Author: Charles Hutchinson

Posted on

Arts event of the week: Staithes Festival of Arts & Heritage, September 11 to 13

An artwork by Ian Burke, one of 113 artists participating in Staithes Festival of Art and Heritage at 67 locations in the fishing village

THIS weekend’s festival celebrates art, creativity, music and heritage throughout the historic fishing village of Staithes, near Whitby, North Yorkshire.

Enjoy a packed programme of live music, headline concerts, creative workshops, demonstrations, outdoor cinema, family activities and festival extras.

Many events are free to enjoy, while some require payment or advance booking. To book tickets, go to: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/staithesfestivalofartsandheritage. For the full event programme, visit: https://www.staithesfestival.com/festival/events.php.

Preview Evening, today, 6pm to 9.30pm

Artist Trail, Saturday and Sunday, 10am to 5pm

DISCOVER 113 artists exhibiting across 67 venues throughout Staithes, including 15 students from Northern School of Art (Middlesbrough campus) taking part in a group exhibition. Full-time students Sophieand Harry will exhibit independently at St Peter’s Centre and 1 Webster Steps.

Explore galleries, cottages, studios and hidden spaces transformed into exhibition venues across the village. Explore the artists at https://www.staithesfestival.com/festival/artists.php.

Eliza Carthy: Performing at Staithes Memorial Village Hall tonight at 7.30pm with a new punk-spirited album to promote. Recorded with The Restitution, Frenemies is set for release on October 26, addressing themes of motherhood, the state of the modern world, forgiveness and personal resilience as Eliza turned 50. Guest contributors to the recording include Jools Holland, Robyn Hitchcock, actors Miranda Richardson and Tim McInnerny, and Queen Of Harps

Live Music

ENJOY ticketed headline concerts by folk fiddler and singer Eliza Carthy, of Robin Hood’s Bay, at Staithes Memorial Village Hall from 7.30pm to 9.30pm tonight and Saltburn-by-the-Sea shanty group Saltburn Smugglers, same venue, same show time, tomorrow.

Look out too for a packed programme around the village with full details at https://www.staithesfestival.com/music. Many performances are free to attend, with donations welcomed in support of Staithes Festival or the RNLI (from Lifeboat House performances). View music programme and book tickets.

Taking part will be Dire Staithes and Wall Of Noise tonight; Saltburn Ukulele Band, Men Of Staithes, Becky Foord, Nick Rooke Band and Andy Blackford’s WYSIWYG tomorrow; Irish Coalminers Fylingdales Folk Choir, Michael Nagasaka and Ben Beattie and Men Of Staithes on Sunday. Look out for buskers and pop-up performances around Staithes throughout Saturday and Sunday.

Heritage

DISCOVER the stories, history and landscape of Staithes through heritage talks, guided walks, geology, fossils and events celebrating the village’s artistic and maritime past.Some heritage events are free, while others require payment or advance booking at https://www.tickettailor.com/events/staithesfestivalofartsandheritage.

South Bank Studios seascape acrylic artist Carolyn Coles: Taking part in Staithes Festival of Arts and Heritage at Kindly Light, Wesleyan Chapel, Chapel Yard, Staithes

Further highlights

Outdoor Cinema at Kippers Corner

Friday and Saturday, 9pm

Venue: Kippers Corner, High Street
Cost: Free
Presented by: Staithes Cinema Club

As the sun sets, join the gathering on the High Street opposite Kippers Corner. Bring your deckchairs and blankets for a screening of films about Staithes’ past and present, telling the story of thisremarkable village.

Booking: No booking required
More information: www.facebook.com/staithescinemaclub

Lighting Show

Friday and Saturday evening

Venue: Around the village
Cost: Free

As dusk settles over Staithes, visitors can look forward to the festival’s lighting show, adding colour, atmosphere and a little extra magic to the village after dark.

Booking: No booking required

Fossils, Science & Nature

Staithes Rocks: Guides rock platform walks

Saturday, 9.45am to12.30pm

Venue: Staithes Harbour Beach
With: Earth Science Outreach UK
Cost: £12
Booking: Advance booking required
Book tickets: Staithes Rock & Fossil Safari Tickets, Multiple dates | Eventbrite

Explore the Jurassic world on a guided rock-platform walk between Staithes Harbour and Old Nab.

The people behind the Yorkshire Fossil Festival bring together a family programme of fossils, science and creativity, with walks, talks, craft workshops and hands-on activities exploring the deep-time heritage of Staithes and the surrounding area.

Suitable for beginners and enthusiasts.

More information: Earth Science Outreach UK

Yorkshire Marine Nature Partnership

Saturday, 10am to 4pm

Venue: Cowbar Staith
Cost: Free

Explore examples of Concrete Coast enhancements designed to blur the boundary between land and sea, helping coastal defences work for both people and nature.

Be inspired by coastal textures and your own relationship with the sea, then contribute to a collaborative community print tapestry.

Booking: No booking required—drop in throughout the day

Fossil Art and Palaeontology Workshop

Saturday, 1.30pm–3.30pm

Venue: Staithes Harbour Beach
With: Earth Science Outreach
Cost: Free

GO hands-on with creative activities led by creative scientists.

Part of the Staithes Rocks programme, this drop-in workshop brings together fossils, science and creativity while exploring the deep-time heritage of Staithes and the surrounding area.

Suitable for beginners and enthusiasts.

Booking: Staithes Rock & Fossil Safari Tickets, Multiple dates | Eventbrite

More information: Facebook page

Needle felt/pyrography by Whitby artist Lacey Brown at St Peter’s Centre, Church Street, Staithes

North York Moors National Park: Information and Nature Activity

Saturday and Sunday, 10am to5pm

Venue: Garden of Poplar House, High Street, near Staithes Museum
Cost: Free

Visit the North York Moors National Park team to discover more about the diverse landscape surrounding Staithes.

You can take part in an activity to create a growing display of positive actions and inspiring ideas for nature recovery.

Booking: No booking required
More information: North York Moors National Park | NYMNP

The Amazing Technicolor Pendulums

Saturday and Sunday, 10.30am–4pm

Venue: Cleveland Corrosion, Bank Top
Cost: Free

Discover what happens when engineering and science become kinetic art.

Watch colour, movement and physics come together as swinging pendulums create constantly changing patterns in this family-friendly display.

Booking: No booking required

Heritage & Local History

Rod Jewell’s Staithes Experience: Heritage Exhibition

Saturday and Sunday, 10am to5pm

Venue: Granary Yard Garage Studio
Cost: Free

Roll up, roll up for a continuous and rare silent film showing the arrival of the motorised Staithes lifeboat in 1924, along with reels from Rod’s treasured Victorian magic-lantern collection of unpublished slides featuring bygone Staithes in the 1890s, the Staithes Group of Artists and fisherfolk.

Immerse yourself in collector Rod’s Staithes Experience. Photographs, antiques, ephemera and bric-a-brac will be on display and available to buy.

Rod is the author of the photographic village history Staithes: Between Two Nabs.

Booking: No booking required

An artwork by York digital photomontage and mixed media artist Adele Karmazyn. Find her work rooted in a fascination with antiquities, weathered textures and forgotten spaces at High House, Cinder Path, Staithes

Bill Hinchley’s Guided History Walk

Saturday and Sunday, 11am to1pm

Meeting point: Bank Top viewpoint, Staithes Lane
Cost: Donations in aid of the Great North Air Ambulance
Booking: Advance booking required

Join lifelong Staithes resident and historian Bill Hinchley for a captivating heritage walk through the village.

Equipped with coastal humour, personal memories and rich storytelling, Bill brings the historic fishing village vividly to life.

Book your walk:

Saturday, 11am–1pm Buy tickets – Bill Hinchley’s Guided History Walk around the village – Saturday 11am-1pm – Meet Bank Top viewpoint, Staithes Lane.
Sunday, 11am–1pm –Select tickets – Bill Hinchley’s Guided History Walk – Sunday 11am-1pm – Meet Bank Top viewpoint, Staithes Lane.

More information: Free video of a snippit of Bills walk – also available free to watch at Staithes Museum

Caroline Hawley Treasure Valuations

Saturday and Sunday, 11am to 4pm

Venue: Poplar House, High Street
Cost: £5 per lot consigned, payable on the day

Find out more about your family heirlooms, prized possessions or boot-sale bargains with Bargain Hunt’s Caroline Hawley and her auctioneer husband, John.

Hawleys Auctioneers will be on hand to value and share information about jewellery, watches, coins, silver, paintings and objets d’art.

For larger items, please bring photographs.

