Cathy Atkin’s Mrs Peachum, left, Alexandra Mather’s Polly Peachum and Adrian Cook’s Peachum in York Opera’s The Beggar’s Opera. All pictures: John Saunders
YORK Opera will stage John Gay’s 18th-century satirical ballad opera The Beggar’s Opera at The Citadel, York City Church, Gillygate, York, from October 23 to 25.
After June’s successful staging of Offenbach’s The Tales Of Hoffmann at York Theatre Royal, the autumn production of librettist and lyricist Gay and composer Johann Christoph Pepusch’s three-act 1728 opera is presented under the musical direction of John Atkin and stage direction of Chris Charlton-Matthews, with choreography by Jane Woolgar.
The Beggar has written an opera! Well, not exactly “written”. He has borrowed all the tunes from folk ditties or well-known melodies – and his plot is not exactly the usual operatic fare – although he says he has followed all the conventions: a hero, a doomed love affair, prisoners in chains.
However, the hero is a highwayman and completely faithless to his many wives, while every lady’s virtue is for sale and marriage is the way to become a rich widow. All the characters are villains, from gang leader Peachum, who sells his own gang members to be hanged in order to claim the reward, to crooked gaoler Lockit, who runs a line in comfortable manacles, and the utterly psychotic Matt o’the Mint, murderer and arsonist. Could the Beggar be sending up the politicians of his day – but surely they are not crooks, are they?
Cathy Atkin’s Mrs Peachum and Adrian Cook’s Peachum
York Opera will stage an immersive production of this classic satire, where you may find yourself seated next to a cast member, so be careful where you sit! That demure lady to your side might just be a pickpocket after your snuffbox!
To be fully in the mood, join Polly and her evil father Mr Peachum at his speakeasy for a gin tasting sponsored by York Gin before each show. Please note that entry to this tasting does not include entry to the show and vice versa. Here is the link: https://tickets.yorkopera.co.uk/events/yorkopera/1819083.
Principal roles will be taken by a combination of established and new soloists: Mark Simmonds as Macheath, Adrian Cook as Peachum, Anthony Gardner as Lockit, Alexandra Mather as Polly Peachum, Sophie Horrocks as Lucy Lockit, Cathy Atkin as Mrs Peachum, Ian Thomson-Smith as The Beggar and Jake Mansfield as The Player.
Alexandra Mather’s Polly Peachum
After The Beggar’s Opera, the company will continue rehearsals for November 8’s concert in conjunction with the York R.I. Brass Band to celebrate the life and musical talents of Clive Marshall, a leading member of both organisations, who died on March 11.
Featuring principals, players and chorus, Opera Meets Brass: A Musical Tribute to Clive Marshall will be held at The Citadel to raise funds for St Leonard’s Hospice in its 40th anniversary year. Tickets (£15, students and under 16s £10) are available at https://tickets.yorkopera.co.uk/events/yorkopera.
Then it will be full steam ahead to Christmas for York Opera’s Carols At Christmas concerts at Acomb on December 11, 7.30pm, Haxby, December 12, 7.30pm, and York, December 13, 4.30pm.
York Opera in The Beggar’s Opera, The Citadel, Gillygate, York, October 23 to 25, 7.30pm. Box office: https://tickets.yorkopera.co.uk/events/yorkopera/1793200.
John Bramwell: Playing solo at Pocklington Arts Centre tomorrow night
HYDE singer, song-spinner and sage John Bramwell has been on a never-ending rolling adventure since working away from his cherished Mancunian band I Am Kloot. Next stop, Pocklington Arts Centre, tomorrow.
Leading light of those Mercury Prize nominees from 1999 to 2014 and screen goddess Cate Blachett’s “favourite songwriter of all time”, Bramwell will be spotlighting songs old and new, as well as his sophomore solo album, February 2024’s The Light Fantastic, in his Pock one-man show.
“I’ve been touring with my full band, then touring as a trio, and now some solo dates,” says John. “A different set of songs, of course. With this set there’s more Kloot in there and more from the new album, not The Light Fantastic , but the next one, out next March, on Townsend Music again. Three songs from that…
“…and stories from my past. Just funny stuff that happened with John Peel. Getting to tour with John Cooper Clarke and how he’d try out his gags on me on his way to gigs. Remembering my late friend Bryan Glancy [who played with Bramwell in The Mouth before he formed I Am Kloot].
“I’ve written a song about him, When The Light Goes Out. I literally just had this dream about him and it was almost like the song was there.”
What happened with John Peel [the legendary late-night BBC Radio One presenter]? “I made this single, Black And White, as Johnny Dangerously, a name I got when I walked on stage, tripped up, went over the edge. The place went crazy. I got a massive cheer,” he recalls.
Pooling redundancy money from being relieved of his position in the Tesco wine and spirits department with a sum from his dad, John printed up vinyl copies of Black And Blue. “It was at the point when Peel said he couldn’t receive cassettes any more, so I went down to London on the train and waited for Peel to come out of his studio. ‘You’re John Peel,’ I said. He looked at his stomach and said, ‘it would appear I am’!”
Vinyl handed over, it turned out the trip was worthwhile. “Peel played it the following night. Among a lot of German industrial rock, and lots of bands with dyed black hair, of course, in the middle of all that, I’d released a ballad – but he played it!”
When playing Kloot songs, John will tell stories of what happened when making recordings. “Like not wanting to have the opening to Northern Skies, which to me is like Suspicious Minds, but Garvey [producer Guy Garvey, of Elbow], said no-one would notice – and he was right.”
Provisionally, he is toying with calling next year’s album Still Got The Magic. “I played a new song at one gig and it got an amazing reaction. I don’t write as much as I did: the quantity isn’t there but there’s still the quality,” says John.
“This new album will be purely a solo record. Just me, because my finger-style playing is really coming on, so I’m actually recording at home, a place near Monmouth, rather than on the boat that I rent by the River Wye at Symonds Yat.”
