Join BBC Radio’s voice of cricket, Aggers, in his first solo show as he takes us on a trip down memory lane, recounting tales from a wonderful and entertaining career on the field and in the box, with film footage, audio clips and photographs on our big screen.

Disney’s “Christopher Robin” is directed by Marc Forster from a screenplay by Alex Ross Perry and Allison Schroeder and a story by Perry based on characters created by A.A. Milne. The producers are Brigham Taylor and Kristin Burr with Renée Wolfe and Jeremy Johns serving as executive producers. The film stars Ewan McGregor as Christopher Robin; Hayley Atwell as his wife Evelyn; Bronte Carmichael as his daughter Madeline; and Mark Gatiss as Keith Winslow, Robin’s boss. The film also features the voices of: Jim Cummings as Winnie the Pooh; Chris O’Dowd as Tigger; Brad Garrett as Eeyore; Toby Jones as Owl; Nick Mohammed as Piglet; Peter Capaldi as Rabbit; and Sophie Okonedo as Kanga.

Courtney Marie Andrews spent over nine months of 2017 on the road, with multiple trips across the US, Canada, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. That’s nothing new for Andrews, though. She’s been touring relentlessly since leaving her Arizona hometown at 16. It’s a life that inspired much of her 2017 breakthrough album, Honest Life. While that album’s themes spoke to the isolation and rootlessness inherent in a life on the road, most of its songs were actually written during an intentional, extended break. The success that followed its release, however, didn’t afford her the same break to write the material for her new album.

Although May Your Kindness Remain was predominately written on the road — in the van, in hotels, and in the homes of family and friends — it’s not a road record like its predecessor. That is, it’s not so much inspired by her life on the road so much as it is by the people she’s met along the way. It’s an inward reflection on the connectivity of their stories and her own. “More than anything,” she says, “it got me thinking about my childhood, and the people around me that I’ve known, and the stories that come from my family. It became clear how many people are struggling through the same issues.”

Featuring:

Rick Witter & Paul Banks (Shed Seven Acoustic)

An acoustic set by Shed Seven founding members Rick Witter and Paul Banks. The duo come to PAC following on the band’s triumphant sell-out show to over 8000 people at Castleford Bowl. Expect all of their classic anthems such as Going For Gold, Chasing Rainbows and Getting Better plus songs from their acclaimed new album Instant Pleasures.

The Howl & The Hum

The York-based 4-piece embarked on their first headline tour in England in Spring and followed this up with appearances at Latitude, Live at Leeds and the BBC Biggest Weekend. The band combine dark hypnotic pop with post-punk influences, pierced with lyrics that make you call your mum the next morning.

"A seriously great band, from whom you will be hearing a great deal more in the coming months." - Tom Robinson, BBC 6 Music

Jade Helliwell

Jade has a distinctive sound of British Americana and country. In 2017 she won the prestigious British Country Music Award ‘Female Vocalist of The Year’

Featuring:

The Eskies

A unique brand of folk noir/gypsy jazz/sea shanty and swaggering stage spectacle, The Eskies are one of the best emerging artists from Ireland. With notable performances at Glastonbury, Cambridge and Camp Bestival we are excited to welcome The Eskies to Handpick’d!!

Thea Gilmore

Furiously individual singer/songwriter and former Brit Award nominee. 'Britain has spawned very few world class female songwriters, but Gilmore is already in a league of her own' (Q Magazine). She has received acclaim and admiration from her peers such as Bruce Springsteen, Joan Baez and Martha Wainwright. 

Seafret  

Having gone down a storm at our 2016 Platform Festival Seafret are returning having gathered a huge fan base, with over ten million Spotify streams and have previously supported the likes of Hozier, Kodaline and James Bay. 

Coco & The Butterfields

Colourful, energetic & crowd-stamping, CoCo and the Butterfields express the intimate vibrance of a village folk fair with powerful vocal melodies and an undercurrent of driving beatbox to deliver catchy songs resonating in a stadium-filling urban pop vibe. 

Matt Abbot

One of the rising stars on the UK's spoken word scene, Matt is a unique and engaging performer and has rapidly established himself as one of the leading political poets of his generation. Humorous and harrowing, celebratory and confrontational; a vital poetic voice for our times.

The Dunwells

Emotionally driven anthemic rock-pop from Leeds based brothers. The band have built a large US fan base following appearance on Late Night With Jay Leno and performances at Lollapalooza, SXSW and the Bonnaroo Festival, as well as sold out shows across the UK.

Buffalo Skinners

One of our favourite bands whose uplifting performances are 60’s rock folk and blues styled.

