David Ford and Jarod Dickenson: “Not ‘I’ll headline, you support’, not a co-headliner , but a collaboration”
DAVID Ford and Jarod Dickenson should have been playing their double bill of exquisite songwriter fare and soulful Americana tonight at The Crescent, York.
Instead, the Coronavirus pandemic lockdown has enforced a switch to September 17, pending any further Government social-distancing strictures, with tickets valid for the revised date.
Ford, from Eastbourne, has known Dickenson, from Waco, Texas, for “years and years”. “The first tour we did together, I invited him to be my tour buddy for my album Charge [released in March 2013] and he’s been coming over ever since,” says David.
“I’ve been wanting to do this joint tour for ages, where it’s not ‘I’ll headline, you’ll support’, or even co-headlining, but instead it’ll be a collaboration, taking our catalogues of songs and combining our talents, and seeing if we can make an interesting show out of that.”
Until Covid-19 intervened, Ford and Dickenson’s plans were to make a long list of songs on either side of The Pond, then meet up a few days before their spring tour to knock the show into shape.
That still will be the case, whenever the shows are confirmed for take-off. “I’ve got an idea of what songs of mine will fit with Jarod, and I’m a big fanatic of his songs, sometimes jumping on stage to join his band, so we’ll be thinking about what songs will work best,” says David.
They will just have a longer time to think about those choices now.
YORK Musical Theatre Company will present a digital concert, Off-Stage But Online!, tomorrow night on YouTube.
The 7.30pm show will feature 20 home-made videos from company members performing songs from the world of musical theatre, including Miss Saigon, Les Miserables, Guys And Dolls, Jesus Christ Superstar, Cabaret and more besides.
Company member and publicist Anna Mitchelson says: “People suggested
what they’d like to sing and director Paul Laidlaw put the concert programme
together.”
The digital concert will open with a lovely instrumental on the piano by
musical director John Atkin: Music In The Night from The Phantom Of The Opera.
To follow will be: Amy Lacy singing Over The Rainbow (The Wizard Of Oz);
Dave Martin, If I Can’t Love Her (Beauty And The Beast); Jessa Liversidge, Take
Me To The World, and Matthew Clare, Out There (The Hunchback Of Notre Dame).
Jessa Liversidge: Two contributions to Off-Stage But Online!
Rachel Higgs will perform Someone To Watch Over Me from George Gershwin’s Oh, Kay!; Jessa and Mick Liversidge, Anything You Can Do (Annie Get Your Gun); Eleanor Leaper, Maybe This Time (Cabaret); Matthew Ainsworth, This Is Not Over Yet (Parade) and Holly Inch, The Spark Of Creation (Eden).
Chris Gibson’s choice is Poisoning Pigeons In The Park; Heather Richmond, I’d Give My Life For You (Miss Saigon); Mick Liversidge, Luck Be A Lady (Guys And Dolls); Marlena Kelli, I Don’t Know How To Love Him (Jesus Christ Superstar) and Chris Mooney, Hold Me In Your Heart (Kinky Boots).
Next will be Charlotte Wetherell’s rendition of What I Did For Love (A
Chorus Line); John Haigh’s Who Should I Wake Up? (Cabaret); Chris Gibson and
Marlena Kelli’s You’re Just In Love (Call Me Madam); Flo Taylor’s I Dreamed A
Dream (Les Miserables) and Peter Wookie’s Stars (Les Miserables).
Oxy & The Morons: re-formed but not reformed in the punk-spirited New Wave musical Oxy. Pictures by: Mike Kwasniak
NEVER mind
the lockdown, here comes Oxy, a night of Alarming virtual theatre on Saturday
night, presented live on Facebook by musician Mike and Jules Peters.
This
“life-saving New Wave musical”, co-written by The Alarm frontman, Steve Allan
Jones and Paul Sirett, will be streamed from 7pm as part of the weekly Big
Night In With The Alarm broadcast at facebook.com/theofficialalarm.
“Turn your home into a theatre for the night,” comes the invitation.
