In the York Barbican spotlight: Jalen Ngonda on the first night of his spring tour at York Barbican. Picture: Paul Rhodes
JALEN Ngonda is a stylist. He doesn’t lay things on too much or too little.
The rising American-born soul star doesn’t overdo his incredible vocals or over-extend his scratch guitar playing or showboat on the piano. Instead, he lets the grooves and the vibe carry the day.
His is a sunlight and birdsong sort of a voice, bright, energetic and brimming with life.
This was the first night of the tour, and Ngonda and his three-piece band (who remained un-introduced, but were Michael Buckley ,keyboards and guitar, Vincent Chiarito, bass, and Sam Merrick, drums) showed no hint of nerves as they delivered an assured 68-minute set.
Seemingly effortless, Ngonda didn’t seek to seduce, to tease or to milk his audience, who treated him like a superstar anyway. While he has been playing the music trade in the UK for more than a decade, and his breakout album Come Around And Love Me came out in 2023, you sense Ngonda is about to become something of a big thing.
Jalen Ngonda performing with drummer Sam Merrick, keyboard player Michael Buckley and bassist Vincent Chiarito. Picture: Paul Rhodes
To this point Ngonda could be viewed as a singles artist, reeling off would-be hit after would-be hit. Tunes such as Just As Long As We’re Together and That’s All I Wanted From You could stand with the best soul of any era.
Fortunately, he hasn’t gone psychedelic but is doubling down on affairs of the heart. His piano numbers revealed a man who could go in any number of musical directions.
This Maryland man with the high, androgynous voice, now an adopted Liverpudlian, is in every sense a star turn. True, his songs are all cut from the same cloth, but it’s a very stylish cloth that captures the best of 1960s’ Motown soul, the Marvin Gaye, Curtis Mayfield, Smokey Robinson sound.
The contemporary edge is well hidden, but Ngonda is more than a tribute to a great period. It’ll be interesting to see the reaction to his forthcoming much-anticipated new LP, Doctrine Of Love.
On this showing, he seems poised to take his material to the next level, as evidenced by his multi-generation appeal and the response to his music. Ngonda was clearly pleased to be in such an appreciative setting, and his natural modesty only endeared him more to the crowd.
Kristian Barley’s Adam, left, Steve Tearle’s Bernadette and Matthew Clarke’s Tick in NE Theatre York’s Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert
FROM Priscilla in the outback to dark thriller The Psychic, the Romanian Richard III to Neon Crypt’s Holmes and Watson, Charles Hutchinson picks the week ahead’s best shows and gigs.
Musical of the week: NE Theatre York in Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert The Musical, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
STEVE Tearle, creative director of NE Theatre York, plays Bernadette, joined by Matthew Clarke as Tick and Kristian Barley as Adam, in the adventure of two drag artists and a trans woman embarking on a life‑changing road trip across the Aussie outback in their battered tour bus, discovering the power of love, identity, acceptance and true friendship.
“As they head west through the Australian desert to chase a dream aboard their lavender bus, our three terrific travellers come to the forefront of a comedy of errors,” says Tearle, whose high-energy production also features Helen Greenley as Shirley, Ben Rich as Jimmy, Steve Perry as Bob, the mechanic, Ali Butler-Hind as his wife Cynthia, plus disco divas Perri Ann Barley, Melissa Boyd and Aileen Hall. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
Andy Nyman, left, and Jeremy Dyson in rehearsal for their world premiere of The Psychic at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Manuel Harlan
World premiere of the week: The Psychic, York Theatre Royal, today to May 23
“IS any of it real,” ask Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman in The Psychic, the latest spook-fest from the writer-director duo behind Ghost Stories. In their twisted new thriller, popular TV psychic Sheila Gold loses a high-profile court case that brands her a charlatan, costing her not only her reputation but also a fortune in legal fees.
When a wealthy couple ask Sheila to conduct a séance to attempt to make contact with their late child, she senses an opportunity to bleed them for money. What follows makes her question everything she has ever believed and leads her on a journey into the darkest corners of her life. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Gemma Curry in Hoglets Theatre’s Spooky Shakespeare Suitcase Theatre
Children’s show of the week: Hoglets Theatre presents Spooky Shakespeare Suitcase Theatre, York International Shakespeare Festival, York St John University Creative Centre Auditorium, today, 6.30pm
HAGS, hauntings, hobgoblins and more emerge from the spooky suitcase owned by Lady Macbeth (Dotty to her friends). These spectres from performances past must retell their stories before they can find peace in the literary afterlife, but are they friends or will we need to be vanquished back into the supernatural suitcase?
Written, crafted and performed by Hoglets Theatre founder, director, writer and performer Gemma Sharp, this funny, energetic children’s theatre experience presents a world of hand-made puppets, music and storytelling, all performed from a single suitcase. “No prior knowledge of Shakespeare is required,” she says. Box office: https://yorkshakes.co.uk/programme-2026/spooky-shakespeare-suitcase-theatre/.
Dirty Ruby: Playing the blues at Milton Rooms, Malton
Blues gig of the week: Ryedale Blues Club presents Dirty Ruby, Milton Rooms, Malton, tomorrow, 8pm
SPECIALISING in sharp-edged blues rock, East Midlands five-piece Dirty Ruby have drawn comparison with 1970s’ acts Stone The Crows and Vinegar Joe with their energetic combination of Hammond organ, beautiful bluesy guitar, tight rhythm section and soulful lead vocals. After a five-track EP and debut single, they are working on completing their debut album. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.
Paulus The Cabaret Geek in the Victoria Wood tribute Looking For Me Friends
Tribute of the week: Looking For Me Friend: The Music Of Victoria Wood, Milton Rooms, Malton, Friday, 7.30pm
PAULUS The Cabaret Geek and pianist Michael Roulston marks the tenth anniversary of Victoria Wood’s death in Looking For Me Friend. Directed by Sarah-Louise Young (from An Evening Without Kate Bush), the show is filled with Wood’s best-loved songs, such as Ballad of Barry & Freda’ (Let’s Do It) and It Would Never Have Worked. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.
Sarah McQuaid: Playing Helmsley Arts Centre on Friday
Folk gig of the week: Sarah McQuaid, Helmsley Arts Centre, Friday, 7.30pm
SINGER and songwriter Sarah McQuaid draws on her seven albums of velvet-voiced folk songs, performed with wit and warmth in concert on acoustic and electric guitars, keyboards and occasionally drums.
