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More Things To Do in York and beyond in the north country. Discover the importance of reading List No 97, from The Press

A MUSICAL with Bob Dylan songs, Wilde wit with chart toppers, heavenly disco and Sunday fairytales promise intrigue and variety in Charles Hutchinson’s diary.

Boarding house tales: Girl From The North Country, the musical with Bob Dylan songs at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Johan Persson

Musical of the week: Girl From The North Country, York Theatre Royal, Tuesday to Saturday

WRITTEN and directed by Irish playwright Conor McPherson, with music and lyrics by Bob Dylan, Girl From The North Country is an uplifting and universal story of family and love that boldly reimagines Dylan’s songs “like you’ve never heard them before”.

In 1934, in an American heartland in the grip of the Great Depression, a group of wayward souls cross paths in a time-weathered guesthouse in Duluth, Minnesota. Standing at a turning point in their lives, they realise nothing is what it seems as they search for a future, hide from the past and find themselves facing unspoken truths about the present. Box office: 01904 623 568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Story Craft Theatre: A giant leap for storytelling in Once Upon A Fairytale at Stillington Mill

Children’s show of the week: Once Upon A Fairytale, At The Mill, Stillington, near York, Sunday, 10am to 12 noon

IN York company Story Craft Theatre’s new show for children aged two to eight, Sunday’s audience will travel through a host of favourite fairytales and meet familiar faces along the way: Little Red Riding Hood, The Gingerbread Man and some hungry Bears to name but a few.

Storytellers Janet-Emily Bruce and Cassie Vallance say: “You’re welcome to arrive any time from 10am as we’ll be running craft activities until 10.45am. The interactive adventure will begin at 11am under the cover of our outdoor theatre, and there’ll be colouring-in sheets and a scavenger hunt you can do too.” Box office: atthemill.org.

From drag queen to society dragon: Daniel Jacob, alias Vinegar Strokes, rehearses for his role as Lady Bracknell in The Importance Of Being Earnest at Leeds Playhouse. Picture: Sharron Wallace

A walk on the Wilde side to a different beat: The Importance Of Being Earnest, Leeds Playhouse, Monday to September 17

DANIEL Jacob swaps his drag queen alter ego Vinegar Strokes for the iconic Lady Bracknell at the heart of Denzel Westley-Sanderson’s Black Victorian revamp of Oscar Wilde’s sharpest and most outrageous comedy of manners.

Premiering in Leeds before a UK tour, this Leeds Playhouse, ETT and Rose Theatre co-production “melds wit with chart-toppers, shade and contemporary references in a sassy insight into Wilde’s satire on dysfunctional families, class, gender and sexuality”. Box office: 0113 213 7700 or leedsplayhouse.org.uk.

Tavares: Close harmonies and disco classics revisited at York Barbican

Disco nostalgia of the week: Tavares, Greatest Hits Tour 2022, York Barbican, Wednesday, 7.30pm

GRAMMY Award-winning, close harmony-singing R&B brothers Chubby, Tiny and Butch Tavares, from Providence, Rhode Island, bring their Greatest Hits Tour to York.

At their Seventies peak, accompanied by their Cape Verdean brothers Ralph and Pooch, they filled disco floors with It Only Takes A Minute Girl, Heaven Must Be Missing An Angel, She’s Gone and More Than A Woman, from the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Every witch way: The poster for Northumberland Theatre Company’s all-female Macbeth, heading to North Yorkshire

Something wicked this way comes: Northumberland Theatre Company in Macbeth, Stillington Village Hall, near York, Thursday; Pocklington Arts Centre, September 29, both 7.30pm

YORK actor Claire Morley stars in Chris Connaughton’s all-female, three-hander version of Shakespeare’s “very gruesome” tragedy Macbeth, directed by Northumberland Theatre Company associate director Alice Byrne for this autumn’s tour to theatres, community venues, village halls and schools.

This streamlined, fast-paced, extremely physical production with original music will be told largely from the witches’ perspective, exploring ideas of manipulation through the media and other external forces. Expect grim, gory grisliness to the Mac max in two action-packed 40-minute halves. Box office: Stillington, 01347 811 544 or on the door; Pocklington, 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.

Jess Steel: Soulful leading light of A Night To Remember. Picture: Duncan Lomax

Charity concert of the week: A Night To Remember, York Barbican, Thursday, 7.30pm

BIG Ian Donaghy’s charity fundraiser returns 922 days after he last hosted this fast-moving assembly of diverse York singers and musicians.

Taking part will be members of York party band Huge; Jess Steel; Heather Findlay; Beth McCarthy; Simon Snaize; Gary Stewart; Graham Hodge; The Y Street Band; Boss Caine; Las Vegas Ken; Kieran O’Malley and young musicians from York Music Forum, all led by George Hall and Ian Chalk.

