Harriet Burns & Christopher Glynn, Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, University of York
THIS was almost the recital that never was. Aboard a train from London that broke down in Peterborough, pianist Christopher Glynn arrived half an hour late by taxi. There was compensatory wine on the house for punters before eventually soprano Harriet Burns opened zestfully with three unaccompanied folk-songs, which I took to be Scottish.
With return trains to be caught, that left barely an hour for the announced programme of Schubert and English settings followed by Strauss’s Four Last Songs. Inevitably this had to be seriously abridged, although no announcement was made about what was to be omitted. The duo warmed in with Schubert’s ‘An Sylvia’, crisply delivered, and hit full stride with his ‘Frühlingsglaube’ (Faith In Spring) where the soprano’s duplets were impeccably counterpointed by the piano’s triplets.
The only other Schubert to survive the butchery was ‘Der Einsame’ (The Recluse), which was beautifully restrained, evoking the pleasures of solitude, not least through the lovely legato produced by Burns.
Otherwise we were left with two cuckoo songs, Ireland’s ‘Earth’s Call’ and Gurney’s neo-Elizabethan ‘Spring’, both of which use the bird to conjure that season. They were the highlight of the evening, voice and piano echoing and embracing one another.
Christopher Glynn: Train broke down en rioute to York
Vaughan Williams’s Four Last Songs, settings of poetry by his second wife Ursula, deserve to be heard in their entirety. Here we had to be content with an effectively intimate account of ‘Tired’. Glynn’s whirlwind pianism in Stanford’s setting of Whitman’s ‘Joy, Shipmate, Joy!’ brought the first half to a suitably ecstatic close.
A very brief interval – the lights remained dimmed – allowed Glynn to change out of his jeans into a full suit. Strauss’s Vier letzte Lieder were not what they should have been. But it was not the fault of the performers. The composer goes to considerable lengths to graduate his response to the first three songs, settings of Hermann Hesse, so that when he reaches the fourth, Eichendorff’s ‘Im Abendrot’ (At Sunset), the analogy between twilight and approaching death is crystal clear.
The soprano’s bravest efforts to build the necessary atmosphere were annihilated by ignoramuses who insisted on applauding after each song. York audiences should know better. Even so, there were some lovely individual moments from both performers, although Burns was inclined to expand and contract her sound too regularly on longer notes. Glynn’s piano was impeccable, not least in the touching interlude before the last verse of ‘While going to sleep’.
Let us hope that this duo will soon be invited back and perhaps even offered beds for the night. We might then hear the Strauss cycle again and the Vaughan Williams one in full, along with plenty of Schubert, of course. They – and we – deserve nothing less.
Will Clark: Former leader of National Youth Orchestra, now studying at Royal Academy of Music
BOTH players of international reputation, this violin and piano duo can truly be claimed as York’s own.
Although based in London, Will Clark grew up and nurtured his talents here. Hilary Suckling has made York her home, so their local connexions are impeccable. Sonatas by Mozart and Brahms framed shorter works by Ysaӱe and Britten and offered satisfying variety.
Will’s appearance is deceptive. Sporting a pseudo-drag persona, with dramatically painted eyebrows above decorated waistcoat and tight black trousers, all evocative of the bull ring, he can be distracting.
It takes the average punter a few minutes to be able to concentrate on his actual playing. But it is worth the effort. Beneath the veneer lurks a thoughtful and highly proficient violinist. Sometimes he is even better than that.
The duo’s Mozart, K.454 in B flat, was unremarkable, but it offered a solidly constructed warm-up for what was to come. Clark used minimal vibrato, but it did not detract from the Andante’s cantabile line.
The closing rondo was light on its toes, occasionally even witty, as Suckling intelligently adjusted her tone after a first movement where balance had been an intermittent problem.
It was good to hear Eugène Ysaӱe’s Poème élégiaque, Op 12 in its original version, rather than the better-known adaptation for orchestra. Although very much a display piece, it remains at heart a lament, apparently in reaction to Romeo and Juliet, and the duo wisely concentrated on this. So the dramatic centrepiece became a display of anger at bereavement and the closing violin recitative conveyed a touching solemnity.
Although the Britten was described as three pieces from the Suite, Op 6, the composer ultimately distilled it down to just these three, which were the only ones first unveiled in the Wigmore Hall in 1934 (albeit revised the following year).
The opening ‘March’ was jaunty with the succeeding ‘Lullaby’ an extreme contrast, very slow and sad; Clark’s high line was impeccable. The final ‘Waltz’ was exactly right: virtuosically explosive.
