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New Light Prize Exhibition - Ian Robinson
Not all Art has to be relevant and deal with the burning issues of the day. There is also, surely, a role for tranquillity or reflection or even for sheer delight in colour and line. For most people this will come in the form of landscape or still life. Such…
Favourites by Ian Robinson
Please check all dates with the venue before travelling as many theatres are currently closed.
Next Seven Days In The Arts (Thu 22nd Oct - Thu 29th Oct)
First Direct Arena
ThuPaul Heaton & Jacqui Abbott - rescheduled date
WedPussycat Dolls
Leeds Playhouse
What's New Pussycat?
National Science & Media Museum, Bradford
Boom: Experiments in Sound
Wonderlab Live
Back to the big screen
Bradford Science Festival
Bradford Science Fair
Piece Hall
Heritage Tours
Scarborough Art Gallery
New Light Prize Exhibition
New Light Prize - Shining a Light on Northern Art
The Hepworth Wakefield
A Contemporary Collection: Sculpture & Materials
Ozzy Osbourne Re-arranges Concerts
Graham Clark
Features Writer
In the words of the Judas Priest hit, if you thought that you were going to see Ozzy in concert next year - You've Got Another Thing Coming! Due to the unprecedented and ever-changing situation, the six-week trek scheduled for October 2020, will move to 2022. The rescheduled 19 date arena…
2:35 PM 22nd October 2020
Russell Watson Announces New Album
Graham Clark
Features Writer
Following the release of the mesmerising ‘Il Gladiatore’, Russell Watson has released an anniversary version of ‘Nessun Dorma’, the track that launched his career, ahead of the release of his highly anticipated new album ‘20’ which is released on 23rd October. This is an anniversary disc which captures key…
12:01 PM 22nd October 2020
Daniel O’Donnell - Daniel (Demon Music Group)
Graham Clark
Features Writer
One thing that cannot be denied about Daniel O’Donnell is that he is very popular, in fact he has had at least 42 albums in the UK album charts spending 300 weeks in the charts over the years. In a way he is like Yorkshire’s Jane McDonald in that he knows…
3:11 PM 21st October 2020
Blondie And Garbage Are To Tour Together
Graham Clark
Features Writer
Blondie, one of the most influential bands to emerge from New York’s punk scene, have announced a 10 date UK tour to begin in November 2021, their first UK tour in 4 years. Iconic frontwoman/songwriter Debbie Harry, guitarist/conceptual mastermind Chris Stein and powerhouse drummer Clem Burke, are eager to get…
11:24 AM 21st October 2020
Slade Postpone Christmas Tour Until 2021
Slade have postponed their Christmas tour until 2021. The band has issued the following statement: It is with great sadness, we have had to make the decision to postpone the Christmas 2020 tour until 2021. When we announced the tour four months ago there was a positive outlook for Christmas 2020. Devastatingly, this…
11:03 AM 21st October 2020
Sheffield's Sheaf (Digital) Poetry Festival Returns In November!
