Environment Editor Adam Pickering (environment@leftlion.co.uk)
Food Co-Editor Lucy Campion (food@leftlion.co.uk)
Art Editor Benjamin Kay (art@leftlion.co.uk)
Distribution Dom Martinovs
Joe Callow
Matteo D’Alesio
Photographers
Lux Gagos
Maiko Only
Jacob Harris
Wes Small
Christopher D. Frost
Leigh Woosey
Gordon Fay
Lauren Freestone
John Fisher
Rae Dowling
Laura Turner
Wildlife Garden Project CIC
Featured Contributor
Having only been in Nottingham for two years, Matthew Blaney has become LeftLion’s answer to MythBusters since early this year. Alongside studying English with Creative Writing at the University of Nottingham, Matt has adopted the Truth or Legend segment where he delves into all the local myths and legends in and around Nottingham. Outside of local legend, Matt tends to focus his time on songwriting and performing in-and-around Nottingham. Being a regular, when studies allow, at local open mics, Matt has also been lucky enough to play at his favourite boozer – Billy Bootleggers – to which he says, “he can now die happy.”
Born in Blackburn, but raised in Birmingham, Matt has one of the strangest accents you may ever come across. Being in his final year of university, he is trying his best not to panic at the prospect of finding a ‘proper job’ but hopes to carry on his creative endeavours no matter where he goes in life.
123 Learning, 35A Creative, Aaron Murray, Alan Underwood, Alex McFarlane, Alison Gove-Humphries, Alison Hedley, Alison Knox, Anamenti, Andrew Button, Audrey & Lizzy & Margot, BadGrammar MakesMeSic, Barbara Morgan, Ben Martin Saxophone, Ben Stewart, Big Bob McPlop, Caroline, Caroline Le Sueur, Cat Kearney, Cerys Gibson, Charlie Baylis, Chris Breese, Chris Jarvis, Chris Underwood, Claire Foss, Clare Foyle, Colin Tucker, Cyra Golijani-Moghaddam, Dan Hemmings, Daniel Ison Jones, David Belbin, David Knight, Dominic Morrow, Donna Rowe-Merriman, Eden PR, Ellie, Erika Diaz Petersen, F C and E Ledger, GC, Gemma Barfoot, Grant Butterworth, Grass Roots Garden Care, Graye Wilde, Half Moon Holistics, Harry Sutcliffe, Harry Turner, Hayley Howard, Heather Oliver, Holden Johnson, Holly's Merry Moggies, Ian Carroll, Ian Phillips, Ian Storey, Ian Yanson, Jack Moore, James Place, James Verran, Janine Lees, Jason Clifford, Jean Forsey, Jennifer Pearce, John Haslam, John Hess, John Holmes, John & Jackie Scruton, Jonathan Day, Joshua Heathcote, Julian Bower, Julian McDougall, Justyn Roberts, Kay Gilby, Kaye Brennan, Kelly Scott, Kiki Dee the Cat, Lawrence Poole, Laura Wilson, Leigh Woosey, Lilian Greenwood, Livi & Jacob Nieri, Louise Duffield, Luke Richardshon, Lyn, Marc Weaver, Mark, Mark Barratt, Mark Bond, Mark Dickson, Mark Gasson, Mark Jacobs, Martin Curtis, Mary, Matthew Riches & Justin Clark, MC, Mike Carter, Mike Cole, Miri Debah, Monica White, Nic, Nick Palmer, Nigel Cooke, Nigel King, NottingJam Orchestra, Paul, Paul Boast, Peachy Ground Designs, Pearl Quick, Philip Renshaw, Rachel Ayrton, Rachel Morton, Raphael Achache, Richard Donovan, Richard Goodwin, Rob Arthur, Robert Wyles, Rose Harvey, Roy Manterfield, Russell Brown, Ruth Hoyland, Saara Maqbool, Sam Fia, Sam Hudson, Sam Stiling, Sandra Pink, Sarah Colborne, Sarah Manton, Selectadisc, Simon Evans, Tessa Duell, The Sparrows’ Nest, Tom Dee, Steve Benton, Steve Holland, Steve Lyon, Steve Wallace, Sue Barsby, The Edgar Family, Tom Huggon, Tony Shelley, Tracey Newton, Vanessa Shaw, Wayne Norrie, Will Horton.
Q matt.blaney_
From local
what happened in 2025.
Eyes on the skies
of time
gigs of 2025.
We visit the Sherwood Observatory – which provides an immersive experience for amateur star gazers and space enthusiasts alike.
These streets are ours
We spotlight The Park Estate, a wealthy Nottingham neighbourhood known for its beauty and also being a relatively secret set of streets.
Bon journal
With the New Nottingham Journal now officially launched, its Editor-in-Chief Andrew Tucker Leavis tells us about this new literary journal made for the Notts community.
Stirring the blood
Ahead of their appearance at a new mini festival in The Bodega, local goth-punk outfit Bloodworm talk to us about growing their profile by playing live.
Greetings LeftLion readers! It’s once again the season to be jolly, desperately avoid Mariah Carey, and spike your morning porridge with Irish cream.
This month I want to pay tribute to all of our wonderful contributors, because LeftLion isn’t just a magazine that shouts about events and all the good things happening in Nottingham – it’s a collaborative space where writers, illustrators, photographers, and other creatives can get their work published. I first began writing for LeftLion in 2014 with a page detailing the lives of Nottingham’s historical eccentrics and weirdos, which gave me the confidence to continue writing that has led me here. So a big thank you to everyone who has been involved in any way this year, whether it be our regular theatre and gig reviewers, Notts-Shots-submitters, or artists and writers who have let us publish their work.
This monthly’s mag features a cracking array of articles from our talented writers, and some absolutely delightful illustrations. I very much enjoyed reading about the gripping bank robberies which took place in 1970s Notts, related by our history editor CJ De Barra on p.40. April Seaworth’s incredibly fun illustration was the perfect complement to the madcap tale, and gave me instant nostalgia for reading illustrated books as a child.
How two daring bank heists in quick succession rocked Nottingham in 1970, but never led to the arrest of the perpetrators.
Surrender to the process
Nottingham Actor’s Workshop founder Tim Bryn Smith tells about his new film made with local people – Surrender To It
Boutique chic
We meet the mum-daughter duo who own a long established luxury fashion outlet on Flying Horse Walk: Gigi Bottega.
Growing together
Recounting how community planting day Wild About Sneinton brought together volunteers and creatives to improve local green spaces.
Home truths
Dave Newmarch, from homelessness charity Framework, and Edward, an unhoused man in Notts, talk about rough sleeping and how it can be tackled.
Over on p.14 Andrew Spencer gives us a lovely history of the Park Estate, again, with a wonderful vision of this historic area painted by artist Beth Gillespie. We also hear from literature co-editor Andrew Tucker on p.15, who just put together the New Nottingham Journal: an anthology of poetry, creative writing and journalism from wordsmiths from far and wide. Then, over on p.35, Grace Sanders has a brilliant chat with poet Marjie Griffiths about representing Notts on the Slamovision stage.
Of course 2025 is coming to an end, and it feels like it’s sped by. On p.16, LeftLion founder Jared Wilson shares his annual round-up of Nottingham culture this year, from those locally-loved figures we have sadly lost, to cultural milestones that have taken place.
While festivities are afoot throughout this month, I hope you get the chance for hibernation and rest, with some sprinklings of creativity and inspiration for the new year. As the Thompson Brothers Greengrocers recently said to me as I left with my veg, “Take care, stay warm, and keep your drawers on.”
Until next year,
Nottingham culture in 2025
music acts getting national recognition to Nottingham institutions celebrating big anniversaries, here’s
LeftLion music awards 2025
We look back at a stacked year of music in Nottingham, and give deserved flowers to the best album, EP, song, and
Out
Someone at Wet Leg's gig at Rock City: “That support act was so bizarre... Like two men auditioning for a part in Zoolander 3”
“Did you have a nice time in Paris?” “No. I went with my bipolar friend.”
“They're bringing that AI into wok anall.....I'm norravin any o that!”
“I don't know but Claudia Winkleman must be top ten most random people of all time”
Man U fan in Vat and Fiddle: “It's like bloody Southern Cemetery in these toilets.”
“Hold
on, she’s just trying to sell some dopamine to Simon.”
Pick Six
For this month’s Pick Six, we heard from Craig Revel Horwood who stars as the Wicked Stepmother in this year’s Christmas panto at the Theatre Royal – Cinderella – and is also best known as a fixture on legendary TV show Strictly Come Dancing.
Woman chastising her child on a bus: “I've got eyes in the back of my arse!”
Group in regular clothing on a night out on Halloween. First dude: “So are we gonna get any coke tonight?” Second dude: “What, like diet or…?”
The Grinch was taught as a child to wear clothes so at some point up on Mount Crumpit, he just said screw it, it’s nakey time from here on out
Film: Strictly Ballroom Baz Luhrmann was the director and he brought together a whole eclectic group of characters from the ballroom and latin world. He made it really funny and heartwarming, with brilliant dancing, and it’s one of my goto movies at Christmas time. It makes me laugh, leaves me in high spirits and is one of the many Baz Luhrmann films I love, along with Muriel’s Wedding
Album: Ricky Lee Jones by Ricky Lee Jones
This one brings back a lot of memories. I was living in Paris at the time and it was my first ever CD. I got a CD player, and I’d never used one before. Because I only had that one, I listened to it over and over again. All of the numbers on that album have haunted me since 1988. I didn’t know anything about Ricky Lee Jones, but my American friend gave it to me and introduced me to that style. I’ve used it for all sorts of work in choreography as well.
Personal hero: John Travolta It’s got to be John Travolta. He’s the one who made it cool to dance in the playground at school. It was Saturday Night Fever, and he made it okay for boys to dance. I couldn’t believe the difference in the playground – everyone used to be playing handball, but then they wanted to learn all the John Travolta dances. So that had a huge impact on me, and then I knew what I wanted to do. So he has a lot to answer for regarding that.
Holiday destination: The Maldives
It’s like going onto a movie set – it’s insanely delicious, and I just love the tranquility of it. Everyone is so friendly and the food is great. It’s a little pricey, but it’s a destination I think everyone should visit before they die because it is absolute paradise. And it won’t be here forever, because the sea levels are rising, so it’ll be a real shame to see it disappear. There’s not much to do but that’s what I like, because I have a very busy life. It’s a destination where I can absorb nature, go snorkelling, eat really well, and relax.
Notts spot: Delilah Fine Foods
That’s where I met my now fiance, Jonathan. I was in Nottingham for the Strictly Come Dancing Live arena tour, back in 2018, and I literally had an hour before the matinee. So we had a little speed date there, and that’s why it always lives in my memory. It’s sort of tucked away, and has the little shop as well. We sat inside, out of everyone’s way, and I had a poached egg and avocado on sourdough. So it always reminds me of our first meeting.
Meal: Pho
I love it because it's clean, all the ingredients are really fresh, and you can get high protein, low carb food there – which is great if you’re in shows, because you can actually eat a lot without having to worry about calories. I just love all their broths, the beef brisket, and the chicken. They have all these wonderful fresh herbs, which you can scrunch up and put in as much as you want, with lime and chilli. It has a really nice atmosphere, so I always go there with friends when I’m in Nottingham.
words: Dani Bacon
To Matthew
Life is an expensive acquisition: It costs the pain of asking and the risk of love. What random, and coincidence, of light
Now casts your slight And awkward shadow
Carefully across the calendar?
What half-remembered song of winter’s ember Bursts out
In your tremendous and courageous Shout?
I have no dreams or talisman to offer, No cross of gold or chart to aid your flight; Only the knowledge that your great uniqueness Will echo down the corridors of night.
Colin Tucker
UNDERCOVER ARTIST
This month’s cover artist Eleanor Youdell shares her journey as an artist, her tips for being creative, and the concept behind her cover art.
Tell us a little about yourself…
I’m Eleanor, a Mancunian who's lived in Nottingham for the last 25 years, so hopefully that qualifies me to be in LeftLion! I’m married to a local, have two kids, and work for addiction recovery charity Double Impact. I feel very much in the ‘messy middle’ of life, with lots of demands on my time, so carving out a creative path for myself in the midst of this is challenging, but (sort of) keeps me sane!
What is the story behind the cover?
The cover illustration is a celebration of the magic of the Christmas market in Nottingham. I love quirky details in pictures, and the replica scene inside the snowglobe, which could continue on into infinity, is a nod to Christmas stretching far back into the past and future. Most of my work is 3D and plays with layers and depth, so I’ve done my best to create a layered effect in the cover.
What inspires you as an artist?
More recently, I’ve taken time to reconnect with what truly inspires me and what I most want to create. I’m naturally drawn to small-scale, highly detailed work – objects that can be held, explored, and really appreciated up close. I love things that have been unexpectedly transformed into art, and I aim to capture that same feeling using paper –to create tiny sculptures and scenes.
Best gig
This year we haven’t seen much, which is disappointing really. We did say, ‘Are we too old for this game?’ But when you get there – no, you’re not. We saw Torvill and Dean, and we saw Dean Z doing Elvis at the Arena. It was very professionally done, not tacky. He could wiggle and do all the moves. We were going to see The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, but we couldn’t as we had a delivery of oranges the next day. But last time we saw them it was fantastic. They had the drum set at an angle at the side so he could prance around genuflecting all over the place.
Ay up me duck
We’d say it’s ‘ay up’ not ‘ey up’. We also quite like ‘innit’. And ‘owt or nowt’. It’s not complicated dialogue. We said to someone in the shop ‘do you want owt or nowt’ and they said, ‘What are you talking about?’. Well they should know. Is ‘ay up’ from Notts? Well they say Robin Hood is really from Yorkshire way, but Sherwood Forest would have gone quite high up wouldn’t it. Clumber Park is twenty mile up the road. To be on horseback to get to Nottingham Castle you must have been on your knees.
The Park Estate
It’s fantastic isn’t it. If you can afford to live there, live there. Lots of it is flats now, but you can imagine a hundred years ago it being a gorgeous family home. It’s very leafy. And you’ve got the squash club, the tennis club, the boules club, and Newcastle Circus is a bit of park.
It’s a bit creepy at night with the gas light though. We were delivering there a couple of years and we couldn’t find which way to go.
I want each piece to delight and surprise, inviting people to lean in, look closer, and discover that sense of wonder for a few moments. I'm working on turning some of these into craft kits, so people can discover this magic for themselves.
Tell us about some things you’ve worked on in the past…
My creative path has been very stop-and-start; probably the best thing about it is that I've never given up on it! My first love is children’s book illustrations, and over the years I’ve written and illustrated a few of these, although not been published. I re-wrote my favourite of these as a novel and I'd like to think one day I’ll find a way to get it out there.
I worked for several years with a wonderful local artist, Carol Crowe, developing community arts programmes which made art workshops and cultural venues in Nottingham more accessible and welcoming for people in recovery and other diverse groups, which was a fantastic experience. I've studied fine art at Nottingham Uni as an adult learner, and also taught myself digital art techniques which led to an Etsy shop celebrating sober living, called The Sober Frootcake.
Do you have any tricks for getting started and staying inspired as a creative?
I would say to anyone who is embarking on, or taking up a creative path again – don’t wait until you think you’re ready! - my biggest takeaway from a fantastic online course I took last year. Don’t get too bogged down trying to identify your particular 'style' – just start doing it and this will develop over time. It’s finally dawned on me (hopefully not too late) that I don’t have time to sit back and wait to be discovered, or attain the level of skill that I believe makes me worthy of trying.
There are lots of visible and accessible paths now open for creatives, but you still need to be brave and push yourself out there in small ways.
