Sofie Vanden Eynde: Artistic direction and lute for Imago Mundi’s Tears Into Lightconcert at York Early Music Festival
DESCRIBED in the festival programme as “a contemporary reimagining of John Dowland’s Lachrimae”, Imago Mundi’s Tears Into Light uses Seven Tears as the point of departure for a contemporary meditation in which Renaissance song, Armenian tradition, newly composed music by Vladimir Gorlinsky and spoken reflections become successive stages of a journey from melancholy towards hope.
The spoken narrative, by Fleur Pierets, functions as a series of meditations drawn from conversations with residents of a Belgian care home and palliative day centre.
They become a sequence of poetic monologues – intimate reflections on ageing, memory, regret, companionship and death:
I walk through cities made of memories,
where echoes whisper, soft and low.
Each breath is heavy with remembering,
each step moves tides I cannot slow.
There is a sound the dark remembers
a hum that aches beneath my bones.
– The Distant Light (dark to horizon)
Although there are echoes of Sufi imagery – I walk (journey); a hum that aches beneath my bones (listening from within); memory as spiritual experience – I was more affected, however, by the personalisation of these texts: We; Eli; Carlos; Eric; Danielle; Frédéric and Rose-Marie – they are almost certainly the individuals at the care home and palliative centre.
It was obvious that these spoken texts were repeated in close imitation. This subtly reinforced the theme of echo and memory; the individual transforming into collective – repeated entries blurring the identity of the individual speaker and creating a bridge between speech and music. Canon, based on exact imitation, is one of the simplest and most recognisable musical devices that can be applied to speech.
So, rather than interrupting the music, these meditations broadened its emotional landscape, perhaps suggesting that Dowland’s melancholy remains as resonant today as four centuries ago.
Another fascinating aspect of Tears Into Light was the inclusion of the Armenian duduk. At first glance, Dowland and Armenian traditional music seemed an unlikely pairing. Yet the duduk, long associated in Armenian culture with remembrance, lamentation and funeral rites, proved a natural companion to Dowland’s world of melancholy.
Its warm, breath-infused tone carried an unmistakable sense of grief and longing, while Vardan Hovanissian’s subtle and deeply expressive playing was illuminating, revealing just how naturally the instrument could inhabit Dowland’s emotional landscape.
Although the programme credited visual artist Ria Verhaeghe as a collaborator, the performance itself was experienced principally as a dialogue between music and spoken word. I assumed the visual contribution was deliberately understated.
Rather than projected imagery unfolding alongside the performance, what seemed to be a single image remained behind the performers throughout. Maybe I simply missed it.
As far as I could tell, the Dowland pavan and songs remained recognisable and largely intact, whilst Vladimir Gorlinsky contributed new pieces, transitions and soundscapes around it, rather than rewriting the Renaissance music itself.
His music featured sustained sonorities, drones, sparse textures, slow-moving harmonic fields and, tellingly, moments where electronic sound blends almost imperceptibly with acoustic instruments.
Without his music the programme would probably have felt episodic – song, speech, song, speech. His contributions helped to make it feel like a single, continuous journey. This leads nicely to his Rumi’s meditation – Rumi being one of the most significant Sufi poets; the mystical tradition within Islam.
To be honest, I wasn’t quite sure what to make of it: a gentle, reflective minimalist pattern interrupted by an anguished cry of despair before gradually finding a measure of resolution.
The performance of Sorrow was quite simply a thing of beauty. Eugénie De Mey’s singing had a gorgeous, seductive tone and was gently amplified and supported by Sofie Vanden Eynde’s subtle lute accompaniment.
Like Vardan Hovanissian, Eugénie De Mey (mezzo-soprano) and Sofie Vanden Eynde (lute) were a joy throughout. Ms De Mey’s singing was so immersed in the performance, her tone had a velvety-rich quality. She focused on intimacy and textual clarity – particularly noticeable in the lower register – which suited the reflective atmosphere of the work and allowed the spoken texts and songs to coexist naturally.
Ms Vanden Eynde’s lute playing struck me as invariably understated and yet quietly authoritative. I admired the refinement of her lute playing and beautifully shaped phrasing. She was the performance’s anchor, allowing Dowland’s music to breathe without becoming an exercise in historical reconstruction.
Finally, I was impressed by Sofie Vanden Eynde’s curatorial approach: this included imaginative programming and willingness to rethink what an early music concert can be.
Eugénie De Mey, voice; Vardan Hovanissian , duduk; Sofie Vanden Eynde, artistic direction & lute; Jo Thielemans, sound engineer. Texts, Fleur Pierets; music, John Dowland & Vladimir Gorlinsky (composition & arrangements); visuals, Ria Verhaeghe.
Robert Kitson: Replacing Simon Rouse in the role of Jim Hacker in I’m Sorry Prime Minister
SIR Keir Starmer is not the only Prime Minister being replaced.
More precisely, ex-Prime Minister, in the case of the 2026 tour of I’m Sorry, Prime Minister after illness forced Simon Rouse out of the cast a fortnight ago, to be replaced by Robert Kitson, who is playing Jim Hacker for the remaining dates, including this week’s visit to the Grand Opera House, York.
“It’s very sad that Simon had to leave the show, and we send him our best wishes for a speedy recovery,” says Robert. “He was so loved by the company while he was here, but it’s now a fortunate opportunity for me.
“I wasn’t Simon’s understudy for the tour but I did understudy Griff Rhys Jones as Jim Hacker in the West End, and because I knew the part and we’d done an understudy run during the six months in London [at the Apollo Theatre), I was asked to take over.
“One of the other understudies did a couple of dates, before I arrived last Monday (June 22) to open at the Cheltenham Everyman that Tuesday. “
Robert continues: “I’m very delighted to be having this extended run, where I’ve played Cheltenham and Milton Keynes and York, Brighton, Southend and Malvern are still to come.
“I haven’t appeared on the York stage before, but I love the city and I’m really looking forward to doing the play there.”
Written and directed by Jonathan Lynn and co-directed by Michael Gyngell, I’m Sorry, Prime Minister is the long-awaited final chapter of the British political satire that brought BAFTA awards for the television series Yes, Minister (1980 to 1984) and Yes, Prime Minister (1986 to 1988), when co-written with Antony Jay.
The Times, they are a’changing for Clive Francis’s Sir Humphrey Appleby in I’m Sorry, Prime Minister. Picture: Johan Persson
Jim Hacker is back, older, but perhaps not wiser, and still utterly baffled by the real world. Hoping for a quiet retirement from government as the master of Hacker College, Oxford, Jim instead finds himself facing the ultimate modern crisis: cancelled by the college committee.
Enter Sir Humphrey Appleby (played by Clive Francis, reprising his West End role), who has lost none of his love for bureaucracy, Latin phrases and well-timed obstruction in a finale replete with wit, nostalgia and more double-speak than a press briefing.
“Do you know what, you can really feel the affection the audiences have for the characters,” says Robert. “Before Sir Humphrey comes on, you can hear an ‘ooh’ from the audience when I mention his name.
“People loved the TV series, and the relationship between Sir Humphrey and Jim, but this play is set later and so the relationship is now different. A lot of the play is about these people re-finding themselves and coping with their lives now.
“It makes for a very different dynamic where the audiences are initially surprised but then they do get into it. This is only my personal opinion, but I think the re-discovery and re-defining of the relationship, when seeing each other again after a long time, is what works so well, as they’re now older men, infirm, and they no longer have the resources they did when they were in their peak years.”
