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.
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.
Rick Witter fronting Shed Seven in their Scarborough Open Air Theatre debut. Picture: Andy Little
IT’S been a dream of ours for some time to head out to the coast to play Scarborough OAT,” said Sheds frontman Rick Witter, when tickets went on sale for their long-overdue debut at what he branded “Yorkshire’s very own Hollywood Bowl”.
Overdue? Here’s why. York band, from up the A64. Anthemic hits, ripe for crowd roars from pitch level and the terrace banks behind. Not to mention early singles by the nautical name of Ocean Pie and Dolphin, both aired here in a 21-song set list.
Overdue, yes, and yet the timing felt just right. “It’s worked in our favour,” reckoned Rick in his York Press interview. And here’s why.
Shed Seven are a band re-born, going for gold anew rather than growing old on the Britpop heritage treadmill. Two number one albums in 2024, their 30th anniversary year. Match fit for outdoor exertions, as much as the indoor Shedcember seasons. The back line firmed up by “new” signings Tim Wills, on keyboards and guitar, and Rob “Maxi” Maxfield behind the drum kit that still bore the Liquid Gold livery from last autumn and winter’s travels.
Samantha Seth leading The Shed Seven Choir at Scarborough Open Air Theatre. Picture: Andy Little
Bolstered by 2017’s Instant Pleasures and the more constant pleasures of 2024’s A Matter Of Time, more Premiership-quality songs than ever are worthy of the set list, to the point where Casino Girl, She Left Me On Friday, The Heroes, Devil In Your Shoes, Cry For Help and Why Can’t I Be You? could be left out of the match-day squad.
Back in the distant day, your reviewer once called for more theatricality in Sheds’ shows, coupled with more technological aplomb (projections, razzmatazzier lighting), not merely the addition of a keyboard player, to a band that always had chemistry, terrace tunes that stuck like gum to summer soles, audience rapport aplenty and a lean, lippy totem out front.
Now, if Carlsberg did Shed Seven gigs, they would probably do this one, this way, this set list, getting better all the time. Warm weekend night. Capacity crowd of 8,000. Typically low-key, high-efficiency event management by Cuffe & Taylor and venue staff. Canny choice of supports, the sunshine Liverpool Nineties’ pop of Cast and Jake Bugg, dressed as Milk Tray Midlands Man.
8.45pm, enter Wills and Maxfield, stalwart bassist Tom Gladwin and guitarist Paul Banks, then Witter in dandy sequin shirt (from Phix Clothing, should you be wondering), sparkling from the off in instant singalong opener Room In My House.
Rick Witter and Rowetta: In Ecstasy, in Scarborough, on a seaside Saturday night. Picture: Andy Little
Witter had promised “some great ideas”for the Live Summer 2025 shows, in keeping with Huntington School choir singing Bully Boy in last summer’s Museum Gardens gigs, and boy, did they deliver.
For presentation top marks, there were projections to either side of the stage; razzmatazziest lighting, and a huge Shed Seven insignia, lit up in ever-changing colours.
Content was built on regular rotation of supplementary players. Through the darkening night, the Sheds would be joined by a five-piece Manchester choir, led by Samantha Seth, temporarily christened The Shed Seven Choir for Scarborough and upcoming gigs at Glastonbury, Manchester Castlefield Bowl and Leeds Millennium Square. If it worked for The Rolling Stones, it works wonders for Shed Seven.
Glory be, the brass section was back from Museum Gardens 2024, this time Tom I’Anson, on trombone, Jamie Brownfield, on trumpet, and Mike Smith, on saxophone, kitted out in Shed Seven Summer ’25 T-shirts.
Arms outstretched: Shed Seven fans in excelsis at Scarborough Open Air Theatre
Returning too were York acoustic guitarist Stuart Allan, tucked away studiously to the side, and Happy Mondays’ Rowetta, resplendent in red, to resume her rowdy jousting with Witter at the height of In Ecstasy.
By then, the set had taken in the early urgent days of Speakeasy and Ocean Pie, and Witter looking up to the Scarborough heavens in 2024’s mystical, magical Starlings. Riding on the crest of Wills’ keyboard wave, its yearning poetic beauty promptly met its marrow in a devotional cover of The Smiths’ There Is A Light That Never Goes Out.
In keeping with last summer, Going For Gold segued into Elvis’s Suspicious Minds, this time embellished by both brass and a choral coda, before the Sheds’ answer to Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s Power Of Love, Let’s Go Dancing, the swaggering Getting Better and Parallel Lines, stretched to a maximum high, closed the set.
