YORK spoken-word poet, performer and cheesemonger Stu Freestone will launch his debut poetry collection, The Lights That Blur Between, at The Crescent on March 30.
A co-founder and associate artist of Say Owt, York’s “collective of gobby northern poets” since 2014, he writes in a playful style founded in everyday moments in works that walk the line between between grit and gentleness.
Or as Barmby Moor surrealist comedian Rob Auton puts it: “There’s so much momentum in Stu’s words. The images sprint into your head and your brain is a better place for it.”
Drawing from family stories, kitchen tables, pub corners and stages across the country, his poetry “celebrates ordinary lives with extraordinary care,” says Stu. “Blending conversational humour with emotional honesty, the writing explores love, loss, resilience, and the quiet lights that carry us through.”
The Lights That Blur Between has been written over more than a decade, shaped on stage and finally brought together “somewhere between a notebook, a pint and a deep breath”.
“The collection explores the nostalgia of adolescence, relationships and grief, and the ongoing work of processing life, as well as the occasional – and necessary – detours into the comedic themes of condiment addiction, festival trips gone wrong, cheesemonger battle raps and the perils of ‘after work’ drinking,” says Stu, summarising his “honest portrayal of life experiences”.
The cover artwork for Stu Freestone’s The Lights That Blur Between. The sea, its vastness and restorative powers, feature emotively in his writing
Freestone has performed across the UK, including multiple runs at the Edinburgh Fringe, and was shortlisted for Best Spoken Word Performer at the Saboteur Awards in 2015. He has shared stages with internationally renowned artists such as Shane Koyczan, Hollie McNish, Sage Francis, B. Dolan, Dizrael, and Harry Baker and has recorded live sessions for BBC Introducing and BBC Upload.
Now comes his debut book launch, promising an evening of powerful performance and heartfelt storytelling, including two sets from Stu, one accompanied by a band featuring guitarist (and shoemaker) Simone Focarelli, accordionist Ben Crosthwaite and drummer Joe Douglas, plus support slots from York performance poet and political satirist Sarah Armitage and emotive Grantham singer-songwriter Adam Leeson.
“It’s amazing really,” says Stu, reflecting on the book’s completion. “It’s been a journey since 2012-2013 to now, where I’ve always thought I should have done it before, but the writing wouldn’t be same.
“I’ve had a lot more experiences to collate into my writing, so there are more meaningful tendencies to what I want to write about: whether nostalgia or re-living that nostalgia, or resilience or getting over grief: things I had not experienced back then. So it’s ‘me on a page’ on 100 pages and it’s nice to have that proof in my hand, in the book, which is very different to having it on my laptop.”
Stu’s poetry differs in print from live performance too. “There’s a massive contrast because I was very aware of how to transpose it to the page, and where it would need an edit to a make it more book-friendly,” he says.
“There are pieces that have evolved for the page or been written expressly for the page. There is therapy here, from both the reader’s perspective and mine, where I feel I’m confiding in them amid the grief of everyday life, when there are things that don’t get spoken about in the spoken-word performance environment.
Stu Freestone’s self-portrait from The Lights That Blur Between as he looks at himself in the mirror
“The book is basically saying we’re all the same in how we grow through memories, reflecting on those nostalgic moments but then contrasting that with the everyday processes of normal life: the things that others don’t see.”
The book is divided into four sections: adolescent reflection, mental health, then comedic works that “try to find the light in life” and finally, our relationship with loss, encapsulated in Before The Lights Go Out and the closing poem, title work The Lights That Blur Between.
“We try to get through loss with courage and empathy, where we can grow from our memories, but inevitably we walk through these lines between ‘breaking’ and ‘becoming’,” says Stu.
“I lost a friend, Nick,to suicide two years ago and wrote Before The Lights Go Out as an ode to our home town of Grantham and then the desperate bleakness of him no longer being there. The only thing I can take peace from is he achieved what he need to achieve, which sounds very dark, when he felt help was not an option.
“I’m 40 now, and to have lost as many people as I have in my close circle is very unlucky, so it’s an interesting place for me to try to find the perspective on that. I’ve done that through processing and writing, and I’ve written poems that aren’t in the book that are angry, but the ones in there that mean most to me are testament to trying to find positivity, for men to know that it’s OK to talk. That’s why we’ll be fund-raising for CALM, the Campaign Against Living Miserably charity.”
Stu’s trademark playful positivity surges through two poems in particular, Bliss, his hymn to York, his home since York St John University days in 2005, and Heed The Cheese, a nod to his other life running The Cheese Trader in Grape Lane. “I wanted to write a ‘univocalic’ poem, where every word uses only one specific vowel, so it had to be ‘E’ for cheese!” he reasons.
It strikes the only cheesy note in the book.
York Literature Festival and Say Owt present Stu Freestone, The Lights That Blur Between: book launch, The Crescent, York, March 30, doors 7pm. Box office: yorkliteraturefestival.co.uk or https://thecrescentyork.com/events/say-owt-stu-freestone-book-launch/.
Darren Walsh: Puns by the punnet load at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York
A PLETHORA of puns, a dysfunctional American family musical, an alien invasion in film and theatre and a bakery burlesque night confirm variety is the spice of Charles Hutchinson’s arts life.
Comedy show like no other, bar pun: Darren Walsh: Do You Like Puns?, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, tonight, 8pm
WITNESS a pun Goliath in person when Darren Walsh brings his 8ft frame to York for his Do You Like Puns? show. Noted for his Jokes On The Street series on social media, he combines sound effects, videos, one-liners and improvised jokes spun off audience suggestions. “Book now, li is two short,” he says. Think about it. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Pianist David Hammond
Classical concert of the week: York Late Music: David Hammond, Unitarian Chapel, St Saviourgate, York, today, 1pm
PIANIST David Hammond’s recital celebrates Yorkshire and northern composers, brought together in an afternoon programme full of musical storytelling, ranging in mood and imagery from Patrick John Jones’s Eel and the world premiere of James Else’s Kitten’s Prelude, to butterflies, letters and birthday cards in works by Dawn Walters and Nicola LeFanu.
Two further world premieres, a new James Williamson piece, alongside Scarlatti’s Cat’s Fugue, echo the animal thread and electronic elements feature in Jake Adams’s Thirty In Eight, adding a contemporary edge to Hammond’s typically imaginative combination of local voices, strong themes and plenty of character. Tickets: latemusic.org or on the door.
Catrin Mai Edwards’ Martha, left, Estella Evans’ Mary Lennox and Dexter Pulling’s Colin in The Secret Garden The Musical at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Marc Brenner
Actor-musician show of the week: The Secret Garden The Musical, York Theatre Royal, until April 4
TONY Award-winning director John Doyle, artistic director of York Theatre Royal from 1993 to 1997, returns to pastures past in more ways than one to present his actor-musician staging of Lucy Simon and Marsha Norman’s Broadway musical account of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s story of love, loss, healing and hope, set on Yorkshire moorland in 1906.
Newly orphaned, Mary Lennox is sent to live with her widowed uncle at the secluded Misselthwaite Manor, a house in habited by memories and spirits from the past. On discovering her Aunt Lily’s neglected garden, she vows to breathe new life into its mysterious stasis as she learns the restorative magic of nature. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
The BudapestCaféOrchestra: Fronted by Christian Garrick at Helmsley Arts Centre
Snappiest attire of the week: Christian Garrick & The Budapest Café Orchestra, Helmsley Arts Centre, tonight, 7.30pm
CHRISTIAN Garrick (violin, darbuka), Murray Grainger (accordion), Kelly Cantlon (double bass) and Adrian Zolotuhin (guitar, saz, balalaika, domra) team up in this refreshingly unconventional and snappily attired boutique orchestra. Playing gypsy and folk-flavoured music in a unique and surprising way, The Budapest Café Orchestra combine Balkan and Russian traditional music with artful distillations of Romantic masterworks and soaring Gaelic folk anthems.
Established by British composer Garrick in 2009, BCO have 16 albums to their name, marked by an “astonishing soundscape and aural alchemy” characteristic of larger ensembles, evoking Tzigane fiddle maestros, Budapest café life and gypsy campfires. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
This charming man: Nigel Havers is ready to talk at the Grand Opera House. Picture: Matt Crockett
Laughter, nostalgia and charm equals: Nigel Havers Talking B*ll*cks, Grand Opera House, York, March 23, 7.30pm
LET esteemed actor and self-deprecating raconteur Nigel Havers introduce his touring talk show. “Join me, a stage, and a lifetime of gloriously ridiculous stories to share with you. You’ll get the full Havers experience: charm, wit, and absolutely no running in slow motion.
“Of course, there’ll be behind-the-scenes gossip, tales of triumph (and disaster), moments of sheer madness, and a fair bit of talking b*ll*cks. And just when you think you’ve got me figured out, I might surprise you.” Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Off Pat: Nevin is ready to talk at The Crescent
Football chat of the week: Pat Nevin, Football And How To Survive It, The Crescent, York, March 24, 7.30pm kick-off, doors 7pm
PAT Nevin, the “Wee Man” on the pitch but never short of opinions off it, shares stories and insights from 40 years in football, turning out on the wing for Clyde, Chelsea, Everton, Tranmere Rovers, Kilmarnock and Motherwell in a professional career from 1981 to 2000.
Now a familiar voice on BBC Radio 5 Live’s Premier League coverage, Nevin has seen the game from all sides, from playing for Scotland under Sir Alex Ferguson to being chairman of the players’ union and even a spell as a club chief executive, with a sideline in DJing at club nights too. Expect stories of Kenny Dalglish, Ally McCoist and ex-Chelsea chairman Ken Bates, Morrissey, Saddam Hussein and John Peel too, in conversation with journalist Duncan Steer. Audience questions will be welcomed. Box office: thecrescentyork.com.