Pressing John on I Am Kloot’s legacy, he says: “As I find now, what people say to me, is that there’s a spirituality to it, the lyrics and the form, that I didn’t realise, being at the centre of it. It’s very emotional without being sentimental.
John Bramwell, centre, in I Am Kloot days with Andy Humphries and Peter Jobson
“So The Light Fantastic really is the breakaway, but I think this new album, with me and the guitar, is more of a culmination of Kloot.
“Looking back, Moulin Rouge [released in April 2008] is my favourite Kloot album – and the least successful. I love the feel of it. It reminds me of how, when playing with Andy [drummer Andy Humphries] and Peter [bassist Peter Jobson], we were really mashed together on those songs.”
Looking ahead, John’s next album after “Still Got The Magic” (TBC) will be a band record. “That’s the key for me: rather than being purely solo, I look forward to working with the band again, and after that, it’s great to bounce off new ideas.
“I’ve sprung this idea of doing an album every 18 months, and as the label has pointed out, that would mean I’d be touring all the time. If the health holds, I’ll be doing 90 gigs a year. I’ve got my stories, I’ve got my two guitars It’s what I’m meant to be doing. “
At this point, I praised on John for changing the word “trip” to “skip” in his opening lyric to The Light Fantastic: “As I skip the light fantastic/And I live my life of ease/I’ve put my heart out on elastic/And my soul upon the breeze”. “I thought it was ‘skip’! I always thought that! Maybe in different parts of the country it’s different,” he says. “My girlfriend is Scottish and they have different meanings for some words.
“If I’d known it was ‘trip the light fantastic’, I wouldn’t have used it, as I don’t like the psychedelic stuff like LSD!”
It was time to mention John’s prodigiously long hair in the latest publicity photograph. “I’ve had it cut, though it’s still long. I went to get it cut to shoulder length, but the barber refused to cut it that far, saying it was magnificent and he’d cut it for free. So, it’s still long, not crazy, crazy long.”
John Bramwell, Pocklington Arts Centre, Friday, October 17, 8pm. Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.
“Cate Blanchett’s favourite songwriter of all time”? She chose the John Bramwell-penned Proof, from I Am Kloot’s Sky At Night, as her Desert Island Disc on BBC Radio 4 in December 2022.
John Bramwell on writing songs for 2024’s The Light Fantastic
“AFTER both my mum and dad died, I started writing these songs to cheer myself up. “The themes are taken from my dreams at the time. Wake up and take whatever impression I had from what I could remember of my dream and write that.”
YORK charity Accessible Arts and Media are launching an inclusive open-mic event, Laugh, Lyrics & You!, at Gateway Centre, Front Street, Acomb, York, on October 26 from 2.30pm to 5pm.
“The idea is to have an open-mic type event in a relaxed and friendly environment that’s accessible and fun,” says chief executive officer Chris Farrell. “Our projects, IMPs, Movers and Shakers and Hands and Voices, will start the event off and then it’s over to whoever would like to perform.
“Any talent is welcome: a duet, a solo instrument, a poetry reading, a recording of some original music, jokes…whatever you can think of will be great!”
How do you book for Laugh, Lyrics & You? “Whether you’d like to perform, or sit and enjoy the show, you can:
Chris joined Accessible Arts & Media as chief exec in April after inspirational co-founder and charity leader Rose Ken stepped down after more than 30 years.
Her last act was to oversee the organisation’s re-location to a purpose-built space at Clifton Explore, Rawcliffe Drive, York.
At the time of her exit stage left, Rose said: “Little did I know when I founded the Accessible Arts arm of the charity back in 1992 that I’d still be here 32 years later.
Rose Kent, left, launching Accessible Arts & Media in 1992
“It’s been a real privilege to run an organisation that’s all about supporting people to find their voice and play an active role in their local community. It’s been AAM-azing!”
A cornerstone of York’s inclusive creative community for four decades, Accessible Arts & Media offers life-changing opportunities through arts, performance and wellbeing activities.
The new location and CEO finds the charity ready to enter its next period of growth and innovation. Following an extensive search, the organisation selected Chris Farrell for the CEO’s post. He joined the organisation from Age UK York and has enjoyed a career in senior roles at charities that provide vital support to people across the country – and he has made his mark as a musician too.
“I first shared a stage with Accessible Arts & Media almost a decade ago, so I’ve known for many years the difference the organisation makes for participants and for the wider community,” says Chris.
“It’s a pretty big task to try and fill Rose’s boots, but I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to steer the charity into its next chapter and, with your support, I know we can do some pretty amazing things.”
Last year, Accessible Arts & Media delivered 614 creative learning and wellbeing sessions across the city. They support almost 500 people a year, and are well known for their gigs and busking, where audience participation is highly encouraged.
Chris now leads the organisation through the ever-evolving charity landscape, building on the organisation’s strong networks within York’s learning disability, culture and wellbeing sectors.
“It’s certainly been an interesting six months so far,” he says. “But having first recorded at the Old Dairy in the late 1990s, it feels a full circle coming back into this role.”
Lucy Galliard, chair of trustees, said: “We’re thrilled that Chris has joined us. From a strong field of candidates, Chris stood out as a top-quality candidate with the perfect balance of strategic and leadership skills, and a true understanding of what we do and why it’s needed.”
Chris Farrell: Took over as chief executive officer of Accessible Arts & Media in April
Lucy paid homage to Rose for her longstanding service and huge contribution to the city’s cultural life. “Rose has been the powerhouse behind AAM for over three decades. Her achievements are huge, as has been the effort, attention – and most importantly – love that she has put into the organisation.
“Whilst we’re of course sad to see her leave, everyone at AAM is excited for Rose to be able to redirect that passion and love into herself, her dogs and her garden gnome collection!”
Accessible Arts & Media: back story
INCLUSIVE arts and media charity, based at Clifton Explore, York. Delivering arts and media learning and wellbeing programmes in and around York since 1982.
Mission statement: “We believe that everyone can learn, everyone can be creative and everyone can play a part in their local community. They just need the right support, and that’s where we come in.”
