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With a single dessert and just two glasses of wine our bill was kept in check - but the effort of doing so was not much fun
Babbo
Film
This is a film with beautiful performances and a visual style that urges you towards reflection
Bright Star
Theatre
Although the first half of Kwei-Armah’s production is pacy, funny and intelligent, the energy level then drops off
Seize The Day
I loved this film from start to finish. Take the girlfriend, tell your mum - I'd see it again tomorrow and will buy the dvd.
I saw this last night and can't remember the last time I was so moved in the theatre.
I have been to many of London's so-called best Japanese restaurants and none have been as good as the food that I've had at Aqua Kyoto
London,
Critic rating
Reader rating
Description: The alt rockers play tracks from their new album, Perfect Symmetry in aid of Mencap.
Phone: 020 7226 2686
Website: http://www.atpfestival.com/events/atp-uk-concerts/line_up.php?view=1252
Email: feedback@atpfestival.com
Hallelujah for all things peculiar! For Heston Blumenthal’s snail porridge, comedian Noel Fielding’s garrulous moon, and for chart toppers playing cosy, acoustic, Christmas-time gigs to 600 listeners in church.
Since 2006, Mencap’s Little Noise Sessions have caused joyful hullabaloos, mostly because raucous rockers (coaxed from stadiums by curator DJ Jo Whiley) playing soothing, stripped down concerts is so dashed incongruous. This year’s superb ten-day season has included Glasvegas, Biffy Clyro, Kasabian and The Killers, all more familiar with crowds throwing shapes and lager rather than polite, pew-originated applause. On Saturday, Whiley and co-compere Matthew Horne (Gavin without Stacey) hosted a more delicate affair.
Every mum’s favourite soft-centred piano-pop chaps, Keane, topped a bill which, as a treat, included five bands rather than the usual four. Dublin’s The Script warmed the altar with Keane-like melodies recalling The Fray and U2. Absent Elk provided a five-boy babble of Hoosier-friendly beige, before heftier helpings of mild-mannered testosterone came via Red Light Company’s palatable goth-tinted alt-rock and Bryn Christopher’s theatrical, Winehouse-inspired soul.
Keane’s pinchable-cheeked voicebox, Tom Chaplin, opened proceedings with an astonishing, acoustic solo performance of Again And Again, with neither guitar amp nor microphone. His unaided tones filled the cavernous Union Chapel and reminded us why this band’s charming – if occasionally unadventurous – melodies are so popular. Chaplin led his trio to a roaring ovation of tunes that suited their reverent surroundings alarmingly well. Alas, no talking planets or mollusc oatmeal; perfectly lovely but not peculiar enough.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
