A film preview, some cinematic music videos and a brace of live music...

5th June - 11th June 2017

Churchill - Preview and Q & A - BFI Southbank

BUG 55 - BFI Southbank

Gorillaz - O2 Brixton Academy

Hanson - O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire

A music heavy week this one, with a dash of cinema thrown in, plus a new instalment of BUG bridging the gap...

Churchill - Preview and Q & A

We kicked off the week with a visit to the BFI Southbank to catch a preview of Churchill, (guess what it's about?!), which was to be followed by a discussion with the director, writer and three of the stars of the film, Brian Cox, Miranda Richardson and Ella Purnell.

The film itself is an interesting one, set in the three days leading up to D Day, and focuses on the planned landings on the beaches which Churchill felt were flawed and would put too many lives at risk, and his attempts to get the operation stopped or reconfigured.

Cox plays Winston Churchill in a manner which is not usually associated with portrayals of the greatest Briton, in that it exposes the more fragile side of his personality, primarily his depression and struggles with ill health behind the scenes, whilst maintaining the patriotic morale boosting public persona.

Richardson plays his wife Clementine, and also explores her pivotal role and influence in Churchill's life.

Purnell plays a composite character, Helen, Churchill's secretary who also provides a side story which also acts as the impetus for Churchill to finally step into his true role at a time of great uncertainty by rallying the country behind the war effort.

It's interesting to see a film which doesn't skirt over these aspects like many other versions of this story may do, and has received some criticism for this approach before it's even released.

After the film the director Jonathan Teplitzsky, writer Alex Von Tunzelmann, and actors Brian Cox, Miranda Richardson and Ella Purnell took the stage to discuss the germination and production of the film, including how they came to be involved and their research undertaken to step into such iconic roles.

All the speakers were obviously passionate about the project and knowledgeable when it came to discussing their characters, Cox and Richardson in particular evidently had a chemistry which was obvious when watching the film.

The film's an interesting and entertaining view of this historical period and should be applauded for the portrayal of Churchill in a more vulnerable and human light.

BUG 55


We were back at the BFI Southbank on Wednesday night for the latest instalment of BUG with Adam Buxton.

We've been to a quite a few now, and if you've seen our previous reviews you'll know the drill by now.

Buxton presents a collection of brand new music videos on the big screen, so naturally those selected are quite cinematic or creative in their own right, and are interspersed by comedic interludes made by Buxton, or analysis of some of the more interesting and 'enlightened' YouTube comments on the videos concerned which Buxton has compiled, (there really are some absolute morons out there, which makes for hilarious reading).

This instalment had videos by alt-J, Kendrick Lamar, Arctic Monkeys, A Tribe Called Quest and Fleet Foxes, amongst others, and is always entertaining whether the music itself floats your boat or not as the videos themselves always have something of interest and it's nice to actually see them projected on the big screen too for a change.

Highly recommended as something different for a night out.

Gorillaz

Thursday's outing was on short notice as it was only announced less than a week before, it was a surprise warm-up show for Gorillaz at the O2 Brixton Academy.

The inaugural Demon Dayz festival hosted by Gorillaz was due to be held in Margate on the Saturday and this was the third warm-up show before that performance and the start of their world tour proper.

Although a bit of a pain to get to, Brixton Academy is quite good in that it has a raked floor for the standing area so there's always a pretty decent view.

Having a large amount of guests on their material, especially on newest album 'Humanz' meant there was the worry that the songs might not live up to their studio counterparts, however many of the collaborators were present and those that weren't were either represented in video/audio form or substituted by an appropriate stand-in.

Having started life as a cartoon band, and continuing in this form, (although with more human performances now), the screens behind the band were used to suitable effect projection videos, animations and laser shows to compliment to the tracks.

The set was quite heavy with new material, including a couple of not even released yet songs, however they didn't neglect the hits, including a fantastic version of 'DARE' for which Shaun Ryder even made an appearance.