Brahms’s third and last Violin Sonata, Op 108 in D minor, opens with a remarkable rhapsodic Allegro. Suckling’s piano here was admirably subdued, especially given the weightiness of the composer’s writing, before the duo became excitingly fiery. There was some lovely rubato in the slow movement.
A feel of Mendelssohnian politeness infused the scherzo, but that evaporated in the thrilling final Presto. Even here Clark allowed his violin to do the talking, rather than indulge in the sort of histrionics his appearance might have suggested.
Clark returns to this hall on March 30 as soloist in the Sibelius Violin Concerto with York Symphony Orchestra: on this showing, strongly recommended.
Alexandra Lowe as Fiordiligi, left, Gillene Butterfield as Despina and Heather Lowe as Dorabella in Opera North’s Cosi fan Tutte. Picture: James Glossop
TIM Albery was back to mastermind his 2004 production, his second Così here, and it retained a good deal of its earlier impact.
Tobias Hoheisel’s camera obscura focused attention nicely, beckoning us to gaze at the frailty of human emotions under the microscope. His setting was otherwise traditional and encouraged teamwork without gimmickry, but always with an eye towards what Germaine Greer was pleased to call comitragedy.
Clemens Schuldt, a new conductor here, encouraged the pathos in the score. Oddly enough, this had a connection to the approach of Quirijn de Lang’s Don Alfonso, beautifully enunciated but always with a wistfulness that foresaw the disappointments. He was not so much a puppeteer as a wise head on old shoulders offering advice, not revelling in winning his wager.
The initial pairings to some extent belied the characters we saw. While Alexandra Lowe’s Fiordiligi was the more circumspect of the sisters, her Guglielmo, Henry Neill, always had a twinkle in his eye, which could imply that he was untrustworthy.
Heather Lowe (no relation) made an adventurous Dorabella, opposite a Ferrando in Anthony Gregory who was a distinctly cool fish. In other words, the couples seemed much better suited when they changed over. What in fact happened was that sharedcircumstances smoothed out the emotions of all four so that any coupling was likely to work – but in this production that was properly left unresolved.
At the final curtain, we could only weep that they had all made such a mess of things, a perfectly legitimate tactic on Albery’s part and one that gave the evening greater depth.
Stir into the mix a Despina in Gillene Butterfield who affected to be on more or less the same social level as her employers: witty enough as doctor or lawyer, she was otherwise too caught up in the fray.
The singing was never less than high quality. Alexandra Lowe’s soprano reflected her emotions excellently, while Heather Lowe’s forthright Dorabella made ‘Il cor vi dono’ the vocal highlight of the show. Neill’s flexible baritone balanced his movements superbly: he is a natural creature of the stage. Gregory’s tenor, dry at first, warmed as the evening progressed, in keeping with his character.
Schuldt was attentive to his orchestra and maintained a good balance with the stage, always favouring his woodwinds. Albery had done it again, teamwork his first concern.
BOYZLIFE, the Irish superboyband duo of Boyzone’s Keith Duffy and Westlife’s Brian McFadden, will return to York Barbican on February 1 on their 14-date 2025 tour.
Duffy, 49, and McFadden, 43, will combine hits from both bands, such as Boyzone’s I Love The Way You Love Me, All That I Need and No Matter What and Westlife’s My Love, I Lay My Love On You and Uptown Girl.
Boyzlife will complete a hatrick of York Barbican visits, after playing there on October 17 2021 and October 14 2022 on their Old School tour. Tickets go on sale on Friday at 10am at ticketmaster.co.uk.
Ellie Leach: Strictly 2023 champ is making her stage acting debut in the British tour of the comedy whodunit Cluedo 2, on tour at York Theatre Royal next week
REVOLUTIONARY teens, rabbit cartoon tributes, mischievous theatre as a team game, food stalls, a whodunit comedy and cocktail-bar waitress tales whet Charles Hutchinson’s appetite.
Whodunit, with what and where, of the week: Cluedo 2, York Theatre Royal, March 12 to 16, 7.30pm plus 2pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees
STRICTLY Come Dancing 2023 champion and Coronation Street star Ellie Leach is making her stage acting debut as Miss Scarlett in the world premiere British tour of Cluedo 2, marking the 75th anniversary of the Hasbro boardgame. Next stop, York.
