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Speed Up! is a new programme for 2012 of exciting international bands. With Norwich Arts Centre as the hub venue and events popping up elsewhere plus an installation in Fusion at the Forum, Speed Up! will be fast, loud, energetic and fun – a great addition to this year’s Norfolk & Norwich Festival.
Stuart Hobday, Director of Norwich Arts Centre says:
“We’re really excited to be bringing this new programme to Norwich as part of the Festival in May. These events will be experiences not forgotten by those attending, they promise to be immersive visually and sonically. It’s been great working with the Festival to develop this new initiative and we really think it will bring an extra dimension to the festivities in May. Whilst aimed at a younger audience i’d urge everyone to come along to at least one of these events and sample the energy and excitement of new music that is out there.”
The Fusion Gallery in the Forum will feature a specially made Speed Up! installation showcasing the brilliant DIY videos and visuals created by the bands appearing in the Speed Up! programme. The installation will include band members describing the creative process for their films and videos.
The programme kicks off with I.R.O.K on Friday 11 May at Norwich Arts Centre. I.R.O.K (the Intergalactic Republic Of Kongo) create psychotropic afro-punk. Contagious and violent, this is the sound of chaos, of ecstasy, of joy and of panic.
Mantra-happy Portland dance duo YACHT (Sunday 13 May at Norwich Arts Centre) will be flaunting their irresistible grooves, beguiling beats, sparkling synths and hooks so sharp they will pierce even the hardest of hearts.
Contemporary music group ESMERINE will be live on Monday 14 May at Norwich Arts Centre supported by Eric Chenaux. Co-founded ten years ago by percussionist Bruce Cawdron (Godpseed You! Black Emperor) and cellist Rebecca Foon (Thee Silver Mt. Zion, Mile-End Ladies’ String Auxiliary), they have one foot in the new music/experimental terrain and the other in the more visceral and lyrical landscape populated by the likes of Dirty Three (and GY!BE themselves).
Ready to unleash their debut album, HOLY STATE (presented by Norwich Sound & Vision on Friday 18 May at Norwich Arts Centre) have created a sonically inspired vision, an example of their passion to create honest, driving songs.
Both hailing from Norfolk, NATHAN FAKE & LUKE ABBOTT have been making significant waves in the electronica world via the Border Community Label. Nathan’s latest works have evolved into a much harder take on the electronica brief with a shift away from straight techno towards a more melodic sound. Luke’s live show is an eminently danceable creature. His hypnotic entrancements connect with something deeper seated within, and have already been rolled out to universal effect across Europe and the Far East. This joint headline show takes place on Saturday 19 May at Norwich Arts Centre.
DEATH GRIPS (live on Tuesday 22 May at Norwich Arts Centre) aggressive, dark, experimental hip-hop has been garnering much praise for it’s raw power and punk attitude. Expect their debut album to redefine hip-hop in 2012.
BALACLAVA KID & DAD will debut a brand new show for NNF12 at St Lawrence Church on Thursday 24 May supported by Transept. The two-piece, consisting of baritone guitar, drums, various live looping and bass effects, have been working on a new show to create an offbeat thunderous live experience within the intimate site of a disused church in the centre of Norwich. Inspired by feelings of nostalgia for their Welsh roots, the show seeks to explore the contrasts between beauty and bleakness, industry and dereliction and will apply the use of surround sound, 3D visuals and animations to evoke a wild frontier atmosphere.
The second joint headlining show in this programme features ZUN ZUN EGUI and TV BUDDHAS on Friday 25 May at Norwich Arts Centre. Zun Zun Egui are a band with a penchant for rocking the outer reaches. Live, they tune in and then explode, taking the audience with them urging every foot to dance.
Israeli punk pop trio TV BUDDHAS bring their own blend of alienation-drenched garage-punk. Their music is reminiscent of The Wipers and Dead Moon, with a heavier, Stoner guitar sound, and minimalistic drumming played on a stripped down kit.