Booking: No booking required—pay on the day

More Information: Hawleys

Shoal, by Saltburn by the Sea wildlife artist Dennis Roddam, on show at Valley View, Staithes Lane, Staithes

Creative Workshops & Demonstrations

Live Festival Illustrations with Amy Lipscombe

Friday, 6pm to 9.30pm
Saturday and Sunday, 10am–5.30pm

Venue: Windsor House, Church Street
Cost: Prices from £20, payable directly to the artist

Commission your own A6 coloured-pencil illustration of yourself, your family or even your pet as a special reminder of this year’s festival.

Amy will take a photograph during your visit and complete your illustration later that day or post it to you afterwards.

Booking: No advance booking required

More Information: Amy lipscombeart Facebook

Spin Art

Saturday and Sunday, 10am to 5pm

Venue: Singing Waters Yard, High Street
Cost: £5, payable on the day

Spin your own masterpiece with Ed and Al in Singing Waters Yard – fun for the young and not so young. Create a piece of art to take home as a memento of your visit to Staithes Festival.

Booking: No booking required—pay on the day

Painting Demonstrations with Lynton Parmar-Hemsley

Saturday and Sunday, 10.30am to 4pm

Venue: Staithes Gallery, High Street
Cost: Free

Visit Staithes Gallery during the festival weekend to see painting demonstrations by artist Lynton Parmar-Hemsley throughout Saturday and Sunday.

Booking: No booking required
More information: www.lyntonartist.com

Chiaroscuro Portrait Relief Linocut Workshop

Saturday and Sunday, 11am to 12 noon

Venue: Sunday School beneath the Wesleyan Chapel, Chapel Yard
With: Artist Ian Burke
Cost: £15
Booking: Advance booking advised

Explore the dramatic effect of light falling across one side of the face using simple relief-linocut techniques. No drawing experience is required.

Ian will provide expressive black-and-white portrait images inspired by woodcuts, which participants will transfer onto lino and carve as the first printing block. A second lino block will then be created to print the light and bring out the features through contrast and tone.

During the session, you will create your own striking chiaroscuro portrait print and explore how light can define form and expression.

Book your workshop:

Saturday, 11am–12 noon Buy tickets – “Artist Ian Burke’s Chiaroscuro Portraits Relief Linocut Workshop Saturday 12th September – Sunday School under the Wesleyan Chapel, Chapel Yard
Sunday, 11am–12 noon Buy tickets – “Artist Ian Burke’s Chiaroscuro Portraits Relief Linocut Workshop” – Sunday school Chapel Yard

More information: www.ianburkepainterprintmaker.com

Preening, Staithes, by Yorkshire wildlife artist Tracey Waddington, whose work will be at Harbour Cottage, High Street, Staithes

Recycled Copper Ring-Making

Saturday and Sunday, 1pm to 5pm

Venue: Chapel Garth, High Street
With: Bean Creative
Cost: £7 per person, payable on the day
Session length: Approximately 20 minutes

Try something a little different by making your own unique copper-pipe ring using old plumbing parts. Become creative with files and hammers to produce a beautiful ring: the perfect piece of recycled festival jewellery.

Booking: No booking required
More information: Bean Creative Jewellery

Painting Demonstration with Sue Nichol

Saturday, 1.30pm–2.30pm

Venue: Laura Knight’s Studio
Cost: Free

Join artist Sue Nichol for a free drop-in painting demonstration. She will show how she creates her bold and colourful paintings inspired by the Yorkshire coast and its famous sailing cobles.

Booking: No booking required
More information: www.suenicholartist.com

Family Activities

Staithes Co-op Children’s Art Competition

Saturday, 10am to 4pm

Venue: Cowbar Staith
Cost: Free

View the artwork created by the talented winners of the children’s seaside art competition and have a go at winning raffle prizes.All funds raised will help support the festival.

Booking: No booking required
More information: Co-op

Poetry & Performance

The Stand-Up Tragedy Show

Sunday, 10.15am to 11.45am

Venue: The Lifeboat Shed
Cost: Free
With: Andy Blackford, Carmen Marcus and Bob Beagrie

The Stand-Up Tragedy Show features Andy Blackford—voted 1970’s Man Least Likely To Make 30—and his more talented friends, the poets Carmen Marcus and Bob Beagrie.

Booking: No booking required
More information: https://www.bobbeagrie.co.uk

Plan your visit

Please note, there is no festival visitor parking in the old village. Instead, festival parking will be available at Cowbar, with a free shuttle service for visitors who need assistance.

Check the latest parking, travel and accessibility information before setting off. For more information, go to: https://www.staithesfestival.com/plan-your-visit-to-staithes/parking.php.

Posted on

REVIEW: Martin Dreyer’s verdict on North York Moors Chamber Music Festival, Dialogue and The Dividing Line, St Hilda’s, Danby and St Hedda’s, Egton Bridge, August 11 and 13

Violinist Charlotte Scott

THE titles – the festival’s own – give a rough indication of where we are in this year’s theme of Creation.

Dialogue is self-explanatory; the Dividing Line is that between earth and sky. Each of these recitals in churches on the northern edge of the North York Moors featured a world premiere, in a context of related works, old and new.

The afternoon in Danby involved only three violinists: Alena Baeva, Benjamin Baker and Charlotte Scott. Two pieces each by Bach and Berio framed two dances by Saariaho and the world premiere of Creation by Isabella Gellis, the only work in the programme involving all three players.

She describes it as a reimagining of an aria about a butterfly, sung by the Child in her 2024 opera The Devil’s Den, which was staged by Opera North last November. The role requires some daunting vocal pyrotechnics.

In the earlier part of its eight minutes, a glissando and close harmony set up a sense of lament. These recurred later, but the highest voice emerged gently at first and then with full-throated lyricism before lower, slower voices suggested the butterfly temporarily at rest.

It was not long before a series of high-note signposts, against tremolo accompaniment, grew ever more intense, keenly reflecting the original aria. Finally this dissipated into hovering harmony, in a pianissimo that stopped abruptly. Even without the visual reference, the piece stands alone most effectively.

Charlotte Scott despatched an immaculate if slightly deliberate account of Bach’s Second Partita for solo violin at the start, which was more than matched by Alena Baeva’s concluding no-holds-barred version of his taxing Chaconne, in which the three voices within the score emerged clearly.

Benjamin Baker teamed up with each of them in turn in five of Berio’s Duetti, bringing out the more lyrical sides of the composer’s human portraits. All three players warmed up for the Gellis with a suitably balletic approach to Saariaho’s two Danses des Flocons.

There were no less than a baker’s dozen of players on hand two afternoons later in Egton Bridge. The first half of the programme culminated in the world premiere of Charlotte Bray’s That Which You Wove Of Lightest Thread, I Wear To Honour Stone, for horn and string quartet.

Its title is taken from Paul Celan’s poem Totenhemd (‘death shirt’). What made this unusual was its close affiliation with a woven installation by the artist Caroline Burraway, which was on display in the nave. It consisted of a number of largely dessicated leaves woven together with human hair. It was deliberately designed to fall apart over time.

Bray’s music had a similar feel. Most of the action was in the solo horn, now in brief fanfares or calls to action, now less affirmative, more faltering. Its lines were brief rather than lyrical. Underneath the

string quartet wavered uncertainly, as if quaking at the horn’s decisiveness and fearful of its dominance. It was as if the horn was a tyrant, the strings his cowering people. This was musical impressionism in modern guise.

It had been preceded without a break by Thea Musgrave’s evocative Dawn, for oboe solo (Nicholas Daniel), followed by Kurtag’s Ligatura (from The Answered Unanswered Question), in the version for two violins, two cellos and celeste, and Ives’s The Unanswered Question, with Ben Goldscheider’s horn standing in for the trumpet and the wind quartet ‘chorus’ playing from behind the audience, attempting to answer the question of the title. The three works made an effective sequence and a useful prologue to the Bray.

Schubert’s String Quintet after the interval got off to a less than persuasive start, where slightly stronger accents might been more effective. The second movement hovered as it should and there was a welcome injection of light-heartedness in the Scherzo.

The finale came together with some force, the instruments now seeming more settled with each other. Much of the ensemble’s energy seemed to radiate not so much from the first violin, Alena Baeva, but from the centrally positioned viola, Sascha Bota, whose glances in all directions acted as a focus for his colleagues. It was a solidly competent rather a memorable account.

Oboe player Nicholas Daniel

Highlights from the Second Week, North York Moors Chamber Music Festival, August 17 to 22, at Welburn Manor Marquee unless otherwise stated

IN retrospect, the first half of ‘From the Silence’ (August 17) was relatively unexciting. The sudden rhythmic interjections in Thomas Adès’s piano work Traced Overhead, played by Joseph Havlat, and the largely slow-paced and thoroughly thought-laden And Other Things by Isabella Gellis, for clarinet, cello and piano, threatened to outstay their welcomes.

