MARK THOMAS at EDINBURGH FRINGE

Mark Thomas manages to get a unique balance between sentimentality and sincerity , made me blub a couple of times.

This preview from a Yorkshire paper records the history of the project in the first venue he performed as a budding student comedian and his political journey thereafter.


 This review from the Scotsman captures the show and its mesmeric effect on the audience

For the most part, though, it’s just Mark Thomas, the audience, and the art that conceals art, as he tells his beautifully-paced and structured story of a quest to find a valued part of his own past that he is afraid he may just have invented, or mythologised. His point is that narrative is power; and that if there is to be any chance of fighting back against the dominant right-wing narratives of our time, then the stories told in the cause of a more humane and sustainable future had better be true. In what’s often called a “post-truth” culture, it’s an unfashionable view; but it gives Mark Thomas’s show a weight, a structural strength, and a passionate humanity that surpasses most other work on the Fringe by a long Yorkshire mile, and has many members of the audience wiping away tears, as the story finally reaches journey’s end.

Read more at: http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/culture/theatre/theatre-review-mark-thomas-the-red-shed-1-4204269

 In this video Mark Thomas gives his take on the Artists For Palestine UK display advertising the arrest of Palestinian Poet Dareen Tatour for writing a Poem against the ills of the Occupation and Settler Colonialism.

For the most part, though, it’s just Mark Thomas, the audience, and the art that conceals art, as he tells his beautifully-paced and structured story of a quest to find a valued part of his own past that he is afraid he may just have invented, or mythologised. His point is that narrative is power; and that if there is to be any chance of fighting back against the dominant right-wing narratives of our time, then the stories told in the cause of a more humane and sustainable future had better be true. In what’s often called a “post-truth” culture, it’s an unfashionable view; but it gives Mark Thomas’s show a weight, a structural strength, and a passionate humanity that surpasses most other work on the Fringe by a long Yorkshire mile, and has many members of the audience wiping away tears, as the story finally reaches journey’s end.

Read more at: http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/culture/theatre/theatre-review-mark-thomas-the-red-shed-1-4204269

For the most part, though, it’s just Mark Thomas, the audience, and the art that conceals art, as he tells his beautifully-paced and structured story of a quest to find a valued part of his own past that he is afraid he may just have invented, or mythologised. His point is that narrative is power; and that if there is to be any chance of fighting back against the dominant right-wing narratives of our time, then the stories told in the cause of a more humane and sustainable future had better be true. In what’s often called a “post-truth” culture, it’s an unfashionable view; but it gives Mark Thomas’s show a weight, a structural strength, and a passionate humanity that surpasses most other work on the Fringe by a long Yorkshire mile, and has many members of the audience wiping away tears, as the story finally reaches journey’s end.

Read more at: http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/culture/theatre/theatre-review-mark-thomas-the-red-shed-1-4204269

For the most part, though, it’s just Mark Thomas, the audience, and the art that conceals art, as he tells his beautifully-paced and structured story of a quest to find a valued part of his own past that he is afraid he may just have invented, or mythologised. His point is that narrative is power; and that if there is to be any chance of fighting back against the dominant right-wing narratives of our time, then the stories told in the cause of a more humane and sustainable future had better be true. In what’s often called a “post-truth” culture, it’s an unfashionable view; but it gives Mark Thomas’s show a weight, a structural strength, and a passionate humanity that surpasses most other work on the Fringe by a long Yorkshire mile, and has many members of the audience wiping away tears, as the story finally reaches journey’s end.

Read more at: http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/culture/theatre/theatre-review-mark-thomas-the-red-shed-1-4204269

For the most part, though, it’s just Mark Thomas, the audience, and the art that conceals art, as he tells his beautifully-paced and structured story of a quest to find a valued part of his own past that he is afraid he may just have invented, or mythologised. His point is that narrative is power; and that if there is to be any chance of fighting back against the dominant right-wing narratives of our time, then the stories told in the cause of a more humane and sustainable future had better be true. In what’s often called a “post-truth” culture, it’s an unfashionable view; but it gives Mark Thomas’s show a weight, a structural strength, and a passionate humanity that surpasses most other work on the Fringe by a long Yorkshire mile, and has many members of the audience wiping away tears, as the story finally reaches journey’s end.

