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Thomas H Green
Monday, 23 September 2019
While bands such as The Birthday Party, Siouxsie and the Banshees and, especially, Bauhaus had a hand in inventing goth music at the start of the Eighties, it was The Sisters of...
Veronica Lee
Monday, 23 September 2019
Ed Byrne's new show takes a philosophical bent as he muses on middle age and fatherhood. But don't worry, he's not getting soft at the age of 47 – he's as sarcastic, caustic and...
Thomas H Green
Monday, 23 September 2019
Charles Hazlewood (b. 1966) has worked across the gamut of orchestral music, his career showcasing the multitude of ways it can be perceived and enjoyed. Recently he has reengaged...
Nick Hasted
Monday, 23 September 2019
New Pornographer-in-chief AC Newman grew up enraptured by how much and how little pop could be: from David Bowie shucking skins to the rush of the Monkees’ “Daydream Believer”, to...
Stephanie Sy-Quia
Sunday, 22 September 2019
October 5th in the United States is a day for righteous rage. In 2016 it marked the release of the infamous "Access Hollywood" tape in which Donald Trump made his now-infamous “...
Kieron Tyler
Sunday, 22 September 2019
Amongst the issues integral to the final album The Beatles recorded two, though usually low profile, are worth bearing mind. Abbey Road was their first album to be released in...
Stephen Walsh
Sunday, 22 September 2019
You can love Carmen as much as you like (as much as I do, for instance), and still have a certain sympathy for the poor...
Kieron Tyler
Sunday, 22 September 2019
Hatari’s 10th placing in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest hasn’t done them any harm. Neither did ruffling the feathers of...
Nick Hasted
Saturday, 21 September 2019
Keane grew up six miles away in Battle, making this night in balmy Bexhill-on-Sea as close as they can practically get to a...
Peter Culshaw
Saturday, 21 September 2019
This episode of Peter Culshaw's occasional global music radio update features guest interview Viveick Rajagopalan, one of...
Graham Rickson
Saturday, 21 September 2019
Eleanor Alberga: String Quartets 1, 2 & 3 Ensemble Arcadiana (Navona Records)Eleanor Alberga’s String Quartet No 2...
Theartsdesk
Saturday, 21 September 2019
There are films to meet every taste in theartsdesk's guide to the best movies currently on release. In our considered...
Marina Vaizey
Saturday, 21 September 2019
Over the past four decades Martin Gayford, The Spectator’s art critic, has travelled the world, been published in an amazing...
Mark Kidel
Saturday, 21 September 2019
Rachid Taha, sadly felled by a heart attack just over a year ago, has come back from the dead! He could not sound more...
Robert Beale
Friday, 20 September 2019
The Hallé Orchestra has a good track record when it comes to bringing in young talents with exciting prospects, and its 2019...
Rachel Halliburton
Friday, 20 September 2019
The Permanent Way first roared its way into the national consciousness in 2003 when, after a triumphant opening in York...
Adam Sweeting
Friday, 20 September 2019
David Cameron has been a recluse since the fateful days of June 2016 when the referendum on EU membership didn’t go quite...
Tom Birchenough
Friday, 20 September 2019
Canadian playwright Hannah Moscovitch’s “refugee musical” – now there’s a phrase you don’t expect to write – is a treat....
Veronica Lee
Friday, 20 September 2019
Count Arthur Strong, the character created by Steve Delaney, started life in the late 1990s and became a cult figure...
disc of the day
CD: The New Pornographers – In the Morse Code of Brake Lights
Neko Case substantially contributes to more allusive art-pop
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tv
The Cameron Years, BBC One review - quite interesting but a bit boring
The former Prime Minister finally opens up about the EU referendum
City on a Hill, Sky Atlantic review - power, corruption and larceny in 1990s Boston
The cast is strong, the action is brisk and the politics are poisonous
Defending the Guilty, BBC Two review - trials and tribulations of a trainee barrister
New legal comedy struggles to get off the ground
film
The Farewell review - warmly comic culture-clash
Deathbed deceit causes Chinese-American confusion in a sly memoir
Ad Astra review – out of this world
Brad Pitt is the astronaut whose mission is to save the solar system – from his dad
new music
The Sisters of Mercy, Roundhouse review - hits delivered from the darkness
The men in black raise an energised storm of theatrically arch rock'n'roll
CD: The New Pornographers – In the Morse Code of Brake Lights
Neko Case substantially contributes to more allusive art-pop
10 Questions for conductor Charles Hazlewood
The man with the baton talks books, Brexit, minimalism, techno and time machines
classical
Classical CDs Weekly: Eleanor Alberga, Parry, Blondel
Contemporary string quartets, English motets and medieval wind music
Ólafsson, Hallé, Mäkelä, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - exciting new faces
Nordic duo’s impressive start to the 2019-20 season
Kolesnikov, Britten-Shostakovich Festival Orchestra, Latham-Koenig, Symphony Hall, Birmingham review - cross-country friendships flourish
New youth orchestra celebrates artistic dialogue between Russia and UK
opera
Carmen, Welsh National Opera review - intermittent brilliance in a gloomy, unclear environment
Bizet's tragic masterpiece well sung but short on dramatic momentum
Werther, Royal Opera review - shadows and sunsets from an unreconstructed romantic
Massenet's opera shines bright, notwithstanding a slightly clunky hero
Don Giovanni, Royal Opera review - laid-back Lothario
Revival cast variable, but Erwin Schrott delivers as the would-be seducer
theatre
The Permanent Way, The Vaults review – devastating resurrection of play tackling corporate greed
Incisive, intelligent and deeply moving
Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story, Wilton's Music Hall review - klezmer revue is moving and inventive
An original piece of theatre-making finds joyous exuberance, as well as sorrow, in the immigrant experience
Big the Musical - sweet if wildly overstretched
Onetime Broadway flop has more charm in London but still needs work
dance
Alvin Ailey, Programme C review - black, beautiful, brilliant
America's No.1 rounds off its triumphant visit with a diddly-doo-wop
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, Sadler's Wells review - Still more Revelations
America's favourite dance ticket shows us how it's done
Matthew Bourne's Romeo and Juliet, Sadler's Wells review - heart-stopping drama
The plot isn't perfect, but this bad romance still packs a punch
comedy
Ed Byrne, Berry Theatre, Hedge End review - musing on middle-age angst
Cheery physicality in an entertaining hour
Count Arthur Strong, Leeds City Varieties review - stargazing and mangled syntax
Steve Delaney's meticulously created character
Brydon, Mack and Mitchell, Portsmouth Guildhall review - family-friendly fun
'Would I Lie to You?' team on the road
gaming
Rage 2 review – garish but great post-apocalyptic shooter
Challenge The Authority in this 'Mad Max on mushrooms' renegade romp
Win a Luxury Weekend for Two to Celebrate Brighton Festival!
An eclectic line-up spanning music, theatre, dance, visual art, film, comedy, literature and spoken word could be yours with boutique hotel and exquisite meals included
World War Z review - bloodthirsty fun with the zombie apocalypse
Chainsawing the brain-eaters as you battle against the tide of the undead
visual arts
10 Questions for author Martin Gayford
The prolific writer shares his love of art and jazz and talks about what makes a good writer
Foragers of the Foreshore - London's mudlarks on show
The director of Totally Thames introduces this year's festival, including an exhibition of mudlarks and their finds
Artists in Amsterdam, Dulwich Picture Gallery review - a slight but evocative sketch
Amsterdam was Europe's economic hub in the 17th century, a fact reflected in its art
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