November 2008 Archives

Two average support acts ensured that by the time the main attraction
bounced on stage, the audience was well up for it.

With no mucking about, they opened with their two biggest hits, I Found Out
and Emergency, both giving rise to anthemic sing-a-longs that are the
hallmark of a great live act.

Things tailed off a little bit after that as the band do not yet have
enough quality material to sustain such momentum.

A rapping gorilla, a crack addict fox and futuristic sailors. Not your
average night out in Newcastle.

But this is no ordinary show as we journey through time and space to the
world of the Mighty Boosh.

The brainchild of Noel Fielding and Julian Barrett, the BBC 3 show has a
huge cult following - reflected here in the scores of fans dressed as Boosh
characters.

I read a story in one of the papers today which offered the notion that someone had suggested, that maybe, at some points during Saturday night's X Factor performance, Britney Spears may have dallied with the action of miming to a backing track.

Whoever was asking the question clearly missed the show.

I would put my house, car, job, husband, child and life on the fact that Spears mimed badly throughout her whole sorry performance.

But of course she got a standing ovation from the sycophantic four - Masters Cowell and Walsh and Missus' Cole and Minogue.

Every Christmas I seem to find my inner magpie.

Yes, that's right: not my inner child, not my inner Nigella Lawson (I wish), but my inner magpie.

As the economic downturn takes hold, those of us living in the world of books are waiting to see if spending on books shifts. The views are diverse; according to The Bookseller (the weekly industry magazine) this week, literary agents are beginning to feel a cooler response from publishers and are finding it harder so sell books.

More general research around the kind of cultural offerings that find it harder to survive in tricky economic times proposes that spending on book buying by readers will continue even as they stop spending money on theatre, music and the cinema. It will be interesting to see how it all pans out.

Not his best song, but a good one nonetheless and there's something wilfully perverse about choosing Girls In Their Summer Clothes when it's cold as all hell up here.

As ever, Bruce manages to be intelligent without trying to be clever, a spokesman for the common man even though he's a multi-millionaire and someone who makes you want to move to New Jersey RIGHT NOW.

Not long after seeing Leonard Cohen in London, I heard another beautiful, sacred sound.

This time in Paris.

I am very jealous of my Journal Culture blog colleague Matt McKenzie, who went to see Leonard Cohen in London last week.

Choosing one Leonard Cohen song is virtually impossible. Suzanne, Chelsea Hotel No.2, Tower of Song and Take This Waltz would all be fanatastic choices.

But if there is one song that stands out from his awesome back catalogue it is Hallelujah, even though his own version - from 1984's Various Positions - is a bit ropey. The production is dated as all hell and the only footage of it I can find on Youtube sees Leonard on German TV with a load of backing singers popping up in the chorus in pastel knitwear. It's ridiculous.

I am very jealous of my Journal Culture blog colleague Matt McKenzie, who went to see Leonard Cohen in London last week.

Choosing one Leonard Cohen song is virtually impossible. Suzanne, Chelsea Hotel No.2, Tower of Song and Take This Waltz would all be fanatastic choices.

But if there is one song that stands out from his awesome back catalogue it is Hallelujah, even though his own version - from 1984's Various Positions - is a bit ropey. The production is dated as all hell and a version of it on German TV , in which a load of backing singers pop up in the chorus in pastel knitwear, is completely ridiculous.

A few weeks before all the hoo-haa surrounding Baby P, I put a business idea to my husband: a business that divines good parenting through some magical ether, then turns up at the door and presents stonking good fathers and mothers with a sticker/certificate/gold medal (delete as appropriate) for their parenting efforts.

Reason? In case anyone was mistaken, parenting is hard.