Although marrying so many styles could come across as disjointed, the lynch pin of Damon Albarn created a cohesive whole and the assembled band, replete with backing singers really pulled it off, ending superbly on the Beach Boys-esque gospel tinged 'Don't Get Lost In Heaven' and 'Demon Days'

A great chance to see them in a more intimate setting than the venues on the world tour so a rare treat, and a great show.

The full set list was as follows:

Intro : I Switched My Robot Off

Ascension (With Vince Staples)

Last Living Souls

Saturnz Barz (With Popcaan)

Stylo (With Peven Everett & Bootie Brown)

Tomorrow Comes Today

Rhinestone Eyes

Charger

Momentz (With De La Soul)

Strobelite (With Peven Everett)

Interlude : The Non-Conformist Oath

Submission (With Kelela & Graham Coxon)

Sex Murder Party (With Jamie Principle & Zebra Katz)

She's My Collar (With Kali Uchis)

El Mañana

Dirty Harry (With Bootie Brown)

Let Me Out

Interlude : Penthouse

Andromeda

Busted And Blue (With Kelela)

Kids With Guns

DARE (With Shaun Ryder & Rosie Wilson)

Out Of Body (With Zebra Katz)

Garage Palace

We Got The Power (With Jehnny Beth & Graham Coxon)

Encore:

Sleeping Powder

Feel Good Inc. (With De La Soul)

Clint Eastwood (With Kano & Vince Staples)

Don't Get Lost In Heaven

Demon Days

Hanson

On Saturday night we took a trip to Shepherd's Bush for a bit of a guilty pleasure and a blast from the past to see Hanson.

Currently touring as it's the twenty fifth anniversary of their debut album 'Middle Of Nowhere', (I know, twenty five years!), and their debut hit 'MMMBop', they were in London for the first of two sold out nights at the O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire.

However they played tracks from their whole career, including new single 'I Was Born', and those from their earliest releases haven't lost any of their charm, in fact the slightly more rock based arrangements live meant they still had a freshness to them, in particular 'Where's The Love' and ''Weird'.

They also played a few from 'Underneath', (their comeback album), including 'Strong Enough To Break, 'Penny & Me' and closed with 'Lost Without Each Other', some of the strongest material in my view.

Their reputation may be largely based on 'MMMBop', however their talents as writers and performers shouldn't be underestimated. With the ability to switch between keyboards, drums and guitar, whilst all singing and harmonising, they are consummate talents, backed by a bass player and guitarist to augment the core three piece's sound.

They played for around two hours non-stop, and were clearly enjoying every minute and put on a note perfect show which sounded great on the new sound system installed during the Empire's refurbishment last year.

We'd highly recommend giving the later albums a listen if you're still of the opinion that Hanson are a teeny pop band and see how they've matured and produced a really quite entertaining body of work.

The full set list was:

Already Home

Waiting For This

Where's The Love

Look At You

Tragic Symphony

Thinking 'Bout Somethin'

Runaway Run

This Time Around

Weird

Go

Madeline

Juliet

Strong Enough To Break

Penny & Me

Watch Over Me

With You In Your Dreams

On And On

I Was Born

A Minute Without You

Get The Girl Back

MMMBop

If Only

Fired Up

In The City

Encore:

Rockin' Robin

Johnny B Goode

Lost Without Each Other

Next week contains some more live music, some theatre and a bit of art chat, till then get inspired...

Some American pop music, some cult cinema, some urban art and some dangerous comedy...

8th May - 14th May 2017

BUG : American Pop Video Art Special - The British Museum

A Clockwork Orange - The Prince Charles Cinema

The Art Yard Sale - Jubilee Square, Brighton

Brian Conley - The Greatest Entertainer (In His Price Bracket) - Beck Theatre

After two weeks away on honeymoon, we were back into the cultural flow of things with a varied week of activities, so let's get started...

BUG : American Pop Video Art Special

After taking most of the week to recover from a busy holiday, our first outing for the week wasn't until the Friday, and was a special BUG show by Adam Buxton, (usually held at the BFI), to coincide with the current exhibition there 'The American Dream : Pop To The Present', (which we've got on our list to see).

