Jon Boden: Playing The Wardrobe in Leeds with The Remnant Kings
JON Boden & The Remnant Kings open next month’s five-date tour at The Wardrobe, Leeds, on February 1 at 8pm.
Joining boundary-stretching folk heavyweight Boden will be fellow Bellowhead musician Sam Sweeney, Leveret’s Rob Harbron, Ben Nicholls, from Kings Of The South Seas, and M G Boulter.
Lead singer and main arranger for the reactivated progressive folk juggernaut Bellowhead – who played Harrogate Convention Centre on their Broadside 10th Anniversary Tour on November 25 – Boden founded The Remnant Kings in 2009 to perform his album Songs From The Floodplain.
Those initial performances combined the album’s post-climate change concept with other songs that might survive the apocalypse, taking in folk songs, Bach, pop and jazz, all rubbing shoulders with his own compositions. All this was augmented by the use on stage of two wax cylinder players, playing specially recorded material.
The Remnant Kings went into hibernation for several years while Bellowhead hit top gear but were reunited and relaunched to record Boden’s 2017 album, Afterglow, followed by the more traditional Rose In June in 2020, before contributing to Last Mile Home, the final album of Boden’s post-apocalyptic trilogy, in 2021.
Tickets are on sale at thewardrobe.seetickets.com. Doors open at 7pm.
The artwork for Last Mile Home, the third album in Jon Boden’s post-apocalyptic trilogy
Alan George: Academy Of St Olave’s musical director
THE Academy of St Olave’s presents a trio of early Romantic masterpieces by Beethoven, Schubert and Schumann its Winter Concert on January 21.
The 8pm programme will be performed in a new location for the York chamber orchestra: York St John University’s Creative Centre Theatre.
This will be one of the first classical music concerts to be held in the 170-seat theatre, which opened last year.
Schubert’s incidental music to the play Rosamunde, including the famous third Entr’acte, will be followed by Beethoven’s Leonore No. 3 Overture, arguably the finest of the four overtures he composed for his only opera, Fidelio.
Both Fidelio, under its original title of Leonore, and Rosamunde were first performed at Vienna’s Theater an der Wien, in 1805 and 1823 respectively, meaning the Academy’s presentation of Rosamunde will mark 200 years since the play’s premiere.
The concert concludes with Schumann’s melodious Symphony No. 3, inspired by the composer’s move to Düsseldorf in the Rhineland and thus nicknamed “The Rhenish”.
The Academy’s musical director, Alan George, says: “We’re looking forward to performing a trio of thrilling works by three of the great Germanic composers of the early 19th century: Beethoven, Schubert and Schumann; a combination sure to delight our audience.
“We’re also pleased to be one of the first orchestras to perform at York St John University’s Creative Centre Theatre, helping to introduce a new – and warm! – venue to the city’s music scene. Finally, I’m delighted that the Academy has chosen once again to support Jessie’s Fund at this concert.”
The Jessie’s Fund children’s charity was set up by Alan and his wife, Lesley Schatzberger, after their nine-year-old daughter Jessie’s brain tumour diagnosis in 1994. Sadly, Jessie died shortly afterwards, but Lesley and Alan decided that Jessie’s Fund should become a charity dedicated to helping seriously ill and disabled children through the therapeutic use of music.
Based in York, Jessie’s Fund now helps children all over the United Kingdom. The Academy’s support through this month’s concert comes at a pivotal time for the charity, as Lesley steps back from leading it. More information on the charity’s work can be found at: https://jessiesfund.org.uk/.
Tickets cost £15 (£5 for students and accompanied under-18s) at www.academyofstolaves.org.uk. Please note, ticket numbers are limited, so booking in advance is recommended to avoid disappointment.
John Ledger: Back To Normalism artist at Micklegate Social and Fossgate Social
IT’S time for back-to-normal service to resume as Charles Hutchinson wipes the sleep from the eyes of his diary for 2023.
Exhibition launch of the week: Back To Normalism, by John Ledger, Micklegate Social, Micklegate, and Fossgate Social, Fossgate, York, January 13 to March 13
ON the portentous Friday the 13th, the preview of Barnsley artist John Ledger’s solo show Back To Normalism begins at 7pm at Micklegate Social.
Ledger looks at the uncanny reality that has unfolded since the pandemic started, along with the underlying weirdness of trying to patch up the black holes in our collective experience of time, in a show about cultures uprooted and disjointed by a series of disasters and distorted by the consequences of trying to repeatedly return to a “before” moment.
Baaaaaarrrrgggghhhhhhbican frustration! Ricky Gervais’s brace of Armageddon dates at York Barbican sold out in 27 minutes
Apocalypse very soon: Ricky Gervais, Armageddon, York Barbican, Tuesday and Wednesday 7.30pm precisely
ARMAGEDDON is not the end of the world as we know it but the name of grouchy comedian, actor, screenwriter, director, singer, podcaster and awards ceremony host Ricky Gervais’s new tour show.
Gervais, 61, will be torching “woke over-earnestness and the contradictions of modern political correctness while imagining how it all might end for our ‘one species of narcissistic ape’,” according to the Guardian review of his Manchester Apollo gig. Box office? Oh dear, you’re too late for Armageddon; both nights have sold out.
