EXCITEMENT is on the rise at the Milton Rooms, Malton, as the prospect of reopening under the Government’s lockdown-loosening roadmap moves closer to fruition.
A varied programme will be on offer for the second half of next month, should all go to plan for the lights to go up once more with Covid-secure measures in place from May 17. Tickets for four events are on sale now at the miltonrooms.com.
In the diary are gigs for fans of rock, pop and indie, plus a healthy dollop of the blues, a talk on the secret messages hidden in flowers in Victorian times and even a magic-meets-comedy show by a Britain’s Got Talent star.
Starting the ball rolling on May 21 will be Martin Gough’s One Man Rock concert, showcasing rock, pop and indie music by artists from the Sixties to the present day.
On May 23, the Dickens Society will take a light-hearted look at the meaning of flowers and how the Victorians loved sending secret messages in a well-chosen bouquet – and how certain flower messages applied to some of author Charles Dickens’s favourite characters.
Martin Gough: First show at reopened Milton Rooms
Another change of pace will follow on May 27 with the return of the Ryedale Blues Club, presenting Dr Bob & The Bluesmakers.
Mandy Muden Magic will roll into town on May 29, when the 2018 Britain’s Got Talent contestant will stage a new show full of wit, magic tricks and mind-reading.
Onwards into the next month, Fifi La Mer will present A Journey Into French Music from Offenbach to Gainsbourg on June 2. Acoustic covers band Taphouse Burnout are booked for June 5; the Hilarity Bites Comedy Club, with Nick Doody and Karen Bayley, June 11; Kick In The Head’s “Downton Abbey with gardening tips” show, Old Herbaceous, on June 20, and Ryedale Blues Club, hosting the James Oliver Band, June 24.
Venue manager Lisa Rich says: “We’ve been working hard behind the scenes renovating the Milton Rooms and there are exciting plans for the future. We have had our Covid-safe certificate extended by Visit England and we’re really looking forward to welcoming audiences both old and new.
‘’Initially, ticket sales for our diverse programme of events will be restricted because of Covid regulations, so people are advised to book early to avoid disappointment.’’
Ryedale Festival: Going online for 40th anniversary spring season of concerts
RYEDALE Festival’s 40th anniversary celebrations will burst into life with the online Spring Festival from May 2 to 8.
Scottish-Italian violinist Nicola Benedetti and her trio then will launch Ryedale’s 40th Anniversary: Live and In Person series in Pickering on June 4.
Ryedale’s Summer Festival, from July 16 to August 1 will present such artists as Jess Gillam, Isata Kanneh-Mason, 2019 BBC Young Musician Coco Tomita, Abel Selacoe and the BBC Big Band, with many more names to be announced soon.
Solace, escape and hope will be at the heart of Ryedale Festival’s online-only Spring Festival, available on RyeStream, the festival’s streaming platform at ryedalefestival.com/ryestream/.
Nicola Benedetti: Launching Ryedale Festival’s Live and In Person series on June 4
Seven inspiring performances, each lasting approximately 50 minutes, will be filmed and shared over a week early next month, in collaboration with Castle Howard, the Yorkshire Arboretum and North East naturalist and filmmaker Cain Scrimgeour, whose camerawork will capture spring’s arrival in Yorkshire.
The Spring Festival will kick off a 40th anniversary year wherein Ryedale Festival will reveal 40 headline events in “one-off, late-announced, open-ended, can-do bursts” that will enable the festival to remain responsive to the unique circumstances of Covid-clouded 2021 and still be as creative and flexible as possible.
Clarinet and piano duo Michael Collins and Michael McHale will open the online festival on May 2 at 3pm with Beethoven’s Spring Sonata, a virtuoso showpiece by Widor and the spellbinding sonata that Poulenc composed for Benny Goodman.
On May 3, from the Long Gallery at Castle Howard, two of the brightest stars on the British piano scene, Pavel Kolesnikov and Samson Tsoy, will perform Schubert’s gypsy-inspired piano duet, Divertissement à la Hongroise at 8pm.
Fair Oriana: Mixing renaissance and baroque with flavours of folk, medieval and contemporary music on May 4
The next day, soprano vocal duo Fair Oriana will mix renaissance and baroque with flavours of folk, medieval and contemporary music from the Great Hall, Castle Howard, in an 11am concert of imagination, innovation and intimacy entitled Now Is The Month Of Maying.
