Tag: Rachel Hill

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Festival of the week: Futuresound’s Live At York Museum Gardens, July 9 to 12

SATURDAY UPDATE: EARLIER START

SUPER Furry Animals may be Dai-hard Welshman, but in an act of supreme consideration to England versus Norway kicking off at 10pm in the World Cup quarter final, everything today at Live At York Museum Gardens will kick off earlier to boot. Gates open at 3.30pm; last entry is at 8pm.

Saturday’s bill: Pys Melyn (3.55pm to 4.25pm); Divorce (4.45pm to 5.25pm); Los Campesinos! (5.55pm to 6.40pm); Baxter Dury (7.10pm to 7.55pm); headliners Super Furry Animals (8.25pm to 9.55pm.

Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark’s Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys: Summer of Hits concert at Live At York Museum Gardens tonight

LIVE At York Museum Gardens returns for its third festival of outdoor concerts from today to Saturday and second York Comedy Festival on Sunday, organised by Leeds event promoters Futuresound Group.

 “We’re so proud of how Live at York Museum Gardens has grown, and we’re looking forward to seeing the changes we’ve made to the site this year, ensuring that everyone enjoys their time in such a beautiful space,” says Rachel Hill, Futuresound’s project manager, who lives in York, by the way.

The map of the Live At York Museum Gardens site for July 9 to 11

“None of this would have been possible without the continued collaboration, trust and support of the team at York Museums Trust; the opportunity to put together such an incredible bill for the summer makes us excited for the future of our partnership.”

Today’s bill: Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark’s Summer of Hits (9pm), with Heaven 17 (7.30pm), China Crisis (6.30pm) and Newcastle singer-songwriter Andrew Cushin (5.30pm) in support. Gates open at 5pm; last admission 8.30pm. SOLD OUT.

Friday’s bill: Self Esteem (Rotherham’s Rebecca Lucy Taylor), supported  by The Big Moon, Moonchild Sanelly and Joshua Idehen. Gates, 5pm; last entry, 8.30pm.

Super Furry Animals: Flower power in the botanical gardens at Live At York Museum Gardens on Saturday. Picture: Ryan Eddleston

Saturday’s bill: PLEASE NOTE: NOW STARTING and ENDING EARLIER. Super Furry Animals (8.25pm to 9.55pm), plus Baxter Dury (7.10pm to 7.55pm). Los Campesinos! (5.55pm to 6.40pm), Divorce (4.45pm to 5.25pm) and Pys Melyn (3.55pm to 4.25pm). Gates, 3.30pm; last entry, 8pm.

Event curfew for each concert: 10.30pm.

Check Live At York Museum Gardens social media channels on the day, where set times will be published ahead of time. NO  readmittance to Live At York Museum Gardens; once you leave the site, you will not be allowed to re-enter.

Sunday’s comedy bill: Nabil Abdulrashid, 4:20pm to 4:45pm; Jeff  Innocent, 4.50pm to 5.15pm; Barry from Watford, 5.45pm to 6.10pm; Suzi Ruffell, 6.15pm to 6.40pm; Russell Kane, 7.10pm to 7.35pm; Joanne McNally, 7.40pm to 8.05pm; Ross Noble, 8.35pm to 9.05pm and Russell Howard, 9.30pm to 10pm, hosted by Jarred Christmas. Gates, 3pm; last entry, 8.15pm. .   

The map for the Live At York Museum Gardens site for Sunday’s York Comedy Festival

Map: Futuresound, the team behind Live at York Museum Gardens, have come to know the site well and, in tandem with York Museums Trust, have “refined how the event fits and feels within the garden walls”. Downloadable site maps can be found at the Live at York Museum Gardens FAQ page with other relevant information.

Box office:  Located adjacent to General Admission entrance via Museum Street while the newly situated Premium Ticket entrance is via Exhibition Square.

New features: The Live at York Museum Gardens Premium Area has been moved to a new location closer to the action with a Hang Out Area featuring seating, premium facilities and exclusive food vendors, along with access to a new first-come, first-served, free-flowing Premium Standing Platform with an unparalleled view of the stage.

Significantly, this year’s event will feature large-format, high-definition screens either side of the main stage for the first time, “significantly improving audiences ability to see and appreciate the performances”.

