The Shed chips in

As evidence, m'lud, I present bhangra and bingo, fish and chip van deliveries and mechanical hats, and instruments made of a nine-foot single string or sheep bells and ice.

Shed promoter Simon Thackray presents these myriad delights in a season of nine concerts and artistic happenings at Brawby and Hovingham, near Malton.

From the mind behind the Great Yorkshire Pudding Boat Race, the Elvis Bus Tour of Ryedale and knitting live on stage in the Hat show, now comes a melange of photography, music and Yorkshire fodder on Tuesday, November 11.

Tuesday is fish-and-chip night in Brawby when Steve Tate's van does the Ryedale rounds, and this weekly visit has prompted Simon to come up with a novel way of launching Suffolk photographer Jo Fell's village-hall exhibition of improvising musicians.

"One of the musicians photographed is trombone player Alan Tomlinson, so I rang Alan and said 'How do you fancy playing for a fish-and-chip queue?', and he said 'OK, I'm up for that!'," says Simon. "Alan will arrive on the van, playing his trombone and then performing for the fish-and-chip customers and at the exhibition launch."

That night's exhibition preview will run from 6.30pm to 9pm; the van will arrive at 7pm, and the event is free (but not the chips). Jo Fell's photographs of Tomlinson, drummers Mark Sanders and Paul Hession, blues maverick Billy Jenkins and more besides will be on show until November 21.

Sanders and Hession will be appearing in the flesh as well as in photographic form this autumn. Sanders will accompany Malton bingo caller Eileen Boyes for a third Shed night of "prize bingo, percussion and disruption" at Brawby Village Hall on November 14.

"I sat at the back of the hall last time and I couldn't believe it, watching all these people locked into waiting for the next number, and it was as if they didn't hear anything but Eileen's voice, even though there was this disruptive racket going on, courtesy of Mark's percussion!" says Simon.

The bingo night will begin with a rare screening of Scarborough, a 20-minute film made in the East Coast resort by landscape photographer David Sample, who was one of the founding fathers of the Impressions Gallery in York.

"It's just such a lovely film, and I thought there was an obvious connection between the seaside and amusements and bingo - and I always like linking things together in a Shed show," says Simon.

Leeds musician Paul Hession last played at The Shed with the late Bob Cobbing. This time he and his drum set will be joined by saxophonist Alan Wilkinson and double bass player Simon H Fell for an evening of improvised music on November 21.

At the outset of the concert, writer and music critic Ben Watson - who features the trio in his latest book, S***kick And Doughballs - will give a talk on the relevance of complicated music.

The season opens on October 18 with the Shed debut of Latino Del North, a union of the Anglo-Scandinavian trio Stekpanna and the Plaza Jazz Trio. In the line-up playing Cuban rhythms that night will be baritone saxophonist George Haslam, whose earlier appearance at Brawby has entered the annals of Shed history.

"He played here with the British Saxophone Quartet and that night we started with 60 in the audience and ended up with only 19," recalls Simon. "This new show is part of a tour specially funded by the Arts Council and I'm sure no one will be leaving early."

Londoner Jane Bane-Bom makes her second Shed appearance on October 25, presenting original songs and poems to the accompaniment of harmoniums and mechanical hats in her Greatest Hats show. "Some of her hats are so big, they almost need scaffolding," says Simon, who has added electro-acoustic multi-instrumentalist and composer Nick Pynn to that night's bill.

The Shed switches from Brawby to Hovingham Village Hall on October 31 for the visit of Bhangra specialist Satnam Singh and Doncaster band the Angel Brothers, a discovery of Shed regular and Barnsley poet Ian McMillan.

As witnessed at the WOMAD festival and in session on Andy Kershaw's BBC Radio 3 show, Singh, Dave and Keith Angel and their band meet at the musical crossroads of Calcutta and South Yorkshire, Indian rhythms and Western dance grooves and folk tunes.

Why move the show to Hovingham, Simon? "They're a large group; there'll be six or seven musicians, and there's more room at Hovingham, for the band and for dancing," he says.

In the tight squeeze of Brawby Village Hall on November 15, sound sculptor Max Eastley will play his invention called the ARC, which comprises a nine-foot single-string instrument, stretched, flexed and plucked through electronics.

With him for his Shed debut will be the Spaceheads dance music duo of drummer Richard Harrison and Andy Diagram, who bends his trumpet playing into new shapes with the aid of electronic effects.

Another trumpeter, the Norwegian Arve Henriksen, will perform Scandinavian jazz with Terje (pronounced Terry) Isungset on November 16. While Henriksen plays trumpet, harmonium and percussion, often simultaneously, Isungset utilises DIY musical instruments crafted from Norwegian natural elements, such as Arctic birch, granite, slate, sheep bells and even ice.

The Shed season will conclude with the now traditional Christmas visit of country doctor Hank Wangford for his double dose of festive misery with his Lost Cowboys band on December 13 and 14.

All Shed shows start at 8pm, unless otherwise stated. For tickets, ring 01653 668494.

Updated: 09:55 Friday, October 03, 2003