... Sony plans to underpin Milton Keynes Bowl MILTON Keynes Bowl is being relaunched as The National Bowl by new owners, music giants Sony and the US entertainment empire Pace. Former West End theatre manager Andy Phipps has been taken on as managing director of the resurrected outdoor concert stadium. John Whit ney, chairman of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Really Useful Group, has been appointed non ...

... Kicking dancers into shape By HELEN GOULD VINNY Jones could find himself training alongside the likes of Darcy Bussell in a proposed link-up between the dance profession and the Football Association. Dance UK has approached the FA for help in develop ing new training programmes for young performers, which could see them relying more heavily on the regime used by sportsmen to keep in shape. The ...

... Something bigger and better in Store By BRIAN ATTWOOD COMEDY Store owner Don Ward is moving his club from its Leicester Square base to a larger site close, to the Trocadero Centre. The new venue, situated in the basement of restaurant TGI Friday's, will be double the size of the present base and will hold up to 400 people at a time. We've been at our present site for seven years, since we ...

... Players' appeal to save theatre HISTORIC London variety venue, the Players Theatre, has made a desperate appeal for cash support from its members to stave off closure after almost 60 years. The theatre moved back into refur bished premises under the arches at Charing Cross station last April, after being rehoused for three years at the Duchess Theatre. But the upheaval has cost it dearly. ...

... Gig Right UK welcomes stars' support as industry fails to take the initiative By STAGE REPORTER MICK JAGGER is helping to kick-start the careers of new bands and artists by stumping up £1,000 towards the costs of setting up a network of small scale concert venues. Gig Right UK, run jointly by the Musicians Union and Arts Council, is trying to establish a circuit of 40 regional venues of 300 ...

... A Christmas Carol ROYAL TV WHERE Christopher Gable and Northern Ballet Theatre are at their most effective is in letting people gently into the mores of ballet, without any suggestion that it may be high an and off-puttingly elitist. The value of this was brought home to me the other day when I met a friend who is a ten nis coach and who days alter seeing NBT's Swan Lake, was still caught ...

... Pureza Flamenca SADLER'S WELLS AT LAST, some worthwhile flamenco. Pureza Flamenca, a small company formed by internationally-acclaimed English guitarist, Ian Davies, delivers what its name promises: pure flamenco free of the vulgar pretentiousness too often displayed by more grandiose companies in recent yean. Davies, together with famous gypsy guitarist Juan Maya Marote provid ed thrilling ...

... Race against time SUPPORTERS of Bournemouth Winter Gardens are facing a race against time to raise enough cash to save the building from closure. They are appealing for business backers to step forward and help them rescue the concert hall and transform it into an arts and cultural centre for the south. Support group, The Friends of the Winter Gardens, has been set a fund raising target of ...

... Grand celebrates grant aid By ROBIN DUKE CHRISTMAS has come early to Blackpool Grand Theatre this year. The historic theatre has won a £1 50,000 grant towards improving backstage facilities, and could soon house its own professional repertory company. The biggest single grant the Victorian theatre has received since its re-opening more than ten years ago comes from the recently founded ...

... Heroes Award to recipient LES ALDERMAN. Bradford-based teacher Alderman set up a project to help deprived youngsters in the Russian city of St Petersburg and was the first west erner to receive a murti visa allowing him to travel freely to the republic from his family home. Guild founder and spokeswoman Ella Glazer said the annual ceremony which highlights six outstanding charity workers was ...

... BARD launches new code to beat high street pirates By HELEN GOULD BRITISH record shops have launched a new code of conduct with tough new powers to expel, fine and even sue members caught stocking pirate recordings or rigging the music charts. The clean-up campaign by The British Association of Record Dealers (BARD) follows revelations that high street stores are selling copies of recordings ...

... McCabe dies LIVERPOOL variety agent, Ricky McCabe, died suddenly at his Aughton home at the weekend. Toxteth-born McCabe (60) was well regarded in the light entertain ment sector. He started out in the business as a teenage comedian and became a Butlins red coat during the holiday camps heyday of the fifties and sixties. He became an agent, and was instrumental in launching the careers of many ...