Ward Thomas Archives - charleshutchpress

September 11, 2026October 2, 2026

More Things To Do in York and beyond from September 12. Hutch’s List No. 37, from The York Press

The poster for the Pigeon Paint Off at City Screen Picturehouse, York, On Saturday

A COMPETIVE Pigeon Paint Off, the biggest of book fairs, top-drawer chamber music and Wright&Grainger’s new material are among Charles Hutchinson’s recommendations for a particularly intriguing week ahead.

Bird show of the week: Dead Toe Society presents Pigeon Paint Off, City Screen Picturehouse, York, Saturday, 12 noon to 5.30pm

THE inaugural Pigeon Paint Off creative fundraising event in support of Columba Sanctuary and Advocacy for Pigeons features a live art competition with 11 artists and resulting picture auction, complemented by a Pigeon Social and Pigeon-themed Pub Quiz from 6pm, with the quiz starting at 7pm. Look out too for bird-themed arts and crafts on sale and a raffle with “some snazzy prizes”.

“Watch talented artists bring original works to life, each one inspired by our feathered friends, in two rounds of one-hour paint-offs with audience votes deciding the champion,” says organiser Sam Crick. “You’ll also be able to learn more about why pigeons are suffering, the issues they are facing, why they need our support and how you can help advocate for their wellbeing.” Tickets:https://www.tickettailor.com/events/deadtoesociety/2373410.

Book event of the week: York National Book Fair, Knavesmire Suite, York Racecourse, Knavesmire, Saturday, 10am to 5pm

AT Britain’s largest antiquarian book fair, 186 ‘bookshops’ are set up under one roof with prices ranging from only a few pounds to tens of thousands for more than 100,000 books. All subjects, all dates, from medieval to ultra-modern, are on sale, along with ephemera, manuscripts, prints, photographs and posters, while trade stands are selling marbled papers and binding materials.

York Racecourse offers unlimited free parking and a free shuttle bus is running from the Memorial Gardens on Railway Street to Knavesmire every 30 minutes. Tickets on the door cost £2. Alternatively, head to https://yorkbookfair.com/one-day-complimentary-ticket-2/ to book a complimentary ticket. Children aged under 16 are admitted for free

Classical festival of the week: York Chamber Music Festival, Saturday and Sunday

THIS year’s festival has invited six of the best string players in Europe – Charlotte Scott and Tim Crawford, violins, Simone van der Giessen and Lilli Maijala, violas, and Adrian Brendel and festival artistic director Tim Lowe, cellos, to participate, along with regular festival artist Katya Apekisheva, the British-based Russian pianist.

On Saturdayy, at 1pm, at St Saviourgate Unitarian Chapel, Brendel plays Imogen Holst’s The Fall Of The Leaf and J. S. Bach’s Cello Suite No 2 in D Minor; at 7.30pm, at the Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, University of York, all seven perform Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio No 1 in D minor Op 49, Mahler’s Piano Quartet (movement) in A minor – Nicht zu schnell and Brahms’s Piano Quartet in C minor Op 60. All but Apekisheva return for Beethoven’s String Quintet in C Major Op. 29 and Brahms’s String Quintet in F major, Op. 88, on Sunday at 3pm at St Olave’s Church, Marygate. Box office: ycmf.co.uk or 01904 658338.

Artist trail of the week: Staithes Festival of Arts and Heritage, Staithes, near Whitby, Saturday and Sunday, 10am to 5pm

DISCOVER 113 artists exhibiting across 67 venues through Staithes. Explore galleries, cottages, studios and hidden spaces transformed into exhibition venues across the fishing village. Find out who is taking part at https://www.staithesfestival.com/festival/artists.php.

Enjoy live music, buskers, creative workshops, demonstrations, outdoor cinema, family activities and festival extras too. For the full event programme, go to: https://www.staithesfestival.com/festival/events.php.

Americana gig of the week: James Felice & William Lawrence, Pocklington Arts Centre, Saturday, 8pm

JAMES Felice and drummer William Lawrence, two members of New York State’s Felice Brothers, are taking to the road to perform songs from their respective solo works in a dreamy and quiet evening of Americana music and storytelling. James and William last appeared at Pocklington Arts Centre alongside Ian Felice and Jesske Hume in the Felice Brothers gig in June 2021. Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.

