SHEFFIELD soul stalwart Paul Carrack will play York Barbican on February 17 2022 on his 24-date Good And Ready Tour.
Further Yorkshire gigs are in next year’s diary for Hull City Hall on January 22 and a home-city finale on March 19.
Carrack, the golden voice of Ace’s How Long, Squeeze’s Tempted and Mike + The Mechanics’ The Living Years and Over My Shoulder, will release new single You’re Not Alone on Friday (19/2/2021) across all digital platforms via his independent label, Carrack-UK.
The live years before Covid: Paul Carrack at York Barbican in February 2018. Picture: Simon Bartle
His 18th studio set of a 50-year career, One On One, will follow in the summer, on a date yet to be confirmed for his first album since These Days in 2018, a year when he performed at York Barbican on February 16.
The single and album are the results of Carrack heading into his recording studio since the first pandemic lockdown in March 2020. He not only wrote, recorded and produced every song on One On One, but he also played all of the instruments, making his latest work the very definition of a solo record, made when he was very much alone.
Carrack, who will turn 70 on April 22, says of You’re Not Alone: “I’d say the song is self-explanatory, but the sentiment is one of unquestioning commitment and support. I very much hope I get the chance to perform this song live with my band when we get the green light to start touring again, which we all hope will be at some point this year.”
Tickets for his York Barbican show are on sale at £42.75 to £48.35 at yorkbarbican.co.uk; Hull tickets, hulltheatres.co.uk; Sheffield, sheffieldcityhall.co.uk.
“I’d say the song is self-explanatory, but the sentiment is one of unquestioning commitment and support,” says Paul Carrack, introducing his new single, You’re Not Alone
This will be the last time: The Stranglers’ bass player JJ Burnel and guitarist Baz Warne will play Leeds next February on their Final UK Tour
THE Stranglers are putting back their Final Full UK Tour for a second time, moving their April 26 gig at Leeds O2 Academy to February 12 next year.
In a statement from the veteran punk-era alumni, they say: “We are, once again, incredibly saddened to confirm that we have had no alternative but to reschedule the planned 2021 spring tour.
“This decision has not been taken lightly, especially as the tour has already been moved back, but the ongoing issues surrounding the Covid pandemic are continuing to play havoc with live music.
“Due to the uncertainty around the tightening of lockdown regulations in the UK and the rollout of the vaccinations over the coming months, it was decided that the tour should be postponed until early 2022.”
The statement continues: “It has been an immense challenge to move the tour again but ultimately we are determined to make it happen as planned from the outset.
The poster for The Final Full UK Tour 2022 by The Stranglers, taking in Leeds O2 Academy on February 12 and Sheffield City Hall on February 24 next year
“After almost a year of inactivity on the road, the band are all chomping at the bit to get back to playing live but our safety, as well as that of the crew and fans, is of paramount importance.”
The Leeds concert already had been rearranged from November 12 2020, and tickets remain valid for the new date after the second delay.
“We hope you understand that we have been left with no other choice and, believe us, we share your disappointment,” say the band, led by bassist and lead vocalist JJ Burnel. “Look forward to seeing you all on the road next year.”
The Final UK Tour 2022 will be In Memory of Dave: long-serving keyboard player Dave Greenfield, who died on May 3 last year, aged 71.
The Stranglers are promising an extensive, full-production tour on “the last time they play together in this format” on a 24-date itinerary, performing songs spanning their 45-year catalogue of 23 British top 40 singles and 17 top 40 albums. “Fans can expect to hear all the classics and get the full rock’n’roll experience for one final time,” they say.
Tour support will come from Ruts DC. Ticket information can be found at: https://academymusicgroup.com/o2academyleeds/events/1300610/stranglers-tickets
Let’s just hope Something Better Change soon on the Coronavirus front to ensure the final tour will finally go ahead.
“It is especially exciting to delve back in time and revitalise two standout albums from my career,” says Midge Ure, ahead of next year’s Voices & Visions tour
MIDGE Ure & Band Electronica will open next year’s Voice & Visions Tour at the Grand Opera House, York, on February 22.
