ECHO’s area is very well served for live music, with more than a dozen venues hosting performances to suit many tastes. Here are some upcoming highlights.
The Fab Beatles play the Arches on 14 March
There’s another assortment of tribute acts at the Arches, starting on 7 March with a journey back in time to the original 1970s punk era, as the Sex Pistols Experience return, this time with support from Lizzie and the Banshees, who recreate the look and sound of Siouxsie Sioux and her band mates. Travel back a further decade and a half on the 14th, to experience the Fab Beatles, who promise the definitive sound of the Beatles, then it’s fast-forward to the ska revival of the early 1980s, when Ska Britannia perform a tribute to the likes of the Specials, Madness, the Beat and more, on 21 March. Snowblind, purveyors of early Black Sabbath classics for die-hard fans appear on the 22nd, followed on 28 March by Tina Turner tribute Tina and the City Limits Band. The Arches’ last gig of the month sees a return visit from the Jam Pact, recreating the live energy of the Jam, on the 29th.
The Arches also plays host to Fargo Tours’ Bands Night on 15 March, when raucous entertainment will be provided by Milton Keynes punks RSI (Routine Social Incompetence), Manchester’s space noise punk band Black Light Mutants, venue regulars The Army of Skanks and local post punk trio Bad Mouth Men.
Ditch the TV! organiser Malc Evans launches his new 3-track EP, Glimpses, at this month’s show, which is at the Maudslay on 28 March. For those who can’t wait to hear his new material, the songs can be enjoyed online ahead of the launch. Malc will be joined on the bill by ambient acoustic, post-rock musician Andy Mort, who performs in the guise of Atlum Schema, along with singer/songwriters Kerry Devine and Joe Dolman.
Warwick’s Americana duo K2Acoustic bring their combined wealth of playing experience to the Broomfield Tavern, Broomfield Place, on 29 March. Expect to hear a fusion of rhythm and blues, country, bluegrass, roots-rock, jazz and funk.
For acts with a wider appeal, cover and party bands play each weekend at Carey’s and the Albany Club. Available details are in the Diary of Events, near the back of this issue. Artists and venues: if you’d like your forthcoming gig included in a future issue, please let us know by email.
You may remember that some time ago, ECHO ran a feature on the Marathon Stitch Project organised by the Phoenix Stitchers, a local group of needlework enthusiasts. The idea behind the project was to invite local people to get involved with creating a large hanging that would be displayed in various places across the city to mark the Olympics and other significant events in 2012/13. Di Powell, project organiser explains.
“The Coventry Freemen’s Guild had made us a generous grant as they were keen for us to promote the textile skills which have underpinned Coventry’s fame and fortune for over a thousand years. We felt that getting citizens (and visitors) to contribute to making a celebratory, colourful, embroidered textile filled this bill really well, so six, 3 metre long calico panels began to make their appearance in all sorts of public places. It has been a long process as people are so very shy about picking up a needle and trying out stitching but a number of local groups have got involved including the Earlsdon W.I. who went to with a will and completed a panel within an impressive time scale.
“Taking the other three panels out and about, we had a hard time persuading passers by to actually “have a go”. Quite a lot of younger women claimed that grandmothers or mothers did the family buttons and repairs! Men generally regarded sewing out of their skill range, handling a hammer or a chain saw being more in their line. However, some delightful men were much braver and cheerfully sat down, discovering to their surprise that creative stitching is relaxing, enjoyable and satisfying.
“Our under fives in the Earlsdon children’s library corner amazed us all! Taking up their needles for the first time, they concentrated unbelievably hard and were soon making neat stitches in pretty colours as to the manor born. In fact school children of both sexes have contributed some outstanding stitched motifs. After establishing most of our more recent sessions in Central and local libraries we are now on the last leg and will be concentrating from now on on finishing the last two panels with established groups, where much better progress is made.
