Steven Devine
Doncaster-born and Barnsley-bred, Steven Devine has a busy career as a music director and keyboard player. He is artistic adviser to the York Early Music Festival and his partner is the soprano Kate Semmens.
What’s your first Yorkshire memory? Wearing a cagoule on our holidays up in the Dales, and the rain. I know that a lot of other people will recall that their young lives were always filled with sun-blessed days, but all I remember from our trips out is constant bad weather – but we didn’t mind. The three of us –
I’m an only child – would always enjoy ourselves, the walks were in brilliant fresh air and there were frequently some stunning views. It all combined to give me an overwhelming love of the countryside.
What’s your favourite part of the county – and why? Anywhere up and around Aysgarth Falls. There is a gentle romance to the Dales, a very definite and unique look and “feel” to them.
What’s your idea of a perfect day, or a perfect weekend, out in Yorkshire? Coming back to the place I still call “home” and catching up with all the news from my mum and dad, who now live in Barnsley. Having a trip out with them somewhere and just having a good old gossip.
Do you have a favourite walk, or view? Walking gives me the greatest pleasure when I am strolling alongside some water. A river or a stream just adds to the overall enjoyment of the experience. Filey Brigg has always been a place I love, and the views are wonderful.
Which Yorkshire sportsman, past or present, would you like to take for lunch? Joe Root. It’s always a source of fascination to me how people who perform in front of an audience – whether it be on the pitch or in a concert hall – prepare. What motivates them? Cricket is a completely different discipline from music, so it would be interesting to talk to Joe about how he does it and how he handles all that success and fame.
Which Yorkshire stage or screen star, past or present, would you like to take for dinner? Sir Michael Palin, who is polymathic – a writer, comedian, social observer, traveller and tenacious fundraiser for causes he believes in. What isn’t to like about that?
If you had to name your Yorkshire ‘hidden gem’, what would it be? Any one of the many dozens of beautiful churches in the city of York, all of them very different and each with their own atmosphere, but all of them reeking of history.
If you could choose somewhere, or some object, from or in Yorkshire to own for a day, what would it be? The Black Sheep Brewery, at Masham. I really do like my ales and this place produces some of the best. It would be a great privilege to be allowed in, shown how it all gets done, and to brew a batch of my own beer.
What do you think gives Yorkshire its unique identity? The people, and their directness, which is very refreshing. Folk in the county don’t faff about, they tell you how it is and if they like it or not. There’s a pride about people who come from Yorkshire as well.
Do you have a favourite restaurant, or pub? The nearest one to the place where I’m performing, but only after the concert has ended. Another great thing about this county is that there are still some amazing little pubs to explore.
Do you have a favourite food shop? The Blue Barbakan on Fossgate, in York, which serves amazing Polish food. It’s very rustic and traditional and I know that they source all their food locally.
How do you think that Yorkshire
has changed, for better or for worse, in the time that you’ve known it? The rail services on the main lines have come on a lot, thank heavens, and I say that as someone who uses them a lot. I hope that people won’t take this the wrong way, but maybe we’ve become a bit more insular? A bit more jingoistic about how good we are. There’s a vast difference between pride and boasting.
If you had to change one thing in, or about Yorkshire, what would that be? Not very much. I love the way that we are all pretty straightforward and that we get to the point, and we ought to hold on to that. Maybe we’re slowly assimilating that English vagueness, instead of getting directly to the point? It would be a shame if Yorkshire was blunting its edges.
Who is the Yorkshire person that you most admire? Delma Tomlin, who is the founding director and chief executive of the National Centre for
Early Music, in York. I am so proud to call her a good friend, but this lady is an extraordinary powerhouse. She came to York to work with the Mystery Plays and stayed – she was the moving force in saving the redundant St Margaret’s Church on Walmgate, setting up the NCEM and organising concerts and recitals galore. She is simply remarkable.
Has Yorkshire influenced your work? Yes. It was here where I discovered that I actually liked playing music and I shall always be profoundly grateful for the fact that I have parents who encouraged me every step of the way.
Name your favourite Yorkshire book/author/artist/CD/ performer.? Dame Janet Baker. Another remarkable lady, and someone who delighted her audiences for years. Many of her recordings of the classic repertoire have never been bettered.
If a stranger to Yorkshire only had time to visit one place, it would be? It has to be York, doesn’t it? It has everything – theatres, museums, good pubs and restaurants and lovely churches, with the Minster at the centre. Whenever I get asked to perform in
York my day is made.
There’s a sculpture at the corner of Bishopthorpe Road in York which represents community. When winter comes, some kind soul knits the family of figures a set of clothes to see them through until spring. This year, they haven’t shed their woolly cloaks and while one of them is now holding an NHS rainbow, the sculpture has come to symbolise something else – the enforced hibernation of many of the shops on the bustling parade nearby.
Just a handful of the 30 or so stores on Bishy Road as it’s known to locals belong to large chains and with the rest thriving independents, it has often been held up as a blueprint for the Great British high street. When coronavirus arrived, signs appeared in many of the shop windows promising they would be back just as soon as it was safe, but even this resilient group of independent traders knew that nothing was guaranteed.
For M&K Butchers, lockdown came just a few weeks after it celebrated its 50th anniversary. This year was supposed to be one of celebration, but instead the