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More Things To Do in York and beyond amid festival fever and a Viking reawakening. List No. 93, courtesy of The Press, York

Bull : York band play Deer Shed Festival 12 on Sunday

MUSIC in meadows and parks, a Viking community play and Osmondmania revisited, knitting and a superstar by the sea are Charles Hutchinson’s alternatives to summer holiday queues at ports.    

Festival of the weekend: Deer Shed Festival 12, Baldersby Park, Topcliffe, near Thirsk, today and tomorrow

DEER Shed Festival 12 takes the theme of Pocket Planet, “a celebration of different things from different planets”, spanning live music, DJ sets, comedy, science, Fringe and children’s shows, spoken word, films, sports, workshops and wellbeing.

John Grant, from Buchanan, Michigan, headlines the main stage tonight, preceded by a special guest set from Self Esteem, alias Rebecca Lucy Taylor, from Sheffield/Rotherham. Art-rock Londoners  Django Django top Sunday’s bill, backed up by South London post-punk hipsters Dry Cleaning, while York’s ebullient Bull headline the Acorn Stage that night. For ticket details, head to: deershedfestival.com.

The Feeling: Headlining MeadowFest in Malton. Picture: Andy Hughes

The other festival at the weekend: MeadowFest, Talbot Hotel gardens and riverside meadows, Malton, today, 10am to 10pm

MALTON’S boutique midsummer music festival, MeadowFest, welcomes headliners The Feeling, Alistair Griffin, New York Brass Band, Huge and Hyde Family Jam to the main stage.

Performing on the Hay Bale Stage will be Flatcap Carnival, Ross McWhirter, Simon Snaize, George Rowell, Maggie Wakeling, Nick Rooke, The Twisty Turns and Graeme Hargreaves.

Children’s entertainment, inflatables, fairground rides, street food and a festival bar are further attractions. Bring folding chairs, picnics…and well-behaved dogs on leads. Tickets: tickettailor.com/events/visitmalton.

Kate Hampson in the title role of The Coppergate Woman, York Theatre Royal’s summer community play

Play of the week: The Coppergate Woman, York Theatre Royal, today until August 7

IN an ever-changing world, how do we hang on to who we are when the grounds are shifting beneath our feet? How do we look forward and rebuild, when the end times feel ever more real? In the heart of York lies a woman with the answers.

Discovered in a shallow pit by the River Foss, the remains of an unknown woman are displayed in a Jorvik Viking Centre glass cage for all to see. Until, one day, the visitors are no more, the city is quiet and the Coppergate Woman rises again in Maureen Lennon’s community play, directed by Juliet Forster and John R Wilkinson with a cast of 90 led by Kate Hampson. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Crowning glory: Annie Stothert’s papier-mâché sculpture at Blossom Street Gallery

Exhibitions of the week: Colourforms, by Fiona Lane and Claire West; Enchanted Forest, by Annie Stothert, Blossom Street Gallery, York

BLOSSOM Street Gallery has two exhibitions running simultaneously until the end of August.

Colourforms presents brightly coloured paintings by York Open Studios mixed-media artist Fiona Lane and “art to make you smile” painter Claire West, from Beverley. Enchanted Forest brings together a highly imaginative collection of papier-mâché sculptures by Annie Stothert, from Yorkshire, inspired by folklore, myth and fairy tales.

Yoshika Colwell: Knitting together music, metaphysics and words in Invisible Mending at the Stilly Fringe

Edinburgh Fringe taster of the week: Yoshika Colwell in Invisible Mending, Stilly Fringe, At The Mill, Stillington, near York, Sunday, 7pm

IN the summer of 2020 as a pandemic raged, Yoshika Colwell was processing the death of her beloved grandmother, Ann. A woman of few words, Ann’s main outlet was her glorious, virtuosic knitting. As she approached the end of her life, Ann started a project with no pattern and no end goal.

Yoshika takes up this piece where Ann left off, creating a show about love, grief and knitting with fellow experimental music/theatre-maker Max Barton, from Second Body. Original music, metaphysics and verbatim material combine to explore the power in small acts of creativity. Box office: atthemill.org.

How they became big in the Seventies: The Osmonds: A New Musical tells the family story in song at the Grand Opera House, York

Musical of the week: The Osmonds: A New Musical, Grand Opera House, York, Tuesday to Saturday

YOU loved them for a reason. Now, for the first time, family drummer Jay Osmond turns his story into a family drama on the musical stage, offering the chance to re-live the ups and downs, the hits and the hysteria of the clean-living Seventies’ boy band from Utah, USA.

Directed by Shaun Kerrison and choreographed by Olivier Award-winning Bill Deamer, this is Jay’s official account of how five brothers born into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints faith were pushed into the spotlight as children on the Andy Williams Show and the hits then flowed, Crazy Horses, Let Me In et al. Box office: 0844 871 7615 or atgtickets.com/York.

