GRAMMY nominee Beth Hart and her American band will play York Barbican on October 31 next year.
The Los Angeles singer-songwriter, 48, likes to throw down her cards and share her darkest secrets as she invites audiences to join her for the ride. Witness the DVD or Blu-ray of her sold-out Royal Albert Hall concert in London.
Hart last released an album, War In My Mind, in 2019. “More than any record I’ve ever made, I’m more open to being myself on these songs,” she said at the time. “I’ve come a long way with healing, and I’m comfortable with my darknesses, weirdnesses and things that I’m ashamed of, as well as all the things that make me feel good.”
From the extremes of her life come the heart, soul and blues of Hart’s songs. “A lot of subjects are covered on War In My Mind,” she reflected.
A year earlier, Hart teamed up with New York blues rock guitarist, singer and songwriter Joe Bonamassa for the album Black Coffee.
Steve Cassidy: Fundraiser for the Joseph Rowntree Theatre
THE Steve Cassidy Band play the reopened Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, tomorrow (13/12/2020) to raise funds for their favourite venue.
Long-standing York singer Steve, his band and guests will be performing songs from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, along with classic numbers from the world of popular and country music.
Tickets for the Covid-secure, socially distanced 7.30pm concert cost £9 to £12 at: josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk/whats-on/all-shows/steve-cassidy-band-in-concert/1374
“Over the past year, our digital outreach has become increasingly significant as part of our offer and we’re thrilled to be able to continue to expand it,” says NCEM director Delma Tomlin
THE National Centre for Early Music, in York, has been awarded a £28,000 Capital Kickstart grant from the Government’s £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund.
This will enable the NCEM, in St Margaret’s Church, Walmgate, to push forward with its ambitious digital plans, despite the financial challenge caused by the Covid-19 crisis.
NCEM director Dr Delma Tomlin said:“We would like to thank the Culture Recovery Fund for their continued support and for this extremely generous grant in recognition of our vital and important work. Over the past year, our digital outreach has become increasingly significant as part of our offer and we’re thrilled to be able to continue to expand it.”
The NCEM is one of 74 organisations receiving grants totalling £58.9 million today. The Capital Kickstart grants programme helps organisations cover costs added to capital projects such as building works, refurbishments, and large-scale equipment purchases by pandemic-related delays or fundraising shortfalls.
To continue the “outstanding success of its significantly increased digital output”, the NCEM needed additional funds for livestream cameras and filming equipment, plus in the new website in order to reach wider audiences and support the Early Music sector.
Steven Devine performing the first live-streamed concert at the NCEM on March 21
The first live-streamed concert on Early Music Day on March 21 by harpsichordist Steven Devine attracted a worldwide audience of more than 70,000 and this summer’s online York Early Music Festival continued to engage new audiences from as far afield as the USA and Australia.
This month, the NCEM is staging the York Early Music Christmas Festival, a festive programme of live concerts running until this weekend. Newly added for 2020 is York Christmas At Home, a digital festival of nine concerts to be streamed from today until Sunday that will then be available on demand.
In November, the NCEM’s Young Composers Award 2020, presented in association with BBC Radio 3 and The Tallis Scholars, took place digitally; again, the behind-closed-doors concert was live-streamed to a wide audience. Plans for next year’s award with BBC Radio 3 and 2021 partners, recorder quartet Palisander, are in progress already.
The NCEM continues to play an important part in the promotion and support of the professional development of Early Music ensembles worldwide with residencies and workshops in the planning stage. As a bonus, the NCEM’s new spring music festival will coincide with celebrations for 2021 Early Music Day on the anniversary of JS Bach’s birthday on March 21.
Alongside a varied programme of music, in 2021 the NCEM will be staging the Beverley & East Riding Early Music Festival and the York Early Music Festival.
Ben Pugh, seated, leading the tech team for the online 2020 York Early Music Festival in July
Since the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis, the NCEM has continued to keep music alive and was one of the first UK arts organisations to broadcast online concerts worldwide.
Education and engagement with communities has continued too, drawing in socially isolated individuals to a weekly Cuppa And A Chorus, as well as sharing music-making through a series of teaching videos aimed at deaf youngsters, I Can Play.
Today, the Department of Culture, Media and Sport also announced that £165 million from the Culture Recovery Fund has been offered in repayable loans to help 11 major cultural organisations survive the loss of income caused by the crisis.
