@Leeds College of Music Saturday 20 July Recital Room 219. Doors 3.30, event starts 4pm
Our first Leeds Fusebox presention at this Festival is “Mrs Boyes’ Bingo” featuring Mark Sanders. It is a bog-standard game of prize bingo with simultaneous drumming and percussion / disruption. Conceived and produced by Simon Thackray, the event was premiered at The Shed in North Yorkshire in 1999. This totally unrehearsed performance brings together the 81 year-old bingo caller Mrs Eileen Boyes with leading drummer and percussionist Mark Sanders, in what remains one of the happiest accidents in the world of free improvisation. Rarely do two worlds collide and create so much fun.
The first set will feature the solo improvised piano of Leeds pianist Laura Cole. Mrs Boyes bingo will feature one of Europe’s finest improvising drummers, Mark Sanders with legendary bass player John Edwards, in a 20 minute opener to an extraordinary bout of free improvisation and chaos.
“You would be mad to miss such delirium.” Charles Hutchinson, The Press.
“It shouldn’t work but it does. Great fun!” Belfast Telegraph.
Individual biographies:
Mrs Eileen Boyes – bingo caller: Eileen Boyes was born in Norton, Malton, North Yorkshire in 1938. She worked in Kays Bakery in Church Street until she married at the age of 25 and started a family. She called bingo in the town hall for over 20 years to raise money for local charities. Mrs Boyes is renowned for her ‘forthright personality’ and direct approach, which, to those who don’t know her, can seem quite scary!
Mark Sanders – drums and percussion: Mark Sanders has played with the UK`s leading improvisers including Derek Bailey, Paul Rutherford, Barry Guy, Lol Coxhill, Phil Wachsmann, Evan Parker, Keith Tippett and
Sarah Gail Brand, and in major festivals in the UK, Europe. USA, and Japan. Mark has performed in a duo with Mrs Boyes since in 1999 including a tour of village halls in North Yorkshire and performances at the Music Research Centre, University of York, and Belfast International Festival.
John Edwards – double bass: John Edwards took up bass around 1987 and co-founded The Pointy Birds. In the early 1990s he started to perform solo and work with other improvising musicians, including Lol Coxhill and Phil Minton, while also touring as a member of B-Shops For The Poor, The Honkies and GOD. Since 1995 he has been a key figure on the British improvising scene
Simon Thackray – artist, promoter: Simon Thackray founded the music and poetry micro-venue The Shed in 1992. This improbable performance space, in a tiny village in North Yorkshire, is renowned for presenting world-class music and poetry and for staging Thackray’s unique live-art
events
Tickets here: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/jazzleedsfestival2019
