An exciting new exhibition from Southampton design collective, Studio B.A.D Architects, kicks off the new year for award-winning arts and heritage venue God’s House Tower this January. ‘Architecture Through a Shared Collaborative Process’ celebrates four years of working collaboratively and highlights the process and potential in working collectively to...
Heritage: the punishment didn’t always fit the crime
by Martin Brisland. There is an old belief that the punishment should fit the crime. Yet, in the past, you could be hanged for 160 different crimes including chopping down a tree or poaching rabbits. William Shawyer was the last person to be publicly hung at the gallows on...
Review: Welsh National Opera, Migrations – Mayflower Theatre, Southampton
by Sam Wise. The WNOs Migrations is an opera of bold ambitions; to weave together different stories of migration into a compelling, engaging whole which changes the thinking of the audience forever. It fails, on all counts. Before we go further, it Is important to say that the musicians...
Review: Welsh National Opera, The Makropulos Affair, Mayflower Theatre, Southampton November 2022
by Martin Brisland. The Makropulos Affair (1926) confronts the question: ‘if you could live forever would you really want to?’ I thought I knew opera, having seen many productions of all the classic works, but never one by Janáček. In fact, I have avoided his work so far thinking...
Southampton union members call on MPS to boost workers’ pay
Members of Southampton UNISON District branch joined hundreds of trade union members from all over the UK in descending on Westminster earlier this month (November) to put pressure on MPs to take drastic action to boost workers’ pay – the best possible solution to easing the current cost of...
Southampton music lover finds new home for records with Oxfam Music Shop
He had been expecting a letter for a long time, but when it arrived the contents were still a pleasant surprise. For months, Gary Smith had daydreamed about how much his mum’s records had raised for charity. Last week, he got to find out for certain. His donations had...
Review: Skinny Lister (Plus support) at The Old Fire Station, Bournemouth
words and pictures by Peter Nicholson. This was my first visit to The Old Fire Station in Bournemouth. I was there to see a band that I photographed at Wickham Festival back in the summer. That was an extremely hot weekend, a contrast to winter coats that were the...
Review: la boheme, Mayflower Theatre, Southampton.
by Joy Richardson. La boheme features an operatic score by Puccini, with lyrics by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, and was first performed in 1896. It is loosely based on Scènes de la Vie de Bohème, a series of short stories about bohemian Parisians, written by Henri Murger in...
View from the Kingsland: Strange days indeed
by Nick Mabey. It’s November and the World Cup is in full swing. That’s not a sentence I ever imagined saying, and yet here we are. It wasn’t even a plan. We ended up here because someone realised, too late it seems, that it would be too hot to...
New books column: Under the Covers
by Carolyn Thomas. Since ruining my eyesight by reading under the covers as a 10-year-old wielding a torch, I’ve loved books. I can’t really remember a time when there wasn’t a pile of TBRs (to be read) next to my bed – although the topics and authors have naturally...