The Purple Room 'Evening of music & the spoken word'

Heslop & Stringer are Mark Heslop & Matt Stringer from Fixby and Liversedge, West Yorkshire. They are an acoustic, folk duo incorporating guitar, violin, mandolin and harmony vocals into their live performances and recordings.

Debut album “New Beginnings” was released in November 2022 combining stories fromNorthern history with their own personal experiences and memories. Two years of playing gigs in the north of England followed including the UK West Coast Folk Festival at Blackpool Winter Gardens, Great North Folk Festival, Holmfirth, Filey, Robin Hood’s Bay and Cleckheaton folk festivals, Northern Green Gathering, Halifax Piece Hall, several of the north’s great folk clubs such as the Topic in Bradford and a support slot to Katherine Roberts and Sean Lakeman at Leeds Carriageworks Theatre.

Second album “Something from Nothing” was released in November 2024 and the duo hope to use it to introduce themselves to new audiences and places while also revisiting old favourite venues.
Fatea Magazine summarised the album as:“Heartfelt Harmonies and sympathetic musicianship brought together in one glorious package” with the duo offering:“a truly authentic folk club sound”.

Mandy Sutter is a writer based in Ilkley. Her childhood in Nigeria informed her short story collection Bushmeat. Her novel Stretching It drew on her experiences of family hypochondria. Most recently her memoir Ted the Shed celebrated her late father; a tough, resourceful man who acquired an Ilkley allotment at the tender age of 86. He shared it with Mandy for ten years.

www.mandysutter.com