Thas A Fact?

The next few months at Norwich Arts Centre are packed once more with a staggering selection of music, art, theatre, comedy, live literature, exhibitions and creative courses.

After recently topping the NME poll for Best Small Music Venue in the Eastern Region, NAC have a lot to live up to. We’re sure that this autumn programme will not disappoint!

Exhibitions

All exhibitions are free and open Mon- Sat 10am-6 pm

Mark Mothersbaugh – Rugs! Rugs! Rugs!
Saturday 24 September to Saturday 29 October
An exclusive UK premiere of limited edition art rugs by Mark Mothersbaugh.
“Every kid (and adult) needs something to cover that hole in the floor where the monster lives.”
Mark Mothersbaugh is the creative force behind legendary band DEVO. Alongside his DEVO work Mark has always created visual art. Norwich Arts Centre continues its unique relationship with Mark with this exhibition of Rugs. To coincide with Norwich Sound and Vision this exhibition takes the Mothersbaugh themes of human devolution and macabre humour and presents them in the unusual medium of rugs! All the works will be for sale.

On Thursday 29th September we will be kicking off the 3-day Norwich Sound and Vision Festival with a live big screen link up interview with Mark Mothersbaugh at 7pm.

Following its very successful launch in 2010 Norwich Sound & Vision returns for its second year from 29th September until 1st October 2011.

The event comprises a 3-day music festival, film festival and music and film industry conference featuring expert speakers from around the world. It’s a fantastic opportunity to see some amazing local, national and international artists, engage in some lively debate about the creative industries, learn from industry experts and make use of unparalleled networking opportunities.
This year’s Norwich Sound & Vision will feature performances from DELS, Bo Ningen, Context MC, Fever Fever, Sargasso Trio, Nosound, Ex-Wise Heads (Porcupine Tree’s Colin Edwin and Henry Cow’s Geoff Leigh), The Mariner’s Children, Jack Savoretti, Ellen & the Escapades, Antlered Man, and expert speakers from the BBC, PPL, Dazed & Confused Magazine, NME, Menace Music and Drowned In Sound.

Performance and Live Literature

The autumn is packed with some great literary events with topics to suit all tastes.

Following on from his sell-out national tour of ‘Uncaged Monkeys’, with Professor Brian Cox, Robin Ince continues his comic exploration of the human condition in his new autumn show Happiness Through Science (Tue 20 Sep).

Poet Ian McMillan brings his BBC Radio 3 programme The Verb to NAC for a specially recorded edition of his unique showcase of the best new writing, new poetry and cutting-edge performance. For this show, Verb New Voices (Tue 11 Oct), Ian’s guests include rising stars John Osborne and Deborah Stevenson.

Ian McMillan - Verb New Voices BBC Radio 3.

The first UnLit Festival culminates in a finale (Sat 12 Nov) featuring the fiery tunes of provocatively knowing nihilists Scumbag Philosopher (‘abrasively belligerent in a way that’s invigorating’ The Arts Desk) and The Neutrinos (reading and singing from their ‘Butcher of Common Sense’ book and album) plus special literary guests.

Join Professor Karmadillo (Tue 22 Nov) for his scientific musical lectures. Scientist Rishi Nag brings his alter ego to NAC and presents science through song, humour, visuals and discussion. Great ‘edutainment’ for all the family and a must for the science geeks out there.

The groundbreaking John Cooper Clarke returns (Thu 24 Nov) with his special blend of performance poetry.

Music

For the blues fans we have the eldest sons of the late great Muddy Waters Mud Morganfield and his band (Wed 31 Aug). He’s blessed with a big and powerful voice and a natural sense of showmanship that ensures that audiences fall right into the palm of his hand. He mixes up his live set with his dad’s classic songs and his own original material.

Rise Up presents the pioneering reggae superstar Johnny Clarke performing with UK Dub and Afrobeat band Soothsayers (Fri 2 Sep). Johnny personified the so called ‘rockers’ period in Jamaican music, a transitional time in the music which gave us the classics ‘Be Upright Natty Dread’ and ‘Move Out of Babylon’.

The front man of the now legendary Texan “Lift To Experience” Josh T Pearson returns to NAC (Thu 22 Sep) to perform songs from his first solo album.
From stark, romantic ballads and dialogue sequences to raw Northwest garage rock and cinematic songscapes, Richmond Fontaine (Mon 26 Sep) are proving to have moved far beyond their cow-punk roots.

The Norwich Ukulele Festival (Sat 8 Oct) presented by Soapbox will be a day-long celebration of this extraordinary little instrument. Including workshops and lessons from Gemma Cullingford, play-a-longs, games, open mic, comedy, DJ’s, dancing, stalls, evening performances and much more!

The bittersweet melancholy of Leisure Society (Sat 15 Oct) with their bouncing bass, flurries of flute, jazz drums and Tim Burton-style backing vocals, will be the perfect antidote to the oncoming darker Autumn nights.

80’s soul man Andrew Roachford (Sat 22 Oct), best known for classics ‘Cuddly Toy’ and ‘Family Man’, will be wowing fans with tracks from his new album.

Andrew Roachford.

“The Nightingales (Mon 24 Oct)- they’re back and they’re marvellous” – Marc Riley BBC 6 Music. The John Peel punk favourites will be showcasing their new line up including ex Violet Violet drummer Fliss Kitson.

Children’s Theatre
Looking for some entertainment for the youngsters? Try The Twelve Wild Ducks flying in (Wed 26 Oct) with cautionary tales set to live music with magical word weaving for the over 5s while everyone’s favourite patchwork pachyderm, Elmer The Elephant, provides the magic for the over 3s (Sat 29 Oct) with catchy songs, jungle characters and beautiful hand-crafted puppets!

Elmer The Elephant.

Comedy
NAC has four very different funny chaps for you this time round. The funniest comedians in the UK will be gracing the NAC stage starting with Hal Cruttenden (Thu 20 Oct). He has appeared on ITV1’s Comedy Rocks with Jason Manford, BBC1’s Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow and BBC2’s The Rob Brydon Show.

Hal Cruttenden.

Jimeoin (Wed 26 Oct) needs no gimmicks, just pure-and-simple great craic. ‘Brilliant… It gets no better than this… Hilarious!’- Time Out magazine.

Mitch Benn (Wed 9 Nov) and his band will enthrall with a two- hour show packed with new songs and old favourites. Described by The Times as “the country’s leading musical satirist”, for music and comedy fans of all ages this is an evening not to be missed.

Daniel Sloss (Thu 17 Nov) may still be in short trousers in comedy terms but he’s already had sides splitting on ‘8/10 Cats’ ‘Mock the Week’ and ‘Comedy Rocks’. ‘Hysterical… A stunning show of observational humour’- Sunday Express.

Creative Courses
Norwich Arts Centre also plays host to a number of creative and digital courses ranging from website design to digital photography to traditional black and white darkroom courses, music courses and courses for children. Two new courses will be launched this season: Portfolio Development Course (starting Sat 10 Sep) that aims to enable students to strengthen, develop and refine their portfolio in preparation for interviews in art, design and craft courses at Higher Education level. And the Two Day Stop Motion Workshop For Adults (Sat 15 & Sat 22 Oct) will be a great introduction to the construction of armatured puppets, and the basics of stop-motion animation, including basic lighting and set design.

For booking or information on events, please call the Norwich Arts Centre Box Office on 01603 660352. You can also book for many events online via www.ueaticketbookings.co.uk, or buy tickets in person from NAC. For all event listings and creative course details, please visit www.norwichartscentre.co.uk.