Dale Vaughan, left, Ryan Richardson, Monica Frost, Niamh Rose, Fergus Green and Matthew Warry, at the back, in rehearsal for Pick Me Up Theatre’s Next To Normal
American musical of the week: Pick Me Up Theatre in Next To Normal, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, March 25 to April 4, 7.30pm except March 29 and 30; 2.30pm matinees, March 28 and 29, April 4
ANDREW Isherwood directs York company Pick Me Up Theatre in Brian Yorkey and Tom Kitt’s Tony Award-winning musical exploration of family and illness, loss and grief as a suburban American household copes with crisis and mental illness.
Dad is an architect; Mom rushes to pack lunches and pour cereal; their daughter and son are bright, wise-cracking teens but their lives are anything but normal, because Mom has been battling manic depression for 16 years.Next To Normal presents their story with love, sympathy and heart. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Mike Wozniak: Coming off The Bench to perform twice at the Grand Opera House, York
Sit-down stand-up of the week: Mike Wozniak: The Bench, Grand Opera House, York, March 25 and September 12, 7.30pm
THE Bench is the new stand-up tour show from Mike Wozniak, wherein in a story about a bench will be prominent. Previous experience of or strong opinions about benches are not required. Let Wozniak worry about that.
This Oxford-born comedian, writer, actor and former medical doctor portrays Brian in Channel 4 sitcom Man Down, is part of the team that makes Small Scenes for BBC Radio 4 and co-presents the Three Bean Salad podcast with Henry Paker and Benjamin Partridge. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Gorillaz: Bringing The Mountain to Leeds next Wednesday
Yorkshire gig of the week: Gorillaz, supported by Trueno, Leeds First Direct Bank Arena, March 25, 7.30pm; doors 6pm
DAMON Albarn and Jamie Hewlett’s BRIT and Grammy-winning British band showcase their chart-topping ninth studio album in Leeds after two warm-up shows at Bradford Live. Spanning 15 songs that embody the collaborative Gorillaz ethos, The Mountain creates a “playlist for a party on the border between this world and whatever happens next, exploring the journey of life and the thrill of existence”. Box office: gorillaz.com.
Bonnie Baddoo, Gareth Cassidy, Amy Dunn and Morgan Bailey in Imitating The Dog’s War Of The Worlds. Picture: Ed Waring
All’s Wells that ends in the worst nightmares of the week: Imitating The Dog in War Of The Worlds, Leeds Playhouse, March 25 to 28, 7.45pm plus 2pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees
FOUR performers enter the stage and construct an epic road movie before your eyes in Imitating The Dog’s re-invention of H G Wells’s apocalyptic tale of alien invasion and the unfolding destruction of everything we hold dear as extraterrestrial life-forms land from the skies.
Using miniature environments, model worlds, camera tricks and projection, the ever-audacious Leeds company mixes the live and the recorded, the animate and the inanimate to ask “What would you do if order broke down? What would you do to survive? How far would you go to protect your own?” Box office: 0113 213 7700 or leedsplayhouse.org.uk
Vitamin String Quartet: Eroding boundaries between classical, dance, hip-hop and pop at Grand Opera House, York
Billie Eilish, Bridgerton & Beyond concert of the week: Vitamin String Quartet, Grand Opera House, York, March 27, 7.30pm
ERASING the boundaries between classical, dance, hip-hop and pop, Vitamin String Quartet perform renditions of everything from Billie Eilish to BTS, Taylor Swift to The Weeknd and Danny Elfman to Daft Punk. Formed in 1999, this Los Angeles group comprises Tom Lea, viola, Wynton Grant and Rachel Grace, violins, and Derek Stein, cello. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Freida Nipples: Baps & Buns burlesque on board a baguette at Rise@Bluebird Bakery
Cabaret of the week: Freida Nipples presents Baps & Buns Burlesque, Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb, York, March 27, 8pm, doors 7pm
YORK’S queen of burlesque, Freida Nipples, swaps teas for tease as she turns the bakery cafe into a cabaret joint for a night of fun, frolics and freedom of expression in all shapes and sizes.
On the fabulously zesty menu will be Donna Divine, Ezme Pump, Callum Robshaw and Freida herself, hosted by Harvey Rose. Box office: bluebirdbakery.co.uk/rise.
The poster for Herbal Mafia’s 20th Birthday: Part 2, featuring Goldie
GOLDIE, groundbreaking breakbeat jungle superstar, producer, DJ, graffiti artist, model and actor, will top Herbal Mafia’s 20th Birthday: Part 2 celebrations at The Crescent, York, on April 3.
Tickets for the 8pm to 3am party will go on sale at 6pm this evening at £20 at https://www.seetickets.com/event/herbal-mafia-20th-birthday-part-2-goldie/the-crescent/3603262.
Announcing “one HUGE new show” with a “Just wow” exclamation, The Crescent website describes Walsall-born Clifford Joseph Price MBE, alias Goldie, aged 60, as “an artist synonymous with drum’n’bass; an OG [as in OriginalGangster/Original Generation] pioneer who has pushed the boundaries of underground electronic music, receiving mainstream critical acclaim.
“He has helped create and inspire the whole scene from the streets, to the record industry, to the television; and has gone above, and far beyond, to represent the subculture we know and love.”
The Crescent enthuses: “Twenty years ago it would have been unimaginable for us to be hosting one of the most well-known and respected DJs on the planet; we are blessed and honoured to be welcoming the one and only Goldie to The Crescent!
“This will probably be one of the most intimate settings that you will ever see this force of nature in action. We have a very limited capacity so we can guarantee that this will sell out and be one for the history books too!”
Support slots will go to local legends and residents, while Room 2 will play host to hip-hop, funk, soul, reggae, dancehall and dub, powered by Herbal Mafia Hi-Fi.
Goldie: back story
THE first superstar produced by the breakbeat jungle movement, Goldie popularised drum’n’bass as a form of musical expression, just as relevant for living-room contemplation as techno had become by the early 1990s.
He emerged as one of the first personalities in British dance music, his gold teeth & b-boy attitude placing him leagues away from the faceless bedroom boffins who had become the norm.
For the first time, England had a beat maestro and tough-guy head who could match the scores of larger-than-life hip-hop stars produced by the USA, and the high profile of drum’n’bass as the first indigenously UK dance music made Goldie a figure of prime importance.
After spending several years working on his production skills at Reinforced Records (the home of 4hero), he founded Metalheadz Records to release seminal dark yet intelligent singles by some of the greatest producers in the scene.
In 1995, Goldie released Timeless, one of jungle’s first and best full-length works of art. The album put him squarely at the top of the drum’n’bass heap – at least in the minds of critics and mainstream listeners – although his follow-up, 1998’s SaturnzReturn, displayed an ambitious, personal side of Goldie hardly in keeping with the usual jungle’s producer mentality.
A native of Walsall, in the Midlands, Goldie was born to a Scottish-Jamaican couple and put up for adoption. He bounced around child-care homes and several sets of foster parents during his childhood years.
He became fascinated with the rise of hip-hop, breakdancing and graffiti art. By 1986, he was involved with breakdancing crews around his home of Wolverhampton. After making several trips to London for all-day breakdancing events (and to see hip-hop pioneer Afrika Bambaataa), Goldie appeared in Bombin’, Dick Fontaine’s 1987 documentary for Channel 4 on British graffiti art and hip-hop culture.
He also spent time in New York and Miami, working on a market stall selling customised gold teeth, but returned to England by 1988. For a time, Goldie worked at the Try 1 shop in Walsall, also selling gold teeth, then moved to London.
He began hanging out with two fellow heads from the British hip-hop scene, Nellee Hooper and 3-D (later of Massive Attack), and by 1991 he had been introduced to the breakbeat culture that birthed jungle.
At the seminal club night Rage, DJs Grooverider and Fabio pitched ancient breakbeats up to 45 rpm, blending their creations with the popular rave music of the time. Goldie was hooked on the sound of raw breakbeat techno, and gradually he switched his allegiance to jungle from the British hip-hop scene that later generated trip-hop.
Through his girlfriend DJ Kemistry (later to make her name with the mixing duo Kemistry & Storm), Goldie hooked up with Dego and Mark Mac, two of the most influential figures in the emerging drum’n’bass scene. The duo’s Reinforced Records and recordings as 4hero were fostering an increasingly artistic attitude to the music, and Goldie learned much about breakbeat production and engineering at their studios.
He recorded his first single as Ajax Project, then debuted on Reinforced as Metalheadz with two 1992 singles, Killermuffin and Menace. 1993 single Terminator broke him into the jungle scene, besides pioneering the crucial jungle concept of “timestretching” (basically extending a sample without altering its pitch). The single marked the growing separation between the uplifting rave scene and its emerging dark side, reliant on breakbeats and restless vibes.
The name was later taken for his influential Metalheadz Records, which released material from a legion of crucial jungle artists: Photek, Doc Scott, Dillinja, Source Direct, Peshay, J Majik, Alex Reece, Lemon D and Optical, among others. Later singles such as Angel and remixes for 4hero’s Reinforced label spread Goldie’s fame, and in 1995 he signed a contract with London Records.
His first major-label single was Timeless, and his debut album of the same name followed in August 1995. He gained further fame in early 1996, when an American tour supporting Björk sparked a relationship between the two and led to a brief engagement before they called off the wedding.
Goldie resurfaced in 1998 with a high-profile follow-up, SaturnzReturn, an epic two-disc set, including one track, Mother, that broke the 70-minute barrier. The album tanked with critics and fans, however, leading to a return to the underground later that year with the Ring Of Saturn EP.
