Live Review: The Hoosiers - o2 Institute 2, Birmingham
It is nearly 20 years since former University of Indianapolis football scholarship students turned colourful pop act The Hoosiers burst into the charts with their #5 charting debut single, Worried About Ray. With the subsequent album, A Trick To Life, claiming the #1 spot on the charts, it seemed certain that global stardom beckoned.
Eddi Reader's tour continues
Eddi Reader is bringing her unmistakable voice back to stages across England this October, with a run of intimate performances celebrating a career that has continually bridged folk, pop and traditional Scottish music.
Shed Seven Announce Largest Headline Show Of Their Career
Shed Seven are set to play the biggest headline show of their career next May in what promises to be a defining moment for the band. More than 30 years into their career, the landmark show will see the band headline a special hometown show at York’s LNER Community Stadium on Saturday May 29.
Hugh Cornwell announces farewell tour
An intimate evening of songs and stories, plus an open Q & A session. As lead singer and songwriter of The Stranglers during their golden period, Hugh Cornwell cast a spell mixing fact, history, mythology and ideology within the lyrics of the songs.
Chesney's Christmas Cracker Starring Chesney Hawkes Come To Holmfirth- Pictuerdrome
Get ready to unwrap the ultimate festive night out as Chesney’s Christmas Cracker lands in town! Pop icon Chesney Hawkes headlines a night packed with feel-good hits, festive fun and pure nostalgia. Expect a high-energy live set featuring all the classics, including the massive chart-topper The One and Only, guaranteed to have the whole room singing along.
County Durham Creativity Set To Flourish With New Artistic Commissions
20 creative practitioners from across County Durham have been awarded commissions, bringing a new wave of arts and cultural projects to communities. The successful cohort will share £78,000 after being selected for the 2026/27 Cultivate Commissions, which is a joint partnership between Into the Light and North Heartlands.
Second ‘Pay What You Can’ Opera Launched By Opera North
After its sellout ‘Pay what you can’ performance last year, Opera North has launched a ‘Pay what you can’ Rigoletto, enabling people to enjoy a night at the opera at a price which suits them. Verdi’s popular classic will be performed in full in the stunning surroundings of Leeds Grand Theatre at 6.30pm on Wednesday 28 October.
Live Review: Stevie Wonder at the Utilita Arena, Birmingham
There are artists who the world loves fleetingly and get remembered for a certain song or a certain moment, then there are artists who become icons with back catalogues that don't just form a soundtrack for one generation, but whose music becomes a soundtrack for moments big and small around the world on repeat. Stevie Wonder falls effortlessly into the latter.
Music Sector Among Worst Industries For Supporting Mothers Returning To Work, New Research Reveals
The UK music sector is among the worst of the country’s industries for mothers returning to work after having children, new research reveals. According to data from the Mums in Music campaign spearheaded by international soprano Lola Ganzarolli, only 7% of UK women feel that the music industry good at supporting mothers’ returning to the workplace.
The Changing Face Of British Politics And How It Shapes Our Lives
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Is democracy in danger? And how do we make sense of our ever-changing political landscape? These are just a couple of the big questions explored by guest speakers at this year’s Raworths Harrogate Literature Festival (11-25 Oct). British politics is undergoing one of its most dramatic periods of change in generations.
The Silence of the Lambs - Tell When the Screaming Stops
A brooding wash of deep, resonating bass white noise was playing as we entered the auditorium as if warning the senses of the drama to enfold. The cloth had a projection of newspaper clippings of real-life serial killer Ted Bundy’s crimes, which changed to clippings of the fictional character Buffalo Bill’s crimes. All this before the play started preparing us for the tale to be told.
Northern Stars Rise On Whitby’s West Cliff As Musicport Turns Elemental
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For one weekend this month, the most cosmopolitan address in Yorkshire will be a Victorian pavilion perched above the North Sea.
Lost Dog Bring Acclaimed Dance Show Juliet & Romeo To York Theatre Royal
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Next month, critically acclaimed dance company Lost Dog will be performing in York Theatre Royal’s Main House for the first time with their unique take on a classic story.
University Hits The Right Note With 60th Anniversary Playlist Featuring Nirvana, U2 And Elton John
The University of Bradford has created a special playlist featuring 60 artists who performed on campus as part of its 60th anniversary celebrations, including global stars such as Nirvana, U2, Elton John, Mike Oldfield, The Stranglers, The Pretenders, Billy Bragg, Primal Scream and Stormzy.
Leeds, York And Halifax: Three Nights Of Pop Gold In Yorkshire
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Westlife turned Leeds Arena into a 25th anniversary singalong, Joe Jackson brought snarl and wit to the York Barbican, and the Burt Bacharach Songbook gave Halifax’s Victoria Theatre a night of timeless melodies, writes Graham Clark There are few bands who can turn 25 years of pop history into something that feels this effortlessly celebratory.
Albums: Jamie T Ghosts (100 Days Of Morning)
Jamie T Ghosts (100 Days Of Morning) Tracks: 3310, Cocktail, Waist 36 Leg 32, All I Wanna See Is Now, The Won, Chelsea Girls, Ghosts, Crimson & Clover, Crucible, Caught Cheating, Tallahassee Label: Polydor Jamie T has always sounded like an artist with one foot in the present and the other caught somewhere in the past.
