LeftLion September 2026 Issue 199

#199 SEPTEMBER 2026

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Credits

Featured Contributor Editor Head Designer Sophie Gargett Natalie Owen (sophie.gargett@leftlion.co.uk) (natalie.owen@leftlion.co.uk)

Footb-Al Alan Gilby (alan.gilby@leftlion.co.uk)

Editor-in-Chief Jared Wilson (jared.wilson@leftlion.co.uk)

Editorial & Marketing Assistant Caradoc Gayer (caradoc.gayer@leftlion.co.uk)

Music Co-Editor Phil Taylor (music@leftlion.co.uk)

Music Co-Editor Karl Blakesley (music@leftlion.co.uk)

Fashion Editor Addie Kenogbon-Harley (fashion@leftlion.co.uk)

Stage Co-Editor Dom Henry (dom.henry@leftlion.co.uk)

History Editor CJ DeBarra (history@leftlion.co.uk)

Environment Editor Adam Pickering (environment@leftlion.co.uk)

Stage Co-Editor Ian C. Douglas (ian@leftlion.co.uk)

Eliza Waddington is the newest member of LeftLion’s core team – starting in late June as our Marketing and Partnerships Assistant. Her role is to liaise with the advertising partners who help make sure this magazine exists and stays free. Eliza recently graduated from a degree in Film and Television Studies at the University of Nottingham and while she was there she was social secretary of the University Rock Society.

She is a devout metalhead and can often be found in the Tap n Tumbler watching gigs and having a beer.

Supporters These people #SupportLeftLion

Literature Co-Editor Grace Sanders (literature@leftlion.co.uk)

Literature Co-Editor Katherine Monk-Watts (literature@leftlion.co.uk)

Food Co-Editor Julia Head (food@leftlion.co.uk)

Food Co-Editor Lucy Campion (food@leftlion.co.uk)

Photography Co-Editor Sam Tariq (photography@leftlion.co.uk)

Photography Co-Editor Dani Bacon (photography@leftlion.co.uk)

Screen Editor Emily Davies (screen@leftlion.co.uk)

Sports Editor Reuben Moynihan-Case (sport@leftlion.co.uk)

Art Editor Lauryn Wilson (art@leftlion.co.uk)

Community Editor Frances Danylec (community@leftlion.co.uk)

Investigator of... pub history Matt Blaney

Distribution Dom Martinovs Ben Chapman Poppy Wildman

thanks to all our contributors...

Cover Art Iulia Matei Editorial Interns Isabel Scott Kamalpreet Singh

Writers Penny Harrison Kieran Lister Roger Mean Cara Thompson Nadia Whittome Gareth Watts Julian McDougall Michael Krawec Ryan Benjamin Claire Spencer Amelia Cropley

Photographers Illustrators Nigel King Emily Catherine Shiree Sutton Lily Keogh Nikita Liesniak ReVibe Studio Michelle Coyle Toby Anderton Harvey Tomlinson Marcus Gilmore Stefan Drew John Ashton Luke @highway61photography Nevaeha Yearwood Nadine Barker Kirsty Gregory Eloise Idoine Jay Tomlin Lisette Muratore Lux Gagos NFWFC Katerina Panaretaki Lisette Muratore

123 Learning, 35A Creative, Aaron Murray, Alan Underwood, Alex McFarlane, Alison Gove-Humphries, Alison Hedley, Alison Knox, Anamenti, Andrew Button, Audrey & Lizzy & Margot, Ash A & Merro Events, BadGrammar MakesMeSic, Barbara, Barbara Morgan, Ben Martin Saxophone, Ben Stewart, Beth and Cam, Big Bob McPlop, Carl Inglis, Caroline, Caroline Le Sueur, Cat Kearney, Cerys Gibson, Charlie Baylis, Chris Jarvis, Chris Newman, Chris Underwood, Claire Foss, Clare Foyle, Cyra Golijani-Moghaddam, Dan Hemmings, Dominic Morrow, Donna Rowe-Merriman, Dorothy Kurpanik, Eden PR, Erika Diaz Petersen, F C and E Ledger, GC, Gemma Barfoot, Grant Butterworth, Grass Roots Garden Care, Graye Wilde, Half Moon Holistics, Hayley Howard, Heather Sapphire, Holden Johnson, Holly's Merry Moggies, Hosking Family, Ian Carroll, Ian Phillips, Ian Storey, Ian Yanson, Ian Webster, Jack Moore, James Horsley, James Place, James Verran, Janine Lees, Jason Clifford, Jean Forsey, Jenny Wüstenberg, John Dunstan, John Haslam, John Hess, John Holmes, John & Jackie Scruton, Jonathan Day, Jon Roberts, Joshua Heathcote, Judy Gray, Julian Bower, Julian McDougall, Justyn Roberts, K, Katy Marshall, Kay Gilby, Kaye Brennan, Kelly Scott, Kiki Dee the Cat, Laurence Hooper, Lawrence Poole, Laura Wilson, Leigh Woosey, Lilian Greenwood, Livi & Jacob Nieri, Liz Hollier, Louise Duffield, Luke Richardshon, Marc Weaver, Marjorie Griffiths, Mark, Mark Barratt, Mark Dickson, Mark Jacobs, Martin Curtis, Mary, Matthew Riches & Justin Clark, MayJasper, MC, Mike & Margaret Astill, Mike Carter, Mike Cole, Miri Debah, Mog, Monica White, Nic, Nic Bourke, Nick Palmer, Nigel Cooke, Nigel King, NottingJam Orchestra, Parbinder Singh, Paul, Paul Aitchison, Paul Egan, Peachy Ground Designs, Pearl Quick, Pete Nash, Philip Renshaw, Rachel Ayrton, Rachel Morton, Raphael Achache, ReverendRyu, Richard Donovan, Richard Epton, Richard Goodwin, Rob Arthur, Rob Maddison, Rose Harvey, Ross Balzaretti, Roy Manterfield, Ruby Rex and BB, Russell Brown, Ruth Hoyland, Saffron Harpham, Sam Fia, Sam Hudson, Sam Stiling, Sandra Pink, Sarah Colborne, Sarah Manton, Selectadisc, Shane P, Sheridan Chilvers, Simon Evans, Simon Malcolm, Sue, Tessa Duell, The Sparrows’ Nest, Tim, Tom and James, Tom Dee, Steve Benton, Steve Lyon, Steve Wallace, Sue Barsby, The Edgar Family, Tom Huggon, Tony Shelley, Vanessa Shaw, Wayne Norrie, Will Horton.

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contents

15

The Ghost of Sherwood We chat to Sheffield-based folk artist Jim Ghedi who scored upcoming film The Death of Robin Hood, ahead of his gig here in Notts.

16

24

18

Forged in Mansfield Local playwright Beth Steel talks to us about her West End show Till the Stars Come Down, and how she has brought Mansfield to the international stage.

Alan Lodge We hear from photographer Alan Lodge, who has been documenting alternative communities for fifty years, from protests to free parties.

Hidden Notts Our guide to the best hidden shopping, eats and drinks in Notts, whether you’re new to the city or a seasoned Nottingham local.

31

Breaking Ground Nottingham Forest Women’s team on their drive for success this season, and why you should come down to a game.

Restaurant Guide 34 Monday A run down of the best local places to eat when you’ve got the Monday blues,

27

Mark Your Mark Got a creative itch to scratch? Here is our guide to the opportunities available in Notts, whether you’re into music, film, poetry or more.

Reel Deal 38 The Festival director Jay Martin on why working class voices are so important in the

29

The Garage Market The development project that turned an old bus garage in Chilwell into a bustling weekend hotspot for food, drinks, shopping and events.

41

20

Anti-Vaxxers in Victorian Notts Smallpox, and the surprisingly long history of the anti-vax movement in Victorian Nottingham.

without resorting to big chains.

film industry and how Mansfield Town Film Festival is putting the East Midlands on the map.

Waterway to Go We hear from Michael Krawec about ‘Trentbelly’ and wanting the Trent ‘smug and silver’ again, following the first episode of his new podcast series NottsPod.

Editorial ‘Ello LeftLion readers.

Perhaps suitably, as September comes around and day to day life gets a bit more chaotic, our office has undergone some technical mishaps which editor Sophie is temporarily indisposed with as we send this mag to print. So you’ve got me: Caradoc, Assistant Editor, to introduce this month’s mag… welcome!

We love our cover this month. It’s courtesy of one of our stalwart contributors: the talented Iulia Matei, and it depicts creative activities people do to keep themselves in high spirits. In September, as summer finishes, lots of us spend more time in education or work and find ourselves in need of activities like this, which is why lots of articles in this magazine detail ways of finding inspiration in the everyday, in Nottingham.

On p.27 we’ve listed some of our city’s most exciting creative opportunities, while on p.16 there’s a rundown of hidden alleys across the city, where you can find various

memorable indie businesses and food and drink spots to choose from. On p.34, meanwhile, our food editor Julia details some great eateries in Nottingham that are best suited to put a shine on your Monday.

where's this?

"CLUCK YOU"

On p.24 we have an excellent chat with Notts based photographer Alan Lodge who, perhaps better than anyone, has chronicled the UK’s post 60s tradition of nomads, free parties, and common use of land, via his captivating work. On p.15, folk artist Jim Ghedi, who performs in Notts this month, tells us how his career took a magical turn when he was asked to score a new Robin Hood film.

As always, there’s plenty more to read about. Thanks as always to every single one of our incredible writers, illustrators, and photographers who help make this mag a worthy celebration of Notts each month. And if this is the first time picking up a LeftLion magazine: welcome! We hope that reading it makes you love this city like we do…

Caradoc Gayer

Last month: "Deep Fake Zoltan" Upper Parliament Street

LeftLion Ltd is a carbon neutral company, having reduced our direct emissions by 99% since 2018. We offset the rest via direct air capture from Climeworks. LeftLion Magazine is fully recyclable and compostable, made from recycled or FSC® certified (C015932) sources, and printed using renewable energy.

The emissions of this paper are offset via the World Land Trust. leftlion.co.uk 7

tine when “Who needs nico sy?” im wh ve ha you can

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“He’s not an acco untant, he’s a cutiepie!”

Nottingham’s most opinionated grocers on...

n ceremony) (NTU graduatio in debt now” about 200 grand “Yeah, I think I’m vesdropping) undergraduate ea (spots a horrified y.” a house. I’m thirt “Oh, no, I bought

Mansfield We’ve not been to Mansfield… it’s north isn’t it? We got our Covid jab in Mansfield though, and we saw Judie Tzuke at the Palace Theatre there. Mansfield is famous for loads of things but mainly the viaduct that goes through the town.

When it was the millennium and they had it done up. It’s a magnificent piece of architecture. So go to Mansfield and that’s what you’ve got. Good luck to them.

s shit."

“Ugh no that‘s the Babadook! I can' t get away from him. Him and Nata sha Bedding field!”

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Pick Six

For this month’s Pick Six we speak to local musician Daudi Matsiko, who plays at By Our Hands We Make Our Way on Saturday 19 September.

Q @daudi

The Death of Robin Hood Who’s in it? Nobody can beat Errol Flynn. He was a superstar. That one is so funny, just tongue in cheek nonsense. Was it filmed in this country - and if not why not? The Kevin Costner one was - that was filmed in Northumberland. But they shouldn’t have American accents. It’s bleedin’ Nottingham. Have a Mansfield accent if you’re going to have an accent.

Vaccinations?

Smallpox, well thousands of people died from it before the jab, then they had it and nobody died. It’s as plain and simple as that. People will object until they die of it, and then they complain. You don’t hear from them after that, they’re all dead. Nowadays people believe what they read on the internet. They used to say, ‘Lies, damn lies, and statistics’, now they say ‘Lies, damn lies and the internet’.

TV Show When I was making the saddest music I’ve ever made, Ted Lasso brought me joy. On tour recently through Europe I watched the Mark Ruffalo show Task. It's incredibly thoughtful, showing with care the life of a criminal and that of the FBI agent trying to apprehend him. It made me cry, it’s beautiful. It got two stars in The Guardian for being too dark, but I think it’s one of the most gorgeous pieces of TV I've ever seen.

Personal hero Is it weird to bring up my mum?

She doesn’t get anywhere near the credit she deserves for where I am now. She helped guide me back into music while I was recovering from psychosis back in 2012. We went through this check list of all the career paths I didn’t want to do, and while we didn’t say music directly, we checked everything else off the list.

Throughout my teens she would drive me to gigs, never once making me feel like it was a burden, which it definitely was. My mum – her name is Peace – is the best mum a son could ask for.

Book I’ve been reading Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert, who in an absolutely surreal turn of events featured me on her substack recently and said some really kind words about me and my tunes. That book is helping me be brave. Courage is a big part of the process of making music for me, and I have to make an effort to cultivate it. Tolstoy’s How Much Land Does a Man Need? is also a formative book for me. It’s a short read but sums up how I feel about this forever state of forever wanting that hounds me daily.

Notts Spot Obviously Jamcafé in Hockley. It's still my favourite place to gig in the entire world. The portrait from my album The King of Misery sits above the bar.

It does feel weird drinking a pint and looking at a life size portrait of myself holding a pink ukulele. But to me, there's not a more meaningful place it could go. That album wouldn't exist without Jamcafé. My first gig there was in 2013 and I've been in love with Jam and Bradley ever since.

Album Last year, according to my Apple Music I listened to approximately 2500 minutes of the album Sunshine and Balance Beams by the Boston post-hardcore band Pile. It wasn’t even a rough year.

But that album is completely unflinching in its gaze into the dark. And completely relentless. I traveled to see them twice on their last UK tour. The lyrics and guitars that sound like they're on fire, resonating with me in a way I can't easily describe. Incredible record.

Sports team Christmas 2019 I brought me and my dad tickets to go see Nottingham Forest play. For obvious reasons we didn’t make it to the game the following year. I keep meaning to try again. Every international competition I’m reminded that I don’t have any actual hobbies, and how much I find football inspiring and a joy to watch. I'm obsessed with music – it's my job – but maybe this year I can make space for football and Forest. I think I need to. leftlion.co.uk 9

ROYAL CONCERT HALL, NOTTINGHAM TRCH.CO.UK 0115 989 5555

TM & ©2026 Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved.

THE BROADWAY AND WEST END OBSESSION

TUE 3 - SAT 7 NOV 2026

Poets Corner My first (and maybe my last) eclipse If the sun, in all her giving and her glory, all her duties and deadlines and dependents (every plant, woman, and child) can take the evening off, then so can I.

This month’s cover artist Iulia Matei talks comics, creativity and letting things figure themselves out.

Cara Thompson

nottinghampoetryfestival.com

s Reason

Tell us a bit about yourself…

Hi, I’m Iulia, I’m an animator and comic artist from Romania. I’ve been in Notts for seven years and I feel so lucky to call this city home.

I studied animation at DMU Leicester before deciding twelve drawings per second are too much for the patience I’m able to practice, and moved over to storytelling in the form of comics. Twelve pages for a whole chapter much better.

What is the story behind the cover?

The cover celebrates creativity, the city, and above all, curiosity. I believe the purpose of art isn’t to inspire, isn’t to be something to master, isn’t something to define ourselves by. It is a form of play, a place to experiment and explore, something that I think humans were always meant to do.

to be

Cheerful The news is normally negative - but here's some good things that have happened in Notts recently...

UNDERCOVER ARTIST

words: Isabel Scott

The Mousetrap Social Fund In an effort to support good causes in Nottingham, The Mousetrap Social has been donating 10p from every pint sold into their social fund. Thanks to the purchase of 61,440 pints, the total pot has reached £6,144. Andy and Alexandra from The Mousetrap Social now need your help! They want to hear from small organisations in Nottingham who could benefit from the funding, in a move to give back to the community. The fund is available to charities, community groups and grassroots organisations, and The Mousetrap Social can be contacted via their social media @ themousetrapsocial.

NCT Local heroes Thanks to a network of local volunteers, events that are crucial to the city’s cultural scene, from sports to music to comedy, take place regularly in Nottingham. Over the next couple of months, Nottingham Running Festival, Green Festival, Mansfield Film Festival and Nottingham Comedy Festival will all be made possible by the support of volunteers. Do you want to become a Nottingham Local Legend? Get involved and find out more on nottslocallegends.co.uk or by signing up to their newsletter, where volunteering opportunities and upcoming events are promoted regularly.

Emett Clock Following a restoration programme, one of Nottingham’s most beloved landmarks is set to return to its rightful spot in the heart of the Victoria Centre this winter. The Emett Clock, also known as the Aqua Horological Tintinabulator designed by British artist Rowland Emett, first came to the Victoria Centre in 1973 and quickly established itself as an iconic Nottingham meeting place. Prior to its restoration project, the clock spent a spell on the upstairs floor of the shopping centre, but locals are delighted to discover it will return instead to its original home downstairs outside John Lewis. The Victoria Centre is keen to hear your memories of the clock, and photographs can be shared to VictoriaCentre.Information@savillspm.co.uk.

I’ve tried sewing, pottery, yoga, writing, zinemaking, photography, video, you name it.

Nottingham has welcomed every interest with open arms, giving me the opportunity to simply have a go. I wanted to celebrate that.

What inspires you as a photographer/artist?

My work usually brings together my love of folklore, moody aesthetics and music culture.

I love Eastern European folk tales, brutalist architecture, and I love the UK’s music scene, old and new. Those themes seem to collide a lot in my art.

Tell us about some things you’ve worked on in the past…

My most recent project has been PRF (Punk Rock Fairies), a comic that is basically a fusion of punk, dystopia and fantasy. I really like the idea of fairies (who are seen as natural creatures mostly) in a world that’s harsh and unforgiving.

Smoke, concrete, acid rain, pollution, radiation… you get the gist. The story grew from there.

Issue #1 was successfully funded on Kickstarter in May, and I’m now about to start working on issue #2.

Also, this is my third Leftlion cover! Thank you so much to the team for their trust in me.

Do you have any tricks for getting started and staying inspired as a creative?

You might be like me and have a big idea in your

head for years, waiting for a perfect magical time when you’ll finally feel ready to do it. I sat with mine for about four years, and that time never came. I don’t think I was really waiting to be ready, I was just scared to start. It is scary and does feel like jumping off a cliff. But you’ll probably never feel completely ready, so just start and figure it out as you go. You’ll land on your feet. Things have a funny way of falling into place.

You’ll probably never feel completely ready, so just start and figure it out as you go. You’ll land on your feet. Things have a funny way of falling into place If you could sit down and chat with any artist in your field, who would it be and what would you talk about?

Karl Kopinski for sure. He is an absolute legend in the art industry, up there with the likes of Kim Jung Gi. I mean, the guy draws with both hands at the same time for Christ’s sake. He’s inspired generations of artists, worked across illustration for decades, and he just happens to be from Nottingham too.

It would be interesting to get his perspective on a lifetime as an artist, which projects have brought him the most joy, how he feels about the way the industry has changed, and what art means to him after all these years. And, of course, I’d have to ask about his favourite comics, I bet he has some killer recommendations.

Is there anything else you’d like to tell the LeftLion readers?

Have fun with art and follow your curiosity.

Start that cool project you want to work on.

You’re fiercer than you think!

Q @iulia.jpg

leftlion.co.uk 11

Nadia on...

Access to green spaces words: Nadia Whittome photo: Lux Gagos

Access to nature is vital to human health and well-being.

Studies show that green spaces actively lower stress levels, improve our moods, encourage social connection, and increase health and child development outcomes. In the UK, 80% of people live within walking distance (fifteen minutes) of green or blue spaces such as a river, park or woodland.

However, in some parts of the country, fewer than 20% of residents live close to these spaces.

This is a problem for many of us here in Nottingham too.

Analysis of recent government data by the Wildlife Trust found that, despite being home to fantastic parks like the Arboretum, Colwick Country Park and Woodthorpe Grange Park, Nottingham East is the third most nature-starved constituency in the country, with only 43% of properties situated within fifteen minutes of a green or blue space.

During the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns, many of us realised how important it was to have access to nature.

Those who lived in flats without gardens or balconies were confined indoors, except for a daily allowance for outdoor exercise. It also became clear that people from poorer households and from ethnic minorities had disproportionately worse access to local green space.

Research conducted in 2020 by the Ramblers, a UK walking charity, found that only 57% of people surveyed lived within five minutes’ stroll of a local park, field or canal path. This number fell to 46% for households with incomes under £15,000, and just 39% for people from ethnic minority backgrounds.

Official data unfortunately confirms this disparity. In 2020, Friends of the Earth analysed government data and found that 28% of people living in the most deprived neighbourhoods live in the 10% of neighbourhoods with the least access to green space. They also revealed that almost 40% of people of BAME backgrounds live in England’s most green space-deprived neighbourhoods, compared to 14% of white people.

Less affluent areas also face the threat of green-space cuts amid new development. New research warns that under the government’s new planning law changes to speed up housebuilding, poorer areas could lose the most green spaces, meaning that already nature-deprived communities

12 leftlion.co.uk

risk being left behind even more. While I whole-heartedly support the building of more affordable housing, which is desperately needed, we must also ensure that as we do so we continue to protect nature and our access to it.

the Green Heart, an urban nature space, on the site of the old Broadmarsh shopping centre. The council’s Parks for People programme also aims to deliver significant greenspace improvements over the next three years.

I believe everyone should be able to access nature within a short walk of their home, so I’m glad that in its Environmental Improvement Plan last year, the government reiterated its commitment to tackle nature poverty and ensure that everyone has access to a green or blue space within a fifteen-minute walk. Campaigners hope the government will soon launch a consultation on the issue - I will be keeping a close eye and pushing them to do so.

