Olly Murs: First signing for next summer’s concerts at York Racecourse
THE Music & Racing calendar for 2025 is under starter’s orders at York Racecourse with chart-topper Olly Murs confirmed for June 28, a new race day for next summer.
Tickets go on sale at 9am this morning with the promise of “some attractive deals” at yorkracecourse.co.uk.
Acts are yet to be confirmed for the Music Showcase Weekend on July 25 (evening meeting) and July 26 (afternoon meeting). Keep checking the course’s website for further announcements.
James Brennan, head of marketing and sponsorship, says: “It is great news that Olly Murs, a performer who wowed the crowds on his previous visits here, will be performing for us. It will herald a month for music and racing fans to remember.”
Murs, who will perform following the Saturday race card, will complete his hat-trick of appearances at the Knavesmire track, having played there in 2010 – the year after he finished runner-up in the sixth series of The X Factor – and 2017.
The 40-year-old Essex singer, songwriter, actor and television personality from Starstruck and The Voice UK has released seven albums and 25 singles, including the number ones Please Don’t Let Me Go, Heart Skips A Beat, Dance With Me Tonight and Troublemaker and Top Five hits Thinking Of Me, Dear Darlin, Wrapped Up and Up. He last breached the Top 40 in 2017 with Unpredictable, peaking at number 32 in a duet with Louisa Johnson.
On June 28, racing and music fans can take advantage of a price freeze on general admission. Entry to the main Grandstand and Paddock enclosure starts at £38 per person for a group of six, with no booking fees and free car parking.
On the track, the racing action will see seven thoroughbred contests with combined prize money of at least £275,000.
The 1975: Headlining the Sunday bill at Leeds Festival
THE summer season of festival delights is drawing to a close but the outdoors still beckons Charles Hutchinson, who also looks ahead to big names northwards bound.
Festival of the week: Leeds Festival, Bramham Park, August 25 to 27
THE last big outdoor festival of the Yorkshire summer season kicks off on Friday with headliners Billie Eilish (Main Stage East) and Imagine Dragons (Main Stage West). Look out that day too for Steve Lacy, Declan McKenna, Rina Sawayama, Becky Hill and Little Tjay.
The Saturday bill includes headliners Sam Fender and Foals, Loyle Carner, Wet Leg, Leeds band Yard Act, Bicep Llve and Frank Turner. Among the Sunday acts will be headliners The Killers and The 1975, Central Cee, Nothing But Thieves, Knucks, Case Atlantic and Arlo Parks. Comedy and dance stages are on the menu too. Box office: leedsfestival.com.
Supersonic Queen: Tribute to Freddie Mercury and co at the JoRo
Tribute show of the week: Supersonic Queen, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, Sunday, 7.30pm
SUPERSONIC Queen return to the JoRo with its “strongest, most talented line-up yet”, guaranteed to blow your mind. Ten years and counting on the tribute act circuit, these musicians “care deeply about delivering the most authentic and entertaining performance”, full of energy, enthusiasm and Queen hits by the dozen. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
Bruce Lee, by Sean Taylor, from his exhibition at City Screen Picturehouse
Exhibition of the week: Sean Taylor, Illustrations, City Screen Picturehouse café bar, Coney Street, York, until September 2
COINCIDING with City Screen Picturehouse’s latest Culture Shock season of Bruce Lee films, Sean Taylor is exhibiting paintings and pen and graphic drawing at City Screen Picturehouse. Icons aplenty feature, bold and striking.
Dora and Jane in Swings & Roundabouts: Full of aerial feats in the gardens of At The Mill, Stillington
Circus show of the week: All Ways Good Company in Swings & Roundabouts, At The Mill, Stillington, near York, Sunday, 11am to 1pm
JOIN Jane and Dora, a mum and daughter circus duo, on three trips to the park, where they will share their tales with you and hear yours too before hosting an interactive finale.
Commissioned by Hullabaloo Theatre, Swings & Roundabouts is a selection of short stories about everyday moments in the park, told in an extraordinary way as Jane and Dora flip and fly, turning the park into an aerial playground. Then have a go yourself on the aerial equipment, whatever your age. Wear long sleeves but no jewellery or clothes with zips. Box office: atthemill.org.