Dream, by Huw Watkins, for clarinet, violin and piano, was much more incident-packed, belying its title. From a quiet start, it exploded into fire. The piano calmed things down, but the other instruments lost patience with this and erupted again. Stimulating.  Adès’s Four Berceuses were surely ironically titled: definitely not recommended for lulling a child to sleep.

After the interval, reverting to Mozart and Beethoven, we might have expected classical normality. We were wrong. In Mozart’s Oboe Quartet in F, the typical approach is for oboe to dominate and the supporting strings to fill in where needed. This was quite different. All four players were totally engaged, the strings not to be outdone by the soloist and making their presence felt at every opportunity, weaving in and out of the texture with deft inflexions all round.

The slow movement was utterly soulful, rivetingly so up to and including its final cadence. In the finale, with all four going hell for leather, ensemble remained taut. This was the most exciting account of the work one could ever expect to hear, sensational in its daring and impact, certainly not what one might anticipate in a work that can easily sound bland. This was anything but. The deft oboist was Nicholas Daniel, with violinist Benjamin Baker, viola player Simone van der Giessen and cellist Tim Posner in close attendance.

By the time we reached Beethoven’s ‘Ghost’ Trio, Op 70 No 1, rain lashing the canvas made life difficult for players and audience alike. It had its compensations, however. The first movement was exceptionally fiery – a matter of self-defence – yet with some exceptionally subtle phrasing in its development section.

The Largo took on an extra layer of creepiness in this weather. The finale took time to outweigh the demons conjured in the Largo, but eventually – with the rain now letting up – moved into sunnier, pastoral climes. It was a brave and ultimately satisfying account.

* * * * *

THE next afternoon in a packed St Mary’s, Lastingham (August 18), ‘The Architect’s Hand’ offered Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet, partnered by the world premiere of an oboe quartet by Huw Watkins, whose String Trio made such a profound effect in this venue last year.

The Mozart was marked by clarinettist Matthew Hunt’s clear attempt to blend as smoothly as possible with the strings, made possible only by his extraordinary breath control. His duetting with first violinist Charlotte Scott in the slow movement, for example, was ideally balanced, all strings being muted here.

The strings made a shapely impact in the first of the Scherzo’s trios (where clarinet is silent). But it was in the six variations of the finale that Hunt really came into his own. Skipping between octaves in the first variation, bubbling in chalumeau register in the second, he was particularly effervescent in the fourth. In the more chromatic final two variations, the ensemble delivered some teasing pauses and tempo-changes.

Oboist-in-residence Nicholas Daniel returned to the front line in Watkins’s exciting new work. He was partnered by violinist Benjamin Baker, viola player Simone van der Giessen and cellist Jamie Walton, very much an ‘A’ Team. Into some fierce opening string chords, the oboe crept gingerly before building furiously as its tessitura rose, against highly syncopated strings. This movement faded dreamily at its close.

In a largely slow movement, Baker’s violin was much the most agitated participant, its decorative roulades contrasting with the largely calm, pastoral mood of the oboe and lower strings. The oboe’s legato line was a delight. Virtuoso runs in the oboe dominated the finale, where all four players were kept busy.

It was if the oboe were challenging the others to follow him. This they did after the opening triplet motif made a reappearance, whereupon all four took flight, the oboe rising ever higher towards an extremelyeffective, hushed ending.

* * * * *

‘NIGHTFALL’ (August 20) opened with the pianist Katya Apekisheva playing another three of Schumann’s Fantasiestucke Op 12, which have been featured throughout the festival. Aptly, her phrasing was particularly lovely in Des Abends (‘In the evening’).

It was the prelude to the UK premiere of Tom Coult’s Two Nocturnes And A Maze, for horn, violin and piano, which was written for performance in a hillside church in the Swiss Alps.

As one might expect, there were echoes of Alpine horn in Nocturne I, to which piano responded chordally and violin in jerky fashion. Nocturne II was much closer to Bartok’s night-music, with a repeated-note motif batted between horn and violin, as the horn became gradually higher and more sustained. It finished sparsely, with single notes from each player.

In between, Maze, with horn now muted at first, the texture was lighter and airier, with pizzicato violin and staccato piano. The relationship between the three parts was vague but the combinations were engaging.

Daniel Lebhardt followed the opening movement of Beethoven’s ‘Moonlight’ Sonata, with the slow movement of Schubert’s Piano Sonata in B flat, D.960. He was splendidly grand in its bold central section.

Apekisheva returned, with violinist Benjamin Baker and cellist Jamie Walton, the festival director, for an affecting account of Schubert’s single-movement Trio D.897 (nicknamed – not by Schubert – ‘Notturno’). Its opening is curiously marked pianissimo and appassionato. We certainly sensed the passion here.

* * * * *

THE closing afternoon concert (August 22), ‘…In The End’, juxtaposed Mozart’s First Piano Quartet, K.478 with Schumann’s Piano Quintet, a lusciously attractive combination. In the Mozart, Lebhardt was the pianist, supporting Alessandro Ruisi (violin), Emma Wernig (viola) and Bartholomew LaFollette (cello). It took the repeat of the exposition for it to be clearly defined, after which the ensemble mined the rich seam of drama in the development section.

The slow movement was as tender as could be imagined. In the rondo finale, Lebhardt turned the various returns to the theme into fascinating mini-cadenzas,  but the four players were a little tentative in their interactions.

A more familiar combination of players turned out for the Schumann. Baker’s fellow-violinist was Oliver Heath, alongside Simone van der Giessen (viola) and Jamie Walton (cello), underpinned by Apekisheva’s piano. Oddly enough, this is the first work in the repertoire for this particular combination of instruments.

The second theme in the first movement, shared between cello and viola, was delightfully lyrical, straight from the heart of the Romantic era. The slow movement, more or less a funeral march, ebbed and flowed tellingly, before an ending delivered without vibrato.

 In the whirlwind Scherzo, the passage-work from the strings was especially crisp, leading into a finale that reminded us just how expert Apekisheva can be in a supporting role: she sustained an immaculate balance with the strings rather than turning it into a mini-piano concerto, particularly in the concluding fugato. The thunderous applause was appropriate, as much for the work itself as for the ending of another highly successful festival.

Reviews by Martin Dreyer

Posted on

Festival of the week: York Chamber Music Festival, September 11 to 13

Tim Lowe: York Chamber Music Festival founder, artistic director and cellist

SINCE its founding by cellist Tim Lowe in 2013, York Chamber Music Festival has gone from strength to strength.

This year the festival has invited six of the best string players in Europe – Charlotte Scott and Tim Crawford, violins, Simone van der Giessen and Lilli Maijala, violas, and Adrian Brendel and Lowe, cellos, to participate, along with regular festival artist Katya Apekisheva, the British-based Russian pianist.

This week’s event at the National Centre for Early Music (NCEM), Walmgate, Union Chapel, St Saviourgate, Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, University of York, and St Olave’s Church, Marygate Lane, celebrates the brilliance of the chamber music repertoire, focused on the radiant, melody-rich string quintets of Mendelssohn and Brahms.

Pianist Katya Apekisheva

Across the weekend, festival-goers can experience music in all imaginable instrumental combinations, from the profound intimacy of Brendel’s solo cello recital featuring Bach’s Suite No. 2, to a dynamic duo performance by Lowe and Apekisheva and expansive works for quartet and quintet.

Headline highlights include Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio in D minor — hailed by Schumann as “the master trio of our age” — and Chopin’s lyrical Cello Sonata, his undisputed chamber masterpiece.

“We are also thrilled to present Beethoven’s rare and sublime C Major String Quintet, an 1801 gem that features a slow movement of breathtaking warmth and beauty that bridges his early classical style with the vast ‘inner world’ slow movements he became famous for later in life,” says artistic director Lowe.

Violinist Charlotte Scott

Violinist Tim Crawford. Picture: Andrej Grilc

After last year’s festival, Lowe was gratified to receive this message among the audience feedback: “What spontaneity, what passion, what delight in collective music-making, what beauty! They listen and respond to each other, play for, and to, and with their friends (as they so obviously are), sharing their pleasure with us – and we are privileged to overhear that love for and engagement with the music, true chamber-music playing.”

The full programme can be found at the festival website: https://www.ycmf.co.uk/2026-programme. Tickets are available from the NCEM box office, at St Margaret’s Church, Walmgate, York. Alternatively, book at ycmf.co.uk or phone 01904 658338 in office hours. A Festival Saver ticket offers extra value for those wanting to attend multiple concerts. Those aged 18 and under can enjoy free admission to all events.  

