WHERE? Thame Barns Centre – WHEN? 9.30am-4.30pm. WHO’S is aimed at? Individuals required by their employers to undertake responsibility for first aid arrangements in areas where there is not a requirement for a qualified first aider e.g. lower risk environments such as offices.
Learning Hours: 6 hours – Cost:
Thame Players present: BORN IN THE GARDENS by Peter Nichols, at The Players Theatre, Nelson Street, Thame
at 7.45pm from Tuesday September 11, to Saturday, September 15.
The latest production by Thame Players at their theatre in Nelson Street, Thame is ‘Born in the Gardens’ by Bristol born playwright, Peter Nichols. The play is a comedy play about a dysfunctional family and was written in 1979. It was first staged in the Bristol Old Vic as part of its 200th anniversary. The cast for the premiere included Beryl Reid, Peter Bowles, Barry Foster and Jennie Linden. The production transferred to the Gielgud Theatre in London where it played for nine months.
The play is about a family coming together for a short period after father has died, and the immediate after-effects of the bereavement they have experienced. The title of the play comes from a sign in the Polar Bear enclosure in Bristol Zoological gardens which referred to a polar bear called Misha. In the play the polar bear is replaced by a gorilla!
The Thame Players production marks the directorial debut of Brian Holt. A member of Thame Players for nearly 30 years, Brian has hitherto concentrated on acting, most recently appearing as Father Jack in Dancing at Lughnasa earlier this year. Brian comments: ?Peter Nichols? play celebrates eccentricity; it examines family life and questions progress. It is tragic, hilarious and vicious, full of the era?s bigotry and casual racism.?
The play runs from Tuesday, September 11, to Saturday, September 15, at 7.45pm each evening. Tickets cost
NEW categories for prizes are to be added for next February’s Thame’s Got Talent competition. Put the date in your diary – it’s Sunday, February 10, 2013. The venue will once again be the Spread Eagle Hotel, Cornmarket, Thame.
The organisers say that they have added the new categories “As a result of the variety and quality of acts!”
The new categories for 2013 will be:
* Overall Winner
* 2nd Prize
* Best Band
* Best under 15′s Category
* Best over 35′s Category
* Best School Act
Register your Act now by going to the Thame’s Got Talent website: http://www.thamesgottalent.co.uk/
PHOTO; Boogaloo, by Frank Millar
DEAR LIAR by Jerome Kilty – Coming soon to The Players Theatre, Nelson Street Thame – Sunday, September 23, at 7.45pm. Tickets
THAME cricket club is holding a FREE, fun, social event this coming Sunday, 9th September from 11am-6pm, open to everyone.
The bar will be open and there will be food and in keeping with the Caribbean theme, a steel band.
THE VANA Trust, Organic Farm invites you to join them for some late summer fun; Yew Tree Farm, Duck Lane, Ludgershall.
With live music from ‘Blame the Bankers’
More information HERE
LOCAL Rising stars, The Drakes, featuring Ben Cooper, Dan Mordente, George Chandler and Stephen Jones are booked to take the 10 o?clock Feature Spot at The First Thursday Music Club on Thursday, September 6, at The Stables venue, behind The James Figg pub in Thame.
Fresh from headlining a prestigious gig at The Dublin Castle in Camden, The Drakes will playing a stripped back acoustic set to a big crowd expected on the night (free entry!).
The Drakes are an acoustic-rock quartet with influences ranging from alt-folk to indie-punk. Since forming in Spring 2011, the band has worked relentlessly gigging and crafting a collection of songs in advance of the release of their new EP in January. For free downloads, streaming and details, go to: www.thedrakes.co.uk or search The Drakes on Facebook.
The August session of Thame’s FTMC featured a fantastic set from ‘The August List’ as well as 14 other acts totalling over 30 musicians. The First Thursday Music Club is Thame?s biggest monthly music event and is held at The Stables at the James Figg. Anyone can play just by signing up at the venue from 7.45pm. The club provides a high quality PA System with professional ?sound men? to allow players to maximise the chance to play in front of a crowd of up to 140.
Check out the club on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/TheFirstThursdayMusicClub
THAME Arts and Literature Festival (TAL) will be hosting its first ‘Along the Way’ event very soon, during the run up to the festival proper on October 12 -14, 2012.
WHEN? Saturday, September 15 – WHAT? Join award winning cook and food writer Sophie Grigson as she talks about her work and books. Sophie will demonstrate some of her techniques with the audience which can expect an exciting, interactive and entertaining morning.
