Entertainment

Dwindling audience figures seem to have taken a hit on participation rates in the much maligned talent show X Factor. After record-low audiences for the 2016 series finale it looks like 2017 has got off to a rough start with audition queues resembling more of a parish church talent contest than a national television competition. Only a handful of people queued for auditions in Swindon today after just ten people turned up for the show's auditions in Kent earlier in the week....

David Hockney is one of the most iconic living artists in the world and as he approaches his 80th birthday the Tate Britain has gathered a huge selection of his works. His career has spanned six decades and the versatile artists working in various forms including drawing, print, photography, painting and digital creations. Hockney has always embraced new technology and used it to bring a new style to his masterpieces. I spend virtually all my time running the site (violins...

Super Talented Matthew Smith is a Grade 5 standard violinist and also plays the guitar, drums, piano and viola. Incredibly he will take the lead when Nottingham Symphony Orchestra (NSO) play Die Fledermaus at the Royal Concert Hall in the city on April 2. The concert will make Matthew the world’s youngest conductor – beating the previous record of a 14-year-old boy who directed the Venezuelan youth orchestra. The schoolboy has been practising with the 75-strong orchestra once a week...

Last year, Duckwrth not only supported Anderson .Paak and Syd of The Internet but he introduced an arsenal of artistic ingenuity with his debut solo album, I’M UUGLY, a unique representation and celebration of individuality with encouraging themes and stimulating rhythms that made you smile and groove. It even making its way onto the best of 2016 lists for Indie Shuffle, NPR and XXL. This year he opens even stronger with the highly anticipated release of his new video for one of...

There’s an air of expectancy in the National Theatre's Dorfman, a buzz back grounded by nervous laughter. No wonder, this is the NT’s response to leaving the EU and they have made a verbatim play taken from hundreds of interviews from people of all ages and backgrounds from the UK about the issues around it. The stage design by Katrina Lindsay looks like any we would expect to see on an election night (except this is the EU referendum) :...

A narrow stage runs 3/4 round the outer edge of the Royal Court’s Theatre Upstairs. It serves as a walkway and platform for its love obsessed characters A, B, Man, Woman and Younger Woman. Merle Hensel’s back walls are painted green, reminiscent of old school blackboards. The characters in the eye-catchingly titled "a profoundly affectionate, passionate devotion to someone (noun)" draw complete or incomplete circles in chalk, or scratch up “F”s and “F”s back to front. Like school children or...

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times - pretty much any time you sit down and try to think of a memorable opening line to anything you write. Indeed there is no more important task than nailing a good opening line to a book. Great first lines from novels, such as Charles Dickens' "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times," from A Tale of Two Cities or Jane Austen's "It is...

PWR BTTM aren't pulling their punches with 'Answer My Text', the second single from their forthcoming LP Pageant (May 12, Big Scary Monsters / Polyvinyl). The track finds Liv Bruce singing in narrative-like fashion to a prospective lover through trials and tribulations; from asking for their phone number to formulating the perfect emoji combination, the song takes these seemingly miniscule acts of affection and puts them under the lens of anxiety, hopefulness, and comedy. Pageant is the Brooklyn-based duo's newest effort, and sees...

By EJ Stedman I’ve already run it up the flagpole that I don’t do any research before going to a show. In the illustrious world of writing theatre reviews, when a PR company asks me if I’d like to go to a show, all I do is check my diary. If I’m free, the answer is yes. Especially on Wednesdays because my partner is playing netball, and otherwise I have to go and watch and the weather isn’t that reliable...