Cellist Adrian Brendel. Picture: Peter Adamik

Festival programme in brief:

Today, 1pm to 2pm, Unitarian Chapel, cello recital, Tim Lowe and Katya Apekisheva play Mendelssohn’s Variations Concertantes, Chopin’s Cello Sonata and Martinů’s Rossini Variations.

Today, 7.30pm, NCEM, Charlotte Scott, Tim Crawford, Simone van der Giessen, Lilli Maijala, Tim Lowe and Adrian Brendel play Joseph Haydn’s String Quartet in D major, Op. 20, No. 4, Sergei Rachmaninoff’s ‘Romance’ from String Quartet No. 1 (Andante espressivo) and Felix Mendelssohn’s String Quintet No. 2 in B flat major, Op.87.

Nordic viola player Lilli Maijala

Tomorrow, 1pm to 2pm, Unitarian Chapel,  cello recital, Adrian Brendel plays Imogen Holst’s The Fall Of The Leaf and J. S. Bach’s Cello Suite No 2 in D Minor.

Tomorrow, 7.30pm, Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, Charlotte Scott,Tim Crawford, Simone van der Giessen, Lilli Maijala, Tim Lowe, Adrian Brendel and Katya Apekisheva play Felix Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio No 1 in D minor Op 49, Gustav Mahler’s Piano Quartet (movement) in A minor – Nicht zu schnell (not too fast) and Johannes Brahms’s Piano Quartet in C minor Op 60.

Sunday, 3pm to 4.30pm, St Olave’s Church, Charlotte Scott,Tim Crawford, Simone van der Giessen, Lilli Maijala, Tim Lowe and Adrian Brendel play Ludwig van Beethoven’s String Quintet in C Major Op. 29 and Johannes Brahms’s String Quintet in F major, Op. 88.

Viola player Simone van der Giessen

Posted on

REVIEW: MARMITE Theatre in Ladies’ Day, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York ****

Nicki Clay’s Shelley, left, and Gemma McDonald’s Linda in MARMiTE Theatre’s Ladies Day

AMANDA Whittington’s frisky-as-a-colt northern comedy-drama is on to a winner once more, this time trained by Martyn Hunter in the colours of MARMiTE Theatre.

Premiered by Hull Truck Theatre in 2005 to take advantage of Royal Ascot’s migration north to York Racecourse that summer, Ladies’ Day was last saddled up at Theatre@41, Monkgate, by Robert Readman’s Pick Me Up Theatre in 2019 with a cast led by the formidable female frontline of Rosy Rowley, Florence Poskett, Bromwyn Jennison and May Tether.

Lucy Beaumont, later to flourish as a none-more-Hull comedian, had made her professional debut as shy Linda in the Hull Truck show by the way.

Jeanette Hunter’s Pearl, left, Nicki Clay’s Shelley and Jackie Cox’s sozzled Jan in MARMiTE Theatre’s Ladies Day. Picture: Lucy Baines

Martyn Hunter had no hesitation in picking his principal quartet without auditions for MARMiTE Theatre’s second production, following up last autumn’s sold-out debut account of The Vicar Of Dibley.

Jeanette Hunter’s Pearl is on the cusp of leaving the Hessle fish-filleting factory where she works with food-obsessed Jan (Jackie Cox), diffident Tony Christie fan Linda (Rowntree Players pantomime goofball Gemma McDonald) and brassy, brittle wannabe celebrity Shelley (Nicki Clay, so splendid as vicar Geraldine in The Vicar Of  Dibley).

Readman had favoured two burgeoning talents in Poskitt and the now professional Tether, alongside Rowley and Jemmison, whereas Hunter banks on years and years of experience in his quartet, as Pearl heads off with the girls to Ladies’ Day at Royal Ascot on the Knavesmire track for her “non-retirement” party.

Jeanette Hunter’s Pearl, left, Nicki Clay’s Shelley, Jackie Cox’s Jan and Gemma McDonald’s Linda hoping for victory for Broken Dream in the sixth race in Ladies’ Day. Picture: Lucy Baines

Matched by Hunter’s design switching from white tiles and work surfaces to the pageantry of the racecourse, depicted in scenery artist Lucy Baines’s Knavesmire mural, they transform from peaked caps and white wellies to their Ascot glad rags and fascinators. Like Cinderella, all they need now is a ticket to have a ball, whereupon Linda chances across a mislaid handbag with four tickets inside.

“It’s stealing,” she says. “It’s fate,” says last-chance saloon dreamer Shelley, and in they go, placing a jackpot accumulator across the race card with each selection picked for its Tony Christie connection.

What ensues is a comedy whose breeding bears hallmarks of both Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady and John Godber’s stable of fast and furious, physical, happy-sad plays, where characters look to improve their circumstances as the ordinary briefly encounters the extraordinary.

Trevor Britain’s world-weary Irish jockey Patrick and Gemma McDonald’s Linda, Tony Christie’s number one fan, in Ladies’ Day. Picture: Lucy Baines

At work, the girls gossip, tease, spark and spar to counter the monotony,  singing Tony Christie’s (Is This The Way To) Amarillo and Michael Jackson’s Ben, and dreaming beyond the Hessle hustle and bustle. On the course, they still gossip, tease, spark and spar, but Whittington’s broad, brash comedy is underscored by darkness, in part influenced by the prodigious intake of alcohol by all but Linda.

Each makes a startling revelation as the day at the races progresses and the accumulator wins pile up towards the climactic sixth race. If Broken Dream wins, they will take home £500,000. If not, their dreams are broken.

In Hull, York pantomime regular Martin Barrass had brought chameleon character acting skills and comic craft to playing all of Whittington’s roster of men, who each crave an injection of happiness in their daily routines.

Jackie Cox’s Jan listens to Jeanette Hunter’s Pearl as she reveals her secret in Ladies’ Day. Picture: Lucy Baines

Hunter makes the decision to spread the roles, being rewarded by colourful turns by Chris Gibson’s Joe, the Australia-bound factory foreman; Robbie Howe’s leery, jaundiced TV racing pundit Jim McCormack; Stuart Rae’s cynical ticket tout Fred and drunken betting addict Kevin and Trevor Britain’s exotically coiffured Tony Christie and wistful veteran Irish jockey Patrick.

Martyn Hunter makes a late cameo appearance as bookie Barry in the play’s most heart-rending scene with wife Jeanette’s Pearl, to the accompaniment of Westverse’s cover of Unchained Melody. Pearl, who has hidden a secret for seven years, brings out the full range of Jeanette’s acting, adding grit to the familiar sparkle.  

Cox handles the tricky challenge of Jan’s drunk-as-a-skunk  behaviour with aplomb; McDonald’s Linda, the quiet one with the troublesome mother, suddenly blossoms with new radiance; Clay’s Shelley is the tour-de-force standout, even more vulnerable than the rest behind the boldest of fronts.

Robbie Howe’s TV racing pundit Jim spins his yarn to Nicki Clay’s Shelley in Ladies’ Day. Picture: Lucy Baines

Hunter’s design uses York Races and Royal Ascot insignia, a railing and foliage to set the scene, while a television screen announces each scene change and the betting odds for each race. Look out for the MARMiTE name on the fish factory sign.

There is so much to love about MARMiTE Theatre’s version of  a play long established as worthy of the winner’s enclosure.  Should you see it?  You bet!

MARMiTE Theatre presents Ladies’ Day, Theatre@41, Monkgate, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus  2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Posted on

Fair of the week: 2026 York Book Fair, York Racecourse, York, tomorrow and Saturday

York artist Mark Hearld’s poster illustration for the 2026 York National Book Fair

YORK National Book Fair, the largest antiquarian book fair in Great Britain, will be held in the Knavesmire Suite at York Racecourse, Knavesmire, York, on September 11 , from 12 noon to 7pm, and September 12, 10am to 5pm.

As many as 185 ‘bookshops’ will be set up under one roof with prices ranging from only a few pounds to tens of thousands. All subjects, all dates, from medieval to ultra-modern, will be on sale, along with ephemera, manuscripts, prints and photographs.

Two new exhibitors specialising in collectable posters will join this year’s line-up at a fair organised by Tony Fothergill, of Ken Spelman Books, Lucius Books, based in Micklegate, and Janette Ray, who runs a rare and and out-of-print bookshop, focusing on architecture, design, art, photography and landscape subjects, in Bootham, on behalf of the Provincial Booksellers Fairs Association.

A range of trade stands will sell marbled papers and binding materials, complemented by providers of services to the book trade, including software and packaging material suppliers,

From modest beginnings with only 20 exhibitors at the White Swan Inn in York in 1974, the York Book Fair has grown into the largest, and many say friendliest, rare, antiquarian and out-of–print book fair in the UK and Europe.

