Beth Hart: Returning to York Barbican on 2027 tour. Picture: Roxanne de Roode
CALIFORNIAN singer-songwriter Beth Hart will play York Barbican on September 23 as one of only four dates on her 2027 British tour. Tickets go on general sale at 10am on Friday, October 2 at https://www.yorkbarbican.co.uk/whats-on/beth-hart-2027/.
Multi-award-winning and Grammy-nominated Hart, 54, plays by her own rules. She has collaborated with legends such as Jeff Beck, Guns N’ Roses’ Slash and Joe Bonamassa, traversed the globe, topped the Billboard Blues charts six times, gone double platinum and had a string of Top Ten- charting albums across Europe and Top 30 Official Billboard US-charting albums, while surpassing 600 million streaming figures and counting.
Infusing her music with raw, soulful energy, Hart has played Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, Amsterdam’s Ziggo Dome and London’s Royal Albert Hall.
Los Angeleno Hart released her latest album, You Still Got Me, on October 25 2024 on Provogue/Mascot, followed by an expanded digital deluxe edition on June 17 2026. Watch the official lyric video for latest single Mean Ole Man of Mine on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPY6FDOhjwA.
In the wake of 2019’s War in My Mind and 2022’s A Tribute To Led Zeppelin, she recorded You Still Got Me with producer Kevin Shirley at Ocean Way Studios in Nashville, Tennessee, housed in a 100-year-old Gothic revival grey-stoned church in the heart of Music Row.
“When I write, it’s always for the joy of writing or for the challenge of writing, to seek what’s going on,” says Beth Hart. Picture: Mal Whichelow
Hart says of You Still Got Me’s title track: “This is a true story. I had a moment where I wasn’t in a positive mood, and I was hanging out on the couch, crying pretty hard, and Scott [her husband] said, ‘Hey, do you need a hug?’. I said, ‘I’ve got nothing inside left to love’, and he said, ‘you still got me’. I said, ‘hang on a minute; I’ll be right back’.
“I went downstairs and used those words and how he said it. You say something like that, and someone you love says back, but you’ve still got me. It’s true. If I’ve still got him, I’ve still got everything.”
Reflecting on her songwriting process over three decades, she says: “I never write in terms of thinking it’s going to be an album or go to people. When I write, it’s always for the joy of writing or for the challenge of writing, to seek what’s going on.
“Sometimes, I go just when I’m sad or scared. If I check in on the piano, it sometimes reveals itself. Sometimes a song comes, and sometimes one doesn’t. Either way, there’s comfort there.”
Explaining the messaging within her songs, she says: “I leave that up to the listener to decide. Personally, I know what it is for right now. One of the beautiful things I love about songs and albums is that over time, that meaning changes.
“I like to keep that open because there’s a lot I can learn from it. Often, when I write a song, I know what that means to me at that moment. But a year will go by, and it means something totally different.”
“I’m always very controlling and protective of the songs,” says Beth Hart. Picture: Ali Burnam
Producer Kevin Shirley calls Hart a “diamond, a living contradiction”. “She is rough and hard at the core – shining, sophisticated and polished at presentation,” he says. “Beth is one of the most formidable musicians I’ve ever worked with. Immensely talented and gifted.
“This album shows all the facets of the giant gem that is Beth Hart. Razor-edged tracks that have a samurai sword edge, soft and sultry ballads and heartfelt emotional messages just made recording this album one of the most special I’ve ever done. You have to love her. There is nobody else like her. She is the best.”
Hart responds: “I’m always very controlling and protective of the songs. One of the things Kevin told me was, ‘You gotta make sure to keep in mind that this is going to be really fun. Have fun. Let it go. Don’t be so momma-bear protective of these songs’. I really had to meditate on that, but I did let go and thank God I did.”
You Still Got Me’s soaring rocker Savior With A Razor features Slash on guitar. “Beth Hart is one of my favourite artists to work with. She is an incredible singer/lyricist on many levels. Beth’s also as sincere and genuine a friend. She’s amazing.”
Hart last played York Barbican on October 31 2021 on her Thankful tour, when her set list comprised: Isolation: Boogieman; House Of Sin; Spirit Of God; Swing My Thing Back Around; Bottle Of Jesus; Easy; Rub Me For Luck; Picture In A Frame; Good As It Gets; Waterfalls; Saved; Without Words In The Way; Sugar Shack; Can’t Let Go; Spanish Lullabies; Good Day To Cry; Caught Out In The Rain; encores, Trouble, Chocolate Jesus, Leave The Light On, Thankful and War In My Mind.
Bread & Circuses, by Sarah Hall Baqai, from her exhibition at Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb, York
FROM the terrors of Paranormal Activity to circus art, York’s four-day jazz festival to Brian Bilston’s egg-laying poetry, Charles Hutchinson looks ahead to October cultural opportunities.
Exhibition opening of the week: Sarah Hall Baqai, Bread & Circuses, Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb Road, Acomb, York, until November 19
YORK artist Sarah Hall Baqai’s new collection of artworks has the theme of Bread & Circuses, a phrase taken from Roman poet Juvenal’s work Satire X, written in 100AD. In a nutshell, “give them bread and circuses and they will never revolt”, on account of being distracted.
Distraction does not come brighter and more entertaining visually than Sarah’s paintings inspired by life behind the scenes at the circus (from her work with Gifford’s Circus and Fools Delight Circus at Ham Court, Bampton), complemented by lettering and graphic work celebrating York Minster and willow lanterns in the shape of jugglers’ sticks.
James Bye’s James arms himself with a baseball bat in Paranormal Activity. Picture: Credit: Johan Persson
Psychological thriller of the week: Paranormal Activity, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees
IN a new story inspired by the worldwide horror phenomenon, Paranormal Activity is directed by immersive theatre pioneer and Punchdrunk artistic director Felix Barrett and written by Levi Holloway, the playwright behind Broadway hit Grey House.
When James (James Bye) and Lou (Hannah Sinclair Robinson) move from Chicago to London to escape their past, soon they discover that places are not haunted, but people are. Can you hold your nerve in the face of this chilling production on its first British and Irish tour? Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Roham Bayat’s poster for the inaugural YorkJazzFest
Festival of the week: YorkJazzFest, tomorrow to Sunday
BEPPE Lombardo, soprano saxophone player in his Italian teenage days and supremo of Trinicria Sicilian Ristorante in Bishopthorpe Road for 15 years, is running the inaugural YorkJazzFest with funding from York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority Mayor David Skaith.
Angel On The Green, York Arts Barge, Young Thugs Studio, the Phoenix Inn and The Winning Post play host to concerts on the first three days, culminating in the Bishopthorpe Road Car Park Finale on Sunday, topped off by sets by Dennis Rollins’ Funky-Funk and Ian Chalk. For full listings and tickets, go to: yorkjazzfestival.com.
Masked up: Pop Yer Clogs Theatre in Doctor Faustus. Picture supplied
Devil in the detail of the week: Pop Yer Clogs Theatre in Doctor Faustus, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York , tomorrow to Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
YORK company Pop Yer Clogs Theatre delivers a devilishly clever new twist on Doctor Faustus, placing a woman, Doctor Joan Faustus, at the epicentre of Christopher Marlowe’s late-16th century cautionary tale of ambition, temptation and damnation.
Director Lydia McCudden plays Faustus, who strikes a terrible deal by selling her soul to Lucifer in exchange for knowledge, power and worldly pleasures, only to encounter the Seven Deadly Sins. Cue masks, commedia dell’arte, dark comedy and gothic tragedy as Hell awaits. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Ben Portsmouth: Performing Presley’s pearls with his Taking Care Of Elvis Band at York Barbican
King of The King tribute shows: Ben Portsmouth: This Is Elvis, York Barbican, Friday, 7.30pm
REGARDED as the “closest living performer to the legendary Elvis Presley”, Ben Portsmouth has enjoyed success in more than 20 countries and became the first European to be crowned by Elvis Presley Enterprises as the Worldwide Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artist in Memphis in 2012.
This Is Elvis takes an immersive journey through Presley’s greatest hits from his rockabilly roots to the dazzling Las Vegas years in the company of Portsmouth and the Taking Care Of Elvis Band. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
The Bar-Steward Sons Of Val Doonican: Satirical comedy lyrics on folk instruments from Barnsley
“Sexy knitwear” gig of the week: The Bar-Steward Sons Of Val Doonican, Milton Rooms, Malton, Friday, 7.30pm
FOUNDED in Barnsley Rock City in 2006 by their outspoken and energetic ringleader Scott Doonican, The Bar-Steward Sons Of Val Doonican are on a mission.