As a music and graphic duet, GANGPOL UND MIT work in a peculiar world of digital pop, inhabited by colourful and geometrical characters. On Saturday 26 May at Norwich Arts Centre they will be performing ‘The 1000 People Band’ show, where the cartoon characters play live. The music jumps from synth assaults, woody flute, to mondo beats and cinematic harpsichord keys.
An exciting new exhibition of immersive digital prints and glitching video work by DAN TOMBS will run alongside the programme of music from Friday 11 May to Saturday 9 June. Dan’s work explores the cracks in video technology, building-in defects and looking for ways to pry apart the technical stability of an image. He physically corrupts circuits, creates short circuits, and exploits the code of systems, with wild and unpredictable results. This FREE exhibition will be open to the public between 10am and 6pm from Monday to Saturday.
The Fusion Gallery in the Forum will feature a specially made Speed Up! installation showcasing the brilliant DIY videos and visuals created by the bands appearing in the Speed Up! programme. The installation will include band members describing the creative process for their films and videos.
For ticket prices and more information on Speed Up! or to book tickets for these events please visit www.norwichartscentre.co.uk/speedup
SPECIAL OFFER! See the Norfolk & Norwich Festival shows I.R.O.K, Zun Zun Egi and Gangpol Und Mit for just £5!
Just quote ‘ENJOY NORWICH OFFER’ when booking tickets at the NAC box office 01603 660352.
The first ever Victorian Nights Festival to take place in North Norfolk in May 2012
From 18 – 20 May 2012, the North Norfolk towns of Cromer, Sheringham and Wells-next-the-Sea will be transported back to the Victorian Britain thanks to a successful bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund. The first ever Victorian Nights festival will celebrate the lavish Victorian Age, a significant period in North Norfolk’s history, as it heralded the coming of the railways and marked North Norfolk as the popular holiday destination for tourists it remains today.
Participating venues in the three towns will be opening their doors after-hours for a packed programme of FREE events to entertain and amaze. The programme features Victorian fire eaters, escapologists, an old fashioned photo parlour, fairground attractions, circus acts, a steam train ride, cottage craft workshops, film, guided walks and the chance to meet lots of costumed characters. All the events are aimed at families, the local community and visitors to the area. Most events are drop-in, but some must be pre-booked. See the Victorian Nights leaflet for more details or see the full Victorian Nights Events List.
The festival is part of the national Museums at Night campaign, the annual after-hours celebration of arts, history and heritage. The campaign is co-ordinated by Culture 24, a not-for-profit online publisher, working across the arts, heritage, education and tourism sectors.
The initiative is the work of eight cultural organisations across the three towns: Cromer Museum, RNLI Henry Blogg Museum, Cromer Preservation Society, North Norfolk Railway, The Mo Museum, Sheringham Little Theatre, Sheringham Preservation Society and Wells Maltings. The project is being co-ordinated by Laura Crossley, a freelance museums and heritage consultant.
As well as going along to the exciting events, there are lots of opportunities for local people to get involved with Victorian Nights. The festival’s volunteer programme features a range of interesting roles, from marketing, to photography, to driving a minibus! A special volunteer scheme, in co-operation with the Norfolk Library Service, will see 20 local people attend a certificated literacy and blogging training course, before promoting the festival via fortnightly blogs. A dedicated schools programme will also give local children the opportunity to get involved via a competition and education pack which can be used in schools. The organisers would also like to invite local businesses to take part in the fun by opening late during the festival.
To find out more about this exciting new project, or to get involved, please visit: www.victoriannightsnorthnorfolk.com. Victorian Nights can also be found on Facebook (Victorian Nights North Norfolk) and Twitter (@victoriannights).
“Oh George, take me home! Take me to Blickling, not to Hever, for at Hever I should see the rose garden and think of him. But take me to Blickling where we were together when we were very young….and where I never dreamed of being Queen of England.”