The beginning of the millennium ushered in a new era for Goldie’s musical production, when Say You Love Me, Malice In Wonderland and Breakin Glass were instrumental in the development of his own style. Metalheadz, meanwhile, amassed just shy of 60 releases throughout the decade, nurturing Alix Perez, Noisia and S.P.Y, to name but a few.
At the turn of the decade, Goldie received two honorary academic achievements, courtesy of Brunel University, in Social Sciences, and the University of Wolverhampton, where he became an honorary Doctor of Design.
He was made a Member of the British Empire (MBE) not long after, for services to music and young people, becoming one of few electronic musicians to achieve such an award.
During this period, he produced official remixes of Ed Sheeran’s Lego House (2017) and Jessie Ware’s Midnight (2018); released his third studio album, 2017’s The Journey Man; collaborated with UK rap act Skepta on Upstart (2018) and formed Subjective, a collaborative project with fellow drum’n’bass producer Submotive, eliciting their first album on Sony Music in 2020.
Goldie began a seven-week residency at long-running London nightclub XOYO, selling out the venue multiple times. He performed at global festival stages, including Glastonbury, Tomorrowland in Belgium and Primavera Sound in Spain, and ventured into the classical music realm, hosting and performing full orchestral shows at two of London’s premier concert halls, the Royal Albert Hall and Southbank Centre.
In June 2021, Goldie entered into the modelling world, making his catwalk debut for luxury fashion house Louis Vuitton in the SS22 menswear collection, Amen Break. The late Virgil Abloh chose him for the role, directing him in the collection’s cinematic fashion film, in a testament to how Goldie is recognised and admired across several creative industries.
Kara Tointon as Constance Middleton in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s The Constant Wife. Picture: Mihaela Bodlovic; set and co-costume designer Anna Fleischle and co-costume designer Cat Fuller
LAURA Wade’s new adaptation of The Constant Wife for the RSC leads off Charles Hutchinson’s latest selection of cultural highlights.
Play of the week: Royal Shakespeare Company in The Constant Wife, York Theatre Royal,January 26 to 31, 7.30pm plus 2pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees
SET in 1927, The Constant Wife finds Constance as a very unhappy woman. “Nonsense,” says her mother, who insists “she eats well, sleeps well, dresses well and she’s losing weight. No woman can be unhappy in those circumstances”.
Played by Kara Tointon, she is the perfect wife and mother, but her husband is equally devoted to his mistress, who just happens to be her best friend. Tamara Harvey directs the new adaptation by Home, I’m Darling playwright and Rivals television series writer Laura Wade. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Aesthetica Art Prize winner Tobi Onabolu’s Danse Macabre, on show at York Art Gallery
Last chance to see: Aesthetica Art Prize and Future Tense: Art in the Age of Transformation, York Art Gallery, today and tomorrow, 10am to 5pm
YORK arts movers and shakers Aesthetica present two landmark exhibitions, the 2025 Aesthetica Art Prize and Future Tense: Art in the Age of Transformation, featuring large-scale immersive installations by prize alumni Liz West and Squidsoup.
On show among work by 25 shortlisted entries are main prize winner, London artist-filmmaker Tobi Onabolu’s exploration of spirituality, mental health and the human psyche, Danse Macabre, and Emerging Prize winner Sam Metz’s bright yellow structures in Porosity, reflecting his sensory experience of the Humber Estuary.
Squidsoup’s Submergence immerses audiences in an ocean of 8,000 responsive LED lights, blurring the line between digital and physical space, while Liz West’s Our Spectral Vision surrounds visitors with a radiant spectrum of colour in a sensory encounter. Tickets: yorkartgallery.org.uk/tickets.
Ceramicist Emily Stubbs, left, and seascapes artist Carolyn Coles showcase their new work in The Sky’s The Limit at Pyramid Gallery, alongside Karen Fawcett’s bird sculptures
Exhibition launch of the week: Carolyn Coles, Emily Stubbs and Karen Fawcett, The Sky’s The Limit, Pyramid Gallery, Stonegate, York, today until mid-March
SOUTH Bank Studios artist Carolyn Coles and PICA Studios ceramicist Emily Stubbs will be on hand from 11.30am to 2.30pm at today’s opening of The Sky’s The Limit, their joint exhibition with wildlife sculptor Karen Fawcett.
Like Carolyn, Emily has been selected to take part in York Open Studios 2026 on April 18 & 19 and April 25 & 26. Look out too for work by Pyramid Gallery’s Jeweller of the Month, Kate Rhodes, from Hebden Bridge. Gallery opening hours are: 10am to 5pm, Monday to Saturday.
Anna Hale: Killer punchlines, musical flair and spiky resilience in Control Freak at The Crescent on Sunday
Comedy gig of the week: Anna Hale: Control Freak, The Crescent, York, Sunday, 7.30pm
ANNA Hale, comedian, singer-songwriter and unapologetic control freak, likes to write the jokes and the songs, plan the lighting cues and even sell the tickets for her gigs. When life spins out of control, however, can one perfectionist keep the show together, and, crucially, not let anyone else have a go?
Find out when encountering the killer punchlines, musical flair and spiky resilience of the 2024 Musical Comedy Awards Audience Favourite winner’s debut tour show. Box office: thecrescentyork.com.
Glenn Moore: So many Moore jokes at The Crescent on Tuesday
Show title of the week: Glenn Moore: Please Sir, Glenn I Have Some Moore, The Crescent, York, January 27, 7.30pm (doors 7pm)
EDINBURGH Comedy Award nominee Glenn Moore has written too many jokes again, so expect a whirlwind of punchlines from the Croydon stand-up and presenter on Tuesday. Here comes more and more of Moore after appearances on Live At The Apollo, Have I Got News For You, Mock The Week, 8 Out Of 10 Cats Does Countdown, The News Quiz, Just A Minute and his own BBC Radio 4 series, Glenn Moore’s Almanac. Box office: thecrescentyork.com.
Snow and frost in Cuba: Carlos Acosta’s Nutcracker In Havana brings heat and ice to the Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Johan Persson
Dance show of the week: Carlos Acosta’s Nutcracker In Havana, Grand Opera House, York, now January 30 and 31, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
UPDATE 27/1/2025: Cast illness has put paid to January 28 and 29’s performances.
DANCE superstar Carlos Acosta’s Nutcracker In Havana turns up the heat in his modern Cuban twist on the snow-dusted 1892 Russian festive ballet. Built on Cuban composer Pepe Gavilondo’s arrangement of Tchaikovsky’s score, Acosta moves the celebration of joy, life, love and family to modern-day Havana.
More than 20 dancers from Acosta’s Cuban company Acosta Danza perform the familiar story of a young girl transported to a magic world, but one newly incorporating the culture, history and music of his home country. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Mike Joyce: Tales from his drumming days for The Smiths at Pocklington Arts Centre
On the beat: Mike Joyce, The Drums: My Life In The Smiths, Pocklington Arts Centre, January 28, 7.30pm
DRUMMER Mike Joyce has been asked numerous times, “What was it like being in The Smiths?”. “That’s one hell of a question to answer!” he says. Answer it, he does, however, both in his 2025 memoir and now in his touring show The Drums: My Life In The Smiths.
To reflect on being stationed behind singer Morrissey and guitarist Johnny Marr from 1982 to 1987, Joyce will be interviewed by Guardian music journalist Dave Simpson, who lives near York. Audience members can put their questions to Joyce too. Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.
The poster for Country Roads’ celebration of Dolly Parton, Johnny Cash, Kenny Rogers et al at York Barbican
Country celebration of the week: Country Roads, York Barbican, January 30, 7.30pm
COUNTRY Roads invites you to a celebration of country superstar royalty featuring such hits as 9 To 5, The Gambler, I Walk The Line, Ring Of Fire, King Of The Road, Crazy, Rhinestone Cowboy, Jolene, Dance The Night Away, Walkin’ After Midnight and many, many more as the stars of fellow tribute show Islands In The Stream return in this new production. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Mishmash’s delightful musical adventure Ruby’s Worry, easing worries at the NCEM
Family show of the week: Mishmash: Ruby’s Worry, National Centre for Early Music, Walmgate, York, January 31, 11.30am and 2.30pm
RUBY had always been happy, perfectly happy, until one day she discovered a worry. The more she tries to rid herself of that worry, the more it grows and grows. Eventually she meets a boy who has a worry too. Together they discover that everyone has worries, and that if you talk about them, they never hang around for long! Mishmash’s Ruby’s Worry is told through live music, song, puppetry and physical theatre, taking the audience on a delightful musical adventure. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.
Audience members of all ages enjoying Opera North: Little Listeners. Picture: Tom Arber
IN his third highlights package of the New Year, Charles Hutchinson picks out a riparian exhibition, murderous deeds in 1590 and 1950s’ Italy, Davina’s wellbeing tips and a tribute on Shaky ground.
Family event of the week: Opera North: Little Listeners, National Centre for Early Music, York, today, 2pm and 3.15pm
OPERA North: Little Listeners is a treasure hunt with a tuneful twist, where the Orchestra of Opera North needs your help to find hidden musical gems. Discover different “Tuneful Treasures” as you go, collecting them all in time for the grand finale in this relaxed, interactive concert.
“Singing and movement is not just encouraged – it’s expected!” says the Leeds company. “Join us to experience the magic of orchestral music up close, whatever your age. We can’t wait to sing and dance with you.” Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.
Death Of Gesualdo: Tableaux Vivants team up with The Gesualdo Six and a puppet at the NCEM on Sunday and Monday
World premiere of the month: Death Of Gesualdo, The Gesualdo Six with Tableaux Vivants, National Centre for Early Music, York, Sunday and Monday, 6.30pm to 7.40pm
THE Gesualdo Six reunite with director Bill Barclay for the world premiere of a daring new successor to international hit Secret Byrd. Featuring six singers, six actors and a puppet, Death Of Gesualdo creates living tableaux that illuminate the life and psyche of madrigalist Carlo Gesualdo, a tortured genius most famous for murdering his wife and her lover in an explosive fit of jealousy, but revered among composers for anticipating chromaticism by 200 years.