Christina Aguilera: Biggest American female star to play Scarborough Open Air Theatre since Britney Spears

American superstar grand entrance of the week: Christina Aguilera, supported by Union J, Scarborough Open Air Theatre, Tuesday, gates open at 6pm

CHRISTINA Aguilera piles up the Billboard Hot 100 hits, the Grammy awards and the 43 million record sales, to go with the star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the honour of being the only artist under the age of 30 to feature in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 100 greatest singers of all time.

Add to those accolades her coaching on NBC’s The Voice and her role as a global spokesperson for World Hunger Relief. Tuesday, however, is all about Genie In A Bottle, Beautiful, What A Girl Wants, Dirty and Fighter. Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.

Kate Pettitt: Kate Pettitt: One of the artists taking part in Arnup Studios Summer Open Weekend. Picture: Olivia Brabbs

Open studios of the week: Arnup Studios Summer Open Weekend, Panman Lane, Holtby, near York, August 6 and 7, 10am to 5pm

ARNUP Studios open their countryside doors for a weekend of art, craft and, fingers crossed, summer sunshine.

Once the home and workplace of the late potter and sculptor Mick and Sally Arnup, Arnup Studios are now run by daughter and stoneware potter Hannah, who oversaw their renovation. Liz Foster, Michelle Galloway, Kate Pettitt, Reg Walker, Emma Welsh and Hannah all have working studios there.

All but abstract sculptor Reg of these resident artists will be taking part, showing a mix of painting, print, drawing, ceramics and jewellery. They will be on hand to discuss their work and share processes and techniques with visitors, who are invitated to buy original one-off pieces of art and craft, smaller gifts and cards direct from the makers or simply to browse and enjoy the day.

As well as a small carpark on site, free on-street parking is available in the village. The studios are bike and dog friendly; families are welcome. 

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REVIEW: Martin Dreyer’s verdict on Stephen Kovacevich at Ryedale Festival

Stephen Kovacevich: “Hearing him in solo recital was a rare opportunity”

Ryedale Festival: Stephen Kovacevich, Duncombe Park, July 28

THIS was the second of two remarkable, and remarkably different, piano recitals during Ryedale’s second week.

Stephen Kovacevich will celebrate his 82nd birthday in October. He has been a fixture on the musical scene for 60 years and has lived in Hampstead for many years, so he is practically one of us.

Hearing him in solo recital was a rare opportunity, since these days you are more likely to hear him in chamber music or duetting with his long-time friend Martha Argerich (now there’s a thought for a future festival).

His programme opened with Berg’s single-movement sonata, continued with Beethoven’s penultimate sonata, Op 110 in A flat (not the advertised Op 109) and ended with Schubert’s final sonata, D.960 in B flat.

The piano sonata was far from being Berg’s earliest work – he finished it in 1909 at the age of 24 – but he called Op 1. In it he kindles the dying embers of romanticism, showing himself wrestling with the (for him) magnetic tug of atonality.

Kovacevich presented the theme and its offshoots with a clarity it hardly deserved, so that it was possible to pick out some logic in Berg’s machinations. Whether the rubato he employed was supposed to be part of the original deal is open to question but it certainly helped this listener. The work would not have been many people’s choice of opener, on either side of the platform, but it worked here.

Nevertheless, moving back to the purer tonality of Beethoven came as something of a relief. Kovacevich’s last-minute change of sonata – excused by a recent bout of Covid – was something of a mystery, because his opening movement was wayward. Marked ‘con amabilità’ (lovingly), it was certainly caressed, but it also rambled and some of the runs were too fast for their own clarity.

Kovacevich came back into better focus with the scherzo, which was percussive to the point of anger in its C major sections. The trio was hardly less forceful and he coped admirably with its abrupt leaps.

The finale is a tricky mixture – and sounded it. Its slow opening and elegiac first arioso led smoothly into the first fugue, which was impressively delivered, with special clarity in the left hand. The second arioso was less comfortable and led into an aggressive second fugue, untidily banged out in places, even though it ended convincingly enough. This was not so much faltering technique as the idiosyncrasies that come with age, undeniably reminiscent of Horowitz in his later years.

We looked for recompense in Schubert after the interval. It came, gradually at first, reaching full flowering in a finale that was by far his best movement of the evening. The sonata, for all its use of the major key, is clouded with the darkness of Schubert’s knowledge that he had not long to live (he died two months later, at the age of 31).

Its otherwise soothing melodies also conveyed doubt here, in the dark, low trill near the start, for example. There was a well-worked acceleration when the main theme was repeated, but the first movement ended in a beautiful calm.

The dotted rhythms of the Andante were almost Baroque, but its answering theme was too hasty, lacking nobility, even if the later key-changes were negotiated persuasively. The Scherzo was a little rough at the edges, but it was a warm-up for a finale whose drama dazzled. This was the Kovacevich we had been waiting for and it did not disappoint in any way.