"Fantastic" - Bob Harris, BBC Radio 2

Dan Webster Band

Popular York based singer-songwriter Dan Webster is a maverick in the folk music world, influenced by sounds and storytelling of American and British traditions, Americana and Rock and Roll. Dan has three albums to his credit; the latest hitting number 3 in Amazon's Folk Chart.

Please visit our website for further info, stage times and full listings for the festival.

Hayseed Dixie began one day in 2000 when John Wheeler and Mike Daly drank roughly

enough whiskey to float a battleship from the Florida Coast over to Portugal and back and

decided to play around in John’s studio. Having spent the previous few years touring around

with assorted country hat-acts, John had assembled a proper pile of recording equipment. Thus when he and Mike discovered in their drunken epiphany that the Lost Highway of Reverend Hank Williams and the Highway to Hell of Bishop Bon Scott were indeed the same identical stretch of tarmac, they were well and truly prepared to document this revelation in situ. Now, 17 years and 14 albums later, with global physical sales in excess of half a million and over 1,200 live shows in 31 different countries under their belts, Hayseed Dixie are the undisputed creators of the musical genre, Rockgrass. There are many copycats, converts, and disciples out there. Accept no imitation.

Described as gypsy folk & roll, Holy Moly and the Crackers are one of hardest working bands on the circuit with a growing and loyal fan base. Over the past two years they have toured the UK extensively with festival appearances including Glastonbury, Cornbury, Larmer Tree, Underneath The Stars and Towersey.

Holy Moly and the Crackers’ song Cold Comfort Lane has been used as one of the main featured songs in the new Hollywood blockbuster Ocean’s 8.

Something amazing happens when Ireland’s Hothouse Flowers step onto the stage. There is a sense of musical adventure, an impulse to reach new heights and depths in music where the unspoken aim is that the band and the audience become one and the world becomes a different place for a while. Hothouse Flowers are a rock n’roll band, a traditional band, a soul band. a jam band with their own brand of jam on both sides of the bread! Their much anticipated new album Let’s Do This Thing is released this Autumn.

True power inspires awe, and Irish Mythen packs a lot of it – lyrical, musical, and personal – into a relatively small frame.Mythen is a globetrotting troubadour – an Irish-born, contemporary Canadian folk artist who’s been amassing accolades and achievements across several continents over the years. Her presence and charisma simply command attention, and regardless of where she takes the stage, she delivers a sonic and emotional experience that transcends language and location; that reaches the very core of what connects us. It’s an experience that, in recent years, has earned her spots performing alongside Rod Stewart, Gordon Lightfoot, and Lucinda Williams and billings on major festival stages the world over.

In just the last 12 months, Irish has closed out the Philadelphia Folk Festival, performing after the iconic Lyle Lovett, and had thousands in her hands at Australia’s Woodford Folk Festival. On the back of the latter performance, she was even handpicked to open for Melissa Etheridge’s 2016 Australian run.

Jason is delighted to announce that he is extending his Amazing Midlife Crisis Tour into 2019 with a final series of dates. This is a tour with a twist!! These intimate evenings will be a unique opportunity to see him like you’ve never seen him before!

Celebrating his 50th birthday and with a wealth of tantalising tales under his belt, this autobiographical show will zigzag back and forth through his life, with stories about Neighbours, Ten Good Reasons, Kylie, Joseph, I'm A Celebrity, Strictly and much, much more. Hear some new stories (and possibly one or two you’ve heard before!) plus some of the songs you know and love for a night like no other!

After releasing a weekly folk song for a year, BBC Radio 2 spins and glowing press reviews, Joshua Burnell & Band take to the stage to launch a brand new album. Josh and his band won The Great British Folk Festival audience poll for favourite act by an overwhelming majority. An exciting emerging artist whose talent shines out!

If you build a fence then you have to treat it, as any DIY buff will tell you. You have to make it durable; to help it help us weather storms. Fife's Kenny Anderson realised this when forming micro-label, Fence, in 1994 – and so he treated it, then treated us, with an alt-pop alter-ego: King Creosote.

Anderson has become of Scotland's most acclaimed and prolific, singer-songwriters: a squeezebox Casanova with a cosmic wordplay fetish, whose voice leaves gentle devastation in its wake. He was short-listed for 2011's Mercury Prize thanks to Diamond Mine, his sublime collaboration with Jon Hopkins.

Other key LPs in the KC canon include Kenny and Beth's Musakal Boat Rides (2003), Rocket DIY (2005), KC Rules OK (2005) Bombshell (2007), Flick the Vs (2009) and his live-only album, My Nth Bit of Strange.

In 2014, Anderson completed his first-ever film soundtrack for From Scotland With Love. The film weaves Scottish archive film footage with KC compositions.

Creatively King Creosote continues to thrive and the Domino Recording Co will release Kenny’s highly anticipated new album - Astronaut Meets Appleman in September this year.