Still the “great ideas” kept a’coming in the encores. First up, a piano being wheeled on, centre stage, for Paul Banks.“I’ve never played piano on stage before, even though I play piano/ keys on all the records. Been too nervous to do it until now!” he said later.
Rick Witter and Paul Banks, at the piano, performing Your Guess Is As Good As Mine, the song they wrote aged 14, at Scarborough Open Air Theatre. Picture: Andy Little
Cue Better Days, and the next surprise, Your Guess Is As Good As Mine, written by Rick and Paul in Huntington School days and since performed at their acoustic duo gigs but never on piano, nor at a Sheds gig until now. Why the long wait? Your guess is as good as mine.
“Really loved playing it on Saturday,” Paul reflected afterwards. “I don’t think Rick and Paul aged 14 would have believed it.”
And what’s this? A band of drummers, Global Grooves, rehearsed by Maxi in Manchester, whose idea it was to bring them over the Pennines. All a matter of keeping time for extra oomph and visual drama in Talk Of The Town and Disco Down. Catch them again at Castlefield Bowl and Millennium Square.
Chasing Rainbows, what else, bade us farewell, sung into the salted sea air by one and all beyond the final bow and team photo of band, brass, choir and Rowetta. It had been a glittering night to match Rick’s shirt.
Beat that! The Global Grooves drummers playing in Shed Seven’s encores at Scarborough Open Air Theatre. Picture: Celestine Dubruel
Shed Seven set list, Scarborough Open Air Theatre, June 14, 8.45pm
Room In My House; Let’s Go; Speakeasy; Where Have You Been Tonight?; Ocean Pie; Starlings; There Is A Light That Never Goes Out (The Smiths cover); Dolphin; High Hopes; Bully Boy; In Ecstasy (with Rowetta); Going For Gold/Suspicious Minds (Mark James/Elvis Presley cover); On Standby; Let’s Go Dancing; Getting Better; Parallel Lines.
Encores: Better Days; Your Guess Is As Good As Mine; Talk Of The Town; Disco Down; Chasing Rainbows.
The poster for Shed Seven’s Live Summer 2025 series of outdoor concerts
Shed Seven, huts five: Heading to the Yorkshire coast for the York band’s Scarborough Open Air Theatre debut today
OPEN studios, chocolate tales, dinosaurs and reflections on time make for a typically diverse week ahead in Charles Hutchinson’s diary.
Coastal gig of the week: Shed Seven, Jake Bugg and Cast, Scarborough Open Air Theatre, tonight; gates open at 6pm
THE 2025 season of Cuffe & Taylor concerts in the bracing sea air of Scarborough is under way. After two chart-topping 2024 albums in their 30th anniversary year, York band Shed Seven make their belated Scarborough Open Air Theatre debut tonight, supported by Jake Bugg and Cast. Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.
Ric Liptrot: Taking part in North Yorkshire Open Studios at PICA Studios, Grape Lane, York, today and tomorrow
Festival of the week: North Yorkshire Open Studios, today and tomorrow, 10am to 5pm
MORE than 200 artists and makers are taking part in North Yorkshire Open Studios 2025. In and around York, look out for Helen Drye; Emma James; Alex Ash; Dee Thwaite; Veronica Ongara; Rachel Jones; Laura Duval; Karen Winship; Donna Maria Taylor; Di Gomery; Caroline Utterson; Jacqueline Warrington; Constance Isobel; Jill Tattersall and Adele Karmazyn.
Opening their studios too will be: Mo Nisbet; Robin Groveer-Jacques; Fran Brammer; Rob Burton; Jo Walton; Ric Liptrot; Rae George; Lu Mason; Lisa Power; Lesley Shaw; Katrina Mansfield; Evie Leach; Drawne Up; Sam Jones; Greenthwaite Sculptor (Janie Stevens); Sarah Schiewe Ceramics; Gonzalo Blanco, Gina Bean; Freya Horsley; Graham Jones; Justine Warner; Andrew Bloodworth and Steve Page. Full details can be found at nyos.org.uk.
Theatre Of Connections: Bringing to life the deep roots of chocolate’s story in IxCacao at York Theatre Royal Studio
Chocolate story of the week: Theatre Of Connections, IxCacao, York Theatre Royal Studio, today, 4pm
INSPIRED by the Mayan legend of the Cacao Goddess, IxCacao journeys into an ancient time when the Earth thrived under the care of matriarchs and the rhythm of nature. Movement, song, and storytelling combine in a reclamation of community, pleasure and ancestral knowledge in the face of domination: a reminder that joy is a revolutionary act and that true abundance is meant for all.
