Guide Archives - Blackpool Social Club

23 Oct

London’s award-winning LGBTQ+ literary salon comes to Blackpool

Blackpool Social Club0 CommentsGuide, Literature & Spoken Word

London’s celebrated LGBTQ+ literary salon is heading to Blackpool as founder Paul Burston brings poet Joelle Taylor, novelist Stephen May and performer Hook to Aunty Social on 23 November Polari lands at Aunty Social in Blackpool on Monday 23 November, with an evening of words that are written, spoken or sung. Founded in 2007 by the author Paul Burston, Polari has appeared at the Southbank Centre, the British Library and Heaven nightclub, as well as at book festivals, bars, museums and theatres across the UK and beyond. Named after the gay slang of the same name, it is a celebration…

20 Oct

Sweetness and Light: Grundy serves a three-course feast for Autumn

Blackpool Social Club0 CommentsGuide, Visual Arts & Exhibitions

Three autumn exhibitions, including a confectionery-inspired glass show by Liverpool artist Linny Venables, open as the gallery marks its 115th birthday Rock, ice-cream and illuminations have long been Blackpool’s trade. This autumn, Grundy Art Gallery is making them the centrepiece of a trio of exhibitions. Threy open at the Queen Street gallery on Saturday 24 October, timed to tie in with Lightpool and to the gallery’s 115th anniversary. The centrepiece is Sweet Factory by Linny Venables, a Liverpool-based Disabled artist whose glass sculptures are modelled on confectionery. They celebrate shared histories of sweet-making, working-class food traditions and seaside culture. Venables…

16 Oct

Dame Harriet Walter leads RSC’s all-female Julius Caesar to Blackpool school

Blackpool Social Club0 CommentsGuide, Theatre, Dance & Performance

Phyllida Lloyd’s acclaimed production, set in a women’s prison, takes up a week’s residency at St Mary’s Catholic Academy, with two community performances and a post-show conversation on creative health and young people Dame Harriet Walter is to lead the Royal Shakespeare Company’s landmark all-female production of Julius Caesar at St Mary’s Catholic Academy in Blackpool, as part of a week-long school residency. The RSC is bringing Phyllida Lloyd’s celebrated staging to the school from Monday 19 to Friday 23 October. It is the fifth stop on a five-week tour of partner schools and communities across England. Walter, an Olivier…

15 Oct

Music Q&A: A Certain Ratio

Blackpool Social Club0 CommentsGuide, Music & Gigs

Almost 50 years after they formed, Manchester post-punk and funk pioneers A Certain Ratio return to Bootleg Social on Friday, playing their albums Sextet and Force in full. Martin and Don talk about favourite Blackpool gigs, why experimentation has kept them going, and the young bands they're tipping next What are you most looking forward to about returning to Blackpool and Bootleg Social, and do you have any favourite memories of playing Blackpool? Martin: I think our favourite time playing Blackpool in the past would have been at the Gaiety Bar with our friends Section 25. The last time we…

14 Oct

Sandgrown Song Cycle: Six Blackpool choirs to give voice to LGBTQ+ stories

Blackpool Social Club0 CommentsGuide, Music & Gigs

Where We Belong, performed for the first time on 8 November, turns the experiences of local people into six original songs. Six choirs will sing six new songs at Blackpool Grand Theatre next month, each created from the experiences of LGBTQ+ people in the town. Where We Belong – Sandgrown Song Cycle will be performed on Sunday 8 November, the first time the music has been heard in public. The songs grew out of conversations and creative work with LGBTQ+ people, community groups and organisations across Blackpool and explore identity, resilience, pride and the search for somewhere to belong. BMS…

12 Oct

HISTORY GETS HORRIBLE AT THE GRAND

Blackpool Social Club0 CommentsGuide, Theatre, Dance & Performance

Horrible Histories Live on Stage rolls into Blackpool Grand Theatre this week, with double gruesome helping of Terrible Tudors and Awful Egyptians landing across four days of performances. Packed with outrageous facts, larger-than-life characters and the show's signature eye-popping 3D effects, it's history as you were never taught it at school. Writer and director Neal Foster tells us why, after more than 20 years on the road, it's still packing theatres out from the West End to the Sydney Opera House. Horrible Histories has now been delighting theatre audiences for more than 20 years. Did you ever imagine it would…

07 Oct

Rogues’ Gallery: Black Liver give voice to art history’s overlooked women

Blackpool Social Club0 CommentsGuide, Theatre, Dance & Performance

Award-winning comedy duo Black Liver are heading out on tour with their feminist two-hander made in collaboration with the community. Ask people to name an artist and you might get a few obvious answers – Monet? Van Gogh? Picasso? Then ask them to name a female artist. It is that silence that comedy and performance duo Black Liver have set out to fill with Rogues' Gallery, a show about the women history has written out. Ruth Cockburn, from Blackpool, and Keith Carter, from Liverpool, say the project, which they began touring this week, started with a simple idea. "There's so…

06 Oct

Giant hay creatures to guard Mereside meadow as Lightpool turns 10

Blackpool Social Club0 CommentsGuide, Visual Arts & Exhibitions

A wildflower field on disused land will be occupied by giant creatures and lit up after dark for Welcoming Winter, a free evening of art, light and seasonal spectacle. A family of three-metre-tall creatures made from hay will emerge from the darkness of a Mereside meadow this month, as part of celebrations for Lightpool's 10th anniversary. Welcoming Winter, on Friday 23 October, will bring the Field of Dreams to life after dark. The event is free and everyone is welcome. The Field of Dreams is a seven-acre stretch of disused land that LeftCoast, the Creative People and Places programme for…

28 Sep

Roots in the House: a celebration of Black excellence

Blackpool Social Club0 CommentsGuide, Heritage, Theatre, Dance & Performance

Workshops, performance, fashion and food build towards a family-friendly catwalk competition where the audience crowns the winner – Roots in the House, a celebration of Black excellence in Blackpool lands at House of Wingz this Black History Month. House of Wingz is gearing up for its annual celebration of Black culture, creativity, queer joy and community on 10 October. Running from 5pm to 8.30pm, Roots in the House brings together an exciting programme of workshops, performance and participation, building towards a spectacular family-friendly catwalk competition, where the audience gets to decide who takes the crown. Expect the richness and creativity…

26 Sep

Lightpool Festival lights up for it’s 10th birthday

Blackpool Social Club0 CommentsGuide, Visual Arts & Exhibitions

Thirty artworks, 10 world premieres, the return of Carnival Magic and 10-metre comminity-sewn tapestry – Blackpool's biggest light-art party turns 10 this October half term, running from Wednesday 21 to Saturday 31 October. Ten years ago, Lightpool Festival started as an idea – that Blackpool's illuminated heritage could stretch further than the seafront and that art shouldn't cost anything to enjoy. A decade on, that idea has grown into a regular fixture on our annual cultural calendar,. Lightpool Festival returns for its 10th anniversary edition from Wednesday 21 to Saturday 31 October, transforming venues across Blackpool into an after-dark trail…