This follows previous rounds of the Culture Recovery Fund, including the grants programme that distributed £428 million to more than 2,000 cultural organisations across the country and the £3.36 million Emergency Grassroots Music Venues Fund.
Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said: “This Government promised it would be here for culture and today’s announcement is proof we’ve kept our word.
Matthew Wadsworth and Kate Bennett Wadsworth captured on camera in their live-streamed concert at the NCEM. The concert can be enjoyed again as part of York Christmas At Home on Sunday at 10.30am via ncem.co.uk
“The £1 billion invested so far through the Culture Recovery Fund has protected tens of thousands of jobs at cultural organisations across the UK, with more support still to come through a second round of applications.
“Today, we’re extending a huge helping hand to the crown jewels of UK culture, so that they can continue to inspire future generations all around the world.”
Sir Nicholas Serota, chair of Arts Council England, said: “Today’s announcement is another vital step in securing the future of England’s cultural sector. Supporting capital projects will help to ensure that we maintain an innovative, sustainable cultural infrastructure that supports world-class creative work, while the loans announced today will enable some of our largest and most prestigious cultural organisations to weather the effects of Covid-19 and reopen when it is safe to do so.
“The Arts Council is grateful to the Government for their support through the Culture Recovery Fund and we are proud to support all the organisations receiving funding today.”
For more details on the 2020 York Early Music Christmas Festival and York Christmas At Home festival, go to: ncem.co.uk.
The Theatres Trust poster for the virtual bucket shake initiative
THE Joseph Rowntree Theatre, in York, is taking part in the Theatres Trust national initiative to raise funds via a virtual bucket shake this festive season.
Donations will help to replace income lost in the grip of the pandemic. The Haxby Road theatre is asking supporters to help the JoRo to make sure it can welcome visiting performers and audiences to shows in 2021 by donating to a virtual bucket and then claiming a reward on the Crowdfunder page.
Dan Shrimpton, chair of trustees, says: “We’re facing an enormous loss of income from ticket sales, merchandise and ice creams, as well as missing out on the opportunity for a traditional bucket collection. This is why we’d like to invite you to take part in a virtual bucket collection this panto season.”
A retro-style illustration of the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, aptly an Art Deco building, by York artist Elliot Harrison (alias York 360), available as a greeting card and print as a reward in the virtual bucket shake
The virtual bucket shake has been launched in advance of the JoRo reopening this weekend for Oddsocks Productions’ A Christmas Carol on Saturday at 3pm and 7.30pm and the Steve Cassidy Band on Sunday at 7.30pm. For tickets, go to: josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk/whats-on/
Martin Barrass, attired in the late Bev Jones’s favourite colours of black and pink, is pictured publicising the now-cancelled Strictly Christmas Live In The Park
STRICTLY Xmas Live In The Park, with a singalong songsheet led by York pantomime perennial Martin Barrass, is off.
Organiser Lesley Jones confirmed the cancellation of Sunday’s open-air Bev Jones Music Company show at the Rowntree Park amphitheatre on Facebook.
“It is with huge sadness I have had to cancel the Xmas Concert on Sunday 13th. External circumstances forced the decision,” she revealed.
Charlotte Wood in the role of Silly Billy for Bev Jones Music Company’s Strictly Christmas Live In The Park
“However, we will be singing at Tesco, Askham Bar, on Saturday 19th and Sunday 20th December from 1.30pm. Look out for our 2021 calendar. Thank you all as ever.”
In an earlier post, she wrote: “For many, many reasons we are beaten in this strangest of years! We must confess that we have taken the hardest decision to cancel our Strictly Live In The Park.
“You all know how I do always my best to give you the show I promise, but Covid, Tiers, illness, personal etc etc….force the decision.
The cast of Strictly Christmas Live In The Park, with Marin Barrass, front, centre, gathers for a socially distanced early rehearsal
“All ticket monies will be refunded in full. Roll on 2021. Keep in touch, join our Bev Jones Music Group page to find out what’s next.”
On November 29, Lesley had expressed excitement at the upcoming show’s progress. “Only two weeks to go! Tier 2 means we have the green light and we are good to go!” she posted
Strictly Xmas Live in The Park would have added up to a “3 in 1 Xmas experience” with Christmas songs through the decades, carols by candlelight and a one-of-a-kind, specially written pantomime, Once Upon A Pud.
