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.
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. 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.
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”.
York Theatre Royal: ideas for creating your own theatre magic at home in the Lockdown Legends Challenge
This week’s challenge is to make a one-minute play. “Send us your responses to lockdownlegends@yorktheatreroyal.co.uk and we’ll share these on our social media pages throughout the week,” says the Theatre Royal. “Remember to keep safe – and stay creative.”
Setting up a film reviewers’ club online
ARE you missing discussing the latest hit films at City Screen, Everyman York, Vue York and Cineworld? If so, why not start or join a film reviewers’ club online on WhatsApp, with the group having a name.
One group member chooses a film, old, recent, cult, blockbuster, world, British, American, whatever; gives a brief synopsis and initial thoughts behind the choice; sets a start and finishing date for viewing (whether on DVD, Netflix, etc), and then everyone gathers for a chat online to give their short reviews.
Explore York’s library and archive at York Explore, Museum Street, York
Explore York’s Libraries From Home
THE Explore York library and archive service will be developing online activities such as a Virtual Book Group, while updating regularly as “new things” come on stream and sharing them on social media, using #LibrariesFromHome.
The Queen show must go on: We Will Rock You will rock you in 2021
Keep trying to find good news
DALBY Forest concerts, chopped. The first four classics of the flat racing season, all non-runners. Wimbledon tennis, out. Harrogate International Festivals summer season, off. York Festival, gone. Scarborough Open Air Theatre, shut. The list of cancellations keeps growing, but against that backdrop, theatres, music venues and festivals are busy re-booking acts and shows for later in the year or next year.
Keep visiting websites for updates, whether York Barbican, York Theatre Royal, the Grand Opera House, The Crescent, wherever. We Will Rock You has just been confirmed for the Grand Opera House for March 22 to 27 next year.
Look out too for the streaming of past hit shows. More and more theatres and arts companies are doing this…
Breath of fresh Eyre: The National Theatre’s innovative Jane Eyre, directed by Sally Cookson. This picture features the 2017 touring cast at the Grand Opera House, York
…For example, National Theatre At Home on YouTube
HULL playwright Richard Bean’s comic romp One Man, Two Guvnors has drawn more than two million viewers since being launched on the National Theatre’s YouTube channel last Thursday.
Next up, available for free from 7pm this evening for a week, will be Sally Cookson’s innovative, dynamic, remarkable stage adaptation of Charlotte Bronte’s Yorkshire novel, Jane Eyre. You may recall the NT’s touring production from its week-long run at the Grand Opera House, York, in May 2017. Truly worth staying in for…but you will be doing that anyway, won’t you.
Window of opportunity : Cancelled York Open Studios finds a way still to showcase art
Venturing outdoors…to spot #openwindowsyork2020
AMID the strict Government strictures, when allowed out to walk the dog or take that one burst of mentally and physically beneficial exercise a day, you can discover a new form of “window dressing” and maybe even “window shopping” near you.
The Covid-19 pandemic has shut the doors on York Open Studios 2020, when 144 artists and makers would have been welcoming visitors on April 17 to 19 and 25 and 26. Enterprising as ever, they now say: “We can’t open our doors, but we can show you our work through our windows”, as they launch #openwindowsyork2020. “If you see one, let us know,” they add.
Welcome back Backgammon
Vintage game of the week: Backgammon
LOCKDOWN is the perfect chance to dust off faithful old games consigned to gathering dust on top shelves.
Bring back Backgammon, one of the oldest known board games, whose history can be traced back nearly 5,000 years to archaeological discoveries in Mesopotamia. In this quick-thinking two-player game, each player has 15 pieces that move between 24 triangles, according to the roll of two dice. You gotta roll with it, as Oasis once sang.
Easter egg hunt
EASTER Day celebrations demand an Easter egg hunt, whether indoors or in the garden, if that is possible.
Two customs spring to mind: firstly, wrapping eggs in ribbon for boiling that will then leave a pretty decorative pattern on the eggs.
Secondly, writing poetic ditties as clues for the Easter egg hunter to find the hidden chocolate goodies. Happy hunting, happy Easter, dear readers.
Clap for Carers
YES, we miss the sound of applause bursting through our theatre walls, but for now, save your hand-clapping for showing support every Thursday at 8pm for our NHS doctors, hospital staff, carers, rising tide of volunteers and key workers. God bless them all.
