tue 19/03/2024

O2

Trevor Noah: Off the Record, O2 review - welcome return to standup for the polyglot motormouth

The O2 has to be the K2 of comedy peaks: a vast ovoid drum of a place where those right at the back have to be content with watching magnified images on screens. And for a standup, there are no electric instruments to drown out the echoing acoustics...

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Madonna, Celebration Tour, O2 review - spectacular, ambitious and occasionally bemusing

Exactly 40 years since Madonna’s first UK hit, “Holiday”, was skittering about the Top Five, she launches her global Celebration Tour at the O2.It is spectacle on the very grandest scale. In the latter half, following a video montage of tabloid...

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Peter Kay, O2 Arena review - comeback show is worth the wait

In 2017, Bolton comic Peter Kay had to cancel his planned tour because of “family circumstances”. But then, when he announced last year that he was back in the saddle, the tickets for Better Late Than Never sold like the proverbial. Well into what...

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L'Impératrice, O2 Shepherds Bush review - delayed gratification

Born in the bedroom of keyboard player Charles de Boisseguin, bathed in a sleek, quintessentially French tradition of electro-pop, L’Impératrice materialised on the darkened stage at the O2 Shepherds Bush, with glowing hearts beating in unison on...

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Shagged. Married. Annoyed. Live, O2 Arena review - popular podcast lost in translation

The lengthy ovation Chris and Rosie Ramsey received when they walked on stage at the O2 showed there was a lot of love in the room, and why wouldn't there be? The married couple's podcast Shagged. Married. Annoyed. has clocked up 144 episodes and...

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Rod Stewart, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, O2 review - Tonight's the Night

I can’t look at Rod Stewart without thinking of Barbara, one of the naughtier girls in my third-form class at East Barnet Senior High School. She was tiny, and obsessed with him, her hair cut like his. “Maggie May” was number one, playing from tinny...

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ABBA: Super Troupers The Exhibition, O2 - one for the supergroup's completists

Abba fans can already have an immersive dining/dancing/singing experience at the O2 in Mamma Mia! The Party, and now, almost as a companion piece, is ABBA: Super Troupers The Exhibition, a show that sets out tell “the story of the band, their music...

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The Chemical Brothers, O2 review - eye-boggling monster rave-up

The O2 is usually a bright, sterile space before the bands come on. Its starkly lit US sports event ambience is accentuated by humanity milling around layered plastic seating clutching giant tubs of soft drink. Not so tonight. The venue has been...

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Jack Whitehall, O2 Arena - a mix of posh and puerile

Jack Whitehall is hardly ever off the telly, appearing on gameshows or jollying around with his father, Michael, presenting the BRIT Awards and proving to be a decent actor in dramas such as Decline and Fall. But now he's gone back to live comedy...

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Vampire Weekend, O2 Academy, Birmingham review – clean-cut Americans fail to ignite

By the time Vampire Weekend reached Birmingham on their latest UK jaunt, they had unfortunately managed to mislay their support band, the colourful Songhoy Blues. This was a great shame, as the Malians would surely have added a bit of colour to the...

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Muse, 02 review - bombastic Brit-rock with a sci-fi theme

For a band mostly known as a brilliantly ludicrous cocktail of other’s people’s sound-styles, the Simulation Theory tour is proof that Muse have become musical legends in their own right.Yes, their progressive rock is the combined conglomeration...

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Lenny Kravitz, O2 review - gloriously joyful rock 'n' roll

“Lenny’s coming! Lenny’s coming!” When the lights go down at the O2 tonight, it’s not just the small child behind us who’s excited. Support act Corinne Bailey Rae has done a good job in getting the crowd in the mood (unfortunately, we miss most of...

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