Category: Music

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Shed Seven promise diffedrent sets, special guests & school choir at 30th anniversary concerts in York Museum Gardens

Shed Seven: Playing York Museum Gardens as the homecoing fulcrum of their 30th anniversary celebrations

AFTER a first ever number one album in January, Shed Seven’s 30th anniversary celebrations hit a homecoming peak with tomorrow (19/7/2024) and Saturday’s sold-out concerts at Futuresound’s inaugural Live At York Museum Gardens festival.

“I’d be quite happy for it chuck it down all week, but then NOT,” says lead singer Rick Witter. “Obviously, it is what it is, but it does make for a better atmosphere if you don’t have to contend with rain.

“We have thought before of selling [Chasing] rainbow-coloured umbrellas, but unfortunately at indoor gigs they’d be classified as offensive weapons!”

Good news for Rick and Shed-heads alike, the weather forecast suggests dry conditions will prevail on both nights, when Shed Seven will perform on the concrete concourse in front of the Yorkshire Museum, rather than against the St Mary’s Abbey backdrop once favoured by the York Mystery Plays.

“We’ll be facing the river [Ouse], with the riverside walk being cordoned off, so I imagine having 4,000 people crammed into the space each night will look amazing,” says Rick, as the Sheds look forward to playing the gardens where The Press first photographed the band after they signed to Polydor Records in late-1993.

“As a small band from York, we’ve managed to close the river for two nights, so it’s going to be a huge York event. We’ve been reminiscing about when we were 13-14, sitting in the Museum Gardens with music blasting out of our ghetto blasters, so it will feel weird but lovely this weekend for me and Paul [guitarist Paul Banks] and Tom [bassist Tom Gladwin].”

If that sepia-faded photo-shoot for The Press does not spring immediately to his mind, “I did see a picture of us in 1992 at the time of the Fibbers’ Battle of the Bands. We looked so hopeful, so youthful. We still do!” says Rick, as whippet-slim as ever at 51.

Shed Seven, who now feature Rob ‘Maxi ‘Maxfield on drums and Tim Wills on guitars and keys, rather than founder members Alan Leach and Joe Johnson, spent last weekend rehearsing intensely for this week’s shows.

“We’re definitely going to mix it up a little bit with the two sets, as we’re in the fortunate position of having too many songs. Some will be played on Friday and not Saturday and vice versa, so those who’ve booked for both nights are in for a treat,” says Rick. “We’ll be cramming in as much as we can into one hour 50 minutes each night.”

Special guests are promised too, but without giving names away, Rick does say: “If you look back to our album that came out in January [A Matter Of Time], we had several guests on that record, and I think you might get to see some of those people in our sets.

“Obviously, Pete [Peter Doherty, of The Libertines] will be in the ‘field’ with us on both nights as a support act, so it would be rude not to perform Throwaways (Witter and Doherty’s album-closing duet] with him.”

Will Happy Mondays’ Rowetta make an appearance for In Ecstasy or Reverend And The Makers’ Laura McClure join the Sheds for Tripping With You? Wait and see, but definitely a York choir will be participating.

“Me and Paul visited our old school last Thursday – Huntington School – for the first time in an awfully long time, which felt lovely but a bit odd as a 51-year-old man being back in the classroom! We’d reached out to the school hoping for a mixture of age groups, boys and girls, and it turns out there’s a choir of 60, so we’ve settled for having 20 on each night.” Which song, Rick? Not telling!

New band members Maxfield, from Manchester, and Wills, from London, will be breaking new ground. “They’ve spent a lot of time with us here rehearsing, but this will be the first time they’ve performed with us in our home city, so that’ll be a big moment for York,” says Rick. “And they’ve both talked about moving to York.”

Likewise, Shed Seven will be playing to more than a home crowd. “It’s just amazing that people from all over the country have bought tickets for these shows, so we’ll have 8,000 people descending on our lovely city, filling our bars and hotels,” says Rick.

The 30th anniversary celebrations do not stop there. “The funny thing is, we’re only half way through. I was speaking to Paul about what we might not be able to fit into the sets from A Matter Of Time, and only six months after its release, it’s almost as if we’re having to put a number one album to one side already, as we’re putting so much into our next album.”

Liquid Gold, an album of orchestral re-workings of 12 Shed Seven hits and live favourites, reimagined by the band in collaboration with arrangers Fiona Brice and Michael Rendall, will be released on September 27.

“We’re very excited about this album coming out to mark 30 years,” says Rick. “Only next year can we sit back and reflect on what we achieved this year.”

Still to come in 2024 are multiple in-store appearances to promote Liquid Gold, with yet more dates soon to be added to the schedule, followed by the 30th Anniversary Tour in the traditional Shedcember slot in  November and December, with Yorkshire gigs at Sheffield Octagon, (November 14), Victoria Theatre, Halifax (November 18) Hull City Hall, November 19, and Leeds O2 Academy (November 30).

Witter and Banks will see out the year with a brace of intimate acoustic concerts at Huntington Working Men’s Club, York, on December 21 and 22. Sold out, of course.

Futuresound presents Live At York Museum Gardens, Jack Savoretti, tonight; Shed Seven, Friday and Saturday. Gates open at 5pm each evening. Box office: seetickets.com/event/jack-savoretti/york-museum-gardens/2929799.

Thursday bill: Ellur, 5.45pm to 6.15pm; Benjamin Francis Leftwich, 6.30pm to 7.15pm; Foy Vance, 7.45pm to 8.30pm; Jack Savoretti, 9p, to 10.30pm.

Friday bill: Serotones (Duke Witter’s band), 5.45pm to 6.15pm; Lottery Winners, 6.35pm to 7.05pm; Peter Doherty, 7.25pm to 8.10pm; Shed Seven, 8.40pm to 10.30pm.

Saturday bill: Apollo Junction, 5.45pm to 6.15pm; Brooke Combe, 6.35pm to 7.05pm; Peter Doherty, 7.25pm to 8.10pm; Shed Seven, 8.40pm to 10.30pm.

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REVIEW: James, Live In 2024, Leeds First Direct Arena, June 8 *****

James: “Still refulgent with fresh ideas, still adventurous both musically and artistically after 41 years”. Picture: Paul Dixon

JAMES once gave a live album – recorded in lonesome pre-Sit Down success days at Bath’s Moles Club – the acerbic moniker of One Man Clapping.

Amid much lamenting, touring circuit institution Moles closed last December, declared insolvent, but Johnny Yen from that November 1988 set list lives on. Now jauntily opening James’s Live In 2024 show, the band on the crest of the crest of a second wave after re-forming in 2007 and topping the charts with a studio album for the first time with Yummy, their 18th, in April. Rather more than one man clapping now.

They may be a Manchester band – first championed by fellow Mancunian Morrissey, sporting a James T-shirt in their early, mutually vegetarian days – but Tim Booth is a son of Clifford, Boston Spa, and Leeds is always a homecoming gig for the Yorkshire frontman now resident in Costa Rica, Central America.

He even commented on Leeds needing “cheering up”, without directly mentioning yet more Wembley woe that had befallen his ever-damned Leeds United a fortnight earlier.

Yet if you could choose one band to blow away those blues, while addressing themes of AI technology, the fragile climate and tinderbox American politics on their latest album, all the while cherishing the abiding wonder of love, flowers and butterflies, then James would be that band. Still refulgent with fresh ideas, still adventurous both musically and artistically after 41 years.