Singer and choir director Jessa Liversidge presents her inclusive singing group, Singing For All, too. Proceeds will go to St Leonard’s Hospice, Bereaved Children Support York and Accessible Arts and Media. Tickets update: still available at yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Glass work by Crispian Heath: Selected for the Contemporary Glass Society’s Bedazzled show at Pyramid Gallery, York

Exhibition launch of the week: Contemporary Glass Society, Bedazzled, Pyramid Gallery, Stonegate, York, September 10 to October 30

THE Contemporary Glass Society will celebrate its 25th anniversary of exhibiting at Pyramid Gallery with a show featuring 60 works by 25 glass artists, chosen by gallery owner Terry Brett and the society’s selectors.

For this landmark exhibition in Pyramid’s 40th anniversary year, the society wanted a theme and title that suggested celebratory glitz for its silver anniversary. Cue Bedazzled.

The styles and techniques span engraving, blowing, fusing, slumping, casting, cane and murine work, flame working, cutting, polishing, brush painting and metal leaf decoration. A second show, Razzle Dazzle, will include small pieces that measure no more than five by five inches by 60 makers.

KT Tunstall: New album, new tour

Gig announcement of the week: KT Tunstall, York Barbican, February 24 2023

SCOTTISH singer-songwriter KT Tunstall will return to York for the first time since she lit up the Barbican on Bonfire Night in 2016 on next year’s 16-date tour.

The BRIT Award winner and Grammy nominee from Edinburgh will showcase songs from her imminent seventh studio album, Nut, set for release next Friday on EMI. Box office: kttunstall.com and yorkbarbican.co.uk.

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Once musical director for Berwick Kaler’s pantos, now James Pearson returns to York Theatre Royal with Ronnie Scott’s All Stars

James Pearson: Artistic director of Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club and musical director The Ronnie Scott’s All Stars…with a pantomime past in York

JAMES Pearson leads The Ronnie Scott’s All Stars on his return to York Theatre Royal tonight.

Artistic director at London’s legendary Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club, where his trio are the house band, he has worked with Paul McCartney, Dame Cleo Laine, Maria Ewing, Jeff Beck, Petula Clark, Wynton Marsalis, Dave Stewart, Buddy Greco, Richard Rodney Bennett, Ray Davies, Nigel Kennedy, Robbie Williams, Rufus Wainwright, Gregory Porter, Imelda May and…York pantomime dame Berwick Kaler.

“I’d left the Guildhall School of Music & Drama when Mick Foster, who was the York panto’s saxophone player, from Harrogate, and was at college with me, got me the chance to play keyboards for Mother Goose,” says pianist and composer James.

Subsequently he was the musical director for Aladdin in 1997-1998 and Beauty & The Beast the next winter. “I did enjoy Berwick’s ‘Me babbies, me bairns’ and the Wagon Wheel throwing,” he says. “The atmosphere was a riot! A lot of the music was scored, but you always had to have your wits about you because Berwick would go off-piste.

“The reason a lot of jazz musicians do panto is that you have to improvise. Like if someone walks across in a funny manner, it’s highlighted by the drummer doing a flip-flop sound.

“I particularly enjoyed it as I got to spend ten weeks in York each year. I’m from Hertfordshire but I know York well because my sister, Kate, lives in Sheriff Hutton, and went to the University of York, where she met her husband, Daniel. Now they both teach music there. I must have been coming to York on and off for 30 years.”

James began working at Ronnie Scott’s club in 2006, becoming the artistic director the following year. “I’m largely responsible for its output both in and out of the club,” he says.

Tonight, he is at the piano for The Ronnie Scott’s Story, whose two 45-minute sets by The Ronnie Scott’s All Stars combines live jazz, narration and rare archive photos of Ella Fitzgerald and Miles Davis and video footage from the 1960s and ’70s. “Putting the series of pictures and footage together really helps it become an accessible show,” says James.

Set among the dive bars and jazz jook joints of London’s Soho, the show recalls the desperate hand-to-mouth finances of the early years and the frequent police raids. 

You will hear how Ronnie Scott’s became neutral ground within rife gang territory and their scrapes with gangsters, not least the Krays, who were rumoured to have taken Ronnie and Pete “for a little drive”.

James Pearson, left, performing with The Ronnie Scott’s All Stars

“The Krays tried to take over the club in 1965 when they were looking to get a London venue before they became The Krays as we came to know them. They went to Earl’s Court instead and then tried to get a foothold in the West End. There was always a strange relationship with gangs with their links with the jazz world.”

Life at Ronnie Scott’s is reimagined through tales of the club’s past visitors, from pop stars, film stars and politicians to comedians and royalty, but above all, the musicians.

“The thing about Ronnie Scott’s is, firstly, its history and legacy. Even though no-one has smoked there for years, it still feels smoky.

“Then there’s the intimacy, where the audience are so close to the stage, three feet from Miles Davis, Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Wonder…Lady Gaga…Prince.

