Lead singer Rick Witter in Shed 7 York City home shirt on the halfway line at York LNER Community Stadium
SHED Seven’s biggest-ever headline show at the York LNER Community Stadium on May 29 2027 has sold out.
The news of the 14,000 full house at the home of York City and York Knights breaks on the day York’s premier band share new single Let The Good Times Roll, the third to be lifted from their self-titled seventh studio album, set to arrive on January 8 2027 through Cooking Vinyl.
Released amid a sold-out run of UK tour dates in celebration of the 30th anniversary of their definitive Britpop album, 1996’s A Maximum High, the latest single shows yet another side to what the new album, Shed Seven, has to offer.
Where lead single Stand Together heralded a muscular and sky-scraping sound and its follow-up, The Centre Of My Everything, paraded sweeping strings and a rousing chorus, Let The Good Times Roll is “as epic as the band come”.
Shed Seven’s Rob ‘Maxi’ Maxfield, left, Paul Banks, Tom Gladwin, Rick Witter and Tim Wills in the seating at York LNER Community Stadium. Picture: Tom Oxley
Lead singer Rick Witter says of the new single: “Eyes on the prize, watch silver turn to gold. Winning in life, a time to be positive and enjoy the things happening around you. Forget the negativity and Let The Good Times Roll.”
It will feature unique artwork and three bonus tracks – Let’s Go Dancing, Talk Of The Town and Chasing Rainbows, all live recordings from the Sheds’ concert at The Piece Hall, Halifax, on June 6 2026 – and £1 from every York Edition sale will go to the York City Foundation to support the charity’s work with communities across York.
Keen to use the stadium occasion to support York’s next generation of musicians, Shed Seven will provide a fan zone stage ahead of the main stadium show to showcase up-and-coming artists from the city.
The cover artwork for Shed Seven’s seventh studio album, next January’s Shed Seven
Rick comments on the sold-out stadium show: “Our ambition, even as school kids, was to one day play our own stadium show. What kid who dreams of being in a rock’n’roll band doesn’t want to do that? Now, almost 40 years later, we’ve reached the point where we thought… it’s now or never. And if we were going to do it, it had to be York.
“What will make it even more special is that the stadium is a stone’s throw from where we met, went to school and where we first formed a band. We’re coming back to pretty much where it all began to play the biggest show of our career and that is a proper full-circle moment.”
The Sheds will conclude their Shedcember X tour with two nights at Leeds O2 Academy. December 12 has sold out but tickets are still available for December 13 at https://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/shed-seven-leeds-13-12-2026/event/.
New album Shed Seven can be pre-ordered/pre-saved at https://s7.lnk.to/shedseven. The track listing will be: Stand Together; The Fifth Amendment; The Centre Of My Everything; Lost In Space (featuring Lotte Witter); Winter; We Got The Love (featuring Elles Bailey); What Becomes Of The Ones Left Behind; Can’t Help It; Let The Good Times Roll and Drifting.
Shed Seven’s Rob ‘Maxi’ Maxfield, left, Paul Banks, Tom Gladwin, Rick Witter and Tim Wills at LNER Community Stadium, York, where they will play to 14,000-capacity crowd on May 29 2027. Picture: Tom Oxley
SHED Seven are to headline a stadium show for the first time at York’s LNER Community Stadium on May 29 2027, a stone’s throw from where a teenage Rick Witter and Paul Banks first composed songs at Huntington School.
Joining the Sheds for this hometown gig – at the football ground where Chasing Rainbows rings out before every York City home match and has become a “Chasing City” terrace anthem too – will be special guests The K’s, Reverend And The Makers and The Mersey Beatles.
“Our ambition, even as school kids, was to one day play our own stadium show,” says lead singer Witter, now 53. “What kid who dreams of being in a rock’n’roll band doesn’t want to do that? Now, almost 40 years later, we’ve reached the point where we thought… it’s now or never. And if we were going to do it, it had to be York.
“What will make it even more special is that the stadium is a stone’s throw from where me, Paul and Tom [bassist Tom Gladwin] met, went to school and where we first formed a band. We’re coming back to pretty much where it all began – I remember when it was just fields – to play the biggest show of our career and that is a proper full-circle moment.”
Speaking in York City’s dressing room at Wednesday morning’s press launch, Rick adds: “This gig has been mooted for about a year. We were approached by Cuffe & Taylor, who we’ve done shows for at Scarborough Open Air Theatre last summer and Halifax Piece Hall this summer, so we have history and a good working relationship with them already, and why would we not want to do a concert like this in our home city?
The poster for hometown heroes Shed Seven’s May 29 2027 gig at LNER Community Stadium featuring lead singer Rick Witter in SHED 7 York City shirt
“It’s always been a thing, growing up here, to play at York City’s ground, because it’s so connected with us. We always talked about playing Bootham Crescent, but that ground went, and there was even talk of us doing a last hurrah there [before its conversion into housing], but this show makes more sense.
“It’s a new ground; we’ll be the first band to play there, just like we were the first rock band to play at York Museum Gardens in many years [since Roxy Music in 1973], and fingers crossed it will set up the stadium for more gigs.”
To promote the gig with a 14,000 capacity, look out for a special pre-sale for people in York that will see the city being flooded with Shed Seven posters and beer mats carrying QR codes to give local fans access to tickets before they go on general sale at 10am on Friday, October 23 via ticketmaster.co.uk.
In addition, an exclusive Shed Seven artist pre-sale will open at 10am on Tuesday, October 20 for anyone signed up to the Shed Seven mailing list at https://shedseven.os.fan/sign-up?utm_source=chatgpt.com. Fans wishing to access the artist pre-sale must sign up by 12 noon on Monday, October 19.
Next spring’s stadium extravaganza will build still more on the momentum of two number one albums, January 2024’s A Matter Of Time and September 2024’s Liquid Gold, in a year when Shed Seven heralded the launch of Futuresound’s Live At York Museum Gardens concerts with two sold-out July shows.
The green, green grass of a hometown stadium show: Shed Seven look forward to playing the LNER Community Stadium next May. Picture: Tom Oxley
The Sheds have since been crowned Best Live Act at the AIM Independent Music Awards; returned to Glastonbury Festival last July after a 30-year hiatus since their NME Stage debut; played the BBC Radio 2 Piano Room, backed by the BBC Concert Orchestra, and opened Cuffe & Taylor’s 42-gig 2026 calendar at The Piece Hall, Halifax, on June 6, when playing 1996’s hit-laden A Maximum High in full to mark its 30th anniversary.
In the in-tray for the Sheds are their biggest UK winter tour to date, Shedcember X, climaxing with Leeds O2 shows on December 12 and 13, ahead of chasing a hat-trick of number ones with the January 8 2027 release of their self-titled seventh studio album on Cooking Vinyl, showcased already by the singles Stand Together and The Centre Of My Everything .
