And then there were five: the full line-up for the SatchVai Band’s summer tour
GUITAR legends Joe Satriani and Steve Vai have confirmed the full band line-up for the SatchVai Band’s Surfing With The Hydra Tour, whose European travels open at York Barbican on June 13.
Powerhouse drummer Kenny Aronoff, bassist Marco Mendoza and virtuoso guitarist Pete Thorn will complete the stellar quintet.
“Finding the right musicians for the SatchVai Band was at first a daunting task, then an exciting one,” says Satriani. “There are so many great musicians to choose from.
“It’s no secret that the chemistry between players will always be the thing that makes them a magical live band, and we’ve found that chemistry with Kenny, Marco and Pete.
“The upcoming shows will focus on not only our respective solo works, but also the music from our new album. We are so excited to get this show on the road and celebrate it with all of our fans!”
As Vai explains, “When considering forming one band around myself and Joe, we talked about the qualities needed for each position, bass, drums, rhythm guitar. It was a surprising challenge to find the right fits.”
Drummer Kenny Aronoff is no stranger to Satriani fans. He has toured alongside Joe as part of the Chickenfoot band, joined Satriani solo tours since 2019, played on The Elephant Of Mars album and stepped in for Jason Bonham on the Best Of All Worlds tour with Satriani, Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony.
“What can I say about the legendary Kenny Aronoff that I haven’t said before?” asks Satriani. “No other drummer has the sound, feel, time, groove and swagger like Kenny. He’s an exceptional human being too. He’s supernatural!”
Vai adds: “Kenny is the quintessential rock drummer. His time is bullet-proof, his tone is fat and clean, and his ability to respond in an improvisational setting is instant. Besides that, he’s one of the easiest and most fun guys to tour with – an essential quality on the road.”
Aronoff says: “I’ve been performing and recording music with Joe Satriani since 2012 (Chickenfoot, Sammy Hagar, G3 and Joe’s band) and have performed live with Steve Vai, but the next level is right now because I am joining the SatchVaiband for a two-month tour this summer in Europe. I am pumped, excited and ready to kick ass!”
When it came to adding a rhythm guitarist and bass player, Satriani and Vai were challenged to find the right combo. Vai had been aware of Pete Thorn for a while and knew he was perfect for their band.
“Pete’s playing is rock solid with a huge tone in his fingers,” says Vai. “His rhythm playing is tight and in tune in a way that’s rare, and his intonation is stunning. He’s the perfect musician for this band and we couldn’t be happier to have him.”
Satriani agrees: “Pete is an all-around monster guitarist. He has that rare ability to shine on rhythm and lead guitar, switching back and forth with finesse,” he says. “He’s got the technical abilities and the rock’n’roll attitude Steve and I were hoping to find for our band.”
Thorn says: “It sounds like something out of a mad fantastical dream that the 14-year-old guitar-obsessed me would have had…. ‘Joe Satriani and Steve Vai called, they want you to join their new band’!
“And then I’d wake up and go to 9th grade math class! But it’s real! It’s a mind-blowing opportunity, and yet I also feel like I’ve arrived exactly where I’ve always wanted to be. I’m beyond excited to be of musical service to these legends and to rock out!”
Then came the choice for bassist, Marco Mendoza. “Marco is a bass phenomenon,” says Vai. “With his six-string fretless, his bass sings with perfect intonation and swooning vibrato. His wide, rich tone and masterful control of dynamics will bring a new dimension to our songs.”
Satriani adds: “Marco’s musicianship is boundless. He’s got a special magic to his bass playing; it’s both foundational and out front at the same time. Together with his exceptional singing voice and stage presence, he will be a driving force in our band.”
Mendoza says: “I have to say that getting invited to be part of a great project like this is monumental for me personally. I know it’s going to be something very special and I can’t wait to get it started.”
The York Barbican show will open a tour that will take in such cities as London, Paris, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Istanbul and Athens, along with European summer festivals at Hellfest, Umbria Jazz Festival and Guitares en Scene Fest.
Celebrating nearly five decades of musical friendship, Satriani and Vai made their musical collaboration debut in March 2024. The Sea Of Emotion, Pt. 1 showcases their synergy as they trade solo sections throughout the nearly six-minute opus.
Their second collaboration is set to be released just before the European tour, adding even more anticipation.
The last few tickets for June 13 are on sale at yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Ric Liptrot: Exhibiting in The Other Collective exhibition at Bluebird Bakery, Acomb
FROM dollops of Dolly Parton advice to Stewart Lee’s werewolf encounter, devilish storytelling to a Cinderella prequel, Charles Hutchinson, cherry picks highlights for the days ahead.
Exhibition of the week: The Other Collective, Bluebird Bakery, Acomb, York, until March 13
CURATED by Bluebird Bakery, The Other Collective brings together the work of Lu Mason, Ric Liptrot, Rob Burton, Liz Foster and Jill Tattersall.
“These wonderful artists were all missed off the billing for York Open Studios 2025 and we felt that was a real shame,” says Bluebird boss Nicky Kippax. “So The Other Collective was born and we hope the work will get a lot of interest from our customers.”
The poster for South Bank Singers’ Of All The Birds concert
Nature concert of the week: South Bank Singers, Of All The Birds, A Winter Chorus, St Clement’s Church, Scarcroft Road, York, today, 3pm
SOUTH Bank Singers present Of All The Birds, A Winter Chrous, a Saturday afternoon concert of choral music inspired by the enchanting beauty and song of birds. Directed by Carlos Zamora, the choral programme spans six centuries, taking in Mendelssohn, Stanford, Ravel, Gibbons, Janequin, Vautor, Guastavino and Bartlet. Admission is free with a retiring collection for the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust.
The poster for A Million Dreams, presented by Steve Coates Productions, at the Grand Opera House, York
Fundraiser of the week: A Million Dreams, A Charity Broadway Spectacular, Grand Opera House, York, tonight, 7.30pm
STEVE Coates Productions present an evening of musical magic, song, dance and laughter by York talent in aid of The Snappy Trust, a charity “dedicated to maximising the personal development of children and young people with wide- ranging disabilities”.
Bev Jones Music Company, Flying Ducks Youth Theatre and a ten-piece band perform songs from Broadway and West End shows such as Wicked, Hamilton, Frozen, The Phantom Of The Opera, Les Miserables and The Greatest Showman. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Mark Reynolds’ tour poster illustration for Stewart Lee Vs The Man-Wulf, playing York Theatre Royal from January 28 to February 1
Comedy gigs of the week: Stewart Lee Vs The Man-Wulf, York Theatre Royal, January 28 to February 1, 7.30pm
IN Stewart Lee Vs The Man-Wulf, Lee shares the stage with a tough-talking werewolf comedian from the dark forests of the subconscious who hates humanity. The Man-Wulf lays down a ferocious comedy challenge to the “culturally irrelevant and physically enfeebled Lee”: can the beast inside us all be silenced by the silver bullet of Lee’s deadpan stand-up? Tickets advice: Hurry, hurry as all shows are closing in on selling out; 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Tricia Paoluccio’s Dolly Parton and Steven Webb’s Kevin in Here You Come Again at Grand Opera House, York
Musical of the week: Here You Come Again, Grand Opera House, York, January 28 to February 1, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees
SIMON Friend Entertainment and Leeds Playhouse team up for the tour of Here You Come Again, starring and co-written by Broadway actress Tricia Paoluccio, who visits York for the first time in the guise of a fantasy vision of country icon Dolly Parton.
Gimme Gimme Gimme writer Jonathan Harvey has put a British spin on Bruce Vilanch, director Gabriel Barre and Paoluccio’s story of diehard Dolly devotee Kevin (Steven Webb) needing dollops of Dolly advice on life and love in trying times. Parton hits galore help too! Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Sylvie (Aileen Hall), centre, demonstrates her skills to friends Amelie (Perri Ann Barley), left, and Helene (Devon Wells), right, in rehearsal for Blue Light Theatre Company’s Where The Magic Begins!
Premiere of the week: Blue Light Theatre Company in Where The Magic Begins!, Acomb Working Men’s Club, York, January 29, 30 and 31, 7.30pm; February 1, 2pm matinee
BLUE Light Theatre Company will forego their annual panto in favour of staging York playwright and actress Perri Ann Barley’s new play Where The Magic Begins!, a prequel to Cinderella based on characters from the original Charles Perrault version of “everyone’s favourite fairytale”.
“We meet many beloved characters in their younger days, such as a young Fairy Godmother, who is about to discover her ‘gift’. We follow her journey as she struggles with a secret that could put her life, and that of her family, in grave danger,” says director Craig Barley. Box office: 07933 329654, at bluelight-theatre.co.uk or on the door.
Hannah Rowe: Performing in the cabaret set-up of The Old Paint Shop at York Theatre Royal Studio
Cabaret night of the week: CPWM Presents An Evening With Hannah Rowe, The Old Paint Shop, York Theatre Royal Studio, January 30, 8pm
YORK promoters Come Play With Me (CPWM) welcome Hannah Rowe to The Old Paint Shop’s winter season. This young singer writes of experiences and shifts in life, offering a sense of reflection within her rich, authentic, jazz-infused sound.
The Old Paint Shop shows by irreverent York covers combo Hyde Family Jam (today, 2pm and 8pm) and Karl Mullen, upstanding York pianist Karl Mullen (January 31, 8pm) have sold out. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Tim Ralphs: Wild reimagining of folktale, fairytale and urban legend at Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb
Devilish delight of the week: Tim Ralphs and Adderstone, Infernal Delights, Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb, York, January 31, doors 7.30pm
TIM Ralphs and York alt-folk storytellers Adderstone serve up a winter night’s double bill of dark delights. Let Adderstone’s Cath Heinemeyer and Gemma McDermott lead you down the steps to the underworld with story-songs from wild places in their Songs To Meet The Darkness set.
In Beelzebub Rebranded, Tim Ralphs’s stand-up storytelling exhumes the bones of ancient Devil stories and stitches them into new skins for fresh consumption in his wild reimagining of folktale, fairytale and urban legend. Box office: ticketsource.co.uk/adderstone/infernal-delights/e-xjjber.
York Ice Trail: Taking the theme of Origins next weekend
Whatever the weather, here comes the new ice age: York Ice Trail 2025, February 1 and 2
YORK’S “free weekend of frosty fun” returns with a 2025 theme of Origins as York’s streets are turned into an icy wonderland of frozen tableau in this annual event run by Make It York. Among the 30 ice sculptures showcasing 2,000 years of city history will be a Roman shield, a Viking helmet, a chocolate bar, a drifting ghost, a majestic train and a Yorkshire rose, all captured in the language of ice by Icebox. Full details can be found at visityork.org/york-ice-trail.
