By Jolene Rae-Walsh –
Here’s your lineup of gigs taking place during August 2023 at some of the best music venues in Kirklees. Get your tickets now to ensure you don’t miss out.
Smile Bar and Venue (Cashless Venue)
Huddersfield Blues Club
Huddersfield Blues Club Presents …. The Revelator Band.
Playing on Thursday 17th August, 8 pm. Free Entry for people interested.
Keep up to date:
www.facebook.com/huddersfieldbluesclub
www.instagram.com/huddersfieldbluesclub
www.twitter.com/HuddsBluesClub
Soulstation – The best Soul & Motown experience
Soulstation is a vocal band with more than 30 years in the entertainment industry. With their sweet vocals and harmonies and tight dance moves, they always strive to bring the audience the best Soul & Motown experience. Their repertoire ranges from Temptations, Drifters, The Four Tops, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Cool and the Gang, The O’Jays, Lionel Richie, The Real Thing, and many more.
These guys have been there and done it all, from hotels to weddings, theatres, and corporate events, to name a few. They will have you up dancing the night away and give you the best live Motown show experience you have ever seen.
Sat 19th Aug, 7 pm – 11.55 pm. Act due to start playing between 8 pm and 9 pm.
Advance Tickets: £10.00 + Booking fee
Northern Quarter
Open Mic Night
Every Thursday from 7.30 pm (Doors open at 5 pm for pizza and drinks)
Free Entry
WOODST.OCK FESTIVAL 2023
The Festival is an ancient Huddersfield ritual that took place one moon after the year’s longest day. The tribal ‘Ocks’, as they were called in the traditional iron age settlement of Huddersfield would gather on a natural row of woodland they would have called ‘Wood Street’ to perform music and hop sacrifice.
Although no one is exactly sure of the location of ‘Wood Street’, in folklore it is said to “lie where the sun shines brightest on an August morning”, which has been traced to the coordinates HD1 1DU or thereabouts.
Interestingly, the internationally famous Woodstock Festival is believed to be named after the revival of this, until recently long-forgotten, hop & music ceremony. The Wood Street Ock or simply Wood St. Ock is here to be enjoyed again thanks to the Mighty High Priest Norbert Quilby. Come celebrate like ancestral Huddersfieldians this year.
This festival runs from the 24th – 27th August.
Advance Tickets
Small Seeds
Open Mic Night
Every Tuesday
Doors 8 pm, Start 8.30 pm
Free Entry
(Note, you can bring your own drinks)
Head of Steam
Open Mic Night
Every Tuesday from 7 pm
Free drink for every performer
Jazz Night
Every Wednesday from 8.30 pm
Holmfirth Picturedrome
King King + These Wicked Rivers
King King
Throughout the music industry, King King is a name synonymous with, not only great music and outstanding musicianship, but with, and perhaps even more importantly, having a damn good time every time. When irrepressible leader Alan Nimmo walks out on stage wearing his now trademark kilt, fists in the air, and a smile as wide and resplendent as Glasgow’s River Clyde itself there is no doubt in anyone’s mind that they are in for one of the best nights of their life – and that’s before the music has even started!
King King has never been a band content to simply ride the crest of their self-made wave but instead has continued to work tirelessly to make that wave even bigger, stronger, and ultimately better.
Alan Nimmo is incapable of just sitting back when everything is going well and the accolades are flooding in. Not. He wants to take that level of excellence already achieved and turn it up a notch with every performance and every new release to try and become the best that he and his band can be. And judging by public response he is most definitely succeeding.
After 2 long years which saw the music business on its knees, King King has not only survived but has come back with a new lineup and an extra edge that is the envy of many of their peers. The addition of Alan’s brother Stevie on second guitar and vocals has added a breath of fresh air and a new dimension to the band.
Something Alan had been looking for for quite some time. Added to the already stunning lineup of Jonny Dyke (keys), and fellow Scots
Andrew Scott (drums) and Zander Greenshields (bass), the mighty King King is sounding arguably the best it ever has.
A string of sold-out performances on their latest tours is a testament to just that. Alan Nimmo has been in the music business for many years now – more than he can care to remember – but one thing has never changed. His desire to make honest, real music which comes from deep down within the soul.