Chris Helme: Revisiting his days in The Seahorses
Love Is The Law unto himself: Chris Helme, solo Do It Yourself 25th Anniversary Tour, Pocklington Arts Centre, January 14, 8pm
YORK singer-songwriter Chris Helme is marking the 25th anniversary of The Seahorses’ only album, Do It Yourself, released on May 26 1997 in guitarist John Squire’s short-lived post-Stone Roses project with Helme and fellow York musician Stuart Fletcher on bass.
Recorded in North Hollywood, California, the album was pipped to the number one spot by Gary Barlow while debut single Love Is The Law reached number three. A further highlight of Helme’s solo acoustic set will be Love Me And Leave Me, Liam Gallagher’s first songwriting credit, no less. Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.
The Lonesome Ace Stringband: Turning bluegrass bluer and grassier at Selby Town Hall
Better late than never: The Lonesome Ace Stringband, Selby Town Hall, January 18, 8pm
RE-SCHEDULED from January 20 2022, The Lonesome Ace Stringband’s gig features righteous folk and country music, played by an old-time band with bluegrass chops and a feel for deep grooves.
Band members Chris Coole, banjo, John Showman, fiddle, and Max Heineman, bass, are three Canadians lost in the weird and wonderful traditional country music of the American South, having served their time in New Country Rehab, The David Francey Band, The Foggy Hogtown Boys and Fiver. Box office: 01757 708449 or selbytownhall.co.uk.
Robert Gammon: Relaxed concert of piano music at St Chad’s
Afternoon entertainment: Robert Gammon, Dementia Friendly Tea Concert, St Chad’s Church, Campleshon Road, York, January 19, 2.30pm
AT the first Dementia Friendly Tea Concert of 2023, pianist Robert Gammon plays J S Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in B flat major from The Well-Tempered Clavier Book 2, Mozart’s Piano Sonata in B flat major K. 570 and Schubert’s serene Impromptu in A flat major, D. 935 No. 2.
As usual, 45 minutes of music will be followed by tea and homemade cakes in the church hall. Next up will be University of York Students (violin and piano) on February 16. No charge, but donations welcome for church funds and Alzheimer’s charities.
Tales From Acorn Wood: Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s stories take to the York Theatre Royal stage
Children’s show of the month: Tales From Acorn Wood, York Theatre Royal, January 26, 4pm; January 27, 11am and 2pm
NLP’s world premiere staging of Tales From Acorn Wood is based on favourite stories from Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s lift-the flap books for pre-school children, featuring the sock-losing old Fox, the tired Rabbit, Postman Bear’s special surprise and Pig and Hen’s game of hide-and-seek.
Suitable for one-year-olds and upwards or anyone who loves books, this 50-minute touring show is full of songs, puppetry, projection and flap-lifting technology. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Rob Auton: Getting mighty Crowded in his new stand-up show
Crowd pleaser: Rob Auton, The Crowd Show, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, February 24, 8pm; Hyde Park Book Club, Leeds, February 25, 7.30pm
CHARMINGLY eccentric, uplifting and poetic writer, comedian, actor and podcaster Rob Auton returns home to York on the 2023 leg of The Crowd Show tour.
After his philosophical observations on the colour yellow, the sky, faces, water, sleep, hair, talking and time, now he discusses crowds, people and connection in a night of comedy and theatre “suitable for anyone who wants to be in the crowd for this show”. Box office: York, tickets.41monkgate.co.uk; Leeds, hydeparkbookclub.co.uk.
Stewart Lee: Three nights, fully booked already, at York Theatre Royal in March
Too late for tickets already:Stewart Lee, Basic Lee, York Theatre Royal, March 20 to 22, 7.30pm
AFTER filming last May’s three-night run of his Snowflake/Tornado double bill for broadcast on the BBC, spiky comedian Stewart Lee returns to York with his back-to-basics new show.
Following a decade of ground-breaking high-concept gigs involving overarched interlinked narratives, Lee enters the post-pandemic era in streamlined solo stand-up mode: one man, one microphone, and one microphone in the wings in case the one on stage breaks. Tickets update: Sold out, basically.
Hands up who’s starring in Heathers: The black comedy musical to die for is heading to the Grand Opera House
Too cool for school: Heathers The Musical, Grand Opera House, York, May 9 to 13
WELCOME to Westerberg High, where Veronica Sawyer is just another nobody dreaming of a better day. When she joins the beautiful and impossibly cruel Heathers, however, her craving for popularity may finally come true, whereupon mysterious teen rebel JD teaches her that it might kill to be a nobody, but it is murder being a somebody.
Winner of the What’sOnStage Award for Best New Musical, Kevin Murphy and Laurence O’Keefe’s black comedy rock musical, based on the 1988 cult film, makes its York debut, produced by Bill Kenwright and Paul Taylor-Mills, directed by Andy Fickman and choreographed by Gary Lloyd. Box office: atgtickets.com/York.
The Ukrainian Opera & Ballet Theatre Kyiv’s La Bohème
THE Ukrainian Opera & Ballet Theatre Kyiv will perform Puccini’s La Bohème on February 3 and Madama Butterfly the following night at the Grand Opera House, York.
Senbla presents these Ellen Kent touring productions for Opera International with a traditional style of staging, beautiful sets and costumes, international soloists, chorus and full orchestra.
