Category: Festivals

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Life’s a rollercoaster ride out at York Racecourse for Ronan Keating at Music Showcase Weekend on July 26

Ronan Keating: On track for York Racecourse Music Showcase Weekend

RONAN Keating returns to the York Racecourse Music Showcase Weekend on July 26, back on the Knavesmire track where he performed with Boyzone in July 2018.

“I’ve been to York numerous times,” says the 48-year-old Dubliner. “My manager lives in York. He knows the good places to go, like the Star Inn The City.”

Ronan also played solo shows at York Barbican on his Time Of My Life Tour in September 2016 and on his thrice-rearranged Twenty Twenty Tour in July 2022 (first booked for June 2020, then January 2021, then January 2022, in Covid-enforced changes).

“York audiences are always up for a good time,” he says as he looks forward to performing after a Saturday race card featuring the prestigious Group 2 Sky Bet York Stakes.

When playing in the open air, “the only thing is the sound issue for the artists and you get that at all outdoor gigs, whereas somewhere like the [York] Barbican is acoustically fantastic and is always going to sound better. You learn a lot from it,” says Ronan who will draw on his experience of playing to large al-fresco crowds at next weekend’s concert.

That applies to choosing his set list too, eschewing album tracks. “If you’re going to a festival or a racecourse, you have to give the people what they want, what they’re expecting, and because of the Boyzone documentary [Sky Original’s Boyzone: No Matter What] that’s on Sky and NOW TV, I’ll be doing more Boyzone hits than normal this time.

“It’s been Sky Documentaries’ most successful documentary. It’s been word of mouth. No-one knew what was coming. We were in the thick of making our own film – we had to say ‘No’ to Louis Theroux – when there was the Backstreet Boys one  [Larger Than Life on Paramount+], so we could fallen through the cracks.

“It’s surprised everybody. Our story is unbelievable, not normal, and it was hard to hear each of us talk about each other. It was tough, it was hard-hitting.”

“I never saw it as ambition,” says Ronan Keating. “My dad was a football coach and I had a belief in graft that came from him”

Each band member, Keating, Shane Lynch, Keith Duffy and Mikey Graham, filmed 15 hours of footage individually over “three long days”. “We produced the film, but Curious Films made it, and they interviewed some people from the Nineties’ tabloid press and ex-manager Louis [Walsh].”

Therapy before the documentary had helped Ronan to “learn about myself”. Had he been ambitious, he reflected? “I never saw it as ambition. My dad was a football coach and I had a belief in graft that came from him. I just worked my a**e off, and it was rewarding because we kept getting accolades, and then I get offered the chance to make a song on my own for the film Notting Hill [his chart-topping debut single in 2000, When You Say Nothing At All] – and that’s seen as ambitious but anyone else would do that.”

From boy band to men in adulthood, “some members in the band are not as close as they used to be, but I’m talking to all of them,” says Ronan. Given the documentary’s success, could Boyzone re-form for the first time since  their “Thank You & Goodnight” farewell tour in 2019? “I’m saying nothing!” he says.

Ronan’s career has taken him into presenting duties. “I was asked to host Eurovision in 1997 [in Dublin] and the MTV Award in Europe, so I started doing that ‘on the side’. I knew I could do it, but I didn’t think it was really me, but then Magic Radio came to me offer me the Breakfast show with  Harriet [Scott], and though I didn’t enjoy the early hours, I loved doing radio. It was everything. People felt we were in their house with them.”

Ronan has been a fixture on the BBC’s The One Show too, co-presenting with Alex Jones. “The One Show is a powerful show, and I love working with Alex. She’s a superstar,” he says. “I’ve been lucky and have chosen shows pretty well,” now adding The Voice Australia 2025 to that list.

If life has indeed been a rollercoaster, then Ronan’s abiding popularity has prompted York Racecourse head of marketing and sponsorship James Brennan to say ahead of next weekend’s performance: “Ronan has felt like part of the family for the best part of 30 years, whether it is entertaining with his friends in the band or as a solo artist, charity campaigner or breakfast show host. I’m looking forward to an event that music and racing fans will treasure as a memory.” Spot on , sir.

Looking ahead, Ronan is working on new music. “I’m making a duet that will be out in late July or early August,” he says. Who with? “He’s a very good friend of mine in the industry. It’s quite a big deal for us.” Watch this space.

Ronan Keating, York Racecourse Music Showcase Weekend, July 26: gates open at 11.15am; first race, 1.25pm; last race, 5pm. Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Natasha Bedingfield perform post-racing on July 25: gates, 4pm, first race; 5.30pm; last race, 8.23pm.

Please note, these race days are integrated racing and music events and admission is not available on a “concert only” basis. At each meeting, the gates will be closed at the time of the last race. For race day tickets, go to: www.yorkracecourse.co.uk.

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REVIEW: Steve Crowther’s verdict on Sollazzo, York Early Music Festival, National Centre for Early Music, York, July 10

Sollazzo artistic director and vielle player Anna Danilevskaia

IT is almost ten years since I heard this stand-out ensemble – as winners of the prestigious York Early Music International Young Artists Competition in 2015 and then again in 2016 – and I was really looking forward to hearing them again.

Under the stewardship of artistic director and vielle player Anna Danilevskaia, Sollazzo has continued to explore and share a rich vein of Medieval and early Renaissance music. This evening, it was the music of the 14th-century composer Francesco Landini.

The concert opened with an instantly engaging Kyrie Rondello (Anonymous) featuring the whole ensemble, an ensemble that clearly enjoyed each other’s company. Crisp instrumental exchanges – Natalie Carducci and Anna Danilevskaia’s vielle, Christoph Sommer’s lute and Roger Helou’s organetto – were complemented by an evolving harmonic cloud of individual melodies created by singers Carine Tinney (soprano) and the two tenors, Jonatan Alvarado and Lior Leibovici. Quite wonderful.

This was followed by Landini’s instrumental ballata, Somma Felicita, Ms Danilevskaia and Roger Helou clearly relishing their melodic exchanges.

I thought I heard the ‘Landini cadence’ calling card, but the performance of O Piñata Vagha completely knocked me off kilter. Goodness me, this was sublime. The seamless interplay between soprano Carine Tinney, Mr Helou and Anna Danilevskaia had a medieval ring of authenticity.

The modal nature of the melodic lines and the beautifully integrated ornamentation by Ms Tinney gave the performance a transcendental magic. OK, I admit it, I was hooked. And from that moment on, I simply couldn’t take my ears off Carine Tinney.

That said, it was the clean, vibrato-free singing of tenor Jonatan Alvarado that drew the ear in Landini’s Questa Fanciulla. The agile precision of his singing blended seamlessly with soprano Ms Tinney, creating crystal-clear melodic lines within the polyphonic texture. This was reinforced by the delicate interplay of the accompanying vielle, lute and organetto.

The second section of the concert programmed four instrumental works by Landini. All magnetically engaging and a real joy. The standout, however, was the luminous quality and artistry of Roger Helou’s organetto playing. Even his retuning of the organetto – with vocalise support – proved to be a rewarding listen. Not that Mr Helou’s performance was superior, obviously, but that the impression was so haunting and familiar. To my ears, it sounded (almost) exactly like a recorder.

The closing work in this grouping was a beautiful interpretation of Niccolò da Perugia’s 14th-century ballata, Il Megli è Pur Tacere. Here, heavenly matters were put aside in favour of earthly matters of unrequited love. Although the words express the emotional burden of keeping silent in the face of pain, love, or truth, the performance itself brimmed with a rustic vitality.

The closing grouping opened with Giovanni da Firenze’s Quand Amor, a madrigal expressing fragility and introspection. The performance embraced the melancholic, contemplative mood, and the performance by Carine Tinney – glissandos bleeding into adjacent notes, achingly beautiful ornamentation – once again stood out.

The concert concluded with a touching and always engaging performance of Francesco Landini’s hymn to virtue, Perche Virtù: “Since virtue does make humans steady and strong/Run towards virtue, if you want to escape death”. Well, who could disagree with that?

Sollazzo’s use of period-appropriate tuning and musically transparent textures absolutely enhances historical authenticity, but it’s the seamless blending of voices with period instruments that truly sets them apart.