“Get dressed up, prepare the pre-show dinner and chill the drinks for
the interval. Play the music loud and pogo along from the best seats in
the house – your front room – and help save lives.”
Molly-Grace Cutler as Sheena in Oxy
The Big Night In broadcast also will feature live interviews with
cast members, writers and production staff and the chance to join in the
live commentary and interact with theatre and music fans from
all over the world.
In Oxy, when a routine check-up leads to a startling diagnosis, Andy
decides this is the time to put the band back together, to crank up the
amps and party like it’s 1978!
Why not re-form the legendary Oxy & The Morons, who burned
fiercely before exploding in a riot of rivalry, jealousy and
bitter betrayal?
The publicity poster for Saturday’s Facebook streaming of Oxy
Andy’s mission involves twisting arms, healing wounds and putting his family and friendships back together, but can that New Wave spirit of DIY defiance be rekindled more thirty years later? Will they play their trademark version of It’s Not Unusual as an encore? Can you still pogo when your knees go?
Driven by a machine-gun playlist of a dozen new Peters and Jones songs
and a powerful message, Oxy’s affectionate look-back at the days of teen
spirit suggests “we could all do with some of that garage band power right
now”.
The life-affirming theme of Peters, Jones and Sirett’s fast, furious and funny musical helped to save someone’s life during its first production run at the New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich.
Robbie Jarvis (Andy) and Mark Newnham (Oxy) in Oxy
Now, Peters and co hope the online premiere during the Coronavirus lockdown “might just save even more lives”. Through Mike and Jules Peters’ association with the cancer charities Love Hope Strength and DKMS, an online bone-marrow donor drive will be taking place throughout the evening.
Recorded on film by All Media Works, Saturday’s online premiere features
a cast of Robbie Jarvis, Janet Fullerlove, Sean Kingsley, David
Rubin, Mark Newnham, Matthew Durkan, Molly Grace Cutler, Adam
Langstaff and John Hasler, directed by Peter Rowe.
The Big Night In With The Alarm has been broadcasting throughout the
lockdown, attracting 100,000 viewers each week.
Nothing happening full stop. Now, with time on your frequently washed hands, home is where the art is and plenty else besides
EXIT 10 Things To See Next Week in York and beyond for the unforeseeable future in our now extended Lockdown hibernation. Enter home entertainment, wherever you may be, whether together or in self-isolation, in the shadow of the Covid-19 pandemic. From behind his closed door, CHARLES HUTCHINSON makes these suggestions.
Celebrating Shakespeare’s 456th birthday: Tamsin Greig as loyal servant Malvolia in the National Theatre’s Twelfth Night, screening on YouTube from tonight
Shakespeare’s birthday
WILLIAM Shakespeare’s 456th birthday falls today. The Bard, by the way, was no stranger to writing under debilitating duress, working in London amid the bubonic plagues of 1592 and 1603, when more than 30,000 Londoners died, and a third plague in 1606.
That year alone, Bill quilled three of his mightiest works, King Lear, Macbeth and Antony & Cleopatra. Tonight is a chance to celebrate on a lighter note, watching the National Theatre in the NT At Home YouTube streaming of Twelfth Night, starring Tamsin Greig as loyal servant Malvolia, at 7pm for free. Twelfth Night will be available for seven nights and days on demand.
No Morris dancing in York on St George’s Day under lockdown rules
St George’s Day
TODAY is not only the Bard’s birthday but also St George’s Day, in principle another cause for English celebration, given the dragon-slaying, princess-saving Roman soldier’s status as this nation’s patron saint. However, if outbreaks of Morris Dancing and Punch & Judy shows are the best we can throw at it in usual circumstances, maybe Lockdown is a chance for some home schooling instead.
Today’s task: Find out in more detail who St George was; why he is England’s patron saint and why the English flag is a red cross on white. Oh, and come up with your own way of celebrating at home; surely it must be better than dancing with bells on.
York Shut Studios…but artists embrace the virtual to compensate for Coronavirus-enforced cancellation
York Open Studios going virtual
THIS should have been weekend number two for York Open Studios, the chance to see work by 144 artists and craft makers in 100 locations in and around York, whether in their homes or studios.