Olly Murs: Savouring the sea air at Scarborough on Wednesday
Last of the summer season: Olly Murs and Scouting For Girls, Scarborough Open Air Theatre, Wednesday, gates open at 6pm
OLLY Murs concludes Cuffe & Taylor’s season of outdoor gigs on the Scarborough coast with support from Scouting For Girl on Wednesday night. After four years off the music radar, focusing on The Voice and Starstruck, Murs released his seventh studio album, Marry Me, last December, the title being prompted by his now fiancée Emelia Tank.
Tonight, at Scarborough OAT, DJ Pete Tong is in action with his Ibiza Classics. The Essential Orchestra and Jules Buckley will be there too. Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.
Slapstick Picnic: Tucklng into Peter Pan in the At The Mill gardens
Outdoor theatre show of the week: Slapstick Picnic in Peter Pan, At The Mill, Stillington, near York, Wednesday, 6.30pm
SLAPSTICK Picnic whip up a three-hander version of Peter Pan, inviting imaginations to soar as they dish out J M Barrie’s timeless tale of hapless pirates, feral children and a particularly punctual reptile.
Look out for polished buffoonery and swift silliness as the cast members swap wigs, wings and waistcoats to play all the parts at Slapstick’s characteristic breakneck pace. A percentage of ticket sales will be donated to Great Ormond Street Hospital. Box office: atthemill.org.
Folk night of the week: Gary Stewart’s Folk Club, At The Mill, Stillington, near York, Friday, 7.30pm
EASINGWOLD musician Gary Stewart’s Folk Club, a regular feature in At The Mill’s summer seasons, runs in two halves: The first is a traditional folk club, where anyone can come and play and offer up a song, a tune, a poem or a story. “Just turn up and let us know!” says Gary.
The second half is a headline set by a guest artist, in this case budding York singer-songwriter and newly formed producer Kitty VR, who fashions and performs her songs on electric guitar alongside her delicate vocals, with a sense of vulnerability and relatability. Box office: atthemill.org.
Nina Nastasia: Promoting her Riderless Horse album at The Crescent
As recommended by the late John Peel: Nina Nastasia, The Crescent, York, August 29, 7.30pm
NINA Nastasia, an alt-folk artist of Calabrian-Italian and Irish descent, was born and raised in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. Despite studying piano and showing an early talent for writing short stories, she initially had no aspirations of pursuing a career in music. Nevertheless, seven albums have ensued, along with airplay on the late John Peel’s BBC Radio 1 show and album collaborations with Jim White.
After a period of relative obscurity, Nastasia returned in July 2022, signing a record deal with Temporary Residence to release Riderless Horse, recorded in upstate New York by Steve Albini and Greg Norman. Box office: thecrescentyork.com.
Damian Lewis, yes, that Damian Lewis, at Brudenell Social Club, Leeds, October 1, doors at 7.30pm
ACTOR and now singer and guitarist Damian Lewis will play Leeds as the only Yorkshire gig of his 11-date tour with his jazz and rock band in support of debut album Mission Creep, released on Decca Records in June.
Lewis wrote all the album’s original songs during the pandemic’s first lockdown, although the origin story began when, after leaving school, he took to the road with his guitar and went busking through continental Europe. This experience has stayed with him ever since and is reflected in the album, produced by his friend, jazz musician Giacomo Smith. Box office: brudenellsocialclub.co.uk or seetickets.com.
Edwina Hayes: Playing the Eight@Eighty bill in celebration of Joni Mitchell’s landmark birthday
Birthday celebration: Eight@Eighty, Joni Mitchell 80th Birthday Party charity concert, at The Basement, City Screen Picturehouse, York, November 2, 7.30pm
STAN Smith is organising a celebration of Canadian-American singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell’s 80th birthday this autumn. Taking part will be Edwina Hayes, Emily Lawler, Gracie Falls, Holly Taymar, Jeremy Bradford, Laura Ingram, Sarah Dean and Stan himself. Box office: stansmith.org.
Booking ahead: George Benson, supported by Melissa Errico, Leeds First Direct Arena, July 3 2024, 7.30pm
LEGENDARY American guitarist and singer George Benson, 80, will play Leeds on the closing night of next summer’s five-date British tour.