Theatre Of Connections, a York theatre group made up of “individuals from the global majority and people with refugee and asylum-seeker background”, brings to life the deep roots of chocolate’s story to honour the many who have carried its legacy forward. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Shepherd Group Brass Band : In concert at Joseph Rowntree Theatre
Brass concert of the week: Shepherd Group Brass Band Spring Concert, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, tonight, 7.30pm
FROM their Brass Roots through to their Championship section, the Shepherd Group Brass Band presents a mix of all genres of music, culminating in a grand finale when all band members play together on stage. Tickets update: Last few still available on 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
Robert Lloyd Parry: Telling tales from The Archive Of Dread at Theatre@41, Monkgate
Tales of terror of the week: Robert Lloyd Parry in The Archive Of Dread: Revisited, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, tonight, 7.30pm
IN late 2019, Southport storyteller Robert Lloyd Parry inherited the contents of a flat belonging to a dead man he had never met. The property was full of boxes, stuffed with chilling documents: letters, diaries, newspaper cuttings, notebooks and postcards. Filed in disarray, they all told impossible tales of terror.
After the stunning revelation of two of these documents in York last year, Lloyd Parry now begs leave to share more items from The Archive Of Dread. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Rock’n’looroll: The Dinosaur That Pooped: The Rock Show at Grand Opera House, York, tomorrow
Children’s show of the week: The Dinosaur That Pooped: A Rock Show, Grand Opera House, York, tomorrow, 12.30pm and 3.30pm
WHEN Danny and Dino’s favourite rock band announce their last ever concert, they go on a quest to acquire the last two tickets. However, a villainous band manager is lurking, so nothing goes to plan. Will the band perform? Will Danny rock out? Or will Dino’s rumbling tummy save the day?
Adapted from the number one best-selling books by McFly’s Tom Fletcher and Dougie Poynter, this new 60-minute stage show, directed by Miranda Larson, promises a “poopy good time” for all the family. Cue new songs by Fletcher and Poynter, loads of laughs and “a whole lot of poo”. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Singer Jessa Liversidge, left, and her poet sister Andrea Brown: Combining in A Tapestry Of Life at Theatre@41, Monkgate
Life, love and loss: Jessa Liversidge: A Tapestry Of Life, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, tomorrow, 6pm
EASINGWOLD singer, songwriter and community singing workshop champion Jessa Liversidge presents her 60-minute solo musical performance, inspired by Carole King’s album Tapestry.
Such much-loved songs as You’ve Got A Friend, Will You Love Me Tomorrow?, It’s Too Late, So Far Away, I Feel The Earth Move and Natural Woman will be interspersed with original songs, rooted in the powerful poetry of Jessa’s sister, Andrea Brown, from her Life, Love, Loss collection, reflecting on “life’s big themes of love and friendship and loss, situations and journeys, that every human can identify with”. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Comedian Raul Kohli: Exploring what it means to be British in Raul Britannia at Theatre@41, Monkgate
Comedy gig of the week: Raul Kohli: Raul Britannia, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, June 21, 8pm
COMEDIAN and proud Brit Raul Kohli is the son of a Hindu Indian and Sikh Singaporean, raised in Newcastle upon Tyne, where his best friend was a Pakistani Muslim.
Kohli has lived in every corner of this glorious nation and is fascinated by the diversity of these small isles. Imagine his surprise to hear from politicians and the media that “multiculturalism has failed”: the spark that lit the flame for his exploration of what it means to be British. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Poet Ian Parks: Performing in About Time Too at St Olave’s, Marygate, York, this evening
In Focus: York Festival of Ideas event of the day: Navigators Art presents About Time Too, St Olave’s, Marygate, York,today, 7pm
ABOUT Time Too rounds off a day of free talks celebrating time. Navigators Art’s evening concert features poetry readings, music and original song settings, including works by York-born poet W H Auden and Nobel Prize winner Seamus Heaney, together with time-related works by York writers and musicians.
Taking part will be Jane Stockdale, from White Sail; poet Ian Parks; electronic musicians Namke Productions; writer and University of York creative industries academic JT Welsch and poet and novelist Janet Dean Knight. Box office: bit.ly/nav-events.
Meanwhile, the Micklegate Arts Trail is in its final week, ending on Sunday (15/6/2025) with live music at The Falcon and The Hooting Owl at 2pm and 7pm, as well as works by 35 York artists in shops, cafes, pubs and restaurants.
Look out, in particular, for the display of 3D work in Holy Trinity church, curated by Navigators team member Nick Walters.