Instead, as with last weekend, it will be York Shut Studios but that does not mean York’s artists have put their brushes into lockdown. Creativity demands improvisation, and so you can head to yorkopenstudios.co.uk for the “Virtual Open Studio”, where you can still bring their home work into your home.
Stream team: Compere Tim FitzHigham, left, and comedian Mark Watson in their living rooms for the first Your Place Comedy online show
Your Place Comedy, streamed from their living room to yours
AT the initiation of Selby Town Hall arts centre manager Chris Jones, here comes Your Place Comedy, a Sunday night when comedians stream a live show via YouTube and Facebook from their living room into yours. There is no charge, but you can make donations to be split between the ten small, independent northern venues that have come together for this Lockdown scheme.
The first one, featuring Hull humorist Lucy Beaumont and a pyjama-clad Mark Watson, drew 3,500 viewers last Sunday. Chris is planning the second 8pm online gig for May 3 at yourplacecomedy.co.uk; acts to be confirmed.
Puppet Theatre: the third Lockdown Legends Challenge set by York Theatre Royal
Lockdown Legends Challenge, set by York Theatre Royal
EACH Monday morning, York Theatre Royal will post a theatrical #LockdownLegendsChallenge on its Twitter and Facebook pages for the whole family to take part in, just for fun. Even the participation of pets is “actively encouraged”.
After One-Minute Plays in week one and Costume Creation in week two, this week’s challenge is Puppet Theatre, or pup-pet theatre if your pooch partakes. “Re-create a scene from Shakespeare with household objects,” comes the invitation. “Then send your responses to lockdownlegends@yorktheatreroyal.co.uk and we’ll share these on our social media pages throughout the week.”
It’s time for Bingo in the street
Vintage game of the week: Bingo…in your street
BINGO is all about houses, and Lockdown Limbo is the chance to shout “House” in a game conducted with neighbours in our sunny springtime streets at Bruce Forsyth’s favourite social distance: “Nice two metres, two metres nice”.
What is bingo, should you never have ventured to Mecca Bingo or Clifton Bingo Club? Bingo is “a game in which players mark off numbers on cards as the numbers are drawn randomly by a caller, the winner being the first person to mark off all their numbers and exclaim ‘House’.” Repeat. Bingo.
The Boomtown Rats: Re-arranged York Barbican gig
Still keep trying to find good news
DEER Shed Festival, off. Courtney Marie Andrews at Pocklington Arts Centre in June, off. The Boomtown Rats at York Barbican, off. Jack Dee, Off The Telly, Barbican too, off. The list of cancellations grows like the spring grass, but do keep visiting websites for updates.
Deer Shed, at Baldersby Park, Thirsk? Definitely returning in summer 2021. Boomtown Rats? October 26. Jack Dee, October 1. No news on Courtney, yet, alas.
Venturing outdoors…
…FOR your daily exercise, be that a run, a cycle ride or a stroll near home, in a changing environment. Amid these disconnected, alien, strange days, your senses heightened, there is the chance to appreciate the previously unexperienced: the bird song in excelsis, a chorus no longer impeded by traffic; the bluer, bigger skies; the fresher air, the pollution levels so noticeably dropping.
York actor Mick Liversidge has taken to reciting Shakespeare’s sonnets in the fields, exercising mind and body alike. Why not Shake up your routine too?
York’s city walls lit up in blue for the NHS
Clap for Carers
STAND by your doors at 8pm every Thursday, no excuses. Theatre-goers, concert-goers, save your hand-clapping for our NHS doctors, hospital staff, carers, volunteers and key workers. How moving, too, to see familiar buildings and landmarks bathed in blue light: a tribute growing and glowing by the week.
Play at home: York country singer Twinnie’s new album, Hollywood Gypsy, released on April 17
And what about…
NEW albums by Laura Marling, Ron Sexsmith, Cornershop and York country singer Twinnie. Interior design books. Cerys Matthews and Guy Garvey on Sundays on BBC 6Music. The return of BBC One’s Killing Eve on Sunday nights and iPlayer. A themed new recipe of the week, whatever reason and seasoning grabs you.
