Proms picnics, Stroppy Australians, Al Murray’s Brexit talk, Pock’s 
Platform for music, The Sixteen’s pilgrimage, a Jackson tribute and a cult Bowie film are in CHARLES HUTCHINSON’S diary from July 8 to 13

 

Tribute show of the week

Thriller Live, Grand Opera House, York, Monday to Saturday

THRILLER Live, the Michael Jackson tribute concert, has celebrated a landmark 7,000 performances worldwide in 37 countries. That total rises again on its returns to the Grand Opera House.

In a show spanning the Jackson 5 and solo years, the tour cast features Kieran Alleyne as the lead Jackson dancer and vocalist. At 12, he was the first young MJ in the West End production.

Keeping up with one of the Joneses

Bill Jones, Black Swan Folk Club, York, Thursday, 8.15pm

BILL Jones won the Horizon Award for best newcomer in the 2001 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, going on to release three albums and perform in York three times. Then, from 2004, she took a break to raise her family... until now. Fifteen years on, she returns at last, with a new album of traditional, modern and self-penned songs imminent and a summer tour.

Guitar enthusiast of the week

Arielle, The Basement, City Screen, York, Wednesday, doors 8pm

SINGER, songwriter and guitar player Arielle, from Texas, loves music with a hippie soul from the Sixties and Seventies.

She plays a guitar named Two Tone, built with her friend Patrick. “I love it. I love guitars, in general. Especially custom ones that aren’t too heavy,” she says. “I like to be real. Genuine. Open. My mom says it’s like reading my diary, but that’s how I want to be. Vulnerable”.

Australian visitors of the week

The Stroppies, The Crescent, York, Friday, 7.30pm

WHOOSH, Melbourne band The Stroppies breeze into The Crescent with their debut album, Whoosh, a record of boundless sugary energy, infectious grooves, jangly guitars and a pop strut.

The record is influenced by: “All sorts of things,” says band member Gus Lord. “Life, work, relationships, old cartoons and the last 60-plus years of guitar-based pop music. Everything from Bill Fay to The Clean to Stephen Malkmus.”

Edinburgh comes to Selby

Sophie Duker and Foxdog Studios, Edinburgh Fringe previews, Selby Town Hall, Saturday, 8pm

SELF-STYLED "sexy-cerebral comedy underdog" Sophie Duker hosts Manic Pixie Dream Girls, an international feminist comedy show, and Wacky Racists, a comedy cabaret gameshow. Foxdog Studios' double act of IT professionals-turned-comedians Lloyd Henning and Peter Sutton combine comedy, computer programming and rock music.

Cult film of the week

The Man Who Fell To Earth (18) Nicolas Roeg Season, Vintage Sundays, City Screen, York, Sunday, 1.30pm

RIP Thorn, David Bowie and Candy Clark star in Roeg’s elliptical, intractable film, wherein he takes his cross-cutting, kaleidoscopic style to its furthest limits. Walter Tevis's simple story of a disorientated alien visitor trying to return to his own planet is part road movie, part corporate thriller, part sci-fi fantasy.

Comedy nights in Pocklington

Platform Festival presents Chris Ramsey, Wednesday, 8pm; Al Murray, Thursday, 8pm, Old Station, Pocklington

NORTH Easterner Chris Ramsey plays Pock ahead of his arena tour while pub landlord Al Murray's latest night of bellicose comedy, Landlord Of Hope And Glory, is knee deep in Brexit Britain.

Music nights and days in Pocklington

Platform Festival presents The Shires, Friday, 8pm, and Festival Saturday from 1pm

BRITISH country favourites The Shires are back at their regular Pock stomping ground. Hothouse Flowers, Lucy Spraggan, Seth Lakeman, The South, The Grand Slambovians and The Dunwells are Saturday's top acts.

York sends over Boss Caine, Jess Gardham, Dan Webster Band, The Grand Old Uke Of York.

Choral hallelujah of the week

The Sixteen, Choral Pilgrimage, York Early Music Festival, York Minster,Thursday, 7.30pm 

HARRY Christophers' a cappella choir The Sixteen mark their 40th anniversary with 2019's Choral Pilgrimage. An Enduring Voice spans choral works over six centuries, from Tavener to Sheppard, Fayfax to Sir James Macmillan.

Pomp and Circumstance of the week

York Proms, York Museum Gardens, Sunday, entertainment 5.15pm onwards

YORK tenor Nicholas Watts and soprano Jennifer Coleman are the soloists for this flag-waving, picnic-noshing outdoor concert.

The specially formed Yorkshire Festival Orchestra makes its York Proms debut under director Ben Crick; ​The Fireworkers provide a fireworks finale.

The community stage kicks off the event from 5.15pm with the Bev Jones Music Company, Lucy's Pop Choir and Owl Adventures. Proceeds go to York Inspirational Kids and the Wilberforce Trust.​​