Away We Go review

 

My review of Away We Go seems to have sparked quite a comments-box debate – offbeat gem or pretentious pap? Well, I loved it, but I understand why the marketing for the film has put some people off. IT IS NOT A ROMCOM. It’s a disarming film, a comedy lacking in cynicism is a rare [...]

The Vivians single review

I don’t like to give negative reviews, far better to see the positive in things. Afterall, chances are the people reading the review are already fans of the band or interested in the film etc. That’s not to say I’m from the Paul Ross school of critics, just that I don’t like to be unduly negative.
So when [...]

Reviews

It’s been a while since my last post and this is a rather lazy effort just to say I have been beavering away at a bunch of reviews.
Revolutionary Road (Winslet & DiCaprio play house)
Rachel Getting Married (not a bit like Bride Wars, phew)
The Armstrong and Miller Show (like, those chav pilots and shit)
J.Tillman – Vacilando Territory Blues (Fleet Fox [...]

The worst film of 2008…

A strong contender for the worst film of 2008 accolade has to be You Don’t Mess With the Zohan. It is offensively awful. I had immense fun reviewing the DVD for Den of Geek. On the whole I don’t like to be negative in reviews, but in this instance, there was no redeeming feature.
Don’t mess [...]

Steel City Tour

A rather belated post about the recent Steel City Tour homecoming gig at Sheffield Arena featuring Heaven 17, ABC and The Human League, all synth electropop pioneers back in the day. It’s peculiar to think that such glitzy futuristic music came out of Sheffield. While the music of Manchester and Liverpool embraced its origins, asserting it proudly [...]

Raw Talent Introducing

On December 2nd, Iain Hodgson, who presents BBC Radio Sheffield’s Raw Talent show, presented a showcase of local unsigned bands at Carling Academy. The bands were Rosie Electro, Skullbone, True Gentlemen (fronted by Paddy Orange of Orange 38), Playground Mafia, Dead World Leaders and Skeletons.
The line-up certainly made for an eclectic evening. I enjoyed the [...]

Keith Lemon

Having overdosed on the permatanned buffoonery of Keith Lemon, you can read my review of his Very Brilliant World Tour on Den of Geek. Here’s a little clip:

Guillemots

 

I went to see the Guillemots at Plug last night, my review will be in the Sheffield Star, probably tomorrow Tues 17th Nov. The band provided their own support act by showing a selection of short films and playing a live improvised score to each one. They referred to it as a “little experiment”, which [...]

W.

Coming out of the cinema after watching W. I almost felt sorry for George Bush. I was expecting the film to be a real Bush basher, but Josh Brolin humanised him in a way I never thought possible. Later that day I saw some footage of the real Dubya giving a clumsy speech and realised how far off [...]

Seth Lakeman

Last night I reviewed Seth Lakeman at the Leadmill. I’ve always found him a bit too earnest and wasn’t expecting to get into the gig. But I did, he was quite astounding. His older, more traditional folk material was stomping and gutsy. The new stuff is more folk-rock, bordering on bland at times, but it has brought [...]