25 July 2007
When your neighbours have got a troupe of travelling players performing Shakespeare in their back garden it would seem churlish not to support them – so on Sunday we made our way through the deer park to Woburn Abbey to watch the outdoor production of 'Much Ado About Nothing' by Chapterhouse theatre company. In this period of 'extreme weather' we expected the worst but, amazingly, the clouds cleared, the sun came out and we enjoyed a beautiful evening. There are quite a few companies touring open-air Shakespeare productions each summer and it always appears to be a very testing proving ground for young actors. Apart from coping with the full range of weather conditions, your projection has got to be very strong to reach the back of the audience and you have to be able to ignore numerous potential distractions – such as the flock of geese that flew across the Woburn Abbey gardens on Sunday, closely followed by a lone heron. The Chapterhouse cast coped well and gave a solid, engaging performance. Not quite as inventive in their use of the available space as the 'Romeo and Juliet' we saw last year but extremely enjoyable nonetheless – with particularly strong performances by Nicola Weeks and Simon Michael Morgan as Beatrice and Benedick. Their tour of England continues to the end of August - details at www.chapterhouse.org.
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Monday, July 23, 2007
The Blockheads
23 July 2007
It's Easter 1992 and we're in the Swan Theatre in Stratford watching a great Royal Shakespeare Company production of John Gay's 'A Jovial Crew'. But we're distracted from the action by a small, stooped figure wandering around the back of the auditorium, selecting a series of vantage points. As he passes the back of our seats, Jeannie turns round and pointedly asks him to be quiet. We reach the interval and the lights go up and suddenly a queue is forming to shake hands with the small, restless man. If I had stopped to write a list of all the people he might have been (which I obviously didn't as I was in a hurry to get an ice cream) the list would have had to have been many pages long before it would have occurred to me that we were being disturbed by rock star and poet of punk, Ian Dury. (Though had I just spent the interval reading the programme I would have discovered that he and Mickey Gallagher had written the songs for this production of 'A Jovial Crew'.)
Fifteen years later Dury is sadly no longer with us but his band, The Blockheads, are celebrating their thirtieth anniversary. So, on Saturday evening, we made our way to The Pitz in Milton Keynes for an evening of 'Sex and Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll'. The remaining original Blockheads may have aged but showed no signs of losing their enthusiasm, musical skill or drive. Augmented by a couple of younger recruits they played a high-energy two hour set and were obviously really enjoying themselves. The Blockheads were one of those punk bands who weren't really punks - mixing a variety of musical styles including reggae (as did The Clash), Latin rhythms and funk. Their strolling bass lines sound a lot like their contemporaries Squeeze. The presence of the amazing saxophonist Gilad Atzmon took a lot of the numbers into the realms of jazz funk – at times The Blockheads sounded remarkably like Weather Report – not really my kind of thing but very impressive. Their unique selling point is still Ian Dury’s wonderful lyrics – witty, playful, hard-hitting, brutal and very funny. It was great to see a packed audience singing along to every word. Also interesting to reflect on Dury’s gentle, natural, rhythmic spoken delivery: he was rapping in 1977 – well before Mike Skinner of The Streets was born. On Saturday the Blockheads were joined for the last few numbers by the comedian Phil Jupitus. Almost unrecognisable (if it were not for his distinctive body shape!), clean-shaven and dressed in a giant red checked jacket and bowler hat (“sponsored by Home Pride”), Jupitus delivered the lead vocals with due reverence to his legendary colleagues – and was clearly a big fan. He is due to join The Blockheads for a full thirtieth anniversary tour later this year – well worth catching. And as we pogo-ed into the night shouting “hit me with your rhythm stick – hit me – hit me” I’m sure there was someone looking on from the back of the auditorium and smiling.
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Boban Markovic Orkestar
17 July 2007
Since I first discovered the peerless Serbian brass band - the Boban Markovic Orkestar – after reading a review in Songlines magazine at the beginning of 2003 they have only played one UK date – in May 2003 which I missed as I was flying back from Italy at the time. So when I heard Boban was to play another one-off concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London last weekend I leapt at the chance to see the band live for the first time. They didn't disappoint. Dressed in white shoes, white trousers and round-necked, long-sleeved white t-shirts the 11 members of the Boban Markovic Orkestar looked like an unlikely collection of male nurses preparing to assist in complicated surgery on our eardrums. In front of the band, Boban and his son Marko were the epitome of cool on a sweltering evening. Marko – now in his early twenties – is a rock star with a trumpet. He stands with his feet firmly planted to the floor, his head bent forward to ensure his trumpet gets as close as possible to the microphone, his long black hair tied tightly back in a ponytail and his hips gyrating to the groove. His father constantly prowls the stage – directing the band, instructing the sound engineer and casually slipping into bursts of virtuoso trumpet solos. Boban's medium-length hair is tousled as if an elderly relative has playfully ruffled it. The back of his light blue shirt is soon drenched in sweat. His shoulders are permanently raised in a perpetual shrugging 'whatever' and a satisfied smile plays around his lips.
For me, the Boban Markovic Orkestar are the classiest, slickest, funkiest exponents of the Balkan Gypsy brass sound. They avoid the tendency of many similar bands to demonstrate their virtuosity by making everything extremely fast and frantic – preferring to vary their programme with stunning, unexpected changes of tempo and rhythm. And their rhythms are amazing – complex syncopations supported by five tuba players and three percussionists. There are no clarinets or saxophones here – just tubas (of varying sizes) and trumpets. The sound is absolutely deafening – and even louder when Boban and Marko come out from behind the microphones and play directly without amplification from the front of stage.