Before all that ice, windswept York has another free event on the city streets and beyond this weekend: York Residents’ Festival today and tomorrow. For the full list of offers, head to: visityork.org/offers/category/york-residents-festival.
Snow Patrol: Returning to Scarborough Open Air Theatre this summer
Gig announcement of the week: Snow Patrol, TK Maxx Presents Scarborough Open Air Theatre, June 27
THE Northern Irish-Scottish indie rock band Snow Patrol are to return to the Scarborough coast for the first time since July 2021, led as ever by Gary Lightbody, accompanied by long-time lead guitarist Nathan Connolly and pianist Johnny McDaid.
Emotionally charged anthems such as Chasing Cars, Run and Open Your Eyes will be complemented by selections from 2024’s The Forest Is The Path, their first chart topper in 18 years. Box office: ticketmaster.co.uk and scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.
In Focus: Hayden Thorpe & Propellor Ensemble, National Centre for Early Music, York, January 29, doors 7pm, start 7.30pm
Hayden Thorpe: Performing Ness with Propellor Ensemble at the NCEM
PLEASE Please You and Brudenell Presents bring Hayden Thorpe & Propellor Ensemble to the NCEM to perform Ness on Wednesday, with the promise of a “sonically spectacular and transformational live show”.
Thorpe, 39-year-old former frontman and chief songwriter of Kendal and Leeds band Wild Beasts, promotes his September 2024 album, Ness, released on Domino Records.
Using a process of redaction, Cumbrian musician Thorpe brought songs to life from nature writer Robert Macfarlane’s book Ness, inspired by Orford Ness, a ten-mile long shingle spit on the coast of Suffolk that housed the former Ministry of Defence weapons development site during both World Wars and the Cold War.
Acquired by the National Trustin 1993 and left to re-wild, to this day it remains a place of paradox, mystery and constant evolution.
Thorpe’s ode to Orford Ness, the physical place and the book, features Macfarlane’s words and illustrations by Stanley Donwood. He premiered Ness with Propellor Ensemble at Orford Ness on September 28 and 29 last year.
Here Hayden discusses working with Robert Macfarlane and Propellor Ensemble, the Cold War, nature and past York experiences with CharlesHutchPress.
Do you have any past experiences of York, whether on a school visit or whatever, Hayden?
“My parents used to take us to the Jorvik Viking Museum when me and my siblings were young. I was always amazed by the fake open sewer smell they would pump into the space.”
When did you last play in York, either solo or with Wild Beasts?
“I believe it was in 2006 or 2007. A rather long time ago. In any case, it’s been too long. It was somewhere quite familiar to me when Wild Beasts were coming up in Leeds. We’d make a regular dash across.”
How did the Ness project come about with Robert Macfarlane?
“In a really old fashioned manner. I fan-mailed Rob and he wrote back with all the generosity and open heartedness of his books. He’s as good as his word in the truest sense.
“Rob and I decided to perform some improvised music to his reading of Ness. It was a Eureka moment. The atmosphere and drama of the sound we made demanded that we commit to expanding it.”
Did you visit Orford Ness, now the Orford Ness National Nature Reserve, for research purposes?
“Yes. Orford Ness is an astonishing place. It’s a monument to rejuvenation and a monument to destruction. The very best and the very worst of us.”
By the way, Hayden, York has a Cold War Bunker Museum, in Monument Close, Holgate: a two-storey, semi-subterranean bunker built in 1961 to monitor nuclear explosions and fallout in Yorkshire, in the event of nuclear war.
“I had no idea that a Cold War museum existed in York. That’s fabulous. Bizarrely, I’ve developed a Cold War romance. I guess the conflicts and hostilities we face today have brought these conversations back into our everyday consciousness.”
The album cover artwork for Hayden Thorpe’s Ness
How have you turned the album into a concert performance?
“The album is very much made of sounds we’ve made with our hands and lungs, so with enough pairs of those it actually translates in a very true way. The unusual instrumentation, with orchestral percussion and clarinet foregrounded alongside me, creates a very distinct ‘Ness’ sound. The shows have been really emotional as a result.”
Were you tempted to feature strings in the Ness project for their emotional heft?
“We deliberately did not use strings. We opted to use the elemental forces at my play at Orford Ness: wind and resistant materials like metal and wood. It creates a haunted, volatile soundscape.”
Which Propellor Ensemble members will play in York?
“Jack McNeill plays clarinet and Delia Stevens plays orchestral percussion. Molly Gromadzki performs the spoken-word parts and sings in the choir. Brigitte Hart and Helen Ganya make up the choral section. It’s been a joy to work with such expressive and capable performers.”
What does a “sonically spectacular and transformational live show” entail?
“Something which is sonically ambitious and immersive. Once we start the show we don’t stop, it’s the album in full back to front. We want to take the audience to Ness, have them come face to face with the monster.”
Why was the National Centre for Early Music, in the former St Margaret’s Church in Walmgate, chosen for the York gig rather than The Crescent community venue, a classic working men’s club design?
“We’ve heard such great things about NCEM. Much of the story of Ness takes place ‘In The Green Chapel’, so the work lends itself to a space of worship.”
What is your own relationship with nature? Wild Beasts hailed originally from Kendal, with all that Lake District beauty around you…
“Nature has become increasingly important to my life and work. As artists we’re forced to ask what side of the conversation we sit on, one which acknowledges the existential crisis facing us or one which excuses it. Music can carry non-human voices really effectively. Ness is very much a meditation on that.”
What will be the next project you work on?“
Good question. Ness has certainly expanded my palette. I’ve come to feel maybe my strength is in making strange and ambitious works which would otherwise not get made. It’s crucial to keep the flame burning on works of exploration and oddity in an industry which increasingly incentivises conformity.”
Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.
More Things To Do in York and beyond. Hutch’s List No. 5, from The York Press
The cheek of it: Freida Nipples hosting The Exhibitionists at The Old Paint Shop, York Theatre Royal Studio
FROM exhibitionist burlesque to imaginative dance moments, wildlife illuminations to bend-and-snap musical empowerment, Charles Hutchinson finds February fulfilment.
Cabaret night of the week: Freida Nipples Presents…The Exhibitionists, The Old Paint Shop, York Theatre Royal Studio, February 8, 8pm
YORK’S very own internationally award-winning burlesque artiste Freida Nipples welcomes some of her favourite and most fabulous performance artists from across Great Britain and beyond to The Old Paint Shop cabaret night.
“Get ready to be dazzled, shocked and in awe,” says Freida. “Only a few things are guaranteed: glamour, gags and giggles.” Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk, for returned tickets only.
Chris Newman and Maire Ni Chathasaigh
Folk gig of the week: Maire Ni Chathasaigh and Chris Newman, Helmsley Arts Centre, February 8, 7.30pm
MULTIPLE award-winning, internationally renowned virtuoso harp and guitar duo Maire Ni Chathasaigh and Chris Newman return to Helmsley after playing to a full house there in December 2023.
County Cork harpist Chathasaigh and flat-picking guitarist, improviser, composer and record producer Newman have toured to 24 countries on five continents, playing venues ranging from village halls and town halls to palaces in Kyoto and Istanbul, from London’s Barbican to Cologne’s Philharmonia. Expect a fusion of traditional Irish music, hot jazz, bluegrass and baroque, spiced with new compositions and Newman’s subversive wit. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Stop! Evie Hart, left, Sean Moss, Hobie Schouppe, Juliette Tellier, Donny Beau Ferris, Risa Maki and Oliver Rumaizen in Jasmin Vardimon Company’s Now. Picture: Tristram Kenton
Dance show of the week: Jasmin Vardimon Company, York Theatre Royal, February 8, 2.30pm with post-show discussion and 7.30pm
NOW, a new creation by choreographer Jasmin Vardimon MBE, celebrates her company’s 25th anniversary in a work that reflects the current moment, the present, and the continuous movement of time in a terpsichorean toast to the beauty of imagination and art.
Rooted in her interest in contemporary lives, the structures of society and the ever-changing socio-political dynamics, Vardimon uses her distinctive dance theatre style to tell a story of our time with an international cast of performers and relevant, iconic moments from the Ashford, Kent company’s repertoire. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Jamie Walton: Cello soloist at York Guildhall Orchestra’s concert at York Barbican
Classical concerts of the week: Yorkshire Bach Choir, Bach To The Future, St Lawrence Parish Church, York, February 8, 7.30pm; York Guildhall Orchestra: Sibelius, Bloch, Tchaikovsky & Shostakovich, York Barbican, February 9, 3pm
PETER Seymour conducts Yorkshire Bach Choir on a choral journey through German polyphony, including music by Schutz, Johann Bach, JS Bach, Mendelssohn, Brahms and Rheinberger. Professor Thomas Schmidt gives a pre-concert talk at 6.45pm. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.
Jamie Walton, cellist and North York Moors Chamber Music Festival artistic director, will be the soloist for Ernst Bloch’s “rarely played, but utterly beautiful” Shelomo in February 9’s concert by the York Guildhall Orchestra. Sibelius’s Karelia Suite, Tchaikovsky’s Romeo And Juliet and Shostakovic’s Symphony No. 9 in Eb feature too in conductor Simon Wright’s programme. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Dominic Halpin & The Hurricanes in A Country Night In Nashville
Country gig of the week: A Country Night In Nashville, Grand Opera House, York, February 9, 7.30pm
DOMINIC Halpin & The Hurricanes re-create a buzzing honky-tonk in downtown Nashville, capturing the energy and atmosphere of an evening in the home of country music, featuring songs from its biggest stars both past and present: Johnny Cash to Alan Jackson, Dolly Parton to The Chicks, Willie Nelson to Kacey Musgraves. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Colour & Light framing the South Transept of York Minster
Illumination of the week: Colour & Light, York Minster South Transept, February 12 to March 2
THIS free outdoor event promises a “mesmerising projection” of famous and lesser-known stories of York’s animal world, from the peregrine falcons that call the Minster home and the foxes that roam the city after dark, to the horses on which the Romans rode into Eboracum and the legendary dragons carved into York’s history.
Colour & Light will run nightly from 6pm to 9pm with projections on a ten-minute loop. The final hour each evening will feature a designated quiet hour with reduced noise and crowd levels, ensuring everyone can enjoy the event. No tickets are required.
