Reviews
Bryan Ferry Shepherds Bush O2 Academy 14 December 2011 Google the words ‘Bryan Ferry’ and you’re assaulted from all directions by the word ‘cool’. It’s the adjective that was grafted to his name when he first slinked onto the music scene with Roxy Music in the 1970s and it’s stuck ever since. So you don’t need me to say it (and I won’t) – but I will marvel at how he’s survived at the top of his tree for 40 years without ever seeming as if he’s trading on past glories. Like his fellow
Janis Ian Stockton ARC 1 November 2011 Once described as ‘America’s best singer’ by Ella Fitzgerald, Grammy Award winner Janis Ian’s singing is indeed superb but it’s perhaps secondary to her talents as a songwriter. On her own career Ian said: “I wrote my first song when I was 12, had it published at 13, made my first record when I was 14, had a hit at 15 and was a ‘has been’ by the time I was 16.” Now 60, Janis has a firm following of people who have admired her work since the decade she has
Bob Geldof Sage Gateshead Plundering a catalogue of tracks from a career spanning over 30 years, Bob Geldof, backed by an excellent group of musicians including Pete Briquette (a former Boomtown Rat) and John Turnbull from South Shields, entertained an enthusiastic audience at the Sage for almost two hours. Setting a frenetic pace which rarely let up through the entire concert with the opening track ‘I Don’t Mind’ (an upbeat Irish jig with rock overtones), Bob and his band rarely st
Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin The Sage 10 September 2011 Beach Boys musical genius Brian Wilson has survived drug-addled times, and backed by what Sir Paul McCartney says is the best band in the world, the man who wrote the some of the best songs in popular music commands the stage like an elderly walrus directing the young pups around him. The show is titled ‘Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin’ and the first 45-minute segment sees Wilson and the band glide through classic numbers such as ‘Su
Equus Gala Theatre, Durham.Friday, 9 September 2011 When I first saw this play at The Sunderland Empire in 1976 it was notorious because of the full frontal nudity that caused some audience members to walk out in disgust. In Durham in 2011 the nudity is of no consequence other than as an essential part of Peter Shaffer’s classic play. That is not least because this touring production by London Classic Theatre, directed by Michael Cabot, is riveting. The only disappointing moment is when there is a br
Suzy Bogguss, Matraca Berg and Gretchen Peters
Wine, Women & Song Suzy Bogguss, Matraca Berg and Gretchen Peters The Sage Gateshead, Hall 2 12 June 2011 More of a fireside chat than a routine gig, ‘Wine, Women & Song’ with American country performers Suzy Bogguss, Matraca Berg and Gretchen Peters feels like you’ve been invited around to their place for an evening of chat and singing over a glass of red. The trio all have major Country Music Association awards to their names, Berg and Peters having won the prestigious ‘Song of the Year’ catego
The Chapin SistersCluny 2, Ouseburn, Newcastle9 June 2011 If you were lucky enough to be at any of Harry Chapin’s gigs at Newcastle City Hall in the late 70s or very early 80s then you witnessed one of the few performers charismatic enough to create an atmosphere to rival the legendary Lindisfarne Christmas concerts of the era. Killed in a car crash in 1981, three decades later his nieces Abigail and Lily Chapin played the second night of their first UK tour in the North East.The LA-based sisters who releas
Paul Rodgers Newcastle Metro Arena In the days before artifice took hold of them, live rock shows were about little more than guitars, drums and charismatic lead singers. For those of you who haven’t had that unvarnished experience, I recommend an outing to see Paul Rodgers. The former front man of Free and Bad Company back in the 70s has recently been fronting Queen, but in this, his first solo tour in years, he went back to his early roots. And he served up a classic concert with al
Cleo LaineThe Sage Gateshead27 March 2011 Picture by Sven Arnstein There could have been no finer way of closing the seventh Gateshead International Jazz Festival than with a superlative concert by Dame Cleo Laine. Starting with Shakespeare- ‘If music be the food of love, play on’ - this was certainly a Cleo of whom it can be said ‘Age shall not wither her.’ At 83 she may walk with a stick and need to sit down for some numbers but the voice is still amazingly undiminished. A richly deserv
Debbie Harry and The Jazz Passengers