If you could sit down and chat with any artist in your field, who would it be and what would you talk about?
There are some really incredible artists making 3D work whom I follow on Instagram. I would probably most like to sit down with Alley McGlynn, as it was one of her tunnel books which inspired me to try creating my own, and I was hooked! I’d ask her for some tips on preventing my fingers from going numb when cutting out intricate details, and also some paper engineering tips to take my illustrations to the next level.
Is there anything else you would like to tell LeftLion readers?
I’ve become much more aware of the rich array of makers’ markets and outlets which continue to spring up here in Nottingham and across the county – one of my aims for next year is to be a stallholder myself, and I’m committed to shopping independently this Christmas! Also, I wish everyone a magical and peaceful Christmas.
eleanoraliceart.com
Nadia on...
In 2019, the streets of Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, were filled with hope as a popular revolution succeeded in ousting Omar al-Bashir, a brutal military dictator who had ruled for thirty years. An acute economic crisis the year before had worsened living conditions and caused food prices to soar, pushing the population to demand democracy and a change in leadership. The revolution had two demands: first, the removal of the dictator, and second, the ejection of the military from power once and for all.
Though al-Bashir had spent the previous three decades ensuring that a military coup would not oust him from power (as was the case for many of his predecessors), his two military allies – Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Muhammad Hamdan Dagalo – ultimately turned against him, using the popular revolution as a way to seize power.
Al-Burhan, leader of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), and Dagalo, in charge of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), assured protesters that democracy would follow after a two-year transition period to prepare for civilian rule. However, Al-Burhan was then named as head of the transitional military council, and Dagalo, the deputy head. In simple terms, the two consistently evaded any real transition to a civilianled government, then turned on the civilians, and then against one another, which ultimately resulted in a violent war that has engulfed the country since April 2023.
Since then, more than 150,000 people have been killed in Sudan, and up to fourteen million have been displaced both inside and outside of the country. It’s a conflict that the UN has described as the ‘world’s largest humanitarian crisis’ and has also resulted in famine, widespread sexual violence against women and girls, and acts of genocide. With no end to the war in sight, it is clear that governments around the world, including our own, are not doing enough to end this crisis.
The SAF and the RSF have committed war crimes. A report to the UN Human Rights Council found that both groups have been responsible for direct and large-scale attacks against civilians and the extensive destruction of essential infrastructure for survival, including medical centres, markets, food and water systems, and displacement camps.
However, the RSF has also targeted non-Arab ethnic groups, killing them indiscriminately. In October, RSF fighters overran the SAF’s last major stronghold in Darfur, El Fasher, and have been accused of raping women and girls, mutilating and killing 2000 unarmed civilians with impunity. Reportedly, the RSF moved house to house and carried out widespread executions, and also killed 500 patients and their companions in a maternity hospital. The killing spree has been so severe that blood saturating the ground has been picked up by satellite imagery. Many of these atrocities have also been captured on video. The International Criminal Court (ICC) is investigating whether the paramilitary force had committed ‘war crimes and crimes against humanity’. The RSF has been accused of attempting to conceal evidence of these mass killings in Darfur by burning bodies or burying them in mass graves.
Historically, Darfur, a region in western Sudan, has been the site of atrocities committed against the indigenous ethnic groups in the area. In the early 2000s, government-backed militias known as the Janjaweed carried out systematic attacks against non-Arab ethnic groups, leading the United Nations to describe these actions as acts of genocide. The UN estimates that between 2003 and 2008, up to 300,000 people were killed. Over time, the Janjaweed were folded into the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), and the recent attacks against ethnic groups in Darfur are viewed as a continuation of these atrocities.
i wiLL Continue pressing the goVernment to respond with the urgenCy this Crisis demands
The situation is dire and deteriorating rapidly. The UN’s humanitarian response plan for Sudan remains chronically underfunded, and cuts by the Trump administration have severely weakened international aid. According to the UN, thirty million people now require humanitarian assistance, with 21 million facing severe acute food insecurity. For the second consecutive year, Sudan has topped the International Rescue Committee’s list of countries at highest risk of new or worsening humanitarian crises. So what can our government do?
Foreign arms deliveries have enabled the RSF to become one of the most heavily armed irregular forces in Africa. Evidence indicates that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has supplied a steady flow of weapons to the RSF. A report by UN experts, leaked earlier this year, documented transport flights from the UAE to Chad that deliberately sought to evade detection, while munitions with serial numbers linked to the UAE have also been recovered. In light of this evidence, our government must halt all arms sales to the UAE.
There are also reports that the UK government rejected atrocity-prevention plans for Sudan last autumn, opting for the ‘least ambitious’ of four proposed measures despite intelligence warnings of the risk of ethnic cleansing and genocide. Our leaders must urgently revisit this decision and scale up actions to prevent atrocities.
Finally, the government must set out what additional steps it will now take in response to the UN’s warning that the situation is ‘spiralling out of control’, and significantly increase the humanitarian aid it provides.
The international community must act now, before even more lives are senselessly taken. I will continue pressing the government to respond with the urgency this crisis demands.
nadiawhittome.org
words: Nadia Whittome photo: Lux Gagos
eyes on the skies
With darkness dominating two thirds of our day throughout December, the winter months are an excellent time to set your sights on the night sky and start learning about the stars. Thirty minutes from the city centre in Sutton-in-Ashfield, Sherwood Observatory is a science centre and planetarium which offers a truly immersive experience for both amateur star-gazers and space enthusiasts alike, presenting awe-inspiring films, astronomy courses, talks and special events. We went to take a look around…
For millennia we have gazed into the night sky to find answers. Ever-present but unknowable, stars have shaped humankind, providing us with knowledge on navigation and physics, plus mythology and storytelling.
Today, with scientific advances giving us a giant leap towards understanding the universe better, astronomy poses more questions and existential thoughts than it reveals. Questions such as, does hurtling through an infinite solar system on a pale blue dot make life on earth more or less significant? To find out, one blindingly bright and cold afternoon in late November, I hopped on a Rainbow Three bus to Sherwood Observatory.
Rolling through the mining towns of Hucknall, Newstead and Kirkby-in-Ashfield, it struck me that the locals in this area are probably more familiar with what is below the ground than what is above, yet in the late 1960s, before pits began to close, space fever was gripping the world. Man had finally set foot on the moon and visions of what might be found on further expeditions echoed through culture in space age fashion, David Bowie, and Daleks. It’s easy to imagine how exciting the idea of space exploration would have been to us mere mortals on the ground.
I’m met by Marketing Officer Susanna Holt. We sit in the airy cafe which overlooks the original observatory and an immense view across the hills of Ashfield, while she gives me a potted history of the centre.
“The Mansfield and District Astronomical Society set the place up. They saw a huge opportunity and worked tirelessly,” she explains. “They literally taught themselves bricklaying and built the building themselves in the 1970s.”
The Observatory’s history began when local engineer and amateur astronomer David Collins put a call out in the paper to see if anyone was interested in starting an astronomy society. Four men answered, several of whom had already constructed their own ‘backyard observatories’. Over the next decade the group raised funds to build the first observatory and telescope, using bricks, tiles and roofing from a local demolition site at Pleasley Colliery. The original building houses a cosy woodpanelled clubhouse room where the Society would meet, and its wonderfully retro, DIY aesthetic extends upstairs to the Observatory and the original Newtonian telescope.
Karen Barker, who was one of the many ardent volunteers at the centre before taking on the role of Events and Visitor Support Officer, explains how the telescope was lovingly handcrafted: “The scaffolding that was outside the building
words: Sophie Gargett
illustration: Sophie Stevenson
makes up the struts of the telescope, and the whole thing is built on the rear axle of a lorry. These are wooden signage boards from weighbridges at Pleasley Colliery” she explains, pointing to the casing of the telescope. “Then the dome above rotates 360 degrees, which is driven by a decommissioned motor from an industrial knitting factory.”
The main science centre next door offers a much more stateof-the-art experience, though not without its own charm and history. Built within a converted underground Victorian reservoir, the lofty brick chamber houses an exhibition space with displays on the history of space exploration, from the various Apollo programs to the achievements of women in space, along with a variety of permanent artefacts such as model rocket parts donated by Rolls Royce.
as we taLK the sKy aboVe Changes From a CLoudy daytime to a CLear night sKy, beFore zooming into speCiFiC ConsteLL ations, nebuL as and pL anets that are VisibLe in aCute detaiL
“Last summer we had an exhibition about meteorites, and the University of Nottingham gave us some meteorite samples which had come from all over the world,” Susanna tells me. “They were very rare, something you’d probably only see once in a lifetime.”
It’s been a big year since the centre opened in 2024. Chair and Planetarium Project Manager, Dr Steve Wallace was awarded an MBE for services to the community in Ashfield, the volunteers at the centre won the King’s Award for Voluntary Service, and the events schedule has increasingly filled with a variety of unique experiences for visitors.
Susanna explains how they are looking to integrate more events involving the arts and mental health into their regular open evenings, tours and screenings. “It’s getting exciting as we’re starting to build things up,” she says. “We’ve got the astronomy courses and guest speakers coming in, but recently we had a pianist called Chris Miggells playing some candlelit shows in the planetarium, and a women’s singing circle.”
Next up on the tour is the part I’ve been most looking forward to: the Planetarium. Resembling a cinema, but with a ten-metre domed screen that spans the whole roof, I’ve never been in a room quite like this before.
Astrophysicist and presenter Matthew Nutter shows me the directory of shows they offer, which are bookable according to date and range from educational children’s films to more in depth documentaries. Relaxing into a comfortable reclining chair to watch Messengers of Time and Space, I sit in awe, eyes fixed above me for thirty minutes, to learn how centres across the world monitor the night sky for astronomical events.
Throughout the film, vistas of the universe are projected above, offering a sometimes dizzying experience that is truly immersive. The film touches on the electromagnetic spectrum, supernovas, the Aurora Borealis, and how different space centres share information.
After each film is a short Q&A session with the presenter, and on this quiet afternoon, Matthew and I discuss Star Trek and the influence of science fiction on science fact, the effect of satellites in the night sky, and how advancements in technology are speeding up the process of mapping and understanding the universe. As we talk the sky above changes from a cloudy daytime to a clear night sky, before zooming into specific constellations, nebulas and planets that are visible in acute detail.
“Over the past 225 years we go from there being one confirmed asteroid. Then in the first hundred years we found around 600 asteroids. Now we’re finding more every single year than we found in the first century,” he explains, whilst changing the screen to depict a visualisation of the newly discovered asteroids over time via a mightily powerful control panel. I ask Matthew what his favourite fact about space is currently. “Probably that we know the taste and smell of a specific nebula – which is alcoholic and smells of raspberries,” he tells me, explaining how analysis of the light from the nebula lined up with chemicals that provide these certain flavourings. “Taste and smell aren’t things you usually associate with exploring space, but if we can interact in these different ways it makes it a little more memorable.”
This has certainly been a memorable afternoon for me, and as I set out home into the evening, no longer worrying about the chill and darkness, I see the sky anew, and am filled with a new sense of wonder for our pale blue dot floating in space.
For times, prices, booking and events, please head to the Sherwood Observatory website.
sherwood-observatory.org.uk
words: Andrew Spencer illustration: Beth Gillespie
The Streets Are Ours: The Park Estate
In the latest in our series of love letters to Nottingham neighbourhoods, Andrew Spencer explores The Park Estate, Nottingham’s wealthiest and perhaps most secret set of streets…
Surrounded by the Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem, Savoy Cinema, and Castle Boulevard, overlooked by the Castle itself and positioned a mere five minutes from the Market Square, lies The Park, a private residential estate and conservation area. Known for its blue lines, gas street lamps and huge Victorian houses, The Park is Nottingham’s ‘posh’ neighbourhood. But is there more to it than that?
Originally woodland, the history of The Park dates back to the latter half of the eleventh century, when William the Conqueror commanded the construction of the original Nottingham Castle. The area became a royal deer park to accommodate the castle. Both were ruined as a consequence of the English Civil War in the seventeenth century.
The blue lines on the roads are often an immediate interest for people new to The Park. Blue signifies Park Estate-only rules, as issued by the Nottingham Park Estate Limited company (NPEL); single blue lines mean that those with a residents’ parking permit may park adjacent to their property, and those with permission from a permit holder can also park adjacent to the holder’s property. By contrast, double blue means that no one, not even permit holders, can park. A subtle but distinct difference that separates The Park’s roads from nationwide yellow lines. Running alongside the roads and blue lines are The Park’s 226 gas light lamps, which are its original lighting despite the rest of Nottingham having transitioned to electric lights in 1937.
The longstanding greenery of the area is what comes to mind when Nick Lee, who has been visiting or lived as a resident of The Park for almost sixty years, thinks of the estate. “The defining feature of The Park that makes it so special is the mature trees, the tree-lined vistas. We're just seeing all the leaves fall, but autumn in The Park is magical,” he says.
In his childhood, Lee regularly visited his dad and stepmother in The Park at their flat, before moving in with his dad for some of his teen years. While only a handful of other teenagers lived in the area at that time, and most of his friends lived elsewhere in the city, Lee found himself popular with them. “It was great as a teenager because my friends used to crash here and enjoy its proximity to the city centre. We'd go to Rock City and then we'd be back to my place. It felt quite different to the
experience of most of my friends, who grew up in more typical suburbs,” Lee says. Then, around twenty years ago, Lee and his wife, Dara, bought their house in The Park and raised their children there.
Still, despite the conveniences of living next to the city centre, there was a time in recent history when The Park lacked much of the elegance it wields in 2025. “In the 70s, it was a lot less maintained than it is now. Some of the houses were very run down; certainly the roads weren't as well maintained. It felt a bit like it was a bit neglected really,” Lee says.
the deFining Feature oF the parK that maKes it so speCiaL is the mature trees. we're just seeing aLL the LeaVes FaLL, but autumn here is magiCaL
It would not be until the 1990s that the area would see improvement in the form of an Act of Parliament, the Nottingham Park Estate Act 1990, giving the NPEL control over upkeep and rules of the estate, as well as the ability to set rates for residents. The regeneration of The Park is one of the key changes Lee has seen, “There's been a huge improvement in general maintenance of The Park in terms of the roads, houses and of the actual environment.”
And in the long term, that improvement helped foster another change within The Park: more families. “Demographically, it's become more of a family environment than it was in the 70s,” Lee says. “There were families living here, but now it’s a more settled and established environment to bring a family up in.”
As such, there is one change Lee would make to The Park: a play area for kids. “I did try to lobby and do some work to develop a children's play area, which came to nothing in the end, unfortunately,” he says. With the amount of families with young children growing inside The Park and the estate seemingly bucking the national trend of fewer children, Lee reaffirms that a local play area would be beneficial and his only change.
There are, however, events that occur in The Park. A responsibility of the Nottingham Park Residents Association (NPRA), which is a separate entity to the NPEL, is building community in the neighbourhood. Happenings run by the NPRA have included social lunches, carols, jubilee celebrations and picnics for kids. There is also the biennial Park Garden Trail, in which a number of houses and gardens across The Park are open to public viewing for the purpose of raising money for local charities. The 2025 trail raised a record-setting £43,000.
The Robin Hood Half Marathon runs through The Park, which Lee has taken part in several times and respects the difficulty of the leg through the estate. “It's a beast of a course. It's great running down from the castle but then you hit the hills and you know what's coming,” he says, referencing the steep climb runners then have to face up to Lenton. While Lee doesn’t participate in marathons now, he does cheer and clap for other runners and has supported Dara when she took part in the 10k run through the area.
Lee’s wish is that The Park remains accessible to such events and to the public at large, and never gated. At one point, there was a move to lock the gates at the Lenton end of the estate due to concerns about noise and student behaviour waking residents up at 3am. The gates were locked for a time but a right-of-way meant this practice stopped.
