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Kieron Tyler |

Reviewing The Clash’s 27 October 1976 appearance at Birmingham’s Barbarella’s, UK music weekly Sounds detected a particular, unique, characteristic of the band. Jonh (sic) Ingham identified “a Clash trick of everything dropping out except for Mick Jones' guitar, dropping back in two bars later behind a thundering crack from Terry Chimes' baseball bat sized drumsticks.”

Gary Naylor
“Trump Arrangement Syndrome”, my propensity to see the world refracted through the lens of the omnipresent ogre’s cult, raised its head again. In…
Helen Hawkins
The regular scriptwriter for Yorgos Lanthimos’s films, Efthimis Filippou, has worked with another director, Karim Aïnouz, on Rosebush Pruning. It’s a…
Guy Oddy
This week saw something of a landmark gig for Birmingham’s ever-exuberant folkies, Bonfire Radicals. New album, Spaghetti Junction was revealed to a…

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Helen Hawkins
Aakash Odedra is superb as a tortured creature seeking freedom and transcendence
Rachel Halliburton
Eurovision star Sam Ryder is made for the title role, while Drew McOnie’s choreography makes us feel the delirium
Sarah Kent
Darkness reigns in powerful but competing installations
Veronica Lee
Dolls, heroes and changing therapists
Helen Hawkins
Olivia Wilde's snappy comedy on the perennial subject of reviving a failing marriage
Kieron Tyler
First-rate salute to a creative colossus
David Nice
Latest in a line of great Irish mezzos shows her versatility, and the strings swoon
Aleks Sierz
Chloë Moss’s new drama is a nerve-fraying example of telephonic tension
Adam Sweeting
You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time...
James Saynor
Kiss kiss, bang bang in a moving Middle East documentary
Guy Oddy
An eardrum damaging evening spent with Birmingham’s Sunn O))) worshippers
Sebastian Scotney
Trio with Gene Calderazzo and Alec Dankworth is a jewel of British jazz
Demetrios Matheou
Carrie Cracknell’s splendid revival of Stoppard’s masterwork transfers with its magic intact
Saskia Baron
David Vann's acclaimed novella transposed to the screen with mixed results
Rachel Halliburton
Transatlantic tensions are diffused through alcohol, sex, and the etiquette of hot dogs
Sarah Kent
The most important 'how-to video' you are ever likely to see
David Nice
Turbocharged orchestra, sometimes too much so, various approaches from the singers
Gary Naylor
Bad husband, bad dad, great singer
Tim Cumming
The follow-up to comeback album 'Hackney Diamonds' is a raucous, joyful late-period classic
David Nice
Richard Jones tries hard with Bellini's vehicle for lyric madness; Lisette Oropesa dazzles
Veronica Lee
Comic looks back on his life and career
Aleks Sierz
New play about domestic abuse adopts a radical form that works - up to a point
David Nice
Two recitals in a thousand, other events good to excellent

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We are bowled over! We knew that theartsdesk.com had plenty of supporters out there – we’ve always had a loyal readership of arts…
Reviewing The Clash’s 27 October 1976 appearance at Birmingham’s Barbarella’s, UK music weekly Sounds detected a particular, unique,…
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