Cutting a dash: Russell Kane will play a 25-minute set at Sunday’s York Comedy Festival at 7.10pm

Gardens facts: Founded in the 1830s, York Museum Gardens span more than ten acres of botanical gardens, set against the backdrop of the ruins of St Mary’s Abbey and also house the Yorkshire Museum and Hospitium. The gardens welcome 1.3 million visitors a year as a space to relax and enjoy.

Weather forecast: Phew, what a scorcher, all weekend.

Rachel Hill’s advice: Make sure to apply Factor 50 sun cream.  

For more information, visit: https://www.futuresoundgroup.com/york-museum-gardens-events

Interview with Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark’s Andy McCluskey:

Orchestral Manoeuvres look forward to playing not-so-dark in Museum Gardens

 Interview with Super Furry Animals’ Huw Bunford:

Super Furry Animals make York debut after 33 years at Museum Gardens on Saturday

Alas, Self Esteem’s Rebecca Lucy Taylor was not available for an interview.

Self Esteem’s Rebecca Lucy Taylor

Who is Self Esteem? Fact file

Born: Rotherham, South Yorkshire, October 15 1986.

Name: Rebecca Lucy Taylor.

Age: 39.

Parents’ occupations:  Father, health & safety advisor and amateur musician; mother, secretary.

Education: Wales High School in Rotherham, where she was a “choir nerd”.

Occupation: Singer, songwriter, musician and actress.

Style: Experimental pop, R&B and electronica, delivered with theatrical stage presence.

Content: Known for bold, emotionally honest, witty, genre-defying pop music with feminist themes, addressing gender politics, women’s rights, female autonomy, mental health, liberation, modern identity and self-empowerment, challenging societal norms.

First band: The Lonely Hearts, featuring Taylor on drums.

Second band: On vocals, drums, guitar and percussion, she was one half of folk-indie/country soul duo Slow Club, formed in Sheffield in 2006 with fellow former Lonely Heart Charles Watson (vocals, guitar, piano)

Albums: Yeah So, 2009; Paradise, 2011; Complete Surrender, 2014; All Of This Won’t Matter Anymore, 2016.

Played here:  The Basement (City Screen Picturehouse), The Duchess and The Crescent in York; Pocklington Arts Centre.

The first poster for Self Esteem at Live At York Museum Gardens

Documentary: Our Most Brilliant Friends, directed by Piers Dennis, released in 2018, charting Slow Club’s final tour in Winter 2016 and the “unfulfilled” Taylor’s rising dissatisfaction with the band.

Did you know? Guillemots’ Fyfe Dangerfield occasionally joined the duo on stage on tour.

Rebranded as Self Esteem: 2017, preceded by using that name for artistic projects such as a painting and print exhibition.

Albums: Compliments Please, 2019; Prioritise Pleasure, 2021; A Complicated Woman, April 25 2025.

Best-known song: Spoken-word anthem I Do This All the Time, 2021.

Acting roles: On TV, I Hate Suzie Too (Sky) and Smothered (Sky). Film: Layla, playing Emily in writer-director Amrou Al-Kadhi’s 2024 debut British romance.

Theatre: Sally Bowles in Cabaret, at Kit Kat Club, Playhouse Theatre, West End, London, September 2023 to March 2024; Maggie Frisby in 50th anniversary West End revival of David Hare’s Teeth’n’Smiles, Duke of York’s Theatre, March 13 to June 6 2026 (playing lead role originated by Helen Mirren)

On stage too: Created and starred in A Complicated Woman Live, a specially conceived theatrical live performance at Duke of York’s Theatre, London, in 2025.

Awards: Visionary Award at 2025 Ivor Novello Awards; Album of the Year for Proritise Pleasure in the Guardian and Sunday Times Culture; Attitude magazine’s Music Award, 2021; BBC Introducing Artist of the Year, 2022. Nominated for Mercury Prize, BRIT Awards, Sky Arts Awards and NME Awards.

Did you know too? Self Esteem composed the soundtrack for Suzie Miller’s one-woman play Prima Facie, starring Jodie Comer in the West End, on Broadway and on tour at Grand Opera House, York, in February 2026.

Debut book: A Complicated Woman, published on October 30 2025. Co-curated London Literature Festival at Southbank to mark its release.

When is Self Esteem playing York? Live At York Museum Gardens, July 10. Box office: https://www.futuresoundgroup.com/york-museum-gardens-events

The second poster for Self Esteem at Live At York Museum Gardens

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Nile Rodgers & CHIC confirmed as Live At York Museum Gardens headliners for July 4. When do tickets go on sale?

