Madness: June 19 headliners at the first York Festival
YORK Festival, next summer’s three-day music event headlined by Madness,
Westlife and Lionel Richie, wants to raise thousands of pounds for good causes
by supporting York charities.
The organisers,
concert promoters Cuffe and Taylor, are seeking three charity partners, who
will benefit from the June 19 to 21 concerts at York Sports Club, in Clifton
Park, Shipton Road.
Charities in and
around York are asked to send an email to hello@york-festival.com to “find out how
York Festival can help you” and register their interest in becoming a partner.
Cuffe and Taylor director Peter Taylor said: “We are incredibly excited
about York Festival. This is going to be three amazing days of live music in
this wonderful and historic city, headlined by a host of global stars.
“York Festival is going to be something really special,” says Cuffe and Taylor director Peter Taylor. “What will make it extra special is if we can help good causes in the city.”
“We want to help raise funds and exposure for local good causes. Over the past
decade, we have worked with a number of fantastic charity partners at our
events right across the UK. Through these partnerships we have helped raise
more than £100,000 and we are now looking for charities based in and around
York who we can work with.
“York Festival is going to be something really special. What will make it extra
special is if we can help good causes in the city.”
Cuffe and Taylor promote the summer concert seasons at Scarborough Open Air Theatre,
bringing Britney Spears, Kylie Minogue and Lionel Richie to the Yorkshire coast.
They also staged Rod Stewart’s sold-out York Racecourse concert this year,
drawing 35,000 people to a specially constructed pop-up amphitheatre in the
centre of the Knavesmire course on June 1.
All night long: Lionel Richie has the York Festival stage to himself on June 21
Cuffe and Taylor previously set up Lytham Festival, a Lancashire event
that has worked with various charities over the past decade.
Trinity Hospice and Brian House Children’s Hospice in Blackpool, for
example, have benefited to the tune of £50,000.
Trinity Hospice Community fundraising manager Michelle Lonican
said: “We feel very honoured to have worked with Cuffe and Taylor on a
number of their high-profile events.
“Their support for both Trinity Hospice and Brian House has been
phenomenal, and not only have we been able to raise thousands of pounds, but
also every event has always been a fantastic opportunity for us to increase our
profile and attract new supporters.
Westlife: Playing York Festival on Summer Solstice night
“It is great to see Cuffe and Taylor launching a new festival in York
and we would urge charities there to apply to become a partner and get involved
in what will no doubt be a very successful event.”
York Festival’s debut line-up brings together headliners Madness, those Nutty
Boys from Camden Town, Lightning Seeds,funk and soul DJ Craig Charles, Leeds
indie rockers Apollo Junction and York’s Violet Contours on June 19.
Irish boy band Westlife top the Saturday bill – next year’s Summer
Solstice night – as part of their Stadiums In The Summer Tour, joined by All
Saints, Sophie Ellis Bextor, Scouting for Girls and Take That’s Howard
Donald for a DJ set.
The Sunday night focus falls on American soul and funk legend Lionel
Richie for a set of Commodores and solo hits.
For more York Festival information and tickets, go to York-festival.com.
CATS and dogs will be in
harmony on December 29 when City Screen, York, plays host to a dog-friendly screening
of the new musical fantasy film.
“We’re offering dog-lovers the chance to bring their canine friends to the cinema that morning at 11am,” says marketing manager Dave Taylor.
“A dog is not just for Christmas, but it’s Christmas for dogs too, so
this is a special treat for dog-owners and their pets.
“They’ll be issued with a fleece blanket to cover the seat used by the
dog or to use as a rug if the dog sits on the floor. During the screening, we’ll
provide bowls of water around the screen, and we’ll also leave lighting levels
a little higher than usual during the screening and lower the volume of the
soundtrack.
“Please be aware that we reduce capacity for such screenings, so there may be fewer tickets than usual. We also have a limit of one dog per adult so that people can keep control of their dog.”
City Screen has arranged dog-friendly screenings in the past. “They’ve been well received by dog-owners and have gone off without incident, though cinema staff undertake a thorough ‘deep-clean’ of the auditorium before the next film is shown,” says Dave.
