Albums: Carly Rae Jepsen Day and Night
There is a particular magic to Carly Rae Jepsen that only really makes sense when you see her live. I caught her on her last UK tour, and she effortlessly proved herself to be one of the best pop performers I’ve seen: completely at ease on stage, utterly committed to the songs and capable of turning a roomful of people into one giant, euphoric chorus.
Albums: Lawrence Rothman Here Lies Love/Sawdust To Stardust
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There is something nocturnal about the album. Even when the music opens into the wide horizons of Americana, there are clouds gathering at the edges. Country, folk and rock mingle with more elusive textures, but nothing feels neatly contained. The songs drift, shimmer and bruise, carrying the weight of things remembered and things that perhaps cannot be forgotten. Rothman draws from the language of Americana without becoming bound by it, turning its familiar roads and landscapes into something stranger and more inward.
Albums: Anthrax - Cursum Perficio
T.O.M.B. and Watch It Go subsequently restore some of the album’s muscular momentum before My Victory brings proceedings to a suitably emphatic close.
Definitely worth the ten year wait.
Albums: Big Country Redux Eastworld
Twenty-five years on from Stuart Adamson’s death, Big Country returns in a new guise: Big Country Redux. The name is an appropriately reflective one for Eastworld, a ten-track collection that reaches back into the band’s archives to resurrect songs Adamson wrote or co-wrote with Bruce Watson and former bassist Tony Butler. Some will be familiar to long-standing fans through live performances, demos and lesser-known releases; others have spent decades waiting for the treatment they receive here.
Albums: Keo Put A Smile On For Me
For a debut, that is an exciting prospect. Put A Smile On For Me is compelling and refreshing, establishing Keo as a band with huge potential while already delivering enough evidence of that potential in the present. The Nirvana comparisons may have raised expectations before the record even arrived, but Keo have answered them in the best possible way: by sounding like themselves.
Classical Music: Bruch Violin Concerto No 1
Few violin concertos have been recorded as often as Max Bruch's Violin Concerto No 1 in G minor, Op 26. It is a perennial favourite and has more than once topped Classic FM's Hall of Fame, so any new recording has plenty of competition. The Norwegian violinist Eldbjørg Hemsing's version on Sony Classical, with the Oslo Philharmonic under Gergely Madaras, earns its place.
Classical Music: Neeme Järvi Conducts Shostakovich
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Few composers carry as many contradictions as Dmitri Shostakovich. He could write music of crushing weight and bleak introspection, then turn out a ballet number or a popular song arrangement with a wink and a flourish. Any collection that aims to present him whole has to do justice to both sides. Chandos's eight-CD reissue of Neeme Järvi's recordings with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra does exactly that, and it makes an excellent introduction to the composer for newcomers as well as a rewarding return for those who already know him.
Classical Music: Kin
There is so much to enjoy here. Above all, Betts-Dean draws out the story in every song, just as folk music should. Picture a group of friends gathered round while one of them spins a tale, and you have the spirit of this disc. It is all achieved through a keen ear for tempo and a finely judged use of dynamics, never through over-egging.
Film Review: Resident Evil (2026)
You could make a fair argument that Zach Cregger is a bit of a household name in horror right now, having delivered two of the most talked about horror films in recent memory, and in the space of only five years.
A Tale Of Death And Life: The Mourning Necklace By Kate Foster
What must it feel like to be hanged, only to wake up four hours later, in your own coffin, and to climb out and walk into your own wake? Ask Maggie Dickson, because in Chapter One of The Mourning Necklace that is precisely what happens to her. The year is 1724 and the place, Edinburgh. Will the honest men of law decide to give her a reprieve or will they choose to hang her again?
Albums: Max McNown Leave On A Light
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The Nashville singer-songwriter’s third studio album is a significant step forward from his first two records. Across 17 tracks, McNown expands the boundaries of his sound, moving beyond the more straightforward country foundations of his earlier work and into something considerably more fluid: part indie, part folk, part country, with flashes of pop that give the album a broader, more contemporary reach.
Twenty Years Of Squalor: Keith Murray On We Are Scientists, University Nights And The Art Of Time Travel
There are albums you listen to, and there are albums that become attached to a particular version of yourself. For me, We Are Scientists' With Love & Squalor belongs firmly in the latter category.
Classical Music: Mentor And Muse: Songs By Vaughan Williams And The Women Around Him
For any lover of English song this is a disc to cherish. At its heart lie the songs of Elizabeth Maconchy and Grace Williams, heard alongside the man who taught them both, Ralph Vaughan Williams. Mezzo-soprano Kitty Whately and pianist William Vann have performed together for several years, and they kept returning to Vaughan Williams's orbit. Above all, they were drawn to the women who wrote the music and verse he knew so well. What emerges is a picture of a teacher, his pupils and his friends, each with a voice entirely their own.
