It’s a celebration of great Huddersfield music … and it’s all free.
Huddersfield town centre has a new performance space and some of the town’s best-known bands and musicians are to play a celebration gig there to showcase Huddersfield’s great music heritage.
The events space has been created right next to Huddersfield Parish Church in St Peter’s Gardens and can take a crowd up to 1,000.
The new £500,000 performance space, a partnership between the church with Kirklees Council largely funded by Government cash, will be officially opened on Saturday September 21.
It begins with a special Celebrate Huddersfield service in the church at 3pm and then from 4.15pm right through to around 10pm there are a series of gigs with everything from a children’s theatre group and brass band through to Huddersfield music legend Pat Fulgoni and ever popular local rock band Storm.
Other performers include musicians from Huddersfield Philharmonic Orchestra, Stagecoach Theatre Company, Hade Edge Band, Huddersfield skiffle band Hokum and Fifth Wheel Jazz Collective.
Event director the Rev Amanda Ogilvie from Huddersfield Parish Church said: “It’s a fantastic line-up which shows the breadth of musical talent in Huddersfield and showcases just what’s possible with this amazing new events space.
“The audience will no doubt keep on changing as the gigs progress from classical through to rock and drum and bass so there’s something for everyone.
“This brand new outdoor venue has everything needed to stage some brilliant events, including plenty of power sockets for lights and music amps.
“Kirklees Council’s 10-year blueprint will transform parts of the town centre and what we’ve done outside Huddersfield Parish Church is a torchbearer for what’s possible, showing how it can enhance lives and attract people back into Huddersfield.”
Respected Huddersfield musician Pat Fulgoni (above), who will be performing at the event, said: “Music has the ability to bring people together like no other force on earth but it needs as much help as it can get right now so this new outdoor performance venue is a great addition to the town. It’s an ideal space for a wide range of musical styles and backgrounds.”
The gig is entirely free although food will be available at the site from well-known Huddersfield Caribbean chef Barrington Douglas who ran the famous Discovery Bay restaurant in the town for many years and now has his own mobile catering business.
He’s just converted a horse box into his mobile kitchen called Barrington’s Foods for events and festivals and this is the box’s first public outing.
Barrington (above) will be serving Caribbean handmade jerk burgers, Caribbean chicken wings and chips and Caribbean dirty fries featuring minced beef, homemade jerk seasoning and cheese. He’ll also have his celebrated Caribbean ginger and lime cheesecake.
There will also be a bar under a gazebo run by The Keys Coffee House and Kitchen.
The new outdoor events venue will be available for people to rent to stage all kinds of events.
The running order for the day is:
4.40pm: Hade Edge Band
5pm: Stage Coach Theatre Company
5.30pm: Huddersfield Philharmonic flute trio and string quartet
6.40pm: Fifth Wheel Collective
7.15pm: Hokum
8pm: Pat Fulgoni
9pm: Storm
Here’s a bit about the acts.
Storm
This legendary Huddersfield four-piece are a pub, club, party and wedding band playing a range of rock and pop covers from Prince to T-Rex and Madness. The band was first formed around 25 years ago with the current line-up for the last 15 which is Ian Roper (keyboards and vocals), his son Aden Roper (vocals and guitar), bassist Martyn Adams and drummer Neil Darnborough.
Pat Fulgoni
Pat is one of Huddersfield’s best-known musicians and although renowned for his blues music with his band the Pat Fulgoni Blues Experience, he also sings for large A list dance music and drum and bass producers.
Pat, who has played Glastonbury four times with Huddersfield band Kava Kava and once with legendary Radio 1 DJ John Peel’s favourite dub band Zion Train, will be singing some of his acclaimed drum and bass collaborations at the venue launch. Some have won prestigious Drum and Bass awards with one featuring in the Celebrity Big Brother end credits.
Hokum
Hokum take their skiffle instrumentation back to its early roots playing good time blues, early jazz, swing and country. Veteran washboard master Gordon Wood drives the rhythm section along with tea chest virtuoso Kath Stewart. Jason Kerry is on melodic duty with resonator guitar, hip shaking harmonica and kazoo and it’s all fronted by the captivating vocals of Jo Mitchell.
Fifth Wheel Jazz Collective
A jazz ensemble formed at the University of Huddersfield in 2019 who play classic swing, exciting Latin and original funk.
Huddersfield Philharmonic Orchestra
Huddersfield Philharmonic Orchestra’s flute trio are Ilana Bebbington-Slater, Heather Heath and Mike Ladley and they love nothing than to get together and make great music while having a few drinks, hence their stage name Flutes and Fizz.
There is also a string quartet from the orchestra featuring Fionnuala Donnelly Schmidt on cello and Millie Fisher on viola with Kath Tonge and Cat Ellis on violin. They will be playing a mixture of well-known classics through to modern jazz and pop tunes ranging from Mozart to Mumford & Sons.
Stage Coach Theatre Company
This performing arts school for children in Huddersfield gives youngsters the opportunity to learn singing, dance and drama.
Hade Edge Band
Hade Edge Band was formed in July 1908, in 1988 and 2000 led the world famous Denby Dale Pie celebrations through the village of Denby Dale and in 2002 became National Champions of Great Britain in the second section of banding.
Written by ANDY HIRST who runs his own Yorkshire freelance journalism agency AH! PR (https://ah-pr.com/) specialising in press releases, blogging, website content, copywriting and ghost writing autobiographies.
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