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats, one of the most successful stage musicals of all time, has been adapted for the big screen by director Tom Hooper, who directed The Damned United in 2009, The King’s Speech in 2010, Les Misérables in 2012 and The Danish Girl in 2015.
Now he “reimagines the musical for a new generation with spectacular
production design, state-of-the-art technology and dance ranging from classical
ballet to contemporary, hip-hop, jazz, street dance and tap”.
Released this Friday, its cast of star actors and dancers includes Dame Judi Dench as Old Deuteronomy; Idris Elba stars as Macavity, the mystery cat; Rebel Wilson as Jennyanydots; Ray Winston, Growltiger; James Corden, Bustopher Jones; Jennifer Hudson, Grizabella; cat lover Taylor Swift, Bombalurina; Jason Derulo, Rum Tum Tigger, and Sir Ian McKellen, Gus the Theatre Cat.
Oscar winner Hooper wrote the script with Billy Elliot writer Lee Hall, based on T.S. Elliot’s whimsical Old Possum’s Book Of Practical Cats.
Tickets for Cats (U) on December 29 are on sale on 0871 902 5747, at picturehouses.com or in person from the City Screen box office. “You’re also welcome without a dog,” says Dave.
The York Waits: festive songs, carols and celebratory music at the NCEM
THE York Waits celebrate Christmas in tomorrow’s concert at the National Centre for Early Music, York, when they will be joined by singer Deborah Catterall.
The start of Christmas was traditionally announced at the entrances to York on December 21, St Thomas’s Day, with the reading by the Sheriffs of the Yoole-girthol, with the Waits’ shawm band in attendance.
This proclamation declared “an amnesty to all nere-do-wells and unthrifty folk” and invited 12 days of merriment in the city.
The York Waits recreate this atmosphere with festive songs, carols and celebratory music from across mediaeval and Renaissance England and Europe, performed on loud and quiet wind consorts, bowed and plucked strings, the rustic bagpipes and vielle.
The York Waits will be in conversation at the NCEM at 7pm before their 7.30pm concert programme. Tickets cost £23, concessions £21, on 01904 658338 or at tickets.ncem.co.uk.
Going out: Supergrass have a run of gigs next summer
EVERYTHING has aligned for Supergrass on the “improbable comeback”
trail.
The Oxford four-piece of Gaz Coombes, Danny Goffey, Rob Coombes and Mick Quinn will head to Scarborough Open Air Theatre on June 20 next summer, with tickets going on sale at 9am on Friday.
Coming first will be Supergrass: The Strange Ones 1994-2008, released on
BMG on January 24 2020 to mark the 25th anniversary of their chart-topping
debut album I Should Coco.
This box set stacks up their six albums on picture-disc LP and CD; bonus CDs of unreleased live material; B-sides; remixes; rarities; studio out-takes; demos; acoustic versions; oddities, new mixes; a deluxe book, posters and button badges.
Supergrass made their comeback in September in a bold manner, taking to the stage unannounced at Glastonbury Pilton Party to rip through a greatest hits set, embracing Richard III, Moving, Alright, Lenny, Going Out, Caught By The Fuzz, Sun Hits The Sky, Pumping On Your Stereo and Grace.
Supergrass are back after a decade away? I should coco
“Everything aligned for us to make this happen for 2020,” says drummer
Goffey, recalling September’s re-launch. “It was the first time that we
collectively felt the buzz to get back in a room together and play the songs.
We’re extremely excited to get out there and bring a bit of Supergrass joy
to all our fans… and their extended families.”
Formed in 1993, the Oxford band released the Mercury Prize-nominated I
Should Coco in 1995; In It For The Money in 1997; Supergrass, 1999; Life On
Other Planets, 2002; Road To Rouen, 2005, and Diamond Hoo Ha, 2008, plus the 2004
compilation Supergrass Is 10.
