Michelle Dee Page 1

Michelle Dee is a hugely talented writer who's contributions to thisisUll.com include Humber Mouth reviews, music, theatre and art reviews, opinions and many poems. Michelle is also a contributor to www.thisistheWorld.com Michelles contributions are listed below.. Page 1, Page 2, Page 3, Page 4, Page 5, Page 6, Page 7. For the index by Author to all Michelle's work Contributions click here. No Sections:  14  No Items:  296 Album Reviews,Articles,Fiction,Food and Drink,Going Down,Hull Truck,Music News,Music Reviews,News,Opinions,People,Reviews,Sports,The Humber Mouth

Album Reviews - Thomas Truax and the Parting Gift Reviewed by Michelle Dee
	On April 17th, Thomas Truax, the famed travelling showman stops off once again in Hull. The Have Hornicator, Will Travel tour pulls in at the New Adelphi Club: 'heart of live music in the city', with more wondrous anti-folk from the New York musician. Last year Thomas released a very special collection known as Monthly Journal. Below is an unpublished article about the release, Read more...

Reviews, Theatre Phantom of the Opera at St. Mary's College, Tuesday 12th March 2013 By Michelle Dee
	It has been years since I saw a school production. I remember my own performances as an overfed urchin, an unfunny jester and as a witch-doctor, with a mixture of nostalgic pride laced with pangs of sheer terror. A friend's two daughters were in tonight's show, so I took my seat in the school hall dutifully: poised to cheer and applaud in all the right places. Read more...

Reviews, Art Sunday March 4th 2013 - Kate Fox Standing Up for Hull Poets By Michelle Dee.
	Stand-up poetry or spoken word, call it what you will, is on the rise in Hull. Joe Hakim, curator for Northern Elements, said as much at the Kate Fox show held on Sunday night at Fruit. You can't fail to have noticed the many venues and night dedicated to this vibrant versatile and increasingly popular art form. Poetry is everywhere. Whether it is mixed in on a variety billing of live music and theatre, Read more...

News, Arts New Media: Old Ideas Collide On Six Degrees of Harry Campaign By Michelle Dee
	Hull based Film company One For Courage Productionsare using converging marketing techniques to raise awareness and promote their debut Short Film, Harry's Ransom. The promotion campaign for the film is called Six Degrees of Harryand uses real life and online connectivity to generate interest in the new work scheduled for release in Spring 2013. Read more...

News, Arts Lucy Beaumont Wins Top Comedy Award By Michelle Dee
	Lucy Beaumont from Hull has won BBC Radio 2 New Comedy Award 2012: the nationwide search to find the best new stand-up comedy talent in the UK. The heats for the annual competition were held in venues across the country between August and October 2012. Lucy Beaumont made it all the way to the finals held at the Grand Theatre, Blackpool. Read more...

Reviews, Theatre Thursday 5th July 2012 - Fred Voss and Joan Jobe-Smith - The Longbeach Connection at Hull Truck - Humber Mouth Literature Festival By Michelle Dee Photographs by Cilla Wykes
	Tonight's poetry performance was the culmination of three years effort, to bring the highly respected Californian writer Fred Voss to Hull. All week I'd been hearing reverential murmurings about the two visiting poets, particularly from the writers in my midst. Wearing dark shades, dressed in black from head to toe, the flame haired Joan Jobe-Smith, Read more...

Reviews, Theatre Monday 2nd July 2012 - Ross Sutherland: The Three Stigmata of Pacman at Fruit - Humber Mouth Literature Festival By Michelle Dee Photographs by Cilla Wykes
	The annual Humber Mouth Literature Festival in Hull moved into its second week; a week filled with innovative and acclaimed spoken word artists curated by Write to Speak and Fresh Ink in the Hard Rhymes & Great Exclamations strand of the festival. The performers are arriving in Hull from as far afield as York, Devon, Los Angeles Read more...

Reviews, Theatre Tuesday 3rd July 2012 - Hannah Silva and Helen Mort at Fruit - Humber Mouth Literature Festival By Michelle Dee Photographs by Cilla Wykes
	Not very often I'm lost for words after a performance. I can usually begin to frame my response, think in terms of genre, style, influences. Not so for Hannah Silva. Ghost Running was a special collaborative spoken word performance with renowned Yorkshire poet Helen Mort, and took place at Fruit in Hull's historic Fruit market area, for the Humbermouth Literature Festival. Read more...

