We’d love to hear what you thought about the Festival.

Everybody who fills out our feedback forms before the closing date will be entered into a prize draw:

1st Prize Family Meal at Jimmy Spices

2nd Prize £10 Beauty Voucher for Wyndley Leisure Centre

Launch Survey

Yesterday was the main day of the Festival, with performances, workshops, and a creative market in Sutton Parade, plus events all over town all day and into the evening.

We had a few teething problems, and we have lots of things that we will improve on next year.

As Festival Chairman, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the artists for their energy and enthusiasm, and their patience where there were things we had to change on the day.

I’d also like to thank all the members of the public who came and got involved, and of course I’d like to thank the rest of the committee members and our wonderful volunteers.

Feedback & Memories

A number of photographers were out and about recording the day, and you can see the results here.  We would love for you to share any memories with us: please feel to join the Flickr group and add photos, or to email pictures to us.

We’d also value any comments you have on the event - please return your feedback forms to us or look out for the survey in the paper and on the website.  You can also email us: info@suttonfestivalofarts.co.uk

We will be taking all feedback on board at a debriefing meeting, to ensure that we provide the bst possible festival for Sutton Coldfield.

Our answer to Robert Plant and Alison Krauss - two exemplary musicians with very different backgrounds, joining together to produce something magical. Vocalist Natalie is best known for her work with pop group Scooch, who were the UK’s Eurovision representatives in 2007 and who have enjoyed a string of top-ten hits.

Ian was the house drummer at Ronnie Scott’s in Birmingham when he was 16, and now performs in the jazz vein with the likes of Georgie Fame and Alan Skidmore.

Together they will provide unique, jazz-tinged readings of pop classics including songs by Chaka Khan, Gabrielle and Roberta Flack, plus one or two surprises!

Accompanying Natalie and Ian, who attended Arthur Terry School at the same time, for this unforgettable night will be Dave Day (guitar, vocals), Bryan Corbett (trumpet), Marcus Byrne (keyboards), and Roger Inniss (bass).

Support is provided by Gemma Shaw.

Tickets for this concert, presented in association with Palmerlive Concerts (www.palmerlive.co.uk), are available now on 0121 464 8990 or via www.suttoncoldfieldtownhall.co.uk.

For more background on this event read our interview with Natalie Powers.

Not content with just one High School Reunion, in which he will team up with fellow former pupil Natalie Powers for a one-off concert, drummer Ian Palmer arranged another one this week.

Ian made his first return to Arthur Terry School 16 years after leaving, to drum up support for the Sutton Festival Of Arts, for which he will be providing the launch concert on Wednesday (July 9).

The accomplished Streetly-based percussionist, who is in Georgie Fame’s band, led a drum workshop for Year 8s and 9s at his former seat of learning.

Pupils revelled in the opportunity to participate, and picked up a few tips as Ian handed out cowbells, maracas and other items of percussion. They performed their own version of South American music, and heard how modern drumming had developed through the military using a snare during the American Civil War, through to jazz, blues and the Beatles.

Ian and Natalie, who has made the top ten with the group Scooch several times and has had leading West End roles, used to appear in musicals together when they were just one year apart as pupils at the school.

They will be joined on stage by a world-class, jazz-leaning band including guitarist-vocalist Dave Day, keyboard player and arranger Marcus Byrne, trumpeter Bryan Corbett, and bassist Roger Inniss for this special night, which will be introduced by Central weathergirl Charlie Neil, the Festival’s patron.

Tickets are £15 on 0121 464 8990 (Monday to Friday, 9am to 2.30pm) or at any time via www.suttonfestivalofarts.co.uk

*Ian is also performing with the Ocean’s 11 Big Band at the Captain’s Summer Ball at Aston Wood Golf Club on Saturday July 12. Tickets for that one are £39.95 on 0121 580 7800.

Pictured with Ian are budding percussionists (from left) Arron Woolley, Chante Morris, Rob Quinn and Liam Good.

Sutton College fine art lecturer Ian Cook is always first on the grid when it comes to developing quirky pieces of work.

Ian, 24, has already enjoyed plenty of success with his paintings and sculptures which uniquely echo the motor industry.

Ian, previously a student at the college, paints using radio-controlled cars instead of a brush, and creates sculptures out of parts of die-cast model cars.

This week he used a vacant retail unit in The Mall Sutton Coldfield to come up with one of his “auto-drawings”, as he calls them, to promote the Sutton Festival Of Arts.

That piece, and his rendition of The Mall logo, will be hung in one of the shop windows throughout the Festival.

The artist, whose colourful work goes under the title Popbang, is inspired by his Solihull birthplace, close to the home of Land Rover.

Some of his other pieces went on display at the Gaydon Heritage Centre car museum in Warwickshire in May, during the Land Rover 60th anniversary weekend, after they were created “live” on the site.

“All the artwork I produce has a sense of fun about it and is intended to be easily accessed,” said Ian.
“Quirky and unique ideas are powerful and can have an instant impact in today’s throwaway society.”

