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At the risk of this column being renamed Grumpy Stag, Nostalgia Stag, or In My Day Things Were Better Stag, I’m going to have to moan about something else here...

Theatre Review: Trouble, Struggle, Bubble and Squeak at Lakeside Arts

Using a combination of comedy, storytelling and knitted vegetables, Victoria Melody treated us to a tale of resistance that was both tender and galvanising...

Gig review: SPRINTS at Rock City, with Dog Race

With the memory of their standout Bodega show still fresh in our minds, there was no way we were going to miss SPRINTS' return to Nottingham. This time, Rock City was the venue for a milestone performance which defined the absolute best of the outspoken, anarchic, post-punk spirit...

A Cup of Jim: 35 years of Lee & Fletcher coffee

After 35 years of roasting and supplying coffee to some of Nottingham’s best-loved independent businesses, there’s not much Jim Lee, owner of Lee & Fletcher, doesn’t know about a cup of joe. Lucy Campion finds out more about Jim’s journey in the world of java.

Night Creatures Podcast #3: Killer Jim from Out To Lunch on 25 years of Northern soul, jazz funk and jazz dance events in Nottingham

Fri 14 Nov 2025

Night Creatures is a new LeftLion podcast, shining a light on the promoters of Nottingham. Your host and interviewer is Beane, co-founder of Nottingham’s beloved Soul Buggin’ night and he brings with him over twenty years of experience of putting on great parties in the city.

Exhibition review: Quiver at Lakeside Arts

Fri 14 Nov 2025

Kate MccGwire's latest solo exhibition, Quiver, is a powerful overview of 25 years' worth of work. Typically, it does not shy away from the uncomfortable. Bulging, writhing and rippling through more than three rooms at the Lakeside Arts Centre, Quiver is a body of sculptural work made alive through the dualities MccGwire is fascinated with: the potent beauty of the natural world, and its powerful, sometimes grotesque underbelly…

Buy: Overheard In Notts (Vol 7): The Pierre of the Resistance

We like to think that Christmas isn’t Christmas without a bit of Overheard in Notts in your stocking. Thus we are happy to announce the arrival of our seventh(!) book baby...

Gig review: Echobelly at The Level

Summer is over, Halloween and Bonfire Night gone. It'll soon be Christmas. In the meantime there are lots of gigs. Fitting into this build up to Christmas were Echobelly on the final date of their tour, celebrating 30 years of their album, On. Returning to Nottingham again, the band saw their venue moved up from Metronome to the larger space of The Level. Expectations were high...

Gig review: Bastille at Motorpoint Arena

Bastille returned to Nottingham for the first time in three years on their From All Sides tour, celebrating 15 years as a band…

Gig review: TRANKS at Mist Rolling Inn

Nottingham techno-trio TRANKS played a long-awaited first headline gig at Mist Rolling Inn on Derby Road, supported by DJ Big Vern and Tval...

Nottingham celebrates ten years as a UNESCO City of Literature with a spectacular gala on 1 December

In 2025, Nottingham turns the page on a remarkable chapter; ten years as a UNESCO City of Literature and the charity is throwing a party worthy of Nottingham’s words!

Gig review: Dekker at Rough Trade

Dekker is a Chicago born artist now settled in Nottingham where he is setting the local scene alight with his folky, indie vibe. At first listen Dekker is a throwback to the best of Jack Johnson with a laid back performance style but closer inspection of his lyrics reveal great introspection and vulnerability. Rough Trade proved the perfect setting for an intimate local show...

Gig review: Billie Marten at Rescue Rooms

Still only 26, Billie Marten finds herself a relative veteran despite her youth. Now on her fifth album, she has followed fellow folk heroine Laura Marling on a journey from prodigiously gifted teenager to assured songwriting talent and a beacon of her genre. She returned to Rescue Rooms in support of that new LP, the excellent Dog Eared, at the tail-end of a winding European tour and ahead of a jaunt to North America and beyond...

Theatre Review: Steps Here and Now at the Theatre Royal

Dazzling homage to the 90s pop powerhouse...

Exhibition review: Fabricated? - an exhibition by Caren Garfen at the National Holocaust Museum

Celebrating thirty years of the National Holocaust Museum, a recent exhibition by award-winning artist Caren Garfen explores Holocaust misinformation and anti-Jewish racism.

Out of time: the curious case of the body in Room 24

It's not every day that police officers turn to psychics to help with their more mysterious cases, but one such case at the County Hotel left them with no choice. CJ De Barra investigates…

Gig review: Bow Wow Wow at Metronome

Tue 11 Nov 2025

Annabella’s Bow Wow Wow returned this year for their first UK headline tour in a decade, stopping off at Metronome to bring cheerful intimacy on a dark autumn night...

Gig review: Maruja at Rescue Rooms

Tue 11 Nov 2025

After the long-awaited release of their debut album Pain to Power, Mancunian post-punk jazz four-piece Maruja swung by Rescue Rooms to celebrate a huge new chapter for the band, who’ve been generating buzz in Nottingham for quite some time. We headed down to see what all the fuss is about…

From the Kitchen: with Cameron Kibble, Head Chef at Taquero

Tue 11 Nov 2025

We chat to Cameron Kibble, Head Chef at Hockley's Taquero

Gig review: JayaHadADream at Metronome

Performing tracks from her debut album, Happiness from Agony, breakout star JayaHadADream is back in Nottingham. Filing the floor at Metronome, she brought her message of honesty, pushing back against pressure and anxiety, and breaking down stereotypes...

Gig review: The Smyths at The Level

Top tribute band The Smyths packed in fans young and old into The Level for an electrifying and believable rendition of The Smiths’ legendary album, Meat Is Murder, as well as a selection of the 80s band's best-loved songs...

Gig review: The Enemy at Rock City

Nine years is a long time to be gone, but The Enemy's return to Rock City was pure adrenaline: a sweat-soaked celebration that turned Nottingham into one giant sing-a-long. The crowd, a mix of longtime loyalists and fresh faces, erupted as the Coventry trio took to the stage, immediately proving that their hiatus hadn’t dulled their fire one bit...

Competition: Win a Sauna and Plunge experience for up to 8 People at Saunahood in the National Watersports Centre