Born in Spain, raised in Chicago, holding dual Irish and American citizenship and now settled in rural England, she brings the eclecticism of her background to her contemplative ballads, playful blues and atmospheric instrumentals, her music inviting reflection, connection and a deep appreciation of the quiet power of a well-crafted song. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Liviu Cheloiu in Richard III – The Man at York International Shakespeare Festival. Picture: Teatrul Tony Bulandra
Discontented son of York of the week: Tony Bulandra Theatre in Richard III – The Man, York International Shakespeare Festival, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, Friday, 7.30pm
SHAKESPEARE’S “most captivating character” returns to York in Targoviste company Tony Bulandra Theatre’s Richard III – The Man, performed in Romanian with English surtitles by versatile actor and festival director Liviu Cheloiu, celebrated in the Eastern European country for his film roles and theatre work.
Exploring themes of power and its corrupting allure, the nature of evil, the manipulation of language and the thin lines between reality and fiction, the show delves into Richard III’s psyche while attempting to relate the Bard’s description – or character assassination? – with the historical truth about the Yorkist Plantagenet king in a series of scenes inspired by the Bard’s plays, showcasing Richard’s chameleon-like personality to reveal how he utilises those around him to achieve his goals. Box office: yorkshakes.co.uk or tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Laura Castle’s Dr Watson, left, and Laura McKeller’s Sherlock Holmes in Neon Crypt’s The Hound Of The Baskervilles
Mystery thriller of the week: Neon Crypt in The Hound Of The Baskervilles, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, May 5 to 9, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
JOIN York company Neon Crypt for side-splitting stupidity, hot dog disguises and absolute terror in Jamie McKeller’s staging of Peepolykus co-artistic director John Nicholson’s incredibly high-brow adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s mystery The Hound Of The Baskervilles.
Sherlock Holmes (Laura McKeller) and Dr Watson(Laura Castle) are summoned to investigate the ancient curse of the Hound of the Baskervilles and unravel the mysterious death of Sir Charles Baskerville, found dead on his estate with a look of terror still etched on his face and the paw prints of a gigantic hound beside his body. Look out for Michael Cornell popping up as Sir Henry Baskerville and Yokel 2. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Collage and mixed-media artist Donna Maria Taylor: Participating in York Open Studios at South Bank Studios
FROM Rocky Horror film stars to Shakespeare in a suitcase, Bowie to Boe, Priscilla to The Psychic premiere, Charles Hutchinson is spoilt for choice again.
Art event of the week: York Open Studios, York and beyond, today and Sunday, 10am to 5pm
FOR a second weekend, 150 artists and makers within York and a ten-mile radius of the city are welcoming visitors to 107 workplaces and studios.
This annual event offers the chance to gain a sneak peek into where the artists work, their methods and inspirations, whether a regular contributor or the 27 new participants, spanning traditional and contemporary painting and print, illustration, drawing, ceramics, mixed media, glass, sculpture, jewellery, textiles and photography. For more information, visit yorkopenstudios.co.uk; access the interactive map at yorkopenstudios.co.uk/map.
Weather Balloons’ Anne Prior: Playing Navigators Art’s YO Underground #7 bill at The Basement, City Screen Picturehouse
Arts collaboration of the week: Navigators Art/Projects presents YO Underground 7, The Basement, City Screen, York, tonight, 7.30pm
CONTINUING its mission to present adventurous left-field music and words from York and the region, Navigators Art plays host to a mixed bill of uniquely styled indie song-writing from Weather Balloons’ Anne Prior, the Joe Douglas Trio’s North African-inspired free jazz and a collaboration between audiovisual projections and Ben Hopkinson’s quartet Synaefonia. Box office: bit.ly/nav-events.
Blue: In full bloom at York Barbican tonight
Limited ticket availability: Blue and special guests 911, York Barbican, tonight, 7.30pm; Alfie Boe, York Barbican, April 28, 7pm
REVITALISED boy band Blue have released the single Flowers, penned by good friend Robbie Williams and Boots Ottestad, ahead of their 25th anniversary tour date at York Barbican.
“Robbie reached out to me a while back and said ‘I’ve got a song for Blue’,” says Blue’s Antony Costa, who will be joined as ever by Duncan James, Lee Ryan and Simon Webbe. “We only got to record it recently and thought it would be perfect to release for the anniversary tour. We can’t wait for you all to hear Flowers.”
Tenor Alfie Boe plays York on Tuesday and Harrogate Royal Hall on Wednesday on his 35-date tour, combining his most iconic hits and fan-favourite classics with material from new album Face Myself. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk; for Boe, https://gigst.rs/AB26.
Alfie Boe: Tenor dramatics at York Barbican. Picture: Ray Burmiston
Book event of the week: Rivers, Water and Wildness, A Talk by Amy-Jane Beer, St Chad’s Church, Campleshon Road, York, April 28, 7.30pm to 9pm
THE Friends of Nun Ings invite you to Rivers, Water and Wildness, Our Rivers and Their Landscapes, a talk by biologist-turned-writer and former South Bank resident Amy-Jane Beer, author of The Flow, winner of the Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing 2023, who now lives on the Derwent.
The Flow is a book about water, and, like water, it meanders, cascades and percolates through many lives, landscapes and stories. From West Country torrents to Levels and Fens, rocky Welsh canyons and the salmon highways of Scotland to the chalk rivers of the Yorkshire Wolds, Beer follows springs, streams and rivers to explore tributary themes of wildness and wonder, loss and healing, mythology and history, cyclicity and transformation. Tickets are available via eventbrite; admission is free but donations are welcome.
Nell Campbell (Columbia), Barry Bostwick (Brad Majors) and Patricia Quinn (Magenta) celebrating the 50th anniversary of The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Let’s do the Time Warp…again: The Rocky Horror Picture Show 50th Anniversary Spectacular Tour 2026, York Barbican, Sunday, 7pm
JOIN the original Brad Majors (Barry Bostwick), Magenta (Patricia Quinn) and Columbia (Nell Campbell) for this once-in-a-lifetime screening event with a live shadow cast. Jim Sharman’s 1975 film of Richard O’Brien’s musical will be shown in a 4K remastered edition, preceded by a Q&A with the movie stars. Expect a costume contest, memorabilia display with film artefacts and a participation prop bag for every ticket holder. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Jim Henson’s Labyrinth: In Concert: David Bowie on screen at York Barbican
Fantastical film and music event of the week: Jim Henson’s Labyrinth: In Concert, York Barbican, April 27, 7.30pm
JIM Henson’s musical fantasy film Labyrinth is on tour in concert in celebration of its 40th anniversary, transporting audiences to Goblin City in a fusion of film on a large HD cinema screen and live music on stage, performed by a band playing David Bowie and Trevor Jones’s soundtrack score and songs in sync with Bowie’s original vocals.