Pop Princesses World Tour: Popping into the Grand Opera House, York
Children’s pop concert of the week: Pop Princesses World Tour, Grand Opera House, York, February 13, 6pm
IN a magical show where four fabulous fairytale princesses become pop stars on an epic adventure, they just love to sing the hits of Taylor Swift, Meghan Trainor, Miley Cyrus, Dua Lipa and Lizzo, complemented by a few of the best songs from all your favourite films and musicals. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Emma Swainston’s Elle Woods in York Light Opera Company’s Legally Blonde The Musical
Musical of the week: York Light Opera Company in Legally Blonde The Musical, York Theatre Royal, February 13 to 22, 7.30pm nightly (except February 16) plus 2.30pm matinees on February 15, 20
JOIN Elle Woods, a seemingly ditzy sorority girl with a heart of gold, as she tackles Harvard Law School to win back her man. Along the way Elle discovers her own strength and intelligence, proving that you can be both a beautiful blonde and brilliant.
Emma Swainston’s Elle Woods leads Martyn Knight’s 35-strong cast in this feel-good, sassy and stylish show with a powerful message about staying true to yourself, music and lyrics by Laurence O’Keefe and Nell Benjamin and book by Heather Hach. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Festival of the week: National Parks Dark Skies Festival, North York Moors, February 14 to March 2
THIS year is the tenth anniversary of the Dark Skies Festival and where better to celebrate than on the North York Moors, one of only 21 locations in the world to be recognised for pristine, dark skies as an International Dark Sky Reserve.
Look out for Stargazing Experiences in Dalby Forest; Stargazing at Ampleforth Abbey; the Robin Hood’s Bay Dark Skies Ghost Walks; Evening Adventure Walks with River Mountain Rescue; a Night Navigation Experience with Large Outdoors; Dancing with The Long Dead Stars (and a walk to Boggle Hole) and plenty more. For full details, visit: darkskiesnationalparks.org.uk/north-york-moors-events.
FROM a free outdoor gig to the biggest free festival of the year, the return of The Old Paint Shop cabaret to the Poet Laureate’s foray into music, Charles Hutchinson welcomes signs of 2025 gathering pace.
Free gig of the week: Holly Taymar at Homestead Park, Water End, York, today, 11am to 12 noon
YORK “acoustic sophistopop” singer-songwriter and session-writer performer Holly Taymar heads out into the winter chill for a morning performance, supported by Music Anywhere, with the further enticement of a pop-up cafe.
“I’ll be playing songs in this most beautiful setting, surrounded by nature, all for free!” says Holly. “There’s a coffee van and some seating available, so come along and take in the fresh air and fresh sounds from me.”
Man In The Mirror: Celebrating the music of Michael Jackson at York Barbican
Tribute show of the week: Entertainers presents Man In The Mirror, York Barbican, tonight, 7.30pm
MICHAEL Jackson tribute artist CJ celebrates the King of Pop in Man In The Mirror, a new show from Entertainers featuring a talented cast of performers and musicians in a Thriller of an electrifying concert replete with Thriller, Billie Jean, Beat It, Smooth Criminal, Man In The Mirror, dazzling choreography, visual effects, a light show and authentic costumes. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Mr Wilson’s Second Liners: New Orleans meets Hacienda 90s’ club classics at The Crescent
“Revolutionary genre bashers” of the week: Mr Wilson’s Second Liners, The Crescent, York, tonight, 7.30pm
IN New Orleans, funerals are celebrated in style with noisy brass bands processing through the streets. The main section of the parade is known as First Line but the real fun starts with the parasol-twirling, handkerchief-waving Second Line.
Welcome to Mr Wilson’s Second Liners, where “New Orleans meets 90s’ club classics in a rave funeral without the body” as a rabble of mischievous northerners pay homage to the diehard days of Manchester’s Hacienda, club culture and its greatest hero, Mr Tony Wilson. Stepping out in uniformed style, they channel the spirit of the 24-hour party people, jettisoning funereal slow hymns in favour of anarchic dance energy. Box office: thecrescentyork.com.
Ania Magliano: Triple threat at play in Forgive Me, Father at The Crescent
Comedy gig of the week: Burning Duck Comedy presents Ania Magliano, Forgive Me, Father, The Crescent, York, January 23, 7.30pm
IN the first Burning Duck gig since the sudden passing of club promoter Al Greaves, London comedian and writer Ania Magliano performs her Forgive Me, Father show.
Describing herself as a triple threat (bisexual, Gen Z, bad at cooking), she says: “You know when you’re trying to wee on a night out, and you’re interrupted by a random girl who insists on telling you all her secrets, even though you’ve never met? Imagine that, but she has a microphone.” Box office: thecrescentyork.com.
Mica Sefia: Future-soul singer fuses alt. soul, jazz and soft rock in The Old Paint Shop
The 2025 Old Paint Shop cabaret season opener: CPWM presents Mica Sefia, York Theatre Royal Studio, January 23, 8pm
BORN in Liverpool, based in London, future-soul singer Mica Sefia “prefers to keep her lyricisms and narrative open to interpretation”, applying a “balanced approach to songwriting, in which her music remains subjective, but retains its emotive sensitivity” in songs that lean into alt. soul, jazz and soft rock to create atmospheric sounds and textured layers. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Lyrical musicianship at York Theatre Royal: Poet Laureate and LYR band members Richard Walters and Patrick Pearson. Picture: Katie Silvester
The language of music: An Evening With Simon Armitage and LYR, York Theatre Royal, January 24, 7.30pm
UK Poet Laureate, dramatist, novelist, broadcaster and University of Leeds Professor of Poetry Simon Armitage teams up with his band LYR for an evening of poetry (first half) and music (second half), where LYR’s soaring vocal melodies and ambient instrumentation create an evocative and enchanting soundscape for West Yorkshireman Armitage’s spoken-word passages. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Ned Swarbrick: Debut headline gig at The Crescent at the age of 16
Headline debut of the week: Ned Swarbrick, The Crescent, York, January 24, 7.30pm
AT 16, York singer-songwriter Ned Swarbrick heads to The Crescent – with a couple of band mates in tow – for his debut headline show after accruing 40 gigs over the past two years. Penning acoustic songs that reflect his love of literature and pop culture, he sways from melancholy to upbeat, sad to happy, serious to tongue in cheek.
The first to admit that he is still finding his feet, in his live shows Ned switches between Belle & Sebastian-style pop numbers and intimate folk tunes more reminiscent of Nick Drake. Check out his debut EP, Michelangelo, featuring National Youth Folk Ensemble members, and look out for him busking on York’s streets. Box office: thecrescentyork.com.
Frankie Monroe: Transforming The Old Paint Shop into the Misty Moon working men’s club at York Theatre Royal
Beyond compere: Frankie Monroe And Friends, The Old Paint Shop, York Theatre Royal Studio, January 24, 8pm
BBC New Comedy and Edinburgh Fringe Newcomer winner Frankie Monroe hosts an evening of humour, tricks and mucky bitter in The Old Paint Shop. Join the owner of the Misty Moon – “a working men’s club in Rotherham that also serves as a portal to hell” – in his biggest show yet with some of York’s finest cabaret performers. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
The show poster for The Deadpan Players’ Robin Hood – Making Nottingham Great Again
York debut of the week: The Deadpan Players in Robin Hood – Making Nottingham Great Again, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, January 24 and 25, 7.30pm and 2pm Saturday matinee
THE Deadpan Players, a not-for-profit community group from just outside York that raises money for charity through their performances, will visit the JoRo for the first time with their fifth pantomime, a unique take on Robin Hood, original script et al.
Join Robin, Maid Marian and the Merry Men, along with a handful of friends, as they brainstorm some “ongoing achievables” and work towards a win-win situation that will deliver Nottingham from the Sheriff’s evil grip and “Make Nottingham Great Again”. Next steps never felt so good. Better bring a quill, there’s going to be admin aplenty.
All proceeds will go to Candlelighters and the Farming Community Network, in memory of Nick Leaf, a fellow Deadpan Player and North Yorkshire farmer. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
Clifford’s Tower: Taking part in York Residents’ Festival next weekend
Festival of the week: York Residents’ Festival, January 25 and 26
ORGANISED by Make It York, this annual festival combines free offers, events and discounts for valid York Card, student card or identity card holders that proves your York residency. Among the participating visitor attractions will be Bedern Hall, Clifford’s Tower, Yorkshire Air Museum, Merchant Taylors Hall and, outside York, Beningbrough Hall and Castle Howard. For the full list of offers, head to: visityork.org/offers/category/york-residents-festival.
Scott Matthews: Wolverhampton singer-songwriter plays the NCEM
Folk gig of the week: The Crescent and Black Swan Folk Club present Scott Matthews, National Centre for Early Music, York, January 25, doors 7pm
ON a tour that has taken in churches and caves, Wolverhampton singer-songwriter Scott Matthews plays St Margaret’s Church, home to the NCEM in Walmgate, next weekend.
Combining folk, rock, blues and Eastern-inspired song-writing, he has released eight albums since his 2007 debut single, Elusive, won the Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically. His most recent recording, 2023’s Restless Lullabies, found him revisiting songs from 2020’s New Skin with a stark acoustic boldness. Box office: seetickets.com/event/scott-matthews/ncem/3211118. Please note, this is a seated show with all seating unreserved.
In Focus: Stewart Lee at the double in York as Theatre Royal comedian for five nights and NCEM narrator for one afternoon
Mark Reynolds’s poster illustration for Stewart Lee Vs The Man-Wulf at York Theatre Royal
COMEDIAN Stewart Lee will play five nights in a row at York Theatre Royal from January 28 and squeeze in a Saturday matinee of an entirely different experimental performance, Indeterminacy, at the National Centre for Early Music too.
Lee, 56, who deadpanned his way through three nights of Basic Lee on his last Theatre Royal visit in March 2023, explains the length of run for Stewart Lee Vs The Man-Wulf, a show that has been playing London’s Leicester Square Theatre since December 3 before opening its tour on January 19.
“Yeah, well, the theatre must have thought they could sell it!” says Stewart, who loves playing the Theatre Royal. “For me, once you get much above 2,000 seats, my kind of comedy becomes hard to do because you can’t interact with the audience and you can’t hear audience responses, so I’m always happy to do smaller venues.”
He has dates in his diary until November 19 with his website promising “more to be added” for a show that he presages by declaring he is “in danger of being left behind”. As his tour publicity puts it, “He’s approaching 60 with debilitating health conditions [worsening hearing], his TV profile has diminished, and his once BAFTA award-winning style of stand-up seems obsolete in the face of a wave of callous Netflix-endorsed comedy of anger, monetising the denigration of minorities for millions of dollars.
“But can Lee unleash his inner Man-Wulf to position himself alongside comedy legends like Dave Chappelle, Ricky Gervais and Jordan Peterson at the forefront of side-splitting,stadium-stuffing s**it-posting?,” he asks.