Finally, I knew Francesco Landini was celebrated as a singer and poet; that he was a virtuoso organetto (portable organ) player and that he was blind from early childhood (smallpox) – earning him the nickname “Magister Franciscus Caecus” (Master Francesco the Blind). I just didn’t know how truly remarkable a composer he was.

Review by Steve Crowther

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What’s On in Ryedale, York and beyond. Hutch’s List No. 31, from Gazette & Herald

Dr Adam Parker, curator of archaeology at York Museums Trust, holding the Thor’s Hammer Pendant at the Viking North exhibition at the Yorkshire Museum, York

VIKING treasures, street art indoors, Fringe comedy previews and Ryedale Festival’s Austen celebration bring out the summer smiles in Charles Hutchinson.

Museum launch of the week: Viking North, Yorkshire Museum, York

VIKING North is filled with magnificent objects, many unseen for generations and others that have never been on public display, adding up to “the best collection of Viking finds to be shown outside London” as these Viking treasures reveal the North’s power base, wealth and skills.

Telling the story of the Viking Age in the North of England from AD866 to 1066, the exhibition is underpinned by new archaeological research and cutting-edge technology and features objects from Yorkshire Museum’s own collection, the Vale of York hoard, co-owned with the British Museum, and specially loaned national and regional items, including from the Viking Army Camp at Aldwark, North Yorkshire.

Sea, Swell, Scribe: Jo Walton, Ruth King and Nicky Kippax combine in Pyramid Gallery’s exhibition of paintings, pottery and poetry

Exhibition of the week: Sea, Swell, Scribe, Jo Walton, Ruth King and Nicky Kippax, Pyramid Gallery, Stonegate, York, until August 31, open 10am to 5pm, Monday to Saturday

WHAT happens when you let a poet loose in an art gallery with a piece of charcoal? If the juxtaposition of sumptuous curvy and pointy pots against a backdrop of textured metallic atmospheric paintings is inspiring her, then she will scribble words and phrases all over the plinths

York artist Jo Walton, from Rogues Atelier, potter Ruth King, from the Craft Potters Association, and poet Nicky Kippax, from Bluebird Bakery, combine in a show planned and organised by Pyramid  gallery manager Fiona Macfarlane and curated by Walton. Kippax has written Eksphratic verse in response to the paintings and pots.

Street artist Al Murphy in his Naughty Corner at VandalFest at 2, Low Ousegate, York

Street art takeover of the summer: Vandals At Work present VandalFest, 2, Low Ousegate, York, Friday to Sunday, then July 25 to 27, 11am to 6pm

VANDALS At Work reunite with youth homelessness charity Safe and Sound Homes (SASH) for VandalFest, the immersive street art takeover of a disused office block at 2 Low Ousegate, York, with a 2025 theme of the playful, cheeky, witty and mischievous.

The stripped-out interior provides four floors of blank canvas for bold, site-specific “intervention” that cover walls, floors and ceilings, complemented by live DJ sets.  Among more than 30 artists from the UK and beyond are Bristol graffiti pioneer Inkie, subversive stencilist Dotmasters, inflatable prankster Filthy Luker, master of optical illusions Chu, rooftop renegade Rowdy and York’s own Sharon McDonagh, Lincoln Lightfoot and Boxxhead. Entry is free, with a suggested £3 donation to SASH. 

Dame Harriet Walter: Pride And Prejudice celebration at Wesley Centre, Malton

Ryedale Festival theatre event of the week: Pride And Prejudice, Dame Harriet Walter, Melvyn Tan and Madeleine Easton, Wesley Centre, Malton, Sunday, 7pm

THIS theatrical retelling of Pride And Prejudice by novelist and Austen biographer Gill Hornby marks the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth. Star of stage and screen Dame Harriet Walter brings the romance of Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy to life in an intimate drawing-room setting, in much the same way that Jane herself first read the story aloud to family and friends.

Carl David’s score for the 1995 BBC television adaptation will be performed by pianist Melvyn Tan and violinist Madeleine Easton. The festival runs until July 27; full details and tickets at ryedalefestival.com. Box office: 01751 475777.

Rob Auton: Barmby Moor comedian previews his Edinburgh Fringe show, CAN: The Story Of A Man Called CAN, at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York

Comedy event of the week: Halfway To Edinburgh, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, until Saturday

IN a week of Edinburgh Fringe previews and comedy nights, Nina Gilligan discusses memory loss, health anxiety and goldfish-related trauma in Goldfish tonight (8pm) and Hayley Ellis navigates middle age in Silly Mare (Work in Progress) tomorrow (8pm).

Susan Riddell and Kate Dolan, on Friday (7.30pm), and Barmby Moor surrealist Rob Auton and Chloe Petts, on Saturday (7.30pm), round off the festival tasters. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Georgi Mottram: Classical BRIT Award nominee performing at Voices United concert in aid of St Leonard’s Hospice

Charity event of the week: Ian Stroughair presents Voices United: Rubies For Our Angel, Grand Opera House, York, Friday, 7.30pm

YORK cabaret artiste and West End musical actor Ian Stroughair co-hosts this fundraiser to mark St Leonard’s Hospice’s 40th anniversary with radio presenters Joanita Musisi and Laura Castle, introducing a night of musical theatre and rock and pop classics.

On the bill will be Stroughair in Velma Celli drag diva regalia; York singer Jessica Steel and guitarist Stuart Allan; York musical theatre actress Joanne Theaker; retro party band Jonny And The Dunebugs; The Voice UK 2024 semi-finalist Lois Morgan Gay and West End classical singer Georgi Mottram. Box office: https://shorturl.at/G3qhV or atgtickets.com/york.

Strictly between us: Anton du Beke and Giovanni Pernice team up for Together Again at York Barbican

Dance show of the week: Anton Du Beke and Giovanni Pernice in Together Again, York Barbican, Friday, 7.30pm

STRICTLY Come Dancing alumni Anton Du Beke and Giovanni Pernice promise “more fun, more dance, more song and even more entertainment than ever before” in the terpsichorean double act’s new show Together Again, full of breathtaking routines, stunning choreography and a seamless blend of Ballroom, Latin and musical theatre. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Craig David: In party mood at Scarborough Open Air Theatre this weekend

Coastal gig of the week: Craig David TS5 Show, Scarborough Open Air Theatre, Saturday; gates open at 6pm

SOUTHAMPTON rhythm & blues musician Craig David parades his triple threat as singer, MC and DJ at his TS5 party night, patented at his Miami penthouse. On the 25th anniversary of debut album Born To Do It, expect a set combining old-skool anthems from R&B to Swing Beat, Garage to Bashment, while merging chart-topping House hits too. Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.

Amelia Donkor and Antony Jardine: Playing Gulie Harlock and Seebohm Rowntree respectively alongside 100-strong community ensemble in His Last Report at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Millie Stephens

Community play of the week: His Last Report, York Theatre Royal, Saturday to August 3  

FOCUSING on pioneering York social reformer Seebohm Rowntree and his groundbreaking investigation into the harsh realities of poverty, Misha Duncan-Barry and Bridget Foreman’s play will be told through the voices of York’s residents, past and present.

Seebohm’s findings illuminate the struggles of the working class, laying the foundation for the welfare state and sparking a movement that will redefine life as we know it. However, when fast forwarding to present-day York, what is Seebohm’s real legacy as the Ministry begins to dismantle the very structures he championed in His Last Report’s York story with a national impact? Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

In Focus: Clap Trap Theatre in Pennyroyal, Helmsley Arts Centre, July 19 & 20, 7.30pm

Florrie Stockbridge’s Daphne, left, and Natasha Jones’s Christine in Clap Trap Theatre’s Pennyroyal

HELMSLEY Arts Centre artistic director Natasha Jones and musical partner Florrie Stockbridge take to the stage this weekend in Clap Trap Theatre’s production of Lucy Roslyn’s Pennyroyal.

Premiered in 2022 at the Finborough Theatre, London, this heartrending play about sisterhood and motherhood, enduring love and regrets many years in the making explores the things expected of women and what happens if life does not go to plan.