Review by Martin Dreyer

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REVIEW: Martin Dreyer’s verdict on Ryedale Festival’s Triple Concert, Castle Howard

The Gesualdo Six: Performed in the Chapel at Castle Howard. Picture: Ash Mills

Ryedale Festival: Triple Concert, Ashley Riches; The Gesualdo Six; Joseph Shiner and the Barbican Quartet, Castle Howard, July 27

TICKETS were once again like gold dust for the triple concert in three locations at Castle Howard. Ashley Riches sang in the Long Gallery, accompanied by Joseph Middleton, the Gesualdo Six appeared in the Chapel, and clarinettist Joseph Shiner and the Barbican Quartet played in the Great Hall. This was the satisfying order in which I heard them.

Riches, who hails from this part of the world but has gone onto widespread conquests, boasts a dark basso quality to his baritone and put it to excellent use in his wide-ranging exploration of the animal world, A Musical Zoo.

His German group began pleasingly with Schubert’s Die Forelle (The Trout) and Brahms’ injunction to the nightingale to pipe down, but his legato only took full shape in Strauss’ lament for the thrush that dies in its cage.

Where his German in Wolf’s Der Rattenfänger (The Ratcatcher) was a touch wayward, his French group was on a much higher plane. Fauré’s waltz-dialogue between butterfly and flower was utterly charming, as were the solitary, rhapsodic cricket of Ravel and De Sévérac’s serene owls.

So, to England, with another nightingale soothing away the sorrows of King David, in Howells’ setting of Walter de la Mare. Its solemnity was instantly dispelled by Vernon Duke’s treatment of Ogden Nash’s musical zoo, where Riches was a veritable chameleon in his colourings of the epigrams, with an American accent into the bargain.

The Gesualdo Six under Owain Park, who also delivers a deep bass, gave a programme of slow music suitable for the Anglican office of compline, the last service of the day. It proved confusing because they omitted three-quarters of the Hildegard plainsong printed in the programme and merged the two following pieces so that their boundaries were unclear.

That aside, they were as impressive as ever, neatly blended and precisely tuned. Tallis’s evening hymn Te Lucis led nicely into Byrd’s Miserere Mihi, Domine, which was followed in turn by Look Down, O Lord, by Jonathan Seers – British, but little-known here because of being based in Germany for many years – whose setting of the Elizabethan William Leighton was a model of anguished harmony.

Nicolas Gombert’s relentlessly remorseful Media Vita started in the deepest, darkest tones. Park’s own Hail, Gladdening Light fell short of the famous setting by Charles Wood, but The Wind’s Warning, a setting of Ivor Gurney by Alison Willis, complete with whooshing gusts, was powerful. Some tortuous harmony in night settings by Reger and Rheinberger was safely negotiated. Beautiful though this programme was, it needed a little more variety for full effect.

So, to Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet in the Great Hall. Joseph Shiner’s clarinet was both lithe and intimate. The way, for example, that he melted back into the first movement recapitulation was exquisite and there was also a special serenity when the slow movement theme reappeared.

The minuet’s second trio had a special swagger, contrasting with the quartet’s account of the first one, where the clarinet is silent. Shiner played games with the early variations in the finale, so that when the break came – with the Adagio interlude – it was all the more effective, and the closing bars breathed wonderfully.

The strings were very much in cahoots with him and maintained a fine balance throughout. A lovely conclusion to a rewarding evening.

Review by Martin Dreyer

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Elvis is back in the building in Baz Luhrmann’s movie. Did he take care of business? Chalmers & Hutch decide

The poster artwork for Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis

WHAT we saw in Austin Butler’s Elvis and Tom Hanks’s Colonel Parker is revealed in Episode 97 of culture vultures Graham Chalmers and Charles Hutchinson’s arts podcast, Two Big Egos In A Small Car.

Under discussion too are: Beatle Paul at 80 at Glastonbury; Graham’s charmed DJ skills on a Knaresborough dancefloor and Chemical Brothers’ thunderous rave at Castle Howard.

To listen, head to: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1187561/11013513

Meanwhile, in Episode 96…

The artwork for A Light For Attracting Attention, the debut album by The Smile, alias Radiohead’s Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood and Sons Of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner

CHAMERS & Hutch check out Thom Yorke’s Smile. Graham makes Danish news then dissects David Hepworth’s book on the rise and fall of rock’n’roll stars, Uncommon People. Charles demystifies the York Mystery Plays, “on the waggon” for 2022.