“The problem I’ve got is that the act is about a man who feels undervalued and not given enough credit, but I am really popular! I play to a quarter of a million people on each tour; I’m on TV every two and a half years when a show is finished – and young people are coming to the shows, so the audience is replenishing.
“Suddenly I’ve gone from someone starting out in the dying days of alternative comedy to someone still writing long-form shows when people now tend to make bitty work that’s packaged up.”
In Stewart Lee Vs The Man-Wulf, Lee shares his stage with a “tough-talking werewolf comedian from the dark forests of the subconscious who hates humanity”, where the Man-Wulf “lays down a ferocious comedy challenge to the culturally irrelevant and physically enfeebled Lee”. “Can the beast inside us all be silenced with the silver bullet of Lee’s unprecedentedly critically acclaimed style of stand-up?” he ponders.
Is this “conceptual comedy”, Stewart? “Well, you can call it that. It’s not for me to say, but I think it’s very much that. I know what it is,” he says. “I like to read local reviews and student reviews as they seem to get it more than the national press.
“This is a show about taste and responsibility in comedy, which suddenly has a real resonance that it didn’t have even three weeks ago. What responsibilities do Elon Musk [X] and Mark Zuckerberg [Facebook] have in relation to telling the truth, like Musk lying about someone like Jess Phillips…and what is our place in that if we don’t do something about it.
“I was worried it was just a show by someone who was thinking about it, but now it seems prescient – and the worse the world gets, the better the show is. Three weeks ago it was like, ‘well, where is this going’’? Now they know where it’s going, so weirdly they might have been thinking, ‘oh, he’s being a bit pessimistic’, but sometimes it turns out you’re a bit ahead of the curve and then the world catches up.”
One of the joys of a Stewart Lee show is how he plays with the form, boundaries and possibilities of comedy. “In this one, I try doing the same material three times in three ways: first, liberal material told in a liberal way; next, reactionary material, in a reactionary way; then reactionary material, in a liberal way,” he says.
Stewart has found his comedy changing through the years, in part in response to Jerry Springer: The Opera [the musical comedy he wrote with Richard Thomas] “becoming literally a matter of life or death for someone”. “I thought what an amazing privilege it is to be able to write and perform, and you have to think about the implications of that,” he says.
“As I get older I increasingly appreciate how difficult it is to afford tickets and get a babysitter to come to a show. My comedy becomes more high concept and thoughtful, but at the same time it’s also more old-school comedy, being both philosophical and thinking about how Frankie Howerd or Kenneth Williams would sell this idea of becoming more pretentious and vaudevillian simultaneously.
“I do feel we have a sense of responsibility to deliver a night out that makes sure something happens that night that only happens that night. You also have to send people away with a bit of hope, when a lot of people like me feel they have lost the battle for the things they are concerned about, like environmental issues.”
Such environmental matters, and more specifically sewage in the River Derwent in Malton and Norton, triggered Ryedale arts promoter and Malton town councillor Simon Thackray to ask The Shed regular Stewart Lee to take part in the first Shed show since 2015 to “’encourage’ Yorkshire Water to go the extra mile’.
Narrator Lee will team up with pianists Tania Chen and Steve Beresford to perform John Cage’s Indeterminacy at the NCEM on February 1 at 3.30pm. “Make sure people know it’s not a comedy show, though it’s quite funny in its way,” he says.
Stewart Lee vs The Man-Wulf, York Theatre Royal, January 28 to February 1, 7.30pm. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk. The Shed presents Indeterminacy, NCEM, York, February 1, 3.30pm. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.
Gareth Gates: Bringing Valentine romance to York Barbican
GARETH Gates was visiting York Barbican for the first time on Wednesday – or so he thought – to promote his upcoming visit on February 16 with a concert of love songs from the movies.
A perusal through The Press files revealed the Bradford pop singer, musical theatre actor and pantomime regular, now 40, had performed there in Mad About The Musicals, singing the songs of Rodgers & Hammerstein, Kander & Ebb, Boublil & Schönberg and Lloyd Webber & Rice, in November 2015.
Forgive him for not recalling that York performance. After all, much water has passed under the bridge since former Bradford Cathedral head chorister Gareth was piloted to pop success at 17 by his 2002 Pop Idol clash of the stammering northern working-class lad versus the unstoppable southern posh boy, Will Young.
In York, he also had appeared as bad-boy Warner in Legally Blonde The Musical in September 2012 and in his first comedy role as cowboy Willard in Footloose in May 2017, both at the Grand Opera House. “I did two tours of that show and they asked me to do it a third time, but I thought, ‘I’ve ticked that box,” he says.
Tanned, teeth pearly white, hair and beard matinee-idol dark, full and thick, he looked the very picture of gym-toned good health in the Barbican bar, his vocal coach a calming presence by his side as the stammer that never affects his singing or stage performances only rarely punctuated his affable conversation.
“I used to come to York as a child,” he says. “I’m from Bradford and we’d always have a day out here over the summer, bringing me over for a cruise on the River Ouse. I’ve always loved this place, going to the Minster, and being able to perform here over the years has been a thrill.”
His latest return, in the week of St Valentine’s Day, will see producer and performer Gareth leading a company of singers and a four-piece band in Gareth Gates Sings Love Songs From The Movies, a show rooted in his 2002 cover of The Righteous Brothers’ Unchained Melody.
“That was my biggest hit and first ever number one, made famous by that scene in the movie Ghost, and I got thinking about how the world’s greatest love songs come from the movies and how I should do a show built on all those incredible movie songs,” says Gareth.
“The more I’ve looked into it and put together the set list, I realised that the synergy between music and movies is huge, and I hope that tapping into that will be a great move.
“If the show is a roaring success, we could look at doing an album, either as a live concert recording or going into the studio.”
Expect songs from Armageddon, Dirty Dancing, Titanic, A Star Is Born, My Girl, Top Gun and Footloose, among others, in a concert show divided into two sets of “beloved classic ballads, heart-warming melodies, electrifying up-tempo modern hits”. “And of course I’ll be doing Unchained Melody too,” says Gareth.
“I’m working again with Carrie Courtney, who booked the tour for Mad About The Musicals, and I’ve put together an incredible cast featuring West End talent. We have Maggie Lynne, who’s done Wicked and worked with me on a show many, many years ago, and Britt Lenting, a Dutch singer, who’s just finished doing panto with me in Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs at the Churchill Theatre in Bromley, where I was Prince Gareth of Greenwich and she was the Evil Queen.
The tour poster for Gareth Gates Sings Love Songs From The Movies
“We started rehearsals when I was looking to cast the show. I heard her sing and thought, ‘I need you to be in the cast’. She’s done The Phantom Of The Opera, Love Never Dies and Little Mermaid, and she can be very operatic when she sings. She has such a powerhouse voice.
“She made a big name for herself in Holland but in 2016 she decided to take a leap across the water to see if she could make it in the West End and she’s absolutely smashing it.”
Completing Gareth’s vocal line-up will be Dan Herrington. “He’s fresh out of college after studying at Performers College in Essex,” says Gareth. “I like to put together an experienced bunch of performers but I also like to give aspiring, budding talent a chance to shine.
“I went to a showcase at Performers College, heard him sing and booked him straightaway for my autumn tour, where he was one of the Four Seasons in my Gareth Gates Sings Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons show.”
The band from that tour – all of them session musicians from big shows in the West End – will be joining Gareth for the 25-date movie music tour of England, Scotland and Wales. “We also had this crazy idea of taking the Frankie Valli show out again at the same time, doing one show in some cities, the other show in other cities. It seemed like a good idea – I’ll tell you how it goes!”
Gareth has worked with lighting designer Matt Boyles on the movie show’s design. “It’s essentially a concert show, but because of my roots in theatre, there will be a narrative to it too, with an old-school TV screen that we’ll start the show on and then we launch into all these amazing songs, which I’m really excited about singing all in the same show.
“Putting the set list together is based on instinct and experience over the years of doing these shows, which counts for a lot. If, after the first show or two, we feel something doesn’t work where we’ve placed it, we will change things up, based on the reaction of the crowd. I’m a great believer in that: you have to read the room.”
Gareth has lived in London since his Pop Idol discovery at 17, “but any opportunity I get to come back to Yorkshire, I do,” he says. “The first house I ever bought was up here in Yorkshire, on the edge of the Dales, which I bought for my family and I still have a house up here. I come up as often as I can and Yorkshire will always be my home.”
Hence his Love Songs tour will open in Yorkshire in Valentine’s week with shows at Wakefield Theatre Royal on February 10 and Hull Connexin Live on February 13, as well as York Barbican on February 16, and later dates at Bradford St George’s Hall on March 14 and Sheffield City Hall on March 28, while Gareth Gates Sings Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons will play the Victoria Theatre, Halifax, on March 1.
He has filmed a piece for ITV’s Calendar show on Bradford City of Culture 2025, visiting “some of the places where I grew up, like my old school Dixons City Academy and Bradford Cathedral, where I joined the choir when I was nine and was head boy chorister at 11,” recalls Gareth.
“I sang for The Queen at the Maundy Thursday Service in 1997 when I was 12 and was given Maundy money as I was the head boy soprano soloist, so essentially I was working for The Queen!
“For that sort of pressure to land on your shoulders at that age was a challenge, but all great training for what was to come.”
“The more I’ve looked into it and put together the set list, I realised that the synergy between music and movies is huge, and I hope that tapping into that will be a great move,” says Gareth Gates
Gareth had the honour of meeting HM The Queen again on his 18th birthday. “I was invited to Buckingham Palace for a Young Achievers ceremony after I’d helped many people with stammering and speech impediments. She didn’t remember me singing at the Maundy service!.”
Gareth hopes to take part in Bradford’s year as City of Culture, on top of his home-city performance of Gareth Gates Sings Love Songs From The Movies. “We’re in talks about doing a show at Bradford Live, the brand new venue at the old Bradford Odeon, hopefully towards the end of the year,” he reveals. Watch this space.
Gareth’s diary is ever busy. “I’m constantly working, and the biggest thing I’ve learned of late is not to overdo it,” he says. “I’m very fortunate to be as much in demand as I’ve ever been. There’s never been a dry spell – I find it hard to say ‘No’ – though I do have to at times.
“In 2023 I worked the most I’d ever worked with only ten nights off. It was a mixture of work, like performing every night when I was on board on cruise ships, with my own lounge, and also doing pantomime and The SpongeBob Musical, which was a fun show to do.