The ten-time Grammy Award winner will be performing such Gibson soul, jazz and blues favourites as Give Me The Night, Lady Love Me (One More Time), Turn Your Love Around, Inside Love, Never Give Up On A Good Thing and In Your Eyes. He is working on new music too. Box office: ticketline.co.uk.
In Focus: Director Zoe Waterman on reviving Alan Platers’s musical Blonde Bombshells Of 1943 at the SJT
Blonde Bombshells Of 1943: Staged by an actor-musician cast at the SJT. Picture: Pamela Raith
ALAN Plater’s 2004 musical Blonde Bombshells Of 1943 is being revived most warmly and wittily by Scarborough’s Stephen Joseph Theatre, Bolton’s Octagon Theatre and Keswick’s Theatre by the Lake.
This summer’s glorious co-production finds these northern powerhouse producing theatres collaborating for the third year in a row after Laura Wade’s Home, I’m Darling in 2021 and Emma Rice’s account of Noel Coward’s Brief Encounter in 2022.
Zoe Waterman, who directed Jane Eyre at the SJT last year, is at the helm for Hull playwright Plater’s fortifying wartime story of the North’s most glamorous all-girl Forties’ swing band, whose band leader, Betty, needs to find new musicians for an important BBC job after the latest exodus of members in the arms of American GIs.
“I am absolutely thrilled to be directing Blonde Bombshells Of 1943,” says Zoe. “We’ve got a glorious and terribly talented cast; it’s such a privilege to work with performers who are not only stunning actors but also phenomenal musicians.
“It’s always a joy to make work that celebrates women, and this isno exception: full of hilarious, practical, strong characters who make do and mend as the time dictates and manage to pull an all-singing, all-dancing performance out of the jaws of an air raid.”
Zoe also directed Jim Cartwright’s The Rise And Fall Of Little Voice at Theatre by the Lake in 2019, and when the three theatres discussed who should be the director this summer after settling on Blonde Bombshells for the 2023 co-production, Zoe was approached for the task.
“I’d been called by Paul [SJT artistic director Paul Robinson], who I knew from the SJT, and I’d worked a lot at Theatre by the Lake, where I’d really cut my theatre teeth, first doing a one-person show, then a three-hander in the studio and then graduating to a main theatre show,” she says. “I’d spoken with Lotte [artistic director Lotte Wakeham] at the Bolton Octagon too.”
Crucially too, Zoe had experience of mounting actor-musician productions: “I did The Borrowers that way at Theatre by the Lake and Jane Eyre was in that format at the SJT, and I’ve done actor-musician pantomimes at Theatr Clwyd,” she says.
“I absolutely love this way of working, though I wouldn’t want to do only this one form of theatre, but I love that thing of weaving the music into the story and really thinking of them as one in this piece, whereas in some actor-musician shows you think, ‘if they could have afforded a band and actors, that would have been better’.
“But to have actor-musicians front and centre in this show is fantastic and it works wonderfully.”
Step forward Verity Bajoria, Lauren Chinery, Georgina Field, Stacey Ghent, Rory Gradon, Alice McKenna, Gleanne Purcell-Brown and Sarah Groarke, who appeared in the 2004 premiere at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds.
Four weeks of rehearsals in Bolton – where Zoe was working for the first time – has led to a June run at the Octagon, followed by a July stretch in Keswick and now the August finale in Scarborough.
“So often in regional subsidised theatres, in-house productions run for only three weeks, so it’s gone in a blur and you’ve missed it, but co-productions give both audiences and actors a longer run at it,” she says.
“From starting in Bolton, it was wonderful to see how the show had developed by the show’s 50th performance, at Theatre by the Lake.”
Blonde Bombshells Of 1943 runs at Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, until August 26. Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com .
CANADIAN rocker Bryan Adams is moving his entire ten-date UK outdoor tour from 2021 to the Summer of ’22.
Next year, he will play Scarborough Open Air Theatre on July 1 and Harewood House, near Leeds, on July 10. Tickets remain valid for the new shows.
