1960s
Reissue CDs Weekly: Jerry RossSunday, 07 August 2016
A two-bar flurry of guitar lays the table for a skip-along beat, handclaps, and an arrangement and melody akin to Martha and the Vandellas’ March 1964 single “In my Lonely Room”. This though was not a Motown production and did not tell the story of... Read more... |
Half A Sixpence, Chichester Festival TheatreWednesday, 27 July 2016
Watching Cameron Mackintosh’s joyful revision of this Sixties musical, it’s possible to believe for a moment that all the world needs now is love sweet love and a shit-ton of banjos. With a new book by Downton Abbey behemoth Julian Fellowes, new... Read more... |
The Stripper, St James TheatreTuesday, 12 July 2016
Womanising detectives, shapely dames, gangsters and convoluted criminal conspiracies: Richard O’Brien and Richard Hartley’s 1982 musical take on Carter Brown’s California-set whodunit fiction is pulp noir to the max. However, unlike the pair’s... Read more... |
Carole King performs Tapestry, Hyde Park BST FestivalMonday, 04 July 2016
If last night made anything clear it's that some things are still some way beyond the reach of hipster reappropriation. The audience in Hyde Park for Carole King was 99% white and middle-aged, with the very few younger people scattered about... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Pink FloydSunday, 03 July 2016
Pictured above is the label of an exceptionally important Pink Floyd record issued last November. Only a thousand people bought a copy. That was the amount that hit shops. Pink Floyd 1965: Their First Recordings was a double seven-inch set with a... Read more... |
DVD: That Cold Day in the ParkFriday, 17 June 2016
In 1969, just before he made M*A*S*H, the innovative film that launched him in the world, Robert Altman had made his first proper feature. That Cold Day in the Park was a piece of period weirdness, all but forgotten in the shadow of his iconic... Read more... |
Paul Simon Introduces 'Stranger to Stranger'Saturday, 28 May 2016
Perhaps as a hopeful harbinger for Paul Simon's new album Stranger to Stranger, Disturbed recently topped Billboard's Mainstream Rock Songs chart with their flabbergasting version of Simon's 1965 song "The Sound of Silence". However, while... Read more... |
DVD: Janis – Little Girl BlueFriday, 20 May 2016
The Janis Joplin bio-doc has been a long time coming. The rock star’s family were notoriously cautious about exposure: who wouldn’t be, with a career so tragic and brief?As it happens, their collaboration made possible the inclusion of the rock star... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Bernard HerrmannSunday, 15 May 2016
“Ladies and gentlemen, in view of the controversy already aroused the producers of this film wish to re-emphasise what is already stated in the film: that there is no established scientific connection between mongolism and psychotic or criminal... Read more... |
Donovan, London PalladiumSaturday, 07 May 2016
"Sunshine came softly through my window today..." How fortuitous that veteran Scottish tunestrel Donovan should have picked London's glorious first day of summer to stage his "Beat Cafe" event at the Palladium. The plan was to rove across his back... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: The Move, The YardbirdsSunday, 01 May 2016
The figures are approximate, but the Yardbirds’ first studio album has been issued on CD at least 12 separate times. With The Move, their debut album and its follow-up Shazam have each had a comparatively paltry eight outings on CD. As for vinyl... Read more... |
John Piper, Pallant House Gallery, ChichesterThursday, 28 April 2016
You wouldn't judge a painting on how it would look in your own home, but textiles are different: in fact it is exactly this assessment that counts. A length of fabric laid flat is a half-formed thing: it needs to be cut, stitched and draped before... Read more... |
