'What The World Needs Now...' is more PiL

Public Image Limited has announced a new album and tour in the autumn. Totally out of the blue. John Lydon has been travelling round promoting his new book ('Anger Is An Energy') so when he's had the time to write and record a new album is anyone's guess but it's scheduled for release on 4 September with a single due on 21 August. Excited? I should co-co! Full details are here.

Here To Be Heard - The Story of The Slits Kickstarter

I could so easily have missed this Kickstarter but luckily (and thanks to Amanda Palmer) I didn't. A documentary about The Slits is almost finished but needs funding to support editing and post-production - watch the video to see what this is about!

We see Viv Albertine, Tessa Pollitt and Palmolive of The Slits, Steve Cook of the Sex Pistols, Dennis Bovell, hear Don Letts, oh, they're all in that teeny clip. We even see Budgie and what a lot of hair he still has! Imagine what the full documentary will be full of! This will be required viewing after reading Viv Albertine's book!



What are you waiting for - click here and back it! It's important to keep this story alive for the future.

Sargent at the National Portrait Gallery

I went back to see the Sargent exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery on Friday evening to find it pleasantly busy but not overly so. I saw the exhibition of his portraits of friends and artists when it opened so it was nice to go back again and relive some of those paintings. This time I was in a slighty more lyrical mood and wanted to know more about the sitters. Most of which I just made up as I wandered round.

The poster boy is, of course, Dr Pozzi, relaxin at home in his full length scarlet dressing gown. The nadsome man saying, 'Who? me?' with his lace ruffles and carefully combed hair and beard and his hands placed just *so*. His dressing gown is so much redder than in this picture, it leaches the blood out of you to enhance his vitality. I also like the one slipper we see under the dressing gown. O yes, doctor, you know who you are.

Another painting full of back-story is 'La Carmencita', a portrait of a Spanish dancer. Full-sized and hung above head height, her eyes look down on you and you just know she is saying, 'adore me'. What is your function in life other than to adore me? She's noted in the guidebook as being a demanding and restless sitter and you can tell that. She's not going to remain still for long, not in that sparkly frock. She must be thinking that there must be men out there somewhere for her to seduce rather than standing for this portrait and they won't be able to help themselves. I've no doubt she was an expert at slapping too! Adore me, she demands. And I do!

Of course, the exhibition isn't just about portraits, it's also about Sargent's friends, some of whom he went on painting trips with. After a room of dark, formal portraits in the late 1800s there'sa room of light and airy paintings set outdoors and there are some lovely paintings in this room. One of my favourites is 'The Fountain, Villa Torlonia, Frascati, Italy', which is also used on the cover of the catalogue for the exhibition.

It's a marvellous painting and the lady painter's dress and coat just radiate out of the painting - I walked to the far side of the room to see if it had the same effect and it did. The woman (Jane deGlehn) carefully painting something we can't see while her husband Wilfred watches. His languid pose is perfect for this painting since they're on holiday and he's relaxing. The brush strokes are marvellous and the paint mounts up to emphasise the white on white of her coat and skirt as she paints while the garden and fountain does its stuff around her. Her satchell is at her feet and she rests on a stool beside her easel. I'd love to see what she's painting but there's no hint here. I wonder if she got crotchety when the breeze changed and the fountain sprayed across her canvas or whether she thought nature was enhancing her art? I suspect the latter.

Another painting I loved was 'Group With Parasols' which shows a group of Sargent's friends snoozing in the sun in an Alpine meadow. I'm not sure what it is about this painting that attracts me but I love the entangled limbs and careless sleepiness of the four friends. Lazy times indeed.

The exhibition is only on for another couple of weeks so, if you haven't already seen it, make your way across London to glory in these paintings.

'Bomber's Moon' at Trafalgar Studios

We went to see a new play, 'Bomber's Moon' in the rather bijoux Studio 2 at the Trafalgar Studios on Whitehall. Why? Why not. New plays have to get off the ground somehow and this one has James Bolam in it, a Geordie lad and a Likely Lad who I've never seen on stage before so why not?

There are only two roles in this play - a cantankerous old man in sheltered housing who was a bomber in the Second World War and still has vivid dreams about his experiences and his daily carer who comes in to make sure he takes his tablets, eats and exercises. James Bolam is (of course) the old man and Steve John Shepherd plays the novice and nervous carer. This play gives James the perfect opportunity to let his (not so) inner grumpy old man out along with some rather graphic language that had the audience laughing our socks off - was it hearing fcuk and cnut on stage or it coming out of his mouth that was so amusing? Whatever, James's comic timing hasn't been hurt by the years at all. He's a rude old man!