Under normal band parlance, you might call them “veterans” or a “heritage act”, but James keep reinventing themselves, reinvigorating their ever-expanding catalogue. Last year, for example, their James Lasted Orchestral Tour rolled into York Barbican with a 22-piece orchestra, Orca 22, and the eight-strong Manchester Inspirational Voices gospel choir.

A year on in Leeds, four of those choir members complemented the nine-piece line-up of James, wherein vocalist Chloe Alper, once part of Riot grrrl punk band Period Pains, and second drummer Debbie Knox-Hewson have settled in so thrillingly.

Studio Fury’s cover design for James’s 18th studio album, the chart-topping Yummy

In the only concession to ageing, Booth apologised that he and trumpet player Andy Diagram, as dandy as ever in black skirt, would not be clambering up the rafters to perform from the gods, as had long been their custom.

Nevertheless, now he’s 64, Booth still revelled in dancing as if in a loose-limbed trance, and still went crowd surfing too, burly lads at the front quick to give him a helping hand to set him on his way. His megaphone made its customary rallying appearance too, in the polemical Mobile God.

Like the band line-up, a James gig is built around a free-flowing fusion of old and new. On the one hand, Booth, Diagram, drummer David Baynton-Power, bassist Jim Glennie, multi-instrumentalist Saul Davies and seasoned keyboardist Mark Hunter and guitarist Adrian Oxaal, together with the surfing and dancing, the anthems and the crowd singalongs.

On the other, Alper’s sublime singing and Knox-Hewson’s percussive exuberance, eight out of the 12 new songs on Yummy being road-tested, and crucially, the ever-changing, ever-prescient images on the three screens that matched each song’s theme, whether with butterfly beauty, futuristic foreboding, warped psychedelics or AI manipulation.

Every last detail had significance: not least the pile of junked TV sets that accompanied Booth’s lambasting of our destructive age “f***ing up the world for the generations still to come” in his intro to Our World.

In advance, the audience had been asked to “kindly refrain from using your phones during the show”, and Booth later warned that if he faced a bank of cameras, it would hinder his performance.

These days, such a request is akin to King Canute seeking to turn back the tide, but for those who desisted, the reward came with his advice, “This is the one to film”, before the extraordinary X-ray/robot/AI graphics for Mobile God, a sandwich-board warning of a future-rock song about the perils of mobile technology.

The poster for James’s Live In 2024 tour

Over a two-hour set of 20 songs, a James gig carries the promise of the familiar – Booth’s innate sense of theatre from student drama days, a steady stream of hits, such as Just Like Fred Astaire, Tomorrow and Come Home, and the audience taking over the singing as all the band gathers in line on the stage apron for the set-closing Sometimes (Lester Piggott) – peppered with the unexpected.

This came in the form of the debut live performance of Butterfly and tour debut of Out To Get You, and in the band’s chemistry that lets them ride on “the moment”. In this case, a free-wheeling coda from Saul Davies, James’s marrow to the Bad Seeds’ Warren Ellis, violin in excelsis in Tomorrow. His dad, equally dapper in cap and buttoned coat in the band guest seats, remarked afterwards that he had never seen Saul extend that solo for so long, as much flare as flair.

Unpredictable too was the encore, by now up against the clock to meet the regulation 10.30pm cut-off point of no return. Born Of Frustration had to be jettisoned, but mystical Yummy fan favourite Way Over Our Head swayed yummily, Beautiful Beaches was irresistibly melodious yet melancholic, an eco-warning fashioned in the devastating heat of climate change, and just when Sit Down was hitting its stride, a medical emergency brought everything to a stand.

Emergency over, Sit Down stood up to its usual singalong finale, orchestrated as ever by a wonder-struck Booth, but would extra time be permitted? Oh yes, it would, and it felt like a last-minute winning goal as Laid rushed into saucy commotion.

The best laid schemes for summer satisfaction should include heading to the East Coast on July 26 for James’s fourth outdoor outing at Scarborough Open Air Theatre, following similar seaside jaunts in 2025, 2018 and 2021, with room to sit  down or stand up (box office: ticketmaster.co.uk/event/35006049E46E32D3). No doubt the set list will be different again.

Set list, Leeds First Direct Arena, June 8

Johnny Yen; Waltzing Along; Our World; Rogue; Life’s A F***ing Miracle; Just Like Fred Astaire; Ring The Bells; Better With You; Butterfly (live debut); Getting Away With It (All Messed Up); Shadow Of A Giant; Out To Get You (tour debut); Mobile God; Tomorrow; Come Home; Sometimes (Lester Piggott).

Encore: Way Over Our Head; Beautiful Beaches; Sit Down; Laid.

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What’s On in Ryedale, York and beyond as the Sheds go outdoors. Here’s Hutch’s List No. 25, from Gazette & Herald

Shed Seven: Playing sold-out concerts in York Museum Gardens on Friday and Saturday

SHED Seven’s 30th anniversary open-air concerts are the headline act on Charles Hutchinson’s arts and culture bill for the week ahead. Look out for global travels, Gershwin celebrations and a Hitchcockian comic caper too.

York festival of the week: Futuresound presents Live At York Museum Gardens, Jack Savoretti, tomorrow; Shed Seven, Friday and Saturday

ANGLO-ITALIAN singer-songwriter Jack Savoretti opens the inaugural Live At York Museum Gardens festival at the 4,000-capacity gardens tomorrow, when the support acts will be Northern Irish folk-blues troubadour Foy Vance, York singer-songwriter Benjamin Francis Leftwich and fast-rising Halifax act Ellur.

Both of Shed Seven’s home-city 30th anniversary gigs have sold out. Expect a different set list each night, special guests and a school choir, plus support slots for The Libertines’ Peter Doherty, The Lottery Winners and York band Serotones on Friday and Doherty, Brooke Combe and Apollo Junction on Saturday. Sugababes’ festival-closing concert on July 21 was cancelled in April. Box office: seetickets.com/event/jack-savoretti/york-museum-gardens/2929799.

Claire Martin: Celebrating Gershwin’s Rhapsody In Blue at Ryedale Festival. Picture: Kenny McCracken

Jazz gig of the week: Ryedale Festival, Claire Martin and Friends, Rhapsody In Blue – A Gershwin Celebration, Milton Rooms, Malton, Friday, 8pm

LONDON jazz singer Claire Martin leads her all-star line-up in a celebration of George Gershwin’s uplifting music and the 100th anniversary of Rhapsody In Blue, a piece that changed musical history.

In the band line-up will be pianist Rob Barron, double bassist Jeremy Brown, drummer Mark Taylor, trumpet player Quentin Collins and saxophonist Karen Sharp. Box office: themiltonrooms.com or ryedalefestival.com.

Maria Gray in the role of The Acrobat in Around The World In 80 Days-ish at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick

Theatrical return of the week: Around The World In 80 Days-ish, York Theatre Royal, tomorrow to August 3

PREMIERED on York playing fields in 2021, revived in a touring co-production with Tilted Wig that opened at the Theatre Royal in February 2023, creative director Juliet Forster’s circus-themed adaptation of Jules Verne’s novel returns under a new title with a new cast.