There is clearly a great mutual respect within the band. At the end of each number every player acknowledges the audience's acclaim by raising an arm to gesture across the stage towards one of their colleagues to suggest, modestly, where the applause ought to be directed. When the gesture is reciprocated each player turns to honour another member of the band, creating a series of white-clad musical statue tableaus with arms outstretched.
Balkan Gypsy brass is party music but with the Boban Markovic Orkestar it is a serious party. By the time they left the stage of the Queen Elizabeth Hall – having over-run the scheduled finish by an hour! – everyone was on their feet: an unforgettable experience.
Thursday, July 12, 2007
'The Magic Numbers' by The Magic Numbers
12 July 2007
Last weekend, our friends Jan and Dave suggested we go to see a band in a pub. Regular readers may have noticed that this is not something we do very often but the novelty of a smoke-free pub was quite appealing and Jan and Dave had seen the band before and recommended them. So on Saturday night we made for the Prince Albert in Bradwell Village, Milton Keynes, to see '1 Nite Stand'. Discovering that they were a 'covers band' eroded my enthusiasm as I anticipated an evening of the same old 1960s and 70s standards. When they started, however, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that their choice of covers was much more interesting and inventive. '1 Nite Stand' (www.1nitestand.co.uk) were really good. Most of their repertoire was from the 1990s (including songs by the likes of James and The Wonderstuff) or more recent (such as The Kaiser Chiefs and Nerina Pallot). I was particularly struck by a number of songs that were new to me, including one by The Magic Numbers. When I wrote here (in February 2006) of my enthusiasm for Arctic Monkeys, Sioned suggested I try The Magic Numbers but I'm sorry to say I hadn't got round to them. So this week I picked up a copy of their eponymous 2005 album (for just £6 - sometimes delaying your purchase pays off!). It's a 1960s West Coast sound (and I don't mean Aberystwyth!) - cheerful, toe-tapping, catchy tunes with strummed guitars and backing vocal harmonies - a soundtrack for summer.
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Sardinia
28 June 2007
We had a great couple of weeks in Sardinia. It was very hot and we were staying in a fairly isolated hotel set in the middle of a pine forest near Arborea on the West coast – which allowed for plenty of relaxing days by the pool or on the beach. We also managed to explore quite a bit of the island including the main cities – Cagliari, Nuoro and Sassari – the picturesque towns of Bosa and Alghero (the only Catalan-speaking community outside Spain – Sardinia having been Spanish for three centuries), and several Roman and prehistoric (‘Nuraghi’) archeological sites. My highlight was the day we drove up a narrow winding road to the mountain village of Bitti, home to the famous singing shepherds, Tenores de Bitti. The Sardinian canto a tenore tradition is an amazing sound. For centuries shepherds have gathered in mountain huts at the end of the working day to sing to each other (and drink!) through the night. Standing in a circle facing each other, this is very much participatory music – not designed for an audience. The four-part unaccompanied close-harmony singing imitates natural sounds: the bass (‘bassu’) is the sound of a cow, the ‘contra’ is the sound of a sheep and the ‘mesu ‘oche’ is the sound of the wind. Above these the soloist (‘voche’ – the human voice) leads the song and carries the text. The result is harmonically scrunchy, with a very low growlly bass – hypnotically repetitive and remarkably catchy. After a lengthy search around the streets of Bitti we eventually found the tiny Museo Canto e Tenore and came away clutching heaps of CDs.
Monday, June 25, 2007
'The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid' by Bill Bryson
25 June 2007
About 15 years ago, my cynical friend Tony was uncharacteristically enthusiastic about a travel book he was reading by a then little-known American author called Bill Bryson. This guy, said Tony, had taken a road-trip across America and had written a hilarious account of the small towns he had encountered and their peculiar inhabitants. Bill Bryson was the American who understood irony - he was more cynical than my cynical friend Tony. I didn't actually read 'The Lost Continent' until years later. Tony couldn't let me read his copy because, typically, he had borrowed it from a girl he had been seeing but was no longer seeing but hoped he might see again in which case he would need to be able to return her book. When I finally got to read 'The Lost Continent' I loved it too - everybody loves Bill Bryson don't they? He has a great knack of capturing the absurdities of the places he visits and marveling at the ridiculousness of the people he meets without ever ridiculing them, and maintaining his own likeable persona through a healthy dollop of self-deprecation. I've read quite a few Bill Bryson books now and they are all extremely entertaining. I think his style works best when his descriptions of places are sprinkled with chance encounters with the strangest of strangers - for me his least successful book was 'Neither Here Nor There', his European journey where language barriers restricted those chance conversations. He also has a tendency to wear his research on his sleeve - sometimes bombarding you with too many interesting facts and statistics. I found his science book 'A Short History of Nearly Everything' a little hard-going - not because it wasn't constantly fascinating but there just seemed to be too much to take in. You do feel, though, that this is because Bryson is himself utterly fascinated and dying to tell you - and it is this raw enthusiasm that makes him so appealing. I've just finished reading his childhood reminiscences 'The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid' which tells us what it was like growing up in Des Moines, Iowa, in the 1950s and thereby provides a comprehensive picture of fifties America. Extremely enjoyable and incredibly funny this was Bryson at his best - perhaps because this journey into the past covered a much longer period than his geographical journeys so there were many more bizarre encounters from which to cull his anecdotes - plus a highly entertaining new central character: the young Bill Bryson. Despite his familiarity with the territory, the usual Brysonic thoroughness of research is evident - with some great quotations from newspapers and magazines of the period opening each chapter. But above all you get a great sense of the affection Bryson feels for his family, friends and the place he grew up - despite, or perhaps because of, their baffling oddities.
