NORTH London alt-indie duo Blue Violet support Echobelly at The Crescent, York, tonight on their 16-date tour that also visits Leeds Brudenell Social Club on December 3 and Network 2, Sheffield, on December 4.
In the wake of releasing latest single Barefoot On The Seine, they will be showcasing their imminent new album, Faux Animaux, out on Me & My Records via High Head Recordings on January 24 2025.
Barefoot On The Seine – inspired by witnessing protests in Chicago and Europe – is a “schizophrenic dispatch from the edges of a Parisian riot: its verses lost in graceful Gallic romance; its choruses all grunge rock eruptions; its whole a righteous call to arms in support of essential personal freedoms”.
Singer Sarah McGrigor says: “It’s a protest song that promotes the message that love conquers all. It is about freedom; the freedom to make the world you want to live in a reality.
The cover artwork for Blue Violet’s Faux Animaux
“The freedom to make choices about how you wish to live your life – who you are, who you want to be, what clothes you want to wear – and, most importantly, that no-one has the right to tell you otherwise. It’s a kickback at anyone who thinks it is their right to try and make anyone feel small or insignificant.”
Guitarist Sam Gotley adds: “We weren’t going to release this song as a single, but in the midst of so much political unrest this year when many feel so vulnerable, it felt like this song might speak to people and remind them that love and acceptance is always the way forward.”
In April, Blue Violet – Blue for their melancholic element; Violet for the vividness – shared lead single Boogie Shoes, a grainy glam stomp aimed midway between Queens Of The Stone Age and St Vincent.
This was followed by Imagine Me, where, amid dark 1980s’ electro-rock tones akin to a more seductive Depeche Mode, the song portrays a lustful temptress (be she a groupie, cougar, stalker or lovelorn loner) frustrated that the sexual encounter she so meticulously plots is over in a flash. The most recent single, Survival, is a gentle paean that channels Metric, Mazzy Star, Cigarettes After Sex and Julee Cruise.
The poster for Echobelly’s November and December tour with Blue Violet in support
On Faux Animaux, Blue Violet continue their exploration of rich electronic avenues inspired by Anna Calvi, St Vincent, Radiohead, David Bowie and Twin Peaks. Recorded in J&J Studios in Bristol with Bat For Lashes and Hannah Peel mixer and producer TJ Allen, the album promises “a unified and sophisticated update of modern British alt-pop, drifting from sizzling space disco to stunning, cinematic vistas”.
The duo’s songs spotlight not only failings of humankind but also those of its leaders. As Gotley says: “The fake animals could be seen as the powers that be, leading us down paths that result in us ignoring our more natural instincts, often making decisions without our permission.”
The track listing will be: Sweet Success; Imagine Me; Survival; Talking To You; The Librarian; Cold Hearts; Boogie Shoes; Fire; Teeth Out; Barefoot On The Seine and Faux Animaux.
Adam Sowter: Christmas jumper at the ready to play Mr Poppy in Pick Me Up Theatre’s Nativity! The Musical
PICK Me Up Theatre have revealed the full cast for Nativity! The Musical in the return of the York company’s hit show from two years ago at the Grand Opera House, York, from Friday.
Adam Sowter, of musical duo Fladam, will be effervescent assistant Mr Poppy alongside Alex Hogg as downtrodden teacher Mr Maddens, Alexandra Mather as Hollywood-bound Jennifer Lore, Jonny Holbek as dastardly, pretentious Mr Shakespeare and James Willstrop as the acid-tongued critic Patrick Burns and Hollywood producer Mr Taylor.
They will be joined by David Todd as Lord Mayor, Alison Taylor as headmistress Mrs Bevan, Victoria Lightfoot as TJ’s Mum and Branwell as Cracker the dog.
Jonny Holbek’s dastardly, supercilious Gordon Shakespeare. In 2022, he played Patrick Burns, the acerbic theatre critic
Forty-eight children chosen from across Yorkshire will play the students of rival schools St Bernadette’s and posh Oakmoor Preparatory School.
Adapted for the stage by Debbie Isitt, creator of the 2009 to 2018 film franchise (Nativity!, Nativity 2!, Nativity 3: Dude, Where’s The Donkey?! and Nativity Rocks!), the musical follows St Bernadette’s Roman Catholic Primary School, where exasperated teacher Mr Maddens and his buoyant new assistant, Mr Poppy, attempt to mount a musical version of the Nativity.
What could possibly go wrong when they promise it will be adapted into a Hollywood movie in order to outdo Oakmoor Prep?
Alex Hogg’s lovelorn primary school teacher Mr Maddens
The show features songs from the first film, such as Sparkle And Shine, Nazareth, One Night One Moment and She’s The Brightest Star. The book, music and lyrics are by Debbie Isitt and Nicky Ager; orchestrations are by George Dyer.
Pick Me Up’s revival is directed and choreographed by Attitude Dance Club owner Lesley Lettin, joined in the production team by musical director Adam Tomlinson and producer Robert Readman.
Here Lesley Lettin and Robert Readman discuss Nativity plays past and present, Christmas jumpers and tea towels with CharlesHutchPress
Lesley Lettin: Lover of the Christmas jumper
Why revive the show?
Lesley: After the huge success from the 2022 production and the sheer volume of talented kids available around York currently, we had to revisit Nativity again. It’s a perfect way into Christmas and an alternative option to the traditional pantomime.”
Robert: “It was such a success last time that I secured the rights the day after we closed in 2022! I just love the show so much.”
What will be the major differences from last time?
Lesley: “A whole new cast with the exception of Alison Taylor’s Mrs Bevan and Jonny Holbek, More lights and more sparkle!
