11 nights of live Spiegeltent fun

The Spiegeltent is one of the many city centre venues for the University of Sheffield’s annual Festival of the Mind, with a diverse and dynamic evening of entertainment running every night from September 15-25.

This year’s Spiegeltent events kicks off on September 15 with Jam Jar, a night of swing, jazz, motown, rhythm and blues, funk, soul and vintage. There will be swing dance lessons with Mike Tate, performances from Sheffield Uni Swing Society, bespoke prohibition era decor and a special guest appearance from Sheffield’s answer to The Andrews Sisters, The Bobby Pins.

On September 16 The Tuesday Club presents Sheffield’s biggest underground electronic music night, headed by TTC’s resident DJs.

It’s a night of French pop and the best Beatnik Boys and Go Go Girls of the ‘60s on September 17 with Tu Veux Ou Tu Veux Pas, with St Etienne’s Bob Stanley DJing a night of ‘60s beat classics predominantly from the French Yeah Yeah Pop and Chanson section of his record collection.

Leadmill Comedy presents two Edinburgh festival-inspired shows on September 18, starting with Robin Ince and followed by Pappy’s, the live Sketch Team and Edinburgh Comedy Award nominees of 2007 and 2012.

On September 19 there’s An Evening of Lectures with The University Of Sheffield, starting with Dr Jack Windle’s Songs of Joseph Mather, a look at the importance of the songs of Joseph Mather to the history of Sheffield’s working class culture. This is followed by Professor David Wood’s of Sheffield’s Peregrine Project, presenting a talk on the Peregrines of St George’s by the Chairman of the Sheffield Bird Study Group.

There’s classical music on September 20 as Sheffield based Opera On Location present a new staging of Puccini’s La Boheme. Off The Shelf and the Students’ Union Film Unit presents Spiegelcinema on September 21, with writer and film director Bruce Robinson reading from his new book They All Love Jack from 7.30pm. From 9.30pm there will follow a screening of Robinson’s most famous work, Withnail & I, including an introduction from Bruce himself.

On September 22 The Shefferendum, featuring Matt Abbott, Zena Edwards and Laurie Bolger covers everything from humour, sex and politics to Sheffield culture and general approaches to life in an evening of thought provoking spoken word and comedy.

On September 23 Steve Lamacq’s one-man show Going Deaf For A Living - a Spiegeltent premiere - features stories, anecdotes and insights in to the Indie legends 30 years in music media.

Finally, on September 24 Banana Hill Presents is a crossover of traditional African and Latin American sounds with afrobeat, soul, highlife, techno, kwaito, kuduro, tropical and calypso.

Visit www.festivalofthemind.group.shef.ac.uk for details of all free events.