Debbie Harry, The Jazz Passengers and Northern Sinfonia The Sage Gateshead 25 March 2011 Picture by Mike Ruiz Imagine you’re watching ‘Later’ when Jools Holland has assembled a range of diverse musicians and put them together to see what happens. I kept expecting Jools to appear and shout a belated ‘Hootenanay’ and while that didn’t happen, 65 (and not looking a day over 45) year old Debbie Harry did let on that she’d heard her first ‘Why-aye.’ Here we were then, a packed Hal
Richard ThompsonThe Sage Gateshead26 Jan 2011 Picture by Pam Littky Two songs in to veteran folk-rocker Richard Thompson’s latest visit to The Sage and the spine-tingling Among the Gorse, Among the Grey told the packed audience what all the fuss was about from his new Grammy- nominated Dream Attic album. As an eerie atmosphere largely created by Joel Zifkin’s violin enveloped Hall One, the message was that master songwriter Thompson, a newly created OBE, was right on form and so were his band t
The Human League The Sage, Gateshead 13 December The Human League packed out The Sage and, despite the claims that this was a showcase of their first album since 2001, it turned out to be a tour through their frequent visits into the upper echelons of the singles charts. As the songs rolled by it was a reminder of just how many massive hits the Sheffield electro pop outfit have enjoyed. Virtually every song had the audience on their feet: Mirror Man, Love Action, Tell Me When, Fascination, Th
The Dylan ProjectSage Gateshead 2 December 2010 For anyone who 'gets' Bob Dylan this was a real treat. Veteran Steve Gibbons, backed by a bunch of highly skilled and experienced musicians, worked through Dylan's back pages. Their choice of material from arguably the greatest songwriter of the last half century illustrated the depth of their passion for their subject. The seminal 1967 double album 'Blonde on Blonde' was the most deeply mined record with four songs taken from it, although 'Sad Eyed Lady of th
Eric Burdon Homecoming show, Newcastle O2 Academy In an interview a couple of months ago Eric Burdon told me: “If my soul resides anywhere it is on the road from Newcastle to Lindisfarne.” And so it came to pass, North East musical pilgrims came to pay homage to the Geordie king of the blues. The Walker-born singer was performing to a packed home crowd in the former picture house on the Westgate Road. It’s eight years since Eric last played Tyneside – at the Journal Tyne Theatre
Elvis Costello and The Sugarcanes
Elvis Costello and The SugarcanesSage Gateshead Picture by James O'Mara When Elvis Costello burst onto the music scene in the late 1970s he was at the forefront of New Wave and one of the leading exemplars of the genre. With his sharp, intelligent and often political lyrics, and his band The Attractions’ spare and energetic sound, he was instrumental in shaking off the all-pervading shackles of disco. New Wave may have come and gone but he’s still here more than 30 years later (and better than ev
Sun Trap Gala Theatre, Durham Two North East couples swap Tyneside for Tenerife in search of a dream which turns into a nightmare in Ian Skelton’s play Sun Trap which premieres at Durham’s Gala Theatre. Alan (Mark Stratton) has lured Don (David Lonsdale) into helping him sell this dream to other would be émigrés looking for grass that is greener abroad. The pair are looking to tempt punters to invest in Spanish property and the prospect of a lifestyle based on sun, sea, sangria and …golf. The dr
Paul McCartney Hampden Park, Glasgow. Four years past the landmark of 64 he once wondered if he’d still be loved at, Paul McCartney produced a near three-hour performance that showcased some of the greatest songs in popular music from the past half century. “See you next time,” he said at the close, the 68-year-old clearly having no intentions of making this his farewell and why should he – especially on a tour named the ‘Up and Coming’ tour? With the 50,000 crowd nicely warmed up by ex Texas lea
The Proclaimers Gala Theatre, Durham Just a few days after Pink took the Stadium of Light by storm with an all-American spectacular of light, sound and special effects, The Proclaimers slipped quietly into Durham and delivered a show entirely in their own low-key style. No gimmicks, no props, no banter between numbers – with this act what you see is what you get: twin brothers, Charlie and Craig Reid, singing beautifully-crafted songs in their native Scottish accents backed by a solid and equally unassumi
P!NK @ The Stadium of Light June 11th 2010 P!nk kicked off the UK leg of her world tour by thrilling over 31,000 people at Sunderland's Stadium of Light where the weather was kind to the masses of party goers who arrived mainly pretty in pink; a dry night being a welcome break in a week where Wet Wet Wet might have been more appropriate headliners. As befitting a major stadium concert it was a spectacular show right from the moment the American star arrived by zip-wire having been raised above the stage b