Alison Taylor: Returning to the role of St Bernadette’s head teacher Mrs Bevan
“Since knowing Adam Sowter from The Full Monty The Musical days back in 2009, I knew he would be the perfect Mr Poppy. Alex Hogg, a seriously good performer who has been on the York stage a number of times, plays a super Mr Maddens, and watch out for celestial Jonny Holbek as Gordon Shakespeare.
“Our kids are all new this time round – both groups. Their performances are truly brilliant and trust me, the stages in York are well equipped with ridiculously brilliant talent in the years ahead! Look out for our Stars (Eliza Clarke and Ellen Dickson) , Ollies (Taylor Carlyle and Hughie Clelland) and Angel Gabriels (Finlay Walter and Dan Tomlin).”
Does Nativity! The Musical work better than the original film?
Lesley: “If you love the movie, you will love the musical and if you love the musical, you will love the movie! They both represent the brilliance of Debbie Isitt perfectly.”
James Willstrop: Waspish words as Patrick Burns, theatre critic for the Coventry Evening Telegraph
What do you recall of your own Nativity play experiences as a child?
Lesley: “Well, I played the donkey in my school Nativity so I couldn’t bring what I brought to the school stage to the Grand Opera House stage unfortunately. It would have been a more memorable experience had my school had our own Mr Poppy!”
Robert: “I never appeared in a Nativity play at school/church, but my brother Mark was a very nasty King Herod in Bubwith Church in 1969!”
What is the best use for a tea towel: the washing up or Nativity costume?
Lesley: “It’s got to be costume. Either the dishwasher or my husband will do the drying at home!”
Alexandra Mather’s Jennifer Lore: Drawn to the bright lights of Hollywood
Robert: “Neither, they make fantastic puppets. See artist Sarah Young (who I trained with in Brighton in the 1980s) and her tea towel puppet kits online.”
Do you like Christmas jumpers? If so, why? If not, why not?
Lesley: “Yes, they are the best! Christmas is my favourite time of the year and the beauty of doing this show early is I don’t have to wait till December for the countdown to start – and I’m sure everyone leaving the theatre after Nativity! will be getting their trees up and putting their jumpers on too!”
Robert: “I’ve only worn one twice – both at the Grand Opera House for Nativity! I get far too warm in any jumper.”
Adam Tomlinson: Musical director for Nativity! The Musical
What would be your Christmas message to the world?
Lesley: “Christmas is a gentle reminder that love, generosity and hope have the power to sparkle and shine in the darkest of days.”
Robert: “Relax, do one act of kindness to a stranger, don’t stress, answer the door to carollers. I used to hide as a child/teenager/now…”
Pick Me Up Theatre in Nativity! The Musical, Grand Opera House, York, November 22 to 30. Performances: 7.30pm nightly, except November 25; 2.30pm, November 23, 24 and 30. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Shed Seven: Heading out on their 30th anniversary lap of honour. Picture: Barnaby Fairley
AS Shed Seven bring their 30th anniversary celebrations to a climax, Charles Hutchinson says “Let’s go” for a week of theatre, comedy, Christmas, film and musical highlights.
On the road again: Shed Seven, 30th Anniversary Tour, Hull City Hall, November 19 and Leeds O2 Academy, November 30
ON the back of topping the album charts for a second time in 2024 with Liquid Gold (after a Matter Of Time in January), York indie champs Shed Seven head out on their 30th Anniversary Tour.
The 23-date itinerary opened at Sheffield Octagon on Thursday night, with further Yorkshire gigs to follow at Victoria Theatre, Halifax, on November 18, Hull City Hall on November 19 and Leeds O2 Academy on November 30. Tickets update: the best advice is to head to shedseven.com to check for late availability.
Paddy Young: Headlining the Rye Humour bill at Helmsley Arts Centre. Picture: Lucas Smith
Variety night of the week: Rye Humour, Comedy vs Climate Change, Helmsley Arts Centre, tonight, 7.30pm
RYE Humour’s variety bill of up-and-coming comics will be headlined by Chortle Best Newcomer winner Paddy Young, a stand-up with Scarborough roots. The 2023 BBC New Comedy Awards finalist and Edinburgh Comedy Awards Best Newcomer nominee has attracted 100 million views online for his sketches with Ed Night. His comedy special, filmed by American record label 800 Pound Gorilla Records, will be released shortly.
This gig has been developed in collaboration with the Ryevitalise Landscape Partnership scheme, as part of a project that uses humour to explore environmental issues based around North Yorkshire’s rivers. Any questions about the evening, or accessibility, will be answered at events@comedyvsclimatechange.org.uk. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Lucy Beaumont: Off-beat stories, unusual anecdotes and bizarre journeys through modern-day womanhood at Grand Opera House, York
Hullarious gig of the week: Lucy Beaumont Live, Grand Opera House, York, tonight, 8pm
HULL humorist, BAFTA nominee and Taskmaster star Lucy Beaumont is determined to let loose and let slip on her rollercoaster world with off-beat stories, unusual anecdotes and bizarre journeys through modern-day womanhood.
From the co-host of the chart-topping podcast Perfect Brains with Sam Campbell and creator of Meet The Richardsons comes a look at life through the Lucy lens. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
York Christmas Market: Stalls galore
York Christmas Market, Parliament Street and St Sampson’s Square, York, until December 22, 10am to 7pm; Yorkshire’s Winter Wonderland, York Designer Outlet, St Nicholas Avenue, York, until January 5, from 10am
YORK Christmas Market lines Parliament Street and St Sampson’s Square with 75 chalets selling crafts, artisan products and seasonal food and drink. Four fifths of the traders come from Yorkshire, giving a showcase to local businesses. Look out for the vintage carousel in King’s Square too.
