... Industry, gets 'natty' with Lord Birkett, president of Britain's first Fame- style School of the Performing Arts and Technology in Croydon. A wise move, if the whispers prove true, given that the record industry has shov elled £1.1 million into school's development and could prove a worthy ally for the noble Birkett who was moved to stoutly defend the contro versial government-backed project ...

... Public outcry over council circus policy Police were called to Worthing Town Hall when animal rights protesters demonstrated against the borough council's recent decision to allow circus performances in the town. So strong was the feeling among the demonstrators that a meeting of the council's entertainments and tourism committee had to be abandoned in the interests of maintaining public order ...

... Council wants an ear kept on noise levels A NIGHTCLUB in Penarth is to be monitored by environmental health officers following complaints about the late night noise in and around the premises. Bader Malik, owner of Shabees nightclub, now re-named Flicks, in Stanwell Road, Penarth, applied to the Vale of Glamorgan public entertain ments licensing sub-committee for the renewal of his annual ...

... Commission dispute blows up By HELEN GOULD OPINION in the entertainment businness was this week divided over the legal right of agents to continue charging acts commission several years after their contracts have expired. Variety performers asked The Stage to investigate after they were billed for commission for summer work although their bookings were not directly made through the agent who ...

... Protesters step up anti-circus attacks By ERIC JOYCE POLICE in Worthing are investigating a series of attacks on commer cial premises in the town following the council's decision to allow circus performances in the borough. This latest and so far more extreme protest by anti-circus activists coincid ed with the arrival of Chipperfield's Circus and included red paint bearing animal rights ...

... Getting in the swing LIVERPOOL The Cotton Club THE COTTON Club movie concerned itself with the front-of-house wheeler dealings of the gangster set which owned the famous New York nightspot; the music was secondary and much of it ended up on the cutting-room floor. Although it bears the same name as the film, this stage musical looks at the other side of the coin, the predicament black artists ...

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... Under Milk Wood CARDIFF TO begin at the beginning: eight actors in modern dress taking 64 speaking parts, a minimal surreal set ting with no props, and the small Welsh seaside town of Buggerall (sorry, Llareegub) gradually awakens for the tenthousandth time to its inci dent-packed new day. In the Sherman Theatre Com pany's production of Dylan Thomas's Under Milk Wood arguably the most loved ...

... Potestad BELFAST The Lyric Theatre, Belfast has drawn a remarble tour-de-force from Mark Mulholland. In Eduardo Pavlovsky's Potestad (The Abductor) he has one of his rare opportunities to reveal qualities of sub tle appreciation and intensity that have been missed in the more usual comic roles in which he has figured with great success. Here is a play, virtually a mono logue, in two parts ...

... Council considers resident's outcry over venue BOREHAMWOOD council chiefs were due to meet this week to consider a last minute bid by townsfolk to save their variety venue, the Hertsmere Centre, from closure in April. Last month the centre's 17 part and full-time staff were given three months notice to quit. Their bosses at Hertsmere Borough Council announced in the autumn that they ...

... Brum's live protest MUSIC fans, including members of the School of Samba, staged an angry protest outside Moseley Dance Centre in Birmingham last week to voice their concern over city magistrates refusal to grant late licences for live events. There is nowhere in Birmingham where you can stage live international bands, explained Brian Parsons of World Unlimited, a voluntary arts organisation ...

... Festival drops into red EDINBURGH International Festival has landed £220,000 in the red after a drop in audiences this year which new boss, Brian McMaster, has indicated could herald a radical shake-up of the event's programme. Attendence at this year's festival slipped to just above 62 per cent a drop of around 1 3 per cent on last year's figures and way below the 70 per cent target. The ...