It's a small play with big themes of war and love and of men of different generations learning about each other and the pressures they face. What makes them tick and how do they respond to changing circumstances? Death closes in on the old bomber while the impact of divorce hurts the carer. There are, of course, some twists and turns in the play but it's a good laugh-out-loud play with some more serious themes.

'Closer To Heaven' at Union Theatre

On a warm, sunny Sunday afternoon what better way to spend a few hours than go into a small, dark theatre with lots of flashing lights, synth-beats and dancers wearing very little clothing. Yes, we went to see the revival of the Pet Shop Boys' 'Closer To Heaven' at Union Theatre.

The show sold out really quickly - before I'd even seen the tickets had gone on sale - but they released a limited number of extra tickets so I nabbed them straight away and ended up smack bang in the centre of the front row. There are only about five rows of seats so it's very small and sitting in the front row means you have to keep your feet under your chair so you don't trip up any of the actors. Yes, it's *that* small.

It's the tale of the denizens working in a gay nightclub set in 2000 (although it could be any time from the 80s onwards) with lots of flashing lights and stompy music, more drugs than you can shake a stick at and sex all over the shop including in the mens' toilets. We even get a glimpse into a gay sauna at one point. O yes, it's all in there somewhere. With lots of flesh on display in skimpy costumes and gyrating bodies being decadent in big black, clumpy boots (yes, there's a few cliches).

The gay club owner's daughter Shell turns up to see her dad for the first time in 15 years and meets Straight Danny who's started as a barman but wants to be a dancer, Mile End Lee the local drug dealer and Billie, the former 60s wild child who is now the hostess of the club. Shell starts going out with Straight Danny and she arranges for him to meet the hottest manager who's responsible for all the big boy and girl groups so he can become a singer. Cue sexual shenanigans and obvious jokes and a plot that's paper thin. So thin there are already holes worn in it. Straight Danny turns out to be, well, not straight at all, Shell's dad isn't off drugs and she starts using, Mile End Lee dies from his own drugs and all sorts, but at least Billie is consistent and remains a wild child. The story is a bit thin and predictable but the music keeps it pumping along.

There were some good performances and they tended to be by the older actors for the older characters. Katie Meller was great as the drugged up Billie Tricks, the club hostess who has, possibly, the most fully rounded character. Craig Berry was good as Vic, the club owning gay dad who lets rip and sings a great version of 'Vampire' in his vest. I also really liked Ben Kavanagh as the camp Flynn in his turquoise make-up - he could so easily have gone over the top but he kept it cool and under control. Amy Matthews also did a good job as Shell who made the most of her songs. There were some nice voices in the show but a very under-used one was Connor Brabyn as Mile End Lee who only sings a few lines but had a really good voice. He was rather wasted - I preferred his voice to most and it would be good to hear him in a bigger singing role.

Neil Tennant was in the audience sitting near the door - I wonder what he thought about it?

'Sculpture Victorious' at Tate Britain

On Friday afternoon I left work early to go to see the 'Sculpture Victorious' exhibition at Tate Britain. As you can probably guess from the title it's about Victorian sculpture and the poster for the exhibition features a glorious elephant of the Raj with a blanket on his back. I wasn't entirely sure what to expect when I walked through the doors but was pleasantly surprised.

It's quite a small exhibition - only 6 rooms - but the exhibits are nicely spaced out with lots of explanatory notes and, even better for me, it wasn't terribly busy late on a Friday afternoon. That meant I could mooch around as much as I wanted. I was a bit puzzled by the choice of an elephant on the exhibition poster - what's that trying to say? - but when I saw him in all his glory I decided that I'd love a shirt made to the same pattern as the blanket over his back. It would become my favourite.

The first room is full of Queen Victoria - Victoria as a young lady with her shoulders bare and Victoria as an old matron with lots of coverings and s sterner face. Not just busts of her, but medallions and other 3D representations. The next room was mainly medieval with a carved image of Eleanor of Aquitaine that was restored by the Victorians and partially sparked their interest in looking back. We also get a full sized knight and a rather odd statue of Elizabeth I. A far more entertaining depiction of Elizabeth is her seated and playing chess with Philip II of Spain, with ships as the chess pieces. It's very noticeable that Elizabeth is sitting proud and tall while Philip is more like a supplicant and his head is below hers. Appropriately, it's called 'A Royal Game' by William Reynolds-Stephens

Another room contained a lovely statue of 'Pandora' by Harry Bates and shows a young Pandora with her gazing at her box, probably wondering what's inside it and whether she should open it. Mankinds' plagues have not yet been released and she is young and innocent, in the first flush of womanhood with her life before her, crouching and holding this box that she seems to have just picked up. For a relatively large statue it has a delicate quality about it, a gentle image that doesn't hint at the dread that will happen if that small box is opened. The statue looks very smooth and the light glistens on the marble in little sparkles. A slip of the fingers and the world will change - be careful Pandora.