Ukrainian soprano Alyona Kistenyova, Korean soprano Elena Dee and French soprano Olga Perrier are the tour soloists for La Bohème, Puccini’s romantic but tragic operatic tale of the doomed, consumptive Mimi and her love for a penniless writer.
The Ukrainian Opera & Ballet Theatre Kyiv’sMadama Butterfly
Bohemian art, a brass band, snow effects and Muzetta’s dog will feature in the tale of Parisian love and loss, noted for such arias as Your Tiny Hand Is Frozen, They Call Me Mimi and Muzetta’s Waltz, sung in Italian with English surtitles.
Dee, Kistenyova and Ukrainian mezzo-soprano Natalia Matveeva return in Kent’s Madama Butterfly, winner of the Best Opera Awards in the Liverpool Daily Post Theatre Awards.
Madama Butterfly’s heart-breaking story of the beautiful young Japanese girl who falls in love with an American naval lieutenant will be staged with exquisite sets, including a Japanese garden, and costumes topped off by antique wedding kimonos from Japan. Among the highlights will be Humming Chorus, One Fine Day and Love Duet.
Both 7.30pm performances will be sung in Italian with English surtitles. Tickets are on sale at atgtickets.com/york or on 0844 871 7615.
The horror, the horrror: Doctor Dorian Deathly swaps ghost walks for ghost talks at Theatre@41, Monkgate
AS the New Year fast approaches, Charles Hutchinson starts to fill the blank pages of a diary in need of cultural counters to so much front-page gloom.
From ghost walk to ghost talk: Doctor Dorian Deathly: A Night Of Face Melting Horror (or The Complete History Of Ghosts), Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, January 24 to 28, 8.30pm
COVID crocked York spookologist and ghost botherer Doctor Dorian Deathly’s Halloween season of macabre stories, paranormal sciences, theatrical trickery, horror, original music and perhaps the odd unexpected guest (with the emphasis on ‘odd’?) at Theatre@41.
The Visit York Tourism Awards winner has rearranged his five fright nights for late-January, when he will explore spine-chilling tales of hauntings, both local and further afield, dissemble horrors captured on film and trace the ghost story from its origins to Victorian classics and modern-day frights. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Ukrainian National Opera: First visit to York with Carmen
Ukrainians in York: Dnipro Opera inCarmen, York Barbican, February 12, 7pm
DNIPRO Opera, from Ukraine, perform Georges Bizet’s opera of fiery passion, jealousy and violence in 19th century Seville in French with English surtitles, to the accompaniment of a 30-strong orchestra.
Carmen charts the downfall of Don José, a naïve soldier who falls head over heels in love with Carmen, a seductive, free-spirited femme fatale, abandoning his childhood sweetheart and neglecting his military duties, only to lose the fickle firebrand to the glamorous toreador Escamillo. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk
Robert Forster: New album to showcase at The Crescent
York’s Australian gig of the year: Robert Forster, The Crescent, York, March 14, 7.30pm
BRISBANE singer, songwriter, guitarist, music critic and author Robert Forster, co-founder of The Go-Betweens with the late Grant McLennan, plays a rearranged date in York, now in support of the February 3 release of his eighth solo album, The Candle And The Flame.
Made an honorary Doctor of Letters at Queensland University in 2015, Forster, 65, is writing a novel, overseeing the upcoming Volume 3 of The Go-Betweens’ boxset series, G Stands For Go-Betweens, and touring the UK, Europe and Australia in the first half of 2023. Box office: thecrescentyork.com.
Tommy Cannon: Comedian in conversation at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre
Rock on, Tommy, for charity: An Evening With Tommy Cannon, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, April 15, 7.30pm
KELFIELD comedian Tommy Cannon, 84, takes to the JoRo stage for an evening of songs, stories, anecdotes and conversation, reflecting on his double act on television and the boards with the late Bobby Ball.
Cannon – real name Thomas Derbyshire – will take questions from the audience at this fundraising event in aid of The Snappy Trust, the York charity that seeks to maximise the personal development of children and young people with wide-ranging disabilities. The Boro Blues Brothers will be the support act. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
Composer Gus Gowland: Premiering new musical Mayflies at York Theatre Royal
New musical of the year: Gus Gowland’s Mayflies, York Theatre Royal, April 28 to May 13
GUS Gowland, an award-winning London composer, lyricist and playwright now living in York, presents the world premiere of Mayflies, the story of a romantic relationship from its first flourish to its final goodbye.
First making his mark with debut full-length musical Pieces Of String in 2018, Gowland now charts May and Fly’s progress from dating apps to tentative conversations and blossoming romance…and then they meet! Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
The joy of SIX: Henry VIII’s wives weave their woes through Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss’s revenge musical on its return to the Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Pamela Raith
Quickfire return of the year: SIX The Musical, Grand Opera House, York, June 27 to July 2, 8pm, Tuesday to Thursday; 6pm and 8.30pm, Friday; 4pm and 8pm, Saturday, and 2pm, Sunday
HERE come the Spouse Girls again. After the history and hysteria of October’s sold-out debut run in York, the SIX pop queens make a regal return next summer in Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss’s all-female show for the millennial age.