Anyone interested in books and reading is encouraged to attend a fair that is not only for dealers or traders but also is open to everyone young and old and is an ideal place to start collecting, with more than 100,000 books – some more than 500 years old – for sale.  

York Raceourse offers unlimited free parking and a free shuttle bus will run from the Memorial Gardens on Railway Street, to Knavesmire, every 30 minutes.

Tickets on the door cost £2. Alternatively, head to https://yorkbookfair.com/one-day-complimentary-ticket-2/ to download a complimentary ticket. Children aged under 16 are admitted for free.

Posted on

REVIEW: Alan Ayckbourn’s The Trial Of Romeo Oscar, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, until October 3 ****

Frances Marshall’s Allistra Clay, left, Elizabeth Boag’s Devaney Dyer, Leigh Symonds’s Octavius and Richard Stacey’s RSDO 83 in Alan Ayckbourn’s The Trial Of Romeo Oscar. Picture: Tony Bartholomew

YOU might think it would be impossible for Alan Ayckbourn still to come up with a first in his seventh decade as a playwright.

Wrong! You should know better! Play number 92 is his inaugural courtroom drama, but one set in a dystopian future in a first of its own: the first murder trial of a non-human in the year 2194, with the undercurrent of a detective story bubbling away too.

In a riff on the infamous promotional tagline for Ridley Scott’s 1979 science-fiction horror movie Alien, Ayckbourn pronounces that “in space no-one can hear you dream”: the first indication of the play’s lament for the decreasing role of the arts, whether theatre or music, whether Shakespeare or Tchaikovsky, on the educational curriculum now, let alone 168 years henceforward.

Latterly, Ayckbourn has switched between writing about the past and the future, but all the while commenting on the present that constantly disappoints, even disturbs, him.

Richard Stacey’s RSDO 83 and Olivia Woolhouse’s Hermione Quinque re-enacting the the tomb scene from Shakespeare’s Romeo And Juliet in the courtroom in The Trial Of Romeo Oscar. Picture: Tony Bartholomew

Rather than the grouchiness of ornery old age, his writing remains vibrant, innovative, full of wit and wisdom, surprise and mischief, more sage than rage in delivery at 87.

You will hear his recorded voice too in his original soundscape for The Trial Of Romeo Oscar, whether pronouncing the request for mobile phones to be switched to mute or announcing the journey from the surface to Defence Suite 19 of the Subterranean Hub 19, 27 levels down in the Citrus Legal Complex, and later, for Act II, some days later, to Courtroom 3  on Level 3 of Kevin Jenkins’ futuristic set design.

The Citrus Corporation runs everything, both the lay of the parched land and the law of the land, now that central government has been replaced by big corporations. It is uncomfortably close to today’s march of AI, the rise of the tech brothers and Elon Musk brandishing his Doge chainsaw at the Conservative Political Action Conference.

On Earth, or Terra as it is now called, trees and house plants are confined to museums, music has been replaced by bleeps and beats (isn’t that happening already?!) and Shakespeare is no longer taught to the likes of Elizabeth Boag’s Devaney Dyer, the Firebrand Corporation’s Yorkshire-blunt chief engineer, whose skills are in her hands.

Alan Ayckbourn: First courtroom drama in his 92nd play. Picture: Tony Bartholomew, 2020

She is repairing Richard Stacey’s RSDO 83, a war hero from recent days, to prepare this battered military-issue android to face trial for killing a 13-year-old girl who had been in his care since her parents took their own lives. 

RSDO 83’s reconstruction is being overseen by Leigh Symonds’s Assistant Arbiter Octavius, a sanguine humanoid court official, who learns new words, aphorisms and phrases each day in a running joke by Ayckbourn that delights in the vagaries of the English language.

This is typical of the slower-than-usual release of accumulative humour in Ayckbourn’s script, where so much exposition is necessary to set up the milieu: a world outwardly unfamiliar and yet redolent of the woes and wars of today.

Once the characters and their characterisation, their tropes and mannersisms, become familiar, their interaction leads to drama that is both gravely serious and yet waspish in its wit underneath the troubled surface.

Leigh Symonds’s Assistant Arbiter Octavius, left, keeps his head down as Russell Richardson’s judge, Arbiter Jefferies, makes his point. Picture: Tony Bartholomew

RSDO 83 may be the accused in the legal landmark case, but humanity is on trial as Ayckbourn asks the question: What makes us human? Art, music, literature, as much as science, is the answer of a playwright who has long been fascinated by science fiction.

Allistra Clay (York actress Frances Marshall) is appointed RSDO 83’s defence counsel on the grounds that she will know nothing about the case, as she is from Titan. Titan, however, is milk and honey by comparison with the Earth. Not caught up in the war, it still values music and literature, and so she can call on her knowledge of Romeo And Juliet for this new tale of Romeo Oscar and a girl called Juliet that will mirror the tragic path of Shakespeare’s play.

The case for the defence will be laid out with the aid of Olivia Woolhouse’s Hermione Quinque, a waitress picked from multiple theatre trainees to play Juliet. This is the cue for Ayckbourn’s in-jokes about there being nothing new in most actors being unemployed or forming a company called Spare Parts.

Later, he will top those quips with Hermione saying she could do her part in the trial again as she had been better in rehearsal. You can sense Ayckbourn’s years of experience in the rehearsal room pouring out into this biting dialogue.

Hayden Wood’s prosecutor, Ronal Lime-Tyler, grills the defendant, Richard Stacey’s RSDO 83. Picture: Tony Bartholomew

Yet he is wearing the equivalent of a judge’s black cap in passing sentence on mankind’s failings in Act Two, where Russell Richardson’s jaunty judge, Arbiter Jefferies, and Hayden Wood’s smarmy, smug prosecutor, Ronal Lime-Tyler, come to the fore, pitched against Marshall’s eloquent, meticulous Clay.

Stacey’s RSDO 83 and Woolhouse’s Hermione play out Romeo And Juliet’s fatal tomb scene: a play within a play that adds to the devastating impact of both. When Symonds’s Octavius borrows the closing couplet from Shakespeare’s tragedy, ”For never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo”, its sentiment applies as much to Ayckbourn’s characters.

The poster, with its image of an android warrior holding the hand of young girl looking out over a desert, makes no mention of writer-director Alan Ayckbourn, but his name runs through every scene like a seaside stick of rock.  Once more, his writing will be music to your ears.

The Trial Of Romeo Oscar, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, until October 3. Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.

ON the subject of names: here are the latest additions to Alan Ayckbourn’s notebook of nomenclatures across 92 plays: Octavius, Allistra, Ronal, Devaney, Romeo and Hermione are used for the first time in The Trial Of Romeo Oscar.

The poster for Alan Ayckbourn’s The Trial Of Romeo Oscar

Posted on

What’s On in Ryedale, York and beyond. Hutch’s List No. 37, from Gazette & Herald

Georgina Fairbanks and Johnson Willis in Wilko: Love and Death and Rock’n’Roll at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Nick Haeffner

WILKO Johnson’s miraculous renaissance, Alan Ayckbourn’s first courtroom drama, Phil Wang’s wise moustache and The Dunwells’ indie-folk rock spark Charles Hutchinson’s attention in the week ahead.

Punk godfather of the week: Wilko: Love and Death and Rock’n’Roll, York Theatre Royal, tomorrow to Saturday, 7.30pm and 2.30pm Saturday matinee   

WHEN Dr Feelgood co-founder and iconic guitarist Wilko Johnson faced a terminal cancer diagnosis in 2012, he was given only one year left to live. Declining medical intervention, Wilko chose to dedicate his remaining time to a meaningful farewell tour of the people and places that defined his life…only for an unexpected miracle to change the narrative entirely.

Jonathan Maitland’s Wilko: Love and Death and Rock’n’Roll examines the life of this punk-movement godfather, tracing a career that spanned Dr Feelgood, the Solid Senders, Ian Dury and The Blockheads and a late-career turn to acting in Game Of Thrones. Integrating live music and storytelling with Wilko’s own words, this show serves as a practical masterclass in living life to the fullest. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Richard Stacey’s war hero RSDO 83 and York actress Frances Marshall’s defence counsel Allistra Clay in Alan Ayckbourn’s The Trial of Romeo Oscar. Picture: Tony Bartholomew

Premiere of the week: Alan Ayckbourn’s The Trial Of Romeo Oscar, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, until October 4

ALAN Ayckbourn’s 92nd play is his first courtroom drama, one set in the future, as he explores the question that artists have been asking for centuries: what makes us human?

In 2194, humanity is scattered around the solar system and day-to-day life on Earth looks very different. Preparations are underway for a landmark legal case. Romeo Oscar, a military issue android, is on trial for murder: the first non-human to be tried in a court of law. The evidence is polarising and selecting an impartial jury is proving a challenge. Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.