Brilliant musicians, thrilling performers, free-thinking visionaries and all-round good chaps as well…small wonder Lau are regarded as the epicentre of the new folk boom. And they’ve got shelves groaning with awards (BBC RADIO 2 FOLK AWARD WINNERS, BEST BAND, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2013, ALBUM OF THE YEAR 2015 THE HERALD), a forest’s worth of ecstatic reviews and breathless plaudits from excited audiences in various outposts of the world ringing in their ears to prove it.

Lau comprises Kris Drever (vocals, guitar), Martin Green (accordion, wurlitzer, keys, electronics) and Aidan O’Rourke (fiddle) and together they effortlessly bridge the seemingly diametrically opposed worlds of acoustic folk tradition and post rock – electronics.

‘Lau are a remarkable band – the most musically adventurous trio in British folk exquisite and hypnotic, musicianship at its best.’

THE GUARDIAN

Get ready to sing and dance, laugh and love all over again.

Ten years after Mamma Mia! The Movie grossed more than $600 million around the world, you are invited to return to the magical Greek island of Kalokairi in an all-new original musical based on the songs of ABBA. With the film’s original cast returning and new additions including Lily James (Cinderella, Baby Driver), the musical comedy will open in Summer 2018.

Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again is produced by Judy Craymer and Gary Goetzman, producers of the original film. Craymer is also the creator and producer of the worldwide smash-hit stage musical.

Ol Parker, writer of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, writes and directs the sequel from a story by Catherine Johnson, Richard Curtis and Parker. Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus return to provide music and lyrics and serve as executive producers. Tom Hanks, Rita Wilson, Phyllida Lloyd, Richard Curtis and Nicky Kentish Barnes also serve as executive producers.

Reprising their roles from Mamma Mia! The Movie are Academy Award® winner Meryl Streep as Donna, Julie Walters as Rosie and Christine Baranski as Tanya. Amanda Seyfried and Dominic Cooper reunite as Sophie and Sky, while Pierce Brosnan, Stellan Skarsgård and Oscar® winner Colin Firth return to play Sophie’s three possible dads: Sam, Bill and Harry.

As the film goes back and forth in time to show how relationships forged in the past resonate in the present, James will play the role of Young Donna. Filling the roles of Young Rosie and Young Tanya are Alexa Davies (A Brilliant Young Mind) and Jessica Keenan Wynn (Broadway’s Beautiful). Young Sam will be played by Jeremy Irvine (War Horse), while Young Bill is Josh Dylan (Allied) and Young Harry is Hugh Skinner (Kill Your Friends).

Cluster-bombed with yoghurt on 'Taskmaster', half-killed on 'Bear Grylls' Celebrity Island', Watson returns to what he's best at: being indoors.

Inspired by the mostly alarming state of the world his children are growing up in, and a genuine, urgent desire to do something about it, this show is about empathy. 99 percent of the world's population is made up of other people: why can't we understand them? As scrawny and impassioned as ever, one of the UK's most beloved and thinnest acts offers some suggestions, with his usual notoriously high joke- and-rant-per-minute rate.

Award winning Jazz guitarist Martin Taylor teams up with acoustic and slide guitar virtuoso Martin Simpson The pair shares the stage throughout the performance – adding to each other’s songs and instrumental pieces, taking them to sublime new heights.This is an unmissable evening with two guitar playing legends working in harmony.

Fresh from sold-out 2017 shows during which they performed Wishbone Ash’s seminal 1972 album Argus in its entirety and following hot on the heels of a Spring 2018 tour featuring 1974’s There’s the Rub, Martin Turner (founding member of Wishbone Ash) and his band return to perform another classic album from the vintage years of Wishbone Ash – 1970’s iconic Wishbone Ash debut album.

Having sold out London’s Royal Albert Hall earlier this year performing as a trio, Nick will head out solo in September on an initial 18-date run at much more intimate spaces across the UK and Ireland, including towns that Nick has never previously performed at. These shows bring the evolution of Nick’s touring of his second album, Wake Up Now, on a full circle journey from five-piece, to trio, and now right back to just Nick and his guitar.

Vanessa Kirby (The Crown, NT Live: A Streetcar Named Desire) and Eric Kofi Abrefa (The Amen Corner) feature in the cast of this brand new production, directed by Carrie Cracknell (NT Live: The Deep Blue Sea) and broadcast live from the National Theatre to cinemas.

Wild and newly single, Julie throws a late night party. In the kitchen, Jean and Kristina clean up as the celebration heaves above them. Crossing the threshold, Julie initiates a power game with Jean – which rapidly descends into a savage fight for survival.

