Entertainment

It was 50 years ago this June 1st when The Beatles’ John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr ushered in the Summer of Love with Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, a groundbreaking masterwork that became popular music’s most universally acclaimed album. To salute the occasion, The Beatles will release a suite of lavishly presented ‘Sgt. Pepper’ Anniversary Edition packages on May 26 (Apple Corps Ltd./Universal Music). The album is newly mixed by Giles Martin and Sam Okell in stereo and 5.1 surround audio and expanded with early takes from the studio...

Never have I laughed more than when reading a website of mis-translations with my brother as a teenager. Highlights included such classics as: “Tiny grass is dreaming”, “Itty Bitty Baby" and the undeniable champion, “The Loin King” (Hakuna My-groina). The well of hilarious translation errors may be well tapped on reddit, but the comedy gold has yet to be successfully mined by the theatre industry. Until now. Maybe because producing such a show would be an absolute minefield. Even the...

As UK theatres fret over how to respond to the increasing national and global crises that are hitting or emerging from our shores in wave after wave of tsunami like proportions: Brexit, Syria, the refugee crisis, Russia, Crimea, Ukraine, Belarus, the Greek meltdown, Egypt, Spain, the Occupy movement, Trump, Brexit, Brexit again, back to Trump etc, the Young Vic, in partnership with Totally Theatre Productions, have come up with an unusual way of trying to make sense of it all...

Stephen Tiller, the director of charity Kent Opera’s latest production, explains why Pretty Woman got everything wrong about opera, except the fact it is so good it might just make you want to pee your pants, (metaphorically speaking). For many people, trips to the cinema and even the theatre are part of their life. Cost may not mean they are a weekly or even monthly treat but they are enjoyed on a regular basis and they are very much on...

The recent controversy over the placing of the small statue of a brave girl opposite the huge statue of a bull in Wall Street, New York, reveals the ongoing lack of female representation in our public spaces. In the UK, statues of men outnumber those of female figures by 16 to 1 and if Queen Victoria were removed from the equation, those numbers are far worse. Virginia Woolf, one of the founders of modernist literature, has been commemorated with a...

It's tempting to write something completely unrelated for the next 500 words. Just not talk about the play at all. Maybe chat about the weather! Or Article 50! Because Custody is so good, I don't want to spoil it for you. I don't want to hype it up, or give away all the good bits. So please, do me a favour: go and see the play, then let's reconvene when you've seen it. ***** Welcome back! Did you enjoy it?...

If you are a wobbly great BBC nerd and have an unfortunate proclivity for being star struck, the press night for a play written by a 27-year Have I Got News For You veteran is both a bounteous gift and a terrible curse. Because I am British and middle class, I wouldn’t dream of actually going up to and talking to famous people like they are normal humans, so instead I dither and sweat and panic eat whatever is in...

PWR BTTM have unveiled the music video for ‘Answer My Text’ from forthcoming LP Pageant (May 12, Big Scary Monsters/Polyvinyl). Directed by H.S. Naji (who also directed ‘West Texas’ taken from Ugly Cherries), the video sees Liv Bruce bring to life the colorful lyrics of ‘Answer My Text’ as the rage, sadness, and anxiety of a text message relationship takes over with escalating internal and external drama. The vid is also accompanied by some pretty snazzy PWR GIFs, available here for...

Knucks has shared his brand new track 'The Jump'. The song, which harks which samples the token sounds of the 70s, is his first song of 2017 following the release of 'Turnover' at the end of 2016. Listen below. Knucks is a musician born and raised in South Kilburn. The North West Londoner has been involved in music for nearly 10 years, dating back to his days at school when he first ever heard Grime. Around this time he earned the...