This attractive album is a delightful surprise, and not one just for clarinet enthusiasts—there is much to savour on this impeccably performed disc that will appeal to anyone who enjoys warmth, elegance and the distinctive voice of the clarinet.

One of the most influential and provocative voices in global comedy is heading back to the UK. Acclaimed comedian, actor, and writer Jim Jefferies has announced the long-awaited UK leg of his brand-new stand-up tour, Son of a Carpenter, coming in November 2025.

Across its 14 tracks, West End Girl explores the collapse and rebuilding of self with remarkable clarity. Songs like Sleepwalking and Ruminating linger in the fog of denial and confusion, while 4Chan Stan reminds us Allen hasn’t lost her sharp-edged humour — it’s sarcastic, pointed, and impeccably timed. Then there’s the title track, glowing with the bittersweet shimmer of a life that once seemed polished from the outside but was fraying underneath.

One senses the vitality throughout this generously filled double album. The textures and emotions are sustained across both discs, whether in the intimate chamber works with pianist Julian Riem or the orchestral repertoire featured in the second half. There is much to savour here, and Riem's accompaniments are never obtrusive—his well-judged restraint perfectly complements the resonant sonorities of Gromes' cello. Riem's refined touch and gorgeous tone prove every bit as engaging as Gromes' playing.

The emotional core of the album lies in its quietest moments — the ones where the band stops winking and just lets the sadness sit. These flashes aren’t sentimental, but they are deeply human. The Donner Party’s greatest trick is how they make bleakness feel gentle. Not comforting, exactly — but familiar. Real. Something already inside you, recognised rather than discovered.

Only a few years ago, Elliot James Reay was busking around his home city of Manchester – tonight the young star in waiting is opening for American artist Benson Boone at Co-op Live in the city as part of the European leg of Benson’s worldwide tour.  His repertoire owed much to the music of the late fifties; his cover of Roy Robinson’s Oh Pretty Woman was faithful.

The audience have voted, the Morecambe-based Promenade Concert Orchestra has listened and will perform Family Favourites this November. The award-winning orchestra invited its audience members to request music of their own choice for its latest concert and the results will be heard on November 23 at The Platform in Morecambe.

The transatlantic folk duo and acclaimed podcasters, comprised of British songwriter/producer Ben Parker and American songwriter/author David Berkeley, are set to bring their podcast’s mythical fictional world of adventures and hilarity, featuring their “seamless vocal harmonies” (The Observer), to life on stages across the country next month via a brand new November 2025 UK tour.

A hundred year old historical oil painting has been re-created outside a Cumbrian Wetherspoons for an exhibition at the Art Gene gallery. Regulars looked on in amusement as three men in period dress sat down at a table outside The Furness Railway in Barrow-In-Furness and started mixing a drink.

The nominees for the Yorkshire Asian Young Achiever Awards 2025, which celebrate the success stories of young British Asians across the region, have been announced.

This is a release of genuine importance, one that demands the attention of anyone with a serious interest in twentieth-century British music. Arthur Bliss, a composer whose reputation has long rested somewhat uneasily in the shadow of his contemporaries, emerges here in vivid new light through two works that demonstrate the full range of his compositional powers.

While Sigrid’s earlier work leaned heavily into euphoric pop bangers, this third studio album showcases an artist at peace with both her triumphs and vulnerabilities. It’s a record that feels like a deep breath after years of running at full speed — intimate, grown-up, yet still shimmering with that Norwegian spark that first made her a household name.

I confess my ignorance about the history of India and Pakistan. Over the years, I have watched news broadcasts about war and unrest in that part of the world, never really understanding the reasons for the sectarian violence.

The National Youth Orchestra (NYO) is proud to embark on NYO Unite, a series of free orchestral events bringing together 1,000 teenagers from across the NYO community. Taking place in six locations across the UK during the October half-term and early November, NYO Unite will visit Lancaster on 25th October and Barnsley on 27 October.

From Allerdale and Copeland to Wigan, from East Lancashire to Barrow, and from Bolton to Knowsley and St Helens, local people across the North West will have the opportunity to develop and experience the creativity they want and that matters to them.

The much-loved Phyllida Lloyd production of Puccini's La bohème returns to the stage with Opera North under Revival Director James Hurley. In freezing Paris we meet penniless poet Rodolfo. One night, his neighbour, the seamstress Mimì, knocks on the door of his garret, looking to relight her extinguished candle.

Particularly striking is Helmut Deutsch's solo performance of the Andante sostenuto from Schubert's B-flat major Piano Sonata, D 960. This interlude provides a moment of profound tranquillity, the audience and dancers frozen in concentrated attention. The production's final song, Der Doppelgänger, from which the album takes its title, emerges as hauntingly compelling, the accumulated loneliness and dislocation finding devastating expressio

Leeds Song Festival returns from Saturday 11 April to Saturday 18 April 2026, bringing together some of the world’s most captivating voices, inspiring musicians, cutting-edge creators, and rising stars for a packed week-long celebration of art song.

A brand-new radical opera aims to address the biggest existential question of our times by drawing on lessons from Yorkshire’s revolutionary past. The acclaimed Yorkshire composer Ben Crick was inspired by true stories from the Industrial Revolution in 1812 to draw striking parallels with the current AI revolution in The Last Machine Breaker, An Opera on Luddites, AI and Revolution.

I loved this book! Will that do? Probably not, so let me try to explain why.

John Cleese is talking about the runaway success of Fawlty Towers – The Play, having had two sold out West End seasons and a 10 month UK tour which began in September. “To be honest, I was more confident about it than almost anything I’ve ever done. I remember reading the finished script and thinking it was really funny. And the English do love farce. Think Ben Travers.