Walking in a winter wandland: Livvy Evans as Fairy Mary in Jack And The Beanstalk. Picture: Kirkpatrick Photography
LIVVY Evans is back home in York for the winter, playing Fairy Mary In York Stage’s pantomime, Jack And The Beanstalk.
Here she waves her magic wand at Charles Hutchinson’s quickfire questions.
What was the first pantomime you ever saw and what do you recall of it?
“First panto I can remember going to, I think, was Jack And The Beanstalk at the Grand Opera House, starring John Altman (Nasty Nick Cotton in EastEnders) as the baddie, I just remember him and being terrified!”
What was your first pantomime role?
“I played Happy the dwarf in Snow White at the Grand Opera House.”
What has been your favourite pantomime role?
“Princess Yasmin in Aladdin: my first professional job, also at the Grand Opera House. Playing Fairy Mary is shaping up to be a contender too!”
Who have you not yet played in pantomime that you would love to play?
“When I’m a bit older, I’d love to play the Wicked Queen. And, although traditionally male characters, I’ve always wanted to play a Buttons/Simple Simon-type character too.”
Who is your favourite pantomime performer and why?
“Being from York, I’d have to say Berwick Kaler, of course. His Dame is legendary!”
“Just feeling the excited presence of an audience is wonderful for us performers,” says Livvy Evans. Picture: Kirkpatrick Photography
This year’s pantomime will be an experience like no other…what are your expectations of performing a show in these strange circumstances?
“It will be strange at first, especially with the discouragement of vocal participation from the audience. However, I think they will get used to it very quickly, once they get engrossed in the magic. Just feeling the excited presence of an audience is wonderful for us performers.”
Which pantomime role should Boris Johnson play and why?
“Boris doesn’t have the skill set to be an actor. He can just carry on playing the part of ‘Bumbling fool No. 1’.”
Who or what has been the villain of 2020?
“There are definitely more than a handful of villains this year. For me, personally, it’s Rishi Sunak. His comments surrounding the ‘non-viability’ of actors were pretty low. I would love to see him last a week in my profession!”
Who or what has been the fairy of 2020?
“It’s definitely a toss-up between Captain Sir Tom Moore and Marcus Rashford. Both have done incredible, selfless things this year and it proves that a big old heart is all a true hero needs.”
Butterfly wings: Livvy Evans’s costume for Fairy Mary from behind. Picture: Kirkpatrick Photogrphy
What are your wishes for 2021?
“I hope that everyone stays safe and continues to treat each other with some of the kindness and compassion we discovered this year.”
What are your hopes for the world of theatre in 2021?
“I hope that the theatre industry gets back on its feet ASAP and that people support it as much as they can.”
York Stage presents Jack And The Beanstalk at Theatre @41 Monkgate, York, until January 3 2021.
Show times: December 28, 11am, 2pm (sold out) and 7pm (sold out); December 29, 2pm (sold out) and 7pm; December 30, 2pm (sold out) and 7pm; New Year’s Eve, December 31, 12 noon (sold out); January 2, 2pm (sold out) and 7pm; January 3, 1pm and 6pm.
Box office: online only at yorkstagepanto.com. Please note, audiences will be seated in household/support bubble groupings only.
Blending in with the scenery: Alex Weatherhill’s Dame Nanna Trott hits trouble when trying to develop a new milkshake recipe in York Stage’s slapstick scene in Jack And The Beanstalk. Picture: Kirkpatrick Photography
ALEX Weatherhill has been making a Dame for himself for the first time – and a resplendent name for her too – as Dame Nancy Angelina Norma Nigella Alana Trott (Nanna for short) in York Stage’s Jack And The Beanstalk.
Here, Alex discusses his “rather challenging and iconic start” to performing in pantomime as he answers Charles Hutchinson’s quickfire questions.
What was the first pantomime you ever saw and what do you recall of it?
“I don’t remember which one it was, but I remember being totally confused about people shouting things out. Even though I was young, I had only seen grown-up theatre, where you must sit politely, not talk and respect the performers and the theatre itself. I thought everyone was being really rude shouting things out!”
What was your first pantomime role?
“Can you believe it…this! My first role on stage in panto! I’ve been a musical director and director for quite a few, but never been the other side of the footlights for this particular style of theatre.”
What would be your ideal pantomime role if you could choose?
“Ummmm, I’m going to have to say this one! I waited a long time and went in with a rather iconic and challenging start!”
Who else would you like to play and why?
“I’ve always wondered if playing Dame would suit and wanted to try it. I’m getting a taste for it and would like to try more…maybe play an Ugly Sister, where you get to be mean!”
Who is your favourite pantomime performer and why?
“I worked with a Dame a few years ago called Joe Standerline. He’s recently been part of the movement to bring attention to the arts at this tricky time and so some might recognise his look from the media.
“As a Dame, he treads the balance between lovable, sharp wit and a little bit of sauce. I love that.”
This year’s pantomime will be an experience like no other…what are your expectations of performing a show in these strange circumstances?
“We’re all going to be a little emotional as we get to actually perform on a stage with real people. We aim to bring a little joy into the lives of our audience; some sparkle at the close of a tough year for many.”
“I’ve always wondered if playing Dame would suit and wanted to try it,” says Alex Weatherhill. Picture: Kirkpatrick Photography
Which pantomime role should Boris Johnson play and why?
