BPreviews Archives - Page 33 of 69 -

May 6, 2017May 6, 2017

BPREVIEW: La Strada @ REP – running from 8th to 13th May

Words by Damien Russell / Production shots by Robert Day

These days I am lucky enough to enjoy a wider spectrum of culture. On the 8th of May, the Birmingham REP will be starting their run of La Strada – Live and I will be nestled in the audience, bravely evolving out of my more erstwhile natural habitat; the pub.

For those not already in the know, La Strada (or The Road, as it would be in English) is an Academy Award winning Italian film directed by neo-realism advocator Federico Fellini, first released in 1954. La Strada is drama, circus performance and autobiography, of a sort, rolled into one.

The story is quite a rich tale of Gelsomina – a young girl sold by her mother to a travelling strong man, Zampanò, who earns a living performing feats of strength on the streets of Italy. Gelsomina is taught to play the trumpet and snare drum, as well as clowning for the passing crowds, and joins Zampanò as part of his act.

A brutal and often cruel relationship develops, until Gelsomina falls in love with another street performer called Il Matto (The Fool). The trio ends up together in a travelling circus, with Il Matto goading the strongman to an eventual breaking point; as is to be expected this doesn’t end well, with disruption and violence finally raining down on all. Even more than that, but I won’t spoil the surprise if you haven’t already seen it.

In Edward Murray’s Ten Film Classics: A Re-Viewing, Fellini is quoted as having a soft spot for La Strada, saying, ‘I feel that it is my most representative film, the one that is the most autobiographical; for both personal and sentimental reasons, because it is the film that I had the greatest trouble in realizing and that gave me the most difficulty when it came time to find a producer’.

With a rich history of difficulties, including last minute changes of voice actors, filming delays due to injury, budget issues, and Fellini himself being struck with a severe bout of depression toward the end of the principal photography, it is of little surprise the Italian filmmaker held La Strada so close to his heart. It is also remarkable that La Strada was ever finished, with audiences around the world still enjoying the story today.

La Strada has been brought back to the stage this time by Sally Cookson, an Associate Artist at Bristol Old Vic Theatre, who premiered the production at The Belgrade Theatre Coventry in Feb 2017. Cookson is known for her alternative presentations of classic productions and challenging gender stereotypes; her 2016 National Theatre production of Peter Pan turned the ‘quite passive’ character of Wendy – ‘nothing more than a domestic goddess’ – into ‘as big a part of the adventure as the other characters.’

With La Strada – Live, Sally Cookson has told the story through Gelsomina – ‘we’re seeing the story through her eyes’ – whilst celebrating the physicality of the original narrative.

‘I always like working with performers who are multi-talented,’ tells Cookson, in a recent interview with 69 Magazine. ‘It’s so tough for actors these days – they have to be able to sing, dance, act brilliantly and play instruments and they’re doing all of that in this show – and be circus performers! Bart (Soroczynski – The Fool) is a wonderful circus performer and he shows off his skills in this show, but they all play instruments and sing. That provides a real delight for the audience.’

Anyone wishing to be a part of the latest chapter in La Strada’s eventful life can do so at the Birmingham REP, with the production running from the 8^th to 13^th May. All evening performances start at 7:30pm (except 8th May) with matinee performances at 2:00pm on 11th and 13^th May.

The Belgrade Theatre Coventry’s Production of La Strada is presented by Kenny Wax Ltd, in association with Cambridge Arts Theatre & Bristol Old Vic. For direct event from the Birmingham REP, including venue details and online tickets sales, click here.

For more on La Strada – Live, including details of the full UK tour, visit www.lastradalive.com

For more from the Birmingham REP, including full event programme and online ticket sales, visit www.birmingham-rep.co.uk

May 4, 2017May 4, 2017

BPREVIEW: Call Me Unique’s Urban Gypsy II EP – launch night @ Mama Roux’s 05.05.17

Words by Ed King

On Friday 5^th May, Call Me Unique will launch her new Urban Gypsy II EP at Mama Roux’s.

Doors open at 8:30pm, with kicking out time bang on the witching hour. Entry is a curious ‘Pay as You Feel’, but it would be worth saving some shekles for a copy of the Urban Gypsy II EP itself which will be on sale for the first time on Friday. Plus there’s a bar and Digbeth Dining Club… For more direct gig info, click here.