Join a raggle-taggle band of circus performers as they embark on their most daring feat yet: to perform the fictitious story of Phileas Fogg and his thrilling race across the globe. But wait? Who is this intrepid American travel writer, Nellie Bly, biting at his heels? Will an actual, real-life woman win this race? Cue a carnival of delights with tricks, flicks and brand-new bits. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Katie Leckey and Jack Mackay: Co-artistic directors of Griffonage Theatre, alternating roles in Harold Pinter’s The Dumb Waiter

Fringe show of the week: Griffonage Theatre in The Dumb Waiter, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, tomorrow to Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee

YORK company Griffonage Theatre follow up February’s debut production of Patrick Hamilton’s Rope with Harold Pinter’s 1957 one-act play The Dumb Waiter, directed and designed by Wilf Tomlinson.

Two hitmen, Ben and Gus, are waiting in a basement room for their assignment, but why is a dumbwaiter in there, when the basement does not appear to be in a restaurant? To make matters worse, the loo won’t flush, the kettle won’t boil, and the two men are increasingly at odds with each other. Unique to this production, actors Jack Mackay and Katie Leckey will alternate the roles of Ben and Gus at each performance. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

One of Anna Matyus’s artworks on show at Helmsley Arts Centre

Exhibition of the week: Anna Matyus, Helmsley Arts Centre, until August 9

ANNA Matyus’s work explores the powerful spiritual resonance of historical sacred buildings and their setting in the landscape. Using etching and collagraph printmaking techniques and a colourful palette, she seeks to bring to life the powerful geometry of the often-faded motifs and time- worn patterns and symbols of historic artefacts found in the masonry and ancient tiles of these sacred sites.

“My final prints explore and record the dynamic rhythms of three-dimensional architectural form, layered with their decorative and symbolic adornment in a graphic expression of awe and wonder,” she says.

Gary Louris: The Jayhawks’ singer, guitarist and songwriter plays solo at The Crescent on Saturday, York. Picture: Steve Cohen

American solo act of the week: Gary Louris, of The Jayhawks, supported by Dave Fiddler, The Crescent, York, Saturday, 7.30pm

OVER three decades, vocalist, guitarist and songwriter Gary Louris has co-led Minneapolis country rock supremos The Jayhawks with Mark Olson, as well as being a member of alt.rock supergroup Golden Smog, forming Au Pair with North Carolina artist Django Haskins in 2015 and releasing two solo albums, 2008’s Vagabonds and 2021’s Jump For Joy.

He has recorded with acts as diverse as The Black Crowes, Counting Crows, Uncle Tupelo, Lucinda Williams, Roger McGuinn, Maria McKee, Tift Merritt and The Wallflowers too. As an alternative to the sold-out Sheds on Saturday, look no further than this American rock luminary. Box office: thecrescentyork.com.

Cutting a dash but in a hurry: Tom Byrne’s Richard Hannay in The 39 Steps. Picture: Mark Senior

Comedy play of the week: The 39 Steps, Grand Opera House, York, July 23 to July 27, 7.30pm and 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees

PATRICK Barlow’s award-garlanded stage adaptation of The 39 Steps has four actors playing 139 roles between them in 100 dashing minutes as they seek to re-create Alfred Hitchcock’s 1935 spy thriller while staying true to John Buchan’s 1915 book.

Tom Byrne – Falklands War-era Prince Andrew in The Crown – plays on-the-run handsome hero Richard Hannay, complete with stiff upper-lip, British gung-ho and pencil moustache as he encounters dastardly murders, double-crossing secret agents and devastatingly beautiful women. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

James: Playing Scarborough Open Air Theatre for the fourth time on July 26. Picture: Paul Dixon

Coastal gig of the week: James, Scarborough Open Air Theatre, July 26, gates 6pm

JAMES follow up Scarborough appearances in 2015, 2018 and 2021 by continuing that three-year cycle in 2024, on the heels of releasing the chart-topping Yummy, their 18th studio album, in April.

“I’m very pleased that we will be playing Scarborough Open Air Theatre this summer – our fourth time in fact,” says bassist and founder member Jim Glennie. “If you haven’t been there before, then make sure you come. It’s a cracking venue and you can even have a paddle in the sea before the show!” Support acts will be Reverend And The Makers, from Sheffield, and Nottingham indie rock trio Girlband!. Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com/james.

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REVIEW: Steve Crowther’s verdict on York Early Music Festival, Florilegium, National Centre for Early Music, York, July 7

Florilegium harpist Siobhán Armstrong

TO quote Anne-Marie Evans in the Daily Telegraph, “whereas the florilegia of the 17th century were created to portray the beauty and novelty of those plants brought back from the colonies, the modern florilegium may be seen as a conservation tool, instrumental in recording for posterity collections of plants within a chosen garden”.

Florilegium’s Le Roi s’Amuse: Music For A King’s Pleasure takes this delicate analogy, a musical journey around a musical flower garden, to “explore the intimate and elegant sound world of France in the decades around 1700 and perform music by composers known to both Louis XIV and Louis XV”.

An inspired concept that rewarded us with an impeccable concert of 18th-century French Baroque music. The concert opened with Jacques-Martin Hotteterre’s Suite in D major, and despite a gentle whinge by flautist Ashley Solomon at the 10.30am start, it was impeccable.

The opening Prelude set the tone of serious elegance and refinement. The flute playing by Mr Solomon was simply divine; phrases lovingly caressed, detail rich and polished. The Sarabande oozed charm and elegance, Menuet’s I & II were fresh and vibrant and the Brione’ Gigue (La Folichon) closed with a deliciously cute signing off.

Some of the movements were christened with titles such as Le Duc d’Orléans and Le Comte de Brionne. I can only assume these referred to courtiers from the reign of Louis XIV.

Jacques Morel’s Chaconne was great fun. It started out as a sweet Sunday morning chat with the flute and viola da gamba. The dialogue became a little more animated, competitive and virtuosic but the narrative always remained within the boundaries of decency, and they did kiss and make up at the end.

Couperin’s Unmeasured Prelude No. 13 is a work written without rhythm or metre indications. The score uses long groups of phrased whole notes, a bit like an instrumental plainchant. Anyhow, the performance was just superb; a quiet, melancholic jewel.

I haven’t heard of the composer Michel de la Barre. He wrote music for the transverse flute (no keys to cover the tone holes). The performance of his Suite No. 9 in G major was ensemble music making of the very highest order.

Marin Marais’s Suite in D minor was a tour de force performed with real, almost musically primal energy and vitality by Reiko Ichise (viola da gamba). The sound world was unlike anything else on offer: muscular, grainy lower register, biting articulation, dramatic dynamic range.

Such was the sheer physicality of the playing that even the wonderful Siobhan Armstrong’s harp accompaniment came across somewhat cowed, almost apologetic and the balance, not surprisingly, uneven.

Jacques-Martin Hotteterre’s Prelude: Pourquoy, Doux Rossignol proved to be the tenderest of love songs. The playing so refined, so sensitive.

Jean-Baptiste Barrière’s Sonata a Tre proved to be a worthy finale. Here, as ever, the playing was incisive, warm and polished. There was an encore, but unfortunately I missed the name and title of the work. It was very good, however.

Florilegium – Ashley Solomon, flute, Reiko Ichise, viola da gamba, and Siobhán Armstrong, harp – clearly are a world-class period instrument ensemble. And this insightful exploration and interpretation of the “intimate and elegant” French Baroque musical world of Jacques-Martin Hotteterre, Marin Marais and their lesser-known contemporaries was an absolute joy.

