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The latest in an occasional series of theatre reviews... Dear England : The Olivier Theatre  Well, this is different from the usual review in several ways - I wasn't on my own (because I was accompanied by the lovely Mrs Reed) and I was in the posh seats (because I was accompanied by the lovely Mrs Reed). Somewhat surprisingly, given the high football content, this was her choice - it originally ran a couple of years ago to great reviews, but has come back updated to take into account the last European Championships.  It was also a trip to a new theatre - I'd previously been to the Lyttleton Theatre at the National, but this was my first trip to the main theatre there. And very impressive it was too as we walked down to our very well positioned, comfortable and spacious seats (Mrs Reed does need her leg room).  The stage looked impressive too - but it gave very little clue as to what we were going to get.  As the lights went down, the top ring rose to display the Old...

Starting my trip back through the 1965 album charts. 07/11/65 : Hollies -  The Hollies We haven't met The Hollies yet - the closest we've come to them is repeatedly ignoring their best-ofs in both 1968 and 1977. I'm aware of some of their tracks, but can't say I'm an expert so I'm intrigued as to what we're going to get here. Hmmm - I actually quite liked it, but I have a suspicion it was probably already starting to date - it feels very like the early Beatles stuff. I won't be revisiting it but I enjoyed it and it certainly doesn't hang about at 28 minutes (too much longer and I might have switched off) - I feel I should check out their best-of at some point. I also think it's quite a cool album cover - you can imagine Oasis going for something like that (except that the Gallagher's would never be able to agree who went where). We're at #10 (double figures already doesn't bode well for the year!) in the charts this week on their seve...

Yes - it's time for another list!   So we've done REM and Billy and I'd pretty already much decided who I was going to do next, but it was sealed for me when I came across this photo from '90 with all them looking VERY young For those of you that don't, the lovely lady in the middle is Natalie Merchant who, at the time, was lead singer of US indie darlings 10,000 Maniacs - who I'd only just discovered. She then went solo in '93 and, whilst it's fair to say her output hasn't been prodigious, it has been steady and varied - as we shall find out over the next fifteen or so posts. But first, we have to head right back to the beginning - completely coincidentally back to the same year that REM and Billy released their debut albums. Secrets Of The I Ching (1983) For someone who believed themselves to be reasonably familiar with the output of 10,000 Maniacs, I was surprised that I'd either completely forgotten or never knew this even existed - and I...

Starting my trip back through the 1965 album charts. 14/11/65 : Look At Us -  Sonny & Cher I think I only know Sonny & Cher from "I Got You Babe" (which always makes me think of Groundhog Day) so I'm intrigued to hear more of their work. It also means that over half the albums we've seen so far this year have had significant female input - who knew that 1965 would turn out to be quite so equitable? But I had to wait for a bit to hear some other work of theirs because it starts with IGYB - and it's always a pleasure to hear it. It's then followed by "Unchained Melody", which is the fifth version we've met on our travels  and it's fair to say this isn't the best (I even prefer the version by that other power couple, Robson & Jerome). And then we get another cover in "Then He Kissed Me" - it's not a terrible version, but the production does demonstrate Phil Spector's genius because this feels very flat compared ...

Starting my trip back through the 1965 album charts. 21/11/65 : Ev'rything's Coming Up Dusty -  Dusty Springfield Our second visit with Dusty - and it's one I'm looking forward to! Hmmm - she's got a nice voice, but this isn't a great set of songs. None of them are terrible, but there's no "I Only Want To Be With You" or "Son Of A Preacher Man" here - not on first listen, anyway. I was also very unconvinced by her version of "La Bamba" - it was very peculiar. Multiple listens might improve matters, but it's not going to get a chance with me, I'm afraid - it's an interesting slice of history, but no more than that. It's a peculiar apostrophe though, isn't it? We're at #6 in the chart this week on her sixth week of a twelve week run, with this being as high as it got. The top five this week were  TSOM , The Beatles'  Help! ,  Mary Poppins ,  Bob Dylan  and  The Rolling Stones  and we have one new entry ...

Continuing my trip up Empire's   top 20 films of 2024 #5 :    Anora The director of Tangerine, The Florida Project and Red Rocket returned with another immersive, high-energy, incredibly humane dissection of the American Dream this year, scooping the Palme D’Or at Cannes Film Festival with romance-slash-comedy-slash-drama Anora. Baker’s casting of Mikey Madison, as the titular sex worker who falls into a whirlwind affair and impulsive marriage with the son of a Russian oligarch, is a stroke of genius, and ‘Ani’ is truly a star-making role for the actor. She is completely magnetic throughout – through the neon-doused club montages, the farcical physical comedy set-pieces, and the gut-wrenching emotional moments. You’ll never hear Take That’s ‘Greatest Day’ the same again. Fresh off a reasonably successful Oscars (Best Picture, Director, Actress, Original Screenplay, and Film Editing), I come to this - I'm sure it's good, but I just get the impression it will be a bit depre...