The show followed the usual format of the regular shows, showing music videos on the big screen, interspersed with info about how/why/when they were made, a look at YouTube commentators views on said videos and Buxton's bonkers skits, all delivered in his usual ramshackle-ish but entertaining style.

We've been to BUG specials before centred on David Bowie and The Beatles, so knew we were in for affectionate tongue in cheek dissections of some of the more amusing aspects of the videos, (whether intentional or not), whilst maintaining a respect for the artistry employed in these mini masterpieces.

The show worked through a variety of genres mainly chronologically and took in some of the biggest names and most well known and loved videos which helped cement the music video as an artistic medium all it's own.

Included were such established classics as Michael Jackson's 'Beat It', Madonna's 'Material Girl', Bob Dylan's 'Subterranean Homesick Blues', through to more modern efforts such as Missy Elliott's 'Work It' and the a look at the various efforts of viral music video veterans OK Go.

As usual Buxton also managed to scour the YouTube comments section to provide some laughs with just a brief look at the sometimes self-important but always mad as cheese discussions to be found on certain videos, including REM's 'Everybody Hurts' and Katy Perry's comeback single 'Chained To The Rhythm'.

Buxton's ability to intersperse his self made comedic video effects and elements also proves to be one of the format's major selling points as he frequently produces hilarious skits completely out of left field.

This show was only performed a couple of times for this exhibition, although the Bowie special went on to have a life beyond it's BFI debut so who knows if this will transfer too, the next regular BUG55 is at the BFI Southbank in June and is booking now so be quick as it's super popular.

A Clockwork Orange

On Saturday we decided to take in a matinee at The Prince Charles Cinema just off Leicester Square, a great independent cinema which has a great track record for it's eclectic programming, and varied seasons which afford the ample opportunity to catch plenty of bona-fide classics on the big screen.

After catching the theatre version of 'A Clockwork Orange' recently at the Park Theatre, and Mrs C not having seen it properly this seemed like the perfect opportunity to see it, and from a 35mm print no less which is always a worthwhile experience. It was being shown as part of the current 'Stanley Kubrick 1962 - 199 On Film' season, which still has screenings coming up of 'The Shining', 'Barry Lyndon', 'Full Metal Jacket' and 'Eyes Wide Shut' if the idea of big screen Kubrick floats your boat, (which it should!).

It was being exhibited in the larger downstairs screen, which has just been refurbished with new seats.

It's a great little cine-literate cinema with even further savings to be had on ticket prices with one of their very reasonably priced memberships, so a win-win for those who like their cinema, they also screen many films which receive limited distribution in the UK and host other events, for instance at Christmas last year we attended a screening of 'Gremlins' with Zach Galligan in attendance, (out review can be read here).

The print, as expected has all the hallmarks of it's age, but that only added to the experience as it's inherent film quality still trumps a pristine overly cleaned digital presentation any day, especially fitting in that the film grain and dirt added to the vibe that the film gives off too.

Set in an implied dystopian future in England, the film centres on Alex DeLarge and his gang of thugs, known as Droogs, (the film is superbly eloquent it's adoption and seamless use of Anthony Burgess' 'Nadsat' language created for the original novel of the story, which fuses elements of Russian and traditional English dialogue, which is surprisingly easy to understand and has been influential in many other mediums, most notably by David Bowie up to and including on a track on his final album 'Black Star').

It explores their nightly sprees of 'ultra-violence' and delinquency which culminates in Alex suffering betrayal at the hands of his gang, which sets him on the road to prison and a pioneering 'rehabilitation' which is not as successful as initially expected, with troubling consequences...

Mr C had read the novel back in the early nineties while the film was still out of circulation, (it was never banned as often claimed, just withdrawn by Kubrick over knee-jerk accusations of copycat violence and threats towards his family), and had seen it via a copy on VHS obtained via less than ideal channels... However after Kubrick's death in 1999 it was reclassified for release.

