music
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Paloma, Joss and Ellie light up Hootenanny
My traditional end to a year, now that we have a small child, is the same every year. We go out early, to dine or visit family, and then get back home, pour the fizz and settle down to the glamour and entertainment that is Jools Holland’s Hootenanny. As I have said, it is traditional! This year was a vintage episode in both the glamour and the music stakes, with Paloma Faith being my star turn, especially when she turned in a tongue in cheek performance of ‘River Deep Mountain Eye’ complete with Tina Turner style dance moves and backing singers. Her ruby glitter dress was just gorgeous and so…
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Chrissie Hynde – Queen of Christmas
Whilst you’ve been enjoying all those fabulous, festive classics, have you noticed just how male dominated the Christmas hits we play every single year are? From the Black Country glam rock of Slade and Wizzard, to the cosy jumpers of Shakin Stevens, the homeliness of Bin,g to more glam rock from The Darkness, Christmas chart hits have a definite male slant. And we haven’t even begun to mention The Beach Boys, Cliff Richard, David Essex, Greg Lake, Johnny Mathis, and now Michael Buble, all who have become synonymous with their Christmas hits. But there are a couple of ladies who at least try to set the balance straight. We have…
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Five Minutes with Tim Driesen from Jersey Boys
Ahead of a Christmas run at the New Alexandra Theatre in Birmingham, I had the opportunity to chat to Tim Driesen, who is playing Frankie Valli in Jersey Boys. The full interview is currently on the Style Birmingham website (you can read it here), but here are a few of Tim’s selected musings on Jersey Boys, Boy Bands and all things Christmas. On Frankie Valli ‘…I met Frankie Valli and was lucky enough to spend a morning with him. He is such a down-to-Earth guy, a real grafter. He has been in business since he was 15, and he’s now 80 and still doing 50-60 gigs a year. Music is…
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Rudy’s Rare Records brings The Rep to its feet
A midweek standing ovation is a pretty rare thing, but that is what the hilarious ‘Rudy’s Rare Records’ got at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre last night. The superb comedy starring Lenny Henry had audiences on their feet with its mixture of warmth, laughter and Reggae, and is probably the only play I have ever seen where I have wished I had tickets for the following night. Yes, it is that good. Rudy’s Rare Records tells the tale of a dusty, musty record shop in Birmingham that has seen better and busier days, and is now under threat from developers who are buying up the street it stands on. Rudy, an…
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West Side Story is coming to The New Alexandra Theatre
It is probably the best musical of all, and certainly one that changed the nature of them, bringing the musical kicking and screaming into the 20th Century. And now it has embarked on a nationwide tour, and will be hitting Birmingham next week. Yes, it could only be the Jerome Robbins and Leonard Bernstein masterpiece, ‘West Side Story’, the show that transferred the doomed romance of Romeo and Juliet to the brutal gangs of New York. This new production of “WEST SIDE STORY” features the entire original Jerome Robbins choreography, and has already played to sell-out audiences around the world. It will now be coming to Birmingham’s New Alexandra Theatre…
