What’s on Bedford: 2 – 12 February 2023

Your weekly what’s on guide for Bedford and the surrounding area from The Bedford Clanger.

Never miss a thing in Bedford ever again. From theatre to film, live music to art exhibitions, The Bedford Clanger what’s on guide lands every Thursday and is the only guide you need to know what’s on and what’s happening across the Borough for the next 10 days.

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Thursday 2 February 2023

Folk music: That’s All Folk: Suthering
The Place Theatre @ 8pm
Tickets: £13

Suthering combines the musical talents of Julu Irvine and Heg Brignall. A couple in life and in music, the duo have taken the folk scene by storm with their unusual and fresh approach to folk.

Julu and Heg champion female characters, creating new narratives for women and unearthing the heroines of folk. What sets them apart is their wonderful chemistry and charisma on stage, natural humour and two beautifully matched voices. With an unusual mix of cascading, dramatic piano, intricate, fingerstyle guitar, flute, whistles and harmonium,

Julu and Heg bring an exciting take on folk storytelling with their evocative and distinctive sound. Their debut album If We Turn Away was released in February 2022.
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Friday 3 February 2023

Dance: Unbroken
The Place Theatre @ 7.30pm
Tickets: from £10

Unbroken is Nikki Rummer’s solo debut: beloved father David Bruce Rummer summons his family for one last Christmas gathering. In one bittersweet day, three generations celebrate the life of a man who demands to be remembered.

Told through the eyes of a daughter, Unbroken is a one-woman show that brings a whole family to life. The pieces of memories and fragments of secrets are woven into the body of one performer as she unpicks the question: Am I going to end up like them?
For Ages 16+

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Friday 3 February 2023

Live Music: Ben Kelly
The Cellar Bar @ 8.30pm
Free Entry

The very versatile Ben Kelly performs at The Cellar Bar for a night of Rock, blues and country, music for all tastes and ages. Come down and show your support for this talented musician.

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Friday 3 February 2023

Dance Music: Dance Floor Fillers – 70s, 80s and 90s
Addison Centre, Kempston  @ 7.30pm – midnight
Tickets: £8 advance / £10 on the door

Love all those great dance floor fillers by Black Box, Gloria Gaynor, Baccara, The Weather Girls and those other artists from the Golden Age Of Disco?  

Then the Addison Centre might just be the place to go.  With music by provided by Sonik Wave Disco this is a real chance to dust off the leg warmers, get out the neon and break some moves.  Or just come as you are, get nostalgic and dance the night away.  There is a fully licenced bar and the convenience of on-site parking.  As well as enjoying a fun evening there’s also the extra glow of helping the community-owned centre to raise funds to replace its current heating system.  

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Friday 3 February 2023

Theatre: NTLive: The Crucible
The Quarry Theatre @ 7pm
Tickets: from £12.50

A witch hunt is beginning in Arthur Miller’s captivating parable of power with Erin Doherty (The Crown) and Brendan Cowell (Yerma).

Raised to be seen but not heard, a group of young women in Salem suddenly find their words have an almighty power.  As a climate of fear, vendetta and accusation spreads through the community, no one is safe from trial.

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Friday 3 February 2023

Live music: Anti Nowhere League
Bedford Esquires @ 7pm
Tickets: £18

The Anti Nowhere League are back and making a rare appearance at Bedford Esquires. With support from 16 Guns.

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Saturday 4 February 2023

Children: Comedy Club 4 Kids
The Quarry Theatre @ 2pm
Tickets: from £5

Since 2005, the Comedy Club 4 Kids has been getting the best stand-ups and sketch acts from the international circuit to do their thing for an audience of children and their families… but without the rude bits! It’s just like a normal comedy club, but it’s on in the day, kids are allowed in, and thus there is a higher-than-usual chance of
heckles like “why is that your face!?”

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Saturday 4th February 2023

Live Music: The Last Chance Ragtime Band
The Cellar Bar @ 8.30pm
Free Entry

The Last Chance Ragtime Band come to The Cellar Bar this week. In their own words: “We are a stomping Lindy Hop Jazz Band from Bedford. We play the best swing music especially crafted.” Can’t wait!

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Saturday 4 February 2023

Live music: Independent Venue Week – Sick Joy + Torus
Bedford Esquires @ 8pm
Tickets: £9

With an expertise in fuzzy riffs, melodic heaviness, high energy and sharp lyrics, Sick Joy are not only one of British rock’s most promising young bands, they know a lot about overcoming challenges and learning to breathe again.

Catch them at Esquires as part of this year’s Independent Venue Week.

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Sunday 5 and Monday 6 February 2023

Children: Professor Slug’s House of Bugs
The Place Theatre @ 11am and 2pm
Tickets: from £8

Professor Slug’s House of Bugs is a show all about bugs. Professor Slug is an eccentric expert on invertebrates who helps bugs out with their buggy problems – and you can too!
Get as strong as an ant! Teach a bee how to buzz! And help a dung beetle make a pooey perfume for its big date…
Ages 3+

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Sunday 5 February 2023

Poetry: Read Poets Society – Spring 2023
The Eagle Bookshop @ 7pm
Tickets: Free but please book via The Place Theatre website

Join the Read Poets Society for their monthly poetry reading of poems reflecting the season. This month’s theme is ‘My pets and other animals’.