Songs old and new of the week: Michael Ball, Glow UK Tour, York Barbican, Saturday, doors 7pm

MUSICAL star and radio and TV presenter Michael Ball promotes his 23rd solo album, Glow, on his 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. Liss Jones supports. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Comedy gig of the week: Urzila Carlson, Fatty On A Yacht, York Barbican, Sunday, 8pm

SOUTH African-New Zealander Urzila Carlson returns to the UK with her understated punchlines and signature deadpan delivery in Fatty On A Yacht. Ever felt like you don’t belong? Like everyone else got the memo – and you turned up in the wrong outfit, on the wrong day, on the wrong yacht? Carlson’s new show is for anyone who has ever tried to squeeze into a space, physical or social, and thought “This can’t be right”. “It’s about not fitting in, standing out and laughing about it anyway,” she says. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Country gig of the week: Ward Thomas, Celebrating 10 Years Of Cartwheels Tour, York Barbican, September 14, 7.30pm

HAMPSHIRE twin sisters Catherine and Lizzy Ward Thomas perform their second album in its entirety, revisiting the record – written at home and in Nashville – that made history as the first by a British country act to top the UK Albums Chart in 2016.

“We had to plan a celebration for its ten-year anniversary,” says Lizzy. “We’ll be bringing our full band, doing a type of show we haven’t done in a long time.” The Wandering Hearts support. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

New music, words and stories of the week: Wright& Grainger, Scratch An Itch, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, September 18, 7.30pm

IN a rare little moment of public-facing recklessness, Easingwold duo Wright&Grainger have some brand new stuff they wish try out in front of, and with, some other people. “It’ll defo involve a piano,” say Alex and Phil. “It’ll defo have music and words and story.

“There’s some tasty clues to follow, some sweet ideas to develop, some scary instincts to trust. And now there’s this big and warm open invite to you, to come join. So please do. We’d love that. Fingers crossed it’ll be good.” Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

In Focus: Navigators Art presents Moss Glow and Shadow Bloom, The Basement, City Screen Picturehouse, York, September 19, 7.30pm

Astral Light

YORK collective Navigators Art presents four inspiring York performers whose work conjures up unique worlds in a magical programme of electronic, acoustic and vocal sounds, influenced by folk traditions and environmental themes.

This bringing together of ancient and modern iconography, art, poetry and music in Moss Glow and Shadow Bloom: Folk, Myth & Magic has been re-arranged from the postponed original date of July 11 with tickets still valid.

Things Found And Made

Taking part will be:

Astral Light: Scrappy-folky-blues, spoken word and ritual, featuring a homemade menagerie of masks, microphones, dolls, instruments, sound equipment and magical implements.

Filipe Massumi: Cellist and singer whose original and beautiful songs derive from the culture of his native Brazil.

Filipe Massumi

No Spinoza: Welcome to the thematic universe of Thomas Pearson’s forthcoming album Jupiter’s Great Hurricane, bridging history and legend, ancient and modern, as featured in session on BBC Introducing.

Things Found And Made: Lost cinematic folk-tales comprising imagined histories and half remembered rituals of sound and nature.

Box office: https://www.ticketsource.com/navigators-art-performance or on the door. Doors and bar: open from 7pm. Venue is fully accessible.

No Spinoza

April 1, 2023April 1, 2023

Country twins Ward Thomas seek out hope and love in music made in the madness

*Catherine, left, and Lizzy Ward Thomas: Returning to York Barbican for the first time since 2019. Picture: Marek Puc*

HAMPSHIRE country twins Lizzy and Catherine Ward Thomas play York Barbican on April 4 as the only Yorkshire show of their 13-date spring tour.

“We love York,” says Lizzy. “I think it’s one of the most beautiful places in the country. It’s like finding a hidden treasure. We love the audiences there. We always get such a lovely response at the Barbican.”

Ward Thomas made their York debut at Fibbers in March 2015 and have since performed at York Barbican in May 2017 and February 2019, as well as stopping off in the city on their Busking For Our Planet travels in 2021, ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, to raise money for the TreeSisters, Ocean Clean Up, Arctic Ice Project, Jane Goodall Institute and Client Earth charities.