Navigators Art’s poster for Making Waves Live!, Sounds of the Solstice
In addition, the Making Waves exhibition is extending the Arts Trail into City Screen Picturehouse, Micklegate, where collage artist George Willmore has curated an exhibition by 20 further artists, including new and more familiar York names. The works are on show in the cafe and the first-floor corridor gallery until July 4.
All events are free and the trail and exhibition are open during business and licensing hours.
In the aftermath of the festival, Making Waves Live! Sounds of The Solsticein The Basement at City Screen Picturehouse will showcase some of Navigators Art’s favourite performers from the past two years of live events, complemented new friends, on June 21.
The first session will run from 4pm to 6.30pm; the second will start at 7.30pm after a break. “We’ve lined up a superb range of local poets, comedians, singers and bands in a celebratory midsummer festival,” says Navigators Art co-founder Richard Kitchen.
Taking part will be folk song duo Adderstone, poet Becca Drake, comedian Cooper Robson, storyteller Lara McClure, punk/jazz trio Borgia, psychedelic band Soma Crew and more. For full details and tickets (from Ticket Source), go to: bit.ly/nav-events.
Shed Seven, huts five: Scarborough Open Air Theatre awaits the York band this weekend
SHED Seven are off to the Yorkshire coast on Saturday for their “biggest ever headline show in their home county”, a long-overdue debut at Scarborough Open Air Theatre.
Joining York’s Britpop titans at the UK’s largest purpose-built outdoor concert arena will be special guests Jake Bugg and Cast.
“It’s been a dream of ours for some time to head out to the coast to play Scarborough OAT,” said Sheds frontman Rick Witter when tickets went on sale last October. “It’s a stunning and historic venue…Yorkshire’s very own Hollywood Bowl!
“It’s going to be a huge celebration following the success we had in 2024. Expect big hits and huge singalongs. See you down the front.”
In addition, Shed Seven will play either side of the Pennine divide for Sounds Of The City 2025, first at Castlefield Bowl, Manchester, on July 4, followed by a return to Leeds Millennium Square on July 11, having headlined the Sound Of The City bill there on July 15 2023. Ian Broudie’s Lightning Seeds and The Sherlocks will be on support duty on both nights.
The first question to ask Rick, after the annus mirabilis of the Sheds’ 30th anniversary year, is “what have you been up to since the chart-topping highs of 2024”?
“It’s been a bit of a quiet beginning to the year, but then suddenly it’s June!” he says. “I was best man to Paul [guitarist Paul Banks] at his wedding at the start of March, when he married Mel.
Rick Witter and guitarist Paul Banks performing on the first night of Shed Seven’s 30th anniversary celebrations at Live At York Museum Gardens last summer. Picture: David Harrison
“I sorted out his stag do, and then at the wedding I sang Chasing Rainbows, changing the words for the happy couple.”
Already the Sheds have played their first outdoor show of 2025, supporting Sheffield United fan Paul Heaton at his beloved Bramall Lane homecoming on May 25. “It wasn’t our gig, so we just rocked up and did our thing. Playing Chasing Rainbows to 28,000 was great,” says Rick.
Rehearsals for Scarborough and the summer season ahead took place on Monday and Tuesday before the Sheds headed to Norway to play Bergen. “We’re really looking forward to Scarborough. Yes, it’s not before time, but it’s worked in our favour because we could do the end-of-year 30th anniversary tour and then do the festivals this summer, knowing we needed to take a bit of a break in between.
“It’s nice not to have the pressure of having to sell albums this year. It’s more like a victory lap for us. We have some great ideas for the shows, but I can’t reveal them – though it could be in keeping with things like having the kids’ choir from our old school [Huntington School] singing with us in the Museum Gardens last summer. Something like that.”
The Sheds take pride in providing good value in the bills they have put together for Scarborough, Manchester and Leeds. “We always want to create as much value for money as we can get, while keeping prices as low as possible,” says Rick. “We talk with our booking agents and promoters, and thankfully all the acts we asked were more than happy to join the Shed Seven party.”
Shed Seven will be playing 14 festival and open-air shows this summer, not least a “career-spanning set” at Glastonbury festival on June 27. “It’s our first time there in 30 years, when we played possibly the NME stage. There was a huge crowd for us back then, and this time we’ll be on the Woodsies stage, which used to be the John Peel Stage, playing mid-afternoon on the Friday [5.15pm to 6pm to be precise].
“It’s going to be in a tent, which is nice because you know the audience are there for you, and the lighting show can be better.”
Reflecting on the maximum highs of 2024 – the brace of number one albums, the Museum Gardens concerts and 30th anniversary tour – Rick says: “What a year! At the end of the day, you never know what’s coming next with what you do, but we could sense something building over the last few years, and then everything seemed to align for us last year.