Alongside access to nature, there is also the growing issue of tree cover and the right to shade during increasing spells of hot weather. In the UK, wealthier areas are more likely to have greater tree cover per person, with neighbourhoods with the highest income levels having more than double the tree cover by population than less affluent neighbourhoods.

In England, regional differences also exist, with the ten local authorities with the highest scores in the south and the ten with the lowest scores in the north. Analysis by Friends of the Earth also shows that 83% of neighbourhoods in Nottingham East have less than 20% tree cover, which is about average in comparison to other urban areas in the UK, but falls well below the European average of 30%. As our climate changes rapidly, we must adapt to ensure tree cover keeps us cool as temperatures rise and helps protect the local environment.

the natural world should belong to all of us, and the more familiar we are with our local environment, the more likely we are to want to protect it for decades to come There are many creative ways to add green and blue spaces to local areas. We can convert neglected carparks into pocket parks and community gardens, or create urban ponds and wetlands to boost local wildlife. We can also plant native trees along pavements to increase shade cover, install flower beds for pollinators, and reduce hard concrete surfaces where they are unnecessary to improve flood prevention and lower the urban heat island effect. We must also ensure that green spaces – and in general, all our public areas – are safe and properly maintained. Too often the parks that could do the most good for our communities are the ones that have been let down by neglect.

In Nottingham, the city council is taking important steps to keep expanding and improving our green and blue spaces.

In recent years, it has been part of the partnership that built the Colwick Fish Pass, improved footpath accessibility in Woodthorpe Grange Park, and is involved in the major transformation of the sports pitches and buildings at the Forest Recreation Ground. In 2024, the council also opened

People also face barriers to accessing nature when they travel outside of our city. In recent years, campaigns like Right to Roam have been advocating for expanded public access to the countryside and private land, highlighting that the public has no access to over 92% of the English countryside, 75% of riverbanks, and 73% of woods. I believe we should work towards a Scottish-style right to roam: a law that gives people a right of responsible access, provided they act responsibly by leaving no trace and respecting landowners’ privacy. Beyond the physical and mental benefits of having the right to roam, it is politically important to challenge the concentrated wealth and power of the small percentage of individual and corporate groups that have captured the British countryside.

After all, the natural world should belong to all of us, and the more familiar we are with our local environment, the more likely we are to want to protect it for decades to come. nadiawhittome.org

JANE ASHER

SAMANTHA WOMACK

DAVID ROBB

Royal

By Appointment

By DAISY GOODWIN

Director ANTHONY BANKS

Designer JONATHAN FENSOM Lighting RICHARD HOWELL

TUE 6 TO SAT 10 OCT trch.co.uk | 0115 989 5555 Theatre Royal, Nottingham

MATTHEW COTTLE

FOLK LEGEND

words: Caradoc Gayer illustration: Marcus Gilmore

Sheffield musician Jim Ghedi has for years carved a unique corner of folk music, but now that he’s composed the soundtrack for a new film starring Hugh Jackman: The Death of Robin Hood, a lot more people will probably be recognising his name from here on out. He’s also playing a gig in Nottingham in October, so there was no better time for us to meet and chat with him…

When he was asked to score the upcoming Michael Sarnoski film: The Death of Robin Hood, musician Jim Ghedi found himself on a fast track to a type of project very unfamiliar to him. Usefully, when he met Sarnoski over Zoom, they bonded over their love for a particular 60s folk band.

“Michael was obsessed with Steeleye Span – we nerded out over that in our first chat,” says Jim. “He said, ‘I’m obsessed with this song: Twa Corbies, that they do'. And I was learning it at the time – trying to work out the melody on the guitar.

So he said, ‘We should get it on the score.’ The song is about these two birds pecking at a knight’s eyes. It’s from their perspective, which I think is really cool – it’s so brutal!”

Originally a poem written in Old Scots, Twa Corbies, which is on the soundtrack, is a good example of how the upcoming film, with a UK release date of 4 September, thrives on contrast. The Death of Robin Hood is no small, independent project – it’s a Hollywood production with a cast of famous actors like Hugh Jackman, Bill Skarsgard, and Jodie Comer. Jim, on the other hand, is an artist whose immersive and moody style of folk music has always been grounded in the working class, DIY traditions of Sheffield, where he’s from.

Despite that, Jim resonated with the film’s themes. Through his career, he’s often used folk music as a way of portraying the contemporary world, whether reusing traditional material in a new way, or writing lyrics which, though set against traditional instrumentation, say something about what’s happening in current day society. With The Death of Robin Hood, Michael Sarnoski attempts a similar kind of artistic statement – taking the myth of Robin Hood, and retelling it in a way that’s unexpected for modern audiences…

“I could really see the human side of the story – if you cut away the folklore, myth, legend – what the script was doing was a human story…” says Jim, adding, “... a human looking back on his life and seeing the consequences of his actions in a time in medieval England that was brutal, violent, and disgusting. It was all of the human emotions in one person, and not necessarily courting the dogma of legend and history around this figure.”

Though enduring a bit of imposter syndrome, Jim

recognised that he’d been approached for a reason – the lack of opportunities he’d had like this before were irrespective of how good a job he would do. Once teamed with music editor Tony Lewis, he received footage from Sarnoski, most of which was already completed, “It was refreshing because it was my first film score – he really had my corner, and had my back from the early stages,” he remembers.

I could really see the human side of the story – if you cut away the folklore, myth, legend – what the script was doing was a human story It was also clear that the project would have to take place in Sheffield, though the team offered to fly Jim to California.

That way he could draw on the ecosystem of musicians who he’s worked with since his early days as an artist.

“Miraculously, there were loads of people who play medieval instruments,” says Jim. “Rob, who plays nyckelharpa, who I’m friends with. The hurdy-gurdy – someone I live with. So if I wanted to go ‘full historical piece’, I had all those people around me, which sums up Sheff – there’s so much going on, and so many people in the scene. I tried to make it a big deal that most people on the score were from there...”

Jim’s championing of the Sheffield scene doesn’t come from nowhere – it was an important catalyst for him entering music professionally. Years ago, having left the Uni of Manchester in his 20s, he joined Audacious Art Experiment – a musician and promoter led collective and community centre, in Sheffield, which still exists. The rest, he tells me, was history – it was that experience that helped him realise how, irrespective of your background, you could make music, touring the country, and even outside of it, a big part of your life if you had the right people around you.

“Cities like Nottingham and Sheffield got done in by the industrial collapse, and because of that we’ve done it ourselves,” he says. “What came out of that were two

aspects – a community driven mentality where you help out your community because you can only rely on that. And two, if you want to do anything, you can’t go to London, so you have to pull your finger out. In Sheffield in the 80s that was how all these factories got used by musicians who were on the dole – you had The Human League – all this stuff started to happen…”

You can listen to the soundtrack of The Death of Robin Hood now – it’s on streaming platforms. It’s an atmospheric and unnerving collection of music that layers hypnotic drones with intense string textures. Jim’s distinct, powerful, and cutting vocals arrive sparingly. It works very well for the film, which American audiences have described as challenging, and far from the uplifting watch that you’d expect from a Robin Hood film to be.

“I’m intrigued to see how it goes down – from an English point of view, I think it’s going to divide a lot of people,” says Jim. “If you’re a Robin Hood obsessive and have fixed your idea of the myth as being this positive ‘stole from the rich, gave to the poor’ – I think people are going to be quite shocked about this depiction of him.”

And it would of course be a travesty if a musician based so close to the mythic home of the man in green, didn’t visit us at least once while promoting his Robin Hood soundtrack. That’s why, on 3 October, Jim is playing a show in Nottingham, with his band, at The Old Cold Store, which is next to the Vat and Fiddle pub. It should be a very fun one and, considering Jim has played Notts surprisingly little over the years, a once in a blue moon opportunity to see an artist who’s now truly made his name as one of our country’s most exciting folk artists.

“Back in the day, JT Soar, I remember playing there,” remembers Jim. “There was a cafe that some friends used to run… I’ve seen some great gigs in Notts. I really like Notts, I think it is quite similar to Sheff in a lot of ways – the attitude and music scene, it kind of runs parallel. So I’m excited to get there and have a gig.”

The Death of Robin Hood is released in UK cinemas on 4 September. Jim Ghedi plays the Old Cold Store on 3 October.

Q @jimghedimusic leftlion.co.uk 15

HIDDEN NOTTS

words: Sophie Gargett illustrations: John Ashton

If you’ve lived in Nottingham a while you’ll probably have at some point found yourself off the beaten path, trying out a shortcut or exploring an alleyway only to discover a cool shop, cafe or bar. Amongst more familiar streets – should you be curious enough – there are some excellent hidden treasures, each with their own historical tales and modern day offerings to enjoy…

Flying Horse Arcade

Hurts Yard A bit of history: One of the city’s oldest and narrowest lanes to discover, Hurts Yard feels like the kind of spot you’d find stumbling across and enjoying some cocktails on holiday.

Said to be named after Charles Hurt, a 19th century landlord of the Fox & Owl Inn in Parliament Street, it is one of the few remaining alleys from the era to have not been sealed off.

What to do: What can’t you do? There’s tacos, tequila, a tiki bar, real ale and records all to be snapped up in this cobbled passageway, so watch your step if you try them all. We recommend trying a refreshing verdita tequila chaser at 400 Rabbits (sweet pineapple juice with fresh coriander, mint, spicy jalapeño, and lime juice) before heading to the chaotically fun Rob’s Record Mart to grab a random vinyl. Play a game of pool and try some Japanese sandos at Local, then head for a nightcap at real ale micropub The Barrel Drop (try and refrain from nipping into the barbers or medical aesthetics clinic if you’ve been on the cocktails).

Fun fact: One of the longest standing shops in the yard and indeed Nottingham, Rob’s Record Mart has been run by Rob Smith since 1980!

Cobden Chambers A bit of history: A decade ago this hub of culture and creativity was a forgotten derelict space home to pigeons and weeds, but the alleyway has been home to a vast number of creative minds throughout its time. Indeed, the history books cite that for over 200 years local artists, photographers, designers, milliners, architects, engravers, stationers and horologists have spun up and sold their wares within the chambers.

What to do: A perfect spot to escape the bustle of Hockley and surround yourself with inspiration and creativity.

Browse the huge array of handmade gifts and treats in Miss Lou’s Art Market & Cafe before grabbing yourself something delicious to drink on the terrace. Pick up a painting in The Drawing Room Gallery, or enjoy a coffee and arty workshop in The Hidden Brew. You can even rent a desk in the co-working space if you’re looking for somewhere to focus in the city.

Fun fact: Like many buildings in the area, Cobden Place attributes its relaxingly bright and airy feel to its former incarnation as a lace factory.

A bit of history: Located smack bang in the city centre, this elegant shopping arcade was developed in the late 80s after a long previous existence as a travellers coach house and inn. Punch Bowl Vaults is said to be the earliest recorded pub (dating back to 1758) before becoming the Flying Horse Inn, although sources suggest its history goes back even further to the 15th century. By the 20th century the building was in a state of disrepair and was heavily redeveloped in the 1930s, with the mock Tudor facade added by architect D.G Millett before becoming a shopping arcade in the 1980s.

What to do: This winding warren-like shopping centre has quite a luxurious feel, so head down here to indulge in a little retail therapy with stylish designer togs to snap up in Gigi Bottega and Vivenne Westwood, and limited edition art prints in Clarendon Fine Art. Pick up a cute mouse figurine or original painting in Inspired, a treasure trove of cute gifts owned by local artist Jill Perry. You can’t really say you’ve completed Nottingham unless you’ve procured something smelly and delicious at The Cheese Shop, which has an insane fromage selection, along with pickles, oils, meats and crackers. Before you leave, nip into the Cheese & Pasta company to grab a tasty meal deal or tiramisu to take home.

Fun fact: Like most buildings in the city centre, Bar Gigi (sister restaurant of Gigi Bottega) is built above sandstone caves where you can book private hire wine tastings!

West End Arcade A bit of history: Opening in the 1920s, this split level thoroughfare between Upper Parliament Street and Long Row started life as the West End Meat Market. Over the years it gradually became a small retail hub, home to record, music and vintage shops, along with cafes, hair specialists and bookshops.

What to do: Somehow the arcade has managed to defy modernisation, and today it has a distinctly retro vibe that’s ideal for those who want to spend an hour back in the 1900s. Sadly, the upstairs of the arcade remains closed, but you can still pop into the resident record shop, Music Inn Records, which has been in business for over a century, selling vinyl and CDs from over the decades. Along with a couple of salons, Royal Natty specialises in Rasta, African, Hip Hop and Caribbean clothing and jewellery, and at the top of the lane you’ll find a second-hand and memorabilia store which doubles as a computer repair shop!

Fun fact: They replaced the escalators with stairs when in 2012 a man caught his toe in one and had to have it removed.

Bridlesmith Walk A bit of history: A covered walk connecting Bridlesmith Gate and Weekday Cross, this passage was built in the 1880s and originally called King John’s Arcade. The surrounding area is one of Nottingham’s oldest districts, with the shopping thoroughfare of Bridlesmith Gate once known as the ‘Bond Street of Nottingham’.

What to do: Get yourself some bodily adornments at tattoo and piercing studio Love & Ink followed by enjoying an exquisitely elegant afternoon tea (with optional prosecco) at the White Rabbit Tearoom. Or, if you’re more into drinks of the pint variety, sample the fantastic range of craft beers at Junkyard Bottle Shop & Pour House, then head to connecting pub The Kilpin for something more traditional before jumping on a tram home.

Fun fact: The Kilpin is named after Herbert Kilpin (1870-1916), founder of AC Milan Football Club who was born on Mansfield Road.

Swann’s Yard A bit of history: You might miss this small passageway off Long Row. Victorian writer and poet Thomas Miller once had a basket-making shop here, while towards the turn of the 20th century the yard was home to a printer, a painter and decorators and a loan and insurance office.

What to do: They’ve made this alleyway really cute, but there’s really only one reason to come down here, which is to visit the best bookshop in the city centre. With a focus on independent thinking, writing and publishing, Five Leaves has a great selection of classic and modern fiction, plus politics, fiction and poetry, LGBTQ+, international writing, and local studies. Check out their website to see talks by authors on a variety of topics.

Fun fact: Along with the bookshop, since 1996 Five Leaves Publications have published over 200 literary, political, social history titles.

Forged in Mansfield

interview: Jared Wilson photos: Sam Taylor

Born and brought up in Warsop, playwright Beth Steel has seen her work performed in London, Tokyo, Mexico, Iceland, Peru and more. What’s particularly brilliant about this is that they’re usually set in her hometown of Mansfield. She tells us more about her fifth play Till the Stars Come Down, which is coming home to Nottingham Playhouse this month…

Tell us about Till the Stars Come Down…

It was first staged in 2024 at the National Theatre in London, and written while I was writer-in-residence there. It became a massive sold-out show, which took me by surprise. Somehow this play, set in a town in Nottinghamshire that no one down there had ever heard of, managed to become a universal story. It got an Olivier Award nomination for Best New Play, and the actress Lorraine Ashbourne was nominated for Best Supporting Actress. It then went into the West End for a long run.

There are around twenty international productions of it now. No one changes it; they keep the context of where it’s set. It’s been very special, and very surprising.

What inspired you to write it? Was it people you knew in real life?

There was a play I wrote before called The House of Shades, which wasn’t my first play, but it felt like a breakthrough and where I found my voice. That was a family drama set in Mansfield and I basically fell in love with creating characters from that world. I also thought a wedding would be a fantastic event to put on stage. So many plays are built around funerals and wakes; which makes sense, because it’s a day full of emotion, secrets and high stakes.

But a wedding has all of that too, plus it’s one of the most joyous and hilarious events there is and it’s about looking to the future not the past.

Has the play changed much for its transfer to Nottingham?

In terms of the script, no, but it is a brand new cast and a genuinely new production. The previous National Theatre and West End productions were essentially the same show in different spaces, but for Nottingham we’re doing it a bit differently. I was in the rehearsal room in the first week, watching the director Caroline Steinbeis work, and I’m genuinely excited by it all.

Let’s talk about you. What were you like as a kid growing up in Warsop?

I was a ‘chuffer’ or a ‘bogger’ as my mum would say… no, I was actually very well behaved and the kind of child who would create her own homework if she didn’t get enough.

You joined Nottingham’s Television Workshop at quite a young age. Was that where your interest in theatre began?

Yes, I think I joined the Workshop at the age of seven, alongside my sister, and it’s a completely amazing place.

Ian Smith, who ran it for decades, still keeps an eye on casting for me now and we’ve got three ex-Workshop actors in this production. The Workshop has had such a profound impact on so many people’s lives; obviously

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there are people like Samantha Morton and Bella Ramsey, who have gone onto extraordinary careers. But also there are even more people who used the confidence it gave them to do something completely different. My sister Amy was at the Workshop with me and she’s a fine artist now – showing her paintings around the world. I don’t know if I'd have become a writer or if she’d have become a painter without the Workshop. It takes you out of the environment of what you think is possible and puts you into a different one.

Why should everyone from Mansfield have to watch powerful people in Succession to see something extraordinary? Why can’t our lives look extraordinary?

At what point did you realise you wanted to pursue writing, rather than acting?

To be honest, I don’t really consider myself to have ever been an actress. When I started writing, acting wasn’t part of the equation at all. I left the Workshop at sixteen and appeared in a couple of things on screen as little more than an extra. I moved to Greece for five years, then I came to London and worked as a waitress. In my midtwenties I became obsessed with reading and one day I saw a play in the West End; which was David Harrower’s Blackbird. I hadn’t seen much theatre before that, because it always seemed expensive, but that play was so electric that I became obsessed with it. I’d never written a play, or really anything before, but I left knowing I could do it. I was probably delusional, but you have to start somewhere.

Is that when you wrote your first play Ditch?

No, it was before then. I wrote something else first, very influenced by Blackbird and submitted it to the Royal Court. They said no to the play but offered me a place in one of their writers’ groups for six months. That’s when I wrote Ditch. My sister had seen a competition for two new plays to be produced at a prestigious festival in Suffolk. I was on £60 a week of Jobseeker’s Allowance at the time and I spent a tenner of it printing my play at the library and getting the bus to hand-deliver it. Amazingly I won!

After this you wrote Wonderland, a play about the miners’ strike set at Welbeck Colliery…

That’s right. Wonderland opened in 2014 in London, but didn’t reach Nottingham until 2018. It was an award winning play but had a large cast and was expensive to put on so it didn’t make it outside of London for quite a few years. Then Adam Penford got the position as Artistic Director at the Playhouse and it was the first play he directed there. It worked so brilliantly, so they brought it back again the following year and later it went on to Newcastle as well.

You’re the daughter of a miner yourself. How involved was your dad in the creation of the play?

Obviously that background was always there when I was growing up and he’d tell me about the world underground; not the politics, but the craft, the stories, the characters and the humour. It was an extraordinary world, which I’d never seen captured on stage. I wasn’t intending to write about the strike at all at first as I thought that had already been done. But after failing to write much for about a year, I did three weeks of reading on the strike and found it riveting. It said so much about the state, about capitalism and the beginning of neoliberalism.

My dad hadn’t read it until he saw it and I think he was a bit terrified as there was a lot to get right, and a lot to honour. The premiere in London came in the same week he retired. He seemed to like it and he has always been supportive of my work.

After this you wrote Labyrinth, a play about a banking crisis in the US and Latin America…

Yes, I started writing that around the time of the 2008 financial collapse, when the banks got caught up in what was happening in Greece and all of us were learning new terms like ‘subprime’. I started reading beyond the headlines and realised there’d been an almost identical crisis in the 1970s, between American banks and Latin America. It’s always fascinating, because we never learn. I wanted to bring those events to life in a fictionalised world based on a factual one.

After this, what drew you to setting your next two plays (House of Shades and Till the Stars Come Down) back in Mansfield?

I wanted to make something visually electrifying, with real grandeur, where people still say ‘mam’... that’s been my thing ever since House of Shades. You can get completely embroiled in the family drama aspect of Till the Stars Come Down, but the play is also cosmic. There’s a moment where the characters become planets and do a kind of planet dance of the universe and that’s the scale I think

our lives deserve. Why should everyone from Mansfield have to watch powerful people in Succession to see something extraordinary? Why can’t our lives look extraordinary?

What have you got coming up next? I’ve heard you might have some screenwriting projects on the go..?

Yes, Till the Stars Come Down is being made into a film.

We have a director attached already, who I'm really excited about, but it won’t be out for a few years yet. I’m also writing a new play for the National Theatre, which is another family drama, set in Nottingham at Christmas. I do find writing incredibly hard and all-consuming though. I say no to almost everything and can only ever work on one thing at a time.

It's always amazing watching actors perform my plays in a different language.

They never change the setting though, so I'll usually hear them say “Ollerton” in the middle of it, which is very surreal Does the new play have a title?

No. I never title a play until the very end, sometimes not even until the fourth draft. It comes last because I like the audience to watch the whole thing and then understand why it’s called that.

What’s your process like as a writer?

I work from an office in my home in London, which is definitely a luxury. I couldn’t work in a café as I act like a crazy person at the desk, speaking lines out loud and running up and down the stairs when I get excited about something. I work from around 10am in the morning to 6-7pm each night. I don’t set any word or page targets and if I get one page done, I’m happy.

