This week’s local history quiz has been put together by Librarian Antony Ramm and focuses on people, places and events connected to Leeds during the last 50-years or so. In contrast to most of our other quizzes, you probably won’t find many clues elsewhere on this site – but you may well find some with…
Tag: music
Leeds Savage Club Display
This week we look at Karen Downham’s excellent Leeds Savage Club Display currently on show in the Local and Family History Department. A small display on the distinctive Leeds Savage Club, active from the late 1890s to the 1920s, and boasting some famous and influential names among the artists, writers and musicians making up its’…
“Abysmal Performance of Depravity Rock”: The Sex Pistols in Leeds, December 1976
by Antony Ramm, Local and Family History, Central Library Forty-years ago this week, the Sex Pistols finally began their 1976 UK tour. “Finally,” because – as the BBC has remembered this week – all but three of the projected dates on that tour were cancelled following the band’s notorious TV appearance on Bill Grundy’s Today show. Those…
New Research Guide: Frank Kidson Collection
Good news if you’re a fan of folk music, or enjoyed our previous post Folk Hero Frank Kidson… We’ve just published a new research guide aimed at helping you get the best out of the large collection of materials held at Leeds Central Library relating to the city’s esteemed music historian, Frank Kidson (1855-1926). From his…
Secrets of The Palm: An Insight into Early Radio Broadcasting in Leeds
This week’s post is by Tony Scaife, a Heritage Volunteer based at the Local and Family History Library. He’s been indexing volumes of The Palm, the magazine of the old Leeds Central High School, which inspired him to delve a little deeper into the city’s early radio days… In 1901, the groundbreaking Central High School (CHS)…
The Dutchman’s Leetle Dog: A Surprising Tale
by Gilly Margrave, Music and Performing Arts, Leeds Central Library When I was very small, small enough for grown-ups to be able to distract me by singing funny little songs, I remember my great aunt Ethel singing a song about a little dog which was lost. Aunt Ethel had been a teacher for all her…
Folk Hero: Frank Kidson
by Karen Downham, Local and Family History, Leeds Central Library Earlier this month, Leeds Central Library hosted Kidson Day, an event celebrating the folk song collector Frank Kidson, his legacy to Leeds and his significant contribution to the world of music and folk song. Visiting artists Pete Coe and Alice Jones had been researching, learning…
#explorearchives: A Tale of One Manuscript and Two Lords Irwin
by Gilly Margrave, Music and Performing Arts, Leeds Central Library One of the rarest items in the archive of our Music and Performing Arts Library has to be the manuscript of a Cantate di Camera à Voce Sola written by Giuseppe Montuoli of Lucca and dedicated to “Signor Milord Eduardo Irwin and dated 1706. This refers to…