HUSBAND and wife Robert and Alison Gammon will perform the next Dementia
Friendly Tea Concert at St Chad’s Church, Campleshon Road, York, on March 19.
The afternoon entertainment will take the usual format of a 45-minute programme of classical music at 2.30pm, followed by tea, coffee and homemade cakes.
Alison, on clarinet, and Robert, on piano, will play Camille
Saint-Saens’ Clarinet Sonata alongside Niels Gade’s Fantasy Pieces.
“Gade was a 19th century Danish composer who taught Edvard Grieg and was
a friend of both Felix Mendelsohnn and Robert Schumann,” says Alison. “In fact,
the Fantasy Pieces are rather like Schumann at times. Robert will play
some Debussy and Chabrier for solo piano too.”
Looking ahead, Alison says: “We’re well advanced with the planning for
the rest of the year, with only May’s concert to confirm. I hope to have a list
of dates and musicians to hand out at the next concert on April 16 when we’ll
be welcoming The Clementhorpe Piano Trio.”
No charge applies for these tea concerts, but donations are always welcome.
“Any money left over from heating the church and tuning the piano is sent to
the Alzheimer’s Society,” says Alison.
“Everyone is welcome at these relaxed events and the concerts provide an
opportunity for people who may not be able to attend a formal classical recital
to experience live music.
“Please note, there is a small car park at St Chad’s and some roadside
parking nearby, but we recommend that you come early. I shall bring some hand
sanitiser for use before eating if anyone is worried about viruses.”
Nile Rodgers & Chic: on their way back to Scarborough Open Air Theatre in August. Picture: Jill Furmanovsky
EVERYBODY dance,
Nile Rodgers & Chic are to return to Scarborough Open Air Theatre this
summer two years after their debut there.
Looking forward to
the August 21 show, Rodgers says: “As most people know, the UK is my home from
home. Myself and Chic had a brilliant time when we played Scarborough
OAT in 2018 and we cannot wait to come back again this summer. It’s going to be
another amazing night, so bring your dancing shoes!”
Tickets go on sale at 9am on Friday (March 13) at scarboroughopenairtheatre.com, on 01723 818111 or 01723 383636 or in person from the Scarborough OAT box office, in Burniston Road, or the Discover Yorkshire Coast Tourism Bureau, at Scarborough Town Hall, St Nicholas Street.
Nile Rodgers is a
multiple Grammy Award-winning composer, producer, arranger and guitarist with
more than 200 production credits to his name. He is constantly traversing new
musical terrain and successfully expanding the boundaries of popular music.
As the co-founder
of Chic with Bernard Edwards, Rodgers pioneered a dancefloor language that
generated such hits as Le Freak, Good Times and Everybody Dance,
while also sparking the advent of hip-hop.
His Chic catalogue
and work with David Bowie, Diana Ross, Sister Sledge and Madonna have sold more
than 500 million albums and 75 million singles.
“It’s going to be another amazing night, so bring your dancing shoes,” advises Nile Rodgers. Picture: Jill Furmanovsky
His subsequent
innovative, trendsetting collaborations with Daft Punk, Avicii, Sigala,
Disclosure and Sam Smith continue to place Rodgers, now 67, at the vanguard of
contemporary soul, disco mand pop music.
No wonder the American guitarist, singer, songwriter, record producer,
arranger and composer has been inducted into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the
Songwriters Hall of Fame, whose chairmanship post he now holds.
What’s more, Rodgers
was appointed as the inaugural chief creative advisor for the Abbey Road
Studios, home to The Beatles’ iconic recording sessions, in London.
Peter Taylor, of Scarborough OAT concert promoters
Cuffe and Taylor, says: “Nile Rodgers & Chic are global
superstars and we’re delighted to be bringing them back to Scarborough OAT.
“The show in 2018 was brilliant, Nile and Chic never
fail to get an entire arena on their feet dancing. This is going to be one of
the highlights of the summer and I would strongly advise people to get their
tickets now because you will not want to miss this!”