Yorkshire’s Winter Wonderland’s magical festivities at the York Designer Outlet combine an outdoor ice rink and funfair with Santa’s Grotto and Alpine café The Chalet.
Disney’s Frozen: Screening in aid of the Joseph Rowntree Theatre
Film event of the week: Fundraising Films, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, Frozen (PG), tomorrow, 2.30pm; Love Actually, tomorrow, 7.30pm
THIS weekend’s fundraiser for the Joseph Rowntree Theatre opens with a special chance for all the family to see Elsa, Anna, Sven, Olaf et al in Disney’s Frozen adventure in Arendelle.
In the evening, Christmas romance is in the air in Love Actually (15), the timeless Richard Curtis comedy stuffed with interlocking love stories. Hugh Grant, Laura Linney, Colin Firth and Liam Neeson lead the stellar cast. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk
Urbane spaceman: Garrett Millerick at Theatre@41, Monkgate
Angriest gig of the week: Garrett Millerick Needs More Space, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, tomorrow, 8pm
IN Garrett Millerick Needs More Space, comedy’s “angriest optimist” returns for an honest and mostly historically accurate exploration of space travel as he examines his totally insignificant place in the universe and how little we actually know about anything.
Blending personal experiences with social commentary, while avoiding political partisanship in his hour-long show, Millerick – creator and star of the BBC sitcom series Do Gooders – looks to the stars to find solutions to our earthy complications. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Ivo Graham: Hoping to avoid banana skins at York Theatre Royal
Up to the task: Ivo Graham: Grand Design, York Theatre Royal, November 20, 7.30pm
WHAT (yoghurt and) banana skins await old Etonian and Oxford grad Ivo Graham next? No ball games, no blind alleys, no backstage printers this time, but one of the best stand-ups of his generation out to prove he’s “not just Taskmaster’s yardstick for failure”. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Adam Sowter: Playing Mr Poppy in Pick Me Up Theatre’s Nativity! The Musical at the Grand Opera House, York
Musical of the week: Pick Me Up Theatre in Nativity! The Musical, Grand Opera House, York, November 22 to 30, 7.30pm nightly, except November 25; 2.30pm, November 23, 24 and 30
PICK Me Up Theatre’s Nativity! The Musical returns to York after a smash-hit run two years ago, this time with director and choreographer Lesley Lettin’s cast featuring 48 children hand-picked from all over Yorkshire to play students from rival schools.
Adapted for the stage by Debbie Isitt from her films, the show follows St Bernadette’s Primary School teacher Mr Maddens (Alex Hogg) and his assistant, Mr Poppy(Adam Sowter) as they strive to mount a musical version of the Nativity, promising it will be adapted into a Hollywood movie in order to outdo rival school Oakmoor Prep. Look out for Alexandra Mather as Jennifer, Jonny Holbek as Mr Shakespeare, James Willstrop as the acid tongued Critic and Cracker the dog as Branwell. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Girl trouble: Gerard Savva’s Booby being given a hard time by Hannah Shaw’s Amy, back left, Alexandra Mather’s Susan, Julie Anne Smith’s Joanne, Jo Theaker’s Jenny, front, left, Mary Clare’s Sarah and, under the covers, Florence Poskitt’s April. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick
ON Bobby’s 35th birthday, his friends all have one question on their mind. Why is he not married?
On Gerard Savva’s return to the stage for the first time since 2008 to play Bobby, the question is: where has he been all these years?!
“He just applied from our social media posts and came down to audition for us!” explained York Stage director, choreographer and designer, when your reviewer asked him where he had discovered Savva’s talents. “I knew from his energy and initial chemistry that he was our Bobby!”
Just to re-emphasise the point: Savva isn’t just making a test-the-waters return in a chorus line: he is playing the lead, the suave, sleek Bobby, a charmer certainly, if elusive in the marriage stakes. He looks the matinee idol part too: tanned, immaculately coiffured, sharp suited and glittery in his T-shirt detail.
Briggs is in supreme form, not only in his casting – Savva is in good company in Company – but in his staging too, brightening the Theatre@41 black box with the prettiest of drapes and colourful boxes with ribbon that serve as both birthday presents and for standing on. Boxes, coincidence or not, have been prevalent in this autumn’s production in York and beyond, making for quick scene changes.
Company is Stephen Sondheim at his very best, here teaming up with George Furth for a bravura, sophisticated and wittily insightful 1970 American musical comedy that follows Savva’s Bobby as he “navigates the world of dating and being the third wheel to all of his now happily and unhappily married friends”. Where will his exploration of the pros and cons of settling down and leaving his single life behind lead him? Ultimately into a celebration of being alive in Savva’s vocal high point.
The music has the pitter-patter of patter songs, a typically steep challenge, but one met brilliantly by Briggs’s company, in particular by Hannah Shaw’s Amy in Getting Married Today – the unbelievably fast one – and Julie Anne Smith’s heavy-drinking Joanne in The Ladies Who Lunch.
Florence Poskitt, ever the comic gem on the York musical theatre scene, is sublime as ditzy air hostess April, her bedroom scene with Savva’s Bobby receiving the biggest cheer on press night.
Couple after couple delight: Jack Hooper’s Harry and Mary Clare’s ever-questing Sarah; Dan Crawfurd-Porter’s pot-stirring Peter and Alexandra Mather’s hippy-chic Susan; Stu Hutchinson’s David and Jo Theaker’s Jenny; Robbie Wallwork’s Paul and Hannah Shaw’s outstanding Amy, and Matthew Clarke’s Larry and Julie Anne Smith’s intemperate Joanne. Kelly Stocker’s Kathy and Lana Davies’s Marta add to the fun too.
