Category: entertainment and leisure news

AT Thame Snooker Club, St Andrews Court,Wellington Street, Thame, on January 10, at 8.30pm.
Gianni Quartet – Live! Admission

Mean Poppa Lean, They? and Megan Goodwin; Thursday, 21st December – Rob Lowen (Ex The Thunderlemons) was there!
TONIGHT it is absolutely freezing in Thame, and as a result, The Social club is pretty packed. Nevertheless, I arrived nice and early and managed to squeeze in on a sofa with my trusty notepad, feeling fully ready to enjoy an evening of quality music from three Brighton artists with a strong attachment to Thame.

Megan Goodwin is a singer from Oxfordshire, who has been based in Brighton for the last year or so. Taking to the stage with just a guitarist for accompaniment, her music is a refreshing blend of lounge, jazz and soul, calling to mind the voice of Catatonia with the accompaniment of Jack Johnson. Refreshing, cheeky and light-hearted, she’s always smiling. A great start to the evening.

Next to the stage are local legends, They? What the question mark means is anybody’s guess, but it’s easy to tell where the music is at. Catchy yet crushing riffs bleed into brooding, picked verses. They? have clearly mastered the art of stop-start dynamics, and Dave Vine delivers a massively powerful vocal performance from start to finish. The energy emanated from this band is awesome, and they sound absolutely huge for a three-piece.

Mean Poppa Lean are definitely a funk band. Composed of two members from this area’s ex-premier funk-rock legends, Hedroom, and two members of They?, Mean Poppa Lean stride onto the stage wearing ridiculous pimp-style fur coats, and the already hyped-up room breaks into a frenzy of skanking and dancing. Their music is debauch and dangerous, like an upper-class Mother’s Milk-era Chili Peppers, with an especially virtuoso performance from lead guitarist Alex Camp. Everybody in the venue is dancing, singing, or blind drunk. If The Social is to play host to bands of this calibre frequently, they’re going to have to get bigger premises. Or at least reinforce the floor.

Photo: Megan Goodwin

Bands wishing to play at the Social next year, should contact Michele at Crash Records on:
info@crash-records.co.uk
www.myspace.com/thesocialthame

IMPORTANT – Please note that the date shown next to the events listed below, is NOT the date of the event itself, but the date on which the event was added to the diary. Click ‘Read More’ for event details including the date.

HADDENHAM MUSEUM. Please note that the museum will be closed on Sunday this week (Christmas Eve) but will be open for its normal Tuesday opening on Boxing Day (10am-12noon). Don’t forget to go along to see the special exhibition on Romano British Haddenham, with coins, metal items and pottery lent by Nick Heath of Cuddington, a collection of coins lent by Emlyn Bowman and Dick Taylor and descriptions of the exhibits written by Bruce Alexander (president of the Haddenham Museum Trust and author of an article in the 2nd issue of The Haddenham Chronicles). Copies of Bruce Alexander’s recently published book ‘Before Domesday: Haddenham and Cuddington’ are now on sale at the museum (

PUPILS from John Hampden Primary School, joined Thame Choral Society last Saturday, for a concert of Christmas audience, at St Mary’s church, Thame.
The John Hampden choir, under the direction of teacher, Laura Hocking, charmed the audience with their singing and brought a truly family atmosphere to the Choral Society’s annual event.
They were very ably accompanied by Teacher, Esther Stanway-Williams.

From my seat on the stage (editor) I had the best view of the glowingly proud faces of mums, dads, teachers and grand-parents. Let’s hope John Hampden’s involvement becomes a regular feature.

Harpist, Sarah Goss enthralled with her playing of Glinka’s Nocturne, and the sparkling and exciting, Fire Dance, composed by her teacher, Nigel Watkins.
The Choral Society, though smaller in number than previous years, nontheless produced a big and joyous sound throughout, during britten’s Wolcum Yole and the carols, though parts of the challenging, Janacek’s Our Father (Otcensus), lacked confidence.
Even so, a thoroughly enjoyable sing for performers and audience alike to get us into the Christmas spirit.

