Loudhailer! Alan Carr announces a brace of York Barbican gigs for December
HOW does
joker Alan Carr feel news of his first tour in four years will be received?
By
calling it Not Again, Alan!, the son of former York City footballer Graham Carr
supplies his own answer as he announces York Barbican gigs on December 18 and
19.
Since his last comedy travels, chat-show host Carr has “managed to find himself in all sorts of dramas”, apparently. Such as? “Between his star-studded wedding day and becoming an accidental anarchist, from fearing for his life at border control to becoming a reluctant farmer, three words spring to mind…Not again, Alan!” says his tour publicity. “Join Alan on tour as he muses upon the things that make his life weird and wonderful.”
Tickets go on sale on Wednesday at 10am on 0203 356 5441, at yorkbarbican.co.uk or in person from the Barbican box office.
Not Again, Alan! will be Carr’s fourth UK solo show in four-year
cycles in the wake of Yap, Yap, Yap’s 200 dates in 2015 and 2016, Spexy Beast
in 2011 and Tooth Fairy in 2007. He last brought his chat, chat, chat to York
on the Yap, Yap, Yap! itinerary on July 11 2015 at the Barbican.
Later
this year Carr will host Alan Carr’s Epic Gameshow on ITV, wherein five all-time favourite game shows will be supersized and reinvigorated for a
new audience: Play Your Cards Right, Take Your Pick, Strike It Lucky, Bullseye and The
Price Is Right. In 2020 too, Carr will return to the judges’
panel on the second BBC series of RuPaul’s DragRace UK.
The tour poster for Viva La Divas starring Katya Jones, Nadiya Bychkova and Janette Manrara. Picture: Colin Thomas
STRICTLY Come Dancing professional trio Janette Manrara, Katya
Jones and Nadiya Bychkova will be on tour this summer, making a
song and dance of Viva La Divas at the Grand Opera House, York, on June 16.
Collaborating with the original producers of Viva La Diva, first
performed in 2007 with dancer Darcey Bussell and singer Katherine Jenkins, this
glamorous show will pay tribute to stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood,
Broadway and West End musical theatre, modern pop divas and female icons with
the greatest impact on the Strictly dancers.
In this all-singing, all-dancing musical extravaganza, Katya, Nadiya and
Janette will star with a cast of dancers and singers as they celebrate Marilyn
Monroe, Madonna, Beyonce, Judy Garland, Celine Dion, Jennifer Lopez and many
more.
Running from June 14 to July 16, the tour has further Yorkshire dates at
Halifax Victoria Hall on June 23 and Bridlington Spa on the last night.
Miami-born Janette Manrara became a Strictly professional in 2013 after performing at the 2009 Academy Awards, appearing in season five of the American version of So You Think You Can Dance, being a principal dancer on Glee and starring in the stage show Burn The Floor for three years.
Among her Strictly highlights was lifting the Christmas Glitter Ball trophy twice with celebrity partners Aston Merrygold and Melvin Odoom. Looking ahead to the summer tour, Janette says: “I’m so excited to be touring the UK with two of my best friends, Katya and Nadiya – and what a show it’s going to be.
“We’ll be celebrating the glitz, the glamour and style of the greatest
divas in showbiz. We’re going to have so much fun bringing this show to
audiences across the UK and I can’t wait. It’s going to be a blast.”
Before making her Strictly debut in 2016 , Russian dancer Katya Jones and her dance partner Neil Jones won the WDC World Show Dance Championships and three titles at the World Amateur Latin Championship.
After her Strictly partnership with politician Ed Balls in 2016, for her second series Katya was partnered with actor Joe McMadden, the pair duly lifting the Glitterball Ball trophy as 2017 champions.
“To tour Viva La Divas across this beautiful country this summer with two incredible dancers, who happen to be my very close friends, is a dream come true,” says Katya.
“How the three of us managed to keep everything a secret for
so long I’ll never know. Finally, we can shout it from the roof tops:
girls on tour! It’s going to be epic.”
Ukrainian-born Nadiya Bychkova made her Strictly debut in 2017 as a
two-time world champion and European champion in ballroom and Latin ‘10’ Dance,
partnering former England goalkeeper David James in the 2019 series.
