She’ still ‘got the music in me’ as Kiki Dee plays All Saints Church in Pocklington

Kiki Dee and Carmelo Ruggeri: More than 25 years of performing together

BRADFORD soul singer-songwriter Kiki Dee and guitarist Carmelo Luggeri bring their acoustic live show to All Saints Church, Pocklington, tomorrow night.

“I remember playing Pocklington Arts Centre with Carmelo years ago,” she says. “It’s lovely to be  back in Pocklington again.”

Kiki and Carmelo have performed together for more than 25 years, from front rooms to churches, and now on The Long Ride Home tour of stripped-back songs that will visit East Riding Theatre, Beverley, too on October 18, the tour taking its title from their 2022 album, the fourth they have made as a duo.

The “long road home”?  “I started trying to make it as a singer when I was 16 – I recorded On A Magic Carpet Ride for the Fontana label that year, which is worth a lot now – and now I’m coming to the end of my professional career and still enjoying it, which most of the time I have,” says Kiki, who was born Pauline Matthews in Little Horton, Bradford on March 6  1947.

Kiki has lived in Hertfordshire for 16 years, preceded by 24 in London, but Bradford will always have its place in her heart. “I grew up there and it formed me,” she says. Will she be returning “home” to perform in Bradford’s year as UK City of Culture 2025?

Kiki Dee and Carmelo Luggeri’s itinerary for The Long Road Home tour

“I haven’t got anything confirmed yet, though I did speak to them at the end of last year, when we played Silsden Town Hall [near Keighley] in November,  hoping if anything could be worked out, but I haven’t been asked to do anything yet,” she says. Event organisers, please take note.

Now 78, Kiki has her place in British pop history as the first female singer from British shores to sign with Motown’s Tamla Records label in 1970 “I went to Detroit for 12 weeks to record with Frankie Wilson, doing some recordings in what is now the museum, a little house in the suburbs.

“I was over there initially as a guest, but they did sign me. I only had four tracks written for me, so some of the others picked for me were in keys that I wouldn’t have chosen, but as I was so far away from home, I went with it. You always needed ‘the song’ with Motown because they didn’t become an albums label until the 1970s.”

The Motown association continues. “I’m doing four dates as the special guest on Smokey Robinson’s tour this year, at Glasgow, Birmingham Cardiff and London in July,” says Kiki. “Originally they were going for a young soul singer, but I believe Smokey said, ‘No, Kiki Dee would be a better  fit’.” Spot on, Smokey!

Tomorrow’s gig in Pocklington will combine Kiki and Carmelo’s stories with haunting songs from The Long Road Home, eclectic covers and Kiki’s treasured hits,  I Got The Music In Me, Loving & Free, Amoureuse, Star and the chart-topping Don’t Go Breaking My Heart.

Kiki Dee and Carmelo Ruggeri taking the long road home

Covers, Kiki? “We do Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill – our version is very different! – and Robert Palmer’s Every Kinda People, Frank Sinatra too, and we’re kicking around some new ideas at the moment,” says Kiki.

“With a semi-acoustic set, we have more flexibility to do what we want than you do in a full band line-up.”

Don’t Go Breaking My Heart will feature, of course: the one that brought Elton John his first UK number one in 1976 in a duet with Kiki. “I was on Elton’s Rocket Record label and Amoureuse had been a hit in the charts. Gus Dudgeon had produced I’ve Got The Music In Me for me, and it was Gus’s idea to try out Don’t Go Breaking My Heart as a duet after originally I was only going to do backing vocals,” she says.

“It came about in a very casual way, and it’s interesting how certain significant events in your life can come out of such relaxed circumstances. Like doing the video in only ten minutes! Who knew it would become so successful. Elton was quite impatient anyway! He was never going to do 16 takes.”

