Listen to our Undiscovered India Spotify playlist

From 3 November, Southbank Centre is welcoming a whole host of musicians  as we explore the best in Indian classical music. Have a listen to our Undiscovered India Spotify Playlist.

Take a look at our series of Undiscovered India events featuring performances from Tarang, Alif Laila, Patri Satish Kumar and Tarun Bhattacharya at Southbank Centre from 3 November – 1 December. Get tickets here. 

Free download – Kathryn Tickell ‘The Fiddle’

To coincide with the release of her latest record ‘Northumbrian Voices’ , Kathryn Tickell is on tour and reaches London’s Southbank Centre on Friday.

‘I had been worried about how it would be, touring with a band whose ages spanned three generations, but it’s lovely. We are the only band I know who tour with an armchair; it’s for my dad to sit in on stage…he’s in his seventies and we want him to be comfy!’ Read the full interview here.

Have a listen to this free download

Catch Kathryn Tickell with Northumbrian Voices at Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room at Queen Elizabeth Hall on Friday 21 September. Get tickets here. 

KATHRYN TICKELL WITH NORTHUMBRIAN VOICES

Kathryn Tickell is the foremost exponent of the Northumbrian pipes, a composer, performer and successful recording artist whose work is deeply rooted in the landscape and people of Northumbria.

Kathryn also works collaboratively across many genres, making her work contemporary and exciting. She first took up the Northumbrian smallpipes at the age of nine, learning in the traditional way from shepherd musicians in outlying hill farms near her home. All the elements of landscape, weather and stories of the people that lived and worked there were part of her childhood. Kathryn’s personal evocation of this is heard through the traditional tunes and songs that she brings to audiences all over the world. She has released 14 of her own albums to date and has also recorded and performed with Sting, The Chieftains, The Penguin Café Orchestra, Evelyn Glennie, Andy Sheppard and many others.

Catch Kathryn Tickell with Northumbrian Voices at Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room at Queen Elizabeth Hall on Friday 21 September. Get tickets here. 

Caught by the river – Blog Series – #2 Robert Mcfarlane

On Friday 25 May, some of the UK’s best loved writers and musicians form a cracking line-up for the Caught By The River Variety Show.

The show features live music from Diagrams, Tim Burgess discussing his new book, Richard King reading from his account of the history of independent music – ‘How Soon Is Now?’, Culture Show presenter – Michael Smith, and more.

In the second part of our blog series, we have an extract from Robert Mcfarlane’s new book The Old Ways. Macfarlane’s work documents his explorations into British landscapes, mountains, moors, islands, salt marshes, and sea-caves, writing about modern society’s relationship with the wild.

Two Augusts ago, I joined a crew of five sailing an old open boat from the Isle of Lewis, in the Outer Hebrides, to the remote skerry-island of Sula Sgeir, which lies forty miles due north of the northernmost-point of Lewis – far out into the Atlantic.

Sula Sgeir’s form is geological-brutalist. It is a jaggy black peak of gneiss, the topmost summit of a submarine mountain, and it is home to ten thousand gannets and (until recently) the only albatross in the North Atlantic. The sea has bored clean through the southern part of the island to form a series of caves and tunnels. In big Atlantic storms, the waves break over its summit.

The boat we sailed to Sula Sgeir was called Jubilee, she was seventy-five years old, and she was a sgoth Niseach: a class of Lewisian working boat, lug-rigged, clinker-built, double-ended and open, designed for sturdy seaworthiness up there off the Butt of Lewis where the Atlantic currents meet the currents of The Minch. She was skippered on our voyage by Ian Stephen – sailor, poet, story-teller and life-long follower of the sea-roads – and under Ian’s safe steerage we sailed her overnight to Sula Sgeir, up through an ocean of phosphorescence and stars, at last reaching the skerry at dawn.

The story of that unforgettable journey is told in full in a book called The Old Ways. A year or so ago, though, I was fortunate enough to be put in touch by Jeff Barrett with Chris Watson – the sound-artist, natural-history sound recordist, and Caught by the River favourite. Jeff had it in mind that a collaboration might develop, and so it has. At the Caught by the River Variety Show at the Southbank on May 25th, Chris and I will be performing a sound-story of that voyage – the text spoken by me over a bedding track, with Chris drawing on his extraordinary sound archive to respond to and improvise out of the words themselves. Our aim is nothing more or less ambitious than to evoke the profound and abiding strangeness of sailing that old boat up that ancient sea-way into that vast ocean to that lonely island – and to carry our listeners with us.

What you will hear, therefore, might best be imagined as a dream-voyage or wonder-journey – what in Gaelic is called an immrama – and in this sense precedents for it might be found in very early Celtic sea-stories: the lyric accounts of Mael Duin or St Brendan, say, sailing their hide-hulled boats westwards and northwards, out of the verifiable and into the miraculous.

To buy tickets for this events and check out the full line-up, click here.

Caught By The River – Blog Series – #1 Chris Yates

Popular nature and culture website Caught By The River celebrates it’s 5th year at Southbank Centre with a fantastic line-up of writers and musicians.

Caught By The River began in summer 2007 as a website based solely on a handful of passions shared by the people behind it. Angling, music, books, films, nature and pubs to name a few.

We’ll be posting passages, reviews, competitions and music over the next few weeks in the lead-up to the show.