That being said, you’re going to get more artists on stage than is probably good for you – so throwing some money at the rider bill might be a considerate gesture. Joining Call Me Unique will be Ed Geater, Leanne Louise, Malik MD7, Lady Sanity, Trademark Blud, Boy October (Christian Deveaux), RTKal, Keziasoul, Affie Jam, Juggernaut, Simon Jnr. Plus ‘a few surprises’, which could well be the fire department turning up to make sure there’s still room on stage.

It’s a local luminary love in, celebrating a new body of work from Call Me Unique getting its first on stage outing. And why not, damn it. Birmingham Review was there for the Urban Gypsy I EP launch in 2014 where the same good vibes and good will PACKED OUT The Yardbird on a cold Monday in January, and we’ve have been chomping at several bits for the past… three years, three months and eight days to hear the follow up. There’s an album lurking in the background somewhere too; big things this year, as the girl with the guitar grows ever closer to a more mature spotlight.

Urban Gypsy I was a storming EP; you can read my BREVIEW of the release here and the BREVIEW of The Yardbird launch party here. Its only misstep was not having an album to back it up. Time past, creative frustrations grew, Call Me Unique started building a significant fan base in mainland Europe and I honestly didn’t know if we’d get our second pound of flesh from this artist.

Then, eventually, a ZIP file of Urban Gypsy II lands in my inbox; I’ll admit more than a few nails didn’t make it that morning.

Produced by Ed Geater, Call Me Unique’s Urban Gypsy II EP is a ‘richer landscape’ than its predecessor, with 6 tracks (including the beautiful ‘Dreamers’ intro) of honest intent. Moments more ‘dark and brooding’, then mournful, are followed by a playful lilt and, ultimately, hope; there’s a definite step up in both the confidence and sound of this EP.

The content has matured too, with Call Me Unique shining a unashamed light on some deeply personal subject matter: domestic violence, ‘a son who never got to breathe’, love, the betrayal of love, fickleness, friendship, the fight for mental health, and above all a woman’s strength to stay in the game and smile whilst winning it. It’s beautiful, worth the wait, and as I said in my BREVIEW of the lead single ‘Shoulda’, brings a ‘proud treble clef tear to my eye’. Birmingham has some incredible talent at the moment, with Call Me Unique and her peers that appear on this EP being amongst the top strata. Proud is the word.

Ed Geater, a man whose name has been on this site a few times recently, has also mastered the production (if you’ll excuse the wording). Proving to be just as talented behind the glass as his is on stage, Geater’s work on Call Me Unique’s Urban Gypsy II EP is exactly what you’d want from a producer – pulling the strong strands from an artist, getting them to own their own, then tying them together for the world to understand.

But you’ll get to see/hear for yourself soon enough. So hold on until the end of the week, get yourself to Mama Roux’s or the various online outlets, check out Urban Gypsy II, then watch all those eager years and crossed fingers start to fade… fade… fade… Just add album.

Call Me Unique’s Urban Gypsy II EP – launch night @ Mama Roux’s 05.05.17

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Call Me Unique launches her Urban Gypsy II EP at Mama Roux’s on Friday 5^th May – for direct gig info, click here. For more on Call Me Unique, visit www.callmeunique.com

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For more from Mama Roux’s, including a full events programme and online ticket sales, visit www.therainbowvenues.co.uk/venues/mama-rouxs

May 3, 2017May 2, 2017

BPREVIEW: Maxïmo Park @ O2 Institute 05.05.17

Words by Ed King / Pics by Ed Taylor

On Friday 5^th May, Maxïmo Park will be playing at the 02 Institute. Doors open from 7pm, with tickets priced at £20.50 + booking fee – as presented by SJM Concerts. Minimum age for entry is 14.

N.B. At the time of writing this gig has been ‘Sold Out’, so check with reputable ticket providers for spares and returns. For direct gig info, click here.

Maxïmo Park will be playing further UK dates in Newcastle (6^th May), Aberdeen (8^th May), Glasgow (9^th May), Sheffield (10^th May), London (12^th May), Bexhill-on-Sea (13^th May), Cambridge (15^th May), Cardiff (16^th May), Falmouth (17^th May), Manchester (19^th May), Margate (27^th May). For direct tour details, including online ticket sales, click here.

Maxïmo Park will be back in Birmingham on Saturday 16^th September – co-headling the main stage at the Beyond the Tracks festival on Eastside Park, Birmingham City Centre. For direct festival info, click here.