While Lee is sympathetic to the worries of those who desire to seal The Park, it’s against his instincts and politics for it to be gated. “I understood that there was a bit of an anti-social issue with the way students were behaving but I wouldn't like to live in a community that considers itself exclusive and gated,” he says, before adding, “but the gates are always open apart from the bollards at the bottom entrance. Everywhere is open and I think that's how it should be.”
“What I want for the next generation is that the environment of The Park be maintained and is available, that we continue to have that opportunity, but that it also remains open to all. We shouldn't pull the drawbridge and exclude people.”
Visit The Park next time you’re out and about. Remember to check out The Park tunnel!
Bon Journal
All that Nottingham’s literary scene was missing, said poet Rory Waterman, was a “name-brand literary journal”. Grace Sanders speaks to Andrew Tucker Leavis, Editor-in-Chief of the New Nottingham Journal, about how he decided to rectify that issue, with LeftLion’s help…
All that Nottingham’s literary scene was missing, said poet Rory Waterman, was a “name-brand literary journal”. Grace Sanders speaks to Andrew Tucker Leavis, Editor-in-Chief of the New Nottingham Journal, about how he decided to rectify
Now that the journal has officially launched, how are you feeling about it? I’m finally catching up on some sleep!
50% of UK adults read for pleasure – that’s 21 million people – but literary journals often seem to target a narrow audience. The goal was to collect great writing – fiction, non-fiction and poetry – and to lob it into people’s hands, whether they are followers of capital L ‘Literature’ or not. It does seem to be happening, at last!
As you went through the editing process, did you notice an underlying theme or connection throughout any of the submissions?
Early on I mentioned to a couple of people who’d asked that ‘birth’, or ‘rebirth’, might become a focus. In my introduction I write about the phoenix – DH Lawrence’s chosen emblem – and that it doesn’t, strictly speaking, live forever – it’s constantly being reborn, cremated, and uncremated.
I think print publications are like that too: when you start a new one, you’re not drawing a blueprint on thin air but over the faint outlines of all that’s gone before you in this city. Janet Gunter wrote her New Nottingham Journal piece about ‘phoenix trees’, recumbent trees which fall over and keep growing. Amy Acre’s poetry deals with the mixed emotions of motherhood. There’s a lot in Issue One about how new things begin.|
What was the most challenging part of the editing process for you?
This ‘newness’ also became a challenge – I’ve not made a book before, so it was all a baptism of fire – from typesetting, to print-checking, to fine-tuning the design, to distributing… my naïveté combined with the rigid deadline meant that the whole thing has felt like a bootcamp, where other people’s money, pledged in good faith on Kickstarter, was at stake. Still, I’m chuffed with how it’s come out, and that’s down to the quality of the pieces which were entrusted to us. I knew we’d always have that to fall back on.
The journal began as your solo passion project, but has now grown into a collaborative effort. What are your hopes or plans for Issue Two of the journal? Are there any particular themes or directions you would like to explore with it?
Yes, we now have an editorial team rather than an editorial person, so that’s a discussion I’m looking forward to having as a group. Kibrina Davey, Martin Fitzgerald, Hannah Cox, and George Newton are the new team, and I’m sure they’ll all bring their own perspectives. Personally I will be lobbying to see some biting satire in Issue Two…
This would never have worked as a total solo project. It’s In Nottingham sponsored Issue One, and we had massive support all the way through from our partners LeftLion, Nottingham City
of Literature, NTU, UoN and Bad Betty Press; and of course Nottingham Central Library, who hosted our launch event.
That launch event was a massive success. What were your highlights from the evening? Like most events, from bar mitzvahs to greyhound races, this was mainly an excuse to get a big group together with drinks in their hands. So the best bit for me was seeing the conversations which were going on, which I hope were an opportunity for new connections to be formed. A second, but very related point, was the amount of love and mutual support in the room. That sense of the scaffold of our creative community – that’s not unique to Nottingham per se, but I don’t think it exists everywhere to this degree. I don’t know if it’s kindness or necessity, but we do tend to champion each other.
as our ConVersations moVe onLine, a booK stays a physiCaL objeCt – it has a presenCe, it’s From somewhere
I know you have a strong sense of pride in Nottingham as your home city, do you feel the journal channels or reflects this in some way?
I think you have to be mindful when leaning into an ‘underdog’ narrative that it doesn’t become a chip on your shoulder. That said, there’s something to it: I suspect we’re fundamentally a northern city, in that we lost our lace and coal industries, our seeming raisons d'être, and they were never quite replaced.
A lot of our figures in our cultural pantheon – the 19th century Robin of Locksley, reshaped to fight Norman oppressors; the Luddites; the nihilism of Smith in The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, I think they reflect an instinctive resistance to being patronised.
As our conversations move online, a book stays a physical object – it has a presence, it’s from somewhere. Inevitably, whatever character that place has will be stamped upon it. The forms that that will take are still to be seen, and what I’m looking forward to most in the future is discovering the colour of the new writing that people will send to us.
Issue 1 of the New Nottingham Journal is available online, as well as Five Leaves Bookshop, Bromley House Library and the Tourist Centre, published on LeftLion’s Agamemnon imprint. newnottinghamjournal.com
interview: Grace Sanders
photos: Lamar Francois OR illustration: Jim Brown
interview: Grace Sanders photos: Lamar Francois
It’s our potted history of another year of culture and entertainment in Notts…
words: Jared Wilson illustration: Raphael Achache
January
The usual January quietness and Nottingham events lull is smashed once again by Beat The Streets festival. Their lineup includes Do Nothing, Evil Scarecrow and The Hoplites. They also cross the barrier of a whopping £500k raised for homeless causes since the festival’s inception in 2018.
February
The Gedling Inn Pub makes national news by offering a free pint for every goal that Forest score against Brighton in their Premier League clash. Forest win 7-0! Everyone gets very merry as 300 pints are distributed.
Nottingham-based murder squad policeman turned TV screenwriter and producer Nigel McCrery dies aged 71. He was the creator of the long-running BBC crime dramas Silent Witness (1996–present) and New Tricks (2003–2015).
The Standing in this Place statue is unveiled in the Green Heart park that occupies the old Broad Marsh site in town. It’s a beautiful looking piece that pays tribute to the thousands of unnamed women who worked in our city’s cotton and textile industry.
Nottingham City Council orders the closure of the Marcus Garvey Centre in Lenton, because of fire risks. However, the residents fight on to keep it open for the rest of the year and the legal action remains unresolved to this date.
Nottingham rock duo ALT BLK ERA win the award for ‘Best Alternative Music Act’ at the MOBO awards. We’re dead chuffed for them!
Sneinton’s King Billy pub landlord Jon Blyth gets nominated for a BAFTA award for his voiceover as Big Ron in the computer game Thank Goodness You’re Here! He doesn’t win it, but knowing him he wouldn’t have wanted to give up the day job even if he had.
March
It’s a big month for former students at Nottingham’s Television Workshop. The TV drama Get Millie Black premieres on Channel 4 and HBO with Nottingham actors Joe Dempsie and Anjli Mohindra in leading roles. It’s decent if you haven’t had a chance to watch it yet. Fellow graduate Aisling Loftus also wows at the Nottingham Playhouse in Girls and Boys: a onewoman show that runs for three weeks.
The film Sister Midnight is released in cinemas and appears in many critics ‘Best of the Year’ lists. It’s all filmed in Mumbai with a cast of Indian actors, but produced by Notts-based companies Wellington Films and Griffin Pictures.
April
The Last of Us Season 2 premieres on HBO with Notts actor Bella Ramsey shoving Pedro Pascal out the way to finally claim the lead role all to themself.
Nottingham nightclub The Palais celebrates 100 years of putting on parties. We celebrate this in our mag with a deep dive through its history in our magazine from tea parties to TV stars and more.
Nottingham Arena and the National Ice Centre also celebrate their joint 25th birthday and, right on cue, Nottingham Panthers beat Cardiff Devils in the Elite League Play-Off Final, lifting their first silverware since 2016.
It’s in Nottingham launch the first ever Duckies Awards to celebrate the city’s high street businesses. It’s a fun and swanky affair held at St James church in the Lace Market.
May
Dot To Dot Festival, which ever since its first inception has felt like a precocious melomaniacal teenager, turns twenty! Taking place in both Notts and Bristol, headliners include Big Special, The Horrors and Fat Dog, as well as a lot of talented local acts.
Gedling boxer Leigh Wood challenges Anthon Carace for his IBO super-featherweight title, but loses in a ninth-round stoppage. Notts County bow out of the League 2 football play-off semi-finals, losing 2-0 on aggregate to Wimbledon and relieve manager Stuart Maynard of his duties, later to be replaced by the 300% more angry Martin Patterson.
The Reform Party wins the majority of seats in the Notts County Council elections. The party secured 40 of the council's 66 seats, having needed 34 for an overall majority. The Conservatives now sit in second place with 17 seats, and Labour in third with four seats.
June
The drama series What it Feels Like For a Girl is released on BBC Three. Based on the memoirs of Hucknall-born author and transgender activist Paris Lees, it’s a brilliant watch featuring several cast members from around here.
Well-known Nottingham creative entrepreneur and arts champion Debbie Bryan passes away. Known for running her eponymous shop with craft workshops, a tearoom in Nottingham city centre, and an art gallery in Ruddington, she will be missed.
Nottingham Poetry Festival hits a serious roadbump in its tenth year as it loses its Arts Council England funding. Undeterred the show goes on anyway and they also plan a new birthday event for November.
The England men’s football team play a friendly against Senegal at the City Ground. To put this in perspective – the last men's full international in Nottingham was back in 1909. Harry Kane scores and Forest’s Morgan Gibbs White comes on as a sub, but to spoil the party they lose 3-1.
July
Splendour Festival returns to Wollaton Park after a year off. Jake Bugg, Vicky McClure’s Dementia choir and many others feature but the moment many will remember is Kaiser Chiefs and Travis singing that song about rain together – in the rain.
Nottingham’s lost pop and R&B music star of the early 1990s Whycliffe makes a remarkable live comeback on stage at Fisher Gate Point. This comes three decades after his last gig and following several years of rehabilitation. It’s a beautiful moment and we hope to see him play more in 2026.
Nottingham’s beloved ice dancers and Olympic and World Champion figure skaters Torvill and Dean play their final shows to adoring crowds at Nottingham Arena.
Raucous local music promoters I’m Not From London celebrate 20 years of gigs and 15 years of their awesome charity fundraising Waterfront Festival.
August
Cara Thompson is announced by Nottingham City of Literature as Nottingham’s First Nature Poet Laureate, beating off some tough competition from a city which punches hard in aesthetic and rhythmic prose.
Local TV channel Notts TV announces their closure after more than a decade of broadcasting. Owned and run by Nottingham Trent University, it’s an early victim of a serious year of squeeze across the higher education sector.
Now in control of Notts County Council, the Reform Party and its local leader Mick Barton decide to ban the Nottingham Post from their press conferences. The story later gets the attention of a US congressman. It’s an obvious attack on local democracy from a party that is elected on a pledge of saving money and yet also decides to spend £75k installing Union flags – just in case we all forget which country we are in.
September
Nottingham’s Theatre Royal and Concert Hall celebrates its 160th birthday! Their headline act for the celebrations is the return of hometown hero James Graham – who once worked the doors at the theatre. His play about Gareth Southgate Dear England is the biggest show of the year. However,
another of his plays Punch! – about a man from the Meadows who kills another man with one punch – makes even bigger waves, transferring from the Playhouse to both the West End in London and Broadway in New York in the same week.
Nottingham’s premiere street art event ArtFest celebrates its second year commissioning dozens of local artists to paint on city-centre walls, all of which contribute to making our city centre look that little bit more beautiful.
Despite seriously over-achieving in the previous year Nuno Espírito Santo is sacked as Nottingham Forest Manager, basically because he doesn’t see eye-to-eye with the chairman. Shortly after they appoint Australian Ange Postecoglou, but after an awful start he also gets sacked after just 39 days in the post and replaced with Notts-based Sean Dyche. Hopefully that’s the end of the managerial merry-goround for now?
The film Anemone is released with the film world holding its breath at the return of acting powerhouse Daniel Day-Lewis. However, we’re more interested in the supporting roles played by Notts actors Samantha Morton – who in the same month is also awarded an OBE – and Safia Oakley-Green.
Prince Harry comes back to Notts to hang out at Community Recording Studio in Sneinton and dish out some money. Lewis Capaldi does an impromptu gig on top of Wilford’s Aldi supermarket. My wife turns up to do our weekly family shop at the same and is rather annoyed to not be able to get a parking space.
October
The whole city goes dance mad with the launch of Nottdance 2025 across the city. Dozens of events are put on at various venues in a calendar so packed that local dance aficionados have to learn to riverdance between them all.
The 15th incarnation of Hockley Hustle takes place with over 400 acts playing across various stages, all in one day (and a Sunday too!). As usual half of Nottingham phone into work sick and hungover the day after.
House and techno DJ and promoter Matt Tolfrey dies at the tender age of 44. A former NTU graduate, he was loved by Nottingham audiences for his residencies at The Bomb and Stealth. In the same month we also say goodbye to Karl Routledge-Wilson, a local psychotherapist and entrepreneur best known for founding Sherwood late bar The Pillar Box. To complete a miserable month for local talents, surrealist artist and I’m Not From London collaborator Maximillion Speed also passes away.
November
A new annual publication the New Nottingham Journal is born featuring the work of 44 contributors from the city and beyond. City Arts announce they will leave their building in Hockley in early 2026, due to economic pressures.
Nottingham University announces the potential closure of its modern languages and music departments due to financial issues. Many of its students and staff are unhappy for obvious reasons and it’s likely this issue will roll on into 2026.
BBC TV drama Sherwood begins shooting its third – and we believe final – season in the city, due for release next year. I know there’s lots of mixed opinions on it, but I quite like it. Calling it ‘Ashfield’ may have been more appropriate though, since that’s where lots of it seems to be based, but that’s obviously less of a Robin Hood angle for the national audiences. If anyone sees David Morrissey or Lesley Manville in Greggs, let us know.
December
Local music heroes Divorce play at Rock City as the final date of their mammoth Drive To Goldenhammer tour. The biggest star of the local panto season is Craig Revel Horwood who is playing the Wicked Stepmother in Cinderella at the Theatre Royal. He’s also due to judge the Strictly Come Dancing grand final on BBC One on 20 December, so let’s hope the Nottingham-London train service is working okay then.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!
The LeftLion Music Awards: 2025
From thriving new venues to an abundance of local talent gaining national exposure, 2025 proved that our city is one of the best in the country for breeding and platforming exceptional musical talent. With this in mind, we thought we’d celebrate with some end-of-year awards – championing the best local releases and gigs to happen this year in Nottingham. Voted for by our music team, here’s what stood out in the Notts music world in 2025…
Album of the Year: Drive To Goldenhammer by Divorce
From NME cover stars to touring all over the world, including a recent arena stint supporting The Last Dinner Party, indie quartet Divorce have had a massive 2025. However, their crowning achievement was the release of Drive To Goldenhammer back in March, which wasn’t just one of the best debut albums to come out of Notts this year but one of the best debut records of the last twelve months – period.
From standout singles like All My Freaks, Hangman and Lord, to tender album cuts like Old Broken String and Karen, it’s an impressively confident and accomplished debut where each song is as good as the last, with not a single dull moment to be found. Anchored by the enchanting harmonies of Tiger Cohen-Towell and Felix Mackenzie-Barrow, alongside drummer Kasper Sandstrom and multiinstrumentalist Adam Peter-Smith, the album is a warm, cosy blanket that dances majestically along the lines between indie rock, folk, and country music.