Reviews, Theatre Theatre Brothel 2.0 at Hull Truck Theatre - Saturday 29th September 2012 By Michelle Dee Photographs by Cilla Wykes
	In recent years, film and theatre reviews have become littered with the following: Spoiler Alert! So what can I tell you about Theatre Brothel 2.0 without giving the game away? The Theatre Brothel experience begins as you walk the back corridors and passageways of the theatre. Which two of the four shows you got to see in any given night, depended on what answers you gave to some probing questions. Read more...

Reviews, Art Revelations On The Edge by Sarah Pennington at Red Gallery - June 2012 By Michelle Dee. Photographs courtesy Sarah Pennington
	A whale bone washed up on a distant shoreline; a battered old tin found loch side returning to its place of origin; strange crab claw tools; methodical arrangements of chalky bone fragments from fish and fowl. These are just some of the curios that await you when you visit Revelations on the Edge. Artist and sculptor Sarah Pennington left her home in Hull and spent 3 months on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. Read more...

News, Arts Lucy Beaumont Wins Top Comedy Award By Michelle Dee
	Lucy Beaumont from Hull has won BBC Radio 2 New Comedy Award 2012: the nationwide search to find the best new stand-up comedy talent in the UK. The heats for the annual competition were held in venues across the country between August and October 2012. Lucy Beaumont made it all the way to the finals held at the Grand Theatre, Blackpool. Read more...

Reviews, Theatre Reclamation at Hull Truck Theatre, Saturday 23rd June 2012 By Michelle Dee
	Getting to Edinburgh Fringe is a milestone in every artists career, and performing at the Arts and Culture Festival presents many challenges; least of all financing the escapade paying for travel and lodgings while you attempt to put on a marathon of shows in a month. Reclamation by Joe Hakim, Mike Watts and Ruth E. Dixon is about self discovery not in the namby-pamby Read more...

Poetry - Pigeon Toed No More By Michelle Dee
	The shell rifling through the feathers buried in its back, the shock, the stunned shock, the paralysis, the total loss of familiar flight response. The avian behaviour, proof only of existence, not of life. Further penetrating shots. Read more...

News, Arts Hull College Graduate to launch Dance Summer School By Michelle Dee
	A Hull based entrepreneur will be running a Glee style Dance Summer School during August, ahead of launching her own Dance Academy. Leanne Kirkhamwho graduated in May 2011 from Hull College with a BA Honours Degree in Dance has worked tirelessly in order to set up the new Professio Dance Academy located in Hull city centre. Originally from Blackpool, Read more...

Music Reviews - Riff Raff Enthrall Audience at Legendary Adelphi - Friday 27th May 2011 By Michelle Dee
	After Hurray for the Riff Raff signed to Loose Music at the beginning of 2011, it was only going to be a matter of time before the American Folk band played their first U.K. tour. It has been a busy schedule with nine U.K. dates in all and numerous press engagements, interviews and radio air play. It seems Alynda and Huey, fellow New Yorkers, built up quite a rapport when he interviewed the band on his BBC 6Music show. Read more...

Reviews, Theatre Sunday 13th February Scratch Theatre @ Fruit By Michelle Dee
	I was just one of the many people on Humber Street Sunday 13th February to witness the first Scratch Theatre night at Fruit. Eight separate ten minute shorts were showcased tonight, each one a new piece of theatre written by a local writer. Feedback sheets were handed out to answer the questions; what in your opinion worked / didn't work; what did/didn't you enjoy; how could it have been played better etc? Read more...

Reviews, Theatre Sunday 13th February Scratch Theatre @ Fruit By Michelle Dee
	I was just one of the many people on Humber Street Sunday 13th February to witness the first Scratch Theatre night at Fruit. Eight separate ten minute shorts were showcased tonight, each one a new piece of theatre written by a local writer. Feedback sheets were handed out to answer the questions; what in your opinion worked / didn't work; what did/didn't you enjoy; how could it have been played better etc? Read more...

