Helen Sprott, director of music at Arts Council England, says, "Arts Council England is pleased to be supporting I Like The Sound of That and their brilliant Independent Venue Week project for the second year running. It is vital that independent venues are recognised for the value they bring both to their local communities and the national music scene. Over the last year, Independent Venue Week has grown, diversifying its offering with projects for charities such as Stay Up Late and workshops for young people. It is ideally placed to continue delivering the Arts Council's ambition to support and celebrate grassroots artists across the country."
Lighting Scholarship - Lighting designer Richard Pilbrow is funding a new scholarship at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama to support young talent. The Richard Pilbrow Scholarship is worth £3,150 and will fund a student lighting designer as they undertake training on either the school's theatre lighting design or production lighting course. Nick Moran, senior lecturer in lighting for live performance, said the scholarship would help "young people who might otherwise not be able to consider studying theatre lighting design".
Pilbrow, a former National Theatre lighting director, was the first British lighting designer to fund a Broadway musical, with Zorba in 1968. He also founded Theatre Projects Consultants. He said he was "thrilled to be able to make a contribution" to the school, adding "a great career" awaited those who study on the course.
ABBA Reunion - The members of ABBA got back together for the first time in years at the opening of a new restaurant themed around the band. The restaurant, called Mamma Mia - The Party, is the brainchild of Bjorn Ulvaeus, singer-songwriter and former husband of Agnetha Faltskog. The Stockholm restaurant is based on Nico's Taverna, from the Mamma Mia musical and subsequent film, and is expected to tap in to the huge fan base the band still has. Diners will be treated to Greek food, music and dancing.
Going Rates - Theatregoers who see the most shows each year are prepared to pay up to £30 more per ticket than less frequent attendees, a new survey claims. A survey conducted by Theatre Breaks looked at the prices people would pay for a theatre ticket. It found that those who attended the theatre more than seven times per year had paid an average £86.07 for their most expensive ticket, while those who attended less than once a year paid a top price of £58.35. One in 10 people surveyed had previously paid more than £100 for a ticket, while one in seven would consider paying more than £200.
Old News - Popular fairy tales such as Jack And The Beanstalk and Rumpelstiltskin could date back thousands of years to prehistoric times, according to academics. Researchers used a tree of Indo-European languages and phylogenetic analysis, traditionally employed to study evolutionary relationships between species, to trace the stories' origins back in time. They found that folk tales are not only passed on 'vertically' from ancestral populations to their descendants, but also spread 'horizontally' between societies as a result of trade and conquest. According to the study's authors, Jack and the Beanstalk originated from a group of stories known as The Boy Who Stole Ogre's Treasure first to