While 2025 saw an abundance of great Nottingham artists make a splash with their latest projects, Divorce’s Drive To Goldenhammer stood out in a stacked year for our city. Flying the flag for the Nottingham music scene wherever they go, we couldn’t think of a more deserving recipient for this year’s LeftLion Album of the Year prize. (Karl Blakesley)
Honourable mentions: Chaos Era by Midnight Rodeo, Happiness From Agony by JayaHadADream.
Large Gig of the Year: Father John Misty at Rock City
With the release of Mahashmashana late last year, Josh Tillman, aka Father John Misty served us his best album yet. By turns witty, lush, cinematic and beautifully open, it represents a culmination of all of his previous ideas and a new high watermark for his discography.
At his Rock City gig in June, Tillman and his band managed not just to recreate the might of those songs, but to dispatch them with such assured aplomb that he surely cements himself as one of the most vital songwriters of his generation.
The stage was strewn with talented musicians, each using their instruments to compile complex songs that coalesced into something transcendental. Mahashmashana was reworked into something rawer yet no less emotionally deep, and the selection of songs from across his catalogue only bolstered what became an epic setlist.
Tillman himself is a born showman and his suave, sarcastic self held the audience in the palm of his hand from the first strains of the pithy I Guess Time Just Makes Fools of Us All to the ecstatic conclusion of I Love You, Honeybear. Besuited and besotted with performing, he used every ounce of that showmanship to take the audience on an unforgettable journey.
There were so many incredible gigs throughout a year buffeted by economic uncertainty and financial strain, where it felt like every show needed to provide as much value as possible to the audience. Father John Misty delivered in spades by focusing on the thing that lies at the heart of it all – the music.
(Kieran Lister)
Honourable mentions: CMAT at Rock City, Busted Vs McFly at Motorpoint Arena
Festival performance of the Year: GIRLBAND! at Rock City for Dot to Dot
Girlband’s takeover of Rock City for Dot to Dot this year was always set to be something special, and they absolutely delivered. Even with the 2:30pm slot, a time when the Estrellas hadn’t quite yet been in full flow, the Nottingham favourites drew one of the most animated audiences of the day. From the moment they stepped onstage, the room was singing, chanting and moving with them, proving exactly why they’re LeftLion's festival performance highlight this year.
Their thirty-minute set was a burst of energy, precision and personality, packed with the big-hitters that have fast become staples of Nottingham’s indie scene. 21st Century Suffragette was a particular standout – the track’s punchy guitar lines and sharp hooks were elevated even further by Rock City’s legendary production quality, giving it a bold, stadium-ready edge. But the truth is every track landed – the band held the crowd from the first note to the last.
A huge mention must go to drummer Jada, whose live performance showcased a level of skill and dynamism that can only be fully appreciated in person. Her playing drove the set with power and finesse, earning more than a few awed looks from the crowd. And this wasn’t the only time that Girlband proved themselves this year – their set at Nottingham Pride was another triumph, further cementing their reputation as one of the city’s most exciting and essential acts. A worthy winner, and a band whose momentum is only growing.
(Gemma Cockrell)
Honourable mentions: Evil Scarecrow at Beat The Streets, Bloodworm at Splendour
EP of the Year: CASINO FIGHT! By Revenge of Calculon
One of the most unique bands in our city, the mask-wearing Revenge of Calculon, were late entrants to the race for EP of the year, with CASINO FIGHT! only released at the start of November. What helped it take the win is the blend of danceable electronica, an air of tonguein-cheek fun, and the band’s strong attention to their aesthetic.
As reviewer Claire Spencer wrote recently, “Revenge of Calculon play sleazy, squelchy, funky dance-able bass lines that collide head on with space invader themed analogue synths.”
The four-track EP opens with the title track, which features plenty of those sleazy sounds, played with guitars and synths, along with an intriguing spoken-word vocal which adds some new depth to the band’s usually instrumental sound. Basement Freeek is more upbeat, combining bouncy lo-fi electronic percussion and analogue synth sounds; then, Guerilla Shake continues the theme, but develops it with more layers of complexity.
The EP ends with The 8 Bit Creep – a stellar track with lots of dirty synth and distorted robotic vocals. “Definitely one to give you that warm space cadet feeling,” was Claire Spencer’s succinct and accurate summary. All in all, a very well-put-together record which gives a satisfying listen and sums up the verve and creativity of Nottingham’s musicians. (Phil Taylor)
Honourable mentions: The Seesaw by Swallowtail, Muscle Memory by Eleanor McGregor
Medium-sized Gig of the Year: Cliffords + Bold Love at The Bodega
Unsurprisingly, The Bodega (itself an award-winning venue) featured in the majority of our nominations in this category. There’s something intrinsically special about that live music space which seems to infuse every band with vibrant energy from the moment they step on to The Bodega’s compact stage. At this venue, you know you’ll have a great time. That made this category a difficult one to call, but in the end there was one standout night for our contributors.
Visiting from Cork, Ireland in April were Cliffords. They brought Bold Love with them, and the two proved to be an ideal double act. The support band impressed with their immediacy and momentum, with the inclusion of keys alongside guitars and drums adding a special element to the sound.
Despite admitting to suffering from some voice problems at this stage in the tour, Cliffords’ vocalist Iona Lynch was incredibly charismatic, bursting with energy and commanding respect and adulation. It was that personality combined with epic songs including Second Skin and My Favourite Monster – and the addition of a trumpet – which lifted this set even higher. The performance was also very boldly curated: the band chose to leave their breakthrough hit Bittersweet right until the end, but that felt just right. It was a beautifully balanced evening, with exactly the correct amount of movement, noise and silence – and, above all, genuine warmth and passion. (Phil Taylor)
Honourable mentions: Girl Scout at The Bodega, Self Esteem at Rescue Rooms
While her instantly iconic performance at Rock City in November was also a late contender for Large Gig of the Year, Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson – AKA CMAT – also stood out for her pair of Rough Trade album launch shows back in August.
Taking place on the weekend of EURO-COUNTRY’s release, her acclaimed third album for which she would gain a prestigious Mercury Prize nomination in September, everyone in Rough Trade that day knew they were witnessing a one-of-a-kind artist at the peak of their powers. Performing solo and without the backing of her Very Sexy CMAT Band, the raw, intimate nature of the performance only added to the specialness of the occasion. That said, CMAT’s showmanship was still out in full force, getting the entire Rough Trade crowd to do the Dunboyne County Meath Two-Step to I Wanna Be A Cowboy Baby!, before dramatically making her exit through the audience during a memorable and climatic rendition of Stay For Something
A performer truly like no other, we wouldn’t be surprised to see CMAT headline Glastonbury in the coming years. Until then, let’s hope she keeps returning to Nottingham for more shows as good as this one. (Karl Blakesley)
Honourable mentions: Lizzie Esau at Billy Bootleggers, The Dirt at The Chapel
The story of Vona Vella is one which connects beautifully with Nottingham's independent live music scene. The band (fronted by singer-songwriters Dan Cunningham and Izzy Davis) were inspired to move here because of that scene, and ended up co-owning The Grove – now one of our city's beloved recording and live performance spaces. Bear Trap encapsulates that ambition and passion: an infectious energy which helped it take the winning spot this year.
Bear Trap is one of those songs with lots to unpack and new discoveries with each repeat play. Jangly guitars feature heavily in what develops into a pop-leaning slice of indie rock. There’s a sense of building energy right from the word go as Dan and Izzy trade vocals, weaving around each other and often blending their voices in tight harmony. The lead into the chorus really pushes the anticipation further, with a catchy guitar riff coming to the fore while the band issues playful lyrics. “I don’t want you” is the repeated refrain –a familiar motif which is frequently reshaped and reconfigured and takes the song through to its climax.
Vona Vella's second album, Carnival, is due for release in February 2026; the band have described it as a new page for them and Bear Trap serves as a fabulous signpost towards that next episode. (Phil Taylor)
Honourable mentions: The World In Your View by Bored Marsh, Scrape by Marvins Revenge
words: Karl Blakesley, Phil Taylor, Gemma Cockrell & Kieran Lister
photos: Nigel King
Song of the Year: Bear Trap by Vona Vella
Small Gig of the Year: CMAT at Rough Trade
SUN.07.DEC.25
BODEGA
THU.11. DEC.25
The Molotovs
TUE.13.JAN.26
RESCUE ROOMS
ROCK CITY Spike And The Gimme Gimmes
FRI.19.DEC.25
SUN.07.DEC.25 Paint By Numbers
BODEGA
WED.10.DEC.25
LeBrock
BODEGA
WED.10.DEC.25 Wheatus
RESCUE ROOMS
THU.11.DEC.25
Big Country
RESCUE ROOMS
THU.11.DEC.25 Million Dead
ROCK CITY
THU.11.DEC.25 Quarters
BODEGA
FRI.12.DEC.25
New Model Army
ROCK CITY
FRI.12.DEC.25 The Commoners
RESCUE ROOMS
FRI.12.DEC.25 The Rolling People
BODEGA
SAT.13.DEC.25
DIVORCE
ROCK CITY
SAT.13.DEC.25 Gaz Brookfield and The Company of Thieves
BODEGA
SAT.13.DEC.25 Lawnmower Deth
RESCUE ROOMS
Gig Guide
SUN.14.DEC.25
James Yorkston
BODEGA
SUN.14.DEC.25
The Wildhearts
RESCUE ROOMS
MON.15.DEC.25
Black Rebel Motorcycle
Club
ROCK CITY
FRI.19.DEC.25
Bama Lama
Sing Song
RESCUE ROOMS
FRI.19.DEC.25
Commons
BODEGA
FRI.19.DEC.25
Spike And The Gimme Gimmes
ROCK CITY
SAT.20.DEC.25
Swallow The Sun
RESCUE ROOMS
SUN.21.DEC.25
Evil Scarecrow
ROCK CITY
TUE.13.JAN.26
The Molotovs
RESCUE ROOMS
SAT.17.JAN.26 Fust
BODEGA
SUN.18.JAN.26
ANNISOKAY
RESCUE ROOMS
SUN.18.JAN.26
Cast
ROCK CITY
WED.21.JAN.26
Cryptopsy
RESCUE ROOMS
SUN.25.JAN.26
Beat The Streets
VARIOUS VENUES
MON.26.JAN.26
Marmozets
RESCUE ROOMS
TUE.27.JAN.26
Gideon
RESCUE ROOMS
TUE.27.JAN.26
Scott Lavene
BODEGA
WED.28.JAN.26
Insecure Men
BODEGA
THU.29.JAN.26
A.A. Williams
BODEGA
THU.29.JAN.26
St. Paul and the Broken Bones
ROCK CITY
FRI.30.JAN.26 Airbourne
ROCK CITY
SUN.01.FEB.26 Pierce Brothers
BODEGA
MON.02.FEB.26
Jerkcurb
BODEGA
WED.04.FEB.26
Westside Cowboy
BODEGA
THU.05.FEB.26
CARSICK
BODEGA
THU.05.FEB.26
Pentagram
RESCUE ROOMS
FRI.06.FEB.26
Motionless In White
MOTORPOINT ARENA
FRI.06.FEB.26
Sick Joy
BODEGA
SAT.07.FEB.26
Punk Rock
Factory
SAT.07.FEB.26
The Covasettes
BODEGA
SAT.07.FEB.26
VUKOVI
RESCUE ROOMS
SUN.08.FEB.26 Faetooth
RESCUE ROOMS
TUE.10.FEB.26
Night Flight
BODEGA
WED.11.FEB.26
Trash Boat
BODEGA
THU.12.FEB.26
Coach Party
RESCUE ROOMS
THU.12.FEB.26
SMITH / KOTZEN
THU.12.FEB.26
Bears In Trees
SUN.15.FEB.26
RESCUE ROOMS
WED.18.FEB.26 The Cavemen
RESCUE ROOMS
FRI.19.DEC.25
Bama
RESCUE ROOMS
FRI.20.FEB.26
Lama
words:
Stirring the blood
In the midst of their UK tour with fellow Nottingham band Swallowtail – which serves as preparation for their seventeendate run supporting Suede next year – we met goth-punk outfit Bloodworm to chat about their upcoming appearance at a new Bodega festival – Paint by Numbers – as they close out a milestone year and look ahead to an even bigger one…
You often hear stories of bands getting signed to their record label because representatives happened to be in the crowd, and Bloodworm’s first gig with Suede unfolded in a very similar way. "I got an Instagram direct message," Euan recalls. "It turns out Richard [Oakes], Suede's guitarist, was at a gig we did. After we did that London gig with them, we must have impressed them, because then they asked us to do the full tour."
The upcoming run, which will take place from late January to late February next year, will take them to cities they’ve never visited before – including the band’s first trip to Scotland – where they’ll be playing to sold-out rooms up and down the country. "I've already started taking vitamins," Euan admits. "We need to get our bodies healthy!"
The band built their foundations through relentless live shows, cultivating a dedicated fanbase who discovered their songs onstage rather than online. Earlier this year, they released The Crown as a Bandcamp exclusive, leaning even further into their intentionally elusive online presence by holding off on a wider streaming release. "It's a weird song for us. It's less accessible," Euan says. "It's the first time in a while I went to George with a drum beat."
The track was already woven into their live set, which mostly consists of unreleased material apart from Back of a Hand and Depths – which they often play first. "It means we've done something right," George says of the fact that they’ve built a dedicated fanbase this way. "It becomes a bit of a cult, people asking us when we're releasing things." Cemetery Dance has become a particular fan favourite, usually closing the set – it even sparked a mosh pit during their Halloween 2024 Bodega headline show, with Euan finding himself right in the midst of the action.
Though it would have been easy to stick to regular Nottingham gigs when they were starting out, Bloodworm were eager to push themselves further afield. "We started playing out of town very quickly, in places like Manchester," Chris reflects. "In our first four years, our focus has been gigging rather than releasing music." George adds, "We haven't done much TikTok or influencer stuff like a lot of bands have. We've done it just through playing gigs, which is the harder way of doing it, but it's helped us develop a unique sound."
These days, they make a point of playing Nottingham sparingly, so each appearance feels more special. This year, their hometown shows have mostly come through festival
slots, including Dot to Dot and Splendour. "We did two sets at Splendour," Chris says, recalling how they went from the Bodega stage to the Confetti stage within 24 hours, due to another band dropping out. "It felt massive. At the time it was the biggest thing we'd played," George reflects.
There were a few hangovers involved – and even a wasp that relentlessly chased George around the stage, likely drawn to the neon hi-vis vest he chose to wear since he was actually working for the festival’s welfare team on the same day. "No one thought it was funny..." he admits. "When he said he was going to do it, I thought he was joking!" Chris laughs.
it beComes a bit oF a CuLt, peopLe asKing us when we're reLeasing things
They’ll round off the year with one last festival: Paint by Numbers, a new two-day event taking place at Thekla in Bristol and The Bodega in Nottingham, on 6 and 7 December. Designed as a miniature Dot to Dot (hence the name), the event brings together rising acts from across the country. "You never have bad sound in The Bodega. You play there, and it's like a warm blanket," George says. Acts such as Porij, Sandhouse, My First Time, and Nottingham locals Marvin's Revenge, will also feature throughout the weekend.
And Paint by Numbers isn’t their only festival announcement – they are already confirmed for Bearded Theory next May, and it’s safe to say they’re thrilled to share a bill with one band in particular: The Pixies, despite the fact they won’t be able to see the band perform as they have “other plans” (we wonder what those could be, given Dot to Dot takes place on the same weekend!).