AAM support almost 500 people each year, including disabled adults and young people, older people living with dementia and people with severe, enduring mental ill-health.
AAM projects support their wellbeing by helping them develop the skills and confidence to have more of a say in the things that matter to them, and feel happy, connected and valued. “Now, more than ever, our projects provide a vital social lifeline for people who are all too often isolated and forgotten.”
For more information on Accessible Arts & Media, visit www.aamedia.org.uk.
The tour poster for The Legends’ 2026 travels in Vegas: After Hours
STRICTLY Come Dancing legends Brendan Cole, James Jordan, Pasha Kovalev, Vincent Simone and Ian Waite will return to York Barbican on November 4 2026 on their Vegas: After Hours tour.
Less than a month ago, the Strictly alumni played the Paragon Street venue on their The Return Of The Legends tour on September 20, having earlier toured their Legends of The Dance Floor show in 2024.
Tickets go on general sale at 10am tomorrow (17/10/2025), available at yorkbarbican.co.uk, Ticketmaster and legendsofthedancefloor.com.
The terpsichorean quintet promises a “breathtaking brand new show that captures all the glitz, glamour and excitement of Las Vegas, where the dance floor never sleeps”.
Vegas: After Hours dancers Brendan Cole, left, James Jordan, Ian Waite, Pasha Kovalev and Vincent Simone
Joined by female dance partners, Cole, Jordan, Kovalev, Simone and Waite will “bring the spirit of Sin City to life through stunning routines and nonstop entertainment, all set to a soundtrack inspired by the greatest Las Vegas performers of all time”.
From neon lights and electric nights, spinning roulette tables, glamorous showgirl and dazzling casinos to desert sunsets, lavish pool parties, whirlwind weddings, iconic hotels and world-class entertainment, Vegas: After Hours captures it all.
The 30-date tour will run from October 3 to November 10 2026, taking in further Yorkshire shows at Sheffield City Hall on October 22 and St George’s Hall, Bradford, on November 5.
Brendan Cole enthuses: “Anyone who saw our last two shows will tell you that a Vegas-themed show is the perfect next step for us. We are the Rat Pack of dance, and we’re going to have a Vegas-style party. It’s going to be a riot.”
The poster for The Return Of The Legends, the 2025 tour that visited York Barbican on September 20
Vincent Simone teases: “As if I haven’t got myself into enough trouble every single night of our last two tours together, our brand new show is inspired by Sin City. What could possibly go wrong? I can’t wait for everybody to find out!”
James Jordan chips in: “We spent the last two years proving to everyone that we’ve still got it, so as long as my body holds up, I look forward to bringing our most dazzling dance spectacular yet, with my brothers in dance, to audiences across the UK.”
Pasha Kovalev exclaims: “Vegas, baby! Can’t wait for this tour! The Legends shows have been such a blast, but I’ve got a feeling Vegas: After Hours is going to top them all!”
Ian Waite sums up: “After having an absolute blast on tour with the guys, it’s now all about Vegas: After Hours for 2026. Maximum glitz, maximum glamour. I’m already there.”
Chris Bradley playing the cimbalon at York Guildhall Orchestra’s concert
THIS fascinating programme could hardly have been more contrasting: Zoltán Kodály’s eclectic, charming Háry János Suite, Op. 15, and Dmitri Shostakovich’s dark, brooding Tenth Symphony in E minor, Op. 93.
The Prelude opened with a convincing “orchestral sneeze” – a Hungarian superstition that sneezing before telling a story confirms its truth. This was very much a scene-setter: atmospheric orchestral textures with fine woodwind and string contributions, and a nicely judged balance overall.
The Viennese Musical Clock was delightful – toy-clock imagery created by the absence of strings in favour of playful percussion sounds (notably glockenspiel), and fine solos from Jane Wright (oboe) and others.
The lyrical Song featured fine solos from Moira Challoner (viola), Andrew Cavell (clarinet), and Wright again on oboe, plus a charming appearance by the delicate cimbalom (Chris Bradley).
The Battle And Defeat Of Napoleon was delightfully bonkers – a comedic, stylised battle with trombone calls to arms, doleful saxophone responses, military rhythms and a closing funeral procession. Fine playing again, with Simon Wright judging the balance expertly.
The highlight, however, was the Intermezzo. Here the Hungarian folk influence was most obvious, and Chris Bradley made a serious contribution – one he (and we) clearly relished. True, the cimbalom was sometimes drowned out by full orchestral textures, but that was almost inevitable given its intimate timbre.
I rather wish the Suite had ended here – it would have made a splendid sign-off. The final Entrance of the Emperor and His Court was dramatically fine – a ceremonial, deliciously pompous march – but musically, it didn’t add much. For me, anyway.
York Guildhall Orchestra in concert at York Barbican on October 12
Before we trotted off for our interval ice creams, Mr Bradley performed an attractive folksong tune which, he noted, quietly endorsed God’s Own County, Lancashire. I’ll get my coat.
Shostakovich’s Tenth Symphony was, according to his own account, composed in the months following Stalin’s death in 1953; it was premiered that December by the Leningrad Philharmonic under Yevgeny Mravinsky.
The opening Moderato is massive – both in length (it occupies about half of the symphony) and in emotional tone. The sense of torment seems undeniable; I was reminded of Bob Dylan’s song Not Dark Yet: “Sometimes my burden is more than I can bear/It’s not dark yet, but it’s gettin’ there”.
Simon Wright’s direction conveyed a real sense of organic purpose. The playing was commendably strong, with impressive contributions from clarinet, flute (Della Blood), oboe and bassoon (Isabel Dowell). The distant horn solo (Janus Wadsworth) added welcome warmth and humanity, and the chamber-like intimacy of the viola and cello solos (Moira Challoner and Sally Ladds) recalled Mahler in its emotional directness.