Keep on running….all the way to Scarborough Open Air Theatre for Supergrass gig on June 20
Scarborough Open Air Theatre’s 2020
line-up
Tuesday, June 9: Lionel Richie
Wednesday, June 17: Westlife
Saturday, June 20: Supergrass
Saturday, June 27: Alfie Boe
Saturday, July 4: Snow Patrol
Friday, July 10: Mixtape,
starring Marc Almond, Heaven 17 and Living In A Box featuring Kenny Thomas
Lionel Richie: headlining York Festival’s Sunday line-up
MACY Gray and Lighthouse Family are big-name new additions to the bill for Lionel Richie’s closing night at this summer’s inaugural York Festival.
Grammy Award winner Gray, from Canton, Ohio, and Newcastle pop-soul duo Tunde Baiyewu and Paul Tucker will perform at the three-day event at York Sports Club, Clifton Park, Shipton Road, on June 21.
This is more good
news for festival promoters Cuffe and Taylor after the City of York Council
thumbs-up for a licence, albeit with the proviso that the volume must be turned
down.
York Festival will run from June 19 to 21, with Camden Town nutty boys Madness headlining on the first night and Irish matured boy band Westlife on the Saturday, before American soul legend Lionel Richie says Hello on the Sunday.
Macy Gray: Sunday new addition
Macy Gray made her
breakthrough in 1999 with the single I Try and the seven million-selling debut
album On How Life Is, her American R&B and soul song-writing inspired
principally by Billie Holiday.
Over the next two
decades, Gray released ten studio albums, the latest being 2018’s Ruby, as well
as featuring on songs with Dolly Parton and Ariana Grande and appearing in films
and on TV shows.
Lighthouse Family singer
Baiyewu and keyboardist Tucker released their first single, Lifted, in
1995, en route to selling ten million albums and charting with the singles High
and Ocean Drive.
Six-times platinum debut album Ocean Drive was followed by Top Ten albums Postcards From Heaven and Whatever Gets You Through The Day. After an 18-year hiatus, the duo reunited last year to record Blue Sky In Your Head, their fourth studio set.
Lighthouse Family: reunited
York Festival director Peter Taylor says: “We’re delighted to add
both Macy Gray and Lighthouse Family to our debut line-up. Together with the
global icon that is Lionel Richie, this is going to be an amazing and
unforgettable night.”
Opening-night headliners Madness will be joined by Ian Broudie’s Lightning Seeds, Craig Charles, for a Funk and Soul Club DJ set, Leeds indie rockers Apollo Junction and York band Violet Contours.
Westlife’s Saturday line-up features All Saints, Sophie Ellis Bextor, Scouting For Girls and Take That’s Howard Donald for a DJ set.
For more information and tickets, go to york-festival.com.
Courtney Marie Andrews: Pocklington return in the summer. Picture: Sam Stenson
PHOENIX singer-songwriter
Courtney Marie Andrews will showcase her new album at Pocklington Arts Centre
on June 17 on her six-date tour.
Old Flowers will be
released on June 5 on Loose/Fat Possum Records as her follow-up to 2018’s May
Your Kindness Remain.
Created in the ashes
of a long-term relationship, Andrews’ ten new songs amount to her most
vulnerable writing to date as she chronicles her journey through heartbreak,
loneliness and finding herself again.
“Old Flowers is
about heartbreak,” says Courtney Marie, 29. “There are a million records and
songs about that, but I did not lie when writing these songs. This album is
about loving and caring for the person you know you can’t be with.
“It’s about being
afraid to be vulnerable after you’ve been hurt. It’s about a woman who is
alone, but OK with that, if it means truth. This was my truth this year: my
nine-year relationship ended and I’m a woman alone in the world, but happy to
know herself.”