The Conductor was David Hayes and the versatile Colin Spinks, accompanied on both organ and piano.

THURSDAYS live at The Social, Thame, continue to be packed out nights with some great bands and some great line-ups.

This Thursday (Dec 21), is a Christmas special with three amazing acts – all of which used to be based in Thame, but have gone off to Brighton to find their fame and fortune.

Headlining band They?, previously known as Lament, will be strutting their unique blend of rock while main support comes from Mean Poppa Lean who take funk to the next level, with ex members of Hedroom Christain Barnes and Alex Camp. The opening act will be amazing female vocalist, Megan Goodwin.

All this and for only

HADDENHAM BARBER’S SHOP. Hayley Hewitt (24) from Great Missenden, who has been working at a barber’s shop in Wendover for the past 6 years, has just launched out on her own and, last week, opened Hewitt’s Barber’s shop in The White Heron (the premises, at the Fort End end of Stockwell, Haddenham, previously occupied by the estate agents). Catering entirely for men and boys, Hayley will be cutting and blow-drying hair and trimming beards and, in the New Year, is planning to attend a course in cut-throat shaving.

STEAM TRAINS. Steam buffs may like to know that, for the next 3 months, Haddenham library will have a large collection of DVDs (just over a 100!), on steam trains/ railway journeys etc, available for hire.

Fri 15th Mummers. Haddenham Mummers, who are celebrating their 30th birthday this year, will be starting this year’s pre-Christmas tour on Friday. They will be performing the traditional Haddenham Mummers’ play at The Plough, Cadsden (8pm), for Haddenham Football Club at the sports pavilion (8.45pm), at the Peking Rendezvous, High Street, Haddenham (9.15pm) and at The Crown, Cuddington (10pm). Their tour of Haddenham pubs and restaurants will be on Friday next week – details to follow.

Sun 17th Heart and Sole Walk. Get fit for Christmas with a cross country walk of about 4 miles, starting at 2pm on Sunday from outside Haddenham library. Please come prepared for mud underfoot.

19th May, 2007 BALL. A Grand Charity Ball ‘The Forget Me Not Ball’ will be held to raise funds for Leukaemia Research. You can reserve tickets (

HADDENHAM Mummers, who are celebrating their 30th birthday this year, will be starting this year’s pre-Christmas tour today, Friday.
They will be performing the traditional Haddenham Mummers’ play at The Plough, Cadsden (8pm), for Haddenham Football Club at the sports pavilion (8.45pm), at the Peking Rendezvous, High Street, Haddenham (9.15pm) and at The Crown, Cuddington (10pm).
Their tour of Haddenham pubs and restaurants will be on Friday next week – details to follow.

Photo courtesy of Revels Houston web site.

BY one of ThameNews.Net’s up-and-coming, young music journalists, Rob Lowen.
SIMPLE Reason, The Youngs Plan, Proliem, The Residue -Review:-

It’s a Tuesday evening and there’s school tomorrow, but nevertheless the top room of The Social Club in Thame contains a fair few kids. The bands are only just setting up as the first few teenagers enter the room, but soon(ish) everything is ready, and the first band step tentatively onto the corner of the room that is being used as a stage tonight.

The Residue look about nine years old. And they sound like Greenday had a child with Jet but it was raised by The Red Hot Chili Peppers. Not too shabby considering the age of these guys (I believe them to be about 14). The Residue play a catchy, likeable set tonight, and particularly impressive is the voice of singer Rob. On occasion, they lack attitude and emotion, but this may well be down to nerves, and the guitar tone could well do with some work. Of particular note is a stonkingly fun cover of AC/DC’s You Shook Me All Night Long.