Movies In The Moonlight at Picturehouse Outdoor Cinema’s season in York Museum Gardens

Cinema event of the week: Picturehouse Outdoor Cinema, Movies In The Moonlight, York Museum Gardens, Friday to Sunday, 6.30pm

CITY Screen Picturehouse moves outdoors for three evenings of open-air screenings, comprising Grease (PG) on Friday, The Shining (15) and Evolution Of Horror podcast introduction on Saturday and Jurassic Park (12A) on Sunday. Screenings start at dusk or as soon as darkness falls.

Blankets, cushions and small picnic chairs are allowed. A limited number of deck chairs will be offered on a first-come, first-served basis; rain ponchos can be bought at the event, should the need arise. Guests are encouraged to take away waste for recycling where possible. Box office: picturehouses.com/outdoor-cinema/venue/york-museum-gardens.

Uh Oh! Here comes Phil Wang and his moustache that will “bristle with wisdom” at York Barbican

New moustache of the week: Phil Wang: Uh Oh, York Barbican, Friday, 7.30pm

PHILIP Nathaniel Wang Sin Goi is a Malaysian-British stand-up comedian, comedy writer and member of the sketch comedy group Daphne, who co-created the BBC Radio 4 series Daphne Sounds Expensive.

Now comes his new stand-up show, Uh Oh. In the words of Phil, “he’s older than ever before. He’s got a moustache now. It bristles with wisdom. His eyes shine with good humour. His shoulders groan under the weight of being the only cool millennial left. Everyone’s an idiot but him. Nice is out. Right is in. The vibe shift is real. Old Wang’s riding it.” Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

The boys Dunwell: Brothers Joseph and David, heading to Milton Rooms, Malton

Ryedale gig of the week: The Dunwells, Milton Rooms, Malton, Friday, 8pm

LEEDS indie-folk pop band The Dunwells have combined strong vocals, powerful melodies and heartfelt lyrics across four studio albums, a live album and a number of standout EPs and singles.

Prolific songwriting  brothers Joseph and David Dunwell, along with friends Adam Taylor and Rob Clayton, have toured extensively in the USA, Europe and the UK, as well as undertaking support slots with  Mumford & Sons, Elbow, Tom Jones, Scouting For Girls and Bryan Adams on British tours. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.

Sax to the max: Snake Davis heads to Helmsley on his Everlasting Love Tour

Saxophonist of the week: Snake Davis Band, Everlasting Love Tour, Helmsley Arts Centre, Saturday, 7.30pm

SAXOPHONIST Snake Davis is “so happy to be back at Helmsley Arts Centre yet again”, this time showcasing new tunes and a new album on the Everlasting Love Tour with his four-piece band featuring guitar, bass guitar and drums. 

The set spans “floaty to danceable, soul & Northern Soul to pop, jazz to world”, embracing original material and classic sax pieces such as Baker Street and Night Train as Snake swaps performing arena and stadium gigs with stellar acts for playing intimate venues with his favourite musicians.  Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.

James Felice & William Lawrence: Dreamy and quiet evening of Americana music and storytelling at Pocklington Arts Centre

Americana gig of the week: James Felice & William Lawrence, Pocklington Arts Centre, Saturday, 8pm

JAMES Felice and  drummer William Lawrence, two members of New York State’s  Felice Brothers, are taking to the road to perform songs from their respective solo works in a dreamy and quiet evening of Americana music and storytelling. James and William last appeared at Pocklington Arts Centre alongside Ian Felice and Jesske Hume in the Felice Brothers gig in June 2021. Box office: 01759 301547or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.

Alfie Moore: Offering the antidote to the breakdown of law and order, fake news and the price of baked beans in Acopalypse Now

Comedy gig of the week: Alfie Moore, Acopalypse Now, Milton Rooms, Malton, Sunday, 7.30pm

THE Four Horsemen of Rising Crime, Global Warming, AI and Culture Wars are galloping towards us. Are we on the road to hell? Can we avoid the potholes? In this new tour show, ‘Fair Cop’ Alfie has the antidote to the breakdown of law and order, fake news and the price of baked beans.

Moore has encountered more than his fair share of egotistical dictators in his policing career and learnt when pragmatism, and more than a dash of humour, can defuse even the most menacing showdown. Join him as he saddles up to see off those bullies on their pesky ponies. Doomsday is no laughing matter, but this show will be. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.

Chance to perform of the week: HAC Studio Bar Open Mic – Under 18s, Helmsley Arts Centre, Sunday, 2pm to 4pm

IN a special edition of Helmsley Arts Centre’s regular social event in the studio bar, young musicians and artists have the opportunity to perform. There is no need to book to take part or listen; just turn up. All under-18s must be accompanied by an adult. 

Posted on

How Jonathan Maitland turned Wilko Johnson’s renaissance into a play, Wilko: Love and Death and Rock’n’Roll. UPDATED 10/9/2026

Georgina Fairbanks and Johnson Willis in Wilko: Love and Death and Rock’n’Roll. Picture: Nick Haeffner

JONATHAN Maitland’s biographical play with live music, Wilko: Love and Death and Rock’n’Roll,  celebrates the extraordinary life of Dr Feelgood co-founder and punk-movement godfather Wilko Johnson, on tour at York Theatre Royal from tomorrow to Saturday.

Iconic yet iconoclastic guitarist Wilko – born John Andrew Wilkinson on Canvey Island, Essex on July 12 1947 – faced a terminal pancreatic cancer diagnosis in January 2013 with the expectation of only nine or ten months left to live.

Initially declining chemotherapy, Wilko chose to dedicate his remaining time to a meaningful farewell tour of the people and places that defined his life, only for an unexpected miracle to change the narrative entirely.

Here are the facts. In 2014, doctors decided the tumour was a less aggressive neuroendocrine type, whereupon Wilko underwent radical, life-saving surgery to remove a large tumour, together with his pancreas and spleen. Later he was declared cancer-free and went on to live until November 21 2022, dying at his home at Westcliff-on-Sea at the age of 75.

Playwright and former BBC journalist Jonathan Maitland already had written such plays as Dead Sheep (2015), An Audience With Jimmy Saville (2015), Deny, Deny, Deny (2016) and The Last Temptation Of Boris Johnson ( 2019)  when John’s remarkable renaissance story inspired  Wilko: Love and Death and Rock’n’Roll.

“Wilko’s is one of the greatest rock‘n’roll stories ever told and his songs are some of the greatest rock‘n’roll ever recorded,” says Jonathan. “Even so, when I first read the play to him at his home in Southend five years ago, none of us could have imagined how much his story would go on to connect with audiences. My only regret is that he’s not around to see this tour happen but I know, for sure, that he would have been absolutely thrilled.”

Maitland’s play traces Wilko’s career as a guitarist with a trademark robotic, machine-gun playing style that spanned co-founding Dr Feelgood on Canvey Island in 1971, leaving the band in 1977, serving in Ian Dury and The Blockheads from 1980 to 1982, forming the Solid Senders with Blockheads’ bassist Norman Watt-Roy and recording Going Back Home with The Who lead vocalist Roger Daltrey, entering the charts at number three in March 2014.

All this was complemented by occasional acting gigs, most notably playing mute executioner Ser Ilyn Payne in four episodes of Game Of Thrones in 2011 and 2012.

Integrating live music and storytelling with Wilko’s own words, Wilko: Love and Death and Rock’n’Roll’s “masterclass in living life to the fullest” was sent to Coventry to begin its 12-week tour on Monday. York Theatre Royal will be destination number two.

“The show is in its fourth iteration,” says Jonathan. “It broke box-office records at the Queen’s Theatre, Hornchurch, who wanted to put it on because it’s an Essex story about an Essex band; then the Southwark Playhouse in spring last year and a five-week West End run at Leicester Square Theatre – and now the tour.

The cast of Wilko: Love and Death and Rock’n’Roll performing one of nine Dr Feelgood songs in Jonathan Maitland’s play, on tour at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Nick Haeffner

Jon House’s Lee Brilleaux, Dr Feelgood’s frontman, in Wilko: Love and Death and Rock’n’Roll. Picture: Nick Haeffner

“Wilko’s story is just incredible because he was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer when his music career had hit a low point. He was playing what he called ‘s**t holes’ and had told his band he was thinking of giving up. He’d appeared in Game Of Thrones by then so the New York Times wrote ‘Game Of Thrones actor has cancer’.”

Jonathan continues: “They say the best thing you can do in rock’n’roll is die, and his transformation [post-diagnosis] became a real-life A Christmas Carol story, but in rock’n’roll where Wilko became a nicer person, like Scrooge.

