Once the Musical: diasporic love raises its hopeful voice

Based on the cult 2006 Irish indie feature, Once tells the uplifting, yearning story of a part-time Dublin guitarist busker (dayjobbing in his dad’s hoover repair shop) who falls unexpectedly in love with a fellow musician. Spanning their fleeting chance connection across five short days, the story sees big changes happen to both of them in little ways. Continue reading

John Shuttleworth’s Back!: comedy preview

When John Shuttleworth last toured in 2017, he was on the brink of retirement. 2016 had wreaked its deathly toll on major celebrities (Rickman, Bowie, Wogan et al.) and Shuttleworth was feeling grimly vulnerable to the reaper’s scythe. We all thought he was packing it all in, that the superstardom he’d always imagined was tantalisingly just out of reach would never be his. Continue reading

Billy Bragg and Joe Henry enchant York with American folk songs

Billy Bragg and Joe Henry tour their latest album, Shine a Light.

For all music fans, it is vital to understand how genres have developed over the years, how they link up and how society affects music’s development. What better way to learn than to have Billy Bragg and Joe Henry, two highly influential musicians in their own right, guide you through the folk songs of the USA’s past? Continue reading