COMEDY: Rhod Gilbert - And The Cat That Looked Like Nicholas Lyndhurst : Loughborough Town Hall : 05/10/09 (Live)

To write a review of Rhod Gilbert, who within 10 minutes of his set had launched his anger straight towards the press and their reviews of his personality, is somewhat unnerving. Should I take it as a reason to lay into him and his anger problems which are a main theme to his new show or do I do the opposite, being unordinarily nice to him which would make me one of the only ones who is ‘on his side’ as he so pleadingly puts it during the show.

Loughborough gave Rhod not one but two warm welcomes after one man in the audience felt that the welcome had not been good or personal enough, so Rhod came out again making the audience address him personally. In fact the audience were as much a part of the show as he was. One mention of swine flu came up with a series of pig jokes from the crowd with the jokes not fading out for at least twenty minutes, leaving Rhod to jokingly suggest he ‘might as well go’.

However, Rhod did have a show to do and a beautifully structured one at that. Whilst his rants and ravings at the newest models of Hoovers, washing machines and a certain brand of smoothies may have seemed ridiculous – his anger towards these things was hilarious, especially an anecdote about being kicked out of ‘Fruit Towers’ after claiming the packaging invited him to have a look round. From these rants though, came a much more intense climax towards the end which many probably did not expect, however the climax left the crowd laughing so hard their jaws ached and left them begging for more, which they received with a video excerpt from Rhod’s radio show.

Much of the crowd had only seen Rhod before from his various television appearances, especially the variety performance which he himself mentioned, yet I can’t help feeling there will now be many who want to see him live again as soon as possible as this is the environment where Rhod really surpasses himself.

****

Well...

It looks like thats as far as I can go with archiving my reviews, I know theres been a fair few done just today but all those are past reviews as far back as I can collect, there are many others but these have been lost in the wonders of the internet, maybe one day I will find them and if I do they will be put on this blog.

But.. stop looking so sad, loads more reviews are to come over the next days and months, including Rhod Gilbert, Enter Shikari and Paolo Nutini this week alone. So keep coming over and checking the blog, its very much worth it!!

Tom Price

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COMEDY: Russell Howard - Dingledodies : Nottingham Concert Hall (Live)

Russell Howard’s childlike exuberance engages the audience and makes for a good hour and a half of comedy. With a lot of the audience being teenagers, in particular screaming girls who went wild when one of their friends name came up in Russell’s jokes, I did not know how the show would capture an older audience. In two words, it wouldn’t, an older generation simply wouldn’t understand or like his humour, but this is not necessarily a bad thing.

Russell’s on stage presence is awesome, drawing the audience in with his energy and his charisma. You can’t help but love him, he’s the kind of person all men would want to have a drink with and all women would want to introduce to their mum, as one woman asked in the q and a session at the end of the show.

Russell seems genuinely delighted and entranced with everything, his personality rubs off on everyone but you are left wondering how long he will last with this childlike enthusiasm, he will grow up and then where will his comedy be? But instead of worrying about this, catch him before he grows up, catch him whilst he’s hot.

Dingledodies are people who you cannot fail to be uplifted by, and so is apt due to the fact that noone in the theatre would have failed to leave without a smile on their face after spending time with Russell Howard.

****

MOVIES: My Bloody Valentine 3D [18]

Slasher films usually stick with what they do best, bloodthirsty gore and lots of it! Not often do you find a slasher that has quite a deep storyline and twists involved as well. My Bloody Valentine 3D has both, surpassing expectations of the film greatly. How well both are used is a different story.
The film revolves around Tom Hanniger, a man returning to the site of a horrific mining disaster which he caused, and which ended up sending a miner Harry Warden mental. Hanniger has plans to shut the mine but these are stopped by the towns people, plus Warden is back in town.

The film stretches the 3D effects to their limit with one scene in which a gun is pointed at you and a bullet is shot being particularly effective. The thing is with 3D generally, at the cinema it works and you come out amazed whilst on your own television screen, you are left unimpressed and disillusioned at the effects. 3D is not meant for DVD and this is one of the things filmmakers are looking past now, making 3D for the hell of it and not realising people just don't want to be sitting in their lounge wearing cardboard 3D glasses staring at a screen seeing red and green for an hour and a half.

My Bloody Valentine has much more depth in the characters, each character suspicious in ways and leaving you guessing right up to the last scene who exactly is Harry Warden. The film is a good horror, 3D effects are a bit overused but this is made up for with a deeper storyline.

***

MAGIC: Derren Brown - Enigma : Adelphi Theatre (Live)

It's hard to write a review of Derren Brown, not only because the audience has been sworn to secrecy about the contents of the show but also because Derren leaves you in a speechless state as you leave the theatre.

Everything about the show works, from the set, Derren's awesome showmanship and the staging of the show, you slowly become to realise that everything that happens during the two and a half hour show has a purpose and there is no way that you could figure anything out, Derren is
just too smart for the likes of us!