Robert further elucidates: “There are two levels to it. They have to cope with the fact they don’t have the status they once did, and although Sir Humphrey was always the cleverer once, the more sly and conniving one, sometimes Jim got the better of him and that now continues in old age where they still spar with each other.”
When on understudy duty in London, Robert had enjoyed watching Clive and Griff working together. “They were different in their styles, so it was like a masterclass observing them,” he says.
Clive Francis’s Sir Humphrey Appleby, left, and Simon Rouse’s Jim Hacker at the promotional photoshoot for I’m Sorry, Prime Minister. Simon has had to leave the tour through illness
“Clive is a master craftsman in his coming timing and delivery, and now that it’s the two us, I’m finding that just as important is how every performance is different because the audience laughter can come in different places, so there’s that the unexpected element, which is the essence of live theatre.”
In addition, Robert has drawn on his experience of being present when writer-director Jonathan Lynn gave notes to the London cast both in rehearsal and after the early performances.
“I got the benefit of that as everything is written with particular weighting and he’s particular about how lines should be said,” he says, further praising the director and Michael Gyngell for their ability to bring the company together. “It’s been great for me to have all people around me, on or off the stage, who are so good at what they do.”
Sir Keith Starmer’s imminent departure from Number 10 could not be better timed for I’m Sorry, Prime Minister. “It’s really interesting because we’ve found the play has resonance that’s reflecting what’s going on at the moment,” says Robert.
“The fact that the Prime Minister’s post has changed over the past two weeks can’t help but have an echo on stage.”
One further factor is Jim Hacker’s politics and behaviour in 2026. “Jim says and does some awful things and has some unacceptable views – and that’s interesting for the audience too,” says Robert.
“You have to give it 100 per cent in rehearsals and on stage, leaving your own beliefs at the [dressing room] door.”
The Barn Theatre production of I’m Sorry, Prime Minister plays Grand Opera House, York, from tomorrow to Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday matinees. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Super Furry Animals: Flower power amid the botanical gardens of Live At York Museum Gardenson Saturday
WELSH art-rock band Super Furry Animals headline day three of Futuresound’s third season of Live at York Museum Gardens concerts on Saturday.
The botanical gardens are a suitable setting for such a psychedelic act, who have returned to the concert platform after a ten-year hiatus, and will draw on the nine albums recorded since forming in Cardiff in 1993 (originally with Notting Hill and Star City actor Rhys Ifans as their frontman, by the way).
Expect a choice selection of “ageless multicolour hits and off-piste deep cuts, all lovingly handpicked from an incredible catalogue”.
Joining Super Furry Aniamls in Museum Gardens will be four special guests: unconventional kindred spirit Baxter Dury, compatriot indie-pop septet Los Campesinos!, fast-rising Nottingham alt-country group Divorce and the Welsh Music Prize-nominated woozy, Sixties-inspired psychedelia band Pys Melyn (whose name translates as Yellow Peas, should you be wondering).
“I’m pretty sure we haven’t ever played York before,” says lead guitarist, pedal steel guitarist and cellist Huw Bunford, who will be joined as ever by Cian Ciarán, Daf Ieuan, Guto Pryce and Gruff Rhys.
The Futuresound press release stated that “until now SFA had no plans to reunite live”. Huw puts the flesh on those bones: “We got asked every so often over the past ten years if we’d be playing again. People approached us to do shows, and I think it was more to do with marking 30 years that brought us together again. It seemed like the usual stars aligned and that happened to be at a time when the rest of the band was available to get together.
Super Furry Animals’ poster for Live At York Museum Gardens
“Initially, we had pencilled in about six gigs, going around the UK and Ireland on the Supacabra Tour, but then I think we added a couple more, York and Bristol, so in May we did indoor gigs and the rest of the summer will be outdoor shows.”
Open-air concerts are a “completely different beast”, says Huw. “There’s something about it that’s nice to do outdoor gigs, where you get a cross section of fans and even people who have never seen us before. Whenever we do things like festivals, you know you have a certain amount of time to play, so at certain songs we’ll check the time!”
After signing to era-defining label Creation Records – the home of Oasis – in 1995, Super Furry Animals turned heads with their unorthodox approach to promotion from the famous Super Furry Animals Tank to a suite of bespoke Yeti costumes. In 1996, debut album Fuzzy Logic broke the familiar guitar music mould with a heady mix of literary, musical and narcotic influences before 1997 follow-up Radiator gave them their first UK Top Ten album.
“Welsh band with a weird edge” was one phrase coined to describe their distinctive indie psych-pop sound, not least because they recorded in the Welsh language too. “Maybe a bit of alliteration there, getting excited with that,” says Huw, on hearing that description down the phone line. “I wouldn’t say we were particularly weird. It’s just weird that a reviewer would say that. I’d throw it back at them!”
The rock history books say that label boss Alan McGee signed Super Furry Animals to Creation on the spot after watching their Camden Monarch club gig in London, maybe with expectations of matching the rise of Oasis. “The whole thing of Alan McGee seeing potential, but in the wrong way…but he still saw potential…and he then realised, and maybe over the years, it’s helped, that we’ve never been able to be pigeonholed,” says Huw.
Super Furry Animals will include Welsh-language songs in next Saturday’s set. “We’ve got three or four Welsh songs in the squad,” says Huw, recalling the days 30 years ago when they played a venue with a Welsh-language-only policy. “At that time, we whistled our English songs and gave lyric sheets to the audience!”
“I wouldn’t say we were particularly weird,” says Super Furry Animals’ guitarist, Huw Bunford
Looking ahead to next weekend’s York debut, he says: “We like to change one or two songs each show. In the festival shows, it depends on how much time we’re playing for, but we always try to play one or two Welsh songs wherever we play.”
Returning to the rehearsal studio for this spring and summer’s shows, “after the first week, there was a bit of muscle memory kicking in and actually it was the same with the energy levels as well,” says Huw. “But it’s one of those weird things in rehearsals that you don’t feel like you’ve ‘got it’, but then you get under the lights.
“The audiences have been amazing so far, like super fans, and very forgiving as well! It’s an amazing thing to see the band back.”
Reflecting on Super Furry Animals’ career path, Huw says: “We don’t do things in a formulaic way, so it’s almost like each album is a reaction to the one before. We take it as being like a craft and we’re blessed that we’re good songwriters. I think the production on the albums stands the test of time as well, which we take to be an important thing, always making sure that the content is good.”
Riding on the wave of Super Furry Animals reuniting for the 2026 series of concerts, could they return to the recording studio too? “If it happens, it happens,” says Huw. “We never say never, but at the moment it’s just a joy to be playing together again.”
Futuresound presents Super Furry Animals, Baxter Dury, Los Campesinos!, Divorce and Pys Melyn at Live At York Museum Gardens, July 11. Gates open at 4pm; last entry, 8.30pm. Tickets: futuresoundgroup.com/york-museum-gardens-info.
Australian artist SMUG at work on What Flies Around. All pictures: Celestine Dubruel
AT the heart of Art of Protest is “placemaking”, explains artistic director and AcombFest curator Jeff Clark, whose inaugural international street art festival in York has the theme of ‘Returning to Nature’, bring together art, nature and communities.
