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Good music, good food and good times are set to brighten your Friday evenings, with a series of brand-new Cabaret Club nights at Portsmouth Guildhall.

The socially distanced, relaxed evenings will offer a delicious one-course dinner and drink followed by live entertainment from some of the region’s most talented artists.

With a variety of music styles on offer, the Cabaret Club will be a great way of getting back to enjoying live music whilst supporting the charitable Guildhall Trust and artists who have been unable to work through the pandemic. These evenings are set to become a regular event, so check back to this page regularly for future announcements.

A night of country music is yours to enjoy on Friday 11th June, in association with LMSUK Media - with rising sensation Jenny June. With her will be the sweet concoction of Nashville and the English Countryside, Emily Faye. Drawing inspiration from Carrie Underwood, Miranda Lambert and Lucie Silva, Jenny June has been performing for the past 20 years, writing her own material for the last 3 years, and in 2018 was a double nominee in the UK Country Music Awards for ‘UK Female Artist of the Year’ and ‘Artist of the Year’. Emily Faye, with her original sound, has taken the UK country scene in her stride and was named by The Rolling Stone Magazine as “a new country artist you need to know!”

Then, on 18th June, Scarlet Town head to the Cabaret Club. The band formed in 2015 by a group of local musicians who have vast experience over several decades of playing and recording. Their sound is rather more amplified acoustic, than ‘electric’ and the material is diverse ‐ playing original material, including all the songs on their first album Dark Outside (2019), covers of songs by artists such as Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon, and Steely Dan, and traditional instrumental pieces and songs. Scarlet Town is led by songwriter and guitarist Denis Reeve‐Baker who has played for many decades with Dave Allen (vocals, harmonica) in Portsmouth-based bands like Reet, Petite & Gone and the Reds. Dave Jordan is on double bass, Paul Hookham on drums, and their instrumental front‐line, their ‘SAS’, is Sue Dobbyn (tenor & soprano sax; clarinet; violin); Adam Smith (alto sax; clarinet, flute) and Sue Ryder‐Morgan (flute).

Classical crossover artist, Carley Williams will perform a powerful playlist of operatic greats, well-known musical theatre and easy listening favourites on the 9th July. You can expect songs like Never Enough (The Greatest Showman), I Dreamed a Dream (Les Miserables), Fields of Gold (Eva Cassidy) O Mio Babbino Caro (Gaicomo Puccini) and much more! Singing professionally for over 10 years, Carley originally trained in Opera and with the Head of Music at the Royal Academy of Music in London before completing a masters degree in performance and setting up her own theatre company.

A choice of dinner options (vegetarian option available) will be served with an alcoholic or soft drink before the evening’s entertainment to tables for up to 6 people from the same household or bubble.

Portsmouth Guildhall is a Covid-safe venue having successfully achieved the ‘We’re Good to Go’ and ‘See it Safely’ industry standard marks of Visit Britain and UK Theatre respectively. It provides an extensive range of safety measures, including social distancing, temperature checks, track and trace, sanitisation stations and enhanced cleaning procedures - including anti-viral misting.

With limited capacity and a fantastic price, these evenings will sell quickly - so get your tickets now!