Oct 30th 2008                                                                                                                     The Last Waltz, Play with Music, Quandam Theatre

Four talented, experienced  comic actor-musicians on tour, all  with  hearty voices, brought a new style of theatre to Radcliffe - modern European farce, and played to a large and receptive audience. 'The Last Waltz' a play with music, followed the shambolic lives of its lead characters; a sparky daughter counselling her parents through a sticky marital patch and a brother with 'unfortunate warts', a lovelorn housewife, a 'rail company jobsworth ' in love with rain and all things miserable, and the hero, a signalman on the cusp of losing his job. It may not sound like the stuff to raise a laugh, but it did - lots of it! In an atmosphere of signal bells, cross-rail point changes and rattling train sound effects, the story was peppered with songs ranging from laments and sharp satire to love ballads and lively music hall turns, accompanied by piano, flute, guitar, mandolin, ukelele, wash-board, tea-chest bass, violin and more; all players showed inexhaustable musical skills!  The audience responded with loud laughter, the occasional sigh and giggle, clapping, stamping and whilstling for more.  Another  great RadVentures night out for all!

(A Village Ventures event)  

May 23rd 2008
Ian McMillan  & Tony Husband    

This was a true delight - comedy, humour and fun, combining pithy poems from Ian McMillan, Barnsley's laureate and 'observer of life' joining forces with 10-times cartoonist-of-the-year Tony Husband.  Everyone was laughing and enjoying being daft, and the cartoons kept coming at lightning speed.  The audience ended up with an illustrated musical saga of what 'might 'have happened one night at Grange Hall at dead of night - involving a TV star fox in stripey socks and corset, owl-hoooooting, the ancient whipping post in use again, strange apparitions hiding behind curtains and a 'trolley of doom' gliding back and forth which frightened nobody!  So massively enjoyable was the evening that nobody wanted to leave; the atmosphere was wonderfully warm and friendly, and the entertainers said it was definitely one of their best gigs.  The  140+ RadVentures  audience was  given top marks for enthusiasm, participation - and really bad singing!!!                                                                                                                                 (A Village Ventures event)   

The Arcadians Quartet

The event was a huge hit and a total sell-out: we could have filled the hall twice over.

The Arcadians musicianship was breathtaking, the atmosphere wonderfully warm, funny, charming, witty and entertaining, and we learned a lot about the history of jazz from the 1920s and 30s and its roots in Folk, Blues and beyond. The jazz guitarists, two of the best in the country, were particularly outstanding.                                                                       (A Village Ventures event)                                                                   

2007 Season

Thursday 31st October 2007
The Hired Man Award-winning musical theatre

Melvyn Bragg and Howard Goodall's award-winning musical, on national tour again, thrilled a capacity audience at Grange Hall. The New Perspectives Theatre Company production was excellent, with great set design, lighting, splendid costuming, wonderful music, sturdy singing, acting, and foot stomping dance numbers.

It followed a story spanning two generations of a farming and mining family during the early years of the 20th century. Honest, emotional, fiercely passionate and funny, it offered something for everyone in the packed hall.                                                              (A Village Ventures event)   

July 20th 2007
Magic Car Americana band

Magic Car's great vocalist held together a band that covered a range of country styles and built an intimate atmosphere.

Thursday April 26th 2007
The Small Ballet, REVIEW

Six 'Small Ballet' dancers hot from Netherlands State Ballet, Cuban Ballet and other major companies entertained a near-capacity audience at Grange Hall. They performed a varied programme on a specially designed performance 'mat' supported by professional sound and excellent lighting.

The five different dance 'sets' ranged from an update of the ballet favourite 'Harlequin & Columbine' to warm, sensual Cuban rhythms, featuring Ramon Diaz, who trained in Havana, and whose British fan base grew considerably following his Radcliffe performance - a wonderful, beautifully controlled dancer.

Audience feedback confirmed that whilst some of the music score was 'challenging' the quality of movement, creativity, costuming, outstanding strength, artistic dance skills displayed and ensemble work won the audience over completely.                                        (A Village Ventures event)   

Thursday February 15th 2007
World Music - Seckou Keita Combo

One of the most popular events hosted by RadVentures, Seckou Keita wove together the best of Afro-Mandinka soul music, drawing musicians from Senegal, Italy, Egypt and The Gambia. The atmosphere was joyous. Young, middle-aged and older audience members were delighted by novel sounds, and youngsters danced happily through the bistro tables conga-style. Another sell-out event, the band, which is on international tour with a string of successful CDs to their name, has kept in touch with RadVentures.

They tell us that Radcliffe was one of their best UK gigs. See Seckou Keita site:www.seckoukeita.com
(A Village Ventures event)   

2006 Season

15th Sept 2006
The Allotment by Andy Barrett.

A new piece of writing by a local playwright, the play was a comedy about war, displacement, asylum and compost heaps. The theatre company played at the Edinburgh Fringe before coming to Radcliffe.                                                                                                                                (A Village Ventures event)   

Nimbus with Karen Tweed

The best of European and traditional English folk music.                                                       (A Village Ventures event)   

The Kremlinaires Russian Big Band Cabaret

The Kremlinaires, the 'Commissars of Cool 'and world leaders in Soviet Swing and Bolshevik Boogie kept a good size audience hugely entertained. Led by Chris Haigh on the fiddle, the band was his most recent, ambitious and completely inexplicable venture to date!

The seven-piece Soviet Swing Band mixed Russian Folk with 40s Swing.  The audience wasn't quite sure what to expect as they seemed hard to categorise, but the combination of humour, theatrics and excellent songs won them over.  As well as Chris's fiddling,there were combinations of vocals, accordion, guitar, clarinet, sax, drums piano and bass.

The band has appeared everywhere; from village halls to jazz fests and private parties.  (A Village Ventures event)   

Great Expectations,
Shifting Sands Theatre Company

Classic Dickens at 90 miles an hour.                                                                                          (A Village Ventures event)  

2005 Season

Caratinga Brazilian Choro Music

South American rhythms don't get any better than this.                                                      (A Village Ventures event)   

Dec 2004

Silas Marner  

Blah Blah Blah Theatre Company

This was Radventures very first event.  Theatre in the round.                                           (A Village Ventures event)