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Every month The Barn Coffee Shop welcomes the best independent performers to Meanwood Valley Urban Farm Leeds LS7 2QG“Loving these Acoustic Nights” “super food, excellent coffee” “such a great buzz” “Blooming amazing concert” “Phenomenal night” “You have an amazing thing going on”
In May we are excited and privileged to host a Special One Off Solo Concert in Leeds featuring:
An intimate evening with composer/singer/songwriter
ADRIAN SNELL
Performing music from 26 albums over 50 years ..
Had 2 Albums premiered on BBC Radio 1
Had a documentary concert filmed by HTV
Wrote “symphonic rock classic” masterpiece “The Passion”
“Adrian's greatest gift is the intimacy of his performing style”
“tantalizingly beautiful”
“passionate and articulate”
“sensitive and appealing, soft and strong”
Thur 28th May 2026 | Doors Open: 6.45pm
Starts 7.30pm sharp | £8 tickets available at: https://ticketlab.co.uk/promoter/AcousticNights
Adrian Snell on YouTube:
This Land (from The Early Years)
Simon Carry My Cross (from The Passion)
The Trial (from The Passion)
Kaddish for Bergen-Belsen (from Alpha & Omega)
Man of Sorrows (from Alpha & Omega)
Love In My Life (from The Virgin)
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BRING A FRIEND
Free Car Parking available in the Meanwood Valley Urban Farm large car park.
Also available is Wheelchair access.
Please email Andrew at the venue on [email protected] if you need to discuss accessibility.
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TICKET INFO:
£8 Tickets on sale at:
The Barn Coffee Shop
Online at: https://ticketlab.co.uk/promoter/AcousticNights
Enquiries: 0113 262 5048
£10 tickets - only available on the door if the concert has not sold out in advance
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THE CONCERT WILL BE A PART SEATED AND PART STANDING EVENT.
SEATS ALLOCATED ON FIRST COME, FIRST SERVED BASIS.
PRIORITY GIVEN TO ADVANCED TICKET HOLDERS
Hot Food and Coffee on Sale from 6.45pm | BYOB
It is recommended that you ARRIVE EARLY at the venue from 6.45pm to allow time to order your coffee and/or food and get the best seats.
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Adrian Snell Bio
Adrian Snell, Europe's most successful contemporary artist in his field of music, by the time he'd graduated he had developed a dazzling piano and compositional technique and been offered a contract by Chappel Music the worlds' largest music publisher.
Adrian has enjoyed a succession of striking artistic achievements, like the milestone 'The Passion' album with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra or the 'Alpha And Omega' album of which is the biggest selling European-origin album ever made for its music marketplace, and was performed live before a staggering quarter of a million people.
Adrian attended St. Edmund's public school in Canterbury. “There was a stage when I was encouraged to look at piano as a performer, even with the thought 'could I make a concert pianist?' But it became obvious that I didn't have the discipline to do that. I never saw myself as a concert pianist or solely with the classics.”
"My parents were very open to pop music coming into the home. I was discovering new styles and music and would come home and try new styles and ideas that I'd heard. Adrian formed his first musical group with my sister Julia and her friend, who was a drummer. We were called 'Theophilly' which means Lovers Of God. Faith was part of my life from the beginning, when I started to write words and songs they tended to be words that had a message and dealt with my faith.”
"When I got to Leeds College of Music I got some advice from a voice teacher. I was aware that I needed information about how to use the voice and how to protect it, more than wanting to sing more classically or operatically. When I went to college I went with the desire that one day my path in life would be as a performer and as a recording artist."
For a while Adrian's ambitions were diverted more towards songwriting. "I got to know a composer in Canterbury who was interested in what I was writing and I think it was he who suggested that I contact his publishers who were Chappells. I went there with some of my material and signed a contract with them. That was the first experience I had of making serious inroads into the music business. Chappells were hoping to develop me as a songwriter. I remember a couple of occasions when I was asked to submit songs for the Eurovision Song Contest when The Shadows were performing.
When Chappells began to see the religious side to my writing they talked about developing some of my writing for educational purposes - working in the schools area. What was encouraging to me was that fairly early on, 17 or so, I was having interest by established publishers in my ability as a musician to write.