Looking forward to returning to the York outdoors, Rick says: “The York Museum Gardens shows in 2024 were incredible…and to see Shed Seven fans travelling from all over the country to our hometown was amazing.
“Our fanbase has been incredibly loyal to us and they’re the reason we’re even in a position to attempt something like this. We really hope they’ll travel from all over again, make a weekend of it and let us welcome them to our wonderful home.
“Expect a huge career-spanning set and for us to push the production further than we ever have before. If we’re going to do it, we want to do it properly and make this the biggest and best Shed Seven show we’ve ever put on.”
CharlesHutchPress editor Charles Hutchinson talking tactics with Shed Seven frontman Rick Witter in the York City dressing room on October 14. Picture: Sarah Rhodes
What will “pushing the production further” entail, Rick? “It’s out first stadium headline show, so we’ll be pulling out all the stops with a hit-filled show with guests, and we’ll have to ramp up the spectacle, but these are the things we always enjoy doing,” he says.
To mark the landmark show, Shed Seven will release a special limited-edition York Edition of their forthcoming album, featuring unique artwork and live versions of fan favourites Let’s Go Dancing, Talk Of The Town and Chasing Rainbows, the anthem that fans take delight in sending Witter videos of their train-journey renditions from York City away matches.
From every York Edition CD sale, £1 will be donated to York City Foundation, supporting its work with communities across York. To buy, go to: https://store.shedseven.com/.
Furthermore, at the May 29 gig, Shed Seven will support York’s next generation of musicians, with a fan zone stage ahead of the main stadium show featuring up-and-coming artists from the city.
Introducing the special guests at Shed Seven’s LNER Community Stadium concert
The K’s: Album chart toppers from Earlestown
The K’s
EXPLOSIVE four-piece from Earlestown, near St Helens, Merseyside, riding the crest of a massive wave that has been building over the past few years. Debut album I Wonder If The World Knowsreached number three in UK charts in April 2024; sophomore album Pretty On The Internet hit the top spot on August 1 2025. Headlined sold-out shows this summer at The Piece Hall, Halifax, and Manchester’s Castlefield Bowl this summer.
Jon McClure: Putting “the Reverend” into Reverend and The Makers
Reverend and The Makers
FORMED by Jon “The Reverend” McClure and Laura McClure in Sheffield in 2005, their continual evolution has seen them cut across the creative spectrum and across many genres. June 2023’s seventh studio album, Heatwave In The Cold North, was their first Top Ten hit since 2007 debut The State Of Things, featuring fan favourites Heavyweight Champion Of The World, He Said He Loved Me and Open The Window. Laura McClure duetted with Rick Witter on Shed Seven’s Tripping With You, from the Sheds’ 2024 chart topper A Matter Of Time.
The Mersey Beatles
LIVERPOOL tribute to the Fab Four, resident at Cavern Club for more than a decade. Toured the world many times over the past 25 years.
The Mersey Beatles: Opening Shed Seven’s stadium gig with tribute to The Beatles
“WE are lost for words,” say Shed Seven. “Most of our January instore shows sold out in seconds.”
Their reaction? “We’re absolutely blown away. Thank you so much to everyone who bought an album and is coming along to celebrate with us. It genuinely means the world.
“The response has been so incredible that we’ve managed to add extra matinee performances: January 8, Rough Trade, Bristol; January 10, Rough Trade East London; January 11, Rough Trade, Nottingham, and January 12, Wax & Beans, Bury.”
The York band’s statement continues: “A very small number of tickets remain for HMV in-stores in Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow. If you missed out first time around, now’s your chance…
“We loved every minute of our last record shop tour and, after that response, we already know these are going to be something special.”
Tickets for the Sheds’ instore tour of stripped-back performances and signings went on sale at 10am this morning. Entry is available by pre-ordering a copy of January 8 2027’s new album, Shed Seven, from the selected retailer hosting each event at https://s7.lnk.to/s7instores.
To coincide with the ticket launch, the Sheds have released new single The Centre Of My Everything, ahead of next year’s arrival of their self-titled seventh studio album on Cooking Vinyl. Pre-orders can be made at https://s7.lnk.to/shedseven.
This follows the album’s lead single, Stand Together, a “muscular, sky-scraping” song that was added quickly to radio playlists. Now, The Centre Of My Everything shows another side of the upcoming album, calling on sweeping strings and a rousing chorus to deliver “one of the most widescreen songs of their career”.
Lead singer Rick Witter comments on the feeling behind the song: “That feeling when love is all there is, when two are entwined as one, when nothing else matters apart from the other, when you can’t imagine a life lived alone, when you truly think of someone as being The Centre Of My Everything.” Listen to the track at https://s7.lnk.to/myeverythingPR.
The Sheds originally announced Up Close & Intimate Album Release Tour 2027 dates at: Rough Trade, Bristol, January 8; Vinolo, Southampton (matinee), January 9; Rough Trade East, London, January 10; Rough Trade, Nottingham, January 11; Wax & Beans, Bury, January 12; Jacaranda, Liverpool, January 13; HMV Vault, Birmingham, January 14; HMV, Manchester, January 15, and HMV, Glasgow, January 16. Now the new shows have been added, as highlighted above.
Matinee idols: Shed Seven are adding more shows to their instore tour
This is the state of play on Shed Seven’s 2026 shows:
A Maximum High live dates
Oct 15 – Birmingham O2 Institute
Oct 16 – Kingston Circuit – SOLD OUT
Oct 17 – London Scala – SOLD OUT
Oct 29 – Northampton Roadmender – SOLD OUT
Oct 30 – Manchester Academy 2 – SOLD OUT
Oct 31 – Glasgow Barrowland – SOLD OUT
SHEDCEMBER X 2026 live dates
Nov 12 – Nottingham Rock City – LOW TICKETS
Nov 13 – Nottingham Rock City – SOLD OUT
Nov 14 – Birmingham O2 Academy 1 – SOLD OUT
Nov 16 – Blackburn King George’s Hall
Nov 17 – Norwich The Nick Rayns LCR, UEA – LOW TICKETS
Nov 19 – Aberdeen Music Hall – LOW TICKETS
Nov 20 – Glasgow O2 Academy – SOLD OUT
Nov 21 – Edinburgh Usher Hall – LOW TICKETS
Nov 23 – Leicester O2 Academy 1
Nov 24 – Brighton Dome
Nov 26 – Cardiff University Great Hall
Nov 27 – Sheffield Octagon – SOLD OUT
Nov 28 – Newcastle O2 City Hall – SOLD OUT
Nov 30 – Cambridge Corn Exchange – LOW TICKETS
Dec 1 – Bristol Beacon – LOW TICKETS
Dec 3- Stockton Globe
Dec 4 – Liverpool Uni The Mountford Hall – LOW TICKETS
Dec 5 – Manchester O2 Apollo – SOLD OUT
Dec 7- Lincoln Engine Shed
Dec 8 – Stoke-On-Trent Victoria Hall
Dec 10 – Bournemouth O2 Academy
Dec 11 – London O2 Brixton Academy – SOLD OUT
Dec 12 – Leeds O2 Academy – SOLD OUT
Dec 13 – Leeds O2 Academy – LOW TICKETS
The track listing for Shed Seven’s Shed Seven album will be: Stand Together; The Fifth Amendment; The Centre Of My Everything; Lost In Space (featuring Lotte Witter); Winter; We Got The Love (featuring Elles Bailey); What Becomes Of The Ones You Left Behind; Can’t Help It; Let The Good Times Roll and Drifting.
