Arts & Exhibitions

The Deco sits in the heart of Northampton and has acted as a magnet for audiences for the past 80 years. It has been there through wartime woes and played host to legendary artists including The Beatles and The Stones. And as a cinema it has allowed ticket-holders to escape the humdrum in their thousands. Sammy Jones checks out the colourful history of one of our best-loved venues... The space occupied at the heart of Abington Square in Northampton is now a hub for entertainment, a place for people to let their hair down and have a good time. But we doubt that many of those who attended Northampton grammar school which previously sat on the site now home to The Deco, saw it as a place of enjoyment! The school was in situ for a little over 40 years, before it moved to Billing Road in 1911, and the..

Those fine folks over at The Roadmender have scheduled some banging shows for early next year, writes Sammy Jones. AC/DC tribute Livewire will prove that Angus Young isn’t the only overgrown school kid around, when they rock up (Feb 19). Expect a High Voltage two hour set with cannons, Marshall Amps and a session that will take fans from Back in Black to PWR UP together with a decent delivery of Bon Scott era aces.  The Undertones play their rescheduled date at the venue (March 11) with an armload of hook-y hits including My Perfect Cousin, Jimmy Jimmy and something called Teenage Ticks. Support will come from Strangler Hugh Cornwell with his electric set. He’ll pepper his performance of solo songs with Stranglers smash-hits like Always The Sun, Peaches, No More Heroes and the seminal Golden Brown. Punk it up some more when Stiff Little Fingers play their rescheduled show..

Spiral Archive, Northampton’s mecca for music lovers seeking a pre-loved bargain or a rare original release, will pull down the shutters on its current premises at the end of July. For the last 12 years its home has been on St Michael’s Road, but owner Alex Novak has been hit with a whopping great rent increase. There is no alternative but to pack up the vinyl and look for new premises. After a devastating year at the mercy of the pandemic, the timing couldn’t have been worse for the shop, which has been in town for more than two decades. It is a true independent in a sea of chain stores. “Having dabbled with record fairs for quite a few years, I got my first proper shop in 1999 on Wellington Street. It was above a cafe, and I shared the same floor as a hairdresser...” But Alex’s venture was..

The re-opening of the Northampton Museum and Art Gallery will help spark Northampton’s heritage renaissance writes Laura Malpas. I have been waiting with anticipation to write this particular article, and the day is here! Our Northamptonshire flagship museum, Northampton Museum and Art Gallery, NMAG, is reopening on 10th July after a long closure for refurbishment. NNPulse was invited for a sneak peek preview, and it’s a wow from me!  I’m most interested in museums that have a relevance to their audience, those that display object and stories that we can all identify with. Shoes are a great example of something we can all relate to. We all wear them, buy them or need them, they reflect our jobs, fantasies or hobbies, and we might love some and hate others. We all have opinions and stories about our shoes. And of course, Northamptonshire is the ‘boot and shoe county’. [caption id="attachment_15381" align="alignleft"..

We are constantly being told that it’s good to talk, to share our feelings, and that ‘it’s ok not to be ok.’  Northampton-based musician Simon Turner would most definitely agree, and earlier this month launched a new EP to swell the coffers of the mental health charity, Mind. I wear my heart on my sleeve which probably isn’t the best strategy,” he told Pulse’s Sammy Jones, “In 1998, aged 23 I was diagnosed with clinical depression. I had pretty much dropped out of photography college, and pretty much dropped out of life; I wasn’t eating, sleeping, washing, working...” Simon was given therapy and medication, but the root cause of his issues wasn’t addressed for decades. “It wasn’t until 2018 and the loss of my job, my marriage, home and a severe breakdown and suicide attempt that I sought further help,” he admitted. “Now I have finally been able to reflect and..

Vinyl lovers will be able to get in a spin again on June 12, with the very welcome return of Record Store Day (RSD), writes Sammy Jones. Hundreds of artists will be releasing special and exclusive vinyl records to support the 250 stores who have had to deal with enforced closure for more than three months this year alone. More than ever, Record Store Day will be an important date for retailers. RSD is widely regarded as the catalyst behind the phenomenal resurgence in vinyl, and certainly the figures are impressive; in 2008, when Record Store Day began, just 205,000 albums were sold. In 2020? UK vinyl sales topped five million. And to think, it wasn’t such a long time ago that the industry was telling us vinyl was finished.  That most certainly isn’t the case here in Northampton, with three long-established stores helping to get people in the groove,..

A not so-silent revolution is happening across Northampton with the arrival of a new radio station. Switch on for Revolution Radio on 96.1 FM is planned for June 12th – heralding the start of a new way of listening for people from all walks of life and all generations across Northampton. It’ always helps to be in the right place at the right time. Ask Chris Gregg who is one of the driving forces behind Revolution Radio, a new station for Northampton.   All community radio stations need a licence to play from Government-approved regulator Ofcom and, as Chris admitted, these can be like ‘gold dust’. But sometimes fate plays a hand and, in this case, it came during the pandemic when Ofcom took the decision to review the licence for Northampton. It was the golden opportunity for Chris and his business partner Ian Hickling who have been able to..

Lockdown has been a productive time for Northampton singer-songwriter Billy Lockett, culminating with the release of his superb EP Reflections.   He chatted to Pulse’s Sammy Jones about the release, his upcoming tour, and the night he found himself at Harry Styles’ house party. The day after lockdown ends Billy is getting back in the saddle and hitting the road for an intimate, socially distanced tour of UK venues. “Before, I used to have to hope that people would sit down, chill and enjoy the music, whereas now they are forced, legally!” he laughs, “I feel like I don’t tour that much, but looking at these dates and how much I actually do, I am going to be a lot of people’s last gig (pre-lockdown) and first gig (after).” He takes the same busy approach with his songwriting – and aims to write a song a day: “That doesn’t mean..