After playing Forest Live at Dalby Forest last June, Nile Rodgers will return to the great Yorkshire outdoors to headline Live At York Museum Gardens in July

NILE Rodgers & CHIC is the second headliner to be confirmed for Futuresound’s summer concert series Live At York Museum Gardens.

The trail-blazing New York-born disco musician, songwriter, guitarist and record producer, 72, will be joined on the July 4 bill by special guest Jalen Ngonda, the American soul, hip hop and jazz singer and songwriter who found his voice in Liverpool.

York exclusive postcode presale (for YO1 | YO10 | YO19 | YO23 | YO24 | YO26 | YO30 | YO31 | YO32) will go on sale at 9am on Thursday at https://futuresound.seetickets.com/event/nile-rodgers-chic/york-museum-gardens/3257099?pre=postcode.

General sales will open at 9am on Friday at https://futuresound.seetickets.com/event/nile-rodgers-chic/york-museum-gardens/3257099.

As a founding member of CHIC, Rodgers is responsible for such hits as Everybody Dance, I Want Your Love and Good Times and as a  producer he has collaborated with David Bowie, Madonna, Coldplay, Beyoncé and Daft Punk.

Elbow: Live At York Museum Gardens concert on July 3 has sold out

Futuresound Group’s first show confirmed for 2025, featuring Mercury Prize winners Elbow on July 3, has sold out already and further shows are set to be announced imminently for July 5 and 6.

Presented in tandem with York Museums Trust, the Leeds-based promoter’s inaugural July 2024 weekend drew 12,000 music fans to a brace of 30th anniversary home-city gigs by Shed Seven, with special guest Peter Doherty, preceded by Anglo-Italian singer-songwriter Jack Savoretti the previous night.

Rachel Hill, Futuresound Group’s project manager, says: “We’re incredibly excited to be working with York Museums Trust for our second year on Live at York Museums Gardens. Announcing the one and only Nile Rodgers and CHIC performing in the gardens is just surreal, especially off the back of Elbow selling out! 2025’s Live at York Museum Gardens series is shaping up to be an unmissable addition to the city’s summer calendar.”

Richard Saward, head of operations at York Museums Trust, says: “We are beyond delighted to welcome Nile Rogers and CHIC to York Museum Gardens this summer. With the band’s unbelievable repertoire and legendary live reputation, we’re already looking forward to a fantastic evening with everyone in full boogie mode.”

Founded in the 1830s, York Museum Gardens comprise ten acres of botanic gardens set against the backdrop of the ruins of St Mary’s Abbey and are the home to the Yorkshire Museum too. The gardens welcome around 1.3 million visitors a year.

Shed Seven’s Paul Banks, left, and Rick Witter performing at Live At York Museum Gardens last July. Picture: David Harrison
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How Rachel Hill brought her passion project to fruition with Futuresound’s York Museum Gardens concert series this summer

Rachel Hill: Project manager for Futuresound’s July concerts at York Museum Gardens

FUTURESOUND events promoter and project manager Rachel Hill has long had her eye on putting on concerts in the Museum Gardens in her home city of York.

This summer that aspiration becomes a reality when chart-topping local heroes Shed Seven play sold-out 30th anniversary shows on July 19 and 20, bookended by Anglo-Italian singer-songwriter Jack Savoretti on July 18 and Sugababes’ original girl group line-up of Mutya Buena, Keisha Buchanan and Siobhán Donaghy on July 21.

“I used to come to the Museum Gardens as a kid, to sit in the gardens and muck around,” recalls Rachel. “As I got older and Mr H [Tim Hornsby] took me under his wing at Fibbers, I realised I wanted a career in music in some capacity. I remember thinking, ‘the Museum Gardens would be the perfect place for gigs: the landscape, the history, the location. It’s just beautiful.”

Rock and pop concerts are not unprecedented in the Museum Gardens: Hawkwind in July 1971; Roxy Music in July 1973, when they parked their tour van in Marygate; Procol Harum in July 1976 and Wendy Wu’s New Wave band The Photos in June 1980.

Since then, the Gardens have played host to the York Mystery Plays (most recently in 2012), light installations, children’s storytelling days, birds of prey displays and operatic soprano Rebecca Fewtrell’s York Proms concerts since 2017.