This is the boldest look yet at how the life and sometimes chilling music of this enigmatic prodigy must function together for the true Gesualdo to emerge from the shadows. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.
York Printmakers artist Jane Dignum at work in her studio
Exhibition of the week: York Printmakers, Rivers of York, City Screen Picturehouse, York, until February 7
CELEBRATING York Printmakers’ tenth anniversary, Rivers of York presents original hand-made prints inspired by the River Foss and River Ouse. On show are a variety of printmaking techniques, including etching, linocut, collagraph, monotype, screen print, solar plate, Japanese woodblock, lithography and stencilling, in works that explore the rivers’ place in the history, ecology and culture of York from Roman times to the present.
Taking part are printmakers Pamela Knight; John Haste; Roger Goldthorpe; Lyn Bailey; Safron Sunley; Sandra Storey; Robin Linklater; Bridget Hunt; Sally Clarke; Yvonne Hogarth; Jen Dring; Michelle Hughes; Madelaine Lockwood; Vanessa Oo; Jane Dignum; Jane Duke; Phill Jenkins; Becky Long-Smith; Rachel Holbrow and Sally Parkin.
Ed McVey as Tom Ripley and Bruce Herbelin-Earle as Dickie Greenleaf in The Talented Mr Ripley, on tour at Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Mark Senior
Game of deception of the week: The Talented Mr Ripley, Grand Opera House, York, January 19 to 24, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees
BEFORE its West End run, The Talented Mr Ripley plays the Grand Opera House with a cast led by Ed McVey as Tom Ripley, Bruce Herbelin-Earle as Dickie Greenleaf and 2020 Strictly Come Dancing finalist MaisieSmith as Marge. Tom is a nobody, scraping by in New York, forging signatures, telling little white lies, until a chance encounter changes everything. When a wealthy stranger offers him an all-expenses-paid trip to Italy to bring home his wayward son, Dickie, Tom leaps at the opportunity.
In the sun-drenched glamour of 1950s’ Italy, surrounded by shimmering waters and whispered secrets, Tom is seduced by Dickie’s freedom, wealth and effortless charm. Fascination turns to obsession in Patricia Highsmith’s story, whereupon an innocent chance turns into a chilling game of lies, identity theft and murder. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Davina McCall: Uplifting conversation and personal stories at York Barbican
Talk show of the week: An Evening With Davina, York Barbican, January 22, 7.30pm
REARRANGED from October 22 2025, television presenter and wellness advocate Davina McCall presents an evening of uplifting conversation and personal stories. From her groundbreaking career on screen to her tireless campaigning for women’s health, Davina opens up about the moments that shaped her with honesty, humour and heart, followed by an audience Q&A. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Mr Wilson’s Second Liners: On the front line for New Orleans brass and 1990s’ club culture at The Crescent
When New Orleans converges with Hacienda: Mr Wilson’s Second Liners, The Crescent, York, January 22, 7.30pm
MARDI Gras brass band meets 1990s’ club classics for a rave funeral without a body as a rabble of mischievous northerners, Mr Wilson’s Second Liners form a traditional New Orleans Second Line at The Crescent.
However, this is no sombre occasion: Mr Wilson’s expend their collective musical talent paying homage to the diehard days of the Hacienda, Nineties’ club culture and its greatest hero, Manchester mover and shaker Mr Tony Wilson. Box office: thecrescentyork.com.
Recommended but sold out already:York indie rock band Skylights’gig at The Crescent on January 23, 7.30pm.
Jeffrey Martin: Blending folk, Americana and literary short stories at Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb
Folk gig of the week: Please Please You and Brudenell Presents present Jeffrey Martin and special guest Tenderness, Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb, York, January 24, 8.15pm (doors 7.30pm)
PORTLAND musician Jeffrey Martin’s narrative-driven songwriting is a blend of folk, Americana and literary short stories with echoes of Raymond Carver. Before turning to music full time in 2016, he spent several years as a high-school English teacher, a profession he left to “chase his dreams at all cost.”
His lyrics are marked by his insight into the human condition, often focusing on the struggles and quiet dignity of people on the margins of society. Box office: bluebirdbakery.co.uk/rise.
Shakin’ all over: Rebel Dean rolls out the Eighties’ rock’n’roll hits of Shakin’ Stevens at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre
Tribute show of the week:Whole Lotta Shakin’ – The Shakin’ Stevens Story, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, January 25, 7.30pm
ENDORSED by members of Shakin’ Stevens own family, West End star Rebel Dean’s award-winning tribute to Great Britain’s biggest-selling singles artist of the 1980s tell the story of the rockin’ Welsh boy and his rise to chart-topping superstardom.
Whole Lotta Shakin’ combines a live band with rare footage and images in a nostalgic night of Shaky hits, Green Door, Oh Julie, You Drive Me Crazy and This Ole House et al, complemented by Eddie Cochran, Chuck Berry, Ritchie Valens and Elvis Presley numbers that he covered. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
John Atkin directing the York Beethoven Project orchestra
In Focus: York Beethoven Project, Symphony No 7, Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, University of York, January 31
AFTER a month in a white beard and big red coat, followed by an unexpected run of musical director duties for Pick Me Up Theatre’s Anything Goes, John Atkin turns his attention to York Beethoven Project’s next concert.
On January 31, the focus will fall on Beethoven’s Symphony No7 at the Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, University of York.
“We have 74 players lined up to take part in this one, which is one of the most popular symphonies amongst musicians,” says John. “The piece will be rehearsed throughout the day, concluding with a free performance open to all at 4pm. What better way to shake off the January blues.”
Since its inception in 2023, York Beethoven Project has played the first six symphonies in order at six different venues with more than 100 people taking part.
“Last year we did Nos 4, 5 and 6, and later this year we will do No 8, back at York Music Centre,” says John. “Following that, we move into preparation for our finale, No9, the Choral Symphony, which will be performed with a joint community choir of up to 100 voices and four soloists at Selby Abbey in March 2027, to coincide with the 200th anniversary of Beethoven’s death.
“Following that, who knows! We have some ideas and suggestions but no definite plans yet, so watch this space.”
Fergus Powell’s Moonface Martin, left, and Adam Price’s Billy Crocker in Pick Me Up Theatre’s Anything Goes at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York. Picture: Felix Wahlberg
SEEING out the old year, welcoming in the new, Charles Hutchinson refuses to advocate putting your feet up in the festive season.
All aboard for the last chances to see: Pick Me Up Theatre in Anything Goes, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, today to December 30
CLIMB aboard the S.S. American as it sets sail in Andrew Isherwood’s all-singing, all-dancing staging of Anything Goes, Cole Porter’s swish musical, charting the madcap antics of a motley crew leaving New York for London on a Christmas-themed steamer.
Meet nightclub singer/evangelist Reno Sweeney (Alexandra Mather) and lovelorn Wall Street broker Billy Crocker (Adam Price), who has stowed away on board in pursuit of his beloved Hope Harcourt (Claire Gordon-Brown). Alas, Hope is engaged to fellow passenger Sir Evelyn Oakleigh (Neil Foster). Enter second-rate conman Moonface Martin (Fergus Powell) to join Reno in trying to help Billy win the love of his life. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Frances Marshall of History Riot: Presenting Tales From The Trail at York Castle Museum
Family-friendly performances of the week: History Riot in Tales From The Trail, York Castle Museum, Eye of York, York, today (27/12/2025) to January 3, except January 1, between 10am to 5pm daily
HISTORY Riot return to York Castle Museum with Tales From The Trail, an array of family-friendly performances, with start times being advertised at the admissions desk each day. Join two madcap Victorian characters for an urgent shopping trip on the Victorian street of Kirkgate this festive season.
The billboard poster for The Tubs & Bull’s co-headline show at The Crescent, York
Double bill of the week: The Tubs and Bull, The Crescent, York, tonight, 7.30pm
IN A Please Please You Seasonal Rock’n’Roll Party, The Tubs and Bull team up for a co-headline show, featuring Dan Lucas at the double, complemented by some friends DJing in the bar.
Cardiff indie rock band The Tubs comprises Lucas, Owen Williams, Max Warren and Taylor Stewart; York alt. rock band Bull features songwriting frontman Tom Beer, guitarist Lucas, drummer Tom Gabbatiss, bassist Kai West and keyboard player and vocalist Holly Beer. Box office: thecrescentyork.com/events/the-tubs-bull/.
Aoife Kenny’s Aurora and Christian Mortimer’s Prince Michael of Moravia in Sleeping Beauty at York Theatre Royal. Picture: S R Taylor Photography
Still time for pantomime: Sleeping Beauty, York Theatre Royal, until January 4
YORK Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster directs returnee dame Robin Simpson’s Nurse Nellie, Jocasta Almgill’s Carabosse, Tommy Carmichael’s Jangles, CBeebies star Jennie Dale’s Fairy Moonbeam, Aoife Kenny’s Aurora and Harrogate actor Christian Mortimer’s Prince Michael of Moravia in Sleeping Beauty.