Schlepping up, down and around the UK, Maxïmo Park are on the headline trial with their new album, Risk to Exist – released on 24^th April through Cooking Vinyl. To read the Birmingham Review of Risk to Exist, from Damien Russell, click here.

Named after a park dedicated to the Cuban Generalisimo Máximo Gómez – a key military figure in Cuba’s war of independence – Maxïmo Park have never been too far away from the murky world of socio-political-meets-pop-rock.

And whilst the-man-in-the-hat, Paul Smith (not that kind of hat, not that Paul Smith), was once quoted as saying ‘I think it’s people who change the world but music can influence people’, Maxïmo Park have arguably used their sixteen years of creative endevours to do just that. Plus they’ve made their own beer. So, on the road during the UK’s local elections and campaign trails for the general… that’s going to be some green room to tidy.

But with a front man you’d rip your granny’s teeth out to get, Maxïmo Park also have a reputation for pretty electrifying stage shows, no matter what your political leanings. Expect strutting, jumping, the occasional strobe, and the band’s name (sometimes literally) up in lights somewhere. And with a new album to hock at the merch stand I wouldn’t expect too many pulled punches, even with two fingers extended in the face of totalitarian capitalism.

Birmingham Review last saw Maxïmo Park, again at the 02 Institute, in December 2015 – click here to read Helen Knott’s Birmingham Review of the gig.

‘Risk to Exist’ – Maxïmo Park

Risk to Exist by Maxïmo Park is out on general release from 21^st April, via Cooking Vinyl. For more on Maxïmo Park, visit www.maximopark.com

For more on Maxïmo Park at the O2 Institute, including venue details and online ticket sales, visit www.academymusicgroup.com/o2institutebirmingham/events/928783/maximo-park-tickets

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For more from the O2 Institute, including full venue details and online ticket sales, visit www.academymusicgroup.com/o2institutebirmingham

For more from SJM Concerts/Gigs and Tours, visit www.gigsandtours.com

April 26, 2017April 26, 2017

BPREVIEW: Alien: Covenant @ The Mockingbird – midnight 11/12.05.17

Words by Ed King

At one minute past midnight on Friday 12^th May, Alien: Covenant will be screened at The Mockingbird Cinema & Kitchen, in The Custard Factory.

Out on general UK release from 12^th May, this special late night/early morning screening will be Birmingham’s first chance to see the latest film in the Alien franchise.

The ‘build up’ will start in The Mockingbird front bar from 10pm on Thursday 11^th May, with people taking their seats to watch Alien: Covenant as the clock strikes twelve. Tickets are priced at £9.50 – available for advance purchase from 26^th April.

Alien: Covenant will be further shown at The Mockingbird from 12th to 18th May, with four daily screenings at 12:40pm, 3:15pm, 5:50pm, 8:25pm. For direct event information, including full venue details and online ticket sales, click here.

Something’s are a good idea. Whoever decided to schedule a screening of ‘the latest Alien film’ at midnight, as we enter the first minute the UK is licensed to see it, deserves a hearty pat on the back.

Seldom does a sci-fi franchise accumulate such a polarised audience; from the brooding genius of the 1979 Alan Dean Foster adaptation, to the fast pace farce that was Alien Vs Predator, the H.R. Giger inspired Xenomorph has been talked about for nearly forty years. So come and see the new film before anyone else in England, a week before the USA/Canada, then walk home through a pitch black empty city. And at 3am on a weekday in Digbeth, no one can hear you scream…

Although technically Alien: Covenant (or Prometheus 2, as it was called before a working title was attributed) is not a direct descendant of the original Alien. It’s the side spin-off from the Alan Dean Foster narrative, which focused on the zenith of evolution’s apex predators, human hubris and why the two should stay pretty well away from each other.

Ridley Scott, the director who brought Foster’s first novel to the silver screen and who’s been at the helm of the franchise, wanted to move his Alien away from the horror genre – to explore the existential conundrum of who, what and why? Prometheus was born, no pun intended, with the ill fated crew (a constant throughout all the films) whittled down through their own decisions or predilections, as The Engineers (or ‘Gods’) destroy one of their creations with another. Why are we here…? To get the fuck away from here as quickly as possible. And stop asking questions.