Martin Barrass, Dame Berwick’s stalwart comic stooge, was already missing out on the Covid-cancelled Kaler comeback in Dick Turpin Rides Again at the Grand Opera House. Now he has to forego leading the pantomime section of Strictly Xmas Live In The Park on Sunday afternoon too.
What? No show? Alas not for Melissa Boyd’s Princess and Terry Ford’s villain in the pantomime section of Bev Jones Music Company’s Strictly Xmas In The Park
In the Covid-secure, socially distanced performance, Martin would have reactivated his first ever song-sheet in a York Theatre Royal panto – all about Yorkshire Puddings – as well as telling a few seasonal jokes.
Joining him in the festive concert’s panto sequence would have been Melissa Boyd’s Princess, Terry Ford’s villain and Charlotte Wood’s Silly Billy, plus a Dame, Fairy Godmother, Prince Charming and Jack Ass.
Favourite Christmas songs, such as Santa Baby, Jingle Bell Rock and Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas?, and a visit from Father Christmas were in Sunday’s programme too. All audience members were to be temperature tested on arrival and placed into family private bubble areas.
Rehearsals were booked in for Rufforth Institute Hall, socially distanced and under a full Covid risk assessment.
Kate Rusby At Christmas…now Kate Rusby At Christmas At Home for Saturday’s streamed concert, Happy Holly Day. Picture: David LIndsay
KATE Rusby At Christmas, her annual folk-spun South Yorkshire carol-singing service with fairy lights, Ruby the Reindeer, guest Brass Boys and a fancy-dress finale, will not be celebrated at York Barbican on December 20, ruled out by the Covid Grinch.
This rotten year, however, the Barnsley voice of Christmas past, present and yet to come is still determined to bring the joy of her usual Christmas tour to the comfort of tree-lit homes with the special delivery of a full-length concert, streamed worldwide on Saturday (12/12/2020) at 7.30pm GMT.
“Everyone will have a front row seat for Kate Rusby’s Happy Holly Day,” promises Kate, who has been counting down to her festive stream with a Who’s Behind The Window Today? teaser on a daily virtual Advent Calendar video with musician-husband Damien O’Kane since December 1. In a roasted chesnutshell, tickets are available now at katerusby.com.
In August, Kate achieved her highest-charting album to date with Hand Me Down, her Lockdown 1-recorded recorded collection of cover versions, from Manic Monday and Friday I’m In Love to Shake It Off and Three Little Birds, all newly embossed with the Rusby folk alchemy.
Debuting in the Official Album Charts at number 12 – number three in the CD album chart and number four in the Independent release chart – Hand Me Down will have a second life on vinyl from January 15 2021. Pre-orders can be made at: https://purerecords.net/collections/kate-rusby-vinyls
The suitably festive poster for Kate Rusby’s Happy Holly Day
Come Saturday night, this incurable Christmas reveller, Kate the Holly Head, will cherry pick from her five Yuletide albums, Sweet Bells, While Mortals Sleep, The Frost Is All Over, Angels And Men and last year’s Holly Head, with their double act of Victorian tut-tutted South Yorkshire carols and Rusby winter originals.
For more than 200 years, from late-November to New Year’s Day, South Yorkshire and North Debyshire communities would congregate on Sunday lunchtimes, in their local public house, to belt out their own versions of familiar carols, an act of appropriation frowned upon by the church in Victorian times for being “too happy”.
Such happiness, nevertheless, will be encouraged to the brim this weekend on Kate’s night of virtual wassailing. For a video trailer of Kate Rusby’s Happy Holly Day, go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myM2ieabVlU
Looking ahead, Kate’s cancelled 2020 York carol concert must now do Covid-enforced cold turkey for a year, re-scheduled for Sunday, December 19 2021. Tickets already bought will transfer to the new date.
Eboracum Baroque musicians and singers, pictured when performing at Stamford Georgian Festival
EBORACUM Baroque present A Baroque Christmas, a festive online concert, at 7pm on Saturday (12/12/2020).
Filmed at Wimpole Church and Wimpole Hall in the York singers and instrumentalists’ second home of Cambridge, the programme comprises arias from Bach’s Christmas Oratorio and Magnificat, a trumpet concerto by Torelli and Winter from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons among other works from across 17th and 18th century Europe.