Sheaf Poetry Festival returns in November boasting a vibrant programme of readings, workshops and panel discussion delivered by world-class poets/artists and local Sheffield voices. Sheaf Poetry Festival has been part of Sheffield’s artistic and cultural landscape for almost a decade. Formerly known as Sheffield Poetry Festival and South Yorkshire Poetry Festival,…
10:34 AM 21st October 2020
The Struts - Strange Days (Polydor)
British rock outfit The Struts might just break through to the mainstream with album number three. The band have toured America until it hurts. Initially ignored in their home country they came under the wing of American management with the result that many doors were opened for them. The Lockdown meant that…
4:35 AM 21st October 2020
New Art Acquisition Celebrates The First South Asian Artist To Study At The University Of Leeds
The University of Leeds Art Collection, with thanks to the Friends of University Art and Music, has made an important new acquisition by purchasing Leeds alumna Sutapa Biswas’s work ‘Synapse 1’ (1987-1992). Thirty five years ago, Bengal-born Biswas interviewed to study at the University of Leeds, making history as the first…
5:12 PM 20th October 2020
Barrie Rutter Returns To The Stage
Barrie Rutter
One of Yorkshire’s best loved actors, Barrie Rutter OBE, is set to make a welcome return to the stage for the first time since being successfully treated for throat cancer. An undisputed figurehead of Northern theatre, Rutter will perform his one man show, “An Evening with Barrie Rutter” on Saturday 7…
9:04 AM 20th October 2020
Dancer, Actor, And Disability-Rights Advocate David Toole OBE Passes Away At The Age Of 56
David Toole and the Paralympic Opening Ceremony in London
David Toole OBE, the world-renowned dancer, actor, and advocate for equal opportunities for disabled people in society and the performing arts, passed away at St James University Hospital in Leeds on Friday 16 October. He was 56. Born in Armley in Leeds in 1964, David was one of the founding members…
8:58 AM 20th October 2020
Cows Can't Jump By Philip Bowne - A Review
Caroline Spalding
Features Correspondent
Cows Can't Jump is written with unhesitatingly unapologetic honesty. Billy is an eighteen-year-old underachiever and the world as he sees it through his youthful filter is almost incomprehensible. This novel, however, forces us to assess all the filters we ourselves use to look upon the world. With perspicacity combining humour…
8:34 AM 20th October 2020
Katie Melua - Album No. 8 (BMG Records)
Graham Clark
Features Writer
I must admit, I’ve never really been a fan of Katie Melua, always finding her songs a bit dreary. This new album has changed my opinion of her - the songs are still mostly slow ones but they have more depth and you find yourself remembering the melodies long after the…
10:19 AM 19th October 2020
'The Uncanny Power Of Repression': The Haunting Of Alma Fielding By Kate Summerscale
Flying frying pans whizzing through the air, kinetically energised by unseen spectral forces. Tea-cups destroying themselves inexplicably, shards of porcelain spontaneously erupting into malevolent maelstroms of domestic debris. Furniture hurling itself to oblivion with supernatural ferocity. Wraith-like apparitions skulking nefariously as unbidden spectral denizens of ostensibly dull suburban semis…
7:42 AM 19th October 2020
UB40 Featuring Ali Campbell And Astro To Play Scarborough Open Air Theatre
British reggae legends UB40 featuring Ali Campbell and Astro are returning to Scarborough Open Air Theatre in 2021. Ali and Astro bring their inimitable blend of reggae and pop hits to the Yorkshire coast on Saturday 19 June 2021. UB40 are one of the UK’s most beloved music institutions, achieving three…
7:24 AM 19th October 2020
Marillion See The Light At The End Of The Tunnel With New Tour
Eighties prog-rock giants Marillion kick-off their UK tour at Hull City Hall on 14 November, 2021. The Kayleigh hitmakers who claim to have seen The Light At The End Of The Tunnel play the historic Queen Victoria Square venue for one night only before heading out on a 10-date tour…
6:39 AM 19th October 2020
Poem Of The Week: 'First Foetal Movements Of My Daughter' By Penelope Shuttle
First Foetal Movements of My Daughter Shadow of a fish The water-echo Inner florist dancing Her fathomless ease Her gauzy thumbs Leapfrogger, her olympics in the womb’s stadium Against a cheerless backdrop of death and decline, of withering economies and strategic cluelessness, it is a simple joy to recall a poem of growth and hope. In Penelope Shuttle’s…
