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More Things To Do in York and beyond when feeling the earth move. Here’s Hutch’s List No. 37 for 2023, from The Press

Gracing the stage: Grace Lancaster in the role of Carole King in York Stage’s York premiere of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick

FROM Carole King’s beautiful songs to Velma Celli’s pop queens, an artistic family to a poet’s biscuits, Charles Hutchinson adds to the September sunshine as cause for heading out and about.

Musical of the week: York Stage in Beautiful, The Carole King Musical, Grand Opera House, York, Friday to September 23

YORK, are you ready to feel the Earth move, asks director Nik Briggs, ahead of the York premiere of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. “This show has taken the world by storm, and for good reason, with its inspiring story of Carole King, a woman who rose to fame in the music industry during a time when female songwriters were few and far between”.

Singer, actress and pianist Grace Lancaster takes the lead role in this celebration of perseverance, passion and the power of music to unite. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Damon Gough: Marking 25 years of Badly Drawn Boy

Treasured songwriter of the week: Badly Drawn Boy, The Crescent, York, Monday, 7.30pm

DAMON Gough is undertaking his Something To Tour About: 25 Years Of Badly Drawn Boy tour, playing a sold-out standing show in York with Liam Frost in support.

Chorlton singer, songwriter, guitarist and piano player Gough, who released Banana Skin Shoes as his first studio album in ten years in May 2020, first made his mark with the Mercury Prize-winning The Hour Of Bewilderbeast in 2000. Eight albums on, he has plenty to tour about.

Rosie Jones: Unadulterated joy in Triple Threat at Leeds City Varieties and York Theatre Royal

Comedy gig of the week: Rosie Jones: Triple Threat, Leeds City Varieties Music Hall, Wednesday, 8pm; York Theatre Royal, Thursday, 8pm

COMEDIAN Rosie Jones’s show is guaranteed to be full of unapologetic cheekiness, nonsensical fun and unadulterated joy from the triple threat herself.

Theatre@41 honorary patron Rosie has hosted Channel 4’s travel series Rosie Jones’ Trip Hazard and Mission: Accessible and made numerous appearances on The Last Leg, 8 Out Of 10 Cats, Hypothetical, Mock The Week, The Ranganation and Joe Lycett’s Got Your Back. Box office: Leeds, 0113 243 0808 or leedsheritagetheatres.com; York, 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk. 

Jessica Steel: Powerhouse vocals at A Night To Remember

Fundraiser of the week: Big Ian Presents A Night To Remember, York Barbican, Thursday, 7.30pm

HUGE frontman Big Ian Donaghy hosts his annual charity fundraiser as George Hall leads a 20-piece All Star House Band with a 12-strong brass section in a night of cover versions of Kate Bush, Bill Withers, Take That, Fleetwood Mac, Tina Turner, Queen, Wham!, Elvis and more.

Taking part will be Jessica Steel, Heather Findlay, Beth McCarthy, Graham Hodge, The Y Street Band, Boss Caine, Gary Stewart, Simon Snaize, Annie Donaghy, Kieran O’Malley, Las Vegas Ken, the Huge Brass Boys, Hands & Voices, musicians from York Music Forum and Jessa Liversidge’s fully inclusive group Singing For All. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

John Hegley: Biscuits all round at Stillington Mill

Poet of the week: John Hegley: Biscuit Of Destiny, At The Mill, Stillington, near York, Friday, 7.30pm

POET John Hegley, star of radio, television and school assemblies, heads north with a clutch of new verses, a few older favourites and a cardboard camel with a moving jaw.

The biscuits in the show derive Romantic poet John Keats’s phrase: “a scarcity of buiscuit”. Not the sort of phrase nor spelling you expect from a Romantic poet, notes Hegley, who delves into the more eccentric side of Keats, alongside everyday goings-on in the Hegley homes of now and yesteryear. Expect drawings of elephants, myths, discos, daleks, optional community singing and the search for a sense of self-worth. Box office: tickettailor.com/events/atthemill/939591.

Velma Celli: Reigning over York Theatre Royal on Friday in a celebration of British pop royalty, God Save The Queens. Picture: Sophie Eleanor Photography

Brit icons of the week: Velma Celli’s God Save The Queens, York Theatre Royal, Friday, 7.30pm

YORK cabaret superstar Velma Celli, the vocal drag diva alter ego of musical theatre actor Ian Stroughair, introduces her new celebration of British pop royalty.

Accompanied by Scott Phillips’s band, Velma’s night of rapturous music, risqué comedy and fabulous entertainment features the songs of Adele, Amy Winehouse, Annie Lennox, Florence Welch, Leona Lewis, The Spice Girls, Kate Bush, Shirley Bassey, Cilla Black and Bonnie Tyler, plus a tribute to Sinead O’Connor.

Katya Apekisheva: Russian-born pianist playing at York Chamber Music Festival, sometimes solo, sometimes in the company of string players

Festival of the week: York Chamber Music Festival, September 15 to 17

FESTIVAL artistic director and cellist Tim Lowe is joined by John Mills and Jonathan Stone, violins, Hélene Clément and Simone van der Giessen, violas, Jonathan Aasgaard, cello, Billy Cole, double bass, and British-based Russian pianist Katya Apekisheva for three days of concerts.

Highlights include Mendelssohn’s String Quartet Op. 13, Dvořák’s String Sextet, Elgar’s late Piano Quintet, Strauss’s Metamorphosen, Brahms’s Cello Sonata No. 1 and Schubert’s last Piano Sonata in B flat major. For the full programme and venues, head to: ycmf.co.uk/2023-programme. Box office: 01904 658338 or ycmf.co.uk.

Ewa Salecka: Conducting Prima Vocal Ensemble in Songs From The Heart

Choral concert of the month: Prima Vocal Ensemble, Songs From The Heart, National Centre for Early Music, Walmgate, York, September 30, 7.30pm

ARTISTIC director and producer Ewa Salecka leads York choir Prima Vocal Ensemble in an intimate evening of contemporary classical and popular choral music with Greg Birch at the piano.

Works by Randall Thompson, René Clausen, Stephen Paulus and Elizabeth Alexander will be followed by a second half of moving and energetic arrangements of George Gershwin, Duke Ellington and Freddie Mercury songs. Ahead of their 2024 New York City reunion, Prima perform a Christopher Tin number too. Box office: primavocalensemble.com.

Copyright of The Press, York

Hannah Arnup and Ben Arnup with bowls by Mick Arnup and a bronze dog by Sally Arnup at the Arnup Centenary exhibition, opening today at Pyramid Gallery

In Focus: Exhibition launch of the week

Hannah Arnup, Ben Arnup, Tobias Arnup and Vanessa Pooley, Arnup Centenary, Pyramid Gallery, Stonegate, York, 11am today to October 30

THE Arnups, two generations of artists with roots in York, work in pottery, painting, wildlife sculpture, figurative sculpture and ceramic sculpture. The late Mick and Sally Arnup set up home and studio in Holtby in the 1960s, and three of their family, Ben, Hannah and Tobias, have followed careers in the arts.

This exhibition by the three second generation artists and Tobias’s wife, Vanessa Pooley, coincides with the centenary of their father’s birth in 1923. In recognition of their parents’ influence on their own artistic journeys, a few pieces by Mick and Sally will complement the new works.