Starting my trip back through the 1965 album charts. 28/11/65 : Mann Made -  Manfred Mann Our first visit with Manfred Mann - I'm expecting to find it bearable, but possibly a whole album might prove to be a too relentlessly upbeat. And bizarrely, it's not available on Amazon so I'm having to rely on YouTube. Actually, it's not relentlessly upbeat - there's quite a few "broken relationship" songs on here. It's also more varied than I was expecting - venturing into jazz territory at times (with added flute, which no-one needs). I can't say I loved it - if anything, I thought it wasn't upbeat enough but there was nothing wrong with any of it and the sound quality was surprisingly good - it just wasn't really my sort of thing. They're a bunch of hep cats on the album cover though, ain't they? Mmmmm - jazzzzzz... We're at #7 in the charts this week on their seventh week of an eleven week run, with this being as high as it got. The t...

Starting my trip back through the 1965 album charts. 05/12/65 : Out Of Our Heads -  The Rolling Stones Our thirteenth visit with The Rolling Stones and this is a peculiar one because I don't think I've ever even heard of it - I assume it's one of their early blues style efforts. Yeah, it's fine but nothing really to write home about with no one track standing out for me, except for "I'm Free" which I already knew, but mostly through The Soupdragons' version (and it's the very last track, so I had to wait for it). The sound quality really isn't great either - although I'm not sure whether that's intentional or not. I think it falls into their "interesting because it's early Stones, but not actually that interesting" category - it's certainly short though, being only 26 minutes long. We're at #4 in the charts this week on their eleventh week of a twenty week run, with it having peaked at #2 in its seventh week - whic...

Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts 04/04/25 : Rushmere - Mumford & Sons  I don't mind Mr Mumford and his relatives, but only in a 'if they're playing in a pub I happen to be in, I won't leave" kinda way - they're decent enough to listen to, but I wouldn't search them out and they're obviously never going to achieve anything. Except that, in case you missed it, the last part is 100% wrong.  Yes, this is all perfectly pleasant and well put together - and Marcus has a surprisingly nice voice on some of it (I didn't think he had that much of a voice). It's not exactly memorable, but it's perfectly "nice" - but do I mean perfectly boring? That feels a bit harsh, but only a bit - I'm never going to listen to this again though. We're at #1 with a new entry in the chart this week and the rest of the top five are The Darkness (a new entry), Ariana Grande ,  Sabrina  and Lucy Dacus (another new entry). So...

Starting my trip back through the 1965 album charts. 12/12/65 : Almost There -  Andy Williams Our third visit with Mr Williams and I've liked his delivery but found whole albums of it to be too much - it's hard to imagine that things are going to massively change here. Well, after some internet detective work to track down that its also known as Dear Heart, I am able to confirm that's kinda the case. However, things are actually worse here because it's all very slow easy-listening nonsense - there's nothing like "Music To Watch Girls By" on here and it actually makes his voice seem very average. And that's a super cheesy album cover! We're at #6 in the charts this week on his 26th week of an impressive 46 week run, with it having peaked at #4 in its 13th-15th and 19th weeks. The top five this week were  The Sound Of Music , The Beatles'  Rubber Soul ,  Mary Poppins , The Beatles'  Help!  and Joan Baez and there's one new entry in the c...

  April already - and only my second gig of the year! Every week, I make an effort to at least partially listen to all the new entries in the album chart. This generally plays a strong role in reinforcing my musical stereotypes, but every so often someone unknown surprises me by producing something I actually quite like - which I almost always then immediately forget about. However, Orla Gartland has managed it twice in the past four years so I at least remember her name - and so when came she up on the list of work freebies playing close to home at the Kentish Town Forum, I thought I'd pop along to see how her music translated into a live performance. And so I rocked up on a lovely sunny evening at what I thought was quite an early arrival to find the standing area already full, the seated area pretty busy and the first support act already on stage - and making some most peculiar noises. TWST (not her real name, apparently) does kinda shrieky singing over dancey backing tracks - i...

Starting my trip back through the 1965 album charts. 19/12/65 : Farewell, Angelina -  Joan Baez Finally, we get to meet Ms Baez! Considering how much we've had to endure Bob Dylan and others from that era, it seems bizarre that she's somehow eluded us for all this time. Part of it's just luck because she had four top ten albums in '64 and '65 and I'm only just getting round to one of them - but I also suspect that her gender probably didn't always help her get the recognition she might have deserved. Either way, I'm looking forward to it! Yeah, this is pretty much up my street. Her voice is lovely (if a bit too vibrato at times for my liking) and the songs are all at least perfectly pleasant. Sometimes the arrangements are maybe a bit too simple, but I actually preferred that to some of the overly fiddliness that Joni MItchell often gives us. I particularly liked the title track and "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" which were both lovely vers...

Continuing my trip up Empire's   top 20 TV shows of 2024 #12 :    The Penguin From the Riddler-enforced floods that washed away half of Gotham in The Batman has risen one of the most complicated, corrupt and compelling villains that the fictional city has ever seen. And without the caped crusader in sight. Lauren LeFranc’s spin-off series stands firm as a viscous and vastly entertaining crime show that sees Colin Farrell’s besuited Oz go to war with Sofia Falcone (a beguiling Cristin Milioti), having recently taken the crime boss mantle from her deceased father. It’s also a fascinating dual character study as we learn more about Oz’s self-made and ruthless charmer and Sofia’s evolution from Arkham Asylum survivor to respected criminal leader. Through their stories we see Gotham in a new light, without the series leaning too heavily on Batman lore. I watched The Batman  and had some nice things to say about it - but I had a whole load more bad things to say about it. ...