Anne-Marie Duff and Lorraine Ashbourne. Who’s left on the bucket list?

There are many actresses I’m obsessed with, currently; Jodie Comer, Claire Foy, Monica Dolan and Olivia Colman.

Every time I discover one is from a regional background, I get very excited. I’d find it extremely difficult to write with a particular actor in mind though – that’s just not something I’m able to do.

What do you get up to when you come back to Notts?

My mum’s got a massive family, so there are always family parties and I turn up to as many of those as I can, because otherwise I don’t get to see everyone. Mostly I just go back and sit with my mum and dad, screaming with laughter. Sometimes I have my notebook on the table too, thinking that some of the best things I hear might end up going in somewhere.

What do you do for pleasure, when you’re not writing?

I go to the theatre in London five or six times a month and to a lot of art galleries. My sister Amy is an artist, and seeing her work puts me in a different mindset. I read a lot and for the last two years or so I’ve done a lot more travelling than I ordinarily would, because I keep getting invited to see the show internationally and can’t say no. They usually pay for my travel, my hotel, and sometimes even my partner. A week in Norway isn’t hard to be persuaded into.

Where across the world have you been to see your plays performed?

Tokyo, Athens, Stockholm, Norway, Croatia and Prague. Till the Stars Come Down opens in Iceland, Denmark, Peru and Mexico next spring and Estonia in October, although I can’t make that one. It’s always amazing watching actors perform my plays in a different language. They never change the setting though, so I'll usually hear them say ‘Ollerton’ in the middle of it, which is very surreal.

Till the Stars Come Down is showing at Nottingham Playhouse from 5-26 September 2026.

You’ve had some brilliant actors in your plays like

New Art Exchange

@newartexchange

nottinghamplayhouse.co.uk

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BREAKING GROUND

interview: Gareth Watts photo: NFWFC

As Nottingham Forest Women prepare for a new Women’s Super League 2 (WSL2) campaign, Head of Women's and Girls’ Football Amber Wildgust tells us about their new manager Tom Mallinson, recruitment strategy, a landmark preseason tour to Canada, and why they want to become the destination club for emerging talent.

Last season was Forest’s first in WSL2. How do you assess it?

It was a brilliant first season in WSL2 and a great foundation for where we want to head as part of our five-year strategy. It’s given us a great springboard for what we want to achieve over the final years of that plan.

When we started this journey three years ago, the first stage was becoming more professional. We moved to a hybrid model, then we made everybody full-time, and the third season was being in WSL2. We’ve always tried to operate as if we’re already in the league above. Right now we’re operating at WSL level because ultimately that’s where we want to be.

Is the club broadly where you expected it would be at this point?

Yes, I think so. Last year we knew we needed to evolve the squad to establish ourselves at this level. There’s a freshness now because we’ve got a new head coach, but it’s a different kind of freshness because Tom [Mallinson] already knows the club, knows the city and understands the culture of what it means to play for Nottingham Forest.

We want people to admire how we play and how we conduct ourselves, but when they face us they absolutely don’t want to play against us What makes Tom Mallinson the right person for this stage of Forest’s development?

I could talk about that for hours. He’s a fantastic person. Since I arrived at Forest, I’ve admired his connection to the badge and his understanding of what this club is all about.

His ability to develop players is something I’ve honestly never seen before. He understands how to get the best out of the people around him and make sure every staff member is contributing value. He knows the club, understands player development, and is incredibly competitive. When you put all of that together, he became the obvious appointment. I genuinely think the fans are going to love him.

The pre-season tour to Canada felt like a statement of intent. What were you hoping to get from it?

With the amount of transition we’ve had over the last few years, we’ve never been in a position to do something like that before.

We’ve either had significant staff changes or significant player turnover.

One of the things the players decided themselves is that they want to be a team that is admired by all and feared by all. We want people to admire how we play and how we conduct ourselves, but when they face us they absolutely don’t want to play against us. The tour was a big part of setting that tone.

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Forest’s recruitment this summer seems to suggest an emphasis on youth and athleticism…

That’s fair. We deliberately brought our younger signings in early so they could have the maximum amount of time to embed into how we play. Players like Lois [Shooter, on loan from Chelsea] and Cody [Thomas, on loan from Manchester City] are people we’ve monitored for a number of years. We wanted them in before we went to Canada so they could understand our environment.

We want to become the loan club of choice.

Clubs should feel comfortable sending players here because they know those players will get better. And if you’re signing permanently, you want to know you’re joining a club that can accelerate your career.

And the latest signing of Shania Hayles…

Shania’s somebody we’ve watched closely for a number of years. I worked with her when I was at Aston Villa, so that’s a signing that’s been a long time coming. There’s been a lot of work behind the scenes on that one.

Birmingham City won the WSL2 title last season. What can Forest learn from them?

If you look across the division, different teams had great runs and difficult spells.

Birmingham were the side that consistently delivered. Their performances and their results stayed steady throughout the season.

That’s incredibly difficult in WSL2 because it’s such an unpredictable league. It might not be the most exciting answer, but consistency is what works.

Off the pitch, Forest Women’s social media game has been strong this summer. Is that a priority this year?

Absolutely. We’ve got fantastic personalities in the building. Players like Georgia Brougham, Alana Murphy, Cerys Brown and Aimee Claypole have brilliant characters and are really funny. We want to make more of an effort to show that side of them.

We’ve listened to supporter feedback and had lots of conversations that have already informed changes around season tickets and matchday experiences. It’s been really valuable. Now we’d like to formalise some of that through a fan advisory group.

We want supporters to help shape the experience and continue influencing decisions where appropriate.

How important is the restructuring behind the scenes?

It’s really significant. Previously there was another layer between myself and the sporting director. Now we have a three-way leadership structure, with Chris McGuane overseeing the boys’ academy, me overseeing the women's first team and girls’ academy, and Andy Reid driving the football identity across the whole pathway.

The important thing is consistency. Whether you look at the boys’ academy, the girls’ academy or the women's first team, there should be a recognisable ‘Forest’ way of developing players and coaches.

Finally, what would your pitch be to a LeftLion reader who hasn’t yet been to a game?

So many reasons to come down. The reality is that men’s games are incredibly difficult to get tickets for. Women's football offers something different. You can bring the family, enjoy the atmosphere, have a drink in the stands with your friends and watch exciting football in a really accessible environment.

At the end of the day, we’re in the entertainment business. The players and staff know they’re there to put on a show every Sunday. For me, there’s not much better than walking through West Bridgford, grabbing a coffee, heading into the Peter Taylor Stand and spending an afternoon watching great football with family and friends.

Q @nffcwomen

COMMON GROUND COUNTERCULTURE & CONFRONTATION words: Sophie Gargett photos: Alan Lodge

Opening this month at Bonington Gallery is Common Grounds: Counterculture & Confrontation since 1976, a retrospective of the work of Alan ‘Tash’ Lodge.

One of the UK’s most prolific photographers of alternative lifestyles, Alan’s work gives a vivid first person insight into the new age traveller movement and the 90s free-party scene, raising questions about the right to gather, policing, surveillance and community.

The year is 1974, and a young Alan Lodge and 8000 hippies are having a cup of tea in ‘the Queen’s back garden’.

In this spacious park in the Berkshire countryside, the People’s Free Festival is enjoying its third annual gathering.

The antecedent of the festivals we know today – minus the painful ticket prices, corporate branding, and metal barriers – within the field a makeshift village of tents and vans has been set up while people mingle, chat, dance and share food.

Organised by members of the London Squatters Movement, in just three years the festival had grown from an assembly of just a few hundred, to a movement of several thousand people looking to enjoy and experience a peaceful community existing without walls and rules. Many participants lived a nomadic existence, travelling in convoy throughout the UK in vans and buses, and gathering a few times a year to socialise and organise future events.

In a now infamous example of police brutality, by the sixth day, the Thames Valley Police were also drawn to the site as 800 officers entered the field, truncheons drawn, to disperse the attendees with haste, and force. Calls for a public enquiry were made and then quashed, and future attempts to relaunch the festival fell flat.

For Alan, his encounter with an officer on the day not only left a physical scar, but changed the direction of his life: “I thought he'd come up and say, 'Now, come along, move on’.

But he just took his stick out and whacked me round the side of the head. I fell off my log, split my tea, and I've never been the same since,” he says.

It was after this event that Alan decided to pick up a camera.

Over the next fifty years he would go on to document dozens of free festivals, parties and protests, not just as an observer, but as a participant in those communities.

The freedom to gather, and the conflict that inevitably comes with it, is central to a lot of Alan’s work. Wanting to highlight the true nature of these alternative lifestyles, his photographs depict scenes of domestic travelling life, caravans, dancefloors and street takeovers, providing intimate snapshots of a now bygone era while also telling stories of rebellion, diminishing rights, and police violence.

Notably, Alan was present at the ‘Battle of the Beanfield’

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in 1985, when Wiltshire Police stormed a gathering at a Stonehenge free festival. Using tactics developed during the miner’s strike, the raid resulted in countless injuries and damage to live-in vehicles, culminating in what is considered to be the largest single day mass arrest since the Second World War. Alan’s photos provide an eye-witness testimony to the devastation caused to the community, showing riot police swarming the site, smashed up vehicles, and travellers being dragged away.

“Land is completely fundamental to gathering, which is something as old as we've ever done – hence Stonehenge, because people have gathered for either a party or religious observance for the last five and a half thousand years.

Suddenly we're not allowed to do it by law. Why?”

people have gathered for either a party or religious observance for the last five and a half thousand years.

Suddenly we're not allowed to do it by law. Why? At the heart of the communities Alan has photographed is a desire for and gravitation towards self-sufficiency. The free festival movement was a fertile space for communities to explore means of self-government and live outside of prescribed capitalist society. People learnt and shared skills – barter systems were often used and welfare units set up amongst the convoys.

“You have common problems that you solve together: ‘You fix my motor, and I can bake you a cake’,” he explains. “I believe that's the strength of community, when you develop these things between yourselves.”

Alan’s philosophy on this topic stretches to anarchy, the meaning of which he says has become distorted over time: “I simply mean the original Greek word: government without authority. It doesn't mean 'do what you like'; it means fitting in with your neighbours and working it out,” he explains.

“If people work out that they can do so much between

themselves, without vested interests and politics as we understand them now, they're out of the job, aren't they?”

Following the Battle of the Beanfield, with their homes wrecked and morale diminished, the once tight knit travelling community began to disintegrate. The 1986 Public Order Act made much of the lifestyle a criminal offence, as police were given the power to break up any group of twelve or more vehicles intending to reside on a piece of land. Alan had also found himself known to the police as a ‘troublemaker’ for photographing police operations, for which he says he felt both honoured and alarmed.

Owing to a ‘deep lack of optimism’ with the Traveller movement, in 1990 he decided to study photography at Nottingham Trent University, choosing the city for its centrality and proximity to the Peak District. By luck of fate, here he found himself within the flourishing rave scene, in particular with the Nottingham-based DiY Soundsystem who took part in and organised free parties in the countryside.

“It wasn’t the village I was used to, because they’d set up and then go away again. But the infrastructure and what they were providing was much the same. There were some people from the traveller scene, there were some younger, modern ones playing this electronic stuff,” he says.

“Sometimes you’d see the same bus or marquee, but instead of a rainbow flag on the top it was now a fluorescent one.”

Rave culture of the early 90s took a similar approach to occupying land as the new age traveller movement, with collectives organising parties in isolated rural areas in jeopardy of being shut down under the Public Order Act. Fortuitously, there was one important loophole for a while.

“What if you don't reside there?” posits Alan. “What if you stay up all night? So they just got around the law. I don’t think they meant to, but it was just the consequence of their behaviour. They wanted to do things in the middle of the night, there was this new music and pretty lights set up – that was never envisioned when they wrote the Public Order Act.” In May 1992, Castlemorton Common Festival took place in Worcestershire and quite spontaneously culminated in what is now known as the biggest illegal rave to have ever taken place in the UK. A convoy of travellers decided to park up in the Malvern Hills, having been moved on during

numerous other attempts to hold a bank holiday free festival, but media coverage and a now infamous answering machine message led to an estimated 20-40,000 ravers turning up, along with various sound system collectives.

Having been at the Beanfield seven years earlier, Alan says he was on guard for a repeat crackdown, but the police were outnumbered and the festival lasted seven days, with the ravers petering out after the weekend and the Travelling community sticking around to put the land right. In 2024, one of Alan’s photos from Castlemorton was included in The Guardian’s roundup of ‘era-defining music photos’. Depicting a group of ravers against a bright blue sky, the photo emits a carefree gaiety that epitomises the early days of rave music and seems somewhat vacant in today’s party scene.

Predictably, Castlemorton led to what Alan calls the ‘second turn of the screw’, with the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 targeting events with music that is “wholly or predominantly characterised by the emission of a succession of repetitive beats.” Music and gathering became confined to more regulated spaces such as clubs and ticketed festivals, where behaviour could largely be monitored and profit could be made.

Over the past thirty years, Alan’s work has kept its rebellious roots as he has continued to document people demonstrating freedom and holding power to account through protest, Pride parades, union strikes and environmental gatherings, but underpinning it all he says is the issue of policing and surveillance.

“I still call it troublemaking,” says Alan. “It’s been my ambition to try and say ‘this isn’t just history’, and to ask ‘how are you going to organise your society at large? Or are you content with this one?’”

With a catalogue of 300,000 photographs, each containing a well of social history behind them, Alan describes the process of whittling down his life’s work into one exhibition as ‘most stressful’, but the photos on display are guaranteed to provide a thought-provoking vision of alternative communities, power structures and ways of living that have been eroded.

Alan Lodge Common Grounds: Counterculture & Confrontation since 1976 launches at Bonington Gallery on 24 September and runs until 12 December 2026, with a selection of documentaries being screened throughout the exhibition period. alanlodge.co.uk

leftlion.co.uk 25

words: Caradoc Gayer illustration: Nevaeha Yearwood

MAKE YOUR MARK

Nowadays, it’s not always easy to be creative in the UK, especially if you don’t have the money or family connections for the strongest possible head start.

Luckily, our city’s ‘do-it-yourself’ culture has given rise to various creative opportunities, competitions, training projects, and free showcases. Here’s ten of the best in Nottingham, which if you're a creative person might be just what you were looking for…

Short Stack @shortstackfest Short Stack Festival is a flagship event at Broadway Cinema on Broad Street, epitomising their support for cinematic arts in the Nottingham area. Established in 2013, it’s a bi-annual short film festival that invites filmmaking talent from across the Midlands to submit their work for showcase in front of a friendly and supportive audience. Past instalments have seen a diverse range of works on show: documentaries, animations, music videos – they’re all fair game. It’s also a welcoming opportunity for local filmmakers to network with others in their field. There’s one more instalment happening this year, so keep an eye on the Short Stack social media for updates.

The Carousel Tapes @the__carousel A creative production training programme, run at Hockley music and creative coworking venue The Carousel, with support from Arts Council England. Martin Rayment and Ben Kay, who founded The Carousel, will across two years invite up to thirty early career Nottingham creatives, interested in live music, to join them in delivering live music events, with paid opportunities involved, and the chance to learn about marketing, video documentation, and live sound in the meantime. The very first Carousel Tapes gig happened in August and more instalments will happen across Autumn and into Spring next year. Follow The Carousel on social media for more information on how to apply…

Side Door Social @sidedoor.social Founded by Si Beales and Bo Brindle, Side Door Social provides an opportunity for creatives of all stripes to showcase their work. It happens on a Wednesday, every other month, at The People’s Hall on Heathcoat Street, which is the historic former site of the original Nottingham School of Design. It doesn’t matter what your creative discipline is – Bo and Si welcome all participants, and particularly look for ‘works in progress’ to showcase. The last instalment was in July, and had a cosy, welcoming atmosphere that we can attest to. If you’re interested in submitting your work for the September instalment, follow Side Door Social on Instagram, or email them at hello@sidedoor.studio.

Circle of Light col-uk.com A programme for young Notts musicians, which has been running since 2019. Those who sing and/or play instruments, aged 16-25, of all experience levels, in our city are invited to local arts hub Fisher Gate Point, which is a short walk from the Motorpoint Arena – young people going through mental or physical health challenges are particularly welcomed to apply. Across two to three weeks in August, they use the venue as a base for recording a collaborative album together, which is then released on world mental health day. There’s also the chance to get Rockschool Ltd. accredited music qualifications, and even tour the UK, which the team do with help of charity Youth Music.

Young Creative Awards youngcreativeawards.org

Mansfield Town Film Festival mansfieldtownfilmfestival.co.uk

Aurora Prize writingeastmidlands.co.uk

Nottingham Poetry Festival nottinghampoetryfestival.com

New Art Exchange Open exhibition nae.org.uk An annual exhibition at Hyson Green gallery New Art Exchange, which working artists in our city should know about. Each year, they invite submissions from Nottinghamshire-based or UK ‘Global Ethnic Majority’ artists (a term they use to describe people who are Black, Asian, Brown, dual heritage, Indigenous to the global south) whose work will be in with a chance of being showcased next summer. Lots of mediums are accepted from paintings, print, and installation, to photography, textiles, and sculpture. Successful submitters will also be considered for prizes, like solo exhibitions, residencies, and more. The 2026 exhibition closes on 17 Sept, and deadlines for the 2027 instalment will most likely close in December.

Acoustic Rooms rescuerooms.com There’s all kinds of open mic nights across Nottingham, in pubs, bars, and gig venues of all sizes. We’d recommend that any avid songwriters in Notts visit them to showcase their skills, make friends, and gain creative confidence. It’s Acoustic Rooms, however, which happens every week at Rescue Rooms on Goldsmith Street, that arguably has the most mythicness surrounding it. Their list of previous performers read as a who’s who of music – pop heavyweights like Dua Lipa, George Ezra, and Myles Smith have graced the stage, plus other well-known, Nottingham-associated artists like Jake Bugg, Amber Run, and Eyre Llew.

First established in 2009, the Young Creative Awards is a registered Nottingham charity which each year celebrates the talents of young people in our city. The 2027 awards open on 17 November, and have ten categories to submit to, including creative writing, dance, fashion film, music, and several others. There are generally three age brackets for the awards given out, and throughout its seventeen years the charity has given out more than 400 awards, encompassing cash prizes, showcase and promotion opportunities, mentoring, work placements, and training. A scheme that any young person in Notts with creative ambitions should be aware of.

A competition for writing in short fiction and poetry, created by arts organisation Writing East Midlands, reopening in October 2026! The best 25 submissions in each category are digitally published in the longlist, while the best ten are published in the shortlist. Third prize in a category entails a ticket to the 2027 Writers’ Conference, hosted by Writing East Midlands, second prize entails £150, and first prize awards £500, feedback from a leading literary agent, and a collaborative relationship with the Society of Authors. There’s also a regional prize of £100 for specifically East Midlands writers in each category. The company runs lots of other supportive schemes for wordsmiths in Nottinghamshire, so check out their website to know more.

A festival championing filmmakers from underrepresented and disadvantaged backgrounds. They accept submissions from people across the world, but filmmakers in Nottinghamshire are particularly welcomed, as their work could be considered for the ‘local voices’ award – one of the festival’s eighteen award categories. This year’s event will happen at the end of this month, so head along, and you may be inspired to submit next year. And last, but not least, all films showcased at the festival are considered for entry to the British Short Film Awards – not bad, ay? Read more about the occasion on page 38 of this magazine…

A city-wide celebration of the written word, which happens every June, and proudly serves as one of Nottingham’s most accessible opportunities to get your creative voice out there.

Created in 2015 by poet Henry Normal and grassroots arts entrepreneur Craig Chettle, the ten-day-long festival has welcomed well known headline poets, like Carol Anne Duffy and Brian Bilston, while sourcing events pitches from the public. The result each year is pretty magical – you might wander into a humble coffee shop, or pub, and unexpectedly find yourself watching a poetry and music jam or solo performance. If you think that, next year, you would do a good job at adding to that magic with your own event, keep an eye on the festival website…

leftlion.co.uk 27

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Offer ends 18/10/2026.

PIT STOP

interview: Amelia Cropley photos: Courtesy of The Garage

At first the base of Nottingham bus operator Barton – in 1913 – and now the home of Nottingham’s largest independent market, The Garage in Chilwell has been a pillar of its local community since it began. Every weekend this family run business welcomes numerous traders and locals through its doors. From its most well known weekend markets to comedy and beer festivals, the success of The Garage is constantly evolving as a local favourite for Beeston and Notts residents alike. Here’s how they got to the point they’re at today…

Tell us about the history of The Garage and why your family started this business…

118 years ago our great-great grandfather and his children set up in Nottingham what became the UK's and one of western Europe's largest independent bus operators. They made The Garage in Chilwell their headquarters in 1913, and ran the bus operations from there until 1989 when the business was sold to Wellglade, who run Trentbarton.

people feel like they have a sense of place when they visit The Garage.

In addition, the history of the site and bus company, which was a major local employer and route provider, means so many people have links and fond memories of The Garage and the bus company.

Our team works incredibly hard on making sure every market looks different, cycling through over 700 different Now we host a huge range of events, including traders a year Nottinghamshire's biggest weekly market on Saturdays and Since then, the original garages have been used in a number of different ways, including some artistic uses from 2008.

We (Tom, James, and Richard Barton) took up running events at The Garage in 2017 as a way to bring life back to the site in the form of events and entertainment.

Sundays, street food events, beer festivals, run clubs, live music nights, stand-up comedy, heritage events, themed parties and more.