To listen, head to: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1187561/10899683

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Bunker Of Zion brings burst of Zimbabwean joy to Bridlington tonight and tomorrow

Bunker Of Zion dancer Kudzanai Chikowe and musician Tawanda Mapanda standing on the Bridlington sea front

HOT on the heels of two work-in-progress performances of her climate-change cautionary tale The Ballad Of Blea Wyke at the Stilly Fringe last weekend, York theatre-maker, writer, spoken-word slam champion, university lecturer, poet and performer Hannah Davies is the associate artist for tonight and tomorrow’s performances of Bunker Of Zion in Bridlington.

Funded by Arts Council England, the first Collaborative Touring Network project with Arcade and The Old Courts brings a joyous and colourful celebration of Zimbabwean culture to St John’s Burlington Methodist Church at 7pm this evening and 2pm and 7pm tomorrow.

Musician, actor and performance artist John Pfumojena’s theatre piece will combine acrobatics and breakdance with a jazz and hip-hop vibe.

Hannah Davies: Associate artist for Bunker Of Zion

“Come and immerse yourself in something totally new at the Bunker; a taste of Zimbabwean theatre on your doorstep. Experience the artists’ stories through live music, dance and songs,” reads the invitation to a 60-minute performance devised by John with Kudzanai Chikowe, Tawanda Mapanda, Farai Nhakaniso and Niyi Akin. “Expect influences of jazz and hip-hop and the distinctive sounds of Zimbabwean instruments such as the mbire and marimba.”

​Arcade’s Young Women’s Creative Company members have worked with the artists to share their individual stories and talents to make the show.

Introducing Bunker Of Zion in a blog, associate artist Hannah says: “Imagine a world without creativity; no stories, no dance, no music, no art. Self-expression is forbidden, on pain of death. Then imagine a secret bunker in that world. A place where people meet illicitly, to tell their tales, dance their passions, and save their souls.

Zimbabwean musician Tawanda Mapanda, part of the Bunker Of Zion ensemble for tonight and tomorrow’s performances

“Bunker Of Zion is a performance experience created by John and his ensemble, rooted in the lived traditions and cultures of the Shona people, a vibrant explosion of music, storytelling, playfulness, and dance.”

When Hannah and the Collective met up with John, dancer Kudzanai Chikowe and musician Tawanda Mapanda for the first time, they spent time experiencing the Marimba music and learning the rhythms and dance that will define the show.

They were joined by Diana Logan, Arcade’s producer for the Bunker Of Zion project, who is a leader on Coventry University Scarborough’s Actor Training course in partnership with the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough.

Bunker Of Zion dancer Kudzanai Chikowe

“Diana brought some of the course’s first graduating students along with her to join us for the sessions with John and his team,” Hannah’s blog continues.

“We all spent a joyful weekend in workshops that brought us together, clapping and dancing the Shona people’s traditional Mhande rhythm – a tempo that is used to call on higher powers and to connect with the wisdom of ancestors.

“Led by John and his ensemble, we all had fun embedding this tempo into our bodies, and though we started out with shuffling, giggling and getting claps and steps all over the place, by the end of the weekend we were all able to hold time together and move as one through the sequence.

The poster for tonight and tomorrow’s performances of Bunker Of Zion in Bridlington

“John taught us how essential rhythm is to their culture and likened the very nature of being human to a drum, the heart within us beating our life force out with every step we take through life.”

They also played playground games, an important Zimbabwean tradition. “As John said, ‘we are serious about playing’! We all worked together swapping and sharing games with Tawanda and Kudzanai while John played live music to support our running, jumping, leaping and laughing,” Hannah says.

“When you commit with full-focused intent to playing and being silly, the joyful energy you get in return is threefold, and I cannot wait to see how we bring audiences together in Bridlington to remind them of the simple life-affirming power of play.”

Musician, actor and performance artist John Pfumojena

Recognising and celebrating our lineage and passing on stories on our own terms are key themes in Bunker Of Zion. “There was time in the weekend to swap stories and consider the way that we tell them,” says Hannah.

“The Shona people’s culture is an oral tradition, which means that storytelling and narrative is truly sacred. When stories are oppressed and silenced, the culture is destroyed. Whose story we tell, how we tell it, when, how and why, are all important factors within the imagined world of the bunker.

“In the workshop we shared snapshots, fragments and moments from our own ancestry, and thinking about how we celebrate and engage with stories and traditions from other cultures was a powerful way to end the weekend.”

All three performances tonight and tomorrow have sold out.

Kudzanai Chikowe dancing on the Bridlington sea front
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Beat that! The Shakers celebrate Sixties’ Liverpool sound in This Is Merseybeat musical at Joseph Rowntree Theatre

The Shakers: The band fronting the Liverpool musical This Is Merseybeat, featuring York musician Kevin Benson on bass

BEAT City Productions’ nostalgic Liverpool musical This Is Merseybeat heads back to the 1960s at at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, on August 6.

This vibrant celebration of all things Merseybeat features the Cavern Club’s resident Merseybeat combo since 2006, The Shakers, whose line-up includes York resident Kevin Benson on bass and vocals.