“Ooh, this is a tricky one to answer without getting too political! Ha ha. I think his hair and demeanor suit Beauty’s mad inventor father in Beauty And The Beast!”
Who or what has been the villain of 2020?
“Covid-19! It would definitely be wearing a cape and lit in green and red!”
Who or what has been the fairy of 2020?
“The vaccine! It waited until the last moment to come and save the day, but in it comes lit in pink and delivered by a wand…..of sorts!”
How would you sum up 2020 in five words?
“Testing. Re-evaluation. Home. Netflix. Zoom!”
What are your wishes for 2021?
“I hope that we can get back to some sense of normality, so that we can come together and appreciate the company of others again.”
What are your hopes for the world of theatre in 2021?
“The hope is for a bounce-back and the joyous celebration of the arts again. The arts being streamed online got many through these dark days; let’s hope we can find a way to bring it back to life in a live setting.”
York Stage presents Jack And The Beanstalk at Theatre @41 Monkgate, York, until January 3 2021.
Show times: Boxing Day, December 26, 11am, 2pm (sold out) and 7pm (sold out); December 27, 11am (sold out), 1pm (sold out) and 6pm; December 28, 11am, 2pm (sold out) and 7pm (sold out); December 29, 2pm (sold out) and 7pm; December 30, 2pm (sold out) and 7pm; New Year’s Eve, December 31, 12 noon (sold out); January 2, 2pm (sold out) and 7pm; January 3, 1pm and 6pm.
Box office: online only at yorkstagepanto.com. Please note, audiences will be seated in household/support bubble groupings only.
“We aim to bring a little joy into the lives of our audience; some sparkle at the close of a tough year for many,” says Alex Weatherhill. Picture: Kirkpatrick Photography
HERE’S to more going out and less staying in in 2021, once the jabs go to work at large.
In the meantime, thank you to all those in the world of arts and culture who have still made it worth running this site by finding ways to entertain, enlighten and excite in 2020 by thinking and acting outside the box, against the odds and the tide of the killjoy pandemic.
Merry Yorkshire Christmas, in whatever minimalist form you will be gathering.
Matthew Ives in the transformation scene in York Stage’s Jack And The Beanstalk. Picture: Kirkpatrick Photography
MATTHEW Ives, part of the all-action ensemble for York Stage’s pantomime Jack And The Beanstalk, steps up to the task of answering Charles Hutchinson’s quickfire questions.
What was the first pantomime you ever saw and what do you recall of it?
“Cinderella at what was the Civic Theatre in Leeds…I think. All I really remember is that I thought a girl in Year 6 looked like whoever played Cinderella. They probably didn’t!”
What was your first pantomime role?
“Dance Captain in Jack And The Beanstalk at The Capitol, Horsham.”
What has been your favourite pantomime role?
“I actually have no clue!”
Who have you not yet played in pantomime that you would love to play and why?
“I’d love to at some point play a panto villain as I think they get to have the most fun.”
Who is your favourite pantomime performer and why?
“Is it bad to say I don’t know? I’m a bit of a panto novice!”
This year’s pantomime will be an experience like no other…what are your expectations of performing a show in these strange circumstances?
“Apart from all the distancing, what is actually lovely is that it doesn’t feel too different to normal! What’s also nice is that with the more intimate venue and reduced audience, you get an even bigger connection with everyone in the audience.”
Which pantomime role should Boris Johnson play and why?
“King Rat seems apt.”
Who or what has been the villain of 2020?
“Dominic Cummings…or Trump.”
Who or what has been the fairy of 2020?
“Dolly Parton.”
How would you sum up 2020 in five words?
“Challenging, but happiness is paramount.”
What are your wishes for 2021?
“That we can all get back to normality but that the lessons learned in this time stick.”
What are your hopes for the world of theatre in 2021?
“That we can all get back to doing what we do best!”
York Stage presents Jack And The Beanstalk at Theatre @41 Monkgate, York, until January 3 2021.
Show times: Boxing Day, December 26, 11am, 2pm (sold out) and 7pm (sold out); December 27, 11am (sold out), 1pm (sold out) and 6pm; December 28, 11am, 2pm (sold out) and 7pm (sold out); December 29, 2pm (sold out) and 7pm; December 30, 2pm (sold out) and 7pm; New Year’s Eve, December 31, 12 noon (sold out); January 2, 2pm (sold out) and 7pm; January 3, 1pm and 6pm.
Box office: online only at yorkstagepanto.com. Please note, audiences will be seated in household/support bubble groupings only.
Sax to the max: Saxophonist Snake Davis recording his solo rendition of Silent Night for The Big Christmas Care Singalong
BIG Ian Donaghy has launched The Big Christmas Care Singalong for care homes across the country and beyond.
In any other year, the York fundraiser, musician, public speaker and dementia campaigner would have been leading a team of volunteers giving a family Christmas Day to older people living alone in the city with his Xmas Presence gathering, as they have for the past five years.
“Unfortunately, as with almost everything this year, it’s had to be cancelled because of Covid-19,” says Ian, who instead has created a “Play as Live online event to bring everyone together to sing with one voice with The Big Christmas Care Singalong”.
Samantha Holden: one of the guest singers taking part in the Singalong
After hatching his plan to unite the world of care this Christmas with The Big Christmas Care Singalong, Ian took over a warehouse with the help of Mark Parker, of AV Matrix.