Second to the stage tonight are Proliem, tonight looking absolutely ridiculous. Singer Martin is wearing the campest shirt of all time, and he and guitarist Craig appear to be wearing make-up. I’m afraid so. Never an excusable gesture normally, the pair of them look even sillier standing next to bassist Jim Furnace and drummer Max “definitely not camp” Camp, both of whom have turned out tonight in full grunge gear.

Proliem open their set with a ridiculously heavy cover of the James Bond theme tune. Not the most original idea in the world ever, but the song draws a chuckle from the few kids at the front anyway. Proliem play interestingly tonight, considering that lead guitarist Ben Holding left the band officially just days before this gig, and sometimes it is all to obvious that Craig hasn’t had time to work out new, more fitting single line guitar parts, because sometimes the guitar sound is far too thin. Proliem also seem to lose heart in the verses, but hitting the choruses with all the energy they have. This band are ambitious, but the clean guitar sound is just a few shades too thin to successfully carry it off. Having said that, on occasion Proliem toss ambition out of the window and favour pure sludge.

Set closer On The Other Hand is by far the grungiest song Proliem play tonight, and the guitar sound is so sludgy you’d have thought Kurt Cobain fell into a swamp. But in a good way. Proliem reach their peak with this song, which is a shame because had they achieved this earlier in the set they would have been very enjoyable indeed. The middle eight section draws a clap from the assembled kids, which is quickly put to a stop by some fancy math-drumming from Max Camp. That boy is a machine.

The Youngs Plan are main support tonight, and after a brief kafuffle getting on stage, and guitarist Sam Richardson’s tuning problem, they launch boldly into a new song. It calls to mind the clunk-bonk strand of new Thame-core recently popularized by the likes of Twat Trot Tra La. It’s delicious, and sounds massive. This song recalls OK Computer era Radiohead, spiralling around the head and around the room. Crowd favourite The Antidote sounds like Biffy Clyro taking salvia and jumping between buildings in New York. Left positively roars- there’s so much going on that there’s no space left in the head to think, before dropping out into a gorgeous minimalist verse, a rant about nothing in particular. The next song – yet more new material due to be on the next EP, has no trouble once again proclaiming The Youngs Plan’s love for Biffy Clyro, its violent alternative thrash is truly delightful. Input/Output is sparkly and huge, with a catchy verse groove. The Young’s Plan’s constant stream of refreshing new ideas puts professional bands to shame. This song is like a shot of Aftershock Blue after a bottle of Jack Daniels, and singer Ash Cooke only has to grin apologetically for the audience to forgive him over a fluffed vocal cue.

The Youngs Plan are too alternative for teenage angst. Instead, their closing number gives off an aura of nostalgia, the simple refrain “Like rocks that we threw in the river” is the perfect anticlimax to the intensity of earlier songs.

Touchingly – Wycombe’s Simple Reason stand in a circle together with their arms around each other before every gig, and tonight they embrace each other before hitting the stage like a fireball, launching into single Empty Handed – the promo video of which is available on the band’s myspace. Singer Josh Rumble really does have the most fantastic set of lungs.

I’ve been anticipating seeing Simple Reason again for a long time now. The last time yours truly saw this band, they were exchanging screams with a thousand emo kids at the profile festival in Aylesbury. January 2007 will see the release of their debut album and tour, with a single coming out in February and the possibility of a second album in March.

Tonight, Simple Reason are tighter than your parents, and yours truly only felt disappointment at my dedication to the notepad- this band make you feel like you could jump into a fight with Mike Tyson and come out breathing. Simple Reason put on a dynamic display, with awesome vocal harmonies provided by guitarist Keith. They don’t necessarily throw in that nudge towards the unexpected that would be great to see, but in terms of showmanship, even in a confined space such as the Social, this band are unbeatable.

A heavier number sees kids literally hanging from the ceiling. Anger oozes. There is more pressure in the six inch space between the band and the audience than in an industrial brewing vat. Then the song is over and Josh Rumble calmly taunts the crowd: “Calm down now children” before the band launch into another Used-esque epic rock song. Moments of brooding roll into explosions of rage, peaking in a guttural roar worthy of Tarzan, then followed by a violent thrash accompanied by some tasty tapping courtesy of new guitarist Rich Mckee.