Written as ever by Paul Hendy, the Theatre Royal’s festive extravaganza is co-produced once more with award-winning Evolution Productions. Look out too for Kris Madden’s pyrotechnics: he indeed the fire starter, twisting, turning fire starter. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Turning ugly: Luke Attwood’s Melody Hard-Up and Brandon Nicholson’s Harmony Hard-Up in UK Productions’ Cinderella at the Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick
Still time for more pantomime: Cinderella, Grand Opera House, York, until January 4
CORONATION Street star Lisa George’s Fairy Godmother leads the Grand Opera House pantomime cast, joined by Tobias Turley (ITV’s Mamma Mia I Have A Dream) as Prince Charming and West End star Rachel Grundy (Rocky Horror Picture Show, Legally Blonde) as Cinderella in UK Productions’ Cinderella, scripted by award-winning Jon Monie.
Directed by Ellis Kerkhoven, West End drag stars Luke Attwood and Brandon Nicholson double down on the rather saucy mayhem in Ugly Sisters mode, joined in the capering comedy corner by Jimmy Bryant’s Buttons. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
The creative team behind The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz at Castle Howard. Picture: Tom Arber
The Yellow Brick enters the home straight: The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz, Castle Howard, near York, until January 4
CASTLE Howard is transformed for winter into an immersive Christmas experience, dressed in set pieces, decorations, floristry, projections, lighting and sound for The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz.
Created by CLW Event Design, headed up by Charlotte Lloyd Webber and Adrian Lillie, the show-stopping Emerald City High Street in the Long Gallery is the highlight, with life-size fabricated shop fronts inspired by York’s Shambles, while the 28ft Christmas tree sparkles in the Great Hall. Leeds theatre company Imitating The Dog provides the spectacular projections and soundscapes. Tickets: castlehoward.co.uk.
Snow show in A Winter Adventure at JORVIK Viking Centre
Deep freeze: A Winter Adventure at JORVIK Viking Centre, York, until February 22 2026
A WINTER Adventure brings a new wintery experience to the underground York visitor attraction, where the 10th century Vikings are celebrating Yule with natural decorations hung on their houses. For the first time, visitors can peer through Bright White’s time portal into the blacksmith’s house excavated on this site in the 1970s, seeing what it would have been like to live there.
They will then board a time sleigh to travel back in time around the backstreets, transformed by Wetherby set dressers EPH Creative, who have covered streets and houses in a thick blanket of snow, bathed in cold blue lighting.Pre-booking is essential for all visits to JORVIK at jorvikvikingcentre.co.uk.
Fever presents: Candlelight: Best Of Bridgerton On Strings, National Centre for Early Music, Walmgate, York, January 3, 6.30pm; Candlelight: Tribute To Queen & More, 8.30pm
DEAREST Reader, Lady Whistledown has given her verdict: the event of the season is here! Bathed in the soft glow of candlelight, favourite melodies from Shondaland’s Bridgerton series on Netflix are re-imagined by the New World String Quartet in a magical 60-minute performance of Candlelight: Best Of Bridgerton On Strings.
Later that same night, Candlelight presents the music of Queen and More in a live, hour-long multi-sensory musical experience featuring We Will Rock You, Somebody To Love, Radio Ga Ga, Killer Queen, We Are The Champions, Another One Bites the Dust, Bohemian Rhapsody and many more. Box office: support.feverup.com.
Ancient Hostility: Passionate political and personal song in harmony at Navigators Art’s A Feast Of Fools III
Navigators Art presents A Feast Of Fools III, The Black Swan Inn, Peasholme Green, York, January 4, 7.30pm, doors 7pm
WELCOME to A Feast Of Fools III, York arts collective Navigators Art’s sign-off to “Holiday’s end – the last gasp of Mischief” in a celebration of Twelfth Night and Old Christmas packed with live folk music and a nod to the pagan and the impish.
On the bill will be: Ancient Hostility, performing passionate political and personal song in harmony; North West folk duo Joshua Arnold and Therine, presenting vocal-led trad and experimental versions of British folk songs; Pefkin, whose ritualistic hymnals draw heavily on the landscape and the natural world, and White Sail, York’s multi-instrumental alt-folk legends. Box office: www.ticketsource.co.uk/navigators-art-performance.
Pickering Musical Society’s principal panto players for Snow White at Kirk Theatre, Pickering
First panto of the New Year: Pickering Musical Society in Snow White, Kirk Theatre, Pickering, January 14 to 25, 7.15pm, except January 19; 2.15pm, January 17, 18, 24 and 25
DIRECTED for the tenth year by resident director Luke Arnold and writer by Ron Hall, Pickering Musical Society’s 2026 pantomime combines comedy, spectacle, festive magic, dazzling scenery and colourful costumes.
The show features such principals as Marcus Burnside’s Dame Dumpling, Danielle Long’s Prince Valentine, Alice Rose’s Snow White, Paula Cook’s Queen Lucrecia and Sue Smithson’s Fairy Dewdrop. Audiences are encouraged to book early to avoid disappointment. Box office: 01751 474833 or kirktheatre.littleboxoffice.com.
Wanderful: Coronation Street star Lisa George’s Fairy Godmother in Cinderella at the Grand Opera House, York
CHRISTMAS music and pantomimes aplenty dominate Charles Hutchinson’s recommendations for December fun-filled fulfilment.
Having a ball: Cinderella, Grand Opera House, York, today until January 4 2026
LEEDS lad Bradley Judge’s Dandini joins the star-studded cast of Lisa George (Coronation Street) as Fairy Godmother, Tobias Turley (ITV’s Mamma Mia I Have A Dream) as Prince Charming and West End star Rachel Grundy (Rocky Horror Picture Show, Legally Blonde) as Cinderella in UK Productions’ Cinderella, scripted by Jon Monie.
Directed by Ellis Kerkhoven, West End drag stars Luke Attwood and Brandon Nicholson bring the mayhem in Ugly Sisters mode as Harmony and Melody Hard-Up, joined in the comedy corner by Jimmy Bryant’s Buttons. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
The Marian Consort: Performing with English Cornett & Sackbut Ensemble at York Early Music Christmas Festival on December 8
Festival of the week: York Early Music Christmas Festival, mainly at National Centre for Early Music, York, until December 14
HIGHLIGHTS at this Yuletide feast of music spanning the centuries, complemented by contemporary tunes, include Yorkshire Bach Choir & Yorkshire Baroque Soloists performing Hayden’s The Creation tonight and The Chiaroscuro Quartet and Consone String Quartet uniting tomorrow for Mendelssohn’s Octet in E flat major Op 20.
The Marian Consort teams up with the English Cornett & Sackbut Ensemble in Looking Bach To Palestrina on December 8 and Fieri Consort Singers and Camerata Øresund present Christmas Cantatas by Christopher Graupner and English Tavern Songs on December 12. Among further festival performers will be mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston, Dowland’s Foundry, Apollo5, Lowe Ensemble, Irish folk singer Cara Dillon and Joglaresa. For the full programme and tickets, go to: ncem.co.uk. Box office: 01904 658338.
York Theatre Royal’s pantomime cast in rehearsal for Sleeping Beauty. Picture: SR Taylor Photography
No sleep till January 4: Sleeping Beauty, York Theatre Royal
YORK Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster directs returnee dame Robin Simpson’s Nurse Nellie, Jocasta Almgill’s Carabosse, Tommy Carmichael’s Jangles, CBeebies star Jennie Dale’s Fairy Moonbeam, Aoife Kenny’s Aurora and Harrogate actor Christian Mortimer’s Prince Michael of Moravia in Sleeping Beauty.
Written once more by Paul Hendy, the Theatre Royal’s festive extravaganza is co-produced with award-winning Evolution Productions, the same team behind All New Adventures Of Peter Pan, Jack And The Beanstalk and last winter’s Aladdin. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Hannah King’s Peter Pan in The Pantomime Adventures Of Peter Pan, Rowntree Players’ festive visit to Neverland
Putting ‘Pan’ into pantomime: Rowntree Players in The Pantomime Adventures Of Peter Pan, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, today, 2pm and 7.30pm, Sunday, 2pm and 6pm; December 9 to 12, 7.30pm; December 13, 2pm and 7.30pm
JOIN Wendy, John and Michael as they fly with Peter Pan to the fantastical world of Neverland in Howard Ella and Gemma McDonald’s pantomime for Rowntree Players. Cling on to your seats as Peter and the Lost Boys do battle with Jamie McKeller’s rather nasty Captain Hook and his even nastier bunch of pirates. Fear not as Nanny McFlea and her ever eager apprentice Barkly are on hand to assist in the most ridiculous of ways. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
Bec Silk’s Robin Hood and writer Martin Vander Weyer’s Dame Daphne in 1812 Theatre Company’s pantomime Robin Hood’s Helmsley Adventure
Ryedale pantomime opening of the week: 1812 Theatre Company in Robin Hood’s Helmsley Adventure, Helmsley Arts Centre, today, 2.30pm and 7.30pm; Sunday, 2.30pm; December 9 to 12, 7.30pm; December 13, 2.30pm and 7.30pm; December 14, 2.30pm
HELMSLEY Arts Centre artistic director Natasha Jones directs company-in-residence 1812 Theatre Company in this traditional panto with a Knock Knock Joke Contest, scripted by dame Martin Vander Weyer.
Robin Hood will be rescuing the lovely Maid Marian from the wicked Sheriff of Pickering, while Black Swan landlady Dame Daphne will lead the merriment and mayhem. Knock Knock! Who’s there? Daphne! Daphne who? Daph-nitely book early to avoid disappointment on 01439 771700 or at helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Singer Dene Michael, dressed as a pineapple, in the finale to Kim Hopkins’s documentary film Still Pushing Pineapples, showing at City Screen Picturehouse on Sunday
Documentary film screening of the week; Still Pushing Pineapples (12A), City Screen Picturehouse, York, Sunday, 5pm
BLACK Lace’s Agadoo has been voted the most infuriating song of all time. What happens when you are forever associated with such a Marmite hit; what comes after fleeting fame, and what does it mean to grow old still chasing a dream?