The performances were invariably elegant, technically flawless and, perhaps above all, transported the listener to a quite magical place.

Review by Steve Crowther

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What’s in store at Friargate Theatre’s autumn return? Comedy, theatre, music, film, story-telling and family shows

Friargate Theatre’s brochure cover for the Autumn 2024 season

THE poster boxes have gone, the windows are clear, the entrance hallway has new seating, all signs of the revival of activities at the Friargate Theatre in York.

Most significantly of all, brochures for the autumn season of comedy, theatre, storytelling, music, film and family shows at the home of Riding Lights Theatre Company are being distributed around the city.

In the wake of the death of Riding Lights founder and director and Friargate Theatre artistic programmer Paul Burbridge last year, the Christian theatre company is in the process of recruiting a new executive director and artistic director.

As the search goes on, the task of overseeing the Lower Friargate theatre and the autumn season falls to associate director Ollie Brown. “This season is all about rebuilding our audience,” he says. “Maybe some people have forgotten us as York’s hidden theatre by the river; we want to be come better known again with a programme that really supports York’s arts scene with shows York wants to see.”

Comedy will be to the fore, led off by the return of Right Here, Right Now, York’s improv comedy night on September 20, October 18, November 15 and December 6, when the merry band of improvisers will turn audience suggestions into chaotic comedy, music, mayhem and joy-filled nonsense.

September 26 marks the launch of Get Up Stand Up, York’s new monthly comedy club, featuring stand-ups from the British comedy circuit, each bill comprising a compere introducing two acts.

Check online at friargatetheatre.co.uk for updates on the 8pm line-ups for the last Thursday of each month, including October 31 and November 28. Steffen Peddie will host the first two shows, Tony Vino, the next two, and Patrick Monahan and Lost Voice Guy (Lee Ridley) will be among the acts heading for Lower Friargate.

Frankenstein (On A Budget), on October 5, combines one man, one monster, one glorious dream to singlehandedly tell the most famous cult horror story of all time on no budget whatsoever. What could possibly go wrong in this comedy musical Hammer Horror homage, replete with new music, cardboard creations and characters inspired by Mary Shelley and Boris Karloff.

Súper Chefs: Interactive musical exploring family, food and gender roles at Friargate Theatre on November 17

Still on the comedy front, ever witty York sketch writer and playwright Paul Birch will be holding workshops at his Improv Gym, some at Friargate Theatre, others at York Theatre Royal.

The autumn season will open on September 7 with the first family show, Welcome To The World, Little Wild Theatre’s interactive entertainment for nought to five-year-olds that takes a journey with Mother Earth’s children, Tide, Ariel and Blaze as they take their first steps in the world. 

On September 28, Rhubarb Theatre’s Finding Chester follows the story of Edith Tiddles’ missing moggie when she needs the help of her delivery team to orchestrate the search.

Murray Lachlan Young’s epic fairytale for six-year-olds and upwards, The Chronicles Of Atom And Luna, will be performed by Funnelwick Limb on October 29 and October 30, with its story of special twins, one who can talk to the birds, the other who can control the moon.

Further family entertainment follows with Jam Jar Theatre’s puppetry musical How A Jellyfish Saved The World on November 3; Maya Productions’ Súper Chefs, a bi-lingual, interactive Latin American family musical by Betsy Picart,  on November 17, and York company Next Door But One’s The Firework-Maker’s Daughter, a magical voyage across lakes and over mountains based on Philip Pullman’s novel, on November 30.

A season of thought-provoking and dynamic plays will start in a hurry on October 12 when Crew Of Patches present The Shakespeare Jukebox. The rules are simple: “give us the name of a Shakespeare play and we’ll do it…well, a bit of it at least”.  History, comedy and tragedy combine chaotically, faced with 37 plays to slay.

Climate change will be the topic on October 12 in Decommissioned, a heart-warming, comical play inspired by the true story of Fairbourne in Wales, with its story of caring for children, falling in love and staying sane while tackling the climate catastrophe.

Frankenstein (On A Budget): Comedy musical Hammer Horror homage with gore & flashing lights on October 5

On October 25, Adverse Camber presents storyteller Phil Okwedy in The Gods Are All Here, a personal story sparked by the discovery of letters from his father in Nigeria to his mother in Wales. Myths, folk tales and legends of the African diaspora feature.

On November 29, Andrew Harrison performs The Beloved Son, a new play written and directed by Riding Lights luminary Murray Watts for Wayfarer Productions that explores hope and longing, family dynamics, sexual and emotional crises and the profound insights of priest and psychologist Henri Nouwen.

Mat Jones brings Charles Dickens’s Victorian story of miserly Ebenezer Scrooge to life in his solo performance of A Christmas Carol on December 13.

The autumn’s season’s storytelling sessions promise a busy day for Gav Cross on November 2, presenting Ghastly Stories For Gruesome Gremlins at 2pm and After Supper Ghost Stories, a portmanteau of ghostly tales told by an unreliable narrator, at 7.30pm.

On the music front, on October 19, Saturday Night With The Shakers showcases the hits, misses, B-sides and lost classics from the golden age of Merseybeat. On November 1, Joseph O’Brien pays homage to Frank Sinatra in A Man And His Music.

The Aesthetica Short Film Festival will be in residence from November 6 to 10 and a Christmas film double bill of The Muppet Christmas Carol (2.30pm) and Die Hard (8pm) is booked in for December 7.

Riding Lights return home for A Christmas Cracker, Paul Birch’s festive family show bursting with seasonal stories, told by world famous but lost storyteller Ebenezer Sneezer, from December 21 to 24.  Comedy, puppetry and storytelling, strange ideas and a dog called Cracker combine in this magical glimpse of Christmas.

To book tickets, head to friargatetheatre.co.uk or ring 01904 613000.

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More Things To Do in York and beyond when going for gold in pursuit of entertainment and enlightenment. Here’s Hutch’s List No. 29, from The Press, York

Shed Seven: Playing sold-out concerts in York Museum Gardens on July 19 and 20

SHED Seven’s 30th anniversary open-air gigs top Charles Hutchinson’s bill. Roman emperors, Ryedale musicians, Brazilian sambas and theatrical Fools look promising too.

York festival of the week: Futuresound presents Live At York Museum Gardens, Jack Savoretti, July 18; Shed Seven, July 19 and 20

ONLY 100 tickets are still available for Anglo-Italian singer-songwriter Jack Savoretti’s opening concert of the inaugural Live At York Museum Gardens festival at the 4,000-capacity York Museum Gardens, when the support acts will be Northern Irish folk-blues troubadour Foy Vance, York singer-songwriter Benjamin Francis Leftwich and fast-rising Halifax act Ellur.

Both of Shed Seven’s home-city 30th anniversary gigs have sold out. Expect a different set list each night, special guests and a school choir, plus support slots for The Libertines’ Peter Doherty, The Lottery Winners and York band Serotones next Friday and Doherty, Brooke Combe and Apollo Junction next Saturday. Sugababes’ festival-closing concert on July 21 was cancelled in April. Box office: seetickets.com/event/jack-savoretti/york-museum-gardens/2929799.

