BONNEVILLE And
The Bailers, the York band du jour you just have to see, will play The Crescent
in York on February 20.
“This show is
what I’ve been working towards for the past six months with my fabulous new
band The Bailers,” says Bonnie Milnes, the fast-rising York combo’s singer and country-noir
songwriter. “I’ve loved smashing out hits with these world-class musicians and
can’t wait to take it to the stage at a venue I’ve always dreamed of
headlining.
“Next Thursday’s audience can expect a mix of heart break and
full-frontal sass as I write material on some tough times with some kickass
comeback songs. I’d describe the show as feminist, sexy and straight from
heart.”
Before then, on Wednesday, Bonnie is “so excited to be sharing a new single, Baby Drive, with an absolutely beautiful video shot by Luke Downing on a beautiful day at Rufforth Airfield, starring myself and my best friend and bass player Jack Garry”. “The song’s about thinking you’re in love with your best friend,” she says.
Bonnie Milnes and Jack Garry in a still from Luke Downing’s video for Baby Drive, Bonneville And The Bailers’ new single. View the video at https://youtu.be/h6H9Va9RNjA
Looking ahead, Bonnie says: “We don’t have any other York shows lined up
but we have got an exciting little tour of gigs that kicks off tomorrow
(February 11) in Hull [at 9.15pm at The Sesh at The Polar Bear, in Spring Bank]
and we’ll be supporting York’s own Benjamin Francis Leftwich at Komedia, Brighton,
on February 26.”
Meanwhile, Bonnie has been building a rehearsal studio with Young
Thugs’ sound technician Matt Woollons. “Called Boom, this has been my base for
writing, rehearsing and – before long – recording something new,” she says.
Tickets for February 20 cost £8 at eventbrite.co.uk/e/bonnie-and-the-bailers or seetickets.com, or in person from Earworm Records, in Powells Yard, Goodramgate, or The Crescent, off Blossom Street. Alternatively, pay more on the door from 7.30pm.
SAXON frontman Biff Byford will release his debut solo album, School Of
Hard Knocks, on February 21, backed up by his first ever solo tour in the
spring.
Among the ten British dates for the 69-year-old West Yorkshireman will
be Leeds City Varieties Music Hall on April 21.
In a show of two halves in ”An Evening With…” format, Honley-born Byford will be in conversation with American comedian Don Jamieson in the first, discussing his life and career with the That Metal Show star. After the break, Byford and his band will perform new tracks, covers and maybe a sprinkling of Saxon gold dust.
The tour poster for Bill Byford’s ten spring dates
“It’s a show I’ve wanted to do for a long
time and one which I don’t think has been done in hard rock before. It’s going
to be something a little bit different, it will be very cool and a lot of fun,”
says Byford, who played bass for assorted Barnsley bands as a teenager by night
while working at a colliery by day.
“The second half will
consist of some old songs, some new songs, some cover versions and some songs
off the solo album. It’s going to be great and I’m really looking forward to it.
So, I’ll see you there.”
The album artwork for Bill Byford’s School Of Hard Knocks
Produced by Byford at Brighton Electric Studios, School Of Hard Knocks reflects
the personality of this “Heavy Metal Bard of the North”, his loves
and musical versatility. Fulfilling his long-standing wish to explore rock’n’roll
a little more, the album takes a personal journey, highlighting his life and
his passionate interests, from growing up in the industrial north to the
history of the Middle Ages.
Byford’s old-school British hard rock album embraces a variety of
musical genres, taking in the Yorkshire folk classic Scarborough Fair, most
famously covered in the 1960s by Simon & Garfunkel and now given a new
arrangement by Byford and guitarist Fredrik Åkesson.
Tickets for April 21 are on sale at myticket.co.uk, cityvarieties.co.uk or on 0113 243 0808.
Louis Tomlinson: set fair for Scarborough this summer
LOUIS Tomlinson is
extending his debut solo world tour to take in Scarborough Open Air Theatre on
August 15.