Perennial pineapple pusher and former Yorkshire band member Dene Michael is still singing the derided party anthem across fading clubland UK: a story now told in Selby-raised filmmaker Kim Hopkins’s humorous, moving, warts’n’all documentary, a pineapple slice of working-class social realism wrapped inside a road movie and abiding love story. Dene Michael, Hopkins and producer Margareta Szabo will hold a post-show Q&A. Box office: picturehouses.com/cinema/city-screen-picturehouse.
A Nativity For York director Paul Toy
Nativity play of the week: York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust in A Nativity For York, All Saints Church, North Street, York, December 10, 7.30pm
USING medieval scripts from the York Cycle of Mystery Plays and music both medieval and folk in style, Paul Toy’s community cast tells a familiar story of a marvellous birth, threaded with humour, reverence and, sadly, hatred, where candlelight emphasises the constant struggle of the light against the darkness.
The performance lasts one hour with no interval. Refreshments will be available. Box office: 033 666 3366, ympst.co.uk/york-nativity or on the door.
Christmas will be merry for Kate Rusby at York Barbican on December 11
Carol concert of the week: Kate Rusby, Christmas Is Merry, York Barbican, December 11, 7pm
BARNSLEY folk nightingale Kate Rusby plays her regular festive fixture at York Barbican, returning with her folk band and the Brass Boys for two sets of jolly carols from South Yorkshire’s pubs, Christmas chart chestnuts and original winter songs.
Christmas Is Merry marks her 20th anniversary of these winter warmers, drawing on her six Christmas studio albums: 2008’s Sweet Bells, 2011’s While Mortals Sleep, 2015’s The Frost Is All Over, 2017’s Angels And Men, 2019’s Holly Head and 2023’s Light Years. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Hyde Family Jam’s poster for their brace of Christmas jamborees at The Crescent, York on December 11 and 12
Christmas knees-up of the week: Hyde Family Jam, The Crescent, York, December 11, 7.30pm
FRIENDS! Come celebrate another Christmas with a right thorough knees-up at The Crescent with York buskers supreme Hyde Family Jam, a traditional-looking folk band that couldn’t be less traditional. They perform the songs they love from any decade, any genre, in any way they fancy, played as fast and loud as possible. “We call it ‘folk gone wrong’,” they say. “Expect a few special festive bonuses too!” Box office: thecrescentyork.com.
Recommended but sold out already: Hyde Family Jam’s December 12 gig and The Howl & The Hum’s traditional special Crescent Christmas gig, led as ever by Sam Griffiths after leaving York and Leeds for London.
Setting sail in Pick Me Up Theatre’s Anything Goes: Reno Sweeney (Alexandra Mather, front centre) and her Angels, Sophie Curry, left, Chloe Branton and Sophie Kemp. Picture: Felix Wahlberg
Getting a kick out of you musical of the week: Pick Me Up Theatre in Anything Goes, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, December 12 to 30
DITCH York’s December chills and climb aboard the S.S. American as it sets sail in Andrew Isherwood’s all-singing, all-dancing staging of Anything Goes!, Cole Porter’s swish musical, charting the madcap antics of a motley crew leaving New York for London on a Christmas-themed steamer.
Meet nightclub singer/evangelist Reno Sweeney (Alexandra Mather) and lovelorn Wall Street broker Billy Crocker (Adam Price), who has stowed away on board in pursuit of his beloved Hope Harcourt (Claire Gordon-Brown). Alas, Hope is engaged to fellow passenger Sir Evelyn Oakleigh (Neil Foster). Enter second-rate conman Moonface Martin (Fergus Powell) to join Reno in trying to help Billy win the love of his life. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Michael Ball’s poster for his Glow UK Tour 2026, taking in Yorkshire gigs at Bradford Live (September 2), Sheffield City Hall (September 5) and Hull Connexin Live (September 6), as well as York Barbican (September 12)
Concert announcement of the week: Michael Ball, Glow UK Tour, York Barbican, September 12 2026
MUSICAL star and radio and TV presenter Michael Ball will promote his 23rd solo album, Glow, on next year’s 25-date tour. “There’s probably only one thing I enjoy more than being in the studio – writing, producing and singing songs with people I love – and that’s taking it all out on the road and performing those songs as well as all the old favourites to the audiences I love,” he says. “It’s going to be an exciting year, and I can’t wait to see you all.’’ Box office: https://www.yorkbarbican.co.uk/whats-on/michael-ball-2026/.
In Focus: The Christmas Collection at Pyramid Gallery, York, until January 12 2025
Bowl Of Apricots, acrylic painting, by Anita Klein
PYRAMID Gallery’s Christmas Collection, in Stonegate, York, features works by London artist and printmaker Anita Klein, York ceramicist Ben Arnup, Peak District sculptor Paul Smith, South Staffordshire mosaic artist Amanda Anderson and York floral artist Lesley Birch.
Exhibiting too will be Canadian-born painter, printmaker and cartographer Mychael Barratt, Oswestry ceramicist Jacqui Atkin and Perthshire oil painter artist and printmaker Ian MacIntyre, complemented by bird and fish blown glass by Bruce Parks, bronzes by David Meredith, Nerikromi vessels by York ceramist Patricia Qua and studio jewellery for the Christmas season by 50 British makers.
Curator Terry Brett, who has owned the gallery for 31 years, has invited Anita Klein to fill the walls with 15 linocut original prints, new aquatint etchings and two paintings.
Bee Eater, ceramic vase, by Jacqui Atkin
“The gallery has enjoyed a long, unbroken relationship with Anita as a supplier of her extensive catalogue of prints that form a diary of her family life,” he says.
“Over the 28 years in which she has shown more than 800 different pictures at Pyramid Gallery, we have watched her career progress to the point where Anita has become one of the most collectable printmakers in the UK. It seems very fitting that she is the main focus of the Christmas Collection.”
As well as showing new linocut prints, Anita is selling copies of her book Out Of The Ordinary – 40 Years Of Print Making, featuring illustrations of 550 of her best-loved prints, published by Eames Fine Art.
The Christmas Collection at Pyramid Gallery is open 10am to 5pm, Monday to Saturday, 11am to 4pm, Sundays, until January 12 2026. Closed on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day.
Follow the Yellow Brick Road at Christmas at Castle Howard: The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz
FROM The Wizard Of Oz wonderland at Castle Howard to daytime dancing at York Barbican, Gothic tales to Dickensian ghost stories, ’tis the season to be out and about, reports Charles Hutchinson.
Christmas transformation of the week: The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz, Castle Howard, near York, until January 4 2026
CASTLE Howard becomes an immersive Christmas experience, dressed in set pieces, decorations, floristry, projections, lighting and sound for The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz, set to delight tens of thousands of visitors over seven weeks.
Created by CLW Event Design, headed up by Charlotte Lloyd Webber and Adrian Lillie, the show-stopping Emerald City High Street in the Long Gallery is the highlight of this winter’s transformation, with life-size fabricated shop fronts inspired by York’s Shambles, while the 28ft Christmas tree sparkles in the Great Hall. Leeds theatre company Imitating The Dog has provided the projections and soundscapes. Tickets: castlehoward.co.uk.
Day Fever co-founders Jonny Owen and Vicky McClure: Bringing the fun of daytime dancing to York Barbican on Saturday
Dance party of the week: Day Fever, York Barbican, Saturday, 3pm to 8pm
LAUNCHED in early 2024 by Trigger Point actress Vicky McClure, filmmaker and broadcaster Jonny Owen, Reverend & The Makers frontman Jon McClure (no relation), brother Chris McClure and Sheffield businessman James O’Hara, Day Fever has fast become a cultural sensation, built on people craving a space to let loose, laugh and dance, all before 8pm.
“It feels like a massive house party at your nan’s,” says Vicky. “No drama, no egos, just people acting daft, getting dressed up and having the best time.” No dress code, no pressure, only wall-to-wall feel-good tunes and an open invitation to dance like nobody’s watching. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
The Primitives: Playing The Crescent tonight
Indie gig of the week: The Primitives, The Crescent, York, Saturday, 7.30pm
COVENTRY band The Primitives emerged from the UK independent music scene in 1984 with a sound that distilled the shimmering guitar chime of The Byrds, the buzzsaw style of The Ramones and Sixties’ girl group melodies into quickfire pop gems. After debut album Lovely, breakthrough single Crash and further albums Pure and Galore, they split in 1992, only to re-form in 2009.
This year, Elefant Records released the double vinyl collection Let’s Go Round Again – Second Wave Singles & Rarities 2011-2025, adding new material to A sides, B sides and more besides from the past 14 years. Tonight they head to York with a line-up featuring original members Tracy Tracy, vocals, Paul Court guitar/vocals, and Tig Williams, drums. Box office: thecrescentyork.com.
Musical of the week: NE Theatre York in Roald Dahl’s Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, Saturday and Sunday, 2.30pm and 7.30pm; November 25 to 28, 7.30pm; November 29, 2.30pm and 7.30pm
DIRECTED by Steve Tearle, this musical will take you to a world of pure imagination in Roald Dahl’s devilishly delicious tale of young golden ticket winner Charlie Bucket entering the scrumptious chocolate factory. There, he and his grandpa Joe, along with five more children, will meet the mysterious confectionary wizard Willy Wonka for an adventure like no other.
“The story of chocolate is at the very heart and history of this amazing city and it is only fitting that NE Theatre York brings Charlie And The Chocolate Factory to York,” says Steve. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
Mohammed Moussa: Headlining Say Owt’s bill on Sunday at The Crescent
Poetry gig of the week: Say Owt presents Mohammed Moussa, The Crescent, York, Sunday, midday
YORK spoken-word collective Say Owt welcomes Gaza Poets Society founder, Palestinian poet and podcaster Mohammad Moussa to The Crescent. Now living in Turkey, he writes with urgency, humour and hope, seeking to build connections across borders.