The film itself explores themes of morality, psychology and questions whether controls of peoples behaviours or choices is a good thing regardless of the choices a person may be free to make.

Although intended to be in a futuristic setting, the film isn't presented in a science fiction style, however some of the costumes have dated, however the story and themes remain relevant as ever, and whilst it may not be a comfortable watch, hell, not even a full on entertaining watch in the traditional sense it's still powerful and certainly proved Kubrick had the ability to make even the most unpalatable or seemingly unfilmable an very worthwhile artistic reality nonetheless.

Having caught 'The Shining' and '2001 : A Space Odyssey' on the big screen before we can heartily recommend any Kubrick in the cinema setting so maybe give one a go while the season's still on!

The Art Yard Sale

On Sunday morning we set off on a jaunt down to Brighton for the second Art Yard Sale, hosted by Art Republic.

We'd been to the similarly formatted Art Car Boot Fair just off of Brick Lane a few times, however that had become a mad scrum of an event, seemingly by nefarious 'flippers', and last year attended the first of the Art Yard Sales and found it to be a much more sedate and worthwhile experience so were back for more bargains and chances to check out some fantastic new art.

the great thing about the Art Yard Sale is that there plenty on offer which is not only exclusive to the event but also at bargain prices.

Some of the artists involved were Pure Evil, (veteran street artist and print maker who gained popularity after his work appeared on 'The Apprentice'), Dan Hillier, (most recently produced the cover to the debut album by Royal Blood and also provided artwork for Shakespeare's Globe last season), RYCA, (has produced works with Norman Cook and is well known within the 'bootleg' toy market), Louise McNaught , (very talented artist who produces amazingly detailed paintings of animals, we bought a Bee painting of hers last year), Eelus, (a street artists who also produces pop culture influenced prints), Joe Webb, (a collage and print maker who mixes eclectic photos to produce spectacular prints), Roy's People, (an artist who places small figure in otherwise everyday locations to crate mini worlds) and Richard Berner, (a Brighton artists who produced intricate and whimsical drawings) to name a few.

With live screen printing and hand finished original being created on site it always an entertaining event to see the artists in action too.

We splashed out on a few pieces by RYCA, Richard Berner, Dan Hillier, Joe Webb and Roy's People which you can check out below...

Dan Hillier's 'Mother and Child'...

A couple of Dan Hillier mini prints, reminiscent of his work on the Royal Blood album...

A Joe Webb original postcard collage...

A RYCA original acrylic canvas acid face...

A RYCA 'bootleg' droid...

A Richard Berner original 'The Love Shack'...

Another Richard Berner, this time a print of his 'Love' piece...

A Roy's People edition, one of his mini people on a bottle cap...

The event will hopefully be on again next year and many of the artists have stuff available either through Art Republic or their own sites for good prices for getting into buying a bit of art to brighten up those dreary walls or replace that 'Pulp Fiction' or 'Trainspotting' poster from your school days... We've just got to find wall space now... A great day out!

Brian Conley - The Greatest Entertainer (In His Price Bracket)

We were back local on Sunday evening for a show at a local venue, the Beck Theatre.

Having both grown up watching the same Saturday evening TV staples, we were both nostalgic for particular favourite Brian Conley.

We saw his show here last year, and booked again as it was quite honestly one of the funniest nights we've experienced, and this time round didn't disappoint.

Conley has honed his skills performing comedy to a crowd which is evident by his lightning quick retorts and interaction with the audience, which are a little bluer than his television days, but had everyone in stitches with his rapid fire delivery and trademark sarcasm and larger than life personality.

His skits, including the violin performance and his fire eating prove that he has the gift for slapstick and visual comedy too.

He also performed a few songs from his theatre days, including numbers from 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang', 'Jolson', 'Barnum' and 'Oliver!', and also had a magician who performed a section of sleight of hand magic, which he invaded as his character Dangerous Brian to rapturous effect.

