“The show I do is pretty much all of Elvis’s eras,” says The King Is Back tribute act Ben Portsmouth
ELVIS is making another comeback…in 2021.
The King Is Back, Ben Portsmouth’s tribute show, will be back at York
Barbican on April 9 next year.
Berkshire singer Portsmouth was last in the building with his Elvis Presley act on December 20 2019. Tickets for his return are on sale at yorkbarbican.co.uk or on 0203 356 5441.
Portsmouth and his band Taking Care Of Elvis have been taking care of
Elvis tribute business for a dozen years in a show built around “a little less
conversation, a lot more action, please”.
“The show I do is pretty much all of Elvis’s eras,” he says. “So, from
the Sun Studio to his movie years. Then I’ll do the 1968 comeback with the
leather outfit.
Portsmouth to York: Ben Portsmouth confirms York Barbican concert next spring
“The first half is more like a story of Elvis’s
life and what he was doing in his career at the time. The second half is
just like an Elvis Seventies’ concert.”
In pursuit of authenticity to the maximum, all of Portsmouth’s
Elvis outfits are flown over from the United States, with the peacock jumpsuit
being his favourite.
In August 2012, Portsmouth made Elvis history when he became
the first act from outside the United States to win the annual Elvis Presley
Enterprises “Worldwide Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artist”, held in Memphis,
Tennessee.
Portsmouth loves the Elvis voice, the look, the stage charisma, his
humour, but more than that. “He was just a people person,” he says. “He was just a simple country boy who liked his cars, his food and all
the rest of it.”
Marketing officer Olivia Potter’s We Pull Together poster at York Theatre Royal,, pictured by events producer Zach Pierce when he left the theatre for the last time before the Coronavirus-enforced closure.
TODAY is World Theatre Day, but a day when the world of live theatre
and its eye on the world are shut down by the Coronavirus pandemic.
Nevertheless, theatres are still marking the occasion, be it York
Theatre Royal executive director Tom Bird’s Tweets throughout the day on his
favourite theatres around the world, or reflections elsewhere on why theatre,
in its myriad forms, is so important to British life.
At the Theatre Royal, show posters have been replaced by one message to the city of York, a rallying call reminiscent of wartime posters, designed in the Theatre Royal livery by marketing officer Olivia (Livy) Potter from an initial idea by development officer Maisie Pearson.
In bold print, it reads: We Are Creative. We Are Sturdy. We Are
Ambitious. We Are York. We Pull Together.
Bird’s eye view on World Theatre Day: York Theatre Royal executive director Tom Bird is marking the day with Tweets highlighting his favourite theatres in the world
Here, Olivia answers Charles Hutchinson’s questions on how the poster came to be printed.
Why and how did you choose the wording of your poster, Olivia?
“The wording was inspired by York Theatre Royal’s values:
“We are ambitious
We are sturdy
We are welcoming
We are ambassadors for York
We celebrate the city’s true diversity; it makes us bloom
We are creative in every context
We pull together
We excel in every area”.
“The idea to take some of these values and work them into a
message came from our development officer, Maisie Pearson, and it was a
brilliant one.”
Dumb question, but what prompted you to do it?
“We had to take the show posters down outside the theatre as they
were promoting productions that had been cancelled, such as Alone In Berlin
mid-run.
“The empty poster sites looked very forlorn and that got us
thinking about putting up a poster with a message of support and solidarity for
the city to see instead – something that could stay up for however long it
needed to.”
Run halted: Alone In Berlin fell silent when York Theatre Royal closed in response to the Coronavirus pandemic
What is the overall message you are seeking to put across? Is it about theatre and the arts at large being woven so vitally into the fabric of York, or is it more about that wider message of the importance of all pulling together?
“I think it’s both these messages. It’s a very uncertain time for
all industries right now, but particularly the arts and entertainment industry.
“We wanted to find some way of reassuring the people of the city
that the curtain will rise again and we want everyone to be there when it does.
“Also, the narrative of the nation ‘pulling together’ by staying
at home to save lives has really come into force, particularly over the last few
days. The wording we’ve chosen for the poster seems to be quite vital now and
in keeping with this narrative.”
Where are the posters on show at York Theatre Royal?
“One can be found by our Stage Door on Duncombe Place, next to Red
House Antiques. Another can be found next to our patio area to the left of the
theatre building on St Leonard’s Place.”
