A CONCERT will be staged in Tadcaster next month to raise funds for flood-stricken businesses and residents - with backing from Royalty.

Tadcaster Grammar School’s Big Band is to perform at the Riley-Smith Hall at 2.30pm on Sunday March 20, performing lively and uplifting pieces of music featuring favourites from the 1930s and 1940s, including Glenn Miller, and more recent popular hits such as Cry Me A River.

BBC Radio York presenters Adam Tomlinson and Anna Wallace will compere the event, at which a song, specially written for the occasion by Gillian Hainsworth, the leader of the Big Band, and entitled ‘Tadcaster In Union’, will be performed.

Mrs Hainsworth revealed she had contacted Buckingham Palace to invite The Duke of York to attend the concert, following his visit to the town in the wake of the floods.

She said the Duke had had to decline because of previous engagements but had sent his good wishes via his Private Secretary, who had also offered support through their twitter account and had put the school in touch with relevant organisations to help boost fundraising.

Mrs Hainsworth said how, while helping with the clean-up operation at Tadcaster Medical Centre, she had witnessed the 'heartbreak, despair and raw emotion of the employees' and wondered what more she could possibly do to help, and decided on a fundraising concert.

Tickets, priced at £5 in the stalls and £7.50 in the balcony, are available from the school on 01937 833466, the Riley-Smith Hall on 01937 832289, The Ark on 01937 834113, Calcaria Carpets on 01937 530220, The Inkshop on 01937 830121 and The Lemon Tree on 07768 696584.