When Daphne (played by Stockbridge) is diagnosed with Premature Ovarian Insufficiency at 19, her sister Christine (Jones) steps in to help in the only way she knows how: by donating her eggs. For a while, the world seems corrected. However, as the years go by – and Daphne sets out on the long road of IVF – the sisters’ relationship begins to twist.

“I think of my body sometimes like it’s stubborn,” says Daphne. “We’re not good friends. Like it’s a spooky hotel, and I’m just a ghost haunting it. ’Cause you don’t live in a hotel, you just pass through.”

Pennyroyal is inspired by Edith Wharton’s 1922 novella The Old Maid, a 1922 novella adapted ten years later into a Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Zoe Akins. One hundred years on, the story is re-imagined by Roslyn, an award-winning Camden Town performer and writer.

Her most recent work includes Orlando, a previous collaboration with director Josh Roche and Jessie Anand Productions that won the Origins Award at VAULT Festival before transferring to the Pleasance, Edinburgh.

Other work includes Showmanship (Theatre503) and Goody (Pleasance, Edinburgh and Greenwich Theatre – Les Enfants Terribles’ Greenwich Partnership Award 2017). Her debut, The State vs. John Hayes, started life at the Edinburgh Fringe, before touring to Theatre Royal Bath, The Lowry, Salford, the King’s Head Theatre, London,  and OSH Brooklyn, New York.

Jones and Stockbridge have received directing and production support from Libby Pearson. Roslyn’s 80-minute play contains strong language and discussion of infertility and domestic violence. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.

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More Things To Do in York beyond as the Vikings reveal power-base life skills. Here’s Hutch’s List No. 31, from The York Press

Dr Adam Parker, curator of archaeology at York Museums Trust, holding the Thor’s Hammer Pendant at the Viking North exhibition at the Yorkshire Museum, York

VIKING treasures, street art moved indoors, Fringe comedy previews and Ryedale Festival’s classical lustre bring out the summer smiles in Charles Hutchinson.

Museum launch of the week: Viking North, Yorkshire Museum, York

VIKING North is filled with magnificent objects, many unseen for generations and others that have never been on public display, adding up to “the best collection of Viking finds to be shown outside London” as these Viking treasures reveal the North’s power base, wealth and skills.

Telling the story of the Viking Age in the North of England from AD866 to 1066, the exhibition is underpinned by new archaeological research and cutting-edge technology and features objects from Yorkshire Museum’s own collection, the Vale of York hoard, co-owned with the British Museum, and specially loaned national and regional items, including from the Viking Army Camp at Aldwark, North Yorkshire.

Sea, Swell, Scribe: Jo Walton, Ruth King and Nicky Kippax combine in Pyramid Gallery’s exhibition of paintings, pottery and poetry

Exhibition launch of the week: Sea, Swell, Scribe, Jo Walton, Ruth King and Nicky Kippax, Pyramid Gallery, Stonegate, York, from today, 11am, to August 31, open 10am to 5pm, Monday to Saturday

WHAT happens when you let a poet loose in an art gallery with a piece of charcoal? If the juxtaposition of sumptuous curvy and pointy pots against a backdrop of textured metallic atmospheric paintings is inspiring her, then she will scribble words and phrases all over the plinths

York artist Jo Walton, from Rogues Atelier, potter Ruth King, from the Craft Potters Association, and poet Nicky Kippax, from Bluebird Bakery, combine in a show planned and organised by Pyramid  gallery manager Fiona Macfarlane and curated by Walton. Kippax has written Eksphratic verse in response to the paintings and pots.

Street artist Al Murphy in his Naughty Corner at VandalFest at 2, Low Ousegate, York

Street art takeover of the summer: Vandals At Work present VandalFest, today and tomorrow, July 18 to 20 and July 25 to 27, 11am to 6pm

VANDALS At Work reunite with youth homelessness charity Safe and Sound Homes (SASH) for VandalFest, the immersive street art takeover of a disused office block at 2 Low Ousegate, York, with a 2025 theme of the playful, cheeky, witty and mischievous.

The stripped-out interior provides four floors of blank canvas for bold, site-specific “intervention” that cover walls, floors and ceilings, complemented by live DJ sets.  Among more than 30 artists from the UK and beyond are Bristol graffiti pioneer Inkie, subversive stencilist Dotmasters, inflatable prankster Filthy Luker, master of optical illusions Chu, rooftop renegade Rowdy and York’s own Sharon McDonagh, Lincoln Lightfoot and Boxxhead. Entry is free, with a suggested £3 donation to SASH. Visitors can support the cause by buying limited-edition artworks and merchandise.

Ryedale Festival artist in residence and soprano Claire Booth

Festival of the week; Ryedale Festival 2025, until July 27

THIS North Yorkshire festival of delights will be led off by 2025’s artists in residence, saxophonist Jess Gillam, soprano Claire Booth and viola player Timothy Ridout, along with Quatuor Mosaiques, VOCES8 and composer Eric Whitacre.

Pianists Sir Stephen Hough and Dame Imogen Cooper, organist Thomas Trotter, Arcangelo, York countertenor Iestyn Davies and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic’s festival debut are further highlights. Jazz, folk and literature weave into the programme too: reeds player Pete Long and vocalist Sara Oschlag salute Duke Ellington; Barnsley’s Kate Rusby showcases her new album, When They All Looked Up, and Dame Harriet Walter channels Jane Austen’s wit in Pride And Prejudice. Full details and tickets at: ryedalefestival.com. Box office: 01751 475777.

McFly: Heading to the Scarborough seaside today

Coastal gig of the week: McFly, TK Maxx Presents Scarborough Open Air Theatre, today; gates open at 6pm

MCFLY’S Tom Fletcher, Danny Jones, Dougie Poynter and Harry Judd head to the Yorkshire coast to perform 5 Colours In Her Hair, Obviously, All About You, You’ve Got A Friend, I’ll Be OK, Star Girl, Don’t Stop Me Now, Obviously et al. Twin Atlantic and Devon complete the bill. Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.

Josie Long: Opening Theatre@41’s week of Edinburgh Fringe previews and comedy nights. Picture: Matt Crockett

Comedy event of the week: Halfway To Edinburgh, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, July 13 to 19

A WEEK of Edinburgh Fringe previews and comedy nights takes over Theatre@41, Monkgate, kicking off with comedian, writer, podcaster and filmmaker Josie Long’s Work In Progress on July 13 at 2pm, followed by two Mark Watson selections, Sam Nicoresti and Lulu Popplewell’s Fresh For The Fringe double bill at 7.30pm.

Molly McGuinness and Phil Ellis are in preview mode on July 14 (8pm); Nina Gilligan discusses memory loss, health anxiety and goldfish-related trauma in Goldfish on July 16 (8pm), and Hayley Ellis navigates middle age in Silly Mare (Work in Progress) on July 17 (8pm). Susan Riddell and Kate Dolan, on July 18 (7.30pm), and Barmby Moor surrealist Rob Auton and Chloe Petts, on July 19 (7.30pm), round off the festival previews. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Phil Grainger, left, and Alexander Flanagan Wright. Picture; Charlotte Graham


News just in: Wright & Grainger in The Gods The Gods The Gods, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, July 15, 7.30pm

IN a very late addition to Theatre@41’s packed programme for next week, Easingwold duo Wright & Grainger return their Edinburgh Fringe gig theatre hit The Gods The Gods The Gods to North Yorkshire soil for one night only.

Combining 12 tracks, four stories, three performers and one exhilarating experience, Alexander Flanagan Wright and Phil Grainger mix big beats, heavy basslines, soaring melodies and heart-stopping spoken word into a show that has headlined festivals and sold out venues from Wānaka Festival of Colour in New Zealand to the Sydney Opera House in Australia, the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Mumbai, India, to Stillington Mill. Please note: this event is standing room only; chairs will be available for those unable to stand. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Georgi Mottram: Classical BRIT Award nominee performing at Voices United concert in aid of St Leonard’s Hospice

Charity event of the week: Ian Stroughair presents Voices United: Rubies For Our Angel, Grand Opera House, York, July 18, 7.30pm

YORK cabaret artiste and West End musical actor Ian Stroughair co-hosts this fundraiser to mark St Leonard’s Hospice’s 40th anniversary with radio presenters Joanita Musisi and Laura Castle, introducing a night of musical theatre and rock and pop classics.