Briggs’s costumes and choreography are full of panache; musical director James Robert Ball and his band play gorgeously, and lighting designer Adam Moore, sound designer Ollie Nash and hair and make-up artist Phoebe Kilvington are at the top of their game too. Don’t miss this savvy, snazzy, snappy New York classic; you will be in the best of Company if you go. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Twinnie’s poster for her November 28 homecoming gig at The Crescent, York
TWINNIE, the Nashville country pop star with York roots, returns to her home city on her five-date Crazy Ex tour to play The Crescent on November 28.
She will be promoting her second album, Something We Used To Say, released last Friday with no fewer than 22 tracks, in keeping with 2024’s most expansive records, Beyonce’s Cowboy Carter and Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department.
Documenting the devastation of the end of her long-term relationship and her attempt to move on with the songs that featured on her Blue Hour project, the album arrives with Twinnie on the crest of a wave. She has made history as the first British artist to perform the American national anthem at Geodes Park, home of MLS team Nashville SC – “proper football, and I won’t call it ‘soccer’,” she says – in the the wake of making her Grand Ole Opry debut last November.
“It was an amazing experience, making history with my background as the first Romany Gypsy singer to sing there,” she says.
Twinnie: Making her mark in Nashville
Earlier this month, on November 2, she had the honour of performing a special Songwriter Session at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville.
On top of all that, Twinnie is appearing on prime-time television screens as new character Jade in Emmerdale on her long-awaited return to soap opera after being nominated for Best Newcomer at the Inside Soap Awards for her role as Porsche McQueen in Hollyoaks (a part she played from November 2014 to December 2015).
“My life has been a bit crazy recently juggling music and acting, lots of back and forth, but loving it!” says Twinnie, who made her Emmerdale debut on October 11. “I’ve loved being back on screen, especially as the show is shot in Yorkshire. Being able to be home with family and go to work on such an iconic show has been nothing short of amazing!”
Having landed BBC Radio 2’s Album of the Week for her 2020 debut, Hollywood Gypsy, exceeded 25 million streams for her first American label EP, Welcome To The Club, and released the ambitious, two-chapter Blue Hour project, Twinnie set about making her second album. “It was recorded in Nashville, where I moved last year, and in England too,” she says.
The artwork for Twinnie’s November 8 album, Something We Used To Say
“I really put the work in. With anything I do, I try to do it 110 per cent, drawing from other artists. I’ve really honed my craft. I’ll write twice a day at different sessions, sometimes three times. In Nashville writing rooms they realise ‘she knows how to write songs’, so they guide me rather than write songs for me.
“I’m that ‘5ft 8 British girl that talks funny’ – and there aren’t many doing that! I’ve really embedded myself in Nashville, where it really reminds me of being at home, going round for a cup of tea with my grandma, whereas in London I was missing that sense of community.
“I’d been going to Nashville on and off for seven or eight years, but as soon as I moved there, I made my Grand Ole Opry debut within eight months. Jamie Johnson made that happen for me: such a class act. A complete legend.”
You can take Twinnie out of Yorkshire but you can’t take the Yorkshire out of Twinnie, after first catching the eye as Twinnie-Lee Moore on the York musical theatre scene in her teenage days. “I’m big on authenticity. I still feel like I’m the same person,” she says. “I’m really proud to be putting Yorkshire and England on the American country music map, and my big ambition is to be the first British solo artist to have an American number one country album.”
Twinnie-Lee Moore, aged 21, in the role of double murderess Velma Kelly in Chicago, The Musical on tour at the Grand Opera House, York, in April 2009. Six years earlier, she had played Dorothy in the Summer Youth Project’s The Wizard Of Oz on that same stage
It is not a case of Twinnie jumping on a country bandwagon. “Country music is pop music, it’s in the pop culture, and I was doing it before The Shires became The Shires, when I was working with Ben [Earle] from that group,” she says.
Explaining how the album took shape, Twinnie says: “After the last two Blue Hour EPS, I wanted to put out a body of work telling people what I’d been through, being dropped in 2022 by a major label [BMG] and by my boyfriend. We had a break-up: I’ve gone independent and there was nothing keeping me there any more, so I moved to Nashville.
“I’m so glad that I did with all the experiences I’ve had, with my new album celebrating my new life, grieving my old one, moving away from my family. I don’t want to be famous; I want to be infamous and to have people resonate with the sentiments of my music. Just go for it; you only have one life, so you might as well make it an adventure. That’s why I’m going to stay in Nashville.”
Twinnie plays The Crescent, York, on November 28, 7.30pm. Box office: thecrescentyork.com.
Sam Griffiths: Singer, songwriter and frontman of The Howl And The Hum. Picture: Stewart Baxter
TONIGHT the new The Howl & The Hum play Leeds Irish Centre, still led by singer and songwriter Sam Griffiths but with a line-up wholly changed since the York band’s trio of elegiac, unforgettable valedictory gigs at The Crescent last December.
In the tradition of a seven-year hitch, Sam parted company with bassist Bradley Blackwell, guitarist Conor Hirons and drummer Jack Williams, who had first met at open-mic nights in his University of York days.
Now living and working in Leeds, he addresses his feelings over the impact of the band’s break-up, together with the pandemic and his life-changing future direction, on Same Mistake Twice, the second album under The Howl And The Hum’s moniker, the first as a solo project with musicians friends on hand.