“We’re now planning how to make up the panels individually yet with the ability to be joined together and are talking with the local Library Services about using them to provide a cosy corner for children’s story times as well as possibly to display them in libraries around the city to promote needlework as a creative and rewarding activity as well as showing them in conjunction with other arts and crafts events. Please keep your fingers crossed that we manage to settle the Marathon Stitch Project into a loving home with a worthwhile future.
“As the project is almost complete, we don’t really need to meet at Earlsdon library on such a regular basis but anyone who’s interested will be invited to continue making their input in informal groups we hope to organise locally. I really want to thank the Earlsdon library staff for being incredibly helpful and welcoming. Sheryl in particular has been very supportive and enthusiastic, including through her artistic advertising boards and putting us on the website. We are also very grateful for the continued support of ECHO and will certainly keep in touch about developments in coming months.”
If you are interested in getting involved, please contact Di on 024 7667 3099.
Catherine Flamson, founder of local fitness company “Fabulously Fit Mums” is launching a brand new service this spring.
The “Mummy MOT” is a holistic and bespoke post natal check for new mums to help optimise the body’s recovery following the birth of a baby.
Catherine explains: “Most new mums have weakness in the muscles of the tummy and the pelvic floor after giving birth and a caesarean delivery can further weaken the tummy muscles. The lower back and pelvis are also vulnerable after childbirth and when looking after a young baby. The idea of the Mummy MOT is to help new Mums to identify any areas of weakness so that they can be addressed.”
If you are a new mum, or you’re looking to start a family and want to check that your body is ready, contact Catherine on 07762 179 232.
To launch this exciting new venture, Catherine is offering all ECHO readers the chance to win a FREE Mummy MOT. All you have to do is send your name and address to Catherine by email.
Kensington Road closed with cabling work being carried out
The impact of electricity cabling work is now being experienced by residents and road users in streets across Earlsdon.
As ECHO went to press Kensington Road was closed, with access for residents only and Westwood Road was due to be affected, while works in Spencer Avenue were due to be completed at the end of February. Disruption along the line of the cabling route between Hearsall Common and Whitley is likely to affect the Earlsdon area until at least 9 April.
The work is being carried out to improve electricity supplies to the south of Coventry. It involves upgrading equipment in major substations and laying 6km of 132,000 volt cable, which will help to safeguard supply to around 33,000 customers and allow for future increases in demand.
As well as residents and drivers being affected, there will also be disruption to bus passengers with stops being temporarily closed over the coming months on routes 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 6A, 11, 12, 18, 18A, 19, 21 and 27.
It was eighty years ago next month that St. Mary Magdalen Church in Chapelfields opened its doors for the first time. And as ECHO discovered recently, the church is growing, active and as vibrant as ever.
The Reverend Stella Bailey, who arrived at ‘the church with the blue roof’ in 2011, explained how the congregation had been working hard in recent years to become more relevant and outward looking, seeking to address needs in the local community while retaining its distinctive Anglo-Catholic style of worship. One small but important sign of this has been the ‘refreshing’ of the Magdalen Centre. New carpets, toilets and double glazed windows have made the church annex, which sits on the site formerly occupied by the ‘tin tabernacle’ that pre-dated the current church building, much more welcoming – as guests at the Coventry winter night shelter (see February’s ECHO) are discovering.
The night shelter is just one of a number of impressive projects being hosted by the church – and welcomed by the local community. ‘Messy Church’, a craft based church service designed to be attractive to children and their parents, draws between 40 and 60 people on the first Sunday each month. “Most of these are people who’ve had no previous contact with the church”, Stella explained. It’s probably just as well the church has doubled its numbers under Stella’s tenure, as the range of activities it undertakes is dizzying. “We run a Work Club on a Wednesday morning”, Stella told ECHO. “It draws on the expertise of retired members who can help with everything from online job searches to CV writing and interview skills – we can even organise suits for when people get interviews!” No sooner has Job Club finished than the increasingly popular Jolly Tots, a parent and toddler group, fills the centre. On a Thursday, there’s a luncheon club for older people. The world beyond our shores is not forgotten, either – the church has made the anti people trafficking charity ‘Stop the Traffik’ its campaign cause for the year, with attractive information displays in the centre raising awareness of the issue. A brightly coloured Fair Trade banana tree, made by the growing Sunday School, suggests, too, that education in awareness about social concerns starts early! Somehow amidst all this, Stella finds time to chair the Board of Governors at Hearsall School, having forged close and supportive links with the school since her arrival.
