Latest news with #Annan
Daily Record
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Record
Award-winning Annan pipe band opts not to appear in Riding of the Marches parade
The Royal Burgh of Annan Pipe Band has blamed a change in the piping competition calendar for the move Annan's award-winning pipe band will not appear in this year's Riding of the Marches parade. The Royal Burgh of Annan Pipe Band has blamed a change in the piping competition calendar for the move, which has attracted criticism on social media. But the band say they still plan to take part in the pipe band competition at Annan Academy on Riding of the Marches Day on July 5. A statement posted on the band's Facebook page read: 'Unfortunately, we need to announce to you that this year we will have limited participation in the Annan ROM festivities. 'Due to a change in the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association's competition calendar, we have made the incredibly tough decision not to play in the ROM parade or the massed bands at night this year. 'We believe the ROM organisers are looking to make alternative arrangements so that you can still enjoy the sounds of the pipes at the close of the day. 'This is not a decision we have taken lightly as we love nothing more than seeing the townspeople enjoy the spectacle, but competing remains our number one priority. 'The following week we will be competing in our first major championship of the year at Edinburgh, so we need to do everything in our power to protect the instruments for this so that we can show up in top form to show the world what Annan can do. 'It is not all bad news for our fans though, you will still be able to see us at the playing fields on the day of ROM competing in the grade two contest. Watch this space for when the order of play is announced so you know exactly when to see us. 'We hope you all understand and hopefully next year the calendar realigns, and we can go back to entertaining you all.' The announcement was slammed, with one person replying: 'Supporting your own gala day is more important as far as I'm concerned. Poor decision making.' Another added: 'This is very disappointing news. The grand finale won't be the same if it's not the Annan band playing. Whether there is only a handful of local members or not, they play in the Royal Burgh Of Annan Band surely the clue is in the name. 'To let us know you'll be competing at the field on the day but not on the high street is a bit of a kick in the teeth to the town. 'Very disappointed to read this, it's one of the very few times we get to see the Annan band play.' Some also questioned why the band would be taking part in the competition but not the parade and massed bands performance at night. Pipe Major Jamie Smith responded: 'We agree that this may be a disappointment to the local people as it is very much a disappointment to us. 'Our participation is very much weather dependent. 'If it is raining this would cause substantial damage to our drum skins and reeds in the pipes. Usually this wouldn't be an issue as there is a three week gap until our next competition. 'This then gives us time to reset and replace any damages that occur during the bad weather. 'Unfortunately, this years calendar has made us rethink what we do. As the major is the following week, we would only have two practices to turn things around which is no where near enough time for us to be at our optimum level for competing. 'We relayed that information to the ROM organisers and expressed our concerns. As neither of us can predetermine the weather we felt it would be best if another band was sourced on this occasion to guarantee that the spectacle would still go ahead. 'With the change in dates this year, our hands have been tied unfortunately. 'We are hoping the dates go back to normal next year so we can go back to doing what we have done in the past number of years.'
Chicago Tribune
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Vintage Chicago Tribune: Roxie Hart's evolution — from Beulah Annan to Broadway and the big screen
'Chicago The Musical' debuted on Broadway 50 years ago. Directed by Chicago native Bob Fosse and starring Gwen Verdon, Chita Rivera and Jerry Orbach, the tale of an unfaithful wife who murders her lover then works the judicial system to secure her freedom was set against the backdrop of Prohibition and the Jazz Age. Though critics — including the Tribune's Don Kirk — largely panned the production, its story has staying power. A 1996 revival has more than 11,000 performances on The White Way, according to Playbill. That makes 'Chicago' the second-longest running show on Broadway after 'The Phantom of the Opera' (13,981 performances) and the longest active show. Vintage Chicago Tribune: Murder, mayhem and 'all that jazz' — the real women who inspired Oscar winner 'Chicago'The musical's story was based on actual events that happened in — you guessed it — Chicago in the early 1920s. Its plot, written by short-time Tribune reporter Maurine