“Socially distanced with great care and a green screen, one by one, singers and musicians were invited to perform carols and other Christmas mainstays,” says Ian, who conscripted the talents of Jess Steel, Graham Hodge, Jessa Liversidge and Samantha Holden (who has performed with Michael Bublé), accompanied by the omnipresent George Hall on piano.
Saxophone player to the stars Snake Davis – his CV spans Amy Winehouse, Take That, Paul McCartney, The Eurythmics and George Michael – recorded a haunting solo sax version of Silent Night. London session singer and pianist Sam Tanner, who has played with members of The Rolling Stones, The Who and Rod Stewart, performed a reggae version of White Christmas.
Tony, once Brian Clough’s favourite pub landlord, pictured in his Nottingham care home, enjoying The Big Christmas Care Singalong
Expect a setlist ranging from the carols Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, Away In A Manger and In The Bleak Midwinter to a soulful version of Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer and a raucous rendition of The Twelve Days Of Christmas, bringing together people from all over the world.
“The performers are superb and the whole thing has a warmth to it that’s needed to lift this year,” says Ian. “A bespoke version of the Christmas Care Singalong created for Nottingham and care homes in the Midlands was broadcast on Tuesday, and afterwards they said: ‘It gave us a real lift to see some of our families involved on the screen sending messages and telling us about their Christmas memories’.
“In fact, the Singalong has already been seen by thousands of care homes all over the world with feedback like ‘Christmas ISN’T cancelled’, from Sam Barrington, an award-winning care consultant from Scarborough, and ‘the perfect gift to us this Christmas – thank you for bringing the UK and Australia together’, from Alana Parker in Sydney.”
Sam Tanner performing his reggae version of White Christmas for The Big Christmas Care Singalong
Ian is delighted that people from all over the world have sent in videos of their Christmas memories and of them singing their festive favourites. “Let’s just say there’s a range of quality but we have included everyone. We have people with learning difficulties and dementia singing alongside the people who support them,” he says.
Thousands of care homes will be playing the Christmas Singalong on either Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. Hospitals and hospices are planning to make an event of it too.
For example, HC-One, the UK’s largest care provider, is embracing it in their 320 care homes. “Watching it on Tuesday, we laughed, cried and sang together – and this beautiful event features so many of our residents having fun,” says Roberta Roccella, HC-One’s head of Quality of Life.
George Hall playing piano for The Big Christmas Care Singalong
“This is a perfect event to bring everyone together. This has been the toughest year ever in care. Throughout the pandemic, Ian was asked to create the national film campaign for Health Education England to recruit the next generation of nurses into social care, so he saw the huge sacrifices people were making for those they cared for in the pandemic.”
During lockdown, when the venues where he usually does his public speaking were turned into Nightingale hospitals, Ian wrote and published a book, A Pocketful of Kindness, to celebrate the power of community and connection.
Now comes The Big Christmas Care Singalong. “This free online event has been universally welcomed by care homes, supported living, hospitals and hospices, both in the UK and Australia,” says Ian. “The joy of it is that if someone is isolated in their own room, they can have their very own private Christmas concert. Christmas can come to them.
Care home staff showing their support for The Big Christmas Care Singalong
“The Singalong can also be accessed in any home at www.thebigchristmassingalong.com, so you too can enjoy it and get an insight into the year people have had in care. In a year where very few television programmes are being made, it will be a welcome change from seeing celebrities on web cams or Del Boy as Batman yet again.”
The Big Christmas Care Singalong is going international in a year when embracing technology has been so vital to communication. “Alana Parker and Nick Wynn in Australia have got involved to spread the word far and wide beyond our shores,” says Ian. “Technology has come so far in the last year. Everyone is far more tech savvy.”
Soulful York singer Jess Steel recording her contribution to The Big Christmas Care Singalong
The online event also incorporates a Jackanory-style story narrated by the Bard of Barnsley, Ian McMillan, with illustrations by Private Eye cartoonist Tony Husband. Television presenter Angela Rippon makes a surprise appearance too.
“Expect something that is somewhere between a Christmas concert, You’ve Been Framed and Gogglebox,” says Ian. “But we hope it will warm people’s hearts and show those who work in our care homes, hospitals and hospices just how invaluable they are.”
Summing up his wishes beyond the impact of The Big Christmas Care Singalong in Covid-19 2020, Ian says: “The vaccine has given us a light at the end of the tunnel but we are still in the tunnel! Despite some people’s wreckless behaviour and lack of consideration for others, we hope that the score at the end of this year will read Covid 19 Kindness 20.”
“Expect something that is somewhere between a Christmas concert, You’ve Been Framed and Gogglebox,” says Ian Donaghy, organiser of The Big Christmas Care Singalong
Bullish for you: York band Bull end their year with an EP and look ahead to a spring album release and return to gigging in 2021. Picture: Amy D’Agorne Craghill
YORK alt-rockers Bull close out their breakthrough year with a new digital EP.
Out now on EMI Records in conjunction with York label Young Thugs, it combines the new title track with Bull’s three 2020 singles: the fuzz-rocking Disco Living, the noisy pop of Bonzo Please and the summer high of Green.
Billed as a “brilliant slice of indie maximalism”, Love Goo hooks sweet pop melodies onto a ramshackle jangle rock template, with spritely xaphoon lines (a kind of pocket saxophone), tin whistle and piano to the fore.
“It’s a song about getting along with people,” explains wry-humoured Bull songwriter and singer Tom Beer. “It looks at my relationship with my family as well as my own feelings of ‘sticky love goo’, when thinking about people in my life and from my childhood.
