asked various members of the crowd questions, answered clumsily each time before deciding on the hoof to perform a routine from last year's Edinburgh show - the most ambitious thing I've ever written and, also, something I haven't done for a year.

I have no memory of how it went. My only memory is of Dave in the tech box doing that 'wind up now!' motion with his hands, which is probably a bad sign. I left the stage, the other comedians gave me a hug (we were all mates so they found it hilarious) and I walked home, a lesson learnt and preparing myself for a hangover.

I spoke to my friend John the next day and he was philosophical about it all. 'It's good to blow out the cobwebs' he said. 'Prove to yourself that you can't do stand up drunk. If you'd nailed it then suddenly you've set a precedent for drinking heavily before each gig, which is dangerous and the next thing you know you're asking for crème de menthe on the rider before performing the fresher's week show at Reading University.'

So if you're disappointed that I'm not writing this from a harem in Edinburgh, other comics drinking champagne from a football boot as Page Three girls look on, squealing things like 'despite being three sheets to the wind his metaphors are still as snappy and hilarious as ever,' I can only apologise. Maybe it's lack of practice.

If you see me in September, sleeping in the car park of Reading University, clutching a bottle of cooking sherry and urine stained notebook, then you'll know I've put the hours in.

Elis James is performing his show Daytripper at The Tron in Hunter Square, at 7.40pm (not 19 August).

Nudity, domestic pratfalls and more nudity

Elis James — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 13:21:41 +0000

Tuesday morning. Five shows in, 19 left. The acclimatisation period is almost over.

Things that make it feel like the Edinburgh Festival:

Doing two rowdy late shows on Saturday night. One was at a venue called The Underbelly, where three drunk Scottish lads took off their clothes as 200 people roared approval, in that way you only get when it's 2.14am and there's nudity on the cards. I was backstage talking about ticket sales to my friend the Australian comic Felicity Ward though, and missed the whole thing.

Things that don't make it feel like the Edinburgh Festival:

I have not been drunk yet, as I am still terrified that my show is awful and if I do a show hungover I will be rubbish, reviewers will slate me, I'll never be able to come back to the festival and mam and dad's house will fall into the sea.

I am also eating quite well, and it is just about morning when I get up, amazingly. Once, at the Fringe in 2008, my watch stopped during the night, misleading me when I woke up into thinking it was 7.58pm, which would have meant I'd missed my show.

Thankfully, I realised on staggering terrified into the kitchen that it was still the afternoon (thank you oven clock), but the scary thing was that it was plausible I'd slept the whole way through. It was at that stage I realised the Edinburgh Festival gives you the body clock of a tormented night porter at a haunted hotel.

Things that make it feel like the Edinburgh Festival:

I have already seen the show that has inspired me for next year, and that was within 24 hours of arriving in Edinburgh. John Luke Roberts is a mate of mine but I hadn't seen a single preview of his show, and was only vaguely aware of the premise.

However, I went on the first night (a minute before starting he muttered "this will be good in a fortnight El, please don't judge me") and it was absolutely superb. Video inserts, offstage screaming, superb acting from his very talented girlfriend Nadia Kamil in one of the funniest pieces of crying I have ever seen - it is an amazing piece of work and far more than just stand up. I left the venue feeling totally inspired.

John Luke Roberts Distracts You From A Murder is on at the Pleasance Dome at 8.10pm. It is clashing with me but I am going to be big about this and I urge you to see it.

There's plenty of early buzz for a few other shows as well, but I haven't had a chance to check them out yet, so I will fill you in as I get the chance. Josh my flatmate described Henry Paker's 3D Bugle as "extraordinary", so that's next on the list. (Henry Paker is on at The GRV at 7.50pm and is also clashing with me, so I'll have to watch that on my night off.)

Things that don't make it feel like the Edinburgh Festival:

Our flat is actually quite nice. To save money I lived in a windowless, coffin sized griefhole last year, and if the door to my room was shut the only way to tell if it was night or day was by looking at my phone.

This year, in classic Edinburgh tradition, the handle broke on our lounge door, and being four comedians none of us knew what to do about it.

My immediate thought was "oh well, we'll lose our bond and we'll have to hang out in the kitchen for four weeks, but I can live with that," until my flatmate John Robins exclaimed "MY DICTAPHONE AND ALL MY SHOW NOTES ARE IN THERE!"

Amazingly, following a tearful call to a real man with big hands and a toolbox, the door was mended within the day (it took the real man approximately 10-15 seconds, which is the most embarrassed I have felt for a long time. He was here for less than the duration of those announcements telling you to mind the gap at train stations).