After the BRIT, NME, Ivor Novello and Q award-winning band split in
2010, Gaz Coombes released his solo albums Here Come The Bombs in
2012, Matador in 2015 and World’s Strongest Man last year.
Quinn has been playing with his own group, DB Band, and has been a
member of Swervedriver since 2015; Goffey’s album Schtick came out in 2018.
From Friday (December 20), tickets can be booked on 01723 818111 or 01723 383636; at scarboroughopenairtheatre.com or in person from Scarborough OAT, in Burniston Road, or the Discover Yorkshire Coast Tourism Bureau, Scarborough Town Hall, St Nicholas Street.
Did you know?
Supergrass’s I Should Coco in 1995 was the Parlophone label’s biggest-selling debut since The Beatles’ Please Please Me in March 1963.
Shining light: Heather Findlay in angelic pose for her Christmas show
HEATHER Findlay will play York concerts on successive nights
this week, the first with Friends in her Christmas Show at the National Centre
for Early Music on Friday.
The next night, the York singer joins fellow composer Simon
Snaize for a “pre-Christmas
solstice spectacular” in the last of four concerts in the inaugural Live In
Libraries York season in York Explore’s wood-panelled Marriot Room.
“I love making my Christmas show really magical, nostalgic and
unique,” says Heather. “So, there’s a slightly different line-up, with Sarah
Dean joining us on harp and special guest Annie Donaghy on vocals, and a couple
of unannounced guests too.”
On Saturday, Findlay accompanies Snaize as he showcases his new
album, A Song Of Bones, and his 2012 recording The Structure Of Recollection, in
an intimate performance to a capacity audience of 50. CDs of the new record
will be on sale on the night before the official release in January.
Wrapping up for winter: Heather Findlay heads to the NCEM for her Christmas show
Heather Findlay and Friends’ Christmas Show, plus
Annie Donaghy, National Centre for Early Music, Walmgate, York, Friday, 8pm; Heather
Findlay and Simon Snaize, Live In Libraries York, York Explore, Saturday, doors
7pm. Box office: NCEM, 01904 658338 or at
ncem.co.uk; Live in Libraries, exploreyork.eventbrite.co.uk
WHISPER it abroad, the inaugural Live In Libraries York season of intimate concerts in York Explore Library and Archive’s Marriott Room, in Library Square, concludes this weekend.
East Yorkshire folk-Americana
singer-songwriter Edwina Hayes was first up in September, followed by hotly
tipped York band Bonneville And The Bailers on October 25; Bradford songwriter
Bella Gaffney on November 21, and Heather Findlay and Simon Snaize in a rare
duo gig on Saturday.
The season has been curated by York
busker David Ward Maclean in tandem with Dave Fleming, Explore York’s inclusive
arts and media co-ordinator.
Simon Snaize and Heather Findlay: performing in a rare duo format at York Explore
Here Charles Hutchinson puts questions to David and Dave.
What
prompted you to set up this series of concerts and how long has it taken to arrange
the season, David?
“It started
from a chat with York Explore manager Barbara Swinn and Explore York’s Dave
Fleming about the feasibility of the Marriott Room as a regular venue. Although
we settled on a short series of just four concerts, it’s still taken a while to
work out the logistics of both the requirements for staging the events and York
Explore’s very busy timetable as a working library.”
How
did Live In Libraries York come to fruition, Dave?
“Barbara and I thought it was a great idea to approach David to help
curate, advise and develop the concept and the season of concerts.
“I’ve known Dave for
years, both on the music scene and working together many years ago when I
worked for City of York Council’s Arts & Culture service as community arts
officer and working as part of the Illuminating York team.
“I coordinated a series of live short cultural performances in
some of the city-centre churches called Inspire York and Dave created a
soundscape in one of the churches. Barbara came across Dave performing in York
and was captivated by him, so I suggested a chat and for Dave to check out the
space and see what he thought.It’s fair to say he was blown away by its potential for live intimate
performances.”
Bonnie Milnes of Bonneville And The Bailers, who played Live In Libraries York in October
What
attracted you the Marriott Room, David?