“I did lots of festivals, lots of Nineties and Noughties shows, and do you know what, I did burn out. I did way too much, so last year I eased off when I could, and this year I’ll be trying to do a little less – and that’s through the fear of my voice becoming slightly smashed. I do have to be careful with it and look after it.”
Staying fit is important to Gareth. “I’m massively into the gym,” he says. “I’m a health freak! I get all that right but I am very guilty of over-working.”
Twenty-three years on from Pop Idol, he and Will Young maintain their friendship. “I’ve only stayed in touch with Will and with Zoe Birkett too from that time. We’re really good friends; we hook up whenever we can – I spoke to him last week.”
Looking back to 2002, he says: “We went into it completely blind, not knowing what to expect, and we had each other to rely on throughout. Then we had a number one hit together with The Long And Winding Road and went on tour together. We were the guinea pigs of it all but we could fall back on each other.”
Pop careers rooted in the hothouse of talent shows can crash and burn, but not so with Gareth. “I’m fortunate that people have not turned on me, but a big part of that is I’ve not changed from the person I was, whereas you open yourself up to criticism if you do. I’ve stuck with the same people, always being grounded, rather than overstepping the mark,” he says.
“The danger of pop stars losing their way is if they surround themselves with ‘yes’ people, and then the moment someone goes against them and says ‘No’, that’s their downfall. I’ve kept the friends I’ve always had around me and they’ve kept me the person I’ve always been.”
He may live in London, but you cannot take the Yorkshireman out of Gareth. “It’s massively important to me,” he says. “I take a lot of pride in keeping my roots. My accent is still quite broad and I actually enjoy that. I get a lot out of coming from Bradford and Yorkshire. It’s made me the person I am. I love being from Yorkshire – and I love playing to a home crowd as they love to see a Yorkshireman doing well.”
Gareth Gates Sings Love Songs from The Movies – A Valentine Special, York Barbican, February 16, 7.30pm. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk. Also Hull Connexin Live, February 13, 7.30pm. Box office: connexinlivehull.com.
Taboo-shattering comedy: Ed Byrne in Tragedy Plus Time at Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Roslyn Grant
FROM Narnia to ice sculptures, comedy in wolf’s clothing to Ayckbourn’s 91st play, Charles Hutchinson finds plenty to perk up the days and nights ahead.
Taboo subject of the week: Ed Byrne: Tragedy Plus Time, Grand Opera House, tonight, 7.30pm
MARK Twain, the 19th century American writer, humorist, and essayist, defined humour as Tragedy Plus Time. Irish comedian Ed Byrne tests that formula by mining the most tragic event in his life – the death of his brother Paul from Hodgkin’s lymphoma at 44 – for laughs.
Byrne’s show carries the content warning “Discussions of death”. “But as with any subject I do, there are always digressions into asides,” he says. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Mark Reynolds’ illustration for Stewart Lee Vs The Man-Wulf, on tour at York Theatre Royal for five nights
Comedy and not comedy: Stewart Lee Vs The Man-Wulf, York Theatre Royal, January 28 to February 1, 7.30pm; The Shed presents Indeterminacy with Tania Caroline Chen, piano, Steve Beresford, piano and objects, and Stewart Lee, voice, National Centre for Early Music, York, February 1, 3.30pm
IN Stewart Lee Vs The Man-Wulf, Lee shares the stage with a tough-talking werewolf comedian from the dark forests of the subconscious who hates humanity. The Man-Wulf lays down a ferocious comedy challenge to the “culturally irrelevant and physically enfeebled Lee”: can the beast inside us all be silenced by the silver bullet of Lee’s deadpan stand-up? Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
On John Cage and David Tudor’s 1959 double LP Indeterminacy, Cage read 90 of his stories, each one, whether long or short, lasting precisely one minute. Unheard by Cage, Tudor simultaneously played the piano and other things in another room. Now Stewart Lee joins pianists Tania Caroline Chen and Steve Beresford to do their own version of Cage’s work in a 40-minute performance in one room, where the musicians do their best not to hear Lee’s reading. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.
York Ice Trail 2025: Taking the theme of Origins on February 1 and 2
After this week’s deep freeze, here comes York Ice Trail 2025, February 1 and 2
YORK’S “free weekend of frosty fun” returns with a 2025 theme of Origins as York’s streets are turned into an icy wonderland of frozen tableau in this annual event run by Make It York. Among the 30 ice sculptures showcasing 2,000 years of city history will be a Roman shield, a Viking helmet, a chocolate bar, a drifting ghost, a majestic train and a Yorkshire rose, all captured in the language of ice by Icebox. Full details can be found at visityork.org/york-ice-trail.
The book cover for Elizabeth Sharkey’s Why Britain Rocked: Under discussion with musician and environmental campaigner husband Feargal at Pocklington Arts Centre
One-off interview comes into view: Why Britain Rocked: Elizabeth and Feargal Sharkey, Pocklington Arts Centre, February 13, 7.30pm.
FEARGAL Sharkey, former frontman of The Undertones, will interview his wife, author Elizabeth Sharkey, on one night only of her debut book tour: the final show, which just happens to be in Pocklington.
Together they will explore the history of British pop music, as charted in Why Britain Rocked: How Rock Became Roll And Took Over The World, wherein Elizabeth re-writes the established history by uncovering the untold stories behind Britain’s musical evolution and challenges the American claim to have invented rock’n’roll. Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.
The Corrs: Kicking off the 2025 season at Scarborough Open Air Theatre
Off to the East Coast this summer: Scarborough Open Air Theatre season
IRISH siblings The Corrs lead off Cuffe & Taylor’s 2025 season in Scarborough with support from Natalie Imbruglia on June 11. In the diary too are Gary Barlow, June 13; Shed Seven with special guests Jake Bugg and Cast, June 14; Pendulum, June 15; Basement Jaxx, June 21, and The Human League, plus Thompson Twins’ Tom Bailey and Blancmange, June 28.
July opens with The Script and special guest Tom Walker on July 5; UB40 featuring Ali Campbell, with special guest Bitty McLean, July 6; Blossoms, with Inhaler and Apollo Junction, July 10; Rag’n’Bone Man, with Elles Bailey, July 11; McFly, with Twin Atlantic and Devon, July 12; Judas Priest, with Phil Campbell & The Bastard Sons, July 23, and Texas, with Rianne Downey, July 26. Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.
Bunmi Osadolor (Edmund), Jesse Dunbar (Peter), Kudzai Mangombe (Lucy) and Joanna Adaran (Susan) in The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe at Leeds Playhouse. Picture: Brinkhoff-Moegenburg
Touring show of the year: The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe, Grand Opera House, York, April 22 to 26, 7pm plus 2pm Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday matinees
STEP through the wardrobe into the kingdom of Narnia for the most mystical of adventures in a faraway land. Join Lucy, Edmund, Susan and Peter as they wave goodbye to wartime Britain and say hello to Mr Tumnus, the talking Faun, Aslan, the Lion, and the coldest, cruellest White Witch.
Running at Leeds Playhouse until January 25 in the most spectacular production of the winter season, this breathtaking stage adaptation of CS Lewis’s allegorical novel then heads out on a new tour with its magical storytelling, bewitching stagecraft and stellar puppets. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Alan Ayckbourn: Directing his 91st play, Earth Angel, at the SJT, Scarborough, in the autumn. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
Alan Ayckbourn’s 91st play: Earth Angel, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, September 13 to October 11
STEPHEN Joseph Theatre director emeritus Alan Ayckbourn directs his 91st play, Earth Angel, wherein Gerald has lost his wife of many years. Amy was the light of his life, almost heaven sent. It is tricky thinking about life without her but he is trying his best to put a brave face on things, accepting help from fussy neighbours and muddling along as best he can.
Then a mysterious stranger turns up at Amy’s wake. He seems like a nice enough chap, washing the dishes and offering to do a shop for Gerald, but is he all that he appears? Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.
In focus: The Waterboys’ new album and tour dates at York Barbican, May 15; Sheffield City Hall, May 9, and Leeds O2 Academy, June 17
Mike Scott: Leading The Waterboys at York Barbican for the eighth time on May 15. Picture: Paul MacManus
THE Waterboys will showcase “the most audacious album yet” of Mike Scott’s 42-year career, Life, Death And Dennis Hopper, on their latest return to York Barbican, having previously played their “Big Music” brand of folk, rock, soul and blues there in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2018, 2021 and 2023.
Released on April 4 on Sun Records, their 16th studio album charts the epic path of the trailblazing American actor and rebel, as told through a song cycle that depicts not only Hopper’s story but also the saga of the last 75 years of western pop culture.
“The arc of his life was the story of our times,” says Scott, “He was at the big bang of youth culture in Rebel Without A Cause with James Dean; and the beginnings of Pop Art with the young Andy Warhol.
“He was part of the counter-culture, hippie, civil rights and psychedelic scenes of the ’60s. In the ’70s and ’80s he went on a wild ten-year rip, almost died, came back, got straight and became a five-movies-a-year character actor without losing the sparkle in his eye or the sense of danger or unpredictability that always gathered around him.”
As a first taste of what lies in store, Hopper’s On Top (Genius) was unveiled on streaming and video this week, capturing the electric, heady moment when Hopper’s Easy Rider became a cultural phenomenon and cemented his place in Hollywood history. Buoyed by Scott’s searing vocals, vibrant instrumentation and a psychedelic edge, the song channels the euphoria and hubris of the 1960s’ counterculture that Hopper epitomised.
Scott worked for four years on Life, Death And Dennis Hopper. Produced with Waterboys bandmates Famous James and Brother Paul, the album spans 25 tracks that trace the trace the extraordinary ups and downs of Hopper’s life, from his youth in Kansas to his long rise, five wives, tumultuous fall and ultimate redemption.
The album cover artwork for The Waterboys’ Life, Death And Dennis Hopper, set for release on April 4
Every song has its own special place and fascinating, deep-rooted story. “It begins in his childhood, ends the morning after his death, and I get to say a whole lot along the way, not just about Dennis, but about the whole strange adventure of being a human soul on planet Earth,” says Scott.
The album will be The Waterboys’ first for Sun Records. “Hey, we’re label mates with Howlin’ Wolf and young Elvis,”says Scott, who is joined by a stellar line-up of guests, ranging from Bruce Springsteen, Fiona Apple and Steve Earle to Nashville-based Alt Americana artist Anana Kaye, English singer Barny Fletcher, Norwegian country-rockers Sugarfoot, Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes, Kathy Valentine of The Go-Go’s and punk arch-priestess Patti Palladin.
The 31-date UK and Ireland tour will run from May 1 to June 19. Box office: York, yorkbarbican.co.uk; Sheffield, sheffieldcityhall.co.uk; Leeds, academymusicgroup.com.
