WHERE TO GO, WHAT TO SEE, WHAT TO DO
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Your support makes all the difference.EVENTS
Perfectly dotty
Exhibitions: You can see the largest photo in the world, 164ft by 4ft, at Digitec '97 from Tuesday until Thursday, hanging in Hall 2, Birmingham NEC. The organisers of this celebration of digital technology aim to introduce businesses and the public to increasing print possibilities. Admission free. 9.30am-5.30pm 0171 357 7299. Alternatively, try "Onedotzero" - the ICA's three-day festival of digital film making. pounds 6.50/pounds 5 (pounds 5/pounds 4 mem/conc) 0171 930 3647. The Mall, London.
Auction: Or go back to the future with Star Wars again with the first ever big British auction house sale of Star Wars memorabilia tomorrow. The star lot is one of only 20 Boba Fett toys ever made (last seen carry Harrison Ford away in a frozen carbonite mould in The Empire Strikes Back), which were discovered on the Antiques Roadshow before Christmas. Preview today, sale at 12. Phillips auctioneers, London W2. 0171 229 9090.
Exhibition: The UK's first gold (coloured) stamps are out today, marking the Queen's birthday today and golden wedding anniversary this year. At the Stamp '97 exhibition, you will be able to see every other stamp in the Queen's collection for the first time. Wembley Exhibition Centre, London. Starts Thur 11am-7pm, Fri/ Sat 10am-6pm, Sun 10am-5pm. Admission free. 01425 461353.
MUSIC
Back to the Coast
Jazz: The Jersey Jazz Festival which begins on Thursday has musicians from the 40s-60s West Coast period. The trombonist Jiggs Wigham, baritone saxophonist Jack Nimitz, and trumpet/flugelhorn player Buddy Childers are among them, as are Elaine Delmar singing Gershwin. A great chance to see the island too, with a deal from Travelwright of three nights at pounds 172, including a flight from Gatwick or Southampton. On top of that is a three-night/four-day pass for the festival at pounds 35. Ends Saturday.
Opera: Go to L'Elisir d'Amore at Covent Garden tomorrow - if only to hear Angela Gheorghiu's wonderfully rich, clear voice as the capricious widow Adina. Conducted by Evelino Pid. Ends 9 May 7.30pm/7pm Sat. Very few tickets pounds 32-90. Standing: pounds 10. Day: pounds 19.50. 0171 304 4000.
Classical: Everything Roger Norrington does these days seems to be good and on Wednesday he guest conducts the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in a programme including Brahms' Serenade No 1 in D and Schubert's Symphony No 9. Symphony Hall 7.30pm pounds 6-31 0121 212 3333. On the same night, its former conductor Sir Simon Rattle is at the Royal Festival Hall in London with the Vienna Philharmonic playing Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique and Strauss's late Metamorphosen for 23 solo strings. 7.30pm, returns only, possibly some standing. 0171 960 4242
Album: Best 1996 Brit Awards Newcomer band Supergrass have their new album out today, brazenly and unashamedly In It For The Money, on Parlophone. Hear their views tomorrow night on Steve Lamacq's Radio 1 show 6.30-8.30pm.
THE ARTS
Do us a quaver
Theatre: After a standing ovation for their performance last week in Hanover, the Second Stride dance/theatre company, along with DV8 presents Hotel at The Place Theatre in London WC1 tomorrow night - an opera performed by dancers, with eight couples. Words by leading dramatist (Top Girls, Serious Money) Caryl Churchill, music by Orlando Gough and choreography by Ian Spink. Ends Sat. 8pm pounds 10/pounds 6 conc 0171 387 0031. Then at The Dancehouse, Manchester (2/3 May).
Cabaret: The unique, glittering, outlandish Danny La Rue, dubbed by Bob Hope "the most glamorous woman in the world" enters the second week of his nationwide tour, with dates at Southport Theatre tonight pounds 9.50/8.50, pounds 1 off conc (01704 540404), St. Helens (22 ) pounds 9.50/7.50 conc (01744 451175), Derby (23) pounds 10.50/9.50, pounds 1 off conc (01332 255800), Scarborough (24) pounds 9.50/8.50, pounds 1 off conc (01723 374500) and Broxbourne (27) pounds 12.50 (01992 441946).
Photography: Also at the ICA (see above), the first exhibition of works by Billy Name - friend of Andy Warhol and the man who painted The Factory silver - opens this Thursday with a rare chance to hear the artist discuss his work (returns only pounds 6.50, pounds 5.50 members & concs). As Factory Fotographer- designate he captured the atmosphere of the Sixties' most famous underground phenomenon but has lived a reclusive lifestyle since 1968. Features stills from Warhol's cinema and theatrical photos celebrating stars of the "silver years" such as Edie Sedgwick and Nico. Ends 15 June noon-7.30pm/9pm Fri pounds 1.50/pounds 1 conc, pounds 2.50/pounds 1.50 conc.
Television: Swing Time is the story of election feuds and rivalries between the two main parties: the BBC and ITV. Tales of the rivalry and in-fighting which prompted the shift from cardboard and sticky-back plastic in 1955 to Peter Snow's high-tech box of tricks today. Sunday BBC2 7.25pm.
SPORT AND LEISURE
A leap from the Ark
Charity: see competitors abseil from the bridge of the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal down to a pontoon in Portsmouth dockyard. Proceeds to the Anthony Nolan Bone Marrow Trust. Three hundred competitors expect to raise more than pounds 35,000. Sky News, BBC South, Channel 5. 9am-6pm Sat, Sun.
Festival: Fine weather is a superb excuse for some serious beer-drinking and it is the final week of the Holstein Bier Fest in Battersea Park, London, with an event to rival Munich perhaps not quite yet but a wide variety of Holstein beers to be "sampled". Tue, Wed, Thur 5.30-11pm, 12- 4pm w/e. Entry pounds 2.50. Sunday 7-10.30pm; extra entertainment. pounds 7.
Clubbing: A one-off combination night on Wednesday of Japanese cartoon with the considerable hip-hop talents of sometime Radio 1 DJ Tim Westwood entitled "Juice". Hacienda, Whitworth Street, Manchester. 10pm-3am 0115 912 9000
Lambing: The lambing season is coming to an end so take your children to see new-born lambs, and other "real" farming activities at Hall Hill Farm, near Lanchester in County Durham on the B6296. 1-5pm Sun-Fri, closed Sat. pounds 3/pounds 2 child/over 60s pounds 8 families. 01388 730300
CURRENT AFFAIRS
The balancing act
The Economy: The last economic statistics before the general election are out on Thursday. The Office for National Statistics' trade balance figures for March will, positive results pending, no doubt be part of the last-gasp attempt by the Conservatives to persuade us that Britain really is booming.
National Day: Thursday is National Take Daughters to Work Day, with women encouraged to expand ambitions beyond traditional female roles. They will fly aeroplanes, work in factories, going on the trading floor of Lloyd's ... anywhere that mum goes ...
Cash up in Smoke
Pop: Folk/rock/country singer songwriter Johnny Cash (above) makes a one-off London appearance at the Albert Hall on Friday after a re-re- invention playing 'Unplugged'. Songs from his album 'Unchained', for which Tom Petty was enlisted, should figure, along with songs from the Grammy award-winning album 'American Recordings' and some "old, well loved favourites'. 7:45pm, pounds 17.50, 0171-589 8212
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