Has the business stayed true to its original vision?

Absolutely! In the early 20th Century, the business was started as a way of bringing people together and connecting them from villages, towns, and cities. Today, The Garage does exactly the same thing; we're still bringing people together, not by travelling on buses, but by bringing them to one place.

As a dear former employee once said, "It was never about the buses. It was about the people." I'd say that's about as perfect a description as you'll get, it shows the family's aims are the same now as they were five generations ago. It's about the people.

Nottingham has such a thriving, community-driven independent scene, and that’s a big part of what makes The Garage so special. What do you think makes The Garage so unique as a market and within Nottingham’s independent community?

I think finding a venue like this in the leafy suburbs is pretty unique! I would say our varied calendar of events makes the venue a standout destination, but I genuinely believe

But Nottingham has such a strong independent scene, which is best showcased at our weekly weekend market.

Since the start it has always tried to showcase the highest quality of local products, and I think that's what sets it above the rest.

Our team works incredibly hard on making sure every market looks different, cycling through over 700 different traders a year. That takes an enormous amount of time and effort, and I believe that's why we have visitors who come every Saturday and every Sunday.

They know no two markets will look the same, and that relentless dedication to showcasing the best and most talented independents, who have been brave enough to start their own business, is where The Garage gets its reputation.

But having worked more-or-less every weekend for eight years, I know there are so many who have a connection with our space and that feels pretty special and unique to me.

With over 700 different traders to pick from and a constant growing interest, how do you decide who attends

The Garage Market each week?

This job is done by Fiona, our fantastic mum, who has an unbelievable talent for finding the very best traders.

After all this time we’ve come to know that we are only as strong as the people we work with. Some traders have been trading with us since 2017, and others we'd known since the Market's first iteration back in 2012!

As the Market has grown in recent years, we've had a huge uplift in interest from traders looking to join our revolving weekend high street. But it’s still vital to us not to forget how we got here in the first place, so some of our longest serving traders continue to be supported, just as they supported us as we started all those years ago.

What kind of wares can people pick up at the market?

In terms of food we have brunch and viral street food popups, travelling coffee shops with iced coffee, matcha and seasonal drinks, an on-site bakery and deli area, sweet treats, bakes and desserts. The other stalls range from ceramics, vintage, fashion and clothing, prints and artwork, jewellery, cards, candles, gifts and stickers. We’re also dogfriendly so lots of pet treats!

Moving through the last few months of the year, what can Nottingham look forward to from The Garage in the upcoming months?

Our calendar is full of lots of different events in the Autumn and Winter. The market will be running almost every Saturday and Sunday from 5 September to 20 December, with Christmas markets starting mid-November.

Before then, we've got our September Street Food Club (26 September), our annual Oktoberfest (9/10 & 16/17 October), Bonfire night (7 November), Christmas Parties (5, 12, 19 December) and our Christmas Eve which is always really fun!

Find The Garage at 63 High Rd, Chilwell, Beeston, Nottingham NG9 4AJ, and keep up with what’s on via their socials.

Q @the_garage_chilwell

Music Beyond Mainstream presents

LES AMAZONES D’AFRIQUE GASPER NALI N’FAMADY KOUYATÉ

Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham Thu 15 Oct at 7.30pm trch.co.uk 0115 989 5555

Out of time: Anti-vaxxers in Victorian Notts

words: CJ De Barra illustration: Toby Anderton

When we think of the anti-vaccination movement, we tend to think of COVID and anti-lockdown protests. However, the anti-vax movement is surprisingly far older than typically expected – and one that the East Midlands played a significant part in. In the Victorian era, thousands demonstrated against the new compulsory smallpox vaccinations, leading to fines and arrests…

Nottingham, like many other cities, was in Victorian times fighting a losing battle against many diseases, including smallpox. This contagious disease caused fever, tiredness, aches and pains, along with fluid-filled blisters and pustules in the mouth and body. It spread through the city like wildfire because of overcrowding, poor sanitation, limited preventative knowledge, and close contact. Nottingham’s Sanitary Committee reported several nasty outbreaks, especially in 1882. The committee reported 703 cases leading to a mass disinfectant campaign of 4,995 items of bedding and clothing and 1,092 rooms. A meeting was held where it was decided to introduce mandatory case reporting, with financial rewards available for anyone who did. As a result of the report, the patient and anyone who had contact with them were taken to hospital, where they were quarantined while their house was disinfected.

Bagthorpe Hospital set up a temporary infectious hospital, and Plumptre Hospital, often referred to as the Garden Hospital, also served as one.

The reported cases also had an unexpected benefit: they allowed the disease to be mapped across the city in 1882.

This showed that the east and south sides were particularly affected, while the west was not. There was further concern that the area hospitals would catch smallpox through the air. This may be why the Health Committee favoured Bagthorpe Hill as a site, as it was more isolated than others.

Physician Edward Jenner created a vaccine in 1796. He noticed that milkmaids who caught cowpox did not catch smallpox – and created a successful vaccine containing a small amount of cowpox. It was first used in Nottingham by Surgeon to the General Hospital, John Attenburrow.

The vaccine was made free in 1840, then compulsory for all children below age fourteen in 1867. This was punishable through arrests, fines, or prison sentences. Opposition and resentment began to grow along with an anti-vaccination movement. There were many reasons for this: some felt the material made from cows was unhealthy or were religiously opposed to it, while others didn’t believe it was contagious and objected to being told what to do.

Rumours also circulated, particularly in the Meadows area, that it could cause death. Families who lived there decided

not to vaccinate their children, despite the law. James Farnsworth, James Bradshaw, Jas W. Knight and Walter Finch were all brought to court. Bradshaw was described as a ‘conscientious objector’ to the vaccine. He had two sons, one of whom had died of erysipelas, and Bradshaw had blamed the vaccine for this. His defence in court, when asked about it, was, "there is no saving of life by vaccine”. Such court cases further publicised and fuelled the movement.

Opposition and resentment began to grow along with an anti-vaccination movement. There were many reasons for this: some felt the material made from cows was unhealthy or were religiously opposed to it, while others didn’t believe it was contagious and objected to being told what to do Leicester had established an anti-vaccination league in 1869. It was felt in the city that they had created an alternative to the vaccine through quarantining, mandatory reporting of cases, disinfection of houses and belongings - which often included burning items.

Nottingham would have been aware of the movement, as Leicester campaigners occasionally travelled to the city for demonstrations. One such demonstration led by notorious anti-vaccine supporter, Amos Booth, took place in Market Square in April 1886. As the crowd grew quickly, police intervened to get Booth to leave. When he refused, they unsuccessfully attempted to forcibly remove him, then allowed him to finish.

While here, Booth set up a stall next to Frederick Johnson, a travelling auctioneer, and pointed him out to the crowd.

Johnson had the task of selling items seized from the homes of anti-vaccinators who had refused (or couldn’t) pay their fines, which was something that made him incredibly unpopular with the movement, as it was seen to be supporting the imposing of fines. Booth loudly told his audience that Johnson was dealing in stolen goods in

Nottingham, which he wouldn’t dare to do in Leicester. He told people not to buy the goods because the police would call them shortly after and they need only ask the Leicester force about Johnson’s character. For good measure, he added that Johnson had seven illegitimate children – an accusation that carried weight in Victorian England – especially since an accusation of one child had been brought before the court but not seven. Johnson retaliated by bringing him to court, claiming his accountancy business had declined; he won £200 in damages. Booth was charged with assaulting the bailiffs who came to his home in Leicester.

Anti-vaccination meetings took place, including at Circus Hall in the 1890s. The aim was to support any legitimate means of repealing the Vaccination Act. Speakers at the event encouraged the audience to ‘be like Leicester’ and ‘claim their birthright’. In 1898, a ‘conscientious objector’ clause was added to the Vaccine Act. The debate continued into the early 1900s – clerks at a Board of Guardians meeting announced that between 1899 and 1903, 16,108 people had been vaccinated, costing the city £6,544. A meeting was held at the Exchange Hall to discuss these figures – it was announced the vaccine caused cancer and an anti-vaccine society should be set up. It was considered controversial as a prominent member of the Board of Guardians announced that the government had falsely declared the vaccine unsuccessful in the fight against smallpox.

Throughout the following decades, smaller outbreaks occurred but were notably milder, including Sherwood in the 1910s and Mansfield in 1924. In the 1920s, warnings urged people to avoid mixing unless they had been recently vaccinated. An appeal was also made to close churches and Sunday schools as the Anti-Vaccination League counterargued that not one case had been proven against the unvaccinated. However, the figures show a dramatic decline in numbers: of the first 27 cases, ten were vaccinated, two were revaccinated, and there were thirty unvaccinated cases – no fatalities. By 1980, the World Health Organisation declared smallpox eradicated. leftlion.co.uk 31

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FOOD

words & photos: Lucy Campion

The Monday Food Guide

words and photo: Julia Head

Mondays in the city can be a bit of a culinary minefield. After a busy weekend, plenty of independent restaurants and cafés take the day off – and quite rightly so. But that doesn’t mean you have to resign yourself to a sad meal deal when the Monday hunger starts calling. Whether you’re starting the week with a catch-up over coffee, looking for a proper lunch, or fancy treating yourself to dinner, our Food Co-editor and Nottingham Food Guide founder Julia has rounded up eighteen of the best places to eat in Nottingham on a Monday

1. Hey Danna 7-9 Heathcoat St NG1 3AF

10. Bombay Delicatessen 22-26 Carrington St NG1 7FF

This Japanese spot offers some of the city’s best ramen, as well as other authentic plates you’ll love. It’s also run by one of the loveliest women you’ll meet in hospitality too.

A bit of a Nottingham institution, this family-run Indian deli has been going for over thirty years. The counter full of fresh curries, street food and handcrafted sweets will be hard to resist.

Must-try dish: the tori paitan ramen (basically a white broth with chicken. Trust us, it’s delicious)

Must try dish: the samosas are banging, including the chocolate ones

2. Bar Iberico 17-19 Carlton St NG1 1NL Our go-to and old faithful for Mondays. Bar Iberico never lets us down with their Spanish tapas and we’d consider them an all-rounder to please any palate.

Must-try dish: the crispy chicken or cauliflower

3. Noshi Trinity Square NG1 4AF Still fairly new to the Nottingham food scene, Noshi’s modern Chinese and Japanese cuisine is for the fancier diner looking to celebrate a special occasion with a cocktail under the cherry blossoms.

Must-try dish: the sticky beef short rib bao buns

4. Compa 21/A Heathcoat St NG1 3AF

Those who know, know. Nottingham’s best Chinese? We’ll let you decide. Find over 200 dishes from Cantonese classics to fiery, traditional Sichuan cuisine.

Must try dish: twice cooked pork belly

12. Queen of Hockley 7 Broad St NG1 3AJ A vibrant pub, bar and restaurant all under one roof. The venue blends quality gastro-style food, live weekend music and one of the best outdoor spaces in the city centre.

Must try dish: the fish and chips

13. Junkyard Bottleshop & Pourhouse 12 Bridlesmith Walk NG1 2FZ

A cosy family-run Italian restaurant known for its warm hospitality and authentic, traditional Sicilian street food. The service here is truly welcoming.

Located in one of the city’s many hidden alleyways, this trendy pour house combines global craft beer and seasonal small plates. Go upstairs to The Kilpin for additional seating.

Must try dish: their homemade cannoli

Must-try dish: whatever is on the ever-changing menu, plus some beer, of course

5. Delilah Fine Foods 12 Victoria St NG1 2EX

14. Caphinique 40 Carrington St, NG1 7FG

Deli and café housed in a stunning former banking hall with a mezzanine overlooking the action. Shoppers can browse more than 1,000 artisan cheeses, wines and fine foods before settling in for coffee, lunch or a sharing platter.

Vietnamese café serving proper Vietnamese phin coffee alongside a brilliant breakfast and lunch menu. And as a bonus, they’re located just two minutes from Nottingham Train Station.

Must try dish: their cheese, charcuterie and antipasti sharing platters

Must try dish: The egg coffee (again, trust us) or a banh mi.

6. WonderPho Lounge 100 Upper Parliament St NG1 6LF

15. The Specialty 50 Friar Ln NG1 6DQ

Expanded onto Parliament street with a new, modern Vietnamese lounge. Best known for their authentic steaming bowls of pho but the banh mi is excellent too.

Great portions and prices.

Coffee connoisseurs will tell you the blend here is top notch stuff. And they wouldn’t be wrong. But the brunch from Lilac Eatery is just as excellent.

Must try dish: Any bowl of pho your heart desires or a banh mi

7. GB Cafe Oriental Diner & Sushi Bar 11 Gedling St NG1 1DS A true hidden gem in Nottingham. Located in Sneinton Market, this no-frills diner is a favourite of ours. They have a wide menu ranging from highly rated Malaysian and Chinese dishes, as well as sushi – and, slightly unexpectedly, one of the best British fry-ups hiding in the city centre.

Must try dish: the viral Hong Kong toast or the Turkish eggs

16. Yolk 29 Goose Gate NG1 1FE A bright, sunny yellow spot you can’t miss in the heart of Hockley that will meet all your coffee and brunch needs.

Must try dish: the eggs benedict is the best we’ve tried in Nottingham so visit for that alone

Must try dish: The Sichuan beef in hot chilli oil

17. Solo Grano 21-23 Wheeler Gate NG1 2NA

8. Fothergills 5-7 Castle Rd NG1 6AA

If you’re craving handmade pizza or pasta and want to avoid the chains, then try this spot instead for a casual lunch or dinner.

If you enjoy a bit of history and culture with your meal, this pub is located opposite Nottingham Castle and our famous Robin Hood statue. A top Nottingham experience. Expect classic pub dishes done properly, with one of the best views in the city centre.

34 leftlion.co.uk

11. Shanghai Shanghai 15 Goose Gate NG1 1FE

Must try dish: the chicken pasta may not be traditional Italian, but it is very good

18. Kottaram 28 Maid Marian Way NG1 6GF

Must try dish: The steak & ale pie

This Indian restaurant specialises in South Indian cuisine, particularly from the Kerala region.

9. Chai Yo 2 Parliament Terrace NG1 5FX

Must try dish: without a doubt, the masala dosa

Another hidden gem, known for their traditional Thai food.

Must try dish: the pad see ew, but honestly, any of the classics will tick the boxes.

Follow @thenottinghamfoodguide on Instagram for more food recommendations in Notts.

FOOD

Our round-up of the latest news in the Nottinghamshire food and drink scene…

Beeston Brownie

Another stop on the curry mile?

Anyone who has ever eaten a cake from Beeston Brownie Company will know they have Kipling-level ninja skills at making exceedingly good cakes. However, in a sad turn of events they closed their Beeston store last month. In a statement posted to Facebook they cited rising costs and a drop in sales. However, on the brighter side they also said “This isn't the end of Beeston Brownie - far from it. We'll be putting our energy into growing other parts of the business, including wholesale, online sales, corporate orders, and events. So while the shop chapter is closing, our story continues.”

Maid Marian Way is often nicknamed Nottingham’s ‘curry mile’, though geography pedants might point out that the entire road is actually less than a quarter of a mile long.

However, Southwell-based contemporary Indian Brasserie Lasani looks set to open up a new premises on the road, with a new Indo-Persian eatery on the site of the old Ludorati Café Bar. Back in late June, Lasani won the public-voted title at the British Curry Championships, so they’re likely to provide a quality new option alongside long-standing favourites like Memsaab and The Cumin.

Q @beestonbrownie

lasanirestaurants.co.uk

Star Wars and Stout

Two well-loved Notts breweries Emperors and Bang The Elephant are teaming up to create a new bar called The Tusk & Raider in the Lace Market. Set to open its doors in late October and situated at 1 Broadway (most recently a pilates studio), they launched a Crowdfunder in early August to help raise some of the start-up funds required. At the time of going to press they’d well surpassed their £20,000 target. Outlining the plans in a Star Wars-themed video, Tusk & Raider will sell new and exclusive beers from both breweries alongside other local favourites from Reckless Dweeb (Bilsthorpe), Urban Chicken Ale (Ilkeston) and Alter Ego (Alfreton) as well as others sourced from around the world.

Rock and Roast

Notts-based Tiktokker Chef Dave Marshall has taken over the kitchen at the Old Wine Vaults in Eastwood. The venue has become a popular haunt for live music fans on Friday and Saturday nights, but hasn’t served food in over thirty years. Marshall worked for a decade at a premium steakhouse, Porterhouse by Barlows in Kirkby-in-Ashfield, before reinventing himself as a private chef, cooking meals to commission in people’s homes. He’s also built up a following of 380,000 followers on TikTok, which might go some way to helping raise the profile of his new venture.

Q @chef_dave11

Q @thetuskandraider

FROM THE KITCHEN

WITH MASSIMO BELLAVISTA, OWNER AND HEAD CHEF AT COMPA When did you first know you wanted to make food for a living?

Food has always been part of my life and my family. Growing up in Sicily, every celebration happened around the table, and I realised I wanted to share that warmth and sense of belonging with others through authentic Sicilian food.

Who has been the biggest influence on your baking?

Without a doubt, my grandmother. She taught me that the best recipes are made with love, patience and respect for tradition. Many of the flavours we serve at Compà are inspired by the memories I have of cooking with her.

Describe your venue in three words Authentic. Sicilian. Welcoming.

What’s the best-selling item on your menu?

Our Cannoli are our signature best-seller. Filled to order with fresh ricotta and the finest ingredients imported from Sicily, including our rich pistachio cream, they perfectly capture the authentic flavours of the island.

What’s your personal favourite item on your current menu and why?

Our Porchetta. It’s full of flavour, beautifully seasoned and slow-cooked to perfection. For me, it’s the perfect combination of simplicity, quality and comfort.

What/where was the best meal you have ever eaten? And who cooked it?

The best meal I’ve ever eaten was my wife’s lasagna, cooked at home. It combines incredible flavour with the warmth and comfort that only a home-cooked family meal can bring.

Who are your five ideal dinner guests, alive or dead? And what’s on the menu?

I’d invite my grandmother, Anthony Bourdain, Prime Minister Andy Burnham, Sophia Loren and Leonardo da Vinci. We’d serve a Sicilian feast with traditional street food, fresh pasta with Sicilian sausage ragù, meatballs, cannoli and plenty of great Sicilian wine.

Find Compa at 21/A Heathcoat Street, NG1 3AF, and their Beeston joint at 31 Wollaton Road NG9 2NG.

36 leftlion.co.uk

Q @compasicily

LIFE BEHIND BARS

with WITH JAKE JENKINSON, ASSISTANT MANAGER AT EFFY Discover Effy, one of the hottest espresso bars and bakeries in NottinghamTell us something interesting about your cafe?

Our two espresso machines are handmade in Seattle and only a handful of them can be found in the UK. We are also a self-taught viennoiserie bakery, making seasonal croissants every morning. The building we are in used to be the house of John Heathcoat, an inventor born in 1783.

What’s the best thing about your job?

Our customers are phenomenal. From our regulars to our first-timers, it is always a delight to serve them coffee that we think is outstanding, and represents the best that producers all over the world have to offer. We are very proud of our innovations in coffee brewing, too. For a little while, we were making guest espresso using a basket that was literally one of a kind. Even since then we’ve moved on to new methods so that we can offer the best product possible.

What’s your most expensive drink?

A £15 pour over coffee. The bean is a rare, low-yield Geisha varietal from Panama which is roasted in Paris. It has a very distinct and balanced flavour which you won’t often find in other shops.

Describe your cafe in three words: Burgundy, cosy, yum.

Who’s the most famous person you’ve had drinking here?

Bob Mortimer.

What’s the best thing a customer has ever said to you?

Every time someone asks if the pastries on display are real, it warms our hearts (they are).

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An ever-rotating list of coffees prepared with love and care by wonderful staff, served alongside delicious hand-made pastry baked fresh every morning that won’t break the bank.

Find Effy at 20A Heathcoat St, Nottingham NG1 3AA

Q @effystores

screen

The Reel Deal

interview: Emily Davies photos: MTFF

Coming up later this month, Mansfield Town Film Festival provides a packed three day schedule of working-class voices, locally made films, live screenings, masterclasses, and Q&As. We spoke to festival director Jay Martin about representation, community and why Mansfield is putting the East Midlands firmly on the cinema map…

There are more film festivals than ever, so what makes Mansfield Town Film Festival stand out from the crowd?

We are BIFA qualifying, which puts us in conversation with the national festival circuit. It’s a big deal for a place like Mansfield, as it's been underrated for too long culturally. Working class filmmakers make up less than 10% of the UK film industry, so for us it was all about creating the space for working-class creatives and giving them a platform, as well as women, LGBTQAI+ people and disabled voices. We are still one of the only film festivals in the country with a focus on working class voices, and that accessibility makes us unique. The culture of the festival is where everyone is on a level playing field, whereas others can be very unwelcoming.

Independent cinema often struggles for attention against big studio releases. What kinds of stories do you think deserve a bigger audience right now?

I always think working-class and diverse stories deserve a bigger platform. We are incredibly lucky that in the first years of the festival the quality of work has been of such a high standard.

As a recognised BIFA quality festival with a focus on working-class talent, it really reaffirms our mission.

We get a direct pathway to the BAFTAs and Oscars.

We’ve introduced a new local voices category for films made in the East Midlands. We’ve had a great uptake in that and have seen more locally made shorts in the programme than ever before.

Mansfield has a reputation that's often defined by headlines rather than culture. How important is it to show another side of the town through a festival like this?