This follow-up to the original play (based on Jonathan Lynn’s 1985 film Clue) is an original comedy whodunit, set in the Swinging Sixties, with a script by Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran (Birds Of A Feather, Goodnight Sweetheart and Dreamboats And Petticoats) and direction by Mark Bell (from Mischief Theatre’s The Play That Goes Wrong and A Comedy About A Bank Robbery). Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
1812 Youth Theatre’s poster for this week’s run of Jmes Fritz’s Start Swimming
Young performers of the week: 1812 Youth Theatre in Start Swimming, Helmsley Arts Centre, tomorrow to Saturday, 7.30pm
HELMSLEY’S 1812 Theatre Company presents Start Swimming, a play about occupation, revolution and what the future holds for today’s youth. One step away from disaster, there is only one option left: start swimming.
First staged by the Young Vic Taking Part department, James Fritz’s play was performed at the 2017 Edinburgh Fringe too. Suitable for age 12+. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Terry Brett with his Good Rabbits Gone banner for display outside Pyramid Gallery at his book-signing charity event on Friday evening
Book signing of the week: Terry Brett’s Good Rabbits Gone Volume Three, Pyramid Gallery, Stonegate, York, Friday, 5.30pm to 7pm
YORK gallery curator Terry Brett marks the publication of his third volume of cartoon rabbit tributes to celebrities and remarkable individuals at a charity event at Pyramid Gallery, York. Copies are given away but voluntary donations are encouraged in aid of St Leonard’s Hospice, in memory of Terry’s father, who died of prostate cancer.
Terry, who draws the cartoons under the artist alias of Bertt deBaldock, will be on hand to sign copies outside the gallery, with the books displayed on a table. Inside, visitors can enjoy a glass of wine and buy the original drawings.
Hoglets Theatre’s Gemma Curry, left, Claire Morley and Becky Lennon in A Midsummer Night’s Mischief at York Theatre Royal Studio
Children’s show of the week: Hoglets Theatre in A Midsummer Night’s Mischief, York Theatre Royal Studio, Friday, 4.30pm and Saturday, 10.30am
EVERYTHING is kicking off as the fairies in the forest start a fight, but which side will you be on? Team Titania or Team Oberon? York company Hoglets Theatre presents an interactive, fun, larger-than-life production for young children (ideally aged two to nine, but everyone is welcome), based on Shakespeare’s comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Expect wild characters, raucous singalong songs, puppets, stunts and some frankly ridiculous disco dancing from director/writer Gemma Curry and fellow cast members Claire Morley and Becky Lennon. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Feelgood event of the week: Malton Food Market, Malton, Saturday, 9am to 3pm
THE monthly Malton Food Market returns for the 2024 season this weekend with specialist stalls, street food, live music and “bags of foodie fun”, set against the backdrop of St Michael’s Church.
Billed as “popular with all those who care about where their food is sourced”, the market will be held on April 3, May 11, June 8, July 13, August 10, September 14 and November 9 with free admission. Malton’s Harvest Food Festival will take place on October 5 and 6; Malton Christmas Festival, December 7 and 8. For two hours of free parking, go to: visitmalton.com/plan-your-visit.
Lazy Sunday Sessions at the Milton Rooms, Malton
Talent initiative: Lazy Sunday Sessions, Milton Rooms, Malton, March 17 and April 14, 3pm to 6pm
THE Milton Rooms has launched an initiative in the updated bar area to promote upcoming Ryedale musicians and find the next generation of performers. After George Rowell and Maggie Wakeling featured in the first session last month, Patrick Robertson and Friends plus Nick Thompson have been booked for a special Irish jam session on St Patrick’s Day, March 17, followed by Phil Hooley and Abbey Follansbee on April 14. Entry is free; a small fee is paid to musicians and audience members can show their appreciation in a tip bucket.
In addition, on the last Sunday of each month, a 3pm to 6pm Open Mic session has been launched, designed to give anyone a chance to bring their own instrument and show off their musical skills. Entry is free; the PA system and microphones are provided.
Rowntree Players’ Sophie Bullivant, Abi Carter, Holly Smith and Laura Castle in Jane Thornton and John Godber’s Shakers at the JoRo Theatre
Comedy play of the week: Rowntree Players in Shakers, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, March 14 to 16, 7.30pm and 2.30pm Saturday matinee
WELCOME to Shakers, the worst bar in town where everyone wants to be seen. Carol, Adele, Niki and Mel are about to work the shift from hell! The lights are neon, the music is loud, and shoes must be smart only. No trainers.