Paul Merton: Welcome back Have I Got News For You for series number 59
And what about…
BOOKS on pandemics and plagues. Cookbooks. The return of BBC One’s Have I Got News For You on Fridays, albeit in compromised social-distancing-from-home form. The shockumentary series Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem And Madness on Netflix. Writing a 10 Things list like this one.
Reading the regular Tweets from Reece Dinsdale, Emmerdale actor full of nous, and Alan Lane, Slung Low artistic director and man of action around Leeds. Keep drinking hot drinks and gargling regularly, as well as all that hand-washing.
Goodbye, not Hello: Lionel Richie’s York Festival and Scarborough Open Air Theatre concerts have been cancelled
THE inaugural York Festival with Lionel
Richie, Madness and Westlife in June is off. The entire Scarborough Open Air Theatre summer
season has been cancelled too.
The “unavoidable” double blow for
promoters Cuffe and Taylor was confirmed in a brief statement at high noon, enforced
by the grip of the Coronavirus pandemic.
“We are sad to announce both York
Festival and the 2020 programme at Scarborough Open Air Theatre will not go
ahead,” they said. “We did not want to take this step, but it was unavoidable.
The health and safety of concertgoers, artists, staff and community will always
be our top priority.
Grey Day for Madness: no House Of Fun after all at York Festival on June 19
“We are working with our ticketing
partners and they will contact customers very soon to process refunds. Peace, love, kindness and thanks.”
So, alas, this means goodbye to Hello and Lionel Richie at York Sports Club, Clifton Park, Shipton Road, on June 21, when the American soul legend, now 70, would have been supported by Grammy Award winner Macy Gray and Newcastle soul-pop duo Lighthouse Family.
Camden Town nutty boys Madness were to have headlined the
opening night, June 19, 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: York and Scarborough shows grounded without wings
Irish matured boy band Westlife were booked to top the June 21
bill, backed up All Saints, Sophie Ellis Bextor, Scouting For
Girls and Take That’s Howard Donald for a DJ set.
Over on the East Coast, Cuffe and Taylor had lined up big
hitters galore for Scarborough Open Air Theatre’s 2020 season, opening with
Lionel Richie on June 9, followed by Westlife on June 17.
Further bookings were: Supergrass, June 20; Alfie Boe, June 27; Snow Patrol, July 4; Mixtape, with Marc Almond, Heaven 17 and Living In A Box featuring Kenny Thomas, July 10; Keane, July 17; Little Mix, July 21; McFly, August 14; Louis Tomlinson, August 15, and Nile Rodgers & Chic, August 21. What’s more, further shows were to have been added. Not any more.
Leopard king: Rod Stewart at York Racecourse last June, promoted by Cuffe and Taylor
Last year,Cuffe and Taylor promoted Rod Stewart’s first ever York concert, erecting a pop-up amphitheatre in the centre of York Racecourse and duly drawing 35,000 people to Knavesmire on June 1. Ah, those were the days.
Earlier this spring, Cuffe and Taylor were given the City of York Council thumbs-up for a licence for their first York Festival, albeit with the proviso that the volume must be turned down. Now, there will only be silence.
Kate Rusby in her Holly Headwear. Picture: David Lindsay
WHAT a relief to be able to mention another C-word in these
Coronavirus-clouded times. Christmas. Kate
Rusby at Christmas, to be precise.
Tickets for the Barnsley nightingale’s now traditional York Barbican Christmas concert on December 20 go on sale tomorrow morning (April 10) at yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Kate’s sparkling Christmas shows draw on merry Christmas versions of carols,
once banned from frowning Victorian churches for being too jolly, that instead
found their home in the pubs of South Yorkshire (and North Derbyshire and
Cornwall).
“Christmas songs were seeping into our brains,” says Kate Rusby, recalling her childhood exposure to South Yorkshire ‘pub sings’. Picture: David Angel
For 200 years, those South Yorkshire
communities have congregated on Sunday lunchtimes from late-November to belt
out, for example, variations on While Shepherds Watched.
“The Christmas side of things began for me in the ‘pub sings’
around South Yorkshire,” Kate told CharlesHutchPress last winter ahead of her York
Barbican concert with her regular folk band and “brass boys” quintet on December
18.