So wrote Jean Plaidy in her 1949 novel Murder Most Royal. Plaidy believed that Anne Boleyn was born at Blickling in the Tudor house that was there before the Jacobean mansion that we see today was built.
No one knows for certain where Anne Boleyn was born. Hever Castle in Kent and Blickling both have grounds for claiming her. But as research continues into the Tudor house that still lurks within Blickling Hall it is becoming easier to imagine that Blickling was a grand Tudor home, well-suited to the needs of the wealthy and ambitious Boleyn family.
If ‘The Tudors’ tickled your historical fancy, or if you have an interest in historical literature, then do we have a treat for you. Over the 17th – 20th may 2012, The Boleyn Festival – a four day feast of all things Anne Boleyn, will be held at Blickling Hall near Aylsham.
Historians, novelists, costumiers and musicians will gather in the glorious surroundings of Blickling Hall to remember the Norfolk-born woman whose marriage to Henry VIII caused uproar throughout Christendom. Confirmed speakers include Eric Ives, Alison Weir, Suzannah Dunn, Sarah Gristwood, David Loades, George Bernard, Neil Storey, Susannah Lipscomb and Harriet Castor. Wonderfully, they don’t all see eye to eye when discussing Anne’s religious fervour, her ambition, her intelligence or her fidelity. However, they do all agree that Anne was more likely to have been born at Blickling than anywhere else.
View the Festival Programme.
Aspects of the Festival that we’re most excited about include the public display of the Wycliffite Bible. This hugely important illuminated manuscript, never before shown to the general public, is inscribed “liber Iacobi Boolene manens in Blickling”, or “James Boleyn’s book dwelling in Blickling”. James was Anne’s Uncle and her Chancellor while she was Queen. Anne was known to have displayed an English bible in her rooms so that her ladies-in-waiting could read the gospel in their own language. It is possible that it was this very Bible.
In support of the Boleyn Festival at Blickling, Norfolk County Council Library & Information Service is delighted to announce that the Wycliffite Bible once owned by Anne’s Uncle James Boleyn of Blickling will be available to view in the Norfolk Heritage Centre on these dates and times: Wed 2 May 2-4, Fri 4 May 10-12, Sat 5 May 2-4, Tue 8 May 2-4, Wed 9 May 10-12, Thur 10 May 2-4, Tue 15 May 10-12, Wed 16 May 2-4, Mon 21 May 2-4, Wed 23 May 10-12.
Come along to find out more about this amazing manuscript volume, its history and connection with Anne Boleyn.
There will also be a complementary display of items relating to Anne and the Boleyn family from the Norfolk Heritage Centre’s collection, in the Heritage Centre at the Norfolk and Norwich Millennium Library in The Forum during May.
Another noteworthy event taking place during the Festival is the traditional midnight vigil on Saturday 19th May (the anniversary of Anne Boleyn’s execution). The evening starts with prayers being said for Anne in St Andrew, the church on the Blickling Estate in a service led by Revd Marion Harrison. Costume historian Molly Housego will attend the prayers dressed as Anne Boleyn and afterwards will explain just how Anne would have dressed for a day at court. Later, historian and story-teller Neil Storey will tell spine-chilling tales of other Norfolk ghosts before leading the audience out to see if Anne’s headless ghost makes its way back to her place of birth. Not for the faint hearted…
For further details about The Boleyn Festival visit www.boleynfestival.co.uk.
To buy tickets email blickling@nationaltrust.org.uk or ring 01263 738030 or 0844 8004308. Buy a four-day pass to the Boleyn Festival for £90 – that’s 10% off the full ticket price.
- 18/05/2012 - Victorian Shell Artistry May 18, 2012
- 18/05/2012 - Shipwrecked! Back to 1897 May 18, 2012
- 18/05/2012 - A Walk Through Time: The Victorians May 18, 2012
- 18/05/2012 - Norwich 20 Group – Looking into 20 – paintings and sculpture at The Forum May 18, 2012
- 18/05/2012 - Tony Foster Paintings/Angela Harding Prints May 18, 2012