rise @ bluebird is our Acomb evening arts venue.
The space regularly plays host to live music, spoken word, art exhibitions, theatre, comedy, family- friendly nights and much more.
Rise aims to be a vibrant and independently-run creative hub, driven by love and support from the local community - and an ardent sense of adventure.
Pop down and check us out - we’re looking forward to you helping shape this place just as much as we do.
Gallery
What's on
- 05/12/2024
17:00:00
Family Friendly Activities
Free
Christmas Makers' Fair - number 2!
Come one, come all! This year we've got TWO Christmas Makers' Fairs on 21st November and 5th December - both full-to-the-brim with talented artists & makers selling art prints, gifts, candles, jewellery, crafts, flowers, plants and much more. Plus we'll have our usual live music, lovely mull, hot chocolate (with or without a twist) and our famous mince pies and stollen. What's not to love? See you there. 5-9pm!
- 07/12/2024
18:00:00
DJ Nights
Free
Into The Groove Christmas Special
Our usual eighties vinyl extravaganza with a Christmas twist!
- 08/12/2024
15:00-21:00
Family Friendly Activities
Free
BYO Vinyl
Bag your 30 minutes of fame! Spin your tunes at our BYO Vinyl Sundays.
- 11/12/2024
19:45
Live Music
£4 - tickets on the door
Christmas Concert with Manouche Ganoush and The People's Show Choir
A night of sizzling hot festive fun at Rise. Manouche Ganoush will be blazing through a set of jazz, klezmer and European Christmas tunes. With support from the People's Show Choir York, who will be sharing much loved Christmas songs from film and TV. Let's get that Christmas spirit going round in Acomb nice and early!
-
Dan Webster Band
York’s own Dan Webster, and his band are among the U.K.’s finest exponents of Americana and they’re finally back. The gang are gearing up to release his fifth studio album. Tickets are limited so be quick - this is sure to be a sell out.
With previous albums receiving accolades from the folk and Americana press, Dan’s latest offering promises to be ‘rather marvelous’, as lauded by BBC R2. Dan Webster has been described as ‘one of the U.K’s best kept musical secrets and one not to miss!’, ‘Achingly lovely, like sun breaking on a rain swept highway…’ RnR and an ‘An insightful lyricist with a great voice’ Acoustic Magazine. According to Americana UK – ‘He is the missing link, the joining point, where folk fuses with country – as good as you’ll hear on any record out of Austin or Nashville – beautiful – he is Anglicana’.
Dan is a road-seasoned English singer-songwriter and guitarist, his music is influenced by the sounds and storytelling traditions of Americana, which he uniquely melds with an honest Northern English perspective in his songwriting. His sound is unashamedly influenced by the US – his heart remains a Yorkshireman’s. Dan, like his band, is a formidable live performer – inspiring attention; pulling you into his work with finely crafted melodies and lyrics – delivered with a powerful and honest vocal.‘ He is the missing link, the joining point, where folk fuses with country and Alt rock – as good as you’ll hear on any record out of Austin or Nashville.’ Americana UK - 9/10
- 13/12/2024
18:00:00
DJ Nights
Free
On My Way
Our Northern Soul residency with Michael Toy & Dan Guest (Brighton Beach). Expect Northern soul classics along with some upbeat Motown to get you moving. Don't forget your talcum powder!
- 15/12/2024
15:00-21:00
Family Friendly Activities
Free
BYO Vinyl
Bag your 30 minutes of fame! Spin your tunes at our BYO Vinyl Sundays.
-
Baps and Buns Christmas Cabaret
We are thrilled to announce that York’s Burlesque Queen, Freida Nipples, is back at Rise this December for a Christmas Baps & Buns special.
Freida is an internationally award-winning burlesque artiste who will seduce you with astounding aesthetics and enthral you with her captivating stage presence.
Alongside her will be a selection of sensational cabaret artists. From drag queens to acrobats, you always know you will be in for a fun night at Freida’s shows which have been sell-out successes across York for the past six years, at venues such as York Theatre Royal, The Basement, Impossible and more.
So - prepare yourselves for an evening of debauchery & glamour in Acomb. The big question is, are you ready for it?!
Tickets include a welcome drink on arrival. (Non-alcoholic option available).
-
Baps and Buns Christmas Cabaret
We are thrilled to announce that York’s Burlesque Queen, Freida Nipples, is back at Rise this December for a Christmas Baps & Buns special.
Freida is an internationally award-winning burlesque artiste who will seduce you with astounding aesthetics and enthral you with her captivating stage presence.
Alongside her will be a selection of sensational cabaret artists. From drag queens to acrobats, you always know you will be in for a fun night at Freida’s shows which have been sell-out successes across York for the past six years, at venues such as York Theatre Royal, The Basement, Impossible and more.
So - prepare yourselves for an evening of debauchery & glamour in Acomb. The big question is, are you ready for it?!
Tickets include a welcome drink on arrival. (Non-alcoholic option available).
- 22/12/2024
15:00-21:00
Family Friendly Activities
Free
BYO Vinyl
Bag your 30 minutes of fame! Spin your tunes at our BYO Vinyl Sundays.