Anything but a typical folk ensemble, this collective of like-minded knitwear enthusiasts – Scott, Mo-Jo Doonican, Dave Doonican and the Reight Reverend Jeremiah Rickenbacker III – are determined to follow in their spiritual father’s immortal footsteps, keeping his legacy alive while Bar-Stewardising other famous people’s songs with satirical comedy lyrics on folk instruments, from Jump Ararnd to Goat Yoga. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.
Mark Harrison Band: Songs and stories at Helmsley Arts Centre
Where folk meets the blues: Mark Harrison Band, Helmsley Arts Centre, Saturday, 7.30pm
MARK Harrison writes original songs for today in the spirit of the great troubadours, coupled with stories to make you smile, move and think in a world where blues, roots and folk collide.
Finger-picking and slide guitarist Harrison is joined by Charles Benfield on double bass and Ben Welburn on drums and percussion to create a rhythm section that defies convention, as heard on eight albums to date. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Alchemy Live: Performing the songs of Dire Straits at Kirk Theatre, Pickering
In Dire Straits: Alchemy Live, Kirk Theatre, Pickering, Saturday, 7.30pm
ALCHEMY Live were formed in 2020 by life-long Mark Knopfler fans and full-time musicians Martin Ledger and Neil Scott, who used the Covid pandemic and resultant lockdowns to put their Dire Straits tribute project in motion. Rehearsals started in 2021 after the worst of the pandemic was over, their first show being scheduled in York for Friday the 13th of May 2022 (what could possibly go wrong)?
They have never looked back, progressing to playing theatres since 2023. “It’s always been our ethos to concentrate on getting the music and sound right, rather than just putting on headbands and shiny jackets,” says frontman Ledger. Box office: 01751 474833 or kirktheatre.co.uk.
Brian Bilston: Showcasing his latest poetry collection at Milton Rooms, Malton
Poet of the week: Brian Bilston, How To Lay An Egg With A Horse Inside, Milton Rooms, Malton, Sunday, 7.30pm
BRIAN Bilston, a poet with more than 500,000 followers on social media, returns to the stage this autumn with his latest book, How To Lay An Egg With A Horse Inside, as he takes a journey through the hows, whys and whats of reading, writing and enjoying poetry every day.
Bilston has published such collections as You Took The Last Bus Home, Alexa, What Is There To Know About Love? and Days Like These, along with debut novel Diary Of A Somebody, poetry for younger readers and his 2025 album of poetry set to music, Sounds Made By Humans, recorded in collaboration with The Catenary Wires. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.
Olly Murs: Enjoying a Knees Up at Live At York Museum Gardens next July
Gig announcement of the week: Futuresound presents Olly Murs, Live At York Museum Gardens, July 9 2027
ESSEX singer-songwriter and The Voice UK coach Olly Murs is the first headline act to be confirmed for next summer’s Live At York Museum Gardens 2027 season, when the event will be expanded to two weekends for the first time. Special guests for that day’s bill are still to be announced.
Murs, 42, returns to the York outdoors after his hat trick of appearances at York Racecourse in 2010, 2017 and 2024. He rose to fame on The X Factor in 2009, since when he has released eight studio albums of pop, indie, ska and disco, the latest being last November’s Knees Up. Box office: York postcode pre-sale from today at https://futuresound.seetickets.com/event/olly-murs/york-museum-gardens/3730256?pre=postcode; general sale from Friday, 10am, at https://futuresound.seetickets.com/event/olly-murs/york-museum-gardens/3730256.
In Focus: Carlos Acosta’s Acosta Danza in Cuban Baroque, York Theatre Royal, October 1, 7.30pm, October 2, 2pm, and October 3, 2.30pm and 7.30pm
Acosta Danza in Cuban Baroque. Picture: Johan Persson
IN this new double bill from Acosta Danza, the lush artistry of the Baroque period intersects with the energy, creativity and vibrancy of Cuban dance. Emerging from the 17th and 18th centuries, the creative movement was characterised by deep colour, elaborate detail and intricate decoration.
Produced by Valid Productions in collaboration with York Theatre Royal, Cuban Baroque opens with the world premiere of Andonis Foniadakis’s new work Pearls, a journey to the rhythmic heart of Baroque, followed by choreographer and set designer Goyo Montero’s 2011 work Chacona.
Artistic director Carlos Acosta says: “I am very excited about this programme which will encapsulate the essence of Acosta Danza, fusing as it will, classical, Cuban and contemporary vocabularies and styles.
“I am, of course, a big fan of both choreographers and am delighted that Andonis will create a brand-new piece on my dancers. I look forward to seeing how that develops over the coming months.
“The flavour of the evening is summarised neatly by the title Cuban Baroque, but essentially this is a programme that anyone interested in any kind of dance can enjoy. I look forward, as always, to seeing how audiences react to the atmosphere this programme will create at its premiere in our first-ever visit to the wonderful York Theatre Royal.”
Theatre Royal chief executive Paul Crewes says: “It is truly wonderful that York audiences will be the first to experience this phenomenally exciting dance programme on our stage and we are really looking forward to working in collaboration with Carlos Acosta and his company on the show.”
Set to Esteban Sallas’s Salve Regina, the work explores the classic chaconne-looping structure that circles through phases of acceleration, fracture and rebound. As the score shifts from Baroque lyricism toward Cuban drive, Foniadakis showcases the fusion between memory and contemporary.
Andonis Foniadakis says: “The piece is being built as a chaconne in the broadest sense: a looping architecture that keeps circling back to the same theme like a mantra, each return opening a new variation in colour, density and impulse.
Cuban rhythmic principles will seep into the texture (clave, layered pulses, dance-derived momentum) and begin to tilt the baroque theme from within — bringing Sallas’s music fully into the present.
“In this dialogue, contrast becomes fusion: baroque memory meets Cuban propulsion; choral breath meets percussive drive; live sound meets a discreet electronic halo — shaping a single energetic trajectory that stays clear, intense, and emotionally resonant.”
Closing the 1hr 20 min programme is Goyo Montero’s powerful Chacona, a piece that originally was created for the Staatstheater Nürnberg Ballett during Montero’s 17-year tenure as director. Chacona is the final movement of Bach’s masterwork Partita No.2 in D Minor for violin, accompanied in this performance by guitar and piano. Physically and musically demanding, classical in sound and contemporary in heart, it requires total cohesion from the ensemble of 16 dancers.
Goyo Montero says: “This is going to be my fourth collaboration with Acosta Danza since 2015. To bring this work to them and adapt it to their fearless and exceptional dancers is something I am looking forward to very much. To restage this early work and revisit it for them will develop the work further and keep it alive, relevant and ever changing, a choreographer’s dream!”
A Q&A with the company will follow tomorrow’s performance. In addition, Acosta Danza will hold an Open Class on Saturday at 10am on the Theatre Royal stage in an exclusive opportunity to watch how the dancers warm up and prepare ahead of a performance. This non-participatory event is open to all ages.
The York Theatre Royal premiere of Cuban Baroque will be followed by performances at Sadler’s Wells in London and Norwich Theatre Royal with further 2027 dates to be added. Box office for shows and Open Class: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Closing the 1hr 20 min programme is Goyo Montero’s powerful Chacona, a piece that originally was created for the Staatstheater Nürnberg Ballett during Montero’s 17-year tenure as director. Chacona is the final movement of Bach’s masterwork Partita No.2 in D Minor for violin, accompanied in this performance by guitar and piano. Physically and musically demanding, classical in sound and contemporary in heart, it requires total cohesion from the ensemble of 16 dancers.
Goyo Montero says: “This is going to be my fourth collaboration with Acosta Danza since 2015. To bring this work to them and adapt it to their fearless and exceptional dancers is something I am looking forward to very much. To restage this early work and revisit it for them will develop the work further and keep it alive, relevant and ever changing, a choreographer’s dream!”
A post-show discussion with the company will follow Thursday’s 7.30pm show. In addition, Acosta Danza will hold an Open Class on Saturday (3/10/2026) at 10am on the Theatre Royal stage in an exclusive opportunity to watch how the dancers warm up and prepare ahead of a performance. This non-participatory event is open to all ages.
