On Tuesday 22nd and Wednesday 23rd the Olympic Torch passes through Bristol.  As a result there will be a number roads affected and so getting into town for events here may become a little more difficult than usual, particularly on the Tuesday as there is a celebration event taking place at Millennium Square.  Please allow extra time for your journey. 

The days are planned as follows:

Tues 22 May

- Torch enters Bristol at 17:53 via Hanham on A431 and continues along A420 through Old Market
- Torch arrives by boat at the Amphitheatre at approx. 19:20
- An evening celebration will be hosted at the Amphitheatre and Millennium Square on 22nd May. The event is free but accessing the Amphitheatre requires tickets (ticket deadline now passed). This will be the stage area for the official LOCOG show supported by the main Olympic sponsors
- Millennium Square from 15:30 until 17:30 will stage performances from young musicians, athletes and choirs
- From 17:30 until 20:00 the official ticketed celebration evening takes place on the Amphitheatre stage which will be screened live to Millennium Square concluding with a special performance from Cirque Bijou and Desperate Men in front of M Shed
- From 20:00 to 22:00, music continues on the Millennium Stage featuring Quantic and Alice Russell, Beth Rowley and DJ Crust

Weds 23 May

- Torch leaves College Green at 05:50
- It will exit Bristol via Hotwells Road and enter North Somerset
- Torch re-enters Bristol via Clifton Suspension Bridge at 07:53, carries through to the Downs and exits Bristol via Southmead at 09:05

Traffic information
Tues 22 May

- No road closures. A420 through St George to Old Market will be busy but remain open
- A420 will have a traffic light green wave, meaning the main road in and out of Bristol will have all traffic lights on green to enable traffic to flow, but this will affect traffic on side roads wanting to join A420.
- Outbound traffic on A420 is expected to be slow as drivers observe the Torch
- Lawrence Hill roundabout – traffic will be held until Torch passes through
- Slips roads from Temple Way onto the Old Market roundabout will be held until Torch passes through
- There will be parking restrictions along this route with ‘no waiting’ cones in force. Police reserve the right to tow any vehicles parked in these areas but will move them to a nearby road

Weds 23 May

- Suspension Bridge closed from 06:00 and is expected to re-open at some point between 09:00 and 10:00
- Inbound traffic from North Somerset will be held from 07:50 until sponsors’ large vehicles exit the Cumberland Basin System. 20 minute delay expected at around 08:00
- Slip roads onto Brunel Way will be closed until the convoy passes through
- Traffic coming into Bristol from North Somerset is being advised to find an alternative route or travel later after the Torch passes through
- Alternative routes include the Portway or via M5 junction 17. These routes are expected to be extra busy as a result of traffic finding an alternative route
- Pedestrians and cyclists can use the Suspension Bridge, but there will be shuttle buses taking pedestrians/cyclists along the bridge

For full details visit bristol.gov.uk

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James Jones & Michelle Townsend

Tues 15 May – Fri 13 Jul 2012, Doric Room

Michelle is influenced by patterns in nature, geometry, repetition and distortion. Also inspired by material innovation and technological processes Michelle creates highly unique laser cut acrylic pieces.

A mesmerising play with light, shadow and transparency form this stunning series of wall mounted artworks.

www.michelletownsend.co.uk

James’ work is concerned with the ever-changing notion of self. Explored as part of this theme are the interconnected ideas of unity, opposites, balance, boundaries, the internal and external, consciousness and the organic.

James’ sculptures involve the use of “zeros” and “ones” as a metaphor for the Chinese belief in universal co-dependant opposites such as: Ying/Yang; male/female; on/off; inside/outside and all/nothing.

www.jamesjones.me.uk

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Sheona Beaumont: Bristol Through the Lens

Tues 15 May – Sun 2 Sep, in the Crypt Gallery

In an original series of 20 artworks, artist Sheona Beaumont has produced photographic interpretations of the Bristol landscape. Each digital collage is made up of more than one photograph taken at different times of day/year/view, revealing the dimensions of time and space in new and unseen ways. The work, which is also included in a full colour catalogue, explores the landscape as a changing, animated scene, bringing life to familiar landmarks such as Cabot Tower, Queen Square and the Clifton Suspension Bridge. Also accompanying these pieces are a selection of photographs from Sheona’s Bridge series.

Sheona’s work is being exhibited as part of the Bristol Festival of Photography. This biennial event in May will see a host of art institutions and photographers join in on exhibitions, talks and other events celebrating Bristol’s photography scene. Sheona will also be exhibiting at Colston Hall’s Glass Room and St Stephen’s Church – see the festival website for details. Her book ‘Bristol Through the Lens: An Exhibition and an Essay’, now in a second edition with Tangent Books, is also available online, priced £10.

Sheona Beaumont is a visual artist and writer based in the South West of the UK. Her work looks at the way photographs can communicate more than just a snapshot, often incorporating questions about faith and perception. Since graduating from the University for the Creative Arts in 2001, she has exhibited widely and regularly, engaging with subjects such as the heritage of monastic faith on Dartmoor (2004), stations of the cross (2006), the abolition of the slave trade (2007), and the spiritual nature of hope (2008). Alongside her practice, she is currently completing her doctorate on biblical themes in photography at the University of Gloucestershire. She was born in Bristol, and has lived in various parts of the city for over 15 years.