Next week’s return follows the March 10 release of the sisters’ fifth studio album, Music In The Madness, billed as “a harmony-soaked balm for shattered souls and an uplifting reminder of what really matters”.

Love, family, unity and the healing power of music are recurrent themes of songs that emerged from song-writing sessions that began as war broke out in Ukraine and the world went into a post-Covid tailspin.

“The ‘madness’ is the world around us that we make our music in and we put that experience into our music,” says Lizzy.

“The reason we wanted to use that title is we were writing this album in Nashville when Ukraine had been invaded and Australia had suffered those terrible bush fires, but there’s also much beauty in a world that can be such a dangerous place and human beings really connect to each other in these situations. We see the gestures of people bringing vulnerable people into their homes.

“These incredible stories of hope and love shine so brightly, and that’s why wanted to write an album of songs bringing hope as our next album. Music really is a powerful tool, that’s so important, whether it’s coming together at concerts or bringing back memories at home.”

Ward Thomas topped the charts with their sophomore album, Cartwheels, in September 2016 but after leaving major label Warner following 2020’s Invitation, the sisters find themselves back on their own independent label, WTW Music, originally launched in 2014.

“We kept that label going while we had major label deals, and now we’ve released this latest album independently, which has been an interesting, insightful and incredible experience for us,” says Lizzy. “We’re lucky with the team we’ve got around us, with amazing marketing, radio and TV support.”

*Country twins: Lizzy, left, and Catherine Ward Thomas*

Music In The Madness entered the Official UK Album Chart at number 31 and has topped the UK country charts, as Ward Thomas seek to retain both their creative and commercial momentum.

“It’s important to continually learn from different people and at the same time appreciate the people who have supported us from the get-go, when we made our first album in Nashville as doe-eyed young girls of 17-18, working with these incredible musicians we were in awe of, having just done our A-levels, writing those songs at school,” says artist’s daughter Lizzy, who was brought up on a Petersfield farm and educated with Catherine at Alton Convent, a Roman Catholic day school.

“The biggest thing we’ve learned since 2014 is just how much things change so quickly in the music industry, how you need to change but work with the right people. If it feels authentic, then go that way; if it doesn’t, have the confidence to say ‘No’.

“It’s important to keep your head screwed on. You’re never in control as things change all the time and you just have to be open to that.”

Through the steady stream of five albums in nine years, the sisters’ love of song-writing has been the key. “We like to see ourselves as album artists, and when the music industry is so difficult these days, we’re lucky we have a fanbase that loves the album format,” says Lizzy. “We’re always wanting to think ahead when we’re working on the current project, to keep the momentum going.”

The gestation of Music In The Madness combined writing sessions in Texas in February 2022 with further writing and recording in the UK. “We had a guy in Nashville who set up sessions for us with Aaran Eshuis, and we wrote a couple of songs with him, and we worked again with Rebecca Powell, who we formed a great personal and creative relationship with when she wrote lots of the Cartwheels album with us.”

Back home, the sisters arranged a song-writing day at singer-songwriter Ed Harcourt’s home studio in Oxford, resulting in the song Joan Of Arc. “Our management and his management were in discussion about Ed producing the album, and after that song we felt on the same page,” says Lizzy.

“What I enjoyed about working with Ed was he was so collaborative and suggested we should bring in our live band for the recordings, when so often producers want to use their own musicians. We have that chemistry with our band, and it was really good fun having them work on the album with us.

“Ed also quietly introduced random instruments, like making a beat by tapping on his desk, and he’s old-school in his approach. You can still hear the creaking of his piano pedal when he played on Loved By You!”

The twins, who turned 29 on Tuesday, already are working on their sixth album with plans for a release to mark hitting 30. “There’ll be lots of stuff about that,” says Lizzy. “Catherine is starting a family; her first baby is due in May. I might be thinking about getting married…”

Ward Thomas play York Barbican on April 4; auditorium doors open at 7pm. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

*The cover artwork for Ward Thomas’s fifth studio album, Music In The Madness*

April 1, 2023September 4, 2023

More Things To Do in York and beyond to turn a bad day into a good one. Here Hutch’s List No. 14 for 2023, from The Press

*Having a Bad Day in York: The Bad Day Blues Band play York Blues Festival tonight*

FROM a dose of the blues to tragic poetry and song, an heroic fireman to a flying car, clashing couples to country-singing twins, Charles Hutchinson is ready for a week of up-and-down moods.