“When Stevie Wonder came, he was just in the audience and then got on stage to play with the house band. Sting has done that too. That’s one of the great things about jazz: it’s free style.

“After Lady Gaga’s second London show with Tony Bennett had to be cancelled, because she absolutely loves performing, she asked if there was any way she could play here.

“She parked her gold Rolls Royce outside the club, and because you can’t really do a Lady Gaga gig secretly, the press were there waiting for her.”

Tonight’s show is built around music from the jazz greats who have performed at Ronnie Scott’s over its 60 years and more, complemented by stories of old Soho and miscreant musicians.

Look out, in particular, for Natalie Williams performing the songs of Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald and saxophone player Alex Garnett, who likes to tell old Ronnie Scott jokes as the boss was famous for his humour.

James is delighted to be performing in York once more. “We loved doing the Ronnie Scott’s shows in the Parliament Street spiegeltent at the Great Yorkshire Fringe,” he says. “It was such a lovely festival and it’s sad it’s gone.”

The Ronnie Scott’s Story, York Theatre Royal, tonight at 7.30pm. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

The poster for The Ronnie Scott’s All Stars, featuring vocalist Natalie Williams and saxophonist Alex Garnett
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Contemporary Glass Society marks 25 years at Pyramid Gallery with Bedazzled

Monette Larsen: Exhibiting in the Contemporary Glass Society’s Bedazzled show at Pyramid Gallery: Picture: Valerie Bernadini

THE Contemporary Glass Society will celebrate its 25th anniversary of exhibiting at Pyramid Gallery, Stonegate, York, with the Bedazzled show.

Sixty glass works will be on show from September 10 to October 30 as part of the gallery’s 40th anniversary programme.

Pyramid Gallery and the Contemporary Glass Society have been working together since 2008, promoting the society’s membership of 800 glass artists.

Contemporary Glass Society member Morag Reekie at work in her studio

For this landmark exhibition, the society wanted a theme that suggested celebratory glitz for its silver anniversary and duly came up with the title Bedazzled.

Between gallery owner Terry Brett and the society’s selectors, 25 artists were chosen, their styles and techniques spanning engraving, blowing, fusing, slumping, casting, cane and murine work, flame working, cutting, polishing, brush painting and metal leaf decoration.

“I’m expecting visitors and collectors to be amazed at the range of different types of ‘glass art’ and the quality of the work on display,” says Terry, who has acquired a passion for studio glass since taking on the business in 1994.

Pyramid Gallery owner Terry Brett holding a sculpture by David Reekie, surrounded by glass works from the Bedazzled exhibition

“There are so many different ways to create a work of art using glass and we have some really stunning and imaginatively made glass treasures in this show.”

A second exhibition, named Razzle Dazzle by the Contemporary Glass Society, will include small pieces that measure no more than five by five inches by 60 makers, some of whom were selected for the Bedazzled exhibition.

Gallery opening times are 10am until 5pm, Monday to Saturday. “The exhibition can be viewed online on the gallery website at www.pyramidgallery.com, but the only way to fully appreciate the display is to visit the gallery from 11am on September 10 onwards,” says Terry.

The poster for the Bedazzled exhibition at Pyramid Gallery, York
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REVIEW: Martin Dreyer’s verdict on Spring, North York Moors Chamber Music Festival

Charlotte Scott: “Sweet-toned violin”

North York Moors Chamber Music Festival: Spring, Welburn Manor Marquee, August 19

ONCE again it was the ever-reliable, sweet-toned violin of Charlotte Scott that took the lead in this afternoon’s works, Beethoven’s ‘Spring’ Sonata, Op 24 in F, and Schumann’s Second Piano Trio, Op 80 in D.

Up to this point, the piano – a medium-size Steinway – had been the cause of several comments, mainly negative, about its tone. To these ears, it verged on the clangy; others thought it tinny.

Certainly James Baillieu, the admirable pianist here, had appeared to struggle to produce the kind of sound he wanted. But by now, something had changed, adjustments made no doubt, and the piano returned to something like mellowness.

F major has often been a key indicating the joys of nature, especially for Beethoven. Think of his Pastoral Symphony or the last string quartet. All that was here, in the nuances delivered by both players.

Cellist Jamie Walton. Picture: Matthew Johnson

The exposition was given a full repeat, just as it should be (but isn’t always). The mood music continued in the daydream of an Adagio, with the violin tone now more intimate and the pair enjoying gentle dialogue in the third of its three variations. After the comic Scherzo, with the violin intentionally lagging a beat behind, the rondo found the pair in wonderful harness, melting teasingly back into repetitions of the theme.

They were joined by cellist Jamie Walton for the Schumann. The early tremolos in the strings became tempestuous, but clarity never suffered, even through the long acceleration into the final climax of the first movement.