The York Theatre Royal premiere of Cuban Baroque will be followed by performances at Sadler’s Wells in London and Norwich Theatre Royal with further 2027 dates to be added. Box office for shows and Open Class: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Will Young: The Evergreen 25th Anniversary Tour heads for York and Sheffield. Picture: Joseph Sinclair
POP Idol’s first winner, Will Young, will mark the silver jubilee of that landmark victory on the Evergreen 25th Anniversary tour next year.
His celebratory 16-date itinerary with a full band will feature two Yorkshire venues: York Barbican on February 25 2027 and Sheffield City Hall on February 27. General sales for the York show open at 10am on October 2 athttps://www.yorkbarbican.co.uk/whats-on/will-young-27/; for Sheffield, same time, same day, at https://www.sheffieldcityhall.co.uk/will-young/.
Young, 47, says: “To reach 25 years is a privilege and an honour. Who knew entering a competition by cutting out a piece from the newspaper would lead to the most exciting 20 weeks of my life in Pop Idol and a relationship with the public that has lasted for so long.
“People voted and trusted me and that has forever been a dream come true. I can’t wait to celebrate with the full band and get to play Evergreen, as well as all the songs that have come since, from Light My Fire to You And I to Leave Right Now to Jealousy and onwards. Can’t wait to see everyone who trusted in me during Pop Idol and since at the anniversary shows.”
Wokingham-born and Wellington College, University of Exeter and Arts Educational School-educated Young was catapulted virtually overnight into international fame from winning the inaugural Pop Idol talent competition in 2002.
Soul-pop singer Young has carved a career in music, on stage in musical theatre (Cabaret and Strictly Ballroom The Musical) and on screen (Mrs Henderson Presents), earning two BRIT Awards, an Olivier Award nomination, four number one and 11 UK Top Ten albums.
He has 11 Top Ten singles to his name too: Anything Is Possible/Evergreen (number one); Light My Fire (number one); The Long And Winding Road (with Bradford’s Gareth Gates, number one); Don’t Let Me Down/You And I (number two); Leave Right Now (number one); Your Game (number three); Friday’s Child (number four); Switch It On (number five); All Time Love (number three ); Changes (number ten) and Jealousy (number five), his last Top Ten success in 2011. In the same year, Who Am I just missed out, peaking at number 11.
Will Young’s 16-date itinerary for his Evergreen 25th Anniversary Tour next February and March
For the record, in 2021, he released a single called Elizabeth Taylor that failed to match its inspiration’s glittering career by not bothering the Top 100.
On the Evergreen 25th Anniversary Tour, Young will play “all the hits across his two-decade-plus journey in music” that has seen him “captivate listeners through a diverse palette of original songs by Burt Bacharach, Sia, Groove Armada and Nithin Sawhney”.
To mark the tour announcement, Young has unveiled a new performance of Evergreen (Live from The Evergreen 25th Anniversary Sessions). Watch the video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWzflgKUQiw.
His 2002 debut hit Anything Is Possible/Evergreen sold more than 1.7 million copies, making it the second best-selling single of the 21st century in the UK and one of Britain’s Top 20 best-selling singles of all time.
The Evergreen 25th Anniversary Tour will be Young’s first since his intimate acoustic tour in 2024, in support of his August 2024 Top Five album, Light It Up, when he played the Grand Opera House, York, on September 8.
He last appeared at York Barbican on October 13 2022 on his 20 Years Tour, following his October 20 2019 performance there on his Lexicon Tour travels.
To complement his music career, Young is an author (Funny Peculiar: The Autobiography, To Be A Gay Man, Be Yourself And Happier: The A-Z Of Wellbeing), podcaster in the mental health, wellbeing and LGBTQ+ space and campaigner for animal welfare and rights.
He shares his passion for gardening through Will Young’s Garden Diary on social media, garnering more than 5.6 million views already. September 1 marked the debut of his Young’s first garden design, Out Of The Shadows, created in collaboration with designer Jamie Butterworth for the RHS Wisley Flower Show.
Trinacria restaurateur and YorkJazzFest promoter Beppe Lombardo
BEPPE Lombardo, soprano saxophone player in his Italian teenage days and supremo of Trinacria Sicilian Ristorante in Bishopthorpe Road for 15 years, is running the inaugural YorkJazzFest from Thursday to Sunday.
No fewer than 28 acts will celebrate jazz in all its forms in a festival that vows to “bring together classic sounds, contemporary sounds, great venues and live music lovers across York”.
YorkJazzFest adds up to Four Days, Six Venues, One City. “Jazz is not one sound, one age, one room or one crowd,” says Beppe, who has put together a diverse programme with funding from York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority Mayor David Skaith.
Angel On The Green, York Arts Barge, Young Thugs Studio, the Phoenix Inn and The Winning Post play host to concerts on the first three days, culminating in the Bishopthorpe Road Car Park Finale on Sunday, topped off by sets by the Fergus Quill Quintet and Dennis Rollins’ Funky-Funk, followed by Ian Chalk at the Phoenix.
Dennis Rollins: Promising Funky-Funk! at the Bishopthorpe Road Car Park Finale to YorkJazzFest on Sunday
In part inspired by his father-in-law, Jim Morgan, who runs Catwick Live folk music nights at Catwick Village Hall, near Beverley, Beppe decided to launch YorkJazzFest, noting how his adopted home city had never previously held a city-wide dedicated jazz festival.
“Jim went to Celtic Connections in Glasgow and told me about how impressed he was by this multi-venue festival,” he says. “I thought it was a brilliant idea, so that’s where I started getting inspiration for a festival with lots of venues and a big finale at the Bishy Road car park.”
Beppe already had received more than £4,000 funding for an open-sided marquee – now to be used in the Bishopthorpe Road Christmas Bazaar on November 28 – when he decided on staging the YorkJazzFest finale on a 42 square ft trailer, again open-sided, framed in decorative lighting too, supplied by Event Equipment Hire. “I’ll be co-ordinating the bar on the last day,” he adds.
“The first idea for running a festival came just after Covid, when the council put up some funds to refresh the high street, providing Christmas lights and summer bunting for Bishopthorpe Road.
Lo Vu: Playing YorkJazzFest at Young Thugs Studio at 9.15pm on Thursday
“Then David Skaith came along as the Mayor [of the York & North Yorkshire Combined Authority] and created the [Sustainable] High Street Fund. His office has provided £11,600 funding to enable this festival to go ahead.”
Flamboyant chef and restaurateur he may be, but music has always played a part in Beppe’s life too. “I used to play saxophone in a brass band in Sicily, the Vittoria Youth Brass Band, which was set up to get kids off the streets, with the local council providing funds for free music lessons in schools, studying theory first from [age] nine or ten and paying 75 per cent towards the cost of an instrument,” he says.
“I wanted a tenor sax, but I was told ‘for my height, you should have a soprano saxophone’ as I was 11. It was a bit harder to play, because it has a higher pitch, and it’s easier to get wrong, but I played for seven or eight years, at festivals and funerals, and I loved it.”
Beppe continues: “My father loved reggae, blues and soul, not really jazz, but because I had a sax, I started listening to Charlie Parker and John Coltrane, and I really got into jazz, Miles Davis, Stan Getz, Sonny Rollins, Gerry Mulligan, Chet Baker – and I did like Kenny G too.
Olivia Cuttill: Leading her quintet at York Arts Barge on Saturday at 8.30pm
“But then I went into the Italian army and let the music go, and afterwards I started working on the family farm, in my father’s greenhouses.. He was a strict dad, teaching me a lot – and growing up in Sicily in the 1980s, with the Mafia bosses there, you learn to look after yourself and stay on the straight path.”
Beppe did not want to be a farmer – “I thought it was too risky” – and instead took on a job as a waiter in a Vittoria, learning the skills of making customers comfortable and relaxed, telling jokes: social skills that still apply in running Trinicria and promoting a jazz festival.
Drawing on his mother’s cookery prowess, he became a chef, picked for one of 30 jobs from 1,000 applicants by ClubMed to work in France and Sardinia. York beckoned. “I knew I wanted to learn English, and a friend had done the Erasmus course in York and said it was the Florence of England,” Beppe recalls.