Scotsman Ure, 67, will be marking 40 years since the release of Ultravox’s Rage In Eden and Quartet albums in September 1981 and October 1982 respectively.
Ure & Band Electronica last played the Opera House on October 20 2019 on The 1980 Tour, when Ultravox’s 1980 album, Vienna, was performed in its entirety for the first time in four decades, complemented by highlights from Visage’s debut album, as Ure recalled the year when he co-wrote, recorded and produced the two future-sounding records.
Such was the “overwhelming response” to that retro excursion, Ure will reprise the nostalgia trip for 2022’s Voice & Visions Tour.
In the wake of the global success of Vienna, Ultravox headed back into the studio to record their second album with Ure as frontman, Rage In Eden, a top five entry in Autumn 1981, replete with the singles The Thin Wall and The Voice.
Midge Ure: Three Yorkshire dates on his Voice & Visions tour in 2022
Quartet, their third studio set with Ure, arrived in quick succession with production by The Beatles’ producer, George Martin, no less. It became their third top ten album, boosted by four top 20 singles, Reap The Wild Wind, Hymn, Visions In Blue and We Came To Dance.
Voice & Visions will recall the era of Eighties’ electronics, experimentation and synthesisers in a show that will combine both albums’ highlights with landmark songs from Ure’s back catalogue.
Looking forward to his 2022 travels, Ure says: “I can’t begin to tell you how great it will feel to be back out touring and it is especially exciting to delve back in time and revitalise two standout albums from my career, Rage In Eden and Quartet. This is the logical and emotional follow-up to The 1980 Tour.”
Next year’s tour itinerary also will take in Hull Bonus Arena on February 24 and Sheffield City Hall on March 22. Tickets will go on general sale on Friday (22/1/2021): York, at atgtickets.com/york; Hull, bonusarenahull.com; Sheffield, sheffieldcityhall.co.uk.
Ure & Band Electronica will be completing a hattrick of gigs at the Opera House after first appearing there in November 2017, headlining a 1980s’ triple bill with The Christians and Altered Images.
Grayson Perry, dressed as his transvestite alter ego, Claire, announces A Show For Normal People, his 2021 tour
AFTER an anything but normal year, otherwise known as the year of the new normal – alas destined to stretch into 2021 – here comes outré artist, potter and social commentator Grayson Perry’s York-bound live show.
In his own words: Despite being an award-winning artist, Bafta-winning TV presenter, Reith lecturer and best-selling author, Grayson Perry is a normal person – and just like other normal people, he is “marginally aware that we’re all going to die”.
Cue Grayson Perry: A Show For Normal People, booked into York Barbican for September 6 on night number five of next year’s 23-date tour. Sheffield City Hall awaits on September 10; Harrogate Convention Centre on November 27.
What will be on the 2003 Turner Prize winner’s mind? “Let Grayson take you through an enlightening and eye-watering evening in which this kind of existentialism descends from worthiness to silliness. You’ll leave safe and warm in the knowledge that nothing really matters anyway,” his show patter promises.
“Join Grayson as he asks, and possibly answers, these big questions in an evening sure to distract you from the very meaninglessness of life in the way only a man in a dress can.”
Grayson Perry’s tour poster for next autumn’s travels
Born in Chelmsford, Essex, in 1960, Perry has had an artistic career spanning 40 years, revealing a diverse expertise in “making lemonade out of the mundanity of life”.
Such as? In 2015, he designed A House For Essex, a permanent building constructed in the North Essex countryside. In the early weeks of Lockdown 1 2020, his Channel 4 show, Grayson’s Art Club, brought the nation together through art as he exhorted and celebrated the making of new works, vowing to “battle the boredom of isolation” with a weekly theme from his London studio.
This autumn, Grayson Perry’s Big American Road Trip, his three-part documentary travelogue on Channel 4, explored the meaning of the American Dream in today’s disunited USA.
Tickets for Grayson Perry: A Show For Normal People go on sale tomorrow morning (27/11/2020) at 10am online only at yorkbarbican.co.uk.