Kiki Dee and Carmelo Luggeri, All Saints Church, Pocklington, Saturday, March 29, 7.30pm. Box office: kikiandcarmelo.com

Showtime for Anton and Erin as Strictly duo celebrate Fred, Ginger, Chaplin and Elton

Terpsichorean twirlers Anton du Beke and Erin Boag toast their return to the dancefloor in their first tour since early 2020

LONGSTANDING, long-dancing ballroom couple Anton du Beke and Erin Boag are reunited in Showtime at York Barbican tomorrow night (18/2/2022).

After a fallow 2021, when the pandemic put paid to their tour plans, the Strictly Come Dancing alumni have been on the road since January 28 this winter, playing 30 dates that will take in further shows in Yorkshire at Hull New Theatre on February 22 and 23.

“Not only 2021 was lost,” says Strictly judge Anton. “We lost shows in 2020 as well; we were into the last week of our tour, when were going to play York and then go onto Scotland, so it’s been a while since we danced together.”

Sevenoaks-born Anton, 55, and New Zealander Erin, 46, are taking to the dance floor in Showtime, a “glittering tribute to some of the world’s greatest icons of entertainment”: Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Charlie Chaplin, Shirley Bassey, Tom Jones, Liza Minelli, Elton John and more besides.

Glittering tribute: Anton and Erin are ready to dazzle in Showtime

Returning to dancing after sitting down through the 2021 series of Strictly on the judging panel, Anton says: “To be honest with you. it’s been like ‘wow, I only feel like I’m 28’ because there’s a lot of experience to fall back on.

“We did a few special shows at the back end of last year, like one night in Leeds, where we were only there to do a couple of numbers, and my biggest concern was ‘would the suit still fit’. It did! Then Erin asked, ‘would you do up my zip’, and her dress fitted perfectly too.”

Erin says: “I’m fit! There aren’t many dancers at my age still going strong, but I am, though I’m not the same [dancer] as I was 20 years ago – or even two years ago. But keeping fit is the easiest part. The hardest part is the technical side, but I’ve been really looking forward to the tour as I don’t think anyone will notice that!

“Maybe adrenaline can get you through the first few shows and the presence of an audience can do that too, as well as working with people again, performing with a big orchestra. It’s all about the enjoyment of getting back to dancing again.”

“It’s all about the enjoyment of getting back to dancing again,” says Erin Boag

Six months of preparation have gone into Showtime, a show produced by Raymond Gubbay that combines the dazzle of ballroom couple Anton and Erin with “stunning costumes, fabulous live vocals, a high-energy dance ensemble and a sensational 23-piece orchestra”.

“We have a new sound company working with us, great lighting and costumes,” says Anton. “When there has been no shows, it’s been so much more than Erin and me not being able to put on a show. No shows means no frocks, no work for sound engineers. That’s why it’s important that now that shows are back, the message is clear that people can feel safe to come into a theatre.

“It’s also important that people work harder to make the experience enjoyable, with venues going the extra mile. We get that venues need to be safe, but their job is to make it enjoyable within the safety guidelines. Don’t be officious, be welcoming!”

Anton And Erin in Showtime, York Barbican, tomorrow (18/2/2022), 7.30pm; Hull New Theatre, February 22 and 23, 7.30pm. Box office: York, yorkbarbican.co.uk; Hull, hulltheatres.co.uk.

Copyright of The Press, York

What are the albums of the year? We decide…

Will The War On Drugs feature in Graham Chalmers or Charles Hutchinson’s list?

YORKSHIRE culture podcasters Chalmers & Hutch pick their Top Tens in Episode 68 of Two Big Egos In A Small Car.

Under discussion too are Damon Albarn’s bleakly beautiful concerts at York Minster; the tidal wave of streaming; and who will be number one at Christmas? Elton & Ed? Gary & Sheridan? Adele & yet more Adele? The sausage roll enthusiast?

To listen, head to: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1187561/9700461

‘Style is what comes from you,’ says artist Alex Utley as he runs Our Style project

York artist Alex Utley: Finding inspiration in Marvel

YORK artist Alex Utley reckons “fashion is about someone else deciding what looks good on you but style is what comes from you”.

