Birmingham Archives - Page 13 of 25 -

March 12, 2018March 11, 2018

BPREVIEW: The Gilded Merkin Burlesque & Cabaret @ The Glee Club (B’ham) 18.03.18

On 18th March, The Gilded Merkin returns to The Glee Club Birmingham for another night of burlesque and cabaret. According to BBC’s John Hess, it will be “a hugely generous dollop of magical sophisticated glamour” – what better way to spend your Sunday evening?

Doors open at The Glee Club from 6pm with last entry at 6:45pm. Minimum age of entry is 18, with tickets priced at £15 – for direct show information, including venue details and online ticket sales, click here.

As usual, The Gilded Merkin is programmed and hosted by Scarlett Daggers – a fiery redhead with ten years experience on the UK burlesque circuit. Scarlett Daggers’ rockabilly flair also makes her a favourite at car shows and tattoo conventions up and down the country, and saw her perform at the F1 Grand Prix Silverstone.

Taking a break from his role as resident host for Tres Tres cabaret in Stafford and La De Da Cabaret in Derby, comedian and vocalist Stage Door Johnny will be joining the line-up at The Gilded Merkin. Known for his wit, charm, and love of musical theatre, Stage Door Johnny promises to have the audience “eating from the palm of his hand – sometimes literally…”

Also on the bill is international artist Miss Betsy Rose, who was ranked the UK’s number one burlesque performer of 2016 by 21st Century Burlesque Magazine. Miss Betsy Rose’s classic look and professional dance background embody the spirit of early burlesque, and have seen her appear in French Vogue, ID, Harpers Bazaar and Italian Playboy.

Mr. B the Gentleman Rhymer will also be at The Gilded Merkin, combining jump-up, rap and banjolele to create an art form he’s labeled as ‘chap hop’. His electro-swing tracks have garnered a huge YouTube following and landed Mr.B live sessions with BBC Radio’s Rob Da Bank, Nick Grimshaw, Steve Lamacq and Shaun Keaveny, to name but a few.

Also performing is Lolo Brow, a green haired Londoner who describes herself a neo-burlesque performer, drag queen and lizard lady. Named the Burlesque Awards Performer of the Year 2016, Lolo Brow combines her circus skills and total lack of respect for stage/audience boundaries to shock and delight.

Last but certainly not least is Dave the Bear, who appears online under the username ‘bighairygrowler’; his various acts are said to involve, glitter, latex, mirror balls and his alter ego ‘Maria Beary’. Dave the Bear has previously appeared in all his hirsute glory on the cover of Playbear magazine, as well as showing off his comedy chops on 8 out of 10 Cats and The Xtra Factor.

If there’s not something in The Gilded Merkin‘s showcase of burlesque and cabaret that grabs your attention this Sunday, I don’t know what to say to you… Try church?

The Gilded Merkin presents a showcase of burlesque and cabaret at The Glee Club on Sunday 18^th March – presented by Scarlett Daggers. For direct show information, including venue details and online ticket sales, visit www.glee.co.uk/performer/gilded-merkin-birmingham

For more on The Gilded Merkin, visit www.gildedmerkin.co.uk

For more from The Glee Club venues, including full event listings and online ticket sales, visit www.glee.co.uk

March 8, 2018

BPREVIEW: Phil Wang @ Glee Club 11.03.18

Words by Helen Knott

Comedian Phil Wang brings his fourth stand-up show, Kinabalu, to Birmingham’s Glee Club on Sunday 11^th March.

Doors open at the Glee Club from 7pm to 7:30pm, with the show scheduled to start at 8pm. Minimum age of entry is 14, with tickets are priced at £12 plus booking fee. For direct show information, including venue details and online ticket sales, click here.

At the time of writing, Phil Wang is in the midst of an unlikely controversy. Apparently, in a yet-to-be-aired edition of the BBC’s TV favourite Room 101, Wang nominates Hollywood heartthrob Tom Hiddleston to be sent to the infamous room – the place of pet hates. A pretty solid choice you might think, but Hiddleston’s fans (the ‘Hiddlestoners’) are not amused. Wang is getting some serious stick on Twitter.

I’m sure that he doesn’t mind too much. Wang’s comedy often crosses the boundary into things it’s probably not okay to say out loud. He’s not one to beat around the bush on sensitive issues like race or sex or colonialism. Wang’s upbringing – he lived in Malaysia until he his mid-teens before moving to the UK – means that he gets away with a lot of it; he’s allowed to say that the British Empire isn’t all bad, because he has experienced life living in an arm of the British Empire firsthand.