Produced by Andrew
Sarlo, who has worked with Bon Iver and Big Thief, Old
Flowers was recorded at Sound Space Studio and features only three musicians:
Andrews, on vocals, acoustic guitar and piano; Twain’s Matthew Davidson, on
bass, celeste, mellotron, pedal steel, piano, pump organ, Wurlitzer and background
vocals, and Big Thief’s James Krivchenia on drums and percussion.
“This album is about loving and caring for the person you know you can’t be with,” says Courtney Marie Andrews
Defining their
intentions, Sarlo says: “Before we got to the studio, we agreed to prioritise making this record
as cathartic and minimal as possible, focusing on Courtney’s voice and her
intention behind the songs.
“Because of this,
the record is all about performance. I believe a great recording is the
chemistry between everything during basics and the ability to feel something
happening, instead of obsessing over the perfect take. Courtney embraced this
approach and we ended up with a raw, natural and human record.”
The resulting track listing comprises Burlap String; Guilty; If I Told; Together Or Alone; Carnival Dream; Old Flowers; Break The Spell; It Must Be Someone Else’s Fault; How You Get Hurt and Ships In The Night.
Courtney Marie last
played Pocklington in December 2018, at the end of a week when she was felled
by a viral infection the morning after her London gig and had to call off her Birmingham,
Bristol and Oxford gigs.
Rested and recuperated,
she was still nursing a cough, but found the energy for a solo set of songs and
stories, introducing Ships In The Night and It Must Be Someone Else’s Fault,
two new compositions that would end up on Old Flowers.
This time Courtney
Marie will play with a full band in the lead-up to her series of summer
festival engagements. Tickets for June 17’s 8pm gig cost £20 on 01759 301547
or at pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.
SOPRANO Anna Prosser and tenor Robert Anthony Gardiner will sing with
York Musical Society for the first time in March 28’s performance of Gabriel Fauré’s
Requiem in York Minster.
This luminous work will be complemented by Michael Haydn’s Requiem in C minor. “You might think that having two requiems in one concert isn’t an imaginative programming choice,” says conductor David Pipe.
Tenor Robert Anthony Gardiner
“Even in rehearsals, though, it’s fascinating to hear how these two works, using much of the same liturgical text but separated by over 100 years, are so very different in style and musical content. This is an unusual opportunity to savour the contrasting responses of two fine composers.”
Fauré’s Requiem, first performed in 1890, uses a shortened version of
the funeral mass and is serene, peaceful and full of haunting melodies. Michael
Haydn is the lesser-known younger brother of Josef Haydn. “His less frequently
performed but exquisite Requiem (1772) is said to have inspired Mozart’s own
final work,” says Pipe, York Musical Society’s principal conductorsince
April 2012.
Mezzo-soprano Kate Symonds-Joy
Anna Prosser, a choral scholar and vocal coach at Leeds Cathedral, and Robert
Anthony Gardiner, who lives in Leeds, will be joined on solo duty by mezzo-soprano
Kate Symonds-Joy and bass Alex Ashworth.
Both have sung previously with York Musical Society, Symonds-Joy performing
Verdi’s Requiem in November 2014 and Bach’s St Matthew Passion in March 2018;
Ashworth, the title role in Mendelssohn’s Elijah in May 2015 and in Bach’s
St Matthew Passion in March 2018.
Bass Alex Ashworth
Both sing with Solomon’s Knot Collective, who performed at last summer’s
Ryedale Festival and enjoyed a sold-out performance at last December’s York Early
Music Christmas Festival at the National Centre for Early Music, York.
Tickets for this 7.30pm concert are on sale at York Minster box office, on 01904 557256, at yorkminster.org or on the door. Prices are £25/£20 in the nave; £12 in the side aisles; £6, age 13 to 17; under-12s, free, but a ticket is required and they must be accompanied by an adult.
