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More Things To Do in York and beyond the endless rain when films turn Dead Northern. Hutch’s List No. 40, from The Press, York

Rievaulx Abbey, mixed media, by Robert Dutton, on show in A Yorkshire Year at Nunnington Hall

YORKSHIRE landscapes, campsite class division, horror movies to the max and a talkative traveller herald the arrival of the arts autumn for Charles Hutchinson.

Exhibition of the week: A Yorkshire Year, Nunnington Hall, near Helmsley, until December 5

THE changing landscape of the Yorkshire countryside and coastline is captured by Yorkshire artists Robert Dutton, from Nunnington, and Andrew Moodie, from Harrogate, in seasonal images.

Dutton presents a dramatic interpretation of the untamed expanses of Yorkshire, from meandering freshwater rivers and hidden woodlands to the stark beauty of the moors. Moodie directs his attention to the undulating valleys of the Yorkshire Dales, as well as coastal villages. Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 10.30am to 5pm, last entry at 4.15pm. Normal admission prices apply at nationaltrust.org.uk/nunnington-hall.

The artwork for the Dead Northern 2024 Horror Film Festival at City Screen Picturehouse, York

Film event of the week: Dead Northern 2024 Horror Film Festival, City Screen, Picturehouse, York, today and tomorrow

IN “the world’s most haunted city”, Dead Northern presents a festival of movies, music and social gatherings. Today opens with Demonic Shorts at 11am, followed by the regional premiere of Scopophobia, 12.30pm; Slasher, Thriller and Creature Shorts, 2.30pm; UK premiere of The Healing, 4.30pm; Dead Talk film-making panel, 7.30pm; regional premiere of Kill Your Lover, 9pm, and VIP Awards Party at Revolution, York,11pm.

Tomorrow features the Mad Props documentary, 11am; mini-feature Strike,12.45pm; feature film The Monster Beneath Us, 1.15pm; music mini-feature The Black Quarry, 3.45pm; Music Videos, 4.30pm; UK premiere of Kill Victoria, 6.30pm, and world premiere of Lake Jesup, 8.30pm. Guests must be aged over 18 to access screenings and live events. Box office: deadnorthern.co.uk/dead-northern-2024-film-festival.

Tom Gallagher, Annie Kirkman and Laura Jennifer Banks in a scene from John Godber’s revival of Perfect Pitch

Touring play of the week: John Godber Company in Perfect Pitch, Harrogate Theatre, today, 2pm and 7.30pm; Pocklington Arts Centre, October 9 and 10, 7.30pm; Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, November 13 to 16, 7.30pm plus 1.30pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees

WHEN teacher Matt (Frazer Hammill) borrows his parents’ caravan for a week on the Yorkshire coast with partner Rose (Annie Kirkman), they are expecting four days of hill running and total de-stressing. However, with a Tribfest taking place nearby, Grant (Tom Gallagher) and Steph’s (Laura Jennifer Banks) pop-up tent is an unwelcome addition to their perfect pitch.

The class divide and loo cassettes become an issue as writer-director John Godber reignites his unsettling1998 state-of-the-nation comedy, set on an eroding coastline, as Matt and Rose are inducted into the world of caravanning and karaoke. Box office: Harrogate, 01423 502116 or harrogatetheatre.co.uk; Pocklington, 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk; Scarborough, 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.

The bird man of RedHouse Originals Gallery: artist Jim Moir at his Birdland exhibition in Harrogate

Last chance to see: Jim Moir, Birdland, RedHouse Originals Gallery, Cheltenham Mount, Harrogate, today, 10am, 10am to 5pm

“PEOPLE think that I am a comedian, but art comes first,” says Jim Moir, aka Vic Reeves, as he mounts his second RedHouse show. “This one is Birdland because of my love of birds. I spend most of my days bird watching and painting,” he says.

On show – and for sale – is an exclusive collection of 50 new paintings celebrating his favourite subject ahead of the October 24 release of his second bird book, More Birds, Paintings Of British Birds, published by Unbound. Free entry.

Clare Ferguson-Walker and Robin Ince: Plenty to discuss at Pocklington Arts Centre

Double act of the week: Clare Ferguson-Walker & Robin Ince, Pocklington Arts Centre, tonight, 8pm

TAKE a tour around two marvellous minds via the vehicles of poetry, storytelling, jokes, and general silliness when Clare Ferguson-Walker and Robin Ince link up in Pock. Poet, comedienne, sculptor and singer Clare’s explosive second collection, Chrysalis, lays bare the poet’s soul on a journey laced with humour and humane observation.

Humorist, presenter, poet and author Ince co-hosts the BBC Radio 4 series The Infinite Monkey Cage with Professor Brian Cox. His books include Bibliomaniac, The Importance Of Being Interested, I’m A Joke And So Are You and his next work, Normally Weird And Weirdly Normal: My Adventures In Neurodiversity, will be published next May. Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.

The cover design for Michael Palin’s new diary collection

Globe-trotter of the week: Michael Palin, Grand Opera House, York, October 3, 7.30pm

IN the words of Monty Python alumnus, actor, presenter and Yorkshireman Michael Palin: “In There And Back – The Diary Tour 2024, I’ll bring to life the fourth collection of my diaries and the first to be released for ten years.

“Lots of fun as I go through the Noughties, and some dark times too. I constantly surprise myself with the sheer amount I took on.” Tickets update: still available at atgtickets.com/york.

Barbara Dickson: Acoustic October concerts in Pocklington and Leeds

Folk gigs of the week: Hurricane Promotions present Barbara Dickson & Nick Holland, All Saints Church, Pocklington, October 4 (sold out) and October 16, 7.30pm. Also Leeds City Varieties Music Hall, October 20, 7.30pm

SCOTTISH folk singer Barbara Dickson and her pianist Nick Holland explore her catalogue of songs in these acoustic concerts in intimate settings, where the pair will let the words and melodies take centre stage as they draw on Dickson’s folk roots, contemporary greats and her classic hits, from Another Suitcase In Another Hall to I Know Him So Well. Box office: barbaradickson.net; Leeds, 0113 243 0808 or leedsheritagetheatres.com.

Mundane matters: Josh Widdicombe mulls over really niche observations about silly little things in 2025 and 2026

Gig announcement of the week: Josh Widdicombe, Not My Cup Of Tea Tour, Hull City Hall, October 2 2025, and York Barbican, February 28 2026

PARENTING Hell podcaster and comedian Josh Widdicombe, droll observer of the absurd side of the mundane, will take stock of the little things that niggle him, from motorway hotels to children’s parties, and explain why he has finally decided to embrace middle age, hot drinks and doing the school run in his 58-date tour show, Not My Cup Of Tea.

“That’s my favourite type of stand-up: really niche observations about silly little things that you wouldn’t think about. I’ve got no interest in the big topics.” Box office: joshwiddicombe.com; yorkbarbican.co.uk; hulltheatres.co.uk.

In Focus: Mark Thomas: Gaffa Tapes…Old Title, New Show, The Crescent, York, tomorrow. More Yorkshire shows to follow

This is the modern world: Mark Thomas returns to stand-up venting at The Crescent, York. Picture: Tony Pletts

LAST appearing in York in Ed Edwards’s one-man play England & Son in the Theatre Royal Studio last September, South London’s grouchy “godfather of political comedy”, Mark Thomas, returns to polemical stand-up in Gaffa Tapes…Old Title, New Show at The Crescent tomorrow night.

One of the longest-surviving alternative comics after close to 40 years of stand-up, theatre, journalism, human rights campaigning and the odd bout of performance art, his latest tour’s fusillade of jokes, rants, politics, play and the occasional sing-song adds up to “generally mucking about trying to have fun and upset (shall we say) the right people”.

Gaffa Tapes…Old Title, New Show? Explain the extended tag, Mark. “What happened is I liked the idea of ‘Gaffa Tapes’ as a title and had it last year for my Edinburgh Fringe show, but halfway through the Fringe run I got Covid and had to stop.

“Last year I toured England & Son, written by Ed Edwards, which I was really pleased with. It picked up more awards than I’d ever done before – six awards – and one of them was to perform the play in Australia, taking it out to Adelaide for five weeks – and we might be going to New York …

“But we made no money out of it. I thought, ‘right, how do we make some money?’, so it’s great to be getting back to stand-up. What I love about stand-up is… and this is simple…if you stop doing it, they say you’ll feel rusty, so if you have a hiatus, what you have to learn to do is put your hand on the neck of the beast.