The cello was the first to break out of the introspective ruminations of the slow movement and Baillieu’s piano became a little over-dramatic before the return of the theme. But there was a delightful ebb and flow as little motifs were tossed around in the succeeding dance. The finale was lent an attractive urgency by the lightness of the semiquavers in all three voices, as the counterpoint fizzed.

Smiles all round.

Review by Martin Dreyer

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KT Tunstall to follow up Nut album release with York Barbican return next February

SCOTTISH singer-songwriter KT Tunstall will play York Barbican on February 24 on her 16-date tour in 2023.

Tickets for her only Yorkshire gig will go on sale on Friday at 10am via ticketmaster.co.uk, gigsandtours.com, kttunstall.com and yorkbarbican.co.uk.

The BRIT Award winner and Grammy nominee, from Edinburgh, will showcase songs from her imminent seventh studio album, Nut, set for release on September 9 on EMI.

“This will be my first full UK headline tour since the pandemic, and I’m so looking forward to playing a completely different show with a brand-new line up of amazing musicians,” says Tunstall, 47. “Included in that line-up will be the brilliant Andy Burrows, of Razorlight, on drums, who played on Nut. He’ll also be opening the gigs with his own excellent show.”

Nut completes the trilogy of albums that Tunstall began recording seven years ago. Each part relates to the three existential parts of ourselves: 2016’s Kin = Spirit, 2018’s Wax = Body and 2022’s Nut = Mind.

Latest single Private Eyes is out now in the wake of I Am The Pilot and another taster track, Canyons.

“Nut is the culmination of a seven-year project,” Tunstall says. “It’s the final part of a trilogy of records that has spanned probably the most extreme and profound period of change in my life. The personal arc of these three records has been pretty extraordinary for me.”

Explaining the inspiration behind the album title, Tunstall says: “Growing up in Scotland, if someone was losing their temper you would say, ‘Dinny lose yer Nut’!

The artwork for KT Tunstall’s new album, Nut

“I love that the word also means a seed. The album artwork is all about the brain being a garden; you reap what you sow, you need to keep the weeds at bay, and there is an almost supernatural beauty to when things blossom.”

Tunstall first made her mark with her 2004 debut, Eye To The Telescope, propelled to multi-platinum sales by the global hits Black Horse And The Cherry Tree and Suddenly I See.

Introspective folk and propulsive rock remain the cornerstones of her songwriting. “There are two immediate, recognisable pillars of my style,” she says. “I have this troubadour, acoustic guitar-driven emotional side. Then there’s definitely an electrified rock side of my work with rawness and teeth.”

After selling everything she owned and moving to California in 2015, Tunstall took a break before spending the next seven years on the album trilogy. “Kin was an absolute Phoenix out of the ashes,” she says. “It was the result of a profound personal shift and finding my feet again after facing some really hard truths.” 

Among other things, Tunstall’s father died, making her realise she was unhappy in her marriage, in turn leading to her divorce.

More challenges awaited when she released Wax. “Halfway through the tour for Wax, I completely lost my hearing in my left ear overnight, which never returned,” she says. “I lost an extremely important physical part of my body while touring a record all about the body.”

Understandably, Tunstall was wary about what might happen while making her mind record, Nut. Cue a global pandemic, but now that the trilogy is complete, she has the perspective to appreciate the solace and healing she experienced as the songs unfolded.

“I did not foresee how visceral an experience it would be making this music about myself. It became the audio accompaniment to a deeply transformative period of my life. It’s the soundtrack to me creating a new version of myself.” 

Tunstall last lit up York Barbican on Bonfire Night, November 5, in 2016.

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Fringe First winner Happy Meal to serve up Millennial meets Gen X rom-com story of transition at York Theatre Royal Studio

Sam Crerar in the Fringe First-winning Happy Meal

FRESH from winning a Fringe First at the Edinburgh Fringe, Tabby Lamb’s joyful trans romantic comedy Happy Meal visits the York Theatre Royal Studio from tonight to Saturday.

Lamb invites the audience to “travel back to the quaint days of dial-up and MSN, where you’ll follow two strangers on their journeys to become who they always were, in a funny, moving and nostalgic story of transition: from teen to adult, from My Space to TikTok, from cis to trans”.

Sam Crerar and Allie Daniel reprise their roles from the Traverse Theatre run in Edinburgh, directed by Jamie Fletcher, whose 2022 production of Hedwig And The Angry Inch drew five-star reviews at Leeds Playhouse.

Allie Daniel and Sam Crerar: “Capturing the intensity of the onlife life of 21st century teenagers”

In a story where Millennial meets Gen Z and change is all around, transgender teenagers Alex and Bette find one another on the internet, become close friends, but then experience whole worlds of estrangement, as relatively middle-class Alex makes a transition to student life as Alec, while Bette struggles to come out as trans to anyone except her online best friend.