What I didn't see was the desire to say let's drop all this and work as a purely commercial writer - because I'd never seen myself as making a choice to become a gospel singer. I was simply expressing what was on my heart - I couldn't divorce the two. That has never changed - music has always been for me a fundamental part of who I am."
“I was beginning in my college life to play concerts. I was invited to play at Newcastle University with Malcolm and Alwyn. There was a mutual sense of appreciation of what each was doing. We sat in the dressing room and talked and they told me that they were with a company called MGO and had done several albums. I told them about Chappells and I wasn't very satisfied and wanted a company that would get behind me as a performer.
A MGO contract was offered to Adrian. It was signed only after considerable soul searching. "There was a reticence in me to go to a company called MGO. For a musician that saw himself as a serious musician wanting to make an impact on the world - it took some rethinking. But against that, I saw that I was writing songs and lyrics that clearly a regular company would be very unlikely to take on board and say let's do an album of songs with this guy' songs that were linked to my own spiritual discovery."
There was however in the fledgling musician's repertoire a suite of songs, as he discovered when he entered a Melody Maker contest. "I went fairly high in the first heats. I remember playing in Leeds Poly quite a selection of songs but the mainstay of my performance was a suite about Christ's crucifixion 'Gethsemane', 'Judas' Song' 'Golgotha' and 'Simon, Carry My Cross'. I didn't win it but I was immediately approached by a US management company, they were excited about what they heard. I was introduced to a guy who managed The Kinks. The songs I sang, which were eventually to become part of 'The Passion', were no problem to his company." But Adrian was also well aware that some of his material might be a stumbling block to the average A&R man.
It was fortunate for MGO that I came to this first ever meeting with Geoff Shearn with very little understanding of the MGO world - perhaps if I had known some of what the label produced, maybe I'd have had different thoughts. But I came with a tape of songs of mine and had an immediate excited response from people in the company who were saying 'this gives us the chance to branch out a little bit from what is currently understood as gospel music.. this is clearly a guy rooted in the classics with a contemporary feel who is doing something quite original'.
By 1976 Adrian was touring: a slim, rather callow youth with lank, long hair and a characteristic leather headband. Remembers Adrian "My first ever serious tour was organised by MGO after the release of the 'Fireflake' album. It was an incredible hotchpotch, from colleges and universities to youth groups and church halls. They were the headband days. That was a shock to people, what on earth was this guy turning up with long hair and a headband with a little 'peace' sign at the front. At several places they felt I was from the States, from California but then I'd say something with this nice middle class accent. And they'd think 'what!?' All these things - the headband and the coloured waistcoats - were a serious statement. Although part of me laughs, part of me says 'no, it was serious'. It was a statement I wanted to make about who I was.
“I wore a cross round my neck and I had a briefcase with stickers on it. I was not confident enough for that to come out in a much less overt way as I would be now."
“For several years MGO and Buzz combined to put on an event in the Albert Hall which I performed at several times. The first time was after 'Fireflake', and 'Listen To The Peace' was launched at that event. I remember backstage Geoff Shearn of MGO running back and saying 'We've sold 500 copies of your album tonight!'
At one of these events, there was a guy looking after the PA called Jon Miller and he was part of a production company called Triumvirate. He'd trained with George Martin. They were working with Gordon Giltrap; he'd worked with Kendrick for a while. Jon heard me sing 'Goodbye October', I went to Geoff and said "If there's a chance I'd like to work with Jon..." and as a result Kingsway and I went to Triumvirate and said 'Can you be involved in Adrian's recording work for 'Something New Under The Sun'?"
"The whole feel of the album took a different aspect. Although it was very much me, all the musicians on it were from session work - Barry De Souza on drums, John Perry on bass, Kevin Peek on guitar, a professional string section and backing vocals."
The tight, bright rhythm tracks gave 'Something New Under The Sun' a new contemporary edge with Triumvirate's production know how obviously benefiting an increasingly confident singer/songwriter. But bigger things, much bigger things, were soon to follow.
"I was almost dragged into 'The Passion' as the least convinced" remembers Adrian. "I'd been working with this original version of 'The Passion', which had been recorded on the second side of 'Fireflake' five songs - piano, voice and string quartet - that was entirely a solo, a very intimate performance lasting about 25 minutes. The response to that in concert was terrific, very deep.
