Photos by Alan Taylor of Planet Vision Photography.

ARCHIVE ACCESS ALL AREAS SHOWCASE 2005 FEB 4th 2005, MITCHELL MEMORIAL THEATRE, HANLEY On Friday 4th February, Planet Sound Community Arts staged the second Access All Areas showcase to a capacity crowd, at the Mitchell Memorial Theatre in Hanley. As the public arrived outside the theatre, Mick Colley of In2Nation led a junk percussion performance and members of the public were invited to play as part of the group. There was also a fireshow alongside featuring fire poi and various tricks. The Access All Areas video was screened for the first time as the audience entered the auditorium, featuring the videos made by the nine groups that took part in the 2004 Access All Areas programme. The live performances opened with the Blurton High School samba group, led by Martin Nolan. Featuring pupils from all ages at Blurton High School, the group performed their own samba song, written using all the different drums from a samba batteria. The Planet Sound drumschool followed with an energetic performance of the piece "Africa" with lyrics written by Si Waite and arranged by the Planet Sound team from a traditional West African piece. The audience clapped along to the rhythms and tried to keep with the speed as it accelerated to a grandstand finish. Make Some Noise Action zone manager Matt Daniels introduced the Access All Areas part of the show. The audience were shown one of the videos from the 2004 programme and given background information about the project and its aims. The show then featured three live performances from the Orme Centre, and from Burton and Burslem Youth Centres, with the participants performing to a capacity theatre for the first time. The performances were well recieved and copies of the video were given to the audience. Presentations of the video to the participants of the 2004 programme were made by elected Mayor Mike Wolfe, who also gave a speech commenting on the work done by everyone to make a project happen on the scale of Access All Areas. The show finale featured MaDuLa, the first after school project of Planet Sound Community Arts. The group performed an adapted version of the piece "Tiriba", which featured drumming, dancing and singing. This time the audience were invited to sing along to the vocal motifs towards the end of the piece, and the piece finished with an acceleration to remember! The evening finished with a buffet for audience and performers and a set performed by the Planet Sound Drum School in the upstairs rooms. Planet Sound would like to thank everyone involved in this show, from volunteers to performers and organisations that helped put the event together. Thanks to all who attended and made the event a capacity audience. To view a gallery of images from the event, click here. To find out more about the 2004 phase of Access All Areas, click here.