Latest news with #BradfordCityofCulture
Daily Mirror
17-05-2025
- Daily Mirror
'I spent my son's childhood in prison for a murder someone else committed'
Families of people in prison for 'joint enterprise' have come together to tell their story on stage, as part of Bradford City of Culture 2025 In 2007, trainee midwife Laura Mitchell was on a night out at a pub in Bradford, when a fight broke out over a taxi. In the aftermath, she went to look for her shoes in the carpark of the Kings Head, which had slipped off in the chaos. Next morning, she says she woke up at home to find out Andrew Ayres, a 50-year-old man who had tried to break up the fight, was dead. The young mum, aged 22, went to the police station to give a statement and was arrested for murder under a controversial law known as 'joint enterprise'. According to this law, being involved in the taxi row and her presence in the car park meant she was as guilty as the man who stamped on Andrew Ayres and killed him. "I don't remember everything that happened in court," she says. "I passed out, all I could think about was my son. He had turned six the day before. I couldn't cope with the loss of my son – I was in the corner crying. For the first two weeks, I couldn't even look at a picture of him, I just wanted to scream. I couldn't speak to him on the phone, it was too painful." Laura was given a life sentence with a minimum term of 13.5 years, meaning her son would be a man by the time she was able to be his mother again. "I'd never heard of Joint Enterprise until it happened to me," she says. "At the start I thought it would be ok. I'd never been in any trouble. I knew I hadn't done anything wrong. "The police didn't come and arrest me, I went to the police station. I had faith in the system. But the longer things went on the less I believed in it. I had to be put on medication, I couldn't cope. I realised, 'the truth doesn't matter, or why am I here?' 18 years later, Laura is out of prison on life-time license. She has a job, but has never been able to become a midwife. Her son is almost 24, and she is haunted by the years she spent in prison. Next week, her story – woven together with other joint enterprise stories campaigners believe are miscarriages of justice – will be told on stage in Laura's home city, as part of the Bradford City of Culture festival. The grassroots campaign, JENGbA (Joint Enterprise Not Guilty by Association), has partnered with political theatre pioneers Common/Wealth, to produce an immersive show, Public Interest, on which Laura is assistant director. Billed as part music video, part-theatre, the show premieres at new pop-up venue Loading Bay in the basement of a disused city-centre warehouse. The story is told using rappers and DJs, drill, grime and bassline – the very music so often weaponised against young people. JENGbA's work has also inspired a new podcast, 'In It Together', hosted by actor and director Maxine Peake. "We want and expect the British justice system to work for us but there are some areas where the law isn't working," Maxine, who starred in Say Nothing, Peterloo, and Silk, says. 'When I was approached to take part, I agreed immediately as I had personally met families affected by this controversial law. I was honoured to share their stories, hear about the personal impact from ex-prisoners and learn from the lawyers and academics who took part." Another adviser on the show is Bradfordian Ishy Hussain Ashiq, 58, whose younger brother Abid is serving 30 years for aiding and abetting a murder under joint enterprise, despite working in another city on the night of the crime. Shazad Talib Hussain was tragically shot in a Bradford backstreet in 2004. Abid – who bought and sold cars – had sold a vehicle a few days before the shooting, that was used as the getaway car. The then 26-year-old was sentenced to 30 years with no parole. "When he got convicted, it felt like the world was crashing down," Ishy says. "We lost one of our brothers recently and he couldn't go to the funeral. My mum has had a couple of heart attacks in those years. She won't leave the house if she knows he's going to call that day – she puts her life on hold." The issue of joint enterprise extends far beyond Bradford. The law dates back to a cart race in 1846, where one driver was said to have encouraged the other driver, who fatally struck a pedestrian. 177 years later, 10,000 prisoners are serving life sentences convicted as secondary parties – most of them young black men. JENGbA was set up by two extraordinary mums, Jan Cunliffe and Gloria Morrison. Jan's teenage son Jordan – who is blind, and was waiting for transplant surgery in both eyes – was convicted of the joint enterprise murder of Garry Newlove in 2008. Gloria's son's best friend was convicted of murder under joint enterprise, and also given a life sentence. While they never forget the victims of the crimes, the two women say that JENGbA was born on kitchen tables across the UK, as families – and especially mums – came together in grief and disbelief after finding their children sent down for decades. Their campaigning, and Jordan's story, inspired the Jimmy McGovern drama, Common, which told the story of a boy called Johnjo O'Shea whose trip out for pizza ends in a life sentence. McGovern's script lays the blame on class politics. One of his characters says: "it's not about innocent or guilty, it's about getting working class scum off the streets, that's how they see our kids, scum, scallies…" Thanks to JENGbA's campaigning, in 2016 the Supreme Court reconsidered the joint enterprise doctrine, and found the justice system had 'taken a wrong turn'. But after campaigners' hopes of overturning dozens of wrongful convictions failed to materialise, JENGbA and Liberty are now calling for Joint Enterprise to be scrapped altogether. As pressure on prison overcrowding mounts, ending joint enterprise could be an idea that's time has finally come. For Laura, Abid and their families, the immersive production at Bradford 2025 is more than theatre. "I want people to know that this is real, this is still happening, that what they're seeing isn't fiction,' Laura says. "This can happen to anyone. I'm on life-time license. That's always there. I can't go on holiday. I'm not allowed to be a midwife. Prison has stolen the possibility of me having more children. I've missed out on so much."