Gallery visitors can expect to see new work by ceramist Ben Arnup, who specialises in slab-made flattened boxes and vessels that play with the viewer’s sense of form and space, alongside Hananh Arnup’s wheel-thrown bowls and plates with sgraffito decoration and Vanessa Pooley’s gently curvy female forms in ceramic and bronze. On the walls, the still life paintings by Tobias Arnup will sit alongside ceramic wall pieces by Ben and Hannah.

Ben’s intriguing Trompe L’Oeil forms are well known to collectors of ceramics and visitors to Pyramid Gallery. Formerly a landscape designer, he creates shapes that explore drawn perspective using coloured clay slab-constructed stoneware, “having fun with the way we see form”.

After studying sculpture at Kingston Art School and specialising in ceramics at Goldsmith College, London, Hannah has lived and worked for much of her adult life in Ireland where she owns and runs Ballymorris Pottery. Latterly, she has set up a new studio in the family home in Holtby near York, re- purposed as a community of artists’ studios.

Vanessa works with bronze and ceramic to create sculpture of mostly female forms with an individual and distinctive style that takes inspiration from the work of Henri Laurens and his studio assistant Balthazar Lobo, as well as Marino Marinni and the sculptures of Picasso and Matisse. Her work is to be found in collections around the world.

Tobias studied at Camberwell School of Art and went on to teach at Blackheath School of Art before a change in career to be an art therapist.

“I was helping run a course at Blackheath School of Art and I found I was more interested in the people that sat in my office at lunchtime complaining about their fellow students or about their parents or about not getting their art right or wondering what they were going to do, or who were just not really coping with life very well,” he says.

After his training, Tobias started an art therapy department at Holloway Prison, which was in existence until the women’s prison closed in 2016. 

During his 35-year career, he also worked in secure units in mental health hospitals, finding that art could engage traumatised people when other methods of therapy had not.  

In his art, Tobias has evolved an individual style that begins with a black outline of still life objects and flowers, drawn in ink with a goose quill. He then adds colour in gouache, filling the spaces between or on top of the black lines.

Depending on what he feels is necessary, he might add more black ink lines, or redo the original lines, then more colour and maybe finish with more black lines. This layering of lines and colour is done slowly and carefully in a process that he describes as meditative. The result is intriguing, distinctive and joyful, with pastel colours contrasting with the black outlines, that have a bold and purposeful feel mixed with occasional random unevenness.

Gallery owner Terry Brett has worked with Ben and Hannah for many years, as well as with Mick and Sally, and looks forward to his inaugural showing of paintings by Tobias and bronze and ceramic sculpture by Vanessa.

“‘For me, this is one of the most satisfying moments in my time as an exhibition curator,” he says. “Not only for the quality of the work and diversity of styles, but also because I am pleased to be representing Vanessa and Tobias for the first time.

“To be hosting the family with an exhibition that is paying respect to Mick and Sally in a collective show is a very special moment for both myself and the gallery.”

Tobias Arnup with his gouache and ink paintings

Tobias Arnup on his artistic practice

THE play between line and colour has always been central to Tobias’s work as a painter.
“Undoubtedly my main influence of this has been that of my father, Mick,” he says. “However, I still remember the impact of being taught by the wonderful art master at Pocklington School, Nigel Billington, who encouraged a proper attention to composition and to drawing, particularly with ink.

“It was hardly a surprise when I chose Camberwell School of Art, in London, as the place to study for my Fine Art degree and where I was lucky enough to teach drawing myself for a while.”

Only relatively recently has Tobias experimented more with different media. “For many years my favourite was egg tempera, which I learnt about at Camberwell and used to
mix up myself,” he says.

“Depending on how much it was diluted, tempera has both the ‘gloopy’ quality of gouache and the richness of a watercolour glaze. It was working on paper, though, that has allowed me to work more flexibly.

“Using water-soluble pencil, Indian ink, watercolour and gouache – although not necessarily in that order – I seem to be forever swinging between creating chaos and trying to excerpt some sort of order on the composition.”

He continues: “These days the chaos of my ink marks is being brought under some sort of control by the flat, mat gouache. When things get a bit too tidy, out comes the ink bottle again.

“There cannot have been many options for school teachers at the time. Mr Billington’s huge
set-ups suited me perfectly, however. They were there ready for me – a constant resource,
I realise now, that is currently replicated in my own studio.

“Although they stray into more abstract concerns, I regard all these works as still-lives. When I am a bit stuck, it’s the ink and the goose-feather quills that I turn to, although I have used up my store of Chinese geese quills that I collected up from the garden when I was young.”

Pyramid Gallery opening hours are: Monday to Saturday 10am to 5pm. The displays can be viewed at pyramidgallery.com too.

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Kevin Rowland discovers ‘the feminine divine’ on new album as Dexys go theatrical for York Barbican debut tomorrow

Kevin Rowland, in his pink suit, leads the return of Dexys with The Feminine Divine. Picture: Sandra Vijandi

AT last! Dexys will play York for the first time in their 45-year career tomorrow on the opening night of this month’s The Feminine Divine Live! tour.

Kevin Rowland’s revived soul band had been booked to play York Barbican on last autumn’s 40th anniversary Too-Rye-Ay As It Should Have Sounded Tour. However, his need to recuperate from a leg injury in a motorbike accident and “some health issues that will take some time to recover from” forced the September 30 2022 gig’s cancellation as early as March last year.

July 28 saw the arrival of The Feminine Divine, Dexys’ fifth album of original material in five decades, 11 years since their last studio set, 2012’s One Day I’m Going To Soar. 

Rowland, who turned 70 on August 17, will front Dexys as they “dramatically perform the new album from beginning to finale, followed by a selection of classics and hits” at York Barbican in the only Yorkshire show on their 13-date British and Irish tour.

“The first half is not a concert,” Kevin stresses. “It will be The Feminine Divine, completely acted out. It’s a theatrical performance, a drama, like we did for One Day I’m Going To Soar, but this is a completely different narrative. Last time we had Madeleine Hyland [from London folk group The Amazing Devil); this time Claudia Chopek will be the protagonist, playing the female in the songs.”

The second half will have a concert format. “We’ll probably change the set list each night, but we have a pretty good idea of what it will be, with a lot of the Too-Rye-Ay album, which we were due to tour last year, but had to cancel,” says Kevin, who will be touring with a six-piece band. “I think this show will be even better.”

Produced by Pete Schwier, along with session musician and producer Toby Chapman, The Feminine Divine is billed as “a personal, if not strictly autobiographical, record portraying a man whose views have evolved over time”.

The cover artwork for Dexys’ The Feminine Divine album

“I don’t think I could ever do the same thing twice. I can’t see the point of that. It’s not something I ever think about. It’s intrinsically important to me,” says Kevin on his Zoom call, explaining the album’s gestation.

“We weren’t looking for a theme. There was none of that. After the last album [2016’s Let The Record Show: Dexys Do Irish And Country Soul], I was drained and didn’t want to do music and didn’t feel I had the vitality.

“I needed to get away to work on myself, and actually I was almost violently against doing music, thinking ‘I want to do other things’. But in 2020-21 I had a surge of energy. I wanted to do music again.”