Jack Savoretti: Opening the inaugural Live At York Museum Gardens festival on Thursday

Tribute show of the week: The Illegal Eagles, York Barbican, Sunday, 7.30pm

IN their 24th year on the road, The Illegal Eagles return with a new production rooted as ever in the greatest hits of the American West Coast country rock band, from Hotel California to Desperado, Life In The Fast Lane to Lyin’ Eyes.

The latest line-up features former Blow Monkeys drummer Tony Kiley, Trevor Newnham, from Dr Hook, on vocals and bass, Greg Webb, vocals and guitars, Mike Baker, vocals, guitars and keys, and Garreth Hicklin, likewise. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Mezzo-soprano Fleur Barron: Artist in residence at 2024 Ryedale Festival

Classical festival of the week: Ryedale Festival, running until July 28

THIS summer’s Ryedale Festival features 58 performances in 35 beautiful and historic locations, with performers ranging from Felix Klieser, a horn player born without arms, to trail-blazing Chinese guitarist Xuefei Yang, mezzo-soprano Fleur Barron to violinist Stella Chen, the Van Baerle Piano Trio to Rachel Podger on her Troubadour Trail.

Taking part too will be Royal Wedding cellistSheku Kanneh-Mason, Georgian pianist Giorgi Gigashvili, Brazilian guitar pioneer Plinio Fernandes, choral groups The Marian Consort and Tenebrae, actress and classical music enthusiast Dame Sheila Hancock, jazz singer Claire Martin and Northumbrian folk group The Unthanks. For the full programme and ticket details, head to: ryedalefestival.com. 

Mary Beard: Revealing the truths and lies behind the emperors of Rome at Grand Opera House, York

History lesson of the week: Mary Beard: Emperor Of Rome, Grand Opera House, York, tonight, 7.30pm

CLASSICIST scholar, debunking historian and television presenter Mary Beard shines the spotlight on Roman emperors, from the well-known Julius Caesar (assassinated 44 BCE) to the almost-unknown Alexander Severus (assassinated 235 CE).

Venturing beyond the hype of politics, power and succession, she will uncover the facts and fiction of these rulers, assessing what they did and why and how we came to have such a lurid view of them. Audience questions will be taken. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Maria Gray in the role of The Acrobat in Around The World In 80 Days-ish at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick

Theatrical return of the week: Around The World In 80 Days-ish, York Theatre Royal, July 18 to August 3

PREMIERED on York playing fields in 2021, revived in a touring co-production with Tilted Wig that opened at the Theatre Royal in February 2023, creative director Juliet Forster’s circus-themed adaptation of Jules Verne’s novel returns under a new title with a new cast.

Join a raggle-taggle band of circus performers as they embark on their most daring feat yet: to perform the fictitious story of Phileas Fogg and his thrilling race across the globe. But wait? Who is this intrepid American travel writer, Nellie Bly, biting at his heels? Will an actual, real-life woman win this race? Cue a carnival of delights with tricks, flicks and brand-new bits. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Katie Leckey: Alternating the roles of Ben and Gus with Jack Mackay in Griffonage Theatre’s The Dumb Waiter
Jack Mackay: Alternating the roles of Ben and Gus with Katie Leckey in Griffonage Theatre’s The Dumb Waiter

Fringe show of the week: Griffonage Theatre in The Dumb Waiter, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York,  July 18 to 20, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee

YORK company Griffonage Theatre follow up February’s debut production of Patrick Hamilton’s Rope with Harold Pinter’s 1957 one-act play The Dumb Waiter, directed and designed by Wilf Tomlinson.

Two hitmen, Ben and Gus, are waiting in a basement room for their assignment, but why is a dumbwaiter in there, when the basement does not appear to be in a restaurant? To make matters worse, the loo won’t flush, the kettle won’t boil, and the two men are increasingly at odds with each other. Unique to this production, actors Jack Mackay and Katie Leckey will alternate the roles of Ben and Gus at each performance. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Four go into three: Cast members James Aldred, Peter Long, Lucy Chamberlain and Charlotte Horner of The Three Inch Fools

Open-air theatre at the double: The Three Inch Fools in The Secret Diary Of Henry VIII, Scampston Hall, Scampston, near Malton, July 20; Merchant Adventurers’ Hall, York, July 23 and Helmsley Walled Garden, August 6; The Comedy Of Errors, Helmsley Walled Garden, July 19, all at 7pm

THE Three Inch Fools, brothers James and Stephen Hyde’s specialists in fast-paced storytelling and uproarious music-making, head to Scampston, York and Helmsley with their rowdy reimagining of the story of the troublesome Tudor king in The Secret Diary Of Henry VIII as he strives to navigate his way through courtly life, while fighting the French again, re-writing religious law and clocking up six wives.

The Play That Goes Wrong’s Sean Turner directs the Fools’ innovative take on Shakespeare’s shortest, wildest farce The Comedy Of Errors, with its tale of long-lost twins, misunderstandings and messy mishaps. Box office: eventbrite.co.uk.

Barbara Marten, York actor, oil on canvas, by Steve Huison, on show at Pyramid Gallery

Exhibition of the week: Steve Huison, Portraits, Pyramid Gallery, Stonegate, York, until August 31

THE Full Monty actor and artist Steve Huison is exhibiting 12 studies of colleagues in the acting profession, musicians who have inspired him, an adventurous Greenland chef and a famous Swiss clown.

On show are portraits of fellow actors Paul Barber, Arnold Oceng, Barbara Marten, Will Snape, Clarence Smith and Joe Duttine, musicians Abdullah Ibrahim, Quentin Rawlings and Flora Hibberd, counsellor and therapist Dr Tanya Frances, chef Mike Keen and Grock the Clown. Opening hours: Monday to Saturday, 10am to 5pm.

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REVIEW: Steve Crowther’s verdict on York Early Music Festival, Ensemble In Echo, St Lawrence Church, York, July 10

Gawain Glenton: Director of Ensemble In Echo

THE director of Ensemble In Echo, cornetto player Gawain Glenton, introduced the concert with: “Happy to see a full church”.  Well, Amen to that, although I’m not quite sure whether this was a compliment or a dig.

Talking of digs, Mr Glenton did give 21st century Western [music] a kick up the sackbutt with regard to fetishising newness and innovation, considering them to be “the defining elements of true”.

There is some truth here, but this certainly doesn’t apply to 20th century jazz, although this point was made later in the informative programme notes.

The programme header, Metamorfosi – Italian Transformations, epitomised the 2024 festival theme of ‘imitation being the sincerest form of flattery’. And some. The whole concert brimmed with music based on composers’ refashioning of music of other composers.

Take, for example, Jacob van Eyck’s Amarilli Mia Bella. This piece is in effect a set of continuous variations based on Giulio Caccini’s beautiful but somewhat artificial song My Lovely Amaryllis:

“My lovely Amaryllis,

Don’t you know, O my heart’s sweet desire,

That it is you whom I love?

Open my breast and see written on my heart:

Amaryllis, Amaryllis, Amaryllis, is my love.” (English translation by Paul Archer)

If you replace ‘Amaryllis’ with ‘Horse’ (Father Ted), then the artificial translates into delicious farce.

Anyway, the performance was quite wonderful. Trombone calls, sunshine-bright string responses and one of the most beautifully ornamented melodies I have ever heard (Gawain Glenton, recorder).