The Guardian
05-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘It's a northern sound, it gives you hope that it can happen to you': how bassline bounced back
In an old gun barrel factory in deep industrial Sheffield, young ravers bounce around in sunglasses and let out clouds of vape smoke as hefty bass rattles the building to its core. At the centre of this Boiler Room live stream is a 48-year-old woman who by her own description looks more like a social worker than a DJ, commanding the room as she drops walloping dance tracks, living up to the nickname that has been bestowed upon her: the Queen of Bassline. 'That moment proved that a normal-looking girl from Yorkshire, who's just a bit mental on the tunes, can do it,' says Angela Weston, AKA Big Ang, of her debut appearance this year. 'I've had belief in the genre from the start and just always carried on doing what I've done. Bassline is in my blood.' Often topped with male MCs or female singers, bassline is characterised by four-four rhythms with deep, wobbly bass that sounds wet yet dense. It has its roots in speed garage but evolved to become its own genre and a defining sound of the north and Midlands. It's booming again, so much so that it's getting its own celebratory event this week as part of 2025's Bradford City of Culture: Bassline Symphony, in which pioneers of the genre Jamie Duggan, DJ Q and TS7 are collaborating with Katie Chatburn and the Orchestra of Opera North, held in one of the UK's oldest concert halls. 'It feels full circle,' says Bradford producer and DJ Thomas Sampson, AKA TS7. 'When I was 16 I would sneak into clubs like Boilerhouse, the hub of bassline in Bradford, so to see it get this big support from the city is amazing. It's got a lot of history and legacy here.' But it has needed the tenacity of people such as Big Ang to keep it alive: the idea of bassline becoming a government-funded, family-friendly event would have once been laughable. 'For a while it felt like it was you against the world,' recalls Duggan. 'I wasn't allowed to DJ in most cities. I got blacklisted. It was a terrible time.' This came after the high-profile closure of two clubs associated with the genre in Sheffield. First, in 2005, Niche was shut down after a Swat-style raid involving hundreds of police officers, weapons, helicopters, horses and road closures. While the massive operation only turned up small quantities of drugs, the club couldn't get a licence to reopen. A second iteration of Niche was closed in 2010 after multiple stabbings and, by this point, a long history of violent incidents. Bassline was seen as a magnet for out-of-towners wanting to cause trouble and so its star DJs, including Duggan and Shaun Banger Scott, found themselves out of work. It was a slow and steady road back. 'I was constantly at police and council meetings,' recalls Duggan. 'That was my life for a few years – which is crazy for a DJ to have to do.' The original Niche, opened in 1992, was a no-frills concrete sweatbox surrounded by old cutlery works that ran from midnight to noon. While unglamorous, in the 2000s it became so identified with a buzzy new sound – one fusing overlooked and pitch-shifted B-sides, track reworks, and original productions from the likes of Big Ang, Jon Buccieri and DJ Booda – that a genre was even named after the club before 'bassline' properly took hold. 'You got any Niche tunes?' was a common question put to record shop workers. Big Ang describes her production style around this period as being equally inspired by the speed garage of Tonka and the old school rave of Slipmatt, resulting in something hefty but also uplifting. A precocious talent from a young age – who would mirror piano riffs from dance tracks on a keyboard at home – Weston was driven to make music from the age of 13. She was a determined artist who worked three jobs while coming up as a DJ and producer on the circuit, and bulldozed any obstacles that got in the way. When she heard someone disparaging her work, she came back at them in the only way she knew how. 'Instead of retaliation, I went: 'What do you call this rubbish then?' And made a tune that got to 29 in the UK top 40,' she says of her 2005 track It's Over Now. 'People don't mess with Big Ang. She comes up with some big basslines and shells them.' Punters would drive the length of the motorway to hear this music. 'People wanted to hear a certain tune so badly, because they couldn't hear it anywhere else, that they wouldn't leave until they heard it,' recalls Duggan. The Sunday morning sets, a graveyard shift by most people's standards, became a destination. 'You'd have people rocking up at eight in the morning,' says Duggan. 'They would get up, have breakfast, clean their car and drive down for the final three hours.' The atmosphere was electric. In the early days, it was a booze-free place fuelled by pills, dancing and ice pops to help quell the intense heat. Resident DJ Nev Wright recalls one audience member, keen to show his love for the tunes, pulling out an aerosol can and lighter to create scorching fireballs as a mark of appreciation. While Bradford, Birmingham, Leeds, Derby and Dewsbury were all kicking off too, the allure of Niche was so huge that some used to travel just to gawp at it. 'When we were underage kids in Leeds we used to pay taxi drivers to cruise us around,' says Tafadzwa Tawonezvi, AKA producer T2. 