“What songs have we got?” pondered Dexys’ front man, suffused with a new-found positivity. Original Midnight Runners trombonist Big Jim Paterson, now a non-touring band member, sent him tunes he had written; Rowland reactivated a 1991 song, The One That Loves You, for the opening track, and a first side full of music-hall swagger duly took shape.

“Then I thought, ‘OK, let’s ask Mike [Timothy] and Sean [Read] to collaborate’,” Kevin recalls, leading to a second side “like nothing Dexys have done before” in the form of a saucy, synth-heavy cabaret.

Synths, Kevin? “I’ve always liked electronic music; I was into house music in the Eighties, so we were going to record some house tunes at the time, but we never got round to it, but I was well into it,” he says. “I thought about making the last album electronic too but went a different way with that one.”

The lyrics to title track The Feminine Divine became the driving force for Dexys’ new focus. “They came pouring out of me, and it told me what the theme should be. I started writing about my experience in recent years,” says Kevin. “Once I had a list of the titles, and put the songs in order, I thought, ‘there’s a narrative here’, so it was all serendipitous.”

“I think women are just incredibly powerful, but I didn’t realise that before,” says Dexys’ Kevin Rowland, second from left

The resulting track listing reads: The One That Loves You; It’s Alright Kevin (Manhood 2023); I’m Going To Get Free; Coming Home; The Feminine Divine; My Goddess Is; Goddess Rules; My Submission and Dance With Me.

Those songs reflect on “not just on women, but the whole concept of masculinity Kevin had been raised with: an education and an un-learning traced across the arc of The Feminine Divine”. 

“I think women are just incredibly powerful, but I didn’t realise that before,” says Kevin. Why not? “I have no idea. Perhaps my upbringing to some extent. I wasn’t given any sex education at school or at home, so any sexual feelings I had at 13/14 were secret and not talked about. I carried that with me.

“I had desires that sometimes were satisfied, sometimes weren’t, but I never understood women. I’m not saying I do now, but I started doing some courses, some tantra, some Dao, and all of this recognised the sexual energy and the power of women as goddesses,” says Kevin.

“The more I got it into my head, I realised that if anything women are superior to men. They’re more flexible than men, who are set in their ways.”

Rowland ruminates on femininity and masculinity from second track It’s Alright Kevin (Manhood 2023) onwards. “It’s about recognising my own femininity,” he says, as he first did on the cover of his 1999 solo album of cover versions, My Beauty, the one with Rowland in lipstick and black dress, the hem exposed to reveal knickers and stockings.

He doubled down on that look in a white dress and pearls at Leeds Festival that year. “A lot of people were triggered by it,” he says. “But I believed in what I was doing. I don’t think I can do anything unless I believe in it. One hundred per cent that was the case at Leeds Festival.

The poster for Dexys’ 2023 tour, The Feminine Divine Live!, led off by tomorrow’s York Barbican debut

“There are women with feminine energy and women with masculine energy, and it’s the same with men. It’s big part of me, and men should acknowledge it: if you don’t acknowledge things, it’s not healthy.”

Working instinctively – “if something sounds good, and I think it will work, then I’ll do it; if I get a good melody, I know it” – Kevin “doesn’t ever think about the past” or a new record’s connection with Dexys’ history. “That’s something for you to consider, and whatever you come up with, that’s cool,” he says.

“I don’t think about continuity. There’s been no continuity with Dexys. Don’t Stand Me Down [1985] was totally different, like Too-Rye-Ay [1982] was from Searching for The Young Soul Rebels [1980] because they were like new bands, so to me it’s like I’m a new artist every time I make a record. This new album took 11 years to evolve.”

His past was framed in a childhood in Wolverhampton, then Ireland for two years and north west London from the age of 11, surely influencing his restless music-making since then? “Probably,” says Kevin, pointing to the Irish roots in the Celtic soul and fiddles of Too-Ry-Ay. “We expressed it at the time, in 1980, ’81, ’82, when people didn’t want to hear it. Like on BRMB [the Birmingham radio station]. When they played Come On Eileen, they apologised for it because there’d just been a bomb in London…but what had that got to do with us?” he asks.

Kevin has had his up and downs, not least when consumed by cocaine addiction and living in a squat after Dexys Midnight Runners’ split post-Don’t Stand Me Down at the end of the 1980s.

Now, however, he is “definitely in the best place I’ve ever been, sometimes good, sometimes not so good, which is OK, and that’s something I wasn’t aware of when I was younger,” he says, revelling is his latest rush of creativity.

“There are a lot of people who are close-minded who just want to talk about the past. Their lives are over. I don’t know why people do that. They get into that thing that things were better in their day. No, they weren’t.”

Dexys play The Feminine Divine Live! at York Barbican on September 5, 7.30pm. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk and dexysofficial.com. The Feminine Divine is available on the 100 Percent label.

The Dexys’ line-up for The Feminine Divine Live!: left to right, Tim Weller, Claudia Chopek, Mike Timothy, Kevin Rowland, Sean Read, and Alistair Whyte. Picture: Bruno Murari @DexysOfficial
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Elio Pace to showcase The Billy Joel Songbook in York, Sheffield and Hull gigs

Elio Pace at the piano performing The Billy Joel Songbook

ELIO Pace and his band will present “the greatest love letter ever to the genius that is Billy Joel” at York Barbican on March 27 2024.

Further Yorkshire performances of The Billy Joel Songbook tribute show are booked into Sheffield City Hall for March 26 and Hull City Hall for April 4 on the 18-date British and Irish tour.

Tour tickets will go on sale at 10am on Friday at eliopace.com/tours; York, yorkbarbican.co.uk; Sheffield, sheffieldcityhall.co.uk or 0114 256 5593; Hull, hulltheatres.co.uk or 01482 300306.

Devised by piano-playing Southampton singer-songwriter, producer and arranger Pace and Matt Daniel-Baker, this homage rounds up more than 30 of Joel’s songs, including The Longest Time, She’s Always A Woman, An Innocent Man, Uptown Girl, Tell Her About It, The River Of Dreams, We Didn’t Start The Fire and Piano Man.

After two sold-out tours, Pace enthuses about next year’s return: “We all get such a buzz touring this show so we absolutely cannot wait to get back out on the road. We have an amazing tour in place, returning to theatres while also visiting some for the first time, and to be starting in my hometown and then ending in London’s West End is going to be pretty incredible.

“The music of Billy Joel is timeless. He is a genius composer and, in my humble opinion, the greatest singer/songwriter of all time. I really do feel humbled that so many people want to see us perform his music.

“We can’t wait to celebrate this incredible music once again and we’ll now look forward to travelling across the country next spring.”

In 2010 Pace was the musical director for BBC Radio 2’s Weekend Wogan, playing as the featured artist on all 35 shows broadcast that year.

He has performed with Brian May, Huey Lewis, Glen Campbell, Gilbert O’Sullivan, Lulu, Mike Rutherford, Don McLean, Tom Chaplin, Debbie Reynolds and Martha Reeves.

His performing skills have taken him to Elstree Studios, the Queen Elizabeth Hall, BBC Radio 2’s Elvis Forever, Proms In The Park, The Bitter End in New York and BBC Radio Theatre in London.