“I thought, ‘I’m going to do all the clubs at the bottom of the eco-system, doing ten minutes here, ten minutes there, doing shows in different places, and the thing about it is, I died on my arse a couple of times, which feels horrible each and every time…

“But if you take a break, you need to get your muscle memory back working again. That’s why I loved doing Edinburgh this summer. I did 26 gigs. It’s just bang, bang, bang, every night. You can muck around, try things out.

Mark Thomas in England & Son, toured to York Theatre Royal Studio in 2023. Picture: Alex Brenner

“The riots were happening around that time, so I wrote about them – and it’s important to be able to talk about that. It’s a living, breathing affecting thing. I love being a warrior in the culture wars, and it’s good to be back on the battlefield.”

The tectonic plates of the political landscape keep shifting: fresh meat to a polemicist comedian’s grist. “Things are always changing,” says Mark. “What I love is that when I started work on the show, there was loads going on, because the Tories were no longer in power, and it’s good to be able to react to that and to suggest what should be happening.

“I was at the Diggers Festival, celebrating Gerrard Winstanley [English Protestant religious reformer, political philosopher, activist and leader and co-founder of the ‘True Levellers’ or ‘Diggers’], doing a talk in a church, where someone said, ‘if you get rid of the oath to the King, that would be the most radical thing you could do’.

“I said, ‘well, actually, I don’ think it is. If you want democracy to work, you should have voting at 16, proportional representation, and you need to abolish the House of Lords’…whereas they’re just tidying up what [Tony] Blair started all those years ago. The most radical thing would be to ban donations to political parties. Make it state-funded, giving money to run parties and campaigns, making it a level playing field.

“Do you know who is the only other country in Europe to have a ‘first past the post’ electoral system? Belarus. So if anyone is out of step, it’s us. I think eventually PR [proportional representation] will come in; it’s just a question of what form it takes.”

How does the change of ruling party in Westminster from the Conservatives to Labour after 14 years have an impact on Thomas’s venting? “It changes the goalposts because it’s a new set of people to attack for a new set of reasons,” says Mark. “It’s the new austerity that they’re proposing that’s not great.

“The fact is that Starmer got some of the things right over the riots. I find it fascinating that there is this a disconnect; the idea that everyone who rioted was a racist, but not everyone was, because riots have a movement of their own, but certainly the organisers were far right.

“I didn’t vote Labour. I’m a Socilaist, why on Earth would I vote Labour?” says Mark Thomas. Picture: Art by Tracey Moberly

“You can be a Zen Buddhist but if you set fire to an asylum seekers’ hotel, then you’re a racist.”

Long associated with spouting anti-Tory sentiment aplenty, Thomas will hold the incoming Labour Party to account too. “I think it’s healthier that way in politics. The honeymoon period is over already,” he says.

“I didn’t vote Labour. I’m a Socialist, why on Earth would I vote Labour? There shouldn’t be a honeymoon period anyway,  but I expect the right-wing press to go at Labour with gusto because they want to shape not only this government, but the next Tory one too.”

Any suggestions for policy change, Mark? “Local government can run the bus companies, but it’s really important that it’s not about making the maximum profit. That’s what used to happen until Thatcher changed it,” he says.

“I’m lucky now – because I’m 61, I get the 60+ London Oyster card for £20 [administration fee] that allows me to travel everywhere in London for free and I use buses a lot. That’s one of the great things about London: wherever you are, there will be a night bus coming along in a moment.”

He is looking forward eagerly to tomorrow’s return to The Crescent. “I love The Crescent,” he enthuses. “What they may lack in technical facilities, it’s a proper community venue. I always say, when talking about what community venues could be, take a look at this place.”

Mark Thomas: Gaffa Tapes, Burning Duck Comedy, The Crescent, York, tomorrow, 7.30pm; Marsdsen Mechanics, November 8, 8pm; Social, Hull, November 16, 8pm; Sheffield Memorial Hall November 10, 8pm; Leeds City Varieties Music Hall, February 5 2025; Wakefield Theatre Royal, February 6 2025, 7.30pm.

Box office: York, thecrescentyork.com; Marsden, 01484 844587 or marsdenmechanics.co.uk; Sheffield, sheffieldcityhall.co.uk; Hull, socialhumberstreet.co.uk; Leeds, 0113 243 0808 or leedsheritagetheatres.com; Wakefield Theatre Royal, 01924 211311 or theatreroyalwakefield.co.uk (on sale soon) Age guidance: 16 plus.

Mark Thomas: the back story

The next step for Mark Thomas: Touring Gaffa Tapes

“IF you don’t know what Mark does, ask your parents. In his time, he has won eight awards for performing, three for human rights work… and one he invented for himself. He has made six series of the Mark Thomas Comedy Product and three Dispatches for Channel 4, made five series of The Manifesto for BBC Radio 4, written five books and four play scripts, curated and authored two art exhibitions with artist Tracey Moberly and was commissioned to write a show for the Royal Opera House.

“He has forced a politician to resign, changed laws on tax and protest, become the Guinness Book of Records world-record holder for the number of protests in 24 hours, taken the police to court three times and won (the fourth is in the pipeline), walked the length of the Israeli Wall in the West Bank (that’s 724km), and generally mucked about trying to have fun and upset (shall we say) the right people.”

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More Things To Do in York and beyond as some things wickedly good this way come. Here’s Hutch’s List No. 4, from The Press

Something wicked this way comes: Rob Wolfe’s Macbeth and Oriana Charles’s Lady Macbeth in Dickens Theatre Company’s Macbeth, on tour at Grand Opera House, York

FROM textbook theatre for GCSE studies to an original pantomime,  a finally finished symphony to orchestral ABC,  a silent cinema season to a night of Nashville honky-tonk country, Charles Hutchinson has all manner of recommendations. 

York debut of the week: Dickens Theatre Company: Revision On Tour, Grand Opera House, York, Macbeth, Monday, 7.30pm, and Tuesday, 1pm, 7.30pm; Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde, Wednesday, 1pm, 7.30pm; Romeo & Juliet, Thursday, 1pm, 7.30pm

DICKENS Theatre Company, purveyors of exciting, educational and entertaining stage adaptations of literary classics and GCSE texts since 2015, make their York debut with three productions scripted and directed by Ryan Philpott.

A cast of seven presents Shakespeare’s bloodiest tragedy, Macbeth, narrated by the Porter, as Macbeth and Lady Macbeth make their perilous descent towards Hell; Robert Louis Stevenson’s Gothic horror story Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde, set in the foggy, dimly lit streets of Victorian London, where an evil predator lurks, and Romeo & Juliet, breathing new life and wit into Shakespeare’s tragic tale of star-crossed lovers. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Rob Wolfe, as Dr Jekyll, and Felix Grainger, as Inspector Newcomen, in Dickens Theatre Company’s Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde at Grand Opera House, York

Pantomime of the week: Blue Light Theatre Company in Nithered!, Acomb Working Men’s Club, York, today, 1pm; Wednesday to Friday, 7.30pm

FORMED by York Ambulance Service staff, Blue Light Theatre Company’s family-friendly tenth anniversary production features an original pantomime script by Perri Ann Barley, with additional material by the dame, Steven Clark, directed by Craig Barley and choreographed by Devon Wells.

They are joined in the cast by Glen Gears, Brenda Riley, Simon Moore, Kevin Bowes, Kristian Barley and new members Aileen Stables and Audra Bryan, among others. Proceeds go to the Motor Neurone Disease Association (York) and York Against Cancer. Box office: 07933 329654 or bluelight-theatre.co.uk.

The (Riding) Hoods in Blue Light Theatre Company’s Nithered!: Kathryn Donley, left, Chelsea Hutchinson and Kalayna Barley

Classical concert of the week: Academy of St Olave’s, St Olave’s Church, Marygate, York, tonight, 8pm

THE “main event” of the Academy of St Olave’s second concert of their 2023-24 season will be Schubert’s “Unfinished” Symphony No. 8 in B minor, but in a finished version! Schubert famously completed only the first two movements, before setting the symphony aside (six years before his death in 1828).

The York chamber orchestra will be adding third and fourth movements compiled and composed by Schubert scholar Professor Brian Newbould, based on material left behind by the Austrian composer. Further works in a programme of late-Classical and early Romantic music will be Mozart’s Symphony No. 25 and Luigi Cherubini’s operatic overture Anacréon. Box office: academyofstolaves.org.uk or on the door.