Rising York mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston and festival director Christopher Glynn, on piano, will take over the Long Gallery for Nature Is Returning on May 5 at 8pm. Spring- inspired songs by Schumann, Brahms, Copland and Finzi will be complemented by extracts from Charlston’s Isolation Songbook, her 2020 commission to reflect lockdown lives in music.
On May 6, in The Beauty Of The North at 1pm,the trademark joie de vivre of the Maxwell Quartet will illuminate St Mary’s Church, Ebberston, with one of Haydn’s most sparkling quartets (Opus74, No.1), alongside Scottish folk music and Anna Meredith’s tribute Teenage Fanclub, the Scottish grungy power-pop band that she loved as a teenager.
Friday night, May 7, will see the fast-rising combo The Immy Churchill Trio toast the arrival of spring with a late-night session of jazz standards from the Great American Songbook at Helmsley Arts Centre. Vocalist Immy Churchill will be joined by Toby Yapp, on bass, and Scottie Thompson, on piano, for this Spring Will Be A Little Late This Year programme at 9pm.
Helen Charlston: 2020 commission to reflect lockdown lives in music. Picture: Ben McKee
Finishing the online spring celebrations back at Castle Howard with The Lark Ascending on May 8 at 3pm, the virtuosic London Mozart Players and violinist Ruth Rogers will perform an irresistible chamber programme of Grieg’s Holberg Suite, Vaughan Williams’s The Lark Ascending and Vivaldi’s Springfrom The Four Seasons.
The Spring Festival season will be available to view on RyeStream until the end of May. Each concert is free-to-view but with the request of a donation to support the festival.
Director Christopher Glynn says: “We are delighted with our Spring Festival, which promises to be a wonderful mix of great music in beautiful places. I asked our fantastic line-up of performers to reflect a hopeful, springtime theme in their programmes, which we’ll interweave with footage specially created by the superb wildlife filmmaker, Cain Scrimgeour, who is spending several days capturing spring’s arrival in and around the Yorkshire Arboretum.
“I’ve asked Cain simply to capture what we might have seen – if we were lucky – on a country walk to attend the concerts in person, and to reflect the importance of nature as a place of solace, escape and regeneration during lockdown days.”
“I asked our fantastic line-up of performers to reflect a hopeful, springtime theme in their programmes,” says Ryedale Festival director Christopher Glynn. Picture: Gerard Collett
On Friday, June 4 ,in-person music making returns to Ryedale Festival at Pickering Parish Church at 4pm and 8pm, when Nicola Benedetti will open her festival residency by launching the Live and In Person series, joining her regular chamber music partners, cellist Leonard Elschenbroich and pianist Alexei Grynyuk, to perform one of Beethoven’s wittiest and most loveable works and an inspired piano trio by Brahms.
Glynn adds: “There will be no brochure and no ‘big-reveal’ of the programme this year. Instead, our 40th anniversary will be a ‘build-as-we-go’ festival, where the full 40-piece jigsaw gradually comes into view.
“We will still concentrate wonderful performances in July, but we will also remain as creative and flexible as possible to make the very best of this different landscape for both artists and audiences.”
Planned in a spirit of optimism and renewal, and bringing some of the most exciting artists of the moment to North Yorkshire, the programme for Ryedale’s Summer Festival will consist of 40 headline events, some that may be repeated or shared on RyeStream.
Abel Selacoe: South African cellist confirmed to play at Ryedale Festival’s summer celebrations with more details to follow. Picture: Mlungisi Mlungwana
SHED Seven will close their 2021 Shedcember tour with two nights at Leeds O2 Academy on December 20 and 21.
The 18-date itinerary will take in further Yorkshire shows at Sheffield O2 Academy on November 30 and Hull City Hall on December 1, but not a home-city gig for the York Britpop heroes, alas.
The Sheds’ concerts are billed as Another Night, Another Town – The Greatest Hits Live, in a nod of acknowledgement in the direction of last December’s 21-track live double album, and will start as ever in Scotland, on November 25 in Aberdeen.
“After what has been going in the world, we can’t wait to get out there and play what has become a biennial Christmas tradition in ‘Shedcember’,” says frontman Rick Witter. “You can expect the usual set, full of our hits, with a few surprises thrown in, and we can’t wait to hit the road. See you down the front.”
Chris Helme: New group project with Mark Morriss and Nigel Clark
Make sure to arrive in good time to catch the support act, very special guests MCH: a new venture for York singer-songwriter Chris Helme, once of The Seashorses, who is joined in this new acronym “supergroup” by Mark Morriss, from The Bluetones, and Nigel Clark, from Dodgy.