About 15 years ago, my cynical friend Tony was uncharacteristically enthusiastic about a travel book he was reading by a then little-known American author called Bill Bryson. This guy, said Tony, had taken a road-trip across America and had written a hilarious account of the small towns he had encountered and their peculiar inhabitants. Bill Bryson was the American who understood irony - he was more cynical than my cynical friend Tony. I didn't actually read 'The Lost Continent' until years later. Tony couldn't let me read his copy because, typically, he had borrowed it from a girl he had been seeing but was no longer seeing but hoped he might see again in which case he would need to be able to return her book. When I finally got to read 'The Lost Continent' I loved it too - everybody loves Bill Bryson don't they? He has a great knack of capturing the absurdities of the places he visits and marveling at the ridiculousness of the people he meets without ever ridiculing them, and maintaining his own likeable persona through a healthy dollop of self-deprecation. I've read quite a few Bill Bryson books now and they are all extremely entertaining. I think his style works best when his descriptions of places are sprinkled with chance encounters with the strangest of strangers - for me his least successful book was 'Neither Here Nor There', his European journey where language barriers restricted those chance conversations. He also has a tendency to wear his research on his sleeve - sometimes bombarding you with too many interesting facts and statistics. I found his science book 'A Short History of Nearly Everything' a little hard-going - not because it wasn't constantly fascinating but there just seemed to be too much to take in. You do feel, though, that this is because Bryson is himself utterly fascinated and dying to tell you - and it is this raw enthusiasm that makes him so appealing. I've just finished reading his childhood reminiscences 'The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid' which tells us what it was like growing up in Des Moines, Iowa, in the 1950s and thereby provides a comprehensive picture of fifties America. Extremely enjoyable and incredibly funny this was Bryson at his best - perhaps because this journey into the past covered a much longer period than his geographical journeys so there were many more bizarre encounters from which to cull his anecdotes - plus a highly entertaining new central character: the young Bill Bryson. Despite his familiarity with the territory, the usual Brysonic thoroughness of research is evident - with some great quotations from newspapers and magazines of the period opening each chapter. But above all you get a great sense of the affection Bryson feels for his family, friends and the place he grew up - despite, or perhaps because of, their baffling oddities.
'The Kite Runner' by Khaled Hosseini
25 June 2007
My knowledge of the recent history of Afghanistan was fairly limited before reading 'The Kite Runner' by Khaled Hosseini - but I knew it hadn't been a good few decades. In Hosseini's impressive novel, the narrator looks back to his childhood in 1970s Kabul from the vantage point of present-day San Francisco. The early chapters, dealing with his privileged upbringing and his close friendship with his father's servant's son, have the same end-of-an-era feel as the Shanghai of JG Ballard's 'Empire of the Sun' or Kazuo Ishiguro's 'When We Were Orphans'. But here the comfortable childhood is shattered by the Russians rather than the Japanese and then things just get worse as the Russians are followed by the Northern Alliance and then the Taliban. 'The Kite Runner' is an old-fashioned epic novel - a family saga cataloguing dark years, tragedy and violence. It is a gripping, if sometimes disturbing, read - extremely well-written and intricately plotted with some great iconic characters. Occasionally Hosseini overdoes the neat little links - almost every significantly described item seems bound to make a crucial reappearance later in the story - but this is a minor criticism for a stunning debut novel which is crying out to be filmed.
My knowledge of the recent history of Afghanistan was fairly limited before reading 'The Kite Runner' by Khaled Hosseini - but I knew it hadn't been a good few decades. In Hosseini's impressive novel, the narrator looks back to his childhood in 1970s Kabul from the vantage point of present-day San Francisco. The early chapters, dealing with his privileged upbringing and his close friendship with his father's servant's son, have the same end-of-an-era feel as the Shanghai of JG Ballard's 'Empire of the Sun' or Kazuo Ishiguro's 'When We Were Orphans'. But here the comfortable childhood is shattered by the Russians rather than the Japanese and then things just get worse as the Russians are followed by the Northern Alliance and then the Taliban. 'The Kite Runner' is an old-fashioned epic novel - a family saga cataloguing dark years, tragedy and violence. It is a gripping, if sometimes disturbing, read - extremely well-written and intricately plotted with some great iconic characters. Occasionally Hosseini overdoes the neat little links - almost every significantly described item seems bound to make a crucial reappearance later in the story - but this is a minor criticism for a stunning debut novel which is crying out to be filmed.
'A Spot of Bother' by Mark Haddon
25 June 2007
It wasn't to everyone's liking and was sometimes painfully honest to read but, for me, one of the best novels of recent years was 'The Corrections' by Jonathan Franzen. This tale of two aging parents and their grown-up children impressively showed you the irresolvably opposing points of view of each of the main characters in a way that made you simultaneously sympathise with all of them - painfully demonstrating the irreconcilable tensions within families. Mark Haddon's new novel 'A Spot of Bother' pulls off a similar trick in a much lighter vein. Haddon was, rightly, much praised for his previous novel 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time' - a highly distinctive, wonderful book - if you haven't read it please do so now! It was always going to be difficult for him to follow this success and 'A Spot of Bother' had mixed reviews but I really enjoyed it. Inevitably, it is a very different - and much more conventional, novel, but it is extremely enjoyable and very funny. Like 'The Corrections', 'A Spot of Bother' deals with aging parents and their grown-up children. It is written in the third person but each chapter takes the point of view of one of the four principal characters - often showing us the same events from a different angle. But this is 'The Corrections' as it might have been written by Nick Hornby - an entertaining, page-turning, easy read in an English middle-class setting with some great comic set-pieces. Like Hornby or David Lodge, Mark Haddon has the ability to address difficult and complex subjects through deceptively 'lightweight' prose - never feeling the need to show-off its cleverness and dealing with dark subjects without making them unbearably bleak. And on top of all this the book is set in what is, for me, familiar territory. With Marina Lewycka's 'A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian', are we seeing the beginning of a new genre of 'Peterborough fiction'?