Dallas Watkins, was ripped from the headlines, many of her own for the paper. And Roxie Hart, the name of its lead character, was probably inspired by a 'dashing beauty' of the same name from Centralia, Illinois. Hart appeared before a packed courtroom in Watkins' hometown of Crawfordsville, Indiana, to testify during a 1914 murder trial. Here's a look back at the woman who inspired 'Chicago' and those who have portrayed the scandalous seductress on stage and screen. To learn more about how 'Chicago' went from Murderess Row to Broadway and then on to movies, order: 'He Had It Coming: Four Murderous Women and the Reporter Who Immortalized Their Stories.' The life of Beulah Annan has been the basis for every portrayal of Hart. Already twice wed and a mother by the age of 24, Annan was satisfied by neither. Through her job at a Chicago laundry, Annan met Harry Kalstedt. Walks together quickly progressed to day-drinking in her apartment while her mechanic husband, Albert, was at work. A drunken disagreement on April 3, 1924, led Annan to shoot Kalstedt with her husband's revolver. She sat with the body for hours as her phonograph wailed the jazzy tune 'Hula Lou' on repeat. Ironically, the first phone call Annan made was to her husband: 'I've shot a man, Albert. He tried to make love to me.' When her husband arrived home, he found Annan covered in blood and called the police. Watkins picked up the investigation of Annan for Kalstedt's murder and it remained front-page news. 'They say she's the prettiest woman ever accused of murder in Chicago — young, slender, with bobbed auburn hair; wide set, appealing blue eyes; tip-tilted nose; translucent skin, faintly very faintly, rouged, an ingenuous smile; refined features, intelligent expression — an 'awfully nice girl' and more than usually pretty,' Watkins wrote. During the inquest, Annan's lawyer W.W. O'Brien claimed, 'Both went for the gun!' Annan said if she didn't shoot Kalstedt, then he would have shot her. After her trial was continued several times, Annan made an announcement — she was pregnant. The claim moved her case to the front of the line. But many wondered — could a beautiful woman expecting a baby get a fair trial? 'The verdict is in your hands and you must decide whether you will permit a woman to commit a crime and let her go because she is good-looking,' prosecutor William McLaughlin told the jury. 'You must decide whether you want to let another pretty woman go out and say, 'I got away with it!'' 'And they did,' Watkins wrote. Less than two hours into deliberations, the all-male jury came to a not-guilty consensus on the third ballot. Husband Albert Annan, who stood by his wife during the trial, was overcome with joy and gratitude. 'I knew my wife would come through all right!' he said proudly. Beulah Annan then thanked each member of the jury individually and posed for a photo with them. Watkins used the trial's twists to write a three-act play, 'A Brave Little Woman,' the first she would write while attending the new Yale School of Drama in 1926. When it debuted on Broadway later that year it was called 'Chicago.' Larrimore was not supposed to be the first actress to portray Hart on stage. She replaced Jeanne Eagels who, according to the Tribune, made rehearsals difficult. That didn't stopped Eagels from sitting in the front row during a performance, where she supposedly 'made faces' at her successor. When the show arrived in Chicago in September 1927, Larrimore was still the lead actress in the production. The Tribune described her as 'vivid and immensely funny.' The story was praised as 'a hearty and favorious romp that makes rich sport of the yellow newspapers. the criminal lawyers, the judges and the juries, and all the bunk and blah that go with the killing of a man by a pretty woman.' Chicago audiences also loved it — the show played for nine weeks. An advertisement for the first screen version of 'Chicago' — produced by Cecil B. DeMille — described the 1928 silent film as 'more melodramatic and much funnier than the stage play.' The Tribune reviewer (who filed under the pseudonym Mae Tinee), however, said 'they have slaughtered Maurine Watkins' play. 'The clever, satiric, diabolically human, uproariously funny play that could so well have been made into just such a picture has had all its fine parts ironed out. It has been fluted and tucked and dyed (including Hart's hair which became blonde for the first time) a la DeMille and the result is just a fussy, ordinary melodrama that is rather funny in spots.' Depite the disdain, Haver's work in the film was praised as 'believable.' Yet again, Watkins' tale was rewritten for the screen — in 1942's 'Roxie Hart,' it was told as a retrospective. 