WHO ELSE? There will be a special guest appearance by Edd Kimber, ‘The Boy who Bakes’ who was the winner of last Year?s BBC Great British Bakeoff and has already established himself in the ranks of Great British Culinary Champions!
His new book, ‘Say it with Cake’ will be published only two days before his appearance at Thame and Edd will be happy to sign copies after his interview by celebrity chef and local cafe owner, Lotte Duncan. MORE
A blood donation session will be held at the Spread Eagle Hotel, 16/17 Cornmarket, Thame, on Tuesday 28th August.
Session times are: 13.30-15.30 & 16.15-19.30
To book an appointment please visit www.blood.co.uk or call 0300 123 23 23. New donors are welcome.
YEAR after year, folk music fans make their way from all over the country, and from much further afield, to a tiny corner of Oxfordshire, near Thame, for the Towersey Village Festival.
This year, over the August Bank Holiday, Towersey held its 48th annual arts and music festival, welcoming a crowd of between 8-10,000 people. Among this year’s big-draw names were The South (formerly ‘The Beautiful South’, Bellowhead and Kathryn Tickell as well as other well-known, popular and seasoned musicians, like the amazing, ‘marching band-meets folk,’ Brass Monkey, celebrating 30 years in the business.
MY DAY
Among Saturday’s gems, under a beautiful sky of alternate grey thunderclouds and clear, blue spells of sunshine, down from the Treacle mines (so they said), The Seven Champions Molly Dancers, with their blacked up faces and garb of tattered, black strips, clog danced for the families gathered at the Market Square Showground. They were followed by the very scary, Beltane Border Morris in black, fishnet tights (and that included the men!). ‘Boots and Banjos’ from the nearby village of Haddenham, skilfully demonstrated the art of Appellation dancing, which apparently started in Britain, was exported to the United States and has since returned to its homeland.
In The Big Club tent, with its added attraction of a bar with several interesting ciders to chose from, popular ‘Geordie’, Jez Lowe, proved very popular, finishing with a highly amusing composition of his own, called: “The ex pitmen’s Pot-holing Pub Quiz Team”
In a separate outdoor entertainment space, known as The Rope Circle, one of the most energetic, original and mad-cap acts ever seen at Towersey, ‘Junk’, really got the crowd ‘bopping’ and clapping, using a variety of percussion instruments made out of – well, junk. These included upside-down, blue water butts played as drums, a metre-length of white, plastic piping played like a didgeridoo and a series of different sized pipes, stuck in the ground and played by slapping a couple of old flip-flops over the open ends – a kind of junk yard, instrumental and vocal version of Stomp. Amazing!
In the evening, Reggae-met-folk accordian, when ‘Edward ll’ got the party going, following a truly original, Breton tradional-jazz fusion band that I for one shall be following up on, called ‘Esquisse’.
Other highlights of the weekend included a hands-on art project by Aylesbury Youth Action, a series of performances by pupils from Lord Williams’s School, and a just-married couple who, as longstanding Towersey Festival-goers, insisted they take their blessings at the festival!
While other large scale Bank Holiday events around the UK fell foul to the British weather (notably Creamfields in Cheshire), Towersey fared very well.
?Considering the summer we?ve had it went really well,? said Festival Co-Director Joe Heap. ?It was mostly dry with only one or two showers, and the ground took it well. We were very lucky.?
The festival also survived a third appearance from BBC Radio 2 Folk Award winners Bellowhead on Friday night (Aug 24) as both previous Towersey shows by the 11-piece band resulted in damaged dance floors!
?Venue 65 was packed to the rafters, and the band and the audience tried their best, but the floor survived,? laughed Joe. ?We made sure we extra secured the floor before their show. The dancing crowd did their darnedest, but thankfully it remained intact.?
The accompanying Towersey Real Ale and Cider Festival featured 27 real ales, ciders and perries with Summer Lightning voted Champion Ale by visitors. A 5% golden ale brewed in Wiltshire by Hopback Brewery, Summer Lightning was voted third in 2011?s festival. I’m not too sure about the new token system for drinks though. If you fancy another drink in the middle of a concert, you have to leave the venue, go back out into the show ground and by tokens from a kiosk. I guess it means you have to plan your drinking in advance – probably not a bad thing all-in-all.
Currently on-site and beginning the process of clearing the fields, Joe concluded: ?I?d like to thank everyone who came and thanks too to an amazing crew ? roll on our 49th and 50th festivals!?
The next Towersey Festival will, once again, take place over the August Bank Holiday – from Thursday 22 to Monday 26 August 2013. Tickets go on sale late autumn.
PHOTO: ‘Junk’ take a bow at Towersey 2012
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