Jane Thornton and John Godber’s 1984 comedy exposes the sticky-floored world behind the bar on a busy Saturday night. Here come the girls, the lads, the yuppies and the luvvies, all played by Sophie Bullivant, Laura Castle, Abi Carter and Holly Smith under the direction of Jamie McKeller, who worked previously with Bullivant and Castle on Godber’s Teechers in 2022. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
Boyzlife’s Keith Duffy, left, and Brian McFadden: Heading to York Barbican next February
Gig announcement of the week: Boyzlife, York Barbican, February 1 2025
BOYZLIFE, the supergroup duo of Boyzone’s Keith Duffy and Westlife’s Brian McFadden, will return to York Barbican on their 14-date tour in 2025. The Irishmen will combine hits from both bands, such as Boyzone’s I Love The Way You Love Me, All That I Need and No Matter What and Westlife’s My Love, I Lay My Love On You and Uptown Girl. Tickets go on sale on Friday at 10am at ticketmaster.co.uk.
Tuck into An Audience with Grace Dent, the Guardian food writer, columnist, author and presenter, at the Grand Opera House, York, on March 30 (7pm) as part of York Literature Festival
LITERATURE festivities, psychological bunny puppetry, sci-fi theatre, paranormal investigations and explosive dance promise out-of-this-world cultural experiences, reckons Charles Hutchinson.
Festival of the month: York Literature Festival, ends April 4
YORK Literature Festival is under way with events spread between St Peter’s School; York St John University; York Explore Library; Theatre@41; The Mount School; The Basement at City Screen; York Museum Gardens; York Medical Society, Stonegate; The Crescent; the Grand Opera House and The Blue Boar, Castlegate.
Among the highlights are today’s (2/3/2024) Folk Horror Day; food writers Nina Mingya Powles and Ella Risbridger on Thursday and Grace Dent on March 30; Nicholas Royle David Boiwe, Enid Blyton and The Sun Machine, March 12; journalist and broadcaster Steve Richards on Turning Points in modern Britain, March 16; Lush founder and lead singer Mike Berenyi, discussing her memoir Fingers Crossed, March 24, and poet and broadcaster Lemn Sissay’s morning poems, March 30. For the full programme and bookings, visit yorkliteraturefestival.co.uk.
Lemn Sissay: British-Ethiopian poet will perform morning poems from Let The Light Pour In at York Literature Festival on March 30 (2pm). Picture: Hamish Brown
When Tuesday is on a Saturday: 1812 Youth Theatre in Tuesday, Helmsley Arts Centre, tonight (2/3/2024), 2.30pm, 7.30pm
AN ordinary Tuesday turns really, really weird when the sky over the school playground suddenly rips open in Alison Carr’s funny and playful play Tuesday. Pupils and teachers are sucked up to a parallel universe as a new set of people rain down from above. ‘Us’ and ‘Them’ must come together to work out what is going on and how to return things to how they were.
Carr combines “a little bit of sci-fi and a lot of big themes”: friendship, family, identity, grief, responsibility – and what happens when an unexpected event turns the world upside down. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Exploring psychological damage: George Green in Foxglove Theatre’s Rabbit at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York
New play of the week: Foxglove Theatre in Rabbit, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, tonight (2/3/2024), 7.30pm
YORK company Foxglove Theatre identified a need for weirder, more experimental theatre in the city, focusing on “psychological exploration through innovative visual storytelling”. Here comes their debut new work, Rabbit, wherein a brave bunny wakes up lost in a murky forest determined to find her way home to Mumma.
Blending puppetry and visual effects, George Green’s performance explores the psychological damage that develops from even the smallest mishandlings of our childhood selves. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Back on the Chain Gang: Miles Salter, second left, and his York band make a second visit to Ampleforth Village Hall tonight
Village gig of the week: Miles and The Chain Gang, Ampleforth Village Hall, near Helmsley, tonight (2/3/2024), 7.30pm
YORK band Miles and The Chain Gang return to Ampleforth Village Hall by popular demand after a first outing there last summer. Expect rock’n’roll, acoustic songs, new wave, soul and country, plus Rolling Stones, Joni Mitchell and Johnny Cash covers.
Their latest digital single, the country-tinged Raining Cats And Dogs, is sure to feature in the set by Miles Salter, guitar and vocals, Mat Watt, bass, Steve Purton, drums, and Charlie Daykin, keyboards. Tickets: 07549 775971.
Yvette Fielding: Leading the paranormal investigations at the Grand Opera House, in the haunted city of York, in a Sunday fright night
Paranormal show of the week: Most Haunted: The Stage Show, Grand Opera House, York, Sunday (3/3/2024), 7.30pm
YVETTE Fielding, “the first lady of the paranormal”, joins Karl Beattie, producer and director of the Most Haunted television series, in the investigative team to take Sunday’s audience on “the darkest, most terrifying journey of your life”, followed by a question-and-answer session.