Festival of the week: York Blues Festival, The Crescent, York, today, 12.30pm to 11pm

YORK’S DC Blues present the cream of the crop from the British blues scene in an all-dayer. Taking part will be Mojo Catfish: Electric Blues; The Bad Day Blues Band; Bad Bob Bates; DC Blues; Alex Fawcett Band; The Terraplanes Blues Band; Mark Pontin Group and The The Lonely Hands Band.

Hand-picked by Jorvik Radio’s Blues From The Ouse hosts Paul Winn & Ben Darwin, the fourth York Blues Festival features bands from all over Britain performing from 1pm. Now the bad news to give you the blues: the event has sold out.

*Twin sisters Catherine and Lizzy Ward Thomas make their third visit to York Barbican on Tuesday*

Country gig of the week: Ward Thomas, York Barbican, Tuesday, auditorium doors 7.30pm

HAMPSHIRE country twins Catherine and Lizzy Ward Thomas look for light in troubled times on newly released fifth album Music In The Madness: songs of harmony-soaked balm for shattered souls and an uplifting reminder of what really matters.

Love, family, unity and the healing power of music are recurrent themes on an album begun as war broke out in Ukraine and the world went into a post-Covid tailspin. Tuesday’s York return will be the sisters’ only Yorkshire concert on a 13-date tour. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

*Fireman Sam on circus-saving duty at York Theatre Royal on Tuesday*

Children’s show of the week: Fireman Sam Saves The Circus, York Theatre Royal, Tuesday, 3.30pm

WHEN all his friends go away, Norman Price decides to become the star of a visiting circus in Pontypandy. However, with a tiger on the loose and faulty lights, his adventure soon turns to danger. Can Fireman Sam come to the rescue and save the circus? Spoiler alert, the show title suggests yes!

Join Sam, Penny, Elvis, Station Officer Steele and Norman in UK Family’s all-singing singing, all-dancing, action-packed show, where you can become a fire-fighter cadet. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

*Alan Park’s playwright Henry in rehearsal for York Settlement Community Players’ production of Tom Stoppard’s The Real Thing. Picture: Ben Lindley*

Play of the week: York Settlement Community Players in The Real Thing, York Theatre Royal Studio, Wednesday and Thursday, 7.30pm, then April 11 to 15, 7.30pm, plus April 15, 2.30pm

HENRY is married to Charlotte. Max is married to Annie. Henry – possibly the sharpest playwright of his generation – has written a play about a couple whose marriage is on the brink of collapse. Charlotte and Max, his leading couple, are soon to find out that sometimes life imitates art.

Directed by Jacob Ward, Pocklington School alumnus Tom Stoppard’s deliberately confusing 1982 exploration of love and infidelity sets the question “What is the real thing?” … without answering it! Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

*Sam Green, left, Dan Crawfurd-Porter and Mikhail Lim in rehearsal for Black Sheep Theatre’s Elegies For Angels, Punks And Raging Queens*

Time to discover: Black Sheep Theatre in Elegies For Angels, Punks And Raging Queens, Quad South, York St John University, Thursday to Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee

BLACK Sheep Theatre bring Janet Hood and Bill Russell’s rarely performed 1989 musical to the York stage with a cast including Mikhail Lim (last seen as Seymour in York Stage’s Little Shop Of Horrors last July) and Helen Spencer (Dolly Levi in Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company’s Hello Dolly! in February).

