Monthly women only social cycle ride. Easy pace, absence of lycra! Meet 6pm, Queens Squ at central statue.

LEGS11
a show by Tom Marshman

Tom Marshman is mingling with fashionistas….but will his winning smile pull him through?

Like most men, Tom has an ambiguous relationship to his legs. So imagine his surprise when he was shortlisted to the Pretty Polly competition looking for the best legs in the country.

Tom has suffered from varicose veins for a number of years, causing discomfort, embarrassment, and a particular awareness of his legs. A newly found confidence encouraged Tom to delve into a world of stockings, photoshoots, beauty pageants and gender misadventures.

In this intimate performance, Tom conveys a brave story of misfits and transformation, hospital visits and rejuvenation.

Supported by Chisenhale Dance Space and developed at BAC and Bristol Old Vic Ferment.
Winner of the first Embrace Arts disabled artist’s commission for Hatch, 2011

"A lively, fun and engaging piece of theatre." - Bristol Culture
"Brilliant. Very funny, joyful, touching and inspiring." – Audience at a BAC scratch performance of Legs11

 
 
Tom Marshman is mingling with fashionistas... but will his winning smile pull him through? Like most men, Tom has an ambiguous relationship with his legs. So imagine his surprise when he was shortlisted to the Pretty Polly competition looking for the best legs in the country. Tom has suffered from varicose veins for a number of years, causing discomfort, embarrassment, and a particular awareness of his legs. A newly found confidence encouraged Tom to delve into a world of celebrity, stockings, photoshoots, beauty pageants and gender misadventures. In this intimate performance, Tom conveys a brave story of misfits and transformation, hospital visits and rejuvenation. 

Leading edge - three part harmony folk-pop

“Really good, really unexpected, and really different” is how Village Voice describes Girlyman’s lyric driven folk-pop. But that can also describe the year that inspired their fifth studio album Supernova, available June 19th (distribution through Burnside).

“A supernova is a dying star,” explains Girlyman member Doris Muramatsu, who was diagnosed with leukemia in late 2010. The three founding members of Girlyman (Muramatsu, Nate Borofsky, and Tylan Greenstein) had spent ten years playing and singing harmony together, from early days in tiny coffeehouses, through long opening runs with the Indigo Girls and Dar Williams, all the way to festival main stages and the country’s premier acoustic venues. The band, now a quartet with the addition of former Po’ Girl drummer JJ Jones in 2009, suddenly feared for its future. “I was in the hospital getting blood transfusions and chemotherapy,” Doris continues. “We cancelled a month of tours and thought that was it.”

An autobiography of this unique time for the band, Supernova’s thirteen songs resonate with themes of uncertainty and transformation. But the album is not a dirge; instead, the band reaches, as always, for hope. As Slate Magazine wrote, “Girlyman doesn’t wallow in such emotions; the band approaches them frankly, capturing, in a story or a surprising metaphor, a feeling you’ve had but never heard so well-expressed.”

“Nate had written a song called ‘Supernova’ that kept going through my head all throughout my stay in the hospital,” says Doris. “It wasn’t written about me, but it helped me get through that time. Later I looked up the definition of ‘supernova.’ It turns out that while it is a dying star, it also gives birth to new stars.”  Indeed, nine months after her diagnosis, Muramatsu’s cancer went into remission and the band was reborn. “As difficult as it was, I wouldn’t trade the experience – it got us where we are now.”

Mixed by Grammy Award winner Ben Wisch (Marc Cohn), and featuring guest appearances by the Indigo Girls’ Emily Saliers among others, Supernova is the first Girlyman album to include the kinetic drumming of newest member JJ Jones. The album is available digitally on May 1st and in-stores on June 19th. A CD release tour is underway in the U.S. through April, and the UK and mainland Europe in May and June. Their U.S. tour will resume in the fall.