It wasn't to everyone's liking and was sometimes painfully honest to read but, for me, one of the best novels of recent years was 'The Corrections' by Jonathan Franzen. This tale of two aging parents and their grown-up children impressively showed you the irresolvably opposing points of view of each of the main characters in a way that made you simultaneously sympathise with all of them - painfully demonstrating the irreconcilable tensions within families. Mark Haddon's new novel 'A Spot of Bother' pulls off a similar trick in a much lighter vein. Haddon was, rightly, much praised for his previous novel 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time' - a highly distinctive, wonderful book - if you haven't read it please do so now! It was always going to be difficult for him to follow this success and 'A Spot of Bother' had mixed reviews but I really enjoyed it. Inevitably, it is a very different - and much more conventional, novel, but it is extremely enjoyable and very funny. Like 'The Corrections', 'A Spot of Bother' deals with aging parents and their grown-up children. It is written in the third person but each chapter takes the point of view of one of the four principal characters - often showing us the same events from a different angle. But this is 'The Corrections' as it might have been written by Nick Hornby - an entertaining, page-turning, easy read in an English middle-class setting with some great comic set-pieces. Like Hornby or David Lodge, Mark Haddon has the ability to address difficult and complex subjects through deceptively 'lightweight' prose - never feeling the need to show-off its cleverness and dealing with dark subjects without making them unbearably bleak. And on top of all this the book is set in what is, for me, familiar territory. With Marina Lewycka's 'A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian', are we seeing the beginning of a new genre of 'Peterborough fiction'?
Thursday, June 07, 2007
Charles Hazlewood on BBC Radio 2
7 June 2007
I recently discovered the Charles Hazlewood show on BBC Radio 2 which is broadcast on Wednesday evenings at 10 pm. Hazlewood is a conductor and enthusiastic advocate of classical music. In his Radio 3 Saturday afternoon programme ‘Discovering Music’ he performs a fascinating and accessible dissection and analysis of popular orchestral works, finishing by conducting a full live performance of the work in question. Earlier this year his TV drama/documentaries on Tchaikowsky demonstrated his excitement and infectious enthusiasm in front of the camera. His weekly Radio 2 show is a wonderful example of breaking down genre barriers and appreciating good music without worrying about how it is labeled. From the barn at his home in Somerset he plays a variety of recordings from pop to country to contemporary classical to early music and discusses them with a guest musician. His guest then performs a couple of live numbers (often with Hazlewood accompanying or adding some percussion etc) before they improvise something completely new together. The result is intriguing, enjoyable and accessible whilst still resolutely musically serious – without a hint of ‘dumbing down’. Last week’s guest was Fyfe Dangerfield from The Guillemots – a band I’ve not listened to, but having heard his performances from Hazelwood’s barn I am keen to seek them out.
I recently discovered the Charles Hazlewood show on BBC Radio 2 which is broadcast on Wednesday evenings at 10 pm. Hazlewood is a conductor and enthusiastic advocate of classical music. In his Radio 3 Saturday afternoon programme ‘Discovering Music’ he performs a fascinating and accessible dissection and analysis of popular orchestral works, finishing by conducting a full live performance of the work in question. Earlier this year his TV drama/documentaries on Tchaikowsky demonstrated his excitement and infectious enthusiasm in front of the camera. His weekly Radio 2 show is a wonderful example of breaking down genre barriers and appreciating good music without worrying about how it is labeled. From the barn at his home in Somerset he plays a variety of recordings from pop to country to contemporary classical to early music and discusses them with a guest musician. His guest then performs a couple of live numbers (often with Hazlewood accompanying or adding some percussion etc) before they improvise something completely new together. The result is intriguing, enjoyable and accessible whilst still resolutely musically serious – without a hint of ‘dumbing down’. Last week’s guest was Fyfe Dangerfield from The Guillemots – a band I’ve not listened to, but having heard his performances from Hazelwood’s barn I am keen to seek them out.
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Fanfare Ciocarlia
31 May 2007
Regular readers will know about my enthusiasm for Balkan Gypsy brass music. 2007 looks like being a vintage year for British fans of Balkan brass with Kocani Orkestar, the Boban Markovic Orkestar and Fanfare Ciocarlia all visiting the UK. On Wednesday I was at the Barbican in London to see the award-winning Romanian Gypsy brass band, Fanfare Ciocarlia. Fanfare won a BBC Radio 3 Award for World Music last year (reported here in April 2006) and are great friends of my former colleague at Making Music, Jackie Grant. Thankfully they had not brought a goat with them on this occasion but they did bring a host of guest performers that resembled a 'Who's Who' of Balkan Gypsy music.
In 2000 the Barbican held its first '1000 Year Journey' festival of Gypsy music and Fanfare Ciocarlia made their mark with an amazing performance on the free stage in the Barbican foyer that went on into the small hours of the following morning. Seven years later they were back - this time in the sold-out main Barbican Hall. There was a buzz around the building well before the performance started: this felt like a major 'event'. There was wonderful support from American duo 'A Hawk and a Hacksaw' creating their own blend of traditional Hungarian Gypsy music with their collaborators, Hungary's Hun Hangar Ensemble. Then Fanfare Ciocarlia and their guests commanded the stage for more than two hours. Wow! Never before have eleven mostly balding, middle-aged men, wearing their bright-coloured short-sleeved shirts outside their sensible slacks to disguise their widening midriffs, played so energetically, so frantically, so furiously and so loudly! Fanfare Ciocarlia play fast - very fast - no, really very fast! Fanfare Ciocarlia are 'The Flight of the Bumble Bee' on speed - going down a very steep hill - in a runaway train - with a strong tailwind. When they pause between pieces to gather their breath you wonder for a second whether the next tune might be a contrasting slow one - then the percussionist looks at his colleagues, raises his sticks and rapidly beats 'tap tap tap tap' and they're off again at breakneck speed. Exciting as this is it can get a little monotonous and I was grateful for the variety provided by a galaxy of co-stars.