On the bill will be Stroughair in Velma Celli drag diva regalia; York singer Jessica Steel and guitarist Stuart Allan; York musical theatre actress Joanne Theaker; retro party band Jonny And The Dunebugs; The Voice UK 2024 semi-finalist Lois Morgan Gay and West End classical singer Georgi Mottram. Box office: https://shorturl.at/G3qhV or atgtickets.com/york.

Dance is SO embracing: Dancefloor double act Anton & Giovanni reunite for Together Again at York Barbican

Dance show of the week: Anton Du Beke and Giovanni Pernice in Together Again, York Barbican, July 18, 7.30pm

STRICTLY Come Dancing alumni Anton Du Beke and Giovanni Pernice promise “more fun, more dance, more song and even more entertainment than ever before” in the terpsichorean double act’s new show Together Again, full of breathtaking routines, stunning choreography and a seamless blend of Ballroom, Latin and musical theatre. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Ancient Hostility: Harmony singing and drones at YO Underground 4 in The Basement

Navigators Art presents YO Underground 4, The Basement, City Screen, York, July 18, 7.30pm to 10.30pm

YORK arts collective Navigators Art plays host to a night of live, local and left-field folk song, electronica and film at The Basement. On the adventurous bill of York and regional acts will be: Andrew Metheven’s lo-fi folk music from the hills and the concrete; Ancient Hostility’s harmony singing and drones from members of Dawn Ray’d and All In Vain, and transdisciplinary artist Hannah-May Batley’s traveller ballads, storytelling, writing, performance and pigments.

Participating too will be: Mark Hanslip, who has a “PhD in shoving saxophones through computers” (possibly not literally); Namke Communications’ electronics and echoes, and multidisciplinary artist Things Found And Made, rummaging in zines, films, music, storytelling, pop-culture, esoterica and folklore. Box office: bit.ly/nav-events

The Wedding Present’s David Gedge, right, walking in Leeds with Reception writer-director Matt Aston

Gig announcement of the week: An Evening of Conversation and Music with David Gedge from The Wedding Present, Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb Road, Acomb, York, July 20, 8pm, doors 7pm

DAVID Gedge, long-time leader of The Wedding Present, discusses his “semi-legendary” Leeds indie band’s 40-year-career and his life in the music industry, in conversation with Amanda Cook. York writer/director Matt Aston join him too on the eve of rehearsals for Reception – The Wedding Present Musical, ahead of its premiere at Slung Low, The Warehouse, Holbeck, Leeds, from August 22 to September 6.  

Next Sunday’s event concludes with Gedge’s 20-minute acoustic set drawn from The Wedding Present’s cornucopia of arch, romantic yet perennially disappointed songs of love, life’s high hopes and woes, chance and no chance. Box office: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/an-evening-with-david-gedge-from-the-wedding-present-tickets-1472506409309?aff=oddtdtcreator.

Listen to David Gedge discuss 40 years Of The Wedding Present, the Reception musical and his Rise@Bluebird Bakery show with Two Big Egos In A Small Car podcasters Charles Hutchinson and Graham Chalmers at:

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1187561/episodes/17507606-episode-233-interview-special-with-david-gedge-from-the-wedding-present

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Ryedale Festival opens today for feast of classical, jazz, folk & literary performances

Yorkshire soprano Bibi Heal at Ryedale Festival location Castle Howard. She will perform Songs That Move on July 18 at Helmsley Arts Centre at 2pm and the National Centre for Early Music, York, at 5pm. Picture: Rob Cook

THE 44th Ryedale Festival begins today, inviting audiences to experience 58 performances in 33 spectacular locations across North Yorkshire until July 27. 

Castalian String Quartet and one of the festival’s 2025 artists in residence, violist Timothy Ridout, open the festival with a coffee concert this morning at 11am at St Mary’s Church, Lastingham, performing Mendelssohn’s  Quartet  No 5 in E-flat and Brahms’s String Quintet No. 2 in G.

Ryedale offers a diverse programme that extends beyond classical music to embrace jazz, folk, poetry and participatory events. These performances unfold against Yorkshire backdrops ranging from historic castles and abbeys to market towns and ancient churches. 

Castalian String Quartet: Opening the 2025 Ryedale Festival today at St Mary’s Church, Lastingham. Picture: Kirk Truman

This year’s festival welcomes a multitude internationally renowned musicians, among them Ridout’s fellow artists in residence, trailblazing saxophonist Jess Gillam, Grammy-winning composer and conductor Eric Whitacre and Royal Philharmonic Society Singer of the Year Claire Booth.

They are joined by two ensembles in residence, the Austrian string quartet Quatuor Mosaïques and vocal ensemble VOCES8. 

Look out for distinguished visiting artists such as pianists Sir Stephen Hough and Dame Imogen Cooper and organist Thomas Trotter, while the orchestral highlights will feature the Royal Northern Sinfonia, Orchestra of Opera North, Arcangelo and the festival debut of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. 

Dame Imogen Cooper: Playing Beethoven at St Peter’s Church Norton, on July 26 at 8pm. Picture: Sussie Ahlburg

The festival champions new music too, topped by the Yorkshire premiere of Gavin Higgins’s major song cycle, Speak Of The North, exploring northern identity.

Co-commissioned with Britten Pears Arts, the work takes its cue from the music of Grieg and poems by Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë in a “sprawling journey through physical and imagined northern landscapes” that includes songs about the Peak District, Manchester as seen from above, Northumbrian folk heritage and coal mining landscapes – plus an argument between Hadrian’s Wall and the Sycamore Gap tree.

Fifty years after Arthur Bliss’s death, composer Philip Wilby has honoured Bliss’s original vision for his passionate post-war Viola Sonata, transforming it into an orchestrated concerto to be performed by Timothy Ridout with the Orchestra of Opera North, alongside Elgar’s Enigma Variations.

The festival also retrieves music that has slipped through history’s fingers, including a rare UK performance of Michael Tippett’s joyful and unjustly neglected chamber cantata Crown Of The Year, revived by an outstanding group of musicians and Tippett biographer Oliver Soden, alongside other works by Tippett that have not been performed for decades.

Soprano Claire Booth: Royal Philharmonic Society Singer of the Year and Ryedale Festival artist in residence, performing Speak Of The North with violinist Tamson Waley-Cohen and pianist Christopher Glynn tomorrow at All Saints Church, Hovingham, at 8pm, and Kafka Fragments with Waley-Cohen at Helmsley Arts Centre on July 13 at 9.30pm. Picture: Sven Armstein

Beyond classical offerings, the festival integrates jazz and folk, such as Ronnie Scott’s music director, reeds player Pete Long, vocalist Sara Oschlag and an all-star band saluting Duke Ellington and Barnsley folk singer Kate Rusby showcasing her new album, When They All Looked Up, with her Singy Songy Session Band.

Literary events include Dame Harriet Walter’s theatrical retelling of Pride And Prejudice, to mark the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth, in a drawing-room setting, accompanied by violinist Madeleine Easton and pianist Melvyn Tan’s performance of Carl Davis’s score for the 1995 television adaptation.

In a new commission designed to reflect on the relationship between words and music, poet and playwright Caroline Bird reads poems she has chosen and written to accompany cellist Joely Koos and Ryedale Festival’s Waverley Young Artist, pianist Firoze Madon, at the Schumann’s Suggestion coffee concert on at the Wesley Centre, Malton, on July 24 at 11am.

Kate Rusby: Performing her new album, When They All Looked Up, at a sold-out Milton Rooms, Malton, on July 25 at 7pm. Picture: David Angel

The Ryedale Festival believes music is for everyone, offering Concerteenies events for families and children, and Bibi Heal’s Songs That Move for individuals with conditions such as Parkinson’s. Participatory events, such as workshops and Come and Sing sessions led by VOCES8 andEric Whitacre, actively invite public involvement in collective music-making. 

BBC Radio 3 will broadcast five concerts from the festival, including a recital by BBC New Generation Artists, featuring German pianist Julius Asal, American violinist Hana Chang, Estonian flautist Elizaveta Ivanova and Uruguayan-Spanish tenor Santiago Sanchez.