It seems 2026 is already shaping up to be "the busiest year ever" for Bloodworm – but it’s clear they are more than ready to rise to the occasion.
Bloodworm will play Paint by Numbers at The Bodega on Sun 7 December 2025.
Q]@bloodworm
Gemma Cockrell photo: Jacob Harris
NOTTS SHOTS
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Purple Rain
Christopher D. Frost
Lavender Sunset Leigh Woosey
Rockin in the Free World Gordon Fay
Twilight Commute John Fisher
Platform Solitude
Wes Small
Stadium Spectacle
Lauren Freestone
Urban pastels Dani Bacon @danijuliette_
Christmas & New Year sessions now open.
Enjoy plant-based dishes from a different culture alongside a FREE film screening
NEXT UP: DECEMBER 4TH
SINNERS
Every first Thursday of the month Food served from 5pm | Film screened at 6pm
Introduction and post film panel discussion with Dr. Carol Leeming MBE
Located on the Holme Pierrepont Campsite, Adbolton Lane Nottingham NG2 5AX. Everything you need is right here — Free Parking Changing Area. saunahood.co.uk @sauna.hood
exhibition re View – prisoners oF LoVe
A powerful, affective exhibition at Nottingham Contemporary, Prisoners of Love: Until the Sun of Freedom simulates the physical and psychological confinement that Palestinians face on a small and large scale, while exploring the possibilities for resistance that emerge from these conditions.
Basel Abbas’ and Ruanne Abou-Rahme's largest-scale exhibition yet is not an easy work to grapple with but demands that the visitor does just that. The exhibition brings together pain and potentiality in a multimedia installation which feels more like a world in itself.
Specially commissioned for the Nottingham Contemporary, Prisoners of Love is an exemplar of techniques that Abbas and Abou-Rahme have developed over the last twenty years: a practice in which existing and self-authored testimonies, poems and prose, sound compositions and images weave into a profoundly immersive experience.
prisoners oF LoVe oFFers not just a testimony oF suFFering, but an arChiVe oF paLestinian VoiCes buiLt in deFianCe oF their ContinuaL erasure
Inside the dark rooms, you must pick your way through a tattered land. Sheets of metal stand erect from the floor like rubble. Overhead, printed sheets of fabric reverberate slightly in the booming noise, like torn curtains. Images and artworks are elusive in the dim light, as though figments of imagination, memories or hopes. So too are the fragmentary testimonials and poems on backs of artworks. Though their words are hardly discernible, they recount the horrors of recent genocide and experiences of dispossession That some of these are from the artists’ own relatives reinforces their emotional power and realism.
The darkness, flickering visuals, and ear-splitting
audio makes it hard to fully comprehend the work. It’s frayed with what the exhibition catalogue describes as‘slippages and junctures’ and ‘notions of amnesia and déjà-vu'.
The space imposes upon the visitor an unease and uncertainty speaking to physical and psychological disintegration under actual confinement. For Palestinians, the exhibition powerfully implies, fragmentation is experienced as a splitting of body from homeland, but also mind from body, and mind from mind.
But Prisoners of Love is as much about resistance as it is about occupation. For Abbas and Abou-Rahme, the two are inextricably linked.
The artists use what they call ‘fugitive’ presentational devices – projections spilling out of screens, and a sound composition oscillating between noise and melody – to explore how confinement also produces means of bypassing it. Dreamlike, the film juxtaposes testimonies of detention with footage of the landscapes outside. A line of a poem flickers onto the screen: ‘the imaginative mind creates another reality that bypasses the prison walls’.
Language too becomes an important tool of subversion. A woman tells of singing with her fellow prisoners, ‘singing to the land’ as a way of collectively remembering it. A brief line of poetry speaks of ‘writing as an operation of bypassing’; hands unfurl a tightly rolled fragment of writing, disguised as a cigarette.
Like any witness to an archive, the visitor acknowledges and lends legitimacy to the real experience of oppressions; the experiential nature
In this month’s Artworks we hear from tattoo artist Maiko Only...
I first got into tattooing eight years ago through pure love for it. How cool is the concept of art just casually chilling on your arm or leg forever? There are endless possibilities to express yourself, and every piece has a different story, idea, composition, or colours.
I love colour, colourful clothes, lipstick, and earrings. I always needed a pop of colour. So that’s what inspired the style I do now. I actually like to mix the dark style and themes with sweeter colours. You could call my style micro realism, but recently I’ve started doing bigger pieces after years of shoulder injury.
Originally I am from a city called Wrocław, in Poland. I moved to the UK nine years ago. My husband’s mum moved first for work, and after visiting her a few times we decided that we would like to stay here too. I retired from my previous career in dancing and moved to Nottingham to start tattooing.
I never attended any art schools, just practised on my own. My family is quite artistic – I have a ninety year old auntie who used to be an art teacher and she is an amazing artist. She showed me some techniques – what to use and what to do.
There are plenty of other artists who I admire. From the tattoo industry definitely Deborah Genchi – from Bari, Italy – she’s an incredibly talented soul. Giulia Marotta from Milan is one of my favourite people I’ve met so far in the tattoo world, she is so talented and genuine. Other inspirations for me are Joyce Lee, and my new obsession with ShouXin’s cat drawings, they are absolutely insane. I love the way the artist shows dynamic movement –emotions with just a few strokes.
The process of each tattoo starts with a general idea from
of Prisoners of Love makes this yet more potent. The audience becomes avenues of transmission from the confined space to the world outside.
Prisoners of Love offers not just a testimony of suffering, but an archive of voices built in defiance of their continual erasure. It brings attention to the necessarily multi-layered confinements Palestinians face, including the attempted systematic erasure of a collective identity. That the visitor becomes entangled with this so unequivocally is one of the most powerful political contributions of the work.
Echoes remain, long after you re-enter the daylight outside. Though you may leave the prison, it does not so soon leave you.
Basel Abbas & Ruanne Abou-Rahme: Prisoners of Love: Until the Sun of Freedom is showcased at the Nottingham Contemporary until Sunday 11 January. nottinghamcontemporary.org
my client. I am only opening my diary twice a year, so between the email and the actual appointment it is roughly six to eight months.
Closer to the date my client will receive the sketch of the idea – changes and adjustments are done on the day before the appointment. On the day we discuss the colour palette, size, placements options, and from there the only thing left is to ‘needle it’.
how CooL is the ConCept oF art just CasuaLLy ChiLLing on your arm or Leg Fore Ver? there are endLess possibiLities to express yourseLF, and e Very pieCe has a diFFerent story, idea, Composition, or CoLours
It is hard to say how long each piece takes, as it all depends on the size, details, colour versus blackwork, etcetera. My usual full day session takes around six to seven hours – it is hard to focus for longer, in my opinion. After the tattoo is done and protected it is in the hands of the client. The aftercare is important.
I would love to do some sort of exhibition of my work. At the moment, Lush cosmetics and I are planning a workshop about tattoo prep and aftercare. Heather from Hallo Ceramics and I are also working on volume two of our collaboration.
Q @maiko.only
words: Finnuala Brett
photo: Rae Dowling
surrender to the proCess
words: Caradoc Gayer
photos: Michelle Jeffery & Christopher Hallam
Founded by Nottingham Television Workshop alumni Tim Bryn Smith, The Nottingham Actor’s Workshop has for fifteen years been an acting training ground for local people, whether their ambitions are professional, personal or somewhere in-between. In 2026, they’ve got a new project on the way – Surrender To It – a full length feature film, blending comedy, adventure, surrealism, and drama, written and directed by Tim himself, and set for release on global streaming platforms. Tim tells us more…
Tim Bryn Smith – who back in 2010 founded The Nottingham Actor’s Workshop – had a surreal experience while shooting Surrender To It: a feature film starring members of the Workshop, which he also wrote and directed. He’d brought the cast and crew to an atmospheric spot that would be their set – a remote hostel in rural Wales. Nearby was a tall green hill with a communications tower at the top, which he’d scouted some months prior.
“I got up super early, and thought, ‘I’ll run to the top of that hill,’ because the last time I’d been there it was a different time of year, so the vegetation might have changed,” says Tim. “I ran up to the tower and walked in, like the characters do in the film. I looked in the middle, and there was a sheep skull – ready to go. I was like, ‘This is insane.’ That was the culmination of many synchronistic events – the skull which freaked me out, freaks them out in the film.”
For Tim, Surrender To It came from lots of serendipitous occurrences – events naturally unfolding from his many years of leading the Workshop, and training Notts people for the film industry. The idea for the film started gestating after the Workshop completed two projects: Tawn 19, a film both shot and set in the pandemic, and Echoes of the Fallen: a short film demonstrating weapons training which is part of the Workshop’s intensive ‘screen school’.
on a FiLm shoot, where peopLe are worKing reaLLy hard – unLess they trust you, there’s no guarantee they’LL get the thing baCK they’re worKing For
A film shot on site and written by Tim, however, would allow Workshop members to be ‘all rounders’ – honing the many skills required to shoot a full-length feature film. Incidentally that’s been one of Tim’s aims since founding the Workshop fifteen years ago, as an adults’ alternative to the young-people-focused Nottingham Television Workshop.
“One of the big things that I try to promote in the Actor’s Workshop is a holistic approach to creativity,” he says. “As an actor who diversified into editing, producing, writing, and directing, I believe that’s a really good way to approach acting – it gives you a better sense of the industry. It gives you a fresh perspective that you know it’s a team – one of the tenets of the actor’s workshop is making your scene partner look good.”
So, what’s Surrender To It about? In short – it’s a film with a meta quality, in which six friends who know each other from a fictionalized ‘actors workshop’ meet in the Welsh countryside. One of them, Dani, recently endured a pretty awful personal tragedy.
Parts of that story emerged from Tim’s experience as a Television Workshop alumni – like the characters in the movie, he periodically reunites with his compatriots from back then, some of whom found stardom, like Vicky McClure and Joe Dempsie.
Like any independent film made with love and care, however, there are lots of layers to the story, and some fun plot twists as well. Each character arrives in Wales with a unique background, and some personal baggage that they’re trying their best to shed. Often, Tim would write these characters with members of the Workshop in mind.
“Part of the requirement to be involved was that none of the cast had featured in a main role in a feature film,” says Tim. “They’d all done one of our screen school courses, and through that process of me working with them, I was able to see their development as screen actors – their confidence, and ability. I was able to write the roles leaning into their strengths from what I’d seen during the training process. It was a really lovely, wholesome, organic, growth-led process to get there.”
Surrender To It is also a film that, throughout, looks like it was very fun to make. It’s got a bit of everything – drama, comedy, emotion, and surrealism – with some great representations of the camaraderie that will often exist between old friends. For Tim, the effort that everybody put into making the film was a big part of making an immensely fun end product – “Normally I wouldn’t expect anyone to do a job that they’re not being paid to do, or is on their credit,” he says, adding, “but all the actors mucked in to do literally everything. Some days we filmed from the crack of dawn way into the night. But again no one ever complained. It was the hardest set to be on, work-wise, but the best set.”
Considering that the shooting schedule was about as DIY as you can get, there are some moments of proper movie magic in Surrender To It, where everything from the acting, to the music, to the cinematography just ‘clicks’ together. Watching it, you do feel a bit of pride that the folks onscreen are Notts locals who, before joining the Workshop, were generally at square one in terms of acting.
That feeling peaks during an emotional sequence towards the end of the movie, much of which was filmed underwater. For Tim, that scene was one of the highlights of his directorial career – it involved a triple-location shooting schedule between Ollerton, a swimming pool in Notts, and an immensely cold lake in the Welsh countryside, plus co-ordinating many different people doing some physically demanding kinds of filmmaking.
“On a film shoot, where people are working really hard – unless they trust you, there’s no guarantee they’ll get the thing back they’re working for,” he says. “It’s a trust economy – it’s a sacrifice now for the long term gain. So there’s a huge amount of onus on that. But it only takes one bad thing to happen on set to completely derail us.”
Back in November, Surrender To It premiered at the Savoy Cinema, but unfortunately it’s not yet available for public viewing. As is often the case with films produced on a shoestring budget, getting it distributed is a lengthy process. However, it’s still set for a 2026 release, and will also be available on streaming platforms worldwide, which is pretty exciting for a movie homegrown with local Notts talent. It’s therefore definitely worth watching when it comes out – nowadays filmmaking is pretty consolidated into a small bunch of companies, and chances for us to uplift local talent, to do great things, are few and far between.
“Our marketing budget will be an atom in the ocean compared to a Marvel movie that has every single bus stop and eyes on it on every device going,” says Tim. “So what people will ideally do is give it good IMDB reviews, and also tell others to watch it, to support grassroots filmmaking. That will help us get onto the next one, as this is really about leveraging this against the next film we do that helps local people take steps into the industry.”
Surrender To It will be released on global streaming platforms in 2026. You can check out the trailer on YouTube now.
boutique ChiC
words: Addie Kenogbon-Harley photos: Sophie Gargett
Nestled in the heart of the city centre at Flying Horse Walk, Gigi Bottega has quietly clothed a range of stars and fashion-savvy style lovers for ten years. As thousands of shoppers gear up to hit the city and get their hands on Christmas treasures, we talk to owners Gabriella Trivigno and her mum Debra Trivigno about how this hidden boutique is flying the flag for independent luxury fashion in Notts.
There aren’t many Nottingham independent clothes shops who can say they’ve helped clothe the stars, but browsing the shelves and rails of small but mighty boutique, Gigi Bottega, it’s easy to see why it’s amassed such a cult following. Offering an array of luxury women’s wear, as well as jewellery, sunglasses, accessories and perfumes, its shoppers include the likes of Daisy Lowe, Louise Redknapp, and Phil Oakey, as well as a regular throng of fashion-forward style lovers and top stylists.
The shop, which is located in an iconic black and white 15th Century building at Flying Horse Walk, first opened its doors ten years ago when owner Gabriella Trivigno and her mum Debra Trivigno, inspired by trips to Italy, noticed a gap in the market for a high-end boutique in Nottingham.
“Me and my mum have always worked in retail and we wanted to do something together,” Gabriella says. “We were used to going to Italy and seeing all these lovely boutiques, and we just felt like it was missing in Nottingham. So that's how it started.”
There was a time when Nottingham was widely regarded as a must-visit for shopping. Before the launch of Gigi Bottega, the city used to see visitors from across the country flock to its streets, with Clumber Street once becoming the busiest street in Europe back in the 1980s. Recent years have seen the city’s shopping scene go through some drastic changes, following the loss of many shops, coupled with the ongoing rise of online fast fashion and the effects of COVID and Brexit.
“I’m from Nottingham and grew up here. Back in the 80s, and even before that, we had the best boutiques ever,” Debra adds. “Everywhere you looked, there were stunning boutiques with individuality, rather than everybody just following the masses. Now, people see something on somebody's Instagram and then they’ll just go and buy it. We’re definitely about bringing individuality back to Nottingham and something different that you can't find anywhere else.”
Today, Gigi Bottega is one of the last independent high-end clothes shops still left in the city. Its ability to adapt and evolve, while staying true to its core ethos of offering premium quality items and a personable shopping experience, has helped it stay relevant, even in the era of TikTok Shop and SHEIN.
“We're a go-to shop for a lot of people now, which is really nice. And actually, when we buy our collections, we do get inspired a lot by our clients, and what they've wanted in their wardrobes. We also know now, after doing it for so long, what items a client might need, and we have such a good relationship with them. They're just the best and are like our friends now.”
With a focus on small runs of stock from luxury contemporary designers, the shop prides itself on offering carefully curated items you won’t find anywhere else in the city, and often even anywhere else in the UK. Its philosophy is all about offering expressive looks that are versatile enough to be worn at all hours of the day, with pieces that can transition seamlessly from day to night.