Tickets for the
chart-topping Yorkshire singer-songwriter go on general sale at scarboroughopenairtheatre.com
on Friday at 9am.
One fifth of One
Direction, Doncaster-born Tomlinson, 28, released his debut album Walls on
January 31.
“I feel like this is
the start of my career, with so much to look forward to and all the plans in
place,” he says. “Honestly, I’ve been through every emotion possible in the
past few years and come out the other side stronger and more confident than
I’ve ever been.
“I know I’ve made an
album that my fans will like, one that sounds like me and has its own identity.
There were times I wasn’t sure if this was what I should be doing. Now I can’t
imagine doing anything else.”
Opening in Barcelona
on March 9, Tomlinson’s world tour will play Paris, Berlin, Dubai, Sydney,
Tokyo, Rio De Janeiro and five sold-out British dates nights before heading to
North America.
Peter Taylor,
director of Scarborough OAT promoters Cuffe & Taylor, is delighted to be
bringing Tomlinson to the East Coast. “Louis was an integral part of the
biggest global pop phenomenon of the past 20 years and is also a proud
Yorkshireman, so this is going to be a must-see date for his fans.
“His debut album is
brilliant and demand for tickets for his World Tour has been immense. We cannot
wait to welcome Louis and his fans to this special arena for what will be a
fantastic night.”
Post One
Direction, Tomlinson began his solo days with two collaborations, Just Hold On
with Steve Aoki
and the brooding duet Back To You with Bebe Rexha. Last year, the singles
flowed: the raucous Kill My Mind; the heartfelt Two
Of Us; the reflective We Made It and the soaring Don’t Let It Break Your Heart.
Now comes Walls, an
album with a nod to his love of indie-rock and lyrics “rooted in real life that
dig deep on subjects ranging from relationships and family to the folly of
youth and days of self-doubt”.
Tomlinson’s August 15 tickets
also will be available from Friday on 01723 818111 and 01723 383636 or in
person from the Scarborough Open Air Theatre box office, in Burniston Road, and
the Discover Yorkshire Coast Tourism Bureau, Scarborough Town Hall, St Nicholas
Street.
YORK Opera members past and present have been saddened to
hear of the death of founder member, director and chairman Roy Gittins.
A chemistry teacher – indeed head of chemistry at Tadcaster Grammar
School until his retirement – Roy also had a lifelong love of theatre.
Initially, this was as an amateur actor in roles ranging from William Shakespeare to Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter, before he was introduced by teaching colleague John Warburton to a group of young singers on the cusp of “graduating” from the York Youth Operatic and Choral Society.
Not finding a company in York to suit their love of opera and
operetta, instead they formed City Opera Group in 1966, Roy joining as their
mentor and first chairman.
Over a 25-year span, he directed around 40 operas, including Verdi’s Nabucco and Macbeth, Rossini’s William Tell and Vaughan Williams’s unjustly neglected English folk opera Hugh The Drover, a production highly praised by the composer’s widow, Ursula Vaughan Williams, who came to see it.
After working for many years in the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, Roy oversaw the move of major shows to York Theatre Royal with his production of Puccini’s Turandot in 1986, when the company became known as York Opera.
His contribution to York Opera and the musical and artistic life of York has been immense and he will be remembered with great affection and gratitude. Roy leaves a daughter, Rachel Morgan, and son, Paul Gittins, to whom York Opera send their love and deepest sympathy.
The poster artwork for Farnham Maltings’ tour of Kevin Dyer’s The Man Who Left Is Not The Man Who Came Home
HELMSLEY Arts
Centre will be the only Yorkshire stop for Kevin Dyer’s new play on the lives
of military wives, The Man Who Left Is Not The Man Who Came Home.
“Britain has armed
forces in many countries. Their partners are waiting at home for them to come
back,” says writer-director Dyer, ahead of the March 14 performance by the
Farnham Maltings company. “Some listen to the news, some don’t. Some have
affairs, some don’t. Some sing in choirs and put on a brave face, some don’t.