6:28 AM 19th October 2020
Poet In A Fridge
Jonathan Humble
Features Writer
Jonathan Humble & Ian McMillan
The dust has settled, the circus has moved on and after a bit of excitement, the routines we were obliged to adopt in late spring/early summer seem to be returning. I’m already looking back fondly at the weekend of 26th September when the BBC Contains Strong Language Festival of Poetry…
2:02 AM 19th October 2020
Keane Announce Scarborough Concert
Graham Clark
Features Writer
Keane - one of Britain’s most successful and beloved bands of the last 20 years – are heading to Scarborough Open Air Theatre next summer. The East Sussex chart-toppers delighted their legions of devoted fans by returning from a six-year hiatus in 2019 with brilliant new album Cause and Effect. And Keane…
1:14 AM 19th October 2020
AC/DC - All Set To Power It Up Again
Graham Clark
Features Writer
AC/DC will release their seventeenth full-length album Power Up on November 13, 2020. This marks the legendary band’s first new music since 2014. This will come as a big surprise to the fans as if like me, they might have thought it was all over for the legendary group. To…
1:26 PM 17th October 2020
80's Pop Acts Add The Fizz With New TV Show
Graham Clark
Features Writer
Toyah
The 1980s was a great time for pop music - a lot of the artists from that decade are still performing with their tours selling out and festivals such as the Let's Rock and Rewind Festivals are as popular as ever. Rather than being stuck in the past these artists are…
11:58 AM 17th October 2020
Review: Plague By Julie Anderson
Plague, Julie Anderson’s new crime thriller, published in September by Claret Press, opens in an ancient burial ground, uncovered during a construction project linked to the London Underground. The capital’s population, we are told, expanded greatly between 1500 and 1650 and pre-existent churchyards could not cope with the surge in demand,…
8:35 AM 17th October 2020
Revenge Is A Dish Best Served Cold: The Racketeer By John Grisham
Well, I have warned you before that I like Grisham and here we go again. The Racketeer is definitely not a dry and dusty courtroom drama but a feel-good, justice-is-served type novel. Although it begins with a court case, it is more about revenge. Grisham’s criticisms of ‘the establishment’ are…
8:51 AM 16th October 2020
Authenticity Is Its Own Reward: Interview With Kirsten Hesketh, Author Of Another Us
Having recently reviewed Kirsten Hesketh’s boisterously entertaining novel, Another Us, I was fortunate enough to interview its affable author and provide our readers with an exclusive insight into both the woman behind the keyboard and her delightful first book. Hesketh is an effervescent amalgam of warm-hearted humour and esprit de corps.…
8:25 AM 16th October 2020
Lycanthropes & Astronauts: Wolf Planet By Oz Hardwick
The flotsam of Oz Hardwick’s febrile imagination might lead the accustomed reader to infer a unifying impulse in his work, though that would necessarily circumscribe a writer whose instinct is for contrariety and division. Cross-sectional similarities obtain in despite: with his new venture Wolf Planet, he returns to the fluidity…
6:34 AM 16th October 2020
The Struts To Play Two Acoustic Shows In Yorkshire
Graham Clark
Features Writer
The shows will be An Acoustic Evening With The Struts and will take place in March 2021 in conjunction with local UK record stores. Fans can get tickets when they purchase the new album, Strange Days - in a ticket bundle from their chosen retailer. Tickets are now on sale. MARCH…
2:12 AM 16th October 2020
More Organisations Up North Receive Funding From The Cultural Recovery Fund
Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden
There are 1,385 cultural and creative organisations across the country receiving urgently needed support. Here are just a few of the organisations in the North who are benefitting from the funding: Bradford Theatres has been awarded up to £894,423 as part of the Government’s £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund (CRF) to…
7:17 PM 15th October 2020
Blue Öyster Cult - The Symbol Remains (Frontiers Music)
Roger Winterbottom
Features Writer
It has been a vintage year for fans of Blue Öyster Cult. The band, best known for their 70s hit (Don’t Fear) The Reaper, have released four albums and DVDs/Blu Rays of live material recorded in recent years, including a wonderful 45th anniversary concert of their ground-breaking first album. Former…