The Sheds will be seeking to match their achievements in 2024, when they topped the album charts for the first time in January that year with A Matter Of Time, followed only ten months later by a second number one with Liquid Gold, placing them alongside artists such as The Beatles, Elton John and David Bowie in notching two UK number one albums within a single calendar year.
Shed Seven: new albums and tours at the double. Picture: Tom Oxley
YORK’S most successful band, Shed Seven, are to celebrate the 30th anniversary of their Britpop zenith, A Maximum High, on the road this autumn and next February.
October’s six-date tour comes in the wake of the Sheds’ sold-out open-air show at The Piece Hall, Halifax, on June 6, marking three decades since the April 1 1996 release of their second album, the one featuring five Top 40 hits: Where Have You Been Tonight?, Getting Better, Going For Gold, Bully Boy and On Standby.
Unlike this summer, no Yorkshire date will feature among the itinerary of intimate venues, some having played host to the Sheds during the album’s original promotion, some marking their return for the first time in more than a decade.
Frontman Rick Witter says: “After the incredible response to our A Maximum High 30th Anniversary show in Halifax, and after hearing that so many of you missed out, we’re thrilled to announce a special run of A Maximum High shows this October and in February 2027.
“This time we’ll be taking things back to where it all began: smaller, more intimate venues, just like the ones we were playing back in 1996. We’ll be performing A Maximum High in full, followed by a second set of Shed classics, along with a few tracks from our forthcoming self-titled album, Shed Seven.”
Tickets are still available for Birmingham O2 Institute on October 15, but shows at Kingston-upon-Thames (October 16), London Scala (October 17), Northampton Roadmender (October 29), Manchester Academy 2 (October 30) and Glasgow Barrowland (October 31) have sold out, as have the Sheds’ Irish shows in Belfast on October 23 and Dublin the following night.
Shed Seven at the finale to June 6’s A Maximum High 30th Anniversary gig at The Piece Hall, Halifax. Picture: Ianthe Photo
Tickets for the 8pm Birmingham gig, promoted by Jacaranda Records, are on sale at https://www.skiddle.com/whats-on/Birmingham/02-Institute-Birmingham/Shed-Seven-Album-Launch-Show/42608885/. The February 2027 tour schedule is yet to be announced.
In conjunction with the 30th anniversary gigs, a new album variant, Shed Seven – A Maximum Lo-Fi, will be created exclusively for these shows as a special edition of the upcoming self-titled Shed Seven album.
Alongside the new album, it includes exclusive bonus tracks featuring re-imagined versions of some of the deeper cuts and B-sides from the A Maximum High era. Think stripped-back performances, acoustic guitars, lo-fi textures and a completely different take on songs such as Magic Streets, Where Have You Been Tonight?, Lies, Out By My Side , Killing Time and more besides.
Looking to notch a hat-trick of chart toppers after A Matter Of Time and Liquid Gold in 2024, Shed Seven’s seventh studio album – hence the title to honour that landmark – will be released on Cooking Vinyl on January 8 2027, preceded by its lead single, Stand Together.
Rick enthuses: “We have taken great care in making this album what we believe to be our best yet, and we hope these songs are taken to people’s hearts. The comeback single Stand Together shows a statement of intent. It’s a call to arms and a rallying cry for some kind of unity in the world we live in today.”
The cover artwork for Shed Seven’s seventh studio album, aptly named Shed Seven, set for release next January
The Shed Seven diary for 2026 will conclude with the tenth edition of Shedcember, Shedcember X, their biggest winter tour yet, climaxing with two nights at Leeds O2 Academy. December 12 has sold out but tickets are still available for December 13 via ticketmaster.co.uk.
If A Maximum High was the maximum high of Shed Seven 1.0, Rick reckons Shed Seven 2.0 is “our second peak”. “What we’ve realised, in our early to mid-50s, is that not many get a second chance, but after dipping our toes in again in 2017 with Instant Pleasures, we knew we could still do it and we could enjoy it,” he says.
A Matter Of Time’s chart entry at number one in January 2024 and the brace of 30th anniversary concerts that followed at Futuresound’s Live At York Museum Gardens that summer gave impetus for Liquid Gold’s re-imagination of iconic Shed Seven tracks with orchestral arrangements, complemented by new recordings of Waiting For The Catch (featuring Issy Ferris) and All Roads Lead To You.
“We got to decide everything for that record, there was no pressure, and that comes through on the new record too,” says Rick. “We’ve recorded at it VADA Recording Studios, near Coventry, where we made Liquid Gold, working with Michael Rendall again, who’d engineered Instant Pleasures and moved up to producer for Liquid Gold.
“We recorded a song a day for A Matter Of Time, and this time me and Paul [guitarist Paul Banks] wrote the album over seven or eight months at Paul’s studio. Michael came in to whip the songs into shape, discussing how we could do something different out of the essence of what we’d come up with.
“We finished recording at the end of June for the first song, Stand Together, to come out in July, making the video on a boiling hot day in Wakefield, with Mr Paul Banks directing.”
Shed Seven lighting up the Halifax night sky when opening The Piece Hall’s summer season with a celebration of A Maximum High’s 30th anniversary
THIRTY years on, Shed Seven revisited their Britpop magnum opus A Maximum High in full for one night only to launch Cuffe & Taylor’s remarkable summer of no fewer than 41 concerts at The Piece Hall, Halifax.
A Yorkshire start to an international season was a canny choice, and better still, the typically Yorkshire weather forecast of rain at 6pm and 7pm to greet support acts Seb Lowe and The Guest List turned out to be wrong. There was no need to go chasing rainbows; that could wait until the end under the darkening Halifax skies.
Built as a cloth hall for handloom weavers to sell woollen cloth, the 18th century architectural splendour of the Grade I listed Piece Hall makes a natural amphitheatre for outdoor concerts – hence the busier-than-ever 2026 programme – and Shed Seven supporters turned out in full number, 6,500 filling the courtyard and the tiers above that transform as if by magic from two to three tiers. This is Yorkshire’s answer to summer opera at Arena di Verona, no less!
Guitarist Paul Bankson stage against the backdrop of The Piece Hall
The York band had last played here in their first gig out of Covid lockdowns on September 25 2021: strange circumstances, where proximity was gradually being reintroduced; circumstances too where drummer Alan Leach and guitarist Joe Johnson were in their last days before taking an “indefinite break” from the line-up.
