Something special happened on Saturday when Mary Coughlan gave a emotional and moving performance at The Frazer. Without a shadow of doubt this was one of the best concerts we’ve ever promoted in Knaresborough. The concert was very nearly a sellout and followed hot on the heels of a sellout by Beverley Craven. Supporting Mary was a splendid new female duo from York called ‘Two’ which provided a delightful double bill. Thanks Mary – we will have you back anytime!
We know it’s financially tough out there… but please keep on supporting events at the Frazer Theatre! Thanks to everyone who came to the sellout Beverley Craven concert last night but please don’t forget we have the wonderful Mary Coughlan, Matthews Southern Comfort and Chris Difford at the Frazer before the end of the year. All great acts brought to our wonderful town! Supporting Matthews SC will be Blair Dunlop, son of Ashley Hutchings, but a great newcomer in his own right. We also have the York-based group ‘Two’ supporting Chris Difford – also very talented newcomers. It was great to see many Knaresborough faces at the gig last night … BUT WE WANT TO SEE MORE KNARESBOROUGH FOLK! Let’s keep The Frazer at the centre of the music scene – it really is one of the best places to see great artists (and meet them afterwards!).
OK, so Mick stuck to the blues … we know some folk were a little disappointed that he didn’t play any Bad Co. BUT this was The Mick Ralphs BLUES Band … and boy, did they rock! As a big fan of 60s blues from artists such as The Yardbirds, Fleetwood Mac, Cream and The Jeff Beck Group I was in heaven! Also included in the repertoire were a couple of Grateful Dead numbers and an encore of ‘Hound Dog’ as a tribute to the recently deceased Jerry Leiber – a craftily inserted verse from ‘Can’t Get Enough of your Love’ seemed to go unnoticed though! The second set really grooved as the band slipped into another gear with fantastic versions of ‘Rock My Plimsoul’ and ‘The Thrill is Gone’ – this was white man blues at its best…
What a week – four of the finest concerts we’ve ever held: Toyah, Steve Harley, Claire Martin OBE & Sir Richard Rodney Bennett, Julian Cope.
TOYAH: What a lovely person who came with a great band. Toyah’s fans turned out to witness a stunning performance which included ALL her hits. The two biggest highlights (along with the six costume changes!) were a fantastic rendition of It’s A Mystery and a climatic encore of I Wanna Be Free. Many thanks also to the support Maeve O’Boyle who travelled all the way down from Glasgow to put in an excellent performance too. Shame on you if you missed this one!
STEVE HARLEY: A complete sellout for Steve and his band Cockney Rebel. No surprise there! Professional, tight and bloody brilliant… Judy Teen, Mr Soft, Sebastian, Mr Raffles… and of course Come Up and See Me. This performance was another highpoint of the Fringe and another first – the first time Mr Harley has EVER played Harrogate or even visited Harrogate!
CLAIRE MARTIN & RICHARD RODNEY BENNETT: Class. Sheer class. You’d expect nothing less from this queen of jazz and the renowned Mr Bennett. I can’t say much more really … the perfect concert in the perfect setting. Exquisite.
JULIAN COPE: This was always going to be interesting! And so it was! Julian lived up to his reputation as a maverick, eccentric, bizarre and genius. A storming performance that included not only songs he wrote while with the Teardrop Explodes but also solo classics like Pristeen, Double Vegetation, Julian H Cope, Upwards at 45 Degrees, Autogeddon Blues etc It really was the perfect way to round of the Fringe Crawl Day. A very nice chap too!
So it you weren’t there … BE THERE NEXT TIME!
What a coup for Knaresborough! A true rock legend striding across the Frazer Theatre stage! To be fair we’ve had a lot of big and well respected names at the Frazer since Kula began in September 2008 – a bit of a rollercoaster ride! The difference with Ralph is that this is a EXCLUSIVE PREVIEW CONCERT for Mick’s NEW band. The agent for Ralph is Mick Brown (thanks Mick) who is also the agent for The Quireboys who we had here last year – and that concert is widely accepted as the best gig Kula ever staged! MB was at the Frazer for the gig and so he knows what a fantastic little venue it is and ideal for MR’s warm-up tour gig. Don’t miss this concert – it really is a very rare opportunity!
Having had two successful gigs at the Frazer in a row my faith in the little theatre is being restored! The Karine Polwart Trio gave a wonderful performance as we expected from such a talented trio of musicians. Roger Davies has been a support for us before (the Deborah Bonham Band) and he called me up to ask if he could support Karine – I first saw Roger supporting Robin Williamson at Birdsedge back in 2008, and he impressed me back then – the new Jake Thackray, brilliant lyrics and great tunes. If you haven’t heard him get onto iTunes and download a few songs! Of course Rick Wakeman was also stunning – there is an excellent and fair review in this weeks Harrogate Advertiser by Graham Chalmers. So what next? Madness of course! May 7th – Otway & Barrett…
Well, what a double billing! What a successful combination! Local guitarist Ian Wallace put in a great 40 minute set followed by 2×45 min sets by Kilburn-born Sean Taylor. We had a great turn out and both Sean and Ian proved that you don’t have to be big names to put on a stunning show. Thanks so much guys!
It seems the economic downtown is starting to bite and support for some gigs at the Frazer has been lacklustre (and this goes beyond just Kula concerts). Due to this we will only be staging four gigs during the rest of 2011 in Knaresborough. Of course, if opportunities arise to book big ‘names’ who can fill the venue then this could change, but at the moment Kula will be concentrating on concerts at the Harrogate Theatre and hopefully in 2012 in York.
So many people were asking if Beverley Craven would come back to the Frazer Theatre we got on and booked her again! Tickets have already started selling even though the gig’s not until October. I’ve got a feeling this gig will sellout fast!!!!
At last we’ve completed our line-up for the next six months! It’s been a busy month negotiating deals but we finally got both Toyah and Julian Cope for the Harrogate International Festival Fringe 2011. We think both acts are superb and we are very excited about staging these shows. Rick Wakeman is just shy of selling-out – so come along and get your ticket before it’s too late. The same can be said for Steve Harley whose show isn’t until July! Please turn out for Glen Matlock and for the Sean Taylor/Ian Wallace gigs at the Frazer Theatre – there seems to be some apathy creeping into Knaresborough – if sales dry up we may have to reconsider the value of staging gigs in the town. At the end of the day Kula cannot run at a loss, if events are not supported then they just won’t happen. So don’t complain later…
