Category: ComingUp

Sunday 12 Oct 2025, 7:30pm

Esther Swift explores ritual, connection, isolation, and the natural world in her performance with pedal harp and voice. A prolific, boldly innovative harpist, composer and singer, Esther works across genres as diverse as classical chamber music and free improvisation, and writes for ensembles large and small. Having studied at Edinburgh’s St Mary’s Music School and the Royal Northern College of Music, as well as with harp pioneer Catriona McKay, she has received numerous prestigious commissions and featured in many international collaborations. She has travelled to Vietnam, New Zealand, Malaysia, Mongolia, and beyond with her music, and shared international music lead collaborations with musicians and other artists around the world. She has recently been commissioned by Celtic Connections, Chamber Music Scotland, Manchester Jazz festival and The Edwin Morgan Trust and performed internationally with her band Emerge

Saturday 11 October 2025, 7:30pm
Phil Bates connection with ELO began when his band Trickster signed with ELO’s record label, Jet Records and being managed by the infamous Don Arden ( Father of Sharon Osbourne). The band featured as support band on ELO’s ground-breaking and spectacular 1978 Spaceship world tour. When Jeff Lynne decided he no longer wanted to tour with ELO.

Phil Bates and Band. He has often appeared live on German, Swiss and Polish TV playing ELO songs. He played in a duo with former colleague Tina McBain for nearly twenty years playing venues all over the UK. These days in this country he plays as a solo artist playing songs from his own repertoire his set consists of his own compositions a little bit of blues a touch of Beatles and of course lots of those classic Jeff Lynne songs that made ELO one of the biggest and most successful bands in the world