It also means that Wang has ready-made ‘otherness’, something that many other comedians work to manufacture. His name is a perfect distillation of this: he’s half British, half Malaysian, and consequently feels like he doesn’t completely fit in anywhere. This is reflected in his material, and means that Wang can tell us plenty of insightful things about British attitudes to race from an outsider’s point of view.

Phil Wang will be performing his fourth solo show, Kinabalu, which has been solidly picking up four star reviews since it debuted at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe. This performance is part of an extended UK tour, which began at the end of 2017, and has featured a number of sold out shows. This backs-up Wang’s burgeoning TV career, including appearances on Have I Got News for You, Live at the Apollo, and Comedy Central’s Roast Battle, hosted by Jimmy Carr, in which beat fellow comedian Ed Gamble.

If it seems like Wang’s career is going pretty well for someone still in their mid-twenties, it should come as no surprise when you look back at his teenage years. He was performing stand-up sets before university and actively targeted a place at Cambridge so that he could be a member of the famous theatrical society Cambridge Footlights (previous members include Douglas Adams, Stephen Fry, Richard Ayoade and John Oliver). Alongside a degree in Engineering, Wang became president of Footlights and won the Chortle Student Comedian of the Year award. This is clearly a focused and ambitious man.

So far, that ambition, coupled with his unique point of view on British and East Asian culture, are making for a winning combination. Let’s just hope that the Hiddlestoners don’t get him.

Phil Wang – Live at the Apollo

Phil Wang brings his Kinabalu stand up show to the Glee Club (B’ham) on Sunday 11^th March. For direct show information, including venue details and online ticket sales, visit www.glee.co.uk/performer/phil-wang

For more on Phil Wang, visit www.philwang.co.uk

For more from the Glee Club venues, including further event listings and online ticket sales, visit www.glee.co.uk

February 28, 2018

THE GALLERY: Average Sex @ Hare & Hounds 25.01.18

Words by Ed King / Pics by Martin O’Callaghan

Sunday, a day so hard to sell even God has to pass the hat. But Setting Son are unperturbed, as the local record label and promotions company present the London based pop/punksters, Average Sex, after having to reschedule the gig from a previously booked date back in January. And gaw’d bless them for it.

Average Sex were last in the city for The Hungry Ghosts’ ‘Amerika/Lazaro’ single launch party at Centrala – a cracking night, swirling in a maelstrom of DIY, inappropriate nakedness, steel blues, garage rock, endless cider, and a middle finger to the EHO smoke machine. Lots of fun.

But tonight Average Sex are headlining the bill, replete with their new bassist and The Hungry Ghosts and Miles Cocker in support. As far as I can see there’s no smoke machine, and I’m not taking any layers of clothing off, but with such a promising line up I reckon there’s still some fun to be had. And cider. There’s always cider.

Nestled into the ‘second room’ at the Hare & Hounds (which I curiously prefer to the main stage) a comfortable crowd and sense of camaraderie huddle together, braving the tail end of their collective hangovers and an absurd cold snap that just won’t quit.

First up is Miles Cocker, the dark fringe lyricist and ex-Horror Show front man/Youth Man bassist, who is on stage for the “first time I’ve played an acoustic guitar in public”. But like the bastard child of Kelly Jones and Kristin Hersh (now there’s a hangover), Cocker oozes snakeskin confidence – proffering an onslaught of melody and more sentences to make this writer a bit green round the gills. “Exercise me, circumcise me, drill three holes and crucify me,” awesome stuff.

A cat call to “all our brothers and sisters” announces The Hungry Ghosts are on stage next, as the man so good they named him twice waves a mic in the air and rests his other hand on the keyboard which is now front and centre to their set.

Opening with ‘Amerika’, the jangly opiate journey across an imagined West Coast, The Ghosts are on top form tonight – tight and slick, especially for a Sunday, and sounding ‘more Donington’ than I have heard them in a while, according to my notes. ‘Death Rattle Blues’ swaggers off stage second, before one of my favourite from the famished phantoms, ‘Super King King’, struts its predatory blues across the room.

(Note to self: loud public exclamations about a song with your surname in the title might appear a touch narcissistic, and I am too perfect for narcissism. But here’s some proof that it’s not just a tenuous link I’m applauding. And that I repeat myself.)

And now it’s time for the big show… as the slightly tweaked Average Sex take their places on stage, with Laetitia Bocquet’s broad smile and self-expressions filling the rest of the room. Dragging yourself to The Midlands on a Sunday could threaten the pilot light of many an out of town band, but not tonight.