Taking on an ever-growing cult status since its release on June 27 1986, Labyrinth stars Bowie as principal antagonist Jareth the Goblin King, who rules the goblin kingdom, kidnaps protagonist Sarah’s baby brother and presents a charming yet menacing challenge, appearing as a rock star-like figure who lures and influences her journey. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Degrees Of Error’s poster for you-do-it whodunit Murder She Didn’t Write
Sleuthing opportunity of the week: Degrees Of Error in Murder She Didn’t Write, Grand Opera House, York, April 28, 7.30pm
DON your deerstalker, grab your magnifying glass and prepare your “finger of suspicion” as Edinburgh Fringe favourites Degrees Of Error return for your sleuthing pleasure, creating a classic murder mystery on-the-spot in this ingenious improvised comedy.
You, the audience, become the author as the cast acts out your very own Agatha Christie-inspired masterpiece live on stage. At each show, the company uses your suggestions to create an original and comical murder mystery. All you have to do is solve it. Ms Gold poisoned at a synchronised swimming gala? Dr Blue exploded by cannon during a hot air balloon race? Professor Violet crushed to death at a Love Island re-coupling? You decide – but will you guess whodunit before the killer is revealed? Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Kristian Barley’s Adam, left, Steve Tearle’s Bernadette and Matthew Clarke’s Tick in NE Theatre York’s musical Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert
Musical of the week: NE Theatre York in Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, April 28 to May 2, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
STEVE Tearle, creative director of NE Theatre York, plays Bernadette, joined by Matthew Clarke as Tick and Kristian Barley as Adam, in the adventure of two drag artists and a trans woman embarking on a life‑changing road trip across the Aussie outback in their battered tour bus, discovering the power of love, identity, acceptance and true friendship.
“As they head west through the Australian desert to chase a dream aboard their lavender bus, Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, our three terrific travellers come to the forefront of a comedy of errors,” says Steve, whose high-energy production also features Helen Greenley as Shirley, Ben Rich as Jimmy, Steve Perry as Bob, the mechanic, Ali Butler-Hind as his wife Cynthia, plus disco divas Perri Ann Barley, Melissa Boyd and Aileen Hall. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
Eileen Walsh, left, Jaz Singh Deol, Megan Placito, Andy Nyman, Nikhita Lesler and Jeremy Dyson in rehearsal for the world premiere of The Psychic at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Manuel Harlan
World premiere of the week: The Psychic, York Theatre Royal, April 29 to May 23
“IS any of it real,” ask Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman in The Psychic, the latest spook-fest from the writer-director duo behind Ghost Stories. In their twisted new thriller, popular TV psychic Sheila Gold loses a high-profile court case that brands her a charlatan, costing her not only her reputation but also a fortune in legal fees.
When a wealthy couple ask Sheila to conduct a séance to attempt to make contact with their late child, she senses an opportunity to bleed them for money. What follows makes her question everything she has ever believed and leads her on a journey into the darkest corners of her life. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Pulling Shakespearean strings: Gemma Curry in Hoglets Theatre’s Spooky Shakespeare Suitcase Theatre at York International Shakespeare Festival
Children’s show of the week: Hoglets Theatre presents Spooky Shakespeare Suitcase Theatre, York International Shakespeare Festival, York St John University Creative Centre Auditorium, April 29, 6.30pm
HAGS, hauntings, hobgoblins and more emerge from the spooky suitcase owned by Lady Macbeth (Dotty to her friends). These spectres from performances past need to retell their stories before they can find peace in the literary afterlife, but are they friends or will we need to be vanquished back into the supernatural suitcase?
Written, crafted and performed by Hoglets Theatre founder, director, writer and performer Gemma Sharp, this funny, energetic children’s theatre experience presents a world of hand-made puppets, music and storytelling, all performed from a single suitcase. “No prior knowledge of Shakespeare is required,” she says. Box office: https://yorkshakes.co.uk/programme-2026/spooky-shakespeare-suitcase-theatre/.
The poster for Scott Bradley’s premiere of A Kingdom Jack’d at York International Shakespeare Festival
The poster for Scott Bradley’s premiere of A Kingdom Jack’d at York International Shakespeare Festival starring Rosy Rowley, whose birthday coincides with the opening night
Shakespeare spin-off of the week: 1st Zanni Theatre in A Kingdom Jack’d, York International Shakespeare Festival, Merchant Adventurers’ Hall, York April 29 and 30, 7.30pm
IN A Kingdom Jack’d, American playwright Scott Bradley re-imagines an iconic moment in political and Shakespearean history: what if disgraced knight Jack Falstaff (Rosy Rowley) somehow found his way onto the throne of England in 1399, instead of serious warrior-king Henry IV?
Stupid, lecherous, selfish but humorous, Shakespeare’s most (in)famous clown must somehow fund the army, balance the budget and make foreign policy between naps. His government is drunk, his enemies are plotting,his allies are scheming, and even his girlfriend wants a piece of the action. Falstaff is king but for how long? Box office: yorkshakes.co.uk.
Nell Campbell (Columbia), left, Barry Bostwick (Brad Majors) and Patricia Quinn (Magenta): Reuniting for The Rocky Horror Picture Show 50th Anniversary Spectacular Tour
THREE stars from The Rocky Horror Picture Show are doing the Time Warp again on a 13-date tour to mark the cult film’s 50th anniversary. Next stop, York Barbican, tomorrow night (26/4/2026).
Barry Bostwick, the original Brad Majors; Nell Campbell, the original Columbia, and Patricia Quinn, the original Magenta, are touring Great Britain together for the first time to take part in a question-and-answer session at each show before the screening of Jim Sharman’s film version of Richard O’Brien’s musical.
The August 1975 movie will be shown in a new 4k print, accompanied by a shadow cast performing key scenes ‘live’ on stage while the full unedited film is shown behind them.
Tomorrow’s audience will have an opportunity to meet the stars; view a memorabilia display with film artefacts; participate in a costume contest (judged by Patricia); interact with the shadow cast and utilise the participation prop bag included with every ticket for use throughout the show.
Barry Bostwick’s Brad Majors in the 1975 film
Barry, now 81, says: “It’s coming back where it all began: London, Bray Studios in Windsor, then the world! Thank you to my friends of inclusion and weirdness for welcoming me 50 years ago and again today!! I look forward to sharing my amazing 50 years of Rocky with all of you.”