- 27/12/2024
18:30 - 23:00
DJ Nights
Free
Resurrection - Christmas special
Playing the best Indie tunes from the 80's & 90's with a few Christmas Indie covers thrown in..
-
NYE RISE PARTY
Join us to welcome in 2025 with our NYE ALL-STARS. Join Alilou, Tinkermuffin and Perseus Trax for funky beats and a treasure trove of vinyl treats. Always a certified great set from these local legends, who have played festivals, club nights, cool bars and exotic destinations. Tinkermuffin is also co-founder of popular Crescent night - MASHED. Yeastie Boy will be side-kicking with house classics, party tunes and upbeat edits. Come and DANCE with us. This event requires a Temporary Events Notice due to late opening, if you have any queries please contact us on 07916 324572.
- 16/01/2025
Theatre & Performing Arts
Kali
TBC
- 17/01/2025
18:00 - 23:00
DJ Nights
£5.00
Sobar
Join us for our Inaugural Sober club night, for those who can't/don't want to drink alcohol but still want to have a great time and a dance. Alilou will be on the decks.
- 29/01/2025
7.30 doors
Poetry & Spoken Word
£5-£10
Rise Up! A monthly celebration of poetry and the spoken word.
RISE UP! Join us as we welcome Caroline Bird, Oliver Carmichael & Minal Sukumar. Caroline Bird is a poet and playwright. Her selected poems, Rookie (2022) and The Air Year (2020) are two of Carcanet’s most popular books of the present decade. She won the Forward Prize for Best Collection in 2020, and has been shortlisted for a number of prizes including the TS Eliot Prize, the Costa Book Awards, the Ted Hughes Award, the Polari Prize and the Dylan Thomas Prize. A two-time winner of the Foyle Young Poets Award, her first collection Looking Through Letterboxes was published in 2002 when she was fifteen. She won a Cholmondeley Award in 2023. Her seventh collection, Ambush at Still Lake, was published in June. Oliver Carmichael is from County Durham. He studied English Literature & Creative Writing at Lancaster University. In 2024 he was shortlisted for the Aurora Prize and won the Winchester Poetry Prize. He is the recipient of the Michael Donaghy Award which supports a poet to attend the first Arvon Advanced Writing Programme. Minal Sukumar is a fiction writer and poet from Bangalore, India. Her work has been featured in The Bombay Review, Gulmohur Quarterly and the Hyderabad Literary Festival's publication, Khabar. She co-founded the spoken word collective, Mouth of Word and has performed original poetry in India, Ireland and the UK. Currently, Minal is a PhD researcher and Wolfson Scholar at the Centre for Women's Studies, University of York.
-
Edwina Hayes live @ rise
One of the finest female singer/songwriters this country has produced in years. Edwina brings together English folk, Americana and the rich Northern singer/songwriter tradition to create a sound that’s truly her own.
Highly accomplished she’s toured with such notable performers as Jools Holland, Van Morrison, Nanci Griffith and Loudon Wainwright III to name just a few.
Edwina numbers Michael Parkinson and Mike Harding among her fans and the title track of her album Pour Me A Drink was covered by Nanci Griffith who calls her 'the sweetest voice in England'.
Her cover of the Randy Newman song Feels Like Home was featured in the Cameron Diaz film My Sister's Keeper and has since had over twenty million plays on Spotify and over fifty million plays on You Tube.
Edwina's 4th album Ruby Rose was released in 2022.
'The sweetest voice in England. A wonderful young woman, so gifted and full of song.' Nanci Griffith
'Haunting, honeyed, solo songwriter.' The Guardian -
Cole Stacey ‘Postcards From Lost Places’ Album Launch Show
‘POSTCARDS FROM LOST PLACES’
ALBUM LAUNCH SHOW
“Soft, pop-aware voice describing a life alive with motion” – The Independent
Cole Stacey is a visceral and lyrical songwriter, singer and musician who has roamed the highest diverse echelons of British folk, 80s pop, spoken word and ambient electronics. From The Royal Albert Hall to The Westfalenhalle Arena, from 700-year-old castles in Gdansk to Glastonbury Festival.
With explorations into traditional songwriting and verse in his blood, Cole will be releasing his extraordinarily honest debut album ‘Postcards From Lost Places’ in early 2025 to audiences far beyond his Dartmoorian horizons. Offering regeneration as its theme while being rooted in tradition, at its heart is a symbiosis of ‘lost’ places and forgotten words, stretching as far back as the 13th century, paired with Cole’s distinctive lyrical songwriting and soft pop vocals mixed with singular field recordings. Collaborations include traditional Lithuanian Kanklės virtuoso Emilija Karaliute, BBC Radio 2 Folk Award Nominee Jack Cookson and electronic producer and composer Guy Andrews. Each track, or postcard, is imaginatively and lovingly recorded on location in spaces that to the outside world are easily overlooked, yet continue to endure.
