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August 12, 2025
3 minutes
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Amid the devastation in Gaza, remarkable stories of hope and resilience do emerge. Sixteen-year-old Sama Nijm, a gifted violinist from Gaza, is using music to bring comfort and healing to the youngest victims of the conflict. Some of the children have lost their parents, and in some cases, their limbs or arms.
BBC Newsday's Charlene Rodrigues spoke to Sama, and began by asking her what inspired her to become a violin teacher in the midst of war.
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Scotsman
22 minutes ago
- Scotsman
Fringe theatre review: Welcome to the Fringe, Palestine
Sign up to our Arts and Culture newsletter, get the latest news and reviews from our specialist arts writers Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Welcome to the Fringe, Palestine ★★★★ Portobello Town Hall (Venue 469) until 15 August In her introduction to Tuesday's opening day of the Welcome to the Fringe, Palestine mini-festival of Palestinian artists taking place out at Portobello Town Hall, co-producer Sara Shaarawi said one of the key purposes of the event is to make sure those artists know they always have a home in Scotland. 'It's never been more vital to raise up and listen to Palestinian voices,' she told a warmly appreciative crowd. Running across four days, from Tuesday until Friday this week, Welcome to the Fringe, Palestine is a showcase of music, dance, storytelling and discussion, organised and crowdfunded by a group of Scotland-based artists with support from Scottish theatre charity Independent Arts Projects and the Workers Theatre Co-operative. On the opening day, the focus rested mainly on theatrical and performance-based works, although a couple of the afternoon's events were hit by travel issues. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The opening artist was intended to be Noor Abuarafeh, with her performance-lecture An Orange Tree, An Olive Tree and a Painting That Knows No Borders (★★★★), but the artist was sadly unable to attend. Shaarawi explained this had nothing to do with UK visa issues; in fact, everything was in order for Abuarafeh's visit, but an impromptu visit to Ireland on the way and a delayed passport return after Schengen approval meant Abuarafeh couldn't make it here in time. Instead, the short work was delivered by actor Sofia Asir, who had only been delivered the script on the train up from London earlier in the day and had managed just forty-five minutes' rehearsal time with it. However, both the nature of the piece and the quality of Asir's delivery meant it was still a perfectly beautiful, satisfying piece, which lightly but resoundingly outlined the human condition of life in Palestine, specifically in the West Bank. Seated at a desk in front of a laptop, with a back projection showing photographs and films of a gorgeous, arid landscape, Asir speaks Abuarafeh's words, telling of the simple act of going for a countryside walk. Outlining with maps the areas of the West Bank which are actually Palestinian towns and which are areas under Israeli army control and currently being settled, the text tells us solo-walking is inadvisable and that wherever you set out from, you'll always end up back in the same place. The piece opens out into a memory of Abuarafeh's father, who painted the trees of the title and the shoreline of Gaza with an inkling, she believes, that these would no longer exist one day. She describes Israeli attempts to create national parkland in this area, the Aleppo pine of the western Mediterranean being brought in, resulting in the replacement of those orange and olive trees. With a delicate, absorbing focus on nature throughout, Abuarafeh (through Asir) reminds us that settlement and displacement go hand-in-hand. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Later in the day, the Arab Puppet Theatre Foundation delivered their darkly comedic piece Performance Desperately in Need of An Audience (★★★), and sadly, this play was disrupted by a visa refusal. Created for a trio of actors, only two were able to perform it this time, so the version we saw was excerpted and abridged. Still, there was much to like about it, not least a great set made out of a towering arrangement of cardboard flecked with pen windows and little lights, giving the impression of a dusty hillside town in Palestine. Performed silently, save for comedic grunts and gasps, the piece sees Mahmoud Hourani's ordinary, tracksuited Palestinian guy going about his day, when he's accosted first by a large cardboard bomber which searches him, ordering him to show his ankles and turn out his bag of vegetables, and then by a cardboard drone which in turn lands on a cardboard chicken the man has befriended, and which he tries to revive. The tone is light, the weapons of destruction (both puppeteered by Mariam Balhas) cartoonish, but the events it brings humour to are impossibly dark.
BBC News
39 minutes ago
- BBC News
Earlham Park: Who is performing at Rock 'n' Roll Circus festival?