Chris Yates – an angler, photographer and acclaimed writer will be reading from his new book Nightwalk, raises his gaze from his beloved rivers and ponds and takes us on a mesmerizing tour of the British countryside.

You can read an extract from Nightwalk on the Caught By The River website.

To buy tickets for this events and check out the full line-up, click here.

WIN WIN WIN! Petra Jean Phillipson Competition

As part of Death: Southbank Centre’s Festival for the Living, one of the latest stars on the indie-folk scene, Petra Jean Phillipson, launches her new LP Notes On: Death at Purcell Room on 30 January, and we have FIVE pairs to give away.

Phillipson, is currently garnering much attention ahead of the release, including The Guardian’s very positive preview. She’s previously collaborated with artists as diverse as Martina Topley-Bird, David Holmes and Marianne Faithful, and Notes On: Death is set to mark her breakthrough.

To be in with a chance to win Notes On: Death on CD, Simply answer this question:

What was the name of Petra Jean Phillipson’s first album, released in 2005?

Send your answers to competitions@southbankcentre.co.uk with the subject line ‘Petra’ by midday on 30 January

You can hear a few tracks from Notes On: Death, and buy tickets for the show here.

Here is a live version of Petra covering Nick Cave’s Into My Arms

GET TO KNOW… TIM WHITEHEAD

In 2 week’s time on Monday 25 July, we welcome Tim Whitehead and his Colour Beginnings Suite to Purcell Room. Tim is a very well-known jazz saxophonist, and has performed on the greatest stages in the Jazz world.

The original music written especially for this new show is inspired by the great British watercolour painter JMW Turner, and his Colour Beginnings collection. Tim spent almost 2 years researching the vaults of the Tate, and his favourite paintings will be projected during the performance.

World renowned trumpeter, Kenny Wheeler joins Tim and the Personal Standards Quartet for this special show.

What do you fear the most and why?

Another three years of the ConDems.They appear to have no mandate, no integrity, and no humanity but plenty of desperation and self interest

Which mobile number do you call the most?

Linda, my wife’s

What – or where – is perfection?

In the sky most days, especially after rain.

Who is your favourite hero from fiction (book/comic/film/opera) – and why?

John Steinbeck’s Doc in Cannery Row. He’s intelligent, wise, naive, loving, compassionate, humorous and he likes beer.

What’s your favourite ritual?

Pulling my boat by bike down to the Thames and sliding it into the water off the launching trolley.

Which living person do you most admire (and why)?

The disability rights activist Micheline Mason. She is an inspirational human. The social model of disability is a light on the world.

What other talent or skill would you like to possess?

Either to be a very skilled watercolourist or dinghy sailor. I’m working on both (but not enough)

Tell us about a special memory you have of Southbank Centre?

Years ago being thrown out. A Stanley Jordan fan called my daughter a brat (for eating crisps) and my wife squirted her  juice in his face.

If you could programme your ideal Southbank Centre show, which artists (living or dead) would you bring together?

Fritz Kreisler with the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra, Keith Jarrett with John Coltrane, Word Of Mouth with Jaco Pastorius ,Shorter and co.

What’s your favourite website?

The one under the shed roof in the back garden.

What is the most important lesson life has taught you?

This could be the day you’ve been waiting for.

What is the most played piece of music on your MP3 player or in your CD collection?

Allegria by Wayne Shorter.”She Moves Through The Fair”,a beautiful statement of English folk by an American (who loves science fiction!)

Carlos Moore comes to Purcell Room, Friday 8 July

Carlos Moore is playing Purcell Room tomorrow night and is well worth a look! His story is absolutely incredible, and this show promises anecdotes and truly amazing stories from throughout his life.

“Carlos Moore is joined by John Akomfrah, from Smoking Dog Films, and Margaret Busby, founder of Allison and Busby publishers, for a night of readings and recollections about his amazing life. Banished from his native Cuba for his opposition to Castro’s racial policies, Carlos Moore has since lived in many lands during his 34-year exile. A distinguished academic, journalist and writer, he met Fela Kuti in Nigeria and wrote a biography of the late great African musician, This Bitch of a Life, in 1982. His most recent book is Pichon – Race and Revolution in Castro’s Cuba.”

Tickets are £10 and available from here

Win signed Vic Godard and Subway Sect LP

Comic legend Stewart Lee has curated his own weekend of gigs and comedy, including a very special line-up on Monday 30th May – The Nightingales with support from Vic Godard and Subway Sect. ‘For a couple of seasons, the greatest punk group in the world.’ (Jon Savage on special guests Subway Sect)

To celebrate, we’ve got an exclusive competition to win a signed Vic Godard and Subway Sect LP plus a limited edition t-shirt and 5 Blackpool EP CDs for runners up.

Just answer this question to enter. Which label is Vic Godard and Subway Sect signed to? Email your answer to competitions@southbankcentre.co.uk with ‘Vic Godard and Subway Sect’ in the subject line by 30 May to enter. Please provide a name and contact number. Good luck!

Catch Vic Godard and Subway Sect at Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room on 30 May as part of Stewart Lee’s Austerity Binge. Get tickets here.

Breaking Boundaries! Kosmos, Paprika & She’koyokh

This weekend we have a very special gig with music from around the globe. Here’s a sneak peak at the three bands. Let us know your favourite!

Catch Breaking Boundaries! Kosmos, Paprika & She’koyokh at Southbank Centre this Sunday 8th May as part of These Lands Are Your Lands. Get tickets here