Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind, Tate Modern review - a fitting celebration of the early years

★★★★ YOKO ONO: MUSIC OF THE MIND, TATE MODERN A fitting celebration of the early years

Acknowledgement as a major avant garde artist comes at 90

At last Yoko Ono is being acknowledged in Britain as a major avant garde artist in her own right. It has been a long wait; last year was her 90th birthday! The problem, of course, was her relationship with John Lennon and perceptions of her as the Japanese weirdo who broke up the Beatles and led Lennon astray – down a crooked path to oddball, hippy happenings.

Bob Marley: One Love review - sanitised official version of the Jamaican icon's story

★★★ BOB MARLEY: ONE LOVE  Sanitised official version of the Jamaican icon's story

The real Bob fails to get up, stand up

It was only a matter of time before Bob Marley got his own posthumous biopic, and One Love isn’t the worst you’ll see. For instance, it’s miles ahead of the Elton John flick Rocketman, and at least it’s an hour shorter than Baz Luhrmann’s bloated Elvis misfire.

Griselda, Netflix review - Sofía Vergara excels as the Godmother of cocaine trafficking

★★★ GRISELDA, NETFLIX Sofía Vergara excels as the Godmother of cocaine trafficking

How Colombia's Griselda Blanco brought vice to Miami

When Colombian drug potentate Pablo Escobar made his comment that “the only man I was ever afraid of was a woman named Griselda Blanco,” he ensured that Ms Blanco would achieve immortality in the annals of crime. Netflix’s new series about Blanco, starring and produced by Sofía Vergara, claims to depict Blanco’s life “as faithfully as possible”, though that famous line “when the legend becomes fact, print the legend” feels a bit nearer the mark.

Music Reissues Weekly: Fantastic Voyage - New Sounds For The European Canon

FANTASTIC VOYAGE - NEW SOUNDS FOR THE EUROPEAN CANON An absorbing dive into the musical ecosphere surrounding David Bowie’s ‘Lodger’ and ‘Scary Monsters’ albums

An absorbing dive into the musical ecosphere surrounding David Bowie’s ‘Lodger’ and ‘Scary Monsters’ albums

In October 1977 Glasgow punk band Johnny & the Self Abusers decided to change their name. This was a problem for Chiswick Records, who were about to release their debut single. The records were pressed, the sleeves printed and the press release issued. There was no time to recall any of it and alter the band’s name. The single was credited to Johnny & the Self Abusers.

The Holdovers review - a perfectly formed comedy that wears its perfection lightly

★★★★★ THE HOLDOVERS A perfectly formed comedy that wears its perfection lightly

Director Alexander Payne gives Paul Giamatti another plum part

Twenty years ago Alexander Payne put Paul Giamatti on the map in Sideways; here he is again, as another punctilious expert, this time not in the field of viniculture but plain old culture, of the old-fashioned classical kind. And his adversary is not a roguish friend but a spiky pupil at the boys’ school in New England where he teaches classics.

Music Reissues Weekly: Mike Makhalemele & Winston “Mankunku” Ngozi - The Bull And The Lion

Important, Apartheid-flouting South African jazz album from 1976 re-emerges

The Bull And The Lion was originally released in 1976 by Jo'burg, a South African label which opened-up for business in 1973 with a couple of singles and the first album by black singer Margaret Singana. Her debut LP was titled Lady Africa. The same year, the imprint issued the second single by Rabbitt, a white pop-rock band whose guitarist Trevor Rabin became internationally known when he played with Manfred Mann and then joined Yes.

The Enfield Haunting, Ambassadors Theatre review - muddled revisiting of famous paranormal events

★★ THE ENFIELD HAUNTING, AMBASSADORS Poltergeist activity in suburbs remains earth-bound

Poltergeist activity in the suburbs remains earth-bound

Reports of supernatural events are always met with either willing belief or dismissive scepticism. The "camps" generally don't have much to say to each other: belief in immovable logic, discounting the weird as merely the so-far unexplained, can be as entrenched as its opposite. In the case of the ghostly goings-on in Enfield, sincerity and mischief are also stirred into the mix.

1979, Finborough Theatre review - niche subject matter finds a strong resonance

★★★ 1979, FINBOROUGH THEATRE Niche subject matter finds a strong resonance

There's fun and profundity in the thick of Ottawa's political class's Machiavellian manoeuvrings

If a week is a long time in politics, what price 44 years? And 3500 miles? Turns out, not much, as Michael Healey’s sparkling play, 1979, proves that events all that time ago and all that way across the Atlantic maintain a remarkable relevance today.

Best of 2023: Music Reissues Weekly

BEST OF 2023: MUSIC REISSUES WEEKLY When the past excites as much as a new thrill

When the past excites as much as a new thrill

In the Light of Time - UK Post-Rock and Leftfield Pop 1992-1998 was unexpected. Collecting 17 tracks, it brought a fresh perspective on a particular aspect of the UK’s independent-minded music. This ground-breaking, agenda-setting release was effectively the soundtrack to what has been written about post-rock.

Music Reissues Weekly: Hawkwind - Space Ritual

HAWKWIND - SPACE RITUAL 50th-anniversary box set makes the great live album even greater

Fiftieth-anniversary box set makes the great live album even more great

As Britain headed towards the end of 1972, pop fans had fair cause to scratch their heads about a single which first charted in July. In mid-August, Hawkwind’s “Silver Machine” peaked at number three behind Terry Dactyl and the Dinosaurs skiffle-esque “Seaside Shuffle” and, in the top spot, Alice Cooper’s “School’s Out.” Donny Osmond’s oleaginous “Puppy Love” was number four. At 11, David Bowie’s “Starman.”