'One night we paid him for a few hours to drive us to Niche just to sit outside and watch people going in.' Given that DJs and producers have spent years trying to undo an unfair reputation placed on the music they love so much, you can understand a bit of retroactive PR work on Niche – with everyone I speak to saying it was safe, welcoming and inclusive – but it was unquestionably littered with instances of violence, and even the murder of the club owner's brother, Mick Baxendale, back in 1998. While such headline-grabbing events remained in the minority, its edgy reputation was part of the attraction for some. 'It was the place where the naughty guys went,' says Tawonezvi. 'As an impressionable kid that was exciting.' Trouble aside, the club and music were in perfect sync, and cassette tapes of live sets by Niche DJs were rinsed and treated like treasure. 'Oh man, Jamie Duggan January 2004,' says Sampson, recalling his favourite. 'They were everywhere,' says Wright. 'Every afterparty; in everyone's cars. The numbers they were doing were ridiculous. They flew out.' As a predominantly working-class sub-genre of dance music, it took a while for bassline to break through from being treated like a parochial curiosity or anomaly. 'We were ignored by the press,' says Wright. 'It took a while for recognition to come.' However, being overlooked meant that a singular sound and identity could develop. 'Growing up, grime felt London-based,' says Sampson. 'It didn't really get recognition up north but bassline just had a really northern feel to it. It's hard to describe but there's something really raw and organic about it. And because it's a northern sound, it gives you hope that it can happen to you because in Bradford there's not many opportunities.' The crossover moment came in 2007 with T2's Heartbroken, co-written with singer Jodie Aysha, which spent three weeks at No 2 and would later be sampled by DJ Khaled and Drake. For a teenage Tawonezvi, the track came at a pivotal moment in his life. 'I was getting in trouble a lot and I didn't want the streets to get the better of me,' he says. 'I was just thinking about surviving. Where I grew up, you would see crackheads everywhere. My fear was to be a failed man.' He finished the song and the very next day he was due in court and looking at a prison sentence (he won't divulge the charge). The case ended up getting thrown out, the track went platinum and his career took off. 'My life could have been completely different,' he says. Ministry of Sound bassline compilations followed, mixed by Niche residents. 'It just spread like wildfire,' says Duggan. 'Trying to shut it down had the complete opposite effect.' There's now a slew of new artists such Warpfit, Silva Bumpa, Notion, TeeDee and Soul Mass Transit System, as well as the party collective-cum-record label Off Me Nut. Jorja Smith's new bassline-referencing single The Way I Love You, released last week, nods to Niche in its video. BOTA (Baddest of Them All), a 2022 UK No 1 by Eliza Rose & Interplanetary Criminal, got a bassline twist via a Big Ang remix, while Interplanetary Criminal himself has been seen proudly sporting a 'Big Ang Forever' T-shirt while dropping her 2002 bassline tracks to ecstatic young fans at Manchester's Warehouse Project. 'That is one of the most amazing things that's happened to me,' says Weston. 'It makes me feel so proud. Everything I believed in back in the day has come to fruition. There's a real community, loads of talent, and people are flying, while I'm still shelling basslines and showing the young ones how to get down.' Similarly, Duggan can't help but feel some vindication. 'I've been hooked since I was 15, so when everybody talks about it as this legendary thing, it does make you smile knowing that you've been there through it all,' he says. 'The good and the bad.' Bassline Symphony is at St George's Hall, Bradford on 9 May
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Students taking creative lead in culture city
Pupils in Bradford have drawn inspiration from 2025 UK City of Culture events as they put their art skills to the test. Groups from schools around the district took part in a competition run by non-profit organisation Ahead Partnership on Friday. Speaking to the BBC, students said they were inspired by the cultural events in and around the city and that they have been encouraged to pursue their own creative ambitions. Dance enthusiast Eve from Baildon's Titus Salt School said seeing an upcoming production of Swan Lake in Bradford would be "inspiring". "I think it's exciting because I do really like dance and loads of different styles of it, so seeing more of it will be exciting," she said. "I do think dance is something I would pursue." She added: "It's inspiring that you can see something you don't normally see." Mariah Begum, a student at Hanson Academy, took her opportunity to present the benefits of diversity to other students at the event. "There are so many events going on which allows people to come together and learn more about different cultures," she said. "It gives people an opportunity to participate in these events and have fun." Interested in film and media industry, Mariah said seeing local filmmakers be celebrated had encouraged her. She said: "With all these events that I've been attending, it makes me want to become a movie director more. "It motivates me to make my own movie one day." Max Robinson, an assistant head at Titus Salt School, said: "I think it has made them proud of where they live as well and they wanted to make something that represents that. "I think if you asked a few years ago, 'do you want to create something that represents this city?' they wouldn't have found that as easy, or perhaps be as passionate about it." He added: "A lot of our students have gone to the big events in the city centre and the football club is doing really well as well. "There's a lot of pride in the city and a lot of competitions they're wanting to take part in." A full list of upcoming events for UK City of Culture can be found on its website. Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North. 'Youth is at heart of Bradford City of Culture'