Our organisation's mission and vision are to try and change the cultural perception of the town through promoting working-class talent. The importance of having events like this in Mansfield is that it has a thriving cultural scene outside of the city and arguably the county as well. For us, being able to be just one of many events that help change the perception of the town – welcoming hundreds of filmmakers from over the country and exporting Mansfield's brand is really important for us. To take the town and redefine it as a creative and cultural hub for North Notts – it's a good way to change hearts and minds.

The East Midlands has a thriving creative scene, but it can sometimes feel overshadowed by cities like London and Manchester. Do you think that

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is changing?

I think so! There are some really exciting things coming down the line, and the East Midlands is often overlooked in favour of the West Midlands. We need something in the region to bring it together, under one banner. There's so much good happening; what we need is that spark and a bit of investment – hopefully through EMCCA and Mayor Claire, who have a focus on the visitor economy. If we can be a small part of that, it slowly makes a difference over time.

Working class filmmakers make up less than 10% of the UK film industry, so for us it was all about creating the space for working-class creatives and giving them a platform, as well as women, LGBTQAI+ people and disabled voices What makes a great festival film? Is it something technically brilliant, or something that simply connects with an audience?

For us, films are not just telling working-class stories but stories that make you think. We like films that we don't just enjoy in isolation but films that make the audience sit up and listen. We are opening with We’re All Black Down Here – about the first Black coal miner. It's made locally, and we are closing that strand with Rule, Britannia: a satirical take on the far right, about stopping the boats.

It goes wrong, and they get saved by a crossing boat. It's very intentional programming, to spark conversation and debate amongst our audience. We look at how films sit in a strand and how they talk to other films in that strand.

If someone from Nottingham has never been to Mansfield Town Film Festival, what's the one thing they'd experience there that they wouldn't get from watching films at their local multiplex?

It is that you can meet the people who have made these films. We have eighteen strands at the festival that are an hour and a half each. We will have about 130 films screened across three days, and after each strand we have a Q&A with the teams, so if you've just watched something very moving to you, the chances are a member of that team will be at the festival.

You get that direct chance to speak to them – to ask questions and hang out with them.

Film festivals are as much about community as they are about cinema. What conversations or connections are you hoping people leave with after this year's event?

I'd like to see regional filmmakers being connected with national and international filmmakers and being able to bring new projects to life. We have a film this year called The Tide by Anne-Marie Scragg, who won our 2024 Neurodiverse Voices Award. She met Jack Parr, who is a local lad who won the Working Class Voices Award. They met at the festival, and Jack is one of the leads in her new film. More stuff like that is happening, as that's what it is all about, and to help facilitate new projects. For regular audience members, they can leave having seen stuff they wouldn’t normally see from voices they wouldn't normally hear from. Hopefully see one film that stays with them, moves them or inspires them; that would be the dream.

If you could programme any filmmaker, living or dead, for a Q&A in Mansfield, who would you choose, and what would you ask them?

We had Ken Loach open the festival in 2023. It was incredible, as he is a phenomenal working class director and I remember being shown Kes in secondary school. It would be great to have Ken there and ask him what he would hope his influence on other working class filmmakers would be. We’ve always tried to get in touch with Shane Meadows and Vicky McClure to varying levels of success. I'd love to have Shane or Vicky or Samantha Morton – someone born and bred in Notts – to talk about what it's been like to build careers here.

Is there anything you’re working on right now or future projects you'd like to shout out?

An adaptation of That Boy of Yours Wants Looking At. It’s about a gay and disabled young man growing up in St. Ann's in the 60s and 70s, and it’s by local writer Simon Smalley. In the past three years, I’ve been setting up the festival and getting it to a place where it can run without just me and establishing it as a regional force for culture. We're already looking ahead to the fifth anniversary, and we've got some exciting things in the pipeline there. It should take us to the next level.

The Mansfield Town Film Festival takes place between Friday 25 - Sunday 27 September. Check out their website for a full list of what’s on. mansfieldtownfilmfestival.com

SPORT

words: Julian M cDougall illustration: Kirs ty Gregory

Notts County FC’s Lifeline scheme is an independent volunteer-run lottery and fundraising scheme, launched forty years ago this month, to support the football club through financial difficulties. Members pay £2 per week and are entered into a range of lottery draws and receive access to events, stadium tours, a training session, hospitality offers and more…

LifeLine was first launched on Monday 15 September 1986 at the Astoria nightclub (now Ocean). 1500 Notts County supporters were in there, of which I was one, with hundreds more outside trying to get in. Jack Dunnett was the chairman and Notts had run up a £2 million debt and were facing liquidation.

It was a turbulent time for the club and people were genuinely concerned about this threatening our existence.

We are living in good times now at Meadow Lane, on and off the pitch. We currently have owners who have (thus far at least) done nothing but good, promoting a sustainable financial model which has seen two promotions and a careful approach to player budgets. At times this frustrates the supporters, because many clubs around us are spending more money and getting into debt, but it is hard to argue against when we think back to 1986.

In the four decades since then the Lifeline scheme has now raised over £4 million. Some notable benefits for Notts have been for ground improvements, the safe-standing development, an indoor training surface at Meadow Lane, technological additions for matchdays and community project inputs.

In Colin Slater’s book (Tied up in Notts) about his six decades commentating on Notts for Radio Nottingham, he devotes an entire chapter to ‘Times of Crisis’. There have been several times over the years when Notts County have been close to bankruptcy and we saw another after this book’s publication in 2019, when Football Radar entered the scene to save the day.

The birth of Lifeline was one of several moments of ‘near extinction’ but it is unique in the sense that the collective action of supporters was the focus of the ‘Blueprint for Survival’ created by Dunnett ahead of his retirement. It was initially inspired by a similar project generated by Bolton Wanderers a few years before. Slater, who acted as the MC on the famous Astoria evening, reports that the architects of the scheme were hoping for a few hundred to gather to hear about their plans. In the end, the Astoria was so packed that Dunnett himself was initially refused entry.

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Here’s how Slater tells it: “Every member of the Meadow Lane staff was there, including all the players. A special moment came when I had the pleasure of introducing two truly iconic figures, Tommy Lawton and Jimmy Sirrell. It was the first and probably the only time they occupied the same platform to an, inevitably, huge ovation.”

Reflecting on his involvement with Lifeline since its inception, club record scorer and iconic legend of the lane, Notts County’s club record goalscorer Les Bradd, spoke to me in early August, the day after he took part in the annual Lifeline Golf Day. Bradd had initially been tasked by Chief Executive Neal Hook to travel to Bolton on a fact-finding mission.

Alf Davies, who was running the scheme at Bolton, accepted an invitation to speak at the Astoria.

Les also remembered that Derek Pavis was in the audience that night, as one potential future investor being encouraged to get involved. The rest of that is certainly history.

The birth of Lifeline was one of several moments of ‘near extinction’ but it is unique in the sense that the collective action of supporters was the focus “At the end of the evening, we had 1,300 people signed up to pay £2 a week,” Les told me. “We launched Lifeline fully shortly after with 2000 members, for a scheme that had a maximum of 2500.

You have to consider that £2 was a lot of money in 1986. Since then Lifeline has been such an important resource for Notts County since and has helped save the club from extinction on two, maybe three occasions.”

In the full-to-capacity Astoria, fans also heard from Dunnett and then club captain Steve Sims. The Sheriff of Nottingham was also presented and local chart-topping band Paper Lace also made a live appearance. Director John Mounteney, being the broker of the Pavis connection, was also on the panel.

Highly significant for ‘cult hero’ enthusiasts, a certain

Declan Edge is also pictured on the second row of the rostrum.

With Lifeline being created and sustained as independent from the club, it raises a sum in the region of £130 - £150k each year. Les describes the value of the independence in ensuring that the relationship with the football club is consistent, regardless of the frequent changes and the many ups and downs of Notts’ ownership in these forty years. The only changes are the extent of ‘bailing out’ required, with Les reassuring me about how fantastic the current owners are to work with.

Lynn Lawson, the Lifeline Chairperson, is a familiar face to Notts fans as the retail manager and thus a constant presence in the club shop. Like Les, she is clear that the scheme “has saved the club at least twice” and adds “we have also paid staff wages”. However, Lynn also cites the lower profile but essential inputs from Lifeline that enhance customer experience like buying new turnstiles or a scoreboard. Lynn also sees Lifeline as a community, telling me “our members and their families are very loyal and most have stuck with us for forty years.”

So let’s circle back to that opening night at The Astoria. That choice of venue is still surprising, but it adds a ‘classic Notts’ edge of surrealism. Multimillionaire Barry Noble had bought what had been the Sherwood Rooms in 1984 and placed both his name and his memorable slogan 'Is That Alright Fyuzs' on the front of the club. There might seem to be a pretty big clash of ‘vibes’ between this 1980s nightclub and a ‘last ditch’ plan for survival of the oldest football league club. However, if you are reading this, you are likely to be one of the thousands of people who care about Notts County. So what happened there that night, and the launch of Lifeline - which is still going strong after four decades - has turned out, very much ‘alright f’yuz’. nottscountyfc.co.uk

ENVIRONMENT

Waterway to go words: Michael Krawec illustration: Jay Tomlin

After one of his pupils caught a case of ‘Trentbelly’, the local nomenclature for illness caught from a polluted River Trent, secondary school teacher Tom Suchoruczka became curious about how the river got to the state it is now. This led Tom to team up with Notts historian and YouTuber Michael Krawec, and together they went down a research wormhole which culminated in Trentbelly – the first series of new podcast NottsPod. Here, by way of laying the groundwork for that, Michael talks us through the winding history of Nottingham’s modern day water system.

Looking at the Trent today, it is difficult to imagine the river of centuries past, when poets would praise the beauty of its crystal waters: ‘smug and silver’, according to Shakespeare. Something, or some things, have happened to the Trent over the years to turn it from silver to brown leading to the local ailment known as ‘Trentbelly’, which sparked my NottsPod co-host Tom Suchoruczka’s curiosity and led us to start this podcast. Looking at the possible culprits, our first thought was that it was the fault of the water companies dumping sewage: in the Trent’s case, Severn Trent plc.

Sewage flows into our rivers when our infrastructure gets overwhelmed. Combined sewer overflows (CSOs) are only meant to occur during heavy rain, when rainwater flows into our sewers and overwhelms them, but have increasingly occurred during drier weather, because our sewage network is running closer to capacity on a day-to-day basis. Modern cities are built with separate pipes for rainwater and sewage, but in Britain we are still reliant on old combined pipes.

There has been a lot of anger at water companies failing to upgrade our infrastructure, and when we began our research we assumed we would be telling a simple story about how the Thatcher government’s decision to privatise water and sewage was the fall from grace that led to the Trent browning. Other rivers in the country have only turned brown recently, but the case of the Trent is more complicated. In Portrait of Nottingham (1974), Emrys Bryson described the Trent as ‘the worst polluted river in England’. To understand the fall of the Trent, we had to go back much further.

In the nineteenth century, increasing urban populations meant more demand for water, so rival water companies were set up, each building their own pumping stations and laying their own pipes. By the 1820s, Nottingham had four competing private water companies.

The Trent Waterworks Company hired Arnold-born engineer Thomas Hawksley to design their water system, which would pump water from the Trent to serve the town. Hawksley persevered with an idea no one had yet applied at the scale of a town: constant

pressure water supply.

This is something we take for granted today: constant pressure meant you could turn on your tap at any time of day, and water would come out. Until Hawksley, intermittent pressure systems were the norm: taps would only work at certain times. In 1832, Nottingham became the first town in the country to have 24/7 running water. By the 1840s, Nottingham’s water supply was the envy of other towns, and credited with protecting its people from cholera epidemics: water from the smug and silver Trent prevented sickness.

We’re now at a crisis point, with public anger mounting. Perhaps there are now votes in sewage Nineteenth century urbanisation also led to the existing sewage system being completely overwhelmed. Sewage either flowed down open sewers into rivers, or piled up until it was taken to the countryside as manure. This was not a good system if you wanted to avoid cholera outbreaks. Sewage reform was led by Edwin Chadwick, who pushed for local councils to build better sewage infrastructure.

Water supply was run by competing local private companies, sewage disposal by local authorities. It’s a long journey from this situation to today’s regional water companies such as Severn Trent.

In the 1800s, many people resented the water companies profiting from something essential for life.

Advocates for council control believed the service could be run, like sewage disposal, for the public good, uninhibited by the profit motive. In most towns, including Nottingham, the council won the argument and took control.

Local councils, however, had more on their plates than just water and sewage. Once these services were up to an acceptable standard (i.e. people weren’t dying of cholera outbreaks), there was no impetus for continuous improvement. Managing a wide portfolio of other priorities, councils refrained from upgrading infrastructure. When new sewers were built for new housing estates, they were connected to old pipes, increasing their likelihood of overflowing. There was a

common saying among councillors deciding where to allocate funds: ‘There are no votes in sewage.’

As the twentieth century progressed, national governments became increasingly frustrated by the country’s messy water and sewage networks.

Eventually, the government decided to take water and sewage away from local councils, creating regional water authorities which would manage all things water-related across entire basins. Finally, our sewage infrastructure would get the investment it needed.

Unfortunately, the economic crises of the 1970s meant the government immediately cut the water authorities’ budgets. Having created these authorities to rectify a lack of investment, governments proceeded to starve them of funding. Governments, local and national, run a wide range of services – all competing for funding. The winners are usually those the public cares most about and which make the governing party more popular. While the state doesn’t have a profit motive, it does have a defence motive, a health motive, an education motive, and more.

And then we come to Thatcher’s privatisation, which turned the Severn Trent Water Authority into Severn Trent plc. I delved into the online archive of the Margaret Thatcher Foundation to read declassified documents from her time in office, to understand what her government believed the privatisation would achieve. To put it mildly, it did not go to plan.

We’re now at a crisis point, with public anger mounting. Perhaps there are now votes in sewage.

Perhaps the new Prime Minister will lead our rivers and our water industry into a new era, learning from the successes and failures of both past and present.

Cleaning up our rivers requires vision, long-term thinking, and effort: not just from governments and water companies, but from us. We can do our part by ensuring it stays on the political agenda, and by supporting river restoration schemes through donation or volunteering. The Trent can be smug and silver again, if enough of us care and put the effort in to make it so.

To hear more from Michael and Tom, listen to the NottsPod podcast on all of your usual streaming services.

Q @nottspod leftlion.co.uk 41

art

spray it loud words: Lauryn Wilson photo: Katerina Panaretaki

After bringing over thirty murals to Nottingham in the past five years, Art Fest is doing things differently in 2026. Through exhibitions, street art tours, talks and workshops, this year’s programme celebrates Nottingham’s visual artists while opening conversations about what comes next…

Art Fest is a public art organisation with a mission to put art into everyday spaces.

In 2024 and 2025, it hosted a free oneday visual art festival across Nottingham city centre, featuring exhibitions, live painting, workshops and murals. This year it also ran a food and art festival with New Art Exchange in Hyson Green.

At the heart of the organisation is a commitment to championing artists, creating paid opportunities, and helping establish Nottingham as a city of artists.

This year, however, Art Fest has chosen to do things differently. Moving away from the scale of the previous two festivals has created space to reflect on what it has achieved and consider what comes next. Creative Director Benjamin Kay describes the switch-up as “the best decision we could have made. We’re still painting large-scale works across the city, but we’re opening ourselves up to year-round commissions rather than cramming everything into an incredible – and incredibly intense – festival.”

It’s a really playful city and there’s a lot of freedom in the work people make. My ambition is to make sure that people in and outside of Nottingham know us as a city of artists “This year is a chance to reflect on the work we’ve done so far,” says Ben. “There are so many incredible murals across the city centre, created through Art Fest and by other artists independently. We want to document them, celebrate the artists behind them and tell the stories of why they were painted. Our tours, new mural maps and artist plaques are all about making sure those artists and their work are properly recognised.”

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Part of the inspiration came from Ben spending six weeks in America on a research trip, part-funded by Nottingham’s Roosevelt Scholarship.

Travelling across the east and west coasts, he met visual artists, visited art and print studios and spent time with organisations running street art festivals.

Philadelphia prompted questions about how cities build long-term ecosystems that support artists. Volunteering at a street art festival in Fort Lauderdale highlighted the importance of involving young people, while San Francisco demonstrated how an established mural culture can tell the stories of local communities.

Rather than concentrating activity into a single festival, Art Fest’s events will take place throughout the year, beginning in September with artist-led street art tours. Smallkid and Boaster will lead a cycling tour; Montana paint shop owner Dilk will explore Nottingham’s graffiti and street art history; Emily Catherine will focus on the city’s political murals; and Benjamin will guide visitors through murals commissioned by Art Fest.

In November, a two-day event will bring together workshops, talks and new exhibitions including a showcase of Benjamin’s photography from America, documenting each city’s different “flavour of art.”

“Nottingham definitely has a really friendly flavour. It’s a really playful city and there’s a lot of freedom in the work people make. My main ambition is to make sure that people in and outside of Nottingham know us as a city of artists, because that is what I think we are,” says Ben. Art Fest is also launching the Art Fest Collective – connecting artists with opportunities while continuing to commission new public art across Nottingham and beyond.

Ben believes that after this year of getting “off the hamster wheel”, to learn, evaluate and strategise, Art Fest will return with a bigger bang. Until then, keep your eyes peeled for new murals popping up in and around the city; look out for tour tickets, and get to know the artists behind our streets’ brightest corners.

Art Fest returns Sat 21 - Sun 22 November, with some events starting this month.

Head to their Instagram to see what’s coming up.

Q @artfestnottingham

artworks words & images: Stephen Crowe

For this month’s Art Works we hear from artist Stephen Crowe whose short film The Minotaur is being shown on the Victoria Centre screen later this month.

The film is called The Minotaur and is a short, animated retelling of the ancient Greek myth. The story concerns the terrifying half man/half bull who is imprisoned in a labyrinth under the palace of King Minos. The Minotaur’s half-sister Ariadne wants the Minotaur dead and enlists Theseus to do the deed...

It’s going to have its world premiere on the massive screen outside Victoria Centre at midnight on Saturday 26 September. I’ll be there with a glass of Ouzo and a gyros.

over my life. I ended up in Berlin for a few years (karaoke three times a week and indoor smoking) squandering my prime. I met a lovely lass from Notts and immediately moved back to Sneinton. I started messing around with a stop motion app on my phone and landed a job teaching the history of experimental animation at NTU. I love hectoring students about the evils of making art with AI.

It’s five minutes long, cinematic in its storytelling style, but experimental in the way it was made and the way it looks. The animation is made up of 2,500 drawings scratched into tiny colour slides from the 1970s and 80s. It took ten months to make, for which I had to buy almost every box of holiday slides that eBay and Facebook Marketplace had to offer. I love films that disregard historical accuracy, so combining random images with ancient Greek myth tickled me.

I had to buy almost every box of holiday slides that eBay and Facebook Marketplace had to offer I use different animation techniques for my films - but they are always handmade. One of the methods I use is to film a rough version on my phone with myself as the protagonist. I use that as a reference to draw from. So I basically make the film twice, but I’d never show the early version with myself prancing about in a cardboard bull outfit.

I grew up in Nottingham and studied Fine Art in Liverpool. At art school I steadily veered towards music. I started writing little operas for me and my friends to record - the more absurd the better. The first one was about a doomed love triangle and a taxidermist. I later studied music at Goldsmiths and making operas took

I used to run a life drawing class at Little Brickhouse on Derby Road where I incorporated home-made props and costumes of film characters like Medusa, Psycho and the Terminator 2.

I made a Minotaur head for the model to wear but to my horror it turned out there wasn’t a good (or even halfdecent) film about the Minotaur - so I made my own. First it was going to be like an old computer game with very blocky graphics. Then it was going to be a kind of animated mosaic, but the process was too fiddly and annoying.

I should have ditched opera years ago - since I started making films I’ve been asked to give talks at Oxford, NYU and Harvard University. I run online workshops on DIY animation, spilling the secrets of my craft or sullen art.

Catch The Minotaur on the screen outside Victoria Centre at midnight on Saturday 26 September.

Q @sardinebutty

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LITERATURE

THE 'BOURNE LEGACY

interview: Grace Sanders photo: Lisette Muratore

Lisette Muratore is a Melbourne based writer and illustrator who, this past summer, became the Nottingham Women’s Centre’s remote writer in residence with help of Nottingham UNESCO City of Literature. She phoned in from across the world to chat to us about what the experience was like, and how it impacted her creative practice. before. We adopted a real sense of friendship.

What did you know about Nottingham before doing the virtual writers' residency? Did anything about the city or Nottingham Women's Centre surprise you?

Honestly, I didn't know a lot about Nottingham in general. I've been to the UK a few times, but never made it to Nottingham before. So that's going to have to change on my next trip.

I think what really drew me to the residency with the Women's Centre was the focus on helping women.

It already aligned with my interests and some of the work that I've done before. I've done a lot of work in Melbourne in the social justice space, with, for example, the RMIT Centre for Innovative Justice and working with people who have the lived experience of going through hardship and homelessness – things like that.

So I was really stoked when they wanted me to be their writer in residence. I think what also really surprised me was the lovely sense of community I encountered there; it was really strong, supportive, and quite diverse.

Melbourne is a UNESCO City of Literature, and this residency connected you with Nottingham through that. What does being part of the City of Literature community mean to you – as a writer and someone sharing their culture and identity?

I really like that the City of Literature offices are promoting ways of connecting with different cultures and communities. In addition to this writer's residency, I took part in an online writer's room called Parallel Panels with a sister City of Literature in Korea.