In 2013 and 2014 he was invited to “‘fill Billy Joel’s shoes” by appearing in five reunion concerts in the United States with Joel’s original 1971-72 touring band, whereupon Pace embarked on the debut tour of The Billy Joel Songbook.

In 2018 he released the double CD and DVD The Billy Joel Songbook Live; in June 2019 his concert film of The Billy Joel Songbook Live won an award at the 17th Annual Independent Music Awards for Best Overall Long Form Music Video in New York City.

In 2019 he released his second live double CD album and DVD within a year, Elio Pace Presents Elvis Presley: The World Premiere, 16 August 2017.

Did you know?

ELIO Pace featured in Sky Sports’ coverage of the 2015 Ashes cricket series between England and Australia with two specially re-written versions of Billy Joel’s We Didn’t Start The Fire.

Did you know too?

ELIO Pace has appeared on the BBC children’s show ZingZillas as “the greatest boogie woogie player in the land”, turning him into a household name…“well, at least to every CBeebies-loving under five-year-old and their parents”.

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More Things To Do in York and beyond when everything stops for tea. Hutch’s List No. 35 for 2023, from The Press, York

Night glow: Yorkshire Balloon Fiesta to light up Castle Howard grounds

EVERYTHING is up in the air for Charles Hutchinson in his search for cultural entertainment and enlightenment as balloons take to the Yorkshire skies. Tea is on the menu too.

Festival of the week: Yorkshire Balloon Fiesta, Castle Howard, near York, today until Bank Holiday Monday

THE Yorkshire Balloon Fiesta has left the green expanse of York’s Knavesmire for the country air of Castle Howard, its new (stately) home. The family-friendly extended weekend features mass balloon launches, tethered balloons and night-glow displays that light up the evenings against the backdrop of Castle Howard’s grounds and architecture.

Look out for headline 9pm live sets from Sister Sledge tonight, Eurovision star Sam Ryder tomorrow and Joel Corry on Monday. For family entertainment, here come The Raver Tots Big Top each afternoon, Andy And The Odd Socks (tomorrow, 2.30pm); CBeebies’ Justin Fletcher (Monday, 1.30pm); Dick & Dom DJ Battle (Monday, 3pm) and street-dancers Diversity (Monday, 4.30pm).

Activities include a fun fair, TV character meet-and-greets and the world’s largest inflatable assault course, culminating in a spectacular finale on Monday evening. Box office: yorkshireballoonfiesta.co.uk.

Teddy at teatime: Joseph Rowntree Theatre fundraiser takes over a country garden tomorrow afternoon

Tea time part one: Joseph Rowntree Theatre Summer Garden Party, Trinity House, Stockton on the Forest, near York, tomorrow, 3pm

FIRST held in 2021, the Joseph Rowntree Theatre Summer Garden Party returns this weekend, taking over the private garden of Trinity House. A choice of teas with home-made plain or cheese scones will be on the menu, complemented by a raffle and cake stall. 

Special guests The Notebook, an acoustic duo, will be performing two sets spanning soul, ambient jazz and “live lounge-type” pop. Proceeds will go to the JoRo’s fundraising appeal. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

Janet Bruce and Cassie Vallance of Story Craft Theatre: Summer fun in the Stillington Mill garden

Children’s activity of the week: Story Craft Theatre’s Summer Fun Garden Party, At The Mill, Stillington, near York, Monday, 10am to 12 noon

STORY Craft Theatre and At The Mill join forces on Bank Holiday Monday for a magical event celebrating the joys of being in the garden. 

Suitable for two to eight-year-olds, York duo Janet Bruce and Cassie Vallance’s morning party fun includes craft making, a scavenger hunt, a word search, lawn games and an enchanting interactive theatre show. Box office: athemill.org.

Sam Thorpe-Spinks’ Jack Barak, left, and Fergus Rattigan’s Matthew Shardlake in a legal pickle in Sovereign, York Theatre Royal’s community play at King’s Manor

Film screening of the week: Sovereign, York Theatre Royal, Wednesday, 7pm, and Thursday, 2pm and 7pm

CAMERAS recorded the July 23 evening performance of York Theatre Royal’s 2023 community play, York playwright Mike Kenny’s adaptation of C J Sansom’s Tudor-set political thriller, Sovereign, at King’s Manor, Exhibition Square. This film can be viewed at three free screenings in the Theatre Royal’s main house with a booking limit of four tickets per person.

In 1541, lawyer Matthew Shardlake (Fergus Rattigan) and his assistant Jack Barak (Sam Thorpe-Spinks) are sent to York to await the arrival of Henry VIII on his mission to sort out northern rebels. Cue intrigue, mystery, murder and North v South shenanigans. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Sleeper: Reviving Britpop hits at The Crescent on Wednesday

Britpop memories of the week: Sleeper, The Crescent, York, Wednesday, 7.30pm

THE Crescent has teamed up with the National Lottery and Music Venue Trust for a United By Music summer show with Britpop legends Sleeper.

Louise Wener’s reawakened band are back on the road, where fellow founder members Jon Stewart (guitar) and Andy Maclure (drums) are joined by bassist Kieron Pepper, previously of The Prodigy, to reactivate Inbetweener, What Do I Do Now?, Sale Of The Century, Nice Guy Eddie, Statuesque et al. Honey Moon support. Tickets update: Sold out; for returns only, check the crescentyork.com.

The Rocket Man: Jimmy Love at the piano for his band’s tribute show to Sir Elton John

Tribute show of the week: The Rocket Man, A Tribute To Sir Elton John, Grand Opera House, York, Thursday, 7.30pm

MISSING Sir Elton after that Glastonbury finale? Step forward Jimmy Love and his band, ready to head down the Yellow Brick Road for two hours of Elton John hits, from Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting and Crocodile Rock to Philadelphia Freedom and I’m Still Standing, plus many, many more.

Love’s tribute show takes a journey through Elton’s life and career, the highs and the lows, with many a laugh too. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

How do you do: Millie Robins’ Sophie meets Benjamin Stone’sTiger in The Tiger Who Came To Tea, on tour at York Theatre Royal

Tea time part two: The Tiger Who Came To Tea, York Theatre Royal, September 1, 2pm and 4.30pm, and September 2, 11am, 2pm and 4.30pm

COMMEMORATING the centenary of author Judith Kerr’s birth, The Tiger Who Came To Tea is back on the road in a 55-minute musical production adapted and directed by David Wood.

This slice of teatime mayhem serves up singalong songs, oodles of magic and interactive fun suitable for children aged three upwards when the doorbell rings just as Sophie (Millie Robins) and her mum (Katie Tripp) sit down to tea. Who could it possibly be? Enter a big, furry, stripy, tea-guzzling Tiger (Benjamin Stone). Scott Penrose, former president of the Magic Circle, provides the magical illusion designs. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

York jewellery designer Mo Burrows: Demonstrating the Japanese technique of kumihimo braiding at Fangfest next weekend

Art event of the week: Fangfest, Fangfoss, near Pocklington, September 2 and 3, 10am to 4pm each day

NEXT weekend’s Fangfest, the Fangfoss Festival of Practical Arts, features 30 artists and craft makers demonstrating and exhibiting their work, from woodworking, rocking horse-making, felting and painting to wire sculpture, medieval tile techniques, jewellery and peg loom-weaving.  