Many times with audiences I felt we'd gone somewhere very special together, I wanted to protect that. But suddenly I began to have this excitement both from Triumvirate and from Kingsway suggesting a re-recording of 'The Passion' and it was Triumvirate, under Jon Miller's direction, who was saying, don't just re-record 'The Passion' but expand it and let’s go the whole route and make it a rock oratorio - invite personalities to sing the songs and all the rest of it."
"Triumvirate said, 'let's get a top orchestra," recalls Adrian, "I remember some of the conversations in the office of the studio - Jon Miller said 'I think we should approach the Royal Philharmonic'. My heart leapt. For an artist with a classical rock background this was fantasy language and I certainly didn't think it would happen. But then I thought, if anybody could pull it off, with his contacts this guy could. It all moved very fast. I did piano and voice demos. Jon Miller sent the material to one of the managers of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. And eventually they came back and said for this sum we could provide this number of the orchestra. Suddenly there it was on paper, we could do it."
"Some of the steps we took with 'The Passion' album changed forever my concepts of exploring the possibilities of the rock/classical blend, especially working with Simon Phillips the drummer. I'd heard a lot about him from Jon, Simon had played with Stanley Clarke and Jeff Beck and a lot more people. Jon used to say, 'when we've got Simon with us then we'll know what direction we are going in'. And I used to think 'why's he putting so much store on...well...a drummer'.
Then came the day Simon walked into the studio. This slight guy, only 18 years old yet already rated one of the world's top five drummers. They played my piano tracks for John Perry (bass) and Simon. I remember watching Simon listening to this very rough piano/voice demo and watching him move his hands and working out rhythms within rhythms. And then we went into the studio and started to work with it. If ever the phrase mind-blown applied to a musician it applied to me. I sat in there with the cans on, Simon in the drum booth and John Perry next to me, recording pieces like 'Judas' Song' and 'Golgotha' and being absolutely devastated by what I heard going on around me. But it wasn't just clever. It was profoundly expressive and was increasing the power of this music to communicate something.”
Will Malone, a widely respected arranger who'd worked with the likes of Rick Wakeman did the charts for the Royal Philharmonic. Adrian anxiously counted off the days to the recording session. "Then came the great day. It was one of the most precious moments of my musical life being in the Olympic Studios, London, up in the control room looking down upon members of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra playing my music. It was a wonderful day. Harry Rabinovitz was the conductor, he was absolutely brilliant and even the fact that half of the orchestra were reading the daily newspaper in between takes didn't worry me too much!
It was one of the world's best orchestras adding rich things to the music. It gave me a new confidence in my music, that people believed enough in what I was doing to go to that effort."
Coinciding with the albums' release, 'The Passion' had its world premiere at Eastbourne Winter Gardens. The following month BBC Radio One broadcast 'The Passion' to an audience of millions. Then a successful Thames Television performance of 'The Passion' sparked new interest in the work.
Soon, BBC Radio commissioned Adrian and Phil Thomson to write a new rock-opera, this one based on a Christmas theme. "It was David Winter, the head of a BBC department, who came up with the title 'The Virgin'. As soon as I heard it, I loved it. I suppose it was a little bloody-minded of me, after what I'd been through with some circles over 'The Passion' I knew a title like that would be a red flag to a bull!
After “The Virgin”, "I had written a song called 'Alpha And Omega' which appeared on 'Feed The Hungry Heart'. In 1985 I'd visited the Bergen Belsen concentration camp, which had an absolutely devastating effect on me. When I got back I began working with Phil (Thomson) on songs."
'Alpha and Omega' was so much more than a recording and a musical tour, it is a vision, a prophetic cry to look and see the desperate conditions of our world - violence, materialism, oppression, famine, pollution - and how only by turning in repentance to the Author of Life will we escape the whirlwind of judgement."
The Word premiere of 'Alpha And Omega' took place, with telling significance, in Jerusalem. But it was the British premiere in Hammersmith Odeon, that alerted everyone to the enormity of the work. Performances in Norway, Spain, Holland and Sweden followed. Later Adrian and mime artist Randall Bane began the 'Alpha And Omega Cathedral Tour'.