Available on CD and digitally since September 6 and now on vinyl too after a not-uncommon delay in printing, the album is self-released on Miserable Disco Records with distribution by AWOL. To buy, either head to thehowlandthehum.com or townsendmusic.store/products/artist/The+Howl+%26+The+Hum.
Those are the facts. Let’s now quote Sam’s official statement on The Howl And The Hum chapter two. “This is an album about dread. About a very real, everyday dread so many of us feel surrounded by screens showing us how we should be, what a good person is, what a bad person is.
“It’s about trying to have and handle and process big, messy emotions in a world that wants things to be small, simple and quickly decided. Every person is flawed, every person has baggage, shrapnel they take with them that makes the airport security beep.”
The Howl & The Hum, 2016-2023: Conor Hirons, left, Jack Williams, Sam Griffiths, and Bradley Blackwell
Sam continues: “This album is about acknowledging that shrapnel, poking it, flipping it and seeing what lives under it, and learning to fall in love with the version of yourself full of holes and missing pieces.
“This is a break-up album mourning the loss of a band, and all that comes with it: ego trips, insecurities, lost friendships, fading love, rekindling old fires and a path to acceptance.”
In keeping with the confessional, frank tone and vulnerable soul-searching of an album that opens with the title track lyric “You left for London like everyone else does/I stayed in Yorkshire avoiding success”, Sam says: “I don’t think I have come up with any consistent label for what this new phase is – not to sound like an ambivalent polyamorist – and the reason I say that is I don’t like to put labels on it, though I’ll call it an expansive solo project with an elaborate number of co-writers, co-musicians and co-producers.
“Fifteen-plus musicians contributed and then there’s another whole team for distribution and PR. But as Mark E Smith used to say, ‘if it’s me and your Nan on bongos, then it’s The Fall’!”
As it happens, Sam’s grandmother’s upright piano does feature on the album. “She left it to me in her will,” Sam recalls. “She was a piano teacher and that piano was my musical upbringing. Three quarters of the new songs were written on there.”
The cover artwork for The Howl And The Hum’s Same Mistake Twice album
The album, the follow-up to 2020’s Covid-blighted Human Contact, takes its title from the defining opening couplet: “I never make the same mistake twice, I always aim for a third time”. “It’s a very human thing to do: to repeat a mistake,” says Sam, who was amused at the prospect of being asked “Why would you want to give your second album that title?’.
“But I’d already written that opening track, so let’s talk about mistakes. We can make mistakes and learn from them, but we can also go back to them and repeat them and that tells us more about us. The more fallible the human is, the more interesting.”
Talk turns to the album’s focus on dread. “There’s a lot to dread sadly, and it feels like there are a lot of reasons for it. The most inescapable moments in our lives are filled with dread,” says Sam.
“The way those moments build up, if I ignore them, it’s like the ivy growing on the side of a house, but if you shine a light on them it feels braver and maybe they will not be as devilish as they first seem.
“The album is an absolute exploration of dread but hopefully with a sense of fulfilment and coming out into the light, with music standing for joy and embracing the community around you.
“It’s trying to find our own version of the light, finding strange reflections in the gloom, rather than being as obvious as just walking into the light. You can find things that are closer than the light at the end of the tunnel, which is often unobtainable, whereas you could appreciate the earth under your feet in the tunnel.”
“We have this screwed-up version of what success is, but surely it should be about different versions of fulfilment,” says Sam Griffiths. Picture: Stewart Baxter
As indicated by that lyric quoted earlier – the act of staying in Yorkshire avoiding success – the album reflects on “the dream I had to be a super, mega pop star and then year by year that peels away and you get a little older and you think, ‘may I will not be a Premier League footballer’.
“’Maybe, at 32, I’m not going to be an astronaut’,” says Sam. “It’s about appreciating the things you do have, like a fine wine. You begin to see the problems in the dreams you have.
“Why do we hold success up to the light? We have this screwed-up version of what success is, but surely it should be about different versions of fulfilment, not financial or social mores, but security and space in this world?”
Among those making the album with Sam were tonight’s support act, Elanor Moss, and Matthew Herd, whose saxophone playing is now a prominent feature of the new The Howl & The Hum live line-up.
“Elanor and I met over Zoom in the middle of lockdown and started writing together,” says Sam. “We both got into songwriting while we were studying English Literature at university, starting at open-mic nights, and she introduced me to producer Joseph Futak, who’s based in Hackney. Matthew is the principal songwriter in a band called Seafarers and he’s London based too.”
Joining Sam and Matthew on stage tonight at the sold-out Leeds Brudenell Social Club will be drummer Dave Hamblett, London guitarist Arun Thavasothy and bass player Naomi McLeod, Sam’s house-mate in Leeds. Doors open at 7.30pm.Stage times: Elanor Moss, 8.15pm; The Howl & The Hum, 9.15pm.
Gerard Savva: Leading the York Stage cast as Bobby in Company at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York
LOOK out for Godber at the double, Sondheim sophistication, a ground-breaking Black pioneer and Hull humour in the week ahead, recommends Charles Hutchinson.
Musical of the week: York Stage in Company, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, tonight to Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
ON Bobby’s 35th birthday, his friends all have one question on their mind. Why is he not married? Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s bold, sophisticated and insightful revolutionary musical comedy follows Bobby as he navigates the world of dating and being the third wheel to all of his now happily (and unhappily) married friends, exploring the pros and cons of settling down and leaving his single life behind.