Shed Seven’s poster for Live Summer 2025 concerts at Scarborough Open Air Theatre, Manchester Castlefield Bowl and Leeds Millennium Square
“How incredible for it to happen in our 30th year, but the fact we are self-managed now and in control gave us our buzz, and we became the biggest we’d been since the mid-1990s.
“It got to the point in November [when on tour], where I was getting up, cleaning my teeth, looking in the mirror and thinking. ‘oh no, not you again’! But I think we’re very savvy as a band at knowing when to push it and when to step back.”
Rick continues: “I’m very proud that we’re among only 20 acts since 1953 to have two UK number one albums in one year – and no other indie guitar band has done it. It’s an exclusive club!”
Looking ahead, “in the down time, we’ll start writing for the next album for a couple of years’ time, with plans for a Shedcember tour at the back end of 2026”.
Rick finished this interview with a recollection from 1995. “We had nowhere to rehearse in York at the time, but Tom [Gladwin], the bass player, knew the owner of the Cockerill potato plant, on Hull Road, where there was a disused office just collecting dust.
“His son said, ‘if you want to go and write and record there’…and that’s where we put together the ideas for A Maximum High. Then B&Q bought the site, and where they now sell sheds at B&Q is the exact spot where Cockerills had that disused office. It’s like it was meant to be!”
Shed Seven play Scarborough Open Air Theatre, supported by Jake Bugg and Cast, June 14; gates open at 6pm. Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com/shedseven.
Making her point: Martha Godber’s Sally, left, in a contretemps with Chloe McDonald’s Nat as Emilio Encinoso-Gil’s Kyle seeks to intervene in John Godber’s Do I Love You?
CELEBRATIONS of Northern Soul and British comedy greats are right up Charles Hutchinson’s street for the week ahead.
Weekender of the week: John Godber Company in Do I Love You?, York Theatre Royal, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees; post-show discussion on June 13
THE John Godber Company is on its third tour of John Godber’s hymn to keeping the faith in Northern Soul, with the same cast of Martha Godber, Chloe McDonald and Emilio Encinoso-Gil.
Inspired by Godber’s devotion to Northern Soul, Do I Love You? follows three twentysomethings, slumped in the drudgery of drive-through counter jobs, who find excitement, purpose and their tribe as they head to weekenders all over, from Bridlington Spa to the Blackpool Tower Ballroom, Chesterfield to Stoke. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
The fez, the spectacles and the bow tie: Damian Williams’s Tommy Cooper, Bob Golding’s Eric Morecambe and Simon Cartwright’s Bob Monkhouse in The Last Laugh, on tour at the Grand Opera House, York
Comedy legends of the week: The Last Laugh, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm matinees today, tomorrow and Saturday
WHO will have The Last Laugh at the Grand Opera House when British comedy triumvirate Eric Morecambe, Tommy Cooper and Bob Monkhouse reconvene in a dressing room in Paul Hendy’s play?
Find out in the Edinburgh Fringe, West End and New York hit’s first tour stop as Bob Golding, Damian Williams and Simon Cartwright take on the iconic roles in this new work by the Evolutions Productions director, who just happens to write York Theatre Royal’s pantomimes too. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
One of the Famous Faces on show in the Artistic Spectrum exhibition at Pocklington Arts Centre
Exhibition of the week: Artistic Spectrum: Famous Faces, Pocklington Arts Centre, on show until June 27
BOLD artworks feature in Famous Faces, a powerful, large-scale portrait project from Artistic Spectrum, co-created with more than 100 neuro-divergent and Special Educational Needs children and adults across East and South Yorkshire to challenge perceptions, champion inclusivity and put the power of representation into the hands of those too often left out of the frame.
Developed in group workshops over several weeks, participants created striking portraits of people who inspired them, from musicians and sports stars to activists and screen icons, using collage, found materials and personal objects to make works rich with texture, colour and personal meaning.
Comedian Scott Bennett and his daughter in the promotional picture for Blood Sugar Baby, on tour in York and Pocklington
Storyteller of the week: Scott Bennett, Blood Sugar Baby, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, tonight, 8pm; Pocklington Arts Centre, August 6, 8pm
ONE family, one condition, one hell of a hairy baby: Scott Bennett, from The News Quiz, relates how his daughter fell ill with a rare genetic condition, congenital hyperinsulinism (CHI).
Never heard of it? Neither have new parents Scott and Jemma as they fight to achieve the right diagnosis for their daughter and are plunged into months of bewildering treatment, sleepless nights, celebrity encounters and bizarre side effects, but a happy ending ensues. Box office: York, tickets.41monkgate.co.uk; Pocklington, 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.
