The Shed @ Hovingham Village Hall

The Shed is one of my favourite venues for music and other excelent forms of entertainment. It is small, it use to be in an even smaller place mind, but it punches above its weight for the acts it brings in. I have been going here for quite a while now and when a new seasons line up is anounced I get a smile on my face, as there are usualy some excelent supries. I have seen Fulborn Teversham, Polar Bear and narrowly missed Acoustic Ladyland (its ok I saw them at Fibbers in York a bit later on). These are some heavey weight Jazz beasts to play a small village hall in the wildrness of North Yorkshire. Leafcutter John; was another highlight with his lap-top folk-tronica and the best use of a slinky I've ever seen. More musical highlights have been Charlie Dark and his African inspired dance floor beats with live percusion, that really got pretty much every one who was able to dance, danceing by the end of the night. I think this venue is just as inspiring to the artists that play here as well as the crowd. Some of them see truly overwhelmed at the reaction, love and respect they get. Its not your usual gig venue, Tom Cawley who has played keyboards as part of Acoustic Ladyland and his own solo show at The Shed; mentioned to the crowd that he hadn't seen a crowd be so quite and listen so well durring his quite songs.

There is more than just music here too. There has also been brillint performances by comidian Stuart Lee and soon to come Ritchard Herring. Lee really worked the intermate room and even stood at the back selling DVD's and talking to people at the end. I'm also looking forward to the intreguing Mrs Boyes' Bingo featuring Mark Sanders. This is traditional Bingo with a Jazz Improv twist, just to spice things up Mrs Boyes and Mark Sanders fight for our attention. This is just the surface of this unique venue. I haven't even mentioned the sessions in skips and the fish and chip van tour. More information can be found at http://www.theshed.co.uk/