“Usually, Eboracum Baroque would give festive performances at both Wimpole Hall and Wimpole Church, but with performance restrictions during the pandemic, this concert was filmed back in October,” says Chris Parsons, who formed the group in 2012 at the University of York and the Royal College of Music, London.
“We hope this concert offers some festive cheer for those missing live music-making in these uncertain times, and we’re delighted to be joined by York Gin, who will provide virtual drinks in our unique interval with a festive flavour.”
Chris adds: “Eboracum Baroque are committed to supporting young freelance musicians through these challenging times. On this occasion, we performed with the kind permission from St Andrew’s Church, Wimpole, and the National Trust.”
The ensemble of professional young musicians performs music from across the Renaissance and Baroque periods, with a particular specialism in English music from the 17th and 18th century. In York, performances are given regularly at York Mansion House.
Saturday’s online concert will be premiered on youtube.com/eboracumbaroque and facebook.com/eboracumbaroque.
Delma Tomlin: National Centre for Early Music director
DR DELMA Tomlin MBE, founder and director of the National Centre for Early Music, has been nominated to receive the status of Honorary Freeman of the City of York.
The decision will be made next Thursday (17/12/2020) at a special full council meeting of City of York Council, which “may lawfully appoint a person or persons who have, in its opinion, rendered eminent services to the city as outlined in Section 249 of the Local Government Act 1972”.
The meeting will consider nominations for awarding the title to both Delma, as busy as ever this week hosting the York Early Music Christmas Festival at the NCEM, and York historian Alison Sinclair.
The last time this status was awarded was in 2014 to Lord Crathorne and, if the status is awarded next week, Delma and Alison will be following in the footsteps of the only women honoured since 2002: actor and national treasure Dame Judi Dench and Quaker, peace campaigner and long-serving head teacher of The Mount School, Joyce Pickard, who died in September 2017.
Delma’s nomination comes in recognition of her commitment to arts and culture in York over the past 40 years. She helped to secure significant funding to establish the National Centre for Early Music to deliver early music, world music, folk and jazz in the converted St Margaret’s Church building in Walmgate.
The NCEM stages the summer York Early Music Festival and its winter marrow, the York Early Music Christmas Festival, this year running a series of socially distanced concerts from December 4 to 12, complemented by the inaugural York Christmas At Home festival, streamed online from December 11 to 13. In addition, beyond York, she programmes the annual Beverley & East Riding Early Music Festival.
The NCEM is recognised internationally for its promotion of Early music, also hosting the NCEM Young Composers Award and running a vibrant education and outreach programme, working with the communities of York throughout the year.
“I have had so much fun with all the projects I’ve been involved in and, in this rather miserable year, it’s wonderful to be offered something so joyful,” says Honorary Freeman of the City of York nominee Delma Tomlin
In 2000, Delma was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of York in recognition of her work in the City of York. In 2008, she was appointed an MBE for services to the arts in Yorkshire in The Queen’s New Year’s Honours List.
In 2018, she was made Cultural Ambassador for the City of York and was named Cultural Champion at that year’s York Culture Awards. In 2022, she will become the first female Governor of the Company of Merchant Adventurers.
Reacting to today’s nomination, Delma said: “As someone who has lived in York for 40 years, I couldn’t be more pleased or imagine more of an honour. The city has given me such opportunities, and the people have always been extraordinarily welcoming.
“I have had so much fun with all the projects I’ve been involved in and, in this rather miserable year, it’s wonderful to be offered something so joyful.”
Councillor Keith Aspden, leader of City of York Council, said: “Given their eminent services to our city, I am delighted to support the award of Honorary Freedom of the City of York to both Delma Tomlin and Alison Sinclair.
“York has a rich history of freemen, with records dating back to 1272, making it an honour of great historical importance rarely awarded. It has been fascinating to read the nominations for Delma and Alison and learn more about the outstanding work they have done for both the city and its residents, in particular in the fields of heritage, culture and music.
“If the nominations are approved at the council meeting, a subsequent Civic occasion would then take place later next year to recognise and formally celebrate the honour.”
“He’s just a dreamer, who wants to be up in the clouds,” says Jordan Fox of playing Jack. “I can get on board with that: I’m an actor; I can get lost in stories” Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick
EVERYTHING should have been Beautiful for Jordan Fox in 2020.
“I was in the tour of Beautiful, the Carole King musical, at the start of the year, and then that got cancelled by the pandemic lockdown,” says the West End actor from West Yorkshire. “The tour had been such fun, but when I got back to London from Cardiff, I got the email to say ‘Don’t go to the next theatre’.”
