American singer-dancer to open festival

AMERICAN singers Nicole Scherzinger and Gladys Knight will be the among the headline acts at this year’s Henley Festival.

Other performers who will take to the stage include Dave Stewart’s Eurythmics Songbook, violinist Nigel Kennedy, Eurovision Song Contest star Sam Ryder and Ministry of Sound with saxophonist Ellie Sax.

Dara O Briain, Sara Pascoe and Mark Watson top the list of comedy acts while local acts will include jazz singer Rebecca Poole. Scherzinger, 41, who is also a dancer and actress, will perform on the “floating” stage on the opening night of the five-day festival, Wednesday, July 10.

On the Friday evening it will be the turn of 79-year-old Knight, who is known as the “Empress of Soul”.

This is the 42nd year of the festival, which features an array of musical and comedy acts as well as art, bars, restaurants and “roving eccentrica”.

New for this year is the Salon Quarter, a raised stage by the river that will feature outdoor cabaret, DJs and the only non-bookable restaurant.

The line-up was announced by Jo Bausor, the festival’s chief executive, at a special event for patrons and sponsors held at Leander Club on Monday evening. She called it the most “original, diverse and eclectic” mix of performers in the event’s history.

Announcing Scherzinger, Mrs Bausor said: “This is actually a really good one.”

The singer has just completed a residency at the Savoy Theatre, starring as Norma Desmond in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Sunset Boulevard, for which she won an Evening Standard Theatre Award for best musical performance.

Knight came to fame in the Seventies as Gladys Knight and the Pips and had hits such as Every Beat of My Heart and Midnight Train to Georgia.

She is a seven-time Grammy Award winner who recently received a lifetime achievement award.

Her Henley show will be the final one on her farewell tour.

She will be followed by Rylan, a TV and radio presenter who shot to fame on TV’s Big Brother and has since made multiple TV appearances as a guest and presenter.

The 35-year-old will DJ for the crowd in the Club.

Mrs Bausor described him as “almost a national treasure”, adding: “Come to see those teeth if nothing else”, referring to his veneers.

The Saturday night of the festival will have a party theme, with the Ministry of Sound returning to perform Ibiza anthems alongside Ellie Sax and the House Gospel Choir, who fuse house music and gospel together.

Nigel Kennedy, 67, will perform on the final night, playing his own compositions, classical musical and well-known songs.

He remains the bestselling violinist of all time and his most recent album, My World, topped the classical music charts.

Closing the festival will be Sam Ryder, 34, who found fame uploading music covers to social media in 2020 during the coronavirus lockdowns.

He gave the UK its best Eurovision result since 1998 with Space Man and his debut album There’s Nothing but Space, Man, went to No 1.

The other comedy acts include Mark Watson, Frenchman Marcel Lucont, with wry observations and erotic poetry, Angela Barnes, who has featured on Mock the Week and the Now Show, and comedy musical act Flo and Joan, performed by Rosie and Nicola Dempsey.

Jazz and swing acts will perform at the Paradiso tent including Mimi Rose and the Mulberry Earls, Belle Noir, Electro Swing Project and Natty Congeroo and the Flames of Rhythm.

Also performing will be Rebecca “Purdy” Poole, who was born in Henley and attended Gillotts School and The Henley College. There will be a RISE stage to promote the festival’s promotion of up-and-coming artists and provision of work experience.

New to this year is the Westcoast Rising Star Award, celebrating outstanding achievement and great potential, awarded to singer Katya.

Mr Bausor said the RISE programme was going from strength to strength and that the festival had doubled its number of work experience placements and visual artists.

One of the RISE acts is Ukrainian Oleksandr Balabanov, who moved to England following Russia’s invasion of his country.

He is currently studing at a music college in Guildford and will perform as The Multiverse.

Other acts are contemporary singer-songwriter Alex Francis, country and western singer Louise Parker, pop singer Eden Hunter and indie band The Great Leslie. Closing the show on Sunday will be The Wave Machine, the solo project of Angus Trott, a multi-instrumentalist inspired by the ocean.

World and folk music will be performed in the Bedouin tent by Amuse Manouche, Coyote, Natalie Gray, Horses on the Beach, Lady Nade, Beth Morris and the Moonrisers, Charlotte Campbell, Bloc off the Wall, Jesse Smith and the JG Collective.

Visual artists will have their work displayed throughout the festival grounds, with a sculpture garden, Boodles jewellery display and multiple galleries.

Durng the day on the Sunday there will again be a family festival, including Marcel Lucont’s interactive game show Les Enfants Terrible, musical comedian Jonny Awsum and clowns and traditional Punch and Judy shows for children.

As usual, the Sunday night will close with a fireworks display by Titanium Fireworks.

Mrs Bausor said it was harder to get acts this year as the backlog from the coronavirus pandemic had led to a lot of musicians doing shows last year and not wanting to do them this year due to exhaustion.

“That combined with the fact that there’s a lot more events than there used to be,” she said.

“It made it an interesting challenge this year but we are absolutely thrilled with what we managed to pull off. All the artists are brilliant.”

She said it was a privilege for the festival to host Knight’s final performance.

Mrs Bausor said: “The agents know Henley and recommended she did it here. They know how beautiful it is and it is a very fitting event for her last show.

“Our audience really appreciates superstar talent and she has been in the industry for 60 years.

“She is a glamourous lady and this is a glamorous event — it fits nicely.”