Tag: Kate Rusby Christmas Is Merry

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REVIEW: Kate Rusby: Christmas Is Merry, York Barbican, December 11 *****

Kate Rusby singing in a winter winderland. Picture: David Angel

KATE Rusby, Barnsley nightingale, or the “first lady of folk” as her website now calls her, transforms into a Robin redbreast at this festive time of year.

No Yorkshire Christmas would be complete without her alternative carol services, where Kate in sparkly dress reunites her regular folk boys with her guest Brass Boys, glistening instruments standing out against black shirts, as they perform carols deemed too jolly by Victorian glums but resurrected by South Yorkshire pubs for “sings” with a pint in hand from late-November to the New Year.

Over 20 years now, these festive concerts have expanded to take in “Rusbyfied” takes on “Christmas shopping songs”, rediscovered quirky novelties (Hippo For Christmas, Sid Kipper’s Arrest These Merry Gentlemen) and Kate’s own winter songs.

Live recordings from the past five years have been assembled for Kate 20: Christmas Is Merry, a double album on sale only at katerusby.com, through Proper Records and on her tour merch table, or “Craft Shop”, as Kate is wont to call it.

Christmas is all the merrier for the inclusion of five new acoustic recordings [Kris Kringle, Little Jack Frost, Hippo For Christmas, Holly And The Ivy and The Wren) on Kate’s eighth Christmas record. Yes, a remarkable eighth. Sweet bells, what an achievement.

And everything is merrier still for her 20th anniversary being her best, boldest and brightest show yet by our leader of “Holly heads”. Everything has been not so much thrown at it as thoughtfully thought through. We are used to Ruby the nodding reindeer being to the side of the stage, but now her lights change, and on the opposite side sits a lit-up Father Christmas.

Kate’s microphone stand is bedecked as ever with festive foliage; lighting interweaves with winter greenery across the stage apron; a Christmas tree with a star atop and presents at its base, stands at the back. For the first time, Duncan Lyall has not only a Moog at hand but also the 1980s’ organ rescued from the skip grave by Kate after last year’s closure of The Royal Hotel, in Dungworth, brought an end to the pub ‘sings’ there (thankfully now revived in the village hall).

Kate Rusby: A festive fixture at York Barbican, already booked in for December 10 2026

Christmas Is Merry’s stage  has been fitted out as retro pub of the Seventies: red (hopefully not sticky) carpet; stools and tables teeming with glasses (“not cleared from the night before,” notes Kate), even a bar with pumps, steaming mulled wine and decorative foil garlands. The ghosts of Slade, Wizzard, Elton John , Gilbert O’Sullivan, John Lennon and Greg Lake hits, Eric & Ernie and Benny Hill’s Ernie  could all be popping in.

Over the years, Kate has decorated the back wall of her stage in myriad ways, most memorably with giant crocheted snowflakes. Now she has embraced new technology, as four picture frames light up projections, first with KATE spelled out in knitted white, then with Christmas wrapping paper designs, snowy landscapes, winter windows and, most impactful of all, an animated sequence for the chilling story of the Holly King, the climax to the first set.

Holly King is testament to how rounded, how complete, Kate’s festive musical landscape has become as accordion player Nick Cooke switches to doubling with Josh Clark on thunderous percussion, while Lyall’s Moog is eerier than ever.

Kate’s compositions are now cornerstones of her set, from the stillness of a Christmas Day’s walk in The Frost Is All Over, to the broken angel in the tree as morning awakes in Glorious, and best of all, the New Year’s dawn on a Cornish beach of Let The Bells Ring.

Kate’s Christmas concerts are nights of fresh joy, yet steeped in nostalgia of Christmases past, and so your reviewer is twice reduced to tears, first in Little Town Of Bethlehem, where the brass playing is so sublime atop Kate’s chorister purity.

Later, her proclamation of Let The Bells Ring, and with it Kate’s wish for love to prevail, has CharlesHutchPress transported to a better place, yet still close at hand in God’s Own Country against the grain of the relentless grind of warmongering politicos, such folly amid the holly, so at odds with Kate’s voice as pure as new-fallen snow.

The cover artwork for Kate Rusby’s eighth Christmas album: Kate Rusby 20 Christmas Is Merry, released on December 5

Kate is joker and jester, yet as wise as Shakespeare’s Fools in her trademark banter, her storytelling illuminating the path through each song, whether the reason behind so many versions of While Shepherds Watched, or the inspiration for her own winter songs, or the inclusion of a Cornish folk carol (Christmas Is Merry).

Kate trips the light fantastic through such festive chestnuts as The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year, Winter Wonderland and the encore-closing Yorkshire Merry Christmas, while the likes Of Hark Hark , Sweet Chiming Bells, Here We Come A Wassailing and encore staple Sweet Bells make you thankful the South Yorkshire carollers gave the cold shoulder to those Victorian killjoys.