Elegies For Angels, Punks And Raging Queens is composed of free verse poems and songs, each poem representing a character who has died from AIDS, the songs reflecting the feelings of the living, those who have lost friends and loved ones. Box office: ticketsource.co.uk/black-sheep-theatre-productions

*Alex Papachristou: Returning to York to play Baron Bomburst in York Stage’s Chitty Chitty Bang Bang*

Spectacular show of the week: York Stage in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Grand Opera House, York, Thursday to April 15, 7.30pm nightly except April 9; 2.30pm, April 7, 8, 12 and 15

YORK Stage present the magic, mayhem and madness of Richard and Robert Sherman’s most Fantasmagorical musical, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, under the direction of Nik Briggs with choreography by Damien Poole and musical direction by Adam Tomlinson.

Can whacky inventor Caractacus Potts (Ned Sproston), his two children and the gorgeous Truly Scrumptious (Carly Morton) outwit bombastic Baron Bomburst (welcome back Alex Papachristou), who has decreed that all children be banished from his kingdom? Watch out, here come the evil Childcatcher (Richard Barker) and, yes, that flying car too. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

*Liza Pulman & Joe Stilgoe: Songs and stories, favourite standards and classic duets, at Selby Town Hall*

Musical match made in theatrical heaven: Liza Pulman & Joe Stilgoe: A Couple Of Swells, Selby Town Hall, April 15, 8pm. Also Otley Couthouse, April 14, 7.30pm; otleycourthouse.org. uk

LIZA Pulman and Joe Stilgoe, both headline names in their own right, have chosen Selby for one of their first ever duo shows in a night of songs and stories, favourite standards and classic duets, sprinkled with panache and dazzle.

The Great American Song Book meets 1950s’ French Riviera chic in the company of Pulman, one third of satirical cabaret group Fascinating Aïda, and jazz pianist and singer Stilgoe, a five-time UK Jazz Chart topper. Box office: 01757 708449 or selbytownhall.co.uk.

*May days: The poster for Babybird’s five-date tour*, *visiting Leeds Brudenell Social Club*

Back together: Babybird, The F-Word Tour, supported by Terrorvision’s Tony Wright, Leeds Brudenell Social Club, May 5, doors 7.30pm

PLAYING Leeds feels like a rite of passage to return there for Babybird’s Stephen Jones, as he recalls the memorable between-song banter enthusiasm of his band’s first tours of 1996 and 1997.

Formed in 1995 and best known for misconstrued 1996 anthem You’re Gorgeous, Babybird made 11 albums before splitting in 2013, since when Manchester-based Jones has written fiction, released solo works on Bandcamp and created the film score for Blessed. Reunited, Babybird’s monstrous lullabies for an unstable world are taking wing anew. Box office: brudenellsocialclub.co.uk.

In Focus: Ryedale Youth Theatre in The Addams Family – A New Musical Comedy, Milton Rooms, Malton, April 5 to 8

*Meet the Addams Family in Ryedale Youth Theatre’s The Addams Family – A New Musical Comedy. All pictures: Tim Youster*

CHLOE Shipley directs a cast of 50, aged eight to 18, in The Addams Family – A New Musical Comedy, featuring music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa and book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice.

Although numerous film and television adaptations of Charles Addams’s single-panel gag cartoons exist, this musical is the first stage show to be based on the ghoulish American family with an affinity for all things macabre.

Billed as a comical feast that embraces the wackiness in every family, the show features an original story built around every father’s nightmare. Daughter Wednesday, the ultimate princess of darkness – with a name derived from the Fair Of Face poem’s line that “Wednesday’s child is full of woe“ – has grown up and fallen in love with a sweet, smart young man from a respectable family – a man her parents have never met.

If that were not upsetting enough, Wednesday confides in her father, begging him not to tell her mother. Now Gomez Addams must do something he has never done before: keep a secret from his beloved wife, Morticia.

Everything will change for the whole family on the fateful night they host a dinner for Wednesday’s “normal” boyfriend and his parents.

As the lyrics for the Main Theme for The Addams Family, written by Vic Mizzy in 1964, assert: “They’re creepy and they’re kooky, Mysterious and spooky, They’re all together ooky, The Addams family”.

Under Chloe’s direction and Rachel Clarke’s musical direction, the multi-talented Ryedale cast has thoroughly enjoyed proving that rhyme’s sentiment in rehearsals. Now come the 7.15pm evening shows and 2pm Thursday and Saturday matinees, with tickets on sale at £12, concessions £10, at yourboxoffice.co.uk.