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    Hugo Young

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    In this acclaimed political biography, Hugo Young traces Thatcher's journey from her apprenticeship...

Les Misérables
Les Misérables
1980 | Drama, Musical
9
8.6 (5 Ratings)
Show Rating
Hugely enjoyable
In March 2019 I went to see Les Miserables at the Palace Theatre in Manchester. Unlike most people I know, I've never seen Les Mis on stage before and wasn't a particularly big fan of the film either, however I have to admit that after seeing it last night, I think I'm now a convert.

The stage production values, the sets and the costumes were very impressive. They managed to seamlessly coordinate a large screen with huge physical sets and the transition between the scenes was impressively smooth. The cast too were brilliant. There was nobody I recognised but they all had fantastic voices and put on a great performance.

My issue with the film was that is was overly long and drawn out and just didn't appeal, but the same can't be said for the show. Ths version was on for 3 hours plus a 15 min interval, which for me was just long enough. There's something about the music in this that makes it very rousing and entertaining and I wasn't bored, not even for a minute. It's a highly entertaining and almost emotional show, and would definitely recommend seeing it if you like musicals. It doesn't tour very often either so catch it while you can!
  
Van Halen by Van Halen
Van Halen by Van Halen
1978 | Rock
8.5 (2 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"If you're thinking I don't seem like a big Van Halen guy, then you'd be right. I liked parts of what they did, but what this is really about is a moment in 2017. Whenever Spoon play, we'll go through the same process in the build-up to stage time. The clock is ticking, we're sipping tequila and we're blasting music, turning it up a little louder with each track. The tour manager comes in, tells us we've got five minutes, and then it's time to pick one last song before we go on. For a while, this was it. It got us going! It was Alex (Fischel) who picked it, I think. It's sort of a David Lee Roth mission statement; all those fucked up lyrics, ""my love is rotten to the core,"" and ""you're semi-good looking."" We've had other pump-up songs - it was 'I Wish' by Stevie Wonder for a while - but this is one of those ones that makes you appreciate the art of the riff. You have to write a lot of them before you land on one this good. It's pure '70S rock and roll. I feel like we need some more of that nowadays."

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