Entertainment

A tall narrow bookcase dominates Iona McLeish’s set design on director Mehmet Ergen’s stage. It’s never ending length, reaching to the stars, and with a cherry tree exploding up and ripping through its belly, is a metaphor for Mme Ranevsky’s pipe dream that somehow her family estate will be saved and that life will continue for her and her entourage as much as it has done in spite of the social, political and economic turmoil that will soon hit Russia....

The top 40 British artists have been revealed ahead of the Brits 2017. With Adele, Calvin Harris, One Direction and Stormzy up for nomination among others, a survey has revealed a definitive top 40 of all time, with The Beatles topping the list followed by Queen, David Bowie, Elton John and the Rolling Stones. The survey, conducted by streaming music service Deezer, landed Adele in sixth place with George Michael and The Who close behind. Rock band Pink Floyd only just...

The global festival scene is thriving, with a diverse array of unique festival escapes in exciting new destinations. From mountain top snow festivals and exotic Moroccan escapes, to adventures in the Costa Rica jungle, wallet friendly Eastern European hotspots and amazing city festivals to combine with long weekends of culture, gastronomic delights and sightseeing, there’s something for every festival adventurer. Need some inspiration? Here’s 10 unforgettable festival escapes for 2017... Rave in an igloo at Snowbombing Snowbombing. Where to start......

As the lights go down at the end of See Me Now’s press night the audience rise collectively to their feet in outright admiration. This display of elation is not born out of left liberal values, but out of respect for the performers, for the gutsy real life stories they as an audience have just been witness to and the realisation of the emotional cost that telling such stories has for the ensemble. The show is about the sex industry...

Employed To Serve have announced they will be releasing their sophomore album 'The Warmth Of A Dying Sun' on May 19th through Holy Roar Records. Produced by Lewis Johns (Gnarwolves, Funeral For A Friend, Rolo Tomassi), the band have also released the first single from the album, 'I Spend My days (Wishing Them Away)', which is available to stream and download now and was given it's world debut last night on the Radio 1 Rock Show. All current confirmed and announced ETS...

Have I read A Clockwork Orange? Have I fuck. I haven’t even seen the film. Which naturally makes me a perfect fit to review Action To The Word’s all-male stage version, which opened at the Park Theatre on February 16th to many a gasp, giggle and gurn from the audience. I have tried to read Anthony Burgess A Clockwork Orange. I tried a bunch of times in the early noughties, fuelled predominantly by a desire to impress boys. Note: not...

“One of the most striking questions about flamenco performances is the apparent rigidity with which both men and women perform and recreate their own stereotypes”, Joaquina Labajo wrote in an essay exploring the construction of gender in the Spanish art form. You can certainly see how it has become a focal issue. The “dancing is for women” stereotype is one that many forms grapple with, particularly within the classics, where “gender roles” are still as pronounced today as they have...

World Eater, Blanck Mass AKA Benjamin John Power's third album, is on the way. We've heard it. It's weird, it's heavy, it's killer. Power is pissed off at 2016; a year that, by any standards, is one best forgotten. World Eater, released 3rd March, is his furious reaction. Not that you'd know from the pleasant lilt of lead single 'Please', however. Directed by Michael Tan, the video for 'Please' draws on the album themes, taking them down a 3D politicised wormhole. “Blanck Mass...

Have Pissed Jeans been sleeping in a soggy dustbin for the last two years? What have they been stewing themselves in to produce these wretched tones?  On Why Love Now, their fifth album, the only way is down. Time hasn’t healed wounds, it hasn’t brought wisdom, only a thick layer of filth and decay. ‘Waiting On My Horrible Warning’ is frontman Matt Korvette’s gargling salvo, guttural and gutter-sludge thick, unspooling messily like a week-old whitehead. His vocals have always fallen on...