Opening with ‘Hey Boy’, there seems to be no stumbling or blocks in the new path of Average Sex – with a confident punk pop sound bouncing off stage. Immediate and together, you can see the professional sheen on a band who have been taken under the OGenesis wings and recently toured with The Charlatans. ‘Sociopath’ is next, which could have been written about the man standing to my left, before The Las-esque sound (and dubious set list spelling) of ‘Come Over’ are thrown off stage in short succession.

Far from embedding a new member, and having to say goodbye to an old one, Average Sex appear as close as a rock band should be without drawing tabloid attention. Chat and banter roll around the stage and into the crowd, with a couple of publicly endearing moments between Bocquet and her band mates. Average Sex feel like they have spent many van rides and hotel rooms together, with most of them surviving to tell the tale. But its infectious, and by the time the heavy riffs and distorted love laden lyrics of ‘Ice Cream’ are rattling around the room most of the bodies within it are following suit.

Rounding off with two more relatively recently released tracks, the darkly declarative ‘Ugly Strangers’ and perfectly tilted set closer ‘We’re Done’, the polished sharp edge of this well-rehearsed anarchy is off stage without an encore. Mind you, the downstairs bar has closed (so no more cider) and all that’s left are the tight stares of bar staff who want to call it a week.

Always good to see such a commanding line up, whatever day you can squeeze it into your schedule, and I leave the Hare & Hounds both a little Sunday blissed and full satiated. Not bad for the end of a weekend.

But it would be good to see more from Setting Son, if they have the inclination, as every time they promote a gig I end up with more in my earphones than I had before going in. And as much as I love the creative corner of Centrala, if you can keep them walking (stumbling) distance to my house then I won’t be arguing. Now all we need is a well penned joke about it being cold but still wanting to by ‘Ice Cream’. A man walks into a gelateria with his earphones in…

Average Sex @ Hare & Hounds 25.01.18 / Martin O’Callaghan – Birmingham Review

For more on Average Sex, visit www.facebook.com/averagesex

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The Hungry Ghosts – supporting Average Sex @ Hare & Hounds 25.01.18 / Martin O’Callaghan – Birmingham Review

For more on The Hungry Ghosts, visit www.thehungryghosts.co.uk

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Miles Cocker – supporting Average Sex @ Hare & Hounds 25.01.18 / Martin O’Callaghan – Birmingham Review

For more on Miles Cocker, visit www.soundcloud.com/miles-cocker

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

For more on Setting Son Records, visit www.facebook.com/settingsonrecords

February 28, 2018

THE GALLERY: Puma Blue @ The Sunflower Lounge 24.02.18

Words by Andrew Wilson & Ed King / Pics by Denise Wilson

Back in Birmingham for the last date of his UK tour, Puma Blue plays to a comfortably full Sunflower Lounge crowd. But before the birthday boy can take centre stage (23 candles and cake today for Puma Blue) Sam Hollis is up as the evening’s first support act – joined by a full band, the recently solo singer/songwriter launches into a set of confident swagger.

Reminiscent of something between The Libertines or The Slackers, tonight’s Hollis ensemble strike the balance between tight and loose that so many post-Madchester bands have tried to embrace, emulate or evolve. Not an easy task post-naughties either, but one well executed by the first act on stage. And with his first solo EP out in January this year, minus those easy to find reptiles, things look set in a strong new direction for Sam Hollis this year.

Joining Puma Blue across his UK (and possibly beyond) is peer and producer, Lucy Lu – who is actually the solo pseudonym of Hester band mate, Luke Bower.

Stepping into more jazz tinged territory, Lucy Lu is made up of Bower on bass and rhythm guitar – with keys, percussion and saxophone that will jump ship to Puma Blue for the next set. Oozing in talent, the funky grooves and lyrical angst is delivered by an academically tight ensemble, and the room is gripped in a confident and well-schooled musicianship.

The crowd, who would be forgiven for not being seen at much of the Birmingham Jazz programme, are eager in their appreciation, with the effortless strings, charm and soft vocals of ‘Golden Prairie’ getting some well-deserved attention. I smell a return, and possible step up on the Birmingham bill for Lucy Lu. Roll on 2018.

Then it’s time for the rising balloon. Puma Blue is nascent right now, with his summer Swum Baby EP getting all the New Year ‘ones to watch’ lists twitching and ushering in some pretty respectable support slots.

Last time he was in the city was to warm up for Jordan Rakei in October, joining the Brisbane maestro on his UK tour. But now the South London ‘croonah blu’ has his own six string secondment and is back in Birmingham at the top of the bill. A place The Sunflower Lounge crowd seem very happy to welcome him to.