All of them find a way to get on with it.”
Dyer began his research by chatting to women who had been married to men who had gone to war. “Most of us with partners say goodbye to them when they go to work, but we know that they’re going to come back. Not so, if you’re a ‘military wife’,” he says.
“It soon became
clear in my conversations that the pressures on the pair of them – the wife and
her man – were immense, extraordinary and not at all like civvy street.”
Dyer knew quickly that he had no wish to write about the experience of being “over there”. “There are lots of documentaries and pieces of semi-fiction that have covered that,” he reasons. “But the stories of the women who watched their man go, spent time thinking, wondering, hoping, coping whilst he was away, then experienced him coming back home, were vivid, inspiring, and largely untold.”
He had a few “basic questions” for the women whose men went to war. “What was it like before he went? What was it like saying goodbye? What was it like once he’d gone? What was it like the moment he came back? What was it like after the first buzz of his return had passed?” he asked.
“I heard stories of love, hate, betrayal, uselessness, kids, mates, denial, madness,” says Dyer. “The stories are varied and never simple.”
The Man Who Left Is Not the Man Who Came Home is the product of more than 100 one-to-one interviews with soldiers and their wives, where secrets, regrets and experiences have been shared for the first time.
The resulting play tells
the story of Ashley, a young British soldier, and his wife Chloe just before,
during and after he is posted to serve in Afghanistan.
“Chloé’s future
hopes come with imminent challenges,” says Dyer. “Being married to the military
means facing deployment. Behind closed doors, there is tenderness and humour
too, but as the day of Ashley’s departure comes ever closer, anxiety and
confrontations multiply.
Dyer’s story of
resilience, hope and change – and knowing that the man you love, who is going
to war, might not come back – will be performed by Stephanie Greer and Sam C
Wilson with military wife Sam Trussler. An open conversation on the themes of
the play and the country we live in will follow the 7.30pm performance.
Dyer’s play, both
innovative and emotional, carries this warning: “Though we hope that the
experience of the play will be moving, relatable or cathartic, and there’s no
intention to shock, there’s a chance that, for some audience members, it could
incite emotions and memories that are upsetting or strong feelings about war.”
Tickets are on sale on 01439 771700 or at helmsleyartscentre.co.uk. Age guidance: 14+ only.
The Ballad Of Maria Marten playwright Beth Flintoff
GOODBYE Polstead, say hello to The Ballad Of Maria Marten, the new name for Beth Flintoff’s captivating drama that first toured in 2018.
Directed by Hal Chambers in tandem with Ivan Cutting, an all-female cast will embark on a spring tour from Tuesday at Scarborough’s Stephen Joseph Theatre, led by Elizabeth Crarer, who returns to the title role for Flintoff’s re-telling of a real-life Suffolk murder mystery in Summer 1827.
In a red barn, Maria Marten awaits her lover. A year later, her body is found under the floor of the barn in a grain sack, barely identifiable, and the manhunt begins.
Maria’s story sent shock waves throughout the country. The Red Barn Murder, as it became known, was national news, inspiring writers and filmmakers down the ages.
Here was the sort of gruesome tale that had all the hallmarks of a classic crime drama: a missing body, a country location, a disreputable squire and a village stuck in its age-old traditions.
However, amid all the hysteria, Maria’s own story has become lost – until this play. Chambers and Flintoff’s spine-tingling rediscovery of her tale brings it back to vivid, urgent life.
Flintoff, a freelance playwright and theatre director from Hampshire, was asked by co-director Cutting to write the play.
She was immediately intrigued, not only because she had never heard of the murder, but also because she then learnt how the story previously had been told.
“Ivan approached me after seeing another play that I’d written, which was set in the early 12th century,” she recalls. “We met in Polstead, Suffolk, to walk through the village, and I was fascinated. In particular, Ivan wanted the story to focus on Maria because so many versions of this tale are centred around William Corder.”