“For those enquiring, we’ll be playing a set consisting of new material as well as old favourites,” tweeted the trio today. “Easing you in gently, as it were. Not wishing to blow your minds too hard before the headline act do their thang.”
Tickets go on sale at 9am on April 29 at shedseven.com, gigsandtours.com and ticketmaster.co.uk.
Masked ball, pandemic style, in Romeo & Juliet: Not exactly kissing by the book in The HandleBards’ irreverent production at York Theatre Royal
TODAY is William Shakespeare’s 457th birthday: the perfect time to reveal what will be happening with this year’s York International Shakespeare Festival in May and how you can play your part.
“Covid, Brexit and all the issues around travel and funding mean that this won’t be the usual ‘YorkShakes’ experience,” says festival organiser Philip Parr, artistic director of Parrabbola.
“Festivals and theatre are facing tricky times, but all is not lost. Undaunted, we’re going ahead and have an exciting programme for you. Our festival may be little, but from May 25 to June 6, we’re fiercely determined to bring some international Shakespeare to York and to share work being made in the city.”
The festival promises films of exciting international productions; the announcement of a new ongoing collaboration programme with colleagues in Taiwan, and “even some live Shakespeare”, courtesy of cycle-everywhere company The HandleBards’ irreverent Romeo & Juliet at a socially distanced York Theatre Royal on May 25 and 26.
Created by three actors cooped up together during lockdown, fuelled by cabin fever and a determination to forget the tears and the tragedy, the result is “an unhinged and bonkers, laugh-out-loud version of Shakespeare’s story of star-crossed lovers” that also will form part of the Theatre Royal’s Love Season.
“The festival climax will be a new, online filmed production of a fast-paced, pared-back Pericles by York company Riding Lights, and we’re also going to launch the world’s first ever – we think! – collection of all of Shakespeare’s 154 sonnets, each recorded in a different language or dialect,” says Philip.
“And we want you to be part of the festival too in the form of York Loves Shakespeare, a photographic project for people who live, work or play in York, and who love Shakespeare.”
Here’s how to be involved: “We want you to propose your favourite line from a Shakespeare play and then we’re going to choose one line from every play (so either 37, 38 or a few more plays),” says Philip.
“If you and your line are selected, we’ll photograph you with that line at a location in York that is relevant, iconic and perhaps personally specific. The results will be presented on Instagram and other social media during the festival and then collected on a webpage – and might perhaps go further!
“It’s a simple commitment and can be done legally and safely under current pandemic rules. You’ll need to go to your venue, but it will be only you and the photographer working together. John Saunders, who is well-known around York, has agreed to take our photographs and we’re grateful to him for being a vital part of the team.”
To take part in this celebration of Shakespeare and York, just email Philip Parr at info@yorkshakes.co.uk and propose your play and your line. “The deadline is May 1, so not much thinking time – t’were well it were done quickly!” both he and Shakespeare advise.
“Once we’ve made our choices, we’ll be back in touch to discuss the how and where and when. We need you! Come and join in,” adds Philip.
Oliver Stone during his interview recording for Harrogate Film Festival
HARROGATE Film Festival opens tonight with a special 30th anniversary online screening of Oliver Stone’s political thriller JFK, preceded by an exclusive interview with the legendary Hollywood director at 7pm.
Over 30 raw and unscripted minutes recorded from his Los Angeles home, Stone, 74, covers topics not only his controversial film about USA President John F Kennedy’s assassination, but also new findings, insight into his latest projects and the state of politics around the world.
Discussing the success of JFK, Stone comments: “In the United States, we did $70 million alone, for a three-hour eight-minute film. It’s extraordinary as in that era we didn’t have three-hour movies because we had lost that with the roadshows back in the Fifties.
“So, to make a film of this length and be successful after Heaven’s Gate and films that had not done so well, it was an amazing, amazing breakthrough. In many ways, it was the climax to a strange film career that I’ve had.”
Celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, Stone’s throw of the dice at the events surrounding the November 22 1963 assassination of JFK focuses on the alleged cover-up through the eyes of former New Orleans district attorney, Jim Garrison.
Starring Kevin Costner, Tommy Lee Jones and Gary Oldman, JFK received eight Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Supporting Actor.
Festival director Adam Chandler says: “We are beyond thrilled to be welcoming Oliver Stone to the Harrogate Film Festival. JFK is an amazing piece of cinema that set a high bar for the political thrillers that followed it.
