The Week in Light & Sound
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Taken Over - One of Scotland's oldest and best-loved theatres has been taken over by new owners. The Pavilion Theatre in Glasgow has been bought by London-based Trafalgar Entertainment for an undisclosed sum. The 1,449-capacity Renfield Street venue was one of the last privately run theatres in Scotland. Opening in 1904 as a music hall, the venue has played host to stars including Harry Lauder, Charlie Chaplin, Billy Connolly and Lulu.
Chris McGuigan, from Trafalgar Entertainment said: "You can feel the history, but you can feel the love which has gone into maintaining it. We are proud to become custodians of the Pavilion." The theatre is the first in Scotland to be acquired by Trafalgar Entertainment, which also has theatres in Australia, England and Wales.
On The Edge - Sheffield-based musical Standing at the Sky's Edge will transfer to London's West End in February 2024. The show, which was named best new musical at Sunday's Olivier Awards, tells the story of three families who live at the Park Hill council estate. It was written by Chris Bush with music by Richard Hawley and opened at Sheffield's Crucible Theatre in 2019. The show finished a run at the National Theatre in London in March and will move to the Gillian Lynne Theatre. The production won the best new musical prize at the Olivier Awards. Hawley also won an Olivier, alongside musical director Tom Deering, for best original score or orchestration for the show.
Front Row - The earliest known full recording of The Beatles playing a live concert in the UK, at the point they were becoming the biggest band in the nation, has been revealed by BBC Radio 4's Front Row, almost exactly 60 years after it was made. The hour-long quarter-inch tape recording was made by 15-year-old John Bloomfield at Stowe boarding school in Buckinghamshire on 4 April 1963 when the band played a concert at the school's theatre.
They had been booked by fellow pupil David Moores, who had written to manager Brian Epstein. Epstein, perhaps recognising the connection to an important Liverpool family - the Moores family owned the Littlewoods football pools and retail business - agreed to the booking for a fee of £100, and Moores raised the funds by selling tickets to schoolmates.
Farewell - Seymour Stein, the New York music executive who signed Madonna, Talking Heads, The Ramones and many more, has died at the age of 80. Stein set up record label Sire in 1966 and became a key figure in the punk, new wave and pop scenes. He introduced UK acts like The Smiths, Fleetwood Mac, Depeche Mode, Seal, The Cure and Madness to the US.
"The music he brought to the world impacted so many people's lives in a positive way," his daughter Mandy said. One of the most successful talent spotters in the business, his other signings included Ice-T, The Pretenders, KD Lang and Richard Hell & the Voidoids. Stein got into the music industry at the age of just 13 in the 1950s, when he persuaded industry paper Billboard to let him have a desk in its office.
(Jim Evans)
4 April 2023