“It’s about the difference between people, universal truth, gender fluidity, peace and love, understanding and all of that stuff.”
Tom penned Love Goo in 2018. “It’s one of my more recent songs on our upcoming album, in fact it’s the newest one on there. Out of the 13 songs, it’s the freshest,” he says. “It was written before all of what’s gone on this year but that now adds to it.
“It’s probably the happiest song I’ve ever written and I’m so happy to have written it. It’s both a reminder of why I wrote it, to make myself a better person and to be positive, and it’s nostalgic too, reflecting on people in my life and people I love.
“One of the reasons it sounds so good and comes across so well is that we recorded it maybe only a month after I wrote it.”
Contributing to Loo Goo’s happy disposition is the xaphoon, the aforementioned pocket saxophone. “It was ‘advertised’ to me on Facebook thanks to the wonders of algorithms; I showed it to [lead guitarist] Dan Lucas’s dad, Ross, who very kindly bought it for me for Christmas,” recalls Tom.
“We’d never thought of using it on any other song – though there may be a toot on Bonzo Please – but it suited Love Goo.”
Love Goo: Bull’s artwork for their new EP
Bull have made not one, but two videos to accompany Love Goo. “We started off making one video after our bassist, Kai West, bought a VHS camera for £6. It came with all the tape, so we thought, ‘we’ve got everything we need, let’s film while we’re on tour’,” says Tom, as they headed off to Amsterdam for shows with Dutch group Canshaker Pi.
“Kai’s idea was to take lots of two-second clips, tiny little snippets of whatever we were doing, for a song with a ‘Jing Jing’ rhythm to it. It’s simple but effective in what it does, showing us knocking about on tour, starting with getting on a train at York station, taking a ferry from Newcastle, playing the Dutch shows and coming back for our UK tour, playing Bristol and Manchester in the days when we could tour.”
Love Goo video number two has just been recorded, filmed against a blue screen backdrop, in the manner of Curtis Mayfield’s Seventies’ shows “before they were going to add all the hippy stuff”. “Keeping it on the blue screen, it looks like we’re floating in this crazy space,” says Tom.
The Love Goo EP closes a year when Bull became the first York band to sign to a major record label since Nineties’ chart regulars Shed Seven. “2020 has been a mixed bag, but I think I can say it’s been a good year for us, in as far as how well it could have gone under the circumstances,” says Tom.
“We’ve done a lot of good things; we’ve finished our album; we’ve just done our live-streamed Christmas gig, the Snow Global Tour show we filmed at Reel Recording Studio in Elvington.
“We’ve made lots of videos; we’ve designed the album sleeve – and we’ve written lots of songs, progressing towards the next album.
“In a normal year, we’d have had the usual stresses of touring, though the other side has been great, but of course I’ve missed touring, seeing people, as everyone has, but it could have been worse.”
Looking ahead, the album is scheduled for March release and a tour is booked in for April for Beer, Lucas, West and drummer Tom Gabbatiss. “We’ve decided to go ahead, even if the gigs have to be socially distanced. We’ll be headlining at The Crescent [in York] and we’re going to play Leeds Brudenell Social Club, which is a dream come for me. It’s my favourite venue,” says Tom.
His wish for next year will strike a chord with everyone as the pandemic refuses to back down. “I just kinda hope that the vaccine really gets going and everyone gets it and we can all start moving on again,” he says.
Frome was built in a day: In The Bleak Choir’s midwinter, Somerset musicians gathered remotely to record Graham Sanderson’s A Carol For The Cabinet
IT began as a topical revision of God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen, Brexit, Covid et al, under the title of A Carol For The Cabinet.
Now, York Settlement Community Players’ stalwart Graham Sanderson’s words of wit and frustration have been set to the traditional tune of the 15th century carol by a group of singers…from Somerset.
CharlesHutchPress is not one to blow its own trumpet but Frome musician and video producer Patrick Dunn happened upon the new carol through this website, asking to contact Graham via the editor.
“Hi – myself and a bunch of friends want to perform this and film it. Is that OK? Do we need your/his permission? Thank you!” Patrick first enquired of this site.
“Hi Graham – I hope you don’t mind me contracting you,” his email to Graham opened. “A group of friends and myself were so taken by your re-working of ‘God Rest Ye Merry…’ that we’ve all recorded and filmed it, and set it to music (the correct music, of course). I’ve spent the day compiling the video, then it occurred to me I should ask your permission!”
His email expanded: “So, is this ok with you? It’s just a group of amateur singers performing the whole re-worked carol, each filming at home on their phones. I think it sounds lovely, in a casual, congregational kind of way. I’m a musician and video producer by profession, so the basic standard is reasonable. We’re all in Somerset by the way, so the other end of the country.”
Graham replied: “That’s fantastic! Please go ahead. I’m really looking forward to seeing and hearing it! I was brought up in Bath, by the way, so Somerset is familiar and well-loved ground!”
The singers in question are the (mainly Frome) Bleak Choir, a name to resonate with Sanderson’s sentiments. “The video’s up now on YouTube, and we’re pretty happy with it,” says Patrick.
“It’s really just a bunch of friends, mainly from around Frome, who were amused by Graham’s words. We’re a close, musical and artistic community – ranging from casual amateur musicians to long-term professionals – and I thought we’d perform this well, so I asked around on Facebook and initially had about 70 people offer to sing.
