Everything: The Real Thing Story, BBC Four review - brilliant but long overdue

★★★★★ EVERYTHING: THE REAL THING STORY, BBC FOUR The breakthrough Liverpudlian band's story told lovingly and not before time

The breakthrough Liverpudlian band's story told lovingly and not before time

This documentary is bittersweet viewing on quite a number of levels. First, it’s got all the glory and tragedy of the most compelling music stories: a Liverpool band struggling from humble beginnings, trying to find an identity, fraternity and fallings-out, coping with huge success and its aftermath – not to mention sex, drugs, mental illness and death.

Album: Conrad Schnitzler & Frank Bretschneider - Con-Struct

Complete abstraction engenders a bizarre sense of familiarity

When does the avant-garde become folk? Both of the participants in this album have certainly been on the very cutting edge of sound-making, on multiple occasions. Conrad Schnitzler was a student of radical artist Joseph Beuys and leading light in the utopian thinking and radical soundmaking of 1970s West Germany as a member of Tangerine Dream and Kluster.

Reissue CDs Weekly: Oneness Of Juju - African Rhythms 1970-1982

ONENESS OF JUJU - AFRICAN RHYTHMS 1970-1982 Driving jazz, grooves, funk and electrifying percussion from James 'Plunky' Branch and Co

Driving jazz, grooves, funk and electrifying percussion from James 'Plunky' Branch and Co

“These are African rhythms, passed down to us from the ancient spirits. Feel the spirits, a unifying force. Come on, move with the spirits. Stand up. Clap your hands. Groove with the rhythms. Get down. Get off.”

So begins “African Rhythms”, originally released in 1975 as the opening cut from an album of the same name by Oneness Of Juju. It was issued on Black Fire, their own label.

Blu-ray: Scorsese Shorts

A rewarding return to five early short films by an American master

At this year’s Oscars Bong Joon Ho brought the audience to its feet in honour of the director whose words had struck a chord with him as a film student. The comment, simple but difficult to adhere to in the cut-throat, risk-averse movie business, was that “the most personal is the most creative”. The director, Martin Scorsese.

New Music Unlocked 1: Reef, Supersonic Festival, Elton John and more

NEW MUSIC UNLOCKED 1 Reef, Supersonic Festival, Elton John and more

A new weekly preview celebrating the gradual revival of the live music industry

The lockdown which began in March is now noticeably easing, although in the realm of gigs and festivals things are still nowhere near operative. Nonetheless, theartsdesk is responding to the changes by ceasing our many weeks of New Music Lockdown Specials and looking forward to an increasing amount of actual live events. This week, we can only offer one, alongside plenty of streamed entertainment, but it’s early days. Here’s to the future. Dive in!

Reissue CDs Weekly: Philip Rambow - The Rebel Kind

PHILIP RAMBOW - THE REBEL KIND The case for ‘the eternal under-rated cult’

Making the case for ‘the eternal under-rated cult’

“Strange Destinies” is the first track. “Take your eyes off me Svengali” is its memorable opening phrase. Conjuring up Van Morrison, Tom Petty, Mike Scott, Bruce Springsteen and even The Boomtown Rats when they were aping the first and fourth of those, the song clangs along with a powerpop chug and sports a hook-filled melody. Great.

Album: Neil Young - Homegrown

★★★★★ NEIL YOUNG - HOMEGROWN Singer-songwriter's long-lost album turns up moments of pure gold

The unearthing of the singer-songwriter's long-lost album turns up moments of pure gold

In the series one finale of metal-detecting sitcom Detectorists, Lance fills in a hole he’s dug after unearthing nothing more than a rusted ring-pull. As the camera pans downwards, we see the riches that were hiding beneath. He was looking in the right place, it’s just that the good stuff lay tantalisingly out of reach.

Theatre Lockdown Special 9: Alan Bennett revisited, and so is Oz

THEATRE LOCKDOWN SPECIAL 9: Alan Bennett revisited, and so is Oz

Some familiar titles, a 1913 rarity and a show in which the audience plays its part

The government may occupy shifting sands when it comes to handling Covid-19, but the arts thank heavens continue to step up to the plate with a dizzying array of online options. This week's output mixes a soul musical from 1970s Broadway alongside a major revival of a play by Alan Bennett whose enquiry into the psychological well-being of those in charge will doubtless resonate anew today.

This House, National Theatre at Home review – timely revival of brilliant House of Commons drama

★★★★ THIS HOUSE, NATIONAL THEATRE AT HOME Timely revival of brilliant House of Commons drama

James Graham acutely perceives the obsessions and motivations of our times

There is a line of argument that – unfairly – blames playwright James Graham for Dominic Cummings. Would Cummings, some might ask, have achieved the influence he has now if it hadn’t been for his depiction in Graham’s brilliant TV drama Brexit: The Uncivil War in which he was played as an obsessive genius by Benedict Cumberbatch?