Read more at: http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/culture/theatre/theatre-review-mark-thomas-the-red-shed-1-4204269

Alexei Sayle, Dave Allen and the Yorkshire playwright Trevor Griffiths were early influences on his political consciousness and his desire to entertain. “I saw the play Comedians by Trevor Griffiths on TV in which he discusses working class life and working class politics. I thought he was an absolute genius, and it was a sketch by Dave Allen that my dad used to explain to me how apartheid works. I declared myself an atheist at 12, an anarchist at 16 and a Marxist at 18, I spent a year as a Trotskyist and then went back to being a Marxist again. I’ve always been an atheist though.”

Read more at: http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/comedian-mark-thomas-on-how-a-yorkshire-shed-gave-him-his-big-break-1-7719110

“I’m really proud of some of the things we achieved. We forced Nestlé to change their packaging on baby milk and exposed Labour politician Michael Meacher who was a buy-to-let landlord. In one episode we descended on Sellafield and set up our own exhibition in the visitor centre to highlight the fact that the local seagull droppings contained radioactive isotopes that could only have come from the nuclear power station. They were forced to admit liability and it cost them £1m to clean up their act.”

Read more at: http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/comedian-mark-thomas-on-how-a-yorkshire-shed-gave-him-his-big-break-1-7719110

“I’m really proud of some of the things we achieved. We forced Nestlé to change their packaging on baby milk and exposed Labour politician Michael Meacher who was a buy-to-let landlord. In one episode we descended on Sellafield and set up our own exhibition in the visitor centre to highlight the fact that the local seagull droppings contained radioactive isotopes that could only have come from the nuclear power station. They were forced to admit liability and it cost them £1m to clean up their act.”

Read more at: http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/comedian-mark-thomas-on-how-a-yorkshire-shed-gave-him-his-big-break-1-7719110

“I’m really proud of some of the things we achieved. We forced Nestlé to change their packaging on baby milk and exposed Labour politician Michael Meacher who was a buy-to-let landlord. In one episode we descended on Sellafield and set up our own exhibition in the visitor centre to highlight the fact that the local seagull droppings contained radioactive isotopes that could only have come from the nuclear power station. They were forced to admit liability and it cost them £1m to clean up their act.”

Read more at: http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/comedian-mark-thomas-on-how-a-yorkshire-shed-gave-him-his-big-break-1-7719110

“I’m really proud of some of the things we achieved. We forced Nestlé to change their packaging on baby milk and exposed Labour politician Michael Meacher who was a buy-to-let landlord. In one episode we descended on Sellafield and set up our own exhibition in the visitor centre to highlight the fact that the local seagull droppings contained radioactive isotopes that could only have come from the nuclear power station. They were forced to admit liability and it cost them £1m to clean up their act.”

Read more at: http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/comedian-mark-thomas-on-how-a-yorkshire-shed-gave-him-his-big-break-1-7719110

“I’m really proud of some of the things we achieved. We forced Nestlé to change their packaging on baby milk and exposed Labour politician Michael Meacher who was a buy-to-let landlord. In one episode we descended on Sellafield and set up our own exhibition in the visitor centre to highlight the fact that the local seagull droppings contained radioactive isotopes that could only have come from the nuclear power station. They were forced to admit liability and it cost them £1m to clean up their act.”