York Theatre Royal’s logo: colour palette is replicated in the new poster
Why are posters such a powerful medium in tumultuous times?
“Poster art and design is a really interesting medium, and very
difficult to get right. I suppose the key is to keep it simple, find your
message and present it in a way that is striking.”
How did you choose the charcoal and old-gold colour scheme for the poster? Echoes of wartime posters, perhaps?
“The colours are actually the brand colours of York Theatre Royal,
which unintentionally seem to have connotations of those famous wartime-era
posters.”
Will there be more posters to come?
“We hope that won’t be necessary and that we can replace them with
show posters soon.”
How are you spending your days during the theatre shutdown?
“I’m finding ways to engage with our audiences online; yoga; a bit
of dancing; chatting to family and friends online; making fancy meals and
drinking a fair bit of gin.”
Livy Potter in the role of Nina in York Settlement Community Players’ production of Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull at York Theatre Royal Studio, February 26 to March 7
On World Theatre Day, why does theatre and the arts matter so much to you, both in your work at the Theatre Royal and as an actor?
“There’s nothing quite like the arts as a means of bringing people
together, not just physically but emotionally too.
“I love being part of an audience who are engaged, laughing as one
and sometimes even crying together, too.
“One of the biggest joys in my life is being part of a group who
come together with the purpose of creating something as one – a shared aim of
telling a story for others to listen to and enjoy.
“In this difficult time, I think people are going to find really
ingenious ways of achieving this and when this all does finally end, I can’t
wait for us all to come together once more to experience the joys of theatre
afresh.”
The Grand Opera House sign for these Coronavirus lockdown days
TODAY is World Theatre Day,
although the day-to-day world of theatre has ground to a shuddering halt, its
stages silenced by the Coronavirus pandemic.
Nevertheless, today is still the
chance to celebrate Shakespeare’s sentiment in As You Like It that “All the world’s
a stage”.
Shakespeare’s Melancholy Jaques went
on to mull over exits and entrances, how one man in his time plays many parts,
his acts being seven ages. Let’s turn that life model to theatre itself, and
none more so than the Grand Opera House in York, a theatre, a building, a site,
that has been through so many ages, so many stages, that seven would be an
underestimate.
Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, who appeared at the Empire Theatre, York, on March 22 1954
Its life before theatre can be
traced back to 71AD as part of the Roman Quayside; 450AD, a nunnery; and Victorian
days as a “sink or stew”, brothels, crowded slum housing, until the area was
cleaned.
The Grand Opera House building in Cumberland Street began life as a Corn Exchange, designed in 1868 by architect G A Dean to double as a concert room, hence an ornate blue/vermillion/ gold gilding colour scheme.
Conversion to a 1,540-capacity theatre followed in 1901, undertaken by theatrical manager William Peacock, who presented the first performance at the Grand Theatre and Opera House, as it was first named, on January 20 1902 when Australian music hall entertainer Florrie Forde starred in Little Red Riding Hood.
The SS Empire, pictured in the 1970s. Note the Roller Skating sign
The 1916 introduction of the
Amusement Tax was not amusing, putting all theatres at risk, but The Empire, as
it was now known, survived. Charlie Chaplin, Gracie Fields, Lillie Langtry and
Marie Lloyd played there; so too, later, did Vera Lynn, Laurel and Hardy, on
their last tour, and Morecambe and Wise.
A huge rates increase in 1945 ruined
the theatre, forcing Marie Blanche, Peacock’s daughter, to end 44 years of
family ownership by selling it to F.J. Butterworth. Audiences declined against
the competition of television, to the point where the theatre closed in 1956,
blaming the “crippling entertainment tax, when TV pays no tax”.
Ernest Shepherd of Shambles acquired the theatre in 1958, duly
adding the ‘S’ and ‘S’ to the Empire name, removing the stage and levelling the
stalls floor for roller-skating, wrestling and bingo.
Special knight, special night: Sir Ian McKellen in Ian McKellen On Stage With Tolkien, Shakespeare, Others…And You! at the Grand Opera House, York, last June
The end of Empire days came in 1985, but after the India Pru Company
acquired the building in 1987, Henley-on-Thames architect Gordon J Claridge was given the
brief to restore it to its 1909 glory. The Art Nouveau wallpaper was copied;
the chandelier duplicated; the carpets rewoven from the original pattern with
the Grand Opera House motif added to the design.