The relentless drive of the second-movement Allegro – “a musical portrait of Stalin” (Testimony) – came across with brutal intensity. After the murky depths of the first movement, its savage energy felt almost cathartic. Biting trumpet and trombone fanfares, quasi-martial snare drum and screaming woodwinds made this genuinely edge-of-the-seat stuff.
The third-movement Allegretto is a waltz – although not of the civilised Strauss variety. The tone is calmer, but still uneasy. It was fascinating to hear how the DSCH motif is woven into the fabric, alongside a counter-motif (E–A–E–D–A) attributed to Elmira Nazirova, a talented composition student.
The two form a kind of coded dialogue: the horn plays the rising “Elmira” theme – beautifully realised by Janus Wadsworth – discreetly answered by Andrew Cavell on clarinet. If love was indeed in the air, flute and oboe seemed to mock it. The performance projected a kind of chamber concerto for horn and woodwind.
Simon Wright: “His direction conveyed a real sense of organic purpose”
There were some issues with the closing Andante–Allegro. The rapid, heavily accented syncopated rhythms at the start of the Allegro weren’t quite as tight as they could have been, and the alternation between massive tuttis and chamber-like conversations didn’t always convince – although the dry acoustic did the players no favours.
That said, there was much to admire. Wright judged the opening superbly: out of the almost eerie stillness emerged Della Blood’s haunting flute solo, her breath control and purity of tone capturing the fragility and tentative hope of the moment. It surely represents the first real breath after the long darkness of the symphonic journey so far.
Clarinet and bassoon then picked up fragments of the flute’s melody, responding in lower, darker timbres – deepening the colour and grounding the fragile flute tone. The woodwind exchanges continued the chamber-like intimacy and were strongly convincing.
They were joined by the horn, playing the distinctive “Elmira” motif and linking the finale to the personal world of the third movement. Wadsworth again impressed, particularly in the soft, sustained horn solo in the upper register – exposed and difficult for both intonation and breath support.
As the Allegro section began, the first violins – admirably led by Fiona Love – gradually assumed the melodic lead. Their lyrical yet forceful lines cut through the rhythmic engine with long, arching phrases, demonstrating impressive bow control.
In the end, the final word belonged to the timpani – Francesca Rochester on fine form throughout – rhythmically hammering out the DSCH motif (D–E♭–C–B), Shostakovich’s personal signature. Its insistent, obsessive repetition drives the symphony to its defiant E-major conclusion.
Given the technical, physical and emotional demands of this remarkable symphony – and the unsympathetic acoustic – this performance was a real achievement.
Haircut One Hundred: New album after more than four decades
HAIRCUT One Hundred will play York Barbican on May 8 2026 on next spring’s tour to showcase Boxing The Compass, their first album with singer Nick Heyward in 44 years.
Tickets for the Beckenham, London band’s only Yorkshire gig on their 11-date itinerary go on general sale at 10am on October 24 at yorkbarbican.co.uk.
The unexpected second chapter in the Haircut One Hundred story gathered pace in 2024 when their first single in forever, The Unloving Plum, became BBC Radio 2’s Record of the Week, recalling the early Eighties’ days of Favourite Shirts (Boy Meets Girl), Love Plus One, Fantastic Day and Nobody’s Fool.
Now that comeback steps up a gear as the Londoners announce Boxing The Compass for release on March 20 2026.
This morning, they launched the album alongside the premiere of new single Dynamite on Scott Mills’s show on BBC Radio 2, when also revealing details of their first full UK headline tour since 2023.
Boxing The Compass will be only the second album from the classic line-up since 1982’s platinum-certified Pelican West, a number two hit that was followed by 1984’s Paint And Paint, by then without frontman Heyward.
Heyward (vocals/guitar), Graham Jones (guitar) and Les Nemes (bass) first reconvened to discuss issues around the band, but that business meeting felt more like a reunion of old friends.
Matters soon snowballed from an “unforgettable” comeback gig at the O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire, London, to a full UK headline tour, with drummer Blair Cunningham subsequently jumping back on board. That 15-date Haircut 100% Live tour concluded at York Barbican on November 17 2023, again their only Yorkshire destination.
The album cover artwork for Haircut One Hundred’s Boxing The Compass, out on May 20 next year
Subsequent writing and recording sessions with Dexys’ band member Sean Read at Famous Times studio in East London showed that they “still shared that special something”.
“Their flair for a classic, melody-rich pop song was firmly intact, along with a host of fresh influences that they had never had the chance to explore together,” their publicity machine says. “And despite the passing of four decades, their boyish charm is still luminous – surely because each member is grateful for having a second chance with their old friends.”
Heyward, now 64, says: “Boxing The Compass is the traditional way of finding out where you are on land or sea using the compass rose. We’re arriving back at the port we left 43 years ago with a log of songs from our personal travels.
“Wherever I’ve been in the world, I’ve always been Nick Heyward of Haircut One Hundred and we’re all ready to set sail again for more adventures on the high seas.”
New single Dynamite is “the sound of a band who are relishing being back, their famous instant pop addictiveness now flavoured by classic disco guitar hooks, rousing brass and jazzy flourishes,” today’s press blurb states.
“Its feelgood fervour is amplified by Nick’s bright, charismatic vocals with a lyric that explains itself on a song that made a big impression when it was debuted throughout the band’s recent North American tour.”
Heyward adds: ”Dynamite is about the day and the night and meeting via satellite. Whether it’s your soul mate, long-lost family members, future friends, or your people. It’s about communication and how explosive it can be. It really is dynamite.”
The track list will be:Vanishing Point; The Unloving Plum; That’s A Start; Dynamite; Come Back To Me; Someone; A Wonderful Life; Soul Bird; Raincloud and Sunshine.
Courtney Brown: Directing Pickering Musical Society for the first time in My Favourite Things – The Music of Rodgers & Hammerstein. Picture: Robert David Photography
FROM Rodgers & Hammerstein favourites to Caliban’s dancing revenge, Francis Rossi’s songs and stories to German beer festivities, Charles Hutchinson delights in October’s diversity.
