Just skip it The Shed Gigs 2008 Lol Coxhill in a skip - Event concept and photo © Simon Thackray. All rights reserved. Alfred Hickling, The Guardian - Wednesday October 20, 2004 Certain men are notorious for what they get up to in their sheds. Simon Thackray runs an arts centre in his. For the past 16 years, The Shed, near the market town of Malton, has been responsible for some of the smallest and most inspired art events in the country. Thackray has devised shows involving knitting, bingo and an Elvis impersonators' bus tour. But his latest scheme is rubbish. The Shed's Spring / Summer Programme 2008 On November 2, the veteran jazz saxophonist Lol Coxhill will undertake a whirlwind tour of North Yorkshire market towns. In a skip. The itinerary begins in the village of Brawby at 10.30am and ends in Helmsley market square at half past four, by which time Coxhill stands in serious danger of being buried under a jumble of rubble and old mattresses. So what is the point of persuading the renowned leader of the Dedication Orchestra, famed for his prowess at free improvisation, to stand in a skip? "I get asked that quite a lot," says Thackray. "One woman said, 'Is it for the acoustics?'" In fact, the concept of performing in a skip is - like all Thackray's projects - a clever combination of artistic enterprise and canny marketing. "The audience for avant-garde music is tiny," he says. "If I announce that a great jazz improviser is going to perform in Malton for free, who would take any notice? But if he stands in a skip, it becomes a media event." Thackray has a point. Last year he persuaded the trombonist Alan Tomlinson to entertain the queue for a rural fish and chip van. The event became an item on the Richard and Judy show - "so I reckon the audience for free improvised jazz was 1.9m that particular evening". Yet Thackray resists the temptation to expand. "You could say I'm ever so slightly lacking in ambition," he says. "After 12 years of promoting gigs in village halls, I thought the time had come to downsize. And what could make a smaller venue than a skip? Except a mini-skip, perhaps." The Shed's Special Projects "Weird and wonderful" Daily Telegraph Simon Thackray - "performs miracles from his eyrie" Yorkshire Post The Shed Gigs Booking Now - "The smallest show on earth" Guardian Hat - the original knitting performance Knitted Elvis Wigs - Vogue Knitting and No.1 on Google! The Fish & Chip Van Tour - on the Richard and Judy Show The Yorkshire Pudding Boat Race - Big Breakfast to Sky News North Yorkshire Elvis Bus Tour - Afternoon Play on Radio 4 Mrs Boyes' Bingo - featuring Mark Sanders The Shed Comes To Town - and Malton comes to life!

Trade Marks and Copyright The Shed is a Registered Trade Mark of Simon Thackray. No. 2158980A Copyright © Simon Thackray 1992 - 2008. 'Yorkshire Pudding Boat Race' is a Registered Trade Mark of Simon Thackray. Yorkshire Pudding Boat is a Trade Mark of Simon Thackray. No part of this site (text or photos) may be used without permission. Address: The Shed, Brawby, Malton, North Yorkshire YO17 6PY Telephone: +44 (0) 1653 668494
The Shed is supported by Arts Council England and Ryedale District Council.

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