Catching Rick Witter’s improvised home version of Shed Seven’s Chasing Rainbows on social media:. “I’m just staying home all the time”. Well, you are, aren’t you.
Voces Suaves: Madrigals At Your Service streaming today (April 18)
THE National Centre for Early
Music series of Facebook streaming premieres presents vocal ensemble Voces
Suaves this afternoon at 1pm.
Over the coming weeks, the York
music venue, at Margaret’s Church, Walmgate, will be streaming a line-up of
past performances from the NCEM archives.
In today’s Facebook concert, Voces Suaves perform Madrigals At Your Service, focusing on the musical treasures of the Italian Renaissance and re-creating the magnificence of the courts of Ferrara and Mantua, with music by Monteverdi, Gesualdo and Wert.
NCEM director Delma Tomlin
says: “This group of nine professional singers are graduates of the Creative
Europe EEEmerging programme and have
performed at major European concert venues and festivals, taking audiences and
critics by storm.
Palisander: Online concert coming next on May 2
“This performance, recorded
at St Lawrence’s Church in York, was a highlight of the 2018 York Early
Music Festival and it forms the third in a series of NCEM Online concerts
designed to welcome audiences from across the world into the extraordinarily
rich world of early music.”
Future streaming concerts include a 2019 performance by the recorder ensemble Palisander on Saturday, May 2, at 1pm. “The group have been part of the EEEmerging programme too and their debut album, Beware The Spider!, released in 2017, received outstanding reviews from the critics,” says Delma.
Palisander’s concert was
recorded in the Unitarian Chapel, St Saviourgate, York, at the 2019 REMA
Conference.
To join the merry streaming
throng, simply click on to the NCEM’s Facebook page @yorkearlymusic.
Alternatively, log on to the NCEM’s website, ncem.co.uk, and click on
the news section.
Future concerts and streaming dates will be announced at ncem.co.uk.
Suhail Yusuf Khan , left, JonThorne and James Yorkston: new album, new tour date in Selby
YORKSTON Thorne
Khan, the first gig at Selby Town Hall to fall foul of the Covid-19 shutdown
last month, has been re-arranged for November 24.
Tickets
for the postponed March 20 show remain valid for the new date, with further
tickets still on sale at selbytownhall.co.uk.
Yorkston Thorne
Khan are Scottish songwriter James Yorkston (guitar, nyckelharpa, voice); Bishop’s
Storford jazz musician Jon Thorne (double
bass, voice) and Delhi-born eighth generation sarangi player and vocalist
Suhail Yusuf Khan.
The trio will be touring in support of their third album, Navarasa: Nine Emotions, a January 24 release on Domino Recordings that followed 2016 debut Everything Sacred and 2017’s Neuk Wight Delhi All-Stars after they first met by chance backstage in 2015 and played together ever since.
On the latest recording, they tackle Robert Burns and Sufi poetry, via Dick Gaughan and Amir Khusrow Dehlavi, traditional Scottish songs, ragas and their own spidery compositions.
At the heart of Yorkston Thorne Khan’s transporting new album is the subcontinent’s navarasa: the nine (nava) emotions or sentiments (rasa) of the arts. This “unifying underpinning” is a centuries-old organising principle, wherein the individual artistic emotions range from Shringara (love, beauty), through Hasya (laughter, mirth, comedy), Raudra (anger), Karuna (sorrow, compassion or mercy), Bibhatsya (disgust), Bhayanaka (horror, terror), Veera (heroism, courage), Adbutha (surprise, wonder), to Shanta (peace, tranquillity).
The artwork for Yorkston Thorne Khan’s Navarasa: Nine Emotions
Each song is connected to one of these emotions; for example Westlin
Winds is paired with Adbutha, opening with the life-destroying Act I of Robert
Burns’s poem Now Westlin Winds (And Slaught’ring Guns).