In a city bursting at the seams with ghost stories and walks, Fielding and Beattie present Most Haunted’s All-Time Top Ten Scares, complete with unseen video footage from haunted castles, manor houses, hospitals and prisons. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Excellent entertainment? Phil Ellis reckons so at Theatre@41 on Tuesday
Comedy gig of the week: Phil Ellis’s Excellent Comedy Show, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, Tuesday, 8pm
DO you like comedy? Do you like shows? What are your thoughts on excellence? “If you like all three, then the award-winning Phil Ellis’s Excellent Comedy Show is the excellent comedy show for you,” advises Ellis, who promises an hour of stand-up and fun from “the North West’s most punctual working-class comedian”. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Diversity: Dancing around the Supernova at the Grand Opera House, York, for two nights. Harrogate and Hull to follow
Dance show of the week: Diversity in Supernova, Grand Opera House, York, March 7 and 8, 7.45pm; Harrogate Convention Centre, March 9, 3.30pm; Hull Connexin Live, April 7, 2.30pm
2009 Britain’s Got Talent winners Diversity return to York on their biggest tour yet to stage Supernova, devised by founder Ashley Banjo. More than 120,000 tickets have sold for more than 90 dates in 40 cities and towns through 2023 and 2024, with both Grand Opera House performances down to the last few tickets.
Diversity will be supporting the Trussell Trust, the anti-poverty charity, inviting audience members to bring food donations to place in collection points. Cash donations in buckets are welcome too. Box office: York, atgtickets.com/york; Harrogate, 01423 502116 or harrogatetheatre.co.uk; Hull, connexinlivehull.com.
Suzi Quatro: Using this iconic image from her first photographic session with Gered Mankowitz in 1973 to promote her 60th anniversary tour. York Barbican awaits
Gig announcement of the week: Suzi Quatro, York Barbican, November 15
SUZI Quatro will mark the 60th year of her reign as “the Queen of Rock’n’Roll” by embarking on a five-date autumn tour, taking in York Barbican as the only Yorkshire venue.
Born in Michigan, Quatro flew to England in 1971 to work with songwriting duo Chinn and Chapman, chalking up chart toppers with Can The Can and Devil Gate Drive and further hits with 48 Crash, Daytona Demon, The Wild One, If You Can’t Give Me Love and She’s In Love With You, as well as co-writing Babbies & Bairns with dame Berwick Kaler in his York Theatre Royal panto pomp. Box office: ticketmaster.co.uk/event/360060579D80156E.
In Focus: Two Houses, One Story: York ‘s Forgotten Women at Bar Convent and Fairfax House
Special collections manager Dr Hannah Thomas studies a reproduction of Lady Hungate’s unofficial will alongside items left to the Bar ConventLiving Heritage Centre
TWO Houses, One Story: York’s Forgotten Women, a collaboration between the Bar Convent Living Heritage Centre and Fairfax House, opens today, marking International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month.
Running until April 27, the project explores the long intertwining histories of these illegal Catholic houses with an exhibition at each house that enhances the other.
Two of York’s most iconic historic houses, they share a history of strong Catholic women. One was founded as a secret convent, operating a pioneering school for girls, in Blossom Street; the other was constructed as the winter townhouse of Charles, 9th Viscount Fairfax of Emley, gifted to his daughter, the Hon Anne Fairfax, with its richly decorated interiors and stucco ceilings in a masterpiece of Georgian design and architecture in Castlegate.
Dr Hannah Thomas, the Bar Convent’s special collections manager, says: “The histories of the Bar Convent and Fairfax House are so closely intertwined that a joint exhibition such as this makes perfect sense.
The welcome to the Two Houses, One Story exhibition at Fairfax House
“Not many people are aware of the links between the houses but both Anne and Mary Fairfax attended the school here and Lady Hungate lived here with the sisters for 29 years.
“This exhibition gives us a fantastic opportunity to explore and share this exciting little-known narrative with the public and to work with the incredible team at Fairfax House.”
Sarah Burnage, curator at Fairfax House, says: “We are delighted to be working with our friends at the Bar Convent on this joint venture. The exhibition tells the story of women living in York in the 18th century and offers a fascinating glimpse into the little-known world of Catholicism in York”.
Two Houses: One Story features recently discovered documents, beautiful portraits and intriguing artefacts that give new insight into the day-to-day lives of these exceptional Yorkshire women.