There were ten writers from Melbourne and Korea, and we all met on a Wednesday night and shared comics that we were creating. That was a super fun experience and really fostered this sense of community. It meant I met up, even after, with people from Melbourne City of Literature, who I’d never found the opportunity to meet and encounter

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As part of the residency, you led a comic-making workshop with Nottingham Women's Centre. What was that experience like, and why did comics feel like the right medium for engaging with the women and their stories?

Because I'm an artist and writer, I feel like comics are a really nice medium that combines both of those things that I love. Sometimes communicating something with an image and text can be a lot more powerful than writing in prose – at least that's what I find. Sometimes it can even unlock ideas, or a new way to tell stories.

Sometimes communicating something with an image and text can be a lot more powerful than writing in prose. Sometimes it can even unlock ideas, or a new way to tell stories As a part of your residency, you have created a set of comics and illustrations influenced by the spaces in the Women’s Centre, as well as stories of women in your family who moved to the UK. Could you tell us about those pieces and what parts of the Centre inspired you most?

The first one, the stories from the Centre, was really interesting because I got a good mix of things. We tried to focus a bit on the spaces that people were using within the Centre, but also on literature, because it is a City of Literature project. So we wanted to ask what books people were reading, what books had inspired them, things like that. We got a handful of responses, including a couple from staff, and picked some stories to illustrate.

We got some really beautiful stories about community.

There was one about a woman meal-prepping in the kitchen while her son was rummaging through the toy box and upending a pot plant, basically doing what toddlers do. I felt a really strong sense of connection from that because I was like, ‘oh yes, I recognise this scenario exactly’. I recognised that story in my own life – trying to get something done while your toddler is crawling around behind you creating chaos. That was really beautiful.

The one I'm doing about my family is still in progress.

I've previously talked to my grandmother about moving from South Africa to Doncaster in 1960.

They went on the boat and my grandmother was getting really, really sick, thinking it was seasickness.

It turned out it was her seventh pregnancy at forty years old, so my mum was born in England.

They left during this period of apartheid – when my grandfather was classified as white and the rest of the family was classified as coloured. They decided to pack up, made some moves to make a bit of money, bought a ticket on the ship, came to the UK and stayed with my grandmother's sister for six or seven years. My grandmother is 105 and still doing very well.

My mum was seven when she came here, so I'm really interested in exploring that epoch, what was happening within the family, but also what was happening in the UK at the same time. I'm in the process of figuring out what shape that takes. I've done some interviews with my family and had some chats, and now I'm just trying to work out what the story becomes.

Now that the residency has come to an end, what is your biggest takeaway from the experience? Is there anything about Nottingham, its community, or the Women's Centre that you particularly connected with?

I got really keen to visit at some point. I'd love to pop my head in, have a look at the space and chat to the people I was working with. Christie, Simone and Rebi at the Centre were so much fun to work with.

It's also opened my eyes to the literary scene in Nottingham and what's happening there. It looks like a beautiful place, and I would really like to come and visit. That's probably my main takeaway. My husband's French and my kids are French, so at some point we're going to do a big tour of France to visit friends and family. I think we're going to have to visit the UK at the same time.

And I guess the only other thing is a big thank you to the Women's Centre for choosing me as the writer in residence. I imagine they got a lot of applications, and I was so excited to be the writer who was chosen.

Q @lisettecharlotte nottinghamwomenscentre.com

community

Alto-gether now

words: Penny Harrison photo: Nigel King

Have you got the X Factor? Or maybe you just enjoy that gratifying feeling of achieving perfect harmony with fellow vocal enthusiasts? The Notts Community Choir, based in Queen’s Walk Community Centre, might be for you. Penny Harrison shares her own, and others' experiences since joining while founder and director, Josh Elliott, shares the choir’s journey…

Josh Elliott, the infectiously positive founder and director of The Notts Community Choir, couldn’t be more proud of how the project has developed. “My dad had been encouraging me to start a local choir,” he explains. “He has always been involved in gospel choirs and we’re a family of singers and musicians.”

Josh has deep music credentials. With twenty years of choir experience and ten years leading vocal groups, he’s performed with singers including Emeli Sandé and Dizzee Rascal.

“I knew if I started a choir, I’d have to be ‘all in’ – that was important to me. I didn’t want it to be cold. I wanted it to feel like a community. I wanted to know the members and feel it had a purpose, so I held back at first,” he adds.

At one time, the mention of a choir might have conjured thoughts of dusty churches, pianos, religious hymns, and that one very enthusiastic member wailing obliviously out of tune above everyone else (cue childish tittering from the congregation).

Times have changed. Choirs are cool. And singing is officially good for us.

Research proves singing positively impacts mental, social, and physical wellbeing. It’s said to lower cortisol, relieve stress, boost confidence, and have a mindful effect, helping us switch off. Local NHS Social Prescribing Link Workers (SPLWs) can even refer patients to choirs for community-based help, supporting their wellbeing.

I’ve sang on and off over the years. I once dreamed of pop stardom, singing out of my bedroom window in the hope a random record exec was passing through the streets of Beeston looking for a star.

I sang at school, in bands and choirs; I did some gigging around London. But it turned out I wasn’t Nottingham’s answer to Mariah Carey – so the shower and car have been my main stages more recently.

After a tricky 2025, I was looking for ways to rediscover joy. I’ll be honest, I didn’t expect to find it in a corner of The Meadows every other Sunday night. But let me tell you – there’s a magical thing that happens there from 4-6pm and it comes from the collective diaphragm of The Notts Community Choir.

I chatted to Josh on the phone but I was still nervous before my first visit. He put me at ease though, helping me decide whether I was an alto or a soprano

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(I went for alto – RIP my inner-Mariah…). The members were chatty, and after a vocal warm up which, among other exercises, essentially saw us all blowing raspberries, quickly blasting away any nerves.

Josh leads with technical direction – studying the singing, praising the perfect notes, and stepping in to smooth out the bumps – like a sculptor chipping out a full, whole sound from dozens of voices.

I left feeling lighter. The singing had loosened something. I thought about how many tough times singing had got me through and wondered why it'd taken me so long to seek out a choir It was December so festive songs were a-go. I was amazed how quickly I was harmonising The Twelve Days of Christmas – as we sang, I felt like I was coming back to myself somehow.

I left feeling lighter. The singing had loosened something. I thought about how many tough times singing had got me through and wondered why it'd taken me so long to seek out a choir.

For Josh, he explained that it wasn’t until the pandemic had done its worst that he felt the pull to do something to bring people together again.

“At the end of 2022 we went for it – posting flyers around The Meadows – and more than thirty turned up. It was amazing! I couldn’t believe how brave people were, how willing they were to try. I felt like it was needed.”

The choir learns styles from pop arrangements to gospel inspired melodies, and lots in-between. And they capture hearts wherever they go, leading to repeat bookings and growing members.

He announced a three-month trial that would culminate in a concert at the Queen’s Walk Community Centre. “We decided to work as hard as we could and see if it worked… And it did!” he says.

“That concert was incredible. It made me emotional to see what can happen when people come together.

Our choir felt like a genuine community.”

Josh went on to describe how the ‘Community Choir’

name originally developed. “It was an important ingredient to make it clear we were there for people, and that they come first.”

The Notts Community Choir hasn’t looked back, having performed at dozens of events with festivals and exciting collaborations planned for the rest of this year.

It might be easy to dismiss the idea of a choir bringing healing, but it’s clear that this group is a pocket of peace for its members.

Jenny, who’s been attending since the beginning, agrees, “It’s just fun and great company. It’s so worth coming out for, it lifts me up, and we all enjoy the songs and the banter.”

Her friend Shirley adds: “It’s the best way to start the week; it’s not all serious, we laugh a lot and Josh is fantastic.”

Many of the members join the choir after seeing them perform. Sam tells me her husband died recently, and she saw the choir at a memorial service. “I was so moved. It felt special and I decided I’d love to try it. The choir has been so welcoming and the singing brings something positive.”

Personally, the choir has been a reminder for me to keep challenging myself when I feel stuck. And it’s brought connection to new people, yes, but also to the braver version of me, helping me recommit to my goals.

Big plans lay ahead for the choir too, with Josh developing a host of projects for 2026 and beyond.

“There’s so much division out there,” Josh says, “But choir unifies us. I see us as a bit of a call to action, to come together, to belong, and to be there for each other.”

“We commit time and effort. We put in hard work but we see it pay off. When members message me to share their struggles but tell me they’re looking forward to attending choir – well, that's the purpose and that’s why I keep showing up – that’s why we sing.”

The Nottingham Community Choir meets fortnightly on Sundays 4-6pm at Queens Walk Community Centre, NG2 2DF.

Q @nottscommunitychoir

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music

MUSIC REVIEWS

Love and Betrayal (Album) Mondo

Q @mondoloveandbetrayal Mondo is a new collaboration from two respected figures from the Nottingham music scene. Neil ‘Nail’ Tolliday is half of the electronica duo Bent, who have been active since 1999 and also a familiar face for anyone who bought records from him back in the day at Selectadisc. His new other half is guitarist Henry Claude Scott, who cut his teeth playing jazz and is known for his roles in Balearic-minded acts such as Torn Sail and Brown Fang. This new LP Love and Betrayal is a ten-track collection of 1980s-inspired synth-pop, released on the Ibiza-based NuNorthern Soul label.

Stand-out tracks include Correspondence, Beyond The Rainy City and Muscle Memory. In the day and age of Spotify playlists it’s an album that benefits from being listened to from beginning to end. Also look out for their launch event, complete with Q&A and DJ set, at Rough Trade Nottingham on Friday 18 September. (Roger Mean)

Emily Ashberry The Bee Charmer (Single)

Q @emilyashberry Inspired by the novel Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Café, The Bee Charmer is a song with a remarkable sense of

place, the instrumentation transporting you into the hot Alabama day, feet firmly planted on the sun-baked earth of the American south. Folksy and bright, the melodies weave with the sparkling vocals beautifully, surrounding them with an atmosphere redolent of clapboard houses and swaying crops. But it's the subject of those vocals that remain most prominent throughout, the very human lives described so eloquently

by Emily Ashberry’s exceptional writing as she references the forced secrecy of lesbianism in that time and a desire straining at those unjust societal limitations with a deftness and sweetness befitting the honey on the single’s cover. As both a singer and a storyteller, Ashberry singles herself out here as a fantastic and intriguing folk talent.

(Kieran Lister)

Di$mal Still Not Happy (Single)

Q @dismal____ Notts rapper Di$mal's newest release digs into familiar territory – anxiety, self-doubt and the nagging feeling that contentment is always just out of reach. Di$mal has a knack for writing hooks that balance introspection with hazy, nostalgic production and hopeful lyrics; even when the subject matter is heavy, there's always the sense that he's looking for a way through rather than simply documenting the struggle. Still Not Happy builds on what Di$mal does best: thoughtful alternative rap with memorable melodies and enough emotional weight to keep you coming back for another listen.

Following the attention 5 a DaY and Keep IT ClosE have already generated, Still Not Happy feels

less like a change of direction and more like another marker of an artist steadily refining his sound. (Ryan Benjamin)

Ronnietoldus Mash Up (Single)

Q @ronnietoldus The latest single from Nottingham-based electronic artist Aaron Price, AKA ronnietoldus, Mash Up is the perfect soundtrack to your Friday night. Taken from his I told ya so EP released earlier this year, the track is an addictive slice of blurryeyed euphoria, inspired by chaotic nights-out in Nottingham. Built around thumping production and hypnotic chant-like vocals, the lyrics capture that hazy limbo at the end of the night between fighting dancefloor fatigue, but also too wired to go to bed. This feeling is perfectly illustrated in the Nottingham-shot, DIY music video, which takes the viewer around iconic city centre establishments such as The Pit & Pendulum and Hurts Yard, following ronnietoldus on a wild night out in NG1. A brilliant self-aware anthem for anyone who’s ever stayed out too late! (Karl Blakesley)

Wayne Banks World We Share (Single)

Q @banksy_therealone_ official Many Nottingham music lovers might not be familiar with Wayne Banks, but make no mistake, this local lad is about to

make himself heard far beyond the boundaries of our fair city with his debut solo single. Actually, Wayne has been around for quite some time, busily beavering away behind the scenes as a session musician for some of the industry’s biggest names.

Heavily influenced by his early life experiences of growing up on a council estate here in the city, World We Share is a truly anthemic number that will lay siege to the circles of your mind. This is a song that draws on various rock inspired strands that exude real energy with some spellbinding guitar work and driving rhythms that refuse to yield throughout. Recorded at the Old School Recording Studios on the Wirral and mastered at Abbey Road, this is a commanding song with real meaning contained in the powerful lyrics that encourage individual empowerment and unity in the scenarios contained in the class struggles of today.

(Claire Spencer)

Full Blast All Stars Stop Caring (Single)

Q @fullblastallstars Having spent a couple of years causing a mighty ruckus and smoothing out their sound on stages throughout the city, The Full Blast All Stars debut single Stop Caring finally brings their signature high energy to our speakers. Veering from Lex’s lyrical storytelling to a punchy chorus that orders listeners to get out of their own head, this is a band for fans of cheeky rap punk, with a distinctly Rage Against The Machine flavour. Wrapping up at just under two minutes, if it leaves you wanting more keep an eye out for upcoming gigs where their fiery noise is sure to rouse spirits. (Sophie Gargett)

If you’re from Nottingham and want to get added to our list of music writers or get your tunes reviewed, hit us up at: music@leftlion.co.uk To listen to these tracks and more, check out the LeftLion channel on Spotify.

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WHATS IN A NAME

SANCHO PANZA "Long ago before the times of Corona, I was visited by Sancho Panza in a dream. He said 'Go forth and make both reasonable and funky music!' Since that day, hundreds of midlands based musicians have continued this mission, providing a good time for people with nowhere better to go." @sanchopanzamusic Q

VENUE SPOTLIGHT

Following a change of ownership, The Mist on Derby Road (previously The Mist Rolling Inn) is bringing its focus to great beer and becoming a grassroots hub for hardcore and metal music.

Now in the hands of the team behind Nottingham’s Mangata Festival and Mangata Music agency, with an impressive soundsystem from the much loved Notts music venue The Chameleon, it is certainly one to check out. Various album launches and electronic music open mic nights are scheduled, but if that’s not your thing the pub also promises to cater for the beer nerds out there.

Q @themistnotts

PROMOTER FOCUS

Founded by Parisa East in 2009, Acoustickle supports emerging talent in music from black origin genres such as jazz, soul, RnB and spoken word in Nottingham.

They’re proud to be the first performance or first Nottingham performance for many successful artists from diverse backgrounds, and continue to host events in Nottingham as well as London and Manchester.

Q @acoustickle_

What's on THIS September TUESDAY 1 SEPT Serena Korda: Triple Goddess  The Harley Gallery & Museum Free, 10am-4pm Runs until: Sunday 6 Sept

Anna Von Hausswolff  Rescue Rooms £23, 6.30pm

Carson McHone  Angel Microbrewery & The Chapel £16, 7.30pm

Matrika: She Who Makes Worlds  New Art Exchange Free, 10am-4pm Runs until: Saturday 12 Sept NAE Open 2026  New Art Exchange Free, 10am-4pm Runs until: Saturday 12 Sept

Robin Hood International Improv Festival 2026  The Squire Performing Arts Centre £6-£20, 6pm-10pm

Augustas Serapinas: Physical Culture  Nottingham Contemporary Free, 10am-5pm Runs until: Sunday 13 Sept

This annual showcase of world class comedy in Nottingham is back again. Each time the festival offers a varied program of comedy performers from across the world, and celebrates how we punch above our weight in these kinds of arts in Notts. As always, there’s some varied acts scheduled to be there, including The Loophole – a musical show portrayed by German performers, Sound Off – a wordless performance from Austria, PGraph – a play created differently each night by US performers in just about every style you can think of, local shows of course, and loads more besides.

Runs until: Sunday 6 Sept

Chico da Silva: And the soul is for the birds  Nottingham Contemporary Free, 10am-5pm Runs until: Sunday 13 Sept Fragments Exhibition by Lindsay Tempest  West Bridgford Library Free, 10am-4pm Runs until: Saturday 5 Sept We the People: America’s Fight for Freedom and Beyond  Lakeside Arts Free, 12pm-4pm Runs until: Sunday 13 Sept André Rieu’s 2026 Summer Concert: Viva Maastricht!  Savoy Cinema Runs until: Monday 7 Sept

Writing Horror Course, five week course with Megan Taylor  Five Leaves Bookshop £100, 7pm-8.30pm Runs until: Thursday 1 October

Annie  Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall £57.50-£60.50, 7.30pm Runs until: Sunday 6 Sept The Last Laugh  Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall £44.50-£49.50, 7.30pm Runs until: Saturday 5 Sept

The Playhouse Pub Quiz  Nottingham Playhouse

FRIDAY 4 SEPT Pots and Pints: Emo Special - Goblets!  Rough Trade £33, 6pm Claire Richards: Love The 90's  Nottingham Castle Free, 6pm-10pm The Molotovs  The Palais £15, 6.30pm-10pm Cody Pennington Country Show  Rock City £25, 6.30pm-10pm UK Foo Fighters  Rescue Rooms £22.50, 6.30pm King Prawn  The Bodega £20, 6.30pm-10pm

Peter Valentine is an artist working between Birmingham, Derby, and Nottingham who, sadly, has battled terminal cancer for the past three years. As such, this exhibition in Nottingham will probably be his last, and it will showcase his really distinct and captivating style, encompassing surrealism, fantasy, portraiture, and CD/ album covers, created mostly with oil paints. It’s happening at the Nottingham Society of Artists, which is a cosy gallery located close to the Castle – the society itself has existed since 1880, making it one of the oldest in the country. A very worthwhile and poignant exhibition to check out.

Runs until: Sunday 6 Sept Everlast  Rough Trade £16.68, 6pm

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Huldra Horror Shorts Film Festival  Notts Maze 4pm-10pm

Mangata Festival 2026  Rescue Rooms £20-£40, 12pm An annual heavy music day festival which happens across Rescue Rooms, Stealth, and the Tap and Tumbler pub. It's back again this month for its fifth year. There’s five stages in total, traders on the Rescue Rooms patio, and some great bands from the UK and beyond included in the 40+ strong line-up. Scheduled for the day are French deathcore group Ten56, Manchester trio The Hara, instrumental post rock duo Nordic Giants, and loads of other characterful acts.

Not one to be missed if you're a disciple of heavy guitars.

Nottingham Panthers Vs Cardiff Devils Motorpoint Arena Nottingham Archery GB: The Final Victoria Embankment £0-£180, 10am-4pm

MOR ‘86 Revisited  The Black Market £10-£25, 12pm-11.30pm Sosa Extended Set: Groovebox  Rock City £10-£32, 2pm-10pm

Johnny Foreigner  JT Soar £14

The yin and yang of groovy guitar music in Nottingham – Sancho Panza and Wizards Can’t Be Lawyers – are on the same bill this month. The two bands have shared members over the years, and have more-or-less become local legends, so they’ve got loads of musical chemistry guaranteed to come through fully for this gig. Also, if you’ve never been to the Boat Club, now is the perfect time. Located by the waterside in West Bridgford, it’s got a fun and supportive atmosphere which is ideal for resolutely local gigs like this one.

Westside Cowboy  Rough Trade £19.67, 6pm

Garrett T. Capps  The Grove £20, 7pm-11pm

Paulie Boy Blues  The Grove £10, 7pm

Slady  Billy Bootleggers £17, 7.30pm

Nottingham Comedy Festival Preview Show  Canalhouse £0-£5, 7.30pm-10pm Sam Serrano: Mars  Juice Bar £5, 8pm-10pm

THURSDAY 3 SEPT

Tyler’s Legacy of Love & Light  Church of the Good Shepherd £20, 8pm-9pm Tanuki Moon  The Grove £10, 7pm-11pm Day We Ran  Rough Trade £16.90, 7pm Trancesexuals Vol 7  The Model 10pm-3am

Nottingham Book Festival  Broadway Cinema £0-£5.50, 11am-5.30pm Sancho Panza Vs Wizards Cant Be Lawyers  The Boat Club £10, 7pm

Slow Motion Cowboys  The Grove £10, 7pm

It’s that time of the year again – the days get shorter, the weather gets colder, and the Huldra Horror Short Film Festival team decide that it's never to early to get into the Halloween spirit. This well loved local event, which takes place at the Lime Lane Woods in Arnold, is now in its sixth year.

As well as featuring a top class curated selection of scary short films, it also offers clothing, artwork, and jewellery stalls, food, drink, storytelling, and a welcoming, artistic atmosphere that’s not to be missed.

