STEVE JOHNSON, CHRIS SEARLE and TONY BURKE review new releases from Steve Knightley, Jupiter & Okwess, Jason Palmer, Lisa Knapp and Gerry Driver, Kin'Gongolo Kiniata, Ingrid Laubrock/Tom Rainey, Dan Sealey, Simin Tande, PAZ
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How an Oldham working-class hero powered to Jarama
COLIN TURBETT reviews a colourful account of the life and death of communist speedway star Clem Beckett
CB
Back from a mini tour of Yorkshire and Stockport and cheering for supporting act Indignation Meeting
ALISTAR FINDLAY is mesmerised by this multiple ‘Visions of Scotland’ assault on the audience’s eyes and senses
The Star's critics ANGUS REID, ANDY HEDGECOCK and MICHAL BONCZA reviews I Am Love, The Penguin Lessons, Freaky Tales, The Thicket
MAYER WAKEFIELD has reservations about the direction of a play centered on a DVLA re-training session for three British-Pakistani motorists
STEVE JOHNSON, CHRIS SEARLE and TONY BURKE review new releases from Steve Knightley, Jupiter & Okwess, Jason Palmer, Lisa Knapp and Gerry Driver, Kin'Gongolo Kiniata, Ingrid Laubrock/Tom Rainey, Dan Sealey, Simin Tande, PAZ
Peter Mitchell's photography reveals a poetic relationship with Leeds
Clem Beckett – Motorcycle Legend and War Hero
by Rob Hargreaves
Pen & Sword Books £25
SOME readers may know of Clem Beckett from the wonderful Townsend Theatre Productions 2016 tour of Daredevil Rides to Jarama that told some of his story.
Despite its rather military sounding title this book tells a north of England story of working-class individualism and commitment to the cause of communism during the turbulent times of the 1920s and 1930s; as such it fills in the gaps of writer Neil Gore’s theatrical production.
Born in 1907, Beckett grew up in an Oldham terraced house and had to go out to work at the age of 12 to help support his family after his father abandoned them.
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