In a pop concert with diva attitude, Henry VIII’s trouble-and-strife sextet air their grievances in song in chronological order to decide who suffered most at Henry’s hands once he put a ring on the wedding finger. From this talent-and-talons contest will emerge the group’s lead singer. Book early at atgtickets.com/York.
Miriam Margolyes: Booked into York Barbican for her Oh Miriam! musings
Outspoken national treasure speaks out: Miriam Margolyes, Oh Miriam! Live, York Barbican, October 16, 7.30pm
BAFTA-WINNING actress, chat-show regular and travel show presenter Miriam Margolyes, 81, will be telling tales from her new book, Oh Miriam!, “something that has been said to me a lot over the years, often in tones of strong disapproval,” she says.
“Reliably outrageous” Margolyes promises a riotous evening full of life and surprises, her conversation spanning revelations, stories and discoveries that she cannot wait to share. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Ross Noble: Geordie Jibber Jabber Jamboree joviality in Harrogate and York
Stream-of-consciousnonsense on tap: Ross Noble, Jibber Jabber Jamboree, Harrogate Royal Hall, October 26, 7.30pm; Grand Opera House, York, November 15, 8pm
GEORDIE surrealist Ross Noble ventures out on his 53-date Jibber Jabber Jamboree itinerary, his 21st solo tour, from October 2023 to March 2024. Expect inspired nonsense in his freewheeling stand-up.
“Imagine watching someone create a magic carpet on an enchanted loom,” says Noble, 46. “Oh, hang on… magic carpets fly; that would smash the loom as it took flight. I haven’t thought that through… That’s what people can expect. Razor-sharp observations on things I haven’t thought through.” Box office: atgtickets.com/York.
Solomon’s Knot: Thrilling programme of Christmas cantatas. Picture: Dan Joy
York Early Music Christmas Festival, Solomon’s Knot, Johann Kuhnau: Christmas Cantatas, National Centre for Early Music, York, December 16
JOHANN Kuhnau’s name has not carried much resonance in this country until recently. Even if you have played some of his keyboard music, you might still be unaware that he wrote some terrific music for voices.
That is all changing, thanks to Solomon’s Knot and its director Jonathan Sells. His ensemble of eight voices (including the bass of Sells himself) and 18 players delivered a thrilling programme of Christmas cantatas, three of them British premieres, which is extraordinary when you consider that the German composer died exactly 300 years ago.
The London premieres, incidentally, took place the following night: another feather in this festival’s cap.
So who was he – and why have we taken so long to acknowledge him? The fault lies with J S Bach, who in 1722 succeeded Kuhnau as Kantor (music director) at the prestigious Thomasschule in Leipzig.
Kuhnau’s choral works have slumbered in Bach’s long shadow ever since. Not Bach’s fault really, of course, but we have been distracted. For Bach learned a lot from Kuhnau and the proof was right here.
All five cantatas followed a similar pattern: a short orchestral intro (not a full overture) preceded a combination of recitative, aria and choruses, many of those being a heady mixture of chordal material and fugal procedures.
Unlike Bach, he made little use of formal chorales, incorporating them into orchestral textures. Nor did he mark off the various styles into separate numbers: they flow seamlessly from one to another. This enormously enhances their dramatic effect.
Alex Ashworth: Smoothly sung bass aria
The first of the premieres, Singet dem Herrn, which uses two trumpets and a bassoon alongside strings and continuo, bore similarities to what in this country we call a verse anthem, solo voices incorporated into predominantly choral passages.
The final fugue ended slowly and majestically, à la Handel. O Heilige Zeit was not a premiere but is known to have a libretto by Erdmann Neumeister, Kuhnau’s go-to poet, who was widely popular for his cantata texts.
It opened with what to my ears was a full-scale double fugue. After a forceful bass aria, alternating long melismas with syllabic text-setting and sung by Sells, it peaked with a persuasive contralto aria delivered by Kate Symonds-Joy with excellent diction, before the final chorus.
Clarino trumpets returned for Das Alte Ist Vergangen, another premiere, which contrasted the old year and the New Year, via an analogy with the Old and New Testaments. Thus an old-style alto aria larded with coloratura was complemented by a more ‘modern’ bass aria smoothly sung by Alex Ashworth. The final ‘Happy New Year’ chorus was decidedly upbeat, trumpets dancing in triple time.
Not a premiere, but making colourful use of the familiar chorale of the same name, was Wie Schön Leuchtet der Morgenstern, where horns – with their bells upwards – and flutes added to the joy of the choruses.
Finally, and closest in style to Bach, we had another premiere in Frohlocket, Ihr Völker, which was notable for a stunning tenor aria beautifully articulated by James Way (who must make a superb Bach Evangelist). Its opening chorus, with trumpets and timpani back in the fray, had set the scene sensationally – and the finale was almost its equal.
The excitement generated throughout the evening was the musical equivalent of discovering Tutankhamun’s tomb: Solomon’s Knot has put Kuhnau firmly back on the map, and in marvellous style.
Review byMartin Dreyer
York Early Music Christmas Festival 2022 is streaming until January 31 2023 at ncem.co.uk, for £10 per concert or £45 for all seven festival events recorded at the NCEM.