Artist website: www.shospace.co.uk
Bristol Festival of Photography website: www.bfop.org
Tangent Books website: www.tangentbooks.co.uk

Jim Rudge, one of our volunteer stewards, needs your help! 

On 20 May he’ll be slipping on his running shoes and pounding Bristol’s roads as part of the popular ‘Bristol 10k’ run.

We’re thrilled that Jim has chosen our very own ‘Cosmos Choir’ as his charity and, as he himself says, it’s a truly worthy cause.

“Cosmos is living proof that singing is something we can all enjoy, be inspired by and develop through, regardless of our social, cultural or economic background. To date, over 150 young people in Knowle West and district have grown through the experience of singing in Cosmos. Cosmos is St George’s own small contribution to transforming children through singing, and Suzi Digby’s endorsement of this through her acceptance of the role of Patron, makes us all the more determined to carry on raising the much-needed funds to enable this invaluable resource to continue for years to come.”

If you would like to support Jim’s 10k run and help raise funds for Cosmos Choir then visit Jim’s fundraising page on the ‘JustGiving’ website – HERE

Edson Burton’s BBC Radio 4 ‘More Than Words’ festival short story ‘Hood’, recorded live at St George’s, broadcasts on Radio 4 / Radio 4 LW, Friday 20 April at 3.45pm, and is available on Listen Again / iplayer until Friday 27 April.

Edson Burton writer, reader
Sara Davies producer

The final story commissioned for the ‘More Than Words’ festival in Bristol explores how sound can drive the imagination. A man walks through a city’s streets late at night, but when he hears footsteps behind him, he begins to worry.

For further information visit: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01g65h5

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We’re proud to be part of the Bristol Festival of Ideas once again and we play host to some of the season’s most interesting special guest speakers.  So get yourself to St George’s Bristol and experience the best in cutting-edge analysis, challenging discussion, creative debate and much more.

With exciting talks by some of the country’s most original, distinguished and best-selling authors, and the award of the Festival of Ideas 2012 Book Prize – given to the book, first published in 2011, which presents important and challenging ideas, and which is engaging, accessible and rigorously argued – there’s sure to be something to inspire the mind, stimulate the passions and spark the imagination.

Tues 15 May, 6pm
John McCarthy: You Can’t Hide The Sun
Read More

Tues 15 May, 7.30pm
Will Hutton: The Observer Lecture 2012
Read More

Weds 16 May, 6pm
Alain de Botton: Religion for Atheists
Read More

Weds 16 May, 7.30pm
Graham Farmelo & Peter Higgs: The Higgs Bosun and Paul Dirac
Read More

Mon 21 May, 7pm
Bristol Festival of Ideas Prize Evening
Read More

Tues 22 May, 6pm
Claire Tomalin: Dickens
Read More

Fri 1 June, 6pm
Harry Belafonte In Conversation
Read More

Thur 5 June, 6pm
Robert Skidelsky: How Much Is Enough?
Read More

Tues 10 Jul, 6pm
Clive Stafford Smith: Injustice… Life and Death in the Courtrooms of America
Read More

Promoted by Bristol Festival of Ideas in collaboration with St George’s Bristol.

For information on the complete Bristol Festival of Ideas 2012 season go to ideasfestival.co.uk or pick up a programme at St George’s Bristol box office.

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Mon 2 Apr – Mon 14 May, Doric Room

The series of prints and paintings I have chosen to show were inspired by an urban space towards the edge of the city. While the works are not a comment on the specific place they do deal with issues evoked by it. My attraction to the area was for both its architecture and its ambiguous nature and during the last few years I have made repeated trips to wander around and document the area. For me the place seems to exist for its own sake, isolated form its surroundings, which I have attempted to reflect in the images. Its modernist architecture also recalls the utopian intentions of the style, as well as the dystopian novels of JG Ballard such as High Rise and Concrete Island. The images on show have been greatly simplified and emptied of their original context and meaning, with the intention that they sit between abstraction and representation and the real and the imagined, as well utopian and dystopian readings.

An exclusive online collection of striking snaps from live music photographer Andy Lock, taken during performances at St George’s Bristol and capturing both unique portraits of extraordinary musicians and the electrifying spirit of live performance.

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Martin Stephenson and The Daintees, live at St George’s, 2012.

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Emily Wright w/ Moonlight Saving Time, live at St George’s, 2012.

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Lisa Hannigan, live at St George’s, 2011.

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Cerys Matthews, live at St George’s, 2011.

Exhibiting online only.

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The following is taken from the Silva Screen Records album ‘The Film Music of Michel Legrand’ and is used with the permission of the writer.