Shed Seven: Off to the Yorkshire coast on Saturday to play Scarborough Open Air Theatre
Coastal gigs of the week: The Corrs and Natalie Imbruglia, tonight; Gary Barlow and Beverley Knight, Friday; Shed Seven, Jake Bugg and Cast, Saturday, all at Scarborough Open Air Theatre; gates open at 6pm
THE 2025 season of Cuffe & Taylor concerts in the bracing sea air of Scarborough opens tonight with the Irish band The Corrs and Australian singer and Neighbours actress Natalie Imbruglia, followed by Take That and solo songwriter and The X Factor and Let It Shine judge Gary Barlow on his Songbook Tour 2025 on Friday, when Beverley Knight supports. Expect hits from both his band and Barlow back catalogues.
After two chart-topping 2024 albums in their 30th anniversary year, York band Shed Seven make their belated Scarborough Open Air Theatre debut on Saturday, supported by Jake Bugg and Cast. Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.
Henry Blofeld: Wickets and wit in cricket chat at Helmsley Arts Centre
The sound of reporting on leather on willow: An Audience With Henry Blofeld, Sharing My Love Of Cricket, Helmsley Arts Centre, tomorrow, 7.30pm, rearranged from March 21
LEGENDARY BBC broadcaster and journalist, Henry Blofeld, former stalwart of the BBC’s Test Match Special commentary box, takes a journey through modern cricket, while looking back at the great games of yesteryear.
Blowers reflects on how cricket used to be and where it is headed: the theme of his September 2024 book Sharing My Love Of Cricket: Playing The Game And Spreading The Word, wherein he explores the big shifts, innovations and challenges facing the game. Box office: helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Saul Henry: On the Funny Fridays bill at Patch at the Bonding Warehouse, York
York comedy bill of the week: Funny Fridays at Patch, Bonding Warehouse, Terry Avenue, York, Friday, 7.30pm
THE second Funny Fridays comedy night at Patch features Saul Henry, Gemma Day, Ethan Formstone, Lucy Buckley and headliner Jack Wilson, hosted by founder and comedian Katie Lingo.
Formstone’s profile reveals he is a bricklayer from York, who grew bored and now, “using his natural stage presence and wild imagination, lays surreal stories that will delight you and leave you slightly confused”. Tickets: eventbrite.co.uk/e/funny-fridays-at-patch-tickets-1353208666549?aff=oddtdtcreator.
The poster for the SatchVai Band’s Surfing With The Hydra Tour, visiting York Barbican on Friday
Rock gig of the week: SatchVai Band, Surfing With The Hydra Tour 2025, York Barbican, Friday, doors 7pm
FOR the first time in nigh on 50 years of playing rock, guitarists and friends Joe Satriani and Steve Vai have united to tour as the SatchVai Band, opening their European travels in York before heading to London, Paris, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Istanbul and Athens.
Powerhouse drummer Kenny Aronoff, bassist Marco Mendoza and virtuoso guitarist Pete Thorn complete the stellar quintet. Box office: for returns only, yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Alex telling her story in EGO Arts’ You Know My Mum at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, on Friday
Cheeky comedy of life, loss and love for all the family:EGO Arts in You Know My Mum, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, Friday, 7.30pm.
LEADING EGO Midlands Creative Academy’s disabled and neuro-divergent cast, Alex is a 25-year-old woman with Down’s syndrome struggling with the death of her mum. One day, she discovers Bluey, a baby Blue Tit, in her garden.
While Bluey learns about fried chicken factories and joins a boot camp for birds, Alex battles Harry Potter monsters and dreams about life after death. As her wild imagination comes to life, she learns that the love she thought she lost is all around her. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Kiki Dee & Carmelo Ruggeri: Heading to All Saints Church, Pocklington on The Long Ride Home tour
FOUR nights of Greg Davies and tenth visit of Willy Russell’s Blood Brothers are the headline acts in Charles Hutchinson’s bill for cultural satisfaction.
Acoustic duo of the week: Kiki Dee & Carmelo Luggeri, All Saints Church, Pocklington, tonight, 7.30pm
JOIN Bradford-born singer Kiki Dee and guitarist Carmelo Luggeri for an acoustic journey through their songs and stories, taking in songs from 2022 album The Long Ride Home, Kate Bush and Frank Sinatra covers and hits from Kiki’s 55 years and more in the music business, Don’t Go Breaking My Heart, Star, I Got The Music In Me, Loving & Free and Amoureuse. Box office: kikiandcarmelo.com.