Stalls boxes were restored and a new stage built; the Clifford
Street entrance was turned into a box office; Cumberland Street became the main
entrance. The £4 million renovation complete, the theatre re-opened on
September 26 1989 as the Grand Opera House, but tempted fate by presenting Macbeth
– traditionally a harbinger of bad luck in the theatre world – as the first
production, 33 years since the last professional stage performance.
Only two years later, the theatre closed suddenly, staff arriving to find the doors locked, as the curse of Macbeth did indeed strike.
E&B Productions brought to an end two and a half years of darkness
after acquiring the premises for a nominal sum, re-opening the theatre on
February 26 1993, since when the Grand Opera House has remained open, hindered
only occasionally by the River Ouse in flood.
From Strictly Come Dancing to Strictly Ballroom: Kevin Clifton is to star in his dream role of Scott Hastings at the Grand Opera House, York, in November 2020
The theatre’s ownership passed from E&B Productions to Apollo
Leisure in 1995 and American company SFX in 1999. After SFX merged with Clear
Channel in 2000, and later set up a new company, Live Nation, to focus on live entertainment,
in 2006, the latest change of hands came in 2010 when Britain’s largest
owner/operator of theatres, the Ambassador Theatre Group added the York theatre
to their roster.
The ownership baton may be passed on, but each has favoured a
programme of lavish musicals, often straight from the West End; stand-up
comedy; opera; ballet; dance; concerts; tribute acts; celebrity talks; classic
theatre; new plays; in-house youth theatre summer projects; myriad shows by
York stage companies and a star-studded commercial pantomime each Christmas.
Priscilla Queen Of The Desert, Cabaret, Chicago, Jesus Christ
Superstar, The Rocky Horror Show, Blood Brothers, Legally Blonde and Once The
Musical; the Royal Shakespeare Company in The Winter’s Tale; the National
Theatre’s The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time, Hedda Gabler and
Jane Eyre; The Waterboys, Antony & The Johnsons, Adele at 19, Echo &
The Bunnymen; Ken Dodd so many times, Danny La Rue, Ross Noble, Jimmy Carr, Paul
Merton, Julian Clary; Sir Ian McKellen, on his 80th birthday solo tour.
The list goes on…
Dame Berwick Kaler with his pantomime co-stars AJ Powell, left, Suzy Cooper, David Leonard and Martin Barrass at the launch of Dick Turpin Rides Again at the Grand Opera House, York, on February 14. Picture: David Harrison
In the deepening shadow of Coronavirus, we await to discover when
that list will start up again, but let us hope that once more we can gather for
such upcoming shows as The Commitments, from October 26 to 31 and Strictly
Ballroom, with Strictly Come Dancing’s Kevin Clifton, from November 23 to 28.
Come the winter, all eyes will be on Berwick Kaler as the grand
old dame of York becomes the Grand’s new dame after his crosstown transfer, with
villain David Leonard, perennial principal girl Suzy Cooper, comic stooge
Martin Barrass and luverly Brummie A J Powell in tow, for Dick Turpin Rides Again
from December 12 to January 10.
There to greet them and you, unmoved by the tide of theatre
history, will be the Grand Opera House ghost: a nun in the Dress Circle.
Happy World Theatre Day, but happier still when theatre days and
nights can return.
Sign of the times: The frontage of the Stephen Joseph Theatre, at the former Odeon cinema, in Scarborough
TODAY is World Theatre Day. Stages may be silent, but creativity never sleeps. It adapts. No matter what the circumstances.
Keep watching this space. CharlesHutchPress will continue to bring you stories of how the arts world is reacting, responding, re-engaging, under the Coronavirus lockdown.
Yes, we miss the sound of applause bursting through our theatre walls, but for now, for the unforeseeable future, save your hand-clapping for showing support every Thursday at 8pm for our NHS doctors, hospital staff, carers and rising tide of volunteers. God bless them all.
Pipe down: Red Hot Chilli Pipers are postponing their 2020 spring tour
BAGPIPE band Red Hot Chilli Pipers are postponing
their April and May tour under the Coronavirus shutdown, but don’t be too deflated.
The Celtic rock band’s dates are being rearranged for next spring.
The 2020 tour would have opened at the Royal Hall,
Harrogate, on April 24, a show now re-scheduled for April 10 2021.
Tickets remain valid for the new date, but anyone
unable to attend the revised gig – although who can predict anything in their
diary for a year’s time?! – should claim a refund from the original point of
purchase by Friday, April 10.