Visit www.popbangcolour.com

The box office is open from 9am to 2.30pm, Monday to Friday. Bookings can be made online at any time via www.suttoncoldfieldtownhall.co.uk

Please book with the Town Hall for the following events:

• Launch Night - Natalie Powers & Ian Palmer
• Midsummer Music - Sutton Coldifeld Orchestra, Vaugn Singers & Four Oaks Cluster Choir
• Shirt & Tie - musical by Stuart Jones

Ace Sutton pianists Stuart Jones and Martin “Sniper” Rowberry dropped in to Fairfax School this week to lead an impromptu workshop for pupils, and to preview some of the material from Stu’s witty musical Shirt & Tie, which will be presented at Sutton Town Hall on Sunday July 13 at 7.30pm.

So funky was the mood that students couldn’t help pulling some shapes.
Tickets are available on 0121 464 8990 or via www.suttoncoldfieldtownhall.co.uk

Stu and Martin, collectively known as Blister, will also be performing some keyboard duels in a variety evening at the school on July 12 at 7.30pm, appearing along with a cappella group Voiceshop, and some Year 12s from Fairfax, who will tackle Peter Shaffer’s Black Comedy. Admission to this one is free.

Sutton-based Irish comedienne Sheila M (pictured top)will show her versatility by hosting a three-and-a-half hour session of music at M&S on Saturday July 12 - and performing some original songs herself.

Sheila, who runs a comedy night at The Place 2B, will be joined by guitarist Gregg Jones to showcase their compositions as The Sweet Peas between 12.15pm and 1pm in the store’s Cafe Revive.

Preceding her will be Beryl and Tony Baker, a husband and wife duo who play cover versions of songs from the 50s to the present day (10.30am to 11am), and Gary Saunders (pictured bottom), a singer-songwriter who has penned 500 numbers over the years and who once supported Tyrannosaurus Rex before they became T-Rex (11.15am-12 noon).

Keyboard wizard Stuart Jones (middle), whose compositions range from classical to funk, boogie-woogie to jazz, and pop to new age, will display his special talents, in the company of some of his musical friends, from 1.15pm to 2pm.

It will be a busy weekend for Stuart, who appears with fellow pianist Martin Rowberry aka Sniper for some musical duels at the ivories at Fairfax School, under the collective name of Blister, on the evening of July 12 (7.30pm).

He also presents his debut musical Shirt & Tie, which pulled 600 punters to the mac earlier this year, at Sutton Town Hall on Sunday July 13.

The programme for the Festival has now gone off to print, but you can download a copy here.

The programme itself is the result of months of work, mostly by our own Steve Bradley who has coordinated the artists to create a varied and accessible schedule of events.  The design of the programme has been completed by myself, Jon Hickman, and we are grateful to Sutton News for printing them for us.

Next step for the marketing team will be more work on the website as we get closer to the Festival.

A Streetly singer who began performing live less than a year ago recently landed a series of Midlands tour dates with chart-topping Journey South.

Gemma Shaw, 20, who works in the pro shop at Aston Wood Golf Club, teed up shows at the Alexandra Theatre in Birmingham, Lichfield Garrick and the Prince Of Wales Theatre in Cannock with the Middlesborough duo, who were third in The X Factor in 2005.

Gemma will perform twice at Sutton Festival Of Arts, firstly in support to Natalie Powers and Ian Palmer at Sutton Town Hall on Wednesday July 9 (www.suttoncoldfieldtownhall.co.uk) and secondly at a Sutton Unsigned night at The Gate Inn on Saturday July 12 from 8pm, on a bill with Hot Monocles, Ben Drummond and James & Edwards.

The Journey South brothers, Carl and Andy Pemberton, outsold winning X Factor contestants as their debut album soared to the top of the chart in 2006, with 216,000 sales in its first week.

Former Streetly School pupil Gemma also performed with the boys at The Wolf Radio’s anniversary night in Wolverhampton in September, then in Whitehaven the following month and in Batley in March. The boys had become impressed by Gemma’s talents after hearing her sing at Aston Wood.

“Last July, at the Ladies’ Captain’s Ball, I was asked by Ken Heathcote [former Aston Wood manager] if, instead of saying Grace, I would sing Fields Of Gold by Sting,” she said.

“At midnight I was asked to sing Danny Boy. The main act that night was Journey South.

“Nobody at the club knew that I could sing. Up to that point, I had only been playing guitar and singing in my bedroom for fun.

“I had got a new guitar for my 18th birthday, but my only wish was to play on stage with my Dad [Chris, an accomplished guitarist and Gemma's regular accompanist].

“Andy and Carl have been so supportive. They said anything they could help me with, they would do. They are fantastic lads.”

Gemma, who holds the ladies’ course record at Aston Wood, is busy writing and recording songs. She uses a loop station, like her idol KT Tunstall, to build up layers of guitar backing as she sings.

She added: “Journey South fans are amazing. A lot of them are e-mailing and messaging me on Myspace. They’ve said they’ll come and watch me at any places I play.”

Visit www.myspace.com/gems1987