James Yorkston

A concert by Scottish folk singer-songwriter and author James Yorkston, with Caitlin Gilligan as special guest, staged at Hallé St Michael's in Ancoats, Manchester.

James Yorkston is a folk singer-songwriter and author from Kingsbarns in Fife, now based in Edinburgh. Releasing music since 2001, Yorkston works under their own name, with the band the Athletes, and in the trio Yorkston/Thorne/Khan, with albums issued on Domino Records.

The most recent album, Songs for Nina and Johanna from 2025, is a set of duets with Nina Persson of The Cardigans and Johanna of First Aid Kit. The project earned a place on Later... With Jools Holland, and sessions for BBC 6 Music with Huw Stephens, Marc Riley and Gideon Coe. Yorkston also writes fiction: a forthcoming novel, Callum, Reine, Sylvie and Sparrow, follows nine linked tales about a journalist and musician called Callum, and Jarvis Cocker has praised the earlier novel The Book of the Gaels.

The special guest is Caitlin Gilligan, a Scottish folk multi-instrumentalist. The venue, Hallé St Michael's, is a concert and performance space in Ancoats. It was built as a Roman Catholic church founded in 1859, and it once anchored the Little Italy community of the district.