In 1959, the last cinema organ in Newcastle disappeared.

It had been there since 1930, and generations of cinema goers thrilled to live music, both before, during and after the main feature. Today that cinema is the Carling Academy.

And today, for the first time in over fifty years, a Newcastle cinema unveils a cinema organ, as the Star & Shadow launches its restored Compton organ.

To salute the spirit of the thirties, we'll be celebrating with performances from Lady Koo and her Kooky Kitchen, Mr Carl Heslop on the Compton, and a showing of Buster Keaton's Three Ages (1923) which will feature a live soundtrack by Mr Heslop himself.

Rescued from a skip outside a Glasgow bingo hall, the Compton has been fully restored by 18 year-old silent cinema accompanist Carl Heslop. New neon panels have been added to resurrect the instrument to its former glory.

Heslop has been playing since he was seven, and is one of the most respected movie musicians in Europe. He will be joined on the night by the strange and mysterious, Lady Koo and her Kooky Kitchen, with their unique take on transgressive blues, jazz and showtunes of the twenties and thirties.

This will be a strange and wonderful evening which will hopefully reignite interest in long-forgotten sound and vision

Tickets £5/4 (and booking highly recommended)