Jack Savoretti: Topping the Futuresound bill at York Museum Gardens on July 18

“We’re going to follow the same template as the York Proms because York Museums Trust knows that template works well,” says Rachel. “That’s why the stage will be set up in front of the Yorkshire Museum, rather than by the St Mary’s Abbey ruins [where the York Mystery Plays were staged from their revival for the Festival of Britain in 1951 onwards].

“St Mary’s Abbey might happen in the future, but in order for us to make it work this summer, it was right to use the York Proms template.”

The Futuresound Group, a music management and promotion company based in Munro House, Duke Street, Leeds, already runs the two Live At Leeds festivals (In The Park and In The City) each year, along with the pop-punk, emo and metal Slam Dunk Festival at Temple Newsam, Leeds and Hatfield House, Hertfordshire (May 25 and 26 2024), as well as owning The Wardrobe venue in the thriving Quarry Hill arts, media and education quarter of Leeds.

The four-day York event is the latest addition to the portfolio, as Rachel’s passion project comes to fruition. “York Museum Gardens lend themselves to staging concerts. I’m really passionate about this, and I wanted them to be put on by a local person, a Yorkshire company, with a relationship with the local community,” she says.

“It’s been in the pipeline for a while as a venue for Futuresound. It was about finding the right format, the right dates, taking into consideration what goes on at the Hospitium in the gardens [such as wedding parties]. It came down to careful planning, and thankfully the stars aligned.”

Shed Seven’s Paul Banks, left, Tim Wills, Rick Witter, Tom Gladwin and Rob’Maxi’ Maxfield, in front of St Mary’s Abbey, York Museum Gardens. Two sold-out gigs await in July

Shed Seven’s 30th anniversary was the perfect opportunity. “I know them from when they first performed at Fibbers, when I started working there for Tim Hornsby, and I still see them around town, though we don’t see each other in pubs these days. It’s now in supermarkets – and not even in the booze aisle!” says Rachel.

The chart-topping success of the Sheds’ January album A Matter Of Time gave further impetus to their 4,000-capacity Museum Gardens gigs, both selling out rapidly. Rachel then added Jack Savoretti and 2024 MOBO Award-winning Sugababes too.

“It was really important to have contrasting concerts,” says Rachel. “I’m very aware that York is a really diverse city culturally, and I really wanted to expand the genres over the four days. That was important to Futuresound’s head promoter, Andy Smith, too, who’s followed my lead on it, and that’s why we’ll have local opening acts.

“York singer-songwriter Benjamin Francis Leftwich will be on the Jack Savoretti bill, along with Irish musician Foy Vance, and we’ll be announcing the Sugababes’ supports over the next few weeks.

“The Sheds curated their own bill, which was important for them, with Libertines’ co-frontman Peter Doherty on both nights; The Lottery Winners and Serotones [Rick Witter’s son Duke’s band] on July 19, and Brooke Combe and Apollo Junction on July 20.”

Sugababes: Playing York Museum Gardens on July 21

Rachel has past experience of working with Doherty, one of rock’s legendary wild men. “We assisted on Rock’n’Roll Circus with The Libertines a couple of years ago. You just have to mother him!” she says. “He’s got a great relationship with the Sheds, especially with Rick [duetting with him on A Matter Of Time’s closing track, Throwaways].”

Rumour has it that Doherty will not be the only contributor to A Matter Of Time likely to be making an appearance at the Sheds gigs. “I believe Rowetta will doing the shows too,” says Rachel, referring to the Happy Mondays’ singer, who plays the female foil to Witter on In Ecstasy.

Rachel believes in the importance of building relationships, especially with an eye to establishing Futuresound’s open-air shows as a regular component of the Museum Gardens summer. “York Museums Trust [which runs the Yorkshire Museum] have been very supportive of us running a four-day event, and we’ve been engaging with the local residents too with two community engagement evenings.

“The first one was at the Hospitium and the second one will be held in the Fairfax Room in the Yorkshire Museum, open to those who live in close proximity to the gardens. I’ve done all the letter drops myself. We would really like to keep doing these concerts; that’s something very close to my heart.”

The last word goes to Shed Seven’s Rick Witter in praise of Futuresound. “We’ve really enjoyed the experience of working with them as they’re really forward thinking,” he says. “They like to go down the unusual route, like having us play in the Museum Gardens. That’s something different from playing York Barbican or the new football stadium.

“They’re thinking outside the box by not putting on two more nights with more indie bands but appealing to people who like other types of music by having Jack Savoretti and Sugababes.”