... Barclaycard sponsors major live entertainment festival MOIRA PETTY reports A MAJOR NEW festival this summer will present a star line-up and live entertainment artists--at a cost of £250,000. Entitled Recro 80 and spon sored by Barclaycard, the event runs from August 1 to 10 at the National Agricultural Centre, Stoneleigh, Warwickshire, in addition to the evening enter tainment, it offers a ...

... Double Bill GLASGOW AUDIENCES at Glasgow's Athenaeum Theatre were divertingly entertained by final year students of the city's School of Drama in a double bill, directed in lively fashion by Eric Jones. This consisted of two English comedies--Vanbrugh's The Relapse or Virtue in Danger and Richard Cumberland's The West Indian. Vanbrugh's clever, ironical piece, with its two neatly ...

... Midland Management Showcase SILVER SKILLET, MAIDENHEAD THE MIDLAND Management Showcase at the Silver Skillet, Maidenhead on February 6 gave a generous allotment of time to one of the stable's hottest tips for stardom, Tom Bright and Suzy Breeze, the husband and wife team who started last mer in their home town, macK- pool, at the Diamond Horseshoe. The 50 minutes or so was well justified, ...

... Man with a mission at Watford Palace MICHAEL ATTENBOROUGH removed two tangerines from his brief case and snapped shut the lid. Do you mind if I eat them while we talk--I don't smoke. He neatly removed the skin from the fruit. AUDREY HENDERSON talks to Michael Attenborough the self-confessed calculated experimenter in charge of the Watford Palace Theatre He is a neat man. Very friendly, but ...

... Marketing the music is essential in a recession PETER HEPPLE reports on a formidable new partnership on the Bands and Jazz scene--Sellers and Brightman THE SECRET of show business today, say Henry Sellers and Peter Brightman, is packaging. Not just presenting the right combination of artists but making sure that the package is sold properly to those who buy it, whether they are book ers ...

... The Summer Party SHEFFIELD IT IS always a bad sign when the star turn of a play is its design. Roger Glossop's set for The Summer Party, Stephen Poliakoffs new play premiered at the Crucible, shifts dramatically from a tree-shaded private recess in the parkland setting of an all-night open-air festival to the festival's stage where magical things are made to happen and the evening's few ...

... Ladybird, Ladybird BRIGHTON PAM GEMS' heartbreaking glimpse into the reality of life for so many women, Ladybird. Ladybird, is the most moving presentation seen at the Brighton Actors' Workshop theatre at the Sea House in Brighton for many months. Concerned with a mother de pressed to the point of physical ill ness. it is written with an authen ticity and insight that sets the observer ...

... Hope for the dark Cambridge PETER HEPPLE reports BOB HOPE returns to Britain next month to stage his annual Birthday Television Show, a highlight of the American televi sion year, which this time will take the form of a Royal Charity Gala attended by HRH Prince Philip in aid of the Duke of Edinburgh's Award Scheme. It will be presented on May 14 at the Cambridge Theatre, the first time toe ...

... Jazz Festival saved as Bracknell goes to Tring 'Substantial' Arts Council allocation THE PRESTIGIOUS Bracknell Jazz Festival has been saved by the success of a last minute search to find it a new home. The rescue operation was mounted by festival organisers barely a month ago when the bosses of its home for the last ten years, the South Hill Park arts centre, announced their decision to scrap ...

... DIANA CAMBRIDGE on whatever happened to Helen Shapiro WHEN A record producer first heard her voice, he didn't believe she was 14 or a girl. Helen Shapiro's nearly 40 now her slight figure, short dark hair and deep, unmistakable voice don't seem to have changed at all. She's currently touring with Willy Russell's One For The Road-playing Jane, a know-it-all suburban estate wife. The Northern ...

... Stan and Ollie MANCHESTER IT'S A LONG journey to London's West End from Tameside Theatre, Greater Manchester, but Stan and Ollie have just taken the brave first step. Billed as a world premiere of a brand new musical by Ron Day and Nicky Paule (who produced the Tameside opener) and directed by John E. Perry, this story of the stage career of Laurel and Hardy has something that can be ...

... The Merry Wives of Windsor STRATFORD-UPON-AVON LIKE SEVERAL comedy productions in recent seasons at the Royal Shakespeare, Stratford-upon-Avon, the opening production of the new season, The Merry Wives of Windsor, is like a great, glowing party, and much fun there is in it. Bill Alexander s direction whisks the Ford-Page-Quickly-Falstaff deceptions along with sharpness and wit, and William ...