Then it deliciously transplants its disjoined, nature-extolling and
life-affirming Act II on to Indian soil with a composition in Purbi, a dialect
of old Hindi. “I learnt the song by listening to various qawwali [Muslim
devotional song] singers singing at Hazrat Nizammuddin’s dargah [shrine] in
Delhi,” says Khan. “Its source is Hazrat Amir Khusrau.”
In this way, Yorkston Thorne Khan unite one of the key spiritual
visionaries and architects of Hindustani art music, the poet-philosopher Hazrat
Amir Khusrau, with the key literary visionary of Scottish culture, Robert
Burns.
This bricolage of diverse cross-cultural elements is apparent across Navarasa:
Nine Emotions. Yorkston weaves in
Scottish folk, sangster and literary strands; Thorne is grounded in jazz and
groove. Then add New Delhi-based Khan’s feast of northern Indian classical,
light classical and Sufi devotional musical and literary influences. “What
binds these diverse musical strands together is a dark happiness,” says
Yorkston.
Looking forward to the re-arranged show in the autumn, Selby Town Hall manager Chris Jones says: “Sadly James, Jon and Suhail’s show was the first in our calendar to fall victim to the lockdown. They are such a phenomenally talented trio, and the feedback I had heard from the early gigs on their tour was amazing, so it was desperately disappointing not to be able to give the Selby audience that experience.
“Thankfully
though, we’ve been able to reschedule the show for November 24, and this is
definitely one that’s worth waiting for.”
In sunnier times: York Music Hub musicians playing outside the Spurriergate Centre, York
YORK Music Hub is responding to the Covid-19 lockdown by launching an
online sharing site, #YMHShare.
The idea is to build an online forum featuring music making and
creativity by the young people of York, celebrating the fantastic talent within
the city.
The site has been put together by Squeegee Design, the York web design
company based at Lancaster House, James Nicolson Link, and is monitored and updated regularly with content sent in from
families, individuals and groups.
“The #YMHShare initiative is for anyone who had a concert cancelled, a
festival pulled, an exam postponed or indeed anyone who’s using this time to
work on being musical,” says Molly Newton, York Music Hub’s strategic manager.
“So much hard work has gone into school productions, concerts and
all kinds of events, and #YMHShare offers a virtual alternative. We’ve been overwhelmed
by the response so far, as many of York’s young musicians have uploaded digital
performances and video-link collaborations, and groups have taken this
opportunity to showcase previous triumphs in absence of planned concerts.”
York Music Hub had two major events cancelled as a result of the
Coronavirus pandemic: the Schools Choral Festival in March and the upcoming city-wide
showcase Hubfest2020, now in its second year.
Molly Newton: York Music Hub strategic manager
“The Schools Choral Festival usually takes place at the University of York in March,” says assistant strategic manager Craig Brown. “This year would have seen nine primary and five secondary schools perform.
“Hubfest2020 would have built on the success of the inaugural festival last year, featuring 15 primary and eight secondary schools. The festival is a showcase of all youth music within the city; last year’s festival attracted more than 1,000 young people to make music as part of the event.”
The hub’s response to 2020’s cancellations has been to curate the hard
work in a virtual space, as young people, families, groups of friends and
bespoke online collaborators come together for this initiative, drawing on the
many providers and musicians in a “central area of celebration”. Cue #YMHShare,
a sharing platform for a “whole host of music making from any and all young
people in and around York”, aged five to 21.
“From next Monday (April 20), when
school term would be restarting, we’re launching YMH Online Learning,” says
Molly. “This will be a dedicated section of #YMHShare where downloadable
resources, YouTube live and Zoom music-making sessions will be posted for
anyone to get involved with.”
These sessions will kick off with the York
Music Hub Zoom Choir, led by York singer and entertainer Jessa Liversidge, the ubiquitous
driving force behind so much online singing activity in York and beyond at
present, on Mondays at 2.15pm.
Open to any singer aged eight to 18 -18
from York and the surrounding area, the Zoom Choir offers the chance to connect
with other singers, take part in fun vocal warm-ups to develop your vocal
technique and learn songs in a range of styles: a “fantastic way to wind down
and interact with others in these strange times”.