Patricia, 81, says: “[More than] 50 years ago, I auditioned for The Rocky Horror Show at the 60-seat Royal Court Theatre Upstairs in London. I asked my agent, ‘what’s it about?’. He replied, ‘something to do with a circus’. He wasn’t wrong. I’ve been in this circus ever since! ‘Cirque du Rocky Horror’. I’m lucky! We’re all lucky!! Don’t dream it, be it.”
Nell Campbell, 72, says: “It is extraordinary that five weeks’ filming in 1974, belting out the joys of transvestites and dancing The Time Warp in fishnets and corsets, resulted in a movie so beloved that a fifth generation of fans are frocking up to join in our celebrations. What a thrill to meet the UK fans, share our stories and together shiver with aaaaanticipation.”
Quick refresher course: The Rocky Horror Picture Show is the iconic little movie of O’Brien’s musical that conquered Hollywood starring Tim Curry as the devious and fabulous Frank-N-Furter; Bostwick and Susan Sarandon as nerdy American college couple Brad and Janet; Meat Loaf as ex-delivery boy Eddie, who dates a groupie, Campbell’s Columbia, and Quinn’s Magenta, servant to Riff Raff, O’Brien’s role.
Patricia Quinn’s Magenta in The Rocky Horror Picture Show
“We’ve already done the tour across America, 15 states” says Patricia, when speaking ahead of the UK tour’s opening show in Manchester on April 10. “More like 32 cities,” says Barry.
The reaction? “It was truly beyond belief,” says Patricia. “It was beyond my wildest dreams. I thought I knew everything about Rocky Horror. I thought I knew all the fandom. I thought I knew everything. I do a lot of Comic Cons and there’s grandmas and their daughters and their granddaughters all dressed as Magenta, whatever, asking for one’s autograph.
“And I thought, there’s nothing I don’t know about the fan situation of this. But I hit the States and I was beyond overwhelmed. I mean, 1,000, 2,000, sometimes 3,000 people a night would be at the film. Beyond extraordinary – and they don’t clap when one comes on. They stand up and yell!”
Patricia and Nell are no strangers to audience cheers. “Pat and I were both in the original London stage production,” says Nell. “We were witness to the show being written and put together, and the songs came out throughout what was only a three-week rehearsal period. But the show came together and sort of doubled in its size to what it began as.
Nell Campbell’s Columbia in The Rocky Horror Picture Show
“But because Tim Curry [Frank-N-Furter] especially was so unbelievable on stage and worshipped, we did have an audience going nuts every night after he came on.”
Barry first saw Curry in the role at the Roxy in Los Angeles. “From the moment I saw him on stage and running around, I was in ball!” he recalls. Cue audience participation: “Well, the ghouls, they come and they seat you. And then they do things to you, apparently, to warm you up for the craziness! And I felt underneath my table that my toes were being sucked on by Kim Milford, who was playing Rocky at the time.”
Why has Rocky Horror endured, both on screen and stage? “Because it’s good,” says Patricia. Is it that simple? “Yes, of course. The music’s wonderful.”
“It’s a rock’n’roll show, you know, and rock’n’roll never gets old,” says Barry. “It’s for everybody, sexually; hetero, trans, bi,” says Nell. “Don’t dream it, be it. Well, it’s got great songs. The characters are great.
The poster artwork for The Rocky Horror Picture Show 50th Anniversary Spectacular Tour
It looks fantastic – and it whizzes along. It’s a celebration of all types of sexuality. It’s a musical that does liberate people and there is no other musical I think that affects people like that and embraces every sexuality and encourages people to be who you are and love every bit of it.”
Nell is revelling in the audience interaction. “It really is a party of everyone getting together. We dress up, they dress up, and we all have a hoedown – and I do encourage the audience to think beforehand what question they would really love to have us answer because we might be the very key to unlock something they’ve always wondered about,” she says.
“But they should also dig in the back of their closet and find that feather boa from maybe 30 years ago,” says Barry, who likes to give a prize to whoever asks the best question.
There is still time to put on your thinking cap, York. “We always get the question, ‘who is sleeping with who?’”, says Barry. So, not that one.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show 50th Anniversary Spectacular Tour 2026, York Barbican, tomorrow (26/4/2026), 7pm. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Courtney Marie Andrews: Completing hat-trick of Pocklington appearances on May 21. Picture: Wyndham Garnett
VALENTINE’S Day falls on May 21 at All Saints Church, Pocklington, when Phoenix, Arizona singer, songwriter, poet, musician and artist Courtney Marie Andrews promotes her new album.
“Valentine is a record in pursuit of love,” says Grammy nominee Courtney Marie, 35. Love, however is “a lot more than I gave it credit for. It’s built over years, it’s built with trust; with changes, it becomes something new and unrecognizable, the deeper you go”.
Released in January, Valentine is her most sonically explorative record: she plays flute, high-strung guitars and myriad synths, while drawing heavy inspiration from her art outside music.
Courtney Marie is a vivid poet and an accomplished painter, and across Valentine you can feel these disciplines interwoven, everything feeding the beauty and clarity of everything else.
Written at the junction of intense endings and beginnings in her life, Valentine demands more of those we love and reveals a stronger, wiser and more clear-eyed Courtney Marie in the process. The album is both lush and elemental, precise in its construction but rich with sonic and lyrical layers. In love and on Valentine, there is no quarter for empty gestures.
From her first recordings in 2008 to 2016’s breakthrough, Honest Life, 2020’s Grammy-nominated Old Flowers to her ninth studio album, Loose Future, Courtney Marie has challenged herself, finding new interplays of folk and Americana.
“As a songwriter, you can make the same record over and over again, and I’m not interested in that,” she says. “I make records to stand alone and stand apart from each other.”
Co-produced with Jerry Bernhardt and recorded almost entirely to tape, Valentine features complete in-studio performances. “We thought a lot about Lee Hazlewood, about Big Star’s Third and Fleetwood Mac’s Tusk,” says Courtney Marie.
“I was in one of the darkest periods of my life, and songs were the only way I could reckon with it. I felt cursed, and the only mental cure felt like songwriting and painting.”
The near-death of a loved one loomed over everything, and while that person eventually recovered from both sickness and psychosis, Courtney Marie was more sure that death was coming, rather than recovery.
Her grief was acute, volatile. The decline coincided with a new romance, but rather than lift her up, the two emotional poles seemed to bleed into each other to sow doubt, trouble, even obsession.
“I was grappling with what I felt sure was death, and with the end of that relationship, while I was also grappling with something new but quite unstable,” she says. “Here was this new relationship evolving alongside the collapse of another.”
