The Week in Light & Sound
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The Cure's headline performance is their first since 1995 and their fourth overall, meaning they tie with Coldplay as the festival's most-frequent headliners. The Killers previously topped the bill in 2007; while Kylie was booked for the top slot in 2005, before breast cancer forced her to pull out. The Prodigy had been booked to play prior to frontman Keith Flint's untimely death.
Survival Fund - An independent London music venue that has hosted acts including Arctic Monkeys, The Chemical Brothers, Adele and Fatboy Slim is campaigning to raise £95,000 in a fight for survival. The Social, a 250-capacity venue in Little Portland Street, in London's West End, is facing closure and the founders say they need to come up with the cash within two weeks to stay open.
Rising rents and an offer to the building's leaseholder from a cocktail and wine bar chain "have put The Social under very serious threat", they said in a statement on their website. Supporters have already pledged more than £35,000 to a crowdfunding site within a day of it going live, with big-name acts urging people to get behind the campaign on social media.
- Contemporary artworks owned by George Michael sold for £11.3m at an auction, 27 months after his death. They included pieces by Tracey Emin and Damien Hirst. The highest price was for The Incomplete Truth, a 2006 Hirst work consisting of a dove preserved in formaldehyde, which sold for £911,250. The money raised will go to causes that the philanthropic star supported.
Under Scrutiny - Scotland’s annual £90m state funding for the arts is to be scrutinised by the Scottish Parliament’s culture committee. The committee has launched an inquiry into arts funding in Scotland and issued a call for written evidence on what a sustainable model of funding would look like and how that funding should be made available to artists. It follows the committee’s investigation in 2018 into the specifics of Creative Scotland’s handling of the current (2018-21) round of regular funding.
Creative Scotland receives £90m in public money a year, 70% from Holyrood and 30% from the National Lottery, for its three funding routes: regular funding, open project funding and targeted funding.
Downtown - Petula Clark and Joseph Millson are to join the forthcoming West End revival of Mary Poppins. Clark will return to the West End stage for the first time in 22 years to play the Bird Woman in the musical, while Millson will play George Banks. The show opens on in October at the Prince Edward Theatre, where it premiered in 2004.
Hello Dolly - Dolly Parton musical 9 to 5 has announced a UK tour that will open later this year. A “second production” of the musical, which has music and lyrics by Parton and is based on the 1980 film of the same name, will open at the Alexandra Theatre in Birmingham in September, before touring until November. It will play 11 cities across the UK, including Manchester, Glasgow, Liverpool, Cardiff, Dublin and Sunderland.
Parton said: “I am beyond thrilled to the response from across the pond to 9 to 5 the Musical. The overwhelmingly positive fan reaction to this universal story tickles every rhinestone on my body. I can’t wait for more people throughout the UK and Ireland to enjoy it and sing along.”
Cold Front - The stage adaptation of Frozen, which opened on Broadway early last year, is coming to London's West End. It will reopen the Drury Lane Theatre in Autumn 2020 after the theatre's refurbishment, producers have confirmed. The musical is based on the 2013 Disney movie of the same name - the most successful animated film ever, with box office takings of more than £1.25bn.
(Jim Evans)
19 March 2019