“As ever, Oliver is open and candid with his answers. He doesn’t shy away from giving difficult answers to the questions put to him in the interview and he covers so much ground in the 30 minutes.”
From today, Harrogate Film Festival returns for a fifth year. “The 2021 festival has been meticulously planned to ensure events can still take place within Covid-19 restrictions,” says Adam. “Instead of its usual ten-day run, this year’s event will essentially be a series of ‘mini-festivals’ between April and September, which we hope will enable some of the later events to run face-to-face.
“The 2021 programme has been curated to include a range of events offering something for people of all ages, from aspiring filmmakers to dedicated cinephiles.”
Full festival and ticket details can be found at: harrogatefilm.co.uk. For a WeTransfer link to footage from the Oliver Stone interview, go: tl/t-sX5EodC24k
BEER, bratwurst and all things Bavarian are on course for York Racecourse this autumn at the debut Yorktoberfest.
Mounted by James Cundall’s Jamboree Entertainment and Johnny Cooper’s Coopers Marquees, the October 28 to 31 event will follow the traditions of the first Oktoberfest, staged in Munich in 1810, where citizens were encouraged to eat, drink and be merry at the wedding of Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria and his princess bride.
So much fun was had that an annual tradition was born…and now residents of York and beyond will be invited to “eat, drink and be merry-go-round” at the Clocktower Enclosure on Knavesmire, where a giant Bavarian-styled beer tent and traditional funfair will set a festive scene.
Inside the marquee, authentic German beer and a range of German-inspired food will be served at an array of tables and benches, while York’s own Oompah Brass Band will add to the hearty fun with their “thigh-slapping, foot-stomping, feel-good music”.
Dancing is encouraged, as it has been at such gatherings for more than 200 years, as is the wearing of Lederhosen [traditional Bavarian men’s short trousers], Dirndls [Bavarian women’s rural domestic clothing, made from grey or coloured linen, sometimes with leather bodice and trim] or any other fancy dress, with nightly competitions and prizes for the best dressed.
Prost! Friends drinking together Bavarian beer in national costume or Dirndl at Oktoberfest. Likewise, fancy dressing German-style will be encouraged at Yorktoberfest
The Bavarian Bar also will serve wines, prosecco, spirits and soft drinks for those who prefer not to ‘hop’. A variety of food stalls will provide such essential favourites as sausages, schnitzels and pretzels, as well as vegan and vegetarian options.
Funfairs are integral to German Oktoberfests, and so Yorktoberfest will have its own traditional funfair, with Dodgems, Twister, Speedway and Chair-o-Plane delivering thrills
Yorktoberfest will have a limited capacity, with specific opening times: October 28 and 29, 7pm to 11pm; two sittings on October 30, 1pm to 5pm and 7pm to 11pm, and one sitting on October 31, 1pm to 5pm.
Tickets for Yorktoberfest are newly on sale at ticketsource.co.uk/yorktoberfest, priced at £15 per person for unreserved seating; £90 for a reserved table of six, and £135 for a VIP table of six, situated closest to the stage and with table service. An Early Beer(d) offer of £5 off per person is available on all ticket categories until July 31. Tickets will be on sale at the entrance too, subject to availability.
Yorktoberfest is produced by CMJ Events, a joint venture between the two York family-owned companies of Jamboree Entertainment and Coopers Marquees. CMJ Events will be bringing the York Spring Fair & Food Festival to the Clocktower Enclosure at York Racecourse from May 28 to June 6, as well as Sounds In The Grounds concerts by Beyond The Barricade, Abba Mania and A Country Night In Nashville from June 25 to 27, again at the Clocktower Enclosure.
Super troupers: Abba Mania will play at the Sounds In The Grounds concert at York Racecourse on June 26
Welburn producer James Cundall’s Jamboree Entertainment team brings 25 years of experience in producing live entertainment worldwide, and closer to home produces Yorkshire’s Winter Wonderland ice rink and funfair, Sounds In The Grounds concerts at five venues around England and The Great Ryedale Maze at Sherburn.
Cundall also presented Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre on the Castle car park pop-up Elizabethan theatre site in York in 2018 and 2019.
Coopers Marquees was established in the 1990s and is now the tenth largest marquee company in Great Britain, supplying a range of structures to events large and small.
Co-producer Cundall, chief executive of Jamboree Entertainment says: “We’re determined to bring events to York that people can enjoy after the long months of Covid restrictions. Yorktoberfest promises to be an evening of jollity, with beer, bands, and bratwurst. Dust off the fancy-dress outfits and come along!”