Saturday Art Club  New Art Exchange 10.30am-12.30pm

Little Grandad  The Bodega £12.50, 7pm

Valentine's Swansong Exhibition  The Nottingham Society of Artists Free, 10am-5pm

SATURDAY 5 SEPT

Cinderella - P*ssed Up Panto (16+)  Mansfield Palace Theatre 7.30pm

WEDNESDAY 2 SEPT

Johanna Summer  Peggy's Skylight £12.50, 7pm-10pm

Beer  JT Soar £12, 7.30pm

Nottingham Forest v Tottenham Hotspur  The City Ground 3pm-4.45pm The Bootleg Beatles: Live Orchestra  Nottingham Castle £15-£62, 6pm-10pm Six. by Seven  The Bodega £20, 7pm-10pm Disko Kix  Movers 7pm-12am Alex P - Free Party  Mssng Pieces

Till the Stars Come Down  Nottingham Playhouse £21.50-£26.50, 7.30pm An acclaimed play created by Mansfield born playwright Beth Steel, which this month is coming to the Nottingham Playhouse for the first time. It’s set in Mansfield, and focuses on a comedic and complex familial drama surrounding a couple, Sylvia and Marek, who are about to get married. Though the story is often light-hearted the political and economic history of the East Midlands remains in the background. The play has received loads of critical acclaim since it was first staged in 2024, including two Laurence Olivier award nominations, and in 2025 it was transferred from the National Theatre for a run on London’s West End. Runs until: Saturday 26 Sept Studio30  Liquid Library £10-£12.50, 9pm-4am

FRIDAY 25 SEPTEMBER - S DAY 4 T BER FOREST RECREATION GROUND whatsonnottingham.com

Find What’s On Nottingham on socials:

Sip and Sounds: Jan & Paul Ramsey  Mansfield Palace Theatre

Matilda Mann  Rough Trade £15.75, 6pm

Downward  Rough Trade £18.03, 7pm

Atlas  Rescue Rooms £13, 7.30pm-11pm

Disturbance Records: System Reboot  Secret Vault £5-£10, 10pm-4am

Model & Actriz  Rescue Rooms £16, 6.30pm

Allegaeon & Gorod  Rescue Rooms £20, 7.30pm-11pm

Best Bar None Awards 2026  Box Nottingham £15-£20, 6.30pm

Vundabar And Yot Club  Metronome £20, 7.30pm

Jason Manford: A Manford All Seasons  Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall 7.30pm

Missio  The Bodega £18, 7pm-11pm

THURSDAY 10 SEPT

Lemonade Bangs x CDWM: Phil De Janeiro & Benji King  The Secret Garden £7.50-£15, 10pm-3am

SUNDAY 6 SEPT Italian Patisserie Masterclass: Cannoli & Crostata  Pippley Walled Garden £90, 10am-3pm La Traviata On Sydney Harbour  Savoy Cinema Runs until: Thursday 10 Sept The Big Faces  Angel Microbrewery & The Chapel Martin Kemp's: 80s DJ Set  Nottingham Castle £20-£62, 5.30pm-10pm Personal Trainer  Rough Trade £15.75, 6pm

Altered Images  Rescue Rooms £30, 7.30pm Clare Grogan brings her band Altered Images to Nottingham this month, for a celebration of their 1981 album Happy Birthday.

Altered Images were a defining 80s New Wave act who helped shape the nascent post punk sound. Grogan since went on to become a successful actor and author. The setlist is going to be varied and exciting, spanning pop, post punk, and singles fans of the group will know and love. Support comes from North London pop band Gift Horse.

TUESDAY 8 SEPT Jane McDonald  Motorpoint Arena Nottingham £27-£38, 7.30pm D.H. Lawrence and the Gypsies, with John Pateman  DH Lawrence Museum, Eastwood Free, 1pm-3pm

Kazdoura  Peggy's Skylight £12-£18, 7pm-9pm

Dexys Midnight Runners  Rough Trade £15.55, 6pm Ratboys  The Bodega £16.50, 7pm-11pm Vincent Babl ft. George Nash  The Grove £8, 7pm-10pm The Necks  Peggy’s Skylight £23, 7.30pm Bette & Joan  Lace Market Theatre Runs until: Saturday 12 Sept

Heathers is a musical based on a classic 1988 black comedy film which starred Winona Ryder. This month it’s coming to Nottingham, following highly praised runs in London and New York, plus becoming the winner of a WhatsOnStage ‘Best New Musical’ award. It’s set in a fictional Ohio high school called Westerberg, and follows a character called Veronica, the clique she’s part of where everyone’s called Heather, and her entanglement with a mysterious new student called J.D. Under 18s need an adult with them, due to the mature themes.

Runs until: Saturday 12 Sept

The £2 Comedy Night  Canalhouse £2, 7.30pm-10.57pm

WEDNESDAY 9 SEPT Guided Tree Walk  Sherwood Forest Country Park Free, 10am-11.30am

Grindr the Opera  Nottingham Arts Theatre £18-£30, 7.30pm-9.30pm

Why do we love crime fiction?  Nottingham Central Library 2.15pm-7pm

Yes you read that right. This production, touring the UK, and taking place this month at the Nottingham Arts Theatre, explores gay hook-up app Grindr through the lens of the exaggerated world of opera. It involves four characters, representing different archetypes in gay culture, and the app itself reimagined as a mythical siren. It’s got some catchy songs, effective comedy, and exploration of complex themes, which together have earned the production some very positive reviews – it won ‘Best New Musical’ at the 2019 Off West End Awards.

D Day Darlings  Mansfield Palace Theatre

Primal Scream - Xtrmntr  Rock City £42.50, 6.30pm-10pm Heathers The Musical  Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall £54.50-£57.50, 7.30pm

Pioneering Scottish rock and electronic act Primal Scream are in Nottingham this month for a show at Rock City. They’re performing their classic sixth studio album XTRMNTR which last year passed its 25th anniversary. Last year two of the original members – Andrew Innes and Bobby Gillespie – performed the album at the London Roundhouse, with a huge live band. Using the record's politically charged resonances, the show took aim at what’s going on today, and its rapturous reception led to the announcement of an eleven date UK tour, of which the Notts show is a part.

Ghostwoman  The Bodega £18, 7pm

FRIDAY 11 SEPT MELA 2026: SOLOM – Yoga + Breathwork + Soundbath  New Art Exchange 6.30pm-8pm Come Work In Our Factories  Mansfield Palace Theatre 1.30pm A Sound Place For Sound  The Model 5pm-3am

BIPC Women’s Network  Nottingham Central Library The Printmaking Social  Yolk £25, 6pm-8pm Ricky Warwick  Rough Trade £15.75, 6pm Gandeys Circus  Wollaton Hall and Park £9.99, 6pm-7.45pm Runs until: Sunday 20 Sept BCUC  Metronome £20, 7pm Ok, Lady  JT Soar £7, 7pm

y a w a s ’ e r e th e e t n a r a u g to your evente gets in her Listing events is free. Boost for £12 and guarentee inclusion in 15,000 print copies of LeftLion magazine.

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Music in the Round: Beethoven Piano Sonatas  Mansfield Palace Theatre 7.30pm

Tansy Hoskins on fashion and charity shops  Five Leaves Bookshop £5-£14.99, 7pm-8.30pm

MONDAY 7 SEPT Till the Stars Come Down Curtain Raiser  Nottingham Playhouse £10.50, 6pm

Hannah Horton Quartet  Bonington Theatre & Cinema £16, 7.30pm

The White Room Sessions presents Shadows of a Silhouette  Fisher Gate Point £12, 6.30pm-11.30pm This is an upcoming gig at grassroots music hub Fisher Gate Point, featuring three great East Midlands acts. Headlining are Shadows of a Silhouette, who were formed in Alfreton, Derbyshire, back in 2019, and have an energetic garage rock sound tinged with the White Stripes. Support comes from Emily Ashberry, a talented local folk singer who recently competed in the Future Sound of Nottingham competition, and Rhys Turner, frontman of the band The Faith Estate.

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Ally Venable  Rescue Rooms £22.50, 6.30pm-10pm

Heritage Open Day  Lakeside Arts Free, 12pm-3.30pm

Alfie Sharp  The Bodega £9, 7pm

Notts County FC v Bradford City FC  Meadow Lane Stadium 12.30pm-2.15pm

The Red Hot Chili Peppers Experience  The Diamond £13-£15, 7pm-11.30pm Samer Album Launch Show  Mist Rolling Inn £10, 7pm Think Floyd  Mansfield Palace Theatre 7.30pm MELA 2026: SOLOM – Live Performance + Bollywood Dancing  New Art Exchange 8pm-11pm Saria Callas  Nottingham Playhouse 8pm KittyArama AV Show  The Malt Cross 8pm The Spiritual Bat  The Grove £10, 8pm Energy Flash 303  Billy Bootleggers £5-£13, 9pm-3am

SATURDAY 12 SEPT

Crawlchella  The Grove £10, 2.30pm-11pm Curated by dance punk band Crawl Town and champion of local acts and musician Alex Hale, this is a day-long music festival. It's taking place Sneinton Market's bastion of local talent The Grove, co-founded

by Cam Worne. At £11, tickets are excellent value for money due to the artists scheduled. There’s local acts like Crawl Town, Alex Hale and the Private Sector, Connexion Man, Bucko, and ok lady, Leicester alt country act Mountain Junkshop, Sheffield act Good News, and Newcastle indie pop band Baker Island.

Nottingham Panthers Vs Manchester Storm Motorpoint Arena Nottingham MELA 2026 : Art Club  New Art Exchange 10am-12pm Sherwood Vegan Market  Sherwood United Reformed Church Free, 10am-2.30pm

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Entering the Darkplace: Writing Terror-ful Short Stories  Broadway Cinema £15-£22, 1pm Man in the Mirror: A Tribute to Michael Jackson  Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall £38, 2.30pm Mansfield Town FC v Huddersfield Town  Mansfield Town Football Club 3pm-4.45pm Gaerea - Loss  Rescue Rooms £25, 6pm-10pm Pram  Billy Bootleggers £15, 6pm-9pm The Longest Johns  The Palais £27.50, 6.30pm Livewire The AC/DC Show  Rock City £25, 6.30pm Wheels in Motion Tour  The Bodega £15, 6.30pm

TUESDAY 15 SEPT Marco Pirroni: In Conversation  Rough Trade £29.36, 5.30pm

Nottingham Green Festival  The Arboretum Free, 12pm-6pm A volunteer-run festival which has been around for a long time – it evolved from the Nottingham Peace Festival, which took place in the 1980s. It features 100 local small green businesses, arts and crafts producers, food producers, voluntary groups and charities, and political advocacy groups, who all come together in the beautiful and serene surroundings of the Nottingham Arboretum.

You won't regret attending – each year it’s a great way of stepping aside from the everyday, and discovering new ways to connect with nature, support it, and aid your mental and physical health.

Irish Trad Sessions  Angel Microbrewery & The Chapel Free, 3pm Boyce Avenue  Rescue Rooms £35, 6.30pm-10pm Epa presents Change the World  Mansfield Palace Theatre REAL Goths UK  Mist Rolling Inn £10, 7pm-11.59pm

Zoe Rahman Trio – “Hull Suite Live” Tour  Peggy's Skylight £18, 6.45pm-8pm

Jon Anderson & The Band Geeks  Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall £55-£75, 7.30pm

The Rock of Ages  The Diamond £13-£16, 7pm-11.30pm

Fin Taylor: The Pre-Emptive Comeback Special  Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall 7.30pm

Live Dj Social - Mista Shotta  The Malt Cross 7.30pm

MONDAY 14 SEPT

The City for Incurable Women  Nottingham Playhouse £15, 8pm 4Play: Garage & Basslines (5th Birthday Special)  Tunnel Club £10-£15, 10.30pm-4am

SUNDAY 13 SEPT Nottingham Mela in the Park  Wollaton Hall and Park £2-£5, 12pm-5pm The Rock Steady Orchestra  The Diamond £12-£15, 2pm-6.30pm

The Silence Of The Lambs  Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall £49.50-£54, 7.30pm Runs until: Saturday 19 Sept NCF Comedy: Alfie Brown, The Entertainer  Canalhouse £22, 7.30pm-8.30pm

Exhibition On Screen: James McNeill Whistler  Arc Cinema (Beeston) £16-£18, 6.30pm-8.20pm In recent months, Beeston’s Arc Cinema has hosted ‘Exhibition on Screen’ screenings, in association with Tate Britain. The next instalment is about James McNeill Whistler – an American painter who spent much of his career in the UK. He’s since been described as the ‘first contemporary artist’, due to his enigmatic public persona, experimentation with different mediums, and belief that art could stand on its own and didn’t need a narrative explanation.

This is the first major retrospective of his work in three decades, so if art history is your thing, it should definitely be worth a watch.

WEDNESDAY 16 SEPT André Rieu  Motorpoint Arena Nottingham Havok  Rescue Rooms £25, 6pm

East Street Band – Bruce Springsteen Tribute  Bonington Theatre & Cinema £20, 7.30pm The Comedy Store (16+)  Mansfield Palace Theatre 7.30pm

David Essex: Thanks for the Memories Tour  Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall 7.30pm

The Meffs  Rough Trade £14.62, 7pm Pub H. D. Research Talks  Barley Twist £0-£3, 7pm-10pm Miriam Margolyes’ Full English Live  Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall From £38, 7.30pm

The Phantom Raspberry Blower of Old London Town  Mansfield Palace Theatre From £22, 7.30pm Originally written by Spike Milligan and Ronnie Barker, and adapted in its current form by John Hewer, this well loved Jack the Ripper parody features at the Mansfield Palace Theatre later this month.

It originally featured on the Two Ronnies TV show, and features lots of the surreal absurdism, puns, and wordplay that the show was known for in the 1970s. Mansfield Palace Theatre is definitely worth a visit too – they’ve been doing a great job at hosting some original, varied and family friendly shows that offer something for everyone.

Smash Night. An Improvised Comedy Experience!  The Malt Cross £3-£5, 7.30pm-9.30pm Richard Spaven  Peggy's Skylight £12-£17, 8pm-10pm

THURSDAY 17 SEPT Touch Tour: Till the Stars Come Down  Nottingham Playhouse Sound at Central: ‘The Brass Band Story’ with Trevor Herbert and Carlton Brass  Nottingham Central Library £10-£25, 6.30pm-9pm

Spiritbox  Motorpoint Arena Nottingham £53-£63, 6pm-11pm Spiritbox are a Canadian metal band who are playing Motorpoint Arena this month. Despite having been around for ten years, they’re only now undergoing their first UK and EU arena tour, spanning eighteen dates. The Nottingham show is the second, so they’re guaranteed to be in fresh and exciting form. They’ll be touring their second album Tsunami Sea, which was released just last year, and has received lots of critical acclaim for how bold, explorative, and adventurous it sounds.

Support comes from Ukrainian band Jinjer, and US act Dying Wish.

Rain Mcmey  The Grove £9.09-£13.64, 7pm

BBC Introducing in the East Midlands  Free, Metronome 7pm BBC Introducing in the East Midlands brings emerging musical talent to Metronome on Wednesday 16 Sept 2026. This live music event showcases promising artists from across the region, offering audiences the chance to discover new sounds and support the next generation of performers.

Whether you're seeking fresh indie, alternative, or diverse genres, this evening promises an engaging platform for up-andcoming musicians to perform.

Francis of Delirium  The Bodega £12.50, 7pm Ohtis  The Grove £12, 7pm Al Murray: All You Need Is Guv  Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall 7.30pm Arrival: The Hits of ABBA  Mansfield Palace Theatre 7.30pm

FRIDAY 18 SEPT Stand Op Comedy at K-Two  NG-One £7, 8pm-10pm Caravaggio: Exhibition On Screen  Mansfield Palace Theatre £12, 1pm Fastlove: George Michael  Mansfield Palace Theatre 7.30pm The Sisters of Mercy  Rock City £45, 6.30pm Arctic Numpties  Rescue Rooms £18.50, 6.30pm-10pm

The Greater Good  Billy Bootleggers £10, 7.30pm-11pm Nottingham V Blackheath Nottingham Rugby Club 7.45pm-9.05pm Crying into Bins  Nottingham Playhouse £15, 8pm Honey Events Summer Party  The Secret Garden £5-£7.50, 10pm-3am Kylie Wears Berghaus  The Model 11pm-3am Talk & Panel: Stories Of Movement and Belonging In the Era Of Sustainability  Lakeside Arts £0-£4.50, 4pm-6pm

SATURDAY 19 SEPT Bad Betty  New Art Exchange £6-£14, 6.30pm-9.30pm This is the latest in a series of live music and poetry events curated by local publisher Bad Betty. Featured each time are some of the very best writers and performers in the UK poetry scene, from Nottingham and beyond – this year includes London’s Karen McCarthy Woolf, Scotland’s RJ Hunter, Dublin-born Maureen Onwunali, and plenty of other talented writers. The hosts are Bad Betty co-founder Jake Wild Hall and creative director of GOBS poetry collective, former LeftLion editor Bridie Squires.

The event is guaranteed to have a joyous atmosphere – we recommend that you don’t miss it.

Mansfield v Newark Mansfield Rugby Club The Flower & The Wall: Byron Mohammad Hamzah  Lakeside Arts Free, 10am-4pm Runs until: Sunday 10 January

GIFT  The Bodega £13.50, 7pm Pebbledash  Angel Microbrewery & The Chapel £12.50, 7pm-11pm Flamin' Groovies  Metronome £27.50, 7pm-11pm Tim Holehouse: The Final Tour  The Grove £10, 7pm Rob Lamberti: Perfectly George  Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall DJ Social: Hemulen Soundz  The Malt Cross Let's Celebrate Sept Showcase!  Lutterell Hall £15.50, 7.30pm-11.30pm

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Songs from The Stage & ScreenKarl Loxley  The Albert Hall 7.30pm

Throwback R&B Party  Lexis Nightclub £10, 3pm-8pm

Hello Thor - Daudi Matsiko + Donna Thompson + flöat 

By Our Hands We Make Our Way £0-£10, 8pm-11pm

Cru2 Nottingham  Unit 13 £15-£20, 4pm-10pm Nottingham Forest v Coventry  The City Ground 5.30pm-7.15pm Jack DIY: A Folk History  Movers Free, 6pm-12am The Sisters of Mercy  Rock City £45, 6.30pm-10pm Eyre Llew: Bloom Album Launch  The Nest £14-£28, 6.30pm Jeremy Sassoon’s Ray Charles Project  Peggy's Skylight £18.50, 6.45pm-8pm

The Harley Open  The Harley Gallery & Museum Free, 10am-4pm Runs until: Sunday 3 January Masterclass with Karen McCarthy Woolf  New Art Exchange £10-£15, 11am-1pm Soul at the Lodge  Bestwood Lodge Hotel £10, 1pm-10.30pm

MC Devvo  Saltbox Bar £17.50, 6.30pm José Almarcha Trio  Peggy's Skylight £16, 6.45pm-8pm

Nottingham Academy of Performing Arts: The Crucible  Bonington Theatre & Cinema £15, 2.30pm

Yasfest  Angel Microbrewery & The Chapel £5, 2pm-6.30pm This will be the third year of Yasfest – an afternoon long festival held at the Angel Microbrewery.

It’s in aid of Sutton-on-Trent based charity the Yasmine McClory Foundation, which aims to tackle various social issues including food poverty, mental health in young LGBTQ+ people, and women and young people’s healthcare.

There’s some talented young East Midlands acts on the line-up like metal act Hystamine, Derbyshire’s Parasight, and stalwart LeftLion contributor Matt Blaney.

On Your Bike Baffo  Nottingham Playhouse £12, 2pm Trancecoda & Groovebox:. Shine with Paul van Dyk  Binks Yard £5-£51, 2pm-10pm

U.K vs Belgium Tour  The Palais £10-£15, 10pm-4am Afta Dark: James Poole  Secret Vault £8-£15, 10.30pm-3.30am Conducta - All Night Long  The Brickworks £12, 10.30pm-4am

SUNDAY 20 SEPT Nottingham Panthers Vs Guildford Flames  Motorpoint Arena Nottingham Pozi  JT Soar £12 Harmony at the Hall: Children’s Concert  Wollaton Hall and Park £5-£8, 1.30pm ShowStoppers & ChartToppers  Nottingham Contemporary £8-£12, 2.30pm-5pm

Little Barrie  The Bodega £20, 7pm-10pm Little Barrie is the project of singer and guitarist Barrie Cadogan, who grew up in Beeston, and went on to collaborate with a host of famous artists and bands like Primal Scream, The The, The Black Keys, Morrisey, Paul Weller, and many more. His band are performing at indie music hub The Bodega on Pelham Street, in promotion of their latest, sixth studio album Gravity Freeze. The record has a funky, indie pop quality that will lend itself energetic and memorable atmosphere, not to mention the band’s local connection, which should only add to it.

Motions  Mist Rolling Inn £10, 7pm Luna x OnlyNotts Charity Show  The Grove £10, 7pm Orange Fest  The Boat Club £5-£10, 7pm-11.45pm Michael Ball: Glow Uk Tour  Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall 7.30pm Dirty Deeds Productions Vol 1.  The Old Cold Store £17.50, 7.30pm-11pm A Vision of Elvis  Mansfield Palace Theatre £32, £7.30

The Ritual Year: Lulah Ellender  Five Leaves Bookshop £5-£16.99, 4.30pm-6pm The Afghan Whigs  The Palais £35, 6pm-10pm

Reaper  Mist Rolling Inn £11, 7pm Nasty Fishmonger  The Grove £10, 7pm Xand van Tulleken: Make Me Well  Nottingham Playhouse £36.50-£40.50, 7.30pm Laura Veirs  The Old Cold Store £22.50, 7.30pm-10.30pm

MONDAY 21 SEPT Binns Organ: Gordon Stewart  The Albert Hall 1.10pm Corella  Rough Trade £14.62, 6pm Much Ado About Nothing  Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall £5, 7pm Runs until: Monday 28 Sept Rail Replacement Bus Service  The Grove £12, 7pm Roddy Radiation (The Specials) + The Skabilly's  Billy Bootleggers £8, 7.30pm-11pm Words Of Wisdom: Free Poetry Open Mic  Angel Microbrewery & The Chapel Free, 7.30pm

TUESDAY 22 SEPT Soups & Sauces Cooking Class  Pippley Walled Garden £65, 10am-2pm The Skinner Brothers  Rescue Rooms £22.50, 6.30pm-10pm

Liam Bailey  Rescue Rooms £20, 6.30pm-10pm Nottingham singer-songwriter Liam Bailey is a bit of a local hero.