“The first
thing that struck me was the sound: astonishingly clear acoustics, requiring no
more than the minimum amplification, if any. That’s probably down to the wood
panelling and the wooden floor, combined with a fairly high ceiling.
“Also, due
to its location at the rear of the library, it’s a very quiet location,
making it the perfect small listening venue. We’ve limited seating to about 50,
so that there’s plenty of room, and that also makes for a great intimate
atmosphere. It looks gorgeous too.
“There are
very good Green Room facilities behind the Marriott Room, and the performer accesses
the venue from a different door, which I always think enhances an event.
Everything I’ve ever looked for in a small venue. I’m hoping to book in myself
next year sometime.”
What are
the Marriott Room’s attributes as a concert setting, Dave?
“There’s nowhere else like it in York! Everyone who has popped down to
check out the space wants to perform in the space. The interest has taken us by
surprise.
“We did a test concert
a few months back with two internationally renowned harpists. It was sold out and
both the performers and audience were captivated by the experience and were so
impressed with the space.
“We dress the space
beautifully and it will make you re-imagine what libraries can
offer.”
What does
a library setting bring to live music, David? After
all, libraries are associated with hush, contemplation, study and
solo concentration!
“I
definitely think that when you walk in, the beautiful main entrance to
the library instils a certain focus, ideal for listening events. I
think we’re going for communication and attentiveness, rather than heads bowed
in reverence.”
When curating the acts for these performances, how and why did you choose
each one and what have they each brought to Live In Libraries York,
David?
“When I was
first asked for acts, Edwina Hayes was an instant choice.
She’s incredible, a world-class act and a big favourite in York, and I’m
so pleased she started the series.
“I also
wanted to get two local organisations involved – Dan Webster of Green Chili
Promotions and Dave Greenbrown from Young Thugs Records – and they put forward
two fantastic up-and-coming York artists, Bella Gaffney and Bonneville And The
Wailers.
David Ward Maclean: Curator of the Live In Libraries York season
“I’d
always wanted to hear Heather Findlay and Simon Snaize as a duo again after
they bowled me over with a set some years back. It’s an extraordinary sound,
they truly complement each other and I’m so happy to finish the season on a
high with them, on Winter Solstice no less!”
As a
musician yourself, David, what makes for your perfect gig setting?
“This one.”
What sort
of contrasting places have you played in your long career?
“Pretty
much everything, from Sheffield City Hall to playing for a couple in their home
while they had dinner. Probably the strangest was back in 1984, hitchhiking to
Bremen, playing for some German policemen in a motorway service station to
prove I was on my way to play some concerts. I passed the audition.”
Would you
like to see a further season of such shows taking place in the Marrott Room,
David? Or is this a special one-off?
“I would
love to see more concerts here in the future.”
What would be your ideal song for a library setting, David?
“(What A)
Wonderful World by Sam Cooke.”
How about
yours, Dave?
“My word, this is a tricky one to answer! Struggling to think of one because there are so many. So, I’m going to say one of David Ward Maclean’s original songs as he is such a brilliant songwriter and local legend. Oh, and he sounds incredible in the Marriott Room!”
Ebor Singers, Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols, National Centre for Early Music, York, December 15
THIS was the Ebors’ now traditional performance of Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols, spiced with a selection of contemporary American carols and seasonal songs.
The Britten, given in the original all-female version, was accompanied by the harp of Rachel Dent, even to the extent of some optional improvising during the processional plainsongs. Her Interlude was a touch halting, but elsewhere she sustained a pleasing pulse.
The singing had its moments, though few were provided in the solo work where intonation was wayward. As a choir, the ladies made plentiful amends. There was a lovely legato in There Is No Rose and a direct, confident approach to This Little Babe. In contrast, the reverential ending to In Freezing Winter Night reflected the manger’s “humble pomp”.
The pair of soloists in Spring Carol chirped merrily. Deo Gracias was a little too rushed for its cross-currents to have maximum impact. Though it was good to have this music made available again, its overall effect was not as strong as it was last year.