In the year before the pandemic Royal & Derngate welcomed 337,000 visitors to events on its stages. Then coronavirus forced the doors shut. As recovery begins – doors will open again on May 17 – Sammy Jones spoke with Chief Executive Jo Gordon about a year most horrid and the path ahead. When venues were forced to shut up shop last year, little could they have imagined that they would be silenced for so long.  Theatres usually buzz with anticipation, ripples of laughter echo the room, there is the collective gasp when an audience shares in a moment of surprise, and the impromptu chatter of its youngest audiences. Suddenly, there was nothing. “When we closed in March, the first sign that we posted on our closed doors said ‘see you after the interval.’ We were expecting that to be about..

Raging Speedhorn have hit the charts with their new album, and now they want to get back to the business of playing live. Gordon Morison is the man keeping the beats in check on stage and organising the band off stage. He had a chat with Sammy Jones for Pulse Music. It’s insane that we still get to play big festivals and have people come to see us after 20 odd years,” muses Raging Speedhorn drummer Gordon Morison, “Having people still loving it is as much as we could ever wish for, and people are fanatical - they know more about the band than I do!” The metal sextet, originally from Northamptonshire, are still buzzing following the release of their sixth full-length release, Hard To Kill which was recorded with producer Russ Russell in Kettering’s Parlour Studios.  It’s a metal heavy..

Following a significant investment from the Government’s new “Getting Building Fund”, national architectural practice, GSSArchitecture, are delighted to announce that they have secured planning permission for the refurbishment, redevelopment and extension of the Alfred East Art Gallery, Kettering Library and Manor House Museum for Kettering Borough Council. GSSArchitecture were appointed as Architects through Lot 1 of the Pagabo Professional Services Framework, alongside Faithful + Gould who are providing Cost Management and Quantity Surveying services on the project. The Grade II Listed Alfred East Art Gallery was built over 100 years ago, with the original designs being drawn up by John A. Gotch, the founder of GSSArchitecture. With their history in Kettering stretching back over 140 years, and their Head Office based just down the road from the Museum, GSSArchitecture are in an excellent position to deliver this exciting project which will see the beginning of the ambitious plans to regenerate..

It was all mapped out; a career encompassing ‘best of’ album release supported by a host of live shows. It’s what bands do, writes Sammy Jones. But when Northampton’s post-punk leader and Venus Fly Trap founder Alex Novak launched Mercurial 1978-2018 in the spring of this year, normality had been wiped out by an infectious disease that changed the world. As every band knows, timing is everything, and the pandemic played havoc for vocalist Alex and his partner in sounds, guitarist and programmer Andy Denton. “We debated whether to push the date back, but I decided that even if we did that there was no guarantee that things would change, so we went ahead regardless,” recalled Alex. Mercurial is a jigsaw of parts from a career four decades long shoehorned into just 20 tracks. Other Novak bands and projects aired on the disc, which clocks in at around 80 minutes,..

LEARN TO SING AND HELP RAISE MONEY FOR PROSTATE CANCER UK  Northampton Male Voice Choir is challenging the men of Northamptonshire to join them and the wonderful soprano, Emily Haig and ‘The Tenor’ Joshua Daniel in a concert in Northampton to raise money for Prostate Cancer UK.  To launch this challenge, the choir is holding two online open evenings on 15th and 22nd February 2021. You will be invited to learn to sing two songs over an 8-week period with the help of training by our charismatic Musical Director, Stephen Bell. At the end of the 8 weeks you will be ready to take to the stage with Northampton Male Voice Choir and perform these songs at one of our high-profile concerts, by which time we hope to have raised in excess of £20,000 in aid of Prostate Cancer UK.  Northampton Male Voice Choir is a registered charity with a..

Inspired by a childhood spent in Lamport, Denys Watkins-Pitchford was a renowned author poet, illustrator and naturalist. His love of country pursuits form the fabric of his stories and have inspired generations.  Laura Malpas takes a look into the life of this Northamptonshire Countryman. When I was a bookish little girl, I found a tatty old cloth-bound book in a library. The outside was unappealing, but the inside was filled with beautiful jewel-coloured illustrations, and black and white images of the natural world. The stories were quite magical, about little men, gnomes, who lived in the countryside, living their lives alongside us bigger humans. Their survival relied on their knowledge of the natural world, and their fellowship with each other. The book was called The Little Grey Men written by the mysterious sounding ‘BB’, and I never forgot it. Now..

Music might have been off the menu at venues for the most part in 2020, but that doesn’t mean that band creativity has ceased. If anything, enforced lockdowns, venue closures and all the associated (often nonsensical) hassles have provided musicians with more time to let their musical juices flow. Now, thanks to The Craufurd Arms in Milton Keynes you can hear some of the most exciting artists from these parts on a new compilation CD. It’s the perfect stocking filler for music fans this Christmas. Sammy Jones listened in... T his new showcase disc has pulled together 16 bands from Milton Keynes, Northampton and Bedford all offering the listener ear-candy; from the indie to the avant-garde and the hard and heavy jostle for space on the release, which delivers just under an hour of new sounds. Leading lights on the MK scene Our Man in the Bronze Age feature with..