But with any good existential crisis, some questions were left unanswered – enter Alien: Covenant. Scott’s latest film follows a unit of terraformers and colonists, like the unseen mass on LV426 that had been systematically impregnated and ripped apart in Aliens, as they travel a decade in stasis on ‘the first large scale colonization mission’ aboard the good ship Covenant. What is their mission? To recreate the Garden of Eden. Cue a happy collection of blue collar couples adrift in deep space, the obligatory alcohol, hope and excitement, an android who’s a little too quiet for comfort and everyone into suspended animation… Oh look, there’s a planet; trees and everything. What could possibly go wrong..?

Due to a bit of a high brow backlash from the Prometheus storyline, i.e. not enough blood, Alien: Covenant has reportedly returned to the more slasher based approach to horror. But it’s continuing the tale nonetheless. In Alien: Covenant some of the cast have even resumed their roles from Prometheus – with Michael Fassbender portraying both the solo surviving android (David) from the former and the oh-so-helpful ship’s companion (Walter) from the latter. So there’s a palpable attempt to tie the stories together, with Ridley Scott and crew already in pre-production for Alien: Awakening – the final piece to this dystopian triptych. There’s even talk of three more films to follow, picking up where Alien Resurrection left off.

But for now all we have are garrulous online chat rooms and marketing hyperbole – until the bells chime twelve on Friday 12^th May. That and a couple of trailers to start the balls rolling. What’s the Alien like, who will be first for the face huggers, is the new android a goodie or a badie? Questions…

My guess, Occam’s razor, nearly everyone will die.

Alien: Covenant (official trailer)

Alien: Covenant (extended trailer)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zX7URpWBNKE

Alien: Covenant will be screened at The Mockingbird Cinema & Kitchen at Midnight on 12^th May, with a ‘build up’ in the front bar from 10pm on 11th May. For direct gig info and online tickets sales, click here.

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For more on Alien: Covenant, visit www.foxmovies.com/movies/alien-covenant

For more from The Mockingbird Cinema & Kitchen, including full event listings and online ticket sales, visit www.mockingbirdcinema.com

April 24, 2017April 24, 2017

BPREVIEW: Table Scraps + Black Mekon @ Hare & Hounds 27.04.17

Words by Ed King / Pics stolen from various corners of t’interweb

On Thursday 27^th April, Table Scraps + Black Mekon play at the Hare & Hounds (Kings Heath) – launching their split 7” limited vinyl, as part of the 45 Consortium series.

Doors open at 8pm, with tickets are priced at a friendly £5 (+ booking fee). For more direct gig info, including venue details and online ticket sales, click here. You must be over 18 years old to ride this ride.

‘Belched out of the Midlands’, one of our favourite quotes this year, Table Scraps are busily terrorising people across the UK with a four date tour – coming to their home turf on Thursday 27^th April for the official launch of ‘My Obsession’, their latest single. And now greater in number, with the addition of TJ on bass guitar and vocals, Table Scraps are official 33.333 recurring louder. “Hello… sorry, what? From the Environmental Health. No, no one of that name here… Try the Weatherspoons.”

Released as part of Black Mekon’s 45 Consortium series – a series of six limited 7” vinyl press singles, featuring Black Mekon on one side and a guest artist on t’other – ‘My Obsession’ is ‘a tense and brooding slab of menace anchored around a hypnotic fuzz bass and primal drum groove.’ Sounds like most Monday mornings to me.

What the Black Mekon side of the 7” is, we sadly cannot say. It’s either a closely guarded secret or a digital marketing mishap, but we’ve scoured the public domain (their website, Clash Magazine, Discogs…) and come up with nothing but mystery.

But I guess that’s what Thursday’s all about, and costing a mere five British Pounds Sterling you’re likely to get more bang for your buck than a convoluted scratch card. And some 3D glasses. Win win.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, here’s Table Scrap’s official video to ‘My Obsession’ – produced, as always, by the bionic three piece themselves. Viddy my droogs, what bolshy horrorshow warbles from Birmingham’s ‘most respected (and feared) fuzz merchants:

‘My Obsession’ – Table Scraps

Table Scraps + Black Mekon play at the Hare & Hounds on Thursday 27^th April – launching ‘My Obsession’ through the 45 Consortium series of limited releases. For direct gig info and online tickets sales, click here.

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For more on Table Scraps, visit www.table-scraps.bandcamp.com

For more on Black Mekon, visit www.blackmekon.com

For more from the Hare & Hounds (Kings Heath), including full event listing and online ticket sales, visit www.hareandhoundskingsheath.co.uk