“Every day we are changing the world, and our actions create ripples around us, making waves for others in the future,” he says. “I have found that nature has a funny way of connecting and reminding us that whatever we feel (an issue or a stress) can be re-grounded by a returning spring, the simple buzz of a bee and the sound of a tweeting bird.
“Art of Protest have curated the artist briefs, each themed on how nature interacts with us on a day-to-day basis.”
CharlesHutchPress took a stroll through Acomb on Saturday afternoon to gauge how the four principal murals were taking shape.
Curtis Hylton’s What Flies Above Us on Acomb Post Office in Acomb Road for AcombFest
READING muralist Curtis Hylton is skilled in the art of creating large-scale murals using spray paint. His trademark work incorporates a fusion of nature with bird life and can be seen across the UK, Europe and beyond. Find out more at curtis-hylton. com
Doing the can-can: SledOne spray-painting What Walks Amongst Usbetwixt Front Street and The Green, Acomb
NOW based in Bristol, but with Acomb roots, SledOne focuses on surreal characters or vibrant murals married with realistic elements.
He often draws from his surroundings and nature and uses animals as a vehicle. While some elements of his work may be humorous, others are created for the sheer joy of his craft. Visit sledone.org to learn more.
Peachzz’s What Walked Amongst Uson Front Street, Acomb
SHEFFIELD street artist and muralist is recognised for her large-scale, vibrant, nature-inspired murals, peppered with hints of realism.
She has painted globally across Europe, the United States of America, Colombia, Mexico and the Middle East, winning accolades including Street Art Cities’ Best Street Art prize in June 2024. Discover more at peachzz.co.uk.
A group of magpies is known as a mischief. How apt for SMUG’s mural What Flies Around Usbetwixt Front Street and The Green, Acomb
Australian artist SMUG is known for realistic, large-scale mural installations. He takes inspiration from people and nature, employing a trademark understanding of light and shadow – which he thinks of as “stylised realism” – to explore both the harmonies and juxtapositions, whether inherent or subtle. Take a look at his Instgram site at @smugone.
AcombFest continues today. Find the full details at acombfest.co.uk.
SledOne’s mural, What Walks Amongst Us, taking shape at AcombFest. Picture: Art of Protest
MURALS in Acomb, early music beyond borders, Mystery Plays on waggons, a political swansong and compact Shakespeare keep Charles Hutchinson’s thoughts off the July heatwave.
Art event of the week: AcombFest, Acomb, York, today and tomorrow
CURATED by Art of Protest, York’s first international street art festival continues today and tomorrow with its theme of A Return To Nature, featuring 20 art installations, live murals, RARE Collective’s Paint Jam, spray battles and more than 30 bands, DJs and performers, across 22 venues.
Look out too for interactive family-friendly workshops, an art market, history walks and talks, special events and tastings and a community cinema. Muralists taking part include SMUG, from Australia, Sheffield muralist Peachzz, wildlife artist Curtis Hylton and Acomb’s very own SledOne. For full details, go to: https://acombfest.co.uk/.
Baroque collective Solomon’s Knot: Performing Friedrich Nicolaus Bruhns’ St Mark Passion, directed by Jonathan Sells, at The Quire, York Minster, on July 10
50th anniversary event of the summer: 2026 York Early Music Festival, Beyond Borders, until July 11
THE premier British early music festival marks its 50th anniversary with a celebration of “just how far early music has travelled – beyond the borders of the myriad historic venues of our city to a worldwide audience,” says director Delma Tomlin.
The festival welcomes The Sixteen, B’Rock Orchestra & Vocal Consort, Imago Mundi, mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston, Solomon’s Knot and NCEM Platform Artists Anacronia and Contre le temps, among others. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk/yemf.
Bodhan Pitel’s Herod in DSpace Ukrainian Theatre’s The Massacre of the Innocents in the York Mystery Plays 2026. Picture: John Saunders
Theatrical outdoor event of the week: 2026 York Mystery Plays, streets of York, tomorrow, 10.30am to 4.50pm
THE four-yearly staging on the York Mystery Plays on pageant waggons takes place at four locations across the city: free viewing at the Minster Refectory Gardens, Deansgate, (from 10.30am) King’s Square (from 11.10am), St Sampson’s Square (from 11.50am) and ticketed seats at Dean’s Park (from 12.30pm). Ten core plays will be complemented by further extracts to tell the story from The War In Heaven to Doomsday. For full details, go to yorkmysteryplays.co.uk; tickets, ticketsource.com/york-festival-trust.
Clive Francis as Sir Humphrey Appleby in I’m Sorry, Prime Minister. Picture: Johan Persson
Political drama of the week: I’m Sorry, Prime Minister, Grand Opera House, York, July 7 to 11, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday matinees
JIM Hacker is back, older, but perhaps not wiser, and still utterly baffled by the real world. Hoping for a quiet retirement from government as the master of Hacker College, Oxford, Jim (Robert Kitson, replacing Simon Rouse) instead finds himself facing the ultimate modern crisis: cancelled by the college committee. Enter Sir Humphrey Appleby (Clive Francis), who has lost none of his love for bureaucracy, Latin phrases and well-timed obstruction.
Can Humphrey and Jim outmanoeuvre the hostile students, the Fellows and reality itself? Or is it finally time to say “I’m Sorry, Prime Minister”? Brimming with wit, nostalgia and more double-speak than a press briefing, the final chapter in the evergreen comedy series is written and directed by Jonathan Lynn,co-directed byMichael Gyngell and presented by The Barn Theatre, Cirencester. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Reduced Shakespeare Company’s 2026 tour cast for The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)
Shakespeare shake-up of the week: Reduced Shakespeare Company in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged), York Theatre Royal, July 7 to 11, 7.30pm plus 2pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees
MARKING 30 years of performances in the UK, the Reduced Shakespeare Company’s 2026 tour company of Efé Agwele, Woogie Jung, Tom Pavey and Kiran Raywilliams presents Hamlet told backwards, a micro-condensed Othello scored to a ukulele, a carnage-filled Titus Andronicus presented as a YouTube cookery tutorial and the History Plays as a manic football game, passing the crown from king to king.
Californian co-founders Adam Long, Daniel Singer and Jess Winfield have re-booted, re-imagined, reinvented and updated the restless comedy for a new generation to undertake a rollercoaster ride through all 37 of the Bard’s First Folio of plays. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Stephen Smith’s Claude Monet in A Montage Of Monet
Busiest actor of the week: Threedumb Theatre presents Stephen Smith in A Montage Of Monet, York Medical Society, Stonegate, York, July 8, 7.30pm and July 11, 3pm; One Man Poe, Ripon Theatre Festival, Ripon Arts Hub, July 10, 8pm; One Man Poe world premiere, York Medical Society, July 11, 7.30pm
THREEDUMB Theatre artistic director and actor Stephen Smith performs Joan Greening’s new play exploring French Impressionist artist Claude Monet’s life and loves: his two marriages, his first wife’s devastating death, his lover’s erratic behaviour, his suicide attempt, his thoughts on fellow Impressionists and the torment of his failing eyesight. The 55-minute Monet montage combines projection design and Joe Furey’s music with Smith’s storytelling in two York performances.
Smith also presents four of Edgar Allan Poe’s Gothic horror works (The Tell-Tale Heart, The Pit and The Pendulum, The Black Cat and The Raven) in Ripon, followed by the world premiere of his latest Poe double bill (The Business Man and The Case of M. Valdemar) in York. All six, amounting to 18,000 Poe words, will be performed at the Edinburgh Fringe. Box office: York, 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk; Ripon, ripontheatrefestival.org.
