Bohemian Rhapsody review – all surface, no soul

GOLDEN GLOBE SHOCKER Bohemian Rhapsody defies the critics and wins Best Motion Picture - Drama

Malek’s star performance fails to save a clichéd script and characterless direction

If a Queen biopic called for drama, scandal and outrage, then Bohemian Rhapsody spent its fill in production. Several Freddies had been and gone, rumours swirling about meddling band members, and then director Bryan Singer’s assault accusations caught up with him. In a way, it’s impressive the film came out so coherent.

Reissue CDs Weekly: The Action

REISSUE CDS WEEKLY: THE ACTION Box set celebration of the great, George Martin-supported Sixties band

‘Shadows and Reflections’: classy box set celebration of the great, George Martin-supported Sixties band

From 7.30pm on Thursday 19 January 1967, George Martin and The Beatles spent the next seven hours at the Abbey Road’s Studio 2 working through takes one to four of “In the Life of…”, a new song which, when completed, would be retitled “A Day in the Life”. In late May, fans would hear it as the final track of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

The Everyday and the Extraordinary, Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne review - the ordinary made strange

Old favourites revisited with pleasure at show of familiar objects transformed

There’s a building site outside the Towner Art Gallery and a cement mixer seems to have strayed over the threshold into the foyer. This specimen (pictured below right) no longer produces cement, though. David Batchelor has transformed it into an absurdist neon sign by outlining it with fluorescent tubes. 

Reissue CDs Weekly: The Michael Gibbs Big Band, The Gary Burton Quartet

‘Festival 69’ documents a previously unreleased fusion of American and British jazz

Gary Burton fans with an eye for detail will know that “Fly Time Fly (Sigh)” from his second album, 1962’s Who Is Gary Burton?, had a writer credit of “Gibbs”. The American vibes-ace’s next album, 1963’s 3 in Jazz, a collaboration with Sonny Rollins and Clark Terry included another song by Gibbs. Burton’s follow-up solo album, Something's Coming! (1964), featured two Gibbs compositions.

Psappha, Kok / Kempf, Northern Chamber Orchestra, Stoller Hall, Manchester review - new and old

Classics come in two sizes at Manchester season openers

The Stoller Hall, the modest-size auditorium inside Chetham’s School of Music, is really proving itself to be the venue Manchester has long needed this season. Two concerts on successive days, each the first of a series and both making something of a statement, proved that.

Twelfth Night, Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh - a touch too sweet

Psychedelic Shakespeare feels rather too charming for its own good

“Well, that was really sweet,” one young audience member in front of me remarked on his way out of Edinburgh’s Lyceum Theatre. And yes, there’s no denying that director Wils Wilson’s colourful, psychedelic, summer-of-love-set Twelfth Night, the Lyceum’s season opener in a co-production with the Bristol Old Vic, is warm and generous, lovingly crafted, and – yes, touchingly sweet.

Reissue CDs Weekly: Bobbie Gentry

REISSUE CDS WEEKLY: BOBBIE GENTRY An enlightening box set dedicated to the ‘Ode to Billie Joe’ hitmaker

‘The Girl From Chickasaw County’ is an enlightening box set dedicated to the ‘Ode to Billie Joe’ hitmaker

In 2016, a writer from The Washington Post thought they had found Bobbie Gentry. After announcing their presence via the entry phone system of a gated housing development near Greenwood, Mississippi, they were told “there's nobody here by that name.” Though Greenwood was where Gentry had attended school and taught herself to play multiple instruments, it was a predictable response.

CD: Hawkwind - Road to Utopia

The grizzled, grimey drug-rockers get an easy-listening makeover with somewhat surprising results

Implausible times call for implausible music, and it doesn't come much more unlikely than this. Hawkwind, the die-hard troupers of gnarly cosmic squatter drug-rock, have re-recorded highlights from their catalogue, arranged and produced by Mike Batt. Yes, Mike “Wombles” Batt. Mike “Elkie Brooks” Batt. Mike “Katie Melua” Batt. Mike “Bright Eyes” Batt.