A mixed-media pattern design workshop and drop-in craft activities, such as children’s card marking, pot-throwing on the wheel, pottery painting and a collaborative mixed-media mural, will be taking place too. A charity sunflower trail, classic car collection, pantomime-themed flower festival in St Martin’s Church, fairground rides, archery sessions and busking spots for ukuleles, a shanty crew, young celloists and a pop choir are further attractions. Entry is free.

Jo Whiley: Revelling in 1990s’ anthems at York Barbican next month

Nostalgia afoot: Jo Whiley’s 90s Anthems, York Barbican, September 9, 7.30pm

BBC Radio 2 presenter, DJ and producer Jo Whiley, the voice of a Brit generation, is heading for York after rummaging through her record bag to dig out the very best of 1990s’ anthems.

Whiley was on the cutting-edge, leading the charge as Britpop blew up, dance music exploded and indie went wild. Now comes the chance to re-live those magical memories on a dancefloor, from Oasis to Blur, The Chemical Brothers to The Prodigy. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

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In quick succession, York Barbican has confirmed 1, 2, 3 new shows for 2024 in a booking bonanza that begins with ABC

Martin Fry fronting ABC with orchestral backing next January

A.

IN a new addition to The Lexicon Of Love Orchestral Tour, Sheffield’s ABC will play their classic 1982 album in its entirety with the Southbank Sinfonia at York Barbican on January 27.

Led as ever by Martin Fry, now 65, ABC will combine their chart-topping, million-selling debut with greatest hits cherry-picked from such later works as Beauty Stab, How To Be A Zillionaire and Alphabet City.

Fusing soul-powered dancefloor finesse with a post-punk attitude, The Lexicon Of Love spawned the gilded hit singles Tears Are Not Enough, Poison Arrow, The Look Of Love and All Of My Heart.

The Lexicon Of Love Orchestra first toured in 2009, prompted by the reaction to a one-off show at the Royal Albert Hall, where Fry donned his iconic gold lame suit once more.

Longtime collaborator Anne Dudley will conduct the Southbank Sinfonia on the newly extended January and February 2024 tour, marking the 15th anniversary of the partnership’s debut. Tickets will go on sale on Friday (4/8/2023) at 10am at ticketmaster.co.uk and yorkbarbican.co.uk.

B.

The Gilmour Project

THE Gilmour Project, an all-star band tasked with exploring the music of Pink Floyd and David Gilmour, will play York Barbican on February 3 on their debut tour.

In the line-up will be Jeff Pavar (lead guitar with Crosby, Stills & Nash, David Crosby/CPR, Phil Lesh); Kasim Sulton (bass and vocals with Todd Rundgren, Utopia, Meat Loaf); Prairie Prince (co-founder of The Tubes, original drummer with Journey, drummer for Todd Rundgren); Mark Karan (guitar and vocals with Bob Weir, RatDog, The Other Ones) and Scott Guberman (keyboards and vocals with Phil Lesh & Friends).

The Gilmour Project will combine songs from the Gilmour years of the Pink Floyd catalogue in all their complexity with highlights from Gilmour’s solo career.

C.

Whitney – Queen Of The Night: Returning to York Barbican next April

AFTER a sold-out gig in March 2023, tribute show Whitney – Queen Of The Night will return to York Barbican on April 13 next spring.

Elesha Paul Moses, from What’s Love Got To Do With It?, The Voice and The X Factor, will hit the vocal heights as she celebrates Whitney Houston with a live band, revelling in I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me), One Moment In Time, I’m Every Woman, I Will Always Love You and so many more.

The Gilmour Project and Whitney – Queen Of The Night tickets are available at ticketmaster.co.uk and yorkbarbican.co.uk.

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Tony Hadley to jazz up York Barbican with swing concert next March. Harry Redknapp booked too for February footy and TV chat

Swing time for Tony Hadley at York Barbican

TONY Hadley will be in the swing of things at York Barbican on March 8 on The Big Swing Tour 2024. Tickets go on sale on Friday at ticketmaster.co.uk and via yorkbarbican.co.uk.

The erstwhile Spandau Ballet frontman, 63, will perform vintage songs from the swing era of Ella Fitzgerald, Tony Bennett and Frank Sinatra, complemented by stylish reworkings of his solo hits and velvet-voiced Spandau favourites such as 1983’s True and Gold.

Hadley will be accompanied by his Fabulous TH Band and a full brass section as New Romantic reinterprets old romantics. “My love of swing music began when I was very young. The preparation for Sunday lunch was never without the classic sounds of Sinatra, Bennett and many more,” he reminisces.

“Then years later, when we formed our first band at school, which eventually would become Spandau Ballet, I was reminded by my parents that although I loved punk rock, if I was serious about pursuing a career as a professional singer, never to forget the classic jazz vocalists.

“So there I was listening to The Sex Pistols and The Clash alongside Tony Bennett and Jack Jones! I’ve always loved performing live, but this swing tour is totally different from our normal rock shows. I want audiences to come and enjoy a night of amazing songs from an incredible era of music alongside some great songs from my own repertoire.”

Islington-born Hadley last played York Barbican in May 2022 on a tour marking the smooth crooner’s 40th anniversary in the music business.  

Meanwhile, Harry Redknapp, footballer, manager, pundit and King of the Jungle on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!, is booked to play York Barbican on February 20 2024.

The former Tottenham Hotspur, Southampton, Bournemouth, Portsmouth, West Ham United, Queens Park Rangers and Birmingham City boss, now 76, will tell stories from his football and TV careers, from winning the FA Cup with Pompey in 2008 to his Jungle triumph a decade later.

Redknapp is the second veteran football manager to be confirmed for a York Barbican date in 2024. Neil Warnock, 74, now staying in charge of Huddersfield Town for the 2023-2024 Championship season after saving the Terriers from relegation in May, has moved his June 15 2023 show to May 31 next spring.

Tickets for An Audience With Harry Redknapp and Neil Warnock: Are You With Me? are on sale at yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Harry Redknapp: Full of stories at York Barbican
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More Things To Do in York and beyond when Connecting with culture. Here Hutch’s List No. 29 for 2023, from The Press

Shed Seven, 2023: Vocalist Rick Witter, left, guitarist Paul Banks, second from right, and bassist Tom Gladwin,right, are joined by drummer Rob ‘Maxi’ Maxfield and keyboardist Tim Willis at Millennium Square,Leeds, tonight. Picture: Barnaby Fairley

GOING for gold, whether with the Sheds or down at the maze, Charles Hutchinson heads outdoors but is drawn back indoors too.

Outdoor gig of the weekend: Shed Seven, Sounds In The City 2023, Millennium Square, Leeds, today, from 6pm

FRESH from announcing next January’s release of their sixth studio album, A Matter Of Time, York’s Shed Seven head to Leeds city centre for a sold-out, 6,00-capacity Millennium Square show.

Performing alongside regular vocalist Rick Witter, guitarist Paul Banks and bassist Tom Gladwin will be Tim Willis on keyboards and Rob ‘Maxi’ Maxfield on drums. Support slots go to fellow Britpop veterans Cast and rising York band Skylights.