In The Moon Of Wintertime, the evening’s subtitle, taken from the Canadian Huron carol, was also used by American composer Stephen Paulus. In the event, his modal tune was less attractive than the original (Jesous Ahatonhia), and he used a bowdlerized paraphrase of Edgar Middleton’s translation, which is much less down-to-earth than the native Indian version. Its last verse, however, was a model of choral control here.
The same composer’s Three Nativity Carols, surprisingly enjoying their UK premiere – Paulus died in 2104 – brought an engaging post-Britten style to some ancient texts. They were accompanied by oboe (Jane Wright) and harp (Dent). Syncopation jollied up The Holly & The Ivy, florid oboe counterpointed the slow rocking of This Endris Night, and Wonder Tidings used a proper refrain to add colour to the mediaeval text, with the instruments dancing attendance.
Much of the rest was slow-moving and diction went to the wall. American audiences may love it, but Craig Hella Johnson’s pairing of Lo, How A Rose with Amanda McBroom’s The Rose (written for Bette Midler and covered by Westlife) did the lovely Praetorius tune no favours at all.
Hackneyed favourites by Lauridsen and Whitacre came and went and a Jake Runestad lullaby just picked itself in time to avoid a similar fate. It was left to Nico Muhly’s setting of Longfellow’s Snowflakes, with piano backing, to offer some true atmosphere, albeit out of a corner of the minimalist playbook. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas makes for a tacky ending – it should be dropped.
I know this was a Christmas concert, with all the festive sentimentality that implies, but overall I left feeling that this choir is coasting: it is capable of tackling something a lot less anodyne and a lot more challenging.
Frank Brooker’s Happy Chappies: Playing at the Cross Keys on January 2 2020
“GET jazzing done!”, says Alan Bramley, organiser of a new season of Thursday
afternoon jazz sessions at the Cross Keys pub, in Tadcaster Road, York.
“Those weekly sessions have become increasingly popular since their
inauguration in 2017,” says Alan, who not only makes the bookings but also plays
trombone with some of the bands.
“For the start of 2020, I’ve booked a programme of jazz in varying
styles, all highly entertaining.”
Frank Brooker’s Happy Chappies kick off the New Year on January 2, followed
by the Cross Keys Jazz Band on January 9; Tim New Jazz Band on January 16; 7th City
Jazz Band on January 23 and the Nicki Allan Five, finishing off the month, on
January 30.
These traditional jazz afternoons run from 1pm to 3.30pm each Thursday.
Admission and parking are free, food is available and the pub is both dog and
child friendly.
More details can be found on Facebook at Crosskeysjazz.
Hello? Play Scarborough as well as York, you say? Why not, says Lionel Richie
LIONEL
Richie will play two North Yorkshire shows within a fortnight next summer after
adding Scarborough Open Air Theatre on June 9 to his York Festival appearance on
June 21.
Tickets go
on sale for his Scarborough return on Wednesday at 9am, Richie having made his
sold-out debut there in June 2018 on his All The Hits, All Night Long tour.
“It was a truly wonderful night on the Yorkshire coast in 2018 and I
cannot wait to return to this beautiful part of the UK again,” says the Alabama
soul singer, songwriter and producer. “It’s going to be another night to
remember, so bring you’re dancing shoes.”
Richie, 70, will play Scarborough as part of his Hello!, Hits tour, performing
songs from his Commodores days to the present day, taking in Three Times
A Lady,
Truly, Dancing On The Ceiling, Say You Say Me, Hello and All
Night Long.
Honoured last year with the Ivor Novello PRS for Music Special International
Award, to go with an Oscar, Golden Globe and four Grammy awards and 100 million
album sales, Richie released his latest album, Live From Las Vegas, in the
summer.
Heading East: Westlife: to play Scarborough in the same week as their York Festival headline show next June
York
Festival can be added to such Richie festival headline sets as Bonnaroo, Outside
Lands and Glastonbury, where he drew more than 200,000 to main stage in 2015.
Cuffe and Taylor are promoting both his Scarborough and York gigs. “Lionel
Richie is an undoubted global superstar and we are delighted to be able to
bring him back here to Scarborough,” says director Peter Taylor.
