Space:1999...

Forget May the 4th. Forget October 21st. The real date to celebrate is September 13th.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SpX8bVEmJo

 

The Baker's Wife @ Menier Chocolate Factory...

Last night I went to see the deft and delightful musical The Baker's Wife at the Menier Chocolate Factory in London's glitzy London Bridge Quarter.

 

Set in 1930s Provence, France the action takes place in a small village obsessed with bread. They live for it. They lust for it. But their baker has recently died. Enter stage right the new baker, Amiable (Clive Rowe), along with his much younger his wife, Genevieve (Lucie Jones).

 

Genevieve quickly catches the eye of local heartthrob Dominique (Joaquin Pedro Valdes) and scandal among the sleepy café tables ensues.

 

In American director Gordon Greenberg’s charming production of Joseph Stein and Stephen Schwartz’s 1989 musical there’s a lot more to The Baker’s Wife than "Meadowlark", its best-known song.

 

From the staging – which sits us on either side of designer Paul Farnsworth’s rustic French fantasia – to the way some scenes play out amidst us, we were transported to a French village square.  It was a joy to be brought up so close to the supporting characters - the exceptional ensemble cast - to enjoy villagers' interconnected comedic rapport.

 

The songs were beautiful sung.  The story funny.  Maybe it fails the Bechdel Test somewhat but don't let that put you off.  The boys come off worse.

 

Oh, and Dame Judi Dench and Dame Joan Plowright were in the audience too.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

 

Arsenal F.C. - The Invincibles...

It’s not just Arteta that looks like a Lego figure! 

Lego are always open to ideas. For new Lego kits.  And Arsenal Lego fan PetaS submitted this - the old Highbury Stadium from The Invincibles era. 

And it is a wonder to behold.

 

Can you buy it yet? No. But it's already got 10,000 votes so it now being considered by Lego management.

 

Are Lego going to make it at all? They are deciding this month (Sept 2024)

 

Fingers crossed!

 

 https://ideas.lego.com/projects/ea534897-70bc-40c6-a06e-576bc86d1b17

Jun 19, 2024

 

Congratulations on 10,000 supporters, Arsenal F.C. - The Invincibles!

 

Hi PetaS ,

 

Congratulations on reaching the 10,000 supporter milestone! What an achievement it is!

 

We now officially advance this project to the Review phase.

 

What happens now?

 

This project moves from the Idea stage to the Review stage. A "LEGO Review Board" composed of designers, product managers, and other key team members will examine the idea. We'll build concept models and determine if the concept meets our high standards for what it takes to be a LEGO product. This includes factors such as playability, safety, and fit with the LEGO brand. Every potential LEGO product goes through a process like this and must meet the same standards.

 

The LEGO Review Begins in September 2024

 

This project qualifies for the Second 2024 Review, which includes projects that reach 10,000 supporters between early May 2024 and September 2024. For more information about the LEGO review process, please see the Project Guidelines and House Rules.

 

The review is a thorough process and from its start, it can take several months. When finished, we make a "go/no go" decision to develop and sell a product based on Arsenal F.C. - The Invincibles!

 

When the review is complete, we will inform you of our decision. If green-lit, this project goes into the longest phase of the project; the Development phase. During this time, LEGO model designers refine the product and develop it for release, we create the product materials (box, instructions, marketing), and get everything ready for a production run. This also takes several months.

Marc Almond @ London Coliseum…

Last night Paul and I (and a crowd of Gutterhearts) all descended upon the London Coliseum in London's glitzy West End to see Marc Almond perform his ‘I’m Not Anyone’ show - a night of glorious cover versions. 

 

Now, I love a cover me, certainly when it’s an eclectic one, a rarity, or just a good version. And Marc Almond sure knows how to pick them.

 

His new album of covers, I’m Not Alone, is great.  And of course he has a brilliant back catalogue with lots of other great covers too.

 

Initially scheduled just to perform for about an hour and a half he was actually on stage for over two hours and I hung on every note - it was absolutely fantastic. 

 

Highlights for me were A Woman’s Story, What Makes A Man a Man, Gloomy Sunday, If You Go Away, The House is Haunted, The Days of Pearly Spencer, Jackie, and I Close My Eyes and Count to 10. 

 

It might be 43 years, but it still gives me a thrill to hear his voice. 

 

Full Set List

 

I'm the Light (Blue Cheer cover)

Gone With The Wind (Is My Love) (Rita Graham cover)

Elusive Butterfly (Bob Lind cover)

Trouble of the World (Mahalia Jackson cover) (with Bryan Chambers)

A Woman's Story (Cher cover) 

The Heel (Eartha Kitt cover) 

The Boss Is Dead (Charles Aznavour cover)

Yesterday When I Was Young (Charles Aznavour cover)

What Makes a Man (Charles Aznavour cover)

I Have Lived (Charles Aznavour cover)

Terrapin (Syd Barrett cover)

Gloomy Sunday (Kalmár Pál cover)

Dream Lover (Bobby Darin cover) 

One Night of Sin (Elvis Presley cover)

How Can I Be Sure (The Rascals cover)

The London Boys (David Bowie cover)

Stardom Road (Third World War cover) (with Dana Gillespie)

Dance Me to the End of Love (Leonard Cohen cover) (with Dana Gillespie)

If You Go Away (Jacques Brel cover)

Big Louise (Scott Walker cover) 

Sebastian (Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel cover)

The House Is Haunted (Mel Tormé cover)

The Days of Pearly Spencer (David McWilliams cover)

Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart (Gene Pitney cover)

Tainted Love (Gloria Jones cover)

Jackie (Jacques Brel cover)

 

Encore

 

I Close My Eyes and Count to Ten (Dusty Springfield cover)

I'm Not Anyone (Sammy Davis Jr. cover)

 

Kiss Me, Kate @ Barbican Theatre…

One word review: disappointing. 