These Christmas concerts have acquired their own traditions: Kate’s sales pitch for the merch table (new album; natty new blue, white and red Christmas jumpers, and accompanying scarf and bobble hat, given a Rusby catwalk twirl); audience participation in a recording of a kazoo rendition of Sweet Bells; and Kate vacating the stage for “girly songs” to be replaced by “manly” reels led by the impish Irishman Damien O’Kane on banjo.

Oh, and the fancy-dress finale, this year resplendent in the theme of Frozen, the brass boys attired as Trolls, Kate as Kristoff and O’Kane as Olaf, the snowman, an all-consuming costume that has fingers striving to poke their way through huge twig fingers to play guitar, all adding up to a sight as gloriously wild and freewheeling as a school Nativity play.

Let’s meet again this time next winter. Glory be, Kate has confirmed her return to York Barbican on December 10 2026; tickets are on sale already at yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Christmas Is Merry indeed. “Let the bells ring”, sings Kate, “There is nothing now I fear/Let the sun rise on a happy new year.” Let’s raise a glass to that.

Kate Rusby: Christmas Is Merry visits Sheffield City Hall Oval Hall on December 14, 6pm. Box office: https://www.sheffieldcityhall.co.uk/kate-rusby-christmas-is-merry-tour-2025/

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What’s On in Ryedale, York and beyond. Hutch’s List No. 52, from Gazette & Herald

Wanderful: Lisa George’s Fairy Godmother in Cinderella at the Grand Opera House, York

CHRISTMAS music and pantomimes aplenty dominate Charles Hutchinson’s recommendations for December fun-filled fulfilment. 

Having a ball: Cinderella, Grand Opera House, York, until January 4 2026

CORONATION Street star Lisa George’s Fairy Godmother leads the cast of Tobias Turley’s Prince Charming, Bradley Judge’s Dandini and West End actress Rachel Grundy’s Cinderella in UK Productions’ Cinderella, scripted by Jon Monie. 

Directed by Ellis Kerkhoven, West End drag stars Luke Attwood and Brandon Nicholson bring the mayhem in Ugly Sisters mode as Harmony and Melody Hard-Up, joined in the comedy corner by Jimmy Bryant’s Buttons. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Radiant: Jennie Dale’s Fairy Moonbeam in Sleeping Beauty at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Pamela Raith Photography

No sleep till January 4: Sleeping Beauty, York Theatre Royal

YORK Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster directs returnee dame Robin Simpson’s Nurse Nellie, Jocasta Almgill’s Carabosse, Tommy Carmichael’s Jangles, CBeebies star Jennie Dale’s Fairy Moonbeam, Aoife Kenny’s Aurora and Harrogate actor Christian Mortimer’s Prince Michael of Moravia in Sleeping Beauty.

Written once more by Paul Hendy, the Theatre Royal’s festive extravaganza is co-produced with award-winning Evolution Productions, the same team behind All New Adventures Of Peter Pan, Jack And The Beanstalk and last winter’s Aladdin. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk. 

Hooked: Jamie McKeller savours the role of Captain Hook in Rowntree Players’ The Pantomime Adventures Of Peter Pan at the JoRo. Picture: Matt Hillier

Putting ‘Pan’ into pantomime: Rowntree Players in The Pantomime Adventures Of Peter Pan, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, Wednesday to Friday; Saturday, 2pm and 7.30pm

HEAD to the fantastical world of Neverland in Howard Ella and Gemma McDonald’s pantomime for Rowntree Players. Cling on to your seats as Hannah King’s Peter Pan and the Lost Boys do battle with Jamie McKeller’s rather nasty Captain Hook and his even nastier bunch of pirates.

Fear not as Michael Cornell’s Nanny McFlea and McDonald’s ever-eager apprentice Barkly are on hand to assist in the most ridiculous of ways. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

Paul Toy: Directing York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust in A Nativity For York

Nativity play of the week: York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust in A Nativity For York, All Saints Church, North Street, York, tonight, 7.30pm

USING medieval scripts from the York Cycle of Mystery Plays and music both medieval and folk in style, Paul Toy’s community cast tells a familiar story of a marvellous birth, threaded with humour, reverence and, sadly, hatred, where candlelight emphasises the constant struggle of the light  against the darkness.

The performance lasts one hour with no interval. Refreshments will be available. Box office: 033 666 3366, ympst.co.uk/york-nativity or on the door.

Kate Rusby: Winter wonderland of South Yorkshire folk carols at York Barbican

Alternative carol concert of the week: Kate Rusby, Christmas Is Merry, York Barbican, tomorrow, 7pm

BARNSLEY folk nightingale Kate Rusby plays her regular festive fixture at York Barbican, returning with her folk band and the Brass Boys for two sets of jolly carols from South Yorkshire’s pubs, Christmas chart chestnuts and original winter songs.

