An all-day jazz festival is taking place in Stradbroke next month.

The festival is being organised by local jazz musician Bob Kerr. The event will help to commemorate the life of Bob’s late wife Ann Kerr who sadly passed away in January and had been involved in organising the festival for the 12 years it had been running.

‘Strad Jazz’ is taking place on Saturday 5 October at Stradbroke Community Centre from 12 noon to midnight.

The event will also help to raise funds for the St Elizabeth Hospice who helped care for Ann Kerr and also the Stradbroke Court House and Library Trust, another local cause she worked hard to support.

Bob Kerr said: “Ann worked tirelessly in Stradbroke on many projects to make life better for the inhabitants of the village. She was chair of the parish council, a governor at both schools as well as being on many other village committees. We are doing this year’s jazz festival in her memory, raising funds for her chosen charities.”

Some great jazz bands and musicians including Bob himself will feature at the festival and there will be drinks and food available.

The acts performing on the day include the Anglia All Star Jazz Band, Rosie Val and the Cambridge Jazz Company, The fabulous Nicola Farnon Trio, Spike Botterill and Bob Kerr and his Whoppee Band.  There is plenty of parking and plenty of local places to stay or camp for anyone who wants to visit Stradbroke to enjoy the festival. Tickets are £20 per person or £25 on the day and are available from Stradbroke Library or by calling library manager Maureen John on 01379 384768 or 07599 537405.

Suffolk Libraries celebrate the busiest ever Summer Reading Challenge!

Thousands of children have been entering the Creepy House this year and getting involved in the Summer Reading Challenge across Suffolk Libraries.

Suffolk Libraries have experienced their busiest ever Summer Reading Challenge this year. Over 7,800 children signed up to take part in the reading challenge which had a ‘creepy house’ theme and is a national initiative by the Reading Agency. This is the most children who have ever signed up in Suffolk (This compares with 7,320 in 2011 and about 6,500 in 2012).

In total 34,559 books have now been read through the reading challenge across Suffolk and the total children’s books issued this summer is 178,250 which is an increase from last year. Suffolk Libraries have also seen a really encouraging number of children joining the library over this period – 2,629 (of whom 17 are looked after children).

The Summer Reading Challenge is a Reading Agency initiative to encourage children to keep reading throughout the summer holidays. Children sign up through their local library and are challenged to read six library books. The theme this year is Creepy House and this has really captured the imagination of children across the county with lots of fun activities being organised to support this summer’s reading challenge which has been running since 21 July.

The reading challenge is nationally recognised as one of the most successful ways to introduce children and families to what their local library service has to offer.

100 years of local music talent on show at Westbourne Library’s first live gig

Westbourne Library in Ipswich will be transformed into an intimate live music venue for a special event at the end of October featuring an array of musicians who’ve featured on the local music scene for a combined total of over 100 years!

Local guitarist Toni Vines will be taking his acoustic blues outfit The Midnight Specials to the venue on 26th October for an evening of acoustic blues and roots music. Support will be provided by Mike Rushmore and Johnny Miller, two members of popular acoustic blues band Back Porch.

Since August 2012, the library service has been run by Suffolk Libraries who are a new and independent organisation looking at ways of expanding the cultural offer of the library service.

Sophie Green, manager of Westbourne Library said, “Books and reading are at the centre of what a library does but we are always looking at ways to expand what we offer the community.  Arts events like this can help to bring more people into the library and it should be a great evening of live music!”

Guitarist Toni Vines is a well-known local music legend whose wife Tina works at Westbourne Library.  The Midnight Specials describe themselves as playing ‘down-home blues with some country and soul thrown in for good measure!’ Lead guitarist Toni Vines has been a fixture on the local music scene since moving to Ipswich in 1984 and he currently plays in The Shaboogamoo Shufflers and Papa Rocksy as well as The Midnight Specials.

As well as Toni Vines, the Midnight Specials feature Nolan Wiltz on vocals and Darren Elden on double bass. Nolan was born in Louisiana, USA and has fronted several local bands including South of the Border, Papa Rocksy and Homebrew. He is renowned for his authentic American soulful blues vocals. Darren is another long standing servant of the local music scene, currently playing bass in the Shaboogamoo Shufflers and Camelfoot Raiders as well as Midnight Specials.

Vocalist and percussionist Mike Rushmore and guitarist Johnny Miller are also local music veterans and will be providing a stripped down version of the popular feel-good blues band Back Porch as support.

Entry to the event costs £5 with tickets available from Westbourne Library in Sherrington Road. There will be a reasonably priced bar selling beer, wine and soft drinks. Both acts will be playing for free with all profits being used to support the library and to contribute towards the cost of mobile shelving to make the space more flexible. For more information please call the library on 01473 749929.