It’s clear that the priest and her congregation see their ‘mission’ in the local community as integral to their purpose. But all the activity is built on a foundation of continuing attention to accessible worship exploring what Stella terms ‘the mystery of God’, and the spiritual growth of congregation members, including a thriving young adults’ group. With children now much more actively involved in worship services, groups meeting in members’ homes during the week, the ‘Pilgrim’ course for those exploring Christianity, and a Lent study course about to begin, it’s clear what underpins the congregation’s commitment to becoming more relevant. St. Mary Magdalen has come a long way since the ‘tin tabernacle’, an offshoot of St. Thomas’s parish church in Spon End, was built. But, as Stella put it, it’s still “on a journey” to becoming a more visibly Christ-like community in this little corner of Chapelfields.
Thanks to all those who collected the Wish tokens for Coventry Resource Centre for the Blind. They will receive £382.38 as a share from the Coventry Telegraph campaign.
The Cook and Eat Well sessions for visually impaired people have been taking place in the teaching kitchen on Wednesday mornings and have proved very popular – with a chance to eat or take away the results!
New courses to start soon include Care and Share, which offers the opportunity to talk about any issues or problems causing concern. Craft classes will begin, including card making, sewing and art, with an option to incorporate any new ideas. There are a few vacancies in the IT classes where visually impaired people can learn to touch type, send emails, order shopping online or trace family history. So go along to enjoy the company and improve your skills.
If you feel a talking watch, talking clock or any other daily living aids would help you, call in to the Coventry Resource Centre for the Blind at 33 Earlsdon Avenue South or phone 024 7671 7522.
The Earlsdon Ward stretches across the city from Broad Lane in the west to nearly reach Leaf Lane in the east, and so, to reflect these extremes, the quarterly meeting of the Earlsdon Ward Forum moves location. Last quarter it was held in the east, and 2 residents attended; this quarter it was held in the west at the Village Hotel and around 50 attended. Although Forums at the Village are generally well supported, this attendance was abnormal, reflecting the abnormal weather that Broad Lane has been subjected to over the last quarter.
The residents of Broad Lane have suffered from a chronic drainage blockage between Glendower and Guphill Avenues, which manifests itself at times of high rainfall. Over the years they have complained in the normal manner and some remedial action has been taken, but this time they wanted it properly investigated and fixed. Prior to the meeting, houses in the area had been leafleted, and residents had not failed the muster call. In the face of such numbers the meeting was largely taken up by this issue, and related complaints about Broad Lane.
However, thanks to the astute chairmanship of Councillor Hammond, the rest of the agenda was considered. The Forum agenda was:
Police report
Fostering and Adoption within Coventry
Resident parking schemes
Earlsdon Clock, Earlsdon Festival and Earlsdon Drinking Fountain (the relevant details on these 3 items are dealt with elsewhere in this issue)
Flooding in Broad Lane
Police Report
Inspector Susanne Baker, deputising for her Sergeant Chis Harris, reported on parking issues, burglaries and vehicle crime in the ward. There had been 14 burglaries since the last meeting with insecure student households being the most popular target. There had been 2 arrests. Vehicle crime had decreased, with the major offence being the theft of number plates. She reminded the meeting that tamper-proof screws to secure the plates could be freely obtained from the police – contact them and they would deliver. She appealed for Neighbourhood Watch volunteers to contact their local force. As most crimes tend to be opportunistic, the police emphasise prevention – to this end, in the winter, early morning patrols are sent out to warn drivers of the danger of leaving their car engine running and the vehicle unoccupied. Also parking at schools can be monitored. She reminded the meeting of the police local surgeries they run at the Library and in the Memorial Park (see Diary). Questions from the audience followed regarding: vehicles speeding in Broad Lane (school run); the inability of cycling Chinese students at Warwick University to understand road positioning – Inspector Baker stated that much cycle guidance and training was being given to foreign students at the University; and the suggestion of the provision of road calming measures in Broad Lane.