As described by the Fringe First judges, Happy Meal “fully captures the intensity of the online life of 21st century teenagers in a simple one-hour tale of young love made complicated by society’s attitudes to shifting gender, but now free enough to find a true happy ending”.

Played out on a witty Ben Stones set, this Roots and Theatre Royal Plymouth co-production in association with English Touring Theatre (ETT) and Oxford Playhouse is suitable for age 12 upwards. Tickets for the 7.45pm evening performances and 2.45pm Saturday matinee are on sale on 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Sam Crerar and Allie Daniel in Tabby Lamb’s funny, moving and nostalgic story of transition
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More Things To Do in York and beyond when questions needs answering. Such as? Find out in List No. 96, from The Press

Barrel of laughs: Al Murray, the Pub Landlord, has the answer, whatever the question

FOOD and food for thought, pub concert and Pub Landlord, outsider comedy and  family drama whet Charles Hutchinson’s appetite.

Comedy gig of the week in York: Al Murray: The Pub Landlord, Gig For Victory, Grand Opera House, York, Thursday, 7.30pm

“AS the dust settles and we emerge blinking into the dawn of a new year, the men and women of this great country will need answers,” reckons the Guvnor, Al Murray. “Answers that they know they need, answers to questions they never knew existed.”

When that moment comes, who better to show the way, to provide those answers, than the people’s man of the people, Murray, The Pub Landlord? Cue his pugnacious bar-room wisdom in the refurbished Grand Opera House. Box office: 0844 871 7615 or atgtickets.com/York.

Miles and The Chain Gang: New territory tonight

Pub gig of the week: Miles and The Chain Gang, The New Smithy Arms, Malton Road, Swinton, near Malton, tonight (27/8/2022), 9pm

YORK band Miles and The Chain Gang are heading to the New Smithy Arms gastro pub this weekend.

“It’s our first time performing in the Malton area,” says songwriter and singer Miles Salter. “We’ll be playing a selection of our own songs, plus some old classics from Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell and The Rolling Stones.”

Latest single Love Is Blind has been aired 400 times on radio stations around the world, YouTube views of the band have topped 50,000 and their 2022 gig diary has taken in Doncaster, Harrogate and Helmsley.

Three-day event: Malton Summer Food Lovers Festival

Festival of the week: Malton Summer Food Lovers Festival, today (27/8/2022) and tomorrow from 9am, Bank Holiday Monday, from 10am.

THIS is the second Malton Food Lovers Festival of 2022, taking over the streets of “Yorkshire’s food capital” for three days in a celebration of fine produce and cooking.

Expect artisan stalls, street food, talks, tastings, celebrity chefs, cookery and blacksmith demonstrations, a festival bar, buskers, brass bands and Be Amazing Arts in the Creativitent.

Look out for Tommy Banks, from The Black Swan, Oldstead, and Roots, York, on the festival demo stage today at 1pm. Festival entry is free.

Daniel Kitson: Wanting a word with you Outside

Comedy gigs of the week outside York: Daniel Kitson: Outside, At The Mill, Stillington Mill, near York, Monday (29/8/2022) to Wednesday, 7.30pm

DENBY Dale stand-up comedian Daniel Kitson had not been on stage for two years when he contacted At The Mill promoter Alexander Flanagan Wright to say “hello, could I come and do a show?”.

Not one show, but six work-in-progress gigs, performed in two sold-out blocks from May 23 to 25 and June 8 to 10. He enjoyed the Mill outdoor experience so much, he has added a third run for August’s dying embers.

Tickets have flown again for the latest chance to watch Kitson “find out whether he can still do his job and what, if anything, he has to say to large groups of people he doesn’t know”. For returns only, contact atthemill.org.

That’ll be Mel Day: Guest star for The Story Of Soul. Picture: Entertainers

History show of the week: The Story Of Soul, Grand Opera House, York, Wednesday, 7.30pm

FROM the producers of Lost In Music and The Magic Of Motown comes The Story Of Soul with special guest Mel Day, “The Soul Man” from Britain’s Got Talent.

This journey through the history of sweet soul music takes in the songs of Aretha Franklin, Earth Wind And Fire, James Brown, Wilson Pickett, Sam & Dave, Chaka Khan, Tina Turner, The Pointer Sisters, Luther Vandross, Whitney Houston, Ben E King, Barry White and plenty more. Box office: 0844 871 7615 or atgtickets.com/York.

Foy Vance: Showing Signs Of Life at York Barbican

Blues gig of the week: Foy Vance, Signs Of Life Tour, York Barbican, Wednesday, 7.50pm

NORTHERN Irish singer-songwriter Foy Vance plays York Barbican in support of his fourth studio album, Signs Of Life, in a gig rearranged from March 25.

The redemptive record finds Bangor-born Vance – husband, father, hipster, sinner, drinker – belatedly coming to terms with his demons in his late-40s.

