Categories: uncategorized
Date: 09 May 2010 09:08:55
The other night when I went to see Fairport Convention at the Gala they told the audience to think of it as a village hall gig. This was after they had compared the Sage, where a number of us had seen them recently, with the Gala where they had come on their acoustic tour. (Quick aside I've never come across a definition of acoustic before that just means sat down).
This comment of theirs got my mind thinking though about "urban village halls". In some ways the Gala is one. It is quite a small cosy venue, (which is why evenings with work so well there). It also has a bar which doubles as a coffee shop during the day, and the town cinema screens are there aswell. It's a place where you find different groups of people coming together at different times of the day enjoying themselves. It's also where the local am drams put on productions, like "Hello Dolly" which the Durham Musical Theatre Company are putting on this coming week.
Yet the Gala is missing something of that DIY community spirit which true village halls tend to have. For these you have to venture elsewhere, to the other "urban village halls" in the city. One of the two main ones of these is Shakespeare Hall, base of Durham Community Association. It has all sorts of interesting and useful things going on for a range of ages and types of people. It's also where during the refurbishment of the church building the local worshipping community I am part of are meeting.