Eurovision26: Søren Torpegaard Lund
Denmark’s relationship with the Eurovision Song Contest has long been a story of peaks and pitfalls. Since debuting in 1957, the country has enjoyed moments of genuine triumph — most notably victories for Grethe and Jørgen Ingmann in 1963, Brødrene Olsen in 2000, and Emmelie de Forest in 2013.
Albums: Holly Humberstone Cruel World
Holly Humberstone has always excelled at turning private emotions into something quietly universal, but Cruel World feels like the moment her artistry fully crystallises. It’s a record that doesn’t just document growing up—it immerses you in the disorientation, thrill, and fragility of it, capturing the strange blur between who you were and who you’re becoming.
Albums: Jack Savoretti - We Will Always Be The Way We Were
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The collaborations are as interesting as this fine body of songs where KT Tunstall duets on the blues-infused song Tempting Fate. Elsewhere, Miles Kane turns up on Do If For Love, on a track that does just what it says on the tin – two artists doing what they love to do.
Death Is Not Always The End: Accidents Will Happen By Andrew J. Field
Did she fall or did she jump? Accident or suicide? This novel begins in the court room as the Coroner tries to determine the answer. Lisa Wright was a talented violist who fell – or jumped – from a cliff top while out on a training run.
Classical Music: Steve Reich Sextets
Steve Reich turns ninety in October, and the Colin Currie Group — quite simply the finest exponent of his music on the planet — has marked the occasion with a recording that ranks among the most compelling releases in the contemporary canon. Coinciding with the ensemble's own twentieth anniversary, The Sextets brings together four works united by the elegant symmetry of sextet forces, and the result is a disc of quite exceptional distinction.
Poem Of The Week: Pennines In April By Ted Hughes (1930-1998)
Pennines in April If this county were a sea (that is solid rock Deeper than any sea) these hills heaving Out of the east, mass behind mass, at this height Hoisting heather and stones to the sky Must burst upwards and topple into Lancashire. Perhaps, as the earth turns, such ground-stresses Do come rolling westward through the locked land.
Classical Music Lavinia Meijer Unfolding Lines
Three composers born in a single year — 1685 — represent one of history's most improbable confluences of genius. Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frideric Handel, and Domenico Scarlatti shared their birth year yet took keyboard music in wildly different directions. Lavinia Meijer's Unfolding Lines celebrates this extraordinary trifecta, bringing these Baroque masters together in a programme of preludes, fugues, sonatas, and variations – performed, remarkably, on solo harp.
Classical Music: Jonas Kaufmann Magische Töne
What strikes you immediately is how completely Kaufmann inhabits each number. He plays to the words throughout, switching styles with total ease; his dynamics are consistently impressive, and his vocal control—whether navigating the extremes of his register or shaping a long melodic line—is finely judged.
No Setlist, No Filter, No Equal: Jessie J Returns In Style
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Jessie J has had a tough year. Having been diagnosed with breast cancer on April 3, 2025, just ahead of releasing new material, she fought the battle with real optimism and determination. If the cancer battle were not enough, she was also in a car crash that led to severe neck and back pain.
Gabby's Dollhouse Live
Five years and 86 episodes in, Gabby's Dollhouse is going from strength to strength.
Famous Spiegeltent Returns To Harrogate For Summer Extravaganza
It’s back, and it’s bigger than ever. The much-loved Spiegeltent makes a joyous return to Harrogate this summer with 10 days of non-stop entertainment and unforgettable nights.
Live@tc
When Darren Goulden talks about festivals, there’s a sense that he’s not just producing events—he’s crafting experiences. As the driving force behind The Festival Alchemist, Darren has spent years shaping live entertainment across the UK, earning particular acclaim for Irlam Live, which continues to grow in stature each year.
Here And Now - The Steps Musical, Opera House, Blackpool
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Jukebox musicals are incredibly popular – throw in some big hits from a popular artist or group, and in most cases, include a flimsy storyline, and the fans will come. Take That and ABBA have both had their songs featured in musicals, the latter being more prominent with Mama Mia.
Don't Make Them Wait: 911 Are Back For Their 30th Anniversary
There’s something uniquely powerful about the pull of ‘90s pop — the bedroom singalongs, the posters on the wall, the thrill of chart shows and Saturday morning television. For many, 911 was at the heart of that era, and now, three decades later, Lee Brennan, Jimmy Constable, and Spike Dawbarn are inviting fans to step back in time with their newly announced 30th anniversary tour.
Salon North Is Back With A Bang And An Exciting New Season
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Ever wanted to know more about the hidden world of dreams, the science behind small talk, or the magic of indoor jungles? Well, Raworths Salon North has the answers to all this and a whole lot more.
To Be Or Not To Be … Times Three
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Fans of Shakespeare’s gloomy Danish prince have three Hamlet events to choose from at the York International Shakespeare Festival this month, in the Creative Centre of York St John University. On April 23 – traditionally Shakespeare’s birthday – The University of Arts Targu Mures, from Romania, present their take on the play.