Life, Death And Dennis Hopper track listing:
1. Kansas (featuring Steve Earle) 2. Hollywood ’55 3. Live In The Moment, Baby 4. Brooke/1712 North Crescent Heights 5. Andy (A Guy Like You) 6. The Tourist (featuring Barny Fletcher) 7. Freaks On Wheels 8. Blues For Terry Southern 9. Memories Of Monterey 10. Riding Down To Mardi Gras 11. Hopper’s On Top (Genius) 12. Transcendental Peruvian Blues 13. Michelle (Always Stay) 14. Freakout At The Mud Palace 15. Daria 16. Ten Years Gone (featuring Bruce Springsteen) 17. Letter From An Unknown Girlfriend (featuring Fiona Apple) 18. Rock Bottom 19. I Don’t Know How I Made It (featuring Taylor Goldsmith) 20. Frank (Let’s F**k) 21. Katherine (featuring Anana Kaye) 22. Everybody Loves Dennis Hopper 23. Golf, They Say 24. Venice, California (Victoria)/The Passing Of Hopper 25. Aftermath
Paul Hawkyard’s villain Ivan Tobebooed and Robin Simpson’s Dame Dolly in York Theatre Royal’s Aladdin. Picture: S R Taylor Photography
OUT with the old, in with the new, as the pantomimes season concludes and Charles Hutchinson’s 2025 diary starts to take shape.
Still time for pantomime: Aladdin, York Theatre Royal, until January 5 2025
LOOK out for CBeebies’ Evie Pickerill at the double, dashing between the Spirit of the Ring and the Genie of the Lamp in the fifth collaboration between Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster and Evolution Productions script writer Paul Hendy.
Paul Hawkyard’s villain returns to York after a winter away doing panto in Dubai to renew his Theatre Royal double act with Robin Simpson’s dame, playing bad-lad Ivan Tobebooed to Simpson’s Dolly (not Widow Twankey, note). Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Samuel Wyn-Morris’s Beast and Jennifer Caldwell’s Belle in Beauty And The Beast at Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick
Still time for pantomime part two: Beauty And The Beast, Grand Opera House, York, until January 5 2025
THE jokes are as cheesy as the French setting of the village of Camembert, brassier and fruitier too, in Jon Monie’s script, as George Ure directs the Grand Opera House pantomime for the first time.
Tracy Beaker star Dani Harmer is a magically bouncy Fairy Bon Bon; Jennifer Caldwell delights as Belle; Samuel Wyn-Morris is a stentorian-voiced Beast/Prince; comedian Phil Reid’s Louis La Plonk and Leon Craig’s towering dame, Polly La Plonk lead the comic japes with gusto and Phil Atkinson sends up his French-accented dastardly hunk, Hugo Pompidou, to the max. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Marc Akinfolarin’s Pod Clock in The Borrowers at Hull Truck Theatre
“Perfect alternative to pantomime”: The Borrowers, Hull Truck Theatre, until January 4 2025
SET against a backdrop of Christmas in the East Riding of Yorkshire during the 1940s’ Blitz, artistic director Mark Babych’s enchanting production explores themes of adventure, friendship and the joy of love and togetherness in the tale of adventurous, spritely Borrower Arrietty Clock, who lives secretly under the floorboards of a country house.
Her small but perfectly formed family borrows from the humans above, but Arrietty longs for freedom and fresh air. However, the Borrowers have one simple rule: to remain hidden from the “human-beans”, especially bad-tempered housekeeper Mrs Driver and rebellious gardener Crampfurl. When an evacuee, a human boy from neighbouring Hull, arrives in the main house, Arrietty becomes curious… and starts making mistakes. Box office: 01482 323638 or hulltruck.co.uk.
The poster for Irie Vibes Sound System’s New Year’s Eve Party at The Crescent, York
New Year’s Eve Party: Irie Vibes Sound System, The Crescent, York, December 31, 8pm to 2am
IRIE Vibes Sound System bring the full rig and crew for a joyous night of reggae, roots, dancehall, dub and jungle to the closing hours of 2024 and beyond midnight. MC Sherlock Art will be on hosting duties, bringing the fire, while Lines Of Duty will be delivering their brand of dance music in Room 2, “manipulating long- playing micro-grooves for a full frequency audio experience”. Box office: thecrescentyork.com.
Professor Kettlestring: Launching a new attraction in York next month
First grand opening of the New Year: The Puzzling World Of Professor Kettlestring, Merchantgate, York, from January 10 2025
WELCOME to Matthew and Marianne Tritton-Hughes’s new attraction, The Puzzling World Of Professor Kettlestring, an immersive, educational world of more than 20 optical illusions, interactive exhibits and brain-bending challenges designed for curious minds of all ages.
Visitors can walk into the Professor’s sideways living room, disappear into his incognito chamber and discover a kitchen parlour where heads appear severed on platters. Box office: puzzlingworldyork.co.uk.
Jessica Steel: Performing at The Crescent in aid of Millie Wright’s Children’s Charity
Fundraiser of the month ahead: Lindow Man and Jessica Steel & Stuart Allan, The Crescent, York, January 11 2025, 7.30pm
ELECTRIFYING York soul, blues and rock’n’roll trio Lindow Man and York blues and soul singer Jessica Steel and guitarist Stuart Allan will play in aid of Millie Wright’s Children’s Charity.
Based at Leeds General Infirmary, the charity is committed to addressing inequalities in hands-on charitable support for families looking after children with life-threatening conditions by working towards providing practical and emotional help to parents and carers via Family Support Workers. Pizzas from Curious Pizza Company will be available on the night. Box office: thecrescentyork.com.
Chris McCausland: Playing the Grand Opera House in 2025 and 2026
Comedy gig announcement of the week: Chris McCausland, Yonks!, Grand Opera House, York, February 3 2025 and May 17 2026
AFTER lifting the glitterball trophy as the ground-breaking first blind contestant on Strictly Come Dancing, Liverpool comedian Chris McCausland will return to his “day job” on his Yonks! tour, now to be extended into 2026.
Appearing on Sky Max over Christmas with fellow comic Lee Mack as sparring neighbours who must take on a gang of thieves in the festive film Bad Tidings, McCausland has added a second York date after selling out the first. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Public Service Broadcasting: Heading to York Barbican in March
Belated York debut announced: Public Service Broadcasting, York Barbican, March 27 2025, doors 7pm
AFTER 15 years of “teaching the lessons of the past through the music of the future”, London archivist art rock pioneers Public Service Broadcasting will make their York Barbican debut next spring with a line-up of corduroy-clad J Willgoose Esq., drummer companion Wrigglesworth, flugelhorn player J F Abraham and Mr B, specialist in visuals and set design for live performances.
Last October’s fifth studio album, The Last Flight, was built around the ill-fated final flight of American aviator Amelia Earhart on July 2 1937, when she disappeared over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to become the first woman to fly around the world. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Casting a shadow: James Willstrop’s bullying bruiser Bill Sikes in Pick Me Up Theatre’s Oliver Twist at Theatre@41, Monkgate
THE myriad delights of Christmas entertainment shine through Charles Hutchinson’s tips to vacate the festive fireside.
Dickens at Christmas, but not A Christmas Carol: Pick Me Up Theatre in Oliver Twist, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, until December 30. 7.30pm performances on December 21, 27, 28 and 30, plus 2.30pm Saturday and Sunday matinees. No performances on December 23 to 26
HELEN Spencer takes the director’s reins and plays Fagin in York company Pick Me Up Theatre’s staging of Deborah McAndrew’s adaptation of Charles Dickens’s 1838 novel, described as a “a new version of Oliver with a festive twist”.
Not to be confused with Lionel Bart’s musical Oliver!, it does feature musical arrangements by John Biddle to to complement Dickens’s tale of Oliver Twist being brought up in a workhouse, sold into an apprenticeship and recruited by Fagin’s band of pickpockets and thieves as he sinks into London’s grimy underworld in his search for a home, a family and love. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Harris Beattie andJonathan Hanks in Northern Ballet’s revival of A Christmas Carol at Leeds Grand Theatre. Picture: Tristram Kenton
Christmas ballet of the week: Northern Ballet in A Christmas Carol, Leeds Grand Theatre, until January 4 2025
FIRST choreographed by Massimo Morricone and directed by Christopher Gable in 1992, Northern Ballet’s retired landmark production of A Christmas Carol is being revisited by director Federico Bonelli to the glee of longtime supporters and new audiences alike.
“Charles Dickens’s classic Victorian tale of redemption, with its message of human kindness and compassion, is something that resonates with us all, especially at this time of year,” says Bonelli. “Its iconic characters lend themselves so well to ballet”, complemented by Lez Brotherston’s colourful sets and costumes and Carl Davis’s festive score. Box office: 0113 243 0808 or leedsheritagetheatres.com.
Holly Cassidy and Grace Hussey-Burd in a scene from Riding Lights Theatre Company’s winter show A Christmas Cracker. Picture: Tom Jackson
Alternative Nativity play of the week: Riding Lights Theatre Company in A Christmas Cracker, Friargate Theatre, York, today to Christmas Eve, 11am and 1.30pm each day; 6pm, first three days; 4pm, last day
IN Paul Birch’s first play as artistic director of Riding Lights, world-famous storyteller Ebenezer Sneezer is lost, with snow in her wellies and faithful canine companion Cracker full of strange ideas about Christmas.
When caught taking shelter in Mrs McGinty’s barn, she allows them to stay on the condition that Ebenezer brings her glad tidings with her stories. If so, a hot supper awaits. If not, exit pronto. Ebenezer must triumph over not only Mrs McGinty’s frozen heart but also Deadly, a dastardly donkey ready to kick comfort and joy out of his stable. Box office: 01904 613000 or ticketsource.co.uk/ridinglights.
The poster for The Snowman screenings with live orchestra at York Barbican
Christmas film & music event of the week: The Snowman with Live Orchestra, York Barbican, Sunday, 1pm and 4pm
CARROT Productions presents two screenings of Dianne Jackson and Jimmy T Murakami’s animated 1982 film with the accompaniment of a live orchestra of professional musicians.
Raymond Briggs’s story of a young boy’s Christmas snowman magically coming to life for a journey to meet Santa Claus will be shown with The Snowman And The Snowdog at 1pm and The Bear, The Piano, The Dog And The Fiddle at 4pm. Each show includes a fun introduction to the orchestra and a visit from the Snowman himself. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Shed Seven’s Paul Banks and Rick Witter: Performing as an acoustic duo at Huntington Working Men’s Club in the last gigs of their 30th anniversary celebrations this weekend. Picture: David Harrison
Recommended but sold out already: Shed Seven’s Rick Witter and Paul Banks, Huntington Working Men’s Club, York, tonight and Sunday, doors 7pm
AFTER two number one albums in a year, summer shows in York Museum Gardens and their biggest ever tour, Shed Seven end their 30th anniversary celebrations back home in York, where lead singer Rick Witter and guitarist Paul Banks play a weekend of acoustic sets in the intimate setting of a working men’s club.
