WEEKEND COLUMN SATURDAY 6 SEPTEMBER 2025
- STEVE COOKE AATA
- Sep 6
- 8 min read
previews, reviews, interviews, and recommendations with Steve Cooke
WEEKEND COLUMN SATURDAY 6 SEPTEMBER 2025
Common Walls International Mural Festival
Preview by Steve Cooke
Some of the world’s best artists will descend on Rochdale for this new event to turn our town centre into a huge urban art gallery.
The artists will create beautiful artwork on 10 buildings in and around the town centre.
The ‘Common Walls’ International Mural Festival will give us a chance to see the artworks being created up close by the world-renowned artists who will be in town all week bringing their artworks to life - including Insane51, Onur, Smug1, SecaOne, AYLO, Epod and Lei Mai.
We are invited to go and watch the artworks being created up close with new designs that that tell the story of our town, its history, people and culture. The murals will be within a 30 minute walk of Rochdale Town Centre and a map will be available.
The artworks will be completed by the weekend (Saturday, 13 September 2025 and Sunday, 14 September 2025).
On Saturday, 13 September 2025, we can see the finished works as well as enjoy free family friendly activities and attractions. These include:
BMX freestyle stunt shows
Street art workshops
A graffiti jam with artists competing live
Pop-up galleries
Live music
Artist talks
A series of other fringe events
Common Walls is part of a spectacular line up of festivals, live performances, exhibitions and art during Rochdale’s year as Greater Manchester Town of Culture 2025-26. The title, awarded by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority celebrates the town’s rich history, creativity, talent and diverse arts scene.
Contact: info@aylonomad.com
Everyone's welcome. no need to book you can just get along.
Free
11am - 7pm
Sunday, 7 September 2025 – Sunday, 14 September 2025.
Opera Omnia by Space Afrika and Valentin Noujaïm
Preview by Steve Cooke
Electronic music duo Space Afrika join forces with filmmaker Valentin Noujaïm for new film project Opera Omnia – performed live with Manchester Camerata.
Part music video, part arthouse film, Opera Omnia is a compelling, new film soundtracked by Space Afrika and directed by Valentin Noujaïm.
An opportunity to experience the UK premiere of the new film starring Axelle Fanyo with a live soundtrack from Space Afrika – followed by a reading from Dante’s Inferno and a collaborative set with Manchester Camerata featuring new, unreleased music.
Opera Omnia tells the story of two Black teenagers, who are navigating a strange and dark night in Manchester, guided by Space Afrika’s haunting soundscapes. As the boys are pulled into an urban odyssey, the film becomes a surreal, Lynchian exploration of the city’s underground.
Space Afrika are producers, contemporary composers, visual artists, performers and NTS Radio hosts, who are known for their genre-defying sound. In 2024, the duo, comprised of Josh Inyang and Joshua Tarelle Reid, created an immersive audio-visual installation at Aviva Studios as part of the 54: Collective.
Valentin Noujaïm is a French Lebanese artist and filmmaker whose practice revolves primarily around the moving image, its potentialities and limitations. Alongside her role in the film, Axelle Fanyo is a vocalist on the score. She recently won a Grammy for the Best Opera for her role in Kaija Saariaho's Adriana Mater (Deutsche Grammophon). No strangers to Factory International, Manchester Camerata is the UK’s most relentlessly pioneering orchestra.
Join Space Afrika and Manchester Camerata in the Hall for an evening of boundary-pushing music and art rooted in Manchester.
Standard: £22.50
Concessions 50% Discount
Aviva £10 Tickets
A booking fee of £1.50 applies to all tickets.
Accessibility features available for this event: Wheelchair Access
Suitable for all ages. Under 14s must be accompanied by an adult 18+
5 Oct 2025
7pm
The Hall, Aviva Studios, Water Street, Manchester, M3 4JQ
We’ll Meet Again at TLC
Review by Dr Joe Dawson
This Toad Lane concert at St Mary in the Baum was the 1,150th since taking over from the council in 2001. Both the artistes today remember performing in the early days of what was then Music at Lunchtime in Gallery 4 at the Arts and Heritage Centre; Freda recalls when she was but a girl in the 1970s.
Freda Farnworth was born in Bolton and trained at Chetham’s and the Guildhall School of Music. She has performed professionally in operas, musicals, pantomimes, summer seasons and concerts and has been a bastion of music-making in the borough for many years, as soloist, choir conductor and producer. She currently teaches music part time at Tonacliffe Primary School in Whitworth. She says of these concerts, ‘It is so important to keep this live music opportunity alive in Rochdale both for performers and audiences.’
Another bastion of music-making in the borough is Wardle-born J Edward Rigg who qualified as a teacher and with an additional diploma in French from the University of Paris and an LRAM in piano, taught in Rochdale for 18 years before taking over the family business. Throughout this time Edward has been a conductor and accompanist as well as a keen choral singer. He is President of Rochdale Phoenix Opera Society and organiser of the Littleborough Coach House lunchtime concerts.
Freda’s themes were the sun and moon, as evinced in her opening, Berlin’s The sun in the morning and Sullivan’s The sun whose rays, followed by No Moon from Heston’s realistic musical Titanic (overshadowed by the epic romantic disaster movie of the same name, released in the same year 1997!) Freda has the knack of captivating an audience: fine singing, captivating information, and an irrepressible joy in her work.
Over the rim of the Moon, Michael Head’s serious song cycle is a sophisticated work that demonstrated the skill of both musicians as well as their engaging delivery of popular standards, In the still of the night by Porter and highly appropriate Summertime by Gershwin.
Given the theme, and Friday being Debussy’s birthday, Edward just had to play Clair de Lune! which made a beautiful solo interlude.