“We started off completely different to what we do now, with ultra high-end labels,” says Gabriella. “But there are also a lot more limitations that come with the higher end brands. A lady came into the shop back in 2016, and she showed us this brand called 8PM. It was a more attainable price point for people, and was
something that they couldn't find online. So we made the decision to do more contemporary brands.”
Sustainability isn’t a word often associated with high-end fashion, with many designers in recent years facing scrutiny for playing a big part in the damage the fashion world has caused the earth through overproduction, the use of non-bioldegradable materials and the pollutants found in many dyes. However, Gabriella and her mum make a conscious effort to stock true sustainable items. “There are a lot of brands that like to say they're sustainable, but we actually stock sustainable brands. This even comes down to brands who have changed the way that they package the clothing now. They use less plastic and if it is plastic, it's all recycled,” Gabriella says.
when we were going baCK and Forth to miL an, we saw that these ConCept stores were the ones whiCh were thriVing. it was what we wanted to Create here
Recent years have seen style lovers increasingly using perfume as a way to elevate an outfit and in doing so, style becomes a multisensory affair, less about solely the way something looks and more about how you can curate an energy, feeling and persona through blending textures, scents and creativity.
Gigi Bottega has been hot off the mark to embrace a new wave of contemporary perfume brands, offering brands only stocked in a handful of places in the UK - if at all.
“There's a story behind every single fragrance that we've got,” Gabriella says. “We’ve also got a bit more experimental ones too, like American Psycho which was actually made in collaboration with the film director of American Psycho This was what the perfume creator imagined that Patrick Bateman would smell like. So it's got the sparkling water that he drinks in it, with bergamot, sage, aqua, lily of the valley, sandalwood, amber and vetiver.”
Other fragrances in the range include Purple Haze which is inspired by the Woodstock Festival and Chronic, which is inspired by the famous Dr. Dre album of the same name. Two particularly innovative perfumes in the range are Pink Jesus which has been made in collaboration with a weed farm in America, which noticed one pink leaf on one of their plants, and used it to create pink marijuana. The boutique isn’t the only venture under Gabriella’s belt, with the family also owning the restaurant Bar Gigi, located above the shop. It’s an offering Gabriella says is reminiscent of many boutique concepts in Italy and was a considered choice for her.
“Why we opened the restaurant upstairs with the boutique was just as a way to create a nice place for people to come,” she says. “They shop, they eat. It's like a bit of a concept store. When we were going back and forth to Milan, we saw that these concept stores were the ones which were thriving. It was what we wanted to create here – just one big place to come and experience lots of great things under one roof.”
For a year Cannon Court’s Piccalilli has been making its name with a menu packed full with unique takes on the British small plate. We went to see what the fuss was about…
It’s been just over a year since Piccalilli opened its doors. It’s hidden up an alleyway just off the Market Square, in a premises previously occupied by Japanese restaurant Kushi Ya and vegan trailblazers Alley Café. Both of those set high standards for cuisine and good vibes and it’s a pleasure to see that this trend has continued.
Once you’ve navigated your way in off the streets you enter a lovely period building with simple, rustic and warm décor. The main dining room is cosy, offering seating for about thirty people. It’s overlooked by both the bar and the kitchen; with head chef Dan Coles and his team on a raised platform; both on show and overseeing. Diners, waiters and chefs alike; everyone is in the same room.
Coles previously worked for Larwood and Voce in West Bridgford when they won the title of Best British Roast Dinner 2015. He also worked at Iberico World Tapas, World Service and the Michelin-Starred The Pipe and Glass Inn in Yorkshire. This is his first solo venture and it’s clear the vision is an accumulation of everything he’s learned so far.
The food is British-inspired small plates, which include some unique and remarkable flavour combinations. In total, including desserts, there are about twenty dishes on the menu, plus specials, and they all range from £5 to £15 each. You probably need to order three or four of those per person and if you come in a group of five or more it’s worth considering ordering at least one of everything. The dishes then come out in stages, starting with snacks and starters and leading up to your fish and meat mains and desserts.
We started off with treacle-baked ham with the eponymous piccalilli. The ham was succulent and it appeared that its very-British accompanying condiment was infused with aniseed - divine! We followed that up with brie, roast carrots, plum chutney and walnuts - another combination of flavours
you wouldn’t think to put together but it really works. From the fish menu we shared both the cured chalk stream trout with quail eggs, salad cream and pickled cucumber and the scallops with parsley velouté and fried soda bread. The trout was diced up and tasted like fine salmon, while the scallops were succulent and were my partner’s favourite dish of the evening.
We finished the savoury course with two offerings from the meat menu. First, roast venison with beetroot, pickled blackberries and juniper. This was my favourite dish of the night, the steak was cooked perfectly and the flavour combinations of the berries and beetroot add an unexpected sweetness. We also had the lamb scrumpet with braised red cabbage, parsnip and capers. I’ve not really come across scrumpets as a dish before, but pleasingly it looked like a massive fish finger with pulled lamb inside. Safe to say it tasted amazing too.
For dessert we went for the parsnip cake with salted butterscotch and cream cheese ice cream, which tasted like a sticky toffee pudding infused with carrot cake. Alongside it, from the specials board, we try the treacle tart with quince ice cream. Two proper British favourites, both done differently and brilliantly!
When you think of British food the mind gravitates towards hearty portions of Sunday roast, pie and gravy meals etc. But perhaps small plates have been dominated by Spanish and Chinese cuisine for too long? Many people like me will have eaten British food for most of their lives, but perhaps never quite like this before. Viva Piccalilli!
Find Picalilli at 1a Cannon Court, Long Row W, NG1 6JE piccalillinottingham.co.uk
a sLiVer oF spain
Vaso is Nottingham’s shiny new tapas and wine bar – our food coeditor Julia, AKA The Nottingham Food Guide on Instagram, was first in line to check it out.
If your interests and hobbies are anything like mine, you’ll be thrilled to hear that Nottingham has a brand-new wine and tapas bar.
Vaso has opened on Pelham Street, taking over the old Pelham Street Kitchen premises, and it comes from the exceptional team behind one of Nottingham’s most-loved restaurants, Mesa in Hockley.
The father-daughter duo, Kevin and Naomi Wright, were inspired by their travels across Europe – particularly a little spot they fell for in Bologna.
Vaso leans into the Mediterranean way of life, where you can linger over a glass of wine and something delicious to pick at. Currently, the menu is quite typically Spanish, but they’re not limiting themselves and plan to introduce world tapas as things evolve.
In the kitchen is Brad Filkins, head chef at Mesa, who brings experience from working abroad in Greece as well as time spent as a private chef.
The wine list is interesting and varied. You can try anything from a South African Malbec to a French Gamay, and everything is available by the glass in 175ml pours. There are also a handful of cocktails and beers by the bottle.
The menu is wonderfully snacky – perfect for sharing. The tomato bread and Manchego croquettes were the standouts for our group.
As soon as we bit into the pan con tomate, with its touch of confit garlic and lemon, our table immediately said, “Let’s order another plate of that.” The croquettes, meanwhile, are cheesy, crisp and borderline medicinal: rich, golden and just supremely good. You won’t want to share them.
An honourable mention goes to the cheese and charcuterie boards, served with toasted bread and beautifully presented. There are smaller snacks too – gildas, olives, anchovies, chorizo and other little bites that pair perfectly with a glass (or bottle) of wine.
The vibe is cosy, intimate and beautifully styled, all moody red wine tones and shelves lined with bottles. And I love that they serve a tiny bowl of Pom-Bears with your drink – a charming, nostalgic touch.
Skipping dessert would be a tragic mistake. The chocolate ganache with red wine plums and the crème catalana were both outstanding –indulgent and beautifully executed.
Vaso is a perfect example of taking something simple and elevating it to the sublime. An exceptional new addition to Nottingham. I already can’t wait to go back.
Please note, Vaso is walk-in only. Find them at 20 Pelham St, Nottingham NG1 2EG
words: Jared Wilson photos: Harvey Gibson
words & photos: Julia Head
traditional British Butchers, based in the heart of Nottingham.
Quietly, smugly, with the self-confidence of something that knows it is indispensable, one herb has climbed to the top of the flavour league. That herb is mint.
Most herbs are seen-butnot-herb. Parsley is garnish, chives are lawn trimmings, coriander divides families. But mint is everywhere. Up to a third of your life tastes of it, because that’s how long you’ll spend unconscious with toothpaste hugging your molars. We don’t dream in colour, we dream in Colgate. There are no Dill Polos and no After Eight Cumins, and mint is the only herb you’re allowed to eat before kissing someone (never lean in while smelling of hyssop). Mint even gets its own adjective: minty.
The mintiest building, of course, is the Royal Mint. But why is the Royal Mint a mint? To find out we must travel back to the 3rd century BCE and the goddess Juno Moneta. Her name comes from the Latin verb monere – to remind, to instruct, to warn. Money does all three: it remembers value, tells other people what to do, and warns you when there isn’t enough of it.
The leafy green ‘mint’ comes from a different myth: Minthe, a Greek nymph turned into a herb by Persephone, queen of the Underworld and parttime goddess of vegetation, who would presumably do anything for a mojito.
And on that topic: if you go to a cocktail bar in London, you’ll need both kinds of mint: one to make the mojito, the other to pay for it.
one big sL amiLy
interview: Grace Sanders photo: Slamovision
Marjie Griffiths has been enriching Nottingham’s literary scene with her poetry since her debut at Crosswords Open Mic in 2017. Now, she’s a finalist at Slamovision – the international spoken word version of Eurovision, hosted by the UNESCO Cities of Literature. She tells us about her Slamovision journey, her passion for Nottingham’s literary community, and the surprising dinner party conversation that inspired her Slamovision poem.
What does it mean to you to have represented Nottingham at the Slamovision final?
It was an absolute honour. I'm still blown away by it, to be honest. Nottingham's poetry scene is so fierce, generous, and gloriously quirky, and it's a pleasure to be a part of it! Standing on the Slamovision stage, feeling like I was carrying a little piece of our city's voice with me, felt huge. Nottingham is home to so many incredible writers, and I am proud beyond measure to be recognised as one of them.
How would you describe your experience, the atmosphere, and energy of the event?
Oh, it sounds really cliche to say, but it was just electric. It was so fun. There was this wonderful sense of solidarity there, each poet representing a different city, but all of us sharing and enjoying the experience together. I sat next to Sven from Bremen, and he was an absolute hoot, just a lovely person. He described us as a little ‘slamily,’ which was really sweet.
How did you approach writing your poem Politics Isn’t My Thing: How I Ruined a Dinner Party? Was there a particular moment or feeling that sparked it?
It's actually an old poem. I wrote it back in 2019, then made it feel appropriate for 2025. I was having dinner with some friends, hence the subtitle, when one of them revealed that he’d voted for Boris Johnson in the 2019 election. When I asked him why, he said he thought Johnson was funny, adding that politics ‘wasn't his thing’. He didn't believe his vote or voice really mattered. This poem is a frustrated response to that conversation.
about cats and funny things. But I think balance is everything. I fervently believe that hope isn't a naive thing gifted to us by an external power. Hope doesn't just happen – it’s a discipline. You have to work at it.
I think it's so easy to drown in despair when you catalogue the world's injustices, but hope is, in itself, an act of rebellion too. This poem became a kind of balancing act, one foot in truth and one foot in faith that things can get better. I didn't want to offer false comfort, but I did want to create and leave space for the idea that the change has to come from us.
nottingham's poetry sCene is so FierCe, generous, and gLoriousLy quirKy. standing on the sL amoVision stage, FeeLing LiKe i was Carrying a LittLe pieCe oF our City's VoiCe with me
Your poem feels like both a critique and a call to stay politically engaged, even when things feel bleak. Are you concerned or quietly optimistic, hoping works like this might urge change or renewed engagement?
This might sound really uncool, but to my mind, preparation is about practice. I know it’s a very teacherly answer. I really love the idea that poetry can be completely spontaneous, but I can't really do that. I practised for Slamovision everywhere. In fact, whilst I was preparing, a lovely drama teacher at school very kindly lent me some of his time to go through the poem together and focus on the performance itself, and that practice really gave me the confidence to go out and perform on the night.
Do you have a favourite poem from any of the other competing Cities of Literature?
I really liked Nika from Ljubljana’s poem, Home to Good People. There was a quiet reflectiveness to it which made it so beautiful, yet extraordinarily powerful. She's a very, very talented poet.
Finally, what’s next for you? Are there any new projects you're working on? I’m actually working on quite a big project at the moment – compiling my first pamphlet, which I’m very excited about! It's called What's Stopping You The title is inspired by my lovely dad, who passed away at the end of 2022. Because whenever I had a moment of doubt or felt I didn’t believe in myself, he would always ask, “Well, darling, what’s stopping you?”
words: Andrew Tucker Leavis
illustration: Jim Brown
Politics Isn’t My Thing touches on some heavy realities, drawing from topical news: Gaza, immigration, and rising tensions in politics. How did you find the balance between frustration and hope when writing it?
I guess this is quite a serious poem, for me, considering I usually like to write
I'd probably say I’m ‘stubbornly optimistic’. It's really hard not to feel bleak sometimes; there's so much noise and division in the world right now. But poetry, I think, is actually about acts of engagement, both big and small. It's through engagement in art and conversation and finding empathy in those that will save us in the end. So, yes, I'm optimistic, because the world is full of wonderful people, and we just have to remember that when times get tough.
How do you go about preparing for a poetry performance? Do you have any specific rituals or habits?
That question helped me identify barriers in my own mind and made it so much easier to overcome them. For many years, I thought I couldn’t possibly put myself forward for a slam. Who would be interested in my words or what I have to say?
It feels so wonderful to finally do this, because it’s so important to give yourself validation and remind yourself that your voice matters. I defy anybody not to believe in themselves when you have so many people from the Nottingham literary scene who believe in you so passionately and really support the work you do.
growing together
Out of many opportunities, in our city, to get your hands dirty with soil while improving your local green space, annual community planting day Wild About Sneinton continues to stand out – bringing together volunteers and creatives to get local people properly in touch with their green souls. Joe Callow attended the 2025 edition, and learned about how the event is benefitting people
Nottingham’s green spaces are flourishing thanks to the dedication of local volunteers and community groups working to bring wildlife back into the heart of the city. At the Wild About Sneinton event I’m attending today, volunteers are planting, painting murals, and playing music to transform this corner of the city into a nature and creativity-rich area.
Organised by GrowNotts, the day celebrates collaboration, creativity, and the simple joy of getting your hands in the soil. From Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust’s youth group Keeping It Wild to the local residents getting involved, everyone has a role to play in making Sneinton greener, kinder, and more connected. Approaching the cluster of friendly faces, I made my way up Sneinton Dale, warmly greeted by the soft hum of folk music and the scatter of gardening gloves. I’m immediately offered a fresh apple and invited to plant some bulbs. A real sense of community welcomes me in.
Organised by Grow Notts, Kingston Court is being planted up for spring along with seven other green (and not-so-green) spaces transformed by locals. I catch up with Jack Harris, GN facilitator on the side of a road, about the importance of bringing people together to grow and build a sense of community. “We all need to feel like we can make a difference where we live,” he explains. “When people see it’s easy to get involved, it builds confidence that anyone can help out.”
Keeping it Wild is a youth-led volunteer group based in Nottingham and is currently the only fully youth-led team of the Wildlife Trust movement that completely manages its own nature reserve. Clouds loom over the city today, but there is a genial spirit in the air as Keeping it Wild help to build a dead hedge and add to the existing flower beds created during last year’s Wild About Sneinton. New growing and flowering spaces emerge as everyone muddies their knees alongside the other local volunteers, planting bulbs and wildflowers.