Michel The Great
The Music of Michel Legrand

With a career spanning well over sixty years and a plethora of genres, Michel Legrand – composer, arranger, conductor and performer – has become synonymous with timeless tunes and effervescent orchestration. Whether it’s jazz standards, top ten hits or Oscar-winning film scores, Legrand has done it all, and continues his reign with sell-out appearances in concerts across the world, remaining the toast of Hollywood over forty years after his first Academy Award, for the song ‘The Windmills Of Your Mind’.

It was that hit song – composed with legendary lyricists Alan and Marilyn Bergman for The Thomas Crown Affair – that secured Legrand’s place in Hollywood, but the years before 1969 had already seen the composer forge a career in film, in jazz clubs and in the charts, on both sides of the Atlantic.

Music is in the French/Armenian composer’s blood. With an actor/composer father (Raymond Legrand) and conductor uncle (Jacques Hélian) leading the way, it was little surprise that young Michel would study at the famous Paris Conservatoire and embrace a musical career. In 1954, after a number of years working as an accompanist, the musician hit the big time with a first instrumental album called ‘I Love Paris’, whetting the appetites of French listeners and inspiring a raft of popular Easy Listening releases, including ‘Michel Legrand Plays for Dancers’ which featured the infectious Mancini-esque ‘Die-Gue-Ding-Ding’.

It was stepping into a Paris jazz club that opened Legrand’s ears to that particular idiom, one he would run with and for which he would go on to create classic standards, not to mention collaborations with some of the best in the business. Dizzie Gillespie (incidentally the performer at that first club experience), Miles Davis, Bill Evans, Ella Fitzgerald and John Coltrane each worked with him, becoming some of his early star collaborators; indeed Legrand would become something of a star magnet, gathering many more celebrity friends and followers over the years.

During this time Legrand embraced cinema and jumped in with the French New Wave, composing a series of scores for documentarian Francois Reichenbach and seven feature scores for Jean-Luc Godard. It was his work with director Jacques Demy though, across ten films, which allowed Legrand the opportunity to really make his mark. Beginning with Lola in 1961, their work together included the film that would light the touch paper of his Hollywood film music career. Les Parapluies de Cherbourg was a musical, the first French film musical in fact, and thus gave Legrand the chance to really stand out. Showcasing his intrinsic abilities with affecting melody and lush orchestration, the film’s music rang out and attracted the attention of producers and directors in Los Angeles, helped further by Les Demoiselles de Rochefort – itself the third in a trilogy of sorts, begun by Lola and Umbrellas… One such director to take note of Legrand’s name was Norman Jewison, and in 1968 the pair worked together on The Thomas Crown Affair.

With an Oscar won for that film’s iconic song, songwriting with the Bergman’s continued and the following year a small drama about a bored housewife starring Jean Simmons added another classic creation to the trio’s hit list. While The Happy Ending might not have blown the box office apart, its song ‘What Are You Doing The Rest Of Your Life?’ became a massively popular tune and one of Legrand’s most covered tracks. The likes of Sarah Vaughan (in a Grammy-winning version), Shirley Bassey, Sting, Frank Sinatra, Diana Ross, Peggy Lee, Andy Williams and Dusty Springfield all performed it over time, each becoming firm friends and fans of Legrand’s in the process.

Another Oscar followed for ‘Original Score’ in 1971, for Summer of ’42; another example of scintillating and masterful melodic phrasing that keeps you hanging on every emotional note, and forming the base of the song ‘The Summer Knows’. It would be twelve years until a third Oscar came Legrand’s way, for a little film called Yentl. That film, directed by and starring Barbra Streisand inspired yet another raft of beautifully conceived original songs, with ‘Papa, Can You Hear Me?’ and ‘A Piece of Sky’ becoming standards in their own right, the former still one of Streisand’s signature pieces in concert today.

While songs have formed a major part of Michel Legrand’s success as a composer, his dramatic writing for film has seen him deliver some truly brilliant turns, perhaps most notably his brooding, lustful underscore for 1970’s Wuthering Heights (which admittedly did inspire another hit song in the shape of ‘I Was Born In Love With You’, released by Johnny Mathis), not to mention dynamic offerings for Le Mans (starring Steve McQueen in 1971), Richard Lester’s classic, colourful and ultimately very faithful rendering of The Three Musketeers in 1973, The Go Between (1970) and Steve McQueen’s final film The Hunter (1980).

Today the multi-talented, multi-faceted artist is enjoying life as something of a living legend. Recently celebrating his 80th birthday he still dabbles in original film music, and continues to draw crowds in concert as a pianist. Jazz still forms a major part of his repertoire, with his trio performing to packed houses large and small. The set-list of course includes the gems of his film work, a winning selection of music and one which will remain always timeless and forever treasured.

Michael Beek
Writer, Film Music Journalist, Producer
michaelbeek.co.uk

© Michael Beek, 2011

Michel Legrand appears in concert here on Sat 31 Mar at 7.30pm. Click here for more details.

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The Music of Michel Legrand is available on CD and to download from silvascreenmusic.com

At present the plan is to open during the concert season only and remain closed during public holiday weekends (such as Easter) and during our summer break.

With that in mind the Box Office will be open every Saturday from Midday-6pm from Sat 3 March through until Sat 7 July.