This will not be the only Grayson Perry show in York in 2021. His Covid-crocked 2020 exhibition of “lost pots” at York Art Gallery will now run from May 28 to September 5 next year.
“It’s as near as I will ever get to meeting myself as a young man, an angrier, priapic me with huge energy but a much smaller wardrobe,” says Grayson Perry of his Pre-Therapy Years exhibition, re-scheduled for 2021 in York
This major new display of Perry’s earliest works, Grayson Perry: The Pre-Therapy Years, will be showcased in the Centre of Ceramic Art (CoCA).
Developed by the Holburne Museum in Bath, the touring exhibition is the first to celebrate Perry’s earliest forays into the art world, reintroducing the “explosive and creative works” he made between 1982 and 1994.
The 70 works have been crowd-sourced through a national public appeal, resulting in these “lost pots” being assembled for display together for the first time since they were made.
“This show has been such a joy to put together,” said Perry, when the show was first announced. “I’m really looking forward to seeing these early works again, many of which I have not seen since the Eighties.
“It’s as near as I will ever get to meeting myself as a young man, an angrier, priapic me with huge energy but a much smaller wardrobe.”
Cocktail Party, 1989, one of Grayson Perry’ s “lost pots” from The Pre-Therapy Years show
The Pre-Therapy Years show should have been the centre of attention at CoCA from June 12 to September 20 this year, but the Coronavirus pandemic intervened.
Now, Perry devotees can look to the horizon, awaiting the arrival of his pots in York next May.The exhibition will shine a light on Perry’s experimentation and exploration of the potential of pottery to address radical issues and human stories.
The 70 works will provide an opportunity to enjoy his clever, playful and politically engaged perspective on the world as these often challenging and explicit pieces reveal his early steps towards becoming a compelling commentator on contemporary society.
From his first plate, Kinky Sex (1983), to his early vases made in the mid-80s, Perry riffed on British vernacular traditions to create a language of his own. The themes of his later work – fetishism, gender, class, his home county of Essex and the vagaries of the art world – appear in these early works, marked by their urgent energy.
CoCA first exhibited a Grayson Perry ceramic, Melanie, in July 2015 as its centrepiece talking point after York Art Gallery’s £8 million transformation. Melanie later featured in York Art Gallery’s re-opening exhibition, Your Art Gallery – Paintings Chosen By You, this summer into autumn.
Brydon and band: Rob Brydon’s poster for next year’s Songs & Laughter tour
WOULD I lie to you? Actor, comedian, impressionist, presenter and holiday-advert enthusiast Rob Brydon is to play with a band in York. It’s…true!
Yes, Brydon and his eight-piece band will take to the road next year for 20 dates with his new show, Rob Brydon: A Night of Songs & Laughter, visiting York Barbican on April 14 on his second tour to combine songs and music with his trademark wit and comedy.
Expect Brydon interpretations varying from fellow Welshman Tom Jones to Tom Waits, Guys And Dolls to Elvis Presley, and almost everything in between, plus a visit or two to his famed gallery of voices.
“I’m so excited to get back on stage with this show,” says Brydon, 55. “Touring with this incredible band of musicians is such a delight. I’m looking forward to getting around the country next year and bring some much-needed music and laughter.”
Brydon’s varied career began with the television comedy shows Marion And Geoff and Human Remains in 2000, bringing him a British Comedy Award. Since then, he has made his cheeky mark in Gavin & Stacey, Black Books and Little Britain and as the host of Would I Lie To You?, as well as trading insults with fellow humorist Steve Coogan on The Trip mockumentary travel shows, whose fourth series, The Trip To Greece, has been confirmed as their last.
Last Christmas, he starred in the biggest ratings hit of the season, the one-off return of Gavin & Stacey, and voiced the BBC One animated special The Snail And The Whale.
“People often say to me, ‘I didn’t know you could sing’, and yet I have sung a lot,” says Rob Brydon
Brydon has appeared in such dramas as Oliver Twist, Heroes And Villains: Napoleon, The Way We Live Now, Murder In Mind and Marple and the films 24 Hour Party People, MirrorMask, A Cock And Bull Story and Swimming With Men.
