Music Reissues Weekly: In A Rocking Mood - Beverley’s Rock Steady 1966-1968

IN A ROCKING MOOD - BEVERLEY'S ROCK STEADY 1966-1968 Leslie Kong’s legendary Jamaican label moves with the times

Leslie Kong’s legendary Jamaican label moves with the times

Beverley’s was an ice-cream shop and restaurant on Orange Street in Kingston, Jamaica. Records were on sale too. In 1961, an aspiring singer-songwriter named James Chambers turned up there with a song he’d written called “Dearest Beverley.” If it was recorded, it’d give its creator a leg-up on the music scene and also might be good promotion for the business.

Music Reissues Weekly: John Barry - The More Things Change

JOHN BARRY - THE MORE THINGS CHANGE Deep-digging collection reframes perceptions of feted composer’s soundtrack work

Deep-digging collection reframes perceptions of feted composer’s soundtrack work

By 1970, John Barry had composed music for Born Free, The Lion in Winter, Midnight Cowboy, You Only Live Twice and about 38 other films. His work with cinema began in 1960 and averaged around five films a year. In 1965, eight films were released with his music. He was busy.

Le nozze di Figaro, Glyndebourne review - fabulous singing and a classy production

★★★★ LE NOZZE DI FIGARO, GLYNDEBOURNE Superb music making against the backdrop of a sumptuous Sevillian set

Superb music making against the backdrop of a sumptuous Sevillian set

After two years of Covid-affected performances – even though there was a full season last year – Glyndebourne's annual festival is finally back in full glory. Following the big blaze of Saturday's The Wreckers, Sunday welcomed back Michael Grandage's durable production of a signature treasure, Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro.

Music Reissues Weekly: Dusty Springfield - Dusty Sings Soul

DUSTY SPRINGFIELD - DUSTY SINGS SOUL Twenty-four musical landmarks from the finest British soul singer of her era

Twenty-four musical landmarks from the finest British soul singer of her era

First on were The Supremes with “Baby Love.” Next, The Miracles performed “You Really Got a Hold on me.” After this, Stevie Wonder’s “I Call it Pretty Music But the Old People Call it the Blues,” The Temptations’ “The Way You do the Things You do” and Martha & The Vandellas’ “Heatwave.”

Music Reissues Weekly: My World Fell Down - The John Carter Story

MY WORLD FELL DOWN - THE JOHN CARTER STORY Testament to a one-man music industry

Extensive testament to a one-man music industry

Fat Man’s Music Festival. The Haystack. Red Line Explosion. Stormy Petrel. Butterwick. Sweet Chariot. Names which don't immediately spring to mind.

The factor linking them is also common to 1967’s “Let’s go to San Francisco” hit-makers The Flower Pot Men, The First Class, who charted in 1974 with “Beach Baby,” and The Ivy League, who went Top Ten in early 1965 with “Funny How Love Can be.”

Anyone Can Whistle, Southwark Playhouse review - full-on bonkers

★★★ ANYONE CAN WHISTLE, SOUTHWARK PLAYHOUSE Niche Sondheim gets no-trumpets-barred revival

Niche Sondheim gets an, um, no-trumpets-barred revival

Musicals don't get madder than Anyone Can Whistle, the 1964 Broadway flop from onetime West Side Story and Gypsy collaborators Stephen Sondheim and Arthur Laurents which makes history of sorts at Southwark Playhouse as the first Sondheim show to be revived since his death last year, age 91.

Music Reissues Weekly: All Turned On! Motown Instrumentals 1960-1972

ALL TURNED ON! MOTOWN INSTRUMENTALS 1960-1972 There are still new things to say about the legendary soul label

Surprising confirmation that there are new things to say about the legendary soul label

Motown and its related labels have been heavily collected and meticulously scrutinised since the early Sixties. There ought to be nothing left to say. Yet here this is, a smart, 24-track collection of Motown instros which includes five previously unreleased tracks.

Blu-ray: The Devil's Trap

Czech master František Vláčil’s early film of superstition and bigotry in 17th century Bohemia

Released in 1962, František Vláčil’s The Devil’s Trap (Ďáblova past) is the first in a loose trilogy of historical epics, the second instalment of which (Marketa Lazarová) is often cited as among the greatest of all Czech films.

Great Freedom review - love behind bars in Germany

★★★★ GREAT FREEDOM Franz Rogowski excels as a man incarcerated for his sexual orientation

Franz Rogowski excels as a man incarcerated for his sexual orientation

A story of forbidden love, Great Freedom takes place almost entirely in a prison. The film's background is encapsulated in the word “175er/ hundertfünfundsiebziger”, still to be found in German dictionaries and collective memories as a pejorative word for a gay man.

The Ipcress File, ITV review – adaptation of Len Deighton thriller fires on all cylinders

★★★★★ THE IPCRESS FILE, ITV Adaptation of Len Deighton thriller fires on all cylinders

Joe Cole, Lucy Boynton and Tom Hollander light up this Cold War classic

Sidney J Furie’s 1965 film The Ipcress File is a much-loved benchmark of its period. Stylish, sinister, witty and depicting a determinedly un-swinging London, it was conceived as the flipside to the absurdly glamorous James Bond movies and pulled it off with panache. It also had Michael Caine playing the lead role of Harry Palmer, and a superb John Barry soundtrack famously featuring that mysterious instrument, the cimbalom.