“I arrived on 21st October 2001 at five minutes to midnight and didn’t have anywhere to sleep. My first experience was these four English guys helping me to find a hostel.”
SwanNek: Booked into Young Thugs Studios for 7pm on Saturday
Looking out over Lendal Bridge the following morning, Beppe thought, “Oh my God, this is a beautiful city. It took me only a few days to fall in love with it.”
He has never left, working at Bari, in Shambles, Silvano’s, where he met his wife, and The Dormouse, in Clifton Park Avenue. “That’s where I really learnt English, covering every role, and became ‘the star’ of the place!”
Emboldened, he opened Trinacria in 2012, its name taken from the ancient name of the island of Sicily (whose roughly triangular shape is defined by three headlands). His restaurant runs on a triple bill of “best ice cream, best pizza, best ingredients). “I will not save on ingredients,” says. “I only use ingredients that I would eat.”
As a Sicilian, by the way, he prefers to use semolina as 33 per cent of the pizza base to complement the flour, referring to the softer Neapolitan version as “wet paper”!
After watching gigs at The Crescent and the Phoenix Inn and running a regular Thursday jazz night at his restaurant – now discontinued – he is staging his first jazz festival.
Alina Bzhezhinska: Whispers Of Rain concert at York Arts Barge on Friday at 8.30pm
From Jonny Hooker at Young Thugs Studio to Christian Topman, who runs the York Bargestra Big Band, New York Brass Band trombonist Will Osborne to spreadsheet maestro Philip Thornhill and Miles Lindley, with his contact book of York acts, Beppe has received support for his venture.
Ouroboros promoter Harkirit Boparai helped him to set up the festival website and secured Dennis Rollins and Ukrainian-born harpist and composer Alina Bzhezhinska for the event, while graphic designer Roham Bayat designed the neo-vintage festival poster. Beppe himself signed up Newcastle jazz collective SwanNek and up-and-coming cabaret-style act Rivkala after spotting their talent at Manchester Jazz Festival in May.
Already Beppe has plans for expansion next year, when he may look to switch the festival to early September. “The vision is to make this a legacy event, thinking ‘why have Scarborough, Leeds, Manchester run jazz festivals for so long, but not York?’. York has never had a proper jazz festival. I want to change that,” he says.
“This year we wanted to focus on the South Bank and Bishopthorpe Road area, but my vision is to expand over the city, maybe to church halls, venues that already do jazz concerts, like the National Centre for Early Music, and The Crescent definitely wants to be involved next year.
“This is just a vision, though we don’t know what path we will take yet, but maybe one day we could have a two-day finale with a big headliner at the racecourse? This is only the beginning, but slowly, slowly, we will get bigger and stronger, watering the seeds we’ve sown, and hopefully attracting Arts Council England support.” Watch this space, but watch this week’s festival acts first.
For full listings and tickets, go to: yorkjazzfestival.com.
Roham Bayat’s poster design for the inaugural YorkJazzFest
YorkJazzFest programme, October 1 to 4
Venues: Angel On The Green, Bishopthorpe Road; York Arts Barge, Foss Basin Moorings, Tower Street; Young Thugs Studios, South Bank Social Club, Ovington Terrace; The Phoenix Inn, George Street; The Winning Post, Bishopthorpe Road, and Bishopthorpe Road Car Park for Sunday finale.
Thursday
6pm, Balanco Malandra, Young Thugs Studios
7pm to 8.15pm, Harrison & Morrison Duet, Angel On The Green. Admission free
8pm to 10pm, Brendan Duffy Band, The Phoenix Inn. Admission free
8.30pm, Alligator Gumbo, York Arts Barge
9pm to 10.15pm, The Shandog Swingers, Angel On The Green. Admission free
9.15pm, Lo Vu, Young Thugs Studios
Rivkala: Performing at Young Thugs Studios on Friday at 7pm
Friday
6pm, DB Trio, Angel On The Green. CANCELLED
6pm, York Bargestra Big Band, The Winning Post
6.30pm, Danny Lowndes Hot Club, York Arts Barge
7pm, Rivkala, Young Thugs Studios
8pm, Stephen Swing Wilson, The Winning Post
8pm, Karl Mullen & Friends, The Phoenix Inn. Admission free
8.30pm, Alina Bzhezhinska: Whispers Of Rain, York Arts Barge
9pm, Mike Conliffe Trio, Angel On The Green. Admission free
9.15pm, Afrodesia, Young Thugs Studio
Saturday
6pm, Flowerden, The Winning Post
6pm, Mutant DJ Jazz, Angel On The Green. Admission free
6.30pm, Emma Foulds Quintet, York Arts Barge
7pm, SwanNek, Young Thugs Studios
8.30pm, Al Morrison Quartet, The Winning Post
8.30pm, Olivia Cuttill Quintet, York Arts Barge
9pm, Borgia, Angel On The Green. Admission free
9pm, Lovedancin’ DJ, Young Thugs Studio
Sunday
Bishopthorpe Road Car Park Finale. FREE ENTRY, no ticket required.
12 noon, YorkJazzFest Orchestra
1pm, Vipertime
2.15pm, Big Bamboo
4.15pm, Fergus Quill Sextet
6pm, Dennis Rollins’ Funky-Funk!
8pm to 10.30pm, Ian Chalk, The Phoenix Inn. Admission free.
Ian Chalk: Closing YorkJazzFest at The Phoenix Inn on Sunday at 8pm
Olly Murs: First signing for Futuresound’s expanded Live At York Museum Gardens season next summer
ESSEX singer, songwriter, actor and The Voice UK coach Olly Murs is the first headline act to be confirmed for next summer’s Live At York Museum Gardens 2027 season, when the event will be expanded to two weekends for the first time. Special guests for that day’s bill are still to be announced.
Murs, 42, returns to the York outdoors after his hat trick of appearances at York Racecourse in 2010, 2017 and 2024. He rose to fame on The X Factor in 2009, since when he has released eight studio albums of pop, indie, ska and disco, the latest being last November’s Knees Up.
Murs, a television personality from Starstruck and The Voice UK, has released seven albums and 25 singles, including the number ones Please Don’t Let Me Go, Heart Skips A Beat, Dance With Me Tonight and Troublemaker and Top Five hits Thinking Of Me, Dear Darlin, Wrapped Up and Up.
He last breached the Top 40 in 2017 with Unpredictable, peaking at number 32 in a duet with Louisa Johnson.
Bread & Circuses, by Sarah Hall Baqai, from her exhibition at Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb
FROM the terrors of Paranormal Activity to circus art and entertainment, Tony Blackburn’s Sixties’ celebration to the debut York Jazz Fest, Charles Hutchinson heads into a fruitful autumn.
Exhibition opening of the week: Sarah Hall Baqai, Bread & Circuses, Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb Road, Acomb, York, until November 19
YORK artist Sarah Hall Baqai’s new collection of artworks has the theme of Bread & Circuses, a phrase taken from Roman poet Juvenal’s work Satire X, written in 100AD. In a nutshell, “give them bread and circuses and they will never revolt”, on account of being distracted.
Distraction does not come brighter and more entertaining visually than Sarah’s paintings inspired by life behind the scenes at the circus (from her work with Gifford’s Circus and Fools Delight Circus at Ham Court, Bampton), complemented by lettering and graphic work celebrating York Minster and willow lanterns in the shape of jugglers’ sticks.
Russells International Circus: Intent on delivering in-tent entertainment on Knavesmire this weekend
While on the subject of circuses: Russells International Circus, Knavesmire, York, today, 3pm and 6pm, and tomorrow, 12 noon
ROLL up, roll up, as Russells International Circus, voted Britain’s best circus six years running, brings its new show for 2026 to York. Each two-hour performance is jam-packed with mesmerising aerial displays, jaw-dropping stunts, comedy and more besides. Box office: russellscircus.co.uk.
The Jake Leg Jug Band: Songs of murder, betrayal, gambling, liquor and redemption at Kirk Theatre, Pickering
Ragtime gig of the week: The Jake Leg Jug Band, Kirk Theatre, Pickering, tonight, 7.30pm
THE Jake Leg Jug Band delivers the authentic sounds of 1920s and 1930s’ America – jazz, blues, ragtime and gospel – in songs of murder, betrayal, gambling, liquor and redemption.
