Manchester
CD: Inspiral Carpets - Inspiral CarpetsWednesday, 24 September 2014
There was a time, around 25 years ago, when Inspiral Carpets’ psyche-eyed cow logo, accompanied by the motto “Cool as Fuck”, was ubiquitous on tee-shirts. Along with the Charlatans, they represented the second tier of the “Madchester” movement,... Read more... |
Benedetti, Manchester Camerata, Takács-Nagy, Bridgewater Hall, ManchesterSunday, 21 September 2014
Having been put to the fiddle at the age of five, Nicola Benedetti appreciates the value of making music at an early age. She is fiercely committed to music education and developing new talent. So it was a joy to see her playing enthusiastically... Read more... |
Romeo and Juliet, Victoria Baths, ManchesterThursday, 18 September 2014
Instead of that small well-worn stone balcony in that courtyard in Verona, picture an extended well-worn cast-iron balcony in the Victoria Baths in Manchester. The young lovers have ample room to move in the labyrinthine interior of the old building... Read more... |
Hamlet, Royal Exchange, ManchesterWednesday, 17 September 2014
One of the oddities about theatre is that there can be a gripping performance at the heart of an underwhelming production – and so is the case with Maxine Peake’s Hamlet, directed by Sarah Frankcom. This was a much anticipated production – Peake... Read more... |
Ryan Gander: Make every show like it's your last, Manchester Art GalleryWednesday, 09 July 2014
When Ryan Gander’s wife wanted a designer lamp, the versatile artist knocked one up from junk. She was so impressed he sold it as an artwork and by now has made 55 in his garden shed. Three are here in Manchester, made from foil food trays, a guitar... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: OasisSunday, 25 May 2014
Oasis: Definitely Maybe“His onstage presence is supernatural, a good looking boy exuding primal sexual allure while standing stock still, hands behind his back, all effort going into his big chested, raw throated pure and essential singing.”... Read more... |
From There to Here, BBC OneFriday, 23 May 2014
There's a bit of Gene Hunt revisited in Peter Bowker's new three-part drama. Philip Glenister returns to the Manchester stomping grounds he patrolled in Life on Mars, and he even drives an Audi (though it isn't Hunt's celebrated Quattro). But... Read more... |
The Last Days of Troy, Royal Exchange, ManchesterWednesday, 14 May 2014
By picking his way through Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, and Virgil’s Aeneid - written 600 years later - Simon Armitage has it all, including the horse and Helen, each of whom in their way enable the hordes to breach Troy’s gates. What with that and... Read more... |
Prey, ITVTuesday, 29 April 2014
"Policeman wrongly accused of murder" is possibly not history's most original story idea, but in Prey, writer (and TV debutant) Chris Lunt has turned it into a platform for a skilfully-controlled thriller that keeps your brow sweaty and your breath... Read more... |
Rancourt, Hallé, Elder, Bridgewater Hall, ManchesterSaturday, 12 April 2014
Soccer-mad Shostakovich’s score for a ballet about a Soviet football team visiting Western Europe, the world premiere of an oboe concerto by John Casken marking the 1914 centenary, and a rare semi-staged performance of Kurt Weill’s The Seven Deadly... Read more... |
Much Ado About Nothing, Royal Exchange, ManchesterWednesday, 02 April 2014
Swedish director Maria Aberg, making her Royal Exchange debut, sets Shakespeare's comedy in 1945 post-war Britain and strives to play in the effects of war on the home front, where women are in charge and have taken on men’s roles. The same goes for... Read more... |
Martinpelto, BBC Philharmonic, Storgårds, Bridgewater Hall, ManchesterSunday, 09 March 2014
No one could accuse Manchester’s musical forces of short-changing Richard Strauss on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of his birth. Under the title Strauss’s Voice, over two months three orchestras, eight conductors and a dozen soloists have... Read more... |