Musical revue of the week: Pickering Musical Society presents My Favourite Things – The Music of Rodgers & Hammerstein, Kirk Theatre, Pickering, tonight to Sunday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
LONG-TIME member Courtney Brown directs Pickering Musical Society for the first time in My Favourite Things – The Music of Rodgers & Hammerstein, a showcase of the very best of Broadway’s most iconic songwriting partnership.
As well as the cheeky charm of Honey Bun, the playful fun of The Lonely Goatherd and the rousing barn-dance energy of The Farmer And The Cowman, the show feature songs from The Sound Of Music, Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific and The King And I. Dancers from the Sarah Louise Ashworth School of Dance take part too. Box office: 01751 474833 or kirktheatre.co.uk.
Eddi Reader: Playing York for the first time in seven years at The Citadel
Seven-year itch of the week: Hurricane Promotions presents Eddi Reader, The Citadel, York City Church, Gillygate, York, tonight, 7.30pm
EDDI Reader, the Glasgow-born singer who fronted Fairground Attraction, topping the charts with Perfect, also has ten solo albums, three BRIT awards and an MBE for Outstanding Contributions to the Arts to her name.
Straddling differing musical styles and making them her own, from the traditional to the contemporary, and interpreting the songs of Robert Burns to boot, she brings romanticism to her joyful performances, this time with her full band in her first show in York for seven years. Eilidh Patterson supports. Box office: ticketsource.co.uk.
Banjo at the double: Damien O’Kane and Ron Block team up at the NCEM, York
Banjo at the double: Damien O’Kane and Ron Block Band, The Banjovial Tour, National Centre for Early Music, York, tonight, 7.30pm
GROUNDBREAKING banjo players Damien O’Kane and Ron Block follow up their Banjophony and Banjophonics albums with this month’s Banjovial and an accompanying tour.
O’Kane, renowned for his work with Barnsley songstress Kate Rusby, is a maestro of Irish traditional music, here expressed on his Irish tenor banjo; Block, a key component of Alison Krauss & Union Station, infuses his signature five-string bluegrass banjo with soulful depth and rhythmic innovation. Together, their styles intertwine in an exhilarating dance of technical mastery. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.
Francis Rossi: Shaking up the Status Quo with songs and stories at York Barbican. Picture: Jodiphotography
Hits and titbits aplenty: An Evening of Francis Rossi’s Songs from the Status Quo Songbook and More, York Barbican, tomorrow, 7.30pm
IN his one-man show, Status Quo frontman Francis Rossi performs signature Quo hits, plus personal favourites and deeper cuts, while telling first-hand backstage tales of appearing more than 100 times on Top Of The Pops, why Quo went on first at Live Aid, life with Rick Parfitt, notching 57 hits, fellow stars and misadventures across the world. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Natnael Dawit in Shobana Jeyasingh Dance’s We Caliban at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Foteini Christofilopoulou
Dance show of the week: Shobana Jeyasingh Dance in We Caliban, York Theatre Royal, Friday, 7.30pm (with post-show discussion) and Saturday, 2pm and 7.30pm
SHOBANA Jeyasingh turns her sharp creative eye to Shakespeare’s final play The Tempest in a new co-production with Sadler’s Wells. A tale of power lost and regained, the play is the starting point for Jeyasingh’s dramatic and contemporary reckoning, We Caliban.
Written as Europe was taking its first step towards colonialism, The Tempest is Prospero’s story. We Caliban is Caliban’s untold story that started and continued long after Prospero’s brief stay. Performed by eight dancers, complemented by Will Duke’s projections and Thierry Pécou’s music, this impressionistic work draws on present-day parallels and the international and intercultural discourse around colonialism, as well as Jeyasingh’s personal experiences. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
John Bramwell: Playing solo in Pocklington
As recommended by Cate Blanchett: John Bramwell, Pocklington Arts Centre, Friday, 8pm
HYDE singer, song-spinner and sage John Bramwell, leading light of Mercury Prize nominees I Am Kloot from 1999 to 2014 and screen goddess Cate Blachett’s “favourite songwriter of all time”, has been on a never-ending rolling adventure since his workings away from his cherished Mancunian band.
His sophomore solo album, February 2024’s The Light Fantastic, will be at the heart of his Pocklington one-man show. “After both my mum and dad died, I started writing these songs to cheer myself up,” Bramwell admits with trademark candour. “The themes are taken from my dreams at the time. Wake up and take whatever impression I had from what I could remember of my dream and write that.” He promises new material and Kloot songs too. Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.
Sam Moss: Heading out on to the moors at The Band Room. Picture: Jake Xerxes Fussell
Moorland gig of the week: Sam Moss, The Band Room, Low Mill, Farndale, North York Moors, Saturday, 7.30pm
FINGERPICKING folk virtuoso guitarist, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Sam Moss heads to the North York Moors this weekend from Staunton, Virginia, USA, to showcase his February 2025 album Swimming, championed by the scribes of Uncut, No Depression and Paste and Los Angeles online magazine Aquarium Drunkward, no less. “For the record, he is a renowned woodworker too, particularly celebrated for his incredible spoons,” says Band Room promoter Nigel Burnham. Sofa Sofa support (as sofas always do!). Box office: 01751 432900 or thebandroom.co.uk.
Drag diva Velma Celli lights up Yorktoberfest at York Racecourse. Picture: Sophie Eleanor
Festival of the week: Yorktoberfest, Clocktower Enclosure, York Racecourse, Knavesmire, York, Saturday, 1pm to 5pm and 7pm to 11pm; October 24, 7pm to 11pm; October 25, 1pm to 5pm and 7pm to 11pm
MAKING its debut in 2021, Yorktoberfest returns for its fifth anniversary with beer, bratwurst and all things Bavarian. Step inside the giant marquee, fill your stein at the Bavarian bar with beer from Brew York and grab a bite from the German-inspired Dog Haus food stall.
The Bavarian Strollers oompah band will perform thigh-slapping music and drinking songs; York drag diva Velma Celli will add to the party atmosphere with powerhouse songs and saucy patter. Doors open at 6.30pm and 12.30pm. Tickets: ticketsource.co.uk/yorktoberfest.