Beth continues: “From the moment of the trial, the focus was on the murderer, not Maria. No-one seemed to be looking carefully at the intricacies of her life, beyond the basics. So, I wanted to tell the story entirely from her point of view.
“We are often presented with stories of women as ‘victims’, rather than as interesting, complicated people who had hopes and dreams, friends and lives of their own.”
For her research, Flintoff stayed in Ipswich for a while and walked around Polstead to gain a sense of how she lived her life. “I visited all the locations of Maria’s life that I thought would be mentioned in the play: Layham, Sudbury, Hadleigh. I went to the Moyse’s Hall Museum in Bury St Edmunds, which has relics relating to the murder, and the Records Office in Ipswich to look at newspaper reports,” she says.
“I talked to local people to try and understand what everyone thinks now (the answer: everyone that knows of it has a different version!). Then I spent a lot of time in libraries: the University of Sussex Library, the British Library in London and the Bodleian in Oxford.”
Flintoff notes that amid the profusion of accounts of the story, whether from the time of the murder or much more recent, they are all very different. “Some are truly horrible about Maria, others make her out to be an angelic village maiden, and some offer some pretty bizarre theories about Ann,” she says.
“One offered ‘hints to the ladies’ on how to avoid marrying a murderer in the future. Several anxiously urged women not to be so promiscuous, to avoid being murdered themselves. None suggested that men stop murdering. Needless to say, I could not find any contemporary accounts written by a woman.
“Then I put all the research aside and tried to think about Maria as a person. Who does she love, what do they talk about, what does she do when she’s having fun? I didn’t want her to be a victim any more. Maria emerged as intelligent, brave and wryly funny, just like the survivors I had met.”
What does Flintoff anticipate this week’s SJT audience will take away from The Ballad Of Maria Marten? “First of all, I hope they enjoy themselves! That’s my number one job really. It’s not a laugh-a-minute sort of play but you can still enjoy a story, even if it’s full of sadness.
“But also I hope they enjoy watching these actresses, as I have, working together to tell this story about a woman who has somehow got lost in the retelling of her own murder.”
Secondly, she hopes they feel the story is still relevant. “On average, two women are killed every week by their partner or ex-partner in this country,” Beth says. “I feel increasingly that this story is not about the past but the present: how are we going to let women speak for themselves when there is so much history of being ignored?
“I feel very optimistic for the future. I think things are going to change, and it’s wonderful to be living in that change, but it’s going to take work.”
The Ballad Of Maria Marten will run in the Round at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, from Tuesday,February 11 to 15 at 7.30pm nightly, plus matinees at 1.30pm on February 13 and 2.30pm on February 15. Tickets, priced from £10, are on sale on 01723 370541 or at sjt.uk.com.
EDITOR’S NOTE: VERY SORRY THE TEXT IS MISBEHAVING. NO IDEA WHY IT IS, BUT HOPEFULLY THIS DOES NOT SPOIL ANY ENJOYMENT OF READING THE STORY. CH
Riotous: Ubu (Katy Owen) and Mrs Ubu (Mike Shepherd) in Ubu! The Sing Along Satire
REVIEW: Kneehigh’s Ubu! A Singalong Satire, Quarry Theatre, Leeds
Playhouse, tonight at 7.30pm. Box office: 0113 213 7700 or at
leedsplayhouse.org.uk
ALEX, the woodsman-bearded
drama teacher from York, won’t forget his afternoon visit to Leeds Playhouse,
thrashed by a Leeds boy in a daft party game in Kneehigh’s promenade musical.
He loved it! We
loved it! You’ll love it! Yet again, Cornwall’s Kneehigh send you home dizzy and
delirious with the joys and jolts, the thrilling rock’n’rollercoaster ride, of
theatre that aptly comes with an exclamation mark in its show title.
Ubu! A Sing Along
Satire has politics, a big flushing loo, cheers and boos, inflatable animals, songs,
more politics, more songs, competitive audience participation and a giant bear
with poor vision in a chaotic, kinetic, karaoke cabaret circus of derailed life
under a deranged dictator.