Nik Briggs directs a York Stage cast featuring Gerard Savva as Bobby, Florence Poskitt, Julia Anne Smith, Alexandra Mather, Joanne Theaker, Dan Crawfurd-Porter and Jack Hooper, among others. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
The poster for Lightning Seeds’ show at Scarborough Spa Grand Hall tonight
Pure and simply joyful every time: Lightning Seeds, Tomorrow’s Here Today, 35 Years Greatest Hits Tour, Scarborough Spa Grand Hall, tonight; The Welly, Hull, December 4; Leeds Beckett Students’ Union, December 6
TO mark their 35th anniversary, Liverpool singer, songwriter and producer Ian Broudie leads Lightning Seeds on their Tomorrow’s Here Today tour to accompany a new greatest hits album.
Here come Pure, The Life Of Riley, Change, Lucky You, Sense, All I Want, Sugar Coated Iceberg, You Showed Me, Emily Smiles, Three Lions et al and many more. Tonight doors open at 7pm; Casino play at 8pm, Lightning Seeds at 9pm. Box office: Scarborough, scarboroughspa.co.uk; Hull, giveitsomewelly.com; Leeds, leedsbeckettsu.co.uk.
Tom Gallagher, Annie Kirkman and Laura Jennifer Banks in a scene from John Godber’s revival of Perfect Pitch
Touring play of the week: John Godber Company in Perfect Pitch, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, tonight to Saturday, 7.30pm plus 1.30pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees
WHEN teacher Matt (Frazer Hammill) borrows his parents’ caravan for a week on the Yorkshire coast with partner Rose (Annie Kirkman), they are expecting four days of hill running and total de-stressing. However, with a Tribfest taking place nearby, Grant (Tom Gallagher) and Steph’s (Laura Jennifer Banks) pop-up tent is an unwelcome addition to their perfect pitch.
The class divide and loo cassettes become an issue as writer-director John Godber reignites his unsettling 1998 state-of-the-nation comedy, set on an eroding coastline, as Matt and Rose are inducted into the world of caravanning and karaoke. Box office: Scarborough, 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.
The Highwayman cast of Dylan Allcock, left, Emilio Encinoso-Gil, Matheea Ellerby and Jo Patmore in John Godber’s new historical play. Picture: Ian Hodgson
New play of the week: John Godber Company in The Highwayman, York Theatre Royal Studio, tomorrow to Saturday, 7.45pm plus 2pm Friday and Saturday, sold out
AFTER more than 70 plays reflecting on modern life, John Godber goes back in history for the first time in The Highwayman. “It’s 1769 and Yorkshire’s population has exploded, the races at York are packed, the new theatre in Hull is thriving, and the Spa towns are full,” he says.
“Everyone is flocking north. Yorkshire is the place to be; a region drunk on making money, social climbing, gambling and gin, but with wealth in abundance, the temptation is great.” Enter the highwayman, John Swift and his partner, Molly May. Box office for returns only: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Paterson Joseph and Charles Ignatius Sancho: Storyteller and subject in Sancho & Me at York Theatre Royal
Story of the week: Paterson Joseph, Sancho & Me, York Theatre Royal, tomorrow, 7.30pm, with post-show discussion
CHARLES Ignatius Sancho, born on a slave ship on the Atlantic Ocean in 1729, became a writer, composer, shopkeeper and respected man of letters in 18th century London – the first man of African heritage to vote in Britain.
Actor, author and Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University Paterson Joseph tells his story, accompanied by co-creator and musical director Ben Park, built around his book The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho. Joseph explores ideas of belonging, language, education, slavery, commerce, violence, politics, music, love and where these themes intersect with his own story of growing up Black and British. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Irish band Adore: Headlining at The Crescent tomorrow. Picture: Fnatic
Indie gig of the week: Road Less Travelled presents Adore, Fuzz Lightyear and Tom Beer, The Crescent, York, tomorrow,7.30pm
RISING stars of the Irish music scene, Adore are a three-piece garage punk band from Galway, Donegal and Dublin, who refract surf, disco and pop through punk sensibilities, grounded in crunchy guitar, drum and bass.
Leeds four-piece Fuzz Lightyear, freshly signed to independent label Nice Swan Records, match the intensity of Idles and Gilla Band while applying wit and a lyrical openness to their songs. Bull frontman Tom Beer kicks off the triple bill with a solo set. Box office: thecrescentyork.com.
New York Brass Band: Bringing New Orleans Mardi Gras jazz from old York to Milton Rooms, Malton
Jazz night of the week: Acorn Events presents New York Brass Band and The Ryedale Stray Notes, Milton Rooms, Malton, Friday, 7pm
NEW York Brass Band, from York, perform with a seven or eight-piece line-up of sax, tuba, trumpets, trombones, guitar and sousaphone in the New Orleans Mardi Gras jazz band tradition. Formed by James Lancaster in 2010, they are inspired by Rebirth Brass Band, Soul Rebels, Hot 8, Youngblood and Brassroots.
They have played at Glastonbury for the past eight festivals and at celebrity parties and weddings for Danny Jones, of McFly, Ellie Goulding, comedian Alex Brooker, Liam Gallagher and Jamie Oliver. Support act The Ryedale Stray Notes feature 25 talented young musicians “ready to raise the roof”. Proceeds go to Acorn Community Care to support vulnerable adults with physical and learning disabilities. Tickets: acornevents.org.uk or phone Ali on 07891 3889085.
Paddy Young: Topping the Rye Humour bill at Helmsley Arts Centre. Picture: Lucas Smith
Variety night of the week: Rye Humour, Comedy vs Climate Change, Helmsley Arts Centre, Saturday, 7.30pm
RYE Humour’s variety bill of up-and-coming comics will be headlined by Chortle Best Newcomer winner Paddy Young, a stand-up with Scarborough roots. The 2023 BBC New Comedy Awards finalist and Edinburgh Comedy Awards Best Newcomer nominee has attracted 100 million views online for his sketches with Ed Night. His comedy special, filmed by American record label 800 Pound Gorilla Records, will be released shortly.