It may well have been high-profile support slots with the likes of John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, Thunder, and Europe which opened King King’s music up to a much wider audience. But it was pure talent and hard work which got them there in the first place. The very same talent and hard work which has allowed them to continue on their ever-widening path to success ever since.
Many may feel a need to pigeonhole music, to give it a name and a place. Not King King. It’s just music. Real music. And real music always has and always will stand the test of time. King King’s music is the kind of music that makes people happy.
And let’s face it, especially in these all too dark and difficult times, who doesn’t want to be happy? Not convinced? It’s simple. Come along to a show and find out for yourself. ‘The best band in the world’ might be a bold statement to back up. But rest assured Alan and the guys will give it their best shot every single night.
Plus Special Guests These Wicked Rivers
Established in 2014, These Wicked Rivers are Derby’s entry to the new wave of rock and roll that is sweeping across the United Kingdom. Drawing influences from the likes of Black Stone Cherry and Rival Sons, the band has made quite an impact since their inception with their brand of blues-infused modern rock steadily picking up plaudits for their gutsy live performances across the UK.
“The sound of what might’ve happened if Clutch got a bit stoned with Audioslave and Zakk Wylde – and then jammed late into the night.” Classic Rock Magazine (2020)
Fri 25th August, Doors 7:30 pm
Advance Tickets: £22.50
Door Tickets: £24.50
The Selecter
Plus support from Madame Claude.
The Selecter is led by their iconic frontwoman Pauline Black and co-fronted by original member Arthur ‘Gaps’ Hendrickson with original drummer Charley ‘Aitch’ Bembridge. Pauline is one of the very few women in the 2-Tone scene – often referred to as the Queen of Ska. She was awarded an OBE in the 2022 New Year Honours.
Since the return of live music in 2021, the band has been playing festivals and shows in the UK and abroad. They also recently performed one of their most popular hits On My Radio live at the 2022 Commonwealth Games Closing Ceremony in Birmingham which was broadcast worldwide.
2-Tone was a crucial multi-racial, multi-cultural explosion borne out of Coventry and the Midlands that remade British pop from 1979 onwards. The main bands who pioneered the movement were The Selecter, The Beat, The Specials, and Madness.
The anarchic passion that fuelled Selecter gigs during the original 2-Tone era is still there, except the pair are more driven than ever. Their confidence is sky-high and they’re also writing the best songs of their career, which is saying something given the enduring popularity of hits like “Three Minute Hero,” “Missing Words,” “Too Much Pressure” and “On My Radio.”
The Selecter toured extensively to celebrate their 40th Anniversary, and the 40th anniversary of 2-Tone, in 2019 before the pandemic. Then 2021 saw the release of a Too Much Pressure Deluxe Edition 3CD Box Set & Vinyl to celebrate the album’s 40th anniversary. The Deluxe Edition reached #1 in the Official UK Vinyl Album Charts and #1 in the Official UK Independent Album Charts on its release. That was followed in late 2022 with a deluxe reissue of their second album Celebrate the Bullet in LP format and as a 3CD clamshell box set with a 20-page booklet featuring bands notes.
The Selecter continues to release new music, charting new albums in the UK in the last couple of years, proving that 2-Tone is still as relevant and important as it was 40 years ago. Their new studio album Human Algebra is due for release in April 2023.
Sat 26th August, Doors 7.30 pm
Advance Tickets: £27.50
Door Tickets: £29.50
Rain Bar
Rain is Huddersfield’s only LGBTQ+ late bar. They have karaoke every Friday and Show Time on Saturday.
Maverick’s 80’s Lounge
Rehab – Student Night
House, R&B, Tech, Cheese
Every Wednesday night
Lawrence Batley Theatre
Summer in the Courtyard
Join in the Theatre’s Courtyard for some fabulous summer fun. The annual outdoor festival returns for the fourth year. Summer in the Courtyard is the place to come for a chilled, fun, and friendly afternoon or evening with friends and family.
The café-bar will have some great drinks deals and be serving delicious pizzas whilst the event delivers you a variety of live music from local musicians and other special events on the outdoor stage.
Free entry and no need to book, simply come on down to the Courtyard.
Fridays
Gates open at 5 pm with local musicians performing from 7 pm.
Saturdays
Gates open at 3 pm with local musicians performing from 7 pm.
Friday 23rd June 2023 – Saturday 2nd September 2023
Dinky Disco: Festival Style!
