Reviews
The Stranglers, Brighton Dome
Saturday, 08 March 2014
There was a poignant moment last night as the Stranglers performed the song “Never To Look Back”. It hails from their 1990 album, 10, the last to feature singer Hugh Cornwall heading their original line-up. Behind the band, four giant gilt frames flash a slide-show of their career. We see them, all lean black leather and venom, transform slowly into the band before us, a greying, likeable, punk-adelic war-horse. In some of the final images drummer Jet Black – who, bear in mind, was 40 when The...
Storyville - Muscle Shoals: the Greatest Recording Studio in the World, BBC Four
Saturday, 08 March 2014
Back in the days before you could bash together an album on a phone, recording used to involve a group of musicians playing together in the same room. Finding the perfect studio ambience and acoustic was 90 per cent of the battle, and many a veteran musician will tell you that the studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama were the greatest of them all.Many of these old troupers had been rounded up by film-maker Greg Camalier for this fine and evocative documentary, which avoided the Brian Pern-style...
Classical CDs Weekly: Haydn, Weinberg, Battle for...
Saturday, 08 March 2014
Haydn: Nelson Mass, Symphony no 102 Boston Baroque/Martin Pearlman (Linn)In a week bristling with geo-political tension, we need Haydn's "Mass...
300: Rise of an Empire
Friday, 07 March 2014
300: Rise of an Empire is the follow-up to perhaps the most homoerotic film of all time, 300 - a film whose obsession with the well-lubricated...
Bastille, Alexandra Palace
Friday, 07 March 2014
Bastille didn’t so much raise the roof at Alexandra Palace last night, as ask it politely if it wouldn’t mind elevating itself a touch. Their...
Thief
Friday, 07 March 2014
The smartest stealth series reboots with an attempt to blend in with its surroundings |
Wake in Fright
Friday, 07 March 2014
Aussie mateship massacred in a monstrous Seventies rediscovery |
37 Days, BBC Two
Friday, 07 March 2014
Inside story of how the lights went out all over Europe |
Gabriela Montero, Queen Elizabeth Hall
Thursday, 06 March 2014
A communicative Venezuelan pianist who dares to be different and to invent her own traditions |
Good People, Hampstead Theatre
Wednesday, 05 March 2014
Imelda Staunton stars in American import about class which is both funny and moving |
Ruin Lust, Tate Britain
Wednesday, 05 March 2014
Poignant, seductive, melancholic – the thought-provoking power of ruins |
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Wednesday, 05 March 2014
More wonderful whimsy from Wes, with Ralph Fiennes a humorous revelation |
theartsdesk at the Marrakech Biennale: "Where Are We Now?"
Wednesday, 05 March 2014
The bienniale has left its mark on the city, but the artworks still have to compete with the colourful backdrop |
La Fille du régiment, Royal Opera
Tuesday, 04 March 2014
Donizetti's potboiler bubbles at lowish temperatures, but a star tenor still hits the high Cs |
Oscars 2014: All that glitters is not Gravity
Monday, 03 March 2014
Surprise-free ceremony struggles to achieve lift-off in an evening full of love for 'Gravity' |
Blandings, BBC One
Monday, 03 March 2014
Fine cast veers queasily from cartoon to more accomplished literary comedy |
Marc Almond, John Harle, The Tyburn Tree, Barbican
Monday, 03 March 2014
The musical undead walk amongst us in this prog-rock evocation of dark London |
I Wish I Was Lonely, Battersea Arts Centre
Sunday, 02 March 2014
Our mobile phone culture is put to the test of participatory theatre |
La Pepa, Ballet Flamenco Sara Baras, Sadler's Wells
Sunday, 02 March 2014
Flamenco festival's opening number is no history lesson, but the dancing's all right |
The Great War in Portraits, National Portrait Gallery
Sunday, 02 March 2014
A cleverly curated and incisive exhibition commemorating World War One |
Davislim, Hallé, Elder, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester
Sunday, 02 March 2014
As the Strauss 150th concludes, Sir Mark's protégé comes of age with Beethoven 7 |
Beyoncé, O2 Arena
Saturday, 01 March 2014
The superstar diva from Houston, Texas, thunders into London in epic style |
Rodelinda, English National Opera
Saturday, 01 March 2014
Richard Jones' tragicomic mobster Handel, superbly cast, shows us what opera can do |
Funny Face
Saturday, 01 March 2014
Reissue for Stanley Donen's luminous but sexist musical, starring Audrey Hepburn and Fred Astaire |
Jonathan Creek, BBC One
Friday, 28 February 2014
It may be looking a little creaky, but it's still fun and frothy |
Versailles, Donmar Warehouse
Friday, 28 February 2014
Peter Gill’s new play about the end of the First World War is a long, hard slog |
Ralph Towner and Egberto Gismonti, Barbican
Friday, 28 February 2014
Sublime pairing of virtuoso guitarists who bestride much of jazz and related genres |
Castlevania: Lords Of Shadow 2
Friday, 28 February 2014
Whip smart? Hardly – this action-adventure sequel jumps the franchise off a cliff |
The Knight of the Burning Pestle, Sam Wanamaker Playhouse
Friday, 28 February 2014
Period silliness proves fun - up to a point |
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Storyville - Muscle Shoals: the Greatest Recording Studio in...
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300: Rise of an Empire
A second dose of vaguely historical, highly hysterical action - this time w...
Classical CDs Weekly: Haydn, Weinberg, Battle for...
Choral uplift, Soviet-era string music and a fictionalised account of a Lon...
CD: Paloma Faith - A Perfect Contradiction
Unspectacular third effort fails to stand out from the crowd