” I’m raring to go with the young singers of York,” says online-singing driving force Jessa Liversidge
“I’m hoping to attract young people who are missing the inspiring
feeling of connecting with others through song,” says Jessa. “I can’t wait to
see who signs up for a Monday afternoon, after a day of doing work at home (or
at school); those who would enjoy seeing and hearing other melodious youngsters
on screen. All young singers are welcome, whatever their previous singing
experience.”
Jessa adds: “How the York Music Hub Zoom Choir evolves and what we can
achieve depends very much on who gets involved, and how long the lockdown
continues.
“I have all sorts of fantastic songs planned to work on with the group,
as well as some lag-resistant experiments, and I’m really looking forward to
getting going. After a short, self-taught crash course in Zoom choirs these
past few weeks with my adult groups, I’m raring to go with the young
singers of York.”
Singing For All @TheHub will take place on Fridays at 11am. All are invited to tune in to these lively singing sessions suitable for
all ages, again led by Jessa Liversidge. “We want to get everyone involved and
lift your spirits with songs and singing games, from well-known school assembly
songs, partner songs and rounds to classic pop tunes and even some new songs to
learn,” says Molly. “Tune in every Friday at 11am, live on the York Music Hub
YouTube channel.”
Ukulele Stars tuition will be open to
all ages on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 11am, with these fun and interactive
YouTube sessions being led by Steven Hawksworth, of Hawkulele fame. No previous
ukulele experience is necessary.
Curriculum-based GCSE/A-level Zoom
music composition sessions for Key Stages 4 and 5 will run throughout the
summer term, led on Wednesdays from April 22 at 11am by York Arts Barge Project
co-founder, workshop leader, teacher and bass player Christian Topman.
York Music Hub GCSE/A-level Zoom music composition session tutor Christian Topman
These tutorials will be delivered via Zoom but also will be available every week to catch up on via York Music Hub’s YouTube channel. They are aimed at students in Year 9 to 13 who will need to access the Zoom app to join in with the live sessions. They can contact Christian directly at christian@yorkartseducation.org.uk with any composition ideas
Those needing more information regarding the sharing site or any of the online sessions should contact info@yorkmusichub.org.uk.
Summing up the
importance of music-making at this time, Molly says: “It seems to me that music is our salvation. It’s what we turn to in
times of celebration and sadness; it keeps us calm or builds us up, it helps us
relax, escape, endure, survive.
“It’s the medium through which we express and share our feelings. As everything stops, the thing that keeps going – and keeps us all going – is music.
“The internet is now flooded with
“virtual” responses to current events: isolation compositions; play-off
challenges; streamed concerts and Broadway shows; balcony performances and
quarantine choirs.”
“It’s our fundamental method of communicating,” says Molly Newton of her love for musical interplay
Molly’s passion for music oozes from her whenever she leads a project or
performance. “I was lucky enough to have hugely
supportive parents and inspiring music teachers in my youth and grew up
believing that anyone can achieve musically, regardless of their perceived
ability or intellect,” she says.
“It’s our fundamental method of
communicating and I’ve been lucky enough over the years to see hundreds of
young people flourish and grow through music-making opportunities.”
Why is music such a good educative
tool, Molly? “I’m going to draw from Plato, who said: ‘I would teach children music,
physics, and philosophy; but most importantly music, for the patterns in music
and all the arts are the keys to learning’.
“However, regardless of how much music can support the learning of other subjects, music is important in its own right in that it’s a fundamental aspect of all societies.
“Music is a truly collaborative subject, a universal language, and learning it enables a global communication with others that transcends borders and cultures. It’s a subject that teaches creative thinking, discipline, confidence, resilience, patience, perseverance, diligence, achievement and joy, to name but a few!”
“As everything stops, the thing that keeps going – and keeps us all going – is music,” says Molly Newton, as she builds up the York Music Hub online sharing forum
In
these strange, alien, disconnected days, Craig has noted our power still to be
creative and musically resilient. “The #YMHShare site has really embodied a public celebration of the arts,”
he says. “Within this feed, we see so much of the appreciation, value and
celebrations of music.