“I’m thrilled to be part of the Viva La Divas tour this summer,” she
says. “We have an incredible team working on what will be a dazzling show that
I can’t wait for audiences everywhere to see.
“It’s going to be a stunning spectacle full of the elegance, style and
attitude, befitting of the greatest divas’ legacies. And to be touring with two
incredible friends in Janette and Katya is simply the dream team.”
Tickets for the tour go on general sale at 10am on Friday at ticketmaster.co.uk and vivaladivasshow.com; York tickets on 0844 871 3024 or at atgtickets.com/york.
Keaner than ever: Keane are back after a six-year hiatus
KEANE, the rejuvenated East Sussex
chart toppers, are off to the East Coast for a Friday night out at Scarborough Open Air
Theatre this summer.
Tickets for their July 17 gig go on general
sale on Friday at 9am at scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.
Singer Tom Chaplin, sparring partner Tim
Rice-Oxley, bassist Jesse Quin and drummer Richard Hughes returned from a
six-year hiatus last September with the album Cause And Effect.
The birth of their fifth studio album
came as a surprise even to the band from Battle. Chaplin had released two solo
albums, 2016’s The Wave and 2017’s Twelve Tales Of Christmas, but nevertheless missed
working with Rice-Oxley.
So, when Chaplin, Quin and Hughes heard
the songs Rice-Oxley had been composing, they were immediately drawn to them,
both sonically and lyrically, and Keane were reborn. “We’re not some heritage
act,” says Rice-Oxley. “We’ve got a lot of great music in us.”
Ahead of Cause And Effect’s release,
Keane returned to the stage last summer with a string of live shows, not least two
nights at London’s Royal Albert Hall.
The comeback album peaked at number two
last autumn, adding to the success of a career that had chalked up 13 million
album sales, four number one albums, two BRIT awards and one Ivor Novello award
before coming to a halt in 2013 with The Best Of Keane compilation.
Their 2004 debut, Hopes And Fears, elicited
the hits Somewhere Only We Know, Everybody’s Changing, This Is The Last Time and
Bedshaped en route to being ranked among Britain’s 40 best-selling albums of
all time. Next came
Under The Iron Sea in 2006, Perfect Symmetry in 2008 and Strangeland in 2012.
Promoters
Cuffe and Taylor are delighted to have added Keane to this summer’s Scarborough
OAT programme. “As soon
as Keane announced last year they were back and ready to take to the stage
again, we knew we had to bring them to Scarborough,” says director Peter
Taylor.
“This special arena was created for
artists like Keane. Their songs are beautiful, anthemic, the soundtrack to many
people’s lives over the last 20 years, and I’m sure their army of fans cannot
wait to see these songs played live here. I know I certainly can’t.
“Keane are an incredible live band and
this is unquestionably going to be one of the gigs of the summer.”
Tickets for this summer’s shows can be
booked in person from the Scarborough Open Air Theatre box office, Burniston
Road, and the Discover Yorkshire Coast Tourism Bureau, Scarborough Town Hall,
St Nicholas Street; on 01723 818111 and 01723 383636, as well as at scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.
SCARBOROUGH
OPEN AIR THEATRE: 2020 LINE-UP
Tuesday
June 9 – Lionel Richie
Wednesday
June 17 – Westlife
Saturday
June 20 – Supergrass
Saturday
July 4 – Snow Patrol
Friday
July 10 – Mixtape (starring Marc Almond, Heaven 17 and Living in a Box
featuring Kenny Thomas)
Berwick Kaler, playing the dame in his last York Theatre Royal pantomime, The Grand Old Dame Of York, last winter. Picture: Anthony Robling
IT ended, as it only could, with the dame’s return to the
stage. In civvies, this final time, but not in civil mood as he wouldn’t let it
rest on the final night of Sleeping Beauty.
More like civil war. Us and them. Pantomime’s version of
Brexit, except with a different result, the majority, if not all, in the house,
wanting them to remain, not leave, when “one man” and “the board” have decided
it is time to move on. Get panto done, differently, with a new 2020 vision.