Piping up again: Red Hot Chllli Pipers, re-booked to play Harrogate in spring 2021
Formed in Scotland in 2002, Red Hot Chilli Pipers made a cameo appearance at the T In The Park festival with The Darkness in 2004 and won the BBC talent show When Will I Be Famous? in 2007.
Bringing together musicians, dancers and singers from Scotland and further afield, many holding world championship
titles, they specialise in “Bagrock”, a groundbreaking fusion of traditional
Scottish music and rock/pop anthems.
In 2014, the Pipers released
the Live At The Lake DVD and CD, recorded at the Milwaukee Irish Fest, their
American spiritual home by the shores of Lake Michigan, when they brought 16
musicians and dancers across the Atlantic.
The set that
night took in Insomnia, Gimme All Your Lovin’, Thunderstruck, Everybody Dance
Now, Amazing Grace, Fix You, Chasing Cars, Wake Me Up, Don’t Stop Believin’ and We Will Rock You.
Pipe dream team : Tom Walker linking up with Red Hot Chilli Pipers for Leave A Light On
In
February 2019, the Pipers and Tom Walker released a new version of his 2018
hit Leave A Light On in aid of Nordoff Robbins, the music therapy charity. Earlier
Walker and the band performed at Murrayfield before the Scotland versus Italy Six
Nations rugby match.
In a new
departure for the Pipers, last June’s studio album of new songs and covers,
Fresh Air, featured lead vocals on many tracks, such as Walker on Leave The
Light On and Chris Judge on the American band Walk The Moon’s Shut Up And Dance
and Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah.
Next on the horizon in Yorkshire for Red Hot Chilli Pipers is a July 11 appearance at Pocklington Arts Centre’s Platform Festival at the Old Station, Pocklington. Watch this space for news of whether the festival will go ahead or not as the Coronavirus pandemic’s progress unfurls.
Aljaž Škorjanec and Janette Manrara: Remembering The Oscars tour moves to Spring 2021
REMEMBER the new York Barbican date for Remembering The Oscars. Strictly
Come Dancing couple Aljaž Škorjanec and Janette Manrara are rescheduling
their postponed April 10 show for April 21 next year.
In keeping with all 38 dates, ten free VIP tickets will be made available to NHS staff “as a way of the producers and Aljaž and Janette showing their gratitude to these front-line heroes” caught in the eye of the Coronavirus pandemic storm.
This will include a meet & greet with the Strictly duo, and information
on how to claim these tickets will be announced very soon “once normal services
resume”.
Aljaž and Janette say: “We know what we are offering is a relatively
small gesture, but we want to acknowledge the amazing effort of the NHS staff who
are facing unimaginable pressure on a daily basis as they treat patients across
the UK affected by Coronavirus.
“We’ll be rolling out the proverbial red carpet for these heroes and we
look forward to thanking them in person throughout the tour.”
The 2020 tour of Škorjanec and Manrara’s new dance spectacular had been
due to start earlier this month, but was postponed after theatres closed
nationwide in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The tour now will run from March 20 to May 4 2021 and all tickets will
remain valid for the rearranged dates of Remembering The Oscars, wherein Aljaž
and Janette will give the red-carpet treatment to Oscar-winning songs, dances,
movies and stars.
Janette says: “We are so thrilled to have the opportunity to put on this
magnificent show, which we are so proud of, in 2021. We hope that when these
difficult times pass, we can bring joy and smiles to everyone’s hearts; nothing
would make us happier.”
Aljaž added: “It was heart-breaking to not be able to open with our show
this year, but we are now so thrilled that our beautiful show will still be
seen by the UK audiences next year. We cannot wait to be back on stage and perform
for you all.”
York Barbican is the only Yorkshire date on the tour. Ticket holders unable to attend the April 21 2021 show should contact the Barbican box office, 0203 356 5441.
AFTER her Singing For All choir had everyone singing I’d Like To Teach The World To Sing at A Night To Remember at York Barbican, now Jessa Liversidge wants to reach the world to sing online.
The York singer, entertainer and singing group tutor, leader and inspiration
is going virtual in response to these Coronavirus lockdown days.
“Going from running seven different singing groups a week, plus other sporadic ones, to having to cancel them all, I was faced with a big challenge,” says Jessa. “But I’ve been buzzing with ideas to keep people singing and to keep their spirits up in these strange times and I have a lot planned.”