The Sheds returned on the crest of their second wave: two number one albums in 2024, a new album and biggest ever ShedCember tour on the way, and drummer Rob Maxfield’s gold drum kit and guitarist and keyboards player Tim Wills settled into their groove alongside the familiar axis of bassist Tom Gladwin, guitarist Paul Banks and frontman Rick Witter.
Saturday’s focus, however, was on the past. Advance notice had suggested the set would open with 1996’s A Maximum High in track order, but Witter had promised surprises in his CharlesHutchPress interview. Wasn’t that Dirty Soul, the opening track to 1994 debut album Change Giver, cutting through the Halifax air after the band entered to Elmer Bernstein’s The Magnificent [Shed] Seven theme tune? Indeed so, to be followed by early favourites Mark and Dolphin.
Going for red: Rick Witter in that dazzling shirt, fit to burn any disco down
The grimy Shed Seven graffiti that formed the backdrop in black and white should have been a clue. Then Witter, as alert as ever to audience vibes, chipped in: “We know why you bought your tickets. We’re not stupid! It’s coming but not quite yet.” Cue Speakeasy, Witter’s first mention of his mum being in the audience, and Ocean Pie.
By now, the brass band, such a swell innovation at the Sheds’ brace of York Museum Gardens shows in 2024, and five-part Shed Seven Choir, as featured at Scarborough Open Air Theatre and Glastonbury last summer, had made their entry.
The Shed Seven scrawl made way for A Maximum High’s album cover – matched by trombonist Tim Hurst, saxophonist Andy Cox and trumpet player Jamie Brownfield’s T-shirts – and Witter jettisoned his black shirt in favour of a sparkling red number. He could have gone for gold, but maybe that was in the glitter.
A maximum high hat: Shed Seven drummer Rob Maxfield
Like any album, A Maximum High has its highs and lows, but those highs a very high – Getting Better, Where Have You Been Tonight?, Going For Gold and On Standby, all from Side 1, where track two, Magic Streets, held its own too, preceded by Witter’s story of the song referring to “a house of ill repute above the Early Learning Centre”. “It’s about prostitutes. No-one knew!” he revealed.
After the audience sang its lusty version of On Standby before Witter joined in, there followed the lesser lights of Out By My Side, Lies This Day Was Ours, Ladyman and Falling From The Sky, some brought out of the vaults for the first time in two decades.
The Sheds gave them their all, Banks’s guitar parts especially so, but it was a lull, nonetheless, saved by the knowledge of what was coming next: schooldays’ crowd favourite Bully Boy, as belligerent and cocksure as ever, and Parallel Lines, the one helluva party album closer, with a light show to boot. No imagery from 30 years ago was shown, Witter painting the picture instead in anecdotes between songs.
The swanky Shed Seven logo, familiar from the past few years, returned for the rushing thrill of encores: High Hopes, latter-day landmarks Talk Of The Town and Let’s Go Dancing and the swaggering finale of Disco Down and Chasing Rainbows, sung by one and all as always as they exited.
Another night, another town, once more Shed Seven had burned this disco down.
Crowd shot: Shed Seven at the finale to Saturday’s A Maximum High 30th Anniversary Showat The Piece Hall
Holly Taymar: Playing City of York Roland Walls Folk Weekend
A FEAST of folk music and Shed Seven’s anniversary celebration, a le Carré thriller and a Willy Russell classic send Charles Hutchinson out and about.
Festival of the week: City of York Roland Walls Folk Weekend 2026, Black Swan Folk Club, Black Swan Inn, Peasholme Green York, today and tomorrow
CITY of York Roland Walls Folk Weekend’s three-day programme of 50 acts continues today and tomorrow with bands, soloists and sessions throughout the pub and in the car park from 1pm each day after last night’s Irish-themed bill in the club room.
Among the performers will be King Courgette, in the return of the original line-up, Leather’O, White Sail, Janglebuddies, Graham Hodge, Monkey’s Fist, Chechelele, Caramba, Holly Taymar, Duncan McFarlane Band, Mary Molloy, Susie Coyle, Soundsphere and Jon Palmer Band. Admission is free, with collections for the Motor Neurone Disease Association.
Stuart O’Hara: York Late Music concert this afternoon
Lunchtime concert of the week: York Late Music, Stuart O’Hara (bass) and Rob Hao piano), Unitarian Chapel, St Saviourgate, York, today, 1pm
MARRYING words and music, bass Stuart O’Hara and pianist Rob Hao’s performance is based around new settings of Yorkshire poets by local composers: James Else &Alan Gillott, Retratos (world premiere, complete song cycle); Tim Brooks & Lizzi Linklater, New Student In The University Cafe (world premiere); Jenny Jackson & Richard Kitchen, Vessels (world premiere) and Nick Carter & Hugh Bernays: The Water Will Not Remember from Requiem for the Arctic (world premiere)
This afternoon’s recital also includes David Power’s Six Songs, based on the poetry of E.H. Visiak, and two new settings by York St John University student composers Robyn Hughes-Maclean and Matthew Jarvis. Tickets: latemusic.org or on the door.
The Elysian Singers: Musical settings of poetry at Unitarian Chapel, St Saviourgate, York. Picture: Linda Dawson
Poetry and music in motion: The Elysian Singers, York Late Music, Unitarian Chapel, St Saviourgate, York, tonight, 7.30pm
DIRECTED by Sam Laughton, The Elysian Singers’ insightful programme celebrates the musical settings of the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins. Benjamin Britten’s A.M.D.G. will be complemented by works by Samuel Barber (Heaven-Haven), Alan Bullard (The Windhover and Spring Morning), Bob Chilcott (The Bethlehem Star) and Ian Stephens (Pied Beauty).
The première of David Lancaster’s new work, Henry Purcell, featuring Hopkins’ tribute to his own favourite composer, provides an opportunity to revisit Purcell’s Remember Not, Lord, Our Offences and O Lord God Of Hosts. David Power’s quirky and imaginative settings of four E.H. Visiak poems completes the line-up, preceded by Lancaster and Power’s 6.45pm pre-concert talk. Tickets: latemusic.org or on the door.
Shed Seven: Marking 30th anniversary of A Maximum High with one-off concert at The Piece Hall, Halifax, tonight
Recommended but sold out already: Shed Seven, A Maximum High 30th Anniversary Show, The Piece Hall, Halifax, today, 6.30pm
YORK band Shed Seven are marking the 30th anniversary of their hit-laden second album, April 1996’s A Maximum High, with a one-off concert at The Piece Hall, featuring the magnum opus in full plus further Sheds’ hits and fan favourites. Expect a few surprises too. The Guest List (6.30pm) and Seb Lowe (7.20pm) support.
