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Fay Maschler

quoteWith a single dessert and just two glasses of wine our bill was kept in check - but the effort of doing so was not much funquote

Fay Maschler Babbo Film

Andrew O'Hagan

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Andrew O'Hagan Bright Star Theatre

Henry Hitchings

quoteAlthough the first half of Kwei-Armah’s production is pacy, funny and intelligent, the energy level then drops offquote

Henry Hitchings Seize The Day

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Squiz, Islington

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An Education Theatre

Joe, London

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This Much Is True Restaurants

Hiroshi Sugiyama

quoteI 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 Kyotoquote

Aqua Kyoto

Norman Cook brings beach vibe to the park

Martha de Lacey 07.07.08
 
Fatboy Slim at the O2 Wireless Festival

Cooking up a storm: Fatboy rocked Hyde Park with a beach-style rave

Non-sleepover festivals are like one-night stands. Whereas tent-pitching affairs force one to become intimately acquainted with fellow revellers' toilet habits, day-long bonanzas are emotionally unattached, semi-soulless, no-strings fun from which you can taxi home to the promise of a nice hot bath. So, for the atmosphere to match the footloose fancy freedom of sleepover festivals, performers must ooze cheek and charm. And there's nothing cheekier than an O2 Wireless headliner holding a big beach rave in the middle of London town.

Blessedly, Brighton's most illustrious DJ, Norman Cook, didn't cart sand, seagulls and lifeguards into Hyde Park. Instead, the diamond geezer better known as Fatboy Slim put on his Hawaiian shirt and let the music do the talking, whisking in remixed amalgamations of his own big beats and handpicked nuggets from artists including the Rolling Stones, Arcade Fire, Beyoncé and Cream.

Following Friday's rockier, more sombre affair ( antifolkster Emmy The Great, epic indie-rock from The National, rants about burgers from Morrissey) Saturday's ticket holders wanted a party. Bootsy Collins staged a bootybumping James Brown tribute, Underworld's tent nearly ruptured to Born Slippy, Neon Neon and Har Mar Superstar offered wry lunacy and Robyn's camp Scandipop rekindled our love for musical Swedes. And the main event. Cook's platters whizzed and whirred under sizzling visuals as opener Praise You came skipping in over a deliciously daft rejigging of the Willy Wonka theme. "Fatboy Slim, just a band," sang Scroobius Pip on a Cooked version of Pip's Thou Shalt Always Kill while Cook giggled and clapped. He may be just a DJ but to 30,000 dance nuts jumping around to House Of Pain in Queen Lizzie's garden, he was a right royal genius.

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