Similarly, Freda could not leave out The Sun has got his hat on and Blue Moon, could she? We also had an excursion into the cartoon world of Charlie Brown and Peanuts where Lucy screeches whilst Schroeder plays Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata.
During this VE and VJ Day ‘80’ memorial year, a Vera Lynn tribute set, with audience participation fitted the bill and was thoroughly enjoyed - A Nightingale sang in Berkeley Square, The White cliffs of Dover, and We’ll meet again.
Everyone agreed we should all meet again before long for more great entertainment from these two bastions of Rochdale music.
The Queen’s Award-winning Toad Lane Concerts every Wednesday at 12.30pm at the Grade 1 listed church of St Mary in the Baum, Toad Lane, Rochdale, OL16 1DZ. Entrance fee is £6 cash. Contact 01706 648872 for further information.
FRAG AT TEMPORARY TOUCHSTONES
Review by Dr Dawson
FRAG (Friends of Rochdale Art Gallery) perseveres with its mission to support Touchstones with monthly meetings or trips, whilst awaiting the reopening in 2027.
Ta-Da! It was therefore great to see Temporary Touchstones, a pop-up venue in front of the town hall. Before you think ‘The Halle orchestra has changed a bit since last I saw them,’ this was the Fat Cats Brass announcing the opening of Side by Side Arts Festival (20-27 August); some in kilts and some on stilts started proceedings with a real blast inside the see-through marquee.
Madam Mayor, Janet Emsley managed to give an inspiring foreword to the festival in the excited melee of the circus atmosphere that had been created. She emphasis the progress that has been made in the past ten years to justify Rochdale’s award of Greater Manchester Town of Culture 2025.
Later attractive items from tabla and sitar added to the international makeup of the event which had been led by artist Harry Meadley, who has contributed many innovative and provocative ideas over recent years as Touchstones has striven to open out to and connect with the community.
A select group from FRAG joined a multi-ethnic, mixed age audience and enjoyed plentiful refreshments with the entertainment.
The evening continued inside the town hall where exhibitions waited in the ex-council chamber and through a ‘Show and Tell’ avenue of creators and artists round the pillars of the Exchange, plus so much more.
RECOMMENDED
Saturday, 6 September 2025
Lego Club - Rochdale Central Library
Every other Saturday. Get creative with Lego and join our free club, suitable for all the family. There's Duplo available for younger siblings.
For families with children aged 2 and over, and teenagers
No need to book, you can just turn up.
Free
12pm - 1pm
Rochdale Central Library, Number One Riverside, Smith Street, Rochdale OL16 1XU
Saturday, 6 September
The Greatest Love of All
Whitney Houston’s musical legacy is brought to life in this critically acclaimed tribute concert described as “mind-blowingly spot on.” Be stunned by the breathtaking vocals of Belinda Davids – as seen on Britain’s Got Talent, Showtime at the Apollo and winner of the BBC’s Even Better Than the Real Thing.
The two-hour international production will fill you with joy, nostalgia and wonderment as it takes you on a heartfelt journey through all of Whitney Houston’s greatest hits including I Wanna Dance With Somebody, I Will Always Love You, Greatest Love of All, How Will I Know, One Moment in Time, I Have Nothing, Run to You, Didn’t We Almost Have It All, I’m Every Woman, Where Do Broken Hearts Go, Queen of the Night, Higher Love and more.
Davids is accompanied by her live band and backing vocalists plus glorious state-of-the-art sound, lighting, vision and theatrical FX, making this a beautifully crafted tribute to one of the world’s most revered singers.
Watch the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OG3LYge0UEs
Tickets from £32.00
Visit: https://www.yourtrustrochdale.co.uk/whats-on/events/the-greatest-love-of-all/book/?instance=529002
7.30pm
Doors open: 6:45pm
Middleton Arena, Lance Corporal Joel Halliwell VC Way, Middleton, Manchester M24 1AG
Sunday, 7 September 2025
Rochdale Town Hall family tours - meet the Folconians, keepers of secrets and tellers of fantastical tales at Rochdale Town Hall.
For adults and families with children aged 3 and above. We kindly ask that parents and carers stay with children during this tour.
Email: hello@rochdaletownhall.co.uk
For adults and families with children aged 3 and above. We kindly ask that parents and carers stay with children during this tour.
Booking required: book your place online through Your Trust
Tickets from £5
10.30am–11.15am and 12noon–12.45pm
Rochdale Town Hall, The Esplanade, Rochdale OL16 1AZ
Monday, 8 September 2025
Reading Group - Junction Library
Second Monday of every month. Discover new authors and discuss shared books with other readers at our friendly reading group. Everyone's welcome.
For adults, you can just turn up.
Free
2pm - 3pm
Junction Library, Grimshaw Lane, Middleton M24 2BW
Wednesday 10 September 2025
Toad Lane Concerts - Rochdale's Weekly Music at Lunchtime
This week we have - Jonathan Ellis piano (Manchester University & RNCM)
The concert series has been held at St Mary’s since 2001 and was granted the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service in 2020.
Running every Wednesday, Music at Lunchtime is a weekly live classical music concert series that has been going since the 1960s. The sessions were initially run at the old Rochdale Art Gallery by the local authority, but since May 2001 have been run by volunteer-enthusiasts and artistic director, Dr Joe Dawson.
£6
Phone: Dr Joe Dawson 01706 648872
Doors open 12noon, concert starts 12.30pm - 1.30pm
St Mary in the Baum, Toad Lane/St Mary's Gate, Rochdale OL16 1DZ
celebrating creative arts and artists - an oasis of positivity supporting individual and community wellbeing.
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