This gig has been developed in collaboration with the Ryevitalise Landscape Partnership scheme, as part of a project that uses humour to explore environmental issues based around North Yorkshire’s rivers. Any questions about the evening, or accessibility, will be answered at events@comedyvsclimatechange.org.uk. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Lucy Beaumont: Off-beat stories, unusual anecdotes and bizarre journeys through modern-day womanhood at Grand Opera House, York
Comedy gig of the week: Lucy Beaumont Live, Grand Opera House, York, Saturday, 8pm
HULL humorist, BAFTA nominee and Taskmaster star Lucy Beaumont is determined to let loose and let slip on her rollercoaster world with off-beat stories, unusual anecdotes and bizarre journeys through modern-day womanhood.
From the co-host of the chart-topping podcast Perfect Brains with Sam Campbell and creator of Meet The Richardsons comes a look at life through the Lucy lens. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Kris Drever: “Beautiful and precise playing throughout his 80-minute set”. Picture: Paul Rhodes
THE Crescent and the Black Swan Folk Club keep finding the sweet spots.
Kris Drever has played in York many times (almost flaunting the fact he’s a Scotsman so close to the city walls after dark, and joking about it too).
He started around 2007 when the protégé was the junior partner and target of Eddi Reader’s jokes. He stole the show that night, and 17 years on he was the epitome of graciousness to Heather Cartwright (a fellow Glasgow resident), who opened for him.
Cartwright has a voice like a bonny sunlit stream. Her material draws on some interesting source material. The striking opening number, Dark Times, uses Bertolt Brecht’s memorable words “In the dark times/will there also be singing? Yes, there will also be singing. About the dark times”.
When Drever later sang “Strong men come, and strong men go” (from I’ll Always Leave The Light On), it was hard not to think they both had a certain president in mind.
As Cartwright relaxed, the performance grew stronger. She had the courage to stop and start her take on The Creggan White Hare again. Like Drever, Cartwright doesn’t just operate in the folk realm, and her closing love song, written from the perspective of a dog to its owner, could capture a billion cynophile hearts if she took it a little further.
Heather Cartwright: “A voice like a bonny sunlit stream”. Picture: Paul Rhodes
Where Cartwright’s ambition occasionally got ahead of her technique, Drever’s playing was precise and beautiful throughout his 80-minute set of 14 tunes. Drever wears his years well, but his Cranmer guitar was still more handsome (another Glasgow link).
The sounds his hands coaxed from it were simply glorious (and didn’t require that much tuning). An absolute highlight was his spare version of the Shetland traditional fiddle tune The Unst Bridal March.
Drever talked about aiming for the universal in his songwriting, and with Hunker Down/That Old Blitz Spirit he caught hold of the Covid zeitgeist. Commissions and collaboration certainly seems to bring the best out of him, but there was no room in the set for the likes of Scatterseed or its close relative Catterline, two of his very finest. Scapa Flow 1919 was a century adrift of any zeitgeist, but that in no way diminished its power.
The set included two new and unrecorded tunes being tested before a live audience, with Save A Space For Me the pick of the crop. He is not one for resting on his laurels, and his breakthrough album, Black Water, had to wait until the encore for an airing.
Assuming Drever ducked the English crossbows after the gig, York would be wise to set their gig-going cross-hairs on him next time he visits. Highly recommended.
JakoJako: “Perpetually adjusting the various sound modules”. Picture: Katja Ruge
AS the auditorium lights diminished, our focus was immediately locked into an illuminated JakoJako, aka Sibel Koçer, sitting at the modular synthesiser, headphones on, zoned in and calmness personified.
It was fascinating to see the performer-composer perpetually adjusting the various sound modules. Like a micro-electronic orchestra with these modules (instrumental tools): firstly, sliders – allowing pitches to slide between notes like glissando in string instruments; secondly, switches – kind of router selection circuits (putting me in mind of my Hornby train set functions); thirdly, panels – e.g. voice panel, and fourthly, patch cables – cables connecting sections of the synthesiser, such as oscillators.
OK, this may be a long-winded window into the tech side, but it is important to describe the ‘interconnectivity’, which is the core of JakoJako’s performance and compositional journey. We see it as well as listen to it; the performance is, in its own way, musical theatre.
The performance began with a kind of distorted electronic vocal prologue that brought to mind mildly ominous instructions from Tolkien’s Mordor. Little did I know at the time that Sauron would indeed become manifest later that night. Although this was distinct and effective, it was not really used again, which seemed a pity.
The main body of the performance was one of modulating layers of slowly unfolding sounds. I loved the melodic simplicity, familiar electronic transformations, for example pizzicato strings, echoes of the Caribbean steelpan drums.
What might be termed ostinato figures in classical terminology were used throughout; beautiful melodic loops, sometimes syncopated, always rhythmically transforming. Quite often they would surface, for want of a better term, from the depths of a ‘harmonic’ sound world into prominence. These looping melodies had a relaxing timeless quality.
I think the term ‘minimalism’ is a good one to describe the music and, just maybe, the influence of Philip Glass or Steve Reich can be felt. But it is the continual evolution or variation of these elements that makes the music so enriching. There was also a sense of fun.
The overall impression was of beautifully crafted interconnecting, layering musical moments to create a patchwork quilt of sound; musical clouds drifting by. Meditative, hypnotic and very distinct.