Bojan Čičić: “The prospect of his playing Bach’s three solo partitas was irresistible”
York Early Music Christmas Festival: Bojan Čičić, Part 2, JS Bach Partitas, National Centre for Early Music, York, December 17
IT was never my intention to cover both Bojan Čičić recitals, but so compelling was the first – Bach’s solo violin sonatas on December 10 – that the prospect of his playing Bach’s three solo partitas was irresistible.
The partitas are essentially suites of dances. In addition, each of the four dances of Partita No 1 in B minor is followed by a ‘Double’. Common in French harpsichord suites, a double is a variation on the dance it partners, usually twice or three times as fast as the original. Thus, after the Corrente (Courant), there is a double marked Presto. Čičić took this at an incredible pace, showcasing his daring virtuosity.
In the Sarabande that followed his triple-stopping was chordal and deliberate, with an arpeggiated double to follow: in its way, this was as breath-taking as the Corrente.
No 2 in D minor was no less striking. After an intimate Allemanda, with fluent ornamentation, the different registers of the Corrente were strongly differentiated, so that we sensed three simultaneous lines.
The Giga was another dazzler. The concluding chaconne started innocently enough, but built into some fearsome runs, which were despatched nonchalantly. In the middle of all this was a D major interlude of teasing suspensions.
The pastoral No 3 in E major was a gentler affair. Its well-known Gavotte was positively bouncy, its two minuets exquisitely graceful and its final Gigue (offshoot of the original English jig) brilliantly steady. This unassuming virtuoso had worked his magic again.
Reviewby Martin Dreyer
YORK Early Music Christmas Festival 2022 is streaming online until January 31 2023 at ncem.co.uk, at £10 per concert or £45 for all seven festival concerts recorded at the NCEM.
Hold on, is that Noddy Holder? No, it’s a nod to Noddy Holder as tribute band Slade UK invite you to Cum On Feel The Noize at the Victoria Vaults
SLEIGHS and that Slade song, pantomime mayhem and New Year parties signify the changing of the diary for Charles Hutchinson, with one eye on 2023.
Merry Xmas Everybody: Slade UK, Victoria Vaults, Nunnery Lane, York, Christmas Eve, 7pm
SO here it is, Merry Xmas, everybody’s having fun as Slade UK, tribute act to the Wolverhampton wonders, roll out that 1973 festive chart topper and a whole heap of misspelt Slade smashes, from Gudbuy T’ Jane to Cum On Feel The Noise, Coz I Luv You to Mama Weer All Crazee Now.
“We’re really looking forward to having Slade UK at the Vaults,” says owner/manager Chris White. “It’s going to be a great evening and a lot of fun.” DJ Garry Hornby will be on the decks. Box office: theyorkvaults.com.
Mayhem, mischief and nautical naughtiness: Jonny Weldon’s Starkey, left, and Paul Hawkyard’s Captain Hook in York Theatre Royal’s The All New Adventures Of Peter Pan
Still time for pantomime, part one: The All New Adventures Of Peter Pan, York Theatre Theatre Royal, until January 2 2023
CBEEBIES’ science ace Maddie Moate and three stars of last year’s Cinderella – Faye Campbell, Paul Hawkyard and Robin Simpson – head to Neverland in York Theatre Royal’s third collaboration with Evolution Productions.
Moate plays naughty fairy Tinkerbell, Campbell, plucky Elizabeth Sweet, Hawkyard, histrionic Captain Hook and Simpson, dame Mrs Smee, joined by Jason Battersby’s Peter Pan and Jonny Weldon’s madcap pirate Starkey in creative director Juliet Forster’s production, scripted by Evolution’s pun-loving Paul Hendy. Look out for acrobats Mohammed Iddi, Karina Ngade and Mbaraka Omari too. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Goose in the Grand Opera Hoose: Dame Berwick Kaler’s Mrs Plum-Duff in The Adventures Of Old Granny Goose. Picture: David Harrison
Still time for pantomime, part two: The Adventures Of Old Granny Goose, Grand Opera House, York, until January 8 2023
PETER Pan is not alone in flying across a York pantomime stage this winter. Dowager Dame Berwick Kaler does likewise at 76 in his second season at his adopted home, presented with the Grand Opera House’s new partners in panto, UK Productions.
Joining his ad-libbing granny, Mrs Plum-Duff, are sidekick Martin Barrass’s Jessie, villain David Leonard’s Lucifer Nauseus, principal gal Suzy Cooper’s Cissie, AJ Powell’s Brum Stoker and ever-game dancer Jake Lindsay’s Jakey Lad. Look out for Boris Johnson’s cameo as a dummy, me babbies, me bairns. Box office: 0844 871 7615 or atgtickets.com/York.
New Year Gala Concert, Harrogate-meets-Vienna style
Viennese waltzing into 2023: International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival’s New Year Gala Concert, Harrogate Royal Hall, January 7 2023, 7.30pm
CELEBRATE the dawning of the New Year in the company of the National Festival Orchestra on a whirlwind tour of bygone opulence, taking in the cafés of Vienna, the bars of Paris and the drawing rooms of London.
Enjoy waltzes, ballads and Gilbert and Sullivan favourites in a gala concert conducted by Christopher Milton and featuring international opera stars. Box office: gsfestivals-tickets.gsfestivals.org.