Musical of the week: Top Hat and Tails Theatre in Little Shop Of Horrors!, Friargate Theatre, York, July 9 to 11, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
MEEK floral assistant Seymour Krelborn stumbles across a new breed of plant he calls Audrey II, a foul-mouthed carnivore that promises him fame and fortune if he keeps feeding it with blood. Over time, however, Seymour discovers Audrey II’s plans for global domination in Howard Ashman and Alan Menken’s sci-fi B-movie monster spoof, presented here with a live band and professionally hand-crafted puppets. Box office: ridinglights.org.
Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark’s Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys: Summer of Hits show at York Museum Gardens on Thursday
Music festival of the week: Futuresound presents Live At York Museum Gardens, Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark, July 9, gates 5pm; Self Esteem, July 10, gates 5pm, and Super Furry Animals, July 11, gates 4pm
WIRRAL synth-pop pioneers Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark open Futuresound’s third season of Live At York Museum Gardens concerts on Thursday with a Summer of Hits bill featuring Heaven 17, China Crisis and rising Newcastle singer-songwriter Andrew Cushin.
Mercury Prize nominee Self Esteem, aka Rotherham singer, songwriter and actress Rebecca Lucy Taylor, tops Friday’s line-up, featuring London indie group The Big Moon, South African ghetto funk musician Moonchild Sanelly and Nigerian-born musician and spoken-word artist Joshia Idehen.
Welsh psychedelic rock band Super Furry Animals are next Saturday’s headliners, joined by singer-songwriter Baxter Dury, indie-pop septet Los Campesinos!, Nottingham alt-country band Divorce and North Wales psychedelic act Pys Melyn. Box office for July 10 and 11: futuresoundgroup.com/york-museum-gardens-events.
If I Knew The Way, I Would Take You Home, by Matt Sewell
In Focus: Birds of the week: Matt Sewell exhibition for RARE Collective at WET, Micklegate, York,until mid-July
SHROPSHIRE artist, illustrator and author Matt Sewelll is the latest street art luminary to be showcased in RARE Collective’s collaboration with WET wine bar, in Micklegate, York, in aid of SASH (Safe and Sound Homes), the York youth homelessness charity.
“We’re really chuffed to have Matt return to York with his fabulous Riso prints,” says RARE Collective exhibition organiser Sharon McDonagh. “If you came to the Vandalfest charity street art show last year, you would have seen his cracking bird mural on Floor 3 of the big disused office block in Low Ousegate.
Artist Matt Sewell at work
Sewell is an avid ornithologist, contributing regularly to the Caught By The River website and publishing the books Our Garden Birds, Our Songbirds, Our Woodland Birds, Owls, Penguins and A Charm Of Goldfinches And Other Collective Nouns.
He has illustrated for the Guardian, Barbour, V&A Museums, BBC, National Trust, Greenpeace, Big Issue and Levi’s and painted walls for Helly Hansen, Puma and the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds). He has exhibited in Great Britain, New York, old York, Tokyo and Paris.
Cuckoo Cuckoo Cuckoo, by Matt Sewell
Under RARE Collective’s partnership with WET, artists and photographers exhibit their work in a six-week solo show. As well as at WET, work can be bought online both during and after the exhibition run at rarecollective.co.uk.
In addition, a selection of Sewell’s prints is featuring in RARE Collective’s exhibition for AcombFest at The Crooked Tap, on show until August 15 in support of SASH.
Matt Sewell’s wall of bird prints for sale at WET
Exhibiting too are: spAm (Sharon McDonagh), Sola, Alison Jagger, Al Murphy, Anthony Appleyard, Boxxhead, HazardOne, Lady Mkei, Lincoln Lightfoot, Liskbot, Michael Dawson, Nicolas Dixon, Slice Of Lino, STATIC and Stephen Bottrill.
“RARE are working in collaboration with the Art of Protest Project, after being invited by AcombFest curator Jeff Clark and the AOP team to curate the live PaintJam at the Carlton Tavern, in Acomb Road, Holgate, today and tomorrow,” says RARE Collective curator Sharon McDonagh.
“This will involve nine artists painting live from 10am to 4pm each day (Boxxhead, HazardOne, Lady Mkei, Lincoln Lightfoot, Liskbot, Nicolas Dixon, Sola, spAm and VYZ); live DJ sets by Alilou, Bob Yenz, Conor Rogan, Free Da Karlos and Sola plus guests, audiovisual artists Fred DWolf, Sonas and JohnManBand on a huge screen, cocktails and mixology by Tulum Spirits Collective and street food by El Chappo, all in support of SASH.”
Did you know?
MATT Sewell is also a musician, performing as Sewell &The Gong with Chris Tate and as the deep-cut compiler of the compilation series A Crushing Glow.
Matt Sewell’s work environment
In Focus too: Michael Flatley’s Lord Of The Dance, 30th Anniversary Tour, York Barbican, July 6 to 8, 7.45pm
THE 30th anniversary tour of Michael Flatley’s Lord Of The Dance promises a grand celebration of the revolutionary Irish dance production’s legacy after captivating more than 60 million fans in 60 countries since its 1996 debut.
The 30 Years of Standing Ovations tour will feature “brand-new choreography, stunning costumes, state-of-the-art special effects and cutting-edge lighting, ensuring that the production continues to push boundaries and deliver an unforgettable experience”.
Creative manager James Keegan says: “Michael Flatley has taught me that there are no boundaries in the creative space. When he burst onto the scene in the mid-90s, he took traditional Irish dancing to a place nobody had ever dreamed of, and that has been the key to the show’s success.
“Michael often says in rehearsals that we need to push the boundaries as much as we can, and if it’s too far or doesn’t work, we can always pull it back. That mindset is what keeps Lord Of The Dance evolving.”
Lord Of The Dance on its 30th anniversary tour. Picture: Brian Doherty
Keegan believes that the core elements of Flatley’s visionary production – choreography, music and storytelling – remain timeless while still evolving. “What made Lord Of The Dance famous 30 years ago is still what makes it work today: 40 of the greatest Irish tap dancers in the world performing in one line in perfect sync. It’s a spectacle that never loses its magic,” he says.
Reflecting on Flatley’s impact, Keegan says: “Professional Irish dancing didn’t really exist until Michael created his shows and added a more entertaining twist to the art form.
“He wasn’t just a dancer; he was a highly tuned athlete who could perform at astonishing levels for a full two-hour show, seven days a week. Today, we see young competitive dancers around the world striving to reach the levels he set.”
But beyond the footwork and the spectacle, Keegan reckons Flatley’s greatest legacy is his ability to inspire. “Michael’s motto has always been, ‘Nothing is impossible.’ He took an already intricate dance form and pushed it even further, breaking records like 38 taps per second and incorporating upper body movements that defied tradition,” he says.
Michael Flatley
“I’ve seen it time and time again: a dancer who never thought they could be a lead receives Michael’s encouragement, and before long, they are fulfilling their dream on stage.”
For Keegan, one moment stands out above the rest. “In 1997, I was a ten-year-old competitive Irish dancer in Manchester, struggling with the name-callers and the challenges of being a young male dancer,” he says.