The storytelling bluesman, survivor, rocker and folk hero calls Signs Of Life “an album of dawn after darkness, hope after despair, engagement after isolation, uplift after lockdown”. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

One for the Family Album: Writer-director Alan Ayckbourn, left, Jude Deeno and David Lomond in rehearsal for his 87th play, premiering at the SJT. Picture: Tony Bartholomew

Play launch of the week: Alan Ayckbourn’s Family Album, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, Friday to October 1

FAMILY Album, his 87th full-length play, is written, directed and sound designed by Alan Ayckbourn for its world premiere in The Round at the SJT.

Ayckbourn tenderly chronicles the trials, tribulations and temptations of three generations of one family across 70 years in the same home. 

Join RAF veteran John and housewife Peggy as they proudly move into the first home they can really call their own in 1952; daughter Sandra, frantically negotiating the challenges of a ten-year-old’s birthday party without her AWOL husband in 1992, and granddaughter Alison, finally escaping the house she has somewhat unwillingly inherited in 2022. Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.

The poster for In The Name Of Love, The Diana Ross Story tribute show

Tribute show of the week: In The Name Of Love, The Diana Ross Story, York Barbican, September 3, 7.30pm

IN the wake of Diana Ross headlining the Platinum Party At The Palace at 78 and playing Leeds First Direct Arena in June with a 14-piece band, here comes the tribute show.

In a chronological set list, Cheri Jade takes on The Supremes’ catalogue before Tameka Jackson handles the solo Diana years.

Here come Where Did Our Love Go, Baby Love, Stop In The Name Of Love, Reflections, You Keep Me Hanging On, You Can’t Hurry Love, Stoned Love, Ain’t No Mountain High Enough, Touch Me In The Morning, Upside Down, My Old Piano, I’m Coming Out and Chain Reaction. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

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City Screen’s Summer Sizzler season signs off with a fabulous finale of film new and old at reduced prices ending on September 2

Natassja Kinski in Wim Wenders’ Paris, Texas, showing at City Screen tomorrow

CITY Screen Picturehouse’s Summer Sizzler season ends on September 2, climaxing with a packed final week.

The York cinema, in Coney Street, is offering tickets  at a specially reduced price of £7.99 or £4.99 for members.

The week ahead’s new main features include: Emma Holly Jones’ adaptation of Suzanne Allain’s novel Mr Malcolm’s List and Scottish actor Alan Cumming in My Old School, Jono McLeod’s cleverly executed documentary about the grown man who passed himself off as a pupil at a Glasgow high school.

Alan Cumming in My Old School

On top of that come more chances to catch the sing-song ding-dong Fisherman’s Friends: One And All; Jordan Peele’s spooked sci-fi thriller blend of horses and aliens, Hollywood and horror, Nope, Brad Pitt in David Leitch’s delirious, even goofball action-thriller Bullet Train; Panah Panahi’s extraordinary Iranian comic drama Hit The Road and Daisy Edgar-Jones in Where The Crawdads Sing, Olivia Newman’s adaptation of Delia Owens’s mystery thriller.

For supersonic value, tickets for this evening’s Tom Cruise double bill of Top Gun & Top Gun: Maverick at 6pm cost £4.99.

At midday on Sunday, the same price applies for the Re-Discover screening of Wim Wenders’ 1984 road movie, Paris, Texas, starring Harry Dean Stanton, Dean Stockwell and Nastassja Kinski, with a screenplay by L. M. Kit Carson and playwright Sam Shepard and a musical score by Ry Cooder.

So much to discuss: Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke in 1995’s Before Sunrise

Make a day and night of it for £4.99 at City Screen with Sunday’s Re-Discover European Summer triple bill of Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke’s Before Sunrise, Before Sunset and Before Midnight trilogy.

Monday night, 8.30pm, is the screen time for Culture Shock – Kids In America: But I’m A Cheerleader, Jamie Babbit’s 1999 teen movie, wherein naive Megan (Natasha Lyonne), football team cheerleader at her all-American high school, is sent to rehab camp when her straitlaced parents and friends suspect her of being a lesbian.

The Discover slot’s new film on Tuesday at 11am and 8pm is Queen Of Glory, starring writer-director Nana Mensah in a dark comedy about a maladjusted PhD student who becomes sole proprietor of a Christian bookstore.

Nana Mensah in Queen Of Glory

The concluding screening in the Aesthetica Film Club series will be Foresight: An Urgent Anthology, exploring alternate realities through the lens of five Black British directors on Thursday at 6.30pm.

“This time capsule collection contributes to a perspective and point of view continuously missing from our screens: a future where people of colour exist,” says Aesthetica Short Film Festival director Cherie Federico. “Written, directed and produced by culturally diverse filmmakers who call the UK home.”

Exclusively for parents and carers with babies aged under one, every Wednesday at 11am City Screen presents a Big Scream screening of a new film; this coming week’s choice is Mr Malcolm’s List.