Every weekend he travels over the Pennines for their regular Shakin’ Sunday slot at the world-famous Liverpool club, in addition to playing their many other gigs around Britain and abroad.

This Is Merseybeat was devised, written and produced by Liverpool musician, actor and The Shakers founder Tony O’Keefe, building momentum around the North West since its Southport debut in 2018 until the pandemic intervened.

Billed as “Merseyside’s foremost beat combo around today”, The Shakers have shared a stage with Liverpool legends The Searchers and the late Gerry Marsden, as well as backing Sixties’ stars Tommy Roe, Chris Montez and Elvis Presley’s guitarist, James Burton, and performing with Hamburg legend Tony Sheridan at the Lennon Remembered concert at the Liverpool Echo Arena.

Add to that list such Merseybeat alumni as The Searchers’ Mike Pender; The Merseybeats’ Billy Kinsley; The Hollies’ Terry Sylvester; The Swinging Blue Jeans’ Ray Ennis; The Mojos’ Nick Crouch; the late Undertakers frontman Geoff Nugent; The Big Three’s Brian Griffiths; Kingsize Taylor; Karl Terry; Beryl Marsden and Lee Curtis.

For This Is Merseybeat, they will be joined by guest artists Neil Ainsby as Gerry Marsden and Sophie Irene, stepping in at short notice to cover the Cilla Black role. Liverpool actor Paul Codman will be the host.

The poster for This Is Merseybeat’s visit to the Joseph Rowntree Theatre on August 6

“It’s very much a celebration, not only of Liverpool but also of the man who was the architect of the Merseybeat boom, Brian Epstein,” says Tony O’Keefe. “Uniquely, every song in the show was performed by a Liverpool Sixties’ artist and showcases the city’s world-beating musical heritage like no other touring production today.”

Here is Tony’s synopsis of the show. “It’s 1962 and there’s a whole lotta shakin’ goin’ on in a backstreet beat cellar in Liverpool called the Cavern Club. This is Merseybeat, the Sixties’ sound of Liverpool, from the depths of Number 10, Mathew Street.

“The ‘Beat Boom’ starts here and during the next two years ‘Merseymania’ rules the world! You will hear the big Mersey Sound hits, classic Cavern stompers and a shot of rhythm & blues, with just a little rock’n’roll on the side, just for good measure, from The Beatles, Gerry & The Pacemakers, The Searchers, Cilla Black, The Swinging Blue Jeans, The Merseybeats, The Big Three and many more. It’s the beat that’s hard to beat!”

Tony continues: “Merseybeat was the bedrock of the ‘Swinging Sixties’ and the key that opened the door for the British Beat Boom in 1963 and the worldwide British Invasion of 1964 with The Beatles leading the way.

“As our story unfolds, you will experience the birth of the beat in the Cavern Club right up to the ‘Merseymania’ hit parade years, when Liverpool established its formidable status as top of the pops!”

Next Saturday’s audience is invited to “experience the ‘Benzedrine beat’ up close and personal, in all its savage glory, with Liverpool’s premier beat merchants, The Shakers, as this fab beat combo perform the hits, misses, B-sides and lost classics from the golden age of Merseybeat with a passion and energy not seen since the heady days of the Sixties’ beat boom”.

“Our ethos is based around the early Sixties when beat music was at its most exciting, so don’t expect anything past 1965,” says Tony.

Tickets for this 7.30pm show are on sale at £18 on 01904 501935 or at josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

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REVIEW: Grainger & Wright in The Gods The Gods The Gods, Stilly Fringe, At The Mill, Stillington, tonight at 8.45pm ****

Alexander Flanagan Wright, left, Phil Grainger and Megan Drury in The Gods The Gods The Gods

WHY call this Wright & Grainger show The Gods The Gods The Gods, rather than plain old The Gods?

“A lot of things come in threes and a lot of things in this show fall naturally into threes,” reasons Alexander Flangan Wright, the Wright to Phil Grainger’s Grainger in this enduring Easingwold partnership.

“It’s one of those powerful numbers: a triad, with the three of us telling the story.” Make that Grainger & Wright & Drury, the trio being completed by Megan Drury, Australian actor, blues singer, writer, creative artists and dramaturg – oh, and newly married to Alex too.

The Gods The Gods Gods is the third in the trilogy of myth, music and spoken word shows by Grainger & Wright, premiered in a Covid-curtailed Australian visit in 2020 and now following Orpheus and Eurydice into open-air performances under the sails at Stillington Mill, near York.

The Gods X 3 will be heading indoors at the Edinburgh Fringe, with lighting pyrotechnics re-booted in the Assembly Rooms’ Bijou tent from August 3 to 29, when this dancier variation on gig theatre will carry the warnings: “Audience participation, Involves walking, Strobe lighting, Strong language/swearing”.