Comic to comic: Simon DonaldLive Theatre, Newcastle Most stand-up comedians ply their trade by peddling invented stories about their lives to get a laugh – playing themselves writ large. Not Simon Donald. He’s either totally himself – or five completely different characters. Let me explain. The co-creator of Viz magazine – now a full-time performer – has devised a one-man show of two very distinct halves, but with Viz firmly at the heart of both. The first part is a straightforward account of how the m
Mark Knopfler, Royal Albert Hall, May 30 Like fine wine Knopfler – he’s now 60 – is ageing well. Apart from the trapped nerve in his back which means he is performing this tour – promoting his new autobiographical album Get Lucky – playing his blissful guitar licks perched on a stool. It didn’t seem to cramp his style and he made light of the ailment – joking with his adoring fans – although he did appear to be wincing in pain on occasion. It all kicked off with Border Reiver fr
WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND, Newcastle Theatre Royal There’s a line in a song in Whistle Down The Wind about children ruling the world. Well, if all the world’s a stage, they certainly rule this one. For the young 20-strong ensemble – mostly recruited from Tyneside and Wearside drama schools – give show star Jonathan Ansell great backing in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s ambitious musical about mistaken identity in Bible-belt Louisiana. When former G4 star Ansell, hiding out on the run from pris
In and around Durham City It’s always gratifying to be in at the start of something new that you feel sure is going to become a huge success. Imagine seeing Oasis in a pub before they hit the big-time or Victoria Wood at a workingmen’s club or Kenneth Branagh first treading the boards and tipping them for stardom: that’s a bit what it was like seeing the Durham Mysteries. Not that this project thought small – it featured a total cast of hundreds and took in the city’s Gala Theatre and cathedral as venu
Chris Rea, Newcastle City Hall, 18 March 2010 He seemed happy to be alive - and he has good reason to be. Chris Rea stared death in the face at the turn of the millennium and he is clearly enjoying life back where he wants to be - on stage playing the blues. In fact he gave a tutorial in slide guitar - featuring numbers like Where the Blues Come From, Easy Rider and So Far to Go - amid a flurry of instrument switches. Middlesbrough-born Chris – probably more than any other modern-day
Abdullah Ibrahim, Gateshead Jazz Festival Picture by Mark Savage The Sage Gateshead March 27 2010 Following an enormous gap between being announced and actually appearing on stage, South African pianist Abdullah Ibrahim commenced his show before a packed audience with the quietest, gentlest opening to a concert you could ever witness. This was so calm and serene it was therapy for the soul. Anyone overwrought and stressed when they arrived would have had their pulse rate lowered by the end of the fi
The Stan Tracey Octet, Gateshead Jazz Festival Picture by William Ellis The Sage GatesheadMarch 26 2010 The godfather of British jazz, a sprightly 83-year-old Stan Tracey CBE, was a highlight of the opening day of the Gateshead International Jazz Festival. Playing with an octet that included his son Clark Tracey on drums and the wonderfully named Mornington Lockett on tenor sax, he treated a sold-out audience to two hours on the edge of modern playing. Stan Tracey never did go in for commerci
Picture by Bill Cooper Swan Lake, Newcastle Theatre Royal, 16 March 2010 Animal magnetism Exhilarating. Mesmerising. I want to see it again tomorrow. Not my words, but snippets of conversations overheard from fellow audience members after a barnstorming Swan Lake. This is the production choreographed by Matthew Bourne which replaces the traditional female swans with male dancers (and which featured as the climax of the film Billy Elliott). More modern dance theatre than classi
Katherine Jenkins, Newcastle Metro Radio Arena, 6 March 2010 Store away the ball gowns and put the classical arias on hold – Katherine Jenkins has added another spectacular string to her bow. The mezzo soprano who has taken classical crossover to new levels in her six-year career has crossed over again – but this time in a very different way. For the 29-year-old from South Wales is taking away the breath of Arena audiences across Britain with a remarkable new show owing as much to daring ch