Fostering and Adoption
Coventry does not manage to provide fostering care for around a quarter of its children who need such care, and they are sent outside the city. Cheryl Powell from the city council had come along to make the case for more local fostering. The council have set up a pop up shop in Market Way (10.00am – 2.00pm), where you can pop in to get information and guidance about fostering and adoption. Foster parents receive a maintenance payment for each child they foster, eg. £131.30pw for up to 4 years old, and on top of that the carer would receive extra for themselves, depending upon their experience and training. Fostering can be viewed as a career. Cllr Ken Taylor OBE spoke passionately in support of Ms Powell, stressing that Coventry should be looking after its own.
Resident Parking Scheme
Some of the younger residents of the Broad Lane area who were requesting dropped curbs near to Guphill Avenue to assist road crossing. Colin Knight (seated left and mostly obscured) assured them that as this was near to a junction, then dropped curbs should be provided as a matter of course. Pictured in the background are (left) James Arnold from Severn Trent, and Neil Thomas (right) from the council.
Colin Knight, Assistant Director of Planning, Transport and Highways is a frequent attender at the Forum, and instills confidence in the audience because of his quick grasp of issues and the direct answers he gives. The council have accepted that resident parking schemes need to be set up in some areas, and particularly in Cheylesmore and Earlsdon near to the railway station. This has been made more imperative because of the impending Friargate development. Consultants are about to be hired to investigate and report. It is hoped that the resident charge for a permit would just cover the administration costs, estimated at £20pa for each vehicle.
Colin then went on to outline current roadworks in the area – most of which ECHO readers will be aware of from the last issue. He highlighted that Spencer Road/Avenue will be closed from the middle of February for 7 weeks as Western Power is installing a 132kV link between the Hearsall sub-station and the Whitley sub-station. After Spencer Road, Western Power will take the cable down Davenport Road. The Friargate development will occasion another closure from 8.00pm 22 March, when traffic entering the Ring Road from Warwick Road will only be able to turn left. Prior to the junction there will be a right turn to allow access to the station. In answer to a query regarding the break up of the new road surface on Broad Lane, Colin said that several roads have experienced the same fault and that Balfour-Beatty would be returning to redo the work, at no cost, in the summer.
Flooding in Broad Lane
A photo montage was displayed at the Forum to show the extent of road flooding in the area. Neil Thomas, Head of Drainage at the city council, and James Arnold of Severn Trent dealt jointly with this issue, and were given a prolonged grilling by the meeting, as the catalogue of previous events was related. The conclusion was that Severn-Trent would conduct a CCTV examination of the sewer, and report back at the next meeting. Talk of flooding jarred the memories of some non-Broad Lane attenders, who reported drainage failures outside the City Arms, by the roundabout, and at the corner where Gordon Street meets The Butts.
Any Other Business
Not surprisingly Broad Lane had another few issues here, of which the most significant was the condition of the paths across Hearsall Common. Again there was a photo gallery. The paths are difficult to use in any wet weather as they are generally covered in mud. They attract little maintenance, and could be of more use if lighting was installed. Given the lack of a bus service down Broad Lane, these paths were an essential link to get to bus stops at the Village Hotel.
The start of the Earlsdon Festival has been moved forward and will now begin on Sunday 20 April with the ‘Fun Day’ in aid of the Mercia MS Therapy Centre at the Old Clarence pub on Hearsall Common. Festival Chair Nigel Lee said, “Our ‘Tug of War’ competition is set to be part of this and we are happy to back such a worthy cause. Please support this event if you can.”