“In the event, I got about 25 videos, all taken in isolation – and believe me, that’s more than enough! I just stuck them together really and added a cathedral organ in the background.”
Patrick could call on his own creative skills: “I’m a classical violinist by training, though never made it as a pro, so I’ve made a living producing videos and visuals for the music business, particularly over the past few years,” he says.
“I’ve done live visuals for Billy Bragg, The Orb, Tangerine Dream, Banco de Gaia, The Afro Celts and quite a few more although, of course, it’s been something of a quiet year! Fingers crossed for next year, all round.”
Graham is delighted by his “unexpected Christmas surprise”. To hear The Bleak Choir’s “alternative carol” version, go to: https://youtu.be/lM8xRf3jjXA.
Graham Sanderson: The eyes have had enough of 2020
Here is Graham Sanderson’s A Carol For The Cabinet:
God rest ye poor nonentities Let nothing you dismay; You made a mess of Test and Trace, But Brexit’s on its way To save us all from Euro power, Keep foreigners at bay. Oh, tidings of comfort and joy, Comfort and joy, Oh, tidings of comfort and joy.
In Ukip and the ERG This blessed plot was born, And laid before the people As a glorious new morn, And Boris was the chosen one To welcome in the dawn. Oh, tidings of Prejudice and Fear, Making it clear, We will not have asylum seekers here.
Oh, poverty of intellect And fear of full debate, Means Covid was neglected – Equipment came too late, On order by a nod and wink From a Minister’s old mate. Oh, tidings of Chaos and Despair – Panic in the air – Pretending to the people that they care.
God rest ye feeble ministers And clueless Upper Class; You witless, gutless Nationalists, So full of piss and gas; Self-serving opportunists Who’ve brought us to this pass. Oh, tidings of nastiness and sleaze – ‘We do as we please’: A once beloved country on its knees.
Beanstalk of the town: York’s landmark Bile Beans sign, in Lord Mayor’s Walk, has grown today with a banner for York Stage’s Jack And The Beanstalk, the pantomime where “giant magic can grow in the smallest of places”
JACK’s magical extra vegan beans at Theatre @41 Monkgate are not the only bean in York to be growing suddenly.
Today, the iconic Bile Beans sign on the side of a building in nearby Lord Mayor’s Walk has doubled in size to now read Bile Beanstalk to publicise York Stage’s debut pantomime, Jack And The Beanstalk.
York Stage have joined forces with CSL Scaffolding, the York construction company, and Press Green, the York design and print agency in Lord Mayor’s Walk, to erect the complementary sign, advertising the show’s run with an arrow pointing in the direction of the theatre.
A sign of things to come: York Stage’s banner, made by Press Green, is ready to roll
Nik Briggs, York Stage’s artistic director and pantomime writer/director, says: “Mounting a panto in a pandemic was always going to be tricky. With lots of hurdles to overcome, we’ve really had to think outside of the box.
“I was sitting waiting at the traffic lights on Lord Mayor’s Walk a few weeks ago and chuckled to myself that we’d chosen to do Jack And The Beanstalk at a relatively unknown venue just down from a large sign that said Beans in big letters!”
Bright bean Nik promptly sowed the seeds for an eye-catching wind-permeable banner in a marketing coup on York’s most famous sign. “Nightly Bile Beans Keep You Healthy Bright-Eyed & Slim is such a large York landmark that we knew we had to bring it into play some way,” he says.
Workmen from York company CSL Scaffolding assemble the scaffolding to erect the new banner
“Obviously we didn’t want to touch the sign itself, so we again thought outside of the box and contacted Press Green, who are based in the row of properties that the sign is on, and also got in touch with the brilliant CSL Scaffolding Ltd.
“After the terrible year we’ve all had, we thought it’d be a fun thing to do to advertise where the panto is! We put our heads together and came up with the plan to do a little pop-up extension!”
York Stage have worked for a long time with Press Green, who created the banner, but “Bile Beanstalk” marks a new partnership with CSL Scaffolding. “They’re already making their mark on the city, having done some great work up at Allerton Castle, near Knaresborough, and more locally have been giving back to the community through supporting soup kitchens across the city.”
“One of our main men also dressed up for the occasion,” says CSL Scaffolding’s Facebook post earlier today. Picture: CSL Scaffolding
CSL Scaffolding have been quick to put pictures on Facebook, calling their scaffolding work “our final job of the year, helping out York Stage with their Jack In [sic] The Beanstalk pantomime”. “One of our main men also dressed up for the occasion,” it adds, with one comment referring to Paul Wright.
Explaining the thinking behind putting up the banner, Nik says on Facebook: “People ask us where exactly is Theatre at 41?! Well, after a brainstorming session with our friends at Press Green and thanks to the generosity of CSL Scaffolding Ltd, we’ve managed to make it a bit more obvious!
“Merry Xmas from us all at York Stage. We hope this makes your journey to the theatre a little easier!”
Jack (Jordan Fox) and his beanstalk, stitched together by stage manager Lisa Cameron for York Stage’s Jack And The Beanstalk. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick
Jack And The Beanstalk and the banner promotion will run until January 3 2021. “We hope the sign gives people a reason to smile,” says Nik. “It’s tongue in cheek and hopefully shows that there are still some things going on in and around York!”
