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An awesome and ridiculous film that leaves you thrilled beyond the point of your natural endurance
2012
Theatre
The show has suddenly become quite wonderful, and the galvanising factor is the terrific stage debut of Melanie C
Blood Brothers
Music
The British pop music industry may be eating itself but if Muse are the pick of what it can offer the world in 2010 then British music is in rude health indeed
Muse
I was smitten by both Gilberts enormous luxuriant moustache and the intelligence and nuance of this highly entertaining play
I totally recommend Babbo to anyone who is looking for really good and traditional Italian food
Always been a fan but never seen them live. I was ecstatic to be part of this epic event. WOW!
London,
The snow man: Gary Lightbody
Snow Patrol
A Hundred Million Suns (Polydor), £12.99
****
Not a lot of people know this: only Frank Sinatra’s My Way has spent longer in the UK charts than Snow Patrol’s monumental 2006 anthem Chasing Cars (85 weeks in the singles chart).
Yet Snow Patrol rarely get credit.
They’re often derided as inferiors of Coldplay or Keane, dismissed as soppy balladeers with an eye on the main chance.
But that view totally ignores their background as perennial indie underachievers, a band almost no one took any notice of until 2004’s breakthrough single Run propelled third album Final Straw into multi-million sales territory.
2006’s Eyes Open, a mighty slab of sleek but emotional stadium rock, consolidated that success but a decade after Songs About Polar Bears, their debut album, A Hundred Million Suns may well see them reborn as the successors to their natural antecedents, U2, who also knew relative obscurity
until a mid-career surge made them into contenders.
This is a hugely confident album. Band leader Gary Lightbody may attract a bewildering amount of flak for being rather uncharismatic
(Lightbody’s no Bono and that’s how he likes it) but he isn’t just about great tunes and lyrics that connect; he’s also not afraid to experiment.
Away from the more straight-forward guitar pop of paean to Belfast, Take Back The City, and the exciting, strafing rock of Please Just Take These Photos From My Hands, the micro electro-ballad, If There’s A Rocket Tie Me To It pulses with robotic sighs, while The Golden Floor comes across like Elliott Smith (a recurrent influence) fencing with Timbaland.
Still, none of this prepares you for the 16-minute, three-piece, final track The Lightning Strike, which bursts with clamorous orchestral volleys but never loses touch with the band’s warm embrace of melody.
It makes Coldplay’s recent prog attempts all sound rather embarrassing. Snow Patrol: the finest stadium rock band in Britain? No contest.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