Miles Kane: One Man Band at Leeds O2 Academy

Miles down the road: Miles Kane, Leeds O2 Academy, Thursday, 7pm

BIRKENHEAD guitarist and singer Miles Kane, former frontman of The Rascals and Alex Turner’s cohort in The Last Shadow Puppets, opens his January and February 2024 solo tour in Leeds. Expect the focus to fall on last August’s album, One Man Band, released on Modern Sky Records.

A deeply personal record, it found Kane reflecting on his journey as he returned to Liverpool, hooking up with Blossoms’ Tom Ogden, Circa Waves’ Keiran Shudall, Andy Burrow and regular writing partner Jamie Biles to record songs with longtime collaborator James Skelly, of The Coral, on production duties. Box office: mileskane.com.

Buster Keaton in Sherlock, Jr: Showing in the ReDiscover programme at City Screen Picturehouse

Time to rediscover: Buster Keaton season, City Screen Picturehouse, York, until February 9

CITY Screen Picturehouse is celebrating the silent cinema of Joseph Frank “Buster” Keaton, the American actor, comedian and director whose graceful physical feats of stoical comedy were marked by a deadpan expression that brought him the nickname “The Great Stone Face”.

Friday’s screening of Steamboat Bill, Jr (U), wherein the effete son of a cantankerous riverboat captain joins his father’s crew, will be followed on February 2 by Sherlock, Jr (U), in which Keaton’s hapless film projectionist longs to be a detective. The season concludes on February 9 with The General (U), with its peerless chase scenes as Keaton’s plucky railway engineer pursues Union spies doggedly across enemy lines when they steal his locomotive. Box office: picturehouses.com.

Dominic Halpin And The Hurricanes: Revelling in A Country Night In Nashville

Country shindig of the week: A Country Night In Nashville, Grand Opera House, York, Friday, 7.30pm

DOMINIC Halpin And The Hurricanes take a journey down country roads, visiting the songs of American stars both past and present as they recreate the atmosphere of a buzzing honky-tonk in downtown Nashville. The music of Johnny Cash, Alan Jackson, Dolly Parton, The Chicks, Willie Nelson and Kacey Musgraves, among others, will be showcased. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Martin Fry: Fronting the ABC Lexicon Of Love Orchestral Tour show at York Barbican

Gig of the week: ABC, Lexicon Of Love Orchestral Tour, York Barbican, January 27, doors, 7pm

MARTIN Fry leads ABC in an orchestral performance of their June 1982 chart-topping debut album The Lexicon Of Love, here coupled with further hits and favourites.

Fusing Motown soul with a steely Sheffield post-punk attitude, the album spawned the hits Tears Are Not Enough, Poison Arrow, The Look Of Love and All of My Heart,   

now performed with the Southbank Sinfonia, conducted by longtime collaborator Anne Dudley, who orchestrated the original album sessions. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk or ticketmaster.co.uk.

Miles And The Chain Gang: New single and first gig of 2024

Miles on the doorstep: Miles And The Chain Gang, The Terrace, New Street, York, February 10, 8pm onwards, free entry

YORK band Miles And The Chain Gang precede their first gig of 2014 with the January 26 release of new single Raining Cats And Dogs, an Americana-tinged track that dates back 30 years.

“Everything takes time,” says songwriter and frontman Miles Salter. “The song started out at a jam session with my friends Dom Jukes and Syd Egan in the summer of 1994. It just came to me, as song ideas do.” Hearing the subsequent recording for the first time in years, Salter has decided to revisit the “very playful and tongue-in-cheek” country number with Egan on harmonica.

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Markus Birdman tops bill for Laugh Out Loud Comedy Club’s brace of Basement shows at City Screen on Saturday

Damion Larkin: Programmer and host for Laugh Out Loud Comedy Club

ESSEX comedian and stroke survivor Markus Birdman headlines Laugh Out Loud Comedy Club’s two shows on Saturday at The Basement, City Screen Picturehousen, York.

Joining him on the 5pm and 8pm bills will be Tal Davies, Hasan Al-Habib and promoter/master of ceremonies Damion Larkin.

Noted for his physicality, timing and topicality, Birdman was a 2001 finalist in the BBC New Comedy Awards, has appeared on Channel 9 TV in Australia, plays London’s Comedy Store and major UK comedy clubs and has headlined the Avalon comedy network.

He has headed up to the Edinburgh Fringe for 15 summers, presenting The Bearable Heaviness Of Nearly Not Being in 2022, and is a graffiti artist, muralist, performance poet and Glastonbury Festival poetry slam champion too.

In 2022, he suffered a stroke and ended up with a platinum heart, the subject of his Platinum Tour show. This year he was a semi-finalist on Britain’s Got Talent.

On the circuit since 2019, emerging comedian and writer Tal Davies was crowned Best Breakthrough Act at the 2021 Midlands Comedy Awards and was a Funny Women semi-finalist too, as well as being shortlisted for the BBC New Comedy Award.

BBC WritersRoom invited her to be part of the 2021 Coventry Voices programme, and the strength of her writing can be seen on stage, where she balances toe-curling anecdotes with dry observational humour, delivered with a warm stage presence and a deadpan Brummie accent.

Hasan Al-Habib was born to Iraqi parents who “decided Baghdad wasn’t dangerous enough and so moved to Birmingham”.

Starting stand-up at university, he took his 2019 show FootDarks to the Edinburgh Fringe, since when he has performed around the country and opened for comedians Ken Cheng, Fern Brady, Ahir Shah, Adam Hess and Sara Barron.

Tickets cost £19 at https://lolcomedyclubs.co.uk or £23 on the door, subject to availability.

* Laugh Out Loud’s next Basement shows will be on New Year’s Eve (31/12/2023) at 4pm and 7pm. Tickets: £25 in advance; £30 on the door, subject to availability.

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More Things To Do in York and beyond when steam rises and a robot falls in love. Hutch’s List No. 36, from The Press, York

Playwright and director Alan Ayckbourn and actress Naomi Petersen in the rehearsal room for the Stephen Joseph Theatre premiere of Constant Companions. Picture: Tony Bartholomew

AYCKBOURN and android love, traction engines and farming photography, comic fantasy and anecdotal Love stories keep Charles Hutchinson busy as summer exits stage left.

Premiere of the week: Alan Ayckbourn’s Constant Companions, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, Thursday to October 7

IN Alan Ayckbourn’s 89th play, Lorraine is a fabulously successful lawyer of a certain age. Jan Sixty is the janitor of her building, an android of indeterminate age. In a not-too-distant future, where humans have turned to artificial friends for companionship without compromise, can Lorraine and Jan find true love?

“Reading so much about the inevitable arrival of AI into our society – some would say it’s already here! – I felt a cautious look forward might be in order,” says Alan. Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.

The skill of tractor pulling at the Yorkshire Traction Engine Rally at Scampston Hall. Picture: Outdoor Shows

Full steam ahead: Yorkshire Traction Engine Rally, Scampston Hall, Scampston, near Malton, today and tomorrow, 9am to 5pm

THE Yorkshire Traction Engine Rally, organised by Outdoor Shows, takes over Scampston Hall’s parkland this weekend. Among the steam fair attractions will be tractor pulling, steam engines, classic cars, vintage tractors, classic motorcycles, fairground organs, miniature steam engines, stationary engines and vintage commercials.

In the main arena, Flyin Ryan and his motorcycle stunt team deliver daredevil antics, comedy routines, fire stunts and arena entertainment, while the Scarborough Fair Collection stages two days of music and magic extravaganzas. Box office: scampston.co.uk or outdoorshows.co.uk.

The George Harrison Project: Here come the songs at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre tonight

Recalling the “quiet Beatle”: The George Harrison Project, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, tonight, 7.30pm

MARKING the Beatles legend’s 80th anniversary, this tribute show to George Harrison embraces his Fab Four, solo and Traveling Wilburys supergroup years.

Here come Here Comes The Sun, Something, Taxman, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, My Sweet Lord, All Things Must Pass, Got My Mind Set On You, Handle With Care, Give Me Love, What Is Life, If I Needed Someone, Cheer Down and many more. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

The 2023 poster for York Unleashed Comic-Con

Geek of the week: York Unleashed Comic-Con, York Racecourse, Knavesmire, York, tomorrow, 11am to 5pm

YORK actor David Bradley, from the Harry Potter films, Game Of Thrones and Doctor Who, leads the guest appearances at this weekend’s “geekiest, nerdiest” gathering. Lee Boardman, Clive Russell, Richard Gibson and Kit Hardman will be there too, along with comic creators and authors Sasha Ray Art, Carolyn Craggs, Lindsey Greyling, KS Marsden, Kelvin VA Allison Paolo Debernardi, Victoria Bates and Ben Sawyer.