In parallel, the festival’sYoung Artist Platform, relaunched this year in association with the Waverley Fund, offers performance, mentoring and career-shaping opportunities for exceptionally talented performers at the beginning of their careers. This year’s Young Artists are guitarist Jack Hancher, pianist Firoze Madon recorder player Hassan Marzban, pianist Ethan Loch and the Fibonacci Quartet.

Dame Harriet Walter: Theatrical retelling of Pride And Prejudice by Jane Austen biographer Gill Hornby, with pianist Melvyn Tan and violinist Madeleine Easton, at Wesley Centre, Malton, on July 20 at 7pm

The festival continues to demonstrate its commitment to reaching the widest possible audience. More than 2,000 heavily discounted tickets will be made available through the Ryedale Rush scheme, while anyone under the age of 25 can attend nearly all events for £5 or less.

The festival takes place in beautiful and historic Yorkshire locations, and among the new venues this year are Ripon Cathedral, Skipton Town Hall, Malton’s Wesley Centre and All Saints Church in Northallerton, complemented by a return to Selby Abbey and a Troubadour Trail by mandolinist Alon Sariel that brings music to tiny and remote country churches across the county.

Festival artistic director Christopher Glynn says: “Festivals matter. They connect communities, spark creativity, support local economies and enhance lives.

Alan Soriel: Leading Troubadour Trail to remote Ryedale churches. Picture: Suzette Vorster-Van Acker

“They bring great music and top international performers to beautiful and historic places. They keep faith with live music in an age of digital overload. And they offer a warm welcome and sense of community, showing that classical music isn’t just something to listen to, but something to be part of.

“And in a world where screens so often replace shared experiences, festivals remind us of something irreplaceable: live music. The energy, the spontaneity, the buzz of a live audience and musicians responding to each other in the moment – nothing else compares. Shaped by the players, the listeners and the space itself – a genuine, unrepeatable encounter of hearts and minds.”

“This summer we invite audiences to step into beautiful North Yorkshire locations and meet extraordinary performers not as distant figures on a stage, but as fellow humans sharing something vital.”

For the full festival programme and tickets, go to: www.ryedalefestival.com. 

Ryedale Festival artistic director and pianist Christopher Glynn

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REVIEW: Martin Dreyer’s verdict on York Early Music Festival, Fretwork/Helen Charlston, Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, University of York, July 4

Fretwork: Marking 400th anniversary of Orlando Gibbons’s death

THIS year’s festival raced off the starting line in top gear with the six viols of Fretwork and mezzo soprano Helen Charlston. They focused entirely on the secular music of Orlando Gibbons, the 400th anniversary of whose untimely death at the age of 41 is being commemorated this year.

Gibbons is much better known these days for his sacred music, which is very much part of the backbone of cathedral repertory. His secular output is largely based on vocal techniques. The truth of this was underlined here by a single voice and viols doing duty for five unaccompanied voices in his madrigals – in accordance with the composer’s assertion on his title page in 1612, “apt for viols and voyces”.

Helen Charlston’s mezzo is so firmly centred that she is able to extend its resonance smoothly to either end of her range; there are no gear-changes. Furthermore, her diction is excellent. On this occasion, for my money, she was standing slightly behind the ‘sweet spot’ for voices in this arena and thus the consort was too far back as well. But the audience would not have guessed this from their close co-operation.

Melancholy was the dominant theme in much of the poetry set, no more so than in Sir Walter Raleigh’s What Is Our Life? Charlston spelt out the emotional force here, as in the lament by an anonymous writer Ne’er Let The Sunne, where lower viols provided eloquently darker colour. The counterpoint in each of these songs was sumptuous and all the clearer for its presentation in this rarer format.

Helen Charlston: “Mezzo so firmly centred that she is able to extend its resonance smoothly to either end of her range”. Picture: Julien Gazeau

Early music is making a point of getting living composers involved these days, with Nico Muhly filling the bill at this festival. His setting of words from Psalm 39, sandwiching the autopsy report of Orlando Gibbons, is more satisfying than that may sound. He describes it as a “ritualised memory piece” about Gibbons, writing it for five viols and four male voices.

The version here, however, was an authorised arrangement by Fretwork’s own Richard Boothby for mezzo soprano solo along with the viols. This makes sense not only as being more easy to perform, but also because Muhly’s setting owes a good deal to Gibbons’s own verse anthem to the same psalm, Behold, Thou Hast Made My Days As It Were A Span Long. Several later composers used the words “Lord, let me know mine end”, also from Psalm 39.

At its centre, we learn of Gibbons’s convulsions, where the viols are hesitant, fragmented and stuttering. But its climax lay at “Hear my prayer, O Lord”, with the voice pleading repeatedly against sparse accompaniment.

Earlier we had heard the top three viols alone, and then all five punctuating the voice, often quite rhythmically. Muhly uses ornamentation, rather than out-and-out counterpoint to highlight the text, and eventually repeats the opening words in his postlude. While its aura is more Jacobean than modern, it is still a touching evocation of a great talent.

The most fulfilling of the purely viol pieces in the programme was Go From My Window, a set of variations that pits the two bass viols virtually in competition with one another. Equally exciting was the vivid Pavan and galliard in six parts, while two of Gibbons’s three five-part In Nomines underlined the fertility of his imagination. Fretwork is a tautly interlinked ensemble that breathes as one – exactly what this repertory demands.

Pablo Zapico: “Showed how Spain and Italy first took the guitar seriously”

Pablo Zapico, National Centre for Early Music, St Margaret’s Church, Walmgate, York, July 5

THERE are times, usually when listening to early music, when you have the feeling of drinking at the very fountainhead of a musical type. One such rarity came with the appearance of Pablo Zapico and his Baroque guitar.

He showed us how Spain and Italy first took the guitar seriously, with a sweeping survey of 17th century composers, notably Gaspar Sanz and Santiago de Murcia in Spain and Francesco Corbetta leading the Italian pack.

The origins of the guitar lie in the vihuela de mano, a waisted, plucked-string instrument, known in Italy as the viola de mano. Both were tuned exactly like a lute. Their heyday was the 16th century, but by the start of the 17th they had been superseded by the five-course Spanish guitar on display here, with a simplified form of notation.

The most remarkable feature of its predominant style was the strumming effect used alongside pure melody. In the hands of an expert like Zapico this can sound like two instruments being played at once, whereas he can switch between the two in the flash of an eye.

In five whimsical Preludios we sampled the improvisational possibilities with this instrument, often quite chromatic and all the time infused with headstrong Mediterranean temperament. In similar style, we had a volatile Jacaras by Sanz with high and low contrasts that sounded as if right out of the flamenco tradition.

In La Jotta, by de Murcia, based on a Baroque dance, there was a dominant tune heavily syncopated. The best was kept till last. In Sanz’s Canarios, based on a style originating in the Canaries, there were cross-rhythms galore, delivered with extreme rapidity. It was utterly breathtaking.

Zapico is a master of his craft.

The Tallis Scholars: “Intimacy that larger groups struggle to emulate”

The Tallis Scholars, York Minster, July 5

WITH Spanish music assuming some importance at this year’s festival, it was appropriate that Peter Phillips and the Tallis Scholars began and ended their Glorious Creatures event with Sebastián de Vivanco, who was an almost exact contemporary of Victoria and was born, like him, in Avila.

In between, they focused on Renaissance music about the beauties of nature, with a couple of sidetracks into the newer world of Nico Muhly.

Perhaps the most distinctive feature of this ensemble is its small size, here a mere ten voices. This enables an intimacy that larger groups struggle to emulate. It also puts a premium on the contribution of individual singers, especially the four sopranos, who are double the number of each of the lower parts.

Before the interval, the soprano contribution was typically clean but also a touch too heavy for an ideal blend. After the interval, however, there was a change and the top line became more relaxed and less anxious.

Vivanco’s setting of Sicut Lilium (‘Like the Lily’) from the Song of Songs was positively luscious, bordering on the erotic, whereas in Palestrina’s version of the same text, written a generation earlier and given here by an octet, textures were sparer and more delicately fragrant. Both were marvels of their kind.