⭐️⭐️

Mean Girls @ Savoy Theatre...

I went to the glitzy West End last night to see Heathers - sorry not Heathers, Mean Girls. I went to see Mean Girls last night - it's just it's so hard to tell them apart. Only Heathers is better. 

 

Ok, before you all call me a Plastic or put me in your Burn Book, Mean Girls in this case isn't the apparently really witty 2004 high-school comedy film about teen rivalry and fitting in (I've never seem it). It's the spin-off stage musical from that film - that itself was made into a musical film released earlier this year. Tina Fey again at the helm.

 

So having established myself as not really a Mean Girls fanboy I came to the musical cold. Much the way I left.

 

The musical was boring; trite, derivative, predictable, and forgettable. As I left, I couldn’t tell you a single song that was in it.

 

So I’m thinking, if you're a fan of the 2004 film - save yourself the money. Watch the film again.

⭐️

 

The Magnetic Fields 69 Love Songs @ The Barbican Hall...

Last Saturday and Sunday nights Stuart and I went to see beloved indie pop band The Magnetic Fields perform their landmark triple album 69 Love Songs over two nights The Barbican Hall in London's glitzy Barbican Centre.

Celebrating its 25th anniversary all 69 Love Songs were a joy to behold, together again for the first time in 20 years.

 

Lead singer/songwriter Stephin Merritt set out to write 69 Love Songs using most of the known popular music styles, from punk to country to soul and jazz. The result is simultaneously ironic, tongue-in-cheek, bitter, and humorous, creating a cult classic that launched the band into the mainstream.

 

Merritt were joined by Magnetic Fields’ members Sam Davol, Shirley Simms, Chris Ewen, and Anthony Kaczynski to perform the triple album across both evenings.

 

Back in the day Stephin Merritt and his band The Magnetic Fields used to be the best-kept secret of the New York underground music scene, a shibboleth for the cognoscenti. Then they went and produced their epic triple CD 69 Love Songs, and suddenly they were the critics' choice in every publication on both sides of the Atlantic, strangers are stopping you in the street to tell you that you must go and buy it, and if you want to retain that recherché aura you're now obliged to play only the very early albums, or drop casual references to Merritt's aliases (The 6ths, The Future Bible Heroes, The Gothic Archies).

 

69 Love Songs was originally conceived as a theatrical revue, and the decision to perform it over two nights as a complete opus, as if it were Wagner's Ring Cycle, is a kind of ironically self-aggrandising joke, but one in which the audience can feel complicit. The band's chamber-music style of performance belongs to small venues, and the Barbican Hall, although large, is intimate enough to appreciate the acoustic feel of the set, which is largely due to the absence of a live rhythm section.

 

It's impossible to describe 69 Love Songs without reference to as many other artists, since each song is in part a homage to (or is it a send-up of?) the variety of musical styles the genre embraces. Influences range from Phil Spector to avant-garde composers John Giorno and Steve Reich, with pastiches of Johnny Cash, Johnny Rotten, the Human League and Scottish folk song. Merritt has been labelled the greatest songwriter of his generation by the US music press, and it's compulsory to compare him with Cole Porter and Irving Berlin, though vocally his murky subterranean baritone is Leonard Cohen chain-smoking Camels. It's had to do justice to Merritt's cynical humour and deft lyrics, which rival Tom Lehrer's for audacious rhyming.

 

On the first night the audience appears to be taking it all terribly seriously. The set gets off to a difficult start with the chirpy 'Absolutely Cuckoo', a song not designed for live performance due to a complete lack of breathing opportunities, but other songs seem better suited to the stage than the studio, such as the heart-breaking "All My Little Words", the sublime "The Book of Love", the beautiful "Nothing Matters When We're Dancing", and "I Don't Want to Get Over You' which goes to show not all these love songs are intended as a cynical undermining of the genre (though 'How Fucking Romantic' and 'Yeah, Oh Yeah' are firmly in that vein).

 

By the second night the audience seems to have got the hang of it; the polite applause has turned into whooping and whistling between each song. Merritt perches atop his high stool enjoying the ride. The songs are getting more laughs too, from "Love Is Like a Bottle of Gin" to "For We Are The King Of The Boudoir" to the splendidly ludicrous lyrics of the final song, "Zebra", which heralds a riotous standing ovation.

 

69 Love Songs, for all its postmodern in-joke status, is a major achievement. If you missed them this time, you can still buy the album, and will find yourself wondering how The Magnetic Fields ever managed to stay a secret for so long.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️