Original 18th century account books referencing Lady Hungate, on display for the first time at the Bar Convent
The exhibitions explore how they navigated their faith during an era of persecution and suspicion, and how some were linked to dangerous underground activity that ultimately aided the survival of the Catholic faith in York and beyond.
At the Bar Convent, discover the early years of the Fairfax daughters who attended the school, how and why their grandmother, Lady Hungate, lived at the house for 29 years and the significance and legacy of this alliance.
At Fairfax House, learn more about the limited life choices that woman, like Anne Fairfax, faced in the 18th century. Also discover more about the Catholic networks in the city and how this clandestine community supported each other.
Each exhibition complements the other, and visitors to one house receive a 30 per cent discount on admission to the other with proof of receipt. The Bar Convent is open 10am to 5pm (last entry 4pm), Monday to Saturday; Fairfax House, from 10am to 4pm daily (Fridays: guided tours at 10am, 12pm and 3pm). Tickets: Bar Convent, barconvent.co.uk or 01904 643238; Fairfax House, fairfaxhouse.co.uk or 01904 655543.
Discover what Lady Hungate left to the Bar Convent in her unofficial will, on show at the Bar Convent Living Heritage Centre
Angeline Morrison: Exploring traditional song with curiosity
SEEKING to make the most of the extra day in this Leap Year? Head to the National Centre for Early Music, in York, tonight to discover why the Guardian picked Angeline Morrison’s The Sorrow Songs: Folk Songs Of Black British Experience (Topic Records) as the number one folk album of 2022.
Birmingham-born, Cornwall-based folk singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Morrison explores traditional song with reverence, love and curiosity, a handmade sonic aesthetic and a feeling for the stories of ordinary human lives. York singer-songwriter Holly Taymar supports at 7.30pm.
Kabantu: Expansive sonic arsenal
Tomorrow night, Kabantu “celebrate the space where different cultures meet” in their 7.30pm NCEM concert. Their name means “of the people”, stemming from the South African philosophy of Ubuntu: “I am who I am because of who we all are”.
In the line-up are Katie Foster, violin, whistling, vocals;Eddie Ogle, guitar, vocals; Ali McMath, double bass, didgeridoo, banjo, vocals,andDelia Stevens, percussion, vocals.
Kabantu’s musicians wield an expansive sonic arsenal. Originally classically trained, they draw on an intricate palette of colours curated from their own wide listening to collaboratively write original music influenced by folk music from around the globe. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.
Alex Hamilton: Scottish guitarist plays Ryedale Blues Club gig at Milton Rooms, Malton
BLUES guitars, psychological bunny puppetry, mountain films, sci-fi theatre, paranormal investigations and explosive dance promise out-of-this-world cultural experiences, reckons Charles Hutchinson.
Blues gig of the week: Ryedale Blues Club presents Alex Hamilton Band, Milton Rooms, Malton, tomorrow, 8pm
GLASWEGIAN guitarist Alex Hamilton (formerly Lewis Hamilton) has been part of the British blues/rock scene since 2010. Parading a playing style that recalls Robben Ford and Matt Scofield, he released his debut album, Gambling Machine, at 18, winning the Scottish New Music Award for Jazz/Blues album in 2012.
Further albums Empty Roads, Ghost Train, Shipwrecked and On The Radio have followed. Hamilton makes his return to Malton in a trio with his father, Nick Hamilton, on bass and Ian Beestin on drums. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.
George Green in Foxglove Theatre’s Rabbit
New play of the week in York: Foxglove Theatre in Rabbit, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, tomorrow to Saturday, 7.30pm
YORK company Foxglove Theatre identified a need for weirder, more experimental theatre in the city, focusing on “psychological exploration through innovative visual storytelling”. Here comes their debut new work, Rabbit, wherein a brave bunny wakes up lost in a murky forest determined to find her way home to Mumma.
Blending puppetry and visual effects, George Green’s performance explores the psychological damage that develops from even the smallest mishandlings of our childhood selves. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
The poster for 1812 Youth Theatre’s production of Tuesday at Helmsley Arts Centre
When Tuesday is on a Friday and Saturday: 1812 Youth Theatre in Tuesday, Helmsley Arts Centre, Friday, 7.30pm; Saturday, 2.30pm, 7.30pm
AN ordinary Tuesday turns really, really weird when the sky over the school playground suddenly rips open in Alison Carr’s funny and playful play Tuesday. Pupils and teachers are sucked up to a parallel universe as a new set of people rain down from above. ‘Us’ and ‘Them’ must come together to work out what is going on and how to return things to how they were.