Christmas Is Merry marks her 20th anniversary of these winter warmers, drawing on her six studio Christmas albums: 2008’s Sweet Bells, 2011’s While Mortals Sleep, 2015’s The Frost Is All Over, 2017’s Angels And Men, 2019’s Holly Head and 2023’s Light Years. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Musical director Dylan Allcock in rehearsal with cast members Emilio Encinoso-Gil and Hannah Christina for Elizabeth Godber’s Jingle All The Way at Pocklington Arts Centre

Deer duo of the week: Jingle All The Way, Pocklington Arts Centre, tomorrow to December 23; relaxed performance on December 14, 1.30pm

FROM the team behind The Elves And The Shoemaker Save Christmas and Jack Frost’s Christmas Wish comes Elizabeth Godber’s latest Christmas family adventure, co-directed by Jane Thornton with musical direction by Dylan Allcock.

Reindeer siblings Rex (Emilio Encinoso-Gil) and Rosie(Hannah Christina) are reluctant to start at a new school just before Christmas, especially when that school is the East Riding Reindeer Academy, home of supreme athletes. Although Rosie fits in quickly, Rex struggles to find where he belongs, but a school-wide competition might change all that. Santa has a position free on his sleigh squad; could this be Rex’s big chance? Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.

Setting sail in Pick Me Up Theatre’s Anything Goes: Reno Sweeney (Alexandra Mather, second from left) and her Angels, Sophie Curry, left, Chloe Branton and Sophie Kemp. Picture: Felix Wahlberg

Getting a kick out of you musical of the week: Pick Me Up Theatre in Anything Goes, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, Friday to December 30

DITCH York’s December chills and climb aboard the S.S. American as it sets sail in Andrew Isherwood’s all-singing, all-dancing staging of Anything Goes!, Cole Porter’s swish musical, charting the madcap antics of a motley crew leaving New York for London on a Christmas-themed steamer.

Meet nightclub singer/evangelist Reno Sweeney (Alexandra Mather) and lovelorn Wall Street broker Billy Crocker (Adam Price), who has stowed away on board in pursuit of his beloved Hope Harcourt (Claire Gordon-Brown). Alas, Hope is engaged to fellow passenger Sir Evelyn Oakleigh (Neil Foster). Enter second-rate conman Moonface Martin (Fergus Powell) to join Reno in trying to help Billy win the love of his life. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Swinton & District Excelsior Band: Festive cheer at Milton Rooms, Malton

Afternoon of festive music and joy: Swinton & District Excelsior Band’s Christmas Spectacular, Milton Rooms, Malton, December 14, 2pm

THIS musical matinee with the Swinton & District Excelsior Band features the senior band, training band and beginners’ group, who perform a joyful mix of carols and seasonal favourites with festive cheer for all the family. A raffle and retiring collection will boost band funds. Entry is free but donations are welcome at the close. To book, go to: ticketsource.co.uk/swinton-district-excelsior-band/t-nolgkxa.

Bill Scott & Friends: In concert at Kirk Theatre, Pickering

Yuletide Tales of the week: Bill Scott & Friends, Kirk Theatre, Pickering, December 17, 7.30pm

THIS Christmas celebration “in harmony with a difference” comes to Pickering for the first time as vocal quartet Bill Scott, Lesley Machen, Jan Burtenshaw & Tim Tubbs perform a seasonal programme of carols, songs, poems and readings in every mood, from sacred, secular and lyrical to comic, sad and joyous.

Whether moved by the solemn beauty of a traditional carol or lifted by a light-hearted poem, this Yuletide fusion of music and tales promises to be a magical gathering. Box office: 01751 474833 or kirktheatre.co.uk/events/yuletide-tales/.

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More Things To Do in York and beyond the panoply of pantomimes. Here’s Hutch’s festive List No. 52, from The York Press

Wanderful: Coronation Street star Lisa George’s Fairy Godmother in Cinderella at the Grand Opera House, York

CHRISTMAS music and pantomimes aplenty dominate Charles Hutchinson’s recommendations for December fun-filled fulfilment. 

Having a ball: Cinderella, Grand Opera House, York, today until January 4 2026

LEEDS lad Bradley Judge’s Dandini joins the star-studded cast of Lisa George (Coronation Street) as Fairy Godmother, Tobias Turley (ITV’s Mamma Mia I Have A Dream) as Prince Charming and West End star Rachel Grundy (Rocky Horror Picture Show, Legally Blonde) as Cinderella in UK Productions’ Cinderella, scripted by Jon Monie. 

Directed by Ellis Kerkhoven, West End drag stars Luke Attwood and Brandon Nicholson bring the mayhem in Ugly Sisters mode as Harmony and Melody Hard-Up, joined in the comedy corner by Jimmy Bryant’s Buttons. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

The Marian Consort: Performing with English Cornett & Sackbut Ensemble at York Early Music Christmas Festival on December 8

Festival of the week: York Early Music Christmas Festival, mainly at National Centre for Early Music, York, until December 14

HIGHLIGHTS at this Yuletide feast of music spanning the centuries, complemented by contemporary tunes, include Yorkshire Bach Choir & Yorkshire Baroque Soloists performing Hayden’s The Creation tonight and The Chiaroscuro Quartet and Consone String Quartet uniting tomorrow for Mendelssohn’s Octet in E flat major Op 20.

