Live Picks (Jan '19): Gigs, gigs, gigs
Some Sheff-centred highlights of 2018, in no particular order. Adrena Adrena's glowing orb at Bishops House. Every edition of Groundwork I could make. Club Rush carrying forward the mantle of queer hedonism. Terry Riley's 'In C' inside the Arts Tower's paternoster. Laura Cole's spiritual skronk poetry for Jazz at the Lescar. Everything put out by CPU and Singing Knives.
Shostakovich's eighth string quartet inside the Cathedral. The 'ranting rebel MC' Attila The Stockbroker at The Gardeners Rest. Interviewing Jlin for this very magazine and then seeing her bombard a smoky Trafalgar Warehouse. Jim Ghedi's transcendental A Hymn For Ancient Land.
My friend Simon screening Philip Glass's 'Einstein on the Beach' to an audience of six. Soweto Kinch's saxophone drifting through a summer's day at The Folk Forest. Krapwerk's annual gig-come-wedding-anniversary. Renegade Brass Band at Now Then's tenth birthday bash. Helena Hauff dismantling The Harley brick-by-brick.
Sam Gregory
Wed 9 Jan | Lescar | £8
Tenor saxophonist Helena Kay brings her melodically-minded trio to Sheffield, kicking off another promising year for Jazz at the Lescar. She's joined by drummer David Ingamells and Fergus Ireland on double bass, playing work from their debut album, Moon Palace.
Thu 10 Jan | Site Gallery | £5
This hypnotic film from 1982 could perhaps best be described as a poem without words. It tells a narrative about life in late-capitalist societies through time-lapse footage of cities, skyscrapers and crowds of people in constant movement, with a matching soundtrack by Philip Glass.
Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov
Fri 18 Jan | City Hall | £21.28 (£5.60 students and under-18s)
As icy mid-January begins to bite, it seems fitting that The Hallé should present an all-Russian programme. It opens with Mussorgsky's magical 'Dawn on the Moscow River', followed by Tchaikovsky's ever-popular Violin Concerto. Rachmaninov's third symphony closes the evening, which stars violinist Francesca Dego.
Fri 18 Jan | Bungalows & Bears | Free
Founded in 2015, the Habibi Funk label is devoted to uncovering and reissuing records from the forgotten strain of Arab world funk of the seventies and eighties. Label boss Jannis Stürtz will be DJing some of the more danceable numbers for the Sourdough crew, supported by Marcelo Mader of La Rumba.
Fri 18 Jan | Yellow Arch | £4 before midnight, £6 after
Dub Shack celebrate their second birthday with an old-fashioned sound clash. Our own 'big green dub machine' the Sinai Soundsystem square up to the Firmly Rooted Soundsystem from Bristol, aka Sheffield-on-Sea, while the Dub Shack Allstars take care of the Rave Cave.
Poulenc, Britten, Elgar & Saint-Saëns
Fri 25 Jan | Upper Chapel | £14 (£10 concessions, £5 under-35s)
Two sonatas by French composers bookend this programme of music from the early twentieth century, played by Adrian Wilson on oboe and pianist Tim Horton. From this side of the channel, there's also Britten's 'Temporal Variations' and the tentative melancholy of Elgar's 'Soliloquy'.
Fri 25 Jan | Greystones | £13.20
East Riding singer-songwriter Edwina Hayes is now internationally known for her yearningly sincere take on Americana. It's seen her tour with the similarly US-inspired Van Morrison, and it's evidently won her loyal fans in Sheffield, as this will be her fourth visit to The Greystones.
Fri 25 Jan | Access Space | TBC
A slight twist on the usual Algorave format, with live-coded visuals to accompany the off-kilter beats. There's the A/V duo of CNDSD + Iván Abreu from Mexico City, plus American group Codie and their fellow New Yorker Ulysses Popple.
Sat 26 Jan | Hope Works | £20.20
The house don from Donny Mella Dee takes the controls all night long for the first party of Hope Works' 2019 season. He's riding high at the moment, with the unexpected success of his 'Techno Disco Tool' followed up by being granted his first Essential Mix.
Sat 26 Jan | DINA | Daytime free, night-time £8.10
Venturing outside their Shambala nest for the first time, Rebel Soul is a day-to-night mini festival of fresh music and radical politics. There's workshops about fracking, renters' unions and rescuing migrant boats in the Mediterranean, with music from The King Driscolls, Ganglions and Equaliser Collective DJs.
Thu 31 Jan | Picture House Social | £13.75
The multi-talented Sam Duckworth returns with a full band show under his most famous moniker, on a short tour of the UK's best independent venues in support of last year's Young Adult. Support comes from old friends Sweet Billy Pilgrim.
Sat 2 Feb | Plug | £22.40
After winning season ten of RuPaul's Drag Race last year, Aquaria is blowing her $100,000 prize money on the most decadent victory lap imaginable. Expect buff backing dancers, high-octane costume changes and precision-engineered choreography from this new superstar.
Soundwaves
Hope Works have released details of their early 2019 Winter Season. Visiting DJs include Lena Willikens, Hunee, Objekt, Josey Rebelle, Skee Mask and Paul Woolford. On 15 February Craig Richards plays back-to-back with Nicolas Lutz in support of Midland, with the season finishing on 29 March with a DJ set from Leftfield.
A new arts space has opened near the Site Gallery that will be hosting music events. Sidney & Matilda, so named because of its location in a former paper factory on the corner of Sidney Street and Matilda Street, has a capacity of 100 and aims to be an 'innovative incubator' for Sheffield artists.
One of the founder of Tramlines has been posthumously honoured with the Outstanding Contribution to Festivals Award at the UK Festival Awards. Sarah Nulty, who died in July before the festival's tenth addition, has also had a new Women in Festivals Prize named after her.
Hosted by Sam Gregory