FESITVAL SONG & FRINGE EVENT NEWS
Music plays a big part in the Festival and in addition to a number of concerts a special song has been recorded that celebrates the occasion in all its glory! “The Earlsdon Festival Song 2014” by legendary band Lieutenant Pigeon is now available to buy. The track, which features students from Jill Purser Theatre School’s Musical Theatre Class, name checks many of the sights and sounds of the Festival and is available to download for £1 from the bandcamp website: http://sentfromcoventrytoo.bandcamp.com/track/the-earlsdon-festival-song-2014.
For those who would prefer a physical copy, a CD with two bonus tracks (“Happy Go Lucky Me” and “Coventry’s Singing Dogs”) is on sale now at Over The Moon, 14a Earlsdon Street priced at £5 – but only 21 are available so get there fast if you want one! All proceeds are going to help fund the Festival..
The Albany Club is one of the Festival’s sponsors this year and four gigs will be taking place at the popular venue located at 10 Earlsdon Street. A charity concert featuring local choirs, singer songwriters and bands including One Voice, Section C, Callum Pickard,Last Train Home and The Moonbears will take place on Friday 25 April. All the artists are performing free of charge. Coventry & District Samaritans and Coventry Resource Centre for the Blind are the beneficiaries and admission will be £3 on the door. This concert has been made possible with support from local businesses – Michael Harris Opticians, A P Harvey Wines, Over The Moon, Miss Ellie’s Homemade, CV5 Creative and the Albany Club itself which has waived the normal room hire fee.
Coventry’s hottest ska/reggae band Barb’d Wire will be celebrating Earlsdon’s 2-Tone links with a special fundraising concert in aid of Coventry Music Museum and the 2015 festival on Friday 2 May. This event will be hosted by the Museum Curator Pete Chambers and there may be one or two legends from The Specials and The Selecter in the audience. It is hoped top ska tribute band Ska-Waddy will also be on the bill. The following night Dark Side of the Wall are a must see for all Pink Floyd fans and the line-up is completed by local favourites The Swains on Sunday 4 May. Tickets for these three concerts go on sale from 2 March priced at £10 each. They are available from the bar at the Albany Club or can be reserved by calling Dave Clarke (DC) on 07956 692375.
As ECHO went to press, many more “Festival Fringe” events were being planned. These are set to include a “Tea and Cake” afternoon featuring a special Earlsdon Festival cake made locally by Miss Ellie’s Homemade, activities at Spencer Park organised by the Friends group and a chance to learn more about the history of the area by joining a guided walk lead by Earlsdon Research Group. As well as appearing on May Day, the Coventry Morris Men are also planning to perform outside The City Arms (8pm) and The Royal Oak (9pm) on Tuesday 29 April. A full listing of events will be published in next month’s ECHO. If your organisation or venue would like to stage an event or activity as part of the Festival please get in touch via their facebook page or e-mail Simon Shaw at ginger.simon@hotmail.co.uk with details before 10 March.
MAY DAY
Massey Ferguson Running Club (Massey Runners) and the Kids Run Free charity are planning to get the May Day festivities off to a healthy start with races at the War Memorial Park aimed at young and old alike. A ‘May Day Mile’ for adults and a Festival Kids Race are set to take place in the morning prior to the official opening of the Festival on Earlsdon Street by the Lord Mayor of Coventry.
The Performance Area will be making a return after proving incredibly popular last year and will again be located near the Royal Oak. Further along the street a dedicated ‘Fitness Zone’ is set to make its festival debut, building on the success of Lean Body Vision’s hula hoop and planking challenges last May and also their fabulous ‘Boot Camp’ demonstration.
Demand for stalls on May Day is very high and over half were booked within the first three days of them going on sale. If you are interested in hiring one please contact Sam and Tilly as soon as possible to check on availability via e-mail: sales@tinderboxtoys.co.uk. (Please note that no more bookings for cake stalls are being accepted).