The Marian Consort teams up with the English Cornett & Sackbut Ensemble in Looking Bach To Palestrina on December 8 and Fieri Consort Singers and Camerata Øresund present Christmas Cantatas by Christopher Graupner and English Tavern Songs on December 12. Among further festival performers will be mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston, Dowland’s Foundry, Apollo5, Lowe Ensemble, Irish folk singer Cara Dillon and Joglaresa. For the full programme and tickets, go to: ncem.co.uk. Box office: 01904 658338.

York Theatre Royal’s pantomime cast in rehearsal for Sleeping Beauty. Picture: SR Taylor Photography

No sleep till January 4: Sleeping Beauty, York Theatre Royal

YORK Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster directs returnee dame Robin Simpson’s Nurse Nellie, Jocasta Almgill’s Carabosse, Tommy Carmichael’s Jangles, CBeebies star Jennie Dale’s Fairy Moonbeam, Aoife Kenny’s Aurora and Harrogate actor Christian Mortimer’s Prince Michael of Moravia in Sleeping Beauty.

Written once more by Paul Hendy, the Theatre Royal’s festive extravaganza is co-produced with award-winning Evolution Productions, the same team behind All New Adventures Of Peter Pan, Jack And The Beanstalk and last winter’s Aladdin. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk. 

Hannah King’s Peter Pan in The Pantomime Adventures Of Peter Pan, Rowntree Players’ festive visit to Neverland

Putting ‘Pan’ into pantomime: Rowntree Players in The Pantomime Adventures Of Peter Pan, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, today, 2pm and 7.30pm, Sunday, 2pm and 6pm; December 9 to 12, 7.30pm; December 13, 2pm and 7.30pm

JOIN Wendy, John and Michael as they fly with Peter Pan to the fantastical world of Neverland in Howard Ella and Gemma McDonald’s pantomime for Rowntree Players. Cling on to your seats as Peter and the Lost Boys do battle with Jamie McKeller’s rather nasty Captain Hook and his even nastier bunch of pirates. Fear not as Nanny McFlea and her ever eager apprentice Barkly are on hand to assist in the most ridiculous of ways. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

Bec Silk’s Robin Hood and writer Martin Vander Weyer’s Dame Daphne in 1812 Theatre Company’s pantomime Robin Hood’s Helmsley Adventure

Ryedale pantomime opening of the week: 1812 Theatre Company in Robin Hood’s Helmsley Adventure, Helmsley Arts Centre, today, 2.30pm and 7.30pm; Sunday, 2.30pm; December 9 to 12, 7.30pm; December 13, 2.30pm and 7.30pm; December 14, 2.30pm

HELMSLEY Arts Centre artistic director Natasha Jones directs company-in-residence 1812 Theatre Company in this traditional panto with a Knock Knock Joke Contest, scripted by dame Martin Vander Weyer.

Robin Hood will be rescuing the lovely Maid Marian from the wicked Sheriff of Pickering, while Black Swan landlady Dame Daphne will lead the merriment and mayhem. Knock Knock! Who’s there? Daphne! Daphne who? Daph-nitely book early to avoid disappointment on 01439 771700 or at helmsleyarts.co.uk. 

Singer Dene Michael, dressed as a pineapple, in the finale to Kim Hopkins’s documentary film Still Pushing Pineapples, showing at City Screen Picturehouse on Sunday

Documentary film screening of the week; Still Pushing Pineapples (12A), City Screen Picturehouse, York, Sunday, 5pm

BLACK Lace’s Agadoo has been  voted the most infuriating  song of all time. What happens when you are forever associated with such a Marmite hit;  what comes after fleeting fame, and what does it mean to grow old still chasing a dream?

Perennial pineapple pusher and former Yorkshire band member Dene Michael is still singing the derided party anthem across fading clubland UK: a story now told in Selby-raised  filmmaker Kim Hopkins’s  humorous, moving, warts’n’all documentary, a pineapple slice of working-class social realism wrapped inside a road movie and abiding love story. Dene Michael, Hopkins and producer Margareta Szabo will hold a post-show Q&A. Box office: picturehouses.com/cinema/city-screen-picturehouse.

 A Nativity For York director Paul Toy

Nativity play of the week: York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust in A Nativity For York, All Saints Church, North Street, York, December 10, 7.30pm

USING medieval scripts from the York Cycle of Mystery Plays and music both medieval and folk in style, Paul Toy’s community cast tells a familiar story of a marvellous birth, threaded with humour, reverence and, sadly, hatred, where candlelight emphasises the constant struggle of the light  against the darkness.

The performance lasts one hour with no interval. Refreshments will be available. Box office: 033 666 3366, ympst.co.uk/york-nativity or on the door.

Christmas will be merry for Kate Rusby at York Barbican on December 11

Carol concert of the week: Kate Rusby, Christmas Is Merry, York Barbican, December 11, 7pm

BARNSLEY folk nightingale Kate Rusby plays her regular festive fixture at York Barbican, returning with her folk band and the Brass Boys for two sets of jolly carols from South Yorkshire’s pubs, Christmas chart chestnuts and original winter songs.