That level of efficiency doesn't feel like me at all. In 2008 there was a brown/orange ooze seeping into our lounge, which myself, Dan Atkinson, Lloyd Langford and John Gordillo would just stare at as we ate our tea. Eventually, the ooze became quite the celebrity after The Scotsman ran a feature on it.

Right. I'm off to try and make my show funnier. Living with John Robins, Josh Widdicombe and Damion Larkin has led to a small amount of horseplay, which I will fill you in on if it's appropriate (not a huge amount of horseplay - we are comics after all, not Welsh rugby boys on a tour of Canada).

OK. I'll tell you. One of the lads read from my diary sardonically whilst naked.

Oh despair!

Go and see John Luke Roberts!

Elis.

Elis goes to Edinburgh

Elis James — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 10:55:59 +0000

I haven't had an anxiety dream for years. I think the last ones were probably due to a childhood phobia of swimming I had in the late 80s, and in general I'm quite a laid back person.

I don't beep the horn too much, I've never cut up a partner's clothing and thrown it into a canal whilst screaming "it's the look on your face I HATE," and I used to laugh at John McEnroe, thinking smugly to myself "why is he making all that fuss? It's only tennis." I have been suffering from anxiety dreams of late, however, and these are exclusively to do with the Edinburgh Festival.

Allow me to introduce myself: I'm Elis James, comedian, writer, and guest blogger during this month's Edinburgh Festival.

I think I should explain what the festival is first, before I start moaning about it. It's the world's largest arts festival; it runs for the whole month of August and, if you weren't sure from the title, it's held in Edinburgh.

Thousands of performers from all over the world will take over the Scottish capital for four weeks, whilst local people watch some shows, rent out matchbox-sized parts of their flats at extortionate rates to people too desperate to quibble, mutter to themselves angrily that Princes Street is too crowded during the day, and secretly love the fact that Glasgow has nothing to compare with it.

It's the comedy section of the festival that I'm concerned with, and this year I'll be performing my second solo show which I'm writing at the minute.

Now, this is where the anxiety dreams set in.

There are an estimated 2,500 shows on at Edinburgh, about 850 of which are comedy, and thus I suppose it had better be good. It's like taking meat to a barbecue - you'll be given short shrift by your hosts if you turn up with some gone off Winalot you've fashioned into sausage shapes, which you try to pass off as Tesco Finest chipolatas.

Worryingly for me the world's finest comedians are there, thus raising the standard to an annoyingly high rate, and so expectations are high across the board. Also, having been to Edinburgh a couple of times now, I will get reviewed by all manner of people, which terrifies me in a way I find difficult to explain.

The broadsheet newspaper I have read every day since I was 18 is going to review my show this year apparently. If I get slammed by them I may as well ask Shoot! Magazine to come along, just so I can get criticized by every publication I've ever ordered from a newsagent. I wonder if Wizzer and Chips runs a review section. That'll complete the set.

You're probably wondering why I'm putting myself through this. Well. I love comedy. Really, really love it in the same way a football obsessive can be as happy watching Sunday morning pub football as they are an FA Cup Semi-Final, I will gladly discuss why Tizer is a funnier drink than Sprite until I'm told to go home or social services are called. I am also unable to hold down a real job, and thus writing a new show for Edinburgh is a sort of must, because:

I can't move back in with my parents as I'm 29, and
Dad's still angry about the Blu-Tack stains I left on the wall when I took down my Radiohead posters in 1997.

And so my hands are tied. It's comedy or gun running, and not only am I chronically unfit but I have a pretty limited knowledge of the criminal underworld.

With less than a week to go until the festival starts, I am finalising the show at preview gigs up and down the country, ie I go on stage with a notebook and a dictaphone, and during the day try to shape these recordings into something worth hearing.

These shows are billed as Edinburgh previews and are often double bills with another comedian doing the same thing, and the audience is aware of what's happening (apart from the woman in Swansea who walked out on me a few weeks ago, 'FOR HAVING THE CHEEK TO PRACTICE ON HER!' It's like when a band do new songs at a gig, or as part of a radio session, but I don't have a tourbus, merchandise, or drugs hidden in my equipment which I smuggle unawares into other countries.

So. I have written a show called Daytripper, and will perform it every day at a venue called The Tron on Hunter Square, at 7.40pm. By the next blog I'll have an idea of how it's going, and will promote the show either by:

lying and saying it's good, or
bashfully admitting that it's going well and ask if you fancy coming.

I'll also have an idea of which shows are hot and will let you know, and will fill you in on any japes I get up to with my flatmates - I am in digs with three hard living, hard drinking comedians, so will let you know if our flat is like the last days of Rome (or the last days of Crossroads).