Didier Lupi’s Susanne Un Jour is a song setting of a 16th-century French poem by Guillaume Guéroult. And again, artificiality is the poetic driver:

“One day, Susanne’s love was solicited

By two old men coveting her beauty.

She became sad and discomforted at heart,

Seeing the attempt on her chastity.”

Lupi’s chanson setting was reworked by di Lasso, transforming it into a five-voice setting, which in turn was reworked into this virtuosic showpiece by Giovanni Bassano. The performance was again a jaw-dropping delight: trombone and strings creating velvety curtains of sound contrasting a fun-filled duelling duet by the violin (Oliver Webber) and cornetto. The melodic embellishment was breathtaking and delivered with true panache.

Ornamental transformation was seriously on offer with Silas Wollston’s harpsichord performance of Giovanni Maria Trabaci’s Ancidetemi Pur. This had an earlier incarnation as a plain four-part madrigal by Jaques Arcadelt. However, I am far from sure if the actual respect and recognisability of Arcadelt’s madrigal is at all meaningful.

The harpsichord realisation in Mr Wollston’s performance was delightfully bonkers. Blistering scales, ornaments, contrapuntal overload with an occasional contemporary tonal twist or inflection. It did indeed remind me of Gawain Glenton’s take: “As with 20th century jazz standards, the interest with such works lay in hearing an admired musician’s ‘take’ on a particular piece.’”

The performance of Allessandro Striggio’s Ancor Ch’io Possa Dire (originally a 16th century smash hit) was another tour de force, but the lineage of musical begetting passed me by.

By contrast, the intimacy of Gabriello Puliti and Pietro San Giorgio’s setting and responses to Vestiva I Colli came as welcome relief. The former brought Gawain Glenton’s cornetto back to the frontline, gently firing bursts of richly decorated joy. Goodness me, this was good.

The San Giorgio featured a tender duet with Oliver Webber (violin) and Rachel Byrt (viola), adding some sober dignity to the proceedings.

Philippe Verdelot’s Dormendo Un Giorno brought some welcome relief as Mr Glenton took a well-earned break. It was a beautiful lament, sounding as if they actually missed him. How sweet.

After the loveliest of trios by Vincenzo Ruffo, the concert ended with Giovanni Grillo’s seven-part instrumental Sonata Prima.

Not only did the composer embrace the antiphonal music of Giovanni Gabrieli, who in turn embraced and exploited the architecture of the great Italian basilica at San Marco in Venice. But also, in the words of Mr Glenton, “Grillo plainly inserts not one, but two of the most popular secular songs of the 16th century: Susanne Un Jour and Vestiva I Colli. Grillo quotes both pieces at length in a manner that must have brought a smile to all who heard it.”

Now that is a shedload of musical imitation, metamorphosis and flattery. The performance was full of joy and engagement with a delicious, bubbling signing-off.

Review by Steve Crowther

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58 events, 35, locations, seven world premieres, one Bob Marley song, Ryedale Festival opens today. Highlights here

Mezzo-soprano Fleur Barron: One of six artists in residence at Ryedale Festival. Picture: Victoria Cadisch

IN the words of guest speaker Dame Sheila Hancock, “classical music thrills, comforts and amazes me. When I begin to lose faith in the human species, it reminds me what the best of us can do.”

“That seems a good motto for the Ryedale Festival 2024,” says director Christopher Glynn, introducing the programme of 58 events at 35 locations that begins today.

“Our aim at the Ryedale Festival is simple: to make North Yorkshire one of the best places in Europe to enjoy and encounter classical music, and to do it with a sense of vision and adventure.

“I look forward to welcoming audiences from near and far to enjoy internationally renowned performers this summer, from Angela Hewitt performing Bach to Sheku Kanneh-Mason playing Bob Marley – and all in beautiful Yorkshire locations.

“Just as importantly, the festival offers opportunities to hundreds of local young people and a platform for emerging talent, as well as breaking new ground with seven world/UK premieres. Above all, it’s a team effort involving thousands of people who all believe in the important and life-enhancing role that music can play in our communities.”

Dame Sheila Hancock: “Classical music is one of the biggest comforts and joys of my life,” she says. Picture: Neil Spence

Actress and author Dame Sheila, 91, will reflect on her life and introduce live performances of favourite works by Mahler, Dvorak, Shostakovich, Chopin, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Beethoven and Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd in My Music: An Afternoon With Dame Sheila Hancock at Duncombe Park on July 25 at 3pm.

“I love classical music. It’s my stabiliser,” says Dame Sheila, who will be joined by the Carducci Quartet, soprano Caroline Blair and interviewer Katy Hamilton. “It’s one of the biggest comforts and joys of my life. And I want everybody to have the opportunity of that – I really do. We need people to know that it’s for everybody.”

Violinist Rachel Podger: Troubadour Trail at St Oswald’s Church Filey (24/7/2024, 11am), Christ Church, Appleton-le-Moors (25/7/2024, 11am) and Church of St Michael and All Angels, Garton on the Wolds (26/7/2024, 3pm)

Pianist Angela Hewitt opens the festival tonight with an 8pm programme of Bach’s Partita No. 6 in E minor, Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, Scarlatti’s Three Sonatas and Brahms’s Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel at Church of St Peter and St Paul, Pickering.

The festival has no fewer than six artists in residence: international horn player Felix Klieser, who was born without arms and taught himself to play with his feet; trailblazing guitarist Xuefei Yang, whose musical journey began at a time when the guitar was banned as an “hooligan” instrument in China; mezzo-soprano Fleur Barron, born to a British father and Singaporean mother; violinist Stella Chen, the Gramophone Young Artist of the Year; the Van Baerle Trio and baroque violinist Rachel Podger, whose Troubadour Trail solo programme takes her to three North Yorkshire churches.

Nigel Short conducts the choir Tenebrae in A Prayer For Deliverance at Ampleforth Abbey on July 17 at 8pm when highlights include Joel Thompson’s title work Richard Rodney Bennett’s tribute to Linda McCartney, A Good-Night, and Herbert Howells’ Requiem to his young son Michael.

Violinist Maria Wloszczowska directs the Royal Northern Sinfonia in Mozart In Scarborough, a 7pm programme of Mozart concertos and Prague symphony at Church of St Martin-on-the-Hill  on July 20.   

Royal Wedding cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason performs music from Brahms’s Hungarian Dances to Bob Marley’s Redemption Song, Burt Bacharach’s I Say A Little Prayer to Antonio Carlos Jobim’s The Girl From Ipanema, Laura Mvula’s Sing To The Moon to Dvorak’s Song To The Moon, on July 27 at both St Peter’s Church, Norton (1.30pm), and Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, University of York (6pm).

Sheku Kanneh-Mason. Two concerts in one day. Picture: Ollie Ali

He will be joined by violinist Braimah Kanneh-Mason, guitarist Plinio Fernandes, Fantasia Orchestra and conductor Tom Fetherstonhaugh at both St Peter’s Church, Norton (1.30pm), and Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, University of York (6pm).

“You can spot stars of tomorrow, such as Georgian pianist Giorgi Gigashvili (who started as a child pop singer and even won The Voice), conductor and ‘spark to watch’ Tom Fetherstonhaugh, Brazilian guitar pioneer Plínio Fernandes, and an array of others, including our own Ryedale Festival Young Artists,” says Christopher.