Supporting Mohammed on Sunday’s bill of shared personal stories will be York-based poets Nadira Alom and Minal Sukumar. Nadira writes about mental health and her experiences as a woman and a Muslim; Minal is a writer, performance poet and doctoral researcher at the Centre for Women’s Studies, University of York. Box office: thcrescentyork.com.
James Swanton: Returning to York Medical Society with a brace of Charles Dickens’ ghost stories
Storyteller of the week: James Swanton presents Charles Dickens’ Ghost Stories, York Medical Society, Stonegate, York, November 24 to 30,Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, 7pm; Sunday, 2pm and 6pm
YORK storyteller supreme and Gothic actor James Swanton returns to York Medical Society with two of Dickens’ seasonal ghost stories: A Christmas Carol, the famous saga of Scrooge (November 25 and 28, 7pm, and November 30, 2pm and 6pm), and The Haunted Man, a neglected Gothic classic (November 24 and 27, 7pm).
“Their words unlock a world teeming with chain-rattling spectres, with dark and shadowy doubles, with Ghosts of Christmases Past and Present and Yet To Come,” he says. “These tales chill the marrow and tickle the funny bone, but always they enchant, as only the works of a master storyteller can.” Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Meanwhile, Robert Lloyd Parry’s performance of three M R James ghost stories, Not Truly Dead, at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, on November 23 (7.30pm) has sold out.
O’Hooley & Tidow: Playing NCEM
Folk gig of the week: O’Hooley & Tidow, So Long For Now, National Centre for Early Music, York, November 26, 7.30pm
AFTER 15 years of performing together, eight studio albums, four BBC Folk Award nominations, composing Gentleman Jack as the BBC/HBO drama theme tune and gigs at hundreds of UK and European venues and festivals, Yorkshire folk duo Belinda O’Hooley & Heidi Tidow have made the momentous decision to say farewell for now to explore other adventures.
To help their loving and loyal audiences process this news, they are embarking on one last tour of all their favourite venues from over the years, taking in the NCEM next Wednesday. Tickets update: Sold out. For returns only, ring 01904 658338.
Ross Noble: Geordie surrealist tapping into his Cranium Of Curiosities at the Grand Opera House, York
Comedy gig of the week: Ross Noble, Cranium Of Curiosities, Grand Opera House, York, November 26, 8pm
THE Wizard of Waffle, the Rambler Royale, the Noodlers’ Noodler is touring a tornado of tangents. “What the show will be about is anybody’s guess, but that’s all part of the fun when you look inside my Cranium of Curiosities,” says Newcastle-upon-Tyne stand-up comedian and actor Ross Noble, who cut his comedy teeth in York as the bygone Comedy Shack’s master of ceremonies at The Bonding Warehouse. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Rebecca Vaughan: Telling haunting tales of the festive season in Dafyd Productions’ Christmas Gothic at Theatre@41, Monkgate
Frailties of human nature of the week: Dafyd Productions in Christmas Gothic, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, November 27, 7.30pm
REGULAR York frequenters Dafyd Productions return with Christmas Gothic, an invitation to come in from the cold and enter into the Christmas spirit as a dark and spectral woman (Rebecca Vaughan) tells haunting tales of the festive season, lighting a candle to the frailties of human nature and illuminating the chilling depths of the bleak, wintry dark. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
What’s On in Ryedale, York and beyond. Hutch’s List No. 49, from Gazette & Herald, 19/11/2025 onwards
Adrian Lillie and Charlotte Lloyd Webber, of CWL Design, standing by the 28ftChristmas tree in the Great Hall at Castle Howard, where their Wonderful Wizard Of Oz immersive experience enchants until January 4. Picture: Tom Arber
SNOW storms with clowns, Castle Howard’s immersive Wonderful Wizard Of Oz and Count Arthur Strong and Adam Z Robinson’s solo takes on A Christmas Carol put the ‘yes’ into November for Charles Hutchinson.
Christmas transformation of the week: The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz, Castle Howard, near York, until January 4
CASTLE Howard becomes an immersive Christmas experience, dressed in set pieces, decorations, floristry, projections, lighting and sound for The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz, set to delight tens of thousands of visitors over a seven-week period.
Created by CLW Event Design, headed up by Charlotte Lloyd Webber and Adrian Lillie, the show-stopping Emerald City High Street in the Long Gallery is a highlight of this winter’s transformation, with life-size fabricated shop fronts inspired by York’s Shambles, while the 28ft Christmas tree sparkles in the Great Hall. Leeds theatre company Imitating The Dog has provided the projections and soundscapes. Tickets: castlehoward.co.uk.
Slava’s SnowShow: Arrival in York coincides with forecasts of snow across the North
Weather forecast of the week: Slava’s SnowShow, Grand Opera House, York, 7.30pm, today to Saturday; 2.30pm, tomorrow and Saturday; Sunday, 2pm and 6pm
ENTER an absurd and surrealistic world of “fools on the loose” in Slava Polunin’s work of clown art, wherein each scene paints a picture: an unlikely shark swimming in a misty sea; clowns and the audience tangled up in a gigantic spider’s web; heart-breaking goodbyes with a coat rack on a railway platform, and audience members being hypnotised by giant balloons. The finale is an “out-of-this-world snowstorm”. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Kerry Godliman: Welcome to the life of a middle-aged woman who has outsourced her memory to her phone in Bandwidth. Picture: Aemen Sukka, of Jiksaw
Straight-talker of the week: Kerry Godliman: Bandwidth, York Theatre Royal, tonight, 7.30pm
WHILE parenting teenagers, bogged down with knicker admin and considering dealing HRT on the black market, Kerry Godliman can’t remember what was in her lost mum bag after outsourcing her memory to her phone. Welcome to the life of a middle-aged woman who lacks the bandwidth for any of this.
Godliman, comedian, actor, writer, podcaster and broadcaster, from Afterlife, Taskmaster and Trigger Point, builds her new stand-up show on straight-talking charm and quick wit. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
York artist Lesley Birch at work in her studio for her Flower Power exhibition at Pyramid Gallery, York. Picture: Esme Mai Photography
Blooms of the week: Lesley Birch: Flower Power and Jacqui Atkin: Ceramics, Pyramid Gallery, Stonegate, York, until mid-January 2026, Monday to Saturday, 10am to 5pm
LESLEY Birch is showing 22 paintings from her Flower Power series in an exhibition that coincides with the publication of her small artbook of the same title by independent York publisher Overt Books, also featuring Esme Mai’s photographs of Lesley’s home studio and the York artist’s free-verse musings. On show too are Pottery Showdown potter Jacqui Atkin’s ceramics.
Dickens of a good show: Count Arthur Strong Is Charles Dickens in A Christmas Carol, York Barbican, tomorrow, 8pm; Whitby Pavilion Theatre, November 23, 7.30pm; Scarborough Spa Theatre, November 27, 8pm
IN response to public pressure, doyen of light entertainment and raconteur Count Arthur Strong is extending his fond farewell with new dates aplenty for his one-man interpretation of A Christmas Carol, performing his own festive adaptation in the guise of literary great and travelling showman performer Charles Dickens. Box office: York, yorkbarbican.co.uk; Whitby, whitbypavilion.co.uk; Scarborough, scarboroughspa.co.uk.
Gerard Hobson: Cut out for three days of Christmas art
Christmas exhibition of the week: Gerard Hobson, 51, Water Lane, Clifton, York, Friday and Saturday, 10am to 4pm; Sunday, 12 noon to 4pm
YORK printmaker Geard Hobson’s artwork comprises hand-coloured, limited-edition linocut prints and cut-outs focused on nature and wildlife, inspired by the countryside around where he lives in York.
As well as prints and bird, animal, tree and mushroom cut-outs, he creates anything from cards, mugs, cushions and coasters to chopping boards, lampshades, tea towels, notepads and wrapping paper. This week’s festive exhibition focuses on Christmas gifts, cards, prints and cut-outs.
Mexborough poet Ian Parks holding a copy of his new book The Sons Of Darkness And The Sons Of Light. The Basement at City Screen Picturehouse awaits on Friday
Word-and-song gathering of the week: Navigators Art presents An Evening with Ian Parks and Friends, The Basement, City Screen Picturehouse, York, Friday, 7.30pm
YORK arts collective Navigators Art plays host to An Evening with Ian Parks and Friends, where Parks reads from his new collection, The Sons Of Darkness And The Sons Of Light, and will be in conversation with Crooked Spire Press publisher Tim Fellows.
Joining Parks will be award-winning York novelist and poet Janet Dean, poet and critic Matthew Paul and singer-songwriter Jane Stockdale, from York alt-folk trio White Sail. Tickets: £5 in advance at bit.ly/nav-events or £8 on the door from 7pm.
Rant: Scottish quartet of fiddle players heads for Helmsley Arts Centre
Fiddlers of the week: Rant, Helmsley Arts Centre, Friday, 7.30pm
SCOTTISH chamber-folk fiddlers Rant return to the road after releasing third album Spin last year, featuring their ambitious, bold and reflective reinterpretation of influential tracks by bands and players from across the globe from their formative years.
In the line-up are Bethany Reid, from Shetland, Anna Massie and Lauren MacColl from the Highland peninsula of the Black Isle, and Gillian Frame, from Arran, whose live set reflects years of honing their sound together and their love for the music of each home region through their writing, repertoire and stories. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Adam Z Robinson: Playing Scrooge and 27 more characters in A Christmas Carol at Helmsley Arts Centre
Ryedale solo show of the week:The Book of Darkness & Light Theatre Company in A Christmas Carol, Helmsley Arts Centre, Saturday, 7.30pm
MARLEY was dead.. to begin with. So starts The Book of Darkness & Light Theatre Company’s ghostly staging of Charles Dickens’s festive tale, performed by Adam Z Robinson, whose solo adaptation “teases out the gothic aspects” and requires him to play 28 characters.