Fanfare Ciocarlia's patriarch, Ioan Ivancea died late last year and their new CD 'Queens & Kings' is a tribute to him, featuring legendary Gypsy musicians from across Europe. At the Barbican this week Fanfare Ciocarlia were joined by the gorgeous Romanian singer Florentina Sandu, French trio Kaloome, Romanian dancers Aurelia and Tantzica and Bulgarian rocker Jony Iliev (who had hurt his back and had to be helped to hobble across the stage to take his place on a chair with microphone in hand - at which point he came alive and gave a lively, soulful performance). Also appearing was the amazing Hungarian Gypsy singer with the bizarre squeaky voice Mitsou (whose band Mitsoura were one of my highlights at last year's WOMAD festival - reviewed here in August 2006).
But the star of the show was undoubtedly the 'Queen of the Gypsies', the legendary Macedonian singer Esma Redzepova. Esma has had an amazing life - performing across the globe in front of adoring crowds and heads of state including Nehru and Tito, adopting 46 children from the streets of Macedonia, campaigning against poverty, and being nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize - twice! She still has a wonderful voice and led a rousing finale with all the performers (and several members of the audience) returning to the stage to hop and spin to the frenetic beat. Fanfare Ciocarlia's CD 'Queens and Kings' is out now on Asphalt Tango Records - go on, you know you want to ...
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
'Romeo & Juliet' by Northern Ballet Theatre
29 May 2007
We've been meaning to get around to watching some ballet for ages. We finally took the plunge at Milton Keynes Theatre last Saturday where we saw Northern Ballet Theatre's 'Romeo & Juliet' and it was great! I think it helped that we had chosen a story we knew well, set to familiar music (by Prokofiev). Having played the concert suites I was intrigued to see how sections of the music were repeated throughout the ballet as 'motifs' for particular characters etc. It was also interesting to see how interpreting the plot through dance (choreography by Massimo Moricone and original direction by Christopher Gable) stretched time in different directions. Complex plot development scenes which are quite substantial in the Shakespeare play were over in the blink of an eye in the ballet, while the dance lingered understandably much longer on expressions of feelings between the characters. I am not convinced that I would have been able to follow all the intricacies of the plot without knowing the play well (I don't see how you could dance/mime Friar Laurence's explanation that the potion will only induce a death-like sleep - if you didn't already know this you would probably get quite a surprise when Juliet wakes up!). And I still think some of the 'silent movie' exaggerated mime moments sit uneasily within the seriousness of the story and the dance - there were too many 'silent scream' moments with dancers waving their hands in mock surprise! But the dancing was lovely and very moving. I particularly liked Pippa Moore's child-like Juliet and Hironao Takahashi's swaggering Mercutio. 'Romeo & Juliet' was definitely a hit and I think more ballet beckons ...
We've been meaning to get around to watching some ballet for ages. We finally took the plunge at Milton Keynes Theatre last Saturday where we saw Northern Ballet Theatre's 'Romeo & Juliet' and it was great! I think it helped that we had chosen a story we knew well, set to familiar music (by Prokofiev). Having played the concert suites I was intrigued to see how sections of the music were repeated throughout the ballet as 'motifs' for particular characters etc. It was also interesting to see how interpreting the plot through dance (choreography by Massimo Moricone and original direction by Christopher Gable) stretched time in different directions. Complex plot development scenes which are quite substantial in the Shakespeare play were over in the blink of an eye in the ballet, while the dance lingered understandably much longer on expressions of feelings between the characters. I am not convinced that I would have been able to follow all the intricacies of the plot without knowing the play well (I don't see how you could dance/mime Friar Laurence's explanation that the potion will only induce a death-like sleep - if you didn't already know this you would probably get quite a surprise when Juliet wakes up!). And I still think some of the 'silent movie' exaggerated mime moments sit uneasily within the seriousness of the story and the dance - there were too many 'silent scream' moments with dancers waving their hands in mock surprise! But the dancing was lovely and very moving. I particularly liked Pippa Moore's child-like Juliet and Hironao Takahashi's swaggering Mercutio. 'Romeo & Juliet' was definitely a hit and I think more ballet beckons ...
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
'Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus' by Mary Shelley
22 May 2007
'Frankenstein' seems such a familiar story but it's been fascinating to read Mary Shelley's original 1818 novel for the first time. I knew that most of the film versions took great liberties with the plot but it was interesting to discover how, in doing so, they really lost the point of the story. Mary Shelley wrote 'Frankenstein' (famously inspired by a 'waking dream' while staying with her husband and Byron at Lake Geneva) while pregnant and its main themes are to do with birth, creation and death. It is heavily influenced by Milton's 'Paradise Lost' (quoted on the title page) - the source of inspiration, more recently, for Philip Pulman's 'His Dark Materials' trilogy. The science of 'Frankenstein' is pretty shaky and largely glossed over. Mary Shelley is much more interested in the social interactions between the monster, his creator and other people. Much of the plot is, even within the fantastical world of the novel, remarkably implausible - teaching himself to talk, the monster becomes unbelievably articulate in a very short space of time - and Victor Frankenstein seems to come very much from the naive "hiding under the duvet should protect me from anything nasty" school of thought! Nevertheless the story's premise is powerful enough to allow you to overlook some of these imperfections. The narrative structure is quite complex, consisting of several 'nested narratives' - at one point we are reading the monster's story as told by the monster to Victor Frankenstein as told by Victor to Captain Walton as told by the Captain to his sister! But even this is symbolic - Captain Walton's sister is Margaret Walton Saville and it is no coincidence that she shares her initials with Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, suggesting that the whole story is a found narrative discovered by Mary Shelley rather than her own creation. The edition of the novel I read included as an appendix an 1823 dramatisation called 'Presumption or The Fate of Frankenstein' by Richard Brinsley Peake which radically simplified the story, making the monster mute and removing all the complexities of his arguments with his creator. This play seems to have been the source for many of the later treatments including the Universal films that now form our main reference for the 'Frankenstein' story. The original novel, while not a great work, is much more thoughtful and thought-provoking than much that it inspired - and truly scary!
