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3 weeks ago | 
northernsoul.me.uk | Helen Nugent |Robert Martin
She was lauded as an exceptional painter. Now a new exhibition highlights something entirely different: rag rugs. Tullie House in Carlisle is hosting Winifred Nicholson: Cumbrian Rag Rugs. Revealing another side to Nicholson’s artistic practice, this show focuses on tufted rag rugs (also known as hooky rugs or proggy mats). Made from fabric scraps and old clothing, rag rugs were once commonplace, a solution to heating chilly stone floors.
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3 weeks ago | 
northernsoul.me.uk | Helen Nugent |Robert Martin
Last time I looked they were still there, rusting metal posts beside a quiet country road near Boulsworth Hill, the summit in the south Pennine chain on the Lancashire/Yorkshire border. Once upon a time, the posts had a purpose. They carried peremptory ‘keep out, private’ signs, just in case any passing walkers were eyeing up the wild but beautiful moorlands beyond as territory to explore. The posts remain but the signs are no more.
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3 weeks ago | 
northernsoul.me.uk | Robert Martin |Fran Yeoman
As DaDa turns 40, Northern Soul writer and DaDa’s chair Rob Martin writes about the professional becoming personal. In 2025, one of the North’s most important arts organisations turns 40. But it might well be new to you, despite four decades of groundbreaking work, national and international collaborations, revolutionary artist development programmes, and a biennial festival which has taken place in and around Liverpool since 2001.
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Dec 20, 2024 | 
northernsoul.me.uk | Robert Martin
These days, more often than not, we protest about something by signing an online petition. We demonstrate our frustration and horror by sharing a link, contributing to a fundraiser or writing something in an angry tone on our social channels. In general, it’s all very safe and detached. But it wasn’t always like this.
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Nov 22, 2024 | 
northernsoul.me.uk | Fran Yeoman |Helen Nugent |Amy Stone |Robert Martin
There are many things that regular attendees expect the Everyman Theatre’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Panto to be, but a satirical commentary on the resurgence of toxic masculinity is probably not one of them. Nevertheless, that’s what they’ll get as part of the 2024 offering, a Rapunzel that has somehow breathed new life into this festive Liverpool institution while retaining enough of the old staples to keep nostalgia fans happy.
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Nov 22, 2024 | 
northernsoul.me.uk | Helen Nugent |Amy Stone |Robert Martin |Desmond Bullen
Right from the start, there’s a sense that the dice are loaded against the protagonists of Willy Russell’s inarguably popular Blood Brothers, returning to Manchester’s Palace Theatre in a touring production after more than four decades of unbroken success. Dramatically, as its premonitory opening spells out, their cards are marked by the lineaments of tragedy in a specifically Shakespearian sense.
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Nov 20, 2024 | 
northernsoul.me.uk | Helen Nugent |Amy Stone |Robert Martin
If I’m being honest, winter comes as something as a relief. While I love being out in my garden, digging, planting and pruning, it’s good to have some time off and return to the warm embrace of the house. Once the leaves have turned and the thermometer has taken a permanent dive, I prepare the garden for winter. As far as possible, I want my carefully tended plants, shrubs and trees to make it through to spring when I will welcome them back like an old friend.
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Nov 20, 2024 | 
northernsoul.me.uk | Amy Stone |Robert Martin |Robert Hamilton
You know when you read something and think, ‘damn, I wish I’d written that’? Well, that’s how I feel about Burnt Ice Cream by Candi Martin. I loved this collection of poetry. In fact, it feels like I can’t review it properly because it resonated so deeply. I’m not biased. I’ve never met Candi Martin and, to my shame, I hadn’t heard of her work until my editor forwarded the details of this book. But it’s hard to separate your worldview from your reading.
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Nov 20, 2024 | 
northernsoul.me.uk | Robert Martin |Robert Hamilton |Desmond Bullen
Readers of a certain age could be mistaken for thinking that films featuring the work of Ray Harryhausen were on our TV screens every weekend when we were kids. Think of the dinosaurs of One Million Years B.C., the gigantic creatures living on Mysterious Island, Sinbad’s various friends and foes, the mythical beasts of Clash of the Titans and, best of all, the trials of Jason and the Argonauts.
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Oct 27, 2024 | 
northernsoul.me.uk | Desmond Bullen |Robert Martin
Bernard Butler is at pains not to be misconstrued. As we chat, he patiently corrects any misconceptions I might have about his recent LP, Good Grief. Released on his own 355 Recordings, it’s his first recording as a solo artist since 1999’s Friends and Lovers. To my ears, it has an almost elegiac air, a remembrance of things past. But, as Butler explains, this was far from his intention.