This monthly event takes place at The Eagle Bookshop in St Peter’s Street.

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Sunday 5 February 2023

Live music: Independent Venue Week – Large Plants
Bedford Esquires @ 7.30pm
Tickets: £9.97

A night of fuzzy psych folk rock from ex-Wolf People member Jack Sharp’s new project. The event will be downstairs in Holy Moly’s.

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Sunday 5 February 2023

Live music: The Legends of American Country Show
Bedford Corn Exchange @ 7.30pm
Tickets: £23.50

Now seen by over 350,000 fans live and watched by millions on TV Europe’s No.1 multi-award-winning show ”The Legends of American Country” returns for another fantastic night of toe-tapping Country nostalgia.

The 2023 tour will showcase highly acclaimed tributes to Dolly Parton, Johnny Cash, Don Williams, Patsy Cline and Kenny Rogers and new tributes to icons  Hank Williams, Charley Pride, Glen Campbell, Tammy Wynette, John Denver and Jim Reeves with countless other well-known singalong hit songs in this must-see musical extravaganza.

The show features 4 fantastic singers who are all accompanied by a superb live band of musicians with that authentic Tennessee sound coupled with an authentic stage set and state-of-the-art production that will transport you all the way hand clapping and toe-tapping to  Nashville and back in one night.

One thing is for sure if it’s Country music you like then this is the only show in town!

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Monday 6 February 2023

Film: Bedford Film Society presents – Worst Person in the World
Main Theatre, University of Bedfordshire, Polhilll Avenue @ 7.30pm
Tickets: Special offer half-season membership £35/day membership £5/free parking

Oscar-nominated Norwegian film, chronicling four years in the life of Julie, a young woman who navigates the troubled waters of her love life and struggles to find her career path, leading her to take a realistic look at who she really is.

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Tuesday 7 November 2023

Live music: Tuesdays lunchtime recitals
St Paul’s Church, St Paul’s Square @ 1pm
Free entry with retiring collection in aid of church funds. Suggest min £5.00

Tuesday lunchtime concert featuring Maria Kustas (piano).

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Wednesday 8 February 2023

Comedy: Simon Munnery: Trials and Tribulations
Bedford Esquires @ 7.30pm
Tickets: £12

The multi-award-winning Simon Munnery takes his new stand-up show on tour in 2023, including a London date at Leicester Square Theatre and a hometown warm-up show at Bedford Esquires.

“I’ve been mugged three times and arrested once. What a night!”

Twenty years ago, in Edinburgh, legendary comedian Simon Munnery was arrested for “being a German in a built-up area”. It wasn’t an early brush with ‘cancel culture’ but it did lead to a trial.

For the first time, British Comedy Award nominee, serial innovator and ‘Perennial fringe maverick’ (Guardian), Simon Munnery tells the tale of this trial, as well as his second court appearance last year, one that only came about after four years of a gruelling legal battle (or possibly an administrative backlog). Well, it worked for Lenny Bruce.

Simon will also seek to turn various other distressing life occurrences into comedic gold. And there will probably be a song.

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Wednesday 23 November 2022

Film: Cinema @ 3 St Peter’s presents – Withnail & I
3 St Peter’s Street @ 7pm
Tickets: £12/£10.50/£9/£6

A hilarious, melancholy tragicomedy, it is still obscure enough for its fervent fans to feel as if they are members of an exclusive club.

Two out-of-work actors – the anxious, luckless Marwood (Paul McGann) and his acerbic, alcoholic friend, Withnail (Richard E. Grant) – spend their days drifting between their squalid flat, the unemployment office and the pub.

When they take a holiday “by mistake” at the country house of Withnail’s flamboyantly gay uncle, Monty (Richard Griffiths), they encounter the unpleasant side of the English countryside: tedium, terrifying locals and torrential rain.

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Thursday 9 February 2023

Comedy: Castle Comedy Valentine Special
The Quarry Theatre @ 8pm
Tickets: £15

Castle Comedy is back at The Quarry Theatre for an early Valentine’s treat. The show will feature star names, Roses chocolates and loads of laughs!

Suzi Ruffell is a suited-and-booted comedy dynamo. She has had five sell-out runs at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and her show Dance Like Everyone’s Watching was nominated for Best Stand Up Show in the National Comedy Awards 2021.

Jonny Awsum is a comedic whirlwind, he has a special feel-good brand of musical comedy. He is the gag-slinging guitar hero sure to get you singing along.

The show will feature full support and Castle Comedy favourite Paul Revill will host the show.