Saturday night was rather more informal, Alex, Phil and Megan testing out their hi-tech electronic requirements, spread out in a triangle of stations of equipment, as the audience gathered on the banks of seating. “Still not the show,” Alex would say, as another adjustment was made.

Such is the nature of a Fringe warm-up and of a first performance in this al-fresco iteration minus the probing strobe lighting. It was all very much in keeping with the spirit of At The Mill, where theatrical magic is made on the hoof, aided by Abbigail Ollive’s pizzas adding culinary pizzazz to the occasion and cocktails playing on the tongue.

Still doing the Maths, The Gods The Gods The Gods is in fact four, not three, stories, spread over 11 original musical tracks arranged by Grainger and Tom Figgins. They are stories of faith and loss of faith; love and loss of love; faith in anything but religious faith; false gods and new gods; a search for holy ground or finding heaven on earth. All set against a final council of the old Gods, Zeus and co, gathering at the end of days.

As Wright elucidated at the close, they are stories grown freshly from the seeds of Kae Tempest, Walt Whitman and David Whyte (Finisterre), and the messages on 28 signs posted on London’s Millennium Bridge, read by Alex and Megan as they crossed over between  St Paul’s Cathedral and Tate Modern, the towers of God and gallery, religion and art, that now do battle in The Gods The Gods The Gods.

Phil plays guitar and sings mightily yet tenderly, a Yorkshireman as soulful as Joe Cocker and John Newman; Megan throws shapes and switches between heartfelt spoken word and blues singing that brings out the bruises; Alex plays bass and percussion and spins words of dazzling rhythm, breath-taking in their imagery and rapper’s speed. All three tap away at technology too, evoking Kraftwerk.

Grainger & Wright promised a big, loud, bopping night in the garden – and delivered exactly that. In every way it is the biggest show of the trilogy; the spoken word now complemented by a broader musical palette that combines classic songwriting tropes and lyricism with dancefloor pulses and electronic flash to induce a state of euphoria.  

Alas, more Gods than advertised played their hand as the night darkened: the Weather Gods raining on the parade – and all that technology – with one story yet to be completed. Suddenly, the night “involved walking” as we were ushered to the café bar, where Wright gave a resumé of the closing chapters, finishing with that inspirational walk across the London bridge. Trouble at The Mill? Not when they can improvise like that.

An album is in the offing too, and that won’t be in the lap – or laptop- of the Gods, the Gods, the Gods.

Holly Beasley-Garrigan in Opal Fruits, tonight at 7pm

THE Stilly Fringe presents Opal Fruits, Holly Beasley-Garrigan’s solo show about class, nostalgia and five generations of women from a London council estate in South London, tonight at 7pm; Casey Jay Andrews’ The Wild Unfeeling World, a tender, furious and fragile re-imagining of Moby Dick, and A Place That belongs To Monsters, a re-imagining of The Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse, tomorrow at 7pm and 8.45pm respectively.

Lucy Bird, originally from Ampleforth, heads back north with her Birmingham company Paperback Theatre for an “utterly Brummie” re-telling of The Wind In The Willows on July 30 at 2.30pm and 7.30pm.

Yoshika Colwell returns to The Mill for the Stilly Fringe finale, Invisible Mending, her exploration of the power in small acts of creativity through original music, metaphysics and verbatim material, in collaboration with Second Body’s Max Barton, on July 31 at 7pm.

For tickets, head to atthemill.org.

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Oysterband pick Pocklington Arts Centre for northern showcase for Read The Sky

Oysterband: BBC Folk Award winners heading for Pocklington

OYSTERBAND will play Pocklington Arts Centre on November 24 in the only northern gig confirmed in their 2022 diary.

Formed in Canterbury in 1976, the veteran six-piece still perform with that spirit of the punk ceilidh band that roared through people’s lives all those years ago, but the growing depth and sensitivity of their songwriting, coupled with the strength of John Jones’s voice and their musicianship, has lifted their folk and roots music into a richer, more acoustic arena.

Songs from the five-time BBC Folk Award winners’ latest album, Read The Sky, are sure to feature in their autumn set. Released in March, it prompted Mojo’s reviewer to enthuse, “they tackle their task with rare urgency and valour, John Jones’s voice still magnificent, and the tough arrangements and musical barrage around him delivered with blistering gusto”, while Folk London deemed it to be “a soundtrack of our times”.

Pocklington Arts Centre manager Dave Parker says: “Our stage is certainly no stranger to welcoming legends from the world of folk music, and Oysterband are no exception. With this being one of only a handful of UK tour dates coming up this year, and their only northern date for 2022 so far, this really is your chance to catch a phenomenal live gig by an amazing band within the intimate surroundings of our auditorium. I wouldn’t want to miss this opportunity.”