Look out too for Geeky Attractions on three sites, including a Back To The Future time machine, a retro gaming area, Star Wars display, children’s activities, art area, stage talks, cosplay masquerade and geeky market selling merchandise and collectables. Tickets update: available on the door from 11am.

The artwork for Don Pears and Singphonia’s concert The Great American Songbook – From A To Z

Fundraiser of the week: Don Pears and Singphonia presents The Great American Songbook – From A To Z Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, tomorrow, 4pm

DON Pears and Singphonia explore the vast scope of the Great American Songbook from the 1900s to the present, from Al Jolson to Beyoncé, covering spirituals and jazz through rock’n’roll and Rat Pack standards to modern hits, not forgetting musical theatre too.

Musical director Pears and his group of York singers perform solos, duets, and group numbers, taking in Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers, Judy Garland, Elvis Presley, John Denver and The Carpenters in a fundraiser for the JoRo. Box office: 01904 501395 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

Don’t Stop Believin’ in Eighties’ hits galore at the Grand Opera House, York

Tribute show of the show: Don’t Stop Believin’, Grand Opera House, York, tomorrow, 7.30pm

JUMP aboard the midnight train, heaven is a place on Earth called York, for this end-of-the-night anthems spectacular, a new feelgood tribute show that promises a crazy, crazy night of non-stop, singalong favourites.

Hits by Blondie, Bryan Adams, Cher, Rainbow, Bon Jovi, Kate Bush, Starship, Europe and Belinda Carlisle feature among the 30 songs in this high-energy theatre production with “a sizzling cast, fantastic costumes and amazing light show”. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

In the name of Love: Comedian and TV panellist Judi has plenty to say at York Theatre Royal

Anecdotes of the week: The One Like Judi Love, York Theatre Royal,  Thursday, 8pm

EXPECT unrelenting, humorous anecdotes from “the one like Judi Love” on her first official talk tour, full of stories from the Hackney stand-up comedian and presenter’s life.

Regular Loose Women panellist Love, 43, has appeared on Taskmaster, The Jonathan Ross Show, The Graham Norton Show, 8 Out Of 10 Cats Does Countdown and the Royal Variety Performance too. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Alligator Gumbo: foot-stomping rhythms, tap-away tunes and raucous singalongs at Stillington Mill

Getting the swing of things: Alligator Gumbo, At The Mill, Stillington, near York, Friday, 7.30pm

SUMMER At The Mill welcomes Alligator Gumbo for a night of swing/jazz from the New Orleans heyday. In particular, the Leeds seven-piece focuses on the raw music of the roaring 1920s, largely improvised with melodies and solos happening simultaneously.

Performing extensively for more than ten years, Alligator Gumbo have played international jazz festivals and clubs throughout the country with their good-natured mix of foot-stomping rhythms, tap-away tunes and raucous singalongs. Bar At The Mill will be running from 6.30pm, alongside the wood-fired pizzas. Box office: tickettailor.com/events/atthemill/942447.

Ryan Gosling’s Ken and Margot Robbie’s Barbie in the summer’s biggest hit as Barbie heads outdoors into the Museum Gardens for a Movies In The Moonlight screening

Outdoor cinema: City Screen Picturehouse presents Movies In The Moonlight, Museum Gardens, York, Mamma Mia!, September 8,  7.30pm, and Barbie (12A), September 9, 7.30pm

PICTUREHOUSE Outdoor Cinema returns to the York Museum Gardens for open-air screenings of Phyllida Lloyd’s 2008 Abba hit-laden musical rom-com Mamma Mia! (PG) and this summer’s splash-of-pink box-office smash, Greta Gerwig’s Barbie (12A). Free samples of Mochi Balls from ice cream makers Little Moons can be enjoyed on both nights.

Whether on a girls’ night out or a family & friends evening, audience members are encouraged to dress up – and sing along too on the Mamma Mia! Night. Box office: picturehouses.com/outdoor-cinema/venue/york-museum-gardens.

The yearning and the yawning when showing sheep: One of Valerie Mather’s photographs from her Fields, Folds and Farming Life exhibition at Nunnington Hall, opening next Saturday. Picture: Valerie Mather

Exhibition launch of the week: Fields, Folds and Farming Life, Nunnington Hall, Nunnington, near York, September 9 to December 17; 10.30am to 5pm, last entry at 4.15pm, with reduced winter hours from November 24

FIELDS, Folds and Farming Life, an exhibition by Yorkshire documentary, travel and portrait photographer Valerie Mather, captures candid moments from a year in the lives of upland farmers in Bransdale, a valley and surrounding moorland in North Yorkshire.

The combination of Mather’s work and specially produced films and artwork reveals the hard work and determination of the farming community in navigating the ever-changing agricultural world to achieve a better farming future for people, the environment and wildlife. No booking is required; exhibition included in admission price at this National Trust property. More details at nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/yorkshire/nunnington-hall.

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Tom Wilson’s punk expressionist paintings fill City Screen café walls in fundraising show for Medical Aid for Palestinians

Forest Floor By Night, by Tom Wilson, on show at City Screen Picturehouse

YORK punk expressionist artist, designer, playwright, theatre director and tutor Tom Wilson is exhibiting his riots of colour at City Screen Picturehouse for the first time with sale proceeds going to MAP (Medical Aid for Palestinians).

Thirty-five works are on display in the café bar at the Coney Street cinema in York, priced at £175 to £700.

“My art looks like an explosion,” says Wilson, whose dynamic abstract art is influenced by Kandinsky, Max Earnst, Otto Dix, Outsider art, German Expressionism and Rayonism (Russian Expressionism).

“When my last exhibition was on at St Bede’s, in Blossom Street, last September, I got in touch with as many York artists as I could to network with them and to try and raise the awareness of my charity too, with sale proceeds being donated in aid of the Ukrainians now living in York who needed support,” says Tom.

Artist Tom Wilson standing by his exhibiition for Medical Aid For Palestinians in the City Screen Picturehouse café bar in York

“As part of my networking campaign, I went to see some of the art being shown at City Screen and spoke to the manager, Cath Sharp. We fixed a date for me to show my art there too, which was incredible.”

In the lead-up to this summer’s show, Tom attended as many exhibitions at City Screen as he could to garner ideas of how to present and promote his work. “When my time for showing arrived, I decided to donate the funds raised this time to MAP (Medical Aid for Palestinians),” he says.

“It’s a great cause, particularly right now. Harrowing and tragic and barbaric things are going on while the rest of the world looks the other way. It breaks my heart, it really does.”

For his City Screen debut, Tom had 300 bookmark-sized cards printed, along with two 6 by 27-inch banners. “I also decided to paint a banner to cover the central wall in the City Screen café bar, painting it in my own style to really try to grab people’s attention as they eat their couscous and toasted cheese wraps,” he says.

A new work byTom Wilson for his City Screen show

“I’m quite proud of it actually. Needs must and necessity is the mother of invention, as they say, or as Frank Zappa said!”

Tom had first started to paint 20 years, and after a long hiatus, he picked up the brushes once more when his younger brother, Stephen, died. “I’ve been painting for a while now and find it very cathartic and relaxing,” he says.

“I do believe very strongly that art in any form can have a transformative and spiritual power, the power to heal and cultivate emotional awareness, insights, and imbue self- esteem.

“I don’t have a studio, I paint at home, and as a result my kitchen is like a bomb site, but a productive bomb site. Now, as a way of clearing some of my artwork out of my house – I can’t move for paintings and junk – I thought it would be a positive gesture to hang some paintings in this wonderful space at City Screen and donate any monies to Medical Aid for Palestinians, having already held exhibitions for the Haiti Earthquake Disaster Fund and Ukrainians now living in York.”

Tom Wilson’s Art In Aid Of MAP exhibition banner

Tom has been networking latterly with “the fabulous fraternity of artists” a few doors along from City Screen at the Fabrication art shop in Coney Street. “That could well be my next project, showing my art there and making a documentary about this amazing franchise and amalgam of various and diverse artists, all supporting each other and rising from the pandemic like phoenixes from the fire,” he says.