The Hoosiers: Irwin Sparkes, on vocals and guitars, and Alan Sharland, on drums, percussion and vocals
APOLLO Festival is taking off again this
summer after a four-year hiatus, promising the biggest and best event to date.
The family-friendly festival will be
held on July 3 and 4 at the new home of York RI in Hamilton Drive, with Musicians
Against Homelessness at the core.
New for 2020, the Friday Night Chill focus
will be on a chilled-out, intimate evening of food, drinks and acoustic music for
over-18s only. The line-up includes 1990s’ acoustic tribute act Melting Pot, Leeds
band The Dunwells, Dodgy lead singer Nigel Clark and York’s lady soul, Jess
Steel.
The Saturday bill will be divided
between the Main Stage and the Musicians Against Homelessness (MAH) stage.
Jess Steel: soulful York singer, performing on the Friday night
Stereo MC’s, The Hoosiers and Happy Mondays’ alumni Bez and Rowetta, in their On The 6th Day God Created Manchester show, will be the leading acts on the bigger stage, backed up by fast-rising York band The Skylights; Gary Stewart’s Graceland tribute to Paul Simon; The Mothers; tribute acts Ultimate Killers; LMX (Little Mix) and Antarctic Monkeys and a DJ set by Danny Glew.
On the MAH stage will be The Perfect
Shambles; emerging York bands The Feds and Seratones; Bravado Cartel; Slow
Train; Page 45; The Silents; The Madchester Anthems; Y Street Band; Hot Dogz;
VLTAGE and The Peacocks.
In past years, Reverend And The Makers, Inspiral Carpets, Cast, Dodgy and, aptly, Space played Apollo Festival. Now, festival director Stuart Kelly says: “Following a break, we feel the time is right for Apollo Festival to return. We pride ourselves on being a family-friendly festival, affordable for everyone and providing a fun environment for everybody to enjoy.
“It’s fantastic to have the likes of Musicians Against Homelessness on board, not only to see the acts they will bring but also in being able to raise awareness to their cause.”
Gary Stewart: paying tribute to Paul Simon in his Graceland set
Stuart continues: “We’re excited to be
at our new venue, York RI, and bringing in the additional evening on the Friday
is a new experience that we hope, in addition the usual Saturday, people will enjoy
too.
“It’s one of the best line-ups we’ve put
together and hasn’t been easy but I’m over the moon with the acts playing on
both days. I personally can’t wait to see our loyal supporters come back and
seeing new faces enjoying themselves too.”
Looking ahead to the July 3 and 4
festival, Stuart says: “One thing for certain is it’s going to be packed full
of entertainment with family quizzes and plenty of free kids’ activities.
“As always, being family friendly and affordable is a huge
priority within Apollo, therefore our infamous kids’ quarter will be returning with ten-pin bowling; hay-bale climbing
frames; face painting; arts and crafts; balloon modelling; magic shows and workshops;
storytelling and a children’s disco to name but a few free-of-charge activities.
Back too will be the much-loved funfair for additional fees.”
Skylights lead singer Rob Scarisbrick
An array of street food, drink, craft
beer and cider will be on offer, and festival-goers will be permitted to bring
in their own picnic food and unopened soft drinks and water (no alcohol and no
glass).
Stuart is delighted Musicians Against Homelessness
(MAH) will be running the second stage. “We could not be happier to be working
with this amazing organisation,” he says.
MAH was founded by music PR Emma Rule with the patronage of music industry guru Alan McGee, the Creation Records founder who famously signed Oasis. The project provides opportunities for up-and-coming talent while raising funds for the UK homelessness charity Crisis, and since 2016 MAH has hosted hundreds of gigs and curated numerous festival stages, featuring thousands of artists.
Emma says: “We’re absolutely thrilled to be
partnering up with Apollo Festival this year and to host the MAH stage. Thanks
to the festival and artists that support us, we will continue to raise funds to
help those living on the streets, while ensuring that people visiting the
festival enjoy a fantastic programme of music.”