“We’re finishing the year in the village where Rick and I first met back in 1984, and where all of this began,” says Banks. “What a journey we’ve been on.” Sheds’ bassist Tom Gladwin serves up a DJ set too. Box office for returns only: store.shedseven.com.
Nun better: Freida Nipples hosts her Baps & Buns burlesque Christmas cabaret at Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb
Feast your eyes on: Freida Nipples’ Baps & Buns Burlesque Christmas Cabaret, Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb Road, Acomb, tonight, 8pm; doors open at 7pm
YORK’S queen of burlesque, Freida Nipples, presents drag, comedy and showgirls in her Baps & Buns Christmas Cabaret with festive good cheer after a joyous year of shows at Rise, Acomb’s answer to Paris’s Folies Bergère.
“Prepare yourself for an evening of debauchery and glamour in Acomb,” says Freida. “The big question is: are you ready for it?!” Box office: bluebirdbakery.co.uk/rise.
Central Methodist Church: Hosting City Screen Picturehouse’s pop-up Christmas Cinema at Saint Saviourgate, York
Pop-up film event of the festive season: City Screen Picturehouse presents Christmas Cinema at Saint Saviourgate, The Great Hall, Central Methodist Church, St Saviourgate, York, until December 23
CITY Screen Picturehouse, York, has set up a pop-up screen at Central Methodist Church for the Christmas season. Dougal Wilson’s Paddington In Peru (PG) will be shown at 4pm on Sunday, followed by Jon Favreau’s Elf (PG) at 7pm and Monday screenings of Robert Zemeckis’s The Polar Express (U) at 4pm and Frank Capra’s season-closing 1946 chestnut It’s A Wonderful Life (U) at 7pm. Box office: picturehouses.com/YorkXmas.
Ronan Keating: Playing at York Racecourse Music Showcase Weekend next summer. Picture: Supplied by York Racecourse
Outdoor gig announcement of the week: Ronan Keating, York Racecourse Music Showcase Weekend, July 26
IRISH singer, charity campaigner and breakfast show host Ronan Keating will perform after the Saturday race card as the first act to be confirmed for next summer’s Music Showcase Weekend on Knavesmire. A further act will be announced for the evening meeting on July 25.
Keating, 47, has three decades of hits to call on, from Boyzone boy band days to his solo career, from Love Me For A Reason and When You Say Nothing At All to Life Is A Rollercoaster and If Tomorrow Never Comes. Olly Murs is confirmed already for the new 2025 race day of June 28. For race day tickets, go to: yorkracecourse.co.uk.
Helen Spencer’s Fagin in Pick Me Up Theatre’s production of Deborah McAndrew’s Oliver Twist at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York
THE myriad delights of Christmas entertainment shine through Charles Hutchinson’s tips to vacate the festive fireside.
Dickens at Christmas, but not A Christmas Carol: Pick Me Up Theatre in Oliver Twist, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, until December 30. 7.30pm performances on December 18 to 21, 27, 28 and 30, plus 2.30pm Saturday and Sunday matinees. No performances on December 23 to 26
HELEN Spencer takes the director’s reins and plays Fagin in York company Pick Me Up Theatre’s staging of Deborah McAndrew’s adaptation of Charles Dickens’s 1838 novel, described as a “a new version of Oliver with a festive twist”.
Not to be confused with Lionel Bart’s musical Oliver!, it does feature musical arrangements by John Biddle to to complement Dickens’s tale of Oliver Twist being brought up in a workhouse, sold into an apprenticeship and recruited by Fagin’s band of pickpockets and thieves as he sinks into London’s grimy underworld in his search for a home, a family and love. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Northern Ballet in A Christmas Carol: Festive favourite makes its return to Leeds Grand Theatre
Christmas ballet of the week: Northern Ballet in A Christmas Carol, Leeds Grand Theatre, until January 4 2025
FIRST choreographed by Massimo Morricone and directed by Christopher Gable in 1992, Northern Ballet’s retired landmark production of A Christmas Carol is being revisited by director Federico Bonelli to the glee of longtime supporters and new audiences alike.
“Charles Dickens’s classic Victorian tale of redemption, with its message of human kindness and compassion, is something that resonates with us all, especially at this time of year,” says Bonelli. “Its iconic characters lend themselves so well to ballet”, complemented by Lez Brotherston’s colourful sets and costumes and Carl Davis’s festive score. Box office: 0113 243 0808 or leedsheritagetheatres.com.
The poster for HAC Around The Tree, the last show of 2024 at Helmsley Arts Centre
Festive celebration of the week: HAC Around The Tree, Helmsley Arts Centre, tomorrow, 7.30pm
JOIN the Helmsley Arts Centre Singers, 1812 Theatre Company, 1812 Youth Theatre, Ryedale Writers and invited guests for an evening of theatre, music, poetry and prose around the Christmas tree. The bar will be serving mulled wine and mince pies to spark up the festive spirit in Helmsley Arts Centre’s last event of 2024. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Step Into Christmas: Festive hit after festive hit at York Barbican
Christmas songs galore: Step Into Christmas, York Barbican, tomorrow, 7.30pm
THIS feel-good Christmas show brings all the magic of the season to musical life with favourite festive songs, from All I Want For Christmas Is You, Last Christmas, Jingle Bell Rock, Stay Another Day and Let It Snow to White Christmas, Do They Know It’s Christmas, A Winter’s Tale and Merry Xmas Everybody. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Chapter House Choir: Choral music old and new in the Nave of York Minster
Carol concert of the week: Chapter House Choir, Carols By Candlelight, York Minster Nave, Friday, 7.30pm, doors 6.45pm
THE Chapter House Choir, directed by musical director Benjamin Morris, combine with the Chapter House Youth Choir, directed by Charlie Gower-Smith, for this ever-popular candle-lit concert, first performed in 1965 and now held in the Nave. In addition to traditional choral music old and new, festive music will be played by the chamber choir’s Handbell Ringers. For returned tickets only, check yorkminster.org/whats-on/event/carols-by-candlelight/or contact 01904 557256.
Gary Stewart: Presenting tributes to Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours and Paul Simon’s Graceland at York Barbican
Tribute gig of the week: Gary Stewart presents Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours and Paul Simon’s Graceland, York Barbican, Friday, 8pm
SCOTTISH-BORN Easingwold musician Gary Stewart presents Weetwood Mac and his Graceland band in a celebration of two career-defining works, Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours, from 1977, and Paul Simon’s Graceland, from 1986. “With combined sales of more than 50 million worldwide, both albums have stood the test of time and are cherished to this day,” says Stewart.
“Littered with gossip and controversy, Rumours and Graceland elevated their artists to new heights of popularity, inspiring the popular music canon for decades to come. This evening celebrates a time of artistic discovery and re-creates the excitement of the era, with these seminal albums lovingly interpreted by some of today’s finest touring musicians.” Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Mike Newall: Laidback storytelling at York Barbican
Comedy gig of the week: Laugh Out Loud Comedy Club Christmas Special, York Barbican, featuring Mike Newall, Friday, 8pm
MANCUNIAN Mike Newall, who appeared on Britain’s Got Talent, takes top billing on with his laidback storytelling, Swiss clock timing and tack-sharp turn of phrase. “He’s like your best, most humorous friend – only funnier,” says promoter and master of ceremonies Damion Larkin. Two support acts feature too. Box office: lolcomedyclubs.co.uk or yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Holly Cassidy with the puppet of Cracker in A Christmas Cracker at Friargate Theatre, York. Picture: Tom Jackson
Alternative Nativity play of the week: Riding Lights Theatre Company in A Christmas Cracker, Friargate Theatre, York, December 21 to 24, 11am and 1.30pm each day; 6pm, first three days; 4pm, last day
IN Paul Birch’s first play as artistic director of Riding Lights, world-famous storyteller Ebenezer Sneezer is lost, with snow in her wellies and faithful canine companion Cracker full of strange ideas about Christmas.
When caught taking shelter in Mrs McGinty’s barn, she allows them to stay on the condition that Ebenezer brings her glad tidings with her stories. If so, a hot supper awaits. If not, exit pronto. Ebenezer must triumph over not only Mrs McGinty’s frozen heart but also Deadly, a dastardly donkey ready to kick comfort and joy out of his stable. Box office: 01904 613000 or ticketsource.co.uk/ridinglights.
The Snowman: Two screenings with a live orchestra at York Barbican
Christmas film event of the week: The Snowman with Live Orchestra, York Barbican, Sunday, 1pm and 4pm
CARROT Productions presents two screenings of Dianne Jackson and Jimmy T Murakami’s animated 1982 film with the accompaniment of a live orchestra of professional musicians.
Raymond Briggs’s story of a young boy’s Christmas snowman magically coming to life for a journey to meet Santa Claus will be shown with The Snowman And The Snowdog at 1pm and The Bear, The Piano, The Dog And The Fiddle at 4pm. Each show includes a fun introduction to the orchestra and a visit from the Snowman himself. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Pocklington Arts Centre cast members Levi Payne, left, Caitlin Townend and Dylan Allcock in Jack Frost’s Christmas Wish
CHRISTMAS shows dominate Charles Hutchinson’s recommendations but there is still room to fit in comedy and a homeward-bound singer-songwriter too.
East Riding Christmas play of the week: Jack Frost’s Christmas Wish, Pocklington Arts Centre, until December 24
ELIZABETH Godber’s second Christmas show for Pocklington Arts Centre invites everyone aged three to 103 to join Jack Frost (Levi Payne) and his friends Oslo the Rabbit (Dylan Allcock) and Blue the Winter Sprite (Caitlin Townend) as they race across the world to make his one wish come true: to be home for Christmas. Could that home be in East Yorkshire?
Wrap up warm for a frosty adventure from the team who delivered The Elves And The Shoemaker: Save Christmas last winter, steered by director Jane Thornton. Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.
Saving Scarborough:Stephen Brailsford’s Captain Cliff in Captain Cliff & The Seagull Squad at the SJT. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
Coastal children’s play of the week: Captain Cliff & The Seagull Squad, The McCarthy, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, until December 21
ON a busy day at Scarborough’s South Bay, judges from Britain’s Best Beach are soon to arrive, but after a big rush of tourists, the bins are overflowing with rubbish in a play for children aged up to six, written and directed by Rob Salmon for the SJT and CU (Coventry University), Scarborough.