How to Make a Successful Play, by Lee Hall. Live Theatre 5 March 2010 He knows a thing or two about writing successful plays – Billy Elliot and Pitmen Painters for starters. Tyneside award-winning author Lee Hall shared a few tricks of the trade with an appreciative audience at the launch of the Live Theatre’s new writing festival Different Stages. Entitled How to Make a Successful Play, it was something of a misnomer. You can't teach someone to be a great writer. It was more ab
LA BOHEME, Opera North, Newcastle Theatre Royal Peter Relton’s revival of Phyllida Lloyd’s 1993 original `update’ staging of the famous Puccini opera is as bright as ever, with Opera North doing the pop-art concept full justice. Set in 1950s Paris, the ambience of nightclub and denims may not be to the purists’ taste, but the transition is both persuasive and successful. Parisian Anne Sophie Duprels as Mimi strikes the right notes of charm and vulnerability, and if Turkish tenor Bulent Bezd
Beth Neilsen-Chapman, The Journal New Tyne Theatre, Newcastle Sunday 28th February 2010 With as many ice creams and bottles of water sold as pints at the venue, this was never going to be a rowdy affair. And a reverential atmosphere in this church-like building (where the seats are as hard as old pews) made the scheduling of this gig on a Sunday evening more than appropriate. That’s not to say that watching this Texas-born, Nashville-based singer-songwriter is a somb
The Lady in the Van Gala Theatre, Durham February 18-27, 2010 In his Talking Heads series of plays, Alan Bennett takes ordinary fictional people and, by putting them under the figurative microscope, makes them extraordinary. But when an elderly squatter took up residence outside his house in real life, the extraordinary was handed to him on a plate. The eccentric, down-at-heel Miss Shepherd parked her decrepit van in Bennett’s garden and lived in a succession of clapped-out vehicles on the same spot for
Review: Johnny Dickinson, Gateshead Old Town Hall, Friday 19th February 2010 For a quarter of a century now, The Jumpin’ Hot Club have brought authentic roots music to appreciative audiences across Tyneside. But while many of the performers cross the Atlantic to appear, tonight’s star attraction came direct from the Wansbeck Delta. Johnny Dickinson’s guitar work had previously underpinned acts including The Hillbillies from Outer Space and Paul Lamb & the King Snakes. Wh
Stars shine for Sammy February 7, 2010 * Listen to Tim Healy talking about his best pal Sammy, how he set up the memorial fund 10 years ago, and who makes HIM laugh on the audio link Review by Michael Hamilton A galaxy of North East stars put on a pair of glittering Sunday for Sammy concerts at Newcastle City Hall to raise money to help nurture local talent. Guitar genius Mark Knopfler was the surprise superstar guest and brought both sell-out three-hour shows – a m
Hairy Bikers Big Night Out, Durham Gala If you like the Hairy Bikers hit BBC2 TV shows then you’ll love their stage act. It’s the first time Geordie Si King and his pal Dave Myers have done a live theatre tour. But it has the same blend of cooking, gags and zany humour which has won them an army of fans across the UK. In fact so popular is their appeal an original 45-date UK tour has swollen to well over 100 performances now. Bosses at the Gala had to add another date
Kathryn Tickell’s Surprise Party at The Sage Gateshead Picture copyright Mark Savage Although it’s a home from home for celebrated Northumbrian composer Kathryn Tickell, it was Sting’s debut at this amazing venue. But he celebrated his homecoming in some style. In fact he had the North East audience wrapped around his finger. I saw The Police in their heyday and have been to numerous solo Sting gigs over the years but never seen him perform with such passion and intens
ALL THE SAME IN LOVE AND WAR Cosi fan Tutte, Opera North, Theatre Royal Newcastle Mozart’s endearing comedy of romantic cross-deception is an enduring favourite, and Opera North opens its Newcastle season with a first-class production. The machinations of the old philosopher, Don Alfonso, to win a wager with his friends Ferrando and Guglielmo over the loyalty of their lovers, sisters Fiordiligi and Dorabella, lead to near-catastrophe for all. Pretending that the men, who agree to
Paul Rodgers, Hammersmith Apollo When Middlesbrough-born Paul Rodgers played a one-off gig in London earlier this month, I wasn’t alone in wondering if it would be the last time I’d see him on stage. After splitting amicably from Queen after five years fronting the band it seemed possible that he might just pack it all in after more than four decades in the music business. But the former Free and Bad Company singer, after a string of encores, promised he’d be back. And he is. H