Poem Of The Week: From Cheshire By Kit Wright
From Cheshire For Anna Come home safe: I think of you driving Over the Runcorn Bridge in our senile car, Its toothless ratchets, arthritic pistons conniving To take me away from wherever you are. Its steering like that old prostitute working a living on Huskisson Street outside our door: Its raggedy brake shoes thin as the wind, giving Nothing but ice to your foot on the floor.
Albums: Tygers Of Pan Tang - Electrifyed
On the album the veteran North East metal outfit once again proves that age is no barrier to volume, attitude or a riff capable of leaving scorch marks.
THE BRIT FEST unveils it's biggest main stage line-up for 2027!
The multi-award-winning festival returns with four unforgettable days of live music, discovery, entertainment and shared summer memories. The Brit Fest, the multi-award-winning independent festival, has unveiled an outstanding main stage line-up for 2027, bringing together some of the most recognisable names in British music alongside exciting rising talent.
Alex Warren announces Finding (More) Family On The Road
GRAMMY® Award-nominated, chart-topping multi-platinum artist Alex Warren has announced a major run of outdoor shows across the UK and Europe for summer 2027, including a huge London headline show at Crystal Palace Park Live on Saturday 3 July.
Hits Radio Live 2026 - Birmingham Line-Up Announced!
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Yorkshire Voices Take Centre Stage As Ilkley Literature Festival Returns
The north's longest-running literary festival opens in less than a fortnight, with a third of this year's authors drawn from, living in or closely connected to Yorkshire. Ilkley Literature Festival 2026 has something for most tastes, with a programme that runs from Mesopotamian epic to natural cleaning.
Literary Icon Sir Ben Okri Talks About His New Novel And The Importance Of Storytelling In Challenging Times
It’s 35 years since Sir Ben Okri made a big splash in the literary world when he won the Booker Prize for Fiction with his acclaimed novel, The Famished Road. It made Okri the youngest ever winner of this prestigious prize at the age of just 32, catapulting him into the spotlight.
A Watch Ticks Towards Dawn In A Devastating One-Man War Story
Michael Morpurgo's tale of loyalty, first love and the shot-at-dawn soldiers of the Great War is harrowing, humane and, surprisingly, funny. Group Editor Andrew Palmer was among the Harrogate audience on its feet at the end. Before a word is spoken, Tommo Peaceful is already there.
Unpublished Women Writers Offered A Route To An Agent And £5,000
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For the unpublished writer with a manuscript gathering dust in a drawer, the Women's Prize Trust has just made the case for dusting it off. Its Discoveries prize and programme for 2027 opened on Tuesday 15 September, offering the winner representation from the Curtis Brown Group and a £5,000 bursary.
Leeds Heritage Theatres Welcomes Sophie-Jade Howell As New Youth Theatre Programme Director
A passionate youth theatre director and facilitator from Leeds, Sophie-Jade Howell (SJ) joins us from York Theatre Royal, bringing extensive experience working with young people across youth theatres, schools, community projects and professional theatre settings.
Bradford’s Ghostly Past Awakens With ‘Whispers In The Wool City’
Bradford city centre’s fascinating history will come to life this October as Bradford BID presents Whispers in the Wool City, a spine-tingling walking experience that combines ghost stories, local heritage and atmospheric animation.
There Was No Worst Of Times!
When dialogue is seamlessly brilliant and every nuance is delivered with perfection, it is not difficult to conclude that you have just watched something superb...and last night I did. Marlowe Theatre’s production of Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, originally adapted for stage by Terence Rattigan and John Gielgud, was gripping from start to finish: absolute quality.
A Deal With The Devil Comes To York This October With Pop Yer Clogs Theatre’s Faustus
Pop Yer Clogs Theatre will return to Theatre@41 in York this October with its latest production, Doctor Faustus, running from 1st to 3rd October.
Leee John: Still Learning, Still Creating, Still Proud and Bold
Leee John is tired. Not tired enough to stop, though. “I’m a little bit tired, I’m a little bit…” he laughs, reaching for a phrase. “I’m sounding like Donny and Marie now — I’m a little bit country, a little bit rock and roll.” He has just performed the night before and has been flying around the place, with the constant changes in weather beginning to catch up with him.
Burlesque – The Borrowed Musical
Burlesque is one of those shows that lacks individuality, borrowing many of its component parts from everywhere else, before starting on a high and then, somehow, taking you on a slow route march to death.
Yorkshire Sculpture Park New Exhibition: Angela Harding: A Chronicle Of Birds And Beasts
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Yorkshire Sculpture Park (YSP) welcomes acclaimed printmaker, illustrator and author Angela Harding back after 10 years with a new exhibition, A Chronicle of Birds and Beasts. The exhibition marks a significant milestone in Harding’s career and celebrates her status as one of the UK’s most recognisable and respected artists working in print today.
Mozart And Vivaldi Top The Classical Playlist In Hull This Autumn
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Mozart and Beethoven have been voted the top choice composers that Hull residents are interested in exploring or learning more about over the next 12 months, according to new research.