North Staffs News - another arty one.

Rachael Lines, creative director, said: “2022 marks 70 years since Her Majesty the Queen ascended the throne, and FRONTLINEdance has been awarded some funding to host a creative and cultural event to celebrate.

“We are creating an event called ‘With Soundness of Heart’, which is an inter-generational inclusive performance project, and this weekend is when it all starts.”

The project is now looking for dancers to take part. The first creative meet-ups for interested participants take place this weekend at the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery. Further rehearsals take place on 11th and 18th June. The finished performance will take place in Hanley on 25th June.

“We always open our doors to non-dancers as well as professional dancers,” said Rachael. “This project does exactly that. It welcomes those with previous dance experience and those completely new to dance. The performance will be co-created. It’s going to be very inclusive, and very accessible to people with disabilities and long-term health conditions as well, because that’s who we are.”

Can’t dance? Won’t dance? There’s also opportunities for spoken word artists to get involved, and the event also needs volunteers too.

Funding has come from Arts Council England’s Jubilee Fund, Staffordshire Community Foundation, and Stoke-on-Trent BID’s Let’s Create Fund.

Find out more here:

Email: hello@frontlinedance.co.uk

Telephone: 07484 874335.

Social media accounts, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram: @FRONTLINEdance1

Follow this link to REGISTER: With Soundness of Heart

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Huddersfield based eccentric record collector Steve Goldman, 55, hit the national news last year when he first exhibited his collection of The Worst Record Covers in the World.

Now, the people of North Staffordshire will get the chance to see these Trash Hits! for themselves.

Over 300 of the craziest, funniest and most bizarre covers ever created will be displayed at the Spode Museum from 1 May to 30 June 2022.

Visitors will be able to vote for their own favourite Worst Record Cover which will be announced at the end of the exhibition. Music from the albums will accompany the exhibition.

Steve, who suffered a stroke 18 months ago, is staging the exhibition in aid of Different Strokes, a charity helping younger stroke survivors.  

Steve said: “About 40 years ago I bought an album called Roadstar Peter Rabbit because it had such a strange album cover. Somehow, I lost it over the years and had never been able to find another copy. Someone told me about Discogs.com, a website where you can pick up old and obscure vinyl records. To my delight I found it there. I searched for a couple of other albums I knew of and I was off… I remember the moment I said to my kids, ‘I’m going to start collecting dreadful album covers.’ That was 5 years ago. Some people spend fortunes collecting fine art but no one collects dreadful LP covers.“

Over the next five years Steve rummaged in charity shops, car boot sales and the internet looking for records for his unique collection, spending between 5p and £50 on treasured pieces.

“To get in my collection the album covers have to be unintentionally funny,“ said Steve. "I want records where the designers have tried to do something that’s gone horribly wrong. It can’t just be a performer in bad clothes or with an ugly face - though there are a couple that have got in that were irresistible. And it all has to be good clean family fun- I don’t collect any album covers that are gory, violent, sexist, homophobic or racist.“

The international prize, which was established in 2017 to mark the 150th anniversary of the birth of Arnold Bennett, attracted many entries including from a number of nationally-known authors.

This year’s prize is for books published during 2020 or 2021, after the usually annual prize took a one-year break due to the pandemic.

A cheque for £500 will be presented to the writer of the winning entry at the Arnold Bennett Society members day at the North Staffs Medical Institute in Hartshill on May 28.

The chair of the judging panel, lecturer Morag Jones, said: “The committee made a unanimous decision as to which books should be on the shortlist. The four shortlisted writers will each be invited to read a short extract from their work at the members day before the winner is announced and presented with a cheque for £500. Those present will be very interested to meet all four writers.”

The judges also include author and historian Fred Hughes, retired headteacher Elizabeth Leslie, retired senior librarian Philip Lees, Arnold Bennett Society trustee Erika Alcock, journalist and Made in Stoke-on-Trent coordinator Jenny Amphlett, plus Arnold Bennett Society members Penny Mitchell and Pat Marshall.

It is the fifth year the international book prize has been organised by the Arnold Bennett Society.

Entry is open to writers based in Stoke-on-Trent, the wider North Staffordshire area or living anywhere in the world if their work features North Staffordshire.

Past winners include Guardian columnist Charlotte Higgins, who was born and raised in Newcastle-under-Lyme, novelist Jan Edwards, short story writer Lisa Blower and poet John Lancaster.

Visit www.arnoldbennettsociety.org.uk for further details about The Arnold Bennett Society and the members day on May 28.

It opens this weekend at Appetite’s arts space in Astley Walk, Newcastle-under-Lyme.

Curious? You should be. Go take a look, it’s delightful.

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Email: editor@northstaffs.news.