Reviews, Theatre Write to Speak Presents Kate Fox News - Wednesday 12th January 2011 By Michelle Dee
	The final Write to Speak of the current run saw writer/poet Kate Fox performing her Edinburgh Fringe Show Kate Fox News at the Hull Truck Studio Theatre. Tonight was ladies night so before Kate took to the stage the healthy Wednesday night crowd were given another chance to hear from the female members of the workshop poets. Read more...

Album Reviews - Hurray for the Riff Raff Reviewed by Michelle Dee
	The tough looking girl on the cover, the open shirt and upturned collar defy me to press play. By time the opening instrumental track is done I'm hooked. Hurray for the Riff Raff scratch dollars and dimes while leaving a mark on your soul and are the latest signing of London based label Loose Music. I read the sleeve notes by Gabe Soria, savouring the narrative arc. Train-hopping? Crescent City? Whiskey and blood? Read more...

Reviews, Theatre Write to Speak Presents Kate Fox News - Wednesday 12th January 2011 By Michelle Dee
	The final Write to Speak of the current run saw writer/poet Kate Fox performing her Edinburgh Fringe Show Kate Fox News at the Hull Truck Studio Theatre. Tonight was ladies night so before Kate took to the stage the healthy Wednesday night crowd were given another chance to hear from the female members of the workshop poets. Read more...

Reviews, Theatre Write to Speak at Hull Truck - Ten by Ten - Wednesday 24th November 2010 By Michelle Dee. Photographs courtesy Cilla Wykes
	The second Write to Speak Larkin25 on 22nd November was another success. The small team that organize these nights prove yet again that you don't need committees, event management and marketing teams to get things done. This evening, 24th November, Write to Speak invited a poetry collective from the North East to Hull to perform alongside their own workshop poets. The visitors perform under the name 10 x 10 Read more...

Reviews, Theatre Write to Speak at Hull Truck - Ten by Ten - Wednesday 24th November 2010 By Michelle Dee. Photographs courtesy Cilla Wykes
	The second Write to Speak Larkin25 on 22nd November was another success. The small team that organize these nights prove yet again that you don't need committees, event management and marketing teams to get things done. This evening, 24th November, Write to Speak invited a poetry collective from the North East to Hull to perform alongside their own workshop poets. The visitors perform under the name 10 x 10 Read more...

People - An Interview with Captain Zip By Michelle Dee
	In his first visit to Hull Captain Zip, film-maker and documentarian was invited to show his highly prized collection of seventies street punk films at the newly opened Museum of Club Culture. Captain Zip (real name Phil Munnoch) is famed for capturing young street punks in their regular haunts from 1978 to '82. During a four year shooting spree he built up an intimate honest record of the much maligned punk subculture. Read more...

Reviews, Theatre Larkin25 - Write to Speak presents: They f*** you up... at Hull Truck - Monday 22nd November 2010 By Michelle Dee. Photographs courtesy Cilla Wykes
	In this current climate of Arts funding cuts and uncertain futures the only thing to do is go out there and make things happen. Tonight's Write To Speak performances were the result of such an approach. All the writers tonight have taken advantage of the poetry writing and performance workshops hosted by Joe Hakim and Mike Watts from Write To Speak in conjunction with thisisUll.com Read more...

Album Reviews - Signe Tollefsen By Michelle Dee
	It has been four years since Dutch/American singer/songwriter Signe Tollefsen played live at the Lamp in Hull. That night she wowed the audience with a set overflowing with songs of sheer beauty and extraordinary vocal prowess. Since then Signe has been awarded Best Musician at Grote Prijs van Nederland, Holland's most Read more...

Reviews, Films - Avatar - iMax Cinema, London By Michelle Dee
	I'd seen the clips and a brief 'making of' documentary on Film 2010 but nothing prepared me for the complete immersion into James Cameron's spectacular vision. I wasn't sure how I'd get on with the whole 3D thing, I worried it wouldn't work for me; how wrong was I. London's iMax cinema on the south bank is huge and was apparently sold out that day although there were a number of Read more...

Poetry - The Boathouse By Michelle Dee
	I recall this night with warm, inviting people, huddled around fires, within and without. I remember passing around wine and losing all sense of time. Faded news cut-outs fragmenting on bathroom walls. And the dusty allure of an overcrowded kitchen. I see pictures of fire-lit faces; Read more...