The result was a feeling of “limerence, but a somehow empowered limerence,” she says: consuming and fierce, piled high with insecurity and fantasy, and filling every inch of a space she feared was hollowing out.
The poster artwork for Courtney Marie Andrews’ All Saints Church concert in Pocklington
It was painful, she says, and not far off from the pain of grief, but through her own exploration of music and art, Courtney Marie found a way to grow stronger inside this feeling. “I didn’t want to slink into my pain; I wanted to embrace it, own it,” she explains.
The songs that emerged are devotional in their lyrics but defiant in their energy: a high-wire balance that permeates Valentine, typified by lead single Everyone Wants To Feel Like You Do with its indictment of the type of man who feels he can move through the world whatever way he wants without consequence.
Here, Courtney Marie’s singing is classic honey-and-vinegar, sounding sweet but carrying a sting. “It’s this funny double-edged thing because you do want to feel like that person, but you’re not sure if you should, because it’s a person so disconnected, without a care in the world or a care for other people,” she says.
“I played the guitar solo like I didn’t care in that song. I thought ‘I’m just gonna play it like I don’t give a s**t what anyone else is doing.’”
Little Picture Of A Butterfly is another example, one where the reclamation of power in the lyrics (“Soulmates what a pretty thought/but either you do, or you do not”) mirrors the same in the music. “It’s such a trad song in a lot of ways but we added flute, we added organ and all these Brian Wilson harmonies,” she says.
Keeper is the only co-written song on Valentine, one whose back story reads like a short film. “I was at dinner with a dear friend [singer-songwriter Kate York] , and I was really going through it. I asked her if I’m a keeper, and we both just started crying,” recalls Courtney Marie. “We wrote the song then and there, line by line over dinner. I went home and put a melody over it after.”
As she releases her tenth studio set, only now is she appreciating the centrality of her power as a singer. “Historically my favourite artists weren’t looked at as singers. They were looked at as writers,” she says. “And I sort of dissociated myself from singing; I chose to use it when it behoved me, but I wasn’t connected with it.”
However, the more interdisciplinary her work became, the more that belief seemed to dissolve. “Singing is another stroke. The most direct line to your heart. Everything is colour, texture. The way you sing can change everything, for both you and the people listening,” she says.
In rejecting the objectification of love, the love filled with gestures and objects instead of trust, mess, and growth, Courtney Marie has delivered her most beautiful and loving album to date.
Come May 21, at 7.30pm, Courtney Marie will be completing a hat-trick of Pocklington appearances. She had been booked to follow up her December 2018 debut at Pocklington Arts Centre on June 17 2020, but the pandemic restrictions put paid to that show and its rearranged date of June 17 2021. Third time lucky, she finally returned on June 19 2022.
Promoted by Hurricane Promotions, tickets for Courtney Marie’s Valentine’s night in Pock are on sale at £25 via courtneymarieandrews.com.
Question: What is “limerence”?
Answer:The involuntary state of intense romantic infatuation, obsession and emotional dependency on another person (the “limerent object”). The term was coined by psychologist Dorothy Tennov in 1979, defining a feeling that differs from love by being focused primarily on the uncertainty of reciprocation, often causing obsessive thinking, idealisation and emotional volatility, ranging from ecstasy to despair.
Rianna Louise’s Wendla and Dan Crawfurd-Porter’s Melchior in rehearsal for Inspired By Theatre’s Spring Awakening. Picture: JJ Thornton
INSPIRED By Theatre will mark the 20th anniversary of Spring Awakening with a bold new production at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, from May 20 to 23.
Continuing the York company’s reputation for presenting bravura interpretations of well-known works, the Tony Award-winning rock musical will be directed by Mikhail Lim.
Following artistic director Dan Crawfurd-Porter’s ambitious staging of Jesus Christ Superstar at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre in February, Lim picks up the reins for one of the most powerful and emotionally raw musicals of the modern era.
Based on Frank Wedekind’s 1906 play, Spring Awakening follows a group of late-19th century teenagers in a small German village, navigating the confusion, curiosity and turmoil of adolescence in a rigid and repressive society at odds with their awakening sexuality.
Maz Machif’s Martha and JJ Thornton’s Hanschen. Picture: Tiggy-Jade
As these young people search for answers about sex, identity and self-expression, their world collides with an oppressive culture imposed by teachers and parents determined to silence them.
Combining music by Duncan Sheik with book and lyrics by Steven Sater, the show blends alternative rock, folk and punk influences with a deeply human coming-of-age story. Scenes unfold with grounded realism before erupting into powerful musical numbers that reveal the characters’ inner thoughts and emotions.
Opening on Broadway in 2006, starring Jonathan Groff, Lea Michele and John Gallagher Jr., Spring Awakening won eight Tony Awards, including Best Musical.
Next month’s production marks a full-circle moment for director Lim, who appeared in the northern premiere of Spring Awakening, staged by York Stage Musicals under Robert Readman’s direction at the Vaudeville Theatre, Joseph Rowntree School, York, in November 2010.
Spring Awakening director Mikhail Lim working on the guitar with cast member JJ Thornton. Picture: Tiggy-Jade
On returning to the show as director, Mikhail says: “Spring Awakening came out when I was almost exactly the age of the characters. It completely opened my eyes to different forms of musical storytelling and the kind of contemporary theatre I fell in love with.
“Being part of the northern premiere in York 15 years ago was incredibly special. Now, approaching the 20th anniversary of the original off-Broadway production, it feels extraordinary to be returning to this piece as a director. In many ways, it feels like fate.”
Lim leads an outstanding creative team assembled specifically for the project. Choreographer and assistant director Freya McIntosh, known for her work on Green Day’s American Idiot, RENT and Jesus Christ Superstar, reunites with Lim after their acclaimed Black Sheep Theatre Productions collaboration on Songs For A New World at the National Centre For Early Music, York, in October 2024.
Musical director Jessica Viner brings a wealth of musical expertise to Spring Awakening, drawing on her professional experience in touring productions, not least her role as musical director for Singin’ In The Rain, when she travelled across China.
Gemma McDonald, best known for her clowning silly-billy in Rowntree Players pantomimes each winter, takes on the role of Adult Woman in Inspired By Theatre’s Spring Awakening. Picture: Felix Wahlberg
Annie Roux steps into the producer’s role after serving as assistant producer on Jesus Christ Superstar. Costume design will be led by Julie Fisher, of The Costume Crew York, joined by fashion designer Gregory Harper, working together to create a visual world that supports the show’s striking aesthetic.