However it's Brian's physicality and his well honed joke telling skills which just prove that his absence from television is criminal and he'd be the perfect host of a prime time show.

Fortunately for us though it means we get to see shows like this which are a great night out.

If you hold any warm memories for Conley's back catalogue then this show is a must see!

Next week's a busy one with a trio of theatre, some live music and some artistic conversation. Until then, get inspired...

Puppet based opera, science, some comedy and a gangster classic on the big screen...

13th February - 19th February 2017

The Depraved Appetite of Tarrare The Freak - Wilton's Music Hall

We Need To Talk About Physics - The Royal Institution

Adam Buxton Videos His Old Bits - BFI Southbank

GoodFellas and Lorraine Bracco Q & A - BFI Southbank

Another quite varied week, which also included the first visit to a venue which we'd heard a lot about but had never been to, so...

The Depraved Appetite of Tarrare The Freak

Miss C was a little under the weather on this chilly Monday night so a solo visit was the order of the night for this one.

I first became aware of this intriguing production via a Facebook post which showcased the trailer for this show, (it's available via the link above to the official site for this outfit), which teased only snippets of what might be expected, however it's faintly macabre feel and the prospect of some original delivery via puppetry was enough to draw me in.

The venue itself is billed as the oldest music hall still operating in London, transformed in Victorian times from a sailor's pub, (being sited so close to the docks), it became a successful destination for entertainment and has been restored and maintained, despite basically everything surrounding it being renovated.

On a pedestrianised walkway alongside a couple of blocks of flats and a school, it's a real sight to behold as you can see in the photo.

The shabby chic Wilton's Music Hall...

The interior continues the trend of maintaining the shabby, but authentic finishes with the auditorium itself also showcasing the bare plaster finish and the surrounding upstairs balcony comprising of carved wooden facades. There's also a bar with food available.

It also seems it has a history of being a location for filming too.

Some of the films shot here...

The downstairs stalls area is comprised of removable seats and the balcony sits around the side walls and rear of the room, not overhanging half the stalls like a traditional theatre would.

For this show I had a dead centre front row seat, and quite reasonable it was too at about £20, but I wanted to make the most of the visual aspect of the show.

Even the flyers are well designed...

The show then... Wow!

An original opera performed by a cast of four, (two puppeteers and two singers), and two musicians, a pianist and a violinist. For this performance the piano was played by the composer also, Tom Poster which was a bonus.

The story is based on the true story of a French man called Tarrare, who legend has it had an insatiable appetite and could swallow anything, as it seems he also had a dislocatable jaw to facilitate bigger items such as cats and babies...

His story takes us from his early adulthood in a freak show, through a stint as part of the Revolution and his subsequent life in a hospital, (asylum?), where he eventually succumbed to his problems.

The entire opera is performed in English by two male singers, who sing in a higher register for the couple of female characters, whilst the puppeteers flawlessly perform the body movements and lip sync the puppets to the words.

The puppets themselves have a haunting sunken cheeked, eyeless, (except Tarrare), look to them, created from what looks like linen type material and are just torsos with arms and heads, operated by one or two puppeteers at a time to carry out various tasks, which look incredibly natural and fluid.

One way to describe it is like if Tim Burton filmed a Muppet opera.

From the performance, to the story, to the music and singing, to the design of the set and characters this was a pure work of art. I'm most interested in seeing some of the puppet team, Wattle & Daub's other shows.

It's finished it's run at Wilton's Music Hal but is touring a few places and is an absolute must see in my book!

We Need To Talk About Physics

So onto Wednesday's event, some Physics this time courtesy of self confessed 'bubble scientist' Helen Czerski.

Tied in with the publication of her latest book 'The Storm In A Teacup : The Physics Of Everyday Life' this lecture was based around how everyday items or occurrences are actually complex scientific processes when we actually take the time to look at what something is doing and what causes it, specifically it's basis in the world of Physics and it's theories.