Not only planned but coming to fruition already too. “I held my first
virtual choir session on March 18, mainly Easingwold folks but some extras,
including some singing leaders from all over, who came along to check out a
session from a singer’s perspective,” says Jessa.
“We did it again last night, building an online community choir with people
from Easingwold, Helmsley, York, and even other parts of the country – people who
knew me from elsewhere.”
Jessa Liversidge leading her Singing For All choir at Big Ian’s A Night To Remember charity concert at York Barbican on February 29. Picture: David Harrison.
How does it feel, performing together across the ether in our new social-distancing,
stay-at-home world? “It is, of course, very different to a real in-person
choir, but very uplifting and great fun,” says Jessa. “The good news is that
everything is on screen, so you don’t need to provide the lyrics!
“I’ve had some fantastic feedback from people too; the best quotes being
‘A wonderfully positive hour’ and ‘On a challenging day, when it felt hard to
be bright and cheerful, this was just a perfect end to the day. It was great to
let someone with a really joyful personality take you on a different type of
musical journey, a real sharing of community spirit’”
Jessa intends to run these sessions weekly on Wednesday evenings at 7pm. “People will need to contact me on 07740 596869 or email me at jessaliversidge@googlemail.com to find out how to join,” she advises.
She has started up York Military Wives Choir sessions too online, the
first one being held on March 19 for one of 70 such choirs across the country.
“I’m also setting up some free open-to-anyone sessions, starting with a live stream Singing For All session on YouTube that I held on Monday morning this week at 11am: the time the Easingwold Singing For All usually meets,” Jessa says.
“It was great to let someone with a really joyful personality take you on a different type of musical journey,” said one participant in response to joining Jessa Liversidge’s virtual choir session
“I’m so worried about some of the group as Singing For All has been a
lifeline to so many, and lots of them are now isolated in more than one way, so
this is important for them.”
Not only Easingwold Singing For All took part this Monday morning. “We had people joining in from their living rooms, again from across the country, and that singing session is now available on You Tube,” says Jessa. “Hundreds of people have watched it already, and we had people joining in as families and even with three generations. Hopefully these sessions will now happen every Monday morning.”
A further Singing For All virtual session will be running on Tuesday mornings at 11am, this one on Zoom, set in motion last Tuesday. To take part in these interactive sessions, you will need to ring or email Jessa.
She hatched one other project, abruptly halted by the Covid-19 lockdown’s
dictum on social distancing, banning gatherings of more than two people. “I was
going to try out some very spread-out, non-contact park sings,” says Jessa.
“Inspired by the Italians singing from their balconies, I thought this
was the nearest we could get to it, but that has had to fall by the wayside.
Instead I’m going to record myself singing outdoors, put that on social media
and then people can sing along to that.”
Anything else still to come, Jessa? “Yes, youth choirs.” Watch this space…and keep watching your space too, two metres apart; you know the drill by now.
Nothing happening full stop. Now, with time on your frequently washed hands, home is where the art is and plenty else besides
EXIT 10 Things To See Next Week in York and beyond for the unforeseeable future. Enter home entertainment, wherever you may be, whether still together or in isolation, in the shadow of the Coronavirus pandemic. From behind his closed door, CHARLES HUTCHINSON makes these further suggestions.
Compiling lists of best songs by favourite artists
THE Beatles, The Rolling Stones, solo Beatles, Van Morrison, Velvet Underground, solo Velvets, Bob Dylan, Dusty Springfield, Aretha Franklin, The Smiths, The Fall, whoever. Make a Top Ten or even Top 20, then send to friends to ask for their suggestions for the list and why they disagree with you.
You could also set up arguments: Kylie’s Top Ten versus Madonna; The Specials versus Madness; Holland Dozier Holland versus Bacharach and David; Rod Stewart versus Elton John; Abba versus Queen; U2 versus Coldplay. Any others?
Madness: More special than The Specials or is that utter madness?
Desert Island Slipped Discs
IF past editions of the BBC Radio 4 Sunday morning staple have slipped your attention, it is never too late to discover the back catalogue at the Beeb online. You could pick a running theme, such as artists, musicians, poets, scientists, entrepreneurs, comedians, sportsmen, film stars, pioneers and church leaders.
