Hi Everyone

First of all, a big thank you to everyone who turned up over the weekend to help brighten up and refresh the centre. Especially those of you who turned up all the way through the Bank Holiday weekend!

Even if we say so ourselves, it looks awesome – inside and out. And while there's still one or two things left to do, the whole place looks just a little bit fresh and slightly brand new which is no bad thing at all.

After all that self-congratulation, here's what you can expect for your entertainment this very weekend...

On Friday THE BIG UNTIDY NIGHT OUT bring you A VIOLIN SPECIAL!

The Big Untidy's first 'Violin Special' goes like this...we get some of the UK's most innovative and talented violinists to play 30 minutes each. They can do what they want providing the violin is at the centre of what they do. Simple as that

Confirmed thus far are...

LAURA CANNELL
GRAE J WALL
LAURA REINING (Stormae)
DANIEL MERRILL (Dead Rat Orchestra)

We're open at 8pm and it'll cost you a paltry £5 on the door to get in.

On Saturday we bring you TRIBUTE NIGHT

Anyone who has been to a Rising Sun Tribute Night will already know the deal. Every three months we pay homage to a much-loved band or artist.  Everyone picks a song or two, practices them for a bit, then gets together again on Tribute Night to play them to a crowd - always with fascinating results. The next Tribute Night’s hero is announced at the end of the evening. It’s a simple but winning formula and is silly amounts of fun.

The 2015 spring edition of Tribute Night will be a special celebration of the EUROVISION SONG CONTEST as we approach its 60th installment. With high-powered wind machines and even higher-powered key changes, this is not for the lactose intolerant...
 
As a worn-torn Europe rebuilt itself in the 1950s, the European Broadcasting Union searched for ways to help unite the continent. Inspired by Italy’s Festival Di Sanremo, they hit upon the idea of an international song contest whereby countries would participate in one television show, to be transmitted simultaneously in all represented nations. This was an ambitious technological experiment in live television, given that satellite TV did not yet exist and the show went out over a terrestrial microwave network! Taking place in Lugano, Switzerland, on 24 May 1956, Le Grand-Prix Eurovision De La Chanson Européenne was born and has been broadcast every year since without interruption, making it one of the longest running TV shows in the world.
 
The style – and quality! – of songs in Eurovision vary alarmingly, taking in the ubiquitous schlager of ABBA’s Waterloo (Sweden, 1974) and Bobbysock’s La Det Swinge (Norway, 1985), the post-war chanson style popular at the time of Lys Assia’s Refrain (Switzerland, 1956), the pantomime metal of Lordi’s Hard Rock Hallelujah (Finland, 2006), the techno-pop of Loreen’s Euphoria (Sweden, 2012), the angst-ridden power balladry of Johnny Logan’s Hold Me Now (Ireland, 1987), the Hi-NRG disco of Dana International’s Diva (Israel, 1998) and the overblown Bond theme drama of Conchita Wurst’s Rise Like A Phoenix (Austria, 2014), to name just a few. I perhaps wouldn’t go as far as to say “there’s something for everyone” but there sure is an enormous catalogue of music awaiting you, spanning numerous genres and 60 years.
 
We'll be open at 8pm for an 8.30pm start and as usual, there will be no charge on the door, but  we suggest you keep £5 or more aside for when the friendly people with hats circulate the room, the bar, the hallway, the porch, the little bit of pavement out the front, and the smoking pen out the back.

That’s everything for another week, just to remind you that we are, as always, at 30 Silver Street, Reading, RG1 2ST (If you pop it into your satnav or Google, we shall magically appear!)
 
Have a nice weekend!