“We speak to many of the city’s instrumental teachers, who are
continuing to give private lessons through video links, and it is clear that
pupils and parents really value the role that music is playing,
offering an escape, opportunity of relaxation, or providing a welcome
challenge.”
Looking ahead to when musicians can
meet up again, how may York
Music Hub celebrate? “We’re already planning a ‘Post-Lockdown’ celebration and
are hoping that we will be able to bring as many schools, providers and young
people together in a truly collaborative and inclusive way,” says Molly.
“Given the uncertainty and challenge
we’re all facing, we’re hoping that when this is all over, we will be able to
bring people together through music and remind ourselves how joyful it feels to
play and sing together.”
Roll on that day. In the meantime, make a home for music at home.
Nouvelle Vague: Playing Leeds City Varieties this autumn
FRENCH fancy covers band Nouvelle Vague will play Leeds City Varieties on October 13 on their 15 Years Anniversary Tour, now running into a 16th year.
Nouvelle Vague translates as “bossa nova” in Portuguese and “new wave” in English, explaining Marc Collin and Oliver Libaux’s choice of moniker that encapsulates the Parisian group’s concept of remaking classic New Wave singles with a Brazilian pop twist.
By appropriating the punk and post-punk cannon and running it through the
Bossa Nova filter, they re-invented the cover-band genre, revealing new singing
talents along the way such as Camille, Phoebe Killdeer, Nadeah, Mélanie Pain
and Liset Alea.
Bossa Nova + New Wave = Nouvelle Vague
The group’s first two albums, 2004’s Nouvelle Vague and 2006’s Bande A Part, defined their urbane retro sound , while third album, 2009’s NV3, featured collaborations with Depeche Mode’s Martin Gore, Echo & The Bunnymen’s Ian McCulloch, The Specials’ Terry Hall, Barry Adamson, The Saints and Minimal Compact.
Subsequently, they have released the live album Acoustic in 2009; Best Of Nouvelle Vague and Couleurs Sur Paris in 2010; I Could Be Happy in 2016 and Curiosities and Rarities in 2019.
Nouvelle Vague will perform their 23-date autumn tour with a line-up of Collin, Libaux, Pain, Killdeer and Elodie Frégé. Killdeer and Pain will sing at the shows from October 9 to 20, including Leeds; Frégé and Pain from October 22 Tickets for the only Yorkshire date are on sale at cityvarieties.co.uk.
The tour poster for Rufus Wainwright’s Unfollow The Rules show at York Barbican
RUFUS Wainwright will follow the summer release of his new album
Unfollow The Rules with an autumn tour booked into York Barbican for October 27.
The American-Canadian baroque, operatic and indie pop singer-songwriter
was the first guest for the Royal Albert Hall’s free special isolation
sessions, #RoyalAlbertHome, last night.
Out on BMG on July 10, the typically fearless,
mischievous and honest Unfollow The Rules will be Wainwright’s ninth studio
album and his first set of new compositions since Out Of The Game in 2012.
“I consider Unfollow The Rules my first fully mature album,”
says Rufus, 46-year-old son of Loudon Wainwright III and Kate McGarrigle. “It
is like a bookend to the beginning of my career.”
“I consider Unfollow The Rules my first fully mature album,” says Rufus Wainwright. Picture: Tony Hauser
Wainwright will be joined on the road by a new band, featuring Los Angeles
guitarist and producer Brian Green, who has worked previously with John Legend,
and Phoenix singer-songwriter and keyboardist Rachel Eckroth,
erstwhile collaborator with KT Tunstall.
Looking forward to performing a setlist of Wainwright old and new post-Lockdown,
Rufus says: “For me, thinking about this tour is like a light at the end of
this dark tunnel that we are all in together. It gives me hope and confidence
that we will rise above this collectively.
“And while it might seem that we are not moving forward swiftly in this
dark long tunnel, I know that we will reach the light again and be able to be
together. I cannot wait to be part of that moment for my fans and share this
music live with them.”