Join miserly misery Ebenezer Scrooge on a supernatural journey into the past, present and yet-to-come. The chilly atmosphere of Victorian London is brought to life and the spirits of Christmas return from the dead, all through the spellbinding art of storytelling that combines gripping narration with eerie recorded voices and an immersive soundscape. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Becky, left, and Rachel Unthank: Playing All Saints Church, Pocklington, this weekend
Recommended but sold out already: The Unthanks At 20, All Saints Church, Pocklington, Saturday, 7.30pm
POCKLINGTON’S Hurricane Promotions bring North Eastern folk band The Unthanks to All Saints Church as part of their 20th anniversary scaled-back, intimate series of shows in support of “today’s best small venues”.
The Unthanks play Pocklington fresh from singing sisters Rachel and Becky Unthank and pianist Adrian McNally being part of the cast of eight for the October 22 to November 2 theatre piece for Bradford UK City of Culture 2025, creating and performing the music for Javaad Alipoor’s staging of York author Fiona Mozley’s Booker Prize-shortlisted novel, Elmet.
The show poster for The Sounds Of Simon at the Kirk Theatre, Pickering
Tribute show of the week: The Sounds Of Simon, The Music of Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel, Old Friends, Kirk Theatre, Pickering, Saturday, 7.30pm
THE Sounds Of Simon, the UK’s longest-running tribute to Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel, takes a musical journey from their years as Simon and Garfunkel to the successes of their solo careers, as they explore the friendship that led to songs such as Mrs Robinson, The Sound Of Silence and Bridge Over Troubled Water, onwards to You Can Call Me Al, Graceland and Garfunkel’s Bright Eyes.
The show incorporates elements of the duo’s famously fractious relationship, as well as replicating their beautiful harmonies, complemented by video clips, stories and memories from more than 50 years. Box office: 01751 474833 or kirktheatre.co.uk.
AFTER hosting Palestinian poet Farah Chamma in June, York spoken-word collective Say Owt brings another international artist to The Crescent on November 23 when Gaza Poets Society founder Mohammad Moussa headlines the midday bill.
Palestinian poet and podcast host Moussa set up the Gaza Poets Society as a platform for emerging voices from Gaza and beyond.
Born and raised in Gaza, Moussa now lives in Turkey, where he continues to write and build connections across borders. He has published two poetry collections and contributed to multiple anthologies.
Nadira Alom
“Mohammed shares work that speaks with urgency, humour and hope – poems rooted in lived experience and reaching for freedom,” says Say Owt artistic director Henry Raby.
“We believe in platforming under-represented voices, and through his poetry Mohammed tells the story of the people of Gaza. A humble, gentle soul, Mohammed’s poetry is full of compassion and soul.”
Supporting Moussa at Sunday’s 12 noon to 2pm show of “generous spoken word sharing personal stories” will be York-based poets Nadira Alom and Minal Sukumar.
Minal Sukumar
“Nadira Alom is a poet who believes that your voice is the most important thing you have and you should use it to stand up for the causes you believe in,” says Henry. “She writes about mental health and her experiences as both a woman and a Muslim.
“Minal Sukumar is a writer, performance poet and doctoral researcher at the Centre for Women’s Studies, University of York. She holds a master’s degree in writing and has performed poetry across India, Ireland and the UK.”
The poster for Toby Lee & James Emmanuel’s Blues & Soul Revue at The Crescent, York
BLUES guitar prodigy Toby Lee was last spotted in York playing with Jools Holland and His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra, sharing special guest billing with Soft Cell’s Marc Almond at York Barbican on December 11 2024.
Next Wednesday, he will be in good company again, sharing the stage with Decca label-mate soul singer James Emmanuel as their eight-date Blues & Soul Revue promises to “melt faces and warm souls” at The Crescent.
Featuring Lee’s full touring band, solo sets, glorious collaborations and on-stage jamming, the night will deliver “guitar solos, smooth vocals and at least one person in the crowd yelling ‘Woo!’ at the wrong time”…if you ever wondered how AI would put together a press release about a UK blues sensation going on tour (it says here).
Warwickshire-born Lee, who headlined the Fulford Arms on May 18 last year, is touring on the back of dropping into myriad summer festivals, from Glastonbury to Love Supreme, Isle of Wight to Belladrum.
“I’m very excited. It should be a fun tour,” says Toby, speaking to The York Press while in rehearsal for an itinerary that opened on October 22. “I’ll be playing The Crescent for the first time – and I do like a standing gig, so that’ll be great.
“I’m always that annoying member of the band who says, ‘guys, let’s cut four songs and play something we haven’t played for two years’,” says Toby
“I’m still promoting House On Fire, which we released on October 4 [on 100% Records] last year as my first fully original record. Quite a step up from doing covers mixed with originals previously [on 2021 debut Aquarius] but this time we wanted to focus on originals.”
All the songs were composed by Toby, working with Shadow Hands (alias Bnann and Gareth Watts) and Sam Collins, who plays bass in his band, at Cube Recording Studio in Truro. He is now working on the next record, he says. “It’s at the very early stages at the moment, but there will be something that will come out next year,” he promises.
What did he learn from making House On Fire? “The thing for me, if I’m totally honest, I didn’t realise how vulnerable you are as a writer when you’re writing about heartbreak,” says Toby, still only 20, after teaching himself guitar from the age of eight.
“I’m quite reticent with my emotions, but then suddenly you’re at the point of letting out every emotion to someone you’ve never met before – and that’s a rare thing about being a musician.
“But I do love writing on my own because you tend to have this voice in your head, and it’s so much more satisfying when your version comes to fruition – though it’s also good to have someone to help you cross the finishing line.”
Toby Lee and his band in action
From being uncertain initially about songwriting, Toby has grown to enjoy it the most of his music-making roles. “Songs tend to come to me when I’m most relaxed or when I’m about to fall asleep and I have to stay up to complete them,” he says.
“But I also like that thing of looking out to sea. It’s the best place for it [creativity]. That’s my happy place, where I can be relaxed and open myself to it. It might not be so great for recording, but sometimes I can record a demo in my 14ft-long old 1967 Volkswagen bus, with dogs barking and seagulls squawking!”
Toby has found his musicianship progressing from the blues – he played guitar at B.B. King’s Blues Club in Memphis in 2015, aged ten – to embracing a “more soulful, rocky style”, now bringing together a live set that will still please blues and jazz devotees too.
“When you’re playing so many styles, the thing that takes the longest is creating the set list,” he says. A set list that keeps changing too! “One hundred per cent, I do that! I’m always that annoying member of the band who says, ‘guys, let’s cut four songs and play something we haven’t played for two years’.
“I get that for some musicians, when you know what you’re doing each night, there’s no anxiety, but I really like to change it up because it keeps us in the moment, having a bit of fun, and keeping the jamming parts very natural.”
Toby Lee’s cover artwork for last year’s House On Fire, his first album of original compositions. Toby filmed the video for his House On Fire single in his 1974 Corvette Stingray, named “Elvis” by next Wednesday’s guest act Isabella Coulstock
Mentored by Bernie Marsden in his early days, Toby has shared stages with Buddy Guy, Slash, Billy Gibbons, Peter Frampton and Joe Bonamassa (at the Royal Albert Hall), as well as starring in the West End production of School Of Rock and performing with McFly on Tonight at the London Palladium in his teenage rise.
Above all, Toby looked very much at home in Jools Holland’s company at York Barbican last December and when performing House On Fire with the dapper boogie-woogie piano doyen on Jools’s Annual Hootenanny 2024 show on BBC Two last winter.
“I know people say ‘never meet your heroes’, as they seem like one person and then you meet them and they’re totally different, but that’s not the case with Mr Jools Holland, who’s even more lovely in person,” he says.
“Even if he hasn’t got the time, he’ll still find it for you, and it was such a compliment for him to give me that time on tour with him. It was an experience I’ll never forget. It could come across as quite daunting with him being a household name, so there’s a pressure attributed to it, because you want to get it right, and two nights before we played The Royal Albert Hall, I lost my voice, as I was also touring with my own band and doing lots of radio stuff.
“But Ruby Turner [ever present on Jools’s tours] got her voice coach in to help me get my voice back, and Jools ended up having me playing guitar on a couple of extra songs. I love how it’s such a family with him.”
“It was an experience I’ll never forget,” says Toby Lee, recalling last year’s tour with Jools Holland (left) and His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra
Looking ahead to next Wednesday’s Blues & Soul Revue show at The Crescent, Toby says: “It’s a bit of a different tour for me, this one. Something we’ve never done before. Touring with James Emmanuel, a soul singer from Edinburgh, who’ll open for us.
“He’s one of those soul singers with a voice like butter. He’ll be playing with my band for his set, which is good for my guys to try something different. It’ll be really cool because we’ve never had a full band support at our gigs before.
“The one thing that we wanted to create was to change it up a bit with having different parts to the show, so here we have different musicians working with us to give a diiferent vibe to it.”
Completing the line-up will be Toby’s fellow vintage car enthusiast Isabella Coulstock. “She’s a singer-songwriter, who’s supported The Who, Chris Isaak, Jools Holland and Nick Heyward, so I feel like she’s doing me a favour,” he says.
Toby Lee & James Emmanuel, An Evening Of Blues & Soul, with Isabella Coulstock, The Crescent, York, November 12, 7.30pm. Box office: thecrescentyork.com/events/toby-lee/.