Read more at: http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/comedian-mark-thomas-on-how-a-yorkshire-shed-gave-him-his-big-break-1-7719110

“I’m really proud of some of the things we achieved. We forced Nestlé to change their packaging on baby milk and exposed Labour politician Michael Meacher who was a buy-to-let landlord. In one episode we descended on Sellafield and set up our own exhibition in the visitor centre to highlight the fact that the local seagull droppings contained radioactive isotopes that could only have come from the nuclear power station. They were forced to admit liability and it cost them £1m to clean up their act.”

Read more at: http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/comedian-mark-thomas-on-how-a-yorkshire-shed-gave-him-his-big-break-1-7719110

“I’m really proud of some of the things we achieved. We forced Nestlé to change their packaging on baby milk and exposed Labour politician Michael Meacher who was a buy-to-let landlord. In one episode we descended on Sellafield and set up our own exhibition in the visitor centre to highlight the fact that the local seagull droppings contained radioactive isotopes that could only have come from the nuclear power station. They were forced to admit liability and it cost them £1m to clean up their act.”

Read more at: http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/comedian-mark-thomas-on-how-a-yorkshire-shed-gave-him-his-big-break-1-7719110

NEIL YOUNG at the HYDRO GLASGOW

If you like guitars then you were not short-changed.

This review from The Herald captures the mood well , with fans in the comments section saying this was Neil Young at his very best.

The Guardian was full of high praise

"Enjoyment of the show’s final act is substantially contingent on an appreciation of protracted instrumentals, but whether you’re a fan of long-form cosmic gnarl or not, you’ve got to agree that nobody does it quite like Young. Come a 15-minute Love and Only Love he’s lost in his own fretboard in front of 13,000 people, deafeningly coaxing out the final chord longer than entire songs had lasted in the show’s opening phase. After that it’s approving dad hugs all round for the band, and a short time later, a curfew-busting encore of Fuckin’ Up – a tractor-strength reminder why every generation that values howling riffs and angry dissent will find inspiration in Young’s evergreen natural anthems."

The songs ive picked are because the recordings were taken from very near where i was.
After The Garden:


Fuckin Up:

Down By The River:

You can get more songs from this link to the concert

SHALL ROGER CASEMENT HANG?

This play was part of the commemorations for the centenary of the Easter Rising in Ireland in 1916 , Roger Casement was very much a solid establishment member who one would expect to be loyal beyond the call to the British Empire , yet he played  a role in the events to grant freedom and Independence for an Irish Free state.

This review from The Scotsman gives a succinct accurate appraisal.
In an odd reflection of the British Empire as a system at work the voices we hear are of a Scotsman , an Ulsterman and a Welshman in the form of the interrogator , policeman who makes the arrest and a compassionate gaoler.

This Herald Review looks into the psychological nuances between the protagonists

"While Casement's interrogation by hard-nosed Scotsman Captain Hall is initially respectful, as played by Stephen Clyde with grim-faced politesse, good cop turns bad the next day as Casement's secret life is unearthed. Benny Young invests a seasoned hang-dog gravitas to Casement's exchanges with Hall, even as Hall compares him to Oscar Wilde, another sexual rebel “evangelical of art, Ireland and buggery,” as he puts it. Over eighty-minutes of cut and thrust punctuated by flashbacks that sees each scene captioned as a misplaced file might be, Arnott gets to the core of both men with forensic insight in this most intimate of psychological thrillers."

This documentary looks into the life and times of Casement and his background and motivations including his trips to The Congo and Peru.

YES at THE ROYAL CONCERT HALL GLASGOW

Drama was one my favourite Yes albums , one that gave them longevity when it looked they may disappear into a lost haze of 70s music without making the jump into being a current progressive band with life into the 80s and beyond.

This is Machine Messiah from the opening concert of the European Tour


I read in a biography nearly 30 years ago they always meant to do an extended version of "White Car" but never got round to it , in the concert they stuck to the original enigmatic 80 second version.

HAWKWIND AT THE ABC GLASGOW

Was really impressed , back to their heavy jazz blues with arabesque overtones , no thrills , no gimmicks , no distractions making Dave Brock guitar the centre of attraction.
Also like they never done silver machine which Ive always found a naff song.
The bass player Haz Wheaton was immense.