The penultimate song – which I unfortunately missed the title of, contains a massive build-up, which seems to swell from the band to fill the whole room and engulf the audience, before launching into an all-out aural war, obliterating the eardrums of every kid in the room.

The band finish with As We Go On, a technical masterpiece and a stunning slab of hard-rock that sees pinched harmonics flying everywhere and guitarists Rich and Keith posing together- then running straight into the centre of the room. Which of course sends everybody crazy.

The passion and intensity that this band put into their music is insane. Keith’s mouth seems to fit around the whole microphone as he belts out each heartfelt harmony. Rumble bends over double and roars, the noise emerging is almost not human. Rich throws his guitar around wildly, whilst still somehow never playing a bum note. Bassist James is an ever constant presence, solid, confident. Josh is a blur of arms and hair behind the drum kit. Then all too quickly, it is over. The band suggest that some of the kids come and chat to them, and it’s great to see a band so humble, especially considering the carnage that has just taken place. Splendid stuff.

PHOTO: Courtesy of whoever took the picture ‘Social Flyer’. Contact editor@thame.net who will immediately credit your name.

BLACKBIRDS in pies, a giant pendulum, a mile for the Millennium and a Dance-a-thon: these are just some of the ingredients in 2007, when Oxfordshire celebrates its 1000th birthday ? and the whole county is invited.
Special events are being planned for Oxfordshire 2007, offering an exciting array of art, dance, theatre and music. Sport, food and science are also included ? and many of Oxfordshire?s 70-plus festivals will also be joining in the party with their own millennium contributions. Many events are free, or subsidised.

Oxfordshire 2007 is designed to showcase the remarkable array of creative talent – past and present – that exists in every corner of the county and represents a collaboration between hundreds of cultural organisations, individuals and communities to create a special and memorable year. Oxford Inspires, the county?s cultural development agency, is providing coordination and practical help to put on the celebration.

These are just some of the event to look forward to this coming spring:

Feb 12?March 11
Dancin? Oxford: a new dance festival in Oxford which aims to get everybody?s feet tapping.

March 6?April 14
The Falling Sky: a specially commissioned play about rural people which is touring the county

March 10?March 25
Oxdox Documentary Film Festival: the UK?s largest documentary film festival, features a simultaneous live screening of a specially commissioned film from China in 1000 cinemas across the world, plus Oxfordshire past and present through archive film.

March 13?March 17
La Dispute: Marivaux?s play is the culmination of a two-year collaboration with a theatre company in Normandy, produced by The Theatre, Chipping Norton.

March 15?March 17

Luminox: aims to set Oxford?s historic centre alight: a magical three days will include fire, music, street theatre, lantern processions and a giant pendulum.

March 17?March 25

Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival: takes place at Christ Church College, featuring authors Edna O?Brien, Sandi Toksvig, Alexander McCall Smith and many others.

Sunday March 25
Remembering Slavery: Set all free: The cream of the country?s gospel choirs will assembles in Christ Church Cathedral to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade.

Saturday May 12
Street Olympix: sport takes to the pavements of Oxfordshire culminating in a day of races, fun events and a mile street race to commemorate the four-minute mile run by Sir Roger Bannister in Oxford just over fifty years ago.

Other highlights to look forward to in Oxfordshire?s millennium year are the UK?s first-ever Children?s Food Festival (July 14 -15) with celebrity chefs Raymond Blanc and Sophie Grigson as patrons; a special Alice?s Day, based on Lewis Carroll?s famous character, (July 7) and Faces of Oxfordshire. There will be walks, trails, exhibitions, open doors, street theatre and much more.

Oxfordshire 2007 aims to turn the county inside out, introducing you to new places and new cultural experiences. To find out more about what?s happening in your area ? and elsewhere in the county ? visit www.oxfordshire2007.com