Julius CaesarNewcastle Theatre RoyalRoyal Shakespeare Company The tone was set at the start with a stark scene of the barely-clad twins Romulus and Remus fighting to the death on a hillside. This would be a down-and-dirty Julius Caesar mired in the violence of ancient Rome rather than a showcase for archetypal Shakespearean actors declaiming from the colonnades. The last time I saw the play on stage was five years ago with Ralph Fiennes taking the part of Mark Antony. His was a nuanced, understated perfo
The Unthanks, The Sage Gateshead This was a tender homecoming for the beguiling folk singing sisters Rachel and Becky, from the Tyne Valley. As they joked with the sell-out audience in 1,700 seater Hall One, a lot of people (not from the region) think they are from Northumberland. But Rachel reminded everyone: ‘We’re actually from the borough of Gateshead.’ The Ryton-born girls have a new look 10-piece line up which includes Rachel’s husband and band manager Adrian McNall
Michael McIntyre, Metro Radio Arena Michael McIntyre packed out the arena on both dates of his Newcastle stint as part of his countrywide tour and boy he did not disappoint. His attempts at Geordie were made all the more funny as he addressed the audience with his posh slant on it. Referring to Gateshead as Gates Head, he had the audience eating out of his hand. After I had been watching him for many weeks on TV’s Live at the Apollo I did half expect to
Kes, Darlington Civic Theatre Few British movies have endured better than the 1969 film version of A Kestrel for a Knave – but the story of the delinquent misfit who finds meaning in a kestrel hawk demands great care in translation to the stage. Happily, The Touring Consortium – contracted by the Arts Council – more than meets the challenge in the third national theatre production in the last 18 years. Writer Lawrence Till and director Nikolai Foster have expertly captured the deprivation of a sou
Pitmen Painters, Newcastle Theatre Royal ‘Always poignant and entertaining’ could be Geordie writer Lee Hall’s epitaph. Not that we want to kill him off. The Billy Elliot award-winning Newcastle author has painted another masterpiece here. He has that rare ability to fashion a funny evening of popular theatre out of the big questions – art, politics, class and culture. And like his story of a miner’s son in a tutu, he avoids sentimentality and never patronises. Pitmen
Andy Fairweather LowThe Customs House, South Shields Also Darlington Arts Centre Andy Fairweather Low played to a near sell-out audience and his performance hit a high note from the start. Even though he was barely physically recognisable from his Amen Corner days, as soon as he began to sing we were transported effortlessly back to 1967. His voice has the same soft, slightly high pitch as always and for the next two hours he showed that he CAN play the guitar, is definitely not past it is and absolutel
The Beauty Queen of Leenane – Gala, Durham It was only a short holiday ten years ago but I still yearn for Connemara, a beautiful, beguiling and isolated region in the wild west of Ireland. And so does Pato Dooley, the would-be lover of Maureen, in his eyes the beauty queen of Leenane, a typical Connemara village. Trouble is, when he returns from his soulless life in London to the supposed rural idyll he wants to be anywhere else. He’s outgrown his home area where everybody knows your business and loo
Quadrophenia – Sunderland Empire Theatre I’m not sure what the audience at the Sunderland Empire made of the new stage show of Quadrophenia. Like the 1979 film, it’s based on The Who’s 1973 album and follows the story of Jimmy – the original mixed-up adolescent growing up at the height of the Mod era. Performed purely as a succession of numbers from the album featuring a stonking band on a raised dais at the back of the stage (5.15 was the stand-out for me), the lack of na
Cabaret, Newcastle Theatre Royal For most of us, the first experience of Cabaret is the much-acclaimed 1972 film. A winner of eight Oscars and oozing star turns, it leaves you wondering what, as a stage show, it will offer. And how do you follow an act like Liza Minnelli? The answer is to go back to the original concept in which Sally Bowles (Minnelli in the film, Samantha Barks here) is an English woman – still glitzy but less Hollywood – and her bisexual lover Cliff an America
Bryan Ferry Shepherds Bush O2 Academy 14 December 2011 Google the words ‘Bryan Ferry’ and you’re assaulted from all directio...
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