Tickets for this 8pm gig are on sale at £24.50 on 01759 301547 or at pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.

The artwork for Oysterband’s March 2022 album, Read The Sky
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Is York fated never to play host to Kevin Rowland’s Dexys after motorbike accident rules out Too-Rye-Ay show at Barbican?

What could have been: The Dexys photo-shoot to promote the now-cancelled tour

TOO-Rye-Ailing, alas. Dexys’ autumn tour is off, scuppering their first ever York gig on September 30, after frontman Kevin Rowland was involved in a motorbike accident.

Rowland, who will turn 69 on August 17, was expected to have healed by then but the recovery has taken longer than expected.

York Barbican’s official statement reads: “It is with huge regret that Dexys have had to cancel their 2022 UK tour and the show on 30 September 2022 will no longer be taking place. All ticket holders will receive a refund; please contact your point of purchase if you have any questions.”

A statement from Dexys went further. “As many people familiar with Dexys will understand, a lot of work and detail was planned for these shows. Unfortunately, Kevin is recovering from a motorbike accident and some health issues that will take some time to recover from.

“We had tried to keep the tour on track, but now it is clear that that there won’t be sufficient time to do the work needed to deliver the show as we had envisaged. Dexys feel awful about cancelling and are immensely sorry for the inconvenience caused.”

Reorganising the Too-Rye-Aye As It Should Have Sounded Tour has been ruled out. “We did consider postponing the tour until next year, but we already have plans for 2023, and we promise that when we next tour, and, it won’t be long, we will do plenty of material from ‘Too Rye Ay, As It Should Have Sounded’,” said Dexys.

Last September, Dexys, now shorn of the Midnight Runners appendage, announced they would be reworking their 1982 album, Too-Rye-Ay, for a 40th anniversary release and accompanying tour.

The artwork as it Could have been, when first announced last September

At that time, it was billed as the Too-Rye-Ay, As It Could Have Sounded Tour, featuring what would have been the veteran Birmingham band’s first ever York appearance, unless you know otherwise. Subsequently, ‘Could’ became ‘Should’ on the tour and album title alike.

Released in July 1982, Too-Rye-Ay was the one with strings, brass and dungarees attached that reached number two, Dexys’ highest ever album chart position, buoyed by the top-spot success of ubiquitous wedding-party staple Come On Eileen.

The Van Morrison cover, Jackie Wilson Said (I’m In Heaven When You Smile), went top five too and Let’s Get This Straight (From The Start) peaked at number 17, but the notoriously perfectionist, restless Rowland said last September: “For many years, I’ve struggled with Too-Rye-Ay.

“I was never happy with many of the mixes on the record. Tracks like ‘Eileen’ and one or two others were really good, but with most others, while I felt the performances were really good, that didn’t come over properly in the mixes.”

The strongly devoted, long hooked on such exquisite highs as The Celtic Soul Brothers, Let’s Make This Precious, All In All (This One Last Wild Waltz), Old and Until I Believe In My Soul, may raise an eyebrow at Rowland’s assertion, but nevertheless he said: “I even felt fraudulent promoting the album, because I knew it didn’t sound as good as it should have.

“And of course, the irony was, it was by far our most successful Dexys album, because of the worldwide success of Come On Eileen. I knew there were other songs on there just as good as ‘Eileen’, but they hadn’t been realised properly.

When ‘Could’ became ‘Should’: The revised title artwork for Dexys Midnight Runners’ October release

“So, I was absolutely delighted to get this opportunity to remix the album with the masterful Pete Schwier, who has worked with Dexys since 1985, and Helen O’Hara [violinist on the original album] is also helping.”

Too-Rye-Ay, As It Should Have Sounded will be released in this “brand new way and sound” via Universal on various formats on October 14, including a triple CD and vinyl, whereupon Rowland’s band had planned to head out on the road to perform the album in full, complemented by soulful Dexys’ gems such as their first number one, Geno.

“There is no way on Earth I would be doing this tour, or even promoting a normal 40th anniversary re-issue, if it wasn’t for the opportunity to remix it and present it how it could have sounded,” Rowland enthused last September.

“This is like a new album for me. It is an absolute labour of love. I want people to hear the album as it was meant to sound.”

York would have been the only Yorkshire location on the 11-date tour. Now it is not to be, in a case of Too-Rye-Ay as it won’t sound on September 30.

The original poster for the Dexys’ tour that will not be going ahead
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Kate Rusby underneath the Christmas tree at York Barbican and headlining Underneath The Stars this weekend at Cinderhill Farm

Holly head: Kate Rusby At Christmas at York Barbican. Picture: David Lindsay

KATE Rusby At Christmas, the Barnsley folk nightingale’s alternative carol concert season with her folk band and The Brass Boys, is in York Barbican’s 2022 diary for December 18.