“Then Lord Of The Dance came to town. Watching Michael and the cast that night at the Apollo Theatre changed everything for me. The masculinity, the precision, the energy, it was like nothing I’d ever seen before.
“I met Michael at the stage door, and suddenly, I knew that being an Irish dancer could mean being a superstar. Nineteen years later, I had the honour of sharing his final show with him at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, in 2016. It was a full-circle moment I will never forget.”
Michael Flatley’s Lord Of The Dance dancers
As Lord Of The Dance embark on its 30th anniversary tour, Flatley reflects on the journey. “The magic of Lord Of The Dance lives on in the hearts of our audience, and I am thrilled to bring this iconic show back to the UK in 2026,” he says.
“30 Years of Standing Ovations celebrates the incredible journey we’ve shared with fans over the years. It’s a tribute to the enduring power of dreams, the joy of dance and the unwavering support of our audience. This tour is our way of saying thank you for three decades of unforgettable memories.”
Although Flatley, now 67, retired from performing during his final tour in 2016, he has remained at the helm of Lord Of The Dance, guiding its evolution while preserving its timeless magic.
Now, as the production prepares for its biggest celebration yet, fans can look forward to a breathtaking spectacle that honours the past, embraces the present, and inspires the future of Irish dance.
Delta Saxophone Quarter: Album launch at York Late Music concert tomorrow
DELTA Saxophone Quartet conclude York Late Music’s 2026 season tomorrow with a blockbuster performance at the Unitarian Chapel, St saviourgate, York.
This 7.30pm concert bridges the gap between contemporary classical innovation and art-rock royalty, tracing a line through the subcultures and energy of two defining pillars of British rock music: David Bowie and The Stranglers.
To mark the tenth anniversary of his passing, the first half is dedicated to a thrilling, re-imagined take on Bowie’s final masterpiece, January 2016’s Blackstar. Post-interval, the energy shifts to a celebration of iconic Guilfdford punk/New Wave pioneers The Stranglers.
Both Bowie and The Stranglers walked the tightrope masterfully between pop accessibility and avant-garde subversion, defining the sound of an era. The Deltas promise to extend this legacy with a combination of specially commissioned arrangements and new works inspired by these musical icons.
Tomorrow’s concert also marks the launch of their new album, Hanging Around.
First half programme: Polari Overture, David Lancaster (first performance); Sax Quartet No. 2, ‘Bowie’, Anthony Adams (first performance); Bowie Mega Mix: I Can’t Give Everything Away (David Power); Subterraneans (David Lancaster); Blackstar (David Lancaster); Lazarus, Spencer James (first performance), and Typical Song, Nick Williams (first performance).
Second half: Old Life Was Rubbish, Laurence Crane (first performance); Don’t Bring Harry, The Stranglers, arranged by David Power; Always The Sun, The Stranglers, arranged by Nick Williams; Allegro Strangolato, David Lancaster (first performance); No More/Heroes The Stranglers, arranged by David Lancaster; Golden Brown, The Stranglers, arranged by David Lancaster; Hanging Around, The Stranglers, arranged by Nick Williams, and The Tormentors, David Power.
At 6.45pm, Chris Caldwell will discuss the programme and new album with a complimentary glass of wine or juice.
Adam Long: Reduced Shakespeare Company co-founder and director
THE new version of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged), rebooted and re-imagined for the 30th anniversary UK tour, is squeezing into York Theatre Royal from July 7 to 11.
After nine years at the Criterion Theatre in London’s West End, two television specials and performances in more than 20 countries, the Reduced Shakespeare Company brings this updated and reinvented classic comedy to a new generation of audiences as Efé Agwele, Woogie Jung, Tom Pavey and understudy Kiran Raywilliams take a rollercoaster ride through all 37 of the Bard’s plays.
Presented by The Theatre Chipping Norton and Selladoor Worldwide, through special arrangement with Music Theatre International, the 2026 version is written by director Adam Long and fellow Californian original writers and founder members Daniel Singer and Jess Winfield, who first teamed up 45 years ago when Adam was an accountant for an anti-nuclear political action committee, Daniel, a graphic artist in Santa Rosa and Jess, a lawyer in Santa Cruz.
Here come Hamlet told backwards, a micro-condensed Othello scored to a ukulele, a carnage-filled Titus Andronicus, presented as a YouTube cookery tutorial, and the History Plays as a manic football game between kings (although King Lear is disqualified for being fictional).
“We started touring it here in 1995 – 31 years go – and in the first year we did it at this incredibly beautiful theatre in York,” recalls Adam. “We did a show in Leeds and then there was a three-day gap before York, and we got this phone-call saying, ‘could we do a show in Plymouth in between?’, so we drove all the way down to Plymouth and back again!”
The Reduced Shakespeare Company (RSC) had begun as a street theatre troupe in San Francisco Bay in the 1980s, busking 15-minute versions of Romeo And Juliet and Hamlet to earn a living.
Most of the performances were at ‘Renaissance Faires’ where the RSC often had to share the stage with belly dancers and sheep. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) was first performed at the Edinburgh Fringe in 1987, at 10am in a church basement.
From there, the RSC was invited to perform in Montreal, Tokyo, New York and London, and the rest is history, but what first drew Long and co to Shakespeare?
“I’m from California, where we were not forced to study it in the same way as you are here, so our love of Shakespeare came from seeing it live,” says Adam. “I loved Bugs Bunny and The Marx Brothers too and in my life they’re intertwined.”
The comedy style emerged from condensing the essentials of each play. “It comes down to what’s the plot and who are the characters? Like Romeo And Juliet is two teenagers high on hormones who make some bad decisions, and if that was on Netflix, you’d definitely watch it!” says Adam, who has lived in London for 35 years.
The Reduced Shakespeare Company’s 2026 tour cast for The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged): understudy Kiran Raywilliams, left, Efe Agwele, Woogie Jung and Tom Pavey, front
“We figured Romeo And Juliet was the play most people knew, along with Hamlet, so we book-end the show with those two plays. Romeo And Juliet gets a healthy 15 minutes; it’s like Romeo And Juliet shot out of a cannon: high-speed drama.
“We then highlight plays they’re less familiar with, like Titus Andronicus, the most gory play Shakespeare wrote – and one of the most gory plays I’ve encountered. It’s more gory than all Quentin Tarantino’s films condensed into one, so we devote only two minutes to it in the form of a YouTube cooking tutorial by Titus Andronicus.”
The Reduced Shakespeare Company version of Hamlet developed as the show did likewise. “When we got to the point where Ophelia killed herself, we thought it would be interesting to do a Freudian analysis, acting out her psyche, with audience involvement, and the response was so good, we had to do an encore, where we did Hamlet in only 30 seconds,” says Adam.
“Demands came for another encore, so we did it in five seconds. Then we were all just sitting in the pub, thinking about what more we would do with it, and Jess, I think, suggested: ‘what if we were to do it backwards, like in a parlour game?’.”
Hamlet in reverse is now the staple final act of the show, but which plays were the hardest to adapt? “The Histories, because they’re not as funny as the tragedies, and they’re also not as well known,” says Adam.
“So we thought, ‘how do we take all the Histories and condense them into something that will be entertaining for the audience?’. It’s like a football game with the crown being passed from king to king and gradually we got it down to 90 seconds.”
