HE MAY be one of the world’s best selling artists but Sting is remarkably self-effacing when it comes to his musical, The Last Ship, which will be touring the UK for the first time this year, writes JOHN ANSON. “I’m not the king of the castle here,” he said. “I’m just helping and I’m very happy to be here.” We are sitting in a dressing room at the Sage in Gateshead just four days into rehearsals for the production which had a spell on Broadway in 2014. Looking much younger than his 66 years, Sting is casually dressed in black jeans and hooded sweatshirt. Earlier in the day he’s been working with the cast, including close friend Jimmy Nail who will star in the production, as they ran through the opening to the show. Inspired by his childhood in Wallsend, The Last Ship is a story about the effects the closure of the shipyards had on the local community. It is fitting therefore, that the show will open in Newcastle before … [Read more...] about Sting’s must-see musical sails into the spotlight
Music
Pianist to perform at Derby Chamber Music
Pianist Colin Stone is the performer at the latest Derby Chamber Music recital. Taking place on Friday, January 12, it is to be held in the Multi-Faith Centre at the University of Derby, Kedleston Road, Derby, starting at 7.30pm. Colin Stone is kindly supported by Professor Jonathan Powers and Making Music Concert Promoters’ Group Artists. He will be performing works by Beethoven, Schubert, Robert Keeley and Rachmaninov. For more on this and other forthcoming recitals in the season, go to www.derbychambermusic.org … [Read more...] about Pianist to perform at Derby Chamber Music
Theatre Review: Shrek The Musical
PUBLISHED: 11:56 23 June 2011 | UPDATED: 11:57 28 June 2011 By JERRY LOGO The cast of Shrek The Musical. Picture: Jason Bell Jason Bell An amusing and riveting showpiece, SHREK THE MUSICAL brings out the big kid in this enthusiastic critic. Amanda Holden is bewitching as Princess Fiona. Picture: Brinkhoff Mogenburg It’s funny how the big kid in us shuffles to the fore when watching a musical that brings back characters from nursery rhymes and children’s books. This eagerly anticipated musical is based on the story and characters from William Steig’s book Shrek and the Oscar-winning film, and it features an all-star cast as well as childhood favourites including Humpty Dumpty. Britain’s Got Talent judge Amanda Holden plays Princess Fiona, bewitching the audience with her guile and wit not to mention her aesthetically pleasing stage presence. Shrek is played by Nigel Lindsay, who packs a punch and is refreshingly spontaneous with his several but not … [Read more...] about Theatre Review: Shrek The Musical
‘A tribute to the transformative power of music’ – Review: This is Memorial Device, by David Keenan
This is Memorial Device David Keenan Faber & Faber, £8.99 Loading article content Review by Alastair Mabbott HAVING championed obscure and uncommercial music for years in the pages of The Wire magazine (and in his previous book, England’s Hidden Reverse), David Keenan has, for his fictional debut, reimagined his old hometown of Airdrie as a hotbed of musical experimentalism. This “hallucinated oral history”, comprising 26 interviews and monologues from people involved in the Airdrie music scene in the early 1980s, has purportedly been compiled by one Ross Raymond to celebrate that scene and to dispel the image of Scottish working class towns as cultural deserts. In this community of vinyl obsessives and cassette collectors, music is a gateway to new ways of seeing, thinking and living, and the DIY post-punk ethic has given them licence to be artists. Seeing mainstream pop culture as something that people from their background can’t aspire … [Read more...] about ‘A tribute to the transformative power of music’ – Review: This is Memorial Device, by David Keenan
Tory MSP hits out after it’s revealed cop bosses spent over £32,000 on licences so officers could listen to music at work
TOP brass spent over £32,000 on licences so cops could listen to music at work.Bosses splashed out the sum to legally allow staff to play CDs, radio stations and music channels in the office. Tory MSP Liam Kerr slammed the outlay, claiming taxpayers would reckon it did “not represent value for public money”.He said: “given the cost pressures faced by the police People may wonder whether this money should instead pay for an extra officer to patrol our streets.”The £32,897.22 Phonographic Performance Ltd bill is passed on to singers and record labels as royalties.Organisations liable for the fees can opt to play royalty-free hits, commission their own tunes or axe background music altogether.Last summer Shetland Islands Council stopped paying licences for staff to listen to the radio as it was not a “good use of public money”.But employees could listen using headphones or if they worked alone as it only applies to public … [Read more...] about Tory MSP hits out after it’s revealed cop bosses spent over £32,000 on licences so officers could listen to music at work