As I walk down the road I chat with Keeping it Wild team member Emily Tomlinson, planting wildflowers in new raised beds opposite derelict pub The Wheatsheaf: “I feel really uplifted, it's really positive to see everyone out and about and getting involved. Fostering a sense of community is really important, because if we’re all inside not getting involved it is easy to feel divided, but events like this help you feel unity.”
Nottingham has always had a strong sense of community, and whilst things may feel more fragmented than they used to, creating vibrant, wilder spaces for all to enjoy is crucial to the bringing people together. It is clear to see the positive effect the environment has on the city, but so too how it improves young volunteers’ mental health and helps them feel part of something.
Matt Sims joins us to plant bulbs, grasses, herbs, and wildflowers round the corner from the action by a doctor's surgery, after a friend suggested he came along. I ask him how it feels to be part of a community event: “It just feels great. It feels really quite old school with the folk band jamming around and everyone just dropping in and out doing gardening together.”
A gentle bowed violin and a soothing accordion warms everyone up against
the nippy winds as Luddite Folk Sessions’ music spreads harmonious smiles on Sneinton’s busy road corner. Painters decorate Saint George's flag signs with ‘We are kind’ - a patriotic, yet welcoming rebuttal to the summer's parade of angry flags, creating a sense of added togetherness and welcoming in Sneinton.
William, Luddite Folk Sessions' accordion player, speaks cheerfully with me: “It’s a lovely event, I don't live in Sneinton but friends of mine do and I'm here often. Today just feels very kind and nice, we’ve got a lot of people, everybody’s happy with each other and appreciating what everyone else is doing, it’s lovely. Biodiversity is very nice to look at, and I think if people are going out of their way to make things look nicer in terms of the environment that's fantastic.”
as the musiC Fades, the L ast buLbs are pL anted, and CoLd Fingers warm up in the nearby King biLLy pub, sneinton is LeF t FeeLing a LittLe brighter and more CoLourFuL
Biodiversity in Nottingham seems to be on the increase, with new green spaces like the Green Heart and Sussex Street by Nottingham College, but it’s communities who are driving initiatives like Wild About Sneinton. The project started through Sneinton locals, co-creator Emma Constable explains to me:
“The council did some road widening in Sneinton and planted trees, which created these large tree pits. They were very rough, rocky ground and I saw an opportunity to sow wildflower seed, to beautify and improve the area. So, I mentioned this idea to Jack from Grow Notts and he was really keen to join me. We went out under our own steam, sowed seeds, saw these gardens develop and what we got was just loads of positive feedback.”
“We were inspired by guerilla gardening in Sneinton, and seeing that it was really well received,” Jack adds. “The inner city has a distinct lack of green space and people's own homes tend to have less green space. Those areas tend to be lower quality quite often and so it is important that we are given as many opportunities as possible for people to use public spaces and make them more vibrant, accessible, and beautiful, so that people want to spend more time in those and they have more purpose.”
The first Wild About Sneinton event in April transformed parts of the community’s shared spaces to improve greenness and biodiversity, similar to today. Coming back in autumn with more plants and slightly grubbier hands, the sense of unity is still apparent within the smiles on everyone's faces.
As the music fades, the last bulbs are planted, and cold fingers warm up in the nearby King Billy pub, Sneinton is left feeling a little brighter and more colourful. Wild About Sneinton shows how a community can come together to make a space more welcoming, green, and alive.
Wild About Sneinton took place on Saturday 25 October.
words: Joe Callow
photos: Laura Turner, Wildlife Garden Project CIC
home truths
words: Matteo D’Alesio
illustration: Toby Anderton
There are many types of homelessness, from those living in temporary accommodation to rough sleeping, and statistics suggest that year on year homelessness has been on the rise. But what is the real experience of sleeping rough, and what can the average person do to help? Matteo D’Alesio speaks to Edward, an unhoused man in Nottingham, and Dave Newmarch, Framework’s Director of Corporate Services…
My walk to work takes me down Long Row, where outside the Tesco Express there will often be someone sitting on cardboard, a barrier between cold pavement and human body. They might ask for change, a hot drink, some food, or nothing at all. Further down there might be a human-shaped sleeping bag in the doorway of the old British Heart Foundation, or one of the other empty buildings.
It’s difficult to not feel a sense of guilt and confusion. You ask yourself, ‘why am I walking to work after sleeping in a warm bed, whilst someone has spent the night in the cold and will spend the day asking strangers for help?’.
That feeling might cause you to say hello as you pass by, or nip into a shop to get some food or a drink as a small gesture of support, but ultimately you’ll carry on walking and will eventually be inside where you can warm cold hands and ears, peel off a wet coat, and just carry on with life.
Edward once lived like this too, in the warmth, with a family and a job, but after a mental breakdown he found himself homeless.
“I've had my sleeping bags set fire to. I've had a terracotta plant pot chucked at my head,” Edward tells me. “But some of the gestures that've been made to me since I've been in this city have been so overwhelming, they've actually brought me to tears.”
Before becoming homeless Edward had always worked. His job history reads like an offbeat nursery rhyme – baker, wedding cake decorator, industrial painter, bricklayer, carer. He wants to restart his life, but the rut of homelessness is a deep one and not easy to escape.
“For me to take one step,” Edward says, “it's not just one step for me, it has to be ten steps.”
Edward is talking about comprehensive support – not just getting a roof over your head, but also getting access to the right resources to resolve deeper issues that might’ve led to becoming, or staying, homeless.
On a more immediate level, I ask Edward what people can do if they see someone on the street.
“Oh, just a hello. And not just walk past like we're not even there, or like we've got two heads.”
It can feel like a hollow gesture but a simple hello can make a huge difference.
“The more people make you feel ostracised,” Edwards tells me. “The more you shut yourself away, the bigger you build your walls, and the longer it takes to get
back to that kind of reality where I want to be.”
As recently as 2023, a YouGov poll reported that 32% of Britons believed most homelessness results from bad individual choices. Blaming the individual rather than assessing their circumstances has long been a barrier for helping people.
“Homelessness is a complicated thing,” Dave Newmarch, Framework’s Director of Corporate Services, tells me. “People become homeless for multiple different reasons.” Framework is a Nottingham-based homelessness charity, helping more than 18,000 people each year get their lives back on track. Dave has been at Framework since the early 2000s, but began working in Nottingham housing services in 1993. I ask how the understanding of homelessness has changed since then.
the more you shut yourseLF away, the bigger you buiLd your waLLs, and the Longer it taKes to get baCK to that Kind oF reaLity where i want to be
“Back then, somebody would turn up and they were quite possibly a drinker. You saw them as ‘That's Barry, he's a drinker’. Now the same person might turn up and you would go, ‘Oh, Barry ticks an SMD (severe multiple disadvantage) in disease, because they’ve got childhood trauma, they're unemployed’. We're looking much more in depth at why that person ends up where they are.”
Despite better understanding, the challenge for Framework is greater than ever. In 2024 they identified 592 different people who spent at least one night outdoors, a 76% increase on the previous year.
Dave explains how funding for supported housing has been falling in real terms since 2010, before taking me back to the late 90s when there was more financial backing.
“We nailed it. You didn't see what you see on the streets now. We got it down to zero rough sleeping on more than two nights, for a considerable period.”
As we talk about getting back to near zero rough sleeping, Dave explains that housing alone is not a magic bullet. Accommodation needs to meet individual needs, there needs to be adequate support to break damaging cycles, and there needs to be preventative measures to stop people from becoming homeless in the first place.
Housing still remains hugely important, and Dave is keen to highlight the local government’s role in improving the current situation.
“It was tricky for a while,” Dave tells me. “You couldn't apply for social housing. Credit to Nottingham City Council – properties are becoming available again.”
The conversation turns to Lee House: a twenty-unit property built to tackle rough sleeping, which is currently in development and a combined project between Homes England, Nottingham City Council, and Framework.
“It's got that therapeutic space,” Dave explains. “So we can work with those individuals. Funding is a little longer term, up to three years, which gives us more of a chance.” Providing that sense of chance – that bit of hope – is key.
“I don't want to be homeless,” Edward tells me. “But it's so difficult to get out of it once you're in it. You can have all the best intentions in the world, please believe me – it's not like I'm not motivated to, it's the motivation being dragged out of me.”
The longer someone is homeless, the harder it becomes to break that cycle. There is a heavy human cost when someone doesn’t have a place to call their own, or a routine to keep them occupied – when they’re ignored by the vast majority of society, and the basics we take for granted, like warmth or being dry, become second-by-second survival.
I ask Dave about the future of homelessness services and he mentions the National Homelessness Strategy, which is expected to be published this year. There is hope that it will recognise the need for comprehensive support to match the complexity of homelessness. Though regardless of what the strategy delivers in the future, how we act today makes a difference.
You don’t have to donate to Framework, or volunteer, or write to your MP (although these are all vital acts). You can make a difference by saying hello, sharing a brief moment with someone – being one of the few who stops for a second before getting to carry on with life.
To help direct the Framework Street Outreach Team to any rough sleepers for welfare checks, please contact them on 0800 066 5356 or text ‘SOT’ followed by your message to 80800.
frameworkha.org
Christmas
at St Mary’s in the Lace Market
Christingle Family Service with St Mary’s Junior Choirs
Sunday 7th December | 10.45am
Choristers’ Carol Service with St Mary’s Boy & Girl Choristers
Sunday 14th December | 4.00pm
Lace Market Carol Service
Thursday 18th December | 1.00pm
Wine & Carols
Sunday 21st December | 8.00pm
Festival of Nine Lessons & Carols
Wednesday 24th December | 7.00pm
Christmas Eve Midnight Mass
Wednesday 24th December | 11.30pm
Christmas Day Choral Eucharist
Thursday 25th December | 10.45am
We’re just a short walk from Lace Market Tram Stop. All very welcome - come as you are!
Out of Time: The Bank Robbers Who Escaped History
Back in 1970, two daring heists in the Nottingham area lasted minutes, left clues behind, but never led to arrests –could the two be connected?
When we think of bank robberies we often envision guns, panic and of course, a getaway car. However, we also expect a nice, tidy ending where the villains are caught and justice is served. Incredibly, Nottingham has one such story that appears to have no such ending, but it does have everything else – including the getaway car.
On a quiet Monday afternoon, around 3pm on 16 February 1970, doors burst open as three gunmen ran into the Westminster Bank, on Mansfield Road, in Sherwood. One of the gunmen stood by the door, waving a .22 revolver in the air as his accomplices, wearing scarves over their faces, leapt over the counter and began rifling through the counters. Staff and customers were absolutely terrified as the gunmen ordered them to turn and face the wall.
As panic escalated, one of the gunmen fired a warning shot over the head of the cashiers into the ceiling as a signal to leave. All three ran out of the front door onto the busy street to their getaway vehicle. Meanwhile, upstairs, the bank manager heard the shot and quickly called 999 while hitting the panic button to alert the police.
The getaway vehicle was where things got confusing. Three reports of different vehicles made it difficult for police, as one person reported seeing a green van driven away from the scene towards Mansfield, but another said a Jaguar had raced towards the city. A third person reported a Bronze Jaguar turning into Winchester Street near the bank, which later turned towards Mapperley.
Police quickly set up roadblocks across the southern road entrances to Mansfield, Sutton in Ashfield, and Kirkby in Ashfield, but with no luck. All available officers –over 100 in the Mansfield division – were called in to aid the hunt. Meanwhile, a ballistics expert was called in to examine the bullet lodged in the wall. Remarkably, the raid only took three minutes, but the gunmen stole almost £2,000 (around £39.5K in today’s money).
The police did find the getaway car – the bronze Jaguar 3.8 Mark II – which had been abandoned in a filthy state on New Street, in Carrington. In December it had been reported stolen in Birmingham but was never found. A spanner was also found in the car, but came to nothing despite hopes that it might have a serial number for a workplace.
Later, the manager of a nearby shop found the bank’s money bags with the distinctive logo on them and a bloodstain. As police began door-to-door searches, they questioned landladies and publicans as they believed the men were not local and had met up before the raid.
However, just as things began returning to business as usual in the city, there was a second raid – this time, at the Lloyds Bank on Carlton Street.
Four men with masks and hats pulled down low over their faces ran in through the front door of the bank. This time, they were armed with a sawn-off shotgun and a pistol, but also ammonia, which they squirted at customers and staff to keep them back. As with the last raid, the men jumped over the counter and began scooping up the night safe wallets, which the staff had been counting. Some of the women started screaming, while others choked on the fumes and fell to the floor.
despite the desCriptions, spanners and abandoned jaguar getaway Cars, it appears the men were ne Ver Caught
One of the customers told a newspaper, “I felt two rods in my back. I presume that was a double-barrelled gun. I did not turn around to look.”
If these were the same men whom the police suspected it was, then they had learned their lesson and come earlier in the day on a Monday. This may have been strategic, given that it was the time when the bank had more money, due to the weekend. This time, they escaped with £8,000 in cash and £19,000 in cheques. Eyewitnesses outside the bank heard the alarms and noticed a big blue van parked outside. One man noted that he saw men run out of the bank, jump into the van, then he watched it race down George Street, going the wrong way down one-way traffic. Another man chased the vehicle while writing down the registration number, but police later recovered the van near Alfred Street on false plates. There was no sign of the men or the money.
This time, there were good descriptions of two of the raiders. One was described as being in his 40s, tall and well built with a long grey-blue overcoat and a soft green trilby hat. He carried the pistol and a navy holdall. The other was in his 30s, fairhaired with blue eyes and wore a red polo neck sweater. He spoke with a Liverpool accent.
Despite the descriptions, spanners and abandoned jaguar getaway cars, it appears the men were never caught.
words: CJ De Barra
Illustration: April Seaworth
Reasons to be Cheerful
The news is normally negative, so here’s some good things that have happened recently in Notts…
Safer spaces
The Safe Space Pledge is Nottingham’s friendly promise to make days and nights out in the city feel safer and more welcoming. Created by It’s in Nottingham – the city's business improvement district (BID) and the Consent Coalition, it brings together venues of all kinds – cafés, pubs, shops, and more – to take simple but meaningful steps like training staff, offering a calm, safe spot, and taking reports of harassment seriously. With more than 65 city centre businesses already signed up, you can spot their window stickers around the city centre. They’re your cue that you can step inside, be listened to, and get support, helping everyone enjoy the city with confidence.
Cat alley
A well-loved stray cat by the name of George has been commemorated by locals in Beeston with his own street sign. The amiable black feline, who has been described as ‘disarmingly friendly’, was a regular visitor to Beeston Business Park, after he was found as a stray by security workers who looked after him for fourteen years. After George passed away in 2023, local resident Brian Rorison requested a ‘George the Cat Alley’ sign to be made by Broxtowe Borough Council, which was installed back in November.
In the long run
Recently it was revealed that nearly £600k was raised for various charities, and other essential services, by runners who participated in the Robin Hood Half Marathon, back in September. With this, the total raised by the event since 2015 surpassed £3,000,000 which is pretty wonderful – and testament to the solution-driven mindsets of local people. Some of the local enterprises that were supported include Footprints Nottingham, who support kids with mobility and communication difficulties, rough sleeping charity Emmanuel House, and independent food bank Himmah.
TRUTH
Unpicking Nottingham's urban myths
With Goose Fair marking the end of summer (but the start of financial ruin for young couples), and the local hero Simon Withers known as ‘Swan Man’ giving up his time to care for injured Swans, Nottingham does seem to love its pond dwellers. So much so that one member of the family has found its way into the East Midlands vocabulary.