Music Reviews - Men Diamler at The Adelphi, Hull By Michelle Dee
	It would be a crying shame if I wasn't to tell you about the artist I saw playing at Adelphi in Hull the other week. Really? Do tell me, who did you see? The poster said Men Diamlerso I was thinking, something group-based, slightly Germanic maybe, and electro possibly? So I was pleasantly surprised when a disheveled youngish chap with dark curly locks picked up a weather-beaten guitar and began playing. Read more...

Reviews, Arts - Contents May Vary at Red Gallery in Hull Contemporary Art Continues Despite the Big Freeze By Michelle Dee. Photographs courtesy Andrew Quinn
	While the city of Hull struggled against the adverse weather conditions on Friday 8th January and people tried in vain to get home after many businesses were closed earlier than usual, a group of dedicated contemporary artists were preparing for the opening night of Contents May Vary at Red Gallery in the city. Battling against all odds, the show opened on time just minutes Read more...

Music News - 09 New Adelphi Club Celebrates 25 Years as the Live Music Capital of Hull Words and Pictures by Michelle Dee .
	October 2009 the Live Art Space inside Ferens Art Gallery in Hull was the location for the world renowned music venue Adelphi Club's 25th Anniversary Exhibition . Not just a flick through dusty old flyers and posters and a drunk in the corner slurring, 'I was there when Oasis played.' No sir, this is a celebration of a club that has been at the heart of live music in Hull for quarter of a century. Read more...

Reviews, Theatre - Tuesday 27th October 09 - Write To Speak Featuring Kate Tempest and Matt Panesh at Hull Truck By Michelle Dee
	Just had to write something about Tuesday's Write To Speak at Hull Truck Theatre. The regular event showcases the best poetry and spoken word from around the country. Tonight we have the incredible vocal dexterity of Kate Tempest (London) and the poems, ponderings and profane humour of Matt Panesh (Manchester) on his Welcome to the U.K. tour. Read more...

Music News - One Voice Charity CD By Michelle Dee
	Last week it was announced that thirty babies have died needlessly at the hands of their parents or carers since the Baby P tragedy. This week those responsible for the horrific torturing of the toddler have been named. Alarm bells continue to ring around the country about the safety of our children. Here in Hull, with the One Voice project members of the local rock/metal scene are working to highlight the issue of child cruelty and raise funds for NSPCC. Read more...

People - An Interview with Nick Quantrill, Local Crime Fiction Writer By Michelle Dee
	Nick Quantrill works with numbers by day and with words by night. He won the Harper Collins Crime Tour Short Story Competition in 2006 with an entry called Punishment; his first ever short fiction piece. This success was rewarded by his work being published in the specialist magazine Crime Time distributed nationwide. He was also shortlisted for Making Waves (BBC Radio Humberside) Nick recently signed contracts with Caffeine Nights Publishing for his latest novel Broken Dreams, Read more...

Poetry - Battered By Michelle Dee
	Did you fail to turn in, are you getting too thin? Is this the year to finally stop all the drugs you're taking? Kid yourself it's all okay. You already know you'll have to pay. So lie inside, die inside, it doesn't really matter. Just another night and day, when you got battered. Read more...

Music Reviews -Monday 19th May 09 Musicians Night featuring Disaster Radio New Zealand, By Michelle Dee
	Annie, budding stand-up comic from The Willows women's centre begins a night where it seems the strange and the stranger have come to congregate in the Adelphi. Annie has an old style ghetto blaster on which she is attempting to record her homework. Was she funny? Yes, but it wasn't easy to pin down why. A bizarre opening to a night that was to get steadily more fantastical. Read more...

Poetry - Hull City Stay Up By Michelle Dee
	By hook or by crook Hull City stayed up. No win today, but Newcastle's result went our way. City fans can breathe again, three cheers for Phil Brown's men Around the KC the tigers roar, Read more...

Music Reviews - Tuesday 12th May 09 - Silent Revolution Magazine Presents 59 Violets, The Shadow Cops and Kill Youth Culture at New Adelphi Club, Hull By Michelle Dee
	Barton's 59 Violets have been busy writing and recording new material for their forthcoming album. The band remain a four piece with Lee Drinkall on vocals/guitar and Matt Cade on drums alongside Digsy vocals/guitar, and John Amos (known as Bill to his friends) on bass. The new material sounds more considered with Lee taking on some of the vocals from Digsy; on one number Digsy was just doing backing vocals and chorus. Read more...