'Frankenstein' seems such a familiar story but it's been fascinating to read Mary Shelley's original 1818 novel for the first time. I knew that most of the film versions took great liberties with the plot but it was interesting to discover how, in doing so, they really lost the point of the story. Mary Shelley wrote 'Frankenstein' (famously inspired by a 'waking dream' while staying with her husband and Byron at Lake Geneva) while pregnant and its main themes are to do with birth, creation and death. It is heavily influenced by Milton's 'Paradise Lost' (quoted on the title page) - the source of inspiration, more recently, for Philip Pulman's 'His Dark Materials' trilogy. The science of 'Frankenstein' is pretty shaky and largely glossed over. Mary Shelley is much more interested in the social interactions between the monster, his creator and other people. Much of the plot is, even within the fantastical world of the novel, remarkably implausible - teaching himself to talk, the monster becomes unbelievably articulate in a very short space of time - and Victor Frankenstein seems to come very much from the naive "hiding under the duvet should protect me from anything nasty" school of thought! Nevertheless the story's premise is powerful enough to allow you to overlook some of these imperfections. The narrative structure is quite complex, consisting of several 'nested narratives' - at one point we are reading the monster's story as told by the monster to Victor Frankenstein as told by Victor to Captain Walton as told by the Captain to his sister! But even this is symbolic - Captain Walton's sister is Margaret Walton Saville and it is no coincidence that she shares her initials with Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, suggesting that the whole story is a found narrative discovered by Mary Shelley rather than her own creation. The edition of the novel I read included as an appendix an 1823 dramatisation called 'Presumption or The Fate of Frankenstein' by Richard Brinsley Peake which radically simplified the story, making the monster mute and removing all the complexities of his arguments with his creator. This play seems to have been the source for many of the later treatments including the Universal films that now form our main reference for the 'Frankenstein' story. The original novel, while not a great work, is much more thoughtful and thought-provoking than much that it inspired - and truly scary!
Monday, May 14, 2007
'Little Shop of Horrors' by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken
14 May 2007
Last Saturday we were in London to see the Menier Chocolate Factory production of 'Little Shop of Horrors' which is now at the Duke of York's Theatre in the West End. It was an incredibly enjoyable evening - great music in an all-girl-group early rock and roll style, some wonderful comedy, fantastic 'skid-row' set design and a giant man-eating plant (realised here through the amazing puppetry of Andy Heath). I was a big fan of the 1986 film but had never seen the original stage musical (which itself was based on the classic 1959 Roger Corman B-movie). I hadn't realised that the happy ending of the 1986 film was a Hollywood-imposed change - the musical has a much more satisfyingly macabre finale! It was written for a small off-Broadway theatre and works well on the intimate stage at the Duke of York's. Alistair McGowan was great in the show-stopping part of Audrey's sadistic boyfriend (played by Steve Martin in the film) as was Mike McShane as the voice of the plant. His biography in the programme says that McShane "has never played a vegetable, although he's been known to party with them upon occasion." 'Little Shop of Horrors' is a very silly show from which you come out smiling. But remember, "whatever they offer you, don't feed the plants!"
Last Saturday we were in London to see the Menier Chocolate Factory production of 'Little Shop of Horrors' which is now at the Duke of York's Theatre in the West End. It was an incredibly enjoyable evening - great music in an all-girl-group early rock and roll style, some wonderful comedy, fantastic 'skid-row' set design and a giant man-eating plant (realised here through the amazing puppetry of Andy Heath). I was a big fan of the 1986 film but had never seen the original stage musical (which itself was based on the classic 1959 Roger Corman B-movie). I hadn't realised that the happy ending of the 1986 film was a Hollywood-imposed change - the musical has a much more satisfyingly macabre finale! It was written for a small off-Broadway theatre and works well on the intimate stage at the Duke of York's. Alistair McGowan was great in the show-stopping part of Audrey's sadistic boyfriend (played by Steve Martin in the film) as was Mike McShane as the voice of the plant. His biography in the programme says that McShane "has never played a vegetable, although he's been known to party with them upon occasion." 'Little Shop of Horrors' is a very silly show from which you come out smiling. But remember, "whatever they offer you, don't feed the plants!"
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
'A Matter of Life and Death' adapted by Emma Rice and Tom Morris
8 May 2007
On Monday we were at the National Theatre in London to see 'A Matter of Life and Death' - a joint production with Kneehigh Theatre adapted by Emma Rice and Tom Morris from the 1946 Powell & Pressberger film starring David Niven.
It's a long time since I saw the film but the stage version definitely felt like a more realist, modern approach to the story. We still saw our hero fall to earth (as his plane is destroyed by German fire while returning from a wartime bombing raid) and then emerge seemingly unscathed to meet and fall in love with the radio operator he thought he had spoken his last words to. But now it is clearly suggested that the 'explanation' that he survived because the 'conductor' who was supposed to escort him to 'the other world' missed him in the fog exists only within our hero's damaged brain. And when he prepares to appeal to the heavenly court to be allowed to carry on living we can see that this is his internalisation of the fight to defeat the brain tumor for which he is undergoing a crucial operation back in the real world. This all seemed remarkably like John Simm's plight in 'Life on Mars' - indeed, here too the surgeon performing the operation makes a decisive appearance in the 'dream world'. But this is probably because both these dramas were actually referencing 'The Wizard of Oz' (how many times did Gene Hunt call Sam Tyler 'Dorothy'?).