The phrase duck is believed to have derived from the latin word ducas meaning duke. This was once a term of endearment and a means of showing respect to others. Over time, duck was born and replaced its Latin counterpart. In 2014, during The Hollywood Film Awards, none other than Angelina Jolie was seen using it to welcome Jack O’Connell to the stage, given his Derbyshire roots. Unfortunately, this started a trend where American celebrities began using the phrase, but thankfully, they haven’t coined it as one of their own. Mainly because uttering the phrase Ay up in an American accent is deeply disturbing for British audiences.
According to Nottingham legend, Albert Gristle may be the man to blame for much of this controversy. Mr Gristle is believed to have been a dweller in Narrow Marsh during the 1890s, and all descriptions of him seem to suggest the most stereotypical description of a pirate I have ever come across. It’s believed he had a wooden leg, a stuffed parrot, and even a bushy beard. Bear with me though because he lost his leg during a shark attack (allegedly). Given his inability to work, it was his job to awaken all the other male workers in the Marsh, and he would do so by shouting ‘Are ya up me lad,’ whilst throwing random objects at their windows. Due to the absurdity of the scene, crowds would gather, often telling these boys to ‘DUCK’ as rocks were hurled past their heads. Occasionally Albert would cry ‘are ya up me…’ instantly followed by ‘DUCK’, from the crowd in hysterics. It’s believed that this became a joke in the mills and pubs as workers would call out ‘Are ya up me DUCK,’ bringing the other party to tears of laughter.
Something made you laugh in the lavs?
Send your funniest quips to editorial@leftlion.co.uk
Guess the answer to this Notts themed riddle…
My first is a sign
That comes round in May
And brings with it strength and taurine
My second a spring
For wishing they say
A stem of the old River Leen
My third is a place
Where children can play
Once a marsh, now a bright open green
You can find me on the tram
But do you know where I am?
Whilst this tale is rather enjoyable to believe, there are plenty of other cities around the East Midlands and Yorkshire that have claims on the phrase. With everyday conversations taking place in Derby, Nottingham, Leicester and most of Yorkshire, there is a good chance someone will utter the phrase to a loved one. For my own safety, I won’t enter this debate as I don’t want to be a disgrace to the LeftLion community and offend the ‘Ay up me duck’ diehards.
What makes this case even more difficult, is that I get a sense that quite simply no one can agree on an answer. Not even with the spelling of the phrase. In 2010, Dancing Duck Brewery launched their best-selling beer, but couldn’t decide on a name given concerns surrounding its proper spelling. To prevent mass bar brawls, the company decided to release two pump clips, one displaying ‘Ay Up’ and the other with ‘Ey Up.’ This then gave pub landlords the choice of two clips, presenting one of the best examples of delegating a difficult decision to someone else in local history.
Whether you choose to believe the tale of Albert Gristle, I find it rather heartwarming that such a phrase can elicit such joy from the recipient. Whether you hear it from your Nana, someone you haven’t seen in a while or even just a way of greeting people around you, I don’t think we should fuss about its origins and just ensure that the Americans don’t get a hold of any of our other sayings.
words: Matthew Blaney
Oh Come All Ye Dreadful
When: Until Sat 20 December
Where: National Justice Museum
How much: £59.99
On select dates, High Pavement’s award-winning independent museum will host an immersive, Christmas murder mystery experience. Participants will be thrown right into the thick of a 1930s Notts-set story in which they play the role of members of the notorious Boon Gang, trying to discover who got their boss framed for a murder before time runs out. As well as participation in the event itself, tickets include an arrival cocktail/mocktail plus a three course meal – all in all a great chance to make some unique festive memories.
When: Until Sat 24 January
Where: New Art Exchange
How much: Free
An ongoing exhibition by British artist Simeon Barclay, drawing on his experience working in the manufacturing industry. It showcases a set of multi-media exhibits, spinning image, sculpture, video, and objects, which reference pop culture and explore cultural history, while commenting on other themes like subculture and the artificiality of identity. Barclay has exhibited in all kinds of places, both nationally and internationally, including London, Vienna, New York, and Amsterdam, so this will definitely be a worthwhile visit to leave you very inspired.
Light Post Farm
When: Until Tue 23 December
Where: White Post Farm, Newark
How much: From £11.44
White Post Farm, a wildlife park and farm near Newark, are again teaming up with Gloworm Festival to host an enchanting, one kilometer illuminated Christmas light trail. Each year, the attraction proves to be a great choice for families, with colourful installations, Christmas themed model characters, and hot chocolate available to enjoy. Tickets also include access to the farm’s Reptiles of the World Exhibit and its indoor Jungle Barn. We definitely think this one is magical enough to deviate out of the city centre and off the beaten path for.
When: Thu 4 & Fri 5 December
This will be a fun one – The Nest are hosting a 500 person capacity ‘Christmas work party for office elves’, featuring acclaimed local drag artists Nana Arthole and Marilyn Sane. There’ll be lots of food and drink (an all you can eat Christmas banquet is included), drag bingo, karaoke, a mechanical reindeer, and a guaranteed array of further, suitably anarchical activities to make it a memorable night. The Nest is also an excellent, multi-purpose space for parties, bound to be enjoyed by most.
Cinderella When: Until Sun 4 January
Where: Theatre Royal
How much: From £18
This will be the Theatre Royal’s family Christmas pantomime for 2025, retelling the age-old story of Cinderella and Prince Charming with a spectacular mix of meticulously created scenery, costumes, and laugh-out-loud comedy. The cast is also set to be particularly first-class, featuring TV and stage actor Neil Hurst as Buttons, acclaimed US actor and impressionist Christina Bianco as The Fairy Godmother, and Craig Revel Horwood of Strictly Come Dancing fame as the Wicked Stepmother.
When: Fri 5 December
Where: Metronome
How much: £20
London Calling are a tribute act to The Clash. This month, they’re visiting Notts to play the A and B sides of The Clash singles released between 1977 and 1983. These guys have created lots of buzz about their live shows over the years, having received lots of praise for, not just for their accuracy in emulating some of punk’s foremost pioneers, but also for their impressive musicianship. If The Clash is close to your heart, this show is bound to smash your expectations and then some.
Littlest Yak
When: Until Sun 4 January
Where: Lakeside Arts
How much: £11.50 - £13
This month Lakeside is hosting a pretty lovely occasion for families, as Kent theatre company LAStheatre arrive in Notts to perform an adaptation of a book by Lu Fraser and Kate Hindley. The production tells the story of the ‘littlest yak’ Gertie on a journey of self-discovery, and celebrates self acceptance. The production features some beautiful puppets, and although it’s most suitable for kids aged three and over, it’s meant to be thoroughly enjoyable for accompanying adults too.
When: Fri 5 - Sun 7 December
Where: Nottingham Contemporary
How much: Free
It’s likely that, this year, you’ll find yourself buying at least one Christmas present at the last minute, so why not visit the Contemporary’s craft fair to support independent artisan makers in the process? After a launch party on 5 December, featuring live music, food and drink, and late night access to the galleries, the craft fair will host over forty designers and makers from Notts and beyond across the weekend. There’ll be plenty of products to admire and take home, including ceramics, textiles, jewellery, homeware, and much more.
In Place of Fear
The Nutcracker Bash
Where: The Nest How much: £49.50
London Calling
Craft Fair
best oF the month
Saturday Art Club
When: Sat 6 & Sat 20 December
Where: New Art Exchange
How much: Free (booking required)
These are drop-in workshops that the ever-industrious New Art Exchange team are hosting on two Saturday mornings over the Christmas period. They’re aimed at families, and are set to provide some fun, hands-on activities led by artists, which are different each time. The mental health benefits, for people of all ages, in getting arty and crafty once-in-a-while are often overlooked, and as such this will be a great opportunity for families to start their weekend with a smile.
Dennis Rollins MBE
When: Mon 8 - Wed 10
December
Where: Inspire Libraries
How much: £13
Belper Jazz Company are touring three Nottingham libraries with the very special guest trombone maestro Dennis Rollins MBE. Rollins is a force of nature who has performed with top bands such as Blur, Jamiroquai and the Brand New Heavies. See them live at Beeston library (8 Dec), Worksop library (9 Dec) and West Bridgford library (10 Dec). This is part of the regular Jazz Steps events put on across our local libraries and promises to be a very special night.
When: Sat 6 & Sun 7 December
Where: Arc Cinema Beeston
How much: £17
World-renowned Dutch conductor and violinist Andre Rieu’s regular Christmas concert, with the Johann Strauss Orchestra, will be screened at the Arc Cinema in Beeston this month. Each year the concert, performed in Maastricht, proves to be pretty spectacular, with carols, waltzes, and hundreds of brass and string players all featured. With the addition of the Arc Cinema’s comfy facilities, seeing this should make for an excellent, festive evening out.
Beer and Carols
When: Mon 8 - Thu 11 December
Where: The Malt Cross How much: Free (booking required for feast)
Hark! It’s beer and carols time once again. Get on your most festive attire (jumpers encouraged!) and head down to gorgeous Victorian music hall The Malt Cross for an evening of memorable carols, with mince pies and mulled wine on offer in between. This event is free and first come first served, but if you want to make a proper night of it you can book for their festive feast beforehand which guarantees your spot, and includes a Christmas dinner and pudding with all the trimmings.
When: Sun 7 December
Where: Royal Concert Hall
How much: £23 - £39
Movie fans are in for a treat with this one, as the International Film Orchestra arrives in Nottingham to get you into the festive spirit with an extravagant night of well-loved soundtracks. Experience the beauty and splendour of familiar favourites, from Harry Potter, Star Wars and E.T. to Christmas classics such as The Polar Express, The Grinch, Home Alone and Frozen, with big band singer Paul Pashley bringing “velvet vocals” to further warm your heart.
When: Wed 10 & Sun 14 Dec
Where: Savoy Cinema How much: £11 - £18
Does anything quite say Christmas like The Nutcracker? Let yourself be enchanted by the divine costumes, graceful dancing and magical storyline of this well-loved classic, as poor Hans-Peter is turned into a nutcracker and his uncle, the magician Herr Drosselmeyer, attempts to defeat the Mouse King. Featuring classic symphonies from Tchaikovsky, this ballet by Peter Wright has charmed audiences since its 1984 premiere, and this month you can sit back and be dazzled from the comfort of the Savoy Cinema’s comfy seats.
When: Sun 7 December
Where: The Bodega
How much: From £16.88
Notts does a great job at day festivals already, but why not add another to the annual calendar before gig season comes to an end. Starting at 3pm, a full day of live acts is headlined by Manchester alt pop quartet Porij, support comes from Notts’ own goth-punks Bloodworm (read our interview with them on p. 20) and Marvin's Revenge, with Bristol pop-punk act My First Time, Sandhouse, and more to be announced. Well worth a ticket for any local lovers of alternative music.
When: Thu 11 December
Where: Adams Building How much: Free
Join Nottingham College for a student-led Christmas Market, set in the charming cobbled arches of the Grade II-listed Thomas Adams Building in Nottingham city centre’s Lace Market. This festive market is open to everyone and will feature a wonderful selection of prints, ceramics, textiles, and gifts crafted by their art and design students, all at very reasonable prices. The event will also include a tombola, plus hot drinks and cakes, plus an appearance from Father Christmas.
Andre Rieu’s Christmas Concert
Christmas at the Movies
Paint By Numbers
The Nutcracker
Christmas Craft Market
best oF the month
Queermas
When: Thu 11 December
Where: Fisher Gate Point
How much: Free
Hosted by Notts creative hub Fisher Gate Point, art collective Moonbuns and trans-friendly creative workshoppers Pink Menace, this is an alternative Christmas market where you can support both small businesses and the Queer community in Notts. A variety of traders will be there to sell goods perfect for Christmas presents. You can dip in to have a go at collage art, while downstairs you can enjoy a range of music, from folk and soul to ethereal indie rock in a friendly and accessible space.
Winterfolk Festive Market
When: Sun 14 December
Where: The Nest
How much: Free (booking required)
If you haven’t yet checked out The Nest – Nottingham’s new exwarehouse venue which is part of the Notts County Ground, here’s your chance as they transform their space into a cosy indoor festive wonderland, perfect for some bespoke Christmas shopping. Hosted by local maker Hallo Ceramics, take a wander around 40+ stalls from local indie makers of ceramics, prints, woodworks, felting, photography, and painting. There will also be street food and even a live dog portrait artist, so pooches are most welcome!
Peter Kay
When: Thu 11, Fri 12, Fri 19 and Sat 20 December
Where: Nottingham Arena
How much: From £57
British comedy legend Peter Kay brings his Better Late Than Never tour to Notts this month, with four appearances which are rescheduled from October. This ‘record breaking tour’, which saw Kay become the first performer in the world to hold a residency at London’s 02, has seen unprecedented demand for tickets and in the eyes of most has redefined the sheer scale of popularity that comedy can reach. If you fancy being part of this big moment in UK entertainment, then head along to brighten up your Christmas with some good belly laughs.
All I Want For Christmas Is Doom
When: Fri 12 December
Where: Angel Microbrewery
How much: £12 - £15
While all some folks want for Christmas is Mariah, the antidote may just be heavy riffs and walls of noise. If you’re looking for the latter, get yourself to The Chapel, the atmospheric venue situated above the Angel Microbrewery. On the roster for this event are four acts: Doomsday Sun, Independent Trucking, Nomadic Reign and At War With The Sun. Expect stoner and sludge, with sprinklings of post-rock and prog, that at times will make the audience feel as though they're ‘drowning in sonic tar’. Groovy.
December
City How much: £19
One of Nottingham’s most eccentric and entertaining live bands, Evil Scarecrow have been entertaining audiences for over two decades with their theatrical live performances. This month they headline Rock City, with support from awardwinning stand-up comedian and musician Andrew O'Neil. Expect metal, mayhem and likely stage appearances by the krakhen, the crab, the slug from Antartarctica If you fancy some ‘existential crisis metal’ (their words, not ours) to get out of the festive spirit for a night, get yourself a ticket.
Where: The Magic Garden How much: £27
This well-loved and longestablished local comedy club, known for curating some of the best comedy lineups in the country, will see out 2025 at The Magic Garden, for a chic and relaxed evening featuring comedians John Robertson, Paul F Taylor, Sally-Anne Hayward, and Andrew O’Neill. If you so choose you can reserve a table to dine at The Magic Garden, before the performances start at 9.30pm. There’ll also be an afterparty, for those who fancy commencing their 2026 in this unique and atmospheric space.
Divorce
When: Sat 13 December
Where: Rock City
How much: £19.56
Divorce is truly special. A quartet with two lead singers: Felix Mackenzie-Barrow and Tiger Cohen-Towell, plus guitarist Adam Peter-Smith and drummer Kasper Sandstrom – all of whom are Notts locals – the countrytinged indie rock quartet have surged up from the grassroots to become one of the country’s most buzzy bands. After some time supporting Mumford and Sons this year in the US, this hometown show, which closes their headline UK tour, is guaranteed to be extra memorable for everyone who attends.
When: Wed 31 December
Where: Malt Cross
How much: From £25.76
If a singalong sounds a good way of greeting 2026, then you should certainly head to the Malt Cross, at the end of this month, for Crazy Little Sing Called Pub. This nationally-loved event, conceived in Notts, and led by musician Abi Moore, gathers people together in (surprisingly) a pub to sing a pop-rock anthem in perfect harmony, taught from scratch. This new year’s edition will be particularly special, with light appetisers provided courtesy of the Malt Cross, and some extra mass singalongs surrounding the main tune for the evening, with drinking and dancing encouraged.
Evil Scarecrow When: Sun 21
Where: Rock
Just The Tonic New Year’s Eve When: Wed 31 December
Crazy Little Sing Called Pub
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