Dan Crawfurd-Porter swaps directorial duties for playing Melchior in Inspired By Theatre’s cast of 13, joined by Rianna Louise as Wendla; Eryn Grant, Moritz; Skye Pickford, Ilse, Maz Machif, Martha; JJ Thornton, Hanschen; Oskar Nuttall, Ernst; Lewis Jordan, Georg; Kailum Farmery, Otto; Ines Campos, Thea; Greta Piasecka, Anna; Stefan Michaels, Adult Man, and Gemma McDonald, Adult Woman.
Utilising such a small cast requires every performer to play a vital role in bringing the story to life, as Mikhail explains: “This show demands performers who can truly act through song and move with real emotional honesty. We’ve assembled a phenomenal company of performers who bring enormous passion and skill to the stage.”
Eryn Grant’s Moritz at the microphone, with Sky Pickford’s Ilse in the background. Picture: JJ Thornton
Movement and physical storytelling will play a central role in the production. McIntosh’s choreography blends contemporary dance with expressive theatrical movement, creating moments that feel less like traditional choreography and more like living visual art unfolding on stage.
The show’s band will form part of the storytelling, with a mixture of professional musicians and actor-musicians creating a dynamic on-stage musical presence.
Lim’s production will take place in the John Cooper Studio at Theatre@41, creating an intimate and immersive environment where audiences are placed close to the action. “The black-box setting allows the production to feel particularly visceral,” says Mikhail.
“Performing in a smaller space is both a challenge and a gift. It allows every moment, every sound and every visual detail to be felt up close. The result is something incredibly immediate and powerful.”
Inspired By Theatre will draw visual inspiration from German Expressionism and folkloric imagery to create a haunting and symbolic world that sits between realism and surrealism as old-fashioned values are refracted through a 21st century lens in an exploration of sex, puberty, coming of age and a yearning for a more progressive future.
Inspired By Theatre presents Spring Awakening, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, May 20 to 23, 7.30pm and 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Content warning: Spring Awakening features mature themes, including sexual content, sexual assault, suicide, abortion, physical abuse and strong language. Minimum age recommendation: 15 plus.
Inspired By Theatre’s poster artwork for Mikhail Lim’s production of Spring Awakening
Jalen Ngonda: Returning to York for the first time since Futuresound’s Live At York Museum Gardens last July. Picture: Paul Rhodes
SHAKESPEARE is in the spotlight with international guests and a York nightclub rom-com while artists and makers open their studios, as Charles Hutchinson’s diary bulges with inviting opportunities aplenty.
Soul show of the week: Jalen Ngonda, York Barbican, tonight, doors 7pm
AFTER appearing on Nile Rodgers & CHIC’s bill at Futuresound’s Live At York Museum Gardens last July, willowy soul singer and pianist Jalen Ngonda opens his seven-date spring tour at York Barbican. Originally from Maryland and now based in Liverpool, Ngonda’s voice and music recall the best of the great Sixties and Seventies’ soul artists, delivered with a contemporary edge. Deptford Northern Soul Club support. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Pink rocks: Amber Davies’s Elle Woods in Made At Curve’s Legally Blonde The Musical. Picture: Matt Crockett
Musical of the week: Made At Curve presents Legally Blonde The Musical, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday matinees, 2.30pm
STRICTLY Come Dancing 2025 finalist Amber Davies plays Elle Woods in the 2026 tour of Legally Blonde The Musical, joined by York Theatre Royal pantomime villain Jocasta Almgill as Brooke Wyndham, after she appeared as wicked fairy Carabosse in Sleeping Beauty last winter.
Davies had been set to appear as Hollywood hooker Vivian Ward in Pretty Woman The Musical at the Grand Opera House in February 2024, but Sydnie Hocknell understudied that week. Hannah Lowther, otherwise playing Margot, will step in for Davies at the April 23 matinee. North Yorkshireman and Curve artistic director Nikolai Foster directs the uplifting, totally pink tale of Elle’s transformation from ‘It Girl’ fashionista to legal ace at Harvard Law School, all in the name of love. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Common Ground Theatre’s Nathan Brocklebank and Lydia Keating in rehearsals for Hamlet, bound for York International Shakespeare Festival. Picture: Magdalini Brouma
Festival of the week: York International Shakespeare Festival, until May 3
YORK plays host to two weeks of world premieres, unmissable performances, enlightening talks and world-class exhibitions, bringing together artists from Romania, Croatia, Ukraine, Poland and United States, along with British creatives and York talent, in celebration of Shakespeare’s impact across the globe.
Highlights include festival artist-in-residence Lisa Wolpe’s show Shakespeare and the Alchemy of Gender, York St John University Creative Centre, tonight, 7.30pm; Common Ground Theatre’s Hamlet, Creative Centre, April 25, 7.30pm, and April 26, 4pm; Petty Men – ShakeSphere Selection 2026, Theatre@41, Monkgate, April 29, 7.30pm, and Olga Annenko’s Codename Othello, performed in English and Ukrainian, Creative Centre, May 2, 6pm, and May 3, 2pm. Full festival programme and box office: yorkshakes.co.uk.
1812 Youth Theatre in Hadestown: Teen Edition
Folk opera of the week: 1812 Youth Theatre in Hadestown: Teen Edition, Helmsley Arts Centre, tonight until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
NATASHA Jones and Freya Popplewell direct 1812 Youth Theatre in Vermont singer-songwriter Anais Mitchell’s intriguing and beautiful folk opera that intertwines two love stories, young dreamers Orpheus (Mani Brown) and Eurydice (Ava Woolford) and immortal King Hades (Koen-Leigh Brown/Jay Stevens) and Persephone (Lena Chorazyk).
Hadestown: Teen Edition invites audiences on a hell-raising journey to the underworld and back in a deeply resonant and defiantly hopeful theatrical experience. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
York Shakespeare Project’s cast on the dance floor in rehearsal for Anna Gallon’s nightclub version of Love’s Labour’s Lost
York nightlife drama of the week: York Shakespeare Project in Love’s Labours Lost, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, tonight to Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
FOUR Wheel Drive co-founder and artistic director Anna Gallon directs York Shakespeare Project for the first time in Love’s Labour’s Lost as Shakespeare’s comedy of wit, wordplay, vows and romantic mischief meets the 1990s’ club scene in an immersive new take on the Bard’s early comedy, set in the heat and heighted passions of urban nightlife.