Asked to pick a favourite Shakespeare play, Adam says: “I know it’s a predictable answer, but I do love Hamlet. I think that if I was a playwright and it was the only play I wrote, I would feel it was a job well done without having to write another 36 plays!”
The Reduced Shakespeare Company in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged), York Theatre Royal, July 7 to 11, 7.30pm plus 2pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk Age guidance: Ten plus.Post-show discussion on July 8.
SledOne’s mural, What Walks Amongst Us, taking shape for Acomb Fest. Picture: Art of Protest
ACOMB is hosting AcombFest, York’s first international street art festival for York, from today to Sunday featuring 20 art installations, live mural painting, RARE Collective’s PaintJam and spray battles, plus 30 bands, DJs and performers, across 22 venues.
Look out too at this Return To Nature-themed festival for special events and tastings, community cinema, family-friendly interactive workshops, art market, Acomb history walks and talk, plus shopping opportunities in support of independent businesses.
Featuring more than 90 activities and events, AcombFest is the creative brainchild of Art of Protest, Jeff Clark’s York-based street and urban art business “dedicated to transforming cities, towns and communities one spray can at a time in artist-led, community-shaped and stakeholder-driven projects”.
Funded by the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority Vibrant and Sustainable High Street Fund, Great Acomb Community Forum and City of York Council and supported by York St John University and York School of Art, AcombFest presents a long weekend of highly visual and participatory events.
The centrepiece will be the painting of four large-scale murals in and around Front Street by renowned international artists. This work will be complemented by a further ten art installation paints featuring York artists with community collaborations, alongside a range of workshops, music and cultural happenings.
“Nothing of this scale will have been seen in York before, never mind in Acomb” says Jeff, Art of Protest creative director and lead curator of AcombFest.
Jeff Clark: Art of Protest creative director and lead curator of AcombFest
“Normally, activities of this scale would be confined to the city centre, but this event is a fantastic example of how to broaden out creative and cultural engagement to the people in the wider city and wards.
“Not only does this inject life into local high streets to make them more vibrant and sustainable, it also does the same for the communities themselves.”
Jeff continues: “The ambition for AcombFest is to be a bi-annual event attracting the best international, national and more local artists from across the region to really put Acomb on the map as ‘the creative quarter’ of York.
“This is something that has been much needed as a way of balancing the city’s reliance on its fantastic heritage. Not only that, it will act as an inspiration and a pathway for young creative people in the Acomb and surrounding communities to develop their skills and start their own creative journeys – hopefully into related jobs and industries.”
The mural artist headliners will be Australian superstar SMUG, known as “the world’s best photorealistic artist”; Sheffield muralist Peachzz, 2024 runner-up for Best Mural in the World; wildlife artist Curtis Hylton and Acomb returnee SledOne.
Only one magpie? Phew, luckily plenty more are being added to SMUG’s mural, What Flies Around Us, at AcombFest. Picture: Art of Protest
Creative events and activities will be centred on Front Street with free street art workshops. Venues include Bluebird Bakery, SoJo, The Crooked Tap and all the way down Acomb Road to The Fox, connecting all the green spaces and parks.
Each venue will have its own bespoke offer – from bush craft and nature art to artist talks – with individual tickets, availability information and listings to be found on the AcombFest website at https://acombfest.co.uk/.
RARE Collective are putting on DJs and nine artists will be showcasing their skills in live spray battles at the Carlton Tavern. The community cinema will run at Acomb Explore library and spoken word events at Books & Bevs.
A full programme of family-friendly free activities will run at Acomb Methodist Church; That Acomb Arty Thing will play host to an artist market; the Gateway Church will present art exhibitions; Fishponds Wood will run mini-beast trails. Further attractions will be history tours, Jim Grant and Ben Grant’s Rock Soil Sky light installations in Holgate Windmill and pop-up stalls for Yorkshire Wildlife Trust and York Civic Trust.
Specialist food and drink offerings throughout the festival will include Spirit of Yorkshire and an international mixologist.
The festival was shaped by speaking to more than 1,100 residents and nine schools to learn of Acomb’s rich tapestry of history, flora and wildlife, leading to the festival theme of returning to nature. Acomb Alive and Acomb Methodist Church have supported the event too, the church playing host to music therapy sessions, flower arranging with Acomb Flower Guild, drop-in crafts with Crafty Fox and an art fair with Acomb Artists.
The festival map for AcombFest
What’s On at AcombFest
Friday, July 3
Explore Library 9:30am – 12:30pm Mosaic Workshop 10am & 1pm Hidden History Walk
Gateway Centre 10am – 6:30pm Oak Room Art Exhibition and Art Workshops – Exhibitions & creative workshops curated by That Acomb Art Thing.
The Carlton Tavern 2pm – 5:30pm PaintJam – RARE Collective & Art of Protest setting up PaintJam ready for artists, DJs & mixologist 7pm – 9pm Live World Cup Mega-Screen
Acomb Front Street 3pm – 4pm Art of Protest Street Art Workshops
The Fox 3:30pm – 6pm Water Art – After-school fun! Join the Fox team in a free-for-all floor art event 4pm – 9pm Clucking Oinks Fried Chicken 6pm – 8pm Tri-Starss – Beer garden gig of 1970s-1990s rock
DJ Sola: Leading a bill of live music, dancing and craft beer at The Crooked Tap
The Crooked Tap All weekend RARE Collective Urban Art Exhibition 4pm – 10:30pm DJ Sola & Friends – Live music, craft beer and dancing 6pm – 9pm Philly’s Woodfired Pizza – Neapolitan wood-fired pizza
SOJO 5:30pm – 8:30pm Yorkshire Beer & Cheese Tasting – Celebration of Yorkshire produce 8:30pm – 11pm Live bands – Local bands performing live sets
Bluebird Bakery/Rise 6pm – 7:45pm AcombFest Talks – Curator Jeff Clark and muralists discuss AcombFest (Whisky-Highball on arrival, tickets required) 7:45pm – 8:30pm Whisky Tasting – Spirit of Yorkshire + Tulum Spirits (tickets required) 8:30pm – 10:30pm Flour Power Sound System with Yeastie Boy – Live music (tickets required)
The Hand 8pm – 9:30pm Josh Pulleyn – Live music
Inn on the Green 8:30pm – 11pm Live music – Local bands performing live sets
Saturday, July 4
York pianist Karl Mullen: PIaying outside the bakery at Rise@Bluebird Bakery from 1pm to 3pm