“It’s a real community culture, which in fact has been going for over 12 years now. They have a branch in Leeds and this thriving one in York too.”

Tom is delighted with the response to his City Screen show, which features new works alongside “huge favourites”. “It’s getting lots of attention from other artists and also from cinema and theatregoers alike,” he says.

“It’s on for another few weeks and it would be great to see more and more people visit this warm, friendly and aesthetically pulsating venue.” 

To purchase any of his works, Tom can be contacted on 07570 020694 or by email at gingerorourke@hotmail.com.

York artist Tom Wilson, pictured when setting up his St Bede’s exhibition last year

Tom Wilson: the back story

ORIGINALLY from Salford, Greater Manchester, Tom has lived and worked in York for 16 years.

Played in a rock’n’roll band for a few years in the 1980s. Studied drama and art at Dartington College of Arts and became a drama teacher after stints of acting. Continues to write and direct for film and theatre, staging his anarchic farce The Local Authority at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, in August 2021.

Spent more than 20 years living and working in London with individuals who struggled with drug and alcohol problems. His outreach and project work in the mental health field included rough sleepers, street drinkers and ex-prisoners.

Started painting 20 years ago, doing so obsessively for four years but then stopping. Re-started after the death of his younger brother, Stephen.

Likes Russian Rayonism, Surrealism, Outsider art and the work of Egon Schiele, Paul Klee, Otto Dix, Francis Bacon, Paul Cezanne, Gustave Dore, Wassily Kandinsky, Max Beckmann, George Grosz, Félicien Rops, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Cy Twombly, Gerhard Richter, Richard Dadd and Robert Lenkiewicz.

Tom Wilson’s exhibition runs at City Screen Picturehouse, Coney Street, York, until July 29.

Opening Gambit, by Tom Wilson, from his City Screen exhibition
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More Things To Do in York as Sovereign takes over King’s Manor. Here’s Hutch’s List No. 28 for 2023, from The Press, York

Sovereign actors Fergus Rattigan, left, and Sam Thorpe-Spinks, right, with playwright Mike Kenny

HENRY VIII and the murder of a York glazier take top spot in Charles Hutchinson’s pick of July highlights with outdoor cinema on its way too.

Community event of the month: York Theatre Royal in Sovereign, King’s Manor, Exhibition Square, York, July 15 to 30

YORK Theatre Royal’s large-scale community production, York playwright Mike Kenny’s adaptation of C J Sansom’s Tudor-set murder mystery Sovereign, will be staged outdoors at King’s Manor, where part of the story takes place. Henry VIII even makes an appearance.

Two professional actors, Fergus Rattigan’s disabled lawyer Matthew Shardlake and Sam Thorpe-Spinks’ assistant Jack Barak, lead the 120-strong community company of actors, singers, musicians and backstage workers. Tickets update: sold out.

York artist Tom Wilson stands by his artworks in the City Screen Picturehouse cafe bar

Exhibition of the week: Tom Wilson, City Screen Picturehouse café bar, Coney Street, York, until July 29

YORK punk expressionist artist, designer, playwright, theatre director and tutor Tom Wilson is exhibiting his riots of colour at City Screen Picturehouse for the first time with sale proceeds going to MAP (Medical Aid for Palestinians). Thirty-five works are on display, priced at  £175 to £700.

“My art looks like an explosion,” says Wilson, whose dynamic abstract artwork is influenced by Kandinsky, Max Earnst, Otto Dix, Outsider art, German Expressionism and Rayonism (Russian Expressionism).

Industrial Revolution, one of Tom Wilson’s works on show at City Screen Picturehouse

Tribute show of the week: Steve Steinman’s Anything For Love, The Meat Loaf Story, York Barbican, tonight, 7.30pm

FOR more than 30 years, Nottingham’s Steve Steinman has toured the world with his tribute to the songs of Jim Steinman and Meat Loaf (real name Marvin Lee Aday). Now he presents his new production, showcasing 25 chunks of Meat Loaf and Steinman’s prime cuts.

Anything For Love combines Steve’s humour and a ten-piece band with such rock-operatic favourites as Bat Out Of Hell, Paradise By The Dashboard Light, Took The Words Right Out Of My Mouth, Dead Ringer For Love and Total Eclipse Of The Heart. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

The Sixteen: Marking 400th anniversary of the death of composer William Byrd in Sunday’s York Early Music Festival concert at York Minster

Don’t miss at York Early Music Festival: The Sixteen, York Minster, Sunday, 8pm

THE Sixteen’s 2023 Choral Pilgrimage is inspired by the influence of Renaissance composer William Byrd in an exploration of his life, works and pervading Roman Catholic faith. His legacy is marked by two new compositions by Dobrinka Tabakova, bringing his musical heritage into the modern day.

The premieres, Arise Lord Into Thy Rest and Turn Our Captivity, highlight Byrd’s influence of modern polyphony and showcase The Sixteen choir in a new light. Director Harry Christophers’ programme also features works by Van Wilder, de Monte, Clemens Non Papa and Byrd himself. Box office: 01904 658338 or tickets.ncem.co.uk.

Emily Belcher’s Emily Webb and Frankie Bounds’ George Gibbs in rehearsal for Amerrycan Theatre’s Our Town

American play of the week: Amerrycan Theatre in Our Town, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, Tuesday to Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee

FOUNDER Bryan Bounds directs Yorkshire’s American company, Amerrycan Theatre, in the York premiere of “America’s greatest play”, Thornton Wilder’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1938 study of mindfulness, mortality and brevity of life, Our Town.

“Wilder’s portrait of life, love and death set in Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire, a fictional New England town at the start of the 20th century, could happen just as easily in Pocklington,” says Bounds. Tracing the romance and marriage of Emily Webb (Emily Belcher) and George Gibbs (Frankie Bounds), Our Town reveals the hidden mysteries behind the smallest details of everyday life. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Amerrycan Theatre’s poster for the York premiere of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town

Outdoor film event of the week: City Screen Picturehouse presents Movies In The Moonlight, Museum Gardens, York, July 14 to 16, doors, 7.30pm; screenings at sundown, 9.15pm approx

CITY Screen Picturehouse heads outdoors for three films in three nights, kicking off on Friday with The Super Mario Bros Movie, wherein Brooklyn plumbers Mario (Chris Pratt) and brother Luigi (Charlie Day) are transported down a mysterious pipe and wander into a magical new world.

In Mamma Mia! The Movie, next Saturday, Greek island bride-to-be Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) is set on finding out who her father is. In next Sunday’s film, Jaws, Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw and Richard Dreyfuss star as a police chief, marine scientist and grizzled fisherman set out to stop a gigantic great shark that has been menacing the island community of Amity. Box office: picturehouses.com/outdoor-cinema.

The Counterfeit Seventies: Heading to Joseph Rowntree Theatre

Pop nostalgia of the week: The Counterfeit Seventies, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, July 16, 7.30pm

IN the wake of The Counterfeit Sixties, here comes, you guessed it, The Counterfeit Seventies, the decade of glam rock, punk, new wave and everything in between. Revisit Slade, Sweet, T Rex, the Bay City Rollers and plenty more, aided by a light show, costumes of the period and archival footage of bands and events from the era. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

Sarah-Louise Young in The Silent Treatment. Picture: Steve Ullathorne

Solo show of the week: Sarah-Louise Young in The Silent Treatment, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, July 16, 7pm

AFTER her celebrations of Kate Bush (An Evening Without…) and Julie Andrews (Julie Madly Deeply), writer-performer Sarah-Louise Young returns to Theatre@41 with the highly personal true story of a singer who loses her voice and embarks on an unexpected journey of self-revelation.

Warning: The show includes themes of trauma and sexual violence. As The Stage review put it, The Silent Treatment is a “a war cry and a message of resilience and hope to anyone who has faced abuse and been made to feel guilty about it”. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

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Navigators Art to participate in 2023 York Festival of Ideas with triple venture of art, music & words and film projects. UPDATED with Richard Kitchen interview 26/5/2023

Mapped Head 1, by Nick Walters, from Navigators Art’s Hidden Treasures exhibition for the 2023 York Festival of Ideas

YORK creative collective Navigators Art & Performance are contributing a three-part project to the 2023 York Festival of Ideas, inspired by the festival theme of Rediscover, Reimagine, Rebuild.