People - Thomas Truax - Songs From The Films Of David Lynch (Available Now) By Michelle Dee
	'What does this song need to come alive?' New York anti-folk hero, Thomas Truax has oft had his music described as that of befitting a David Lynch film. The surreal settings, the darkly twisted stories, the cult appeal lend themselves well to his compositions - the innovator, the rebel, the outsider. The epiphany moment came when Truax's Read more...

CD Reviews - London! Paris! New York! Rome! - Andy Mackay and The Metaphors By Michelle Dee
	When you get sent a random CD from an unknown act doing covers, you may not hold out much hope. The track titles read like pretty standard stuff but there's nothing ordinary in the hands of Andy Mackay and the Metaphors. Five musicians, including current members of Roxy Music, Andy Mackay and Paul Thompson, who almost manage to disguise the original tunes completely. Read more...

Music News - The Revoffs - Another thisisUll Success Story By Michelle Dee
	Local musician Steve Minns used to spend hours in his bedroom recording writing and recording demos with his pal Danny Sheehan. The pair continued developing ideas until deciding they needed more people to make a real band. Where did they go to find these new members? None other than the thisisUll.com Classified. By simply putting an ad in thisisUll.com Classified the band found exactly Read more...

People - Jody McKenna, Keith Hagger, the Secret Millionaire and an Unforgettable Weekend By Michelle Dee
	Anyone who watched Secret Millionaire on Channel 4 Sunday 26th April will have seen Hull musicians Jody McKenna and Keith Hagger receiving that magical cheque for £20,000. I caught up with them the day after the show was broadcast, in order find out how they were feeling about the show and their surprise trip to see Bob Dylan at the O2 Arena with the charitable Secret Millionaire Martin Stamp. Read more...

Music Reviews - Saturday 21st March 09 - Jody McKenna And Friends At Adelphi Club By Michelle Dee
	Jody has just headlined a fine musical programme watched by a spirited crowd numbering fifty or so. Tonight was to be reggae artist, Finley Quaye's second gig at the Adelphi club but he has cancelled last minute and left Jody somewhat in the lurch. However, his friends and supporters rallied to put together a varied programme, featuring some of the artists that I'm sure will benefit Read more...

Articles - Jody McKenna and The Secret Millionaire (show to be aired Sunday 26th April 09 Channel 4) By Michelle Dee

	Champagne Lifestyle on a Lemonade Budget was the title of singer/songwriters Jody McKenna and Dave Saxby latterly of The Peasants debut album /music05/albums/stevepeasants.html . Jody could be forgiven for thinking those dreams of grandeur and prosperity had finally been realised when Channel 4's Secret Millionaire presented him with a cheque for twenty grand. Read more...

Music Reviews - Thursday 26th March 09 - Daisy Riots And GST Cardinals At Kick Out The Jams Nags Head Hull By Michelle Dee
	I hear you went to Kick Out the Jams at the Nags Head on Newland Avenue how was it? It was good; loads of people there. Saw Marv and Rachel, Alfie, Carlos and Uncle Dave, Flo, Maddy, Laura and Brum too ... Brum bought me an NBA, he is a good egg. So who was playing, were they any good? It was GST Cardinals with a bunch of new songs and a new band member called Ryan. Read more...

Music Reviews - Saturday 7th March 09 - The Kings Of Lyon At The New Tower Nightclub, Hull By Michelle Dee
	After the success of The Beards (2nd HDM Talent Trail 07) and multiple successes with The Riffs (Global Icon TV Winners!, Channel 4's 4unsigned, Radio 1's One Music, Tune Tribe, UK Undiscovered Radio and Live and Unsigned UK) Newly formed Kings Of Lyon KOL tribute band were ready to rock the Saturday night Hull crowd. Described as..."the most astounding, vibrant tribute to the Kings Of Leon, playing the best music Read more...

People - Dicky Deegan Uilleann Piper By Michelle Dee
	Renowned and highly respected Uilleann Piper Dicky Deegan's mellifluous tones have been heard in pubs and parlours throughout the British Isles. He has performed at European, UK, Irish and Australian Festivals, on major TV and radio stations including the BBC. He has played with many bands and artists including Maireid O'Sullivan, the late Billy Moran, The Crack, Rakish Paddy Read more...