Co-producer Cooper, CEO of Coopers Marquees, says: “We’re looking forward to seeing one of our biggest marquees, at 160m long, installed on Knavesmire and themed with all things Bavarian, including a stage, bespoke thatched wooden barns, flags galore and generally everything needed for a great night out.”
Yorktoberfest will conform to all prevailing Government guidelines regarding Covid-19.
No Deer Shed 11, no James, no Tim Booth dance moves, as the 2021 festival is postponed
DEER Shed Festival has been postponed for the second successive summer under the pandemic cloud, this time the lack of viable Covid cancellation insurance being a hurdle too far.
Initially, encouraged by the Government roadmap to unlocking set in place on February 22, organisers Oliver and Katie Jones decided to go “full steam ahead” from July 30 to August 1 at Baldersby Park, Topcliffe, Thirsk.
They vowed to “work flat out” to deliver “what looks like a full fat Deer Shed 11”. Now, however, they have announced the postponement of the “three-day wonderland of music, arts, science and sport for all ages”, headlined by Stereolab, James and Baxter Dury.
New dates are in place for Deer Shed 12 from July 29 to July 31 2022, and the back-up plan of “exciting” new Base Camp Plus is in place for this summer.
In a website statement to Deer Shedders under the title “The bad news”, Oliver and Kate say: “We have made the decision to postpone Deer Shed until 2022. Many things remain uncertain for festivals this summer, but the lack of Covid cancellation insurance is the one hurdle we have been unable to clear.
“Earlier in the year, we were hopeful a Government-backed Covid insurance scheme would be in place, but we now have no reason to believe it will be despite frantic industry lobbying.”
The statement continues: “Deer Shed is still a 100 per cent independent family owned and run festival, and the risks of running without insurance leave Kate and myself financially exposed well beyond our comfort zone.
“We will, of course, offer ticket refunds for Deer Shed 11 or rollovers to Deer Shed 12. We really appreciate those of you who will again be able to support us by rolling over your tickets to 2022.”
Full details on the postponement can be found at: deershedfestival.com/dsf11postponement/, where all manner of questions are answered too. Any further questions should be emailed to info@deershedfestival.com.
Refunds applications should be made by April 29. Alternatively, Deer Shed can provide a voucher to the 2023 event if you cannot make the 2022 dates.
Under the headline “The good news”, Oliver and Kate confirm they instead will run a smaller event within their comfort zone: Base Camp Plus, an upgrade on last summer’s “hugely successful” Base Camp, with extra bits, on the July 30 to August 1 weekend.
This will take the form of “a safe camping weekend in Baldersby Park, with plenty of space, loads of camping options, including your own loo,” says the organisers. “Park next to your pitch, book next to your mates, bring the dog…
Oh deer: Deer Shed Festival’s announcement of this summer’s postponement
“Plus live music and comedy performances (at last!), food, drink, partying, campfires, workshops, theatre, well-being, swingballs and anything else we dream up.
“Of course, the plus does rely on continued progress in the unlocking roadmap. We will have more details in the coming weeks, space is limited, so register your interest and be first in line when we release tickets.” To express that interest, visit the website.
Looking ahead, the line-up for Deer Shed 10 last summer had rolled over to Deer Shed 11, but this will not be the case for 2022.
“After carrying the line-up over once before, we feel a fresh start for 2022 is necessary, particularly with some fantastic recent additions to the Deer Shed music and arts booking team,” say Oliver and Kate.
We know many of you were looking forward to seeing the acts billed at Deer Shed Festival 11, but we strongly believe this is the best option for facilitating the most exciting line-up possible next year.”
Deer Shed Festival joins early June’s Download Festival, at Donington Park, Leicestershire, and August’s five-day Boomtown, at Mattersley Estate, Hampshire, in announcing their cancellation this week in light of the Government still refusing to offer festival insurance against Coronavirus to such outdoor events.
All eyes now will be on Yorkshire’s biggest open-air event of the summer, Leeds Festival, set to play to full crowds with Covid-secure protocols in place from August 27 to 29 at Bramham Park, near Wetherby.
Festival organiser Melvin Benn, of Festival Republic, has been prominent in asking the Government to provide festival insurance, but Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden has resisted such calls again this week.
In a nutshell, independent festivals are reluctant to throw money at non-refundable costs without the assurance of insurance being in place.
As for bigger events, such as Leeds Festival, Mr Benn says: “The worry about insurance is not confined to the smaller festivals, I have that worry too. We’re all working really tightly together on all of this – the big festivals and small festivals are being very collaborative.”