Since self-releasing debut album Cotton Mouth, Duncan Wilcox, vocals and double bass, and Warren James, vocals, guitar and banjo, have released a further eight albums in 12 years, among them Next Stop!, Everythin’s Jake, Break A Leg, Fifth Avenue, Goodbye Booze, Hello Central and 2024’s spirituals collection Some Glad Morning. Box office: kirktheatre.co.uk.
Thompson Twins’ Tom Bailey: Heading to York Barbican tonight
Eighties’ double bill of the week: Thompson Twins’ Tom Bailey and Blancmange, York Barbican, tonight, doors 6.30pm
REMEMBER the Thompson Twins, makers of such 1980s’ hits as Hold Me Now, Doctor Doctor, In the Name Of Love, Love On Your Side, If You Were Here, Lies, Lay Your Hands On Me and King For A Day? Tom Bailey, the Sheffield-founded group’s lead vocalist and instrumentalist, now performs under the name Thompson Twins’ Tom Bailey, revisiting his past and showcasing debut solo album Science Fiction.
Tonight he closes his autumn tour at York Barbican, the only Yorkshire location on his 14-date itinerary, when fellow 1980s’ chart act Blancmange support. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Hannah Sinclair Robinson’s Lou and James Bye’s James on terror alert on the stairs in Paranormal Activity, on tour at Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Johan Persson Credit: Johan Persson
Psychological thriller of the week: Paranormal Activity, Grand Opera House, York, September 29 to October 3, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees
IN a new story inspired by the worldwide horror phenomenon, Paranormal Activity is directed by immersive theatre pioneer and Punchdrunk artistic director Felix Barrett and written by Levi Holloway, the playwright behind Broadway hit Grey House.
When James (James Bye) and Lou (Hannah Sinclair Robinson) move from Chicago to London to escape their past, soon they discover that places are not haunted, but people are. Can you hold your nerve in the face of this chilling production on its first British and Irish tour? Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Sounds Of The 60’s Live: Sensational Sixties show at York Barbican
Sixties’ celebration of the week: Sounds Of The 60’s Live, hosted by Tony Blackburn, York Barbican, September 29, 7.30pm
BBC Radio 2 presenter Tony Blackburn hosts an evening of stories and songs from “perhaps the most iconic ten years in music, fashion and popular culture” on the Sounds Of The 60’s tour, 62 years since his first broadcast on pirate radio station Radio Caroline South in 1964.
The Sounds Of The 60’s All Star Band and Singers perform hits by The Everly Brothers, Elvis Presley, The Drifters, Marvin Gaye, a Rolling Stones medley, The Walker Brothers, Diana Ross & The Supremes, The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Stevie Wonder and more besides. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Roham Bayat’s poster design for the four-day York Jazz Fest
Festival of the week: York Jazz Fest, October 1 to 4
BEPPE Lombardo, soprano saxophone player in his Italian teenage days and supremo of Trinicria Sicilian Ristorante in Bishopthorpe Road for 15 years, is running the inaugural York Jazz Fest with funding from York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority Mayor David Skaith.
Angel On The Green, York Arts Barge, Young Thugs Studio, the Phoenix Inn and The Winning Post play host to concerts on the first three days, culminating in the Bishopthorpe Road Car Park Finale next Sunday, topped off by sets by Dennis Rollins’ Funky-Funk and Ian Chalk. For full listings and tickets, go to: yorkjazzfestival.com.
Katy Cawkwell in the poster for Lilith at Rise@Bluebird Bakery
“Shocking, seductive and entertaining” show of the week: Katy Cawkwell in Lilith, Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb, York, October 1, 8.30pm
BEFORE Eve, there was Lilith, as revealed in Katy Cawkwell’s uplifting one-woman storytelling showin an exploration and celebration of female power through the mythological figure of Adam’s first wife.
Lilith was not prepared to lie down and accept what was given to her. Thrown out of Eden, she slithered back in to take her revenge and wake up Eve to what her body could do.
“Viewed as a demon, worshipped as a goddess, adored as the Queen of Sheba, Lilith slips out of the Bible, reclaims the narrative and is dancing with us still, forever free,” says Cawkwell, who mixes myth from Arabia, Ethiopia, Mesopotamia and Jewish tradition with a dash of feminist flavouring and a large dollop of her own wild dreaming. Box office: bluebirdbakery.co.uk/rise.
Ben Portsmouth: Presenting This Is Elvis with the Taking Care Of Elvis Band at York Barbican
Tribute gig of the week: Ben Portsmouth: This Is Elvis, York Barbican, October 2, 7.30pm
REGARDED as the “closest living performer to the legendary Elvis Presley”, Ben Portsmouth has enjoyed success in more than 20 countries and became the first European to be crowned by Elvis Presley Enterprises as the Worldwide Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artist in Memphis in 2012.
This Is Elvis takes an immersive journey through Presley’s greatest hits from his rockabilly roots to the dazzling Las Vegas years in the company of Portsmouth and the Taking Care Of Elvis Band. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
In Focus: Say Owt Slam, featuring Kirsty Taylor and KG, The Crescent, York, tonight, 7.30pm to 10pm
Bradford writer and educator Kirsty Taylor. Picture: Carolyn Mendelsohn
SAY Owt, York’s loveable gang of loveable gang of performance poets, brings the best working-class poets and rappers from Bradford tonight to complement the Say Owt Slam clash of the verbals.
“Since 2014, we’ve hosted high-energy nights of words and verse, bringing together poets, musicians, spoken-word artists, rappers and anyone with a story to tell,” says artistic director Henry Raby.
“We’re always proud of our line-ups, but this could be our most exciting parade of poets yet. It wouldn’t be possible without buzzy audiences showing up and being loud and demanding more and more shows! And it wouldn’t be a Say Owt season without a poetry slam!”
Henry continues: “Say Owt Slam is an energetic battle of words where judges in the audience score the poets and the top-scoring poet is crowned Say Owt Slam champion at the end of the night. Tonight, as well as a top crop of York poets, we have slammers from Glasgow, Manchester and Halifax hoping to win the competition.”
Kemmi Gill: Rapper, poet and youth worker
Tonight’s bill also features two guests from guests from Bradford, Kirsty Taylor and KG (Kemmi Gill). “Kirsty is a writer and educator inspired by her beloved home city of Bradford,” says Henry. “She is passionate about storytelling through poetry and has performed all over the country telling tales about people, class and the realities of Broken Britain.”
Taylor was a BBC Verb New Voice in 2017 and was awarded the Apples and Snakes & Jerwood Arts Poetry in Performance award in 2020. She is the creator of Front Room Poetry, which takes nanna-style living rooms and world-class poets to unusual settings such as car parks and housing estates.
Kirsty opened Bradford’s year as UK City of Culture 2025 in January last year when she performed her words to 20,000 people over the first weekend.
KG (Kemmi Gill) is a Bradford-born rapper, poet and youth worker, hailed by Wordplay Magazine as “one of the sharpest lyricists” in the UK rap scene. “Kemmi combines lyrical storytelling and wordplay to explore themes of struggle and hope and has contributed writing and performance work to major civic projects, such as the open-air spectacular Rise and Common/Wealth’s sell-out show Public Interest,” says Henry.
To book tickets, go to: sayowt.co.uk
In Focus Too: Carlos Acosta’s Acosta Danza in Cuban Baroque, York Theatre Royal, October 1, 7.30pm, October 2, 2pm, and October 3, 2.30pm and 7.30pm
Acosta Danza in Cuban Baroque. Picture: Johan Persson
IN this new double bill from Acosta Danza, the lush artistry of the Baroque period intersects with the energy, creativity and vibrancy of Cuban dance. Emerging from the 17th and 18th centuries, the creative movement was characterised by deep colour, elaborate detail and intricate decoration.
Produced by Valid Productions in collaboration with York Theatre Royal, Cuban Baroque opens with the world premiere of Andonis Foniadakis’s new work Pearls, a journey to the rhythmic heart of Baroque, followed by choreographer and set designer Goyo Montero’s 2011 work Chacona.
Artistic director Carlos Acosta says: “I am very excited about this programme which will encapsulate the essence of Acosta Danza, fusing as it will, classical, Cuban and contemporary vocabularies and styles.
“I am, of course, a big fan of both choreographers and am delighted that Andonis will create a brand-new piece on my dancers. I look forward to seeing how that develops over the coming months.