“How it turned out there’d been a mix-up in his diagnosis seems incredible to me, but that’s why it’s such an amazing story with amazing music, making it a play that could have written itself.”

Wilko was given a 15 per cent chance of survival when he went through his 11-hour operation at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge on April 30 2014. “His surgeon said to him, ‘we’re going to need a lunch break’!” says Jonathan.

“The doctor who saved his life is just fantastic. He’s called Charlie Chan, a cancer doctor who was a big fan of Wilko. He’d taken a photo of Wilko at his last ever Farewell Tour gig at Camden, and when he looked at the photo, he said, ‘for someone who’s supposed to be dying, you don’t look too bad’.”

As he will discuss in tomorrow’s post-show Q&A alongside Jonathan Maitland, Charlie’s subsequent second opinion on Wilko’s terminal diagnosis led to surgeon Emmanuel Huguet  and his specialist medical team carrying out the operation.

“I’d been wanting to write a play about a guy in rock’n’roll who fakes his own death, and then Wilko did his own version of a ‘death’ story and so I thought I had to do a play about him,” says Jonathan. “When I asked him about it, he said, ‘it’s a play, plays tell stories, you can make it up. He changed only one thing , saying he was on speed, not coke!”

Jonathan recalls first hearing Wilko Johnson’s guitar on Dr Feelgood’s 1975 version of Leiber & Stoller’s Riot In Cell Block 9 off their Malpractice album. “I remember thinking, ‘oh my god, it’s very primal’. It felt like 10,000 volts going through you. What’s incredible is that 50 years later, I’m still listening to it,” he says.

“They changed the course of popular music. Their live album Stupidity going to number one making them the most popular band in Britain for about ten minutes in 1976. What gets you with Dr Feelgood was this incredible music but also this amazing double act of Lee Brilleaux as leader with Wilko as his accomplice, who would just gun you down with his guitar.

“It was like the Sex Pistols a year later, where it was exciting, intense but quite funny – it looked like Wilko was going to kill you – and it burnt through us all those years ago.”

Georgina Fairbanks and Johnson Willis in Wilko: Love and Death and Rock’n’Roll. Picture: Nick Haeffner

Wilko Johnson was punk pioneer, poet, philosopher and astronomer rolled into one. “He was a man of letters and a poet who did English Literature at Newcastle University. He could recite reams of Milton’s Paradise Lost and could have been a professor of English – and he was a massive enthusiast of astrology,” says Jonathan.

“He was funny, but he could be difficult and he was depressive and depressing, so he was the perfect subject for a play.”

Wilko said “OK” to the idea of a play in 2021, during Covid. “Then I went to read the script to him, doing all the voices myself, including his, and he said, ‘so the man from Del Monte, he he says ‘yes’,” recalls Jonathan.

Wilko went on to record a message: “If I’m not there on the opening night, it’s probably because I’m ‘brown bread’ [Cockney slang for ‘dead’], so there’s not a lot I can do about it.”

“We played it on the first night [February 1 2024] and there wasn’t a dry eye in the house,” says Jonathan. “By the time it got to London, it just took off, selling out every night, with people like Paul Weller and Richard Curtis coming to see it, and people coming up afterwards, crying and saying how it reminded them of their own experiences.

“You don’t need to be a fan of Dr Feelgood or Wilko to see it because it’s a about a man facing death with all his foibles and faults. Green, from Scritti Politti, said afterwards that it reminded him of why he got into music in the first place because it’s just so joyful.”

Summing up Wilko’s character, Jonathan says: “He was appalling in some ways but wonderful in others. He had this self-knowledge about him. Whereas someone who’s highly irredeemable doesn’t acknowledge his own faults, Wilko did. There was nobody like him.”

Wilko will forever be associated with his machine-gun guitar antics and bulging eyes when wielding his black Fender Telecaster. “I made up its origin for the play as he couldn’t remember how is started. He just did it because he was quite theatrical. In the play, he has an argument with Lee and guns him down with his guitar. Lee says ‘why don’t you do that on stage?’.”

As the poster states, Wilko: Love and Death and Rock’n’Roll is a “play with music”, not a jukebox musical, as Johnson Willis’s Wilko tells Lee Brilleaux in the play. “I can’t write a musical as I don’t understand the lexicon of people singing at each other,” says Jonathan.

Jetty Productions in association with Canvey Rock and Cahoots Theatre Company present Wilko: Love and Death and Rock ‘N’ Roll, York Theatre Royal, tomorrow, 7.30pm with post-show Q&A discussion with writer Jonathan Maitland and Charlie Chan, the doctor who saved Wilko’s life; Friday, 7.30pm; Saturday, 2.30pm & 7.30pm. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk. Age guidance: 11 plus.

The poster for Wilko: Love and Death and Rock’n’Roll

Jonathan Maitland: back story

PLAYWRIGHT and former journalist, who worked for the BBC across Radio 4, BBC News and presenting and producing shows for BBC One.

Debut stage play Dead Sheep (2015), produced at Park Theatre, became the most successful production in the theatre’s history. This record was broken by his second play, also staged at Park Theatre, An Audience With Jimmy Saville (2015), which transferred to Edinburgh Fringe.

Further works at Park Theatre include Deny Deny Deny (2016) and the box office record- breaking The Last Temptation Of Boris Johnson (2019), which then completed an eight-week national tour in 2020.

Maitland presented the premiere of The Interview at Park Theatre and his BBC Radio 4 adaptation of Wasps In A Jam Jar in 2023.

Johnson Willis: back story

MUSICIAN and actor who has spent many years in the music industry playing and recording with bands. His credits include Return To The Forbidden Planet in 1999, the West End premiere of The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe (Gillian Lynne Theatre, 2022), Amelie The Musical (National Tour, The Other Palace and W.E Criterion), as well as productions with Theatre Clwyd Cymru, Royal Shakespeare Company, Newbury Watermill Theatre and New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich.

Johnson Willis: Playing Wilko Johnson in Wilko: Love and Death and Rock ‘N’ Roll

Wilko Johnson’s guitar technique

WILKO played with a high-energy, percussive style that created the illusion of a rhythm and lead guitar being played at the exact same time, producing his choppy, staccato sound by using his left hand to mute or dampen the strings immediately after striking them, lifting his fingers on and off the fretboard. He did not use a guitar plectrum, instead playing entirely fingerstyle with his bare fingers and thumb.

Posted on

Pigeon Paint Off takes to the air on Saturday at City Screen Picturehouse for live art competition, picture auction & quiz

The latest poster for Saturday’s Pigeon Paint Off at City Screen Picturehouse, York

TICKETS are on sale for the inaugural Pigeon Paint Off creative fundraising event in support of @columbasanctuary and @advocacy_for_pigeons at City Screen Picturehouse, York, on Saturday. To book, go to: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/deadtoesociety/2373410

The live art competition – restricted to vegan art materials – and resulting picture auction will take place between 12 noon and 5.30pm, complemented by a Pigeon Social and Pigeon-themed Pub Quiz from 6pm, the quiz starting at 7pm. Look out too for bird-themed arts and crafts on sale and a raffle. Doors open from 11.30am.

Eleven artists will go head-to-head in two one-hour rounds to create a unique pigeon-inspired piece of art, and you can watch them in action from start to finish. 

Taking part will be :

J.P. Marsh – www.instagram.com/jpmarsh_illustration

Roots 0121 – www.instagram.com/roots_0121

Mel Rozario – www.instagram.com/TheMightyMindCircus

Emily Nunns – www.instagram.com/artby_emilynunns

George Chambers – www.instagram.com/geo.egrart

Jenni Reika – www.instagram.com/jennireikaartist

Leonie Briggs – www.instagram.com/leonie_makes

Emily Harley – www.instagram.com/drawn.in.the.fog

Nicola Fernandes – www.instagram.com/fernandesmakes

Jack Weller – www.instagram.com/jackwilliamweller

Penny Tristram – www.instagram.com/pennytristram

“After all the artists have completed their masterpieces, you will vote for your winner and decide which artist will be the very first Pigeon Paint Off champion,” says Dead Toe Society organiser Sam Crick.

“In addition to voting for your favourite artist, you’ll have the opportunity to bid on your favourite pigeon masterpiece. The highest bidder wins. You can own your very own unique piece of pigeon art while donating to help the pigeons.

“We’ll also be selling and raffling some snazzy bird-themed arts and crafts in the City Screen foyer. You can browse the goodies, have a drink or something to eat and view the exhibition.”

Event host the Dead Toe Society was founded by the Calder Valley-based @advocacy_for_pigeons, whose modus operandi combines art and activism in promoting pigeon rights.