Be amazed: York Maze reopens for a new season today

Opening of the weekend: York Maze, Elvington Lane, Elvington, near York, today until September 4

THE Cobsleigh Run race and Crowmania ride are among the new attractions when York Maze opens for its 21st season today with a new show marquee too – and the giant image of Tutankhamun cut by farmer Tom Pearcy into a 15-acre field of maize.

Created from one million living, growing maize plants, Britain’s largest maze has more than 20 rides, attractions and shows for a fun-filled family day out. Where else would you find a Corntroller of Entertainment, corny pun intended? Step forward Josh Benson, York magician, pantomime star and, yes, corntroller. Tickets: 01904 608000 or yorkmaze.com.

Gary Stewart: Celebrating the songs of Paul Simon at Helmsley Arts Centre

Show title of the week: Gary Stewart, The Only Living Boy In (New) York – An Evening of Paul Simon Songs, Helmsley Arts Centre, tonight, 7.30pm

GARY Stewart, singer, songwriter, guitarist, Hope & Social drummer and programmer for At The Mill’s folk bills, turns the spotlight on the songs of New Yorker Paul Simon, his chief folk/pop influence.

Born in Perthshire, Stewart cut his Yorkshire teeth on the Leeds music scene for 15 years before moving to York (and now Easingwold, to be precise). He is sometimes to be found fronting his Graceland show, another vessel for Paul Simon songs. Tonight, his focus is on The Boxer, Mrs Robinson, Me & Julio Down By The Schoolyard, Kodachrome et al.  Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.

The Young’uns: Playing Ryedale Festival on July 20 at 7pm at the Milton Rooms, Malton. Picture: Pamela Raith

Festival of the week outside York: Ryedale Festival, running until July 30

DIRECTED once more by Christopher Glynn, Ryedale Festival returns with 55 concerts, celebrating everything from Tchaikovsky to troubadours in beautiful North Yorkshire locations. Artists in residence include Anna Lapwood, Nicky Spence, Korean violinist Bomsori Kim and pianist Mishka Rushdie Momen.

Taking part too will be Boris Giltburg, the Dudok Quartet, Jess Gillam, Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective, guitarist Plínio Fernandes,trumpeter Aaron Akugbo, pianist George Xiaoyuan Fu, the National Youth Choir of Scotland, jazz singer Clare Teal and north eastern folk musicians The Young’uns, among others. For the full programme and tickets, go to: reydalefestival.com.

Mark Thomas: Performing one-man play England And Son at Selby Town Hall on Sunday. Picture: Tony Pletts

Work in Progress of the week: Mark Thomas in England And Son, Selby Town Hall, Sunday, 7.30pm

POLITICAL comedian Mark Thomas stars in this one-man play, set when The Great Devouring comes home: the first he has performed not written by the polemicist himself but by award-winning playwright Ed Edwards.

Directed by Cressida Brown, England And Son has emerged from characters Thomas knew in his childhood and from Edwards’s lived experience in jail. Promising deep, dark laughs and deep, dark love, Thomas undertakes a kaleidoscopic odyssey where disaster capitalism, Thatcherite politics and stolen wealth merge into the simple tale of a working-class boy who just wants his dad to smile at him. Box office: 01757 708449 or selbytownhall.co.uk.

Bee Scott: Presenting her queer sci-fi interactive travelogue If You Find This at Connect Festival on Thursday

Festival of the week in York: Four Wheel Drive presents Connect Festival, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, Wednesday to Sunday

FOUR Wheel Drive’s Connect Festival opens with Women’s Voices on Wednesday, staging two new shows, Giorgia Test’s Behind My Scars and Rhia Burston’s Woebegone. Thursday’s Non-Linear Narratives features Bee Scott’s queer sci-fi interactive travelogue If You Find This and Natasha Stanic Mann’s immersive insight into hidden consequences of war, The Return.

Friday’s Comedy and Burlesque bill presents Joe Maddalena in Gianluca Scatto and Maddalena’s dark comedy about male mental health, Self Help, Aidan Loft’s night-train drama On The Rail and A Night With York’s Stars burlesque show, fronted by Freida Nipples. More details next weekend. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Four Forty Theatre’s cast for the Macbeth and Romeo & Juliet comedy doube bill: Amy Roberts, Luke Thornton, Dom Gee-Burch and Amy Merivale

Unhinged comedy of the week: Four Forty Theatre in Macbeth and Romeo & Juliet, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, Thursday, 7.30pm

MACBETH in 40 minutes? Romeo & Juliet in 40 minutes? Both shows performed by only four actors on one raucous night? Yes, welcome back Four Forty Theatre, returning to the JoRo with a brace of Shakespeare’s tragedies transformed into an outrageous, flat-out comedy double bill.

In the line-up will be actress and primary school teacher Alice Merivale; Liverpool actress, musician, director, vocal coach and piano teacher Amy Roberts; company debutant actor-musician Luke Thornton and company director and pantomime dame Dom Gee-Burch. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

The poster for Legend – The Music Of Bob Marley

Tribute show of the week: Legend – The Music of Bob Marley, York Barbican, Thursday, 7.30pm

LEGEND celebrates the reggae music of Jamaican icon Bob Marley in a two-hour Rasta spectacular. “Don’t worry about a thing, ’cause every little thing is gonna be alright” when the cast re-creates No Woman No Cry,  Could You Be Loved, Is This Love, One Love, Three Little Birds, Jammin’, Buffalo Soldier, Get Up Stand Up and I Shot The Sheriff. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Jorgie Willingham’s Referee and Jim Carnall’s boxer Paul Stokes in rehearsal for The Sweet Science Of Bruising at York Theatre Royal. Picture: James Harvey

Knock-out show of the week: York College BA (Hons) Acting for Stage and Screen Graduating Students in The Sweet Science Of Bruising, York Theatre Royal, Thursday and Friday, 7.30pm

JOY Wilkinson’s The Sweet Science Of Bruising is an epic tale of passion, politics and pugilism in the world of 19th-century women’s boxing, staged by York College students.

In London, 1869, four very different Victorian women are drawn into the dark underground of female boxing by the eccentric Professor Sharp. Controlled by men and constrained by corsets, each finds an unexpected freedom in the boxing ring as they fight inequality as well as each other. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

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More Things To Do in York as Sovereign takes over King’s Manor. Here’s Hutch’s List No. 28 for 2023, from The Press, York

Sovereign actors Fergus Rattigan, left, and Sam Thorpe-Spinks, right, with playwright Mike Kenny

HENRY VIII and the murder of a York glazier take top spot in Charles Hutchinson’s pick of July highlights with outdoor cinema on its way too.

Community event of the month: York Theatre Royal in Sovereign, King’s Manor, Exhibition Square, York, July 15 to 30

YORK Theatre Royal’s large-scale community production, York playwright Mike Kenny’s adaptation of C J Sansom’s Tudor-set murder mystery Sovereign, will be staged outdoors at King’s Manor, where part of the story takes place. Henry VIII even makes an appearance.

Two professional actors, Fergus Rattigan’s disabled lawyer Matthew Shardlake and Sam Thorpe-Spinks’ assistant Jack Barak, lead the 120-strong community company of actors, singers, musicians and backstage workers. Tickets update: sold out.

