WHEN?: Thursday 25 March 2021
We interview Dr Robert, lead singer of the Blow Monkeys, as the band prepares to release a new album and tickets for a tour to celebrate their 40th anniversary have gone on sale.
WORTH A LOOK?: ***1/2
OUT: 5 March 2021
TRACKLIST: Love Me Land; Talk About Love feat Young Thug; Need Someone; Right Here; WOW; Poster Girl; I Need Love; Look What You’ve Done; Ruin My Life; Stick With You; FFF; What Happens Here
We last saw Larsson live headlining at London’s Eventim Apollo in October 2017 and it is with a little surprise then that it has taken more than three-and-half years since to release this next album proper.
WORTH A LOOK?: ****
WHERE?: Le Crazy Coqs, Soho, London
WHEN? Friday 26 March 2021, available to 31 March 2021
HOW TO WATCH?: via Fane Productions, tickets RUNTIME: 60 minutes
Terera won an Olivier Award in 2018 for Hamilton and we know all about his West End pedigree thanks to seeing him in shows as diverse as Rosmersholm (Duke Of York’s), Pure Imagination (Other Palace) and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (National Theatre).
WORTH A LOOK?: ****
HOW TO WATCH: Digitally until 4/4/21 at Stream Theatre, tickets
RUNTIME: 85 minutes (without interval)
One of the joys of lockdown has been watching Marisha Wallace’s star rise with her home gig, debut album and now this plum role in a little-known musical we were already familiar with.
It’s not easy being a band with a 40-year history that wants to write new material when the fans are familiar with hits as glorious as Digging Your Scene, It Doesn’t Have To Be This Way and Wait. The trick is to write material as memorable as the songs that broke you and the Blow Monkeys played a blinder with Time Storm, a song of the week for us last year. The follow-up More Than A Miracle out 16/4/21 is in a similar vein, doesn’t disappoint and sits well with the best of the band’s back catalogue. Album Journey To You follows in September. Tickets are on sale for UK dates in October including a London gig at 229. Read our interview with Dr Robert on this site in April.
WORTH A LOOK?: ***1/2
WHERE?: Digital production 20 March 2021
HOW TO WATCH: Screening online 16-31 March 2021. UPDATE: Now available to 17 April 2021
You probably recognise Fionn Whitehead from Christopher Nolan’s Oscar-winning World War Two film Dunkirk but we last saw him onstage at the Old Vic in Queers.
WORTH A LOOK?: *****
OUT: 13 March 2021
The question of how the unofficial winner of the 2020 Eurovision-that-never-was would follow up his beloved entry was on the lips of all ESC fans immediately after it was announced by Icelandic broadcaster RUV that Daði Freyr and his band Gagnamagnið would return to represent the country in 2021.
WORTH A LOOK?: ****
WHERE?: Cadogan Hall, central London
WHEN?: 13 March 2021 (matinee), final show 14 March 2021
Fireworks? Or bonfire bound? Treason – The Musical is still in development and this concert version is performed brilliantly and shows many sparks of potential.
Covid-19 and the lockdowns that have followed in its wake have meant gig-going has been impossible for most but the arrival of vaccines mean our chances of live concerts this summer are increasing.
WORTH A LOOK?: *****
OUT: 27/2/21
Dotter, real name Johanna Maria Jansson, has written 2 of the most impressive singles of the last 12 months bringing to mind Florence and the Machine with Bulletproof and now Robyn.
monstagigz 