Dame Berwick didn’t name the “one man” who went to mow them
down, but he was referring to York Theatre Royal executive director Tom Bird,
newly cast as the panto villain. “I’ll give them three days” [to change their
minds], the grand dame vowed in a tone harking back to the Scargill and Red
Robbo days of union versus management.
“I don’t want to do him any harm…but he’s wrong”, said Mr
Kaler, surrounded by “the family”, the rest of the Panto Five, Martin, Suzy,
David and AJ, their fellow cast members and the crew, buoyed at each unscripted
but barbed line by an adoring home crowd, who cheered and booed his rallying
speech like they had throughout the show.
He even kissed the wall to express how much he loved this
theatre, getting down on his knees at one point too, arms outstretched, in appreciation
of his loyal subjects.
“A house does not make a home. A family does,” read one
letter read out earlier by the panto Queen, Martin Barrass, in his Bile Beans
can regalia in the shout-outs. “Please, Mr Bird, reconsider. Save our panto,”
pleaded a second, and there were plenty more.
“Yah boo to York Theatre Royal. We won’t be back,” hissed
one, read by the luverly Brummie AJ Powell.
Emotions were running high, as they had been for Martin Barrass, breaking down theatre’s fourth wall to speak from the heart at every performance since news broke a fortnight ago that Berwick Kaler, already retired from playing the dame, would not be asked to co-direct or write the 2020 show. “This cast and this band” would not be back either, said Barrass. “A decision that is nothing to do with us. If it was, we would be back each year until we drop.”
Martin Barrass in his role as Queen Ariadne in Sleeping Beauty at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Anthony Robling
Back to Dame Berwick, who found himself feeling “more emotional” now, in this house of York winter of discontent, than in his valedictory speech at The Grand Old Dame Of York last February. Not for himself, he said, but for all those on stage with him who had given so many years – “some for half their lives” – to the Theatre Royal.
“I’ve been told I can’t tell you the truth, so I can’t say
the truth…but I want to because…I’m b****y furious,” he said. “I don’t want to
be political or anything…but someone tell the management that this wonderful,
wonderful theatre has been a repertory theatre for 275 years.
“It’s a repertory theatre and that means we put on our own
shows for the local population. It’s York’s theatre.”
After reading a letter of support sent that morning to “Berwick
Kaler, Acomb”, he resumed: “I just can’t understand that someone can do this to
something that does not need fixing…
…We have made money for this theatre for years. How can one man do this to us? I don’t understand it.”
“Anyway, they’ve got three days,” he repeated, before leading
company and audience through “We’ll meet again, don’t know where, don’t know
when, but I know we’ll meet again some sunny
day.”
The final curtain fell, as it always must, but where and when might that sunny day reunion take place? What will happen to Dame Berwick’s three-day deadline? Will he rise again on the third day, and if so, to say or do what amid this collateral dame-age? Watch this space, as newspapers are wont to say.
As for that “one man”, Tom
Bird, he and the York Theatre Royal management will announce next winter’s show
on February 3. The end and the new beginning all in one.
LIVERPOOL singer-songwriter Robert Vincent will
showcase his new album In This Town You’re Owned at Pocklington Arts Centre on
February 7, one week before its release on Thirty Tigers.
For this return visit, he will be accompanied on
stage by PAC favourites The Buffalo Skinners in his 8pm set.
“My last visit to Pocklington Arts Centre, supporting
Beth Nielsen Chapman, was such a great night with a lovely music-loving crowd.
So, I’m looking forward to being back and playing for the lovely folk of
Pocklington,” he says.
Vincent has been hailed by veteran BBC presenter “Whispering”
Bob Harris as “the real deal” for his Americana music. On seeing him play in
the Bluebird Café at the Bluecoat, Liverpool’s centre
for the contemporary arts, the legendary broadcaster immediately invited him,
to record an Under The Apple Tree Session in his home studio for his BBC
Radio 2 country show, describing his performance as “absolutely magnetic”.
Vincent
duly received the inaugural Emerging Artist Award from Harris in
2016 and the UK Americana Music Association’s UK Album of The Year in
2018 for 2017’s sophomore work I’ll Make The Most Of My Sins, recorded in his
hometown and mixed in Nashville by Grammy Award-winning producer Ray
Kennedy.