Audrey Hepburn in Stanley Donen’s Funny Face, Monday’s Dementia Friendly Screening

Cheapest of all will be the £3 ticket for Saturday morning’s Kids’ Club screening of Wallace & Gromit: Curse Of The Were-Rabbit  at 11.15am; the Kids Club Summer Matinees of Sonic The Hedgehog 2, Monday to Wednesday at 10.45am, and the  Autism Friendly Summer Matinee of Sonic The Hedgehog 2 on Thursday at 10.45am.

Tickets will be £4 for Monday afternoon’s Dementia Friendly Screening of Funny Face, Stanley Donen’s beautiful and bubbly 1957 American musical romantic comedy starring Audrey Hepburn and Fred Astaire , with free entry for accompanying carers plus a complimentary cuppa and biscuit before the 1.15pm show.

For tickets and more details, head to: https://www.picturehouses.com/cinema/city-screen-picturehouse

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A Night To Remember returns to York Barbican for charity gig after 922 days

Light show: Big Ian Donaghy surveys the crowd’s torch display at A Night To Remember. Picture: Karen Boyes

WHEN Big Ian Donaghy shouted “See you next year!”, as he and the team took their final bow to a standing ovation at A Night To Remember on February 29 2020, they could never have envisaged what was just around the corner.

“A total lockdown. Schools closed. The only place to get a beer was your fridge and theatres stood in darkness because apparently ‘The show mustn’t go on’,” he laments. “Guitars were forbidden to come out of their cases for more than 500 day as crowds at gigs were deemed far more ‘dangerous’ than those watching sport.”

Roll on to 7.30pm, September 8 2022 and, thankfully, the return of A Night To Remember, the charity fundraising concert at York Barbican.

Banding together: Every musician and singer on stage at the finale to A Night To Remember. Picture: Duncan Lomax

“It will be 922 days since this unique group of performers has shared a stage to bring the community together and they promise to live up the name A Night To Remember more than ever,” vows organiser and master of ceremonies Big Ian, whose skills as a speaker and host are in demand at such venues as Birmingham NEC and ExCel, London.

“Over the years, these nights have taken community charity gigs to another level as every detail is focused on giving the York audience a night they deserve. No corner is cut for this unique event, from brilliant sound from Craig Rothery, through thought-provoking films on huge video walls, to a 30-piece band.

“On top of that, this year’s concert has been sponsored by Nimbuscare, who have provided invaluable support in putting on this event.”

On song: Another belter from Jess Steel. Picture: Duncan Lomax

The format is “unlike others shows”, says Big Ian, as it requires “everyone to guest on everyone else’s songs with a wall of harmony”.

“No other show has an 83-year age range in performers from 13 to 96 year olds. Previous years saw the line-up take on the near impossible and succeed with Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody, despite never playing it together beforehand. Somehow it came together!

“A Night To Remember is like Avengers Assemble as the unlikely bunch have now become more like family after eight years together.”

The A Night To Remember crowd having an unforgettable night at York Barbican

In the 30-piece house band will  be members of York party band Huge; Jess Steel; Heather Findlay; Beth McCarthy, on her return to her home city from London; Simon Snaize; Gary Stewart; Graham Hodge; The Y Street Band; Boss Caine; Las Vegas Ken; Kieran O’Malley and young musicians from York Music Forum, all led by George Hall and Ian Chalk.

Singer and choir director Jessa Liversidge will present her inclusive singing group, Singing For All, who previously took part in 2020.

The setlist will take in songs by Kate Bush, Queen, Paul Simon, Wham, Elton John, Fleetwood Mac, Rod Stewart, The Bee Gees, Elvis Presley, Bill Withers, Take That, Tina Turner, Diana Ross and Alanis Morisette.

Heading home: Beth McCarthy at A Night To Remember. Picture: Duncan Lomax

“Now in its eighth outing, A Night To Remember promises to be an evening of singalongs as the city sings with one voice to raise much-needed funds for St Leonard’s Hospice, Bereaved Children Support York and Accessible Arts and Media, who get people with learning difficulties into performing,” says Big Ian.

“This has become the UK’s largest live concert to raise dementia awareness and will be funding some bespoke dementia projects in York, including art classes with York artist Sue Clayton and singing and gardening groups to combat loneliness.”

Big Ian Donaghy with Annie Donaghy, left, Beth McCarthy, Heather Findlay and Jess Steel at A Night To Remember. Picture: Karen Boyes

Two weeks ago, Big Ian took the challenge with four friends to sell 1,000 tickets for the show in one day. “Somehow we achieved it,” he says. “Now we can’t wait to get everyone back together. Expect a night filled with emotion and fantastic music.

“There are some tickets left but be quick to book at www.yorkbarbican.co.uk, and we ask everyone to bring a raffle prize, if possible, and some money for raffle tickets. Who knows how much we can add to the £150,000 we’ve raised since we started these concerts?