Her playful reinvention mixes verse, rhythm, dance and striking visuals to create a fresh and contemporary celebration of love, temptation and folly, wherein the King of Navarre and his three companions are DJs who once ruled York’s club scene but now have renounced the wild world of drink, dance and late nights, committing themselves instead to a retreat of abstinence: no women, no drink and definitely no dance floors. However, when the Princess of France and her entourage arrive, their solemn vows begin to unravel. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Collage and mixed media artist Donna Maria Taylor: Taking part in York Open Studios at South Bank Studios this weekend
Art event of the week: York Open Studios, York and beyond, Saturday and Sunday, 10am to 5pm
AS many as 150 artists and makers within York and a ten-mile radius of the city are welcoming visitors to 107 workplaces and studios this weekend.
This annual event offers the chance to gain a sneak peek into where the artists work, their methods and inspirations, whether a regular contributor or the 27 new participants, spanning traditional and contemporary painting and print, illustration, drawing, ceramics, mixed media, glass, sculpture, jewellery, textiles and photography. For more information, visit yorkopenstudios.co.uk; access the interactive map at yorkopenstudios.co.uk/map.
The Manfreds: Sixties’ hits, jazz and blues at Milton Rooms, Malton
Ryedale gig of the week: The Manfreds, Milton Rooms, Malton, Saturday,7.30pm
ORIGINAL Manfred Mann members Paul Jones and Tom McGuinness are joined by Marcus Cliffe, Simon Currie, Pete Riley and Mike Gorman in The Manfreds’ two-hour performance of Sixties’ hits, dynamic jazz and powerful blues. Get Your Kicks On Tour ’26 features such favourites as 5-4-3-2-1, Pretty Flamingo, Mighty Quinn and Do Wah Diddy Diddy, alongside rhythm & blues-inspired gems and solo successes. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.
The poster artwork for Labyrinth: In Concert: On tour at York Barbican
Film and music collaboration of the week: Jim Henson’s Labyrinth: In Concert, York Barbican, April 27, 7.30pm
JIM Henson’s musical fantasy film Labyrinth is on tour in concert in celebration of its 40th anniversary, transporting audiences to Goblin City in a fusion of film on a large HD cinema screen and live music on stage, performed by a band playing David Bowie and Trevor Jones’s soundtrack score and songs in sync with Bowie’s original vocals.
Taking on an ever-growing cult status since its release on June 27 1986, Labyrinth stars Bowie as principal antagonist Jareth the Goblin King, who rules the goblin kingdom, kidnaps protagonist Sarah’s baby brother and presents a charming yet menacing challenge, appearing as a rock star-like figure who lures and influences her journey. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Amber in pink: Amber Davies’s Elle Woods in Legally Blonde The Musical. Picture: Matt Crockett
LEGALLY Blonde The Musical was last decorating a York stage in pink only 14 months ago in York Light Opera Company’s York Theatre Royal production. Now the 2011 Olivier Awards Best New Musical winner returns, even pinker and perkier, in North Yorkshireman Nicolai Foster’s hands in a fizzing, fabulous show shaped at Curve, Leicester, and now touring in tandem with ROYO.
Strictly Come Dancing 2025 finalist Amber Davies leads Foster’s cast in Laurence O’Keefe, Nell Benjamin and Heather Hach’s musical spin on the 2001 Reese Witherspoon film that charts the path of jilted Malibu fashion merchandising student Elle Woods (Davies) as she follows ex-lover Warner (Jamie Chatterton) to Harvard Law School with her cute Chihuahua Bruiser (Sprout) in tow.
Legally Blonde is a sugar rush of an all-American show, bursting with energy and joy, but beneath that E-number surface and the Omigod You Guys excitability, it also releases a surge of female empowerment and delivers a message of self-belief and self-discovery.
Hence the preponderance of women in the full house at Tuesday’s press night, drawn to Elle’s tale of staying doggedly true to herself as her sunshine-suffused Californian positivity rubs up against New York cynicism and Ivy League snobbery, enabling her to defeat all preconceptions to cut the legal mustard.
Welsh actress Davies, winner of the 2017 series of Love Island, brings that winning personality to playing It Girl fashionista-turned-budding legal ace Elle, revelling in all shades of pink, eschewing convention and countering her vulnerability on new terrain with her vitality, warmth and sassy humour.
Amber Davies’s Elle Woods, second from right, with the “Greek chorus” in Legally Blonde, Rosanna Harris’s Serena, left, Hannah Lowther’s Margot and Remi Ferdinand’s Pilar. Picture: Matt Crockett
Davies’s Elle is fun company for audience and fellow students alike (aside from Chatterton’s stuffed-shirt Warner and his judgemental, sourpuss new girlfriend, Annabelle Terry’s Vivienne Kensington). You know from her Strictly exploits that she will move well in Leah Hill’s choreography, while her singing grows more powerful, the more the performance progresses.
You will enjoy how Elle’s burgeoning legal nous is rooted in uncanny instinct and her knowledge of fashion trends and hair culture, rather than in quoting textbooks by rote. This does not make her a law unto herself, but shows how unconventional thinking can win the day, especially when bolstered by her determination to defy stereotypical “blonde” pigeonholing and leap over obstacles, whether preppy Warner and Vivienne or cynical, predatory Harvard professor Callahan (Adam Cooper).
Davies’s Elle has plenty of friends, old and new, to counter her foes. Closest to home are the Greek chorus (Rosanna Harris’s Serena, Remi Ferdinand’s Pilar and Hannah Lowther’s Margot), her Delta Nu sorority sisters, who now represent her inner thoughts in the style of American sports’ cheerleaders. They sizzle in Hill’s choreography in their ever-changing, brightly coloured attire, topped off by their lippy patter.
Elle bonds with fellow Harvard interloper, George Crawford’s principled, corduroy-clad Emmett, and especially with Karen Mavundukure’s trailer-trash hairdresser Paulette Bonafonte, who matches no-nonsense frankness in conversation with powerhouse singing with all the thunder of Ruby Turner.
Ty-Reece Stewart rather underplays the humour in cool-dude USP delivery stud muffin Kyle, Paulette’s sudden, unexpected love interest: a missed opportunity. By contrast, the camp swagger bubbling away throughout surfaces gloriously in the comedic high point of the courtroom number Gay Or European?, as Jamie Tait’s Nikos and Bradley Delarosbel’s Carlos celebrate their love so flamboyantly.
Resident director Jocasta Almgill leading the skipping-rope exercise session as murder suspect and fitness guru Brooke Wyndham in Legally Blonde The Musical. Picture: Matt Crockett
Jocasta Almgill’s pantomime villain Carabosse in York Theatre Royal’s Sleeping Beauty last winter is still fresh in the memory, and now she brings bags of character and high energy to exercise-video guru Brooke Wyndham, who is standing trial for murder.
