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The Guardian Saturday February 2, 2002
Can this be it?
"The smallest show on earth"
This tiny village hall attracts some of
the world's top musicians.
Chris Arnot visits The Shed in Brawby to find out why
We drove a long way to see Tom Robinson unplugged. Was it two, four, six or eight motorways? More like three, plus a hell of a lot of narrow, twisting lanes in search of one of Britain's most unlikely music venues.
Brawby Village Hall, 22ft by 26ft of Yorkshire stone, is home to the local branch of the Women's Institute and stages occasional whist drives for the sparse population in the gently undulating Vale of Pickering. An odd place, then, to find a gig by the leading songwriter of the punk generation, a man with 20 albums and several chart hits to his name, and who has played Madison Square Garden in New York. Right now, we're closer to old York, and even that's 30 miles down the road.
This is Robinson's second visit. The first time, it took him an eternity to find the place and, when he finally did, he took one look at the hall and said: "This can't be it." That's what they all say at first, the artists who trek up from London or even jet over the Atlantic at the behest of Simon Thackray, the unlikely impresario of Brawby.
Thackray, a painter and sculptor, has spent all his 40 years here and has no intention of leaving. Why should he? With a bit of financial help from Yorkshire Arts and Ryedale District Council, he has managed to bestow on an isolated village in North Yorkshire the sort of cultural profile that some medium-sized cities might envy.
For every gig, he transforms the hall into an intimate club. Little more than 70 customers can wedge in, but rows of seats are broken up with tables topped by candles and bowls of pistachio nuts. There's a little bar where you can buy wine, bottles of Stella Artois or pints of Double Chance bitter, brewed in nearby Malton. On the stage set behind every performer hangs the warped wood and rusted hinges of Thackray's shed door. The venue is marketed as The Shed.
It all started with a fund-raising event for the local church in 1992. Through a viola-playing friend, he managed to secure a string quartet from Manchester's Halle Orchestra and, through Labi Siffre's agent, he booked a cora (African lute) player from Gambia. "I really wanted Labi himself because I'd just seen him in Leeds," he says, "But I had to wait another six months to get him. Once he found us, he seemed to like the place and recommended other musicians I might want to book. From that, it just grew organically."
And word spread. Last year, a German couple flew from Munich to Manchester, hired a car and drove to Brawby to see the soul singer Jackie Leven. Billie Holliday's pianist, Mal Waldron, came all the way from America to perform here, and an American woman flew in from Dublin to catch one of Hank Wangford's appearances.
"Hank's almost become one of the family," says Thackray. The same could be said of Snake Davis, saxophonist with the Eurythmics and M People.
Every June, he provides backing for the words of poet and Radio 4 presenter Ian McMillan at the Yorkshire Pudding Boat Race for children which is staged on a pond in Brawby.
The Moors themselves are just a short drive away. Or you could go into Pickering and pick up the North Yorkshire Moors Railway (see Advertisers) , or take a run out to the coast. Scarborough, Whitby and Robin Hood's Bay are close at hand. Closer still is Malton, where on a Saturday the farmers' market spills across the sloping square at the top of Saville Street and the racing is on the telly in the bustling front bar of Suddaby's Crown Hotel (see Advertisers) , an evocative 1970s time warp of a pub on Wheelgate, which brews its own beer.
Indeed, much of Malton seems to be in a bit of a time warp, and none the worse for that. This is how English small towns used to be before so many were drained of life by vast superstores squatting just outside their boundaries. Yes, Malton has its chain stores, its Mexican restaurant, its pizzeria and its café-cum-bookshop offering celery and cashew-nut soup and shepherd's pie with "organic" mince. But it also has shops that you rarely find elsewhere. A ropemaker, for instance, and a "designer blacksmith".
Best of all is Yates's on Railway Street, (see Advertisers) a vast emporium established in 1895 and still run by the same family. "During the floods," one of them told me, "we sold 1,000 pairs of wellies in a week. It takes some doing does that."
Elsewhere in Yates's, you can buy anything from a washing machine to clout nails. Pushbikes dangle from the ceiling. Agricultural implements line the upper walls and, above the general hubbub, you can hear canaries and budgies chirping from a large cage near the stairs.
Now that's what I call a superstore.
© Chris Arnot
Way to go
Getting there: By car: From Malton, take the B1257 towards Helmsley for 3 miles until you reach the crossroads in Amotherby. Turn right, heading towards Kirkbymoorside for 4 miles. Go through Great Barugh and down a steep hill. Watch for the left-hand turning to Brawby (signposted 1 mile). Follow the road for a mile, and you'll arrive at The Shed. By rail: London Kings Cross is 1hr 50 minutes to York with a connecting train 20 minutes to Malton, which is 10 minutes by taxi to The Shed. National Rail Inquiries 08457 484950.
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 |
| Lol Coxhill in a skip - "His latest scheme is rubbish." Guardian |
| 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! |
| Hat - the original knitting performance |
Trademarks
and Copyright TOP
The Shed® and The Yorkshire
Pudding Boat Race® are registered trademarks
of Simon Thackray T/A The Shed. © Simon Thackray 1992 -
2007.
Yorkshire Pudding Boat™ is a trademark © Simon Thackray.
Address, Telephone
The Shed, Brawby, Malton,
North Yorkshire YO17 6PY
Telephone +44 (0) 1653 668494
The Shed is supported by Arts
Council England, Yorkshire
and Ryedale District Council.