Bill Bailey

Bill Bailey has a quite unique talent. As a pure stand-up comic he would good enough. But he is also a talented musician. Not just in the way Tim Minchin is, in being able to craft comic songs and play an instrument. Bill Bailey, it seems can play everything, as a glance at the instrument strewn stage would prove.  But its also the way he can weave all this into his act, with dub step versions church music for example, that really show off his talent.

A great performer to take kids to as well, although they may lose some of the cultural references to a past age (I was going to say like to Abba, but Abba has of course continued to find new audiences). But he doesn't swear and doesn't do sex either. (Well he might in private, but you know what I mean.)

I will definitely go again when next he tours (I have seen him twice before so I know what to expect, and that I won't be disappointed).

Great Expectations

This new film of the Dickens classic has of course got a lot to live up to. There are plenty of other versions. because of course its a very good story. Part of its fascination to a modern audience is that it shines a light on Victorian London, like of course much of the rest of Dickens' works. Hence not just their enduring popularity, but even their increasing popularity.

And yes this version was well worth doing with an impressive star studded cast including Robbie Coltrane, Ralph Fiennes and Helena-Bonham Carter. But the Irving brothers whom I had never come across before, as the young and older Pips were also both perfectly cast. Cinematography was great too. Don't listen to the dodgy reviews - they are decidedly snobbish and mostly the reviewers feel the need to show off that they have seen other versions and read the book. They say more about the reviewer than the film. Well worth seeing, even after a long day in the office.

Indeed my first visit to the new Barbican cinemas. Very nice and comfortable with an attractive cafe (albeit with direly slow service).

Old Money

Slightly disappointing play. Not a bad evening by any means, but the theme has been done before. Widow suddenly able to do what she has always wanted having been released by the death of husband, having been suffocated all her life by mother, husband and children. But this just didn't ever feel true. I know its fiction, but you still sort of want to believe in it. Probably not the best role Maureen Lipman has ever had.

Elbow at the O2

I can't easily express how much I enjoy seeing Elbow. It is probably a better experience than watching any other band. Musically they have so much to offer from melancholy ballads like I Leaned on you Tonight or my favourite, Fugitive Motel (played for the first time at a gig I have attended - I have only got used to it from their most wistful album, Cast of Thousands) to real anthems like One Day Like This (with which they closed the encore. Its their equivalent of Hey Jude. The crowd would sing it all night given half the chance.)
On top of that you get Guy Garvey's personality. Relentlessly genial and humorous, its fun as well as everything else. You just can't help escaping in a ridiculously good mood. You ought to be able to get Elbow tickets on prescription. Far more effective than anti-depressants. One can even face the long haul home from the O2.

Keane at the O2

Friday night and I hauled myself all the way out to North Greenwich after work to see Keane. Even though a pain to get to, it is still an impressive sight. And interesting how something that was derided as a white elephant when the Dome, now it has been turned over to private enterprise as an entertainment centre rather than something that was meant to be educationally "improving" at the Millennium, it has become a great success.

This is the first time I have been to the O2 to find it as an all-seater venue, with the stage in the middle of the pitch as it were. I had a great view from pretty comfortable temporary seating  which was placed at one end over what would normally be the stage. As I say, it was perfectly comfortable, but you did feel just a slight tremor as every person walked up the steps to their seat, making one just ever so slightly queasy with motion sickness after an hour of it.

Support act were Wolfgang, sadly not a Kraut rock band from Germany, but a bnice bunch of young Londoners whose sound fitted in well with Keane, but without anything sufficiently distinctive to mark them out.

But the all-seater job probably worked for their demographic. It is rare for me to go to a gig and not feel out of place, but here I was with my generation, plenty of bald heads and wrinkles. Which is odd as they are not an old band, but just appeal to an older age group than their own. Much as I love Keane and Tom Chaplin's fine voice (backed occasionally by his much more limited ability with a guitar), they just aren't very rock 'n' roll. And despite 4 good albums, including their latest, Strangeland, I can't help feeling that their best by far was their first, Hopes & Fears. Its songs from that which really get the crowd going. I will continue going to see them, even though I would prefer to go to a smaller venue (and stand), but I think its a shame they don't seem to appeal to the youth of today. But if you are going to play the O2 and make it all-seater, then its just us oldies who are going to come.