“The flavour of the evening is summarised neatly by the title Cuban Baroque, but essentially this is a programme that anyone interested in any kind of dance can enjoy. I look forward, as always, to seeing how audiences react to the atmosphere this programme will create at its premiere in our first ever visit to the wonderful York Theatre Royal.”
Theatre Royal chief executive Paul Crewes says:“It is truly wonderful that York audiences will be the first to experience this phenomenally exciting dance programme on our stage and we are really looking forward to working in collaboration with Carlos Acosta and his company on the show.”
Set to Esteban Sallas’s Salve Regina, the work explores the classic chaconne-looping structure that circles through phases of acceleration, fracture and rebound. As the score shifts from Baroque lyricism toward Cuban drive, Foniadakis showcases the fusion between memory and contemporary.
Andonis Foniadakissays: “The piece is being built as a chaconne in the broadest sense: a looping architecture that keeps circling back to the same theme like a mantra, each return opening a new variation in colour, density and impulse.
Cuban rhythmic principles will seep into the texture (clave, layered pulses, dance-derived momentum) and begin to tilt the baroque theme from within — bringing Sallas’s music fully into the present.
“In this dialogue, contrast becomes fusion: baroque memory meets Cuban propulsion; choral breath meets percussive drive; live sound meets a discreet electronic halo — shaping a single energetic trajectory that stays clear, intense, and emotionally resonant.”
Closing the 1hr 20 min programme is Goyo Montero’s powerful Chacona, a piece that originally was created for the Staatstheater Nürnberg Ballett during Montero’s 17-year tenure as director. Chacona is the final movement of Bach’s masterwork Partita No.2 in D Minor for violin, accompanied in this performance by guitar and piano. Physically and musically demanding, classical in sound and contemporary in heart, it requires total cohesion from the ensemble of 16 dancers.
Goyo Montero says: “This is going to be my fourth collaboration with Acosta Danza since 2015. To bring this work to them and adapt it to their fearless and exceptional dancers is something I am looking forward to very much. To restage this early work and revisit it for them will develop the work further and keep it alive, relevant and ever changing, a choreographer’s dream!”
A post-show discussion with the company will follow Thursday’s 7.30pm show. In addition, Acosta Danza will hold an Open Class next Saturday (3/10/2026) at 10am on the Theatre Royal stage in an exclusive opportunity to watch how the dancers warm up and prepare ahead of a performance. This non-participatory event is open to all ages.
The York Theatre Royal premiere of Cuban Baroque will be followed by performances at Sadler’s Wells in London and Norwich Theatre Royal with further 2027 dates to be added. Box office for shows and Open Class: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Acosta Danza in Cuban Baroque: the intersection of Baroque lush artistry with the energy, creativity and vibrancy of Cuban dance. Picture: Johan Persson
“WE are lost for words,” say Shed Seven. “Most of our January instore shows sold out in seconds.”
Their reaction? “We’re absolutely blown away. Thank you so much to everyone who bought an album and is coming along to celebrate with us. It genuinely means the world.
“The response has been so incredible that we’ve managed to add extra matinee performances: January 8, Rough Trade, Bristol; January 10, Rough Trade East London; January 11, Rough Trade, Nottingham, and January 12, Wax & Beans, Bury.”
The York band’s statement continues: “A very small number of tickets remain for HMV in-stores in Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow. If you missed out first time around, now’s your chance…
“We loved every minute of our last record shop tour and, after that response, we already know these are going to be something special.”
Tickets for the Sheds’ instore tour of stripped-back performances and signings went on sale at 10am this morning. Entry is available by pre-ordering a copy of January 8 2027’s new album, Shed Seven, from the selected retailer hosting each event at https://s7.lnk.to/s7instores.
To coincide with the ticket launch, the Sheds have released new single The Centre Of My Everything, ahead of next year’s arrival of their self-titled seventh studio album on Cooking Vinyl. Pre-orders can be made at https://s7.lnk.to/shedseven.
This follows the album’s lead single, Stand Together, a “muscular, sky-scraping” song that was added quickly to radio playlists. Now, The Centre Of My Everything shows another side of the upcoming album, calling on sweeping strings and a rousing chorus to deliver “one of the most widescreen songs of their career”.
Lead singer Rick Witter comments on the feeling behind the song: “That feeling when love is all there is, when two are entwined as one, when nothing else matters apart from the other, when you can’t imagine a life lived alone, when you truly think of someone as being The Centre Of My Everything.” Listen to the track at https://s7.lnk.to/myeverythingPR.
The Sheds originally announced Up Close & Intimate Album Release Tour 2027 dates at: Rough Trade, Bristol, January 8; Vinolo, Southampton (matinee), January 9; Rough Trade East, London, January 10; Rough Trade, Nottingham, January 11; Wax & Beans, Bury, January 12; Jacaranda, Liverpool, January 13; HMV Vault, Birmingham, January 14; HMV, Manchester, January 15, and HMV, Glasgow, January 16. Now the new shows have been added, as highlighted above.
Matinee idols: Shed Seven are adding more shows to their instore tour
This is the state of play on Shed Seven’s 2026 shows:
A Maximum High live dates
Oct 15 – Birmingham O2 Institute
Oct 16 – Kingston Circuit – SOLD OUT
Oct 17 – London Scala – SOLD OUT
Oct 29 – Northampton Roadmender – SOLD OUT
Oct 30 – Manchester Academy 2 – SOLD OUT
Oct 31 – Glasgow Barrowland – SOLD OUT
SHEDCEMBER X 2026 live dates
Nov 12 – Nottingham Rock City – LOW TICKETS
Nov 13 – Nottingham Rock City – SOLD OUT
Nov 14 – Birmingham O2 Academy 1 – SOLD OUT
Nov 16 – Blackburn King George’s Hall
Nov 17 – Norwich The Nick Rayns LCR, UEA – LOW TICKETS
Nov 19 – Aberdeen Music Hall – LOW TICKETS
Nov 20 – Glasgow O2 Academy – SOLD OUT
Nov 21 – Edinburgh Usher Hall – LOW TICKETS
Nov 23 – Leicester O2 Academy 1
Nov 24 – Brighton Dome
Nov 26 – Cardiff University Great Hall
Nov 27 – Sheffield Octagon – SOLD OUT
Nov 28 – Newcastle O2 City Hall – SOLD OUT
Nov 30 – Cambridge Corn Exchange – LOW TICKETS
Dec 1 – Bristol Beacon – LOW TICKETS
Dec 3- Stockton Globe
Dec 4 – Liverpool Uni The Mountford Hall – LOW TICKETS
Dec 5 – Manchester O2 Apollo – SOLD OUT
Dec 7- Lincoln Engine Shed
Dec 8 – Stoke-On-Trent Victoria Hall
Dec 10 – Bournemouth O2 Academy
Dec 11 – London O2 Brixton Academy – SOLD OUT
Dec 12 – Leeds O2 Academy – SOLD OUT
Dec 13 – Leeds O2 Academy – LOW TICKETS
The track listing for Shed Seven’s Shed Seven album will be: Stand Together; The Fifth Amendment; The Centre Of My Everything; Lost In Space (featuring Lotte Witter); Winter; We Got The Love (featuring Elles Bailey); What Becomes Of The Ones You Left Behind; Can’t Help It; Let The Good Times Roll and Drifting.
The Sheds will be seeking to match their achievements in 2024, when they topped the album charts for the first time in January that year with A Matter Of Time, followed only ten months later by a second number one with Liquid Gold, placing them alongside artists such as The Beatles, Elton John and David Bowie in notching two UK number one albums within a single calendar year.
Velma Celli: Heading to Joseph Rowntree Theatre on October 18
YORK vocal drag act deluxe and international multi-award winning cabaret superstar Velma Cell is on the move to a new location for her camp, spectacular song and comedy home-city shows.
“My first ever show with a dance solo as a kid was at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, so I thought it would be fun to go back there,” says Velma’s creator, actor and West End star Ian Stroughair, who will be presenting The Velma Celli Show at the JoRo on October 18 with special guest Jessica Steel and guitarists Stuart Allan and Olly Chilton.
“My last two shows at York Theatre Royal – Snow Queen and Rock Queen – had been among my favourites, so next month’s show will be a mixture of Snow Queen and Rock Queen and musical theatre material.”