Or, given the very necessary daily Covid-19 briefings from Number 10, how about politicians? Margaret Thatcher (1978); Edward Heath (1988); Enoch Powell (1989); Alan Clark (1995); Tony Blair (1996); Gordon Brown (1996); David Cameron (2006)…or, for a satirical variation, Spitting Image’s Peter Fluck and Roger Law (1987)?
Follow the advice of Stephen Fry
FOLLOWING up last Thursday’s 10 Things advice to make a timetable for the day, Andrew Marr’s Sunday morning interview on the Beeb with national treasure and former Cundall Manor prep school teacher Stephen Fry elicited one gem of a suggestion. Take time, take longer, to do things, whether cooking a dish from a recipe book, or even when brushing your teeth.
Fry, the president of MIND, also advocated taking up a new hobby, or re-discovering a craft, in his case, calligraphy. Further suggestions: learn a language; learn sign language; test yourself on road signs (when did you last do that?).
Meanwhile, Fry’s partner in comedy since Cambridge Footlights days, House doctor Hugh Laurie, says of Coronavirus: “We solve it together by staying apart.” Couldn’t have put it better.
Time to take time: Stephen Fry’s philosophy for these Coronavirus clampdown days
Administer a spring clean
STUCK at home, as you really should be by now, key workers excepted, this is the chance to gut rooms; to go through files, drawers, cupboards; to work out what clothes to keep and which to donate to charity shops. Likewise, games; books; kitchen utensils. Update Christmas card lists and address books.
Make time for nostalgia
DIG out old scrapbooks (Leeds United, League Champions, 1973-1974; the Cardiff Candlewits revue show, The Rantings Of A Raw Prawn, at the 1982 Edinburgh Fringe; cookery crush Nigella Lawson’s recipes – more pictures than recipes, to be truthful – to give three Hutch examples). Ah, those were the days.
Likewise, take a look through old photo albums, sure to trigger memories and promote family discussions… and maybe even lead you to research your family ancestry in the manner of BBC One’s Who Do You Think You Are?.
Scrapbook memories: Leeds United, champions, 1973-1974
Try to find good news
GREAT Yorkshire Show off. Ryedale Festival off. York Pride off. The Olympic Games off. The list of cancellations keeps growing. Against that backdrop, however, theatres, music venues and festivals are busy re-booking acts and shows for later in the year or next year.
Keep visiting websites for updates, whether York Barbican, York Theatre Royal, the Grand Opera House, wherever.
Look out too for the streaming of past shows. More and more theatres and arts companies are doing this.
Pyramid Gallery owner Terry Brett, on Stonegate, York, with a Piers Browne painting, before the Coronavirus shutdown
Online exhibitions
GALLERIES in York are going online to keep the art (and hopefully sales) going. Step forward Pyramid Gallery, in Stonegate, where owner Terry Brett has launched Strange Days.
This service is not only a website portal for works from this season’s Full Sunlight show, featuring Askrigg artist Piers Browne and Holtby sculptor Hannah Arnup, but Terry also is inviting the 144 artists from next month’s cancelled York Open Studios to show their work on there too.
One of Tom Wood’s paintings from The Abstract Crow, Lotte Inch Gallery’s first online-only exhibition
Anywhere else?
LOTTE Inch Gallery, at Fourteen Bootham, will host its first online-only exhibition, Yorkshire artist Tom Wood’s The Abstract Crow, from April 17 to May 16.
“Known for his imaginative and allusive abstract approach to painting, Tom will pay homage to his love for the natural world in his new paintings,” says Lotte.
Venturing outdoors
AMID the stricter Government strictures, aside from walking the dog and one burst of exercise a day, gardening looks the most fruitful way to spend time outdoors. The first mow of the season; buds coming through; plants to plant; garden furniture to varnish: ready, steady, grow.
One to follow on Twitter: Reasons To Stay Alive author Matt Haig. Picture: MIke Tipping
And what about…
Podcasts. Books. More podcasts. More books. Season two of Liar on Monday nights on ITV. Noughts + Crosses on BBC One on Thursdays. Writing a 10 Things like this one. Reading the regular Tweets from Matt Haig, the Reasons To Stay Alive author with the York past. Drinking hot drinks, gargling regularly, and building up your zinc levels, as well as all that hand-washing.
YORK Pride 2020 on June 6 is off, the annual LGBT festival
scuppered by the Coronavirus lockdown.