Utter Madness: The Nutty Boys stride out at Scarborough Open Air Theatre for the fourth time tonight
Seaside trip of the week: Madness, Scarborough Open Air Theatre, tonight, doors 6pm
IN their 50th year since forming in Camden, Nutty Boys Madness make their fourth appearance at Scarborough Open Air Theatre after previous seaside visits in 2017, 2019 and 2024.
Drawing on 31 Top 40 hits and 11 Top Ten albums, their timeless blend of ska, pop, punk and music hall will be on show as ever in Our House, It Must be Love, Baggy Trousers, House Of Fun et al. The Beat featuring Ranking Jnr and reggae vocalist Hollie Cook support. Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.
Ralf Little’s disillusioned British intelligence officer Alec Leamas in The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, on tour at Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Johan Persson
Thriller of the week: The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, Grand Opera House, York, June 9 to 13, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday matinees
FOR the first time, a John le Carré novel is being brought to life on stage by Chichester Festival Theatre in David Eldridge’s adaptation of The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, a tale that journeys through the fog-shrouded terrain of Cold War espionage, deception and moral compromise.
Death In Paradise star Ralf Little’s disillusioned British intelligence officer, Alec Leamas, is ready to come in from the cold, until veteran agent George Smiley persuades him to take one final mission against the East German Secret Service. Deep undercover, Leamas finds his convictions tested and his defences breached by Liz Gold, a quietly defiant librarian, whose compassion threatens to thaw his frostbitten heart. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
An open book or something more complex than that?Florence Poskitt’s Rita and Jamie McKeller’s Frank in Black Treacle Theatre’s Educating Rita
Literature lessons of the week: Black Treacle Theatre in Educating Rita, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, June 9 to 13, 7.30pm
YORK actors Florence Poskitt and Jamie McKeller team up for the first time under Jim Paterson’s direction in Willy Russell’s warm, witty and moving double-hander about the power of education to change lives. When Rita, a working-class hairdresser hungry for something more, signs up for an Open University literature course, she meets disillusioned academic Frank, whose passion for teaching has long faded.
Their weekly tutorials become a battle of ideas, humour and honesty as Rita’s confidence blossoms and Frank reckons with his own choices and the possibility of a second chance. Change comes with difficult choices for both student and tutor, who must reconsider who they are and who they want to be. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Director Courtney Brown in Pickering Musical Society’s Let’s Do It!, The Cole Porter Songbook
Musical kicks of the week: Pickering Musical Society in Let’s Do It!r, The Cole Porter Songbook, Kirk Theatre, Pickering, June 9 to 13, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
IN a sparkling showcase of wit, romance, sophisticated melodies and clever lyrics, Pickering Musical Society celebrates the joyous Cole Porter Songbook, performing beloved songs from Anything Goes, Kiss Me, Kate and High Society and such hits as You’re The Top and I Get A Kick Out Of You under the direction of Courtney Brown.
The Sarah Louise Ashworth School of Dance’s vibrant tap, jazz and contemporary routines combine stylish choreography, glamorous costumes and a tribute to the Great American Songbook. Box office: 01751 474833 or kirktheatre.co.uk.
The Bluffs: Short-form improv games infused with storytelling flair at Rise@Bluebird Bakery
Unscripted silliness of the week: Unwritten: The Literary Improv Show, Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb, York, June 11, 8.30pm, doors 7.30pm
YORK troupe The Bluffs take classic short-form improv games and infuse them with storytelling flair in an evening of laughter, silliness and plot twists. Each fast-paced show is shaped by audience suggestions and spontaneous creativity. Expect scenes inspired by classic literature, unexpected character mash-ups and even a fanfiction-inspired musical number.
The Bluffs are drawn from a melange of theatrical, comedy and musical backgrounds, from festival stages to pantomime and competitive Theatresports. Box office: eventbrite.com/e/unwritten-the-literary-improv-show-tickets-1984763723726.
Wright & Grainger: Say It & Play: “Gorgeous weave of our home-grown stuff” at The Old Paint Shop on Thursday. Picture: Afternoon Film
The Old Paint Shop presents: Wright & Grainger Say It & Play it, York Theatre Royal Studio, June 11, 8pm
FRIENDS and working partners since Easingwold schooldays, Wright & Grainger serve a carefully curated evening of stories, poems, songs and gentle chaos. Known for their internationally acclaimed adaptations of Ancient Greek myths, sometimes they do something a tad different.
Say It & Play It will be a set full of Alexander Flanagan Wright & Phil Grainger’s shorter collaborative works, the poems that stand on their own, the beautiful tracks they have been writing. “It’s a gorgeous weave of our home-grown stuff, grown and told on home turf,” they say. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Lincoln Lightfoot: Participating in North Yorkshire Open Studios
In Focus: North Yorkshire Open Studios, Summer edition, June 6 & 7 and June 13 & 14, 10am to 5pm
MORE than 200 artists and makers are taking part in the summer edition of North Yorkshire Open Studios 2026.
Covering three areas of God’s Own Country, from the remote Upper Dales to the Central locations of Harrogate and York and the Moors & Coast, this annual event enables creative talents to open their studios to promote and sell their work directly to the public.
Taking part in and around York will be jewellery designer Helen Drye (Fountains Close, Riccall); oil painter Pennie Lordan (Moor Lane, Copmanthorpe); artist Emma James (Copmanthorpe Lane, Bishopthorpe); oil painter Lucie Wake (Slingsby Grove); abstract seascape painter Alex Ash (Heslington Lane, Fulford); B-movie poster art pastiche surrealist Lincoln Lighfoot (Brunswick Street) and northern landscape linocut printmaker Jon Haste (South Bank Social Club, Ovington Terrace).
So too are eco jewellery designer Rebecca Mihill (Nunthorpe Grove); mixed-media artist Ali Hunter (Alma Terrace); environment and plant-inspired printmaker Rachel Jones (Richardson Street); stained glass artist, ceramicist and printmaker Veronica Ongaro (Richardson Street); oil painter Di Gomery (Southlands Methodist Church, Bishopthorpe Road) and experimental artist Jill Tattersall (Mount Parade).
Further York artists will be geometric jewellery designer Evie Leach (PICA Studios, Unit 4, Enterprise Complex, Walmgate); animal artist Katrina Mansfield (PICA Studios); figurative artist Lesley Shaw (PICA Studios); Irish landscape artist Lisa Power (PICA Studios); rag rug maker Lu Mason (PICA Studios) and cityscape and architecture artist Ric Liptrot (PICA Studios).
In the line-up too will be abstract rust and gold metal-leaf artist Jo Walton (Rogues Atelier, Franklin’s Yard, Fossgate); illustrator and screen-print gig poster artist Kai West (Rogues Atelier); mixed-media figurative artist Mo Nisbet (Acomb Road); nature and animal acrylic artist Nicola Glover (Beech Grove); stoneware potter Hannah Arnup (Arnup Studios, Panman Lane, Holtby); natural world artist Kate Pettitt (Arnup Studios); fine art photographer Lesley Peatfield and enigmatic, ethereal artist Michelle Galloway (Arnup Studios).