York artist Tom Wilson stands by his artworks in the City Screen Picturehouse cafe bar

Exhibition of the week: Tom Wilson, City Screen Picturehouse café bar, Coney Street, York, until July 29

YORK punk expressionist artist, designer, playwright, theatre director and tutor Tom Wilson is exhibiting his riots of colour at City Screen Picturehouse for the first time with sale proceeds going to MAP (Medical Aid for Palestinians). Thirty-five works are on display, priced at  £175 to £700.

“My art looks like an explosion,” says Wilson, whose dynamic abstract artwork is influenced by Kandinsky, Max Earnst, Otto Dix, Outsider art, German Expressionism and Rayonism (Russian Expressionism).

Industrial Revolution, one of Tom Wilson’s works on show at City Screen Picturehouse

Tribute show of the week: Steve Steinman’s Anything For Love, The Meat Loaf Story, York Barbican, tonight, 7.30pm

FOR more than 30 years, Nottingham’s Steve Steinman has toured the world with his tribute to the songs of Jim Steinman and Meat Loaf (real name Marvin Lee Aday). Now he presents his new production, showcasing 25 chunks of Meat Loaf and Steinman’s prime cuts.

Anything For Love combines Steve’s humour and a ten-piece band with such rock-operatic favourites as Bat Out Of Hell, Paradise By The Dashboard Light, Took The Words Right Out Of My Mouth, Dead Ringer For Love and Total Eclipse Of The Heart. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

The Sixteen: Marking 400th anniversary of the death of composer William Byrd in Sunday’s York Early Music Festival concert at York Minster

Don’t miss at York Early Music Festival: The Sixteen, York Minster, Sunday, 8pm

THE Sixteen’s 2023 Choral Pilgrimage is inspired by the influence of Renaissance composer William Byrd in an exploration of his life, works and pervading Roman Catholic faith. His legacy is marked by two new compositions by Dobrinka Tabakova, bringing his musical heritage into the modern day.

The premieres, Arise Lord Into Thy Rest and Turn Our Captivity, highlight Byrd’s influence of modern polyphony and showcase The Sixteen choir in a new light. Director Harry Christophers’ programme also features works by Van Wilder, de Monte, Clemens Non Papa and Byrd himself. Box office: 01904 658338 or tickets.ncem.co.uk.

Emily Belcher’s Emily Webb and Frankie Bounds’ George Gibbs in rehearsal for Amerrycan Theatre’s Our Town

American play of the week: Amerrycan Theatre in Our Town, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, Tuesday to Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee

FOUNDER Bryan Bounds directs Yorkshire’s American company, Amerrycan Theatre, in the York premiere of “America’s greatest play”, Thornton Wilder’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1938 study of mindfulness, mortality and brevity of life, Our Town.

“Wilder’s portrait of life, love and death set in Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire, a fictional New England town at the start of the 20th century, could happen just as easily in Pocklington,” says Bounds. Tracing the romance and marriage of Emily Webb (Emily Belcher) and George Gibbs (Frankie Bounds), Our Town reveals the hidden mysteries behind the smallest details of everyday life. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Amerrycan Theatre’s poster for the York premiere of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town

Outdoor film event of the week: City Screen Picturehouse presents Movies In The Moonlight, Museum Gardens, York, July 14 to 16, doors, 7.30pm; screenings at sundown, 9.15pm approx

CITY Screen Picturehouse heads outdoors for three films in three nights, kicking off on Friday with The Super Mario Bros Movie, wherein Brooklyn plumbers Mario (Chris Pratt) and brother Luigi (Charlie Day) are transported down a mysterious pipe and wander into a magical new world.

In Mamma Mia! The Movie, next Saturday, Greek island bride-to-be Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) is set on finding out who her father is. In next Sunday’s film, Jaws, Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw and Richard Dreyfuss star as a police chief, marine scientist and grizzled fisherman set out to stop a gigantic great shark that has been menacing the island community of Amity. Box office: picturehouses.com/outdoor-cinema.

The Counterfeit Seventies: Heading to Joseph Rowntree Theatre

Pop nostalgia of the week: The Counterfeit Seventies, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, July 16, 7.30pm

IN the wake of The Counterfeit Sixties, here comes, you guessed it, The Counterfeit Seventies, the decade of glam rock, punk, new wave and everything in between. Revisit Slade, Sweet, T Rex, the Bay City Rollers and plenty more, aided by a light show, costumes of the period and archival footage of bands and events from the era. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

Sarah-Louise Young in The Silent Treatment. Picture: Steve Ullathorne

Solo show of the week: Sarah-Louise Young in The Silent Treatment, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, July 16, 7pm

AFTER her celebrations of Kate Bush (An Evening Without…) and Julie Andrews (Julie Madly Deeply), writer-performer Sarah-Louise Young returns to Theatre@41 with the highly personal true story of a singer who loses her voice and embarks on an unexpected journey of self-revelation.

Warning: The show includes themes of trauma and sexual violence. As The Stage review put it, The Silent Treatment is a “a war cry and a message of resilience and hope to anyone who has faced abuse and been made to feel guilty about it”. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

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More Things To Do in York and beyond with the chance to go Wildish in the town and country. Hutch’s List No. 27, from The Press

Wildish curator Jo Walton with a pot by Julie O’Sullivan and one of her own metal paintings at Pyramid Gallery

MUSIC festivals and mystic femininity in art, comedy antics and bucket list stunts, a scary scientist and a madcap whodunit spark Charles Hutchinson’s interest.

Exhibition launch of the week: Wildish, Pyramid Gallery, Stonegate, York, today until August 13

CURATED by Rogues Atelier Studios artist and interior designer Jo Walton, Wildish unites six women – five artists and a poet – through a theme based loosely on deep and sensual mystic femininity.

Taking part will be Jo Walton, Julie O’Sullivan, Christine Pike, Izzy Williamson, Zoe Catherine Kendal and York poet Nicky Kippax. Meet them at today’s 11am opening for a drink, nibbles and a chat.

Niall Ransome, left, and Dave Hearn in rehearsal for The 39 Steps at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough. Picture: Tony Bartholomew

Revival of the week: The 39 Steps, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, until July 29

ARTISTIC director Paul Robinson revives his hit 2018 production of Patrick Barlow’s fast and frenetic stage adaptation of John Buchan’s juicy spy novel and Alfred Hitchcock’s film in tandem with the Theatre by the Lake, Keswick.

Barlow adds a dash of Monty Python to the winning combination of whodunit and old-fashioned romance as Mischief Theatre founder member Dave Hearn’s Richard Hannay is joined by fellow Mischief alumnus Niall Ransome, reprising his Clown role from 2018, Lucy Keirl and SJT debutante Olivia Onyehara. Cue the iconic chase on the Flying Scotsman, the first-ever theatrical biplane crash and a death-defying (well nearly) finale. Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.

Paul Heaton: Performing with special guest singers rather than regular partner in song Jacqui Abbott at Scarborough Open Air Theatre tonight. Picture: David Harrison

Outdoor gig of the week: Paul Heaton, Scarborough Open Air Theatre, today, gates open at 6pm

PAUL Heaton, former frontman of Hull bands The Housemartins and The Beautiful South, heads up the Yorkshire coast for a headline gig in Scarborough. Special guests supporting the self-styled “Last King Of Pop” will be Ian Broudie’s Lightning Seeds.