As ever, Kate will be rounding off her year with a Christmas tour full of warmth, sparkle, South Yorkshire carols, festive winter songs and the now obligatory fancy-dress finale.

Kate’s Christmas concerts draw on the 200-year-old tradition of carols being sung on Sunday lunchtimes in the crowded pubs of South Yorkshire and North Derbyshire from late-November to New Year’s Day.

As a child, while her parents sang, Kate would sit in the corner, absorbing these songs as they were belted out, each one a variation on a familiar carol but frowned on by the church in Victorian times for being too happy.

Kate’s Christmas concerts are full of festive good cheer, humour and storytelling, each auditorium becoming the equivalent of her local pub or front room. Tickets are on sale at yorkbarbican.co.uk and ticketmaster.co.uk.

This week, Kate will be headlining the Saturday bill at Underneath The Stars, the folk, indie, Americana, ska, soul and world music festival she founded, at Cinderhill Farm, Cawthorne, near Barnsley.

Suzanne Vega: Sunday’s headline act at Underneath The Stars

The event runs from Friday to Sunday, featuring headliner Imelda May; This Is The Kit; Ripon singer-songwriter Billie Marten; Davina & The Vagabonds; Sam Kelly & The Lost Boys; The Trials Of Cato; N’famady Kouyaté and Stone Jets on the opening day.

Suzanne Vega: Sunday’s headline act at Underneath The Stars

Saturday’s acts will be Kate Rusby; The Big Moon; An Audience With Adrian Edmondson; Penguin Café; The Brighouse & Rastrick Band; The Haggis Horns; The Bar-Steward Sons Of Val Doonican; Will Varley; Kinnaris Quintet; Trousdale and Flatcap Carnival.

Sunday’s headline act, Suzanne Vega, will be preceded by An Audience With Jason Manford; The Young’uns; Lanterns On The Lake; Dustbowl Revival; Tankus The Henge; Hannah Williams & The Affirmations, Damien O’Kane & Ron Block; Intergalactic Brasstronauts; Azure Ryder and Iona Lane. For tickets, head to: underneaththestarsfest.co.uk/tickets/.

This year, 48-year-old Kate marked her 30th anniversary of performing concerts by releasing the album 30: Happy Returns in May on her own family-run Pure Records label.

It was in 1992 that she stood, “close to alimentary havoc”, at Holmfirth Festival clutching a red Guild guitar borrowed from family friend and playwright Willy Russell to play her first “proper gig” at 18.

Five minutes after she had finished that set and sworn “never again”, Alan Bearman booked her for Sidmouth Festival. Thank goodness for Alan!

She has since released 19 albums, netted a Mercury Music Prize nomination in 1999, received awards and two honorary doctorates and headlined at the Royal Albert Hall, Cambridge Folk Festival and internationally too. 

Kate’s music has been used in Ricky Gervais’s Afterlife (series three, Netflix); Ruth Jones’s Stella (Sky 1); the 2002 film Heartlands, starring Michael Sheen (Miramax) and throughout series one and two of Jennifer Saunders’ Jam And Jerusalem (BBC).

Kate Rusby: 30th anniversary of first proper gig at Holmfirth

“Music has taken me all over the world in those 30 years, where I’ve met the most incredible musicians and singers,” says Kate. “30: Happy Returns is a culmination of those years, the music, the singers, the laughs, the songs, the memories.

“Here I am joined by some of my all-time musical heroes, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Richard Hawley, KT Tunstall, Darlingside, Beth Nielsen Chapman, Sarah Jarosz, Damien O’Kane, Sam Kelly, not to mention the amazing lads in my band.

“I am in awe of their talent and generosity in sharing it and can safely say there are so many ‘dream come true’ moments on this album. By my very nature I’ve never been ambitious, so I am astounded, taking this retrospective look over the years, and feel so blessed to sing with these incredible artists. I am one very happy, happy girl!!” 

The 15 songs on 30: Happy Returns span the eight studio albums from Sleepless in 1999 to Philosophers, Poets & Kings in 2019, newly re-crafted by Kate and producer, band leader and husband Damien O’Kane in the aforementioned multitude of guest collaborations, led off by the South Yorkshire/South Africa union with Ladysmith Black Mambazo for We Will Sing.

Richard Hawley rehearsed No Names in the dark in a power cut; Darlingside turn Cruel into a call-and-response song with Kate; K T Tunstall and Kate bring a sisterly strut to Let Me Be.

The sun and the moon go for a coffee together in Kate and Damien’s Hunter Moon, then Beth Nielsen Chapman takes on Damien’s original vocal about embarking on life’s journey hand-in-hand with the right person in Walk The Road.

The CD edition offers a bonus track in Secret Keeper, the commission Kate recorded with the Royal Northern Sinfonia for the Great Exhibition of the North, held in Newcastle and Gateshead in Summer 2018.