In a letter to the Prime Minister, 42 Conservative MPs are asking the Government to support a £250 million insurance scheme to enable event organisers to “ensure that live music festivals can proceed with their plans to go ahead after 21 June”.
Watch this space for what will happen next as Roadmap Step 3 and Step 4 unfold, with the tantalising prospect of freedom from lockdown measures on Summer Solstice Day.
Masham artist Ian Scott Massie: Capturing “the character of the north” in his Northern Soul show at Ryedale Folk Museum, Hutton-le-Hole, from May 17. Picture: Steve Christian
IAN Scott Massie revels in the “incomparable beauty” of the north in his uplifting exhibition of watercolours and screenprints at Ryedale Folk Museum, Hutton-le-Hole, an apt location at the heart of the North York Moors National Park.
Running from Monday, May 17 to Sunday, July 11, the Masham artist’s Northern Soul show represents his personal journey of living in the north for the past 45 years since the call to leave the south.
Depicting “the character of the north”, the 50 paintings and prints portray northern views as diverse as Bamburgh Castle in Northumberland and Barnsley in South Yorkshire, and landmarks ranging from the monastic ruin of Fountains Abbey, near Ripon, to the Tees Transporter Bridge in Middlesbrough, the longest-working bridge of this ilk in the world. The images reach right across the country from Liverpool to Newcastle.
Born in London in 1952 and raised in Langley, near Slough, from the age of six, Massie first headed north, to Durham University in 1973, to study to be a music teacher. Although he returned to Berkshire in 1982, five years later this folk musician and artist settled in Masham, Lower Wensleydale, with his artist wife, Josie Beszant.
Another Place, by Ian Scott Massie, from Northern Soul
He began working in watercolours “to paint quickly” when his children were small, citing JMW Turner as an influence.
“The depth of colour, the freedom of the expression and the speed at which a picture could come together captivated me,” he says.
The north, he posits, is “the truth of England, where all things are seen clearly”. “Both the pictures for Northern Souland the accompanying book of the same title take a very long view of the north, reaching back into my personal history and the history of the region,” he says.
“The exhibition also refers to my time working as a music researcher for Beamish Museum (which I loved), from which experience grew an interest in the industrial, social and folk culture of the north, which Ryedale Folk Museum reflects so beautifully.”
White Horse, Kilburn, by Ian Scott Massie
Jennifer Smith, director of Ryedale Folk Museum, says: “I’m delighted that we will open Ian’s exhibition on the same day as Ryedale Folk Museum will reopen, following a six-month period of closure.
“Northern Soul is a stunning and atmospheric journey across northern England. Ian captures the beauty, wildness and culture of The North, transporting the viewer to the places featured in his magical paintings and prints.
“The fact that we can share these works online, as well as in the art gallery, means that even if people can’t or don’t want to travel, they can feel nostalgic about their favourite northern places and maybe discover some new ones too.”
Massie’s Northern Soul project has undergone a long journey to this point, he says in his latest blog. “In 2016, I had the idea of creating an exhibition about my life in the North of England. The idea grew into a series of paintings and prints and then into a book. I found that delving into my past, trying to see how I first saw the places I discovered in the north, was an amazing source of inspiration.”
Moonlight, Whitby, by Ian Scott Massie
The exhibition’s grand tour of the north began in 2019 at Cannon Hall near Barnsley, followed by Masham Gallery, and should have come to Ryedale Folk Museum in 2020 until the pandemic put paid to that plan…until now.
Massie’s first northern encounter had left him “deeply unhappy” in Durham, and yet: “Little did I know that the north would make me. I would grow up there, discover talents for teaching and making art that I never suspected, discover places and music and stories that I would love for the rest of my life, and find happiness,” his blog recalls.
“Along the way, one question would occasionally surface: What makes the north the north? It isn’t simply that old cliche: a hard-working alternative to a soft and lazy south, and yet it’s a hard question to answer.
“It is an alternative of sorts – an alternative to the dreamy chocolate-box portrayal of England that exists only in the imagination. Perhaps, if we’re honest, its the truth of England, where all things are seen clearly: the incomparable beauty of the landscape; the harsh ugliness left by industry; the great wealth of the aristocracy; the miserable housing of the poor; the civic pride of the mill towns and a people as likely to be mobilised by political oratory as by a comedian with a ukulele.”