There were a couple of places where the tone felt a bit wrong - the pathos of the many personal stories or wartime deaths was strangely missing when a wounded airman's suicide was presented as a comic incident. But nevertheless 'A Matter of Life and Death' was an amazing spectacle - making full use of the Olivier's enormous stage. While not quite a musical, it featured some great song and dance routines as well as aerial movement, burning beds, back projection and table tennis!
At times it felt like there was too much being thrown together - all that what lacking from the stage was the proverbial kitchen sink - but I was happy to excuse the production's excesses as it drew itself together towards a moving conclusion. And the amazing mix of elements was great fun: how many plays have you seen recently that feature two ukuleles, a camera obscura, a team of hand-bell ringers, an acrobatic Norwegian magician, a square tango and seven nurses on bicycles?!
Definitely worth £10 - I'm actually tempted to see it again ...
Friday, May 04, 2007
Northampton Symphony Orchestra Concert
4 May 2007
It was a watery programme for our latest Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert last Saturday - including Respighi's 'Fountains of Rome' and 'La Mer' by Debussy. I must admit I thought I didn't like Debussy but having worked on 'La Mer' for the past few weeks I am a convert. It is a wonderful piece on a symphonic scale which really gets under your skin. And the moment when the slow triplet brass chorale re-enters towards the end of the last movement is just gorgeous. I think we gave a pretty good account of it on Saturday and I've really enjoyed the rehearsals leading to this concert. I've also been enjoying a new recording of 'La Mer' by the Hallé Orchestra and Mark Elder which got a five star review in The Guardian in March.
It was a watery programme for our latest Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert last Saturday - including Respighi's 'Fountains of Rome' and 'La Mer' by Debussy. I must admit I thought I didn't like Debussy but having worked on 'La Mer' for the past few weeks I am a convert. It is a wonderful piece on a symphonic scale which really gets under your skin. And the moment when the slow triplet brass chorale re-enters towards the end of the last movement is just gorgeous. I think we gave a pretty good account of it on Saturday and I've really enjoyed the rehearsals leading to this concert. I've also been enjoying a new recording of 'La Mer' by the Hallé Orchestra and Mark Elder which got a five star review in The Guardian in March.
Thursday, April 26, 2007
'Favourite Worst Nightmare' by Arctic Monkeys
26 April 2007
Stung by your criticism that it took me so long to get around to seeing 'Hot Fuzz', this week, in a desperate attempt to regain some street-cred, I've been listening to the new Arctic Monkeys album 'Favourite Worst Nightmare' (which only came out on Monday!). You may remember I was bowled over by the Arctic Monkeys' debut 'Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not' (reviewed here in February 2006) and I had been eagerly anticipating the follow-up: I wasn't disappointed. With material this creative, inventive and varied, more of the same proves to be the perfect recipe. Loud, fast, catchy, songs that do not outstay their welcome, get-up-and-dance rhythms and the cleverest, funniest lyrics delivered in a strong Sheffield accent: everything rock music should be. Top!
Stung by your criticism that it took me so long to get around to seeing 'Hot Fuzz', this week, in a desperate attempt to regain some street-cred, I've been listening to the new Arctic Monkeys album 'Favourite Worst Nightmare' (which only came out on Monday!). You may remember I was bowled over by the Arctic Monkeys' debut 'Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not' (reviewed here in February 2006) and I had been eagerly anticipating the follow-up: I wasn't disappointed. With material this creative, inventive and varied, more of the same proves to be the perfect recipe. Loud, fast, catchy, songs that do not outstay their welcome, get-up-and-dance rhythms and the cleverest, funniest lyrics delivered in a strong Sheffield accent: everything rock music should be. Top!
Thursday, April 19, 2007
'Hot Fuzz'
19 April 2007
I hadn't been to the cinema for ages: perhaps I'm showing my age but our local multiplex doesn't appeal to me - it always seems very loud and littered with popcorn and teenagers. I've missed a few films I fancied seeing recently when the lure of the movie didn't quite overcome the drawbacks of the venue. It would be great if we had a nice little independent cinema nearby but we do have the recently refurbished Library Theatre in Leighton Buzzard which shows a limited programme of films once or twice a week. Last Friday we made the effort and ventured to Leighton Buzzard to see 'Hot Fuzz' - the British comedy by Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright. It was brilliant! Simon Pegg plays a super-efficient police officer from the Met who is transferred to a sleepy Gloucestershire village and brings big city policing to the country. His new partner, played by Nick Frost, is fascinated by American cop movies and wants to know all about Pegg's exciting London experiences - particularly the guns! What follows is a wonderful parody of movie genres including westerns, cop movies and all manner of action thrillers. It is incredibly violent (with plenty of blood and 'look away' moments) but carries this off because much of the violence is hysterically ridiculous. And there is loads of fun to be had in trying to spot the enormous number of well-known British actors and comedians making (often very fleeting) appearances. (There is even a very hard to spot uncredited cameo by Cate Blanchett.) But it is a massively enjoyable film primarily because it is extremely funny and exquisitely plotted. Every casual remark and every seemingly insignificant feature in the background in the early scenes comes back to play a significant part later in the story. And the brooding sense of evil lurking beneath the surface of apparently innocent village society is truly scary. It was quite disconcerting to glance around the middle-aged middle-class audience in Leighton Buzzard Library Theatre and realise how closely we resembled the slightly sinister Neighbourhood Watch Alliance in the film!