'The public always expects a newspaperman to do a lot of drinking,' reporter Homer Howard (played by George Montgomery) said before toasting to Hart (played by Ginger Rogers) at a tavern (with William Frawley of 'I Love Lucy' fame serving as bartender). He then told the story of the beautiful murderess — who's become a showgirl in this iteration. Though the movie is just 75 minutes long (and available on YouTube), the Tribune reviewer said it 'would have been nice if the director had known just when to end his epic.' Still, Rogers' portrayal of Hart — 'who had yearned for her picture in the paper more than anything else in life' — was called 'deft.' The first musical version of Watkins' play opened on Broadway on June 3, 1975, with Gwen Verdon as Hart and Chita Rivera as Velma Kelly. Verdon, who had to bow out of the production because of illness and was replaced by Liza Minnelli, claimed it had been her idea to adapt the play into a musical. The vaudeville-esque show ran for 936 performances over almost two years. Tribune critic Don Kirk didn't like it. 'Oddly enough, the combined efforts of some of Broadway's brightest talents somehow fail to get it all together. … They call the show, 'Chicago,' but one gets the clear impression they never thought of visiting the place to savor its peculiar ambience and seriously attempt to recapture it in music and words.' The show's lukewarm reception could have also been in part to a blockbuster show which opened the same year — 'A Chorus Line,' which captured many awards. But in short measure, Tribune critic Chris Jones wrote, ''Chicago The Musical' — with a book by Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse, music by John Kander and lyrics by Ebb — greatly exceeded the fame and influence of the play that was its source. 'Over time it came to be known as the quintessential Fosse musical, the most famous work of the Chicago-born choreographer known for his hyperspecific movement vocabulary of turned-in knees, angled, attitudinal body parts, muscular twitches, sideways shuffling and jazzy, animated hands.' The 'more cynical, darker show,' as Tribune critic Merrill Goozner described it, was given a 'black box setting' with actors and dancers wearing basic — but barely there — black costumes. Slinky dances accompanied fast-paced music from the orchestra, which was seated on a raked bandstand in the background. 'All That Jazz,' 'Razzle Dazzle' and the 'Cell Block Tango' were pumped out with vigor, Tribune critic Richard Christiansen wrote. Column: How Ann Reinking choreographed not just 'Chicago,' but captured the essence of the city itselfReinking, Fosse's muse and confidant, played Hart in the revival. It debuted Nov. 13, 1996, at the Richard Rodgers Theatre in New York. Among the show's numerous Tony Awards, Reinking won one for her choreography. Turns out, the star of 'Bridget Jones's Diary' could sing and dance — perhaps not as naturally as her more experienced co-star Catherine Zeta-Jones (who won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Velma Kelly) — but better than anyone might have expected. 'This is a honorable, and largely successful, film version of a deliberately dishonorable Broadway show, based in turn on Maurine Dallas Watkins' disreputable and popular 1926 play about a cheap tart who gets away with murder,' Tribune critic Michael Phillips wrote in 2002. Thanks for reading! Subscribe to the free Vintage Chicago Tribune newsletter, join our Chicagoland history Facebook group, stay current with Today in Chicago History and follow us on Instagram for more from Chicago's past.
Daily Record
6 days ago
- Sport
- Daily Record
St Mirren road to Hampden dream begins with Premier Sports Cup draw
This season has only just finished but the focus is already on the 2025-26 campaign. It was a triple-A draw for St Mirren yesterday as they learned their Premier Sports Cup opponents. The Buddies have been paired with Championship sides Ayr United and Arbroath as well as League One Annan Athletic and League Two Forfar Athletic in Group D. And boss Stephen Robinson will hope his troops can progress further than they did this season when the Buddies fell to a 1-0 defeat to Jim Goodwin's Dundee United in the second round at Tannadice. Playing in the group stages of the competition for the first time since 2023, it looks set to be an intriguing start to the season for the Buddies. It will be a battle of familiar faces for young Saints Fraser Taylor and Callum Penman when they take on the Smokies with the pair having spent the campaign out on loan at Gayfield. Having helped the club back to the Championship with a title success – Taylor winning the League One player of the year award into the bargain – they will now be looking to get one over on the part-time club that provided them a playing platform. Arbroath are also a side which saw Mikael Mandron bag the first of his 19 goals for Saints. It is yet to be seen if Scott Brown will still be in charge of Ayr when they face the Buddies with the former Celtic skipper being linked to vacant Premiership jobs at Motherwell and most notably Dundee. However, it is pleasant reading for the black-and-white army as they have only lost to the Honest Men once in the last eight meetings. That came in the League Cup in 2011 when Chris Smith struck in a 1-0 win for