Look out too for pattern-led tropical botanical artist Emily Littler (Sugar Hill Farm Stockton Lane); stone and wood sculptor Janie Stevens (Greenthwaite, Chantry Green, Upper Poppleton); Japanese-inspired British plant, flower and animal artist Toby Staunton (The Cottage, Main Street, Shipton by Benuingbrough); landscape artist Gonzalo Blanco (Rose Dene, Moor Lane, Strensall) and multi-media figurative and abstract artist Andrew Bloodworth (Stonelands Close, Sheriff Hutton).
The names keep coming: mixed-media landscape artist Justine Warner (Laburnum Cottage, West End, Sheriff Hutton); “happy accidents” land, sky and water artist Graham Jones (Harland House, Main Street, Huby); nature artist Nora Gaston (Moat House, Boroughbridge Road, Green Hammerton); experimental landscape artist Freya Horsley (Corner Cottage, The Green, Tollerton) and Bee-spoke Quilts’ hand-made quilt, jackets and waistcoats (Apple Croft, Gale Road, Alne),
Completing the list for York & beyond will be milliner Jane de Carteret’s woodland-type creatures (Apple Croft, Alne); Gina Bean’s semi-abstract North Yorkshire landscapes (The Bentleys, Lower Dunsforth); beach, dale and vale artist Richard Gray (Burnside, Spring Street, Easingwold); landscape artist Jeff Parker (Roedeer House, Raskelf Road, Raskelf) and Anya Manfield’s abstract textile wall hangings, mixed media artworks and layered collage pieces (Amber Cottage, Kilburn).
The full list of artists and makers can be found at nyos.org.uk. The Winter North Yorkshire Open Studios 2026, featuring the same names, is in the diary for November 7 and 8, 11am to 4pm.
Going out for the summer: Shed Seven, filmed by the huts on Brighton beach, are heading to Halifax this weekend
TICKETS sold out in only six and a half minutes for Shed Seven’s one-off 30th anniversary celebration of A Maximum High, their hit-laden 1996 album from Britpop’s apogee, at The Piece Hall, Halifax, on June 6.
Enjoying their second coming to the max, the York indie band will be opening the West Yorkshire outdoor venue’s summer of 41 shows, playing the 250,000-selling album in its entirety, complemented by a second set of career-spanning greatest hits and crowd favourites, in their only headline show of the British summertime.
“We are looking forward to giving A Maximum High’ the birthday party it deserves,” said lead singer Rick Witter, when tickets went on sale last October.
“We’re especially excited to be revisiting some of the songs we haven’t played for decades. We hope that fans will come from far and wide to join us at this ‘one night only’ huge celebratory event.”
They will indeed be doing that – and in very different circumstances to the last occasion the Sheds played the Piece Hall courtyard on August 28 2021, headlining an all-Yorkshire bill featuring Leeds bands The Pigeon Detectives and The Wedding Present and York’s Skylights.
The album artwork for Shed Seven’s second album, A Maximum High, released on April 1 1996 on Polydor Records
“My big memory of that night was that it was a little weird because it was our first gig coming out of the [Covid-19] lockdown, when we were allowed to mingle again,” Rick recalls. “To go on stage close to all those people actually span my head a little after sitting on my own in my kitchen for months on end! It took a little time to adjust.”
The primary focus will be on A Maximum High, released in 1996 on Polydor Records on April 1 – this was no April Fool’s Day prank – and going on to peak at number eight, spend 26 weeks on the Official UK Album Charts and spawn five singles, Where Have You Been Tonight? (a hit in 1995), Getting Better, Going For Gold, Bully Boy and On Standby.
Before the year was out, stand-alone single Chasing Rainbows peaked at number 11, making the Sheds the only British band to achieve five Top 40 singles in the UK charts that year.
Thirty years on, Rick looks back to the genesis of that landmark album. “We’d used an unknown producer [Jessica Corcoran] in 1994 for our debut, Change Giver, so it was very innocent, very raw. It was a case of, ‘these are the songs and that’s all we’ve got’, like REM and U2’s first albums,” he says.
“At this point it was all Blur versus Oasis, and we knew we had to hold our own. Out came Where Have You Been Tonight?, and then we kind of scrapped songs, then did a showcase in the record company offices of Bully Boy and Going For Gold, where the record label owner said he wasn’t convinced by Going For Gold!”
Shed Seven’s 2026 line-up: Paul Banks (guitar, keyboards), left, Rob Maxfield (drums), Rick Witter (lead vocals), Tom Gladwin (bass) and Tim Wills (guitars and keyboards)
They could have been dispirited but the Sheds responded by writing Lies, Getting Better and what would become the album-closer, the six-minute Parallel Lines, the Champagne Supernova of A Maximum High.
“I’d written the lyric ‘I’m feeling bright, I feel all new’ and we’d go round town shouting that line,” says Rick. “That set the tone, going into the studio.”
This time, too, they would be working with an established producer, Chris Sheldon, at RAK Studios. “He’d produced Therapy,” says Rick. “They were Mickie Most’s studios, with accommodation rooms for us and big sunken baths that you could imagine Status Quo having been in there!
“We got on a roll with it, and what potentially could have been a ‘difficult second album’ actually became quite easy. We then wrote Chasing Rainbows while we were on tour for the album and thought it was too good to hold back for the next album in two years’ time – and that song is now very much associated with that year.”
For all their achievements in that annus mirabilis, the Sheds did not garner the headlines of the likes of Blur, Oasis and Pulp. “I’ve never really been one to not be myself, and to get magazine covers you had to do something like slap someone around the face, and I’m just not that kind of guy,” says Rick.
Shed Seven’s poster for Saturday’s one-off concert, A Maximum High 30th Anniversary Show, at The Piece Hall, Halifax
“That hindered us in some respects, but that [behaviour] does not compute with me because music is for everybody. There were some nice things said about us by the music press, but also some terrible things, about my haircut, my choice of trousers I was wearing, but if we kept selling records, we were happy just trundling along!
“It was the same story with wanting to stay in York, where we knew everyone and we could stay grounded, whereas if we’d moved to London, I’m convinced we would have been finished by 1999. Going home from London, it was two hours on the train, then you’d be seeing your friends, they’d ask you questions and then they’d tell you about fixing radiators.”
Further hit singles would follow – 15 in total – but A Maximum High would live up to its title until the Sheds’ renaissance was crowned with two number one albums in 2024. “I think we’re now in our second peak,” says Rick, as they look ahead to the biggest ever Shedcember 20 tour in November and December and continue to work on their next album. Already in the can is the video for the first single, filmed in Wakefield, but details will be kept under wraps until early July.
“The surprises” promised for The Piece Hall must remain a secret too until next Saturday’s set.
Shed Seven, A Maximum High 30th Anniversary Show, TK Maxx Presents Live At The Piece Hall, Halifax, June 6, supported by special guests Seb Lowe and The Guest List. SOLD OUT. Doors open at 6.30pm.