Friday, April 13, 2007
'Cuilidh' by Julie Fowlis
13 April 2007
I'm very much enjoying 'Cuilidh' - the second album by Julie Fowlis, the young Gaelic singer and pipes player from North Uist. (You may remember my discovery of her first solo album in February 2006 - you heard about her here first!) The faster numbers feature some amazing high-speed percussive vocals but it is the ballads that are truly outstanding. She has a beautiful, pure voice and creates peaceful, inspiring music. For a taster you can 'listen again' to her session on this week's Andy Kershaw show at www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/andykershaw
I'm very much enjoying 'Cuilidh' - the second album by Julie Fowlis, the young Gaelic singer and pipes player from North Uist. (You may remember my discovery of her first solo album in February 2006 - you heard about her here first!) The faster numbers feature some amazing high-speed percussive vocals but it is the ballads that are truly outstanding. She has a beautiful, pure voice and creates peaceful, inspiring music. For a taster you can 'listen again' to her session on this week's Andy Kershaw show at www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/andykershaw
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
'The Big Over Easy' by Jasper Fforde
10 April 2007
Read this book! - I loved it. Humpty Dumpty is dead but did he fall off the wall or was he pushed? This is a case for Detective Inspector Jack Spratt of the Nursery Crime Division - and the start of an elaborate double parody incorporating more nursery rhymes than you realised you remembered and a wonderful send-up of detective fiction. The tone is set early on when the smarmy rival DI Friedland Chymes is giving a press conference to explain how he solved his latest case - correctly identifying the killer as Miss Celia Mangersen, the victim's neice. A journalist asks him what the significance was of the traces of custard found on the colonel's sock suspender and Chymes explains:
"Mortally wounded and with only seconds to live, he had somehow to leave a clue to his assailant's identity. A note? Of course not - the killer would find and destroy it. Guessing correctly that a murder of this magnitude would be placed in my hands, he decided to leave behind a clue that only I could solve. Knowing the colonel's penchant for anagrams, it was but a swift move to deduce his reasoning. The sock suspender was made in France. 'Custard' in French is 'creme anglaise' - and an anagram of this is 'Celia Mangerse-", which not only correctly identified the killer, but also told me the colonel died before he was able to finish the anagram."
Jack Spratt and his new Detective Sergeant, Mary Mary ("Her name was Mary. Mary Mary") pursue an elaborate convoluted plot involving Wee Willie Winkie, Rapunzel, aliens, immortals from Ancient Greece and some magic beans. 'The Big Over Easy' is very silly but incredibly clever and tremendously enjoyable. There is perhaps too much crammed into it - including an enormous number of characters it is quite difficult to keep track of - but if you just give up trying to make sense of it all and just go along for the ride it's a wonderful journey. It's also very well written and cleverly plotted - however silly the story is it has to work as a proper whodunnit, which it does. There are so many fantastic ideas ('Oysters one step closer to vote') but I won't spoil it for you by citing any more here. I couldn't put the book down and read most of it with a big smile on my face. Now I can't wait for the publication of the sequel 'The Fourth Bear' in June 2007.
Read this book! - I loved it. Humpty Dumpty is dead but did he fall off the wall or was he pushed? This is a case for Detective Inspector Jack Spratt of the Nursery Crime Division - and the start of an elaborate double parody incorporating more nursery rhymes than you realised you remembered and a wonderful send-up of detective fiction. The tone is set early on when the smarmy rival DI Friedland Chymes is giving a press conference to explain how he solved his latest case - correctly identifying the killer as Miss Celia Mangersen, the victim's neice. A journalist asks him what the significance was of the traces of custard found on the colonel's sock suspender and Chymes explains:
"Mortally wounded and with only seconds to live, he had somehow to leave a clue to his assailant's identity. A note? Of course not - the killer would find and destroy it. Guessing correctly that a murder of this magnitude would be placed in my hands, he decided to leave behind a clue that only I could solve. Knowing the colonel's penchant for anagrams, it was but a swift move to deduce his reasoning. The sock suspender was made in France. 'Custard' in French is 'creme anglaise' - and an anagram of this is 'Celia Mangerse-", which not only correctly identified the killer, but also told me the colonel died before he was able to finish the anagram."
Jack Spratt and his new Detective Sergeant, Mary Mary ("Her name was Mary. Mary Mary") pursue an elaborate convoluted plot involving Wee Willie Winkie, Rapunzel, aliens, immortals from Ancient Greece and some magic beans. 'The Big Over Easy' is very silly but incredibly clever and tremendously enjoyable. There is perhaps too much crammed into it - including an enormous number of characters it is quite difficult to keep track of - but if you just give up trying to make sense of it all and just go along for the ride it's a wonderful journey. It's also very well written and cleverly plotted - however silly the story is it has to work as a proper whodunnit, which it does. There are so many fantastic ideas ('Oysters one step closer to vote') but I won't spoil it for you by citing any more here. I couldn't put the book down and read most of it with a big smile on my face. Now I can't wait for the publication of the sequel 'The Fourth Bear' in June 2007.
Thursday, April 05, 2007
Pembrokeshire
5 April 2007
We had a lovely break in Wales last week. We were staying in a cottage near Carmarthen with wonderful views of the Towy estuary but spent most of our time walking parts of the Pembrokeshire coastal path. We particularly enjoyed the walk round Stackpole Head and Barafundle bay. We had some great weather and had numerous picnics on beaches. We visited Pembroke, St David's, Narberth and Fishguard but my memories will mainly be of the stunning coastal scenery.
We had a lovely break in Wales last week. We were staying in a cottage near Carmarthen with wonderful views of the Towy estuary but spent most of our time walking parts of the Pembrokeshire coastal path. We particularly enjoyed the walk round Stackpole Head and Barafundle bay. We had some great weather and had numerous picnics on beaches. We visited Pembroke, St David's, Narberth and Fishguard but my memories will mainly be of the stunning coastal scenery.
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