In 2010 he was signed to Amy Winehouse’s record label and released two EPs. Following that, he engaged in two high profile collaborations with Chase & Status, and made five solo studio albums, the latest of which: Shadow Town, was released in April of this year. It’s received a lot of praise for pushing the boundaries of his bluesy, reggae and soul tinged sound, so this hometown show, celebrating the record, should feel particularly special.

Marillion  Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall £55-£75, 7pm Peggy’s Spotlight: Vee Adu & Aileen Kelly  Peggy's Skylight £8-£11, 7pm-9pm

Write Night  The Malt Cross £5-£10, 7pm-8.30pm Irish Group Discusses: Old God’s Time by Sebastian Barry  Five Leaves Bookshop Free, 7pm-8.30pm The Telescopes  Billy Bootleggers £15, 7pm-11pm National Theatre Live: The Misanthrope  Savoy Cinema 7.30pm Runs until: Sunday 27 Sept Sounds of the 60s Live  Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall 7.30pm Matthew Bourne’s The Car Man  Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall £74, 7.30pm Runs until: Saturday 26 Sept

UNMISSABLE EVENTS COMING UP. POPULAR NOW J.COLE: THE FALL-OFF TOUR

ROLLING BACK THE YEARS OCTOBER 31

THE SCRIPT

NOVEMBER 09

ENTER SHIKARI

NOVEMBER 13

COMEDY PAUL SMITH

SEPTEMBER 19 NOVEMBER 12

BILL BAILEY JACK WHITEHALL

JANUARY 22, 2027

THE PUSSYCAT DOLLS

SEPTEMBER 30

PAUL HEATON

NOVEMBER 10

SUEDE & MANIC STREET PREACHERS

NOVEMBER 11

SQUEEZE

NOVEMBER 14

UB40 FT ALI CAMPBELL

NOVEMBER 30

PETE TONG IBIZA CLASSICS

DECEMBER 10

FAMILY DEADLY LIVE! HOSTED BY STEVE BACKSHALL

OCTOBER 22

DISNEY ON ICE: DISCOVER THE MAGIC NOVEMBER 19-22

AND MUCH MORE...

panthers Are Back!

The 2026/27 season games you won’t want to miss.

September SAT 12TH

VS MANCHESTER STORM

October SAT 3RD

VS COVENTRY BLAZE

SUN 20TH VS GUILDFORD FLAMES

SUN 11TH VS FIFE FLYERS

SAT 26TH

SAT 17TH

VS MANCHESTER STORM

VS SHEFFIELD STEELERS

SUN 25TH VS CARDIFF DEVILS

And many more games to come…

Get your tickets here!

WEDNESDAY 23 SEPT

CruClash  Unit 13 Free, 4pm-10pm

Guided Tree Walk  Sherwood Heath Free, 10am-11.30am Broadway Gallery: Beyond Capture  Broadway Gallery Free, 12pm-6pm Runs until: Sunday 4 October Talk: On Highfield’S Lake  Lakeside Arts £0-£4.50, 1pm-2pm Good Kid  The Palais £24, 7pm-10pm My Sister's Flat and the Earth's a Globe  Mammoth £2-£10, 7pm-8pm Ady Suleiman  Rough Trade £26.53, 7pm Witchcraft & Paganism Book Group: The Magic of the Orphic Hymns  Five Leaves Bookshop Free, 7pm-8.30pm Macbeth  Mansfield Palace Theatre 7pm, £32

Lovezoo 28th Birthday  Unit 13 £15-£20, 4.30pm-10pm Inspire Poetry Festival  Various Inspire Libraries 9am-10pm Nottinghamshire’s community benefit, culture and learning society Inspire are bringing back their annual poetry festival for 2026. Some talented East Midlands writers and poets are participating in events at libraries across the county, including Cara Thompson, Liz Berry, Becky Cullen, and Georgina Wilding, while the headline event will see highly acclaimed Liverpool poet Paul Farley in conversation with Clare Brown, who directs Bromley House Library on Angel Row. Aside from that, there will be lots of community events across Beeston, Southwell, West Bridgford, Worksop, and Mansfield, for wordsmiths of all ages and inclinations.

Runs until: Thursday 1 October Interstellar Audio: Transmissions  Angel Microbrewery & The Chapel Free, 8pm-1am

The Hallé  Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall From £13, 7.30pm The Phantom Raspberry Blower of Old London Town  Nottingham Arts Theatre £20, 7.30pm-9.30pm Old Herbaceous  Bonington Theatre & Cinema £12.50, 7.30pm Sweets  Billy Bootleggers £11, 7.30pm-11pm After Hours: Tangram  Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall 9.45pm

THURSDAY 24 SEPT Crime Club: Bath Time Killers  The National Justice Museum £16.50, 6pm Desert Island Poems: Paul Farley with Clare Brown  West Bridgford Library £10, 6.30pm Arliston  The Grove £10, 7pm Jazz Steps: Brandon Allen / Tom Ollendorff Quartet  Bonington Theatre & Cinema £16, 7.30pm Open Evening 1  Lace Market Theatre 7.30pm

Mansfield Town Film Festival 2026  Mansfield Palace Theatre £5-£10, 1pm-11pm Since its founding in 2023, the Mansfield Town Film Festival has become BIFA-qualifying, which means that short films screened as part of it are eligible for consideration in the British Independent Film Awards. As such, there’s never been a better time to attend it than this year. As always, the 2026 edition of the festival will champion works by independent filmmakers, from Notts and further afield, encompassing psychological drama, magical realism stories, animated character studies, explorations of modern politics, and loads of other genres – the choices are very diverse.

Sit Down with the Social Model Writers  Beeston Library Free, 2pm-4pm Baselab: EMOM  Mist Rolling Inn £3.50-£5, 6.30pm-11pm Nigel Planer - Young Once  Metronome £18.50, 7pm

Freya Ridings  Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall 7.30pm Nottinghamshire’s community benefit, culture and learning society Inspire are bringing back their annual poetry festival for 2026. Some talented East Midlands writers and poets are participating in events at libraries across the county, including Cara Thompson, Liz Berry, Becky Cullen, and Georgina Wilding, while the headline event will see highly acclaimed Liverpool poet Paul Farley in conversation with Clare Brown, who directs Bromley House Library on Angel Row. Aside from that, there will be lots of community events across Beeston, Southwell, West Bridgford, Worksop, and Mansfield, for wordsmiths of all ages and inclinations.

FRIDAY 25 SEPT Ganesh Festival  Wollaton Hall and Park £2, 5.30pm-8pm The Thompson Twins’ Tom Bailey  Rock City £40, 6.30pm-10pm Lifeline’s 40th Anniversary  The Nest £15, 6.30pm-11pm

New Constellations  The Bodega £18.50, 7pm-10pm Adam Kirkup  The Grove £10, 7pm Divulge  JT Soar £5, 7pm What's Love Got To Do With It?  Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall From £22.50, 7.30pm DJ Social: Dirty Disco Sound System  The Malt Cross 7.30pm 5 Mistakes That Changed History  Nottingham Arts Theatre £22, 7.30pm-9.30pm Paper Crane Poets Showcase  Beeston Library Free, 7.30pm Grey Disco  Billy Bootleggers £8, 7.30pm-11pm Detonate x The Brickworks: LTJ Bukem  The Brickworks £15-£20, 9.30pm-2am Lemonade Bangs: Chopper & Ryan Nicholls  Stealth £6, 10pm-4am

Goose Fair  Forest Recreation Ground Free, 4pm-11pm Goose Fair returns to Forest Recreation Ground its FRIDAY 25 SEPTEMBER S DAY 4 for T BER FOREST RECREATION GROUND annual celebration of tradition whatsonnottingham.com and entertainment. This longestablished event brings together families and visitors to enjoy classic fairground attractions, games, and amusements across the spacious grounds. With rides, stalls, and activities throughout the day, the fair offers something for all ages. Whether seeking thrilling entertainment or nostalgic charm, attendees can experience the vibrant atmosphere that has made Goose Fair a regular fixture in Nottingham’s events calendar.

Runs until: Sunday 4 October -

Find What’s On Nottingham on socials:

F*CK ME It's Freshers  The Palais £7-£12, 11pm-4am

SATURDAY 26 SEPT Nottingham Panthers Vs Manchester Storm  Motorpoint Arena Nottingham The Minotaur: World Premiere Midnight Screening  Victoria Centre Free, 12am-12.06am Clambake  JT Soar £9-£12, 7.30am-11pm The Great Big Bug Show  West Bridgford Library £3, 10.30am Beanbag Music Club: A Walk in the Park  Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall £10, 11am Beyond the Spectrum: Poetry for Neurodivergent People  Beeston Library Free, 11am-1pm Touch Tour: Matthew Bourne’s The Car Man  Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall Bad Ideas Club: Poetry Showcase  Mansfield Central Library Free, 1.30pm-3pm Notts County v Blackpool  Meadow Lane Stadium 3pm-4.45pm Mansfield Town v Leyton Orient  Mansfield Town Football Club 3pm-4.45pm Dayclub  Canvas £10, 3pm-8pm No-Hate 2026  Ye Olde Salutation Inn £7.70, 4pm

Selectors of House  Lace Bar £8.50-£10, 6pm-1.30am Poets Of The Fall  The Palais £32.50, 6.30pm The R&B Orchestra  The Nest £23, 7pm-10pm George Boomsma  The Grove £10-£16, 7pm Idol Maiden (Iron Maiden) + Wizards of Oz (Ozzy Osbourne)  Dunham On Trent Village Hall £10, 7pm-10.30pm Musicman Mike Memory Lane  Secret Vault £25-£45, 7pm-10pm The Magic of Motown  Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall Revival  Bonington Theatre & Cinema £15, 7.30pm Drifters Tribute: Performed By CJ Jackson  Beeston Victory Club £5, 7.30pm Inner Terrestrials  The Old Cold Store £15, 7.30pm In The Clouds  Fisher Gate Point £5-£15, 8pm-11.30pm Bright Places  Nottingham Playhouse £15, 8pm Afta Dark: Reeshy  Secret Vault £8-£15, 10.30pm-3am Secret Garden Rave  The Secret Garden £3-£11, 10.30pm-3am

SUNDAY 27 SEPT Autumnfolk Market  The Nest 11am-3pm Ask a Publisher: On Creating Your First Poetry Pamphlet  West Bridgford Library £8, 12.30pm-2.30pm John Clare & Me, Two Lives in Poetry and Music  Southwell Library £7, 3.30pm-5.30pm Queer Craft Club - Counter Concious 

By Our Hands We Make Our Way £0-£5, 6.30pm-8.20pm leftlion.co.uk 59

The Surfrajettes  The Old Cold Store £20, 7pm-11pm

The Tubs  The Bodega £15, 7pm

Acoustic Rooms  Rescue Rooms Free, 7pm

The Pop Confessional  The Bodega 11pm-3am

Red Hot Chilli Pipers  The Albert Hall 7.30pm

Meera Syal: Vigilauntie!  Nottingham Playhouse £41.50-£44.50, 7.30pm

TUESDAYS

Friday Friends  The Pride Shop Free, 4pm-6pm

MONDAY 28 SEPT

Jasmin Vardimon Company  Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall From £23, 7.30pm

Repo Man  Savoy Cinema 8.30pm

Award winning, UK based choreographer Jasmin Vardimon brings a revival of her landmark show Lullaby, to the Theatre Royal.

Lullaby first debuted in 2003, and received loads of critical acclaim, winning Vardimon various awards.

It’s set in a hospital ward, and explores how medical institutions treat their patients, with rawness and honesty. This new production reimagines and expands the show for a modern audience.

When it comes to contemporary dance, Vardimon’s work is at the highest calibre, so anyone who values the art form should definitely consider this one.

This month, at the Savoy Cinema, local film clubs Loft Movie Theatre and Porlock Press are screening 1984 film Repo Man. It’s a science fiction cult classic set in LA, following a punk rocker who gets caught up in a surreal conspiracy linking a Chevrolet car to extraterrestrial life. It’s a high energy watch that will hopefully lift your spirits as the days get darker. This screening will also celebrate the tenth anniversary of Loft Movie Theatre public screenings, so there’ll be a fun atmosphere, celebrating everything the team have achieved for the sake of Nottingham’s movie-loving community.

Five Leaves New Poetry: The First Three Years West Bridgford Library £4, 6.30pm Lauren Auder  The Bodega £13, 7pm The Deadnotes  The Grove £10, 7pm X Lace Market Theatre 7.30pm Runs until: Saturday 3 October

TUESDAY 29 SEPT SMEAR EP Release Party  The Grove £8, 7pm

WEDNESDAY 30 SEPT

If you need some joyful theatre to provide some sunshine, in the dark days of autumn, there’ll be few options as suitable as this. This twenty-six-year-old musical, immortalised in a 2008 Meryl Streep film, follows a girl called Sophie, who grows up on a remote Greek island. With songs from the band ABBA moving the story onwards, we watch as, on the eve of her wedding, Sophie reunites her single mother with three men from her romantic past. Reviews for the current run have been very positive, praising the characterful cast and simple but effective staging.

Runs until: Saturday 10 October Into the Everyday: A First-Draft Generating Bootcamp with Georgina Wilding  Mansfield Central Library £5, 2pm-4pm

Nottingham Kill Team Club  Games Haven £7.50, 6pm-10pm

The Pussycat Dolls  Motorpoint Arena Nottingham From £77.80

Pub Quiz  Canalhouse 7pm

Hallelujah for Leonard Cohen  Nottingham Arts Theatre £20-£25, 7.30pm-10am

Pub Quiz  Six Barrel Drafthouse £2, 8pm-10pm

The Pleasing  Billy Bootleggers Free, 4pm-3am

Funny Sods  The Robin Hood Pub Free, 7.30pm-10am

Pub Quiz  The Sir John Borlase Warren £1, 7.45pm-10.15pm

Nashville Nights  Red Dog Saloon Free, 9pm-11.30pm

Swim Deep  The Bodega £18, 7pm-10pm

WEDNESDAYS

Romance  Rescue Rooms £0-£5, 10pm

Michael Spicer: Hope All’s Well  Nottingham Playhouse £24.50-£26.50, 7.30pm My Royal Life: An Audience with Lucy Worsley  Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall

Mamma Mia!  Theatre Royal and Royal Concert Hall £64-£70, 7.30pm

Bod FM  The Bodega Free, 10pm

Barry Castagnola: The Last of the Barrys  Canalhouse £17, 7.30pm-9pm Sh!t-Faced Shakespeare - Romeo & Juliet (14+)  Mansfield Palace Theatre 7.30pm ALBO(a)E - A little Bit Of (almost) Everything 

By Our Hands We Make Our Way 7.30pm-10.30pm Amphitrio  Peggy's Skylight £12.50, 8pm-10pm Blockbuster Film Quiz  Broadway Cinema £2, 8.30pm-10pm

WEEKLY EVENTS MONDAYS The Big Quiz  The Malt Cross 7.30pm

s t o l s ’ e r the n o g n i o g m o c . s t t at no

SATURDAYS

A Musical Open Jam Night  Billy Bootleggers Free, 8pm-11pm Bandy Wandy  Billy Bootleggers Free, 11pm-3am Indie Wednesdays  The Bodega £5, 11pm-3am Pub Quiz  The Lion at Basford £1, 8pm

THURSDAYS

Rebel Rebel  Rock City £5-£6, 11pm-3am Shameless  The Bodega £6, 11pm-3am Magic the Gathering  Games Haven 11.30am-10.30pm Ink Saturdays  Ink Nottingham £5-£10, 10.30pm-3.30am

Mardy Bum- Indie Goodness  Billy Bootleggers Free, 10pm-3am

Pokemon Gaming  Games Haven £7-£12.50, 10.30am-10.30pm

Tuned  Rock City £0-£5, 10pm

Gallery Art Group  Lakeside Arts £120, 10.30am-12.30pm

Analogue  The Bodega Free, 9pm

SUNDAYS Smash Hits  Billy Bootleggers Free, 11pm-3am

FRIDAYS The Goodness  Billy Bootleggers Free, 4pm-3am

Open Mic Sundays  Billy Bootleggers 7pm-3am

Get Lucky  Rock City £5, 10pm

Board Game Weekly Sundays  Games Haven £7-£12.50, 12.30pm-6.30pm

Fandom Fridays  Rescue Rooms £4-£6, 10.30pm

Whatever you’re into, find it at notts.com

The most up-to-date events guide in Nottinghamshire. Updated daily, free to use.

leftlion.co.uk 61

Snap

NOUN • SN-APP This word refers to food and is often associated with a packed lunch, a light meal or a quick bite. In interviews with local miners, this was a term very commonly used and you see it combined with other words such as ‘snap tin’ (food container), ‘snap time’ (lunch time), ‘snap cabin’ (place to eat lunch) and ‘paid snap’ (being paid to work through your lunch break). illustration: Lily Keogh words: Natalie Braber (Professor of Linguistics at NTU)

Toilet Humour

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1. This piano man was the first artist to play the Royal Concert Hall in 1982 (5, 4) 2. Leo and Oscar’s sculptor (6, 4) 3. Bread and lard island is a nickname for 10 this district. (4, 9) 7. Name of the 8.5m ancient rock found in Stapleford (7, 5) 9. Mythical creature found near Sneinton Hermitage (6)

62 leftlion.co.uk

Unpicking Nottingham's Weird History The Strange Case of: The Angel in Hockley words: Matthew Blaney illustration: The Art of Beer

At the core of our British DNA is a yearning for a hearty ol’ pub where the glasses are older than its customers and the toilets come with a hazard warning. Thankfully, Nottingham is full to the brim with pubs to quench our thirst, but most don’t come close to the wayward history of The Angel on Stoney Street. As a favourite haunt of the LeftLion gang, its 400 year plus history has provided Notts with an incredible space for grassroots music, some rather mysterious deaths, and an ever-changing pub structure which boasts an ability to adapt to the times.

Oh, and a loo renovation so we can discard the hazardous substances sign.

Going all the way back to 1676, The Angel’s outer shell was erected in Stoney Street. Yet it wasn’t until 1744 when the Badder & Peat map of Nottingham Inns first documented The Old Angel Inn. One of the Angel’s first customers of celebrity status was said to be none other than Dick Turpin. Turpin was an infamous highway man which is a fancy word for a thieving *child-born-out-ofwedlock*. Given that The Angel was located on the original north/south route that ran through Nottingham, Turpin would pop in to wet his whistle before engaging in some good old fashioned armed robberies.

Nottsword 1

OR H T U T R LEG END?

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the caves where meetings would take place. This indicated that ‘Andy was home’ and they would drop down and play dead, giving time for the group to scarper.

In some rather exciting news, the Angel has even witnessed several murders within and outside of its walls. What good boozer doesn’t have a couple of ghosts tampering with the kegs? In 1831 Patron Robert Pearson simply couldn’t handle his drink (or the banister) and fell down the main stairs to his death. Four years later, a deep rivalry developed between two local men who both had their eyes set on one beautiful barmaid. The young lady grew tiresome with their efforts and suggested a dual for her hand in marriage. The amorous battle left one man dead and the other with a criminal record. Unfortunately, the police didn’t see this as a fair way to resolve this love feud, forcing the survivor to flee Nottingham to avoid incarceration, ultimately leaving the barmaid to lead a life as a spinster.

The 1800s saw further arrests.

Bartender Harry Shears was nicked for stealing eight bottles of hard liquor. Even a landlady, Sarah Ann Bell, was summoned before court just three months into her tenancy for organising a serious lock-in which endured until the early hours of the following Sunday morning.

Thankfully for us ravers, metalheads, headbangers, pop music screechers, and corduroy-wearing indie lovers, the law has allowed for laxer curfews, The chapel on the first floor was allowing the Angel to provide originally constructed by a Victorian lace manufacturer who wanted to save Nottingham with over 150 years of music. From Oasis and the Arctic his workers from the ladies-of-theMonkeys to subdued choral meetings night who frequented the pub. Yet and jaunty pianists in the Chapel, The his workers weren’t the only ones in Angel has heard it all. attendance. Fast-forward to the 19th century and The Angel began to host There were even regular ‘smoking all kinds of mysterious and clandestine concerts’ which were reserved for men gatherings within the chapel and only, allowing them to loiter amongst caves below, from the more formal the smoke and talk about serious meetings of the Ancient Order of the matters. These probably included: a Odd Fellows/Druids, to the political hyperfixation on the Roman Empire, rousings of the Luddite gangs across the rise and fall of the monocle, an the 1800s, who allegedly employed examination of Pho and if it just really children to roam the streets to keep is a fancy pot noodle, and whether an eye out for police presence. Upon anything good really happens past 2am the arrival of the po-po, the lookout when you were only out for one. would drop a coin down a drainpipe to In 2016, Ben Rose stepped in as the pub’s current landlord making extensive renovations and preventing a ‘Spoonsification’ of one of Nott’s most-loved pubs. With a frequently updated menu, a quality lineup of pints, and music events to keep you good folk of Nottingham dancing, The Angel has stood the test of time and is a testament to the city's ever-evolving climate… with less murders on Friday nights as an added bonus.