It will probably be like fresher's week, but every now and then one of us will burst into tears because "someone on Twitter has said that my show lacks foc....oh yeah focus".

See you on the other side.

Elis

Daniel Evans is Eisteddfod's Honorary President

Laura Chamberlain — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 09:35:48 +0000

Welsh star of stage and screen Daniel Evans will act as this year's Honorary President at the Blaenau Gwent and Heads of the Valleys National Eisteddfod.

Evans trained at London's Guildhall School of Music and has worked for the Royal Shakespeare Company and British National Theatre. He has won two prestigious Olivier Awards for his roles in Merrily We Roll Along and Sunday In The Park With George.

The successful actor is currently the artistic director of Sheffield Theatres, which takes in The Crucible, The Lyceum, and the Studio Theatre.

Evans follows in the footsteps of some of Wales' greatest names in acting as the Eisteddfod's president, with recent post holders including former First Minister Rhodri Morgan, Lord Gwilym Prys-Davies, Professor Prys Morgan, Guto Harri and Dafydd Wigley.

In Eisteddfod history a different president was honoured each day, but in recent years there has been one sole president for the whole week. David Lloyd George was the Day President for the Thursday for many years and other notable politicians, including Gladstone, also enjoyed the accolade.

Evans is also set to act as one of the adjudicators for this year's Richard Burton Prize, having won the award himself in its inaugural year 20 years ago in 1990, aged just 17. He will give his president's speech at the Eisteddfod on Wednesday 4 August.

Read the latest news on the 2010 National Eisteddfod on the BBC Eisteddfod website.

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National Youth Arts Wales programme of events

Laura Chamberlain — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 09:35:52 +0000

National Youth Arts Wales celebrates its 10th anniversary year in 2010 and has an extensive programme of dance, theatre and music events planned for the summer and autumn.

Over 400 talented Welsh youngsters will perform in venues right across Wales, in addition to shows planned in Malvern and Manchester, giving the best part of their summer holidays over to rehearsals and performances.

National Youth Jazz Wales kicked off the proceedings with the first of their two July concerts yesterday night around the National Trust's Stackpole Centre in Pembrokeshire.

They will perform again, under music director Percy Pursglove, tonight at the Welsh Proms at St David's Hall Cardiff, with a programme centred on Duke Ellington's celebrated re-writing of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite.

Under the guidance of musical director Ralph Allwood, the National Youth Choir of Wales will perform a programme of sacred and secular works ranging from Samuel Barber's Agnus Dei, Hubert Parry's Blest Pair of Sirens and two new works by Welsh composer Paul Mealor.

The choir is set to perform at Malvern College Chapel on 21 July, St Mary's Church in Chepstow on 22 July, and Llandaff Cathedral in Cardiff on 23 July. It will also sing at St Mary's Church in Swansea as part of the Swansea Festival later in the year, on 17 October.

The National Youth Brass Band of Wales are to perform two concerts next week. Professor Edward Gregson will conduct his pieces Variations on Laudate Dominum and An Age of Kings in addition to Arutiunian's trumpet concerto, featuring Gareth Small as soloist, and a newly-commissioned work by Welsh composer Mervyn Burtch.

The band will perform at the Aberystwyth Arts Centre on 26 July and Brangwyn Hall in Swansea, as part of the Gower Festival, on 27 July.

Choreographer Errol White has produced a new edgy, expressive and engaging piece for the National Youth Dance Wales using his trade-mark qualities of precision, power and strength.

The group will perform the dynamic ensemble-piece at Theatr Brycheiniog in Brecon on 30 July. This is their only date, so don't miss out.

Members of the National Youth Theatre of Wales will be rehearsing throughout August for the September run of production No Other Day Like Today.

Developed by NYTW Young Writers with Manon Eames, and under artistic director Tim Baker, this engaging piece of theatre tells the story of life in a not-so-ordinary Welsh town through music and movement, singing and story-telling.

The production will run from 3-10 September across three venues: Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Clwyd Theatr Cymru in Mold and The Riverfront in Newport.

The National Youth Orchestra of Wales will help to celebrate the final year of Owain Arwel Hughes post as Principal Director with five concert dates throughout August and September. This includes the final concert of the Fishguard International Music Festival and the opening concert of the North Wales International Music Festival.

They will also perform for the first time at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, on 19 September. The orchestra, which has 33 new members for 2010, will perform a new commission by Welsh composer Brian Hughes in addition to La Mer by Debussy and Rachmaninov's Symphony No. 2.

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Blysh festival returns to Wales Millennium Centre

Laura Chamberlain — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 14:00:20 +0000

The second Blysh Festival has returned to the Wales Millennium Centre, and promises more of the colourful combination of fun, comedic and bizarre acts that audiences enjoyed in 2009.