DEAR Evan Hansen, today is going to be a good day, and here’s why. If you miss this week’s run at Leeds Grand Theatre, the Nottingham Playhouse touring production of Benji Pasek, Justin Paul and Steven Levenson’s musical will be visiting the Grand Opera House, York, from June 22 to 25 2025. Tickets go on general sale from Tuesday (12/11/2024) at atgtickets.com/york.
Promoted by ATG Productions, this is the first British production of the Olivier, Tony and Grammy Award-winning Best Musical to utilise an ensemble. Busy stage, and very busy Leeds Grand auditorium too on press night, a performance that crackled with excitement at the first chance to experience the Olivier, Tony and Grammy Award winner close to home. Not least because Pasek and Paul were the Oscar-gilded composers of The Greatest Showman and La La Land
“I am beyond thrilled with the talented cast we have assembled: an exciting mix of musical theatre legends and rising stars,” said director Adam Penford of a stellar company led by Ryan Kopel (from Newsies) as Evan Hansen, Lauren Conroy (Into The Woods)as Zoe Murphy and West End luminary Alice Fearn (Wicked, Come From Away) as Evan’s mum, Heidi. Today is going to be a good day to reveal all three are scheduled to play York too. Hurrah.
“It’s been nine years since the original show premiered, and it’s an honour to be the first production to re-imagine this powerful story through a contemporary lens,” Penford added.
That lens focuses on Ryan Kopel’s Evan Hansen: a friendless, bullied, 17-year-old American high school senior struggling with social anxiety and depression, who would like nothing more than to fit in and befriend Zoe Murphy. Especially with his mother Heidi (Fearn) always being too busy with her work to see him and his father long absent.
Evan’s therapist (the never-seen Dr Sherman) asks him to write letters to himself – the Dear Evan Hansen letters of the title – as a therapeutic exercise to explore his feelings and boost his positivity when courage and words desert him in the presence of others.
“Dear Evan Hansen, today is going to be a good day, and here’s why,” each letter should start. Except that for Evan, they either don’t start at all or when one finally does, today is going to be anything but a good day. That letter is snatched off him by fellow friendless school outsider, Zoe’s brother, Connor (Killian Thomas Lefevre), Dear Evan Hansen’s riff on Heathers’ JD.
It will be the last words Connor ever reads, spoiler alert. When Connor’s parents (Helen Anker’s Cynthia and Richard Hurst’s baseball-loving American jock Larry) assume it to be his suicide note, Evan tries to explain otherwise, but words fail him, and so, trouble this way lies…
…And lies and lies again as the lies pile up, a form of self-preservation that utilises Puck-like family friend Jared Keinman’s (Tom Dickerson) writing skills to concoct past text messages from the outsiders’ “secret friendship” and social media “ambulance chaser” Alana Beck’s (Vivian Panka) drive to set up a fundraising appeal to reopen an orchard where the two teens met.
In doing so, he deceives Connor’s parents and Zoe, as she starts to warm to him. The thing is, it’s not that simple. Yes he is lying, but he is doing so to comfort them, to make them feel better, to build a full picture that puts the destructive, nihilistic Connor in a better light.
The thing is, it’s not that simple either, because suddenly he has Zoe where he always wanted her to be, with him. Dilemma, dilemma, dilemma! What would you have done in these circumstances?
Pasek and Paul’s wonderful songs and Leversen’s witty, sharp, probing dialogue addresses his predicament with admirable complexity. Not only his mother will tell him he is not a bad lad; chances are you will feel that way too, and the compassion that ultimately prevails does not seem unreasonable.
In her opening speech at this week’s Aesthetica Short Film Festival in York, festival director Cherie Federico called for everyone to be kind to each other. Not the usual content on such an occasion, but Cherie had a point. One that resonated all the more when watching Dear Evan Hansen, especially in the wake of Trump’s vainglorious return to the presidency.
Recalling Joshua Jenkins’s remarkable performance as neuro-divergent schoolboy Christopher Boone in the National Theatre’s The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time – although Christopher was incapable of lying – Ryan Kopel gives the outstanding lead performance of the year in a touring musical. So much pent-up energy, so much inner turmoil, expressed in movement, expression, vocal mannerisms and angelic, pure singing voice.
Conroy’s Zoe excels too, part rose, part thorn; Fearn brings West End star quality to Heidi; Lefevre’s Connor has haunting, gothic presence; Dickerson amuses as prankster Jared; Panka’s Alana is as persistent as a bee trying to escape from a window; you absolutely connect with Anker and Hurst’s struggling parents too.
Michael Bradley’s band are on top form, especially the beautiful strings, in a score of powerful, emotive, melodic song after song from the heart. Top marks too to Penford’s exhilarating, emotionally-layered direction; Carrie-Anne Ingrouille’s brisk, punchy choreography to rival her work in SIX The Musical; Morgan Large’s set (and costume) design, with its use of sliding, see-through doors, and the state-of-the-art video design by Ravi Depres. Do not miss the Generation Z musical with far wider appeal.
Dear Evan Hansen, today is going to be a good day and here’s why. If you can’t wait until the newly added run at the Grand Opera House, you can catch Dear Evan Hansen at Sheffield Lyceum Theatre, April 8 to 12, or Hull New Theatre, April 22 to 26 next year.Leeds Grand Theatre, today at 2.30pm and 7.30pm. Box office: leedsheritagetheatres.com or 0113 243 0808.
Did you know?
THIS Nottingham Playhouse production of Dear Evan Hansen is partnering withThe Mix, the digital charity for under-25s. The musical deals with sensitive topics, relevant to young people today, and this partnership will ensure that anyone affected by the issues explored in the show knows where to find support.