Opera North And Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin
The 1980s were turbulent times for the Soviet Union. The death of the Soviet leader, Leonid Brezhnev, in 1981, and the slow-slow-quick-quick-slow waltz of the regime toward its collapse and eventual dissolution in 1992.
Albums: NY Loose Monolith Kids
Led by the formidable Brijitte West, NY Loose was one of the great underground secrets of mid-’90s New York rock. They had the swagger, the sleaze, the guitars and, crucially, the songs. Their 1995 Loosen Up! EP helped build a devoted following before Hollywood Records came calling, eventually releasing the band’s debut album, Year of the Rat, in 1996. Yet despite touring with the likes of L7 and Marilyn Manson and seeing their brilliant track Spit appears on The Crow: City of Angels soundtrack – the commercial breakthrough never arrived.
Albums: Walt Disco Walt Disco
There is something fitting about calling your third album Walt Disco. After two records spent pushing, pulling and occasionally losing themselves in different directions, the Glasgow band have arrived at a record that feels less like a reinvention than an acceptance of everything they have already been. It is a statement of identity, certainly, but not one delivered with the certainty of a band who have finally solved themselves. Instead, Walt Disco finds its strength in the messiness of becoming.
Albums: Amon Amarth – The Allfather Awakens
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The biggest surprise arrives with Uppha’. An acoustic, folk-inflected piece, it is the kind of detour that could easily have sounded like a novelty. Instead, it provides the album with atmosphere and breathing space, allowing the mythology at the heart of Amon Amarth’s music to emerge without the usual wall of distortion
Close Enough To Touch writer Henry Roberts Talks About His New Play, The Joy Of Theatre And Why We Need To Tell Different Types Of Stories On Stage
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Henry is a writer, playwright and photographer. Originally from Lancashire, he is now based in London. In 2025 and 2026, he was longlisted for The Observer Anthony Burgess Prize for Arts Journalism. Henry’s plays have been performed at Theatre503, Riverside Studios, Camden People's Theatre and other theatres in London and Edinburgh.
Album Review: Bróna McVittie Supernatural
What makes the album particularly compelling is the way McVittie brings together the warmth and intimacy of the harp and traditional vocal styles with atmospheric electronic production. Rather than feeling like a clash of old and new, these elements compliment one another beautifully, giving the music a distinctive identity that is at once organic, otherworldly and modern.
Classical Music: Softest Thunder
There is a particular kind of disc that asks you to switch off the radio, put the phone in a drawer and simply listen. Toby Carr's debut solo recording for Delphian is one of them, and it repays the effort many times over.
Carr will already be familiar to many from Battle Cry, his duo album with the mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston, which collected both Gramophone and BBC Music Magazine awards in 2023. Here he steps out alone, and the result is an atmospheric, quietly absorbing recital.
Albums: Dead Poet Society – Monarch
What makes Monarch stand out is its refusal to choose between experimentation and accessibility. There are enormous hooks here, but they come wrapped in warped guitars, unconventional rhythms and enough darkness to stop proceedings becoming predictable.
Why Nostalgia Is Thriving In The Digital Age
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In a world that refreshes itself by the second, the past has never felt more appealing. Scroll for long enough and you will eventually run into it in the form of a clip from an old TV show, a song you had forgotten you loved, a photo from years ago that feels strangely close.
There’s A Monster In Your Show
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Based on the best-selling book series Who’s in Your Book?, There’s a Monster in Your Show brings all your favourite characters from the page to the stage! Featuring original music by series author Tom Fletcher (McFly, Paddington The Musical), this show is a magical musical whirlwind, perfect for little ones with big imaginations.
If Cats Could Talk: At Warble’s Bar By Galahad Porter
Lucy is pregnant after a one-night stand with Sam from Brooklyn. The thing is that’s all she knows about him even if she does still feel that the spark between them was real. The novel opens with a somewhat rebellious Lucy (real name Lucia) working in a bar in Brooklyn, having travelled from Italy, to try to find Sam.
Classical Music: Gershwin Variations
Some recordings politely ask for your attention. This one pulls up a stool at the bar, loosens its tie and calls for another round. For anyone who loves Gershwin and the jazz idiom, Lucas Debargue's Gershwin Variations is a double album to treasure: it fizzes, it swings and it oozes panache from first bar to last.
The first disc, recorded at the Philharmonie de Paris, pairs Debargue with the Orchestre de Paris under Elim Chan. The Piano Concerto in F skips along with real clarity, the orchestration crisp, the syncopations relished and the percussion crackling with rhythmic fervour.
Classical Music: Sol Gabetta Saint-Saëns & Lalo Cello Concertos
Her playing is fluent throughout, her agility impressive and her rhythmic precision unerring, while soloist and orchestra alike embrace the full Romantic sweep of these scores. Period instruments are often sold as a corrective to excess; here they serve the opposite purpose, lending these concertos a warmth and freshness that makes a persuasive case for all three.
Venus At Midnight: The Amygdala Safari By Carmella de Keyser
Carmella de Keyser is at her most persuasive when in freefall: plummeting through the ‘cyan blue’ with Icarean abandon and crossing borders of the senses as though synaesthetic apprehension were a most natural condition of understanding, the poet promulgates a new aesthetic, subordinating all formal considerations to the moment of pure invigoration.