FILM MINI GREEN FESTIVAL @ STAR & SHADOW CINEMA

Words: Laura Doyle www.starandshadow.org.uk

If you’re not worried about the state of the planet, it’s time to wake up. If you already are, then you probably also already know about the Great Big Green Week, a nationwide event that seeks to bring attention to the ever-growing threat of climate change and environmental issues. Representing the North East on the national programme is the Star & Shadow Cinema, the host of their own Mini Green Festival on Saturday 10th June.

This day-long festival is jam-packed with activities for the environmentally curious: outdoor entertainment and stalls provide a breath of fresh air (literally), while appropriately themed workshops are perfect for those seeking a more tactile experience. The real star (pun intended) of the show, however, is the roster of eye-opening documentaries screened. S&S aren’t just about the valiant cause of climate change. No, they’re going all in with social improvement, as per the community hub’s raison d’etre. Crude Reality – brought to you by Stop EACOP – shows the harm that a proposed oil line through the heart of many East African communities would cause, while Offshore takes a deep dive into the potential for renewable energy and its impact on industry, workers and the communities it serves. With many more stories on the bill, the Star & Shadow reminds us to make space for them to be told.

Mini Green Festival takes place at Star & Shadow Cinema, Newcastle on Saturday 10th June.

MUSIC GEORGE LAMB & FRIENDS @ THE FIRE STATION

Words: Mera Royle www.georgelambmusic.co.uk

Lockdown was an experience of peculiarity, one which can be reflected on as a sometimes harrowing, but overwhelmingly uneventful time. For some artists, this period of thumb-twiddling resulted in cases of astute creativity, to affirming results. Local star and songwriter George Lamb, whose lockdown-created album Family And Friends granted him esteemed recognition, and an award for Album of the Year from Radio Severn FM, is one who can attest to this. It was formed, in Lamb’s words, because “there was literally nothing much else to do”. Now, in a truly unique event, Lamb prepares to recreate Family And Friends in a performance of the album at prestigious Sunderland venue The Fire Station on Saturday 10th June. This special, one-off gig brings live the must-listen album tracks, from the hair-raising thrill and instrumental electricity in Feels Like Groundhog Day to the whimsical, folk-inspired Make Most The Of Everyday.

Joining Lamb on stage is a collective of many of the region’s stars, including Paul Wilson on keys, John Taylor on bass, Jim Bullock on harmonica and not one but two drummers, Ian Hamilton and Barry Race, who perform alongside Archie Brown, Phil Caffrey, Dave Ditchburn, Dean James, Veronica Kelly, John Lamb, Moira Lamb, Philip Lamb, Pat McMahon, Helen Moran, George Pallas, Shannon ‘Pearl’ Powell, George Shovlin, Terry Slesser, Dave Smith and Emma Wilson. In a stunning show of music, love and connection, Lamb brings to light the positive creative effect of our slow pandemic past. George Lamb & Friends play The Fire Station, Sunderland on Saturday 10th June.

MUSIC UNKNOWN MORTAL ORCHESTRA @ BOILER SHOP

Words: Caleb Carter

On the cover of Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s statement double-album, V, a child reaches out towards a leopard, fangs-bared, mouth as large as the child’s head. The laminated glass between soft flesh and hungry tooth is barely visible and the elastic of a COVID mask chews at the boy’s ear: the safety lines of our day are wearing increasingly thin. And yet we reach. At their own unassuming, earworm pace, this is the proximation with peril and its edges that Unknown Mortal Orchestra have vowed to tour in their upcoming live show, which drops in to Newcastle’s Boiler Shop on Monday 19th June. With an angstier, more experimental (or dangerous) swing born from a pandemic that put all festivity into perspective, the musicians’ stoned pop-prog has otherwise lent into its effortlessness, now scratch at a subterranean undergroove only in the vindication of dance which – in these days of re-communing – is a kind of rebel against cynicism. Rather than the easy salt breeze of past tours, dancing to the songs of V might feel like bliss in spite of an eroded ignorance. Matured, fuzzier. Like streetlamps buzz awake to keep ward over the obscure, the world keeps stepping on only in a slightly different hue due to its closeness with darkness. Not to worry, this is the very essence of UMO’s intoxication. www.unknownmortalorchestra.com

Unknown Mortal Orchestra play Boiler Shop, Newcastle on Monday 19th June.

ART & LIT GAIL HENDERSON @ MIMA

Words: Michael O‘Neill

Abstract artist Gail Henderson has, across her career, carved out a unique place for herself in the region’s artistic community thanks to her singular approach to self-portraiture, which finds her visualising her psychological reality through intricate and experimental approaches. Her latest work, Periskepsi, is to be exhibited at Middlesbrough’s iconic MIMA until October. This latest addition to her body of work follows past successes with the likes of Sibilia 2012 and Salmacis 2012, which were both acquired for the Middlesbrough Collection through the Tees Valley Response Collecting scheme. Although abstract from a distance, she considers her works to be “bodily autobiography”, channelling her experiences, thoughts, feelings and emotional recovery from her experiences with depression and emotional disturbance into profoundly impacting works, which have optimistic undertone, celebrating the powerful healing qualities of artistic expression. The result is a fascinating, thought provoking and extraordinary approach to the form; with her intricate works offering a profound insight into the complexity of the human condition in a refreshingly cerebral and vivid way. Periskepsi will be a vital contribution to a brilliantly unique and fascinating body of work from a truly singular artist.

Gail Henderson: Tees Valley Response Award

Self-portrait, Periskpesi is at MIMA, Middlesbrough from Thursday 1st JuneTuesday 31st October. www.mima.art