First, house
lights up, Delycia Belgrave and the soul house band The Sweaty Bureaucrats set
the boisterous mood from up on high with party anthems.
Enter our
convivial, dry-witted host in vest, tie and striped trousers, Jeremy Wardle (Niall
Ashdown), commenting on the state of the British nation as he introduces the land
of Lovelyville and the campaign trail of sleek, sloganeering President Nick
Dallas (Dom Coyote), his woke daughter Bobbi (Kyla Goodey) and their Russian
security boss Captain Shittabrique (Adam Sopp). Shitt-a-brique. Geddit. There
are plenty more risqué gags like that to follow.
Where’s Ubu?
Here’s Ubu! Tiny yet hugely impactful Katy Owen’s unhinged, petulant, crude and
cruel soon-to-be-dictator Ubu. Potty mouthed, bespectacled, dreadlocked, Welsh
voiced, and in the words of Kneehigh: “impossibly greedy, unstoppably rude,
inexorably daft and hell-bent on making the country great again! Sound
familiar?”
Familiar, yes,
but told so gleefully afresh, as Alfred Jarry’s famously riot-inducing shot of anarchy
from 1896 Paris kicks up a song and dance in the manipulative era of Trump,
Johnson and Putin.
Conceived by writer Carl Grose, his co-director Mike Shepherd (the
show’s ribald, preening Mrs Ubu) and musical director Charles Hazlewood, Ubu! is
a punk-spirited, twisted vaudeville study of power, protest and populism that
could not be better timed.
Boos for Katie Hopkins, Boris and Trump; Britney’s Toxic, The Carpenters’ Close To You and Mark Ronson’s Uptown Funk re-invented so joyfully; wonderful performances all round, audience included; crazily energetic choreography by Tom Jackson Greaves and a constantly busy, circular rostrum set by Michael Vale all make for another Kneehigh knees-up high.
Cause a riot, if needs must, to secure a ticket for this petty, power-mad protagonist’s panto of pandemonium.
Not sorry to be a nuisance at York Explore tonight
WHISPER it loudly, the word is out that history will misbehave tonight at York Explore Library, Library Square, York, from 7.30pm to 9pm.
Why? Because the air will be thick with Paul Birch’s live audio drama The Nuisance Inspector, wherein a sinister slice of York’s past, the Hungate Clearances, will be re-told.
Birch travels back to the 1930s when York’s newest Health Inspector encounters more than he bargains for in the mysterious and extraordinary alleys and yards of Hungate.
A strange body in the Foss, ghostly goings-on in Carmelite Street and an unlikely romance all feature in this moving tale of love, loss and community spirit.
Based on real events and inspired by letters, maps, books and photographs from the civic archives, The Nuisance Inspector uses drama, comedy and live music to transport the audience into a powerful and poignant past.
Tonight’s immersive performance comes in the wake of two sold-out shows in December. Doors open at 7pm for the 7.30pm start and tickets are FREE. Be sure to arrive in good time for start.
Anna Paquin and Holly Grainger in Tell It To The Bees
YORK author
Fiona Shaw will discuss the screen adaptation of her novel Tell It To The Bees
after the 6.30pm screening of Annabel Jankel’s film at City Screen, York, on
March 4.
This live
question-and-answer session will mark the conclusion of LGBT History Month,
when Fiona will be interviewed by Dr Hannah Roche, lecturer in 20th
century literature and culture at the University of York.
Under
discussion will be Fiona’s 2009 book and its ten-year journey from page to
screen, and the audience will have the chance to ask questions.
Tell It
To The Bees is set in small-town 1950s’ Britain as a doctor develops a
relationship with her young patient’s mother. Lydia Weekes (played by Holliday
Grainger) is distraught at the break-up of her marriage, but when her young
son, Charlie (Gregor Selkirk), makes friends with the local doctor, Jean
Markham (Anna Paquin), her life is turned upside down.