“We were taken along as kids; our parents would be in the main
room singing away, while us kids were sat with the other kids in the tap room,
colouring [pictures] and drinking pop, unaware that the carols and Christmas
songs were seeping into our brains!
“I decided anyone who adores Christmas music is called a ‘Holly Head’, ” says Kate Rusby, explaining her album title
“They’re mostly songs thrown out of the churches by the
Victorians as they were thought to be far too happy! Ha! Those who loved
singing them took them to the pubs, where you could combine a good old sing
with beer and a natter, and there the songs have remained and been kept alive,
being passed down the generations.”
So much so, Kate has released five albums of carols and original
winter songs on her own Pure Records label: 2008’s Sweet Bells, 2011’s While
Mortals Sleep, 2015’s The Frost Is All Over, 2017’s Angels And Men and last
year’s Holly Head
“Well, I decided anyone who adores Christmas music is called a
‘Holly Head’,” she said, explaining the title. “You know, like car fanatics are
petrol heads. I thought it was the perfect title for such people, and I’m a
fully paid-up member of the Holly Head club.”
The album artwork for Kate Rusby’s 2019 album, Holly Head
Songs on
Holly Head ranged from the Rusby original The Holly King, to a cover of John
Rox’s novelty Christmas number Hippo For Christmas, via the carol Salute The
Morn, a brace of God’s Own Country variations, Yorkshire Three Ships and Bleak
Midwinter (Yorkshire) and Kate’s sixth iteration of While Shepherds Watched.
“There’s over 30 different versions of While Shepherds Watched
that get sung in the pubs here in South Yorkshire, so I’ve still got a lot to
go at,” said Kate last December. “This one is actually to the tune of a
different song that I also love, but I wasn’t that keen on the words, then
realised it went with the While Shepherds words, so yey, another has now been
invented.”
Picking the song most significant to her on Holly Head, Kate chose
her own composition The Holly King. “It celebrates the more pagan side of
Christmas. I wrote it after reading about the winter king, The Holly King, and
the summer king, The Ivy King,” she said.
Kate Rusby: Writing for her next Christmas record. Picture: David Angel
“Legend has
it that the two met twice a year and had almighty battles. Going into winter,
the Holly King would win and reign for the winter months. Then the Ivy King
would wake and overthrow the Holly King and reign through the summer months,
and on they went in a perfect cycle.
“I just
loved the images that it conjured up and a song came flowing out. I gave him a
wife, The Queen of Frost, who creeps across the land to be with him for his
time. In fact, I’m now writing her song, so she will appear on the next
Christmas album, I’m sure.”
May The Queen of Frost glide her icy path to York Barbican come
December 20.
We Will Still Rock You: The Queen and Ben Elton musical will rise again in 2021
THE 2020 tour of We Will Rock You bit the dust with the Coronavirus
pandemic lockdown, but the show must go on for the Queen and Ben Elton musical.
Not only have many of the original dates been re-scheduled for 2021, but
several venues have been added too, not least the Grand Opera House, York, for
a run from March 22 to 27.
“The producers did not want to disappoint fans who had bought tickets,
so they have been working hard to reschedule as many of the shows as possible,
giving people something to look forward to in these unsettling times,” says the
official statement.
“We are delighted to announce the good news that the musical
extravaganza will once again rock theatres across the UK from January next
year, playing many of the original 2020 dates and several additional venues
too.”
Kicking off in Cardiff on January 18 2021, the tour will then play Milton
Keynes; Southend; Stoke; Bristol; Wimbledon; Bournemouth; Ipswich; Bromley; York;
Newcastle; Northampton; Peterborough; Norwich; Reading; Liverpool; Birmingham
and Southsea, with more dates to follow. Details of how to exchange tickets
will follow in the coming weeks.
Queen guitarist Brian May said: “Happy to say our magnificent UK tour of
We Will Rock You, the rock theatrical, will rise again. The Coronavirus has had
us all on the run, but live theatre will win in the end. Keep hold of your
bookings and the vibe will be yours in 2021.”
Drummer Roger Taylor added: “This is great news, I’m so pleased to see
the show on the road again.”
Writer Ben Elton agreed: “I was so pleased to get the great news that We
Will Rock You is to be remounted next year, after being forced to close mid-tour,
and I hope Queen’s incredible music can help to make us feel like champions
again.”
Tickets for the York run are on sale at atgtickets.com/york.