“All are welcome to Come and Sing Fauré’s Requiem [A Tenebrae Effect Workshop] at St Mary’s Church, Thirsk or promenade through a Triple Concert at Castle Howard [Van Baerle Trio, Long Gallery; Catrin Finch & Aoife Ni Bhriain, Great Hall; Marian Consort, Chapel).

“You can also picnic in the interval of a Double Concert [Piatti Quartet and Katona Twins] at Sledmere House and Church, enjoy the Orchestra of Opera North [Final Gala Concert] at Hovingham Hall, or join us at new venues such as Selby Abbey[Marian Consort, In Sorrow’s Footsteps, Allegri’s Miserere, July 25]  and stunning locations on the Yorkshire Wolds, North York Moors and coast.”

Jazz, folk and world music feature too. Claire Martin & Friends mark the 100th anniversary Gershwin’s Rhapsody In Blues at the Milton Rooms, Malton, on July 19, and Northumbrian folk band The Unthanks perform there with an 11-piece line-up on July 23.

Becky and Rachel Unthank: July 23 concert at Milton Rooms, Malton

Fleur Barron and pianist Julius Drake will be joined by Hibiki Ichikawa (shamisen) and Suleiman Suleiman (actor/dancer) for Spring Snow, a meditation on sound and silence, solitude and communion, love and loss, built around the Kabuki play Yasuna and Schubert’s Winterreise as shamisen music meets Japanese dance-theatre at St Peters Church, Norton, on July 16.

Family concerts, talks, masterclasses, late-night candlelit concerts, choral evensong, Kirkbymoorside Town Brass Band and seven world/UK premieres will be further highlights.

For the full programme, visit: ryedalefestival.com. Box office: 01751 475777 or ryedalefestival.com.

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The Full Monty actor & artist Steve Huison launches Portraits show at Pyramid Gallery. Who are the dozen faces in the frame?

Barbara Marten, York actor, oil on canvas, by Steve Huison. “I’ve known Barbara for over 40 years and have followed her shining career with interest. She’s a very kind, thoughtful and knowledgeable woman, and I think this emanates through her eyes,” says Steve

ACTOR and artist Steve Huison will launch his Portraits exhibition at Pyramid Gallery, Stonegate, York, with a personal appearance from 4pm to 7pm tomorrow (11/7/2024).

Best known for his role as suicidal steel-mill security guard Lomper in The Full Monty, Leeds-born Huison is exhibiting 12 studies of colleagues in the acting profession, musicians who have inspired him, an adventurous chef and a famous clown.

Before his success as an actor, Steve had studied at art school. Near the end of a 30-month stint playing Eddie Windass in Coronation Street from November 2008 to April 2011, he rediscovered his talent as a portrait artist, culminating in a charity event featuring portraits of Corrie cast members.

Mike Keen, chef, oil on canvas, by Steve Huison. “A chef with a difference. I’ve followed his career over the last couple of years as he’s kayaked his way up the west coast of Greenland, existing on eating what he finds along the way. In doing so he has brought his metabolism to a near perfect condition,” says Steve. “His health and vitality shines through his face.’

‘It seemed a valuable opportunity to capture portraits of some of the cast,” he recalls. “I wanted to try to portray them as the people I had got to know rather than their better-known characters. The extensive publicity turned out to be a good kick-starter for my evolving post-soap career.”

Other art forms constantly distract Steve’s attention. “They ignite new ideas for me, which I am never short of,” he says. “Once they’re in there rattling around in my mind I have to try them out. Consequently, I can turn my hand to a variety of creative outlets, including acting, stand-up, singing, drawing, painting, sculpting, carving, magic, escapology and a variety of musical instruments.”

Steve, 61, has been focusing on portrait painting for the past ten years when his acting commitments permit. While living in Robin Hood’s Bay he ran regular portrait drawing classes for complete beginners, an activity he has now moved to West Yorkshire since relocating in 2023.

Arnold Oceng, actor, oil on canvas, by Steve Huison. “I first met Arnold on set of the Disney production of The Full Monty. As soon as he walked on set I was instantly drawn to the beautiful lustre of his skin. I decided at that point to attempt to paint his portrait,” says Steve

The move followed filming for The Full Monty series for Disney+, when he reactivated his role as a much older version of Lomper. Fellow Full Monty actors Paul Barber, Arnold Oceng and Wim Snape are now among the portraits in his Pyramid Gallery show.

Steve first exhibited at Pyramid Gallery in July 2016, presenting A Year In Bay, his artistic response to his move to a new community in Robin Hood’s Bay, where he “had no contacts or connections, and witnessed how new relationships are formed, and how people go out of their way to help strangers”.

Wim Snape, actor, oil on canvas, by Steve Huison. “Wim is an old friend, and even though he’s only 39, I feel we’ve travelled through an interesting parallel journey together over 28 years. Wim played the 11-year-old Nathan in The Full Monty and went on to reprise the role in the Disney+ series of 2023,” says Steve

A second Pyramid show, Musings Of An Erratic Mind, followed in July 2018, its title reflecting his realisation that “I have a collection of work that bears little resemblance to each other, but says everything about how my mind and creativity works”.

Now comes Portraits, featuring actors Paul Barber, Arnold Oceng, Barbara Marten, Will Snape, Clarence Smith and Joe Duttine, counsellor and therapist Dr Tanya Frances, chef Mike Keen, Swiss clown Grock and musicians Abdullah Ibrahim, Quentin Rawlings and Flora Hibberd.

Steve Huison, Portraits, Pyramid Gallery, Stonegate, York, July 11 to August 31. Opening hours: Monday to Saturday, 10am to 5pm.

Steve Huison: the back story

Artist Steve Huison. Portrait by Pyramid Gallery owner and curator Terry Brett

Birthplace: Leeds, December 2 1962, born Steven Johnson.

Height: 6ft 1in.

Education: Rose Bruford College, Sidcup, diploma in Community Theatre Arts, 1983 to 1986.

Occupation: Actor, artist, arts administrator, musician, master of ceremonies (Cabaret Saltaire, Caroline Club, since February 2011).

Best known for: Playing Lomper in 1997 film The Full Monty, made in Sheffield. Reprised role in 2023 Disney+ series The Full Monty.

Film: Ken Loach’s The Navigators, 2001.

Television: Casualty; Where The Heart Is; dinnerladies (as Steve Greengrass); Heartbeat; The Royle Family; Scott & Bailey; ITV post-apocalyptic drama serial The Last Train (also known as Cruel Earth); Doctors. From January 2008, porter Norman Dunstan in ITV1 daily hospital drama The Royal Today. From November 2008 to April 2011, Eddie Windass in Coronation Street. 2012, Mr Byron in CBBC series 4 O’Clock Club. 2023, The Full Monty, Disney +.

Theatre: Co-founder of Shoestring Theatre Company, in Shipley, 2002. Made pantomime debut at Harrogate Theatre as dame Nanny Clutterbuck in The Sleeping Beauty in 2006 and returned as gurning, knock-kneed King Keith in Sleeping Beauty in 2013. In 2007, toured one-man play Fifty Feet And Falling, based on diaries of a friend who struggled with depression and took his own life.

Improv comedy: Cabaret Saltaire, creating characters such as Squinty McGinty and Korvorra Czeztikov.