The Three Peaks, by Ian Scott Massie
Massie continues: “The north is a place made up of a multitude of races, each with their own deep pool of stories which combine to make a shared way of life. Mining, the Potato Famine, the textile industry, persecution, war and politics all brought different people to the north. The list goes on.
“So I’ve approached the Northern Soul as though it were a jigsaw puzzle: examining the pieces I’ve come across over the years for what they can tell me. I’ve got some bits of the edge and some promising parts of the middle, but I’d be lying if I said I was close to completing it.
“There are parts of the north I know only slightly and others I know like the back of my hand, and I’ll plead guilty now to favouring some places over others because that’s just the way it is.”
The accompanying Northern Soul book is available both from the publishers, Masham Gallery, at mashamgallery.co.uk/store/p379/Northern_Soul.html, and from the Ryedale Folk Museum shop and online at ryedalefolkmuseum.co.uk (for £26 plus postage and packaging if bought from the museum website).
Brimham Rocks, watercolour, by Ian Scott Massie
“This book is at once the log of a long, as yet unfinished, journey and a love letter to the North of England. It’s about the places I’ve known and painted, and what part they play in this complex, careworn, mountainous, multi-faceted, wave-tossed, warm-welcoming, wind-blown, freezing, friendly, tough-spirited, tender-hearted, rusty, rebellious, ruinous, green, golden, chilled-out, challenging, deep-rooted, dale-scattered, subtle, smoky, special land,” concludes Massie.
Ian Scott Massie: Northern Soul, Ryedale Folk Museum art gallery, May 17 to July 11 2021; open daily from 10am to 5pm. Entry to the gallery is free.
The exhibition also can be viewed on the Ryedale Folk Museum website during the same period at: ryedalefolkmuseum.co.uk/art-gallery/
Roseberry Topping, by Ian Scott Massie
Did you know?
IAN Scott Massie continues a parallel career as a musician, teaching guitar and coaching rock bands at Queen Mary’s School, Baldersby Park, near Thirsk, and performing on stage occasionally. He has been a member of several bands over the years.
He collects and plays unusual musical instruments from around the world and is a founder and events coordinator of the Masham Arts Festival and a founder of the ArtisOn arts and crafts teaching studios at High Burton House, Masham.
In 2010, he was a semi-finalist on BBC1’s Mastermind, answering questions on artist Paul Nash, one of his greatest influences.
Ian Scott Massie at work in his Masham studio. Picture: Steve Christian
AHEAD of June 18’s release of his fourth album, To Carry A Whale, York singer-songwriter Benjamin Francis Leftwich discusses life, York, London, music, spiritual recovery, collaborations and the decade since his stellar debut, in conversation with Two Big Egos In A Small Car podcast duo Chalmers & Hutch.
Let Ian Massie take you to Another Place in his Northern Soul show at Ryedale Folk Museum, Hutton-le-Hole from May 17
NO mention of home entertainment here, as Charles Hutchinson decides to cast fears aside – albeit while acting responsibly – as he looks forward to theatres, bars, galleries, museums and music venues opening their doors once more.
Cupid, draw back your bow and let the beer flow, straight to the York Theatre Royal patio
LOVE is in the Step 2 air, and soon on the York Theatre Royal stage too for The Love Season from May 17.
Cupid’s Bar: Follow the arrow to the York Theatre Royal patio. Picture: Livy Potter
Perfect timing to launch Cupid’s Bar for five weeks on the Theatre Royal patio, where the bar will run from midday to 9.30pm every Thursday to Sunday, providing an outdoor space in the heart of the city for residents and visitors to socialise safely.
Working with regional suppliers, Cupid’s Bar will offer a range of drink options, such as draught beer from Black Sheep Brewery, Masham, and York Gin from, er, York.
Ian Scott Massie: Finding Northern Soul in his landscape watercolours and screenprints. Picture: Steve Christian
Exhibition of the month ahead outside York: Ian Scott Massie, Northern Soul, Ryedale Folk Museum, Hutton-le-Hole, North York Moors National Park, May 17 to July 11
MASHAM artist Ian Scott Massie’s Northern Soul show of 50 watercolours and screenprints represents his personal journey of living in the north for 45 years.
“The north is the truth of England, where all things are seen clearly,” he says. “The incomparable beauty of the landscape; the harsh ugliness left by industry; the great wealth of the aristocracy; the miserable housing of the poor; the civic pride of the mill towns and a people as likely to be mobilised by political oratory as by a comedian with a ukulele.”