The Dunwells: Leeds band playing a York festival
Maverick businessman Alan McGee believes the
MAH campaign also gives new bands a platform, in the way that Rock Against
Racism did in the 1970s.
McGee, who now manages The Jesus & Mary Chain ,
Black Grape, Happy Mondays and Cast, says: “Music brings us together
regardless of politics or social standing. It’s a great leveller and a vital
tool for change.”
Stuart concludes: “York businesses will
be given the opportunity to get involved and play a major role in York’s
premium family festival, giving exclusivity to these businesses to showcase
their company and also give their employees VIP experiences they never forget.”
Friday night tickets cost £5; Saturday general admission is £15; youth, six to 17, £5; under-fives free, at apollo-festival.co.uk. On the day, Saturday’s prices are £20; youth £5; under-fives free.
DANCE troupe Diversity will play York
Barbican on April 25 2021 on their Connected tour.
Last year marked ten years since Diversity won the third series of Britain’s Got Talent, an anniversary celebrated on the sold-out 48-date Born Ready tour.
At those shows, Diversity promised to continue into a second decade and, true to their word, founder and choreographer Ashley Banjo has created Connected, a show that centres around the world of social media, the internet and the digital era we now live in, but, more importantly, how this connects us all.
Banjo says: “Every year that goes by,
and every time we get to create a new touring show, I cannot believe we are
still lucky enough to get to do this.
“But even after all this time, we are
still growing, and this new decade and new chapter for Diversity is sure to be
something even more special than the last. I truly do believe that we are all
connected in more ways than one and I cannot wait to bring this to life on
stage.”
Banjo has returned to the judging
panel for his third series of ITV’s Dancing On Ice, whose final on Sunday will
feature fellow Diversity member Perri Kiely competing for the
winner’s trophy.
He also has hosted, choreographed and starred in the BAFTA-nominated The Real Full Monty from 2017 to 2019 and the International Emmy Award, Broadcast Award and Royal Television Society Award-winning The Real Full Monty: Ladies Night in 2018-2019. His Channel 4 show, Flirty Dancing, completed it second series last December.
Diversity’s nine tours have sold more
than 600,000 tickets. Tickets
for next spring’s Connected show at York Barbican are on sale on 0203 356 5441,
at yorkbarbican.co.uk or in person from the Barbican box office.
Running from March 19 to May 29 2021, the Connected tour also will visit Harrogate Convention Centre on March 20; Victoria Theatre, Halifax, March 21; Hull Bonus Arena, April 3, and Sheffield City Hall, April 4. Box office: Harrogate, 01423 502116 or harrogatetheatre.co.uk; Hull, 0844 858 5025 or bonusarenahull.com; Halifax, 01422 351158 or victoriatheatre.co.uk; Sheffield, 0114 278 9789 or sheffieldcityhall.co.uk.
The Very Grimm Brothers: invitation to Grimm Castle aka Poppleton All Saints Hall
THE only thing that cheers up Adrian Mealing and John Denton, alias The
Very Grimm Brothers, is you.
These purveyors of comedy, silliness, wistful poetry, fairy tales, songs and everyday anecdotes invite you to Grimm Castle and its enchanted forest, masquerading for one night only as Poppleton All Saints Hall, Upper Poppleton, York, on April 3 at 7.30pm.
“It’s a very chatty, tangential gig,” promises Grimm John, a Malvern
Poetry Slam Champ, who sings à cappella with Men In General, A
Fistful Of Spookies and The Spooky Men’s Chorale, joined by Denton from John
Denton’s Midnight Band.
“You should expect encounters with direct action, clumsy departures, the
poetry of platforms, Seville marmalade, undimmed love, Severn Trent Water and
the spinning of gold from straw,” say The Very Grimm Brothers.