New Year Party, Ukrainian style: The Ukrainians mark Malanka at The Crescent, York
New Year on a different calendar: The Ukrainians: Malanka, The Crescent, York, January 14 2023, 7.30pm
ON the eastern calendar, New Year falls on January 13 and is marked in Ukraine with a variety of festivities known as Malanka.
The Ukrainians have been playing their brand of Ukrainian music for three decades on folk and roots stages, clocking up eight albums and 1,000 gigs. High-energy party songs and a few surprises are promised. Box office: thecrescentyork.com.
Heavy Spring Showers, by John David Petty, on show at Kentmere House Gallery from February 3
Exhibition on the horizon: Lost and Found, East Riding paintings by John David Petty, Kentmere House Gallery, Scarcroft Hill, York, February 3 to April 2 2023
WHERE does Kentmere House Gallery owner Ann Petherick find her artists, she is often asked. “The best ones always have to be searched out, and I think I first found John David Petty in Beverley Minster, showing a collection of wonderful paintings of doors and windows of Holderness churches,” she says.
Petty is more often to be spotted outdoors, among the flatlands of the East Riding, where this former graphic artist relishes the solitude and wide landscapes.
Favouring oils, acrylics and charcoal, his church work uses the same techniques of deeply etched lines, with the addition of paper collage to capture the texture of ancient stonework. For opening hours, go to: kentmerehouse.co.uk.
Matt Goss: Bros hits, new songs and a celebration of Cole Porter at York Barbican
What’s Matt doing next after Strictly? The Matt Goss Experience, with the MG Big Band and Royal Philharmonic, York Barbican, March 4 2023, 8pm
STRICTLY Come Dancing 2022 contestant and former Bros frontman Matt Goss, 54, performs his biggest hits, new original material and a tribute to songwriter Cole Porter in an evening of swing, glitz and swagger.
Having headlined Las Vegas for 11 years, Goss is back doing what he loves, singing with a big band and a philharmonic orchestra. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Jimmy Carr: Still Terribly Funny in 2023
Repeat offender…or not?! Jimmy Carr, Terribly Funny 2.0, York Barbican, September 12 2023
AFTER completing a hattrick of York performances on his Terribly Funny tour – November 4 and 9 2021 and April 15 this year – provocative comedian and television panel show host Jimmy Carr is to return to the city on his Terribly Funny 2.0 itinerary.
Carr, 50, says his show “contains jokes about all kinds of terrible things. Terrible things that might have affected you or people you know and love. But they’re just jokes – they are not the terrible things”. New material is promised. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk or ticketmaster.co.uk.
Wrapping: Unwrapping, more like, as Australian singer-songwriter Julia wears nothing more than snowflakes. Diaphanous would not cover it. Song titles in classic festive red on the back of this prompt re-issue of an album released too close to Christmas to draw media attention last winter, but now making it onto HMV’s Yuletide shelves in York, alongside Sir Cliff, the Bocelli and Estefan families, Aled & Russell, Joss Stone, Alicia Keys and Backstreet Boys (but not Chris Isaaks’s Elvis-lite Everybody Knows It’s Christmas, alas).
Gifts inside: Julia’s 14-track debut Christmas collection, recorded in a week in the Reservoir Studio in Midtown, New York, with producer Thomas Bartlett (piano, keys), Sam Amidon (banjo, guitar, violin), James Gilligan (pedal steel & bass), Leigh Fisher (percussion), Nico Muhly (string arrangements) and Ross Irwin (trumpet, horns).
“This record encapsulates my fondest childhood memories tinged by the reality that so many are forever missing from my life today,” Stone says, as she picks hymns (Come All Ye Faithful, The First Noel, Away In A Manger, Joy To The World), standards (It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas, Jingle Bells, Winter Wonderland, Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas) and latterday Christmas gems (Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You, Wham’s Last Christmas and Joni Mitchell’s River).
Style: Imagine Kylie singing Dolly Parton’s bluegrass take on Christmas, or Eartha Kitt guesting on Bruce Cockburn’s classic folk-rooted 1993 album, Christmas. Soulful Mariah makes you believe what she wants for Christmas will definitely arrive; doleful Julia, by comparison, probably not. More Boxing Day rueful reflection than Christmas Eve hope.
’Tis the reason to be jolly: Those Carols, especially Away In A Manger in a duet with Amidon, and the arrangements, wherein Irwin’s horns, Amidon’s banjo, Gilligan’s pedal steel and Muhly’s strings add wintry magic and variety.
Scrooge moan: No new songs amid the bleak winter stalwarts. The backing vocals on Last Christmas sounding as uncommitted as dads told by the dame to sing the panto song-sheet.
White Christmas? Oh yes, a beauty, bedded in for winter with Bartlett’s piano and Amidon’s violin.
Blue Christmas? Very blue, like how frozen Julia looks on that snowy cover. “Everything is a celebration, and everything is painful. Everything is love and everything can be lost. Everything is Christmas,” she said, when announcing the album. That is how she sings, as lonesome as the solo choirboy on the first line of Once In Royal David’s City.
Stocking or shocking? The mournful, moving, yet beautiful record to match the downbeat mood at the fag end of 2022, a shocker of a year. What Julia needs for Christmas is Satchmo’s Cool Yule (see below).