“Remember, remember, the 8th of September, not just a night, but A Night To Remember!”

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Al Murray, the Pub Landlord, is back to pour pints and scorn alike as he gigs for victory

The taste of victory: Al Murray, the Pub Landlord, is here for more than the beer

THE Guvnor of Little England comedy, Al Murray, will hotfoot it from his Edinburgh Fringe run at the distinctly French-sounding Palais du Variete to the Grand Opera House, York, on September 1.

“As the dust settles and we emerge blinking into the dawn of a new year, the men and women of this great country will need answers,” proclaims Murray’s publicity machine. “Answers that they know they need, answers to questions they never knew existed. And when that moment comes, who better to show the way, to provide those answers, than the people’s man of the people, the Pub Landlord?”

In that case, let’s crack on with the questions that do need answering pronto for The Press. We dig the pun, but why call the show “Gig For Victory”, Al? “Well, it’s because, at the height of the pandemic, there were those inane comparisons with the Second World War, our biggest one” says Murray, the graduate in Modern History from St Edmund Hall, Oxford.

“People clearly think there was a victory at the end of the lockdowns, and if there is one, it’s being back on the road again. By May last year, I wondered if that was it for performers. ‘It’s fine,’ I thought. ‘I’ve been doing this for a long time; I don’t have to go up and down the country, eat bad food, or have things get right up my nose’!

“I thought, ‘maybe it will be fun’…and lockdown was a laugh. I could be at home with my family, instead of nights away on tour. But come last summer, someone was putting gigs on in a pub and asked if I wanted to do one. I did one hour 40 minutes and I felt sky high with the laughs.”

What does Murray mean by the Pub Landlord providing the “answers that they know they need, answers to questions they never knew existed”. “That does sound quite Donald Rumsfeld,” he says, referring to the United States Secretary of Defence’s infamous response to a question at a US Department of Defence briefing in February 2002.

The one where Rumsfeld obfuscated: “There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns—the ones we don’t know we don’t know.”

You were saying, Al? “What I’m trying to capture with the Pub Landlord is that thing of someone chewing your ear off. Showing you how you are all linked without realising it.”

Murray’s Pub Landlord dispenser of bar-room wisdom plays on people’s prejudices, such as in his “People come over here, taking our jobs” routine on his last tour. “Human history is about migration – and I’m fascinated by history, as you know – so you’ve got to accommodate that in the way you look at the world,” says Murray.

The poster for Al Murray’s latest tour, Gig For Victory, bound for York next Thursday

“One of the great ironies of this country is people saying what a great country it  is, and then not expecting anyone to want to come and live here – though the complexion has changed with the war in Ukraine.

“Why the Pub Landlord is useful is he can say things without saying them on the nose, whereas if you say things on the nose, it gets tricky for humour, but if you go around the houses, you can say things with ironic distance.”

Looking at the state of Britain today, amid the cost-of-living crisis, the Government’s policy on immigration and Boris Johnson’s endless headlines, Murray says: “Things are very tricky at the moment. That’s how I’d put it. I have friends who write editorials for newspapers, but as a comic I’d rather have that bloody-minded attitude. 

“Coming up with subjects when you’ve been writing for a character for a long time, you think, ‘what will they [the Government/political leaders] come up with this time?’. Since Trump, you think, ‘how does satire keep up with the reality?’, and you just have to rise to that challenge.

“Looking from an historian’s point of view, people are worried about Putin, but what if he’s just an appetiser, like John the Baptist. With Putin, he was there all along, but we just misread him. When someone says they want to restore the Russian Empire, maybe we should take him at his word.”

Maybe we should not take Al Murray, Pub Landlord and bar-room braggard at his word, although his xenophobic Little Englander schtick turned out to be a forerunner for UKIP leader Nigel Farage – who he memorably stood against in Pub Landlord mode, representing the Free United Kingdom Party, or FUKP, in South Thanet at the 2015 General Election. Brexit would be just around the corner.

The Pub Landlord is an alter-ego, a comic device, but how did that act develop into the audience-bothering motormouth of today, pouring pints and scorn alike? “It came about from doing the crowd work, because when I started being this character in the London cabaret clubs, the problem was, why would a pub landlord be on stage, and wouldn’t he tell you why? So, he’d start up a conversation, saying ‘who are you?’,” says Murray.

“I found that working with the audience was the most effective way to show his character, talking to them, asking them what jobs they do, when all he does is pour pints, which is not like being a university professor, is it?! His attitude to what people do for a living tells you who he is, what he thinks, and the other really brilliant thing about the audience interaction is it means the show is different every night out of necessity.”

Al Murray: The Pub Landlord, Gig For Victory, Grand Opera House, York, September 1, 7.30pm. Box office: 0844 871 7615 or atgtickets.com/York.

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