Ian continues: “The first set will be musical theatre favourites, songs from my career in West End musicals – Cats, Fame, Chicago and Rent – and an homage to Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand. In the second set we’ll rock out with York. There’ll be songs by David Bowie, Freddie Mercury, Bryan Adams, Bonnie Tyler…
Velma Celli and special guest Jessica Steel
“I was supposed to be doing a cruise show with Bonnie, but that couldn’t happen [after her passing in July].”
Velma Celli’s rock repertoire also will take in Guns N’ Roses’ Sweet Child O’ Mine, rock songs re-imagined as power ballads and a rock revamp of Chris Isaak’s Wicked Game. “There’ll be some Roxette, some Alanis Morissette, possibly Ironic, from Jagged Little Pill, which has to be one of the greatest albums ever. I’ll probably do the Alanis number as a duet with Jessica.”
October 18’s audience should expect one more ingredient. “There’ll be a Dolly Parton section too – there has to be,” says Ian.
Velma Celli has another October engagement in the diary, appearing as the master of ceremonies at the Yorktoberfest Beer Festival for the sixth successive year, this time in its new Big Top tent in the Clocktower Enclosure at York Racecourse on October 16, 17, 23 and 24.
In the pink: Velma Celli launching Country Drag Brunch at Silver Spur Saloon Bar tomorrow
“I’ll be doing six appearances,” says Ian. “I’m going to be in butch German lesbian mode as usual, singing my hit song Das Ist Gut, Ja! There’ll be plenty of sausage, lots of audience participation, and of course alcohol – and we’ll be joined by a fabulous oompah band, The Bavarian Strollers, to fill in the gaps between me.”
Velma, the only drag queen to appear in both EastEnders and Coronation Street, has found another new home too, switching the Bottomless Drag Brunch from Impossible York to The Silver Spur, the Nashville-inspired, cowboy-themed saloon bar and restaurant in Bridge Street. “We’re going country, rock, pop and bottomless [drinks], with food and Velma in pink,” says Ian, whose first brunch with a country & western theme will be at 1pm to 3pm tomorrow (26/9/2026).
“I hosted a show at the O2 in London in June last year for Flight Centre, the travel agents, with a Day-Glo Rodeo theme, so I learned a lot of country material for that. Now country music is really in, here in York, with the opening of the Silver Spur, followed by Ruby Rae’s Bar.
“Dolly Parton’s songs will be heavily featured, along with Shania Twain, LeAnn Rimes, Kelly Clarkson, Beyonce’s country songs and Miley Cyrus.”
Portuguese jazz singer Raquel Alvaro: Performing with The Jazzville Quinteton October 24
YORK Theatre Royal Studio will be transformed into The Old Paint Shop cabaret club once more for an autumn season of 13 shows spanning spoken word to vibraphone, burlesque to anarchic bingo from October 7 to 24.
As ever, seating will be cabaret club style and unreserved, offering a unique theatrical experience where you can “grab a drink at the bar, sit back, relax and enjoy the show in York’s most exciting nightspot”.
Here are the acts in store:
October 7, Vibe-ology
LED by John Settle’s vibraphone, underpinned by blazing Hammond Organ, soulful drums and Al Morrison’s guitar, York quartet Vibe-ology play jazz, blues, funk and Latin.
Collectively, band members have worked Corinne Bailey, Rae, the New Mastersounds, Haggis Horns, Martina Topley-Bird, New York Brass Band, Larry Carlton, Alan Barnes, Dennis Rollins and countless others. Expect an eclectic programme from four of the north’s busiest players.
October 8, Evolution Of Fishermen
BROUGHT together by a mutual love of storytelling, harmony and original folk songs in 2021, contemporary folk band Evolution Of have played venues such as Green Note, O2 Academy Islington, Old Blue Last in London and The Crescent in York. They have appeared at festivals such as Wilderness, Deer Shed, Gate To Southwell, LOOP Fest and Sam Lee’s The NEST stage at Medicine Festival too.
October 9, Boogaloo Stu presents Big Squiffy Bingo
BOOGALO Stu is “altogether completely ridiculous, simply fabulous and utterly idiotic” as he hosts a night of gloriously playful and anarchic bingo where utter filth, joyous fun and flashmob dances collide.
“You’ll get non-stop nonsense, outrageous antics, buttock-clenching workouts, hilarious prizes and some very ballsy bingo to boot,” promises Stu, whose gift hamper will be stuffed to the brim with all manner of exotic prizes. “So come on down and win it big!”
October 10, Beverley Beirne Quartet
JAZZ singer Beverley Beirne has performed at leading clubs throughout the UK and Europe. For this performance, she brings with her two highly regarded jazz musicians from the London scene, pianist John Crawford and double bassist Andy Hamill, along with northern drummer Steve Hanley.
October 14, Henry Raby, Hope and Anger
YORK punk poet and Say Owt supremo Henry Raby wrestles through the twin emotions of hope and anger with a spoken-word cocktail of poetry and comedy as he seeks to understand the righteous and the rotten. “Come and share in fist-clenched frustration and celebrate examples of the world, and the heartfelt people in it, at their shiniest and brightest,” says Henry.
October 15, Hannah Rowe
NORTHERN silky vocalist Hannah Rowe will be backed by her ten-piece band at The Old Paint Shop on the first stop of her autumn tour. Described as Yorkshire’s answer to Raye and Olivia Dean, she is a standout in the independent music scene, gracing stages at Tramlines, Truck, Y Not and Victorious Festival with her jazz-infused soulful sound and timeless writing.
October 16, Freida Nipples presents…The Exhibitionists
JOIN York’s own internationally award-winning burlesque artist Freida Nipples as she welcomes some of her favourite and most fabulous performance artists from across the UK and further afield to The Old Paint Shop.
“From burlesque to drag and beyond, be sure to expect the unexpected,” says Freida. “Only a few things are guaranteed: glamour, gags and giggles. Get ready to explore the world of The Exhibitionists.”
October 17, Alligator Gumbo
THE seven-piece Alligator Gumbo 7-piece play jazz from the heyday of the New Orleans swing/jazz era, in particular the “Roaring Twenties”, when music was raw and largely improvised with melodies and solos happening simultaneously.
Performing extensively for more than ten years, Alligator Gumbo have made numerous appearances at international jazz festivals and clubs throughout the country, establishing themselves as favourites on the British jazz scene.
October 20, Coming Out Scratch Night
THIS sparkling one-off night of new LGBTQ+ performances by actors, poets and writers features eight stories in various styles, each exploring the highs (and occasional lows) of coming out.
The show is produced by Yorkshire queer touring theatre company Roots, winners of an Edinburgh Fringe First award for Happy Meal, with all proceeds going towards their support of new local artists.
October 21, Pen and Stu – Folk!
MODERN folk duo Pen and Stu play original contemporary folk with BIG whistles, tenor guitars and an assortment of other instruments. Their songs, written by Pen and arranged by Stu, tell stories of famous characters from history and folklore, heroes, villains and pirate queens.
Their Folk! show comprises plenty of wonderful traditional and original tunes and songs, including unreleased tracks and favourite folk covers.
October 22, (Fool)ish Improv: About Time
YORKSHIRE improvisers Fool(ish), return to The Old Paint Shop to deliver their usual comedic chaos inspired by you, the audience. “Together, we will rewrite the history of York by travelling through time, ignoring the experts and rediscovering what really makes York tick,” they say.
“Unvictorious Vikings, Random Romans, Wandering Wizards and brand-new ghost stories (that you wish had stayed buried) all combine in this unlikely history instantly improvised in the present moment. About Time is the time-travelling improv comedy show powered by laughter and inviting you to play with our past.”
October 23, Say Owt Showcase
THE Say Owt Showcase evening of poetry, music and comedy veers from the righteous to the raucous to the heartfelt and back again, brought to you by the same gobby gang that have been proudly packing out The Crescent for years.
Veterans of the Edinburgh Fringe and highly commended in the York Culture Awards, let Hannah Davies, Stu Freestone, Jarmouse and Henry Raby entertain you.
October 24, The Jazzville Quintet with Raquel Alvaro and Alec Robinson
AFTER two sold-out shows at The Old Paint Shop, The Jazzville Quintet return for a joyful celebration of Latin, swing and haunting jazz ballads, led by the fabulous Portuguese jazz songbird, Raquel Alvaro.
