ADRIAN SNELL | SPECIAL ONE OFF SOLO CONCERT | The Barn Coffee Shop Meanwood | Leeds | Thur 28th May 2026

About ADRIAN SNELL | SPECIAL ONE OFF SOLO CONCERT | The Barn Coffee Shop Meanwood | Leeds | Thur 28th May 2026

Every month The Barn Coffee Shop welcomes the best independent performers to Meanwood Valley Urban Farm Leeds LS7 2QG

In May we are excited 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) https://youtu.be/GzAxuUL3x8s?si=3gWadL0xR0vESXlv

 Simon Carry My Cross (from The Passion) https://youtu.be/Vm8wM7ONALo?si=p3FqZjQnldSWd_oL

The Trial (from The Passion) https://youtu.be/5dWLUaoe6OQ?si=EJBJoq3EIRkwjbtH

Kaddish for Bergen-Belsen (from Alpha & Omega) https://youtu.be/_zYgOi9UonA?si=UCMNn_OL1boBlxWM

Man of Sorrows (from Alpha & Omega) https://youtu.be/7zR2gY33pow?si=fY2Ps1czuKsOklwf

Love In My Life (from The Virgin) https://youtu.be/sJ_ikhtTsfA?si=iEes4TccL59EaPTN

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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 barnacousticnights@gmail.com 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. “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.”

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.

“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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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, 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'.

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.”

"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.”

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.

"For me the communication was something beyond words - from the heart to the heart, from the soul to the soul."

Credits: 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