The Buffalo Skinners: playing with Robert Vincent at Pocklington Arts Centre
His 2013
debut, Life In Easy Steps, drew BBC airplay for its title track on Janice Long
and Radcliffe & Maconie’s shows.
He has
since toured the UK supporting Paul Carrack, James Blunt and Squeeze and The
Pretenders at the Royal Albert Hall. Last spring, he opened for Beth Nielsen Chapman
on her Hearts Of Glass tour, including the aforementioned Pocklington show.
Last
summer, Vincent was on the supporting bill for his hero, Pink Floyd’s Roger
Waters, in Hyde Park at British Summer Time and joined
“the Titan of Twang”, guitarist Duane Eddy, across the UK on his
80th birthday tour.
Now comes third album In This Town You’re
Owned, produced by BRIT Award-winning Ethan Johns.
Tickets for Vincent’s Pock gig are on sale at £13.50 on 01759 301547 or at pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk. Vincent has further Yorkshire gigs coming up at The Greystones, Sheffield, on March 25, and Leeds Lending Room the next night.
Martin Witts in happier times at the Great Yorkshire Fringe. Picture: Steve Ullathorne
THE comedy is over for the Great Yorkshire Fringe
after five summers in York, blaming “city-centre management” for the decision
to exit stage left.
In a formal statement, founder and director
Martin Witts said: “Our experience of sponsoring, curating and managing
an event in this small city of ours has led to the conclusion that until a
well-managed and efficient is implemented, a festival of our size cannot thrive
and does not have a place in York.”
Here Martin, who also runs the Leicester Square
Theatre and Museum of Comedy in London, answers Charles Hutchinson’s questions.
1.What made you take this decision, Martin?
“My patience with all the red tape ran out of time.
It was the same things every year, no matter what you try to do to address the
most critical things on the Parliament Street village green site. Access.
Drainage. The licence. Security. What we were required to do changed
every year.
“Right from the start, there were frustrations. We
wanted to start the festival in 2014, but it took a year to get the licence from
the city council for Parliament Street.”
2.What would constitute a “well-managed and
efficient city-centre management”?
“The City
of York Council, Make It York and York BID are all involved in how the city centre
is run. Everyone has great intentions, but there are too many chiefs, not
enough Indians, and it’s got too complicated. That’s the frustration.”
3.Sean Bullick, managing director of Make It York,
says he would “welcome the opportunity to discuss options with you to
bring the event back”. Will you have that discussion?
“I had a meeting with Sean and
Charlie Croft [assistant director of communities and culture at City of YorkCouncil] last year to say this needs to
be resolved, but we still had problems at last summer’s festival with the drainage
provision for the toilets.”
4. Last summer, some people said the ticket prices were high; some
reckoned the quality of the newer acts had lowered; others felt the same names
kept returning. Your thoughts?
“We had no complaints about the festival content or
the programming or the pricing. There were no negative comments from patrons on
our social media and in the box-office day book. Indeed, only positives. The
average ticket price remained the same.
“But there was a drop in audience numbers certainly,
when the Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre, running at the same time at the Castle car
park, had an impact.”
5. Do festivals have a natural cycle, especially
when the fickle world of comedy is prone to “the new rock’n’roll” going in and
out of fashion?
“No, I disagree with that. Comedy always has a new
audience and new acts. You only have to see the popularity of the New Comedian of
the Year award we ran each year.
“Comedy is always changing, but people like to keep
seeing their favourite comedian too.”
6.Emotionally, how do you feel about calling a halt
to the Great Yorkshire Fringe after five years?
“I’m incredibly disappointed to be having to do this. You should see the messages I’ve had from the volunteers who worked for the Fringe saying it was the highlight of their career. It was the highlight of my career too.
“In an ideal world, if it had been easier, if there
wasn’t the problem of the structure of the city-centre management, we would
like to have continued the festival, but your patience runs out in the end when
you want things to run smoothly.”