Bluebird Bakery/Rise 9am – 12pm Wild Bee Flowers – Sustainable florist & flower farm 10am – 3pm Fresh Bakes – Bluebird’s fresh bakes & goodies 1pm – 3pm Karl Mullen Live Piano – Busker extraordinaire playing outside bakery All day Craft Beer and Speciality Cans – Fridges of craft beers & small brewery cans in regular rotation 7pm – 11pm Groovetone + The Unknown Stuntman – Jazz, blues, Latin, funk and Ska tunes (tickets required)
The Place 10am – 12pm Leo Morrey Art Workshops 12:30pm – 2pm Drummers 12pm – 4pm Stephen Hodgkins Art Workshops
West Bank Park 10am – 3pm Trapeze classes
Holgate Windmill 10am – 3:30pm Wind, Soil, Rock Art Installation – Video, sound and life-size puppet
The Carlton Tavern 10am – 6pm PaintJam – Watch nine artists begin their paints 10am – 10pm RARE Collective DJs + Audiovisual – Eclectic mix of DJs and audio visual producers for PaintJam. Decks will be pumping out tunes while the paint dries 10am – 10pm Tulum Spirits Collective – Flying in from Mexico, mixologist Craig Feather serves up menu of luxury bespoke cocktails from 11am, preceded by non-alcoholic delights from 10am 11am – 8pm Streetfood
The Crooked Tap All weekend RARE Collective Urban Art Exhibition 10:30am – 12pm The Art of Kokodema Workshop – tickets required 12pm – 8pm Yuzu East Asian Street Food 12pm – 1:30pm Charlie Swainton – Live music 2pm – 3:30pm Amy & Rob – Live music 4pm – 5:30pm Craig Long – Live music 6pm – 7:30pm James Scanlan – Live music 8pm – 10pm Melting Pot – 90s’ Indie, Britpop & dance tribute
Acomb Methodist Church 10:30am – 2pm Bloom Baby – Fiona Price Baby Classes 11am – 2pm Music Therapy 12pm – 1pm Jazzy J’s – Live music 12:30pm – 6pm Cafe 1pm – 2pm Ten Thousand Pairs of Hands – Live music 1:30pm – 4:30pm Acomb Flower Guild – Adult & Child Workshops 3pm – 3:30pm Acomb Choir 3:45pm – 8:45pm Acomb Community Cinema
Explore Library 11am – 3pm Acomb History Group 4pm – 7pm Open Cinema: Hoppers – Cinema with popcorn (tickets required)
Acomb Front Street 11am – 3pm Art of Protest Street Art Workshops
Storyteller Lara McClure
Books & Bevs 12:30pm – 3:30pm Storytelling with Lara McClure
Fishpond Woods 2pm – 3:30pm Mini Beast Safari
The Fox 12pm – 8:30pm Posca Doodle Wall 12pm – 9pm Clucking Oinks Fried Chicken 2pm – 4pm The Mothers – Live music 4pm – 6pm Ten Thousand Pairs Of Hands – Live music 6pm – 8pm Steam Pigeon – Live music 6pm – 8:30pm Beermat Art Lost Property Collage
Inn on the Green 2pm – 11pm Open Mic Night
The Sun 3:30pm – 5pm BBQ 4pm – 8pm Fireball Rockband
The Hand 8:30pm – 11pm Pete Hale – Live music
Sunday, July 5
Fishpond Woods 10am – 11am Moth Reveal
Acomb Methodist Church 10am – 12pm Interactive Worship 12pm – 6pm Pop-Up Cafe 1pm – 4:30pm Crafty Fox Kids Club – Hands-on art & craft activities for two to four-year-olds 1pm – 4pm Bio-Diversity Collage – Reacting to ecological crisis 6pm – 8pm Art Speedquiz
West Bank Park 10am – 3pm Trapeze classes
Freida Nipples: Baps’N’Bingo at Rise@Bluebird Bakery
Bluebird Bakery/Rise 10am – 3pm Bluebird’s Sunday Ritual – Sunday specialties such as Bengali five-spice rolls, spinach & chickpea rolls, plus artisan pastries. 6pm – 8pm Baps’N’Bingo – Burlesque bingo with Dolly Trolly and Freida Nipples (tickets required) 8pm – 11pm Guilty Pleasures Disco – Closing party of pop bangers, disco, R&B & power ballads (tickets required)
Holgate Windmill 10am – 4pm Wind, Soil, Rock Art Installation – Video, sound and life-size puppet
The Crooked Tap All weekend RARE Collective Urban Art Exhibition 10:30am – 12pm Posca Pebble Art 12pm – 8pm Yuzu East Asian Street Food 12:30pm – 5:30pm Acomb Artists’ Kids Art Classes 12:30pm – 11pm Cask Ale Festival 6pm – 10:30pm AcombFest Closing Party – DJ Sola & Friends of RARE Collective
The Fox 12pm – 4pm Bush Craft and Nature Art – Session with Tom Rawson of Branch Out 12pm – 9pm Clucking Oinks Fried Chicken 2pm – 4pm Bare Brass Band – Live music 4pm – 6pm V2 – Live music
Inn on the Green 12pm – 5pm Sunday Roast – OMNI Darts challenge & simulators
The Carlton Tavern 1pm – 6pm PaintJam – Artwork continues 10am – 10pm RARE DJ Sets – Live music 10am – 5pm Tulum Spirits Collective – Flying in from Mexico, mixologist Craig Feather serves up luxury bespoke cocktails from 11am, preceded by non-alcoholic delights from 10am 11am – 8pm El Chappo – New takes on traditional Mexican from Sheffield, ahead of Mexico v England in the World Cup last 16 12pm – 3:30pm The Tavern Sunday Roast – Traditional roasts 9pm – 11pm Live World CupMega-Screen
Gateway Church 2pm – 4pm Little Green Fingers – Plant up container pot to take home
The Sun 4pm – 7pm BBQ 4pm – 7pm York Turnpike Trust – Five-piece band’sR&B covers
The Hand 5:30pm – 9pm The Dunwells – Leeds indie-folk/Americana band
Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys of Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark
ELECTRONIC new wave trailblazers Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark will headline the first night of Futuresound’s third summer of Live At York Museum Gardens concerts.
The Wirral synth-pop duo of Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys will be joined on OMD’s Summer Of Hits bill on July 9 bill by two fellow Eighties’ synth-pop luminaries, Sheffield’s Heaven 17 and Kirkby’s China Crisis, and rising singer-songwriter Andrew Cushin.
“It’s gonna be lovely playing outdoors,” says McCluskey, 67, fresh from OMD’s 22-date February and March tour showcasing their 2023 UK top two-charting album Bauhaus Staircase. “The biggest difference quite simply is playing in daylight. We have a lot of lights and LED screens behind us, so it will have a different feel just because of the daylight. It won’t be dark until quite late in the show.”
The contrast with the indoor experience will come one night earlier at Bradford Live. “A lot of people in Yorkshire were frustrated that York sold out so quickly, so the promoter asked us to play Bradford,” says Andy, who is looking forward to performing at the new £55 million Bradford venue – in the former Odeon cinema – for the first time.
Roll on to the next night in York. “There’s a party element to playing outdoors, though you’re playing with the lottery of the weather in Britain.” Good news for these upcoming Orchestral manoeuvres in the not so dark: the weather forecast predicts sunny intervals with a gentle breeze – while Futuresound concert promoter Rachel Hill advises bringing Factor 50 sun cream.
Choosing the set list will be straightforward. “We’ve advertised the shows as the Summer Of Hits tour, as you’re going to get 18 hits regardless, but obviously in York we’ll have some great acts with us,” says Andy. “Heaven 17 are stunning live, as are China Crisis, both with amazing frontmen [Glenn Gregory and Gary Daly respectively], so that means we have to keep it tighter in York, playing for 90 minutes [to meet the 10.30pm curfew].
“We specifically asked to have Heaven 17 and China Crisis on the bill. At the beginning of March, I was on an Eighties’ rock cruise, out of Port Canaveral, cruising around the Caribbean, doing two 90-minute shows and the rest of the week as holiday, taking all the WAGs with us! Heaven 17 were there for that one – and we go way back with the China Crisis boys, who’ve done a couple of tours with us over the years.”
