Artists Maya Chowdhry and Sabrina Fuller who are based in the Castlefield Gallery New Art Spaces in Standishgate and the Grand Arcade have made a sound walk about the Wigan music scene – past, present and future.

The walk has 6 stops – Arcade, Wiend, Wallgate, Old Courts, Tudor House and Fire Within. At each stop will be a QR code, which participants activate on their phones to listen to a 4 minute site specific collage of music and voices.

The Old Courts stop will include various musicians, and Jonny Davenport, our artist director, speaking about the key role The Old Courts plays in the Wigan music scene.

The tour starts on  12^th September and is on until 26^th September.

For anyone unable to get to the town centre please visit:  https://www.sabrinafuller.com/those-who-were-there-at-home

More information on the artists:
Maya Chowdhry (www.interactiveartist.org )
Sabrina Fuller (sabrinafuller.com)

“Recently things have been very much about preparation, reassuring each other as best we can and of course Covid, the thing that has unfortunately dominated the last 17 months of virtually everything. Then, between rescheduling, spreadsheets and a totally endless stream of emails came a call from Sabrina. “Hi Jonny I got your number from Jane Fairhurst (Wigan visual artist and all-round top person), she said you were a good person to speak to about the Wigan music scene.” Yes please!

Sabrina is one of the artists who has been working on a project creating a walking tour of Wigan Town centre sharing tales and perspectives of our amazing music scene. Now my personal experience of the scene probably started around 1997 and has changed immeasurably now but talking about the bands that have come and gone and venues too, I realised how worthwhile these projects are. Fortunately there are albums out there to appreciate forever but for the artists that didn’t get that chance, we’re pretty much reliant on the stories of those who were there in person. I have incredible memories of gigs at The Tavern, Princes, many Night in The Lux Club and all of the people who were there too, some of them sadly aren’t here anymore but the memories are strong!

Check out this project and anything else like it. My contribution is among others from before my time and some up to present day but all part of this continuing scene which has given a huge amount of joy and produced some special music.”

– Jonny Davenport, Artistic Director at The Old Courts