10:00 AM 15th October 2020
Alexis Ffrench - Dreamland (Sony Music)
Graham Clark
Features Writer
Following his 2018 debut, Alexis Ffrench has released his new album, Dreamland. Over 21 tracks the pianist provides a soothing soundtrack for these uncertain times. The influences on the album come from a wide spectrum including Stevie Wonder, Chopin, Bach and Beethoven. Ffrench is a graduate of the Royal Academy of…
8:03 AM 15th October 2020
Bakermat - The Ringmaster (Sony Music)
Dutch DJ Bakermat might not be as well known in the UK as the rest of Europe but this could change soon with the release of this new album, The Ringmaster. If you have been on holiday in France over the last 3 summers you might have heard the hit Under…
2:52 AM 15th October 2020
The Return Of Matt Bianco
In 2015 a string of encounters led Matt Bianco lead singer Mark Reilly to combine forces with Amsterdam based jazz pioneers New Cool Collective for a collaboration that resulted in an album entitled ‘The Things You Love’. Reilly subsequently released another successful Matt Bianco album in 2017 entitled ‘Gravity’ and…
6:39 PM 14th October 2020
The Holy - Mono Freedom (Playground Music)
Finnish group The Holy might be a new name to you like they are to me. The band though have already had their debut album Daughter nominated for the Finnish equivalent of The Grammy’s. The album the band say is a utopian themed album based on a fictional story about Mother…
6:13 PM 14th October 2020
Välvē Announce Live Stream Show
Sheffield promoters Buds & Spawn first launched in2019 bringing a series of semi-irregular nights of semi-irregular music to some of the city's great independent venue for lovers of the weird and wonky, punky and proggy, choppy changey, twisty turny, off kilter, psychedelic, experimental, math / alt / art / and…
2:43 PM 13th October 2020
Charity Single To Be Released For Disabled Yorkshire Woman
Graham Clark
Features Writer
Hampshire artist Will Purdue releases a new single to raise money for West Yorkshire's Riona Kelly who was left paralysed after a fall and who went on to find love with her personal trainer ex rugby star Keith Mason. Aged 34, Riona Kelly fell down the stairs, suffered a rare…
2:27 PM 13th October 2020
'Heaven Knew The Boundaries Were Blurred': Kirsten Hesketh - Another Us
Paul Spalding-Mulcock
Features Writer
Marian Keyes is an author well known for exploring family life and the darker motifs of mental illness, divorce and alcoholism in order to find within these emotive shadowlands, the uplifting light of comedy and hope. Keyes once said, ‘I've always used humour as a survival mechanism. I write for…
7:31 AM 13th October 2020
A Stellar Line-up For The First-ever Digital Raworths Harrogate
David Lammy
Writers, politicians, historians, broadcasters, and more, will come together for the first ever digital Raworths Harrogate Literature Festival from Friday 23 – Sunday 25 October. It has long been the hot ticket on the national Festival circuit after Harper’s Bazaar picked the event as one of the UK’s ‘best literary…
10:55 AM 12th October 2020
Box Of Tricks And Sky Studios Launch Inaugural Screen/Play Award
Acclaimed theatre company Box of Tricks and Sky Studios’ Innovation Hub, based in Leeds, have teamed up to announce the launch of the inaugural Screen/Play Award, a ground-breaking initiative to unearth exceptional writers from the North of England. Focussed on talent from communities currently underrepresented on stage and screen, the Screen/Play…
10:01 AM 12th October 2020
Hull’s Old Town To Celebrate Black History Month With Two-week Exhibition
An exhibition to mark Black History Month is taking place in Hull’s Old Town. The exhibition will run from Saturday 17 October until Saturday 31 October, merging themes of migration, inclusivity and community. It will form part of the Hull High Street Heritage Action Zone project funded by Historic England, taking place…
8:55 PM 11th October 2020
Travis - 10 Songs (BMG)
It is hard to believe that Travis have been around for 25 years. They say that this new album is about the way life comes at love and what love does to weather those challenges. The songs though are what you always come to expect from Travis: gentle, melodic songs that…
3:49 PM 11th October 2020
New Light Prize Exhibition - Wilf Tilley, Satomi 2020