“Following the advice of the Government and Public Health England on mass gatherings and social events during the COVID-19 Coronavirus pandemic, we have reluctantly taken the decision to cancel York Pride 2020,” says event director Greg Stephenson, on behalf of the committee.
“This has
been a heart-breaking call for us to make after all the work we have already
put into this year’s event. However, we would never put the health and
wellbeing of our pride-goers, volunteers, artists or traders at risk, or
stretch the resources of our emergency services at a time when they are needed
more elsewhere.”
Re-arranging the York LGBT Pride Festival 2020 has been ruled out. “York Pride takes the whole year to plan,” says Greg. “While we have been carefully considering all options, as it is unclear how long current measures will remain in place, or how the situation may develop, it is sadly impossible for us to reschedule for later this year.
“With so many uncertainties, we ultimately believe this is the
right decision to protect our long-term future.”
Instead,
the committee will concentrate all its efforts on “delivering you a truly
amazing York Pride in 2021”.
“We’d
like to say a huge thank-you to all our sponsors, stallholders and suppliers
for their support this year,” says Greg.
“Thank you to all of you too for hopefully understanding why we
have had to make this tough decision, because nobody is as disappointed as we
are. In the meantime, please let’s all look after ourselves and our community.”
CANCELLED: .“This has been a heart-breaking call for us to make after all the work we have already put into this year’s event,” says York Pride event director Greg Stephenson
York Pride will email directly
all those who have stall bookings and parade bookings and those who have agreed
sponsorship for 2020.
“Forstallholders who have not paid yet, we will simply cancel the booking for York Pride 2020 and you will need to reapply next year for York Pride 2021,” says Greg.
“For stallholders who have paid, thank you for paying your invoice; it has been much appreciated.”
Greg outlines two options for those with a stalls invoice. “Our
preferred option would be to carry your booking straight over to York Pride
2021,” he says.
“This cuts down admin work of processing refunds for our small
team of volunteers. We’d imagine this is the best option for other community
groups, charities and regular attendees at our event.
“If, later down the line you
cannot make our 2021 date, we would of course offer a full refund.”
The second option is the provision
of full refunds for those who require it. “These are difficult times and we
understand that for many of our traders you will need these funds. We’d imagine
this is the best option for food and beverage stalls who have paid larger pitch
fees.”
Whichever option is chosen, stallholders are required to fill in a form on the York Pride website, yorkpride.org.uk.
York Pride wristbands
The committee has addressed the matter of parade applicants too. “Thank you to all those who have applied to be in our 2020 parade,” says Greg. “With the emergence of Covid-19, we took the decision not to invoice at the time we normally would. Should we be in the position to cancel, it was fewer refunds for us to process.
“You will need to reapply for
York Pride 2021 when applications open later in the year.”
Greg thanked York Pride 2020’s sponsors. “We have been overwhelmed with the response. I will be contacting sponsors directly to discuss arrangements,” he says.
York Pride is making plans to re-book all acts for 2021. “We will also be making a deposit payment for those who wish to be re-booked,” says Greg. “We hope this small gesture will come in handy as many of our acts will be self-employed and suffer the most through the current situation.”
In a closing message to the
public in York Pride’s official statement on the website, Greg says: “We
have taken steps to ensure our financial risks through cancellation are
minimised.
“We have already ordered things such as York Pride 2020
wristbands. We will be looking to sell these for a suggested donation of £2 in
the coming weeks and would appreciate any support you can offer at this
difficult time. Thank you to everyone for your continued support. All the best
and keep safe.”
Friends! The Musical Parody: new York Barbican date next March
FRIENDS! The Musical Parody has been
rescheduled for March 3 2021 at York Barbican after the March 20 show was postponed
under the Coronavirus strictures.
The lampooning show both celebrates and pokes fun at the misadventures of Manhattan 20-somethings Ross, Chandler, Monica, Phoebe, Joey and Rachel from the cherished 1990s’ American TV sitcom as they navigate the pitfalls of work, life and love.
Friends!
The Musical Parody is a “good-hearted romp through our favourite moments in an
uncensored, hilarious, fast-paced, music-filled show” that opens on a typical
day at New York coffee shop Central Perk. When an unexpected runaway bride
enters the picture, it kicks the whole gang out of second gear.
The show
will play York Barbican as part of the off-Broadway and Las Vegas musical’s now
extended first UK and Irish tour. Tickets for the revised date are on sale at
yorkbarbican.co.uk.