“His 2018 sold-out show was the stuff of legend. It was a brilliant
night in the presence of one of the most successful and celebrated music
artists of all time.”
As well as Richie, Cuffe and Taylor have booked Irish boy band Westlife
to play both locations, Scarborough OAT on June 17 and York Festival, at York Sports
Club, Clifton Park, Shipton Road, on June 20.
Tickets for Scarborough OAT concerts are on sale at scarboroughopenairtheatre,com, on 01723 818111 or 01723 383636, or in person from the venue, in Burniston Road, or the Discover Yorkshire Tourism Bureau, ScarboroughTown Hall, St Nicholas Street.
For York Festival tickets, go to york-festival.com.
York Early Music Christmas Festival:Yorkshire Bach Choir/Baroque Soloists, Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, University of York, December 14
THE York Early Music Christmas Festival finished brightly on Saturday with Handel’s Messiah before a packed house. Tempos were rapid, but that comes with the territory when Peter Seymour is at the helm (he sat at the harpsichord and even fingered it from time to time).
Nothing wrong with speed: it is widely thought to deliver excitement. But audiences, like electorates, are not easily fooled and Messiah is not really about excitement. Although traditionally wheeled out at Yuletide, its true focus is the message of Easter.
Mezzo soprano soloist Helen Charlston. Picture: Matthew Badham
One of Seymour’s soloists, mezzo Helen Charlston, appeared to realise this and took him on. He raced into her aria, He Was Despised – and she managed to slow him down. Thus her unaccompanied voicing of “despised” and “rejected”, with a little sob in the latter word, unexpectedly became the evening’s most telling moment.
The choir of 36 voices was impeccably on the ball, its diction superb and its staccato runs unimpeachably clear. Six tenors were not enough in this company and the bass line lacked its usual authority, but the upper voices – several countertenors included – were exemplary.
York soprano soloist Bethany Seymour. Picture: Jim PoynerJim Poyner
The best of the soloists was the bass Gareth Brynmor John, relaxed and forthright in equal measure and especially stirring in Why Do The Nations. In contrast, Gwilym Bowen’s increasingly effortful tenor verged on the operatic, although perfectly suited to Thou Shalt Break Them. Apart from her smooth I Know That My Redeemer Liveth, Bethany Seymour’s soprano arias were shrieky, with dodgy breath control.
No such problems with the tireless orchestra. Led by the spritely Lucy Russell, the strings laid a consistently stylish foundation. Yet relentless speed is only one of countless ways to treat this work. It would be nice to hear some of them occasionally.
York Early Music Christmas Festival: Fieri Consort, National Centre for Early Music, York, December 11
SORRY to pour cold water on your show, chaps, but this was not the oratorio it was billed to be. Giovanni Girolamo Kapsperger, an Italian with Austrian forebears, described his theatrical piece of 1629, The Shepherds of Bethlehem, as a “dialogo recitativo” – a dialogue in musical speech – a forerunner of oratorio certainly, but not the real McCoy. That was still to come.
Now that’s cleared up, Kapsperger certainly made a hefty stab at dramatising the Christmas story and the five singers and four players of Fieri put up a pretty good case for it. So we had the shepherds and the angels battling for the spotlight, while the librettist – a pope-in-waiting – delivered unctuous praise of the present pope, Urban VIII, via a narrator.
What the work lacked in arias was pleasingly filled in with motets and other madrigal-style commentaries, mainly from an earlier generation of composers. So Hassler hinted at the Annunciation, Michael Praetorius’s rose bloomed again, Marenzio admired the Christ-child and Victoria evoked the mystery of it all.
Fieri bring plenty of meat to the table in this repertory. These are strong, modern voices quite without the preciousness once so treasured by early-music buffs, but smooth at the edges as well, so that their blend is exceptionally polished. Shading was less prevalent here. There was even some splendid coloratura from Hannah Ely and Helen Charlston, courtesy of Carissimi, and the instruments kept up tasty chatter behind it all.