Act Two surpasses Act One, not least because Almgill’s Brooke gives it such an adrenaline boost with the opening skipping number Whipped Into Shape, danced with her fellow inmates. Still to come is the best-known routine, Bend And Snap, wherein Davies’s Elle teaches Mavundukure’s Paulette the moves so resolutely.
Foster’s direction is full of panache and punch, even a sprinkling of pathos, and Hill’s choreography crackles like electricity, while Colin Richmond’s set design savours the power of pink and Tom Rogers’ costumes embrace every colour, without ever putting pink in the shade. Cerys McKenna’s musical direction brings out the fizz in effervescent songs that are almost giddy with excitement.
Nikolai Foster’s Legally Blonde will leave you feeling tickled pink.
Made At Curve presents Legally Blonde The Musical, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Thursday and Saturday matinees.Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Holding court: Adam Cooper’s Harvard lawyer Callahan, right, with law school students Warner (Jamie Chatterton), centre, Vivienne (Annabelle Terry) and ensemble member James Lim in Legally Blonde The Musical. Picture: Matt Crockett
Shed Seven’s Paul Banks, left, Rob “Maxi” Maxfield, Rick Witter, Tom Gladwin and Tim Wills: Heading out on tenth edition of Shedcember in November and December
SHED Seven will conclude their Shedcember X 2026 Tour at Leeds O2 Academy on December 12, but no home-city gig will be on the York band’s 21-date itinerary.
The two-time album chart toppers will play a further Yorkshire show at Sheffield Octagon on November 27. Tickets go on general sale on Friday at 10am at https://lnk.to/ShedSevenX; fans can access pre-sale tickets from today (22/4/2026) at 10am by signing up to the Sheds’ mailing list at https://www.shedseven.com/signup.
Marking this much-loved festive run, the band have unveiled a heartfelt fan-focused film, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2um2NroTZ8, celebrating the tenth Shedcember season, written and directed by guitarist Paul Banks, capturing the essence of Shed Seven’s shows and the appreciation they have for their dedicated fan base.
Shedcember X promises to be the Sheds’ biggest and most celebratory yet. Since its inception in 2007, Shedcember has grown into a cult institution for fans, becoming their definitive start to the festive season.
Shed Seven singer Rick Witter: “Expect the big hits, along with a few surprises, and the thrill of us all singing our hearts out together for a couple of hours,” he says
Lead singer Rick Witter enthuses: “We can’t wait to get out there up and down the UK and soak up what is a unique atmosphere at a Shed Seven gig. Expect the big hits, along with a few surprises, and the thrill of us all singing our hearts out together for a couple of hours. See you down the front.”
Each night the Sheds will deliver a career-spanning set packed with anthems such as Going For Gold, Chasing Rainbows, Disco Down, On Standby and Talk Of The Town. Special guests The Academic, the Irish indie band with multiple number one albums in their home country, will join for all dates.
As the Sheds’ tour announcement puts it: “If you’ve never been…this is the one to start with. If you have…you’re already know you’re coming…because every couple of years…this is where we meet again.
“For those who’ve been there before, Shedcember needs no introduction. It’s warm beer, bright lights and songs that never left you. Familiar faces in the crowd and new ones found somewhere between the first song and the last. Arms around shoulders. Voices filling every corner of the room.”
Shed Seven’s poster artwork for Shedcember X
This year, Shed Seven are marking the 30th anniversary of their hit-filled apotheosis A Maximum High, released on Polydor on April 1 1996 with its quintet of singles, Where Have You Been Tonight?, Getting Better, Going for Gold, On Standby and Bully Boy. The landmark Britpop album will be revisited in full at The Piece Hall, Halifax, on June 6. Tickets are on sale at ticketmaster.co.uk.
The full itinerary for Shedcember X is: November 13, Nottingham Rock City; November 14, Birmingham O2 Academy; November 17, Nick Rayns LCR, University of East Anglia, Norwich; November 19, Aberdeen Music Hall; November 20, Glasgow O2 Academy; November 21, Edinburgh Usher Hall; November 23, Leicester O2 Academy; November 24, Brighton Dome; November 26, Cardiff University Great Hall; November 27, Sheffield Octagon; November 28, Newcastle O2 City Hall, and November 30, Cambridge Corn Exchange.
In December: December 1, Bristol Beacon; December 3, Stockton Globe; December 4, Mountford Hall, Liverpool University; December 5, Manchester O2 Apollo; December 7, Lincoln Engine Shed; December 8, Stoke-on-Trent Victoria Hall; December 10, Bournemouth O2 Academy; December 11, London O2 Academy, Brixton, and December 12, Leeds O2 Academy.
In the Sheds’ 2026 gig diary too are: Victoria Park, Warrington, May 23 and 24; Isle of Wight Festival, Big Top Tent, June 18; Engelfield House, Theale, Berkshire, July 24; Shed Seven Live In Belfast, Mandela Hall, Belfast, October 23, and Shed Seven Live In Dublin, Vicar Street, Dublin, October 24.
The poster artwork for Navigators Art’s YO Underground #7 at The Basement, City Screen Picturehouse, York
CONTINUING its mission to present adventurous left-field music and words from York and the region, Navigators Art plays host to an eclectic mixed bill of uniquely styled indie acoustic song-writing from Weather Balloons, the Joe Douglas Trio’s North African-inspired free jazz and a collaboration between audiovisual projections and Ben Hopkinson’s quartet Synaefonia.
“Weather Balloons feature Leeds’s premier soft-rock renegade Annie Prior, singing by moonlight or hot coal of old feeling or burnt terror, new loves or curled spiders,” says event organiser Richard Kitchen. “She has a harmonica and a waking dream. Her favourite colour has always been gold.
Annie Prior of Weather Balloons
Tenor saxophone player Ben Hopkinson
“The Joe Douglas Trio takes an exhilarating ride into free space via North Africa, driven by local legend Joe on drums, Felix Edwards-McStay on keyboards and Louie Hanley-Pir on sax and guembri (a three-stringed, skin-covered bass lute central to Moroccan Gnawa music).”
The Ben Hopkinson’s Synaefonia performance will contain projections of flashing imagery that “communicate musical ideas in real time to a highly creative quintet”. In the band will be Ben Hopkinson, tenor saxophone and Osmose synthesiser; Kit Shepherd & Manlu Du, violins; Desmond Clarke, oboe and cor anglais, and Iris Casling, double bass.
Doors open at 7pm for 7.30pm start. Tickets cost £5 in advance at https://www.ticketsource.com/navigators-art-performance or £10 on the door.
Ben Hopkinson’s Synaefonia violin players Kit Shepherd and Manlu Du