In Conversation: Bróna Mcvittie
Ulster singer‑songwriter, harpist and biologist Bróna McVittie returns with The Stolen Child, the luminous lead single from her forthcoming album Supernatural, due for release later this year, is a companion to McVittie’s recently published book A Way with the Fairies, a richly woven folklore anthology exploring Irish fairy lore alongside mythic tales from across Eur…
Albums: Charlie Puth Whatever’s Clever!
Taken as a whole, Whatever’s Clever presents Charlie Puth at his most focused and self-defined. The influences are clear, but they’re filtered through a perspective that feels personal rather than imitative. More importantly, the album demonstrates a consistency and clarity of vision that has sometimes been missing from his earlier work.
Albums: RAYE This Music May Contain Hope
Not long ago, RAYE was boxed into a version of herself that never quite fit — a powerhouse vocalist navigating an industry that preferred her as a background presence or a hook machine. The breaking point came in full public view, when she unravelled on social media and called time on the system holding her back. What followed was a rebirth.
Classical Music: Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos 2 & 5
Storgårds gives a marvellous account of it. From the iconic opening to the well-judged restraint of the slow movement and the blazing energy of the finale, the BBC Philharmonic are on magnificent form throughout, bearing comparison with the finest recordings in the catalogue. The Chandos engineers have captured the tension and drama with their customary skill.
This is an outstanding disc in what is proving an increasingly distinguished cycle.
Stuart Hartley & Onyx Halo
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In 2026, after nearly three decades away from songwriting, Merseyside‑born creator Stuart Hartley is stepping back into the music world with a project unlike anything he could have imagined in his early twenties. His new venture, Onyx Halo, is a fully AI‑generated band, but the heart, the stories, and the songs are entirely his. Between 1990 and 1995, Hartley lived for music.
Scouting For Girls - These Are The Good Days
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That familiarity might become tiresome for anyone outside their fanbase; most of the ten tracks here sound very familiar – with one exception: Don’t Go Solo. The track was released earlier this year but gained little success or little in the way of radio play.
Classical Music: From Fire & Earthquake - Francisco Garro
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It is the Agnus Dei of the glorious Missa Maria Magdalena that closes this transcendent disc with its luminous singing.
Performed with flair and meticulous attention to detail, this is a recording of genuine importance — a disc of spiritual nourishment that rewards repeated listening.
Sit back and surrender to this rich and profoundly enhancing music.
Classical Music: Tiento
What distinguishes Tiento most is its repertoire. Aficionados of the guitar will find much to admire in Evans's textural sensitivity and the intelligence of his programme-building; but the album is emphatically not a disc aimed only at the converted. These are largely unfamiliar pieces, and Evans makes a persuasive case for each of them. Do not come expecting overrecorded standards— come expecting an absorbing journey through miniatures that reward attentive listening.
Classical Music: Day Of These Days The British Isles Reflected In Song
This is not an album that reaches for display. Voice and piano search instead for connection – a meditation on being and on what it means, in Robert Louis Stevenson's words, "to know not how it is with you". Musically, the songs reflect the uncertainty of the poetry, tilting towards the melancholic: slow metres, minor keys and the naturally dark, sometimes foreboding weight of the bass-baritone register. Around half the songs have been transposed to accommodate the lower voice, the remainder sung in their original keys.
Murder for Two: Countless Suspects: Endless Chaos: Enormous Fun!
Murder for Two, currently bringing mayhem to the stage of the SJT in Scarborough, is a magnificently hyperactive theatrical pastiche: a mad jangle of genres, styles, and tropes that borrows from, celebrates and burlesques, a whole century of popular entertainment - from the silent movie era to the thoroughly modern musical.
Gig: Split Dogs
I have surely discovered the best band that you could ever want to see on a Friday night. If you finish work for the week, want to let your hair down and get a wiggle on, then Split Dogs are the band to rock your world. After upbeat, empowering and powerful support from Helle and Wench, the Split Dogs came roaring out onto the stage like rottweilers chasing raw meat.
To See Or Not To See - Hamlet By The RSC
Hamlet has never been for the faint hearted. This production’s descent into carnage is made more chilling by blood red numbers on a clock which counts down to a stage strewn with dead bodies as vengeance and betrayal wreak havoc.
Power, Passion and Pointe Work: Northern Ballet Does Anne Lister Justice
Familiar to many thanks to the television series of the same name starring Suranne Jones, the story of Ann Lister has once again been brought to life by Northern Ballet. Set in the 1830s, the plot follows the unconventional life and loves of Anne Lister, who, being a prolific writer, maintained diaries which run to approximately five million words, a proportion of which were written in code.
On Top Of The Wold
As a born and bred Yorkshire lass, and having married into a farming family at Barmby Moor, in the East Riding nearly fifty years ago, I, along with a packed local audience, could totally relate to the world premiere of Top of the Wold at Pocklington Arts Centre, which explored fascinating stories from the East Riding.