Adams, 61, will be making his second appearance at the Scarborough arena after his sold-out debut on August 8 2016. Once more, he will do Run To You, Cuts Like A Knife, Summer Of ’69, I Do It For You et al for you.
Prompted by Cuffe and Taylor, this summer’s Scarborough OAT programme bears a much-changed look, with some shows moving to later in the summer, others being put back to 2022, and late additions at the back end of the 2021 season too.
Boy George and Culture Club: Playing Scarborough Open Air Theatre on August 14
For this year’s diary, UB40 featuring Ali Campbell and Astro, have switched from June 19 to August 28; Snow Patrol, from July 3 to September 10; Duran Duran, from July 7 to September 17; Keane, from July 9 to August 21; Olly Murs, July 10 to August 27, and Kaiser Chiefs, July 11 to August 8.
Westlife’s sold-out show retains its August 17 date; likewise, Nile Rodgers & Chic stick with August 20.
Crowded House, the Australian band re-formed by New Zealander Neil Finn, move from June 8 2021 to June 11 2022; Lionel Richie, from June 12 2021 to July 2 next summer; Ru Paul’s Drag Race: Werq The World, from June 20 to May 29; Lewis Capaldi, from July 25 to July 7. The Beach Boys’ June 20 concert this summer is yet to be rearranged.
Additions to the 2021 calendar are: Stereophonics, July 28; Culture Club, August 14; Anne-Marie, August 2, and James, September 9.
Tickets are on sale at: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.
Olly Murs: Hits and new material at Scarborough Open Air Theatre
OLLY Murs will play Scarborough Open Air Theatre on July 10 2021, completing a hat-trick of appearances on the Yorkshire coast .
Venue programmer Peter Taylor, of promoters Cuffe and Taylor, says: “Olly played two brilliant sold-out shows here in 2013 and 2017 and fans are constantly requesting we bring him back, which we are delighted to be able to do.”
The Essex singer, show host and talent-show judge, 36, will perform his biggest hits at Britain’s biggest purpose-built outdoor concert arena on a 25-date tour from June 5 to August 29 that will take in a further Yorkshire show at Harewood House, near Leeds, on August 11.
“I’ve missed seeing my fans and having that connection with them when I’m on stage,” says Olly, who promises a fun, upbeat, cheeky live show on his return next summer. “There’s nothing better than being on the road and actually being able to see your fans singing and dancing to your music.
“I feed off people’s energy, so going back on the road all around the country, to places I don’t often get to go will be amazing. Also playing live with my band and having them all on stage with me bringing my music to life is the best feeling.”
Reflecting on the pandemic’s impact on the live music industry, Olly says: “It’s been a tough year for everyone, so it’s nice to have something to look forward to for next summer.
“I’m very aware that not only am I looking forward to it as playing live is the best part of my job, but also for all the people I employ to put on the shows – from my band, crew, sound, lighting, producers, riggers – so many people that rely on live music to make a living. To go around the UK playing at loads of amazing outdoor venues is going to be pretty special.”
In this year’s unwelcome hiatus from performing, Olly’s thoughts turn to choosing his favourite tour memory. “It’s so hard to pick as I’ve been lucky enough to have so many amazing memories on tour but playing at Wembley Stadium with Robbie Williams really stands out for me,” he says.
“I was supporting him on his European tour in 2013, and to have 60,000 people singing back to me and waving their hands in the air to my music was pretty special. I was overwhelmed with the reaction.”
This year, Olly will be looking to retain his crown as winning judge on his third series of The Voice, at present postponed at the semi-final stages.
This year too, Olly captained the England team for Soccer Aid. “It was an honour to do so as we raised a record amount of money – over £9m – in the midst of a global pandemic. I played shocking, to be fair, probably my worst personal performance, but it will still be one of my most memorable Soccer Aids because of the circumstances in which we still managed to put it on.”
During lockdown, Olly underwent a body transformation, working in tandem with personal trainer Rob Solly. “To see the results of your hard work is obviously the rewarding part, but for me it was more important in how it made me feel,” he says.
“At the start of lockdown, while still recovering from knee surgery, I was eating anything and everything out of boredom, but that made me feel less productive and more sluggish, so having Soccer Aid as a focus to get me fit again was a real drive.”