Again, the musicianship is superb; backed by a metronomic drummer, this proficient ensemble move into more Ratpack flavoured waters as the Puma Blue set unfurls. But it’s not pure homage, as the band embraces elements of jazz, dance, reggae and soul – with Puma Blue leading on rhythm guitar and vocals, husky at one end and mirrored by a confident falsetto.

Tracks from his debut EP get a good airing, with the brushed drums and laid back swoon of ‘Only Trying 2 Tell U’ filling out any forgotten corners of the room. ‘Soft Porn’ puts in an appearance, but there is a reggae dipped track midway through the set (whose name I couldn’t catch) that added spice to the proceedings. One to hunt down.

On stage for about an hour with no encore, there is much to laud, applaud and look forward to with Puma Blue – an artist who is earning his place on many people’s musical radars.

And with another jaunt across Europe and a festival summer before we’ll likely see him in the city again, who knows what momentum will be behind this artist by the time Puma Blue returns. One to watch… yeah, sounds about right. Probably in a bigger room next time too.

Puma Blue @ The Sunflower Lounge 24.02.18 / Denise Wilson – Birmingham Review

For more on Puma Blue, visit www.soundcloud.com/pumabluemusic

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Lucy Lu – supporting Puma Blue @ The Sunflower Lounge 24.02.18 / Denise Wilson – Birmingham Review

For more on Lucy Lu, visit www.soundcloud.com/lucy-lu-tings

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Sam Hollis – supporting Puma Blue @ The Sunflower Lounge 24.02.18 / Denise Wilson – Birmingham Review

For more on Sam Hollis, visit www.soundcloud.com/samhollis-2

For more from Birmingham Promoters, including further event listings and online ticket sales, visit www.birminghampromoters.com

For more on The Sunflower Lounge, including venue details and further event listings, visit www.thesunflowerlounge.com

February 23, 2018February 27, 2018

BPREVIEW: Average Sex @ Hare & Hounds 24.01.18

Words by Ed King

On Sunday 25^th January, Average Sex play at the Hare & Hounds (Kings Heath) with support from The Hungry Ghosts and Miles Cocker.

Doors open at 7:30pm, with tickets priced at £5 – as presented by Setting Son Records. For direct gig info, including links to online tickets sales, click here.

Hot on the heels of their tour with The Charlatans (…mic, drop) Average Sex are coming back to the Midlands for a headline show at the Hare & Hounds – ticking off the Birmingham box that was sadly missed on their winter support tour. Gaw’d bless ‘em.

And whilst they spent last December playing with the Tim Burgess’ indie pop flower/powerhouse, Average Sex have also not long released their debut Ice Cream EP – out on Burgess’ own OGenesis Recordings. Lead single, ‘Ugly Strangers’, is a cathartic (we hope) look at drink, denial and the dark corners that our minds try and run from – reported penned by vocalist Laetitia Bocquet during her evening escapes at a pub in Dalston. Whilst the other three tracks cover the familiar themes of love, unrequited love, break up (falling out of love) and licking someone’s face (kinda, sorta love). Job done, we reckon.

Fun and a little ferocious, the last time Birmingham Review saw Average Sex was at the Hungry Ghosts’ ‘Amerika/Lazaro’ single launch at Centrala, and to quote The Four Seasons… Now sharing a stage with the famished phantoms once again, albeit the other way round, we’re pretty confident this gig will be well worth your five British pounds.

But if you needed more (you cultural capitalists) then Setting Son have also thrown Miles Cocker into the mix, who can usually be found ripping an eardrum or two with the wonderful and loud (or even wonderfully loud) Youth Man. Last seen, by Birmingham Review, flying solo at the uber-muso-glorious-smorgasbord that is All Years Leaving, Senor Cocker may be a tad calmer on his own. Only a tad mind, this ‘aint a Magic FM roadshow quite yet. But in whatever form this stalwart of the local stages and scene is always worth a stop, look and listen – so get there early, you know the drill people.

But we’ll stretch our editorial neck a little further along the line and say: expect fuzz. All round, really. And with a line-up of bouncy garage punk, slaughterhouse blues, and lyrics explaining how to stretch your bread budget, this can’t be too bad an idea for a Sunday.

Meanwhile, somewhere in Dalston…

‘Ugly Strangers’ – Average Sex

Average Sex play at the Hare & Hounds (Kings Heath) on Thursday 25^th February, with support from The Hungry Ghosts and Miles Cocker – as presented by Setting Son Records. For direct event info and links to online ticket sales, click here.

For more on Average Sex, visit www.facebook.com/averagesex

For more on The Hungry Ghosts, visit www.thehungryghosts.co.uk

For more on Miles Cocker, visit www.soundcloud.com/miles-cocker

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

For more on Setting Son Records, visit www.facebook.com/settingsonrecords