Welsh favourites at the double, a country queen, Smokie nostalgia and a Byrd mass make up CHARLES HUTCHINSON’S long weekend from May 24 to 27

York Press:

Guiding light: Katherine Jenkins at York Barbican

Friday night is...Welsh national treasure music night

Katherine Jenkins, York Barbican, tonight, 7.30pm

BRITAIN’S best-selling classical artist of the past 25 years, Katherine Jenkins returns to the Barbican in support of her latest album, last autumn’s Guiding Light.

For Katherine, the album represents the culmination of a deeply emotional journey that began when her beloved father, Selwyn, died and took her down a new path when she became a mother. The choice of songs, from arias to a Stormzy cover, speaks of life, hope, acceptance and a universal spirituality.

Classical concert of the weekend

Tallis Scholars, Beverley Minster, Saturday, 7.30pm

THE Tallis Scholars’ glorious programme draws together the music of William Byrd and the Eton Choirbook: two very English styles separated by a hundred years.

Byrd was a renowned Catholic composer of the Elizabethan era; the Eton Choirbook was a volume of religious music created between 1500 and1504, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

“Together with Byrd’s Mass for Five Voices, we invite you to relish Fawkyner’s astonishing, and rarely-performed, Gaude Rosa, and in the final passages of Fayrfax’s Maria Plena Virtute, we hear what is surely some of the most heartfelt music to come from the English Renaissance,” says the Tallis musicians.

York Press:

Smokie and the solo hits: Chris Norman 

Seventies' nostalgia of the weekend

Chris Norman, York Barbican, Saturday, 7.30pm

CHRIS Norman, “the Original Voice of Smokie”, left the Bradford band as long ago as 1986. After re-visiting his past by recording The Definitive Hits – Smokie And Solo Years, released last month, he is playing a British tour “for the first time in a long time” in May and June.

“I’ve re-recorded them because the original Smokie records are owned by Sony BMG,” says Chris, now 68. “I’ve done all the Smokie hits with a really keen ear, mixing them like the original arrangements with the string parts, so they’re authentic, I would say.”

Yorkshire’s country gig of the weekend

Maren Morris, Leeds O2 Academy, Saturday, 7.30pm

GRAMMY Award-winning Texan singer/songwriter Maren Morris is on a world tour promoting her latest album, Girl, released on Columbia Records Nashville this spring.

For Girl, Morris once again linked up with songwriter/producer Busbee, who co-produced her 2016 debut, Hero, this time to co-produce 11 of the 14 songs, while adding songwriter/producer Greg Kurstin to co-produce the others.

Bank Holiday Monday’s gig of the day

Manic Street Preachers, York Barbican, Monday, 7.30pm

WELSH rock luminaries Manic Street Preachers celebrate the 20th anniversary of This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours with a collector’s edition re-issue and now a tour show featuring the chart-topping album in its entirety.

This Is My Truth stayed in the charts for more than a year, selling five million copies en route to winning the BRIT Award for Best Album, while the group took home the Best Band in the World gong from the Q magazine awards.

Bassist Nicky Wire told the NME: “I’ve been listening to This Is My Truth... a lot. It’s such a deep and heavy album for a record that was so big. It just makes you realise that you can push the limits and have success."