McFly, Scouting For Girls and Eurovision contestant Sam Ryder are among acts performing at a new festival in Norwich that promises to take people to dizzying new heights as it combines music and circus performances. Here is a guide to what visitors can expect at Rock 'n' Roll Circus. Hosted at Earlham Park, the Norfolk festival hopes to combine a trip to the circus with music acts and performances. The festival will run across three days from Thursday, 14 August, to Saturday, 16 August. This is the first time the event has been held in the city, and organisers say it will be a weekend of family-friendly fun for all ages. Who is performing? Early 2000s, pop-rock boyband McFly will return to Norwich this summer to headline the first day of the festival. The quartet, who are known for hits including All About You and Five Colours in Her Hair, will be supported by Eurovision contestant Sam Ryder, from Essex. Festival director, Ali O'Reilly, says: "McFly is the perfect act to open the show. Their energy and iconic hits will set the tone for an unforgettable weekend."The Courteeners will be headlining on Friday evening alongside The Lathums, and local acts will take to the stage, including Arthur Black and Gabby Rivers. On Saturday, audiences can look forward to acts including Blue, Scouting For Girls, Pixie Lott, Jamie Lawson and Sam Fischer. Headlining the final day will be Olly Murs, who said it has been a decade since he last performed in Norwich. He says: "I think I've done quite a few shows in Norwich, from my first theatre tour to Carrow Road with JLS, to Radio 1's Big Weekend... I've done it quite a few times."Unlike a typical music festival, the event will feature performances from internationally known circus groups and workshops from Norwich's Oak Circus Centre. Performances include high-wire routines, cloud swing aerial acts, acrobats and contortionists What have organisers said? Ms O'Reilly says it is "not just a music festival" due to the circus acts and adds: "Norwich has a rich cultural heritage, a proven love for live music... we're really excited to be coming."She said organisers were excited to see the festival brought to life. "Earlham Park is an incredible setting. We were blown away by how beautiful it was, and the connections and proximity to the city centre."It's hard launching a new event in a new location, but how Rock 'n' Roll Circus has been received in Norfolk has been brilliant." There are already plans for it to return next year, she said. What do visitors need to know? Tickets can be purchased online for each day in advance. They can also be purchased on the door if the event has not sold out. The event starts at 15:00 BST on Thursday and Friday, and at 13:00 on Saturday. There is no direct parking on the site, but there is a direct bus to Earlham Park Gates from Norwich city centre and the train station. For those not able to attend, Edd Smith and the Daytime show will be live with reaction from Thursday evening, and BBC Radio Norfolk will be broadcasting live on Friday. What other events have been held at Earlham Park? In May 2015, about 50,000 people flooded through the gates of Earlham Park for three days of music at BBC Radio 1's Big for the festival, which had acts including Taylor Swift, Snoop Dog, Charli XCX and Muse, sold out within 40 Hubery, culture and leisure development officer at Norwich City Council, said more concerts have been held there ever previously said: "It was the first concert on that scale, and the first big music event."I think Norwich demonstrated that we can do these kinds of things well, and people turn out and get into the spirit of it."Last year, Ezra Collective headlined a new festival at the park, Wild Fields Festival, which promised two days of music, poetry and wellness. Follow Norfolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
The Guardian
3 hours ago
- The Guardian
Bobby Whitlock obituary
In a career that found him collaborating with some of the most illustrious musicians of his era, including George Harrison, the Rolling Stones, Sam & Dave, Booker T & the MGs, Dr John and Stephen Stills, it was his work with Eric Clapton that rubber-stamped Bobby Whitlock's place in rock'n'roll history. In particular, he will be remembered for his writing and playing contributions to the album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs (1970), often considered Clapton's finest achievement. Clapton first came across Whitlock, a keyboard player and singer, who has died of cancer aged 77, when he was a member of the rock-soul act Delaney & Bonnie and Friends (formed by the married couple Bonnie and Delaney Bramlett). Clapton liked them so much that he recruited them as the opening act for his band Blind Faith on their sole tour in 1969, and they would also appear on Clapton's first solo album, Eric Clapton (1970). The live album On Tour with Eric Clapton (1970) cracked the US Top 30 and was Delaney & Bonnie's most successful release. Whitlock quit the Delaney & Bonnie band after recording their album To Bonnie from Delaney (1970), and hooked up with Clapton in England. Along with two further Delaney & Bonnie alumni, the bassist Carl Radle and the drummer Jim Gordon, the foursome became Derek and the Dominos, a name designed to give Clapton a