Christmas Is Merry marks her 20th anniversary of these winter warmers, drawing on her six Christmas studio albums: 2008’s Sweet Bells, 2011’s While Mortals Sleep, 2015’s The Frost Is All Over, 2017’s Angels And Men, 2019’s Holly Head and 2023’s Light Years. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Hyde Family Jam’s poster for their brace of Christmas jamborees at The Crescent, York on December 11 and 12

Christmas knees-up of the week: Hyde Family Jam, The Crescent, York, December 11, 7.30pm

FRIENDS! Come celebrate another Christmas with a right thorough knees-up at The Crescent with York buskers supreme Hyde Family Jam, a traditional-looking folk band that couldn’t be less traditional. They perform  the songs they love from any decade, any genre, in any way they fancy, played as fast and loud as possible. “We call it ‘folk gone wrong’,” they say. “Expect a few special festive bonuses too!” Box office: thecrescentyork.com.

Recommended but sold out already: Hyde Family Jam’s December 12 gig and The Howl & The Hum’s traditional special Crescent Christmas gig, led as ever by Sam Griffiths after leaving York and Leeds for London.

Setting sail in Pick Me Up Theatre’s Anything Goes: Reno Sweeney (Alexandra Mather, front centre) and her Angels, Sophie Curry, left, Chloe Branton and Sophie Kemp. Picture: Felix Wahlberg

Getting a kick out of you musical of the week: Pick Me Up Theatre in Anything Goes, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, December 12 to 30

DITCH York’s December chills and climb aboard the S.S. American as it sets sail in Andrew Isherwood’s all-singing, all-dancing staging of Anything Goes!, Cole Porter’s swish musical, charting the madcap antics of a motley crew leaving New York for London on a Christmas-themed steamer.

Meet nightclub singer/evangelist Reno Sweeney (Alexandra Mather) and lovelorn Wall Street broker Billy Crocker (Adam Price), who has stowed away on board in pursuit of his beloved Hope Harcourt (Claire Gordon-Brown). Alas, Hope is engaged to fellow passenger Sir Evelyn Oakleigh  (Neil Foster). Enter second-rate conman Moonface Martin (Fergus Powell) to join Reno in trying to help Billy win the love of his life. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Michael Ball’s poster for his Glow UK Tour 2026, taking in Yorkshire gigs at Bradford Live (September 2), Sheffield City Hall (September 5) and Hull Connexin Live (September 6), as well as York Barbican (September 12)

Concert announcement of the week: Michael Ball, Glow UK Tour, York Barbican, September 12 2026

MUSICAL star and radio and TV presenter Michael Ball will promote his 23rd solo album, Glow, on next year’s 25-date tour. “There’s probably only one thing I enjoy more than being in the studio – writing, producing and singing songs with people I love – and that’s taking it all out on the road and performing those songs as well as all the old favourites to the audiences I love,” he says. “It’s going to be an exciting year, and I can’t wait to see you all.’’ Box office: https://www.yorkbarbican.co.uk/whats-on/michael-ball-2026/.

In Focus: The Christmas Collection at Pyramid Gallery, York, until January 12 2025

Bowl Of Apricots, acrylic painting, by Anita Klein

PYRAMID Gallery’s Christmas Collection, in Stonegate, York, features works by London artist and printmaker Anita Klein, York ceramicist Ben Arnup, Peak District sculptor Paul Smith, South Staffordshire mosaic artist Amanda Anderson and York floral artist Lesley Birch.

Exhibiting too will be Canadian-born painter, printmaker and cartographer Mychael Barratt, Oswestry ceramicist Jacqui Atkin and Perthshire oil painter artist and printmaker Ian MacIntyre, complemented by bird and fish blown glass by Bruce Parks, bronzes by David Meredith, Nerikromi vessels by York ceramist Patricia Qua and studio jewellery for the Christmas season by 50 British makers.

Curator Terry Brett, who has owned the gallery for 31 years, has invited Anita Klein to fill the walls with 15 linocut original prints, new aquatint etchings and two paintings.

Bee Eater, ceramic vase, by Jacqui Atkin

“The gallery has enjoyed a long, unbroken relationship with Anita as a supplier of her extensive catalogue of prints that form a diary of her family life,” he says.

“Over the 28 years in which she has shown more than 800 different pictures at Pyramid Gallery, we have watched her career progress to the point where Anita has become one of the most collectable printmakers in the UK. It seems very fitting that she is the main focus of the Christmas Collection.”

As well as showing new linocut prints, Anita is selling copies of her book Out Of The Ordinary – 40 Years Of Print Making, featuring illustrations of 550 of her best-loved prints, published by Eames Fine Art.

The Christmas Collection at Pyramid Gallery is open 10am to 5pm, Monday to Saturday, 11am to 4pm, Sundays, until January 12 2026. Closed on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day.