Check out the jamming on this video:




And as the comment in this video says - what a tune

ENDGAME at the CITIZENS THEATRE

An unobtrusive spare set greeted the audience , always a good sign because it allows the dialogue to rightly take the centre-stage.
In the video below the actors give their take on the play and what its main themes are.


This short piece in The Herald gives a good precise synopsis of the play and the production.

"WHERE Waiting for Godot is a play that can't begin, Endgame is a play that can't finish. The two amount to pretty much the same thing, a wry comment on the futility of existence performed as a wry comment on the futility of theatre. The irony is that the
deeper these plays sink into life's meaningless void, the more life-affirming they become."

Sitting in front of me (one seat removed) was a Friend that is a playwright herself and has seen many productions of the play , she was too busy dropping newspapers which the guy next to me had to retrieve from under her seat whilst i was too busy being in the zone that one has to be in order to decipher what the hell you have just watched on stage when attending Beckett.The production in the video below is her all time favourite.

THE LENINGRAD ALBUM at the MITCHELL LIBRARY

During the siege of Leningrad which lasted nearly 900 days and resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands civilians the People of Leningrad still managed in all these deprivations an album of thanks to the Scottish ( especially Airdrie and Coatbridge) People , the Album sent from Scotland gave to the starving and besieged civilians, according to a Leningrad headmistress " ... the unexpected gift gave them a chance to convince themselves, by demonstrating to others, that without food for their bodies, they could satisfy, through their own efforts, the hunger of their soul for beauty and art and harmony between nations."

You can get a fuller story in this article by a descendant of one the founding figures in getting the album of hope to the besieged city of Leningrad Wilma Stark.

"They trudged round the whole district, even during the blackout, collecting over 6,000 signatures - many more would have been collected but they only had a very short time-scale in which to gather the messages and signatures. They had to get them to London, and thereafter, they hoped, to Leningrad. With great care these signatures and messages were pasted into the pages of an album.
Margaret Plant designed the cover and decorated it with the local Buchanan Tartan, and lines from Burns' 'A Man's a Man for a' That'.
A deputation of housewives including Agnes Maxwell took the album to London and handed it over to the Soviet Embassy.
In 1988 the 'Dear Allies' book, written by Margaret Henderson was published by Monklands District Libraries. In this book Harry Walker spoke of the feelings of all those involved at that time in 1941... "We half-hoped that we would have some acknowledgement just to know that it had reached its destination."
In June 1942 a telegram was delivered to Agnes Maxwell, in Park Crescent, Airdrie. It confirmed that against all odds, the Scots Album had arrived.
Harry Walker remembered, "It was a miracle... It was unbelievable that women struggling with hunger and disease, and face to face with death, should find time to respond to our pledge of solidarity and admiration. The telegram was passed around with much gasping of disbelief, and weeping for joy."

 This article goes into more details about how the Woman of Airdrie worked tirelessly to gather signatures under a very tight timescale to send from Scotland to Leningrad.

"The late Harry Walker attended the committee meeting on that auspicious evening :

.“The eyes of the world were on Leningrad. We were all aware of the tremendous contribution of women volunteers defending the city, night and day, against the fascist forces.We had a large and enthusiastic women’s section in the Russia Today Society. All the women were deeply affected by what they had been hearing about Leningrad. They were desperately anxious to do something to feel part of the vast struggle that was taking place. The plight of Leningrad was the sole topic of discussion at that meeting. We agreed to act immediately, for we could not know how long the besieged city would hold out, the situation was so grave. We decided that a collection of women’s signatures should be made in both Airdrie and Coatbridge and somehow sent to the women of Leningrad with a message conveying our admiration and feelings of solidarity.”

You can see a 2 minute and 20 sec video news report from the BBC about the Leningrad Album in the link

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