London
Tony Bennett, Royal Albert Hall review - still cutting it at 92Saturday, 29 June 2019
I remember my first time in San Francisco, February 1982, crying at the sight of Golden Gate Bridge. I still shed a tear – it and the Bay are so very beautiful and the city is, like Venice, crazy-wonderful, defying all logic. It’s impossible to set... Read more... |
Present Laughter, Old Vic review - Andrew Scott continues his rise and riseWednesday, 26 June 2019
"Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?" can be heard pulsating through the Old Vic auditorium as the curtain rises on its wondrous revival of Present Laughter: a decisive feather in the cap of artistic director Matthew Warchus's regime. But all Garry... Read more... |
Billy Joel, Wembley Stadium review – The Entertainer deliversSunday, 23 June 2019
While Elton John was picking up another bauble and tinkling the ivories in Paris, the world’s other Piano Man was heading to London and Wembley, where he last played three years ago. It was Billy Joel’s only British gig in a stadium tour that kicked... Read more... |
Metallica, Twickenham Stadium review - heavy metal titans bring the noiseFriday, 21 June 2019
“You want heavy?” Metallica frontman James Hetfield already knows the answer to that question, and he and his three fellow horsemen of the apocalypse certainly deliver that tonight. This stop on Metallica’s mammoth Worldwired tour is the second of... Read more... |
CD: Hot Chip - A Bath Full of EcstasyWednesday, 19 June 2019
Nineteen years, seven albums and untold side projects into their career, Hot Chip have for the first time enlisted outside producers: Rodaidh McDonald and French disco/house don Philippe Zdar. And it's worked. Over the course of the previous albums... Read more... |
Frank Skinner, Leicester Square Theatre - mixing some acid with the charmMonday, 17 June 2019
Frank Skinner walks onstage without introduction and a man in the audience gives him a friendly heckle by way of greeting. Skinner is straight on it, engaging him in a brief conversation; his responses are amiable enough but have a few barbs too.... Read more... |
CD: Mark Ronson - Late Night FeelingsMonday, 17 June 2019
Producer extraordinaire Mark Ronson has set his sights on soundtracking the summer once again, with his latest collaborative collection of pop gems. It's a seductive album, packed with enough hooks to conquer the charts for the next few months.The... Read more... |
Charlie Cunningham, Queen Elizabeth Hall review - Spanish guitar and strong songsFriday, 14 June 2019
In a post Ed Sheeran world, with a glut of acoustic singer-songwriters like Lewis Capaldi, Tom Walker or Odell, James Bay, Jack Savoretti – all of whom are big on poignantly penned balladry, phonic flair and harmonious melody – is there room... Read more... |
While the Sun Shines, Orange Tree Theatre review - frothy, yes, up to a pointThursday, 13 June 2019
Terence Rattigan completists, and count myself among them, will leap at the chance to see a rare production courtesy the Orange Tree Theatre of While the Sun Shines, a 1943 monster hit for this great English writer that has languished in semi-... Read more... |
The Mystery of the Bulgarian Voices with Lisa Gerrard, Queen Elizabeth Hall review - voices from another worldSaturday, 08 June 2019
A hushed expectation filled the Queen Elizabeth Hall on Friday night in advance of the return on stage of the legendary Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares (now rebranded as The Mystery of the Bulgarian Voices), who graced Kate Bush’s 1989 classic The... Read more... |
DVD: SinkSaturday, 08 June 2019
This debut feature from Mark Gillis is a film of real anger and considerable tenderness. The anger is both at the general situation it depicts, and reveals itself in the particular when his protagonist Micky Mason (Martin Herdman) repeatedly has to... Read more... |
The Diary of One who Disappeared, ROH review – song cycle-as-opera is a mish-mashFriday, 07 June 2019
Singer Ian Bostridge once described The Diary of One who Disappeared as “a song cycle gone wrong”. But this reimagining of it as an opera, by the Belgian director Ivo van Hove at the Royal Opera’s Linbury Theatre, also goes wrong, throwing in... Read more... |
