Climax Blues Band – Tribute or not?
Well. I loved the deep growling sound of Colin Cooper on ‘Couldn’t Get It Right’ way back when (mid Seventies, if you must know). Billboard winner too, at the time. So I grabbed the chance to see Climax Blues Band at The Forge last Thursday. Could be the last time they played, eh? Even took […]
‘Emma Smith: Meshuga Baby’ JW3 – Review
Let’s get to the point. This lady is an entertainer, a wonderful talent with a smile to fill the Albert Hall. Yeah, ok, so JW3 don’t yet know what jazz is, or how to fire up a loud speaker, or make a microphone work, but is that gonna phase our Emma? Nah. With an enthusiasm […]
‘Makeshifts & Realities’ Finborough Theatre – Review
I know, right? Another four star threesome. At my age! Funny to think that way back in the 1900’s, the drudgery of everyday spinsterism was made bearable by fantasies of escape at the rough hand of rogues and spivs! Who knew then that people even today would seek diversion from the dull hand they have […]
‘IrrePRESSible’ – Coach House Pianos – Exclusive Review
OK. So we’re shameless fans of new stuff here at LAL, sniffin’ out the movers and shakers of tomorrow. You could say we’re irrePRESSible. It takes a lot of effort to get something indie off the ground – talking about it don’t cut the mustard. Anyone can talk, garner a whisper of social media noise […]
‘Jules & Jim’ and ‘The Retreat’ – a couple of threesomes.
Two threesomes in one week. I guess I’ve still got it. I’m talking about Jules & Jim at The Jermyn Street Theatre and The Retreat at The Finborough. Jules & Jim is based on Henri-Pierre Roché’s eponymous book behind the Truffaut film of the same name. This take is written by the UK’s very own […]
‘But I’m a Cheerleader!’ Turbine Theatre – Review
Funny couple of days. Went to the Harrow Choir concert the other night. New choir master Sam Evans squeezed magic from voices for an audience of rather old people. And I mean old! Yep – even older than me. And I’m old. (In the old days I wasn’t, but I guess they caught up). And […]
London’s Best Cocktails
Ah, so many cocktails – so little time. Where then to go when time wisely spent is more precious than your health? Where are London’s best cocktails? Using the yardstick by which, in our world, all other cocktails are measured (the Dirty Martini or, to us pre-social media types, the DM) we reveal the very […]
‘New UK Musicals in Concert’ The Other Place – Review
London is a constant supply of one-off events which, once over, are gone forever, leaving perhaps a memory, often not, but almost always escaping the reviewer’s eye. And then there are the events that happen quietly, perhaps unheralded, perhaps sparsely yet enthusiastically supported by those in the know that, even as they become history, […]
‘Cancelling Socrates’ Jermyn Street Theatre – Review
If it was easy to write a play, there would be better ones more often in the West End and on our regional boards. But it’s not. So increasingly we rejoice in the classics (whatever that means) and loads of stuff from yesteryear, often out of copyright, rather than re-perform the drivel that oft […]
‘Dom Juan’ The Vaults – Review
If, like me, the nearest you get to a work out in your daily grind is pretending to have a friend called Jim, then this show is for you. Why? Well, it’s a truth universally acknowledged that the mere act of observing activity creates in the observer a reaction ‘énergique et sympathique’ in direct […]