The Waterfall Of Nikko-Zan In Shimotsuke Province, by Utagawa Hiroshige, 1853, from York Art Gallery’s show of rarely seen Japanese prints, Pictures Of The Floating World. Image courtesy of York Museums Trust
Reopening exhibition of the month ahead in York: Pictures Of The Floating World: Japanese Ukiyo-e Prints, York Art Gallery, from May 28
YORK Art Gallery’s display of rarely seen Japanese Ukiyo-e prints, complemented by much-loved paintings from the gallery collection, will go on show in a new Spotlight Series.
Marking next month’s gallery reopening with Covid-secure measures, Pictures Of The Floating World will feature prints by prominent Ukiyo-e artists such as Utagawa Hiroshige, along with works by those influenced by Japanese art, York artist Albert Moore and Walter Greaves among them.
This free-to-visit exhibition will highlight the significant impact of Japanese art on the western world and the consequential rise of the artistic movements of Aestheticism and Art Nouveau.”
Van the manoeuvre: Morrison’s York Barbican gigs put back to July
On the move: Van Morrison’s York Barbican shows
NO reopening date has yet been announced for York Barbican, but Irish veteran Van Morrison’s shows are being moved from May 25 and 26 to July 20 and 21.
“Please keep hold of your tickets as they will be valid for the new date,” says the Barbican website, where seats for Van The Man are on sale without social distancing, in line with Step 4 of the Government’s pandemic Roadmap to Recovery, whereby all legal limits on social contact are potentially to be removed from June 21.
Morrison, 75, will release his 42nd album, Latest Record Project: Volume 1, a 28-track delve into his ongoing love of blues, R&B, jazz and soul, on May 7 on Exile/BMG.
Lockdown love story: The taster poster for Alan Ayckbourn’s new play at the Stephen Joseph Theatre
New play of the summer: Alan Ayckbourn’s The Girl Next Door, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, June 4 to July 3
AFTER the 2020 world premiere of his virus play Truth Will Out lost out to the Covid pandemic restrictions, director emeritus Alan Ayckbourn returns to the Stephen Joseph Theatre to direct his 85th play, The Girl Next Door, in the summer season.
“I wrote it back in Spring 2020. I like to think of it as a lockdown love story,” says Ayckbourn, introducing his touching, tender and funny reflection on the ability of love to rise above adversity and reach across the years.
Influenced by his own experiences in two “lockdowns”, one in wartime London in childhood, the other in the on-going pandemic in Scarborough, Ayckbourn will play with time in a plot moving back and forth between 2021 and 1941. Box office: sjt.uk.com.
May and April in tandem: York Barbican date for Imelda next spring on her first tour in five years
Gig announcement of the week in York: Imelda May, York Barbican, April 6 2022
IRISH singer-songwriter Imelda May will play York Barbican next April in the only Yorkshire show of her Made To Love tour, her first in more than five years.
“I cannot wait to see you all again, to dance and sing together, to connect and feel the sparkle in a room where music makes us feel alive and elevated for a while,” says May. “Let’s go!”
Last Friday, the 46-year-old Dubliner released her sixth studio album, 11 Past The Hour. The box office opens tomorrow at 10am at yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Dance like Fred Astaire…or more likely like Tim Booth as James end the summer at Scarborough Open Air Theatre
Gig announcement of the week outside York: James, Scarborough Open Air Theatre, September 9
WHERE better for James to announce a summer show in the week they release new single Beautiful Beaches than at Scarborough Open Air Theatre?
The Manchester legends will play on the East Coast in the wake of launching their new album, All The Colours Of You, on June 4. Tickets go on sale tomorrow (23/4/2021) at 9am at scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.
This will be the third that James, led by Clifford-born Tim Booth, have played Scarborough OAT after shows in 2015 and 2018.
The writers, actors, directors and organisers in a Zoom gathering for Next Door But One’s Yorkshire Trios at The Gillygate pub, York
And what about?
GOOD news: Live theatre bursts into life in York for the first time since December 30 when York community arts collective Next Door But One presents Yorkshire Trios in The Gillygate pub’s new outdoor seating area tomorrow and on Saturday.
Themed around Moments Yet To Happen, trios of actors, directors and writers will bring to theatre-starved York a quintet of short stories of laughter, strength, dreams and everything in between: a neighbour with a secret; a delivery driver full of wanderlust; an optimistic carousel operator; a poet inviting us into her world and a Jane McDonald fan on a soapbox.
Bad news for tardy readers? The 7.30pm shows have sold out.