I think my favourite piece was a life-sized bronze statue of 'An Athlete Wrestling with a Python' and the look of concentration and determination in his face says that there's no way that python will win the contest.  The pose is very realistic with one foot clearly anchoring the wrestler - let's call him Fred - to the ground while the other foot is slightly raised, making Fred more mobile and able to twist and turn as the python wraps its coils around him. One arm holds the coils away from his torso and the vital organs protected under his ribs and Fred's other hand holds the python's head, thumb pressing into its throat. It's a very striking image, created by Lord Frederic Leighton, whose house in Kensington is now Leighton House Museum that I visited for the first time earlier this year. I didn't know he did bronzes so that's something I've learned.

It's a nice little exhibition with a good variety of exhibits, including the first, small model for the statue of Eros in Piccadilly Circus. There are a couple of very different statues of young men with bows, including this one. There's also a full sized reproduction outside the exhibition that is perfectly positioned for visitors to take photographs so I did. It's a very dramatic pose but I disapprove of the subject - it's called 'The Eagle Slayer' by John Bell. Obviously, that would be a bad thing.

'Romeo & Juliet' at Shakespeare's Globe

If I'm smiling within a couple of minutes of a play starting then that must be a good sign. Is it the 500 year old language or the venue, or the packed theatre open to the elements with a chilly breeze, or the anticipation and need to see a play I've never seen performed? I don't know, but I was smiling and wanting this new production to be good - and it was!

This is one of the first productions in the Globe's 2015 season with the theme of 'Justice and Mercy' (last year focused on Shakespeare's Roman plays).  I'm seeing a few more productions over the summer including 'The Oresteia' by the up and coming playwright Aeschylus. No idea if he'll do well or not, but we'll see.

It's on tour around the country at the moment and the Globe is it's London stop. It's designed to fit almost anywhere and it was perfect for the Globe stage. The set was, essentially, a climbing frame to provide some height and a balcony (you've got to have a balcony for *that* scene) and the costumes were minimal, with (almost) everyone coming on in cream/white trousers and shirt and occasionally donning a coat or hat to show they were different characters. A small cast playing all the roles can be confusing sometimes and one of the cast played three different noblemen as well as a servant bumpkin!

This play is storytelling of a most superior kind. At one point during the play I wondered what this would be like with the magnificent poetry of 'Julius Caesar', and yes, there is some wonderful lyrical verse in this play, but to me, it's the story that draws you in with 'Romeo & Juliet' not the poetry. It's the plotting and construction of the play, the drip feed of elements of the tale as it progresses, the twists and turns that keep you rapt even though we all know how it ends. And this production did just that - it built the story slowly, it grew the characters, it took us on a journey that ends in heartbreak and death. It was touching and wonderful and deserved the great applause at the end.

The play is set in a mere four days in Verona and opens with a fight between the houses of Capulet and Montague and, later, a masked ball at the Capulet's palace that Romeo and his friends gatecrash. It's there that he sees Juliet and falls in love and sneaks back later to woo her. They fall in love at first sight and are secretly married the following day. Later that day there's another quarrel between the houses and Tybalt kills Mercutio, a close friend of Romeo's so Romeo must fight and kill Tybalt, who is Juliet's favourite cousin. Uh oh, I hear you say. It gets more complicated from there on with Romeo banished and Juliet assigned to marry a Capulet ally. What can our lovers do?

I thought the cast were great, particularly Samuel Valentine (is that his real name?) as Romeo and Cassie Layton as Juliet, along with Steffan Donnelly as the rather camp and aggressive Mercutio (and other roles).  Samuel and Cassie worked well together as our star-crossed lovers with only one night of love before death. They were very believable as young people in love, exuberant and touching at the same time - a lot of that is in the play but the actors need to bring it out. They will remain my Romeo and Juliet until I see a better production - and it'll need to be pretty damn startling to overtake this production.

The whole cast worked really well together as an ensemble but I don't understand why they all had various levels of tattoo on their bodies (and a lot of upper body was exposed on the men for some reason in the first half - must've been chilly in the cold and rain!). Some of the quick changes got a bit complicated with an actor walking off stage, changing coats and appearing as a different character but, ultimately, it worked. It was also quite nice to have a small cast and see them change character and style so quickly. My one complaint was making the illiterate Capulet servant a Geordie (I shall have words!).

If you get the chance to see this production, either at The Globe or on tour then I'd urge you to go and marvel at the tale of our young lovers And shed a tear.