The trio of shows and events celebrates rarely seen works in York Art Gallery, books in the city library and intriguing aspects of York life and culture that people might not notice from day to day or even be aware of.

For Hidden Treasures, five artists have sought out unfamiliar but inspiring aspects of York, reinterpreting them in their own way for an exhibition to be hosted by York Explore Library and Archive, in Museum Street, from May 27 to July 6.

Katie Lewis uses textiles and other media to reflect the story behind Thomas Baker’s Crazy Kate in the Treasures from the Stores collection at York Art Gallery.

Nick Walters animates and illuminates on screen the textures of John Davies’s Mapped Head 1, as observed by fellow characters from other works in the collection.

Peter Roman explores the library’s treasures, using collage, paint and typography to delve into the world of books and finding lyrical inspiration from York wordsmiths along the way.

Richard Kitchen switches from his trademark collage format to the camera, pairing it with manual and digital tools to reveal jewel-like qualities in city streets, walls and other surfaces.

Timothy Morrison summons the spirits of Vladimir Tatlin and Greg Curnoe to reveal an artist’s perspective on everyday objects through a variety of materials.

Entry will be free during normal library opening hours. More information can be found at: https://yorkfestivalofideas.com/2023/throughout/hidden-treasures/

Navigators Art’s poster for the Living Treasures performance at The Basement, City Screen Picturehouse, York

On June 10, Navigators Art writers, musicians and performers present Living Treasures, an evening of original music and words at The Basement, City Screen Picturehouse, Coney Street.

For this 7.30pm celebration of secrets of York life and culture, from folk, punk and poetry to fine art via the city streets, they have sought out “hidden treasures” to reinterpret in song and spoken word.

Musical performers include members of the White Sail alt. folk band, Navigators’ composer Dylan Thompson, singer-songwriters Miri Green and Cai Moriarty and up-and-coming York band The Corsairs.

For more information and bookings, head to: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/living-treasures-tickets-621690722687

The poster for Navigators Art’s screening of Martin Nichols’ film There’s Another Country at City Screen Picturehouse, York

In Navigators Art’s third festival event, Brighton director Martin Nichols’ film There’s Another Country will be shown at City Screen Picturehouse on Sunday, June 11 at 11am.

Nichols’ kaleidoscope of post-Brexit Britain unearths parallel traumas in public and private lives while simultaneously anticipating a rediscovery of the radical transforming spirit of 1945 in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War.

For more information and bookings, visit: https://www.picturehouses.com/movie-details/018/HO00012927/there-s-another-country

Here CharlesHutchPress discusses all things Rediscover, Reimagine, Rebuild with Navigators Art co-founder and artist Richard Kitchen

How did you hit on the tripartite format for this event, Richard?

“Originally, we envisaged an exhibition based on York Art Gallery’s Treasures From The Store collection of rarely seen art works, hence our title Hidden Treasures. Our artists would reinterpret some of those works in their own way to suit the festival theme of Rediscover, Reimagine, Rebuild. We also planned a performance art, music and movement event to take place in the gallery itself.

“We were very pleased that York Explore offered to host the exhibition as we’d been wanting to show something there for some time. As it happened, the gallery said they’d be in mid-changeover so we had to change tack. We expanded the brief beyond York Art Gallery to include works of literature and physical aspects of York itself.

“This will also be the basis for the performance event, which will now be on stage in The Basement at City Screen. Again, the performers have created new work based on a rediscovery of something unfamiliar about York that inspired them.

“The film came along a little later and although it isn’t based on York it is very much about rediscovering aspects of the past and how they inform the present both personally and politically.”

How did the partnership with York Festival of Ideas come to fruition?

“I’ve always enjoyed the festival and its range of events. I wanted Navigators to be involved to round off our first 15 months of activity. This year’s theme appealed, so I drafted a proposal for our involvement, which they accepted. We’re very proud to be part of it and they’ve been very accommodating of changes we’ve had to make as our plans developed.”

How does the festival theme of Rediscover, Reimagine, Rebuild resonate with the aims of Navigators Art & Performance?

“In all sorts of ways! Variously, our artists have rebuilt careers, reinvented themselves and how they work, and pursued new directions in life as well as art.

“As a group we’ve achieved extraordinary things from very little. Having no physical studio to work in and no funding, we’ve had to seek out places in which to show our work.

“The StreetLife project, in Coney Street, was a milestone for us and helped put us in the centre of artistic activity in York. I think we’ve shown people how much can be done with imagination and enterprise.

“It’s been about giving ourselves permission to do something when no-one else will. I’d say that has positive implications for society and how it might change for the better.”

York band The Corsairs: Playing the Living Treasures bill at The Basement, City Screen Picturehouse on June 10

York is full of hidden treasures! Is that an inevitable problem for a city so rich in history or a joy when such a treasure is put on show and prompts an artistic response?

“Not a problem at all, unless the focus (and public funding) is always on the same high-profile things. Art and culture in this city are alive and well and there’s a lot going on, but it’s not all about tourist attractions and the well-heeled establishment.

“Anything that communicates beyond the heritage trail, makes an impact on the average resident and encourages all levels of society to engage with creative activity is a blessing. Our group seeks out and celebrates the less obvious and tries to make such things more accessible and better appreciated.”

Who put together the June 10 event. How were the Living Treasures acts chosen?

“Some of them appeared last November at our Coney St Live Jam event for StreetLife and impressed us enough to ask them back. We knew they’d be able to come up with new work based on the themes and we’ve given them more space this time to show what they can do.

“One of them actually chose themselves: The Corsairs cheekily advertised in our visitors’ book last December and I liked their attitude. They turned out to be a very exciting discovery. Then we reached out to a few writing and other creative groups to encourage under-represented performers to get involved.”

How did you discover the film There’s Another Country?

“It’s directed by one of my oldest friends, Martin Nichols. After many years exploring familial and social issues in writing and film, he’s found the perfect vehicle for his concerns. It’s highly original in style and while moving and beautiful, it’s also highly critical, irreverent and angry.”

What would a York version of that film look like?

“It’s not ‘about’ any particular place. Its range of reference encompasses a 1913 Welsh mining village, the Second World War, a suburban town in the 1970s and recent anti-government demonstrations in London. It’s pretty universal. A York version would just have the Minster in the background!”

What’s next for Navigators Art?

“We’ll be compiling our next collection of pictures and words for the York Zine Fest in July. We’ll have a spot at the York River Art Market in August and then a short and well-deserved rest before our next show at Micklegate and Fossgate Socials. Nothing concrete for next year as yet but we’re already getting involved in some major plans.”

Navigators Art & Performance: the back story

ESTABLISHED in 2019, this group of York creatives has expanded to a collective of 12 artists, writers, performers, musicians and a composer.

Their mission is to work with community groups and projects, to enhance and creatively interpret their activities for as wide an audience as possible.

In January 2023 they completed a three-month residency at the StreetLife hub in Coney Street, York, presenting a large-scale exhibition and a charity fundraising performance.

They encourage enquiries from potential collaborators, particularly those who are less established or underrepresented, via navigatorsart@gmail.com; likewise head that way for sales and commissions.

Keep an eye on Navigators Art on Instagram and Facebook at: @navigatorsart.

Detail of interior window, Huntington, by Richard Kitchen, from the Navigators Art exhibition at York Explore Library and Archive

UPDATE: 12/6/2023: What was the reaction to Living Treasures and There’s Another Country?

“WE have had the most extraordinary weekend,” says Navigators Art co-founder Richard Kitchen. “Mark Nichols’ film, a kaleidoscope of post-Brexit Britain, generated a passionate discussion with the audience at City Screen Picturehouse.

“Saturday’s Living Treasures in The Basement at City Screen sold out. The performers were tremendous and the more experimental improvised pieces involving musicians from very different backgrounds, ages and experiences worked superbly well.

“The audience loved it and we’ve been offered a regular spot at The Basement. We actually have plans for a fluid Navigators ‘big band’ to work up some pieces for performance, such as ambient pieces, songs, spoken-word interactions and experimental collaborations.

“It felt very special and inspiring and perhaps the beginning of a unique venture in York.”

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Laugh Out Loud Comedy Club relaunches monthly Saturday gigs at The Basement, City Screen with April 1 quadruple bill

Daliso Chaponda: Playing Laugh Out Comedy Club night at The Basement on Saturday

THE long wait is over. Damion Larkin’s Laugh Out Loud Comedy Club is making a post-lockdown return to The Basement at City Screen Picturehouse, York, on April Fool’s Day.