measure of anonymity after his 'supergroup' excesses with Cream and Blind Faith. As Whitlock put it to the Best Classic Bands website: 'He wanted to be Derek, not Eric. He wasn't ready to step into his role as a solo artist at that time.' The Layla double album (recorded at Criteria studios in Miami) was a pivotal release in Clapton's history. It reached only No 16 on the US chart and did not chart at all in Britain, but its reputation grew steadily over succeeding decades. It was a momentous feat for Whitlock too, since he co-wrote six of the album's songs with Clapton, including Bell Bottom Blues, Anyday, Tell the Truth and Why Does Love Got to Be So Sad?, and played acoustic guitar and sang on his solo composition Thorn Tree in the Garden. This was a feverishly creative period, since the Dominos band came together while all four members were simultaneously involved in recording Harrison's triple album All Things Must Pass, his first solo effort since the demise of the Beatles. When Harrison took a break from the sessions, he invited the foursome to use the studio, which enabled the Dominos to record their first single, Tell the Truth, with Roll It Over (another Clapton/Whitlock composition) for the B side. Intriguingly, while Clapton was inspired to write Layla's title song by his infatuation with Harrison's wife, Pattie Boyd, Whitlock dated Pattie's sister, Paula, while he was in Britain. Whitlock later sold his rights to royalties from Derek and the Dominos, but Clapton and his management helped him to get them back. Bobby was born in Memphis, Tennessee, to James Whitlock and his wife, Ruby, and grew up in the city's Millington district. James was a Baptist preacher renowned for his fiery oratory, traces of which could be discerned in his son's singing. Bobby also first played the piano in his father's church. As a teenager, Bobby could frequently be found at Memphis's renowned Stax Records, where he got to know many of the local artists, including Booker T & the MGs, Albert King and Sam & Dave. He added handclaps to Sam & Dave's 1968 classic I Thank You. 'It was a great time and town for music then, especially soul music,' he recalled. 'It was loose and all about music everywhere that you turned.' As a professional musician Whitlock cut his teeth playing keyboards in the local bands the Short Cuts and the Counts, and Stax planned to record an album with him on its subsidiary label, Hip Records, making him the first white artist signed to Stax. However, Whitlock felt that they were trying to turn him into a lightweight pop artist – 'It turned out to be bubblegum garbage music that they recorded with me' – so he was delighted to be recruited by the Bramletts instead. He travelled to Los Angeles to join them, and as he recalled it: 'We started Delaney & Bonnie and Friends, just Delaney and Bonnie and myself.' Whitlock asserted that Derek and the Dominos were 'the very best band on the planet … We were better than anybody,' but their progress was cut short by a surfeit of drugs and alcohol. The rock critic Robert Palmer described how he visited the Layla recording sessions in Miami and found that 'there was a lot of dope around, especially heroin, and when I showed up, everyone was just spread out on the carpet, nodded out.' The Dominos split in 1971 after an abortive attempt to record a second album, though all the band members as well as the Bramletts and Harrison appeared on Whitlock's debut solo album, Bobby Whitlock (1972). Reflecting on the Dominos in the Houston Press, Whitlock commented that 'I am very happy that the one studio record was the 'one' and that was it. It never will have anything other than itself to be compared to.' He would release three more solo albums during the 70s, while his other musical activities included adding vocals to Dr John's album The Sun, Moon & Herbs (1971) and an appearance on the Rolling Stones' Exile on Main Street (1972). For the latter, Whitlock claimed he had co-written the track I Just Want to See His Face, but was not given a songwriting credit. In 1973 he played organ on Down the Road, the second album by Stephen Stills's band Manassas, but found himself deprived of a songwriting credit for the track City Junkies, which was based on a jam between Whitlock and the drummer Dallas Taylor. During the 80s and 90s, Whitlock largely retired from music and retreated to a farm in Mississippi. He made a musical comeback in 1999 with the album It's About Time. On Christmas Eve 2005 he married CoCo Carmel, a musician who had been married to Delaney Bramlett from 1987 to 2000, and the pair of them recorded several albums and made regular live appearances. From 2006 to 2021 they lived in Austin, then moved to Ozona, Texas. In recent years he became a keen painter, and frequently had his work displayed in galleries. In 2010 he published a memoir, Bobby Whitlock: A Rock'n'Roll Autobiography, co-authored with Marc Roberty and with a foreword by Clapton. In May 2024 he was awarded a brass note on the Beale Street Walk of Fame in Memphis, an event he commemorated with a new song, Walking on Beale Street. He is survived by CoCo, his children Ashley, Beau and Tim, and his sister, Debbie. Robert Stanley Whitlock, musician, singer and songwriter, born 18 March 1948; died 10 August 2025
