GIG REVIEW: Nile Rodgers and Chic at BST Hyde Park

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Neil Durham and Carron Stacey, A Humdrum Mum

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

WHEN?: Sunday 11 July 2022, tour runs to 23 September 2022

SETLIST: Chic Cheer; Dance Dance Dance; Everybody Dance; I Want Your Love; I’m Coming Out/Upside Down; He’s The Greatest Dancer/We Are Family; Like A Virgin/Material Girl; Modern Love; Spacer; Lost In Music; Thinking Of You; My Feet Keep Dancing; Get Lucky; My Forbidden Lover; Let’s Dance; Le Freak; Good Times/Under Pressure/Rapper’s Delight

Duran Duran frontman Simon Le Bon credits guitarist Rodgers with saving the group in the 80s as he joins the band to play songs he collaborated on them with.

  • Read on for reasons including Rodgers’ thoughts on Madonna whose Like A Virgin album he produced
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GIG REVIEW: Let’s Rock Southampton starring Thompson Twins’ Tom Bailey

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Carron Stacey, A Humdrum Mum

WHEN?: Saturday 9 July 2022

Five surprises of the day: 1. Hearing Urban Cookie Collective play The Key: The Secret live during the Megamix section. Singer Danielle Barnett is also a life coach and public speaker!

  • Read on for reasons including Nick Heyward, Bad Manners and Scritti Politti
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GIG REVIEW: Duran Duran at BST Hyde Park

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Carron Stacey, A Humdrum Mum

WHEN?: Sunday 10 July 2022, touring until 11 September 2022

SETLIST: Wild Boys; Invisible; All Of You; View To A Kill; Notorious; Pressure Off; Union Of The Snake; Come Undone; Give It All Up; Hungry Like The Wolf; Friends Of Mine; Ordinary World; Tonight United; Planet Earth; Hold Back the Rain; The Reflex; White Lines; Girls On Film/Acceptable In The 80s; Save A Prayer; Rio

A lifelong Durannie. I mostly only sing along to the first two albums, plus a few extras I like. Yes, I’m one of those fans.

  • Read on for reasons including how Duran Duran are more acceptable now than they were in the 80s
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THEATRE REVIEW: Anything Goes starring Kerry Ellis, Denis Lawson, Simon Callow & Bonnie Langford at the Barbican

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Aline Mahrud

WORTH A LOOK?: ****1/2

WHEN?: Saturday 9 July (matinee), runs to 3 September 2022 RUNTIME: 160 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)

There’s a seemingly unscripted moment at the final curtain call when Bonnie Langford completes the highest kick of the show, with her leg above her head, that makes you think about what could have been.

  • Read on for reasons including how this show is still ‘just the kick London needs to help it as theatres re-open’
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THEATRE REVIEW: Unfortunate: The Untold Story Of Ursula The Sea Witch at the Underbelly Festival

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Aline Mahrud

WORTH A LOOK?: **** RUNTIME: 140 minutes (including 20-minute interval)

WHEN?: Sunday 3 July (matinee), running to 16 July 2022. Goes to Edinburgh Festival before a UK tour. UPDATE: Transfers to Southwark Playhouse and runs through 8 December to 17 February 2024 Tickets

Take the villainess from Disney’s Little Mermaid, pepper her backstory with feminist credentials and you have this part-parody new musical with some hugely memorable songs.

  • Read on for reasons including how to see this new musical around the UK this year
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GIG REVIEW: Tears For Fears at 02 Shepherd’s Bush Empire

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Aline Mahrud

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

WHEN?: Monday 4 July, touring until 18 September 2022

SETLIST: No Small Thing; The Tipping Point; Everybody Wants To Rule The World; Secret World; Sowing The Seeds Of Love; Long, Long, Long Time; Break The Man; My Demons; Rivers Of Mercy; Mad World; Suffer The Children; Woman In Chains; Badman’s Song; Pale Shelter; Break It Down Again; Head Over Heels/Broken; Change; Shout

‘Funny how – time flies.’ The last time Tears For Fears played in Shepherd’s Bush in south-west London it was to mime to the edit of single Sowing The Seeds Of Love in 1989 for BBC1’s Wogan.

  • Read on for reasons including how the band should release a new album more quickly than in 18 years’ time
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THEATRE REVIEW: The Seagull starring Emilia Clarke, Daniel Monks & Indira Varma at the Harold Pinter Theatre

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Aline Mahrud

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

WHEN?: Saturday 2 July, running to 10 September 2022

Game Of Thrones goes Chekhov in this long-awaited Jamie Lloyd adaptation featuring the West End debut of Emilia Clarke (Daenerys Targaryen) alongside fellow GoT star Indira Varma (Ellaria Sand).

  • Read on for reasons including how this is a modest choice of a role for the Mother of Dragons
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ALBUM OF THE MONTH: Bunny Mode by Jaguar Jonze (June 2022)

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

TRACKLIST: Know My Name; Who Died And Made You King; Swallow; Drawing Lines; Trigger Happy; Loud; Little Fires; Cut; Not Yours; Man-made Monster

Little Fires was the jury winner in this year’s Eurovision selection show Australia Decides and it was our pick too thanks to its Beatles/Radiohead vibe springing into uptempo angst.

  • Read on for reasons including how this is good enough to find an international audience
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PREVIEW: 9 acts we’re most looking forward to at Glastonbury Festival 2022

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

  1. Diana Ross (Pyramid Stage 4 to 5.15pm Sunday

Her Thank You Tour is currently making its way around the UK with a setlist including I’m Coming Out, Baby Love, Stop! In The Name Of Love, You Can’t Hurry Love, Chain Reaction, Upside Down and Why Do Fools Fall In Love? This is promising to be a legends slot to remember for many years to come.

  • Read on for reasons including Pet Shop Boys, Years and Years and Wet Leg
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