EDDI Reader will play her first York show in seven years tonight, accompanied by her full band at The Citadel, the old Salvation Army building in Gillygate, now home to the York City Church.
“I’m really looking forward to it,” says the Glasgow-born singer, who fronted Fairground Attraction, topping the charts with Perfect, and has a dozen solo albums, three BRIT awards and an MBE for Outstanding Contributions to the Arts to her name.
“I’m excited to be playing there. I’m lucky enough to have audiences that keep turning up, and new ones turning up too. My journey has been really blessed, with lots of songs over the years, and my songwriting broadening. ”
Eddi’s Scottish folk band Fairground Attraction famously broke up after only one studio album, The First Of A Million Kisses, a year after winning the BRIT Awards for best album and single in 1989 to pursue solo careers.
That split came in January 1990 in the throes of recording their second album that instead took the form of B-sides and unreleased songs from ‘Million Kisses’ sessions on Ay Fond Kiss in June that year. Roll on to 2024 when, in the shadow of band member Mark E Nevin’s wife, Louise, having a life-threatening health issue, the group re-grouped.
“There was no pressure getting back together,” says Eddi. “We got together for only 14 days to try to get an album out, and we succeeded. I noted how things came back, like control issues that had been poisonous 35 years ago and were still there, but also how my experiences had expanded. When I thought ‘that’s not how you do it’, I sensed how diplomatic you have to be. I had to unlearn a lot of stuff.
“I think you have to accept a lot of things are just the way they are, and it’s OK to accept it, to forgive it and move on. My expectations are always very high, expecting it to be a family, but you can’t expect everyone to be a long-lost buddy, with me being the one who wants it to be happy ever after.
“It wasn’t as easy as it might have been, but I realised that with bands, you get together with another human being and you try to create something, and when you do, it’s lovely. People think it must be easy but it isn’t. You know that the love is there but you don’t know how to reach it, so all you can do is pour love on it.”
The album, Beautiful Happening, duly arrived on September 27 2024, coincidentally the day when Louise was given the all clear, making the title even more resonant.
Straddling differing musical styles and making them her own, from the traditional to the contemporary, and interpreting the songs of Robert Burns to boot, Eddi took on another role in 2023 when making her London theatre debut at @sohoplace, Charing Cross Road.
Headhunted by director Jonathan Butterell, she played the Balladeer for five months in a stage adaptation of Annie Proulx short story Brokeback Mountain, singing the folk and American songs of The Feeling’s Dan Gillespie Sells. Among those who attended were her fellow members of Fairground Attraction.
“I really, really enjoyed the experience, providing me with an acting role as a woman from the Mid West, leading a band,” says Eddi, who told one interview [by Caitlin Devlin, June 14 2023] that “in my head it’s Wyoming 1968”.
“I got some voice coaching for the role, had to play guitar as well as sing, and at the end I had to come on and play the dead young man’s mother.”
Eddi had previous acting experience, both on stage and screen. “I’d done a bit of that before, and I’ve always enjoyed playing a character, like in The Trick Is To Keep Breathing [as a psychic voice] at the Tron Theatre in Glasgow [in 1993]. The biggest was the John Byrne one, Your Cheatin’ Heart, playing Joleen Jowett [opposite Tilda Swinton’s Cissie Crouch in a six-part BBC mini-series about the Scottish country music scene in 1990].”
Whether re-forming Fairground Attraction last year, appearing in Brokeback Mountain, making solo records or never going on stage with a set list, authenticity drives Eddi. “It sounds like a cliché, but I don’t see any other way to do it. All alternatives are painful, because if you’re not true to yourself, you’re not authentic” she says.
“I’m just getting the dishes done, making the bed, but I did have a number one and I still enjoy singing it. I’m very grateful that it opened doors for me.”
Never under-estimate a singer’s skill. “It’s a mistake that people make when they say ‘just a singer’, because sometimes the singer hears things in music that not even the writer knows are there, so it’s like being the Columbo of music! Finding the feeling can make a song much more potent sung by a woman when written by a man!” says Eddi.
“You have to find the character in the melody as well as the lyrics; that gives the extra help to get the emotion across – and that’s different from acting, though I do see similarities.”
Eddi continues: “I’ll hear something that everyone else thinks is an old baggy hat on a coat stand, but I’m thinking, no, look at it, imagine making something with that. I see the movie!
“Like the Robert Burns songs I do. I saw him as being like a songwriter in his mid-twenties now; something of the young David Bowie about him, or Johnny Rotten or Tom Waits; there’s just something more of now about the songs, but being of then, so that didn’t matter because I could feel my way into Rabbie Burns’ words.”
Now 66, Eddi has “never felt unequal to any musician, male or female”. “I’ve never had a challenge in that way,” she says. “I’ve never noticed anyone getting in the way. I just plough my own furrow; I just do my own thing. I’m not difficult! I’m looking for jewels in the junk shop.”
What’s coming next from Eddi? “Me and John [husband John Douglas] are doing a little duo thing that we’re getting together at the moment,” she says. “We haven’t recorded it yet. We’ve got one song written so far. Eleven to go!”
Eddi Reader plays The Citadel, Gillygate, York, tonight, 7.30pm, with Alan Kelly, John Douglas, Boo Hewerdine and Kevin MacGuire, supported by Eilidh Patterson.Box office: ticketsource.co.uk.
Damien O’Kane, left, and Ron Block, with their contrasting banjos
THE humble banjo is often maligned…until placed in the whirling hands of Northern Irishman Damien O’Kane and Californian Ron Block, whose banjo bromance blooms anew on third album Banjovial and its accompanying tour.
The 14-date itinerary opened in Barnsley last Friday and arrives at the National Centre for Early Music, York, on Wednesday (15/10/2025).