Show times: December 23, 7pm;Christmas Eve, December 24, 11am, 1pm (sold out) and 5pm (sold out; Boxing Day, December 26, 11am, 2pm (sold out) and 7pm; December 27, 11am, 1pm (sold out) and 6pm; December 28, 11am, 2pm (sold out) and 7pm; December 29 and 30, 2pm and 7pm; New Year’s Eve, December 31, 12 noon.
Box office: online only at yorkstagepanto.com. Please note, audiences will be seated in household/support bubble groupings only.
York Stage’s poster for their debut pantomime, Jack And The Beanstalk, a show that will “grow and grow on you”
SHED Seven’s “final performance” of 2020 will be on Charlatans’ front man Tim Burgess’s cult show, #TimsTwitterListeningParty, this evening at 6pm.
Burgess’s lockdown- kickstarted show invites you to stream or play an album, in this case the Sheds’ Another Night, Another Town, their December 18 release of 21 live recordings from their Castlefield Bowl open-air show in Manchester on June 30 2018 and 2019’s Shedcember tour that took in the York band’s debut at Leeds First Direct Arena last December.
As Another Night, Another Town plays, listeners should follow Tim Burgess at @Tim_Burgess and the Twitterers from the Sheds’ ranks, @shedseven (lead guitarist Paul Banks), @RickTw1tter, @TomGladwin2, @badstonejoe (guitarist Joe Johnson) and @apeachyleach (drummer Alan Leach), to watch the exchange of tweets in real time and to ask questions too.
For more information, go to timstwitterlisteningparty.com.
Holly Jolly Christmas, Dolly Parton style, in 2020
WHEN Goo Goo Dolls’ John Rzeznik sings “Drove a thousand miles/Just to see you smile” on his new star-guided long-journey-home instant anthem This Is Christmas, it jolts you. This isn’t Christmas, not this year, not in Covid-19-cancelled 2020.
Christmas songs usually irritate from over-familiarity; from supermarket rotation long before Remembrance Sunday; from schmaltz and excess beyond even Nigella’s recipe for twice-buttered toast. From the need for everything to come with reindeer bells on; from failing to match Phil Spector’s A Christmas Gift For You or the Seventies’ peaks of Slade and Wizzard or the peerless booze battle of The Pogues’ Fairtytale Of New York.
This year, however, they annoy, they grate, they frustrate, because of their incongruity, their nostalgia for what we can’t have: sadness for a Lost Christmas rather than Last Christmas. The absence of friends, awkward office parties, Carol singing, Nativity Play shepherds in tea towels, busker singalongs. Too much on Zoom, not in the room, the dancefloor, the pub, the restaurant.
This was not the year surely, even with time on lockdown hands, to make a Christmas record that sounds like any other year’s Christmas records? Yet many have done exactly that, from Dolly Parton’s new happy holiday songs on A Holly Dolly Christmas to perma-smiling Andre Rieu’s Jolly Holiday, whose title irks in Boris’s one-day-only-Christmas Britain. The reindeer bells have not fallen silent
Look at the cover of Michael Ball and Alfie Boe’s Together At Christmas, and the Grinch in you thinks, “Hope you’re in a social bubble, beardy boys, otherwise shouldn’t you be two metres apart?”.
Everything begins to rile in stymied 2020: the year when pretty much everything has been too late, except, ironically for the glut of Christmas albums, their jolliness too early, too out of step with these long dark nights.
Maybe they want to perk up spirits, maybe they know that a Christmas hit lasts forever, from The Waitresses to Jona Lewie to Mariah Carey; that this Christmas will be the last Christmas of its strange kind…er, hopefully.
The best Christmas records usually wrap the season in both happiness and sadness, but 2020’s anaesthetic stockpile largely prefers to keep the Covid elephant out of the room. At least Andrew Bird’s Hark! acknowledges what’s going on in Christmas At April, and even Robbie Williams penned Can’t Stop Christmas! (“Santa’s on his sleigh, but now he’s two metres away” et al).
“The people gonna need something to believe in/After a year of being in,” offers Little Saint Robbie as his thought for the day, hoping the addition of his zeitgeist new single will entice you to buy 2020’s deluxe re-issue of last winter’s The Christmas Present.
“It’s never been like this before/It feels like we’re at war,” rhymes Robbie. At least that cliche sends CharlesHutchPress running for John & Yoko’s Happy Xmas (War Is Over), his Christmas record for this and every year.
Together again, this time for Christmas: Ball & Boe reconvene for another assault on the top spot
Michael Ball & Alfie Boe, Together At Christmas (Decca)****
Wrapping: Have you ever seen a bad photograph of Messrs Ball & Boe? Both scrub up nicely in a series of photographs presumably taken at London’s Queen’s Theatre.
Gifts inside: Traditional, in every way, Together at Chrismas sports ten gilt-edged classics (Silent Night, O Holy Night and I’ll Be Home At Christmas) and two new songs, including My Christmas Will Be Better Than Yours.
Style: Guests Gregory Porter and Phoebe Street join the festivities accompanied by the Czech National Symphony Orchestra.
’Tis the reason to be jolly: Michael and Alfie know their audience’s tastes and deliver in trumps.
Scrooge moan? None with the record, but after Les Miserables re-opened with a stellar cast of Carrie Hope Fletcher, Matt Lucas and our boys, what a shame the show has been forced to close again.
White Christmas? Of course, Michael and Alfie cover Irving Berlin’s evergreen classic. It would be unthinkable not to do so.
Blue Christmas: Everyone has already made their mind up about Michael Ball & Alfie Boe. Those that love them will find this inspirational and uplifting.