7. What did you achieve?
”We were committed to running the festival for five years and you hope
that after those five years, you’ve covered your costs, broken even, and
established yourself, which we had – and we proved Parliament Street could be a
village green with shows and all the food and drink stalls.”
8. Would you consider taking the Great Yorkshire
Fringe to another great Yorkshire city?
“No, absolutely not. I’m not planning to move it to
Leeds. This festival was always designed for the city of York, the city where
my family is from. York is the capital city of Yorkshire; the second city of
the world.”
9. You say you will “continue to invest in the
cultural scene of York”. In what ways will you do this?
“We’ll continue to do events in York, but not hold
the festival, but do them in the spirit of the Great Yorkshire Fringe. We’ll
probably have a year off but we’ll support The Arts Barge by doing a couple of
things with them in York this summer.”
10. What else is happening in the world of Witts right now?
“We’re opening a scenery workshop in Pocklington, and I’ve bought the contents of the Goole Waterways Museum after it went into liquidation. We might look at doing something with antiquities and artefacts there.”
The Felice Brothers: two brothers, Ian and James Felice, and two friends, Will Lawrence and Jesske Hume
POCKLINGTON Arts Centre
has snapped up The Felice Brothers for a summer gig after director Janet Farmer
saw the Americana band at Willie Nelson’s ranch.
Brothers Ian and James Felice
and their friends, drummer Will Lawrence and bass player Jesske Hume, have crossed the Big Pond this month for a winter tour that visits
Leeds Brudenell Social Club on Monday.
They will return to these
shores for more dates in a summer of American and European gigs, among them
Pocklington Arts Centre on June 23.
A delighted Janet Farmer
says: “I was privileged to see them at Luck Reunion, held at Willie Nelson’s
ranch, and can highly recommend their unique brand of American folk rock. Expect
a raucous and energetic performance that will be something to truly treasure.
“Tickets for this show will sell fast, so I would encourage you to
get yours soon or risk missing out on what will be a sublime show.”
Ian and James Felice
grew up in the Hudson valley of upstate New York. Self-taught musicians,
inspired as much by Hart Crane and Slim Whitman as by Woody Guthrie and Chuck
Berry, they began in 2006 by playing subway platforms and sidewalks in New York
City.
They have gone on to release nine albums of original songs,
drawing comparison with Neil Young and Bob Dylan for their song-writing and
lawless sound. Last year they returned from a three-year hiatus with Undress,
whose songs will be complemented by a selection from their back catalogue on June
23.
Tickets for their 8pm Pock gig cost £20 on 01759 301547 or at pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.
Did you know?
The Felice Brothers served
as the backing band for Conor Oberst’s 2017 album Salutations and subsequent tour.
York Town Crier Ben Fry hails the York Dungeon’s five millionth visitor, Denise Pitts, and her mother, Jeanette
THE York Dungeon is celebrating its five millionth visitor since opening
its doors in Clifford Street, York, in 1986.
Denise Pitts hit the jackpot as the landmark intrepid visitor when she took her mother, Jeanette, to York for her birthday celebrations and accusations of naked dancing!
Their trip to the theatrical dungeon attraction made that day extra special when they were given VIP treatment: coffee and cake while they waited for their tour to begin, free pictures and goody bags.
“The experience was great,” said Denise. “We loved that the show was
informative with a dash of terror and a hint of humour; also some unexpected
surprises along the way! Thoroughly enjoyable.
“My mum was put into a cage for pleading insanity when accused of naked
dancing and she found this absolutely hilarious. The actors were great and
really got into their characters.
“We would highly recommend this attraction when visiting York and would
like to thank everyone for making us feel so special.”
Dungeon manager Stuart Jarman said: “The York Dungeon has been a
must-see since opening in 1986 and over the past 34 years we have welcomed,
scared and provided amazing immersive experiences to five million visitors.
“This is a significant milestone in the history of the York Dungeon and
it was great to surprise Denise and Jeanette as the visitors that hit the
milestone, particularly with the help of York Town Crier Ben Fry.”
Looking ahead to 2020’s attractions, Stuart said: “2020 is another
exciting year for the York Dungeon with a new show for the February half-term, War
Of The Roses: The Bloody Battle, Guy Fawkes in May and Séance in October for
Halloween.”