Ayr. Since then, the Buddies have had six wins and there have been two draws. Meanwhile, Saints will face Annan for only the second time in the club's histories. The first head-to-head was in the 2015/16 Challenge Cup when Jordan Stewart and Alan Gow saw Saints come from behind after Peter Weatherson gave Annan the lead in the opening minute. Former skipper-and-manager Jim Goodwin and current Saints goalkeeping coach Jamie Langfield featured in the 2-1 win. The 2023 League Cup group saw the Buddies face Arbroath and Forfar – similar to yesterday's draw. Robinson saw his side cruise to a 4-0 win over League Two Loons – a mirror result of the scoreline against Arbroath in the same period. A Mandron double and goals from Mark O'Hara and Alex Gogic saw off Forfar. A Stav Nahmani brace and strikes by Mandron and O'Hara swept away Arbroath.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Annan Athletic learn opponents in Premier Sports Cup
Annan Athletic will face Premiership club St Mirren in next season's Premier Sports Cup. The top-flight's sixth-placed side will take on the Galabankies in the 2025/26 group stage. The draw for the competition was made on Wednesday with Annan learning their four opponents in group D. Wullie Gibson's side, newly relegated to Scottish League Two, will also take on Championship duo Ayr United and Arbroath, and League Two rivals Forfar Athletic. 🏆 The Premier Sports Cup group stage draw for 25/26 ✅ Which tie are you most looking forward to? — SPFL (@spfl) May 28, 2025 The meeting with St Mirren will see Annan take on a side who finished in the top half of the top-flight table in 2024/25. Stephen Robinson's Buddies narrowly missed out on a second consecutive season of European football, and went unbeaten in their top-six campaign in the closing weeks of 2024/25. The Galabankies are preparing for life back in League Two after relegation (Image: News & Star) Of Annan's other cup opponents, Ayr finished third in the second tier under Celtic legend Scott Brown, before losing out to Partick Thistle in the Premiership play-off quarter-finals. Arbroath, meanwhile, romped to the League One title to seal a return to the Championship under Colin Hamilton and David Gold. Annan Athletic relegated after play-off final defeat Jim Weir's Forfar were strugglers in League Two, finishing second bottom, above basement boys Bonnyrigg Rose only on goal difference and the Loons narrowly avoiding the need for the play-offs to secure their own status. Dates for the fixtures are yet to be confirmed. They will form the first competitive games for Annan in 2025/26 following their relegation in the end-of-season play-offs. Gibson's side lost to East Fife in the two-legged play-off final to return to the fourth tier after two seasons in League One. Peter Murphy's Queen of the South, meanwhile, will take on Ross County, Partick Thistle, Edinburgh City and Stranraer in group B of the Premier Sports Cup.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Annan Athletic learn opponents in Premier Sports Cup
Annan Athletic will face Premiership club St Mirren in next season's Premier Sports Cup. The top-flight's sixth-placed side will take on the Galabankies in the 2025/26 group stage. The draw for the competition was made on Wednesday with Annan learning their four opponents. Wullie Gibson's side, newly relegated to Scottish League Two, will also take on Championship duo Ayr United and Arbroath, and League Two rivals Forfar Athletic. 🏆 The Premier Sports Cup group stage draw for 25/26 ✅ Which tie are you most looking forward to? — SPFL (@spfl) May 28, 2025 The meeting with St Mirren will see Annan take on a side who finished in the top half of the top-flight table in 2024/25. Stephen Robinson's Buddies narrowly missed out on a second consecutive season of European football, and went unbeaten in their top-six campaign in the closing weeks of 2024/25. The Galabankies are preparing for life back in League Two after relegation (Image: News & Star) Of Annan's other cup opponents, Ayr finished third in the second tier under Celtic legend Scott Brown, before losing out to Partick Thistle in the Premiership play-off quarter-finals. Arbroath, meanwhile, romped to the League One title to seal a return to the Championship under Colin Hamilton and David Gold. Annan Athletic relegated after play-off final defeat Jim Weir's Forfar were strugglers in League Two, finishing second bottom, above basement boys Bonnyrigg Rose only on goal difference and the Loons narrowly avoiding the need for the play-offs to secure their own status. Dates for the fixtures are yet to be confirmed. They will form the first competitive games for Annan in 2025/26 following their relegation in the end-of-season play-offs. Gibson's side lost to East Fife in the two-legged play-off final to return to the fourth tier after two seasons in League One. Peter Murphy's Queen of the South, meanwhile, will take on Ross County, Partick Thistle, Edinburgh City and Stranraer in group B of the Premier Sports Cup.