Volunteer stewards are required for the road closure barriers on May Day. Without enough people coming forward the May Day festivities can’t go ahead. Festival Coordinator Helen Atwood said, “Please ‘do your bit for Earlsdon’ and get in touch. A minimum of two hours of your time is all we ask for. Volunteering always looks good on a CV and you will be playing your part in helping to ensure Coventry’s leading community festival takes place.” No experience is required but you must be aged 16+ and of good character. Please contact Helen via e-mail: helenatwood9@gmail.com.
You can also get in touch with the Festival and keep abreast of its news via social media:
Many of our older ECHO readers will remember Doris and Jack Smith who ran Fane’s Newsagents at the top of Earlsdon Street (now Brian Holt Estate Agents) for many years until they retired in 1981. Doris moved to the Wirral to be near her daughter, Averil, and kept in touch with this area through her regular copies of ECHO. Sadly Doris passed away, at the age of 95, in 2012, but she spent much of her last months completing her memoirs of World War Two, which Averil kindly sent to us. Here we reproduce her account of the first months of the war and plan to publish more extracts in future issues.
In 1939 there was more and more talk about war and my fiancé Jack made up his mind to apply to join the RAF, rather than wait to be ‘called up,’ when he wouldn’t have a choice between the Army, Navy or RAF. Jack was sworn into the RAF on 1 September 1939 and war was declared two days later. He was sent to Lincoln Aerodrome to train as an air-gunner and wireless operator. He was there for seven weeks, and was then sent to Scotland.
Householders had to buy ‘black-out’ curtain, or dye old ones black to make sure no light chinks shone from windows to guide enemy planes. The ARW (Air Raid Warden) would walk the streets and shout at anyone who was showing a light. There were no street lights during the war, and everyone carried a small torch. Shops didn’t light their windows and important places, like town halls, banks, hotels and hospitals had sticky tape criss-crossed over the windows to help stop flying glass. Sandbags were provided and ‘walls’ built around important buildings too. Householders could buy the thick sticky tape for windows if they wanted, but we didn’t.
Anderson shelters, those made of bent over corrugated steel, were issued well into the war, and weren’t available at this stage of things. Brick air raid shelters were built on one side of roads all around town. This caused an obstruction, even though there were few motor vehicles, especially cars then, and petrol was in short supply and rationed. Cars were only used when absolutely necessary. Petrol coupons were allocated according to how many miles you had to travel to work, or if you were in the forces you were able to get a few more. Petrol cost 1 shilling and 6 pence a gallon during the war, that’s 7½ new pence for 4.546 litres. People walked, cycled or used public transport. Many deliveries were still made by horse and cart – right up into the 1950s when petrol lorries gradually took over.
Ack-Ack (anti-aircraft) guns were mounted on the back of flat-bed lorries and moved around the city to different positions each night. Some nights they were positioned outside our house in Holyhead Road. When they were fired at enemy aircraft, they made the terraced houses shake. During these early autumn days we didn’t know there was a war on. Our lads were being called up, but no news was reaching us apart from hearing that Hitler and Germany had taken Poland and Austria, and of course my Jack was away. I was managing Wharton’s, a newsagents, tobacconists and post office in Stoke Aldermoor, where I worked until March 1940.
During the winter of 1939 – 1940 I was planning our wedding. We had eventually decided to get married after knowing each other for five years and being engaged for two and a half. I went to see the vicar of St. Thomas’s in Keresley, Jack’s parish, and booked Easter Monday, 25 March 1940. I bought my wedding clothes, a beautiful two-piece in dusty pink, using my ration coupons. It was impossible to be married in white unless you already had a wedding dress, because material was difficult to get and it was all rationed. Jack’s Mum bought me a pair of beautiful silk cami-nicks for my wedding day. I went to the same shop in Corporation Street and they had a nightdress which was the same design; ecru Chinese pure silk with ecru embroidery, it was most beautiful so I used some more coupons out of my ration book! One of our friends from the greengrocery trade made my bouquet of orchids. A week before our wedding I had a letter from Jack saying he would be home two days earlier than planned, so I went and saw the vicar and he agreed to marry us on the Easter Saturday squeezing us in at 5pm!