The sold-out line-up of Daliso Chaponda, Fran Garrity, Steve Harris and master of ceremonies Danny Deegan on April 1 leads off a series of 8pm gigs on the first Saturday of the month, with acts confirmed for May 6 and June 3. Doors open at 7.30pm for each show.

“The first three months of shows will feature TV comedians galore,” says Damion. “These include an international Britain’s Got Talent favourite, a BAFTA award-winning Hollywood superstar, still keeping it real with brilliant comedy sets for us, and a BBC3 sitcom star who’s a multi award-winning act and prolific writer for top names such as Steve Coogan, Johnny Vegas and John Bishop.  

“You can check out the line-ups at https://lolcomedyclubs.co.uk/ but as always we’ll be bringing you comedians off the telly from such shows as BBC2’S Mock The Week, Shooting Stars, Channel 4’S 8 Out Of 10 Cats, BBC1’S Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow, Have I Got News For You, QI and Paramount’s Live At The Comedy Store.”

Each show features three professional comics and a host. “Laugh Out Loud Comedy Clubs have a successful track record of bringing the very best comedy acts on the club scene and breaking new talent on the cusp of stardom,” says Damion, who runs nights at York Barbican’s Fishergate Bar too.

Dave Johns: On the May 6 bill at The Basement

“We’re the people who previously booked Chris Ramsey, Jason Manford, John Bishop, Sarah Millican and Russell Howard before they were household names. So come and see more brilliant comedians.”

Mike Newall, Karl Porter, I, Daniel Blake lead actor Dave Johns and Jed Salisbury are confirmed for The Basement on May 6, followed by Tony Burgess, Eddy Midgley, Russell Arathoon and Damion Larkin for June 3.

Meanwhile, Jonny Awsum, Russell Arathoon and Damion Larkin are booked in for York Barbican on April 15; Alan Hudson, Joshua Robertson, Eric Rushton and Damion Larkin for May 13; Raymond Mearns, Ben Silver, The Young’Uns David Eagle and Damion Larkin for June 10, then Daliso Chaponda, Mad Ron and Damion Larkin for July 8.

Laugh Out Loud Comedy nights are held at Hull City Hall, Bournemouth Pavilion, Stoke Regent Theatre, Portsmouth Guildhall and Hastings LOL Comedy Club too.

Tickets are on sale at https://lolcomedyclubs.co.uk  and on the door, subject to availability.

Damion Larkin: Laugh Out Comedy Club programmer and master of ceremonies
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Adele Karmazyn’s imaginarium of creatures, objects and other lives ventures into Hidden Spaces in City Screen café exhibition

Out Of Sight, digital photomontage, by Adele Karmazyn, from her City Screen Picturehouse exhibition in York

INSPIRED by October’s York Unlocked event, York Open Studios regular Adele Karmazyn is opening doors to Hidden Spaces in her new exhibition.

Embracing the opportunity to visit the city’s historic hidden places, she took photographs on the way, and now those photos form the backdrop for her new body of digital photomontages on show in the City Screen Picturehouse café, in Coney Street, York, until January 14 2023.

Each piece in Hidden Spaces evolves into an individual story when Adele brings in her 19th century characters, taken from old cabinet photographs, and combines these with other photographs of objects, landscapes and creatures.  

By merging multiple layers and concentrating on light and depth, she creates “realistic, believable scenarios, which at the same time could never possibly be”.

Adele Karmazyn at work in her Holgate garden studio

Here CharlesHutchPress asks questions to send Adele into her flights of fantasy…or maybe ghost stories of lives that could have been.

What drew you to the City Screen café as a location for an exhibition? Is this the first time that you have exhibited there?

“I love the City Screen building with the river backdrop. I’ve exhibited once before upstairs but never in the café.  It’s a wonderful spot for my work, being full of stories and imagination, just like the films on show there.”

Which hidden places in York did you visit during the York Unlocked weekend in October? 

“York Unlocked was a great opportunity for me to take lots of photographs to use in my work.  I ran around the city like a headless chicken! I was particularly impressed with the Masonic Hall and the York Guildhall, which I‘d never been to before. I’m sure these spaces will feature not only in this collection but again in future collections.”

Cat And Canaries, by Adele Karmazyn

How did the buildings spark your imagination for Hidden Spaces?

“I was already planning to create a collection centred around the old (Grays Court) and present Treasurer’s House, which I’d visited and photographed already. So when I heard about this event, I decided ‘Hidden Spaces’ could be any historic building in York.”

How did you settle on that title?

“Well, when I choose a title, I spend a moment looking at the images as they are ‘in progress’.  They all look like secretive places, hidden away from the crowds.  This is the feeling I got also when these doors opened, and I got to see behind these (often) closed doors.”

Why do creatures as well as humans feature so prominently in your work?

“I think there’s a creature of some sort in every image, be it a bird, a butterfly or a beetle. I feel it brings more life to the image and creates a connection between the character and nature.  I also love it when you don’t always see everything on first glance, and hiding some creature makes the images more interesting and surprising.”

The 19th century photograph of a father and daughter, adapted by Adele in Cat And Canaries

How long does it take to create each multi-layered work?

“Some pieces flow really nicely and I can complete it in a few weeks, but some can have a rough ride, where I get stuck and nothing makes sense or I don’t have the right character. 

“I may have ‘something’ but there’s a missing piece and these can sit in my folders for months. My images are a tornado of imagination and chance. It’s a really fun and also sometimes frustrating process, but when that magic happens and the ideas and images come together, it’s really exciting and why I love working this way.”

Further explore your assertion that each piece features a “realistic, believable scenario, which at the same time could never possibly be”…

“Digital collage artists can create so many scenarios, from totally surreal and roughly pieced-together images to the subtle changes of a realistic photograph.” 

All Of A Flutter, by Adele Karmazyn

“What I’m trying to achieve is an image that looks almost painted, as opposed to ‘photographic’, and by mixing water where there would never be, or a cloud in a room, or wild animals inside a Victorian skirt, so your eyes see this is actually happening in the image but the brain knows this could not actually happen.  I believe it’s called ‘Magic Realism’.”

Are they images of ghosts coming alive or of lives that could have been?

“I like to think of it as giving them another life, full of adventure and stories untold. Of course there is a ghost-like quality to the images but nothing too dark.”

Is it lazy to label them as “surrealist”?

“A couple of my pieces I would say are bordering on surreal, but mostly they are dreamlike images, theatrical, imaginative and curious.”

Two Girls, 19th century photograph, whose image re-emerges in Adele Karmazyn’s All Of A Flutter

Are there hidden meanings to these Hidden Spaces?

“If the viewer finds a meaning, then that is what it is. I like to leave the interpretation up to each individual. I do like to work with a theme, and some have meaning to me that may mean something entirely different to someone else.”

Who would be your influences? Magritte? Monty Python’s Terry Gilliam? Maybe even Glen Baxter?

“I do love the work of Magritte. I follow many modern-day artists who inspire me, such as Daria Pertilli, Maggie Taylor and Christian Schloe.”

“My images are a tornado of imagination and chance,” says Adele. Witness Into The Lights, above

There seems to be a balance between humour and something more troubling: the images are frozen in time past awaiting release in the viewer’s imagination that could take both the incumbents and the viewer anywhere. See above: Those Canada Geese in flight….how did they get in there? Where are they going? Why are they in there? Will they get out?  So many possibilities! Like in Tracy Chevalier’s novel, inspired by Johannes Vermeer’s Dutch Golden Age oil painting Girl With A Pearl Earring. Discuss…

“Wouldn’t it be amazing if a whole story was written from an image.  This is what I love about the process of image making.  I start with nothing, then I find a character, then a space, then things get thrown in and taken out and a story evolves and changes.

“My best-selling image is ‘Survival’, a picture of a young girl sailing in an upturned umbrella with a bird and a nest on her head.  Part of the success of this image I think is the girl herself. 

“She speaks volumes just to look at her. She is strong-willed and she will survive! This could easily be a still from a film and the rest of the story is up to the viewer to imagine.”

“The young girl is strong-willed and she will survive,” says Adele of Survival, the York digital photomontage artist’s best-selling work

What’s coming up for you in 2023? 

“Next year begins with York Open Studios [April 15, 16, 22 and 23],  hopefully followed by Saltaire Open Houses arts trail [May 27 to 29] (although this hasn’t been confirmed yet).