Brighouse & Rastrick Band: A blast of brass on Sunday afternoon at Pocklington Arts Centre
Brass concert of the week: Brighouse & Rastrick Band, Pocklington Arts Centre, tomorrow, 2pm
FOREVER associated with 1977 number two hit and “unofficial encore” The Floral Dance, West Yorkshire’s Brighouse & Rastrick Band presents a concert suitable for casual listener and connoisseur alike.
The majority of premier band championships have been held by ‘Briggus’, most recently becoming the 2022 British Open and Brass in Concert champions. ‘Briggus’ are noted too for collaborations outside the brass band tradition, from the late Terry Wogan to Kate Rusby, classical actor Simon Callow to The Unthanks at York Minster in 2012. Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.
Tom Holland: Hailing Caesars at Grand Opera House, York
History lesson of the week: Tom Holland, The Lives Of The Caesars, Grand Opera House, York, Sunday, 7.30pm
THE Rest Is History podcaster and storyteller Tom Holland journeys back to the Roman empire to “get up close and personal” with Caesar, Augustus, Caligula and Nero as he spotlights the lives of the first 12 Roman emperors in conversation with Martha Kearney.
In this supreme arena, emperors had no choice but to fight, to thrill, to dazzle, as highlighted in Holland’s new Penguin Classics translation of Suetonius’s Lives Of The Twelve Caesars. Expect revelations of the emperors’ shortfalls, sex scandals, tastes, foibles and eccentricities. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Vivienne Carlyle’s Mrs Johnstone and Sean Jones’s Mickey in Willy Russell’s Blood Brothers, on tour at Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Jack Merriman
Musical of the week: Blood Brothers, Grand Opera House, York, April 1 to 5, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday matinees
WILLY Russell’s Liverpool musical makes its tenth visit to the Grand Opera House, and despite Sean Jones’s appearance in the 2022 tour being billed as his “last ever” after 23 years on and off as Mrs Johnstone’s son Mickey, here he is once more, still “running around as a seven-year-old in a baggy green jumper and short trousers” at 54.
Scottish actress Vivienne Carlyle, who played Mrs Lyons on her previous Blood Brothers visit to York, takes the role of Mrs J in Russell’s moving tale of twins separated at birth, who grow up on the opposite sides of the tracks, only to meet again with tragic consequences. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Curiouser and curiouser: Pick Me Up Theatre in The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York
Play of the week: Pick Me Up Theatre in The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, April 1 to 5,7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday
ANDREW Isherwood directs York company Pick Me Up Theatre in Simon Stephens’s stage adaptation of Mark Haddon’s story of Christopher Boone (Jonathan Wells), a 15-year-old boy with an extraordinary brain Exceptionally gifted at Maths, he finds everyday life and interaction with other people very confusing.
Christopher has never ventured alone beyond the end of his road, hates being touched and deeply distrusts strangers, but everything changes when he falls under suspicion for killing his neighbour’s dog, propelling him on a journey of self-discovery that upturns his world. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Greg Davies: Milking it in his Full Fat Legend stand-up show
Comedy gigs of the week: Greg Davies: Full Fat Legend, York Barbican, April 2 to 5,
TOWERING comedian Greg Davies plays York Barbican for a full-fat four nights on his Full Fat Legend Tour, his first on British soil for seven years.
The 6ft 8 inch star of Taskmaster, The Inbetweeners, The Cleaner, Never Mind The Buzzcocks, Man Down and Cuckoo is undertaking his biggest stand-up tour to date. He last played York Barbican on November 1 and 2 2017 on his You Magnificent Beast tour, his first travels for four years. Tickets update: Sold out; for returns only, go to yorkbarbican.co.uk. Davies’s Hull Connexin Live shows on June 3 and 4 and at Leeds First Direct Arena on June 20 are sold out too.
Daniel Wilmot’s Count Dracula in Baron Productions’ Dracula at St Mary’s Church, Bishophill Junior, York
High stakes of the week: Baron Productions in Dracula, St Mary’s Church, Bishophill Junior, York, April 3 to 5, 7.30pm
FOUNDER and director Daniel Wilmot makes it Count when starring as the mysterious Dracula in York company Baron Productions’ account of Bram Stoker’s Gothic masterpiece in one of York’s most atmospheric churches.
When Jonathan Harker (Jack McAdam) embarks on a business trip to Count Dracula’s Transylvanian castle, little does he know the terror that awaits him. Guided by the wise Professor Van Helsing (Lee Gemmell), a courageous group must gamble their lives, even their very souls, to stop Dracula’s evil plans to enslave the world. Box office: ticketsource.co.uk/baron-productions.