Abdullah Ibrahim, pianist and composer, oil painting, by Steve Huison. “A giant of a South African jazz musician. His music has inspired me to take up the bass guitar in the last few years,” says Steve
Clarence Smith, actor, oil on canvas, by Steve Huison, from a photo by Helen Maybanks. “I first met Clarence in the summer of 1982 on a wild night in a flat in Queensway, London. We went on to train as actors together. 42 years later and we’re still in touch,” says Steve. “Still an amazingly good-looking man considering those wild times back then, and no doubt since.”
Flora Hibberd, singer-songwriter, oil on canvas, by Steve Huison. “An up-and-coming Paris-based singer/songwriter. Her music has resonances for me of Leonard Cohen and classic French chanteuses such as Françoise Hardy,” says Steve. “The portrait is from an original photograph by Marie Yako.”
Dr Tanya Frances, counsellor and therapist, oil on canvas, by Steve Huison. “Tanya is someone I’ve observed go from strength to strength in the 17 years that I’ve known her. I first had the privilege of working with her at Harrogate Theatre before she successfully switched careers,” says Steve
Joe Duttine, actor, oil on canvas, by Steve Huison. “I got to know Joe through working with him on a Ken Loach film back in 2000. He’s a fine actor who brings true conviction to all his roles,” says Steve
Grock the clown, oil on canvas, by Steve Huison. “At the height of his career, Charles Wettach (1880-1959) was the highest-paid performer in Europe. I was first given a black-and-white postcard 25 years ago. It’s an image that has stayed with me ever since, often inspiring me in many comedic projects. I just had to see how it would look larger and in colour,” says Steve
Paul Barber, actor, oil on canvas, by Steve Huison. “I first worked with Paul on a BBC screenplay in 1992. Despite his tumultuous upbringing in care, Paul has managed to carve out a gleaming career in the industry and still bears no airs and graces. A true gentleman and a dear brother,” says Steve.
Quentin Rawlings, musician, oil on canvas, by Steve Huison. “I met ‘Q’ over 35 years ago, playing sessions with him in the White Stag in Leeds. He’s a wonderful musician and was the first guitarist I played with who used open tuning. It amazed me then and still does,” says Steve. “I’ve never climbed out of the standard tuning box – there are still new tricks to learn.”
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REVIEW: Steve Crowther’s verdict on York Early Music Festival, The Sixteen, Masters Of Imitation, York Minster, July 6

The Sixteen: Master Of Imitation programme at York Minster

A SURPRISE introduction: as per usual the concert was prefaced by a clerical welcome plus loo, safety and mobile phone instruction. This closed with a prayer, which I thought was a bit of a no-no. But then I got the (possible) subtext: England were to embark on a penalty shoot-out. And it worked; we won!

The Sixteen’s Masters Of Imitation celebrates the art of parody in renaissance music, focusing on the works of Orlande de Lassus to link this inspired programme together.

Today we are very used to the term ‘parody’ meaning to imitate, to exaggerate the style of a particular writer or artist but to comic effect. Here Lassus’s parody works are akin to creating a musical patchwork quilt: taking musical bits, passages from his own historic compositions or his great predecessor Josquin des Prez, for example, and reworking the material into an entirely new composition. This latter process being a dedicated act of homage.

The concert opened with the timeless beauty of the plainchant Lauda Jerusalem Dominum. It was performed as a processional with the tenor calls answered with soprano responses. There is invariably a deep simplicity of beauty in these non-metric, homophonic lines and this, being The Sixteen, was no exception.

Lassus’s reworking of the plainchant (it has the same text) was a thing of beauty. Here melodies rising high into the air, the singing just glorious. But there was also a sense of fun, of joy as the music rhythmically danced. And word painting too. I think it was this sense of warmth, of Lassus’s humanity that was communicated so effectively.

Lassus’s motet Osculetur Me Osculo Oris sui is scored for two choirs and the composer exploits the different sonorities to dramatic effect, such as Trahe Me Post Te. I was reminded of the music of the Gabrielis, but doubt I’m the only one to have made this connection.

And then there was the sensuous setting of some quite juicy texts:

“Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth;

for thy love is better than wine

Thy name is as oil poured out;

therefore the young maidens have loved thee.”

Be rest assured, the Latin text gives these lines a “cloak of decency” (Bob Dylan).

To be honest, I had never heard of Maddalena Casulana. According to a leading authority in these matters, Wikipedia tells us “she was an Italian composer, lutenist and singer of the late Renaissance. [Casulana] is the first female composer to have had a whole book of her music printed and published in the history of western music, dedicated to her female patron Isabella de Medici”.

Her pretty radical dedication reads: “These first fruits of mine, flawed as they are … show the world the futile error of men, who believe themselves patrons of the high gifts of intellect, which according to them cannot also be held in the same way by women.”

Of the two madrigals I found the second much more rewarding. The choir was reduced by half, which added some welcome relief from conductor Harry Christophers’ insistence on performing the programme with a full complement of singers. Greater clarity of line and text massively enhanced enjoyment. This love song was a real gem.

It is perhaps worth noting that this rediscovery and promotion of Maddalena Casulana’s music –this may be the first time these works have been committed to a CD recording, Masters Of Imitation, available at all good record shops near you – is clearly significant.

In The Sixteen’s 2023 Choral Pilgrimage, Harry Christophers programmed the world premiere of two commissioned works by female composer Dobrinka Tabakova.

I struggled with Lassus’s eight-part Credo from his Missa Osculetur Me. There was just so much wonderful contrapuntal detail unable to escape from the Minster acoustic black hole. At times passages hung in the air, just a haze of sound, albeit a beautifully sung one. And yes, the closing coming together and Amen final cadence was delicious.

Jean Guyot de Châtelet’s arrangement of Josquin, adding six extra parts to Benedicta es Caelorum Regina, was thrilling, if somewhat eccentric. There were juicy false relations and a spine-tingling Amen. This is original music composition and performance of the highest order.

Other memorable highlights included Josquin Desprez’s Benedicta es Caelorum Regina with its exquisite tenor opening, its slightly whacky atmosphere of splendour and its forceful, dramatic descending scales prosecuting the message-with-a-twist:

“The Word became flesh from you,

by whom all are saved.”

Lassus’s Magnificat Benedicta es Caelorum Regina was another, with its clear contrapuntal lines and exciting antiphonal exchanges that seemed to dissolve or evaporate, allowing the light to shine.

Although there is no doubting the brilliance of Bob Chilcott’s choral music – surely every choir in the UK worth its salt must have Chilcott in its repertoire – his music just doesn’t “turn me on” (John Lennon). But this specially commissioned sacred parody of Lassus’s secular madrigal, Lauda Jerusalem Dominum, undoubtedly called for a personal rethink.

The setting was pretty conservative – no surprises here, Chilcott is a pretty conservative composer. But there were truly magical moments. For example, the delicate ostinato soprano patterns, beautiful on their own terms, then as a gorgeous backdrop for the soaring melodies.

I would have liked greater contrasts in scoring and dynamic, but the rich tonal harmonic identity, distinctive variations in colour and ending delivered a tasty punch. The performance was of the usual exemplary quality; instinctive melodic shaping, expression and care for detail. And so musical.

The concert as a whole showed yet again Harry Christopher and The Sixteen’s deep understanding of repertory and, just as importantly, communicated an infectious engagement in the music itself. The audience response was both instinctive and rapturous.

They really are a class act.

Review by Steve Crowther