Faced by litter everywhere and a pile of something sticky by the rock shop, who can save Scarborough? Step forward Captain Cliff and the Seagull Squad, who must complete four missions, one for each season. Cue a rescue adventure full of songs, silliness and festive fun. Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.
Mike Newall: Laidback storytelling at Laugh Out Loud Comedy Club
Comedy gigs of the week: Laugh Out Loud Comedy Club Christmas Specials, York Barbican, Michael Legge, tonight; Mike Newall, December 20, both 8pm
TONIGHT’S headliner, Michael Legge, combines improvised irreverence with spiky tongue-in-cheek antics. “This livewire performer has ‘funny’ popping out of him at every opportunity,” says promoter and master of ceremonies Damion Larkin.
Mancunian Mike Newall, who appeared on Britain’s Got Talent, takes top billing on Friday with his laidback storytelling, Swiss clock timing and tack-sharp turn of phrase. “He’s like your best, most humorous friend – only funnier,” says Larkin. Both nights will feature two support acts too. Box office: lolcomedyclubs.co.uk or yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Ian Stroughair: Performing at York’s Annual Community Carol Concert
York’s Annual Community Carol Concert, York Barbican, Sunday 2pm
YORK RI Golden Rail Band, Knavesmire Primary School, Heworth Community Choir and Ian Stroughair, York’s West End showman behind drag diva Velma Celli, join forces for an afternoon of Christmas carols and songs.
Regular participant Steve Cassidy will sing with the ensemble, while the community singing will be led by musical director Mike Pratt. Proceeds go to the Lord Mayor and Sheriff of York’s Christmas Cheer Fund and York Hospital Radio. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Snow queen of folk:Kate Rusby’s Winter Light tour arrives at York Barbican on December 17
Christmas folk concert of the week: Kate Rusby, Winter Light Tour, York Barbican, December 17, 7pm
BARNSLEY folk songstress Kate Rusby draws on her seven Christmas albums – she released her latest, Light Years, in 2023 – for her annual celebration of South Yorkshire carols sung in pubs through the winter months.
Spreading Yuletide joy, Kate will be joined by her regular band, featuring her husband, producer, guitarist and banjo player Damien O’Kane, bolstered by the Brass Boys quintet. Look out for the fancy-dress finale. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Sam Griffiths: Singer, songwriter and frontman of The Howl And The Hum. Picture: Stewart Baxter
Christmas double joy of the week: Please Please You & Brudenell Presents present The Howl & The Hum, The Crescent, York, full band band show, December 17, 7.30pm; solo show, December 18, 7pm
IN the wake of a sublime sold-out gig at Leeds Irish Centre on November 15 and the autumn release of second album Same Mistake Twice, York band The Howl & The Hum end the year with their now obligatory festive celebrations at The Crescent.
Frontman and songwriter Sam Griffiths will be joined by his full band – saxophonist and keyboard player Matthew Herd, drummer Dave Hamblett, guitarist Arun Thavasothy and bass player Naomi McLeod – on Tuesday night and will then play an intimate, stripped-back, seated solo show on Wednesday. Box office: thecrescentyork.com.
The poster for Step Into Christmas at York Barbican
Christmas songs galore: Step Into Christmas, York Barbican, December 19, 7.30pm
THIS feel-good Christmas show brings all the magic of the season to musical life with favourite festive songs, from All I Want For Christmas Is You, Last Christmas, Jingle Bell Rock, Stay Another Day and Let it Snow to White Christmas, Do They Know It’s Christmas, A Winter’s Tale and Merry Xmas Everybody.
Meanwhile, the Barbican’s 7.30pm screening of the Christmas rom-com The Holiday with a live orchestra on December 16 has sold out. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Homeward bound: Benjamin Francis Leftwich will make a sold-out return to York on December 19
Homecoming of the week: The Crescent & Brudenell presents Benjamin Francis Leftwich, National Centre for Early Music, York, December 19, 7.30pm
“I FEEL like there’s nowhere for me to hide on this record,” says York-born singer-songwriter Benjamin Francis Leftwich of Some Things Break, his fifth album, released in February. “I’m proud of so much of my earlier work, but trying to replicate that now would feel very obsequious and fake. I’m proud of this – it’s from the heart.”
Now living in London, Leftwich heads back to his home city for a sold-out show in the quietude of St Margaret’s Church, Walmgate. Nadia Kadek supports. Box office for returns only: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.
Chapter House Choir: Choral music old and new in Carols By Candlelight
Carol concert of the week: Chapter House Choir, Carols By Candlelight, York Minster Nave, December 20, 7.30pm, doors 6.45pm
THE Chapter House Choir, directed by musical director Benjamin Morris, combine with the Chapter House Youth Choir, directed by Charlie Gower-Smith, for this ever-popular candle-lit concert, first performed in 1965 and now held in the Nave. In addition to traditional choral music old and new, festive music will be played by the chamber choir’s Handbell Ringers. For returned tickets only, check yorkminster.org/whats-on/event/carols-by-candlelight/or contact 01904 557256.
Holly Cassidy with the puppet of Cracker in A Christmas Cracker at Friargate Theatre
Alternative Nativity play of the week: Riding Lights Theatre Company in A Christmas Cracker, Friargate Theatre, York, December 21 to 24, 11am and 1.30pm each day; 6pm, first three days; 4pm, last day
IN Paul Birch’s first play as artistic director of Riding Lights, world-famous storyteller Ebenezer Sneezer is lost, with snow in her wellies and faithful canine companion Cracker full of strange ideas about Christmas.
When caught taking shelter in Mrs McGinty’s barn, she allows them to stay on the condition that Ebenezer brings her glad tidings with her stories. If so, a hot supper awaits. If not, exit pronto. Ebenezer must triumph over not only Mrs McGinty’s frozen heart but also Deadly, a dastardly donkey ready to kick comfort and joy out of his stable. Box office: 01904 613000 or ticketsource.co.uk/ridinglights.
The Corrs: Heading to the Scarborough coast next summer
Gig announcement of the week: The Corrs and Natalie Imbruglia, TK Maxx presents Scarborough Open Air Theatre, June 11 2025
THE Corrs, Irish sibling purveyors of sleek pop rock, lush harmonies and Celtic folk trimmings, will line up as ever with Andrea on lead vocals, piano and tin whistle, Sharon on violin, piano and vocals, Caroline, on drums, piano and vocals, and Jim on guitar, keyboards and vocals.
Former Neighbours soap actress, Torn hit-maker and The Masked Singer 2022 winner Natalie Imbruglia will support. Box office: ticketmaster.co.uk.
Matt Price: Topping Friday’s Laugh Out Loud Comedy Club bill at York Barbican
NOT one, not two, but three Laugh Out Loud Comedy Club Christmas specials are lined up for York Barbican.
“Each show features a full bill of three top professional comedians plus a top-notch host MC,” says promoter and compere Damion Larkin.
Friday the 13th will be headlined by international touring sensation Matt Price. “Matt is known for having some of the most extraordinary and outrageous stories drawn from the wilder side of life,” says Larkin.
“Hailing from Cornwall, he brings true warmth and heart to the stage while finding some audacious laughs in the most unexpected places.”
Price has notched up five tours of Australia and 13 Edinburgh Fringe Festivals, played at most of the major British clubs and headlined in South East Asia. He has supported Stephen K Amos, Russell Kane and Norman Lovett and has been a warm-up act for both Channel 4 and the TLC Channel.
Michael Legge headlines Saturday’s bill. “He’s a truly sought-after comedy mind, extremely in demand at an international level,” says Larkin. “Everyone wants a piece of Michael.
“His often improvised irreverence and spiky, tongue-in-cheek antics have been put to use on the likes of Sky One’s Street Cred Sudoku and MTV’s European Music Awards.”
Legge’s themes include the spontaneity of his surroundings. “This livewire performer has funny popping out of him at every opportunity,” says Larkin.
Legge has written for the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, MTV, VH1 and other media and he has appeared in numerous venues throughout the UK, as well as in Australia, the United States, Canada, Singapore, the Netherlands, Germany and Dubai.
Legge has performed warm-up spots for television shows such as 8 Out Of 10 Cats and Would I Lie To You?. Before becoming a professional comedian, he featured in several TV commercials.
Laugh Out Loud Comedy Club promoter and master of ceremonies Damion Larkin
Legge co-founded and performed in the cult comedy sketch show The Real Daniel O’Donnell Show (2007–2008) at The Albany, London. The monthly show featured Legge alongside Paul Litchfield and Jeremy Limb, from the sketch group The Trap, and Margaret Cabourn-Smith and Zoe Gardner of The Congress of Oddities, complemented by stand-up comedian guests and live bands. The London show spawned the 2008 Edinburgh Fringe show The Clock Hour.
Legge was nominated for a BAFTA award for his writing on the MTV website of The Osbournes show and his blog won the 2009 Chortle award for Best Off-Stage Contribution
Mancunian Mike Newall takes top billing on December 20. “Regarded by many as having the best hair in the UK comedy scene with a throwback to Oasis in 1990, he’s one for the ladies and the gents too. As a result many are now calling him ‘The Real Magic Mike’,” says Larkin.
“He was a big hit on ITV’s Britain’s Got Talent, where he impressed the judges so much that Simon Cowell said ‘it was like an Oasis concert where the music ran out and Liam decides to tell a few jokes’!”
In 2010 Newall performed his Edinburgh Fringe show Mr Famous, followed in 2011 by Mike Newall’s Get Better Box. That same year he headlined the Big Value Comedy early show, then returned in 2013 with his show Six Weddings. In 2013 too, he was asked to be the support act for Alun Cochrane’s Moments Of Alun tour.
Mike Newall: “Consistently reliable comedy storyteller”, playing York Barbican on December 20
“Fortunately he’s also one of the country’s most consistently reliable comedy storytellers and proud possessor of a breezy, casual style that’s the envy of many of his contemporaries,” says Larkin.
“Frankly we’ve never seen a comedian so laid back and yet packing so much comedic power. Swiss clock timing and that certain knack for a sharp turn of phrase means he is living proof that you can’t learn to be funny; it’s a gift and he has it by the bucket load.”
Larkin further enthuses: “Manchester has had more than its fair share of comedy heritage over the years. Mike is without doubt the latest smooth talking, globe-trotting Manc export and could even go on to become the greatest.
“He has that rare knack of being like the boy the next door but with huge star quality. He’s like your best, most humorous friend – only funnier!”