Comments Adrian, "The Cathedral Tour of 'Alpha And Omega' helped to confirm what I believed...that there is an enormous audience out there that is open and wants to hear. Hundreds of people who came to see these tours had never heard of us. Coming to their local cathedrals hearing something like 'Alpha And Omega' was a unique experience for them." The 'Alpha and Omega' album sold phenomenally well and went on to become the best selling European-origin music album ever in that marketplace.
"For me the communication was something beyond words - from the heart to the heart, from the soul to the soul."
Credit: much of this bio taken from the article: Tony Cummings recounts the long and unusual history of Adrian Snell: Fireflake to Father. 1st July 1990
PRESS QUOTES:
“Musically evocative”
“moving and thought-provoking”
“always gave me goosebumps”
“carefully constructed poetic phrases, wonderful melody, chord sequences, and musical arrangement, totally overwhelmed me”
“powerful in their simplicity”
“using acoustic instruments to paint a musical landscape”
“emotionally moving and full of depth”
Adrian Snell on YouTube:
This Land (The Early Years)
Simon Carry My Cross (from The Passion)
The Trial (from The Passion)
“Long Live the King” (from The Passion)
Kaddish for Bergen-Belsen (from Alpha & Omega)
Man of Sorrows (from Alpha & Omega)
Love In My Life · Adrian Snell (from The Virgin)
Adrian Snell: “Peace Be With You”
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HOW TO BOOK YOUR £8 TICKETS:
BUY Tickets Online Here: https://ticketlab.co.uk/promoter/AcousticNights
BUY at The Barn Coffee Shop
BUY on the door £10: if tickets are still available
Enquiries: 0113 262 5048
=======================
THE CONCERT WILL BE A PART SEATED AND PART STANDING EVENT.
SEATS ALLOCATED ON FIRST COME, FIRST SERVED BASIS.
PRIORITY GIVEN TO ADVANCED TICKET HOLDERS
It is highly recommended that you ARRIVE EARLY at the venue early in order to secure the best seat and to allow time to order your coffee and/or food. Seats are only guaranteed to people who have bought an advanced ticket.
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VENUE ADDRESS
Venue Address: The Barn Coffee Shop, Meanwood Valley Urban Farm, Sugarwell Rd, Leeds LS7 2QG
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KEEP IN TOUCH
Keep in touch by "liking" Acoustic Nights @ The Barn on facebook: www.facebook.com/barnacousticnights
Keep in Touch by signing up to the Acoustic Nights email list: eepurl.com/gVMCc5
Acoustic Nights concert photos: flickr.com/photos/110641299@N08/albums
Acoustic Nights concert video clips: youtube.com/channel/UC-5dbflGdG1nShObdY41ilA/videos
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ABOUT US
One of the inspirations behind Acoustic Nights @ The Barn is to introduce high-quality music at an affordable ticket price reaching out to the local lively community. The Barn concert buzz is an intimate gig aiming to attract the local neighbourhood and wider community creating an opportunity to make social connections and interact with others in an informal, friendly and entertaining environment.
“Empowering Musicians; Engaging Community” is the music moto of the Acoustic Nights’ promoter Alan Gibson
Eating together is one of the coolest parts of the unique atmosphere where food and ethically sourced coffee is available prior to and at the concert interval.
The Barn Coffee Shop, based in Meanwood, an inner suburb of Leeds, love to see community activities and groups meeting in the coffee shop and exist to see loneliness reduced in the local area. Volunteering opportunities and training and work experience placements are available for local individuals including: young people, people with learning difficulties, those seeking work/returning to work, and the older generation looking to keep active. As a social enterprise, they give all their profit to help local community projects.
After covering overhead costs the Acoustic Nights door money is given to the artist as they depend on income from live performances to finance their expenses and music vision.
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Ticket Sales Terms & Conditions
All tickets bought are non-refundable.
Please sell your ticket(s) to a friend if you cannot attend.
You must be over 18 to buy a ticket
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
The Barn Coffee Shop at Meanwood Valley Urban Farm, Sugar Well Road, LS7 2QG Leeds, United Kingdom, Meanwood Valley Urban Farm, Sugar Well Road, Leeds, LS7 2QG, United Kingdom
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