Errol Brown

I was sad to hear that Errol Brown passed away today. Errol was the lead singer and writer with Hot Chocolate and everyone knows 'You Sexy Thing'. Hot Chocolate was usually referred to as a multi-racial band but it was Errol out front doing his stuff. I remember all those other hits in the early and mid-70s and Hot Chocolate being regulars on 'Top of the Pops'.

I first remember 'Emma', a love song, and 'Brother Louie' about inter-racial marriage before they went for more mainstream dance songs that were guaranteed to get your feet twitching. Before that, of course, they did a rather strange, reggae version of John & Yoko's 'Give Peace A Chance' on Apple records. They even had a Christmas single in which Errol sings about the need for a new Christmas. I love the soft funk of 'You Could've Been A Lady' with it's heavy bass line and brass. They knew how to construct killer tunes did those Hot Chocolate lads.

The abiding image of Errol is striding round the stage on 'Top of the Pops' in tight gold glitter trousers strutting his stuff and getting our feet moving. And they keep moving today.

Farewell Errol!

'Ah Wilderness!' at The Young Vic

Last week we went to see 'Ah Wilderness!' by Eugene O'Neill at The Young Vic. I have a mixed relationship with the Young Vic theatre and it's productions - it seems to have a love/hate effect on me. The last things I saw there were 'Happy Days' with Juliet Stevenson and, before that, the great production of 'The Scottsboro Boys' so I went with an open mind (far more open than any of the Tennessee Williams plays in the last few years). I still have the horrors at the thought of that version of 'Hamlet' with Michael Sheen… So here we are, Eugene O'Neill in a sandpit, what more could one ask for?

Yes, a sandpit. Why? I don't know. We have the wooden boards of a dilapidated house setting the boundaries of a house that is full of sand and sandbanks. But this is a terribly bourgeoise house where the father is a newspaper owner and the sons go to university so what's with the sand? It proved to be a real distraction for me since I kept returning to the sand every time someone walked back and forth over it, particularly Janie Dee as the mother who seemed to totter around it on very unsteady feet. Why on earth have an uneven sandpit in the middle of the house? I'm perplexed. I kept returning to the sandpit at the expense of the play. Form over substance I suspect.

It's a coming of age play with the son being an overly-dramatic young poet wanting to follow his predecessors (played my George MacKay who was Bromley in the film 'Pride') and his parents worry and care for him, realising that their son is growing up. Set on the fourth of July celebrations that go wrong with the drunken uncle spoiling dinner and the son going off to the local dive and staying out all night but then everything comes right in the end (as it must) on the next day.

Despite worrying about who might be the first to trip and fall down the stupid sand-banks, I quite enjoyed the play. I liked Janie Dee as the somewhat hesitant mother and Martin Marquez as the laid-back father. Dominic Rowan was a bit over the top as the drunken uncle but he was fun all the same and risked life and limb getting up on that table to rant a bit. George MacKay was great as the son and it'll be good to see him as something other than an idealistic young man.

 Well done people. It took a while to get going but I enjoyed he play. But please - ditch the sand dunes?

'Light Shining In Buckinghamshire' at the National Theatre

I saw 'Light Shining In Buckinghamshire' at the National Theatre nearly two weeks ago and I've put off blogging about it since I really don't know what to say about it. I didn't enjoy it but I must be able to find something to say about it. Shouldn't I?

It's set in the England of the 1640s during the Civil War and some of it is based on actual texts of debates at the time so the language is sometimes a bit odd. We're introduced to some of the political factions that emerged during the Civil War as well as Oliver Cromwell, the diggers and the levellers. Nothing is really explained and it seems to be assumed that we're all pretty good with our Civil War history (I'm not).

All too often it seemed like actors came on stage, made a speech to the audience and left and a new scene started. There didn't seem to be much interaction between the characters on the stage at all. There was a long scene about the 'Putney Debates' in the first half that had lots of interaction and a similar scene in the second half with the diggers talking about God and love (and sex) and how God is in everything. I yawned during that scene in the first half and wanted to like the scene in the second half but I didn't. I *so* wanted to like it.

I think part of the problem was the elaborate staging of the production and the sheer size of the cast. There must've been 40-odd people on that stage in a play originally written for a cast of six. That's over-whelming. The staging was also over the top. Almost the whole of the stage was taken up by a great wooden table that, in the first half was mainly set as a banquet for royalists and then puritans and then, in the second half, the diggers gradually lifted the planks of wood to expose soil underneath. Every so often more planks were levered up and carried off and I just wanted to shout out - ok, I get it now! It became so irritating after the umpteenth plank was carried off - was it meant to be irritating or is that just me?  I found it all terribly distracting.

So there you are. That's enough, I think. I won't be going back for second helpings.