Based in London for the past couple of years, starring in Kinky Boots and Friendsical, the Friends-parodying musical, Jordan has moved back to Yorkshire in lockdown.
Now he finds himself in the title role – Jack, not the allotment staple – in York Stage’s pantomime, Jack And The Beanstalk, from Friday at Theatre @41 Monkgate, York.
“Me and Nik [writer-director Nik Briggs] went to university together at Bretton Hall [the Grade 2 listed building on the Yorkshire Sculpture Park estate, near Wakefield]. It was like Hogwarts! I loved it!” says Jordan, who studied there from 2006 to 2009.
“I was in the first year when Nik was in the second year and we ended up doing some projects together and getting on really well.”
Now 32, Jordan says: “We’ve chatted a few times, but because he’s based in York and I’ve been in London we’ve kind of missed each other’s paths. So, it feels really lovely to be doing this panto.
“Nik messaged me and said, ‘I know you’re based in London but we’re looking for Yorkshire actors’, and I said, ‘well, I’m coming back, can I do it?’.”
Jordan was born in Bradford and grew up in Huddersfield and his family now lives in Holmfirth. “I’ve moved back home, living with my partner in Holmfirth, and if I get a West End show again, I’ll rent down there and keep the house up here,” he says.
He performed in Lawrence Batley Theatre pantomimes in Huddersfield in his childhood. “Then, in 2014-2015, I was Peter Pan in Peter Pan with Dean Gaffney as my Captain Hook, and now I’m doing Jack And The Beanstalk, so I’ve had a green theme to my pantos, it seems!”
Deep into tech week now for his role as Jack, Jordan says: “The great thing that Nik has done with the script is that he’s really massively acknowledged the present pandemic situation, with all the social distancing.
Feeling good to be back: Jordan Fox in an early rehearsal for York Stage’s Jack And The Beanstalk. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick
“We make lots of references: we can air-hug, play air guitar, without us breaking any rules. We’re using a traverse stage design too [with the audience seated in bubbles to either side], and we can really fill that space in a different way when, even though we can’t do traditional panto things, we can figure out new ways and it’s always nice to do that.”
Jordan is enjoying reacquainting himself with the pantomime world for a second time. “For me, there was a really big gap between doing it when I was young and then getting back into it for Peter Pan, and now it’s good to be doing it again,” he says.
“I love the simple fairy-tales, the silliness of it all, whereas normally [with musicals] you don’t ever have the free rein to do anything like that. With panto, if something goes wrong, it’s great to be able to include the audience in it.”
As for playing Jack, Jordan says: “As I’ve read him, he’s northern, probably sounding like I did before going to London! I’ll be letting my Yorkshire heritage take over.
“He’s just a dreamer, who wants to be up in the clouds. I can get on board with that: I’m an actor; I can get lost in stories! Jack is simplistic in his ideals, not weighed down by anything. Instead of the norms of adulthood, he’s still letting himself dream, which we can all connect with.”
Dreams have been put on hold in Covid-19 2020. “It was so disorientating when Beautiful stopped. A lot of actors, when we’re not working in shows, work in bars, teach kids, do gigs, basically anything where there’s a crowd, but because everything stopped, it was an anxiety-ridden couple of months,” says Jordan.
“It felt like the world falling from beneath you, but luckily I had some savings, and I started doing some ‘assisting engineering’ work, basically handing people tools.”
Then came Nik’s invitation to climb a beanstalk in a York theatre. “This is a dream come true and I’m so happy to be here,” says Jordan. “It’s been so frustrating for the theatre world this year, when it seems like the Government doesn’t make the effort to go and get someone like [theatre producer] Cameron Mackintosh to ‘tell us what we should be doing’.”
Treading the boards once more at last, Jordan says: “When you come to a show, you never leave the theatre the same person as when you arrived, and that’s what we’ve all been missing.”
Dare to dream, like Jack, like Jordan, of better times ahead. In the meantime, enjoy the uplift, the joy, the daftness, of pantomime.
York Stage presents Jack And The Beanstalk at Theatre @41 Monkgate, York, from December 11 to January 3; show times, Monday to Saturday, 2pm and 7pm; Sundays, 1pm and 6pm; Christmas Eve, 12 noon and 5pm; New Year’s Eve, 12 noon. Box office: online only at yorkstagepanto.com. Please note, audiences will be seated in household/support bubble groupings only.