Carr combines “a little bit of sci-fi and a lot of big themes”: friendship, family, identity, grief, responsibility – and what happens when an unexpected event turns the world upside down. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Banff Mountain Film Festival: Visiting York Barbican on world tour on Friday
Film event of the week: Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour, Red Film Programme, York Barbican, Friday, 7.30pm
EXPERIENCE a night of thrilling adventure – up on the big screen. The Banff Mountain Film Festival features a new collection of short films filled with extreme journeys, untamed characters and captivating cinematography.
Join the world’s top adventure filmmakers and thrill-seekers as they climb, ski, paddle and ride into the wildest corners of the planet. Prize giveaways are promised too. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Back on the Chain Gang: Miles Salter, second left, and his York band play Ampleforth Village Hall for the second time
Ryedale gig of the week: Miles and The Chain Gang, Ampleforth Village Hall, near Helmsley, Saturday, 7.30pm
YORK band Miles and The Chain Gang return to Ampleforth Village Hall by popular demand after a first outing there last summer. Expect rock’n’roll, acoustic songs, new wave, soul and country, plus Rolling Stones, Joni Mitchell and Johnny Cash covers.
Their latest digital single, the country-tinged Raining Cats And Dogs, is sure to feature in the set by Miles Salter, guitar and vocals, Mat Watt, bass, Steve Purton, drums, and Charlie Daykin, keyboards. Tickets: 07549 775971.
Yvette Fielding: Leading the paranormal investigations in the Most Haunted stage show at the Grand Opera House, York
Paranormal show of the week: Most Haunted: The Stage Show, Grand Opera House, York, Sunday, 7.30pm
YVETTE Fielding, “the first lady of the paranormal”, joins Karl Beattie, producer and director of the Most Haunted television series, in the investigative team to take Sunday’s audience on “the darkest, most terrifying journey of your life”, followed by a question-and-answer session.
In a city bursting at the seams with ghost stories and walks, Fielding and Beattie present Most Haunted’s All-Time Top Ten Scares, complete with unseen video footage from haunted castles, manor houses, hospitals and prisons. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Diversity: Dancing around the Supernova at the Grand Opera House, York, for two nights
Dance show of the week: Diversity in Supernova, Grand Opera House, York, March 7 and 8, 7.45pm; Harrogate Convention Centre, Saturday, 3.30pm; Hull Connexin Live, April 7, 2.30pm
2009 Britain’s Got Talent winners Diversity return to York on their biggest tour yet to stage Supernova, devised by founder Ashley Banjo. More than 120,000 tickets have sold for more than 90 dates in 40 cities and towns through 2023 and 2024, with both Grand Opera House performances down to the last few tickets.
Diversity will be supporting the Trussell Trust, the anti-poverty charity, inviting audience members to bring food donations to place in collection points. Cash donations in buckets are welcome too. Box office: York, atgtickets.com/york; Harrogate, 01423 502116 or harrogatetheatre.co.uk; Hull, connexinlivehull.com.
Suzi Quatro: Using this iconic image from her first photographic session with Gered Mankowitz in 1973 to promote her 60th anniversary tour. York Barbican awaits
Gig announcement of the week: Suzi Quatro, York Barbican, November 15
SUZI Quatro will mark the 60th year of her reign as “the Queen of Rock’n’Roll” by embarking on a five-date autumn tour, taking in York Barbican as the only Yorkshire venue.
Born in Michigan, Quatro flew to England in 1971 to work with songwriting duo Chinn and Chapman, chalking up chart toppers with Can The Can and Devil Gate Drive and further hits with 48 Crash, Daytona Demon, The Wild One, If You Can’t Give Me Love and She’s In Love With You, as well as co-writing Babbies & Bairns with dame Berwick Kaler in his York Theatre Royal panto pomp. Tickets will go on sale from 10am on Friday at https://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/event/360060579D80156E.
Suzi Quatro: Using this iconic image from her first photographic session with Gered Mankowitz in 1973 to promote her 60th anniversary tour. York Barbican awaits
SUZI Quatro will mark the 60th year of her reign as “the Queen of Rock’n’Roll” by embarking on a five-date autumn tour, taking in York Barbican on November 15 as the only Yorkshire venue.
60 years? Michigan-born singer and bass guitarist Quatro started out in bands in Detroit, playing concerts and teen clubs with Ted Nugent, Bob Seger and others. In May 1964, her sister Patti formed the group The Pleasure Seekers with her, leading to their first single coming out on the Hideout Records label in 1965, when Suzi was 15, Patti, 17.