Music Reviews - Tuesday 24th February Silent Revolution Magazine Presents New York Alcoholic Anxiety Attack Plus Special Guest Joolz Denby With Support from 5-7-5 At Adelphi Club By Michelle Dee
	Tonight's event by dissident fanzine Silent Revolution run by local artist and performer Karl Whiting is another example of a artistic venture that remains unsupported, unfunded and ignored by the established creative sector in the city. Adelphi Club on De Grey Street provides the perfect setting to host this auspicious convergence of spoken word and live music, seeing that the club and Proprietor Paul Jackson Read more...

Music News - Inside The New Tower Night Club Hull By Michelle Dee Pictures By Michael Xcess Events Ltd .
	Laser lighting on stone-effect walls, leafy green palms, day-glo carpets, cascading waterfalls; a definite sense of fun and theatre. It's almost like walking onto the set of an Indy movie or entering the Aztec Zone from popular BBC game-show The Crystal Maze. This is the spectacle that greeted me on entering the soon to be re-opened New Tower Night Club in Hull. Read more...

Album Reviews - KIERONONONON Three Man Party (Roxxor Records) By Michelle Dee and Bella Wykes (Age 11)
	Three Man Party by Kieronononon is the fourth release by three-piece outfit Orta, goatboy and floatstarpx. It delivers fuzz punk, electro junk, digitized DIY horror phunk; despite the typo on the CD. Spectral to Medieval metal influences abound on the six track EP containing intriguing titles that suggest snippets of odd conversation real or imagined. Read more...

CD Reviews - Mount Demo By Michelle Dee
	You never know when you get sent something out of the blue whether you are going to uncover a gem. Hassle opens with a funereal bass line that threatens to vibrate and shake the speakers to pieces. This auspicious intro is eventually followed by a splintered vocal coming from the wrong end of a whisky bottle (or the right end depending on your point of view) that then leans lazily sideways and suggests Read more...

Fiction - What Colour My Dear? (Exercise in experimenting with different voices) By Michelle Dee
	"What colour my dear?" "Blue. Yes blue to match my mood." "Why so blue dear on such a promising day?" "Well I'll tell you. I have just this moment been turned down yet again for employment; that is the third this morning if you please. I am doomed never to find a suitable position. Read more...

Music News - Introducing The PaperShakers By Michelle Dee
	They made their debut at the Sesh 2nd December and they definitely caught my eye. The PaperShakers had brought a roomful of people with them and caused quite a stir. Certainly one of the best first gigs I've seen since I started reviewing. Expect lots more to come out of this exciting new music act. Catch them 21st December at Adelphi Hull. Read more...

Music Reviews - Saturday 6th December 08 - Love Music Hate Racism at Hull City Hall By Michelle Dee
	Saturday was going to be a busy day. I had offered my services to Arts Development Worker Stewart Baxter the driving force and helmsman behind the Hull LMHR event at the City Hall. Through hard work he had gathered support from many different groups including the local City Council to stage the LMHR event in the town centre. Read more...

Poetry - Where Is God? By Michelle Dee
	Where is God? God is in the air. Where is God when planes career from the skies shattering dreams below? God is in the earth. Where is God when crops fail and millions starve on television screens? God is in our minds. Where is God when armies slaughter thousands without a thought? Read more...

News, - Suspected BNP Thugs Attack At Love Music Hate Racism Event By Michelle Dee
	The live music event, organised by the The Warren Young Peoples Project and Hull Youth Council saw a diverse group of people of different age groups and ethnic backgrounds joining together at the City Hall in Hull. They enjoyed the live music on offer in an atmosphere of peace and unity whilst highlighting the ongoing issue of racism in the city. Read more...

Music Reviews - Tuesday 25th November 08 - DVA Studios Showcase featuring Timmy D, Frank Johnson, Alex Stork, Jamie Gray, Telenovela, Great Northern Hotel, Day In The City At Sharkeys George Street By Michelle Dee
	Last night Dave Abbot of DVA Studios held his second showcase of artists he has been working with supporting and recording in his home studio. Dave set up DVA in order to support new musicians give them access to a studio do early demo recordings in order to give them something solid to market themselves with. Look out for a DVA Sampler CD from DVA Studios featuring some of the musicians from tonight's showcase event. Read more...