The duo have appeared alongside the Peatbog Faeries, Attila The
Stockbroker, John Hegley, Elvis McGonagall, Johnny Fluffypunk and Roger McGough
and performed at Poetry On Loan, Bang Said The Gun, Stratford upon Avon
Litfest, Wolds Words, Mouthpiece Poets, Mouth & Music, Speakeasy and the Blue
Suede Sporran Club.
“Think of The Very Grimm Brothers as the love children that Victor
Meldrew and Pam Ayres never had,” trumpeted the Church Stretton Arts Festival,
ahead of their gig there.
Who can resist such a combination?! Tickets cost £12.50 at poppletonlive.co.uk/events.
Bronwynne Brent: “Creating songs that feel like you can live in them”
AMERICANA singer-songwriter Bronwynne Brent travels all the way from the Mississippi Delta to the howling winter winds of Yorkshire to play Selby Town Hall tonight (March 6).
“I absolutely love Bronwynne’s darkly brooding voice,” says Selby Town
Council arts officer Chris Jones. “She creates songs that feel like you can
live in them, and somehow she manages to sound like Lee Hazlewood and Nancy
Sinatra rolled into one.”
Tonight’s 8pm show will be Brent’s Selby debut, performing with her trio.
“Born and raised in the Mississippi Delta, she has the kind of
stop-in-your-tracks voice that sounds like Southern sunshine,” says Chris.
“There’s a hint of Delta blues behind the ache in her songs, a glimpse
of honky-tonk twang, an echo of riverboat can-cans, a whiff of Ennio Morricone
and an atmosphere that conjures up of the darker side of country song-writing.”
Harking back to the glory days of Lee Hazlewood and Gram Parsons, Brent’s
writing taps into the murky undercurrent of country that starts with old
Appalachian murder ballads and continues through to today’s crop of psychedelic
country songwriters. “Like a juke-joint Nancy Sinatra, Bronwynne unites all the
best elements of Southern American roots music and ties these many different
influences into a sound that’s both comforting and refreshing,” says Chris.
Brent has released two albums, 2011’s Deep Black Water and 2014’s
Stardust, the second produced by Seattle’s Johnny Sangster with a “spaghetti
northwestern” feel to it.
Playing with Calexico drummer John Convertino and Fiona Apple’s bassist, Keith Lowe, on Stardust, she sang songs with a heavy weight on their shoulders: her stories populated by battered women, defeated lovers, devilish characters, highway ghosts and lonesome wanderers.
Looking forward to tonight, Chris concludes: “Bronwynne Brent is
incredible: one of the very finest contemporary voices you’re likely to hear.
Her songs are so rich and brooding. They’re astonishingly well-crafted with a
compelling dark underbelly mixing country, folk and glorious speakeasy jazz
sounds. This show will be an absolute treat.”
Tickets cost £14 on 01757 708449 or at selbytownhall.co.uk or £16 on the
door from 7.30pm.
Heather Findlay, left, Jess Steel, Beth McCarthy and Annie Donaghy relishing I Feel Like A Woman at A Night To Remember. Picture: David Harrison
REVIEW: Big Ian’s A Night To Remember, York Barbican, February 29
DEMENTIA
is a team game, says Ian Donaghy, now as much a motivational speaker at
conferences as a showman, fundraiser and event host.
Not only Dementia
Projects in York, but also St Leonard’s Hospice, Bereaved Children’s Support in
York and Accessible Arts and Media benefit from these nights to remember.
Saturday,
sold out as ever, was the eighth such night, nights that had raised £150,000 so
far. Big Ian is yet to confirm this year’s total, but £5,700 was taken in bucket
collections alone.
Torch singer! Big Ian Donaghy has the phones out for Lionel Richie’s Hello at A Night To Remember at York Barbican. Picture: David Harrison
Yes, the
fundraising is important, but Big Ian puts the fun into that fundraising, as
well as the heart and soul, in a community event that, no matter what hell of a
world is going on outside right now, always brings out the best in York.