It was an engaging talk which took things we consider to be mundane daily things, such as a cup of coffee sloshing around when you walk with it, and explained in an accessible way the Physics based reason for why it does it and how it's behaviour is not as unpredictable and random as it may first appear.

Czerski herself is used to presenting, having produced several programmes for the BBC on several scientific subjects and this was evident in her straightforward but entertaining delivery.

Another worthwhile event, just one of many which the Royal Institution hosts, and was an evening well spent, I also learnt some stuff too.

Adam Buxton Videos His Old Bits

On Thursday night we took our first of two trips to the BFI this week to see BUG host Adam Buxton presenting a non-music video based show, centring around his audio visual skits, presented as a cross between a stand up show and a trawl through Buxton's laptop.

Those not familiar with Buxton's brand of comedy may find it all a little nuts, which it is, however it's also ridiculously funny.

He produces spoofs of films, music videos and adverts, makes up bonkers songs with surreal lyrics, (one of which is entirely made up of pictures of bald male celebrities as he sings the names Moby, Michael Stipe, Bruce Willis, Michael Chiklis and John Malkovich), and re-edited footage of his kids to crate hilarious vignettes.

One of the best sections involved a Keynote presentation which he used to tell the story of when he had an earache and eventually went to his local A & E department as it got so painful, only for his local BBC news station to report a few days later about how the hospital's A & E department was overstretched due to people attending with silly reasons including 'shampoo in the eyes and earache...'

The videos came from a variety of other shows such as the BUG shows at the BFI, his appearance on '8 Out Of 10 Cats Does Countdown' and other stand up appearances, and was being filmed for a digital release at some point.

His skills with video editing are good enough that his creations are really well done and this chance to see so many along with Buxton's off the wall presenting was a joy.

GoodFellas and Lorraine Bracco Q & A

We were back at the BFI on Saturday night for an event in their current Scorsese season, a screening of the classic GoodFellas, (in a nice 4K presentation), followed by an extended interview with Lorraine Bracco.

Surely most people who are interested in this film will have seen it, a prime example of Scorsese showing off not only his directing prowess, but also his ability to extract amazing performances from the cast, co-screenwriting duties and his skills when it comes to putting together a soundtrack.

The print looked fantastic, nice a film like, and seeing it on the big screen for the first time really meant that the achievements in camerawork and cinematography really stood out, for the instance the famous Copacabana scene is a masterwork of steadicam and would have been cut together with CGI nowadays.

De Niro, Liotta and Pesci are outstanding, and Bracco as basically the sole female lead is phenomenal.

The film spans three decades and the soundtrack is a pure joy too, framing every scene perfectly.

If you haven't seen it before, do so, as not only are the cast at the top of their games, it's a another classic of Scorsese's repertoire too.

The BFI film notes are always a welcome addition...

Following the film itself we had the pleasure of Lorraine Bracco in conversation about her experiences working on 'GoodFellas' and working with Scorsese.

She didn't disappoint, she was entertaining, witty and larger than life, and surprisingly candid about the shoot itself and her views on how the violence in the film, (and her subsequent work in 'The Sopranos), is portrayed by the audience.

Bracco in full flow...

She also recounted on how Scorsese works with actors and his willingness to listen to ideas from his actors, how the film was shot almost entirely in the order it plays out on screen, (no mean feat in itself), and how it was entirely filmed on location, no sets used at all.

The floor was then opened to the audience to ask some questions, and thankfully this was one of the better ones we've been to, (some people ask the most ridiculous, irrelevant or plain embarrassing questions), and actually managed to glean a bit more info, particularly getting a bit more detail on a scene which Bracco contributed an idea to which made the final cut, (for those familiar with the movie, it's during the scene in which she ask Henry for some spending money and how she goes about getting a bit more...).

It's always interesting to hear people speaking at the BFI, and especially so when they're as entertaining and engaging as Bracco, a great event.

That's all folks until next week, which has a little theatre with a Hollywood great and some new exhibitions at the Royal Academy. Until then, it's a big city with plenty to offer, so get inspired...