Tickets for Rufus Wainwright: Unfollow The Rules at York Barbican go on sale on April 17 at 10am at yorkbarbican.co.uk.
No Joker: York Barbican’s film screening with an orchestra has been cancelled
MEANWHILE, York Barbican has announced that Joker: Live In Concert on May 17 is off.
“It is with great disappointment that we can confirm our Joker: Live in Concert performance will no longer go ahead due to the COVID-19 outbreak,” the Barbican statement said. “All tickets will be refunded, and please contact your point of purchase if you have any questions.”
The show would have have featured Todd Phillips’s award-laden film being accompanied by an orchestra performing Hildur Guðnadóttir’s score live to build a “vivid, visceral and entirely new Joker viewing experience”.
Stile Antico: Taking steps to play Beverley & East Riding Early Music Festival in 2021. Picture: Marco Borggreve
THE 2020 Beverley & East Riding Early Music Festival is off…until
next year.
The postponed event will now take place over the Bank Holiday weekend of
May 28 to 30 2021, with many of this year’s artists already re-booked for next
spring.
“The good news is that Stile Antico, La Serenissima, Alva, Matthew
Wadsworth – sadly not Julia Doyle, but I’ll work on a ‘new’ soloist – David
Neave and Vivien Ellis have all been able to work with us to re-create the
festival next year,” says festival director Dr Delma Tomlin.
They will be joined by others yet to be announced. “All will be working to re-create the festival and to open up new opportunities to be involved,” says Delma.
“Our festival team has already begun the huge task of re-booking tickets
for next year and issuing refunds. They are asking for patrons to bear with
them at this difficult time as they work through hundreds of requests,
processing re-bookings and refunds as quickly as possible.”
“Given the current circumstances, postponement will not be a surprise,” says Beverley & East Riding Early Music Festival director Dr Delma Tomlin
Explaining the decision, in light of the Coronavirus pandemic, Delma says: “Regretfully, we have had to take the heart-breaking decision to postpone the festival until next year. We would like to thank our audiences for their continued support.
“Given the current circumstances, postponement will not be a surprise, but we know how disappointing it is for our audiences and supporters; for the many school children who would have been involved with our Vivaldi extravaganza, and of course, for the artists themselves.”
Delma continues: “Hopefully, the postponement is better news than ‘just’ a cancellation. So, we look forward to seeing you again as soon as possible: in Beverley in May 2021, if not before.
“I would also like to say a huge thank-you to the East Riding of Yorkshire Council and Arts Council for their continuing support, which has made all the difference to the artists involved and has helped secure next year’s festival.”
La Serenissima: Now Beverley bound in 2021 rather than 2020. Picture: Eric Richmond
Beverley Early Music Festival began in 1988 and takes place every year
in the churches and historical buildings of the East Yorkshire’s market town,
where the festival weekend comprises performances, walks, talks and workshops.
Meanwhile, the National Centre for Early Music, in York, is helping to
keep music alive “at this critical time” by broadcasting concerts from its
archive online. “To enjoy the concerts, visit ncem.co.uk and click on to the link in the news section
marked NCEM Facebook page,” says Dema, the NCEM’s director. “Concerts are free
and a Facebook account is not needed.”
Confirmed concerts at Beverley and East Riding Early Music Festival 2021:
Stile Antico: Friday, May 28 2021, 7.30pm, Beverley Minster. Choral Workshop with members of Stile Antico: Saturday, May 29,
10am, Toll Gavel United Church. Alva: Saturday, May 29, 12.30pm, St Mary’s Church. Ballad Walk: In and around Beverley Minster: Saturday, May 29, 4pm. La Serenissima: Saturday, May 29, 7.30pm, St Mary’s Church. Ballad Walk: It All happened In Beverley: Sunday, May 30, 10am. Ballad Walk: In and around Beverley Minster: Sunday, May 30, 1pm, Matthew Wadsworth: Sunday, May 30, 7pm, St James’s Church, Warter.