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Thursday 9 February 2023

Live music: Opus Kink + Maruja
Bedford Esquires @ 8pm
Tickets: £11

Opus Kink are back in Bedford, bringing their “horn-fuelled filth-funk, where punk and jazz combine in grimy circumstances” (Thomas Smith, NME Magazine)

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Friday 10 February 2023

Live music: Ben Ottewell (Gomez)
Bedford Esquires @ 8pm
Tickets: £15

Ben Ottewell, singer and lead guitarist in rock band Gomez, is well known for his unmistakable voice and talent for blistering and inspired guitar solos. Rolling Stone declared, “Gomez’s not-so-secret weapon is Ben Ottewell.” And as GQ Magazine once wrote and anyone listening can attest, “[his] voice is not of this world.”

Ben Ottewell proffers hope and promise accompanied by sublime acoustic and slide guitars, and that’s something we can all use.

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Friday 10th February 2023

Live Music: Cameo & Mark
The Cellar Bar @ 8.30pm
Free Entry

Cameo & Mark make their debut at The Cellar Bar for an evening of fantastic vocals. Cameo appeared on The Voice in 2020 and turned the heads of Ollie Murs and Sir Tom Jones – they have good taste!

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Saturday 11 February 2023

Live music: Saturday organ recital
St Paul’s Church, St Paul’s Square @ noon
FREE with retiring collection in aid of church funds

St Paul’s monthly Saturday organ recitals featuring Martin Monthly Saturday organ recitals12 noon, Martyn Noble (HM Chapel Royal, St James’ Palace).

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Saturday 11 February 2023

Bedford Sings: Sing Together
St Paul’s Church Workshop 3pm – followed by public concert 7.30pm
Admission £5

To launch the Bedford Sings programme, inspirational choir-leader Greg Link (Apollo 5) is going to lead over two hundred singers from Bedford choirs as they work together, perform and learn new songs.

The choirs include: Alive and Singing, Bedford Choral Society, Rock Choir, Cantamus , Carers Choir, Come and Sing, First Tuesdays, Fusion Choir, Opus 18, Sharnbrook Community Choir, Unisong, and lots of secondary schools.

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Saturday 11 February 2023

Charity: Jumble Sale
Pavenham Village Hall @ 2pm
Admission: £1

Find some great bargains at the jumble sale at Pavenham Village Hall in aid of Pavenham Women’s Istitute (WI). All the usual stalls and there are bound to be some great bargains.

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Saturday 11 February 2023

Theatre: Intruz/Intruder
The Place Theatre @ 7.30pm
Tickets: from £10

A young Pole moves to Scotland from Poland to pursue his dreams to become an actor. When he is about to fulfil his dreams, he is confronted with a few traumatic events.

Having already been a victim of crime in Poland, he develops the Intruder, an imaginary figure that takes its toll on the protagonist’s mental health. In the meantime, police arrest the perpetrators that the protagonist decides to meet.

Age Guidance 14+

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Saturday 11 February 2023

Live Music: Extra Mile
The Cellar Bar @ 8.30pm
Free Entry

Local covers band ‘Extra Mile’ play a set of rock and indie covers, alongside some surprising classics, promising an evening of sing-along classics and foot to the floor rock tones.

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Saturday 11 February 2023

Music: The Ultimate Commitments & Blues Brothers Experience
The Quarry Theatre @ 7.30pm
Tickets: from £16

In a show that has been described as “absolutely amazing” and “truly authentic”, take a trip down memory lane as you hear the best songs from The Commitments and The Blues Brothers in a full live-band experience.

Get your dancing shoes on, as Jake and Elwood meet Deco and Jimmy in a fantastic experience where Chicago Blues meets Dublin Soul. The stage show includes state-of-the-art audio-visual effects as well as iconic scenes from both cult-classic films.

Definitely, a show not to be missed.

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Sunday 12 February 2023

Children’s Theatre: Breathe
The Quarry Theatre @ 1.30pm and 3.30pm
Tickets: from £12

Find the epic in the tiny from the perspective of an acorn. An extraordinary journey from the perspective of an acorn; the hectic forest floor, thrumming underworlds, and dazzling heights of icy branches.

Beautifully realised through puppetry, live camera work, and live ethereal folk songs. Discover bizarre larger-than-life fungi, connecting creaking tree roots, and majestic guardians watching over a delicate cycle.

Join three storytellers as they lead you through an enchanting experience like no other. Find the epic in the tiny in this celebration of trees, nature, and finding space in a buzzing community.
Age guidance: 5+

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Sunday 12 February

Sing Bedford: Sing Praises
St Andrews Church @ 6pm

The choirs of St Andrew’s Church and St Paul’s Church will sing this centuries’ old service of evensong together.

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Sunday 12 February 2023

Live Music: Open Mic Night
The Cellar Bar @ 7.30pm
Free Entry

Mat Roberts hosts the weekly Open Mic nights at the newly opened Cellar Bar on Bedford High Street. So whether you think you are the next Tom Grennan or just want a good night of entertainment, you know where to go.

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Until April 2023