Busy week ahead for Scarborough OAT: Hollywood Vampires, Alice Cooper, Johnny Depp, Joe Perry and Tommy Henriksen’s American rock supergroup, play a sold-out show on Wednesday, followed by The Cult on Thursday, Tom Grennan on Friday and Pulp (sold out) next Sunday. Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.

Chris Lynam: Topping tonight’s Laugh Out Loud Comedy Club bill at The Basment, City Screen Picturehouse

Comedy gig of the week: Laugh Out Loud Comedy Club presents Chris Lynam, Patrick Monahan, Dean Coughlin and Damion Larkin, The Basement, City Screen Picturehouse, York, tonight, 8pm

HEADLINER Chris Lynam has been feverishly subverting the traditions of the stand-up comic for more than 30 years with his grasp of crazy antics. Patrick Monaghan holds the world record for Longest Hug at a time of 25 hours and 25 minutes, set at the 2013 Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Dean Coughlin has worked on the comedy circuit since 2017. Master of ceremonies and club organiser Damion Larkin will be improvising his set as ever. Further LOL Comedy nights are in place for August 5 and September 2. Box office: lolcomedyclubs.co.uk.

Amy Gregory in rehearsal for her role as Emma Carew in 1812 Theatre Company’s Jekyll & Hyde The Musical

Musical of the week: 1812 Theatre Company in Jekyll & Hyde The Musical, Helmsley Arts Centre, Wednesday to Sunday, 7.30pm

JULIE Lomas directs Helmsley Arts Centre’s resident troupe, the 1812 Theatre Company, in their first ever musical production, Frank Wildhorn and Leslie Bricusse’s Jekyll & Hyde, based on Robert Louis Stevenson’s story.

Marking the venue’s 30th anniversary, the show features husband and wife Joe and Amy Gregory in the lead roles of Jekyll/Hyde and Emma Carew. John Atkin is the musical director; Michaela Edens, the choreographer. Box office: 01439 771700  or helmsleyarts.co.uk.

Mezzo soprano Helen Charlston: Performing Battle Cry: She Speaks with theorbo player Toby Carr at York Early Music Festival on July 10

Festival of the week: York Early Music Festival 2023, Friday until July 14

THIS summer’s York Early Music Festival takes the theme of Smoke & Mirrors with a focus on William Byrd, a practising Catholic composer working for a constantly threatened Protestant queen.

The City Musick, Ensemble Jupiter & York countertenor Iestyn Davies, The Sixteen, violinist Rachel Podger, The Marian Consort and Rose Consort of Viols and mezzo soprano Helen Charlston are among the week’s musicians. Full festival details and tickets: ncem.co.uk; 01904 658338.

Tom Figgins: Showcasing new songs at Stillington Mill on Friday

Solo gig of the week: Tom Figgins, At The Mill, Stillington, near York, Friday, 7.30pm

SINGER and songwriter Tom Figgins, programmer for At The Mill’s summer’s season of music, comedy and theatre, plays the Stillington garden for a third time this weekend. Noted for his vocal range, distinctive guitar playing and complex lyrics, he numbers radio presenter Chris Evans among his fans, appearing on his BBC Radio 2 show. Expect songs old and new at one of his favourite spots. Box office: tickettailor.com/events/atthemill/925897.

Steve-O: Working through his bucket list of stunts at York Barbican

Stunts of the week: Steve-O, York Barbican, Friday, 7.30pm

EVERY idea on American entertainer Steve-O’s bucket list was so ill advised, he never expected to go through with any of them. Until it was time to prepare for this tour. Not only are the stunts even more ridiculous than Steve-O pulled off on MTV’s Jackass, but now he has made a highly XXX-rated, multimedia comedy show out of them too. Not for children or the faint of heart, he warns. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

The Magpies: Curating and playing at their festival at Sutton Park in August

Heading to the park: The Magpies Festival, Sutton Park, Sutton-on-the-Forest, near York, August 11 and 12

TRANSATLANTIC folk trio The Magpies have confirmed the line-up for their two-day open-air festival of music, activities, stalls and food and drink. The Friday main stage acts will be Laura Cortese & The Cards, Chris Difford and Holy Moly & The Crackers, followed by the Saturday bill of Liz Stringer, Honey & The Bear, Blair Dunlop, Rachel Sermanni, The Magpies and Edward II.

Friday acts on the Brass Castle Stage will be The Dicemen, Thorpe & Morrison, The Often Herd and New York Brass Band; Saturday will welcome Jack Harris, Megan Henwood, Tom Moore & Archie Moss, Gilmore & Roberts, and Bonfire Radicals, concluding with a Ceilidh with Archie Moss. Box office: themagpiesfestival.co.uk.

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Charlotte (Emmeline) North evokes city’s culture and music in York Barbican mural

Charlotte (Emmeline) North’s mural on the Fishergate side of York Barbican

LOOK out for Charlotte (Emmeline) North’s new mural at York Barbican, celebrating the city’s music and culture.

The work has been commissioned by the York BID as part of an ongoing programme to introduce more street art to York.

Yorkshire mural artist and designer North won the commission to design a mural based on the “York Narrative”, representing what York means to the people who visit and live in the city.

Charlotte says: “I think it’s great that businesses are invested in art for the city. I’m thrilled to be creating a mural in York; my mum’s side of my family are from here. We’ve had a great response so far, and it’s been lovely to hear that gentle York accent while chatting to people.” 

Featuring Charlotte’s signature bright and abstract style, reflecting movement, rhythm and connection, the mural is the largest to be commissioned by the York BID so far at 14m long and 2m high.

Created in environmentally friendly paint, it runs along the Fishergate side of York Barbican, a busy route for those accessing the city by car, bicycle and on foot.

Made by Graphenstone, the paint is free of plastic and other harmful toxins and uses natural materials developed into a formula proven to absorb CO2 from the environment, creating a “living” mural that acts as an adult tree.

Rachel Bean, projects and finance executive at York BID, says: “I love the energy and flow of Charlotte’s work. York is bursting with creative talent and this piece beautifully captures that. Our ambition with this project is to create new destination points in the city and hopefully encourage residents and visitors to explore new areas.”

York Barbican manager Sam Ryder says: “Arts and culture is in the bloodstream of the city of York. At York Barbican, we continue to strive to bring the best live entertainment to York, and we are very grateful to be a part of this cultural transformation of the city. Now everyone will take in a piece of the incredible atmosphere that’s created inside the Barbican as they travel past”.

Mural artist Charlotte (Emmeline) Scott

Charlotte (Emmeline) North: the back story

Studied Printed Textiles and Surface Pattern Design at Leeds Arts University with a focus on materials and sustainable design. 

Began her first exterior installation in 2018.

Firm believer in the concept of turning art galleries inside out, having work for all people to see, and hopefully enjoy, as they go about their day. 

Her work can be spotted in York, Leeds, Dewsbury, Batley and Birmingham.

Her studio is at Red Brick Mill, Bradford Road, Batley.