As one half of alt-folk duo India Electric Company alongside Joseph O’Keefe, Cole has recently been found on prime-time live sessions for BBC Radio 2 and BBC 6 Music with KLOF declaring them “one of the truly pioneering acts in folk music” and BBC Radio 1 describing them as “A full musical odyssey”.
Since 2015 Cole has been accompanying legendary pop icon Midge Ure on everything from mandolin to bass Guitar, analogue synthesizers to vocals, across sold-out tours of Australia, New Zealand, UK, Scandinavia and Germany. Shows with the Human League at Hammersmith Apollo and headline concerts at the likes of The Royal Albert Hall have been plentiful in recent years.
Cole will be performing this debut album live in full for the first time at these handpicked unique live shows in the UK in Spring 2025, each venue selected for its resonance with lost and regenerated places and personal connection to him.
“Cole’s soaring vocals were a highlight of an electrifying performance, nothing short of mesmerizing” – Scottish Music Network
Website www.colestacey.net -
Gary Stewart
Gary Stewart is a singer/songwriter from Perthshire who cut his teeth performing on the Leeds Music Scene for 15 years before moving to York where he currently resides. Stewart writes songs in the Folk/Pop vein and is influenced by the Folk Artists of the '60's and '70's (Paul Simon/James Taylor/The Eagles/Joni Mitchell/Carole King).
The Scottish Songsmith has released 4 albums to date, his latest, 'Lost, Now Found',self-recorded, produced and released in June 2021. The debut single, 'Leopard' received steady A-List radio play on YO1 Radio, BBC Radio Scotland and Amazing Radio and the second single, 'Hot To Trot', features backing vocals from Rosie Doonan (Birdy/Peter Gabriel). His debut record, 'Boy Cries Wolf', garnered much praise from Janice Long and was played on Radio 2 courtesy of Steve Lamacq. The left-hander is also no stranger to the festival circuit, having played Kendal Calling, Green Man, Shrewsbury, Towersey, Wickham and Beardy Folk Festival to name but a few.
When not performing his own music, the multi-instrumentalist busies himself playing drums for Hope & Social and bass for Leeds-based Fleetwood Mac Tribute, Weetwood Mac(ex-Ellen & The Escapades). He also fronts his own reworking of Paul Simon's Classic Album, 'Graceland', with a seven-piece band who have played many a Theatre and Festival, including Shrewsbury, Towersey, Costa Del Folk, Moonbeams and Underneath the Stars.
'That's Pop with Pizzaz' - For Folks Sake
'Reminiscent of a 1960's bedsit-era Paul Simon' - Northern Sky
'Definitely onto a winner' - This Is Fake D.I.Y -
Jazz @ Rise: Jamie Taylor and Jamil Sheriff
The musical association and friendship between Jamil and Jamil goes back over twenty years, and they have performed together in settings ranging from intimate small groups, through to large ensembles such as Jamil’s own big band. Performing here as a duo, they hope to channel some of this shared history and musical empathy, taking inspiration in the process from great jazz piano/guitar collaborations such as those of Bill Evans with Jim Hall and Fred Hersch with Bill Frisell.
One of the UK’s most respected jazz guitarists, Jamie Taylor's swinging, lyrical playing has seen him perform at legendary London venues such as Ronnie Scott’s, The Vortex, and The Troubadour, along with many other jazz clubs across the country and beyond. He has worked with a long list of top-flight jazz musicians from Europe and the US, amongst them Wayne Escoffery, Sebastiaan DeKrom, John Goldsby, John Stowell, and Baptiste Herbin. Jamie is also very active as a teacher, and is a Principal Lecturer in Jazz Guitar at Leeds Conservatoire.
“Appreciate him, guys. He's world class.” Two-time DownBeat award winning US guitarist John Stowell
Jamil Sheriff is a celebrated jazz pianist, composer, and educator based in Leeds. Over the past two decades, he has established himself as a significant figure in the British jazz scene, known for his innovative compositions and skilful, expressive playing. Jamil’s career is marked by a diverse range of projects, from leading his own ensembles, such as the Jamil Sheriff Octet and Big Band, to collaborating with prominent British jazz musicians. His discography showcases his versatility, with acclaimed albums like Daydreams and Places Like This receiving praise for their melodic sophistication and compositional depth.
“Excellent northern pianist who brings together a range of classic , contemporary and urban approaches.” The Times -
York International Shakespeare Festival: Macbeth (solo)
Presented by award winning theatre company The Shakespeare Edit
This thrilling monodrama has played to sold out venues in Italy, Latvia, London, and at United Solo Theatre Festival in NYC where the production won the award for Best International Show.
Performed by Artistic Director Paul Goodwin, and created in collaboration with Ukrainian composer Dmitriy Saratsky, this 50 minute dramatic monologue is storytelling at its best; with psychological depth, superb verse speaking, dynamic physicality and a brilliant soundscape bringing Shakespeare's tale of ambition, murder, and madness fully alive for contemporary audiences.
"Paul Goodwin's astonishing performance condenses and crystallises the tragedy of Macbeth into a non-stop stream of consciousness roller coaster...utterly compelling." - LondonTheatre1 More events coming soon!