IRISH luminaries Van Morrison and Chris De Burgh are heading to York Barbican in 2021.
Northern Irishman Morrison, 75, will play two nights, May 25 and 26, and Southern Irishman De Burgh, 72, is booked in for October 15.
Tickets for both concerts will go on sale at 9am on Friday (11/12/2020) at yorkbarbican.co.uk, as well as at ticketline.co.uk and on 0844 888 9991 for De Burgh.
Born in Pottinger, Belfast, in 1945, Van Morrison – or Sir George Ivan Morrison OBE, as a formal envelope would now read – was inspired early in life by his shipyard worker father’s collection of blues, country and gospel records.
Feeding off Hank Williams, Jimmie Rodgers and Muddy Waters in particular, Morrison became a travelling musician at 13, performing in several bands before forming Them in 1964.
Making their name at Belfast’s Maritime Club, Them soon established Morrison as a major force in the British R&B scene, initially with Here Comes The Night and Gloria, still his staple concert-closing number.
Brown Eyed Girl and the November 1968 album Astral Weeks announced a solo song-writing spirit still going strong, as testified latterly by a burst of five albums in three years. In 2017, he released Roll With The Punches and Versatile; in 2018, You’re Driving Me Crazy, with Joey DeFrancesco, and The Prophet Speaks; last year, Three Chords & The Truth, his 41st studio set, no less.
Over the years, Morrison has accumulated a knighthood; a BRIT; an OBE; an Ivor Novello award; six Grammys; honorary doctorates from Queen’s University, Belfast, and the University of Ulster; entry into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the French Ordres Des Artes Et Des Lettres…and a number 20 hit duet with Cliff Richard in 1989, Whenever God Shines His Light.
This year, Morrison has said – and sung – his two penneth on Coronavirus, “crooked facts” and “pseudo-science”. In August, he called for “fellow singers, musicians, writers, producers, promoters and others in the industry to fight with me on this. Come forward, stand up, fight the pseudo-science and speak up”.
Ironically, a quick-thinking company promptly launched a set of face masks of iconic Morrison album covers.
Chris De Burgh: New album, new musical, new tour, all on a Robin Hood theme, in 2021
From September 25, Morrison launched a series of three protest songs, one every two weeks, railing against safety measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19: Born To Be Free, As I Walked Out and No More Lockdown.
“No more lockdown / No more government overreach / No more fascist bullies / Disturbing our peace …,” he urged on the latter.
“No more taking of our freedom / And our God-given rights / Pretending it’s for our safety / When it’s really to enslave …”
Not without irony, that song condemned “celebrities telling us what we’re supposed to feel”. Issuing an explanatory statement amid condemnation from voices in Irish authority, he said: “I’m not telling people what to do or think. The government is doing a great job of that already. It’s about freedom of choice. I believe people should have the right to think for themselves.”
In September, he announced a series of socially distanced concerts, again with a covering note: “This is not a sign of compliance or acceptance of the current state of affairs,” it read. “This is to get my band up and running and out of the doldrums.”
Plenty of “re-scheduled” shows are in the diary, in London this Friday and Saturday, Belfast over the New Year celebrations, followed by four nights at the London Palladium in mid-April.
Not long afterwards comes the brace of York Barbican gig : an umpteenth return to a venue where he has performed in his predictably unpredictable, sometimes gruff, sometimes prickly, yet oft-times sublimely soulful manner on myriad mystical nights.
Chris De Burgh – born Christopher John Davison in Venado Tuerto, Argentina and raised in County Wexford, southern Ireland – last visited York Barbican on his Classics Albums Tour in October 2019.
That night, the focus fell on 1986’s Into The Light and 2010’s Moonfleet & Other Stories. Next autumn, Chris De Burgh & Band will be undertaking the eight-date UK tour, The Legend Of Robin Hood & Other Hits, in support of the upcoming album, The Legend Of Robin Hood, whose release date is yet to be affirmed.
De Burgh has co-written a musical too, Robin Hood, to be premiered in Fulda, Germany, in 2021. Expect both new material and greatest hits, Lady In Red et al from a 45-year recording career stretching back to Spanish Train And Other Stories, when he plays the only Yorkshire concert of next October’s itinerary.