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Kate Rusby celebrates 20 years of festive folk Carol concerts with Christmas Is Merry return to York Barbican on December 11

Christmas Is Merry for Kate Rusby: “It just seemed the perfect title for the tour that celebrates 20 years of my Christmas gigs,” she says

BARNSLEY folk nightingale Kate Rusby returns as bright as a festive robin to York Barbican on December 11 on her 20th anniversary Christmas Is Merry tour.

Kate, who turned  52 today (4/12/2025), will cherry pick from her seven winter albums, 2008’s Sweet Bells, 2011’s While Mortals Sleep, 2015’s The Frost Is All Over, 2017’s Angels And Men, 2019’s Holly Head, 2020’s Happy Holly Day (Live) and 2023’s Light Years. 

In the company of her regular band, coupled with the added warmth of “the Brass Boys”, Kate combines carols still sung in South Yorkshire pubs with her winter songs and favourite Christmas chestnuts. As ever, look out for the festive fancy dress finale and maybe her new Christmas Chill version of The Wren@20.

Here Kate discusses the magic and joy of Christmas songs past and present with CharlesHutchPress.

The 2025 tour has a new title, Christmas Is Merry. Why did you choose that one, Kate?

“We recorded a gorgeous song called Christmas Is Merry a few years ago, and it’s a favourite of ours to play live now. It just seemed the perfect title for the tour that celebrates 20 years of my Christmas gigs. We all have such a great time on the tour, we just adore it and are very, very merry and giddy throughout, so the title just fitted.”  

What will be the new elements of the latest round of Kate Rusby Christmas concerts: New set design? New additions to the set list? 

“Ooooh, absolutely new set; it’s going to be so fab! I can’t give any spoilers, but when people walk into the auditorium hopefully they’ll love it. We’re going retro is the only clue I’ll give!

Kate Rusby’s cover artwork for her 2023 Christmas album, Light Years

“As for the set list, as it’s celebrating 20 years, we’ve tried to include audience faves and our faves from over the years, which actually match up!” 

What will be the band line-up for this winter’s tour?

“Same as last year, my band of six: myself, Damien O’Kane, acoustic guitars, electric guitars and banjo; Duncan Lyall, double bass and Moog; Sam Kelly, guitars, bouzouki and vocals; Nick Cook, accordions and electric guitar, and Josh Clarke, percussion.

“Plus my fabulous brass lads: Gary Wyatt, cornet; Lee Clayson, flugelhorn horn; Robin Taylor, euphonium; Chris Howlings, French horn, and Nick Etheridge, tuba. So that’s 11 on stage in total including lil’ old me.

“It’s our biggest tour of the year, so we have more of our incredible crew, lights, set etc, all travelling round in a big truck. Every single one of them is a true gem and talented beyond belief. I’m so lucky to work with them all.” 

What are the ingredients that go into making the perfect Christmas album? The familiar, the unfamiliar, the new and the old?

“Exactly that! I like to include something for everyone! On each Christmas album I’ve made, there are songs from the South Yorkshire pub-sings, to songs more recognisable, to classics we hear every year (but Rusby-fied, of course!)

“I like to search for more quirky, funny songs that appeal to the younger generation, (Hippo For Christmas or I’m Getting Nothing For Christmas, for instance) and then I also include songs I’ve written, about the New Year bells ringing in a new start [Let The Bells Ring] or about a lost angel I imagined sitting in a tree in our snowy garden [Glorious].”

Kate Rusby in wintertime. Picture: David Angel

How come you have made so many Christmas albums, whereas Michael Buble and Kylie Minogue both keep re-releasing the same one?! 

“Ha!!! Aw, I love Michael Buble and Kylie, they’re both very cool. I see Kylie has just released a new song called XMAS. I love it. I suppose I just have way too many songs I still want to record, from the pub-sings round here and beyond. I love researching and discovering new cool Christmas songs, and I love writing them too, so there’s no way I’m done yet!”

How come there are so many versions – and variations – of While Shepherds Watched? Where do you keep finding them?

“I know them from the ‘pub-sings’ around this area of South Yorkshire, where more than 30 different versions still exist! The South Yorkshire carols are something I am truly passionate about, and the very reason I started our Christmas tour in the first place.

“The carols were lost to the rest of the country, (apart from a little pocket of Cornwall, where they have similar carols and some totally different!), so I wanted to show them off and spread them around again, and here we are 20 years later! I just love it.” 

Will it be roast turkey or goose or neither for the Rusby-O’Kane household on Christmas Day?

“Ooh, we’re going turkey this year! We did have goose for a few years but we’ve gone back to turkey. With all the trimmings of course, even down to bread sauce. Whoop!”

Do you have a favourite Christmas album in the Rusby household?

“There tends to be a LOT of singing at a Rusby family Christmas, but I love listening to Louis Armstrong’s Christmas music. It feels me with warmth and always makes me smile.” 

Banjo players Damien O’Kane and Ron Block: Teaming up for third album together, Banjovial, Kate Rusby’s pick of 2025

Which album have you enjoyed discovering this year that you would recommend giving as a Christmas present?