The Touch Trust at the 2010 Blysh Festival at the Wales Millennium Centre

The festival kicked off this afternoon by the Touch Trust with further events today set to include Le Navet Bête (or The Daft Turnip), six young men who create and perform their ode to the artistry of buffoonery and dark clowning - pictured below right, who will perform their act Zemblanity - plus comedy featuring Noel James, Juliette Meyers and Dan Bland.

The main festival runs until Sunday 25 July, while Swedish company Cirkus Cirkör will carry on the circus entertainment at the Millennium Centre from 12-15 August.

There's a whole host of acts on this year's line-up including local talent NoFit State Circus and theatrical circus and dance group Citrus Arts; musical duo Bourgeois & Maurice (described as part cabaret, part-theatre and part-catwalk freak - one for the adult audience); acrobat trio Mimbre and magic tricks from Piff the Magic Dragon.

Welsh Independent Dance will put on their new graduate showcase and WOW! On The Waterfront returns as part of the 2010 Cardiff Festival, featuring carnival troupe SWICA and Spanish aerial company Grupo Puja.

Musical entertainment will feature the likes of Top Shelf Jazz, Gideon Conn, Melo Park and The Morning Orchestra.

While the festival has a naughtier side, with some events including the Secret Carnival's Day of the Dead fancy dress party being restricted to over 18s only, the festival is family friendly during the day - with lots of free performances, events and workshops happening in and around the centre.

There's also a chance to take part in a new audio theatre journey, in your local supermarket, in which you become immersed in a magical world in a familiar setting - a collaboration between the Wales Millennium Centre and Galeri in Caernarfon. Read more about it on the BBC Wales News website.

Visit the Wales Millennium Centre for a full list of events for the Blysh Festival, and let us know if you are planning to attend.

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Jonathan Pryce to become LIPA companion

Laura Chamberlain — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 08:45:00 +0000

Welsh actor Jonathan Pryce is among a number of stars from the world of arts and entertainment set to be honoured by the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts later this month.

Pryce will be made a LIPA Companion in the ceremony on 30 July, in which almost 300 students from the institute will be graduating.

Companionships are awarded to individuals in recognition of their contributions to the world of arts and entertainment.

Others to receive the honour include former Ultravox frontman and co-organiser of Band Aid, Live Aid and Live 8 Midge Ure, dance promoter Heather Knight, music producer Alan Moulder, theatre designer Christopher Oram, community arts luminary Dave Pammenter and Michael Jackson's choreographer for two decades, LaVelle Smith Junior.

LIPA opened in 1996 and was co-founded by Sir Paul McCartney (Lead Patron) and Mark Featherstone-Witty (LIPA's Principal).

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Building for talent

Nicola Heywood Thomas — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 10:33:45 +0000

I was at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama recently and couldn't get over how much the building work had progressed. It's a massive refurb project at the Cardiff site which will provide a recital hall, a theatre, and four acting and movement studios to complement the existing facilities at Wales' national conservatoire.

It all comes at a cost, of course. £22.5 million to be exact, and RWCMD are putting on a very exclusive event at Buckingham Palace at the end of April to aid the fundraising. At the college they reckon the new block is now likely to go by a floor a fortnight and it's worth having a look at the webcam images on rwcmd.ac.uk that let you follow the progress in the warmth of your home!

It's all a far cry from the early days of the college when it was based in Cardiff Castle and the sounds of music practice battled with the screeching of the peacocks on the lawn. I'm sure past students have some tales to tell of those days!

Arts and innovation centre for Bangor University

BBC Wales Arts — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 10:14:07 +0000

Design work has started on an arts and innovation centre at Bangor University which will house cutting edge teaching and learning facilities and a range of indoor and outdoor performance spaces including a theatre.

University Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Fergus Lowe, who is leading the project, commented: "We will create an internationally significant centre for learning and the performing arts that will be a potent symbol of innovation and collaboration for the whole community."

Read more about the development on Bangor University's website.

Charlotte Church to be judge on Lloyd Webber talent show

BBC Wales Arts — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 17:13:48 +0000

Charlotte Church has been announced as one of three judges on Andrew Lloyd Webber's forthcoming BBC TV talent show Over The Rainbow.

The panel of judges, which also includes John Partridge and Sheila Hancock, will help decide who'll play Dorothy in a new stage production of The Wizard Of Oz.

"I'm so looking forward to working with Andrew - he's an icon of the music industry, and a real hero of mine," said Church. "My career started with Pie Jesu, which was of course written by Andrew, so it feels like I've come full circle."

More on Over The Rainbow can be found in the BBC News report.