Four rooms at the Scarborough Art Gallery does not sound like much space to hang over 100 art works. Fear not, the curators have done a good job of grouping and differentiation. There is ample opportunity to promenade at leisure and identify the choicest morceaux. Room two contains three of…
6:17 AM 11th October 2020
Poem Of The Week: 'The Behaviour Of Dogs' By Craig Raine
The Behaviour of Dogs Their feet are four-leafed clovers that leave a jigsaw in the dust. They grin like Yale keys and tease us with joke-shop Niagara tongues. A whippet jack-knifes across the grass to where the afghan’s palomino fringe is part Opera House curtain, part Wild Bill Hicock. Its head precedes the rest, balanced like a tray, aloft and…
2:08 AM 11th October 2020
Roisin Murphy - Machine (BMG)
Graham Clark
Features Writer
For many Roisin Murphy will be best known for the hit Sing It Back when she was part of Moloko. Since going solo she has always been an engaging if different artist. I once saw her in concert and she wore a different outfit for each song she performed. With her…
10:01 PM 10th October 2020
Deja View (Part Two): Conflicting Realities In Heather Child’s Everything About You
James Goodall
Features Writer
We live in strange times. Our usual routines have been disrupted, our relationships affected, and our life choices set back in the interest of public health. For many of us “lock-down”, “self-isolation” and “social-distancing” have been new and unusual experiences. Some of us, understandably, may even have started to lose…
7:27 AM 10th October 2020
Testament's Brilliant Truth Tonic
Phil Hopkins
Arts & Travel Editor
Beatbox veteran Testament pulled off a double first at Leeds Playhouse last night. Not only did he remain true to the venue’s ethos of producing contemporary theatre that reflects what’s going on in society around it, but he also explored challenging themes whilst leaving the audience uplifted and thoughtful. That’s a…
7:00 AM 10th October 2020
Interview: Susan Allott
Caroline Spalding
Features Correspondent
Susan Allott
It seems inevitable that a writer is likely to have been a bookish child, with a love of reading and creative writing. But it appears only the lucky few can turn a lifelong passion into a career, since ‘life’ usually gets in the way. It was this way for Susan Allott,…
6:43 AM 10th October 2020
Arts Charity Celebrates the Iconic Ribblehead Viaduct
This month marks the 150th anniversary of work beginning on the Yorkshire Dales’ most iconic manmade landmark, the Ribblehead Viaduct. Yorkshire Dales’ arts charity Settle Stories is celebrating its history with numerous creative commissions that bring the story of the Viaduct to life for families and young audiences. The Ribblehead Viaduct…
3:39 PM 9th October 2020
Three Initiatives Boost Music Learning In Leeds
First Opera North Percussion Academy to be held in half term Senior Strings Academy launches for talented young string players Home Music Programme set up for home-educated children Feedback from Summer Strings Academy “Thank you so much for this year’s summer camp. Rachel is buzzing, I know she has learnt…
2:45 PM 9th October 2020
Interview With Barbara Dickson
Over the course of her career Barbara Dickson has been in musicals, performed concerts all over the world and more recently starred in the TV series The Real Marigold Hotel. I spoke to Barbara about her new album and forthcoming tour. Your new album, Time is Growing Faster is out at…
2:22 PM 8th October 2020
Live Music Returns To Bradford Cathedral
After a gap of six months, live music will return to Bradford Cathedral with a series of high-quality music recitals from October – December, that will be available for people to watch in the cathedral or streamed online to wherever they are. The season will begin on Tuesday 13th October at…
10:47 AM 8th October 2020
Interview With Olly Murs
Graham Clark
Features Writer
I had the chance to interview Olly Murs about lockdown, his future tour and when we can expect some new music from him. Lockdown has left a huge hole in people's lives with the lack of live music. How excited are you to get back on the road again and play…
2:37 AM 8th October 2020
Idles: Ultra Mono - A Mission Statement And Mantra
Rob Fookes
Features Writer
Ultra Mono - album out now
It’s no secret that Idles have had one of the most meteoric rises of any band over the last few years, quickly emerging from obscurity to become arguably the most important band in the UK right now. With incendiary guitars, a relentless rhythm section and venomous social and political…
12:42 PM 7th October 2020
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