Further singles Never Thought You’d Leave Me and Light Of Love followed in 1966 and 1968 respectively.
In 1971, Suzi flew to England to work with songwriting hit factory Chinn and Chapman after producer Mickie Most saw her perform live.
She duly chalked up chart toppers with 2.5 million-selling Can The Can and Devil Gate Drive and had further hits with 48 Crash, Daytona Demon, The Wild One, If You Can’t Give Me Love and She’s In Love With You.
In the United States, her million-selling Stumblin’ In duet with Smokie’s Chris Norman reached number four in the Billboard Hot 100 in 1979, giving Suzi her only American Top 40 success.
Of York note, after appearing together in Annie Get Your Gun in the West End, she co-wrote the Babbies & Bairns signature song with dame Berwick Kaler in his York Theatre Royal panto pomp.
As well as selling more than 55 million records – she featured in the UK charts for 101 weeks between 1973 and 1980 – Suzi has branched out into acting, writing novels, broadcasting, making her documentary film Suzi Q and presenting her autobiography Unzipped live in a one-woman show.
She released the album Quatro, Scott & Powell, with two Seventies’ cohorts, Sweet’s Andy Scott and Slade’s Don Powell, in 2017; made two albums with her son, Richard Tuckey, No Control in 2019 and The Devil In Me in 2021, and joined forces with Scottish singer-songwriter K T Tunstall for Face To Face in 2023.
“It’s my 60th year in the business, and it still feels like I’ve just started,” says Suzi, 73. “Devil Gate Drive, number one, 51 years ago. Are you ready now? Let’s do it one more time for Suzi.”
The wild one will rock on, she vows. “I will retire when I go on stage, shake my ass, and there is silence,” she says.
Henry Strutt: “Fearless tenor was well suited to the role of leading Druid”
SPORTING a new logo on the backs of their music stands and joined by their long-time colleagues from Leeds Festival Chorus (also conducted by Simon Wright), York Guildhall Orchestra here launched the first of a series of Sunday afternoon concerts.
Cantatas by Parry and Mendelssohn framed Elgar’s ‘Enigma’ Variations. Parry’s setting of Milton’s Ode At A Solemn Music, known by its opening line Blest Pair Of Sirens, took him 20 years from conception to completion.
This performance echoed that tentative start, with the gentlemen of the chorus taking time to get into their stride. Buoyed by the orchestra’s enthusiasm, however, the choir gradually shed its inhibitions and invested increasing muscle in successive climaxes. Well before the end, Wright had them all relishing Parry’s discords.
The Mendelssohn was something of a rarity. Popular in the Victorian era, the secular cantata Die Erste Walpurgisnacht (‘The First Walpurgisnight’) sports a text by Goethe more suited to the age of Nietzsche than our own.
The roots of his ballad lie in heathen fertility rites, which were subsumed into Christian tradition by being centred on St Walpurga, a 9th-century Devonian nun who became an abbess in Germany. The modern rite is still observed on the eve of her canonisation, April 30.
Sarah Winn: “Firm contralto as a heathen woman”
Goethe, however, is not interested in the sacred aspects, more in rampaging Druids who terrorise Christians. Think witches on broomsticks and pagans with pitchforks and you are getting close.
Text aside, there is plenty for a choir to get its teeth into, along with three soloists. They all did just that. It was unashamedly enjoyable, much enhanced by some dashing brass.
Henry Strutt’s fearless tenor was well suited to the role of leading Druid, as was Sarah Winn’s firm contralto as a heathen woman. Too bad they had so little to do. The lion’s share of solo work went to Christopher Nairne, an 11th hour substitute, who doubled admirably as a hectoring Priest (bass) and a woebegone Christian guard (baritone). Simon Wright just about kept his enthusiastic orchestra on the leash, but it was a close shave.
It was impossible to ignore the subtlety Wright coaxed from his players in the Elgar. Between a smoothly circumspect opening inspired by his wife, Alice, and a colourful self-portrait at the close, we had many memorable moments, including Troyte’s verve and Sinclair’s bulldog, both cameos beautifully crisp.
Nimrod needed more line, especially in its early stages. But the violas excelled themselves, not only in Ysobel but also in partnership with the cellos in the recollection of Basil Nevinson, which was truly heartfelt. The orchestra’s voyage through Elgar continues to satisfy deeply.
Christopher Nairne: “Doubling admirably as 11th hour replacement“