Shed Seven’s Paul Banks, left, Rob “Maxi” Maxfield, Rick Witter, Tom Gladwin and Tim Wills: Heading out on tenth edition of Shedcember in November and December
SHED Seven will conclude their Shedcember X 2026 Tour at Leeds O2 Academy on December 12, but no home-city gig will be on the York band’s 21-date itinerary.
The two-time album chart toppers will play a further Yorkshire show at Sheffield Octagon on November 27. Tickets go on general sale on Friday at 10am at https://lnk.to/ShedSevenX; fans can access pre-sale tickets from today (22/4/2026) at 10am by signing up to the Sheds’ mailing list at https://www.shedseven.com/signup.
Marking this much-loved festive run, the band have unveiled a heartfelt fan-focused film, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2um2NroTZ8, celebrating the tenth Shedcember season, written and directed by guitarist Paul Banks, capturing the essence of Shed Seven’s shows and the appreciation they have for their dedicated fan base.
Shedcember X promises to be the Sheds’ biggest and most celebratory yet. Since its inception in 2007, Shedcember has grown into a cult institution for fans, becoming their definitive start to the festive season.
Shed Seven singer Rick Witter: “Expect the big hits, along with a few surprises, and the thrill of us all singing our hearts out together for a couple of hours,” he says
Lead singer Rick Witter enthuses: “We can’t wait to get out there up and down the UK and soak up what is a unique atmosphere at a Shed Seven gig. Expect the big hits, along with a few surprises, and the thrill of us all singing our hearts out together for a couple of hours. See you down the front.”
Each night the Sheds will deliver a career-spanning set packed with anthems such as Going For Gold, Chasing Rainbows, Disco Down, On Standby and Talk Of The Town. Special guests The Academic, the Irish indie band with multiple number one albums in their home country, will join for all dates.
As the Sheds’ tour announcement puts it: “If you’ve never been…this is the one to start with. If you have…you’re already know you’re coming…because every couple of years…this is where we meet again.
“For those who’ve been there before, Shedcember needs no introduction. It’s warm beer, bright lights and songs that never left you. Familiar faces in the crowd and new ones found somewhere between the first song and the last. Arms around shoulders. Voices filling every corner of the room.”
Shed Seven’s poster artwork for Shedcember X
This year, Shed Seven are marking the 30th anniversary of their hit-filled apotheosis A Maximum High, released on Polydor on April 1 1996 with its quintet of singles, Where Have You Been Tonight?, Getting Better, Going for Gold, On Standby and Bully Boy. The landmark Britpop album will be revisited in full at The Piece Hall, Halifax, on June 6. Tickets are on sale at ticketmaster.co.uk.
The full itinerary for Shedcember X is: November 13, Nottingham Rock City; November 14, Birmingham O2 Academy; November 17, Nick Rayns LCR, University of East Anglia, Norwich; November 19, Aberdeen Music Hall; November 20, Glasgow O2 Academy; November 21, Edinburgh Usher Hall; November 23, Leicester O2 Academy; November 24, Brighton Dome; November 26, Cardiff University Great Hall; November 27, Sheffield Octagon; November 28, Newcastle O2 City Hall, and November 30, Cambridge Corn Exchange.
In December: December 1, Bristol Beacon; December 3, Stockton Globe; December 4, Mountford Hall, Liverpool University; December 5, Manchester O2 Apollo; December 7, Lincoln Engine Shed; December 8, Stoke-on-Trent Victoria Hall; December 10, Bournemouth O2 Academy; December 11, London O2 Academy, Brixton, and December 12, Leeds O2 Academy.
In the Sheds’ 2026 gig diary too are: Victoria Park, Warrington, May 23 and 24; Isle of Wight Festival, Big Top Tent, June 18; Engelfield House, Theale, Berkshire, July 24; Shed Seven Live In Belfast, Mandela Hall, Belfast, October 23, and Shed Seven Live In Dublin, Vicar Street, Dublin, October 24.
NEWSFLASH 24/4/2026
SHED Seven have added a second night at Leeds O2 Academy on December 13 in response to “phenomenal demand in the pre-sale” for December 12.
In addition, Shedcember X now will open a day earlier on November 12 at Nottingham Rock City after a similar pre-sale scenario for November 13. Box office: https://lnk.to/ShedSevenX.
The updated poster for Shedcember X with new dates added at Nottingham Rock City and Leeds O2 Academy
Jess Steel, left, Heather Findlay, Annie Rae Donaghy and Beth McCarthy committing to Murder On The Dancefloor big style. Picture: David Harrison
THIS was the 12th edition of Big Ian’s A Night To Remember, the eighth to fill York Barbican en route to raising more than £200,000 for York charities.
Early signs are that a record sum may have been collected from Wednesday’s three-hour fundraiser to boost St Leonard’s Hospice, Bereaved Children Support York, Accessible Arts & Media and York dementia projects. (UPDATE: 18/11/2025. £30, 249.70p was raised.)
You will know Big Ian, HUGE party band frontman Ian Donaghy, who won the Outstanding Contribution Award at the 2025 York Community Pride Awards, organised by The York Press, in recognition of his extensive charity work and efforts to tackle loneliness and raise dementia awareness in the city.
A Night To Remember master of ceremonies Big Ian Donaghy with Shed Seven’s Rick Witter, Big Ian’s pick for “the new Duke of York”
This is one ID who doesn’t need ID, but A Night To Remember really isn’t about Ian, even if he organises the event and finds sponsors to cover all the costs,so that all the ticket money goes to the charities, along with donations and raffle proceeds on the night.
Oh, and he secured an opening message on screen from Newcastle United legend Alan Shearer, arranged all the myriad participants – a hush-hush appearance by Shed Seven’s Rick Witter et al – in a late-changing set-list order, hosted the show with patter and swagger, and sung his lungs out too. No wonder he walked 17 kilometres on Wednesday.
He is frontman, showman, show opener too with Uptown Funk, but A Night To Remember is Big Ian’s night every two years for putting York’s diverse world of music on one stage: a night of York Helping York, a night of celebrating why music can be made by everyone for everyone. Where we became one big family, in unison for the finale of Sister Sledge’s We Are Family, as Ian sang “I’ve got all my sisters with me”. Sisters in soul and much more besides, brothers too.
Making A Night To Remember exactly that: Many, but not all, of the musicians who took part on Wednesday night. Picture: David Kessel
There are plenty of familiar performers that return each time: Las Vegas Ken, now 78, still in jeans, stiffer in leg, joined by fiddler Kieran O’Malley for a singalong Wild Rover; Graham Hodge, now 75, replacing his standard guitar with bow tie and suit for crooning Cry Me A River with full band accompaniment in Las Vegas manner; George Hall, leading the band from the keyboards; the HUGE brass section; Rob Wilson and Simon Snaize on guitar,
And Ian Chalk leading the bright young talents of York Music Forum, now so important to fledgling talent in the city when schools are finding it more and more difficult to fulfil that role.