Satchmo’s Santa on the sleeve of his “first ever Christmas album”
Louis Armstrong, Louis Wishes You A Cool Yule (Verve) ****
Wrapping: Satchmo in Santa garb, trademark trumpet on his lips, looking heavenwards amid stars and snowflakes. More trumpeting on the reverse beside a Christmas tree, more stars, more snowflakes, and the track listing. Inside, notes by Ricky Riccardi, Armstrong biographer, lecturer and director of Research Collections for the Louis Armstrong House Museum.
Gifts inside: Armstrong never made a Christmas album, although 1957 delivered the Armstrong As Santa Claus set, while Ella & Louis and Louis & Friends Christmas compilations are readily available. Anyway, 51 years after his death, here are his six Fifties’ Christmas singles for Decca and duets with Ella Fitzgerald (the romantic I’ve Got My Love To Keep Me Warm) and a sultry Velma Middleton (the fruity Baby, It’s Cold Outside, replete with Louis double entendres). Plus his last ever recording, a previously unreleased February 1971 reading of Clement Clarke Moore’s A Visit From St Nicholas, aka The Night Before Christmas, newly accompanied by Sullivan Fortner’s jazz piano.
Style: Louis’s rumble of a larynx is as much the voice of Christmas as Noddy Holder’s holler, Shane MacGowan’s slur or Bing Crosby’s bonhomie. Warming as mulled wine, rich as fruit cake. Then add that jazz swing, all in “the cause of happiness”, with Benny Carter and Gordon Jenkins’ bands and The Commanders.
’Tis the reason to be jolly: Cool Yule, Winter Wonderland, Christmas In New Orleans (his hymn to his home city), ‘Zat You’, Santa Claus?. Sung in that voice.
Scrooge moan: What A Wonderful World is not a “holiday song” but…on the other hand, what a wonder it is, the message of hope ever resonant.
White Christmas? Yes, the best version ever, no less.
Blue Christmas? Only the temperature on Baby, It’s Cold Outside.
Stocking or shocking? What a wonderful present this would be.
Victory, from Heather Findlay’s illustrated therapeutic tale Raising Violet
HEATHER Findlay, York singer, songwriter, musician, producer, artist and mother, has written an illustrated therapeutic tale, Raising Violet, The Storybook.
For November’s Folktale Week 2022 global initiative, she had decided to unfurl a story that had been piecing itself together since January, prompted by a series of illustrations. Encouraged by onlooking fans on social media, she heeded the call to turn Raising Violet into a “physical book for all to keep”.
“I set about the job of writing an introduction and an afterword, along with some other fun additions, and began mapping out the book with a designer to create a beautiful, 40-plus page, hardbacked offering,” she says.
In Heather’s story, there once was a time when all Violet knew was how to shrink, but with the help of her friends, Samson and Barney, a curiously unexpected series of encounters with a mysterious new friend finds her learning the art of balance, where raising Violet becomes the theme.
“Having felt called to create something new that might help in some way to ease the suffering that so many of us are, or have been, going through in these times of global change, it is my hope that sharing Violet’s story brings a sense of upliftment, comfort and inspiration that goes some way towards achieving this.
The book cover for Heather Findlay’s Raising Violet
“Someone said to me during Folktale Week, ‘I can see myself in Violet’. My feeling is, there might be a bit of Violet in us all.”
Now, Heather is welcoming pre-orders for the first edition of Raising Violet.“It’s over to you to weave your magic in helping bring Violet to the page!” she urges. “If you’d like to become a Magic Key Holder, you’ll receive – along with the book – a handmade Magic Key bookmark, your name in the credits and a huge thank-you for making this book possible!
“Why a Magic Key?Because it’s the key that unlocks the book – and ‘we all need a bit more magic in our lives!’, according to Snow in the story!”
In addition, seven specially signed and titled art prints are available (as one print, three prints or the full set) with more details on prices at blacksandrecords.com.
“My feeling is, there might be a bit of Violet in us all,” says author and artist Heather Findlay. Picture: Adam Kennedy
Here, CharlesHutchPress asks Heather Findlay about creating Raising Violet, the need for therapeutic tales and striving to live a balanced life
What was the starting point for Raising Violet: an illustration or an idea for a story?
“The first thing that arrived was an illustration. It was last January and I had been poorly for a while with something strange, either chronic fatigue, or long Covid. Slowing me down quite a lot, it left me with lots of time to think and contemplate. I had the idea that it might become part of a series for a book or even an oracle deck.”
What triggered the need to write this book?
“While considering what I would do next, I knew that I really wanted it to be something that would serve as some kind of antidote to these stressful times we’ve all been through.
“I love watching astrology videos and oracle card readers on YouTube while cooking, or even while falling asleep, and find it really comforting.
Costume, by Heather Findlay
“Some of the artworks on the oracle decks I’ve seen are so beautiful and uplifting, and I think that’s what it inspired me to want to create something of a similar vibration.
“It’s probably a little influenced by The Boy The Mole The Fox And The Horse too, by Charlie Mackesy. I love that book so much and literally bought it for everyone a few Christmases back!”
How would you summarise your book’s theme?
