100 Years

Since Live & Local’s humble beginnings in the 1990s, we have grown to work with over 280 Village Halls and other community venues across the East and West Midlands. Today we celebrate 100 years.

Community Spotlight: Hemingby Village Hall

We’re back again for another Community Spotlight. We hope you enjoyed our previous two with Pailton Village Hall and All Saints Church, Bradbourne as much as we enjoyed catching up with them. It’s been a real balm for the soul to stay in touch with the Live & Local network and hearing about how communities […]

Community Spotlight: Pailton Village Hall

During these unusual, unprecedented and frankly downright bizarre times, it’s a nice reminder to get back to our roots as a community touring scheme and speak to members of the Live & Local network. Previously we caught up with our friend Jenny at All Saints Church, Bradbourne and she gave us an insight into the […]

Community Spotlight All Saints Church Bradbourne

Live & Local wouldn’t run without our network of fantastic voluntary promoter groups and local communities. This is something we like to celebrate, with previous Community Spotlight articles talking to the teams at Wren Hall, Swayfield Village Hall and Alrewas Village Hall. The current worldwide crisis does cast a rather different light on our every […]

COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT: ALREWAS VILLAGE HALL

This year, Alrewas Live & Local came of age, celebrating 21 successful years. Promoter Richard Evans tells us what it’s been like… Back in 1998, the group, originally named Alrewas Arts, was founded by a villager with a vision, the late Wendy Jones. Wendy’s dream was to introduce more community art and culture to the […]

Artist Spotlight: Ma Bessie and The Pigfoot Band

The ‘Empress of Blues’, Bessie Smith is given the royal treatment in this dedication to prohibition era blues and jazz by Ma Bessie and the Pigfoot Band on their first rural tour with Live & Local … Julia’s rich vocals combined with a group of musicians that look as well as sound the part. Ma […]

Live & Local Brand Rationalisation

From the start of the new Autumn 2019 season, Live & Local is phasing out the ‘Shindig’, ‘Centre Stage’, ‘Village Ventures’ and ‘Lincolnshire Rural & Community Touring’ brands and is renaming all its county networks Live & Local (followed by the county name) e.g. Live & Local Nottinghamshire, Live & Local Worcestershire. This will ensure […]

Artist Spotlight: Worry Dolls

As Live & Local’s AW 2019/20 season begins we are introducing or re-introducing you to our roster of artists. Before they begin their shows in October, we had a chat with one of our new artists Worry Dolls to find out what to expect this year. Warm, heartfelt harmonies. Worry Dolls. Sums them up. The […]

Edinburgh Fringe 2019

Edinburgh Fringe has been and gone for another year. The Fringe has always been a great way for us at Live & local to see new shows and hear about companies perfect for rural touring. We sent Mollie Davidson, Marketing Assistant extraordinaire to Scotland’s capital to see what the Fringe had to offer… The dance this […]

New Season AW19/20 – Fresh Faces

October is fast approaching and that can only mean one thing: the start of your new Live & Local season. Alongside stunning new acts, a selection of familiar faces will also be returning to the stage. We’ve selected a few newbies who are touring with Live & Local this year– read on and learn about […]