STATS FANTASTIC – seven years & counting

February 22, 2024 / Alikivi / 1 Comment

After 500 posts and over 370,000 views, WordPress (who run this blog) have sent their congratulations to the North East culture site after completing its seventh year, aye seven years, can’t believe how quickly time has gone.

From the first post in February 2017, the free site – without any ads, pop ups or clickbait – has gone from strength to strength picking up views not only here in the UK but worldwide, including USA, Japan, Brazil, Sweden, Ireland, Australia and European countries Spain, Italy, France and Germany.

First up were metal bands Fist, Mythra, Raven, Satan, Venom and Tygers of Pan Tang followed by music memories from bands including Beckett, Angelic Upstarts, White Heat, Lindisfarne, Lorraine Crosby, Wildhearts, Dance Class, Kane Gang and Southbound.

Searching the site, you’ll find interviews with authors and photographers, there’s also stories from recording studios Guardian and Impulse.

As well as theatre producer Leah Bell and TV actress Lesley Saint-John, by far the most popular post at 15,000, there are stories from roadies, radio presenters and TV production teams.

During the 2020 covid lockdowns people looked for something new to read so their views added to the regular readers, resulting in monthly numbers of 7,000 with a high of 9,700.

Now the site gets a steady monthly count of 4-5,000, I must say a big thanks to everyone who reads the posts – much appreciated.

How long will it last? Well, the phone’s still ringing and stories keep dropping in my inbox, so I’ll keep gaan until the juice runs out.

Alikivi February 2024

WOR BELLA HITS LONDON – the incredible story of heroic North East women footballers during WW1.

February 8, 2024February 8, 2024 / Alikivi

Wor Bella, a tribute to the heroic North East women who played football during World War 1 is transferring to London. The play will be staged at the Bread and Roses Theatre, Clapham, before coming back up North to the prestigious 1200-seat Newcastle Theatre Royal in April. The play features a to-camera cameo by former Newcastle United footballer Alan Shearer.

Wor Bella is named after the show’s lead character Bella Reay who played centre forward for Blyth Spartans Ladies and scored 33 goals in 30 matches. She was the “Alan Shearer of her day”.

Wor Bella will star Catherine Dryden, who is currently performing with Jimmy Nail at Newcastle’s Live Theatre. Catherine, who hails from Chester le Street, is a RADA graduate and has toured number one venues nationally with The Pitman Painters and The Play That Goes Wrong.

Catherine explained “The play is a tribute to the million-plus women who stepped into exhausting and dangerous industrial work when men were conscripted in 1916”.

“They were selfless people who not only saved the war effort but raised money to support injured soldiers, widows, orphans and other charities by playing football.”

She continued “Factory teams of munitionettes formed on Teesside, County Durham, Wearside, Tyneside and Northumberland to raise money for wartime charities. I’m delighted to be playing “Wor Bella.”

It was an incredible time for women’s football, Blyth Spartans Ladies played Bolcklow Vaughan (Middlesbrough) in front of 18,000 people at the inaugural 1918 Munitionettes Cup final at St James’ Park, Newcastle, and later 22,000 at Ayresome Park, Middlesbrough.

“Unfortunately, the FA scandalously banned women’s football in December 1921. It wasn’t unbanned until 1971!” added Catherine.

Written by Ed Waugh, (Dirty Dusting, Waiting For Gateaux and Alf Ramsay Knew My Grandfather – all co-written with Trevor Wood and the self-penned Hadaway Harry).

Ed added “We’ve had tremendous support for our talks from the likes of history societies, WI’s, U3As, libraries, football clubs and cultural groups. The response has been incredible.”

The play toured the North East in 2022 and received a number of reviews….
“A rollercoaster ride of laughter and euphoria to sadness and anger… mesmerising” said The Journal.

Kyle Crook, Blyth Phoenix Theatre Operational Manager, added “Rave reviews with both staff and customers. A must see!” and Katy Taylor, Artistic Director at Hexham Queen’s Hall Arts Centre “Brilliant…went down a storm with the audience”.

Any groups interested in hearing a talk are asked to contact Ed via the official website > http://www.worbella.co.uk

For Theatre Royal tickets google > ‘Theatre Royal Wor Bella’ for London tickets visit > www.worbella.co.uk

Alikivi February 2024

A GEORDIE EVENING with Ray Laidlaw, Carol Malia & Ed Waugh

November 27, 2023November 27, 2023 / Alikivi

Marden High school in North Shields will host an evening of stories told by three Geordie voices. Founding member of Lindisfarne, Ray Laidlaw, BBC local news reader Carol Malia and international playwright Ed Waugh. Each have a connection to Monkhouse Primary, North Shields, so it’s fitting that all proceeds from the event go to the school.

As well as finding international fame with Lindisfarne, North Shields lad Ray Laidlaw is producer of Geordie institutions Sunday for Sammy and Christmas in the Cathedral. Ray was recently part of the creative team that won a Royal Television Society Award for the brilliant BBC 4 documentary, The Alan Hull Story.

Born in Tynemouth, Carol was a former Marden High school pupil. A regular on our TV screens since 1997, Carol has lots of funny stories to tell, a real Geordie institution.

Ed Waugh has produced 21 professional plays including Dirty Dusting (co-written with Trevor Wood). In January it’ll be performed at Whitley Bay Playhouse and his self-penned play Wor Bella will grace London and Newcastle Theatre Royal in April. Ed also writes comedy sketches for Sunday for Sammy and Christmas at the Cathedral.

Ed Waugh said “In April 2022 my lovely daughter in law Rachelle died aged 34. The school has been brilliantly supportive of my two grandchildren who have attended Monkhouse Primary. It’s an excellent school which thrives on developing the children and giving them new experiences either via extra-curricular activities like football, gardening and archery to name just a few examples, or encouraging them in school time to be active in the arts. I just wanted to do something as a thank you. Both Ray and Carol immediately said yes, which was brilliant of them. It’ll be a great night.”

The event will be held on Wednesday, February 28, 2024 @ 7.30pm at Marden High School, Hartington Road, North Shields, NE30 3RZ.

Tickets are only £10 and available from >

Alikivi November 2023

THE SOUND OF A LANDSCAPE with author MiE Fielding

November 20, 2023 / Alikivi

‘The Sound of a Landscape’ is a new book by artist, author and sound recordist Mie Fielding, who co-authored ‘Closest Thing to Heaven’ about the Newcastle music scene, which featured on this site in December 2020.

CLOSEST THING TO HEAVEN – New Book on ’70s-’80s Newcastle Music Scene | ALIKIVI UK : NORTH EAST CULTURE (garyalikivi.com)

In ‘Sound of a Landscape’ Fielding pictures the Northumberland coast in all its wild splendour. His unique artwork is complimented by Cullercoats poet Harry Gallagher.

“I got to know Harry as he played the late Tom Hadaway (My wife’s uncle) in a theatre production. As I’ve recorded bird sounds and produced avant-garde music for over 30 years, it was a natural idea to put these artistic elements together” explained Mie Fielding.

The book is further enhanced with sound recordings by scanning the accompanying QR code, bringing ‘The Sound of a landscape’.

“The book also gave me a chance to produce two specially written pieces of sound art. One portraying Storm Arwen and the other lamenting the demise of a way of life, once a common sight along the Northumberland coast – the Cullercoats Ghosts” added Fielding.

“As for the sounds in the book, they took nearly a year to capture using an ‘Ambisonic, microphone and other technical equipment”.

An exhibition about the book featuring its poetry, art and sound is held at Newcastle Central Library from 14 -20 December 2023.

Alikivi November 2023