Seven years on from their Banjophany debut album, followed by 2022’s Banjophonics, Coleraine-born, Barnsley-based O’Kane picks up his Irish tenor banjo once more to recharge his telepathic transatlantic connectivity with Gardena-born Block’s five-string bluegrass banjo on Banjovial’s ten new tunes and two original songs, supplemented by guest contributions from Irish button accordionist Sharon Shannon and American bluegrass fiddlers Aubrey Haynie and Tim Crouch.
Percussive and punchy, ebullient and life-affirming, their banjo union revels in light and shade and tempo shifts from fast, cracking fireworks to more reflective flowing timbres and tunes.
“It would have been in 2012 when we first performed together,” says Damien, as he looks forward to returning to the NCEM – “a gorgeous little place” – for the first time in more than a decade.
“I first met Ron in 2011 as he’s involved in a bluegrass summer school called Sore Fingers at Kingham High School [in the Cotswolds], where Kate’s brother Joe works every year on the sound for the concerts.” Kate being Barnsley folk singer Kate Rusby, Damien’s wife since 2010.
“Ron invited us to see him playing with Alison Krauss & Union Station [his regular beat] and invited us backstage, and that was our first meeting.”
Block duly played on two songs on Rusby’s album 20, joining Eddi Reader and Dick Gaughan on Wandering Soul and Reader, Jerry Douglas and Philip Selway on Sho Heen. “Kate then asked Ron to play on the 20 tour , so it all went uphill from there!” says Damien.
The cover artwork for Damien O’Kane and Ron Block’s third album, Banjovial, released on Cooking Vinyl on October 3
Their partnership brings out the best in each other’s banjos. “The most notable difference is that the five-string banjo is bigger with more frets and those five strings, and Ron plays with two picks on his fingers and one on his thumb, so his style is very much fingerstyle, very ‘arpeggioed’, whereas the Irish tenor banjo is plectrum style,” says Damien.
“Over the years we’ve both tried in our playing to give a nod to the other style, so I’ll do a lot of cross-picking on the Irish tenor banjo.
“It makes for really interesting tunes with two completely different banjo sounds. The five-string strings are lighter, so there’s a brighter sound, whereas I like the mellow sound of the Irish tenor banjo that doesn’t ‘punch you in the face’!”
Damien has always been a fan of duel banjo playing. “I grew up listening to and playing Irish traditional music, watching music sessions from The Corner House on Irish TV [on Geantrai on TG4], when Cathal Hayden and Brian McGrath would play tunes together, just two banjos,” he says.
“I was about nine years old, and I remember it being one of the most amazing things I’d ever heard. It was like a banjo epiphany.”
O’Kane and Block first toured together on their own, but now perform with a band featuring Steven Byrnes on guitar and Duncan Lyall on double bass and Moog, both from Rusby’s band.
“It’s fascinating to do because I don’t really get to play much banjo on Kate’s tours, which is my main focus through the year, primarily playing guitar, and yet the banjo was my main instrument long before guitar, so to be able to record and play tunes with Ron is a real chance to push each other’s musicianship,” says Damien.
The Damien O’Kane and Ron Black Band, featuring Steven Byrnes and Duncan Lyall
“I remember thinking with the first album, ‘oh my god, I’m playing with Ron Block, I have to bring my A-game’.”
He still does, this time in tandem with Block on tunes “triggered by comedic events, family and friends, CS Lewis’s The Chronicles Of Narnia’, heart-stopping moments, beloved animals, the craziness of Covid and even cartoon themes, swinging from the humorous to the heartfelt”.
“We record everything live for the albums, as playing live give it an extra spark,” says Damien. “I think the new album is definitely our best, probably in a few senses, one of them being that we really learned how to lock on to each other’s playing.
“There’s a running joke we have that I’m always ahead and Ron is always behind, which adds to the excitement, as we’re not about making perfect music.
“This album is more mature. I’m not taking anything away from the other two but we’ve learned so much from each other and from the band. We’re tight-knit now, knowing each other’s strengths – and weaknesses too!”
It was Ron Block, by the way, who came up with the Banjovial album title. “We wanted to keep that title theme going, and I thought, ‘that’s the one’, as it sums up what we do, when people tend to be scared of one banjo, let alone two, but not us!”
Damien and Kate had first met Banjovial guest contributor Sharon Shannon when they were gigging at Monroe’s Live in Galway, where Sharon lives. “We were playing upstairs and she was playing a session downstairs; she came up to listen to the last half of Kate’s set and we went out for a couple of drinks afterwards,” he recalls.
Galway button accordionist Sharon Shannon: Played on Damien’s tune St Patrick’s Day on Banjovial
“That’s when I asked if she’d like to play on the album, and she said, ‘oh, absolutely’, which was a pinch-me moment, as I’d listened to her albums since childhood. She’s a sweetheart too.
“We sent her the track [Damien’s St Patrick’s Day], she recorded it in Galway, and that was that!”
Likewise, Damien and Ron sent the track Mario Kart Rides Again to bluegrass fiddler and mandolin player Aubrey Haynie. “I’d never come across him before but Ron said, ‘we’ve got to get him on an album some time because he’s amazing’,” says Damien.
“All the car sound effects on there, the car screeching, the police car, Aubrey did them all on his fiddle. He’s incredible.”
On the road from October 10 to 26, Damien will be on driving duty. “Ron stays in the passenger seat. He did drive us once over here, and I told him he’d never do that again!” he says.
Damien O’Kane and Ron Block Band’s Banjovial Tour plays National Centre for Early Music, York, tomorrow (15/10/2025), 7.30pm, and Otley Courthouse, October 24, 8pm. Box office: York, 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk; Otley, 01943 467466 or otleycourthouse.org.uk.
Damien O’Kane’s guitars and banjo will be in the band for Kate Rusby’s Christmas Is Merry concert at York Barbican on December 11, 7pm. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Ayana Beatrice Poblete’s Esmerelda in Black Sheep Theatre Productions’ The Hunchback Of Notre Dame. All pictures: Ryan Healey
THIS is Black Sheep Theatre Productions’ biggest show – by far. Company founder and director Matthew Peter Clare has assembled five leads, an ensemble of seven and a choir of 23; numbers to match the grandeur of Notre Dame cathedral.