Stocking or shocking? We all know someone who would LOVE this Christmas offering. Go on. It’s good to be nice to each other, especially this year.
Ian Sime
The Hello Darlins: First venture into musical wilds
The Hello Darlins, Heart In The Snow (Hello Darlins) ****
Wrapping: An inviting porch, looking out on an early snow fall, with the last of the autumn reds still in the forest. This EP is simply presented with the track-listing framed by monochromatic bare winter branches.
Gifts inside: Four songs over 13 minutes provide a seasonal aperitif. One More Christmas is a sentimental number for a family member who made it as far as Christmas Eve. Confusingly, it shares a title with Yorkshire’s own O’Hooley and Tidow’s (better) song of the same name from 2017’s Winterfolk. Given how the pandemic is preventing families everywhere from coming together, this could take on anthemic qualities.
Style: The Hello Darlins are a Canadian roots band. While each member has a successful career as a sideman for illustrious others, as a unit this is their first venture into the musical wilds. A Christmas EP is not a standard career-opening move, which bodes well. Here they present three new songs to sit alongside the chestnut, Do You Hear What I Hear.
’Tis the reason to be jolly: Unlike the season itself, this is short and sweet and the singing is enough to quiet an unsettled mind.
Scrooge moan? It floats amiably by, but in three breaths it is gone. Such is the lot of an EP.
White Christmas? No hide nor hair of it.
Blue Christmas? Reflective and still, or as the band would have it, “peaceful, comforting and familiar”. On balance, that is how most would take their Christmas.
Stocking or shocking? This is an unexpected treat for anyone sitting by the tree wishing for another Alison Krauss to appear. The Hello Darlins’ first proper album, Go By Feel, is out in the spring.
Paul Rhodes
Calexico’s artwork for Seasonal Shift: Is this Christmas? In 2020, yes!
Calexico, Seasonal Shift (City Slang) ****
Wrapping: A lonesome, empty caravan, aglow with fairylights and a mysteriously welcoming open door, is parked up in a deserted desert-scape, the hills beyond defined by distant light. Is this the Grand Canyon? Possibly? Is this Christmas? In 2020, yes.
Gifts inside: Giant Sand alumni Joey Burns and John Convertino’s long-seasoned Americana/Tex-Mex indie rock band from the American south west of Tucson, Arizona top up seven new Burns compositions and one Convertino instrumental with covers of John & Yoko, Hugo Blanco and Tom Petty (Christmas All Over Again, so much more warmer than Goo Goo Dolls’ pedestrian version) on Calexico’s first holiday album.
Style: Have yourself a not-so-merry, dance alone, reflective, but apt for 2020 little Christmas with these Tex-Mex, Hispanic, North American, even pan-global winter holiday songs as Calexico go international with Burns and Convertino putting in their Seasonal Shift with guest collaborators Bombino, Gaby Moreno, Gisela Joao, Camilo Lara and Devotchka’s Nick Urata, all recording individually at home studios across Planet Earth.
’Tis the reason to be jolly: Gaby Moreno’s joyous singing on the stand-out winter- warming cover of Blanco’s Mi Burrito Sabanero and the sudden burst of hip-hop in Sonoran Snoball, the bright-light break-out release from 2020’s oppressive winter bleakness.
Scrooge moan: Why couldn’t more Christmas albums in 2020 strike the mood and sentiment struck here, especially on Tanta Tristeza, Burns’s duet of lament with Gisela Joao?
White Christmas? No snow here, but the gorgeous cover of another Christmas landmark, John & Yoko’s Happy Xmas (War Is Over), resonates anew with the addition of pedal steel and Tijuana trumpets.
Blue Christmas? Burns’smood-setting ballad, Fairytale Of New York-echoing opener Hear The Bellsis mournful, drowning sorrows in the rain, while Seasonal Shift waves bye-bye to 2020 and its “complex holidays” with its good-riddance sentiment of “There it goes ’round the bend/The year that would never end”. Convertino’s lovely Glory’s Hope is all the more lonesome for promising neither.
Stocking or shocking: Shock of shocks, an unexpected, unpredictable 2020 Christmas record that should be nestling by the bedside for Christmas morning opening.
Dolly Parton: First Christmas holiday album in 30 years
Dolly Parton, A Dolly Holly Christmas (Butterfly Records) ****
Wrapping: Dolly is looking as stunning as ever. If possible, try to track down all the variously coloured vinyl versions: red, white, green and gold!
Gifts inside: On her first Christmas album in 30 years, Dolly has roped in a feast of friendly celebs to make this a great party – Michael Buble, Jimmy Fallon, Willie Nelson, Ray Nelson, brother Randy Parton, Billy Ray Cyrus and even his naughty daughter Miley!
Style: Dolly’s unique brand of Country crosses all the genres, giving us a huge Yuletide smile.
’Tis the reason to be jolly: As if we ever needed another reason to love Dolly, we have learned that Ms Parton financially contributed handsomely to the Moderna Covid 19 vaccine. What a woman!
Scrooge moan? Don’t be silly, 47 albums into her career, everyone loves Dolly!
White Christmas? Not here. Most of the songs are brand new Dolly compositions, although she does cover Mariah’s All I Want For Christmas Is You!, alongside the likes of Holly Jolly Christmas, Cuddle Up, Cozy Down Christmas with Buble and Christmas Is with Miley.
