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Maybe don't sit in the front row?

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The latest in an occasional series of theatre reviews... Dara ó Briain : Eventim Apollo I like my comedians to be quick thinking, allowing good audience interaction whilst also having good narrative ability in delivering a tale that stays with you after they've left the stage. In his 20+ year tenure on Mock The Week, Dara has demonstrated a certain speed of thought but I wasn't aware of his story-telling abilities until I caught his previous tour So Where Were We? when I randomly stumbled across it on BBC2. This told the somewhat incredible (but apparently true) story of him tracking down his birth mother and it was beautifully pitched with moments of suspense, frustration and joy - I highly recommend it and it's available here if you fancy it.  So, when I saw he was doing a follow-up tour (can you guess who he's tracking down this time?) and playing in quite a few venues around me including the mighty St Albans Arena, I thought I'd fancy a night out which didn...
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Her novio might roll over yo

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Continuing my trip back through the 2001 album charts. 04/03/01 : Loco -  Fun Lovin' Criminals Fun Lovin' Criminals were quite big for a bit, which made it all the more bizarre that I saw them live in the mighty St Albans Arena around this time - I seem to recall everyone was a bit perplexed as to why they were there, but a good time was had by all. I vaguely remember listening to this album, but it's the one after the one after the good one, so returns were definitely diminishing by this time. Yeah, they're diminishing but this really isn't bad if you're in for some woozy hip-hop - it's only real problem is that it doesn't contain a "Scooby Snacks" or "King Of New York", although "Bump" and "There Was A Time" are pretty decent tracks. There's also an argument that 58 minutes is a bit long, but it doesn't overly drag - it's just that there's probably only so much FLC you need in your life and the fi...
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The heart is a bloom, shoots up through the stony ground

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Continuing my trip back through the 2001 album charts. 11/03/01 : All That You Can't Leave Behind -  U2 Our eighth visit with them Irish funsters, bringing them level with Bruce Springsteen, Taylor Swift, Neil Young and Manic Street Preachers - and this is one I own taking us to eleven for the year. And I remember loving it in places, without that affection being transferred to the album as a whole, so it will be interesting to see what I think of it now.  Actually, it's not bad at all - it's a bit of a "back to basics" effort after the nonsense with Zooropa (which I actually quite liked) and Pop (which I didn't). It starts very strongly with  "Beautiful Day",  "Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of", "Elevation" and "Walk On" (which were the four singles released from the album) and, whilst I'd struggle to say it maintains the quality level throughout, it doesn't descend into dross. My main niggles would be...
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Just push play, they're gonna bleep it anyway

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Continuing my trip back through the 2001 album charts. 18/03/01 : Just Push Play -  Aerosmith Our third visit with Aerosmith and it's fair to say my expectations are not high. Well, I wasn't expecting it to start with sitars but most of the rest of it is pretty much as expected - although not as bad as it could have been. They know their way around their instruments and Steve Tyler makes the sounds with his voice that he wants to, even if it's not exactly the sound I enjoy. It's all very much looking backwards, so if you like that 70s US rawk thang then you'll probably like this. My main complaint would be that it doesn't feel very well produced with the levels of the various instruments changing randomly - I can imagine them all constantly arguing that they need to be higher in the mix and the producer just agreeing to shut them up.  I also had to laugh at "Just Push Play" including the phrase "walk this way" in the chorus - some definite ha...
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I just want to tell you all the things you are

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Continuing my trip back through the 2001 album charts. 25/03/01 : Renaissance -  Lionel Richie Our third visit with Lionel and I'm expecting this to be bearable, whilst at the same time in no way improving the quality of my life. Hmmm - well, it's certainly bearable and I actually found it a surprisingly interesting listen. Not because I liked the music (although I didn't hate it) but because I couldn't for the life of me think who was supposed to like it. It felt like Ricky Martin kinda music, but slowed down for grandad so he doesn't put his hip out whilst trying to grind away to it. I can't fault the production because it's all very clear sounding and the musicianship is also pretty good - I just don't see why anyone would actively search this out.  We're at #6 in the charts this week on his fourth week of a decent 22 week run, with this being as high as it got - however, somewhat peculiarly, this was his third run. It first popped in for five wee...
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Show me a wonder you can't be sure of

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Continuing my trip back through the 2001 album charts. 01/04/01 : Know Your Enemy -  Manic Street Preachers Our eighth visit with them Manics, which puts them level with Bruce Springsteen, Taylor Swift and Neil Young - which is pretty illustrious company. I quite liked them around this time, but not enough to buy this - I'm not sure I've ever heard it so it will be interesting to see what I think of it. Hmmm. For the most part, I'd say it's a fine, if somewhat underwhelming Manics album - it feels like they've made an effort to be a bit rockier than their preceding (massively successful) albums. Which is fine if that's what they wanted to do but they need the tunes to back up such a move and nothing really jumped out at me (but conversely, nothing jumped out as dreadful either). The only tracks that did jump out were the ones where they've tried something completely different eg there was a disco number somewhere in the middle of it all which I certainly rai...
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Can I speak to you privately for a moment?

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Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts 20/02/26 : Wuthering Heights - Charli XCX Well, I don't think this is a controversial choice - but there are certainly questions to be asked as a result of meeting it. More on this later! Well, this is quite an interesting one. I actually quite enjoyed it because it's a decent soundtrack album and yet not really a soundtrack album at all - which is probably something I need to explain a bit further. The music doesn't sound particularly typical for Charli XCX, but it does sound like the sort of thing you'd want for a contemporary take on Wuthering Heights. As far as I'd know anyway - I'm not an expert on such things but it's swirling and emotive (although "House" is a bit of an odd track, but it features John Cale so that's not a huge surprise). However, all the tracks have lyrics, which I wasn't expecting for a soundtrack - I suspect they mostly don't feature in the film (and I...
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