At the centre of the programme was Lassus’s Missa Vinum Bonum, preceded by its eponymous motet, which leans so heavily on the fruit of the vine that it dabbles with giddiness (no fault of the choir).

The text quickly falls back on the wedding at Cana, where Christ changed water into wine, as justification for a good drink or two.

The mass itself makes copious use of the motet’s music, so it too is infused with jolliness. Ofcourse Lassus quickly inserts a penitent ‘Christe’ into the Kyrie – at least it was here – but there was plenty of syncopation in the Gloria, deftly handled, and after a vivid Resurrection the Credo accelerated dizzily towards its Amen.

Some of that spirit percolated into a crazy Hosanna In Excelsis. Naturally there was a modicum of remorse in the Agnus Dei, but it was about as terse as could be imagined. The liturgy has rarely been so earthy.

On either side of Lassus we had music of Muhly. There was something appropriate about his Marrow (2017), which sets the first eight verses of Psalm 63. Preceding the “marrow and fatness” we had “in a barren and dry land where no water is”, evocative of the present drought. Sure enough, Muhly conjures a heat-haze here.

His A Glorious Creature (2023) similarly sets musings on the sun by Thomas Traherne. Using all ten voices individually, Muhly makes expansive use of ‘the sun’, reflecting its extent and influence.

Thinning down its centre for grains of dust and sand, he then broadens out with Traherne’s linking of the sun with the soul. Here the choir revelled in the immense impact of the text, melding superbly.

Later we enjoyed settings of Descendi In Hortum Meum (I Went Down Into My Garden) by De Rore, Dunstable and Palestrina. The earliest, and the most telling here, was the Dunstable, which with the solo voices of alto Caroline Trevor and the tenors Steven Harrold and Tom Castle was an oasis of tender intimacy.

There remained a magnificent Magnificat Octavi Toni by Vivanco, made all the more spiritual by its plainsong interjections. But Spanish vitalidad kept bursting through. We were brought back down to our knees by the encore, Purcell’s incomparable Hear My Prayer.

Reviews by Martin Dreyer

York Early Music Festival continues until July 11. For full details and tickets, go to: ncem.co.uk.

Reviews by Martin Dreyer

York Early Music Festival continues until July 11. For full details and tickets, go to: ncem.co.uk.

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What’s On in Ryedale, York and beyond. Hutch’s List No. 30 from Gazette & Herald

Christopher Glynn: Directing the 2025 Ryedale Festival, opening on Friday

RYEDALE Festival heads July’s summer delights, taking in the shipping forecast too, in Charles Hutchinson’s leisure list.

Festival of the week; Ryedale Festival 2025, July 11 to 27

ARTISTIC director Christopher Glynn presents a multitude of festival delights, led off by this year’s artists in residence, saxophonist Jess Gillam, soprano Claire Booth and viola player Timothy Ridout, joined by Quatuor Mosaiques, VOCES8 and composer Eric Whitacre.

The festival also welcomes pianists Sir Stephen Hough and Dame Imogen Cooper and organist Thomas Trotter; Arcangelo in Selby; York countertenor Iestyn Davies; the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic’s festival debut; a revival of long-neglected Tippett works and a new Arthur Bliss orchestration. 

Jazz, folk and literature weave into the programme too: reeds player Pete Long and vocalist Sara Oschlag salute Duke Ellington; Barnsley’s Kate Rusby showcases her new album, When They All Looked Up, and Dame Harriet Walter channels Jane Austen’s wit in Pride And Prejudice. Full details and tickets at: ryedalefestival.com. Box office: 01751 475777.

The ELO Experience, led by Andy Louis, at the Grand Opera House, York, tonight

Tribute gig of the week: The ELO Experience, Grand Opera House, York, tonight, 7.30pm

THE ELO Experience have been bringing the music of Jeff Lynne and The Electric Orchestra to the stage since forming in Hull in 2006, performing 10538 Overture, Evil Woman, Living Thing, The Diary Of Horace Wimp, Don’t Bring Me Down, All Over The World, Mr Blue Sky et al.

Andy Louis fronts this tribute to  a songbook spanning more than 45 years, taking in such albums as A New World Record, Discovery and Out Of The Blue and  2016’s Alone In The Universe. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Coastal gigs of the week: TK Maxx presents Scarborough Open Air Theatre, Blossoms, tomorrow; Rag’n’Bone Man, Friday, and McFly, Saturday. Gates open at 6pm

CHART-TOPPING Stockport indie group Blossoms make their Scarborough OAT debut tomorrow, supported by Inhaler and Leeds band Apollo Junction, promoting their August 22 new album What In The World.

Rag’N’Bone Man, alias blues, soul and hip-hop singer Rory Graham, cherry-picks from his albums Human, Life By Misadventure and What Do You Believe In? on Friday, with support from Elles Bailey and Kerr Mercer. McFly’s Tom Fletcher, Danny Jones, Dougie Poynter and Harry Judd head to the Yorkshire coast on Saturday when Twin Atlantic and Devon complete the bill. Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.

Vicki Mason’s Margaret Watson, Beaj Johnson’s Tom Musgrave and Becca Magson’s Emma Watson in 1812 Theatre Company’s production of The Watsons

Play of the week times two: The Watsons, 1812 Theatre Company, Helmsley Arts Centre, today to Saturday, 7.30pm; The Watsons, Black Treacle Theatre, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, today to Saturday, 7.30pm and 2.30pm Saturday matinee

TWO productions of Laura Wade’s The Watsons open on the same night in Helmsley and York.  What happens when the writer loses the plot? Emma Watson is 19 and new in town. She has been cut off by her rich aunt and dumped back in the family home. Emma and her sisters must marry, fast.

One problem: Jane Austen did not finish this story. Who will write Emma’s happy ending now? Step forward Wade, who looks under Austen’s bonnet to ask: what can characters do when their author abandons them? Bridgerton meets Austentatious, Regency flair meets modern twists, as Pauline Noakes directs in Helmsley; Jim Paterson directs in York. Box office: Helmsley, 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk; York, 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

Second Summer Of Love: Emmy Happisburgh’s coming-of-age and midlife- recovery tale at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York

One for the ravers: Contentment Productions in Second Summer Of Love, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, tomorrow, 7.30pm

ORIGINAL raver Louise wonders how she went from Ecstasy-taking idealist to respectable, disillusioned, suburban Surrey mum. Triggered  by her daughter’s anti-drugs homework and at peak mid-life crisis, Louise flashes back to the week’s emotional happenings and the early Nineties’ rave scene.

Writer-performer Emmy Happisburgh’s play addresses the universal themes of coming of age and fulfilling potential while offering a new perspective for conversations on recreational drug use, recovery from addiction and embracing mid-life. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

An old story told in a new way: Russell Lucas’s Titanic tale of Edward Dorking in Third Class at Theatre@41, Monkgate. Picture: Steve Ullathorne

Titanic struggle of the week: Russell Lucas in Third Class at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, July 12, 3pm

EDWARD Dorking was openly gay. On Wednesday, April 10 1912, he set sail for New York on a ticket bought for him by his mother in the hope his American family could put him “right”.

Writer-performer Russell Lucas’s Third Class charts Dorking’s journey from boarding the Titanic to swimming for 30 minutes towards an already full collapsible lifeboat,  and how, on arrival in New York, he toured the vaudeville circuit as an angry campaigner against the injustices of the shipping disaster. Using music, movement, projection and text, Lucas gives a “thrilling new perspective on what feels a familiar tale”, topped off with a Q&A. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Charlie Connelly: Rain later, talk now, as he celebrates the quirks and joys of the shipping forecast at the Milton Rooms, Malton

From Viking to South East Iceland: Charlie Connelly’s Attention All Shipping, Milton Rooms, Malton, July 16, 7.30pm

AS the shipping forecast embarks on its second century, author and broadcaster Charlie Connelly celebrates what he regards as the greatest invention of the modern age. How did a weather forecast for ships capture the hearts of a nation, from salty old sea dog to insomniac landlubber? How is it possible for “rain later” to be “good”? And where on earth is North Utsire?