A graduate of Leeds Conservatoire, Raquel is adept at many styles of singing, embracing classical, Fado and all styles of jazz. Joining Raquel is piano maestro, arranger and composer, Alec Robinson, her fellow Leeds Conservatoire graduate, alongside saxophone star, Alex Fisher, Chris Sykes on drums and Tim Murgatroyd on double bass.
All shows start at 8pm apart from Coming Out Scratch Night at 7pm. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Denys Baptiste: Teaming up with Tomorrow’s Warriors band leader and double bass player Gary Crosby in an all-star quartet for A Love Supreme on November 25
THE National Centre for Early Music’s autumn season presents a host of artists from across the world at St Margaret’s Church, Walmgate, York.
Opening the season on September 27 will be Irish singer and bouzouki and mandola player Andy Irvine, “ a tradition in himself” after 60 years of telling tales and making music. Joining him on the 6.30pm bill will be the award-winning Swedish folk band Quilty, celebrating their 30th anniversary.
Described by the late Jeff Beck as “the best guitarist in the world” and by Pat Metheny as “one of the most awesome solo guitar players in history”, fingerstyle player Martin Taylor returns to the NCEM on October 4 at 6.30pm.
Six decades into his career, his new solo show, Standards, celebrates the golden age of jazz through evocative arrangements of tunes from the Great American Songbook.
Polish-Belarusian band Hajda Banda: Rural music performed on acoustic village instruments on October 9. Picture: Michal Kalita
On October 9, the NCEM teams up with Songlines to present Polish-Belarusian band Hajda Banda, who specialise in traditional dances from eastern Poland’s Podlaise region, the western provinces of Belarus and the wetlands of Polesye, a cultural crossroads on the Poland-Ukraine- Belarus border. Audience members will be encouraged to dance, if they wish, to rural music performed on acoustic village instruments.
City Of Poets’ concert on October 10 reunites musicians across the Soviet-Chinese divide through an exploration of the maqam-based classical repertoire of the Central Asian Uzbek and Uyghur peoples. A group of players from different sides of the border, led by Abror Zufarov and Saniyem Ismail, focus on the works of 17th century mystic poet and wandering dervish Baba Rahim Mashrab, whose poetry continues to inspire musicians on both sides of the divide.
Grammy Award winners Tim Garland, mezzo-soprano saxophone, and Geoffrey Keezer, piano, return to the NCEM on October 12 with their new duet album Mezzo, recorded in a single, five-hour session in New York, capturing the intensity, fearless creativity and breathtaking interplay of their 25-year musical partnership.
The concert will begin at 7.20pm with a performance by York Music Forum young jazz players after they worked with Garland and Keezer earlier in the day.
Fiddlers at the double: Grace Smith and Sam Sweeney, playing the NCEM on October 25. Picture: Kate Griffin
Revered English folk acoustic and slide guitar player Martin Simpson plays solo on October 20, combining passion, sorrow, love, beauty, tragedy and majesty in his performance after 32 nominations over the 18 years of the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. His new album, Some Kind Of Jubilee, arrives on September 25 on Topic Records, marking 50 years since the release of his debut, Golden Vanity.
Bellowhead alumnus Sam Sweeney joins fellow fiddler Grace Smith at the NCEM for the first time on October 25 at 6.30pm. Rooted in tradition, yet constantly pushing boundaries, they bring a shared passion for reimagining archive material, championing new compositions and creating music both authentic and forward-looking.
Northern Silents presents Curtis Bernhardt’s 1929 German silent film The Woman Men Yearn For with a live music score performed by pianist Jonny Best on October 28. Marlene Dietrich ignites the screen in a tale of danger and desire, wherein Henri marries a wealthy heiress to save the family business , but on the eve of his honeymoon, he glimpses a mysterious woman through a frosted train window. Once their eyes meet, a chain of passion and betrayal hurtles towards disaster.
Based in London, She’Koyokh arrive at the NCEM on November 1 at 6.30pm with a line-up as diverse as their music-making. Their members hail from Turkey, Serbia, Spain and the UK: three are graduates from London’s Royal Academy of Music; two are esteemed jazz players; accordionist Zivorad Nikolic is among Serbia’s finest exponents of traditional folklore; singer Cigdem Aslan is a celebrity in the world of rembetiko music and Susi Evans is a queen of the klezmer clarinet. Together they perform the folk music traditions of Jewish Eastern Europe, Turkey and the Balkans.
She’Koyokh: Performing folk music traditions of Jewish Eastern Europe, Turkey and the Balkans on November 1
Led by composer, musician and visionary James Lascelles, now returned to the Harewood estate, Talking Spirits play a blend of world-jazz, folk and Caribbean grooves on November 11. Between them, the band members have performed, recorded and collaborated with avant-garde luminary Frank Zappa, pioneering violinist L Shankar, the rock theatricality of Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel and the soulful Joan Armatrading.
Presented by Nava Arts, on November 14, the soulful voice of Samin Ghorbani, the enchanting shurangiz of composer Vahid Taremi and the electronics, clarinet and modern arrangements of Rouzbeh Esfand bring to York what the Persian trio calls “the sound of their shadows from a Trembling Land”, drawn together from three separate cities across Europe.
The Instituto Cervantes, in Manchester, and Iberian and Latin American Music Society link up with the NCEM to present a 7.30pm concert on November 17 and workshop from 1.30pm to 5.30pm on November 22. First up, Spanish soprano Lorena Paz Nieto and British-Hispanic pianist Helen Glaisher-Hernandez present The Secret Art, featuring Spanish and Latin American art song as conceived by beguiling women composers.
Then, as part of The Secret Art: Mujeres Presentes project, the inimitable Odaline de la Martinez leads a half-day Sunday workshop focusing on the sounds of 17th-century Mexican convents, Afro-Cuban beats and the rhythms of the Rio Carnival. The workshop will finish with a short run-through for family and friends at 5pm. Places must be booked by November 8.
Odaline de la Martin: Hosting workshop on November 22. Picture: Malcolm Crowther
King Kong directors Merian C Cooper and Ernest B Schoedsack’s epic 1925 silent film Grass, a documentary about the heroic annual migration of the nomadic Bakhtiari tribes of Iran, will be accompanied by a live performance by Iranian pianist and composer Peyman Yazdanivan, joined by Adib Rostami on kamancheh and tonbak, on November 24.
Mercury Prize-nominated saxophonist Denys Baptiste and Tomorrow’s Warriors band leader and co-founder, double bass player Gary Crosby, lead an all-star quartet for A Love Supreme, a 60th anniversary celebration of John Coltrane’s jazz masterpiece, on November 25.
The 7.20pm concert will begin with a 20-minute performance by York Music Forum young players after a workshop with band members earlier in the day.
Each December since a one-off pilot in 2015, “festive folk supergroup” A Winter Union reconvene to share their joyous Christmas party around the country, complementing reimagined winter classics from both sides of the Atlantic with little-known Yuletide gems and songs direct from the pens of the songwriting quintet of Jade Rhiannon (from The Willows), Katriona Gilmore and Jamie Roberts (from Gilmore & Roberts) and Hannah Sanders & Ben Savage. On December 12, they make their NCEM debut.
National Centre for Early Music director Delma Tomlin
By way of contrast, Awake Arise make their fourth visit on December 18 to present A Christmas Show For Our Times. Lady Maisery members Hannah James, Rowan Rheingans and Hazel Askew will be joined by Jimmy Aldridge and Sid Goldsmith to celebrate winter traditions and reflect on how the hope and resilience in music and song can bring joy in the darkest season.
Looking forward to the autumn season, NCEM director Delma Tomlin says: “It’s partly serendipitous that so many are on tour, but I’m extremely pleased at the quality of the names and also by the mix of world music artists drawn from all over the globe.
“It means so much to us to continue to share this cultural world with York at this introspective time, whether from Persia or Spain, with our relationship with the Spanish Embassy bringing in acts.
“The Polish-Belarusian band Hajda Banda are a bit of a wild-card that came through a recommendation from my friends at Songlines, and so we decided to book them for the first time. They’re a dancing band, so we’ll need room at the edges because you’ll be encouraged to dance to this Polish high-energy music. Off you go!”
Tickets for the autumn season are on sale on 01904 658338 or at ncem.co.uk. Events start at 7.30pm unless stated otherwise.