Formed by childhood friends McCluskey (vocals and bass) and Paul Humphreys (keyboards and vocals) in 1978, Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark emerged in the pioneering early days of synth pop, when the proto-machinery was more erratic in its behaviour in making their electronic craft work.
Contrast with 21st century technology. “The digital age has transformed everything,” says Andy. “For me, as the singer, one of the best things now is the in-ear monitor, where you can hear everything so clearly. You don’t need so many speakers on stage; you don’t need it to be so loud, and the sound guy doesn’t have to fight with that.
“You don’t have to keep changing your synths. Everything is loaded into the digital keyboard, so there’s a lot less work for the keyboard player and the songs sound perfect every night.”
Is perfection good for live music, Andy? “Absolutely! We love it. We’re happy with how our records sounded, so that’s how we try to re-create them live on stage, as why would you want to mess with treasured memories. Why change them? Let people treasure those memories,” he says.
“I don’t understand how bands can go on stage and say to themselves ‘I’m so bored how this song sounds after playing it 1,000 times’. Don’t mess with your songs!”
Casting an eye over five decades of OMD, Andy says: “It’s quite remarkable to look back, and what I’m always reminding myself is that we’ve had a lot of hit singles doing the music just the way we wanted to. No-one was telling us how to record them or writing songs for us. We’ve been a 48-year rolling accident!
“I should have gone to Leeds to study Fine Art; Paul should have done a British Telecom apprenticeship in London [but turned it down]. Instead we created a band with a crazy name for a dare for one gig, and here we are, still together 48 years later.
“The broader picture is that what we’re blessed with is how we’re in a post-modern era where nothing is out of fashion any more – which is nice for us older musicians, where if you’re considered an icon, people will still come and see you, and if people saw those songs as the soundtrack of their lives back then, they’re still the soundtrack to their lives.
“In many ways, songs act as little memory pegs, upon which hang several different memories. One of the great things about being a songwriter is that you may not solve poverty or end warfare, but you create these little three-minute vignettes that become reference points for the most touching moments in people’s live, like your songs being played at funerals.
“That’s the greatest compliment that someone can give you, that something you created has become a memory for an entire family.”
Futuresound presents Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark’s Summer Of Hits featuring Heaven 17, China Crisis and Andrew Cushin, Live at York Museum Gardens, July 9, gates open at 5pm. SOLD OUT.
Christina Meehan’s Annie and Karen Holmes’s Chris in Calendar Girls The Musical. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
IT began as The Girls at Leeds Grand Theatre in 2015, when plenty of the original Calendar Girls attended the press night in trademark black dresses, pinned with sunflowers.
Roll forward 11 years, when some things have changed, some have not. Four members of the Rylstone and District Women’s Institute, who put the fun into fund-raising by making the risqué alternative calendar in 1999, were in attendance on Wednesday. Black dresses, tick. Sunflowers, tick.
Present too was book writer and lyricist Tim Firth, who cut his playwriting teeth under Sir Alan Ayckbourn’s guiding eye at the SJT – and who should be in the audience too but Sir Alan.
Penned by Firth and composer and Take That mainstay Gary Barlow, friends since childhood days in Frodsham, Cheshire, the show has long since changed its name to Calendar Girls The Musical, while celebrity casts have come and gone and a touring version once jettisoned the teenage tearaways, but thankfully they are very much restored here, as is the original down-to-earth, everyday, no-nonsense ‘Yorkshireness’ of it all
SJT artistic director Paul Robinson’s production breaks new ground as the first staging with actor-musicians and the first in a theatre-in-the-round setting, presenting new challenges in how to choreograph the strip comedy of the calendar shoot and how to evoke the other rising hills, the Yorkshire Dales.
Original designer Robert Jones first crafted a theatrical Yorkshire landscape from towering green-fronted furniture that turned into doors and prop cupboards; then later favoured a God’s Own Country verdant backdrop and a regularly opened gate.
In May, York Musical Theatre Company did likewise when using All In One Productions’ photographic scenery of the rolling dales at their most green and pleasant pastured, with a dry stone wall and gate in front. You could almost smell Yorkshire.
SJT costume and designer Helen Coyston eschews walls and landscape imagery, preferring an open-plan design with parquet village-hall flooring, on which props and furniture are moved with haste, whether chairs, benches, or the uncomfortable Skipton General waiting-room sofa that prompts Knapely Women’s Institute wild card Chris (Karen Holmes) to suggest making the outré calendar.
It makes all the more room for the actor-musicians that fill the stage with movement and energy, right from the start in the crowd-pleasing opening number Yorkshire, with company members playing all manner of instruments, from guitar and whistle to the most evocative Yorkshire sound of all: gleaming brass instruments of every shape and sound under the musical directorship of associate director Alex Weatherhill.
An interval chat with sound designer and musical supervisor Simon Slater revealed how carefully those brass players needed to be placed, in order not to overpower the overall sound mix, often being posted in the “voms” (the passageways for stage entries and exits).
The actor-musicianship, especially in the natural amphitheatre of the theatre-in-the-round, brought a heightened intimacy to the already highly emotional or highly humorous songs, where Firth’s sense of pathos and observational comedy dovetail so pleasingly with Barlow’s ear for melody.
The balance of dialogue and song is just right too. After a surfeit of song-heavy shows with workmanlike tunes on reviewing duty in 2026, here is a show where emotion is filtered through conversation, confession and comic collisions, as well as through songs that capture the essence of a situation or character.
None has more potency in Scarborough than Scarborough itself, the beautiful ballad where Christina Meehan’s Annie contemplates life without John ‘Clarkey’ Clarke (Neil Moors), her rock of a husband, brought down by a blood cancer.
Barlow and Firth give plenty of characters their “big number”, from Alicia McKenzie’s Cora, the organ-playing vicar’s daughter, with her Christmas Carol pastiches in Who Wants A Silent Night?, to Chris’s Act One climax, Sunflower; from Pippa Duffy’s former air hostess Celia’s defiant So I’ve Had A Little Work Done to SJT favourite Annie Kirkman’s vodka-swilling Annie’s My Russian Friend And I, topped by her drunken arrival for her camera-flash moment.
Matt Heslop’s photographer Lawrence is even more timid than past iterations, and all the better for that, while Fenella Norman’s former school teacher, Jessie, Sarah Groarke’s stuffed-shirt new WI chair, Marie, Matt Ian Kelly’s trio of supportive husbands, Rod, Colin and Denis, and Angela Caesar and and Rachel Hammond’s tea-and-coffee double act as the Miss Wilsons all play their part to maximum impact.
In the teen trio, Will Ireland and Charlie Wright are sharing the role of easily distracted head boy-in-waiting Danny; Robyn Chambers and Annie Dunbar do likewise for the rebellious Jenny and Keane Liley and Jack Pickering will split the ever-joshing Tommo over the performances ahead. Firth writes so astutely of teen behaviour and adult influence, the young’uns so full of cheek, brio and quick retorts.
The climactic calendar shoot is choreographed by intimacy director Stephanie Dattani with imagination, originality, flair, bags of humour, plenty of surprise too, finding new ways to refresh this comedic set piece with vitality, wit and heart.
Honorary Yorkshiremen Barlow and Firth, in tandem with Robinson – a director at his best in comedy – have delivered the best version of Calendar Girls yet, not least thanks to the leading performances of Holmes’s Chris and Meehan’s Chris, Yorkshire women of such spirit and resilience.
Calendar Girls The Musical, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, until July 25. Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com
