Neil Brand Live: Anthony Burgess at the Piano at HOME
Tom Grieve, Cinema Editor
Television’s Neil Brand is back at HOME this June with a live musical event that pays tribute to the work of Mancunian author Anthony Burgess. The writer of course is famous for works such as A Clockwork Orange and Earthly Powers, but his upbringing included time spent in Manchester’s silent cinemas, where his father Joseph Wilson worked as a pianist.
He drew upon this history, and his memories of Manchester and Blackpool in the 1920s for his novel 1986 The Pianoplayers. Using the novel and Burgess’ history as a base, silent film pianist Neil Brand and Andrew Biswell, director of the International Anthony Burgess Foundation, will explore the world of silent film piano, and Burgess’ relationship to music.
We’re promised film clips (including one Brand will play “sight unseen”), musical insights from Burgess, and classic entertainment from the age of silent film.
The event is organised by the newly established Screen Studies Research Group at Manchester Metropolitan University, in partnership with the International Anthony Burgess Foundation.
