BLUES, brass and bald heads sit side by side in the Gala Theatre’s newly announced summer programme.

The Durham Blues Festival returns to the Durham City theatre on Saturday, June 20, with soul legend Geno Washington the headline act.

The annual Brass festival is also back at the Gala, from July 16 to 19, with the Fun Lovin’ Criminals, Tredegar Town and Cory brass bands, the Reg Vardy Band and a live recreation of Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller at Carnegie Hall in 1939.

Perhaps most striking are Voca People, a group that dress entirely in white, with white faces and bald heads, and perform acapella versions of the world’s best-known tunes from Madonna to Mozart.

Country music is represented by Mary Chapin Carpenter, comedy comes from Patrick Monahan, Kevin Bridges, Rich Hall, Terry Christian and Paul Merton and the English Touring Opera will present Puccini’s La Boheme and Donizetti’s The Siege of Calais over two nights in May.

Birmingham Royal Ballet will also make a two-night visit, in late May, and the English National Opera will present Carmen.

The Gala Theatre Stage School will present The Phantom of the Opera, Durham Musical Theatre Company returns with Sunset Boulevard and youngsters can Sing-a-long-a-Frozen at three shows on Sunday, May 24.

Playwright Ed Waugh’s latest work Hadaway Harry tells the story of 19th century North-East miner and rowing star Harry Clasper, punk poet John Cooper Clarke is booked for July and television historian David Starkey visits on Friday, June 5, at the opening of a three-month exhibition of Durham Cathedral’s 1216 edition of Magna Carta at Palace Green Library.

Further ahead, the Gala will welcome Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap, Leo Sayer and Tim Vine and its annual pantomime, Cinderella, runs from November 26 to January 3.

For full listings or to book, visit the Gala Theatre box office, call 03000-266-600 or go online to galadurham.co.uk