Here’s
the news, delivered in a specially recorded Look North spoof bulletin from Phil
Bodmer, devotee of Big Ian’s Guestlist nights at York Racecourse. This would be
the biggest gathering of A Night To Remember yet: not only the old father time
of musical directors, George Hall, on keyboards with his band of bass, guitars,
drums and percussion, but 14 brass players to boot, four from Big Ian’s band
Huge and a whole heap of shiny young players from York Music Forum, gathered
under the tutelage of Ian Chalk.
What’s
more, the musicians and singers had an 80-year age range, from those fledgling
brass talents to 93-year-old Barbara from the Singing For All choir, a force of
nature who summed up everything joyful about this celebration of the power of
music throughout our lives.
River deep, mountain high: Graham Hodge conquering Cry Me A River. Picture: David Harrison
Big Ian
took the lead, brass assisted, on Elton John’s I’m Still Standing and, yes, he
would still be standing three hours later, still urging us to fill those
buckets.
Simon
Snaize’s rendition of Peter Gabriel’s Sledgehammer, with the brass section breathing fire, was an early highlight; Boss
Caine’s mine-deep voiced Dan Lucas turned Dolly Parton’s 9 to 5 from daytime to
night-time hours; Jess Steel, as vital to these nights as Big Ian, climbed the
first of several vocal mountains with Barbra Streisand’s The Way We Were.
Songs
were interspersed with Dementia-themed video clips, usually recorded on Ian’s
phone, some bringing tears, others cheers, all indeed making it a team game.
Thank you for the music: A Night To Remember’s singers and musicians take a bow at the finale. Picture: David Harrison.
Kieran O’Malley’s
fiddle bow was a wand of magic whenever he played, whoever he accompanied;
Heather Findlay and Simon Snaize’s duet for Fleetwood Mac’s The Chain had exactly
The Chain reaction it deserved, guitar solo and all.
Ken
Sanderson, alias Las Vegas Ken, normally restricts himself to a solo slot, but for
the first time, he was joined by Hall’s band, at Big Ian’s urging: another hit
at this “Gang Show with people we really like”.
Later, a fellow staple of these shows, 6ft 3 folk stalwart Graham Hodge, newly turned 70, would be seen as never seen before, again at Donaghy’s suggestion, as he eschewed folk balladry for a dinner jacket to knock Cry Me A River out of the park with the vocal performance of the night. Better than Bublé? No troublé!
Jessa Liversidge, front, centre, leads one and all in I’d Like To Teach The World To Sing..and she did! Picture: David Harrison.
What better way to open the second half than radiant York singer Jessa Liversidge leading her Singing For All group, ebullient Barbara and all, in fact all the audience, as we sang I’d Like To Teach The World To Sing. In perfect harmony, of course! “I’m a bit c**p these days,” said Barbara, but singing is about so much more than the act of singing, and you could see how much it means to her after all these years.
From Annie
Donaghy’s Careless Whisper to Beth McCarthy’s U2 and Guns N’Roses mash-up, Hope
& Social’s Gary Stewart turning into Paul Simon for You Can Call Me Al, to
Annie, Beth, Heather and Jess, all in black and white, for Shania Twain’s I Feel Like A
Woman, the show-stoppers kept coming.
Out came
the phone torches on Big Ian’s command for Lionel Richie’s Hello and a big, big
finale followed up the apt Don’t You Forget About Me with Jess does Dusty for
You Don’t Have To Say You Love M and, what’s this? A video message of support
from Rick Astley that arrived in Ian’s in-box from Sydney, Australia, at quarter
to five that morning.
Cue a Never Gonna Give You Up singalong, and no, you just know Big Ian is never gonna give up on these special nights, his belief in making every life vibrant and vital to the last. Well done big fella, well done sound techie Craig Rothery, well done York.
Even the audience’s shoes were shining stars on A Night To Remember at York Barbican on Leap Year Saturday