 Pigeon Paint Off organiser Sam Crick, left, and City Screen Picturehouse general manager Cath Sharp

“We absolutely adore pigeons, but they’ve become a bird that is despised,” says Sam, who previously ran York Stringfoot Pigeon Rescue. “It’s love or hate with pigeons. There’s no-one that isn’t bothered either way. There are very strong feelings about them – we even get shouted out when we feed them or de-string them.”

In York, 608 pigeons were shot by London North East Railways between January 2025 and April 2026 at York Railway Station, making it the highest among state-managed rail operators, as a safety measure against slippery droppings on platforms.

Only the day before this interview, Sam had taken a wood pigeon to a vet after it had suffered a compound fracture when being kicked. The bird had to be put to sleep.

“In another incident, a pigeon was thrown out of a window of a moving car by children, which is an animal crime, and was reported to us by a lady from The Portal Bookshop in York,” says Sam.

“One of reasons some people hate pigeons in cities is they don’t want to see feral animals in urban spaces. There’s this disconnect, not wanting to allow wildlife to co-exist with us in these spaces.”

Sam continues: “Pigeons are some of the most misunderstood animals in the world and we think it’s time that changed. That’s why it’s important to draw attention to their maltreatment.

“So we’ve created Pigeon Paint Off, our pigeon-themed live art competition and accompanying exhibition that celebrates the wonderful pigeon and gives these amazing birds the appreciation they deserve.

“Get ready for the very first Pigeon Paint Off live art competition as talented artists bring original works to life, each one inspired by our feathered friends, in two rounds of one-hour paint-offs with talks taking place either side of that.

“You’ll also have the opportunity to purchase the artwork created during the competition, with proceeds supporting Columba Sanctuary and Advocacy for Pigeons, as well as the artists themselves.”

Alongside the main event, visitors can explore a curated exhibition featuring additional artworks by the participating artists. “Running from 12 noon till late, the day will be filled with talks, stalls and plenty of creative energy in this fantastic riverside venue” says Sam.

“The Pigeon Paint Off competition is a ticketed event, but the exhibition is free to visit, so even if you can’t make the live competition, you can still come along, see the artwork and support the artists and the cause.

A pigeon painting by York’s premier pigeon artist Sharon McDonagh, alias spAm, who has sent a message of support for Saturday’s event

“You’ll also be able to learn more about why pigeons are suffering, the issues they are facing, why they need us to advocate for them due to the challenges they face in their everyday lives.”

The Columba Sanctuary aviary is run by City Screen Picturehouse general manager Cath Sharp at Barmby Moor, near York.

“It’s a one-person, not-for-profit pigeon sanctuary created to save the lives of feral, homeless or non-releasable pigeons who would otherwise face euthanasia or a slow death from lack of care,” says Cath, who names her sanctuary after the Latin name for the larger breed of pigeon. “Alongside rescue, we provide compassionate education about the need for pigeon rescue.”

The sanctuary is run entirely by Cath, who helps pigeons and other birds simply for the love of doing it. She does so alongside her busy full-time job through the generous help of donations and volunteers. Please note, the sanctuary is unable to take baby birds that need feeding every few hours.

In addition to pigeons, Cath’s aviary houses nine crows, a rook, two jays, named Jay-Z and Jam Master, and a blackbird called Spike.

Looking forward to playing host to the Pigeon Paint Off at City Screen, she says: “It will bring people from all over the country to take part in the paint-off, which will be followed by the exhibition running for three weeks.” 

York’s premier pigeon artist, Sharon McDonagh, alias spAm, will not be able to take part in the Pigeon Paint Off on account of her own commitment that day, when artworks from the RARE Collective’s PaintJam at AcombFest in July will be auctioned off at an event hosted at the Carlton Tavern, in Acomb Road, in aid of SASH, York (Safe and Sound Homes).

“But I will be doing another Columba Sanctuary pigeon art raffle at some point this year,” says Sharon. “Pigeons remind me of my Dad. I’ve loved pigeons since being a kid, so he built me a huge pigeon loft down garden so I could rescue pigeons. My first one, Joey, had a broken wing and lived with my rabbits. 

“They’re the underdogs and were once held in high esteem but now they’re deemed as ‘vermin’ and treated really badly, which I find so upsetting and a tragedy after they did so much for us back in the day.

An earlier poster for the Pigeon Paint Off at City Screen Picturehouse

“They’re very affectionate and love human contact. They’re such a cool bird…and always make me smile.”

Saturday’s Pigeon Paint Off will be supported by York School of Art, Blueberry Academy, Beck Hall, Malham, Junk Soul Smothered and Little Green Pigeon.

What is the Dead Toe Society?

“DEAD Toe Society is an arts and activism initiative I founded that uses creative projects and community engagement to challenge harmful attitudes towards non-human animals,” says Sam Crick. “My main focus is on changing public perceptions on pigeons and promoting coexistence in our shared urban spaces.”

Why is it called the Dead Toe Society? “The reason I got into pigeons was that I saw an injured pigeon in my my lunch break one day, and I could see that the bird had something around its feet,” says Sam.

“It took a month to ‘catch’ the bird, after I studied a video on YouTube on how to catch them, and then a toe dropped off in my hand, hence the Dead Toe Society. There’ve been many injured pigeon toes that have dropped off in my lap since then.”

Sam is organising the National Pigeon Advocacy’s International Pigeon Advocacy Conference at Derby Conference Centre on October 10 & 11. “We’ll have the whole venue to ourselves; there’ll be vegan catering, lots of guest speakers, and I’ll be doing an art creative project,” she says. Tickets are on sale at nationalpigeonadvocacyassociation.co.uk.

Pigeon merchandise will be sold at the two-day conference, including clothes, gifts and cards from Little Green Pigeon (littlegreenpigeon.co.uk).

“It’s about teaching people to be kind and considerate, and hopefully being kind to pigeons can filter out into caring about other things too,” says Sam.

A good starting point would be to visit helpwildlife.co.uk, where a registry of bird rehab & rescue centres and sanctuaries can be found, giving a list of who to contact.

Did you know?

ON her wedding day, Sam Crick walked back down the aisle to Lieutenant Pigeon’s 1972’s four-week chart topper, Mouldy Old Dough, the second biggest-selling single of that year.

“I was dressed in grey and there were pigeon ornaments on the cake and on the tables, as well as naturally moulted feathers in my bouquet,” says Sam, who has two pigeon tattoos. “I also wore a pigeon necklace that Cath [Sharp] gave me.”

Feral: Pigeon Paint Off organiser Sam Crick showing one of her two pigeon tattoos

Posted on

Ex Corde Vocal Ensemble and Matthew Wadsworth to mark John Dowland’s 400th anniversary at NCEM on September 18

Ex Corde Vocal Ensemble

EX Corde Vocal Ensemble and lutenist and theorbo player Matthew Wadsworth join forces to mark the 400th anniversary of the death of John Dowland at the National Centre for Early Music, York, on September 18.

Dowland’s enduringly expressive lute songs – including Come Again, Sweet Love, Can She Excuse My Wrongs and Flow My Tears – are paired with a selection of his solo lute music in an evening of compelling vocal and instrumental English Renaissance music.

Alongside Dowland’s music, the 7.30m programme explores the work of his contemporary, William Byrd, with contrasting pieces including the penitential motet Ne Irascaris and the lighter, more intimate madrigal When I Was Otherwise.

Christopher Fox’s striking new work, Humble Verses, will be premiered. Setting words by Emilia Lanier – a remarkable female contemporary of Byrd and Dowland – Fox brings a distinctly modern perspective to the voices and ideas of Renaissance England.

Ex Corde Vocal Ensemble uses vocal music to create, collaborate and connect, bringing composers, performers and audiences closer together. Founded in 2020, the ensemble brings together singers from across the UK, many of them alumni of the University of York.

Lutenist Matthew Wadsworth

Its work has included collaborations with York Waits, the Rose Consort of Viols and composers Christopher Fox, David Lancaster and Ambrose Field, alongside appearances on BBC Radio 3’s Early Music Show and at the York Early Music Festival.

Matthew Wadsworth is one of Britain’s leading performers on lute and theorbo, enjoying an extensive international career as a soloist, chamber musician and continuo specialist.

Following his studies at the Royal Academy of Music, he established himself on the international early music scene, performing at major festivals and concert halls throughout Europe, North America and beyond.

His collaborations include performances with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Academy of Ancient Music, as well as regular appearances on radio and television. His recordings for labels including Channel Classics and Linn have received numerous accolades, such as Gramophone Editor’s Choice.

Tickets are on sale on 01904 658338, via email to [email protected] or at https://ncem.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/shows/1173679361.

Secret Link