Delving into the history of the forecast and the extraordinary people who made it, Connelly explains what those curious phrases really mean, assesses its cultural impact and shares rip-roaring adventures from his own extraordinary journey through the 31 sea areas. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.

Drummer Tom Townend: Bandleader for Tommy T’s Blue Note Dance Party at Pocklington Arts Centre

Jazz At PAC Presents: Tommy T’s Blue Note Dance Party, Pocklington Arts Centre, July 17, 8pm

HERE come the hippest tunes in a night of Blue Note Records’ coolest cuts: all killer, no filler, with grooves from Horace Silver, Cannonball Adderley, Art Blakey and more, brought to Pocklington by bandleader Tom Townsend, drums, Paul Baxter, double bass, Andrzej Baranek, piano, Tom Sharpe, trumpet, and Kyran Matthews, saxophone. Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk

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Spanish dignitaries attend Pablo Zapico concert at York Early Music Festival in celebration of Hispanic culture on July 4

Laura García Alfaya , Consul General in Manchester, left; José María Robles Fraga, Minister-Counsellor for Cultural and Scientific Affairs, Embassy of Spain in London; Dr Delma Tomlin, director York Early Music Festival; Eva Ortega Paíno, Ministerio de Ciencia innovacíon y unversidades; baroque guitarist Pablo Zapico and Pedro Jesus Eusebio Cuesta, director of Instituto Cervantes Manchester and Leeds at the National Centre for Early Music, Walmgate, York, on July 4

YORK Early Music Festival 2025 has welcomed dignitaries and delegates from Spain with a celebration of Spanish music and culture.

On July 4, more than 70 representatives from the Society of Spanish Researchers in the UK headed to the festival’s administrative base, the National Centre for Early Music (NCEM), for a concert presented by the acclaimed Spanish guitarist Pablo Zapico.

In attendance were the Spanish dignitaries Jose Maria Robles Fraga, Minister-Counsellor for Cultural and Scientific Affairs at the Embassy of Spain in London; Laura Garcia Alfaya, Consul General of Spain in Manchester; Pedro Jesus Eusebio Cuesta, director of Instituto Cervantes Manchester & Leeds, and Eva Ortega Paíno, General Secretary for Research at the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities in Spain.

Earlier this year, the NCEM and the Instituto Cervantes signed an agreement marking their ongoing commitment to the promotion of Hispanic culture in the UK and to continue their successful relationship.

Highlights of the summer festival included the 18-strong Spanish vocal/instrumental ensemble Cantoria at St Lawrence Church on July 8, supported by the Embassy of Spain in London and Acción Cultural Española.

This sold-out concert, directed by Jorge Losana under the title of A La Fiesta!, was recorded for broadcast by BBC Radio 3 and will be shared on the Early Music Show on Sunday, July 20.

Spanish delegates and family with festival director Delma Tomlin, front left, and Spanish guitarist Pablo Zapico at the National Centre for Early Music, York

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REVIEW: Paul Rhodes’s verdict on Futuresound presents Nile Rodgers & CHIC, Live At York Museum Gardens, July 4 ****

Nile Rodgers: Stirring everybody and every body to dance at York Museum Gardens . Picture: Paul Rhodes, reporting from ‘the photographers’ pit ‘

WHAT an amazing display of musical power to send Friday night to the stars.

Kicking things off at 6 o’clock as the crowd filled, Durand Bernarr really sold his performance. Even if his nu-soul material sounded similar, this expressive, energetic singer was eminently watchable. His concern for our wellbeing also fitted well into this warm-hearted event.

Durand Bernarr: “Really sold his performance”. Picture: Paul Rhodes

The second support act, Jalen Ngondo was perhaps the individual stand-out of the evening. This willowy soul singer from Maryland, now based in Liverpool, was amazing. His voice and music recalled the best of the great Sixties and Seventies’ soul artists.

Curtis Mayfield was the closest comparison (during his time with the Impressions) while the groove and songs drew on the spirit of Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell (his voice somehow a sweet blend of the two).

We are one big soul family: Friday’s audience enjoying good times at Nile Rodgers & Chic’s Live At York Museum Gardens party. Picture: Paul Rhodes

The crowd loved him – and as he played his heart out at the piano on The Look Of Love, with the trees swaying in full sail off to the side, it was a breathtaking moment.

Nile Rodgers is a superstar, no question. Since the 1970s, he has ridden wave after wave as a performer and producer, and his imprint is all over many of the biggest hits of the past 40 years.

Jalen Ngonda: “Recalled the best of the great Sixties and Seventies’ soul artists”

Luckily he shows no sign of slowing down at 72. Fresh from their well received – and it turned out similar – Glastonbury set, the nine-piece band were all superb musicians playing for the greater good.

The two lead singers were eye catching and glamourous, clearly enjoying themselves enormously. Audrey Martells handled the lead vocals for Diana Ross’s I’m Coming Out and Upside Down and Kimberly Davis shone on Sister Sledge’s He’s The Greatest Dancer and We Are Family.

Nile Rodgers: “Distinctive guitar playing sat at the centre of the sound”

Rodgers’ distinctive guitar playing sat at the centre of the sound. From the selection of CHIC songs, he found his signature style early on. We were taken on a tour that included Madonna, Duran Duran, Daft Punk’s Get Lucky and David Bowie’s commercial peak, Let’s Dance.

Now bedded into York’s social calendar, there was a lovely atmosphere to this Live At York Museum Gardens event all evening. The rain held off and as the sun went down behind St Mary’s Abbey over a sea of arms waving for yet another smash hit from the Rodgers songbook, everybody did dance.

Audrey Martells: Handled the lead vocals for Diana Ross’s I’m Coming Out and Upside Down on Friday night. Picture: Paul Rhodes

It wasn’t perfect. A little less bragging from Rodgers, a little more full songs, and the energy of the set tailed off somewhat in the last third, not regaining the earlier peaks. Even so, this was a wonderful, full evening’s entertainment.

Review by Paul Rhodes

Oh, what a wow: Nile Rodgers and CHIC cutting a rug at Live At York Museum Gardens. Picture: Paul Rhodes

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More Things To Do in York and beyond when it’s never too late for Early Music. Hutch’s List No. 30, from The York Press

Richard Hawley: Revisiting Coles Corner with strings attached at Live At York Museum Gardens today. Picture: Dean Chalkley

WHAT happens when York Museum Gardens turns into Coles Corner and the same play opens in two places at once? Find out in Charles Hutchinson’s leisure list.

Open-air concert of the week: Futuresound Group  presents Live At York Museum Gardens, Richard Hawley, today; gates open at 5pm

SHEFFIELD guitarist, songwriter and crooner Richard Hawley revisits his 1995 album Coles Corner with a string section on its 20th anniversary this evening, complemented by Hawley highlights from his 2001 to 2024 albums (9pm to 10.30pm).

He will be preceded by Mercury Prize-winning Leeds band English Teacher (7.45pm to 8.30pm); Manchester-based American songwriter BC Camplight, introducing his new album, A Sober Conversation (6.30pm to 7.15pm), and Scottish musician Hamish Hawk, whose latest album, A Firmer Hand, emerged last August (5.40pm to 6.10pm). Box office: seetickets.com.

The Tallis Scholars: Performing Glorious Creatures, directed by Peter Philips, at York Minster at 7.30pm tonight at York Early Music Festival. Picture: Hugo Glendinning

Festival of the week:  York Early Music Festival, Heaven & Hell, until July 11

EIGHT days of classical music are under way featuring international artists such as The Sixteen, The Tallis Scholars, Academy of Ancient Music, Helen Charlston & Toby Carr and the York debut of Le Consort, performing Vivaldi’s Four Seasons “but not quite as you know it” on Sunday.

Directed by Delma Tomlin, the festival weaves together three main strands: the 400th anniversary of Renaissance composer Orlando Gibbons, the Baroque music of Vivaldi and Bach and reflections on Man’s fall from grace, from Heaven to Hell. Full programme and tickets at ncem.co.uk/whats-on/yemf/. Box office: 01904 658338.