This new version of August Strinberg’s play Miss Julie, written by Polly Stenham, remains shocking and fiercely relevant in its new setting of contemporary London.

★★★★★ ‘Ian McKellen reigns supreme in this triumphant production.’ (Daily Telegraph)

Broadcast live from London’s West End, see Ian McKellen’s ‘extraordinarily moving portrayal’ (Independent) of King Lear in cinemas.

Chichester Festival Theatre’s production received five-star reviews for its sell-out run, and transfers to the West End for a limited season. Jonathan Munby directs this ‘nuanced and powerful’ (The Times) contemporary retelling of Shakespeare’s tender, violent, moving and shocking play.

Considered by many to be the greatest tragedy ever written, King Lear sees two ageing fathers – one a King, one his courtier – reject the children who truly love them. Their blindness unleashes a tornado of pitiless ambition and treachery, as family and state are plunged into a violent power struggle with bitter ends.

Multi-award-winning drama The Madness of George III will be broadcast live to cinemas, in National Theatre Live’s first ever broadcast from Nottingham Playhouse.

Written by one of Britain’s best-loved playwrights Alan Bennett (The History Boys, The Lady in the Van), this epic play was also adapted into a BAFTA Award-winning film following its premiere on stage in 1991.

The cast of this new production includes Olivier Award-winners Mark Gatiss (Sherlock, Wolf Hall, NT Live Coriolanus) in the title role, and Adrian Scarborough (Gavin and Stacey, Upstairs Downstairs, After the Dance).

It’s 1786 and King George III is the most powerful man in the world. But his behaviour is becoming increasingly erratic as he succumbs to fits of lunacy. With the King’s mind unravelling at a dramatic pace, ambitious politicians and the scheming Prince of Wales threaten to undermine the power of the Crown, and expose the fine line between a King and a man.

Steve Harley, the original Cockney Rebel, and his Acoustic Trio, will play an intimate, unique and atmospheric show. He will be accompanied by his Cockney Rebel band-mates of long-standing, Barry Wickens [violin & guitar] and James Lascelles [piano and percussion]. The set will be built around tracks from any or all 13 of Steve’s original albums and will include all-time favourites like Mr Soft, Judy Teen, Mr Raffles, Sebastian, and of course the world-wide classic hit, Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me).

The Lone Bellow burst onto the scene with their self-titled debut in 2013. The Brooklyn-based band quickly became known for their transcendent harmonies, serious musicianship and raucous live performance — a reputation that earned them their rabid fan base. It's been three years since the band's victorious 'Then Came The Morning' was released. Produced by The National's Aaron Dessner, the album was nominated for an Americana Music Award.

In the years since the release, the band left their beloved adopted home of Brooklyn and moved to Nashville. Now, The Lone Bellow is back with Walk Into A Storm, which was released Sept. 15 on Sony Music Masterworks.

The Searchers remarkable career continues. With such classic hits as, Sweets For My Sweet; Needles and Pins; Don’t Throw Your Love Away; Sugar and Spice and When You Walk In The Room, they have contributed enormously in establishing the UK as the world’s leading nation in the music industry. There is no doubt that the decade that gave us The Beatles as well as The Searchers and many others was very special and will go down in history as being the most imaginative period of music creativity and expression.

With total record sales in excess of 50 million, The Searchers still have great appeal to audiences of all ages. They tour the globe as much today as they have done throughout a fantastic career spanning 5 decades.

Their special ‘solo’ concert is a highly entertaining show and has been enthusiastically and warmly received throughout the world. Combined with anecdotes and reminiscences, this fully self-contained concert includes all their famous hits, plus many album recordings, B-sides and a selection of other collector and well known favourites.

Don’t miss The Searchers live in concert!

Since releasing her debut as a teenager nearly 20 years ago, the Oxfordshire-raised, Cheshire-based singer and songwriter Thea Gilmore has gained global acclaim for making music not only of extraordinary beauty, but of rare honesty and insight.

In 2009 Thea released ‘Strange Communion’ an immediately acclaimed collection of seasonal songs ranging from joyful to meditative, from introspective to darkly humorous. The album contained ‘That’ll Be Christmas’ which became the most played festive song on BBC Radio 2 that year and was described by Chris Evans as ‘the best Christmas song in years’.

Her 2018 acoustic Christmas Party UK tour will feature material from ‘Strange Communion’ laced liberally with the occasional diverse, highly individual versions of a Christmas classic. Enjoy the superb musicianship always on display from Thea’s band and at the heart of the show - Thea's spine-tingling, pure-toned voice guaranteed to leave you moved, exhilarated and spellbound.

Unavailable for some five years, finally now in 2018 Thea is set to release a ‘deluxe’ reissue of ‘Strange Communion’ in November with four brand new bonus tracks.