“I have to say one of my faves from this year is hubby Damien O’Kane’s new album Banjovial. His third album he’s recorded with fellow banjo legend Ron Block. “Ron plays with Alison Krauss; in fact he’s been her right hand banjo man for more than 30 years.

“Dee and Ron became best banjo buddies a few years ago and he’s played on my last few albums. He’s so great, as is Damien, and together they make the best, happy, uplifting, sunshine-in-a-bottle music! Fully recommended!”

Do you have recording plans for 2026?

“Yes, I have a plan! An album I’ve been wanting to record for a wee while, so I’ll be getting stuck into that when my girls [Phoebe Summer and Daisy Delia] are back to school in January. It’ll probably be released around the middle of the year I think.” 

Kate Rusby: Christmas Is Merry, York Barbican, December 11, 7pm. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk. Her tour visits Bradford St George’s Hall (December 5, bradford-theatres.co.uk);  London (Dec 7); Manchester (Dec 9); Llandudno (Dec 10); York (Dec 11); Gateshead (Dec 13); Sheffield City Hall (Dec 14, sheffieldcityhall.co.uk); Brighton (Dec 16); Bristol (Dec 17); Nottingham (Dec 19) and Cambridge (Dec 20.)

On a separate matter

You played Ryedale Festival this summer at the Milton Rooms, Malton, with the Singy Songy Session Band, performing latest album When They All Looked Up. What do you recall of that experience?

“AW it was so gorgeous! What a beautiful little hall, we loved it. Our girls came along as did my parents, and other friends of the family so it was just fab. The audience were really great too, and probably the smartest dressed audience I have ever had!”

Here comes Kate Rusby’s Christmas album number EIGHT, 5/12/2025

The cover artwork for Kate Rusby’s eighth Christmas album, Christmas Is Merry

KATE Rusby is marking her 20th anniversary of Christmas shows with an exclusive and limited-run double CD of magical, joyful festive music.

Kate Rusby 20 Christmas Is Merry will be available only via Kate’s official website, at https://katerusby.com/album/20-christmas-is-merry/,  through Proper Music and on the Christmas merchandise table, with digital release across all major platforms. Look out too for new Christmas jumpers, scarves and bobble hats on the Christmas Is Merry tour table that visits Bradford St George’s Hall, December 5, York Barbican, December 11, and Sheffield City Hall, December 14.

Mirroring 2012’s 20 and 2022’s 30 albums that celebrated two and three decades of touring, Kate Rusby 20 Christmas Is Merry combines 17 live recordings from the past five years’ Christmas carol concerts with new acoustic re-workings of five “Rusbyfied” festive favourites, Kris Kringle, Little Jack Frost, Hippo For Christmas, Holly And The Ivy and The Wren, each warm and tender, intimate and timeless, comforting and transcendent.

The full track listing is: Disc 1, Hark Hark; Christmas Is Merry; Holly King; Sweet Chiming Bells; The Frost Is All Over; Arrest These Merry Gentlemen; Paradise; The Most Wonderful Time; Sunny Bank; Little Town Of Bethlehem and Sweet Bells.

Disc 2, Bradfield; Glorious; Winter Wonderland; The Moon Shines Bright; Here We Come A Wassailing; Let The Bells Ring and 2025 acoustic recordings of Kris Kringle; Little Jack Frost; Hippo For Christmas; Holly And The Ivy and The Wren.

Kate Rusby 20 Christmas Is Merry, Pure Records, released on December 5 2025

 

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When Irishman Damien O’Kane meets Californian Ron Block, banjo magic happens at National Centre for Early Music

Damien O’Kane, left, and Ron Block, with their contrasting banjos

THE humble banjo is often maligned…until placed in the whirling hands of Northern Irishman Damien O’Kane and Californian Ron Block, whose banjo bromance blooms anew on third album Banjovial and its accompanying tour.

The 14-date itinerary opened in Barnsley last Friday and arrives at the National Centre for Early Music, York, on Wednesday (15/10/2025).

Seven years on from their Banjophany debut album, followed by 2022’s Banjophonics,  Coleraine-born, Barnsley-based O’Kane picks up his Irish tenor banjo once more to recharge his telepathic transatlantic connectivity with Gardena-born Block’s five-string bluegrass banjo on Banjovial’s ten new tunes and two original songs, supplemented by guest contributions from Irish button accordionist Sharon Shannon and American bluegrass fiddlers Aubrey Haynie and Tim Crouch.

Percussive and punchy, ebullient and life-affirming, their banjo union revels in light and shade and tempo shifts from fast, cracking fireworks to more reflective flowing timbres and tunes.

“It would have been in 2012 when we first performed together,” says Damien, as he looks forward to returning to the NCEM – “a gorgeous little place”  – for the first time in more than a decade.