In 2009, he joined Gavin & Stacey co-star Ruth Jones, Robin Gibb and Sir Tom Jones on the number one hit Islands In The Stream in aid of Comic Relief.
Past tours include the 87-date Rob Brydon Live stand-up itinerary and nationwide travels with Would I Lie To You? team captains Lee Mack and David Mitchell. On February 26, he set off on his sold-out Rob Brydon: Songs And Stories tour, only to be stopped in his tracks by the Coronavirus lockdown.
Before setting out on a tour that featured songs by Stephen Sondheim, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Paul Simon et al, Brydon said of that show: “It will take some people by surprise. There are so many media outlets nowadays that some people might only know me from Gavin & Stacey and Would I Lie To You?.
“Those people often say to me, ‘I didn’t know you could sing’, and yet I have sung a lot. I hope this show is a very pleasant surprise for audiences.” The same sentiment surely will apply to next year’s An Evening Of Song & Laughter tour that will take in further Yorkshire dates at St George’s Hall, Bradford on April 12 and Sheffield City Hall on April 23.
The 5ft 7inch Brydon last appeared at York Barbican for two nights of his improvised stand-up show, I Am Standing Up, in October 2017. Tickets for his return are on sale at yorkbarbican.co.uk; Bradford, 01274 432000 or at bradford-theatres.co.uk; Sheffield, 0114 2 789 789 or sheffieldcityhall.co.uk.
Paloma Faith: Spent the enforced downtime of lockdown “just thinking about the world”
PALOMA Faith will release her fifth studio album, Infinite Things, on Friday the 13th of November, to be supported by a tour…but not until Autumn 2021.
Among the 26 dates will be October 3 at Harrogate Convention Centre, or “Conversion Centre” as you could call it temporarily, now that it forms part of the Harrogate Nightingale Hospital for the Covid-19 pandemic.
London singer, songwriter and actor Paloma, who announced her second pregnancy yesterday, wrote most of the songs for Infinite Things before Coronavirus stalked the world. Once sent into lockdown, however, she ripped them all up and started afresh.
The artwork for Paloma Faith’s November 13 album, Infinite Things. Notice her lack of Faith in it…
She spent her enforced downtime creating, learning to engineer her own music and “just thinking about the world”. Those fruitful months taught her she had been on “a sort of conveyor belt of music and promo”, like “a rat on a wheel”, but lockdown instead gave her “the space to take stock of her frenetic career and to decide what was meaningful to her”.
Paloma, 39, has re-emerged with a new sense of her priorities, leading her to re-connect with her roots, steeped in creativity, says the one-time art student.
For Infinite Things, she worked with a small group of long-time and new collaborators: producers Patrick Wimberly and Detonate; songwriters Ed Harcourt, Starsmith and Tre Jean Marie; producer and songwriter MNEK and friendJosef Salvat, an Australian singer-songwriter.
The poster for Paloma’s The Infinite Things Tour 2021
The resulting album on the RCA Records label offers a rumination on sickness and loss and addresses how to find your way back to romance within a long-term relationship.“It’s love songs for people who are there to stay,” Paloma says. “That enduring love. Warts and all. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a love song like that, actually.”
Last week, she released the video for first single Better Than This, wherein director David Wilson’s imagery places her against “a backdrop of vignettes of human error that historically continuously repeat”.
First single Better Than This: Accompanied by a video filmed in Hackney, Paloma’s home turf
Shot in Paloma’s home manor of Hackney in a single uncut take, Wilson’s video sees her shine a light on such prevalent concerns as the climate emergency, police brutality, race and class divide and the injustices of war.
Paloma’s September 16 to October 25 tour next year will take in Yorkshire gigs at Sheffield City Hall, September 28, Harrogate Convention Centre, October 3, and Hull Bonus Arena, October 7.
Tickets go on general sale on Friday, October 2 at 10am at gigsandtours.com, ticketmaster.co.uk and palomafaith.com. Josef Salvat will be her special guest.