As for upcoming recordings, Olly is working on new material for 2021. “It’s been a while since I released my own music, so that’s the plan for next year,” he says. “I’m starting to work on writing now and figure out what the next sound is for me, so watch this space.”
Scarborough tickets for Olly Murs can be booked at scarboroughopenairtheatre.com; Harewood House tickets at AXS.com and ticketmaster.co.uk.
Forming, by Nick Loaring, on show at the Flourish exhibition at Woodend Gallery, Scarborough
CINEWORLD, York, and City Screen, York are both closed temporarily until further notice after the new James Bond film, No Time To Die, was put back in cold storage until next April, a full year after its original planned release date.
However, despite the rising second wave of the Coronavirus pandemic, Charles Hutchinson continues to track and trace signs of artistic life, drive-in events and home entertainment.
Exhibition of the week outside York: Flourish, Woodend Gallery, Scarborough, until January 31 2021
RUN by Huddersfield’s West Yorkshire Print Workshop, Flourish brings together prints made by 13 nationwide artists shortlisted for this year’s Flourish Award.
Those artists are: Paulette Bansal; Suzanne Bethell; Louisa Boyd; Tony Carlton; Louise Garman; Pam Grimmond, from Markington, near Harrogate; Ian Irvine; Nick Loaring; Lucie MacGregor; Flora McLachlan; Lucy May Schofield; Claire Willberg and Susan Wright.
Back in Black: Chris While and Julie Matthews are to play an exclusive online concert for York’s Black Swan Folk Club
Online folk concert of the week: Chris While and Julie Matthews, Black Swan Folk Club, York, October 15, 7.30pm
BLACK Swan favourites Chris While and Julie Matthews will be playing this online concert exclusively for the York folk club and will conclude the night with a live question-and-answer session.
Tickets are on sale at: whileandmatthews.com/virtual-tour. “Once you’ve purchased a ticket, you’ll be able to watch the streamed performance whenever you want,” says organiser Chris Euesden. “Chris and Julie have been guests at the club and played for us in concert at the NCEM many times over the years and it’s always been a great evening.”
Joshua Burnell: One-off online concert presented by East Riding Theatre, Beverley. Picture: Elly Lucas
Folk-fused baroque’n’roll virtual gig of the week ahead: Joshua Burnell & Frances Sladen, Live In Your Living Room, October 17, 7.30pm
THE future of folk, alias York multi-instrumentalist, singer and composer Joshua Burnell, will be joined by his partner, vocalist Frances Sladen, for a one-off online concert hosted by the East Riding Theatre, Beverley.
“We’ll be playing acoustic versions of songs old and new,” says Joshua, who released his futuristic new album, Flowers Where The Horses Sleep, last month.
What can viewers expect when they head to ERT’s Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/events/365072138001228/ for the free concert? “I’m still figuring out exactly how it’ll work!” says Joshua, winner of the Rising Star award in the 2020 Folking Awards. “But we’ll definitely be sharing tales that influenced the songs, as well as reflections on how the lockdown affected our musical process.”
One man on a downer: Simon Slater as Derek Eveleigh in Douglas Post’s thriller Headshot. Picture: Marc Brenner
In search of a thriller this autumn? Head to Bloodshot, in The Round, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, October 21 to 24, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
SIMON Slater, the Scarborough-born actor and composer with West End credits galore to his name, returns home to perform Bloodshot, Douglas Post’s one-man thriller.
In a story of vaudeville, murder, magic and jazz set in London in 1957, Derek Eveleigh is a skilled photographer but very down on his luck.
A mysterious envelope arrives from a stranger, asking him to take secret pictures of an elegant young woman as she walks in Holland Park. The reward is handsome, but the irresistible assignment takes a sudden, shocking turn. Entangled and compelled to understand, Derek is led into a seedy Soho nightlife populated by dubious characters.
Bang on! The poster for Autumn Lights’ drive-in spectacle of light on Guy Fawkes Night
Drive-in fireworks event on Guy Fawkes Night: Autumn Lights, Elvington Airfield, near York, November 5, 5pm to 8.30pm
ELVINGTON Airfield will be the setting for Autumn Lights’ spectacle of light on Guy Fawkes Night in a drive-in event billed as “York’s biggest fireworks extravaganza”.