Participants young and old had their moment in the spotlight. Responding to Big Ian’s challenge, Easingwold-based choir leader Jessa “Hurricane” Liversidge assembled the 10 Decade Choir, aged from seven to Shirley in her nineties, bonding in the joy of Labi Siffre’s Something Inside So Strong, a hymn to the power of music.
York Music Forum brass and woodwind players in action at A Night To Remember. Picture: David Harrison
Annie Rae Donaghy: Solo rendition of Maneater at A Night To Remember. Picture: David Kessel
On the run: Beth McCarthy giving everything to Bat Out Of Hell in A Night To Remember. Picture: David Harrison
Suits you, sir: Graham Hodge taking on Las Vegas cabaret crooner mode for Cry Me A River at A Night To Remember. Picture: David Kessel
The ever-watchful young keyboard player in York Music Forum’s rendition of Dave Kemp’s Fryin, I learnt later, was playing his first ever gig at nine. Keep an eye on him.
Likewise, Big Ian had asked nascent talents to put themselves forward for a solo slot: he picked 12-year-old singer Lacey Hart, performing I Have Nothing to 1,400 people to the accompaniment of the full band, one mightily impressive debut after warm-up slots at a handful of HUGE gigs. Tackling Houston, Lacey had no problem matching Whitney’s dramatics.
North Eastern classical singer Sam Holden hit the heights early on in You’ll Never Walk Alone, ironically performed solo – but spectacularly – to a backing track, and later Y Street Band, their members peppered through other songs throughout, relished the spotlight in Peter Gabriel’s Sledgehammer, immediately followed by Scissor Sisters’ Take Your Mama.
Arms held aloft: Lacey Hart, 12, with A Night To Remember host Big Ian Donaghy, left, and her father, James Hart, after singing I Have Nothing. Picture: David Kessel
Back to those sisters in soul, who are so integral to A Night To Remember: Jess Steel, the singing hairdresser; Beth McCarthy, back in York after playing Glastonbury and an American tour; Annie Rae Donaghy, soon to appear in Next Door But One’s Christmas show When Robins Appear, and Heather Findlay, long-standing folk and prog-rock queen.
They took solo turns, they sang backing vocals, all except Annie changed costumes more often than Cher. Jess’s Running Up That Hill set a high bar; Annie revamped Hall & Oates’s Maneater; Beth surpassed her Mr Brightside with Bat Out Of Hell, preceded by her duet with Annie, Britney at the double for Baby One More Time.
A Night To Remember master of ceremonies Big Ian Donaghy keeping eye on proceedings from the side of the stage, resting on a donations bucket for York charities. Picture: David Kessel
Best of all was Heather’s rendition of Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven, a stairway she not so much climbed as glided up with elan. It was only right they should do a climactic number together, Murder On The Dancefloor, and they nailed it.
What of Mr Witter, crowned the new Duke of York by Big Ian? The man in black might have been expected to conclude the show given his status in York, but no, just like Ian, he said the show was the star, not him.
Instead, his appearance kept quiet until the last minute, he ended the first half, singing It Takes Two with Jess, who has cut his hair all these years (“I’ve lived my dream,” she said “I’ve sung with Rick Witter”), followed, inevitably, by Sheds’ anthem Chasing Rainbows, brass accompaniment and all. Rick may not have closed the show, but he closes this review.
Shed Seven’s Rick Witter duetting with Jess Steel on It Takes Two, the 1966 Kim Weston & Marvin Gaye hit. Picture: David Harrison
Shed Seven in concert at Scarborough Open Air Theatre in June 2025. The Piece Hall, Halifax, awaits next summer. Picture: Andy Little
SHED Seven will be mark the 30th anniversary of landmark 1996 album A Maximum High with a special one-off gig at The Piece Hall, Halifax, on June 6 2026.
In the York band’s only headline show of Summer 2026, they will perform their most hit-laden album in full, followed by a second set packed with the Britpop alumni’s greatest hits. Special guests that night will be Seb Lowe and The Guest List.
Singer Rick Witter says: “We are looking forward to giving A Maximum High the birthday party it deserves. We’re especially excited to be revisiting some of the songs we haven’t played for decades. We hope that fans will come from far and wide to join us at this ‘one- night-only’ huge celebratory event.”
Released on April 1 1996, A Maximum High was a defining moment for the Sheds, reaching number eight, selling more than 250,000 copies and spawning five Top 40 singles, 1995 hit Where Have You Been Tonight?, Getting Better, Going For Gold, Bully Boy and On Standby.
The band achieved chart history when Chasing Rainbows, released later in 1996, made them the only British band to notch five Top 40 singles in the UK charts that year.
The last two years have been nothing short of extraordinary for the Sheds. They achieved two number one albums in 2024 with January’s A Matter Of Time and September’s Liquid Gold – a feat only 19 other acts have managed in the UK charts – and in September 2025 they were crowned Best Live Performer at the AIM Independent Music Awards, an accolade made even more special as it was voted for by the public.
The poster for Shed Seven’s one-night-only A Maximum High 30th anniversary gig
This year too, the Sheds played to 28,000 when supporting Paul Heaton, at Bramall Lane, Sheffield, in May; made their long-overdue debut at Scarborough Open Air Theatre in June, and played Sounds Of The City 2025, at Castlefield Bowl, Manchester, and Leeds Millennium Square in July.
In a summer of 14 festival and open-air shows, they returned to Glastonbury on June 27 for the first time in 30 years, revelling in a late-afternoon set on the Woodsies tented stage.“It appears we have become big-time Charlies,” Witter told the crowd, as the Sheds performed with five backing singers, three horn players and Elvis-fronted Nirvana tribute act Elvana’s frontman Paul Kell (aka Kellvis), who joined Rick on vocals for Suspicious Minds.
Next June’s celebration concert will be a welcome return to The Piece Hall for York’s indie stalwarts after a sold-out headline show in the open-air courtyard in 2021.
Shed Seven join Embrace, Ethel Cain, Billy Ocean, The K’s, Opeth and David Gray among the first headliners to be announced forTK Maxx presents Live at The Piece Hall 2026.
Nicky Chance-Thompson, chief executive officer of The Piece Hall Charitable Trust, says: “These announcements just keep ‘getter better’! It’s going to be quite the party when these Yorkshire heroes head back to our beautiful courtyard.
“Shed Seven played here back in 2021, and marking the 30th anniversary of their iconic 1996 album seemed to perfect time to invite them back. Hearing A Maximum High in full, plus all their greatest hits on top, will make this an unmissable gig for their legions of fans.”
Today’s announcement follows a record-breaking year at The Piece Hall when 36 headline shows drew 185,000 ticket sales: a new box-office record for the historic West Yorkshire venue. Plans are well underway for 30-plus shows next year.