Yahoo
02-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Dynamo thanks NHS for saving his career
The magician formerly known as Dynamo has said he would not have been able to return to performing were it not for the NHS. The 42-year-old, whose real name is Steven Frayne, who suffers from both Crohn's disease and arthritis, said the pain in his joints became so severe he "could not even hold a pack of cards". He praised the "magic" of the NHS, who helped him manage his health, and recalled the moment he decided to "bury Dynamo" and re-start his career under his real name. Speaking at Advertising Week Europe 2025, the Bradford-born performer added: "I resonate with what the NHS does because I would not be performing again without their help." Frayne was diagnosed with Crohn's disease as a teenager, and later, with arthritis, which had made him feel "like everything I cared about was just being taken away from me". "But in that moment... I realised the magic is actually in everybody else - in the people that lifted me up, in the NHS that helped me, and I started to focus on the magic in other people," he said. Frayne's health troubles compelled him to take a two-year break from his career. After symbolically burying himself alive in a show entitled Dynamo Is Dead, in 2023, Frayne has returned to performing, and is currently in the middle of a residency at Underbelly Boulevard Soho in London. "It's the first ever show I've ever done as myself, not as Dynamo, and it is a very personal show to me," he said. "For me it's about creating a show that showcases my magic - and also incorporates the magic of other people - because a lot of the magic in the show is made up by the audience members as we go along, so the show is different every single night." "It's super intimate, but it allows me to really connect with people. I can see every single person's face," Frayne continues. "There's moments where every single person in the audience is part of the magic at the same time." Earlier this year, Frayne headlined RISE, the opening event to mark the inauguration of Bradford City of Culture, in which he performed to a live audience of 10,000 people. Speaking at the time, he said: "I don't think any of us in Bradford ever saw this coming, and I think it's very needed. "There's so many parts of Bradford that need support. Some of the areas haven't had the love and support they needed to bring them up to speed," he added. Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North. Dynamo works his magic as Bradford becomes City of Culture Dynamo: Magician Impossible
BBC News
02-04-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Bradford-born Dynamo thanks NHS for saving his career
The magician formerly known as Dynamo has said he would not have been able to return to performing were it not for the 42-year-old, whose real name is Steven Frayne, who suffers from both Crohn's disease and arthritis, said the pain in his joints became so severe he "could not even hold a pack of cards". He praised the "magic" of the NHS, who helped him manage his health, and recalled the moment he decided to "bury Dynamo" and re-start his career under his real name. Speaking at Advertising Week Europe 2025, the Bradford-born performer added: "I resonate with what the NHS does because I would not be performing again without their help." Frayne was diagnosed with Crohn's disease as a teenager, and later, with arthritis, which had made him feel "like everything I cared about was just being taken away from me"."But in that moment... I realised the magic is actually in everybody else - in the people that lifted me up, in the NHS that helped me, and I started to focus on the magic in other people," he said. Frayne's health troubles compelled him to take a two-year break from his career. After symbolically burying himself alive in a show entitled Dynamo Is Dead, in 2023, Frayne has returned to performing, and is currently in the middle of a residency at Underbelly Boulevard Soho in London. "It's the first ever show I've ever done as myself, not as Dynamo, and it is a very personal show to me," he said."For me it's about creating a show that showcases my magic - and also incorporates the magic of other people - because a lot of the magic in the show is made up by the audience members as we go along, so the show is different every single night." "It's super intimate, but it allows me to really connect with people. I can see every single person's face," Frayne continues."There's moments where every single person in the audience is part of the magic at the same time."Earlier this year, Frayne headlined RISE, the opening event to mark the inauguration of Bradford City of Culture, in which he performed to a live audience of 10,000 at the time, he said: "I don't think any of us in Bradford ever saw this coming, and I think it's very needed. "There's so many parts of Bradford that need support. Some of the areas haven't had the love and support they needed to bring them up to speed," he to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.