York author Fiona Shaw: Q and A at City Screen, York, on March 4
Charlie
tells his secrets to no-one but the bees, but even he cannot keep his mother’s
friendship to himself. In the claustrophobic 1950s, however, the locals do not
like things done differently. As Lydia and the doctor become closer,
rumours start to fly, threatening to shatter Charlie’s world.
Fiona will
be selling and signing copies of Tell It To The Bees after the screening,
along with copies of her most recent novel, 2018’s Outwalkers.
In
addition, she has volunteered to visit book groups in York and the surrounding
area. If interested, please contact Fiona via her website, fiona-shaw.com.
Tickets for March 4’s event are on sale on 0871 902 5726 or at picturehouse.com.
REVIEW: Made In Dagenham, The Musical, Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, 7.30pm tonight; 2.30pm, 7.30pm tomorrow. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk
MADE In
Dagenham, re-made in York, is the third production by the Jospeh Rowntree
Theatre Company, formed to raise funds for the Haxby Road community theatre.
A good cause, in other words, and the more companies that use this ever-welcoming theatre, the better. The more companies that rise up to tread its boards, the better, too, because York is suffused with musical theatre talent and also with audiences always keen to support such productions.
This week represents the chance to see the York premiere of Made In Dagenham, transferred from screen to stage by composer David Arnold, lyricist Richard Thomas and Richard Bean, the Hull playwright whose comedy dramas revel in confrontations, spats and politics on stage (witness One Man, Two Guvnors and Toast, for example).
Bean re-tellsthe true 1968 story of the women in the stitching room of Ford’s Dagenham car plant being stitched up by both management and corrupt union, bluntly told their pay is to be dropped to an “unskilled” grade. What follows is a fight for equal pay, standing up against an American corporation, and if the battle is less well known than the Suffragette movement of the 1900s, it is a women’s rights landmark nonetheless.
From the off, once an ensemble number loosens limb and voice
alike for Kayleigh Oliver’s cast, the banter amid the graft of the sewing machinists
is boisterously established, the humour full of double entendres and sexual
bravado, as characters are drawn pleasingly quickly. So too are their
interactions with the men at the car plant, and in the case of Rita O’Grady
(Jennie Wogan), working wife and mother of two, her home life with husband
Eddie (Nick Sephton).
Rita, together with Rosy Rowley’s Connie Riley, become the protagonists
of the struggle, but at a cost: for one, her relationship, for the other, her health.
Wogan and Rowley are both tremendous in the drama’s grittier scenes and knock the
hell out of their big numbers.
Bean writes with more sentimentality than usual, charting the fracturing
of Rita and Eddie’s relationship, but it suits the heightened tone of a musical.
Sephton handles his ballad lament particularly well.
Jennifer Jones’s Sandra, Izzy Betts’ Clare and, in particular, Helen
Singhateh’s lewd Beryl add to the car plant fun and games, as does Chris Gibson’s
ghastly American management guy, Tooley. All your worst Stetson-hatted American
nightmares in one, and post-Brexit, there’ll soon be more where he came from!
You will enjoy Martyn Hunter’s pipe-smoking caricature of Prime Minister Harold Wilson and director Kayleigh Oliver’s no-nonsense Barbara Castle too. Richard Goodall is good all round as the machinists’ hard-pressed union rep.
Supporting roles and ensemble serve the show well too, and if
sometimes the sound balance means lines are hard to hear when the Timothy
Selman’s orchestra is playing beneath them, it is a minor problem. Selman’s
players, Jessica Douglas and Sam Johnson among them, are on good form throughout.
Lorna Newby’s choreography could be given a little more oomph but
with so many on stage at times, space is tight. One routine, where the women
move in circles one way, and the men do likewise the other way, outside them, works
wonderfully, however.
Made In Dagenham may be a car plant story, but its factory politics resonate loudly nanew in York, the industrial city of chocolate and trains.
Please note, Made In Dagenham features some very strong language
and may be unsuitable for children.
