Art

Victorious Festival 2025 Day 3 starring Melanie C, Kings Of Leon, Craig David & She’s Got Brass

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Carron Stacey, A Humdrum Mum

WHEN?: Sunday 24 August 2025 (press ticket)

The sun kindly shone on the only UK seaside festival the whole weekend. We all remember the fun we had in the torrential rain during that Prodigy set back in 2018, but it certainly helps when it’s dry. I’m sure I had white Birkenstocks when I went on Friday, but the dust has turned everything brown. 

  • Read on for reasons including Craig David, Kings of Leon, Melanie C and She’s Got Brass
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Victorious Festival 2025 Day 2 starring Shed Seven, Utah Saints, Public Service Broadcasting, The Pill & Betty Boo

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Carron Stacey, A Humdrum Mum

WHEN?: Saturday 23 August 2025 (press ticket)

In our attempt to fill the sad Welly gap, before we realised that Hot Wax were possibly the new best thing, we knew The Pill, who opened the Common Stage today, were a cert. We’d seen them support Welly in Southampton earlier this year, and we could see and sense the potential.

  • Read on for reasons including Shed Seven, Utah Saints, Public Service Broadcasting & Betty Boo
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THEATRE REVIEW: Good Night, Oscar starring Sean Hayes at the Barbican Centre

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: *****

WHEN? Friday 1 August, opens 6 August and runs through 21 September 2025 RUNTIME: 100 minutes (no interval)

Sean Hayes won the 2023 Best Actor Tony for this portrayal of comedian and pianist Oscar Levant and here makes his London debut in a show which takes a peek behind the curtain of the exploitation of mental illness for entertainment.

  • Read on for reasons including how Good Night, Oscar proves darkly comic, hugely thought-provoking and ultimately extremely moving
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GIG REVIEW: Culture Club & Heather Small at Uptown Festival, Blackheath

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

WHEN?: Sunday 27 July 2025, Uptown Festival at Blackheath

Song Three Lions was played as the Lionesses won the Euros on penalties shortly before former M People frontwoman Heather Small took to the stage.

  • Read on for reasons including Roachford, Johnny Hates Jazz & Jaki Graham
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SONG OF THE WEEK: Jellyfish by Sigrid (week beginning Saturday 19 July 2025)

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

Jellyfish is the sound of schools breaking up for summer, lotion lathered on lazy sunbathers and the moon lighting the way home after a giddy evening.

  • Read on for reasons including how Jellyfish is ridiculous, oddly threatening and perhaps even occasionally suggesting of asexuality
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GIG REVIEW: Duran Duran at Chelmsford Racecourse

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Carron Stacey, A Humdrum Mum

WHEN?: Saturday 5 July, tour runs through 31 October 2025

This is the sixth time we’ve seen Duran Duran and in a nutshell, we think they’re better off at their own arena tours, rather than festivals, and better off outdoors, so last night was just perfect.

  • Read on for reasons including how life can’t get much better than this
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GIG REVIEW: Pulp at The 02

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Neil Durham

WHEN?: Friday 13 June 2025, tour runs through 26 September 2025

WORTH A LOOK?: *****

Setlist: Spike Island; Grown Ups; Slow Jam; Sorted For Es and Whizz; Disco 2000; F.E.E.L.I.N.G.C.A.L.L.E.D.L.O.V.E; Tina; Help The Aged; Farmers’ Market; This Is Hardcore; Sunrise; Something Changed; The Fear; O.U. (Gone Gone); Party Hard; Acrylic Afternoons; Do You Remember The First Time?; Mis-Shapes; Got To Have Love; Babies; Common People; A Sunset

Tonight Pulp discover shortly before taking the stage at this arena for the 1st time that More, their 1st new album for 24 years, is their 3rd UK charttopper, their 1st since 1998’s This Is Hardcore.

  • Read on for reasons including how this is pop’s greatest resurrection of the year
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SONG OF THE WEEK: Glad by Saint Etienne (week beginning Thursday 12 June 2025)

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

Saint Etienne’s best single since their 2012 run of Tonight and I’ve Got Your Music finds them collaborating with the Chemical Brothers and returning to the dancefloor with a bang.

  • Read on for reasons including how new album International will be the band’s last
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THEATRE REVIEW: Radiant Boy: A Haunting at Southwark Playhouse Borough (The Little) starring Stuart Thompson & Renee Lamb

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: **** RUNTIME: 110 minutes (with interval)

WHEN?: Saturday 24 May (matinee), runs through 14 June 2025

Russell is a singing student with cropped bleached blond hair who returns to his north-east home in the 80s where his single mother calls the local priest to exorcise her son’s demons.

  • Read on for reasons including how this is truly shocking and 1 of the best new plays of the year
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GIG REVIEW: Scissor Sisters and Alison Goldfrapp at The 02

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: *****

WHEN?: Friday 23 May 2025, tour runs through 15 August 2025

AG Setlist: Ride A White Horse; Number 1; Dreaming; Believer; Find Xanadu; Reverberotic; Rocket; Ooh La La; Strict Machine; Fever

SS Setlist: Laura; Better Luck; She’s My Man; Tits On The Radio; I Can’t Decide; Lovers In The Back Seat; Running Out; Take Your Mama; Paul McCartney; Fire With Fire; Mary; It Can’t Come Quickly Enough; Sex And Violence; Any Which Way; Comfortably Numb; Invisible Light; Let’s Have A Kiki; I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’; Return To Oz; Filthy Gorgeous; Music Is The Victim

It’s the Friday night of a bank holiday weekend and we arrive at our seats early to see an extraordinary greatest hits support set from 1 of our favourite pop stars.

  • Read on for reasons including special guests Self Esteem and Sir Ian McKellen
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