Look out for a hot air balloon nightglow (albeit with the balloon inflation dependant on the weather), fire shows and street food at this Covid-secure evening with car parking and space to get out and enjoy the show. Find out more at Facebook.com/autmunlightsuk and Instagram @autumnlightsuk.
Arm in arm: Kathryn Roberts and Sean Lakeman reflect on 25 years of making music together
Rearranged concert of the month ahead: Kathryn Roberts and Sean Lakeman, National Centre for Early Music, York, November 17, 6pm and 8.30pm
KATHRYN Roberts and Sean Lakeman, partners in life and music, had to postpone their April 22 show at the NCEM. Now, instead, they will play not one, but two, hour-long shows, each featuring the same set list, as they mark 25 years of making folk music together.
To celebrate this milestone, the couple will revisit and reinterpret songs from the early days of folk supergroup Equation through to 2020’s album, On Reflection, with a nod or two along the way to their extracurricular musical adventures, in a whistle-stop tour through their artistic journey to date.
Limited seating will be available, each household/support bubble up to four people to be seated around small tables positioned at a two-metre social distance from others. Tickets go on sale tomorrow (October 9) at be on sale at blackswanfolkclub@yahoo.co.uk.
Visage voyage: Michelle Visage will be “spiralling through time with no way of returning home” from Scarborough Open Air Theatre next summer
Looking ahead to next summer: RuPaul’s Drag Race: Werq The World, Scarborough Open Air Theatre, June 20 2021
COMBINING music, comedy, sassiness and lavish set-pieces to “create the biggest, brashest, most utterly glorious party night of the year”, the fourth UK and European RuPaul Drag Race tour show will see “an experiment gone wrong that sends Drag Race judge and 2019 Strictly Come Dancing contestant Michelle Visage spiralling through time with no way of returning home”.
Newly crowned Season 12 Drag Race winner Jaida Essence Hall, Asia O’Hara, Kameron Michaels, Plastique Tiara, Vanessa Vanjie and Yvie Oddly will be joined by stars from the latest latest USA, UK and Canadian seasons to “journey through iconic periods of history in the hope they will find their way back to the present day”.
Tickets for the only RuPaul’s Drag Race British outdoor show next summer, plus Olly Murs on July 10 and Nile Rodgers & Chic on August 20, are on sale via scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.
Reflections on an autumn day at Holkham Beach in Norfolk. Picture: Celestine Dubruel
And what about?
Taking an autumn break in Norwich, Norfolk and on the Suffolk coast.
C’est Chic: Nile Rodgers and his band will play Scarborough Open Air Theatre next summer
NILE Rodgers & Chic are the third act to sign up for next summer’s season at Scarborough Open Air Theatre after Olly Murs and RuPaul’s Drag Race: Werq The World.
Disco luminaries Rodgers & Chic will play Britain’s largest purpose-built outdoor concert arena on Friday, August 20 2021 after the Covid-19 pandemic ruled out their Scarborough show this summer.
Chic co-founder Rodgers and his band previously performed at a sold-out Scarborough OAT in 2018 and once more will roll out such favourites as Le Freak, Good Times and Everybody Dance next summer.
When booked in for August 21 2020, Rodgers had said: “As most people know, the UK is my home from home. Myself and Chic had a brilliant time when we played Scarborough OAT in 2018 and we cannot wait to come back again this summer. It’s going to be another amazing night, so bring your dancing shoes!” Those same sentiments now will apply in 2021.
New Yorker Rodgers, 68, is a Grammy Award-winning composer, producer, arranger and guitarist with more than 200 production credits to his name, for David Bowie, Diana Ross and Madonna et al, as well as inductions into the American Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame, an organisation he now chairs. He has been appointed the first chief creative advisor for the Abbey Road Studios, in London, too.
His innovative, trend-setting collaborations with Daft Punk, Avicii, Sigala, Disclosure and Sam Smith reflect his continuing influence on the vanguard of contemporary music.
