Other People's Money, Southwark Playhouse review - onetime Off Broadway hit retains its sting

★★★★ OTHER PEOPLE'S MONEY, SOUTHWARK PLAYHOUSE Greed is good in feisty revival of Eighties period piece

Greed is good or at least entertaining in feisty Off West End revival

Deft and funny and nicely cast, what's not to like about Other People's Money, the era-defining Jerry Sterner play in revival at Southwark Playhouse? The play's 1989 premiere Off Broadway allowed for a contemporary skewering of the roaring, rapacious, uncaring 1980s.

Test Dept, Studio 9294 review - still furious after all these years

★★★★ TEST DEPT, STUDIO 9294 Still furious after all these years

Eighties militant radicals are back live with their first album in 20 years

Back in the early Eighties, Test Dept were the most radical musical force in London. Their live sound, never truly captured in its intensity on a series of early cassette recordings, built out of tape cut-ups and pulverising rhythms on salvaged metal objects, could be awe-inspiring. Long before illegal rave culture, their performances felt subversive in a way that attracted surveillance.

DVD/Blu-ray: Pet Shop Boys - Inner Sanctum

Royal Opera House concert film is lively but primarily for hardcore fans

Pet Shop Boys are never shy of producing stylishly conceived fan mementos. Coming not long after Faber & Faber’s hardback collection of Neil Tennant’s lyrics, this four-disc set is just such a slice of lovingly rendered memorabilia. After well over three decades in the game – but one since they had a Top 20 hit song – the duo retain a devoted following, ever eager to invest in whatever they’re up to.

Reissue CDs Weekly: Terry Allen

‘Pedal Steal + Four Corners’: outstanding collection of the Texas-born polymaths’s aural plays

Torso Hell tells the story of an American soldier whose limbs were blown off in Vietnam. Amazingly, he and his buddies survived, and in the ensuing medical chaos his arms and legs were re-attached to them rather than him. The narrator says “At the hospital, it’s so crazy and confused that when these guys come in, the doctors and nurses don’t know what from what … they just start sewing. The main guy stays a torso, but they put his arms and legs back on the other guys.

theartsdesk Q&A: Bananarama

THEARTSDESK Q&A: BANANARAMA The indestructible girl group on singing, clubbing, post-punk, Lemmy, George Michael and much more

The indestructible girl group on singing, clubbing, post-punk, Lemmy, George Michael and much more

Bananarama are one of the most successful girl groups of all time. Consisting of Sara Dallin and Keren Woodward, the band’s third original member Siobhan Fahey left in 1988 to form Shakespears Sister. The trio reunited in 2017 for a tour but new album, In Stereo, sees them back as the long-standing duo. The pair have been friends since their school days.

CD: Bananarama - In Stereo

★★★ CD: BANANARAMA - IN STEREO The first ladies of UK pop deliver hits and misses

The first ladies of UK pop deliver hits and misses in a lively but uneven return

And then there were two... again. Following on from the Original Line-Up tour, Bananarama are back to the core duo of Sara Dallin and Keren Woodward for their first album in 10 years. If it is true that co-founding member Siobhan Fahey’s 1988 departure was due, in part, to the pop chops of 1987’s Stock Aitken and Waterman-produced Wow!, it might be just as well that she didn’t stick around this time. In Stereo is VERY pop.

Reissue CDs Weekly: Losing Touch With My Mind

Mostly mind-melting box-set compendium of ‘Psychedelia in Britain 1986-1990’

It begins with The Stone Roses’ “Don’t Stop”, the fourth track from their 1989 debut long player. A backwards though thoroughly remixed version of “Waterfall”, the album’s preceding track, it enthusiastically pushes the button labelled “psychedelic”.

CD: Norah Jones - Begin Again

★★★★ CD: NORAH JONES - BEGIN AGAIN Rag tag recordings show musical maturity

A rag tag set of recordings only serves to show Jones's musical maturity

There's a remarkable lightness to the way Norah Jones has glid through her career.

theartsdesk on Vinyl 48: Curtis Mayfield, Rudimental, Ozric Tentacles, Prince, Girl Unit and more

THEARTSDESK ON VINYL 48: Curtis Mayfield, Rudimental, Ozric Tentacles, Prince, Girl Unit and more

The widest ranging monthly record reviews on this planet

Every month we start theartsdesk on Vinyl with the Vinyl of the Month, however, the truth is that, depending on your taste, many of the records reviewed below may be your own vinyl of the month. Whether reissues or new material or compilations, theartsdesk on Vinyl attends to all music on plastic.

CD: Edwyn Collins - Badbea

★★★ EDWYN COLLINS - BADBEA Former Orange Juice frontman ebulliently and effectively mines the sounds of his past

The Orange Juice frontman ebulliently and effectively mines the sounds of his past

Edwyn Collins is in a good mood. Perhaps it’s his 2014 move back to his native Scotland where he now lives and records on the wild north-eastern coast. Perhaps it was finding a sheaf of inspiring old lyrics as he packed up to make the move. Or perhaps it’s just his joy at making music 14 years after two debilitating strokes nearly finished him off. Whatever the reason, his ninth solo album (and fourth since the strokes) is as full of beans as a young collie in springtime.