“I first met Ron in 2011 as he’s involved in a bluegrass summer school called Sore Fingers at Kingham High School [in the Cotswolds], where Kate’s brother Joe works every year on the sound for the concerts.” Kate being Barnsley folk singer Kate Rusby, Damien’s wife since 2010.

“Ron invited us to see him playing with Alison Krauss & Union Station [his regular beat] and invited us backstage, and that was our first meeting.”

Block duly played on two songs on Rusby’s album 20, joining Eddi Reader and Dick Gaughan on Wandering Soul and Reader, Jerry Douglas and Philip Selway on Sho Heen. “Kate then asked Ron to play on the 20 tour , so it all went uphill from there!” says Damien.

The cover artwork for Damien O’Kane and Ron Block’s third album, Banjovial, released on Cooking Vinyl on October 3

Their partnership brings out the best in each other’s banjos. “The most notable difference is that the five-string banjo is bigger with more frets and those five strings, and Ron plays with two picks on his fingers and one on his thumb, so his style is very much fingerstyle, very ‘arpeggioed’, whereas the Irish tenor banjo is plectrum style,” says Damien.

“Over the years we’ve both tried in our playing to give a nod to the other style, so I’ll do a lot of cross-picking on the Irish tenor banjo.

“It makes for really interesting tunes with two completely different banjo sounds. The five-string strings are lighter, so there’s a brighter sound, whereas I like the mellow sound of the Irish tenor banjo that doesn’t ‘punch you in the face’!”

Damien has always been a fan of duel banjo playing. “I grew up listening to and playing Irish traditional music, watching music sessions from The Corner House on Irish TV [on Geantrai on TG4], when Cathal Hayden and Brian McGrath would play tunes together, just two banjos,” he says.

“I was about nine years old, and I remember it being one of the most amazing things I’d ever heard. It was like a banjo epiphany.”

O’Kane and Block first toured together on their own, but now perform with a band featuring Steven Byrnes on guitar and Duncan Lyall on double bass and Moog, both from Rusby’s band.

“It’s fascinating to do because I don’t really get to play much banjo on Kate’s tours, which is my main focus through the year, primarily playing guitar, and yet the banjo was my main instrument long before guitar, so to be able to record and play tunes with Ron is a real chance to push each other’s musicianship,” says Damien.

The Damien O’Kane and Ron Black Band, featuring Steven Byrnes and Duncan Lyall

“I remember thinking with the first album, ‘oh my god, I’m playing with Ron Block, I have to bring my A-game’.”

 He still does, this time in tandem with Block on tunes “triggered by comedic events, family and friends, CS Lewis’s The Chronicles Of Narnia’, heart-stopping moments, beloved animals, the craziness of Covid and even cartoon themes,  swinging from the humorous to the heartfelt”.

“We record everything live for the albums, as playing live give it an extra spark,” says Damien. “I think the new album is definitely our best, probably in a few senses, one of them being that we really learned how to lock on to each other’s playing.

“There’s a running joke we have that I’m always ahead and Ron is always behind, which adds to the excitement, as we’re not about making perfect music.

“This album is more mature. I’m not taking anything away from the other two but we’ve learned so much from each other and from the band. We’re tight-knit now, knowing each other’s strengths – and weaknesses too!”

It was Ron Block, by the way, who came up with the Banjovial album title. “We wanted to keep that title theme going, and I thought, ‘that’s the one’, as it sums up what we do, when people tend to be scared of one banjo, let alone two, but not us!”

Damien and Kate had first met Banjovial guest contributor Sharon Shannon when they were gigging at Monroe’s Live in Galway, where Sharon lives. “We were playing upstairs and she was playing a session downstairs; she came up to listen to the last half of Kate’s set and we went out for a couple of drinks afterwards,” he recalls.

Galway button accordionist Sharon Shannon: Played on Damien’s tune St Patrick’s Day on Banjovial

“That’s when I asked if she’d like to play on the album, and she said, ‘oh, absolutely’, which was a pinch-me moment, as I’d listened to her albums since childhood. She’s a sweetheart too.

“We sent her the track [Damien’s St Patrick’s Day], she recorded it in Galway, and that was that!”

Likewise, Damien and Ron sent the track Mario Kart Rides Again to bluegrass fiddler and mandolin player Aubrey Haynie. “I’d never come across him before but Ron said, ‘we’ve got to get him on an album some time because he’s amazing’,” says Damien.

“All the car sound effects on there, the car screeching, the police car, Aubrey did them all on his fiddle. He’s incredible.”

On the road from October 10 to 26, Damien will be on driving duty. “Ron stays in the passenger seat. He did drive us once over here, and I told him he’d never do that again!” he says.

Damien O’Kane and Ron Block Band’s Banjovial Tour plays National Centre for Early Music, York, tomorrow (15/10/2025), 7.30pm, and Otley Courthouse, October 24, 8pm. Box office: York, 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk; Otley, 01943 467466 or otleycourthouse.org.uk.

Damien O’Kane’s guitars and banjo will be in the band for Kate Rusby’s Christmas Is Merry concert at York Barbican on December 11, 7pm. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.