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New Moon is nothing if not an international advertisement for the hungry virtues of virginity and young people can’t get enough of it
The Twilight Saga: New Moon
Theatre
A smart, prickly and rewarding view of sexual and emotional confusion
Cock
Restaurants
Kitchen W8 is a bargain for this area, if such sophistication is what you crave
Kitchen W8
Too long and drawn out but very entertaining with excellent special effects
This is a peculiar play and does not work for me. Some of it is very funny but there are real flaws
Alex has a strong powerful voice and was faultless, she is far better now than she was on the X-Factor
London,
Richard Godwin's rating
Reader rating
Description: The raw-toned punk-poet on tour in support of her new album of covers, Twelve.
Phone: 0871663 2500
Website: www.southbankcetre.co.uk
Extra info: Air Conditioning, Food, Pub, Telephones
Patti Smith: On stage to record her collaboration with Kevin Shields
She is the high priestess of punk, symbolist poet and feminist icon; he is the reclusive ex-leader of My Bloody Valentine who nearly bankrupted Creation Records in the early Nineties trying to capture the sound in his head.
They are an odd couple, but Patti Smith and Kevin Shields clicked when they improvised at last year's Meltdown festival. Now they are back to record their collaboration in front of a live audience on a stage resembling a home studio.
The first half was relatively trad. Backed on piano, guitar and cello, Smith, intense yet endearing, unveiled two righteous new songs: Qana, about the war in Lebanon, and Without Chains, about Guantanamo.
After the interval, Shields emerged, scruffy and withdrawn, and things got full on. Smith intoned The Coral Sea, a long elegy to her soulmate Robert Mapplethorpe, occasionally making deathly squeals with a clarinet, as Shields, surrounded by guitars and effects pedals, built shimmering layers of feedback, enveloping the auditorium in a womb of noise.
My friend thought it insufferably pretentious and unbearably dissonant; I found it mesmerically beautiful and was twice moved to tears. Nice to know music can still do that.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
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I was persuaded to attend by a friend with a spare ticket and went with a completely open mind. I didn't mind the first half but the second half was truly awful - I've never heard such drivel in my entire life (well not since my student days, that is). I'm just glad I didn't have the misfortune to have paid for a ticket.
- Arnold, East Cheam, UK
