festivals
I Get Knocked Down, Brighton Festival review - Chumbawamba singer's film is lively, funny and thought-provokingThursday, 19 May 2022
One effect of the film I Get Knocked Down, a playfully constructed journey around the life of Chumbawamba vocalist Dunstan Bruce, is to remind that socio-political rage was once woven into the fabric of popular music. Old footage from the band’s... Read more... |
The Great Escape 2022, Brighton review - sunshine, queues, and thrilling new bandsMonday, 16 May 2022
My friend George claims to have nightmares about The Great Escape. In them he’s standing in an endless queue, never reaching the front, never entering the venue, and never seeing the band he wants to see. That was his experience the only time he... Read more... |
Transgressive Records showcase, The Great Escape, Brighton review - five acts offer intriguing pop alternativesSaturday, 14 May 2022
Onstage at The Old Market in Hove, New York’s Mykki Blanco has been waving around a knot of garlic bulbs as if it were a wand or occult aspergillum. At some point during Blanco’s punchy rendition of 2016 single “Loner”, or possibly the dizzier “... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Estonia: Tallinn-Narva Music Week review - solidarity through music on the Russian borderWednesday, 11 May 2022
The gentleman in the centre of the picture above is Ivan Dorn. In Ukraine, he’s a pop star. A big pop star. His music, as he puts it on stage during the show opening Tallinn-Narva Music Week, is “pure Ukrainian house music.” Yep, there’s the bing-... Read more... |
theartsdesk Radio Show 33: Ukraine special - musicians and artists direct from Ukraine, with co-host Anastasia PiliavskyTuesday, 10 May 2022
The latest edition of Peter Culshaw’s occasional global radio shows focuses totally on Ukraine, looking at music, art, culture and resistance.Culshaw has reported over the years on the Odessa Film and Jazz festivals for theartsdesk, and written for... Read more... |
Nadine Shah, Winterstoke Sun Shelter, Ramsgate review - a thrilling return in a stunning venueTuesday, 07 September 2021
Hilarious, potty-mouthed and mesmerisingly beautiful, Nadine Shah is on superb form at the Ramsgate Festival of Sound’s closing evening show. And aside from the banter there is, of course, that remarkable voice – hugely powerful and... Read more... |
theartsdesk at the Birgit Nilsson Days - the rich legacy of a farm girl turned divaThursday, 26 August 2021
Feet firmly planted on fertile native soil, but always open to the world, lyric-dramatic soprano Birgit Nilsson soared into realms no-one from the rolling hills and coastline of Sweden’s Bjäre peninsula, where she grew up, could possibly have... Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe 2021: Screen 9Monday, 23 August 2021
The popcorn on offer as you enter the Pleasance’s performing space at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre quickly fills the air with its rich, sugary scent. It’s a smell that sets the scene nicely for a show set in a cinema, but also an... Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe 2021: StillSaturday, 21 August 2021
Ageing Mick wakes up on Portobello beach with two gold rings in his pocket, and embarks on the bender to end all benders in order to work out what or who they’re for. Young Gilly has a poorly pug named Mr Immanuel Kant, but can’t face having it put... Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe 2021: Fear of Roses / Myra's StoryThursday, 19 August 2021
Fear of Roses Assembly Roxy ★★★One of the more disconcerting aspects to this year’s Fringe is different venues’ contrasting reactions to the easing of Covid restrictions. Some – like Army @ The Fringe and the Traverse Theatre – maintain... Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe 2021: Tunnels / DandelionSaturday, 14 August 2021
Tunnels Army @ The Fringe ★★★ As has already been noted, it’s a funny old Fringe this year: only a fraction of its normal size; with audiences that seem either Covid-wary or disconcertingly enthusiastic; with some venues taking... Read more... |
10 Questions for Harry Grafton of Red Rooster FestivalWednesday, 14 July 2021
Harry Grafton (b. 1978) is the preferred title of Henry Fitzroy, 12th Duke of Grafton, custodian of Euston Hall in Suffolk and the man behind the Red Rooster Festival. The latter, during its six pre-COVID years of existence, built a reputation for... Read more... |
