There's more content than you would believe. Hopefully this will make finding it a bit easier...
Director Aaron Trinder on His Documentary ‘Free Party: A Folk History’ - Which Features Nottingham's Own DiY Soundsystem
Tue 23 Jan 2024Free Party: A Folk History is a timely DIY indie film that follows the birth of the UK's free party movement from the late eighties and early nineties and the social, political and cultural impact it's had on our present times, with appearances from the founders of Nottingham’s very own DiY Soundsystem - but those of you who were lucky enough to go down to Broadway Cinema’s screening of the film back in November will already know this, of course. Director Aaron Trinder tells us about the process of obtaining footage for the documentary from a time before mobile phones and his own experiences of the free party movement…
DIY Musician Ricky Jamaraz Tells Us How He Transported His Music From His Bedroom to 166 Countries
Fri 19 Jan 2024In 2023, Ricky Jamaraz’s music was streamed from 166 different countries, 5.4 million times on Spotify. To put this into perspective, this length of time equates to 29 years, which is roughly how long it would take to walk from the Earth to the Moon three times. Ricky’s jaw fell off when he saw these figures and it’s no surprise - he’s only sixteen years old, still attends school, and makes all of his music from his very own childhood bedroom. We spoke to the DIY musician about how he went about transporting his music from his bedroom to the world…
American Poets In Britain, a Reading by Jason Schneiderman, Kathryn Maris and Dante Micheaux
Tue 16 Jan 2024Preview: American Poets at Five Leaves Bookshop
Sat 13 Jan 2024As some of the USA's best poetic minds come to perform in Notts, we learn about what we can look forward to...
Louis Cypher Tells Us How He Created LeftLion’s DIY-Themed January Cover
Wed 03 Jan 2024Hip-Hop artist and collage-maker Louis Cypher designed the cover of this DIY-themed issue of LeftLion. Here’s the story behind it…
In Photos: Poets of the Fall at Rock City
Sat 11 Nov 2023Finnish rockers Poets of the Fall — singer Marko, guitarist Olli and keyboardist Captain – started out their musical adventure from scratch in 2003, later joined by guitarist Jaska, bassist Jani and drummer Jari. Twenty years since first forming, they headline Rock City...
Celebrating Nottingham’s History of DIY Football Fanzines thanks to funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund
Fri 13 Oct 2023Two of Nottingham’s best loved football fanzines Brian and The Pie will be given a new lease of life thanks to a regeneration project by LeftLion, supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund…
3 of the Best Events to Check Out at This Year’s Nottingham Poetry Festival
Fri 28 Apr 2023It's that time of year again: The city's finest celebration of poetry is back. Here are three events from the Festival that you'd be mad to miss...
DiY Collective Veteran Harry Harrison Discusses His New Book, Dreaming in Yellow, and the Importance of Rave Culture
Wed 23 Mar 2022We chat to Harry Harrison, founding member of DiY Collective and author of new book Dreaming in Yellow: The Story Of The DiY Soundsystem, which takes a look back at rave culture...
Nottingham Film Fans Set Up DIY Screenings at One Thoresby Street
Wed 10 Nov 2021We chat to George and Charlie Alexander, the brothers behind Jackie Treehorn Productions - a DIY project spotlighting exciting films for Screen fanatics across Nottingham...
Hockley Hustle and LeftLion Present: Jah Digga and Poets off the Endz Live at Metronome
Fri 16 Jul 2021The second instalment in a series of live sets and interviews featuring some of our favourite Nottingham artists with interviews conducted by our very own Bridie Squires...
DiY Goodbye: A Tribute to Pete 'Woosh' Birch
Sat 07 Nov 2020Last month Nottingham (and the worldwide free party scene) said goodbye to Pete ‘Woosh’ Birch after a long battle with cancer. A driving force of the DiY Soundsystem, one half of the DJ duo Digs and Woosh and the founder of Spirit Wrestlers. Pete’s oldest friend Harry Harrison tells us about his remarkable life…
Pete 'Woosh' Birch on the History of DiY Soundsystem
Sat 03 Oct 2020The DiY Soundsystem were one of the biggest raving crews of the nineties. Their ethos was all about rejecting profits and putting on damn good parties. Founding member Pete Woosh talks us through some of the highs and lows of being in the gang during the nineties...
Hackspace Help Nurture the DIY Skills of Nottingham's Creative Crowd
Mon 04 Nov 2019Tucked away off the outskirts of Sneinton stands Roden House, a building most wouldn’t think twice about when walking past. But if you are one of the 700 Nottingham Hackspace members who owns a key, you’ll know that there’s quite an extraordinary space inside, where your skills and creative projects can be nurtured with the help of specialist equipment. Our Eve Smallman spoke to founder Dominic Morrow about the concept, the ups and downs, and why spaces like these should be as common as gyms...
Live Music Review: The Last Poets at Peggy's Skylight
Tue 02 Apr 2019Silent listening mixed with reverence. A collective performance between audience and performers; The Last Poets enchanted the crowd at Peggy's Skylight recently...
Soundin' Off: The Last Poets come to Peggy's Skylight
Sun 24 Mar 2019The Last Poets were the first wordsmiths that preceded hip-hop. Our Will had a fascinating chat with original Poets member Abiodun Oyewole ahead of their performance at Peggy's Skylight on 27 March.
DiY Collective's Pete Woosh on His Battle With Cancer and His New Musical Project The 52 Card Trick
Wed 20 Mar 2019As a founder member of the DiY collective, one of Britain's first house sound-systems, Pete Woosh has been a leading figure in the UK counter-culture for almost thirty years. Whether DJing solo or with his long-time DiY sidekick, Digs, he has performed everywhere from Glastonbury to Dismaland, Banksy’s apocalyptic theme park style art exhibition. But after being diagnosed with highly aggressive head and neck cancer in December of 2015, he decided to take a natural approach to treatment, and is about to launch The 52 Card Trick project to give something back to everyone that helped him...
Do or Die Poets Facilitator Miggy Angel on New Book Extreme Violets
Wed 05 Sept 2018Originally from South London, poet, performer, and drug and alcohol worker Miggy Angel is a long-term resident of Hoodtown and the author of two poetry books, Grime Kerbstone Psalms and Extreme Violets. We hollered at him to see what he’s up to at the moment...
Nottingham Dialect and Mining Culture Documentary to be Broadcast on BBC Radio 4
Tue 15 May 2018James Walker blathers on about dialect and mining culture for a BBC Radio 4 series called Talk and Tongue.
Poetry Profile: Two Days With the DIY Poets
Sun 18 Feb 2018Every now and then you’ll come across something that does exactly what it says on the tin. Nottingham’s own DIY Poets are a prime example of this, with their tagline “We’re Nice and We Don’t Always Rhyme” neatly printed on the front cover of each issue of their monthly zine. We decided to pop in for a chat with the gang to get a gauge of just how nice they are, and we were not disappointed.