THE second selection from a nationally important collection of new
prints will go on show at Scarborough Art Gallery next month.
Running from February 8 to April 26, the Printmakers Council 1992-2019 exhibition
will feature work by leading printmakers, including prize winners from the
council’s biannual competition.
Beach Bodies by Theresa Pateman
The new show follows on last summer’s PmC Mini Prints display. Once more,
all the work has been donated to Scarborough Art Gallery by the prestigious
Printmakers Council, marking the start of an ongoing relationship between the
gallery and the PmC.
This will involve regular donations of work to create an important
national archive of fine art printmaking in Scarborough.
Meteor Storm Over St Ives by Graham Cooke
The PmC, a national association for
the promotion and encouragement of printmaking in all its forms, was founded in
1965. One of its founding objectives was the creation of a comprehensive
national print archive of contemporary printmaking.
The work for The Printmakers Council
1992-2019 has been selected from PmC members, with one print from each participating
member. No restrictions were placed on subject matter, method or date, except
that the artist must have been a member of the PmC when the print was produced.
The Ancestral Heritage Emporium by Trevor Dance
Simon Hedges, head of curation, collections
and exhibitions at Scarborough Museums Trust, says: “The exhibition will
include a wide and rich variety of contemporary prints showcasing many
different print processes.”
The Printmakers Council 1992-2019, Scarborough Art Gallery, February 8 to April 26. Opening hours: Tuesdays to Sundays, 10am to 5pm. Entry is free with an Annual Pass, which costs £3 and gives the bearer unlimited access to both Scarborough Art Gallery and the Rotunda Museum for a year.
Storyteller John Osborne performing You’re In A Bad Way
STORYTELLER, poet and BBC Radio 4 regular John
Osborne returns to Pocklington Arts Centre on February 13 to present his
beautiful, funny and uplifting new show about music and dementia.
Last March, he performed a double bill of John Peel’s
Shed and Circled In The Radio Times in Pocklington. Now, inspired by seeing a
friend’s father face a dementia diagnosis and the warmth, positivity and
unexpected twists and turns the family went through, he has put together You’re
In A Bad Way.
“This is the fifth theatre show I’ve made and it’s
definitely my favourite,” says Osborne. “I loved performing it every day
at the Edinburgh Fringe last summer, and I’m really excited to be taking it on
tour.
“For the past few years, I’ve made storytelling
theatre shows that are funny, true stories of things that I feel are important
to people. This one is a story about what happened to my friend’s dad when
he was diagnosed with dementia a couple of years ago.”
Osborne continues: “It was a really interesting
thing to observe, because although it was horrific and terrifying and sad,
there was so much warmth and positivity and unexpected twists and turns.
“As soon as I started writing the show, it came
together so beautifully and audience members who have had their own personal
experiences of caring for people with dementia have been incredibly positive
about the show having been to see it.”
The poster for John Osborne’s show You’re In A Bad Way
Osborne spent time at a dementia care centre in
Edinburgh to ensure he was fully informed about the experience of caring for
someone with dementia.
“I never
planned to write about something as personal as dementia, and have never
written about a big topic before, but this felt like such a beautiful story
that I wanted to tell,” he explains. “Just because you’ve been diagnosed with something, it doesn’t mean it’s
the end.
“The things we know about dementia
are so sad, but within that there are some special moments. Every time I
perform the show, I feel like I learn new things about dementia.”
Describing the tone of You’re In A Bad Way, Osborne
says: “As it’s such a big topic, I’ve tried to make the show funny and life
affirming and relatable.
“I don’t want it to be sad or serious; I think it’s
important for it to be a good story to someone who has no association with
dementia, as well as being sensitive to those who live surrounded by the
illness.”
Pocklington Arts Centre director Janet Farmer says:
“I was fortunate to see this show at the Edinburgh Fringe last August and
thought it was just so beautifully written and truly uplifting, I knew we had
to bring it to Pocklington. It tackles a tough topic with such humour and
warmth, it really is a must-see.”
Tickets cost £10 on 01759 301547 or at pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk or £12 on the door, with a special price of £9 for a carer of someone with dementia.