RuPaul’s Drag Race’s Michelle Visage: “Spiralling through time with no way of returning home”
Next August’s show will be presented by regular Scarborough OAT programmers Cuffe and Taylor. “We were absolutely devastated to cancel this year’s summer season, including Nile Rodgers & Chic’s eagerly awaited return here,” says promoter Peter Taylor.
“Their show in 2018 was just sensational – they never fail to get an entire arena on their feet dancing – and we’ve had so many fans asking us to bring them back. We are delighted to announce Nile and Chic will be returning in 2021. They are global superstars, Nile is behind some of the best known songs ever written and this is going to be a night not to be missed.”
RuPaul’s Drag Race: Werq The World, billed as the biggest drag show on the planet, will sashay into Scarborough OAT on Sunday, June 20 for its only outdoor British date in 2021.
Combining music, comedy, sassiness and lavish set-pieces to “create the biggest, brashest, most utterly glorious party night of the year”, the fourth UK and European RuPaul Drag Race tour show will see “an experiment gone wrong that sends Drag Race judge and 2019 Strictly Come Dancing contestant Michelle Visage spiralling through time with no way of returning home”.
Newly crowned Season 12 Drag Race winner Jaida Essence Hall, Asia O’Hara, Kameron Michaels, Plastique Tiara, Vanessa Vanjie and Yvie Oddly will be joined by stars from the latest latest USA, UK and Canadian seasons to “journey through iconic periods of history in the hope they will find their way back to the present day”.
RuPaul’s Drag Race drag queens: Ready to Werq The World
Along with Cardiff Motorpoint Arena on June 18 and Brighton Centre on June 19, Scarborough is one of three British shows being added to the European leg of the world tour, presented on the East Coast by Cuffe and Taylor and Voss Events.
Programmer Peter Taylor says: “We are delighted to be able to bring RuPaul’s Drag Race’s world tour to Scarborough. The demand for tickets across the UK and Europe has been phenomenal.
“The show is always a huge hit and we are really looking forward to be working with the Voss Events team to present what will be an outrageously entertaining evening on the beautiful Yorkshire coast.
“This is going to be an unmissable party night and arguably the most lavish production we have staged at Scarborough OAT since we welcomed Britney Spears and Kylie [Minogue] to the venue.”
Tickets for Nile Rodgers & Chic, RuPaul’s Drag Race and pop singer Olly Murs’ July 10 show will go on general sale at 9am on Friday, October 9, via www.scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.
Plenty more shows will be added to the Scarborough OAT 2021 season.
Olly Murs: Completing a hat-trick of shows at Scarborough Open Air Theatre next summer
OLLY Murs is the first booking for next summer’s Scarborough Open Air Theatre season after Covid-19 ruled out the entire 2020 programme.
Tickets go on sale at 9am on October 9 for Murs’ July 10 2021 concert, when he will complete a hat-trick of shows on the North Yorkshire coast after playing Scarborough OAT in 2013 and 2017.
The Essex singer, show host and talent-show judge, 36, will perform his biggest hits at Britain’s biggest outdoor concert arena.
Scarborough OAT venue programmer Peter Taylor says: “We are really excited to reveal Olly Murs as our first headline announcement for the 2021 season.
“Olly played two brilliant sold-out shows here in 2013 and 2017 and fans are constantly requesting we bring him back, which we are delighted to be able to do.
“It goes without saying we cannot wait for live music to return to Scarborough OAT in 2021, so it’s fantastic to be able to kick off the announcements for our new season by revealing Olly Murs is returning.
“We have a brilliant summer of live music to reveal, so watch this space for many more headliners being announced very soon!”
This year, Murs has captained England in this year’s Soccer Aid and he is looking to retain his crown as winning judge on his third series of The Voice, at present postponed at the semi-final stages.
In lockdown, Murs “managed an impressive body transformation” in tandem with personal trainer Rob Solly. As for music, he is working on new material for release in 2021.
Next summer, his 25-date tour from June 5 to August 29 will take in a further Yorkshire show at Harewood House, near Leeds, on August 11. Scarborough tickets can be booked at scarboroughopenairtheatre.com; Harewood House, AXS.com and ticketmaster.co.uk, again from 9am next Friday.