Gather up your little movers, ravers, and shakers for an outdoor daytime dance party! Suitable for the whole family, there’s face painting, lots of outdoor activities, and games alongside the resident DJ who will be spinning tracks specially chosen to be enjoyed by little tapping toes and also get big people grooving (sorry, no ‘Baby Shark’ here!).
Take part in some simple dance activities or bust your moves with lights, glow sticks, and other sensory toys in a festival-like atmosphere.
Friday 11th August, 11 am – 12 pm
Advance Tickets: £5.00 – £7.00
Sangam Festival Presents Shujat Ali Khan
Shujat Ali Khan is from a Classical Music Family Sham Chaurasi Gharana. He’s the grandson of Ustad Salamat Ali Khan, and the son of Ustad Sharafat Ali Khan.
Flying in from Pakistan for Sangam Festival a one-off event, Shujat will be performing classical Sufi music bringing in influences from India and Pakistan.
This will be a mesmerizing evening also featuring Usman Farooqi singing melodious soft Bollywood rock. There’s something for everyone here.
Wednesday 16th August, 7.30 pm – 10.30 pm
Advance Tickets: £10.00
Courtyard Stories
Attic Stories moves into our Courtyard for a night of spoken word and poetry.
Love words? Come along to the monthly night of words, shared spoken, and sung, at the Lawrence Batley Theatre! Award-winning poet, Rose Condo, hosts this special celebration of Marsden Poetry Anthology, Village Voices. This event will be all open mic with some of those who contributed to the Village Voices anthology reading their work.
Tickets are pay as you feel. For this month’s event, all money will be put towards the funds for the next anthology.
Monday 21st August 2023, 7.30 pm – 9.30 pm
Advance Booking
Age Guidance: 12+
The County
Northern Soul Night with DJ Mark Holdsworth
A night of Northern Soul and Motown with DJ Mark Holdsworth playing from 7:30 pm till late. A night of dancing and a good sing-along.
Friday 18th August, 7.30 pm – 11 pm.
Flat Moon Live Gig
It’s The County’s first gig with Flat Moon. A Leeds-based Alt-Funk band who have some ties to Huddersfield.
Saturday 19th August, 8 pm till 10 pm.
Harveys Bar, Westgate
Love Music
Live Music every Friday and Saturday from 8 pm, with Free Entry.
Queens Tavern (Imperial Arcade)
Karaoke Night
Every Wednesday from 8 pm
Boy & Barrell
Karaoke Night
Every Wednesday night ‘til late
RAILWAY INN, MARSDEN
SUNDAY BLUES TRAIN
In partnership with the mighty Huddersfield Blues Club, Sunday Blues Train is an exciting new blues drop-in set to delight local blues fans. Right opposite Marsden Train Station.
Every Sunday from 4 pm.
Sunday 13th August – The James O’Hara Band.
Sunday 20th August – Blast Lane.
Sunday 27th August – Bloomin’ Hummerz.
The Beaumont Arms, Kirkheaton
La Musica
La Musica summer party – an all-day, outside event located in Kirkheaton, Huddersfield.
Set in the wonderful grounds of The Beaumont Arms is a large Teepee which dominates the outside space with an open feel with easy access to all the bars and the outside gin barn.
International DJs playing throughout the day will be playing quality house music & disco vibes. This year we have an amazing line-up and welcome the brilliant Groove Assassin who has left his imprints on the likes of Defected, Nervous, Strictly Rhythm, and Soul Heaven to name but a few. Regularly playing across the globe and in high demand we are so excited to invite Groove Assassin to play La Musica and drop his house music vibes!
Audiowhores are a world-renowned UK house music duo that always delivers on the dance floors around the globe. Their high-quality productions and versatile music have won fans worldwide. Brilliant music and perfect for La Musica!
Last year was an amazing event and it was an easy decision to welcome back Russ – Out In The Sticks, Hacienda, Neil Metzner – Up Yer Ronson, Ricardo De Funk.
All are supported by the brilliant residents who will be supporting the teepee and the afterparty barn.
Wayne Horton (Good2Groove) & Danny Humphrey (soundsensus)
12 pm – 11 pm – Outside Teepee
11 pm – finish – Afterparty Barn
Saturday 26th August, 1 pm until late
Advance Tickets
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