The tricks that happen on stage are mindnumbing and amazing but it is also frightening how Derren gets the volunteers to do some things, frightening to think of what could happen in the wrong hands. This is especially shown when Derren attempts to put a trance on the whole audience, leaving several in a 'sleepwalking' state listening to Derren's every word.

I tried as hard as possible to be part of the show, with my face being used in a more elaborate Derren Brown version of guess who, hints for people who want to be involved - get to the theatre an hour early! Quite a few people on my row caught a Frisbee to get on stage but, unfortunately for me, it was not my time to be manipulated by Derren.

Derren Brown’s show is unique, there is nobody in the same league as what Derren does, the show is scary but most of all, the show is very, very entertaining, if you miss Enigma - you really do miss out!

*****

MUSIC: Official Secrets Act : Loughborough Students Union (Live)

It’s a dark time in Loughborough when Room 1 at the Students Union is only around 40 people full for a gig that is only £5.50 and a band that are sure to make the big time within the next year. Official Secrets Act played Loughborough on the 28th and as they walked out onto the stage you couldn’t help but notice a sense of disappointment on their face. The night before they had played a sold out London gig with The Rakes at The Lexington and now, here they were playing to forty people.

The Daves started the night off with their raw cockney Britpop music but the songs sounded rather similar to each other and the set seemed never-ending with much of the audience fading from the immediate area around the stage half way through their set. The mood was instantly changed as soon as The Rugged Soundsystem stepped on though, sounding like a mix of the Flobots and Isaac Hayes, the band really created a party environment with everyone on their feet moving to the groove.

Official Secrets Act finally walk on at 11.15pm sporting glitter stripes on their faces and giving a fantastic opening song really proving their status as one of the bands to watch this year. During their 45 minute set, they previewed songs from their upcoming album ‘Understanding Electricity’ and throwing in their brilliant singles ‘So Tomorrow’ and ‘The Girl From The BBC’, which show their excellent lyrical capacity and show lead singer Tom’s amazingly quirky vocals. Everything about the gig was brilliant, other than the audience members and without the right amount of audience members you cannot create enough atmosphere. I just hope that next time Official Secrets Act come round, more people take the time out to go check them out, they’re very much worth it!

Their Album ‘Understanding Electricity’ is out now and for tour dates go to their myspace!

****

COMEDY: Ed Byrne - Different Class : Leicester Curve (Live)

This is Ed’s second tour of this particular show, but he is still selling out theatres across the country and it is easy to see why- he tells hilarious life stories, which he freely admits to making up, but this reality does not break down the humour, Ed Byrne is at ease on stage and his inoffensive jokes make it easy for anyone to warm to him. This was shown by the variety of people he had in the audience, there was a mixture of teenagers, middle aged and even pensioners.

The main concept of the show is of class, and Ed not being able to understand which class he fits in to. But throughout the show there are other recurring ideas, such as how people always come up with a great come-back when the argument was at least a week ago. Ed had the whole audience laughing, and even audience interaction when he called a man a ‘slimy prick’ for getting out of going to a wedding fair was light-hearted and the man laughed along. This brings up the final topic of the show, Ed’s ridicule of the wedding industry, which would inevitably be in the show due to his marriage eight months ago, and his complaints about the cost of the wedding industry. The fluency and timing of the jokes was perfect and it was a fantastic 1 hour 45 minute set from the comedian.

Ed’s funny anecdotes and musings on everything from goths and emos to women’s rights and his own poor dvd sales show his fantastic wit. Ed Byrne is back and better than ever and has mass appeal as established from a conversation overheard from one of the audience on the way out, ‘I told you you’d enjoy it’, no-one could fail to enjoy Ed Byrne!

*****

MUSIC: The Whip - X Marks Destination (Album)

The Whip are one of the latest bands to come out of the Manchester scene and give fantastic electro sounds full of bleeps and of course (seemingly in every new band at the moment) synthesisers. In many of the songs on the album, lyrics are few and repetitive but this is made up for in the music which can only be described as a crazy mix of electro and pop.

The album jolts in with the fantastic ‘Trash,’ the new single from the band introducing every sound the album contains slowly but efficiently until the raspy voice of Bruce Carter kicks in with the repetitive ‘I wanna…’ which
leads up to an amazing chorus bound to get anyone off their feet onto the dancefloor. The song does, however, run for longer than it needed to and some people may lose interest with it after it passes the three minute mark.

Other songs that stick out on the album are ‘Divebomb’ and ‘Blackout.’ ‘Divebomb’ being the big club hit of last year and it is up where with the best of electronic music and ‘Blackout’ is a dark, weird song which is so unique compared to the other songs and is a welcome edge to the album.
Though the album does sometimes become tiresome, other songs make up for this. The album looks to be one of the must-haves of the year and will appeal to anyone who is into indie but wouldn’t mind experimenting with some electro/dance music.

****
Www.myspace.com/thewhipmanchester