Astrid Williamson

   Saturday, 26 April, 2025

  The Commercial Inn, Glossop, SK13 7SH

Shetland born singer-songwriter Astrid Williamson returns with her tenth studio album, Shetland Suite, a collection of traditional songs and instrumentals reimagined for the 21st century. A tribute to her late mother, Shetland Suite comprises of an evocative fusion of folk, electronics and field recordings and is due for release on Incarnation Records in September 2024.

Amongst the musicians joining Astrid on stage to present Shetland Suite will be Terry de Castro, ex. Wedding Present and Goya Dress, performing rare acoustic versions of Goya Dress’s beautiful back catalogue.

Special guest Sylvie Lewis's wry and witty, cabaret infused songs provide elegant support.

Testimonials

“Her vocal delivery approaches John Martyn levels of emotional impact.” – The Sunday Times

“Williamson’s voice is a thing of lustrous power.” – UNCUT

“Astrid’s songs are elegant, erudite and sexy.” – MOJO

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Tom Blackwell

   Saturday, 10 May, 2025

  The Commercial Inn, Glossop, SK13 7SH

Now based on Teesside, Tom Blackwell emerged from the Manchester folk club circuit, where he discovered the country, blues and gospel music that would become the foundations of his work.

Between 2010-2011 a succession of homemade recorded demo collections garnered somewhat of a cult following. In 2012 The Viper label of Liverpool released a compilation of these tracks. The record received support from BBC Radio 2 and 6 Music.

After a tumultuous start to 2014, Blackwell found himself embarking on a 3 month pilgrimage of America. Armed only with a guitar and the clothes on his back, he travelled thousands of miles over rail and bus, before a chance meeting in Nashville with sound engineer Matt Wyman led to the recording of Tyrone The Gun. The album found critical acclaim and named as one of Country Music People magazine’s albums of the year in 2015.

In 2018 he decided to undertake an archive project to document his early material in the barest of forms. The ‘Memphis Volumes’ were just that, hushed vocal and guitar takes captured in various Merseyside dwellings onto an old Tascam cassette recorder.

A prolific writer with a visceral and dynamic performance style, Blackwell has been performing across the UK and beyond for the last 15 years, honing his craft both on and off stage.

Testimonials

“Wonderful, heartfelt music” – Bob Harris

“A talent as big as the sky” – R2 Magazine

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Terry Christian

The Word is Terry Christian - The Naughty Nineties and More!

   Saturday, 19 July, 2025

  Partington Theatre, Glossop, SK13 8BW

Relive the ‘90s! Relive the Word!

Award-Winning broadcaster, comedian and writer Terry Christian, celebrates the legendary TV show, The Word with a unique one-man comedy show.

With some rarely seen clips and a no-holds-barred Q&A, Terry hosts this stand-up performance that delves into the iconic and quintessentially ‘90s ground-breaking and hugely influential TV show.

Launched in August 1990 on Channel 4, The Word both revolutionised ‘youth TV’ and predated ‘reality TV’ by a decade. With its goal being to create something new and exciting, The Word pushed the conventional boundaries of broadcasting to court controversy and outrage the establishment.

Combining a diverse mix of cutting-edge bands like Nirvana, Oasis and Snoop Dogg, irreverent and anarchic interviews of A-lister guests including Whitney Houston, Dave Chappelle, Bill Hicks, Rikki Lake and Oliver Reed. Plus, stories from the margins of society, and downright bizarre and outrageous studio stunts, The Word soon became loved by its target audience and loathed by the press in equal measure.

Terry Christian was voted 2nd in Celebrity Big Brother in 2009, sharing household duties with the likes of Coolio, LaToya Jackson and Ulrika Johnson. He has appeared on many other TV comedy shows including 8 out of 10 Cats, Would I Lie to You, The Stayin in Show, You’ve Been Watching, Have I Got News For You, Room 101, Fantasy Football, The 11 O’Clock Show, The Late Late Show (RTE), The Panel Show (RTE) as well as being a regular panellist on the topical Channel 5 series The Wright Stuff and Jeremy Vine. He has also featured on BBC Radio 4’s Pick Of The Week, News Quiz, A Good Read, Joe Lycett’s It’s Not What You Know, With Great Pleasure , and also Great Lives where his subject was Mr Manchester the late Anthony H Wilson.

In fact, Terry has never really been off the TV since the crazy days of The Word.

More recently Terry appeared in The Great Christmas Bake Off, which was a Channel 4 40th anniversary special, broadcast on Christmas Eve 2022.

Celebrity Master Chef on BBC1 in August 2023 where he reached the Quarter finals

And was a recent winner of Celebrity Mastermind on BBC1.

Testimonials

Not just your bog standard "An Audience with ..." it was genuinely funny and pretty true to the description of a "Stand Up Comedy Show".

I’ll be honest - I laughed more tonight than I did at the last comedy show I went to in Manc

There really is nothing on TV like the Word these days - it's all gone a bit safe hasn't it! - Altrincham HQ

With clips from the show including Oasis, Nirvana, John Wayne Bobbit and the squirmy "I'd Do Anything To Get On TV" clip it took us back on a real nostalgia fix.

“Christian himself is a natural and fantastically self-deprecating stand-up. He has found a natural home on the stage – a welcome reinvention for him and a great evening of laughs for those in the audience.” - The Huffington Post

“This hilarious romp through the guilt ridden, and occasionally dark, realms of life is another brave step for Terry. He brings all the maverick qualities that made him a media bête noire in the 90s, via C4’s The Word, to deliver an honest, funny and sometimes profound stand-up performance.” - The Yorkshire Pot

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