David Essex: Playing York Barbican and Hull Connexin Live this week
FROM David Essex’s night of memories to the terrors of Paranormal Activity, Tony Blackburn’s Sixties’ celebration to Dirt Road Band’s blues, Charles Hutchinson heads into a fruitful autumn.
Still rocking on: David Essex, Thanks For The Memories, York Barbican, tomorrow, doors 7pm; Hull Connexin Live, Friday, doors 6.30pm
SINGER, composer and actor David Essex, now 79, is into the last week of his 21-date Thanks For The Memories tour, celebrating his 55-year career that began with playing Jesus in the London premiere of Godspell in 1971.
Essex has notched 19 Top 40 hits in the UK alone, such as the Grammy-nominated Rock On, Lamplight, Gonna Make You A Star, Stardust, Hold Me Close, Oh What A Circus, Silver Dream Machine, A Winter’s Tale and Tahiti. Box office: York, yorkbarbican.co.uk; Hull, connexinlivehull.com.
Dirt Road Band: “Punchy blues rock music to make your heart beat faster”
Blues gig of the week: Ryedale Blues Club presents Dirt Road Band, Milton Rooms, Malton, tomorrow, 8pm
THE Dirt Road Band’s line-up of Steve Walwyn, guitar and vocals, Horace Panter, bass, and Ted Duggan, drums, play hard, punchy blues rock music to make your heart beat faster.
Walwyn spent 32 years in Dr Feelgood; Panter was a founding member of The Specials and Duggan has played with Banco de Gaia and Badfinger. They began Dirt Road Band as a side project five years ago, since when it has moved centre stage with the album release of Righteous in 2024. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.
Peter Brush: Quirky one-liners and original routines at Hilarity Bites Comedy Club
Ryedale comedy gig of the week: Hilarity Bites Comedy Club, Milton Rooms, Malton, Friday, 8pm
FRIDAY’S bill comprises Peter Brush, Pete Selwood and Al Stevenson. Brush, a deft writer of finely crafted jokes, takes to the stage unassumingly with his slight, bespectacled frame and scruffy hair to deliver quirky one-liners and original routines in an amusingly awkward fashion.
Yorkshireman Selwood focuses on tales of northern life, while being born with only one hand gives him a unique experience of the world around him, as he pokes fun at having a disability in modern Britain. Stevenson is a quick-witted Newcastle cheeky charmer who has hosted The Stand Comedy Club in his home city. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.
Mayhem, madness and muppetry of the week: Riding Lights Theatre Company presents Right Here Right Now!, Helmsley Arts Centre, Friday, 7.30pm
YORK company Riding Lights goes on the road to Helmsley with its improvised show Right Here Right Now!, promising “no script, no clue, all chaos”. You bring the ideas for the merry band of improvisers to turn them into high-speed comedy, using witty games and gags to bring side-splitting stories to life. Cue joy-filled nonsense and feel-good fun for the family. Who wins the comedy crown? You decide! Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Infectious pop punk covers of the week: Captain Clap & The Burning Sensations, Milton Rooms, Malton, Saturday, 7.30pm
SOME years ago three men, all old enough to know better, decided the time was right to play pop punk, only missing the genre’s peak by a couple of decades. Since then, they have been bringing covers, bad jokes and loud, lively nights to pubs and clubs around Yorkshire, playing festivals and organising fundraisers too. “Expect pop punk classics, scene anthems and inappropriate song choices,” they say. Mooch support. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.
The Jake Leg Jug Band: Songs of murder, betrayal, gambling, liquor and redemption at Kirk Theatre, Pickering
Ragtime gig of the week: The Jake Leg Jug Band, Kirk Theatre, Pickering, Saturday, 7.30pm
THE Jake Leg Jug Band delivers the authentic sounds of 1920s and 1930s’ America – jazz, blues, ragtime and gospel – in songs of murder, betrayal, gambling, liquor and redemption.
Since self-releasing debut album Cotton Mouth, Duncan Wilcox, vocals and double bass, and Warren James, vocals, guitar and banjo, have released a further eight albums in 12 years, among them Next Stop!, Everythin’s Jake, Break A Leg, Fifth Avenue, Goodbye Booze, Hello Central and 2024’s spirituals collection Some Glad Morning. Box office: kirktheatre.co.uk.
Eighties’ double bill of the week: Thompson Twins’ Tom Bailey and Blancmange, York Barbican, Saturday, doors 6.30pm
REMEMBER the Thompson Twins, makers of such 1980s’ hits as Hold Me Now, Doctor Doctor, In the Name Of Love, Love On Your Side, If You Were Here, Lies, Lay Your Hands On Me and King For A Day. Tom Bailey, the Sheffield-founded group’s lead vocalist and instrumentalist, now performs under the name Thompson Twins’ Tom Bailey, revisiting his past and showcasing debut solo album Science Fiction.
On Saturday, he closes his autumn tour at York Barbican, the only Yorkshire location on his 14-date itinerary, when fellow 1980s’ chart act Blancmange support. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Psychological thriller of the week: Paranormal Activity, Grand Opera House, York, September 29 to October 3, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees
IN a new story inspired by the worldwide horror phenomenon, Paranormal Activity is directed by immersive theatre pioneer and Punchdrunk artistic director Felix Barrett and written by Levi Holloway, the playwright behind Broadway hit Grey House.
When James and Lou move from Chicago to London to escape their past, soon they discover that places are not haunted, but people are. Can you hold your nerve in the face of this chilling production on its first British and Irish tour? Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
The poster for Sounds Of The 60’s Live at York Barbican
Sixties’ celebration of the week: Sounds Of The 60’s Live, hosted by Tony Blackburn, York Barbican, September 29, 7.30pm
BBC Radio 2 presenter Tony Blackburn hosts an evening of stories and songs from “perhaps the most iconic ten years in music, fashion and popular culture” on the Sounds Of The 60’s tour, 62 years since his first broadcast on pirate radio station Radio Caroline South in 1964.
The Sounds Of The 60’s All Star Band and Singers perform hits by The Everly Brothers, Elvis Presley, The Drifters, Marvin Gaye, a Rolling Stones medley, The Walker Brothers, Diana Ross & The Supremes, The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Stevie Wonder and more besides. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.