Bridget Christie: Late replacement for Maisie Adam at Futuresound Group’s inaugural York Comedy Festival. Picture: Natasha Pszenicki

Comedy event of the week: Futuresound Group presents Live At York Museum Gardens, York Comedy Festival, Sunday, 2.30pm to 7.30pm

HARROGATE comedian Maisie Adam will not be playing the inaugural York Comedy Festival this weekend after all. The reason: “Unforeseen circumstances”. Into her slot steps trailblazing Bridget Christie, Gloucester-born subversive stand-up, Taskmaster participant and writer and star of Channel 4 comedy-drama The Change.

The Sunday fun-day bill will be topped by Dara Ó Briain and Katherine Ryan. Angelos Epithemiou, Joel Dommett, Vittorio Angelone, Clinton Baptiste and Scott Bennett perform too, hosted by “the fabulous” Stephen Bailey. Tickets update: last few still available at york-comedy-festival.com.

Justin Panks: Headlining Laugh Out Loud Comedy Club at The Basement, City Screen Picturehouse

The other comedy bill in York this weekend: Laugh Out Loud Comedy Club presents Justin, Panks, Tony Vino, Liam Bolton and MC Damion Larkin, The Basement, City Screen, York, tonight, 8pm

COMEDIAN and podcaster Justin Panks tops tonight’s Laugh Out Loud Comedy Club with his skewed observational eye and ability to approach seemingly ordinary subjects from extraordinary angles in his raw, honest  tales of relationships, parenthood and life in general.  

Tony Vino bills himself as “the only half-Spanish, half-Scottish hybrid working comic in the world”; experimental Liam Bolton favours a bewildering, train-of-thought approach to unpredictable stand-up comedy; Damion Larkin hosts in improvisational style. Box office: lolcomedyclubs.co.uk or on the door.

The Script: Returning to Scarborough Open Air Theatre this weekend

Coastal gig of the week: The Script and Tom Walker, Scarborough Open Air Theatre, today; gates open at 6pm

THE Script head to the Yorkshire coast this weekend as part of the Irish rock-pop act’s Satellites UK tour, completing their hat-trick of Scarborough Open Air Theatre visits after appearances in 2018 and 2022.  Special guest Tom Walker, the Scottish singer-songwriter, performs songs from 2019 chart topper What A Time To Be Alive and 2024’s I Am. Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.

Dianne Buswell and Vito Coppola: Red Hot and Ready to dance at York Barbican

Dance show of the week: Burn The Floor presents Dianne & Vito, Red Hot & Ready!, York Barbican, Sunday, 7.30pm

STRICTLY Come Dancing’s stellar professional dancers, 2024 winner Dianne Buswell and 2024 runner-up Vito Coppola are Red Hot and Ready to perform a dance show with a difference, choreographed by BAFTA award winner Jason Gilkison. The dream team will be joined by a cast of multi-disciplined Burn The Floor dancers from around the world. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Florence Poskitt’s Margaret Watson, left, Jennifer Jones’s Elizabeth Watson and Livy Potter’s Emma Watson in Black Treacle Theatre’s The Watsons at the JoRo

Play of the week times two: The Watsons, Black Treacle Theatre, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, July 9 to 12, 7.30pm and .30pm Saturday matinee; The Watsons, 1812 Theatre Company, Helmsley Arts Centre, July 9 to 12, 7.30pm

TWO productions of Laura Wade’s The Watsons open on the same night in York and Helmsley.  What happens when the writer loses the plot? Emma Watson is 19 and new in town. She has been cut off by her rich aunt and dumped back in the family home. Emma and her sisters must marry, fast.

One problem: Jane Austen did not finish this story. Who will write Emma’s happy ending now? Step forward Wade, who takes her incomplete novel to fashion a sparklingly witty play that looks under Austen’s bonnet to ask: what can characters do when their author abandons them? Bridgerton meets Austentatious, Regency flair meets modern twists, as Jim Paterson directs in York; Pauline Noakes in Helmsley. Box office: York, 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk; Helmsley, 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk. 

York debut of the week: Kemah Bob in Miss Fortunate, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, July 9, 8pm

“LIFE is gunna life and brains are gunna brain,” says Kemah Bob as the American host of the Foc It Up Comedy Club and podcast brings their debut stand-up tour to York in a show directed by Desiree Burch and Sarah Chew.

Born in Houston, Texas, and now living in London, Bob has been seen on QI, Richard Osman’s House Of Games, Jonathan Ross’s Comedy Club, Don’t Hate The Playaz and Guessable and heard on the Off Menu podcast, The Guilty Feminist, James Acaster’s Perfect Sounds, Springleaf and Brett Goldstein’s Films To Be Buried With. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

An old story told in a new way: Russell Lucas’s Titanic tale of Edward Dorking in Third Class at Theatre@41, Monkgate. Picture: Steve Ullathorne

Titanic struggle of the week: Russell Lucas in Third Class at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, July 12, 3pm

EDWARD Dorking was openly gay. On Wednesday, April 10 1912, he set sail for New York on a ticket bought for him by his mother in the hope his American family could put him “right”.

Writer-performer Russell Lucas’s Third Class charts Dorking’s journey from boarding the Titanic to swimming for 30 minutes towards an already full collapsible lifeboat,  and how, on arrival in New York, he toured the vaudeville circuit as an angry campaigner against the injustices of the shipping disaster. Using music, movement, projection and text, Lucas gives a “thrilling new perspective on what feels a familiar tale”, topped off with a Q&A. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

In Focus: Contentment Productions in Second Summer Of Love, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, July 10, 7.30pm

Second Summer Of Love: Emmy Happisburgh’s coming-of-age and midlife-recovery tale at Theatre@41, Monkgate

ORIGINAL raver Louise wonders how she went from Ecstasy-taking idealist to respectable, disillusioned, suburban Surrey mum. Triggered  by her daughter’s anti-drugs homework and at peak mid-life crisis, Louise flashes back to the week’s emotional happenings and the early Nineties’ rave scene.

Writer-performer Emmy Happisburgh’s play addresses the universal themes of coming of age and fulfilling potential while offering a new perspective for conversations on recreational drug use, raising palms to the skies in fields, recovery from addiction and embracing mid-life.

Originally Second Summer Of Love was developed with producers Pants On Fire as a 15-minute and showcased by Emmy at the SHORTS Festival 2020.

“The play premiered as a one-woman performance at the 2022 Edinburgh Fringe,” she says. “Then it was refreshed in 2023; some scenes were re-written, taking into consideration reviewers’ practical criticisms and audience responses.

“We enlisted two more actors and Scott Le Crass to direct and tested out this new version for Contentment Productions on a three-night run in Worthing and Guildford where it sold out.” 

In this 60-minute performance, Emmy’s Louise is joined by Molly, played by Emmy’s daughter, Rosa Strudwick, and Christopher Freestone’s Brian, prompted by Louise’s flashbacks,

“Now our cast of three is playing 15 dates this summer and autumn, from York to Penzance, to connect with our target audiences, build partnerships, give us feedback and raise awareness of of our play to help us develop and upscale it into a fully cast production for larger auditoriums.”

Memories around Sterns nightclub in Worthing – a venue that Carl Cox once called “100 per cent equivalent to the Hacienda in Manchester” – wove themselves into Emmy’s play. “Second Summer Of Love isn’t a ‘true story’ but it’s inspired by real-life events and real people from when I was luckily, and very accidentally, right in the middle of the rave zeitgeist,” she says.

“It’s not a tale I’ve seen authentically told in theatres; especially not by a mid-life woman. I’m grateful to bring the ‘one love’ message of the original rave movement to the stage. I’m excited to play several different characters, using the physical skills of Le Coq again and genuinely overjoyed to be in scenes opposite Rosa and Christopher.”

Director Scott Le Crass adds: “I’m excited to direct Second Summer Of Love as it’s a fresh voice. It’s a perspective which I’ve never seen on stage. Older female voices are something we need to champion more and in a way which is strong, dynamic and playful. This play embodies that.”

Happisburgh trained at the Poor School and Guildford School of Acting; Le Crass trained as an actor at Arts Ed and was a director on Birmingham Rep’s first Foundry Programme; Freestone trained with Actor in Session, and Strudwick was trained through the LAMDA examination syllabus by Happisburgh.

For tickets, go to: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.