“I’m bringing in oil paintings and working on creating curiosity boxes too, as something new to accompany my digital images. 

“I’ve also written a children’s book, which I’m now illustrating, so it’s all go in my Holgate garden studio. The book is called ‘The Life Of A Bee, It’s Not For Me’ and it’s a rhyming story for ages three to five, I would say. It’s all about a bee called Clive, who saves the world with the help of the swallows…I don’t want to give any more away! 

“It’s very exciting as I may have a contract…once I send off the illustrations, which is my project for in between Christmas and New Year’s Eve.”

The exhibition poster for Adele Karmazyn’s Hidden Spaces in the City Screen café
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Stored away for 30 years, Alison O’Neill’s unseen 1980s’ rock concert photographs go on show for first time at City Screen

Robert Smith of The Cure at Edinburgh Playhouse in 1985. Copyright: Alison O’Neill

ALISON O’Neill has never exhibited her photographs of 1980s’ rock musicians until now.

What took her so long? “Shyness,” says the North Yorkshire photographer and language services translator, whose Trapped In The Light exhibition of Robert Smith, Ian McCulloch et al is running in the Sky Lounge – the upstairs corridor – at City Screen Picturehouse, York, until September 10.

“Being in the right place at the right time takes luck and a bit of determination, and in the ’80s I had both, when I got to know The Cure and Echo & The Bunnymen,” she says. “The opportunity this gave me yielded photos that show a fan’s eye view of bands both on and off stage.”

After studying Film & Literature at Warwick University, Alison moved to Berlin for a few years and then back to Yorkshire, where she became a freelance translator of German and Dutch into English.

Her black-and-white photographs remained filed away since those Eighties’ days, most seen only by Alison’s friends, until the drive to exhibit them was finally sparked by attending exhibitions by a friend in Berlin and rock photographer Richard Bellia in London.

On show at last – the exhibition was delayed by the pandemic – are photos taken between early 1982 and 1989 at locations from London to Edinburgh, featuring The Cure, Echo & The Bunnymen, The Jesus & Mary Chain, The Cramps, Wilko Johnson, Alan Vega and local bands.

“If you want a link between them, I think all the acts bar the Hastings band – seen on a weekend away – featured on John Peel’s Radio One show. But that’s as strong a link as it gets,” says Alison.

In the frame now: North Yorkshire photographer Alison O’Neill

Here CharlesHutchPress puts photographer Alison O’Neill in focus in a question-and-answer session about Trapped In The Light.

What is your connection with Yorkshire? Were you born here? 

“I can’t claim to be a Yorkshire native, because I was born down south (oh, the shame!).

 “But I was brought up in Yorkshire from an early age, Hull, then Pickering, so I have many friends here and my mother was still in the region, so I came back here after years away in the Midlands and Germany.”

How come the exhibition is at City Screen?

“When I asked around, City Screen were the first people to say yes to an exhibition – and it’s a brilliant space. Originally it was due to happen in May 2020 [before Covid intervened], and so the last two years’ wait has been worse than the 30-plus before.”

Alison O’Neill, pictured in 1984. “I was a Cure fan, not a Goth,” she says. Copyright: Alison O’Neill

When did you start taking photographs and what was your first camera?

“I got an Instamatic when I was eight. By the time I was 19, I seriously needed a better one, because the old camera wasn’t up to it.”

Why rock photography?

“I fell in love with music in my teens. And when I started photographing musicians, I realised that as they were engrossed in what they were doing, they aren’t (usually) self-conscious about photos being taken.”

Were you subjected to the long-standing “First three numbers and No flash” rule for concert photographers?

“Not in relation to the pictures in this exhibition. I was an amateur photographer, so often I couldn’t get my camera in at all, but in some cases the bands gave me passes, other times the venue wasn’t as strict. I didn’t use flash much anyway.”

Echo & The Bunnymen at Lancaster University in 1984. Copyright: Alison O’Neill

How did you get to know The Cure and Echo & The Bunnymen? 

“Long stories! But I will say it was a lot easier to meet bands in those days. And they were very friendly and open and generous with passes. The Cure, in particular, often hung around after the show to sign stuff for anyone who wanted, so you could get to talk to them then.”

What drew you to those bands: the hair, the coats, the lips, the lipstick, the darkness…the music?!

“The emotion. The passion.”

Were you ever a Goth?

“No, I was a Cure fan!  But there was a time when the way The Cure fans dressed was like a prototype for Goths.”

Audience at hardcore gig, 1986. Copyright: Alison O’Neill

Which is your favourite 1980s’ album by The Cure and why? Likewise, Echo & The Bunnymen?

“I can’t do these! Years ago, I decided that I’d have to have Desert Island Bands, because I can’t choose between their albums.”

How did you gain access to photograph bands, both on stage and particularly off-stage?

“I’d ask, if I caught them going in. And once they knew me – and presumably I didn’t upset anyone – they were willing to let me hang around.”

Was your rock photography a hobby or were your works printed at the time in publications/magazines/fanzines?

“It was a hobby, although I would have liked to have worked professionally, but I lacked the confidence to sell my work. A few of my pictures have been used in the local press (Leamington), fanzines and once in a CD booklet for Nikki Sudden’s Groove (not one that’s in this exhibition).”

Thee Wylde Things at Hastings, 1987. Copyright: Alison O’Neill

You say: “Being in the right place at the right time takes luck and a bit of determination”. Discuss…

“Well, I’ve sneaked in back doors at venues in my time, and bluffed security guards. At a venue in Prague where I expected to be on the guest list (but wasn’t, at least they didn’t find my name), I talked to a doorman in English – which he clearly didn’t understand – for so long that he just took my arm and pulled me inside.”

Was it more difficult, being a female photographer?

“It certainly was to be taken seriously. I imagine it still is. I could dine well on the number of people, including friends, who, learning about my music fandom go ‘oh, so you’re a groupie’. Cue Paddington death stare.”

Did you photograph any bands in York in the 1980s?  If so, who, where and when?

“I did get to see TX82 – the last embodiment of Teardrop Explodes – at York Uni, but it was seated and I was near the back so I didn’t get anything good.”

Echo & The Bunnymen guitarist Will Sergeant backstage. Copyright: Alison O’Neill

Do you have a favourite among your photos?

“It’s a close thing between Robert Smith in profile seated backstage and Will Sergeant having just drawn a cartoon on a blackboard backstage.”

Why focus on black-and-white photography in this exhibition?

“Simply to give coherence to the selection. Likewise keeping it to a set period.”

When you look back at your work from the 1980s with a 2020s’ eye, what strikes you about your work?

“How lucky I was with the timing. So many exciting artists working in wildly differing styles, and the openness to outsiders (such as me) coming along.”

Wilko Johnson at Warwick University Students’ Union, 1985. Copyright: Alison O’Neill

What makes a good rock photographer and who is your favourite?

“I think you need a lot of patience. Anton Corbijn is my absolute favourite, but I’m lucky to have a print by Richard Bellia. I was a real photographer nerd back in the glory days of the NME and Melody Make, so I could list several more…”

Might you look to produce an accompanying book?

“I have put together a small photo book as a memento under the same title, Trapped In The Light. It’s my first try, so I’ve been waiting with bated breath to see how it’s worked out.

“My copy has arrived in time for the exhibition opening, which is rather impressive, given I only ordered it last Sunday.

“I can see a few things that need tweaking if I were to offer it for sale. The printer has a sale on, so for orders placed by August 14,I’ll be asking £34.95 plus postage and packaging. After that, the price would depend on what offers are available.”

The Cramps at Warwick Arts Centre, 1986. Copyright: Alison O’Neill

Final question, Alison. Do you still take photographs? If so, what do you now photograph and with what camera?

“I still have a film camera, but I don’t take it out that often. I did photograph The Murder Capital when they played The Crescent, but that was in 2019. And like everyone I use my mobile for shots of varying quality.”

Trapped In The Light, 1980s Music Photos by Alison O’Neill, runs at Sky Lounge, City Screen Picturehouse, Coney Street, York, August 7 to September 10. Admission is free, open daily. Limited-edition framed prints can be ordered at £195 to £395, depending on size.

Check out Alison’s website at www.ahoneill.net

Did you know?

THE exhibition title Trapped In The Light – an apt description of the photographer’s art – is taken from the lyrics to The Cure’s song M.

The poster for Alison O’Neill’s exhibition at City Screen Picturehouse, Trapped In The Light