His comment comes as New Visuality’s Our Style project is kickstarted in York after receiving a National Lottery award from the National Lottery Community Fund.

In the lead-up to Christmas, the project is working with 20 young people who have experienced learning difficulties or physical disabilities.

Sessions have been running in York city centre, led by Alex as chief curator. The Our Style At Christmas event at Guildhall’s ArtSpace saw more than 50 people drop in to buy jewellery, candles and T-shirts, and the project has had a presence at the Blueberry Christmas Fayre at York’s Melbourne Centre too. 

Charlie Pickering photographing models

When asked who he thought had blazed the trail to help to hammer home how style, not fashion, had provided lifelines to so many struggling people, Alex does not hesitate: “I like people who march to the beat of their own drum,” he says.

“You get Harry Styles and Yungblud from this generation, and from days gone by you had people like David Bowie or Elton John – he wore some right stuff!”

Alex is bringing his own energy inspired by these trailblazers to the project, although it is less their stylistic choices that have galvanised him, more that they have burst through closing doors.

“My stylistic choices are my choices,” he says. “I don’t look at Bowie and say, ‘That’s a good look, I’m going to wear that’. It’s more, ‘They did this at this moment in time to help people like me choose more freely’.

Lou Hicken and Lauren Farrow at the Blueberry Pop-Up

“So, someone who is comfortable enough in their own masculinity to wear a dress doesn’t change who I am. It helps strengthen my own outlook on life.”

Alex is speaking from his home in Acomb, but he is a regular learner at Blueberry Academy and has led on many previous New Visuality projects. He sees Our Style as a chance to “bring to the light many issues previously touched on”. 

“Clothes rightly or wrongly come accompanied with such powerful associations, but they should never be more powerful than the wearer,” he stresses. “My style doesn’t change who I am. My jumper or dress doesn’t have a gender; it is fabric.  I might like it, and if I like it, I’m going to wear it. My heroes have helped me to stop thinking about others’ opinions and to just do it.”

Over the years, Alex’s philosophy has consolidated. “I’ve hopefully made a small difference up to now. During certain youth groups and football sessions, I feel I may have changed people’s perceptions.

Lauren Farrow taking part New Visuality’s Our Style project

“A mate’s younger sister couldn’t wrap her head around seeing a different version of me. She had my old self stuck in their mind, and she used my dead name because she just couldn’t see that I was now Alex. 

“So I used an analogy: when Transformers change, they change because they weren’t happy as, say, a car; they couldn’t be themselves, they transformed into robots, more powerful. She seemed to get it! This project, Our Style, will hopefully build on that.”

Alex is not only relishing the opportunity to curate the participants’ artwork, he also sees the celebration of style as a chance to balance out past negative experiences.

“Everyone sees disability first,” he asserts. “There’s so much ableism, even in areas you wouldn’t expect. Disabled people could wear the same thing as able-bodied people and the mainstream media might refuse to publish or show it.

Jordan O’Brien in one of the T-shirts from New Visuality’s Our Style project

“It’s not just the mainstream media; it happens in areas where you would otherwise expect more acceptance. The main reason why I do my hair in different colours is because I want people to see me before the wheelchair, before the splints, before the tubes.

“Back in the day, the amount of people that would look at my legs, my arm, the tubes, before seeing me as even half a person, was depressing. The second I dye my hair, they see the colour and the person before they begin staring without shame at parts of my life I have to live with.”

This month’s continuing art sessions and next year’s events and happenings in locations around York will have Alex’s stamp all over them.  “It’s a great project. It’s an opportunity for young people to have fun in areas that have previously been marginalised and their ideas unexplored,” he says.

“We’re grateful to the National Lottery Community Fund and indeed everyone who continues to buy National Lottery tickets. It’s good to be able to show that all that money goes a long way in helping the most vulnerable people in our communities take their fair share of celebrating their communities.”

For art and items of clothing created in Our Style projects, check out According To McGee’s gallery, opposite Clifford’s Tower, and the Blueberry Pop-Up Shop in Micklegate, York.