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Theartsdesk
Wednesday, 01 October 2025
It all started on 09/09/09. That memorable date, September 9 2009, marked the debut of theartsdesk.com.It followed some hectic and intensive months when a disparate and eclectic...
Primal Scream, O2 Academy, Birmingham review - from anthems of social justice to songs of heartbreak
Guy Oddy
Wednesday, 09 April 2025
Bobby Gillespie and Andrew Innes may have been steering the good ship Primal Scream for some 40 years but, on the evidence of this week’s visit to Birmingham, they are in no way...
Thomas H Green
Wednesday, 09 April 2025
VINYL OF THE MONTHRattle Encircle (Upset! The Rhythm)Rattle are an unusual band. Consisting of Nottingham duo Katharine Eira Brown and Theresa Wrigley, their set-up is two drum...
Veronica Lee
Wednesday, 09 April 2025
The title of Marcus Brigstocke’s latest show, Vitruvian Mango, is, like the man himself, rather clever. He appears on stage with a mocked-up version the Da Vinci drawing it...
John Carvill
Wednesday, 09 April 2025
Patrick McGilligan’s biography of Woody Allen weighs in at an eye-popping 800 pages, yet he waits only for the fourth paragraph of his introduction before mentioning the toxic...
Ibi Keita
Wednesday, 09 April 2025
Black Country, New Road’s Forever Howlong is an ambitious reinvention that both captivates and, at times, frustrates. Following Isaac Wood’s departure, the band leans into a more...
Stephen Walsh
Tuesday, 08 April 2025
Emotions run high at WNO these days. When the company’s co-directors, Sarah Crabtree and Adele Thomas, feel impelled to take...
Liz Thomson
Tuesday, 08 April 2025
I can’t hear Joan Armatrading without being instantly transported back to Liverpool, and my student digs just around the...
David Nice
Monday, 07 April 2025
When Vladimir Jurowski returns to what used to be “his” London Philharmonic Orchestra, you’d better jump. I would have done...
Mark Kidel
Monday, 07 April 2025
The sax-player Kenny Garrett established a reputation as one of Miles Davis’s band in the Amandla (1989) period. He was also...
Kieron Tyler
Monday, 07 April 2025
The titular “lighthouse of glass” is a place where the narrator is “crying into the sun,” in which there is a need to “stand...
Kieron Tyler
Sunday, 06 April 2025
Stereo Instrumental Music was recorded in July 1976 and originally issued only on cassette. The release was organised by...
Graham Rickson
Sunday, 06 April 2025
Akira Kurosawa described his 1961 hit Yojimbo as a tale of “rivalry on both sides, and both sides are equally bad… we are...
David Nice
Saturday, 05 April 2025
Igor Levit is a master of the unorthodox marathon, one he was happy to share last night with 24-year-old Austrian Lukas...
Aleks Sierz
Saturday, 05 April 2025
Is the theatre of the absurd dead? In today’s world, when cruel and crazy events happen almost daily, the idea that you can...
Helen Hawkins
Saturday, 05 April 2025
Many know that the actor Richard Burton began life as a miner’s son called Richard Jenkins. Not so many are aware of the...
Graham Rickson
Saturday, 05 April 2025
Vox Feminae: music by Barbara Strozzi, Antonia Bemba, Hieryonymus Kapsberger... Les Kapsber’girls/Albane...
Thomas H Green
Saturday, 05 April 2025
Mike Scott is The Waterboys. Launched by wide-eyed 1980s folk-rock, and “The Whole of the Moon”, he’s long since roamed into...
Graham Fuller
Friday, 04 April 2025
Horror comes in many forms. In writer-director Jed Hart’s feature debut Restless, it’s visited on middle-aged nurse Nicky (...
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disc of the day
Album: Black Country, New Road - Forever Howlong
A left turn that trades chaos for charm, with mixed results
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tv
MobLand, Paramount+ review - more guns, goons and gangsters from Guy Ritchie
High-powered cast impersonates the larcenous Harrigan dynasty
This City is Ours, BBC One review - civil war rocks family cocaine racket
Terrific cast powers Stephen Butchard's Liverpool drug-ring saga
The Potato Lab, Netflix review - a K-drama with heart and wit
Love among Korean potato-researchers is surprisingly funny and ideal for Janeites
film
Patrick McGilligan: Woody Allen - A Travesty of a Mockery of a Sham review - New York stories
Fair-minded Woody Allen biography covers all bases
Mr Burton review - modest film about the birth of an extraordinary talent
Harry Lawtey and Toby Jones excel as the future Richard Burton and his mentor
new music
Primal Scream, O2 Academy, Birmingham review - from anthems of social justice to songs of heartbreak
Bobby Gillespie and Andrew Innes aren’t ready to join the heritage circuit yet
theartsdesk on Vinyl 89: Wilco, Decius, Hot 8 Brass Band, Henge, Dub Syndicate, Motörhead and more
The last-standing and largest regular vinyl record reviews in the world
Album: Black Country, New Road - Forever Howlong
A left turn that trades chaos for charm, with mixed results
classical
Frang, LPO, Jurowski, RFH review - every beauty revealed
Schumann rarity equals Beethoven and Schubert in perfectly executed programme
Levit, Sternath, Wigmore Hall review - pushing the boundaries in Prokofiev and Shostakovich
Master pianist shines the spotlight on star protégé in another unique programme
Classical CDs: Big bands, beasts and birdcalls
Italian songs, Viennese chamber music and an enterprising guitar quartet
opera
Owen Wingrave, RNCM, Manchester review - battle of a pacifist
Orpha Phelan brings on the big guns for Britten’s charge against war
theatre
Rhinoceros, Almeida Theatre review - joyously absurd and absurdly joyful
Ionesco classic gets an entertainingly vivid and contemporary update
The Importance of Being Oscar, Jermyn Street Theatre review - Wilde, still burning bright
Alastair Whatley honours his subject in a quietly powerful performance
Stiletto, Charing Cross Theatre review - new musical excess
Quirky, operatic show won't please everyone, but will delight many
dance
Balanchine: Three Signature Works, Royal Ballet review - exuberant, joyful, exhilarating
A triumphant triple bill
Romeo and Juliet, Royal Ballet review - Shakespeare without the words, with music to die for
Kenneth MacMillan's first and best-loved masterpiece turns 60
comedy
Marcus Brigstocke, Touring review - Modern manhood laid bare
Observations on what it is to be a bloke today
Books
Patrick McGilligan: Woody Allen - A Travesty of a Mockery of a Sham review - New York stories
Fair-minded Woody Allen biography covers all bases
Howard Amos: Russia Starts Here review - East meets West, via the Pskov region
A journalist looks beyond borders in this searching account of the Russian mind
visual arts
Ed Atkins, Tate Britain review - hiding behind computer generated doppelgängers
Emotions too raw to explore
Echoes: Stone Circles, Community and Heritage, Stonehenge Visitor Centre review - young photographers explore ancient resonances
The ancient monument opens its first exhibition of new photography
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