Alas ticket booking has not been of a matching scale: last Thursday’s first night and Sunday’s two shows were pulled, and maybe Black Sheep are unfortunate to be playing against the irresistible tidal wave of SIX The Musical’s sold-out return to the Grand Opera House this week.
Or, sometimes, who knows why, a show just does not light a flame at the box office, but in the case of ‘Hunchback’, that is baffling. Both Victor Hugo’s 1831 source novel and Disney’s animated 1996 film are ever popular, and the stage show is all the better for adding more Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz songs and for being closer in tone to the book.
Imagine a show more aligned to the dramatic heft and impassioned song of another French tale, Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg’s Les Miserables, et voila, ‘Hunchback’.
The people of Paris taunting Jack James Fry’s Quasimodo in The Hunchback Of Notre Dame
“Our mission has been art with a point,” says Clare, who relocated Black Sheep to York in 2022 from Lancashire beginnings. “Art that matters and art that connects with the human experience, in its glories or its pain.”
In those words in his programme note, you can hear his zeal for making theatre that “speaks to the heart of everyone watching” and see why he wanted to present ‘Hunchback’ as his next big challenge, one that could not be more topically timed in light of the rising intolerance of immigrants and “otherness”.
Clare’s resulting choral production is not only his largest but his most ambitious too, hence the big cast that must be accommodated on the JoRo stage, making their entry, heads covered, in cloaks, mysterious and full of foreboding.
Like a church building, he has kept much of the stage bare, save for scaffolding that provides a mezzanine level for the cathedral bell tower and a row of church pews to either side below.
Robbie Wallwork’s Captain Phoebus in an ensemble number in The Hunchback Of Notre Dame
The choir either stands behind them or beneath the scaffolding, in view but always rather distant, to the extent that it is not always clear who is singing when it is a solo voice.
Furthermore, on press night, that individual singing could not always be heard, although one should make allowance for technical tweaks to remedy what is a difficult sound balance with so many players on the fringes of the stage.
I stress, however, that there was no deficiency in commitment, and the presence of a choir adds a new element to Black Sheep. Hopefully, their impact can be at full throttle for the rest of the run in Ollie Nash’s sound design.
Clare is an audaciously talented musical director, and here he leads his 13-strong band through the intricacies of Menken’s score with elan. Every gorgeous note, every soaring climax, breathes with passion and the highly technical playing is beautifully balanced, heart-felt, dynamic, moving.
At the double: Jack James Fry as Quasimodo and Dan Poppitt as the Voice of Quasimodo, a five-star partnership at the heart of Black Sheep Theatre Productions’ show
The big talking point, the big selling point too, is the role of Quasimodo, here impeded more by loss of hearing from all that bell ringing than his bodily disfigurement that does not rob him of his extraordinary physical strength. He is isolated by his powers to communicate being so denuded.
Quasimodo is played by two actors; one, the deaf Jack James Fry, being his physical embodiment, utilising British Sign Language that has sound and fury, but huge human heart too, signifying everything as Quasimodo craves understanding and acceptance. He can sure swing a bell rope too.
The other, Dan Poppitt, is Quasimodo’s voice, interpreting the sign language in speech and song by Fry’s side. Poppitt has been a rising light on the York stage as Tunny in Green Day’s American Idiot, Alonso in The Tempest and Roger in Rent. Now he rises higher still, whether mirroring Fry’s movements or in the show’s most powerful, dramatic singing. What a magnetic, heartbreaking partnership he and Fry make.
Quasimodo’s fellow “outsider”, the gypsy dancer Esmerelda, is played with fearless fervour by Filipino-born Ayana Beatrice Poblete, while Emily Pratt’s Florika has the show’s outstanding female voice, classically pure in tone.
Jack James Fry’s Quasimodo and Emily Pratt’s Florika
Robbie Wallwork’s Captain Phoebus, caught between the romantic heroic figure of the Disney film and the flash vainglorious womaniser of Hugo’s novel, favours the former but his performance could be more assertive.
James Robert Ball, ever nimble, quick, light as a Malteser, recalls his Puck in York Stage’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in May, taking the narrator’s role as Clopin Trouillefou, jester, Romani leader and Festival of Fools master of ceremonies, but this time beneath the mischief-making front lies a darker soul, saddened by experience, closer to Cabaret’s Emcee.
Clare plays the joker in casting Jack Hooper as the turbulent Judge Claude Frollo, the embittered Minister of Justice and guardian of Quasimodo.
From such roles as bubbly Mr Poppy in Nativity and the profusely sweaty cop Eddie Souther in Sister Act, we know of his comic prowess, but now he switches to the dark side in a transition to rival Alan Carr’s treachery in Celebrity Traitors. Hell fire, villainy suits him in his buttoned-up, suppressive air, the balloon popper of the piece, topped off by his raging version of Hellfire.
Darkness descends: Jack Hooper’s volte face into villainy as Judge Claude Frollo
In a further directorial decision that pays off, the full “carcase” of the stage is left exposed, and so we can see the flymen, Jon Drewry and Georgia Legg, in action on the ropes, pulling both a stained glass window and three bells of Notre Dame into view, matching Quasimodo’s own rope work.
Adam Kirkwood’s lighting design works best in scenes of close-up focus but less so for the choir, lost in the shadows. Charlie Clarke’s choreography, however draws the production forward to fill the stage with life in big numbers, as if in defiance of Frollo.
Take a hunch by ignoring the disappointing box office so far and booking to see the Hunchback, especially for Fry & Poppitt.
Black Sheep Theatre Productions in The Hunchback Of Notre Dame, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, 7.30pm, Tuesday to Saturday, plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: 01904 501395 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
James Robert Ball’s Clopin Trouillefou and Ayana Beatrice Poblete’s Esmerelda at the Court of Miracles in The Hunchback Of Notre Dame