Blue Christmas? Even when Dolly sings sad music, there is an inspirational uplifting spirit at its heart.
Stocking or shocking? Everyone loves the sight of Dolly’s stockings!
Ian Sime
Goo Goo Dolls: Too much goo, like an over-rich Christmas pudding
Goo Goo Dolls, It’s Christmas All Over (Warner Bros) **
Wrapping: Evocative of sleeves of Christmas yore by Dino and Elvis, with a Recorded In Glorious Stereo! boast, song titles on both front and red and green-lettered back. Fairy lights decorate a piano and guitar; inside, more red and green is the de rigueur colour code for the lyrics.
Gifts inside: Veteran Buffalo, New York rockers “always wanted to make some cool music for the season”, duly combining classics, a hymn and two new John Rzeznik originals “for fun”.
Style: From March beginnings in a vintage Boyle Heights studio in LA, Rzeznik and co set out to ape classic Yule records they grew up with, alas without adding their own stamp. They aim for sentimentality at times, reflections at others, but “most of all to make you smile and even laugh a bit”. Largely, they misfire, except for…
’Tis the reason to be jolly: This Is Christmas, an epic Christmas twist on Taylor Swift’s favourite Goo Goo Dolls anthem, Iris, 22 years on, and Rzeznik’s bash at You’re A Mean One Mr Grinchdaftness, You Ain’t Getting Nothin’. Elsewhere, you ain’t giving noothin’ John.
Scrooge moan: Boil-in-the-bag, desultory, cover-by-numbers renditions of Tom Petty’s Christmas All Over Again, Louis Prima’s Shake Hands With Santa Claus and Alvin & The Chipmunks’ Christmas Don’t Be Late. More originals would have been welcome; Jamie Cullum came up with ten in lockdown for The Pianoman At Christmas; Joey Burns, eight for Calexico’s Seasonal Shift.
White Christmas? No, but fellow November-onwards supermarket staples Let It Snow and Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas bathe in Michael Bublé fragrance without the warmth.
Blue Christmas? A stripped-back piano “cover” of prime-time Goo Goo Dolls, 2006’s Better Days, is newly made Christmas cutesy by Sydney McGorman, daughter of band collaborator Jim McGorman.
Stocking or shocking? Can you think of anyone desperate to hear Hark! The Herald Angels Sing (croak, more like)? No? Me neither.
Charles Hutchinson
Jamie Cullum: “Although all new material, The Pianoman borrows heavily from classic Yuletide jazz albums,” says reviewer Ian Sime
Jamie Cullum, The Pianoman At Christmas (Island Records)*****
Wrapping: If they are still available, try to track down one of the lovely signed gatefold card sleeves.
Gifts inside: Jamie wrote all ten songs during the spring lockdown. His charming swing style is performed to perfection by the cream of the country’s Jazz Musicians.
Style: Although all new material, The Pianoman borrows heavily from classic Yuletide jazz albums. The results feel both fresh yet familiar. That’s what we all love about Christmas anyway?
’Tis the reason to be jolly: Jamie’s printed message to wife Sophie Dahl is heartfelt. I’ve never met Jamie Cullum, yet have the impression he is a true gentleman.
Scrooge moan? Let’s not go there. ’Tis the season to be jolly and send goodwill to all.
White Christmas? Not on this collection. At the other extreme, the gloriously named The Jolly Fat Man sets the scene.
Blue Christmas? Not here. It’s a pretty fair bet that life in the Cullum Household is rather joyous at Christmas.
Stocking or shocking? As much as we love Mariah and Michael Buble, Jamie Cullum brings a fresh glow to Christmas. This will be loved by serious music buffs.
Ian Sime
Lady A: “Modern and tasteful covers of Christmas standards and classics, with just enough twang to keep it country,” says reviewer Paul Rhodes
Lady A, On This Winter’s Night (Deluxe) (BMLG) ****
Wrapping: This winter looks white and perfectly formed. The attractive country/pop trio sparkle on the cover, while they make light work of a snowy walk on the inside cover.
Gifts inside: For the uninitiated, Lady A were previously called Lady Antebellum. That name feels freighted with the wrong connotations for an act that has sold records by the million so the extra letters, country feel and historical shame were binned. This is an updated version of their popular 2012 Christmas record, now appended with an earlier EP and a new song.
Style: Modern and tasteful covers of Christmas standards and classics, with just enough twang to keep it country and dollops of pop harmony.
’Tis the reason to be jolly: Once you overcome any inbuilt prejudice towards liking such a wholesome band playing straight-up Christmas songs, then you have to grudgingly admit, it is very well done.
Song selection is great. Adding Donny Hathaway’s This Christmas shows taste. The trio have all become parents, and the only new material, Christmas Through Your Eyes, is a lovely addition to the seasonal canon: parent nip of the finest order.
Scrooge moan? This airbrushed set, presenting an idealised Yuletide where promise forever glimmers, is very out of kilter for the world it finds itself in, but perhaps that’s a good thing. Paul McCartney’s Wonderful Christmastime is hated by many, while slowing down Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You is likely to please no-one.
White Christmas? Snow is piled everywhere, but there is no White Christmas here.
Blue Christmas? N’er a blue note. Blue Christmas flirts with jazz but taken as a whole this is pure Christmas escapism.
Stocking or shocking? Music snobs will never forgive you, but almost anyone else will thank you. Easy to imagine it becoming the Christmas go-to record, guaranteed to upset no-one, even grandma.