“Violet lives with depression and anxiety and often finds her inner voice to be one that is unkind. Throughout the story, she learns, or remembers, through various experiences to quieten those harsh voices and, in doing so, gives rise to a much friendlier inner voice. This leads her to notice the beauty all around her and how grateful she is for it.”
What makes a book therapeutic?
“The story has a happy ending and a realistic one. Although Violet has to work hard at feeling happy, she learns the ways in which to achieve it. They are simple ways too, like grounding, gratitude, breathing, letting go, slowing down, being outdoors in nature and generally being open to the unknown and even the possibility of magic…
Fool, by Heather Findlay
“As the story unfolded over Folktale Week, the feedback it received gave me the impression that it’s effect is therapeutic. “
Is it self-help book?
“Writing it certainly helped me! I do feel there’s a bit of Violet in everyone and if it uplifts the reader in some way, then why not?”
Is it a universal tale?
“I think it is, yes. Young children can relate to Violet as much as elderly ones! Sadly, too many are suffering these days and my hope is that either those who know a Violet might gain better understanding of how life might feel for her, or for all Violets out there, that they might feel less alone through reading this, or even feel inspired to open to new ways of feeling better.”
Tree, by Heather Findlay
How much have present times – Covid, lockdowns, people’s struggles with so many things – influenced the book?
“A lot! I feel the times we’ve all shared over the past couple of years have certainly brought home a greater need to acknowledge and to remedy mental health issues. Especially among our young.
“We’re constantly bombarded with sensory offerings via technology and media. Arguably, a book is more input, albeit more organic. But it takes time to turn and feel pages and a book also carries the hope that we might all find time to slow down and read with our families from time to time.”
How would you describe Violet’s character, apart from ‘shrinking’?!
“She’s a fighter, but she’s tired of fighting now. She’s sweet and lovable and easily finds gratitude in her heart for all life brings her. She is bright, curious and open minded. She is sensitive and loves animals and the outdoors. Her favourite things are Sun, Snow, Samson and Barney!
Stars, by Heather Findlay
Who are her friends Samson and Barney?
“Samson is the best! Samson is loyal and faithful, through and through. He’s constantly there for Violet. He adores her. Like all Springer Spaniels, he’s pretty bonkers too! Teddy bear Barney is quiet. Constant. Takes it all in. Always there. Always smiling. Always ready for the next hug!”
What can you say of the “mysterious new friend”?
“Well, she’s certainly mysterious…! And kind of familiar…”
What gave you the idea for a Magic Key bookmark for pre-orders?
“I was shopping online and saw these beautiful antique-looking keys. I love creating something special for fans who pre-order my offerings and the idea just came in a flash.”
A Magic Key bookmark for Heather Findlay’s Raising Violet
What and when is Folktale Week?
“Folktale Week is a global initiative that encourages artists to illustrate a folktale from around the world over the span of one week in November each year. There are seven prompts given early on in the month, one per day, and your story is told using them.
“A different handful of artists host the event each November, as artists from around the world share their work on Instagram throughout the challenge. I’ve not participated in it before but decided – as telling your own tale is also an option, and spookily the prompts seemed to fit – to rise to the challenge by bringing Violet’s story into being through it.
“As I’d been holding back a bit on Violet, it felt like a nudge from the universe to get the story out there. And it worked!”
What do the pictures bring to the story? For example, captioning one picture ‘Victory’ is a powerful message, isn’t it?
“I hope the pictures bring with them the essence of the story itself. Even the sad ones are beautiful in some way. Perhaps even more powerful. Victory was actually the first image I created for Raising Violet and curiously, it became the last image in the book too. Violet is very small and cute in this illustration and in the book it’s where she looks back on her younger self and sees herself healed. A definite victory!”
Rebel, by Heather Findlay
How would you describe your pictorial style and what materials/media do you use?
“It’s sketchy, but detailed. Colourful and expressive. I use Derwent watercolour pencils, but without the water! I love the softness of their touch on the paper. Quite blendable. They have a really strong pigment too, so their colours are nice and punchy.
“I used black art paper for Raising Violet, with titanium white as the main pencil colour and black representing the dark and white, the light. The two together represent balance.”
How do you achieve “balance” in life as a prog-rock/folk musician, artist and mother of two sons?
“It takes constant practice for me! Life easily gets chaotic if I don’t keep it simple.
“Plenty of sleep, daily yoga and energy medicine practices without fail and enough time out from work. I’ve underdone sleep and overdone work for too many years of my life and often paid the price of burnout. And it’s really not nice.”
Heather Findlay performing at Big Ian Donaghy’s charity fund-raising concert, A Night To Remember, at York Barbican in September 2022. Picture: Dave Kessell
Away from the book, what are your music plans for next year, both for Heather Findlay, solo artist, and with Odin Dragonfly?
“It would be lovely to play some live shows with Odin Dragonfly to celebrate the Sirens album. The last year proved a bit of a challenge on that front, but let’s see what 2023 brings.
“Solo wise, I’ve a been preparing demos over the past 18 months or so, ready to be turned into new songs, so I’m excited about delving into those in the coming year.
“There are a few songs coming out soon that I’ve worked on with other artists too. The first one will be a new single, Two Rock, from York’s own Martin Ledger on January 6. (You can read more about it at http://www.martinledger.com/).”
Heather Findlay and fellow Odin Dragonfly musician Angela Gordon