Pianist Ian Pace
Classical concert of the week: York Late Music presents The Beethoven Project: Ian Pace, Unitarian Chapel, St Saviourgate, April 5, 7.30pm
IN the second of The Beethoven Project concerts for York Late Music, pianist Ian Pace continues his exploration of Beethoven’s nine symphonies (transcribed by Franz Liszt) with his iconic Pastoral Symphony No. 6.
The programme also includes Michael Finnissy’s English Country Tunes (1-3), Beethoven’s Six Goethe-Lieder (transcribed by Liszt) and a new work of three musical tributes by Steve Crowther, Rock With Stock, A Study In Glass and Louis’ Angry Blues. Box office: latemusic.org/product/ian-pace-concert-tickets/ or on the door.
The poster for the new additions to Lightning Seeds’ Tomorrow’s Here Today 35 Years Greatest Hits Tour
Gig announcement of the week: Lightning Seeds, Tomorrow’s Here Today 35 Years Greatest Hits Tour, York Barbican, October 9, doors 7pm
LIVERPOOL singer, songwriter and producer Ian Broudie is extending Lightning Seeds’ 35th anniversary tour with 11 more dates this autumn. Here come Pure, The Life Of Riley, Change, Lucky You, Sense, All I Want, Sugar Coated Iceberg, You Showed Me, Emily Smiles, Three Lions and many more from his 20-track Tomorrow’s Here Today: 35 Years Of Lightning Seeds compilation album. This summer, Lightning Seeds will support York band Shed Seven at Millennium Square, Leeds, on July 11. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Our Star Theatre Company’s tour poster for Hannay Stands Fast
In Focus: Our Star Theatre Company in Hannay Stands Fast, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York
OUR Star Theatre Company cut a dash at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, on Thursday and Friday in Hannay Stands Fast, the sequel to The 39 Steps.
Adapted by David Edgar from John Buchan’s novel, this rip-roaring comedy finds dashing hero Richard Hannay back in the fray on a mission to thwart a new and deadly threat to his beloved England.
Engaged on this top-secret case by MI5, Hannay makes his way down to Cornwall to infiltrate a secretive organisation and learn their dastardly plans. Can he save the day to keep the nation safe for another day? Cue derring-do, utter chaos and laughs aplenty in a show replete with a train, motorbike, ambulance, car, police vehicle, even a horse.
“Like for our production of The 39 Steps, Hannay Stands Fast is taken on by four actors playing dozens of characters – 53 to be precise! – set in various locations created through quick and innovative uses of trunks, crates, suitcases, ladders, you name it!” says director Ben Mowbray, who founded the Ledbury, Herefordshire company in 2016.
Our Star Theatre Company are visiting York on the debut UK tour of the British professional premiere of Hannay Stands Fast with a cast of George Cooper as Hannay and Angharad Mortimer in her company debut as Mary Lambington (and others), joined by the multi-role-playing Daniel Davies and Mowbray as First and Second Clown.
Our Star Theatre Company in Hannay Stands Fast, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, April 3 and 4, 7.30pm. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
Ian Broudie: 35 years of Lightning Seeds at York Barbican. Picture: Peter Ashworth
LIVERPOOL singer, songwriter and producer Ian Broudie is extending Lightning Seeds’ 35th anniversary tour with 11 more dates this autumn, taking in York Barbican on October 9. Tickets go on sale on Friday at 10am at https://www.yorkbarbican.co.uk/whats-on/the-lightning-seeds/.
The first tranche of Tomorrow’s Here Today: 35 Years Greatest Hits Tour dates took in Scarborough Spa Grand Hall last November and The Welly, Hull, and Leeds Beckett Students’ Union in December among 22 sold-out shows to accompany the release of the 20-track Tomorrow’s Here Today compilation album.
Broudie, 66, says: “Wow, I can’t believe it’s been 35 years! Our first single Pure really opened the door to a life’s worth of songs, shows and recordings. I owe everything to Pure and I’m really looking forward to celebrating the 35th anniversary of its release.”
Here come Pure, The Life Of Riley, Change, Lucky You, Sense, All I Want, Sugar Coated Iceberg, You Showed Me, Emily Smiles, Three Lions et al and many more, not only at York Barbican but also in a second Yorkshire gig at Holmfirth Picturedrome on October 11 (box office: picturedrome.net).
Earlier in 2025, Lightning Seeds will support York band Shed Seven at Millennium Square, Leeds, on July 11.
The poster for Lightning Seeds’ extended Tomorrow’s Here Today 35 Years Greatest Hits Tour, visiting York Barbican on October 9
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.
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
