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Category: Review

  • THEATRE REVIEW |Thriller Live – Sheffield Theatres And National Tour

    ★★★★ | Thriller Live.

    A spectacular two-hour tribute to Michael Jackson which celebrates the music, dancing and performances of the entertainer, via a whistle stop tour through his back catalogue. This highly polished and slick show brings to life some of Jackson’s most memorable routines, the iconic costumes and the classic hits.

    This show was much more than just two hours of a Michael Jackson impersonator with a few backing dancers. It was a glossy and thoroughly entertaining musical revue with a broad range of songs spanning the singer’s career which were performed with unyielding vigour and energetic enthusiasm by the cast and live band.

    The 32 song set list started with the early Mowtown years, featuring ABC, I Want You Back and I’ll Be There; moves through the years with the Jackson 5; with Can You Feel It and Blame It On The Boogie; before heading into his solo career with some of his biggest hits including Off The Wall, Bad, Beat It, and The Way You Make Me Feel. The show also features some of Jackson’s lesser-known songs, including She’s Out Of My Life, Show You The Way To Go and Dangerous and it was good to see some routines to the songs that you wouldn’t immediately associate with Jackson over his biggest hits.  Only Earth Song and Dirty Diana let the side down, with both descending into a bit of an overblown and indecipherable mess, but these are easily forgivable when nestled amongst the other great songs and performances.

    Particular highlights of the show included music video recreations of both Smooth Criminal and Thriller, great renditions of Man In The Mirror and I Just Can’t Stop Loving You and a thrilling recreation of the Mowtown 25 performance of Billie Jean, but in a show with so many show-stopping moments, highlights are difficult to choose.

    Featuring a quartet of singers who put their own spin on the vocals, avoiding them coming across as MJ impersonators, the standard of singing was very high, whilst the choreography and dancing were simply amazing. Cleverly utilising many of the routines (or elements of them) from the original music videos or stage performances of Michael Jackson, the dancers were spot on in terms of their timing and performance , with their acrobatic and exhilarating dance moves eliciting cheers, whoops and shouts of delight from the audience. Regardless of the controversy surrounding his life, Michael Jackson’s enduring appeal undoubtedly remains, and this is a show which ignores the singers private life to celebrate his musical legacy in a foot tapping, smile-inducing show which you can’t help singing along to; and a production which had people, quite literally, dancing in the aisles.

    Even if you are not the biggest fan of Michael Jackson, there is still a lot to recommend this show. Obviously, enjoying the music is an advantage, but if you enjoy watching spectacular dancing and a well performed musical revue then this show is up there with the best of them. Thankfully, this is not a gushing, Michael Jackson praise-fest, but instead simply allows a bunch of highly talented singers, dancers and musicians to let the songs and routines speak for themselves.

    Thriller Live is currently at Sheffield Theatres before continuing on its national tour until 23rd July 2016. For details visit www.thrillerlive.com

  • Madrid Pride Roundup

    Madrid Pride. It’s one of, if not the, largest Pride events in Europe. Visited by around 2 million people every year, this week long festival is jam packed full of amazing parties, events, street festivals and a parade that will knock the socks of anyone game enough to visit. Known as Orgullo (Spanish for Pride), the whole event is open to, and greatly visited by, people from all walks of life, so finding your LGBT+ brothers and sisters may be a little trickier earlier in the festival.

    Madrid Pride
    CREDIT: Aaron Holloway

    Not only is the Main Parade on Saturday afternoon at 6pm, the WE Party festival begins a few days earlier and provides a mega-gay party event every day until the end of the festival. For those who aren’t into the massive man-flesh crush that is a circuit festival – and I know you’re out there – the City of Madrid offered a complete week of events and live music concerts and DJ’s to keep you dancing until the early hours of morning.

    Madrid Pride
    Aaron Holloway

    Our week began with a short trip from the airport to Madrid centre which is easily accessible by a combination of the Metro (40+ mins) or the Metro and the TVL train (20+ mins). The tickets are available in cards of ten, and you’ll need to buy an airport pass for a few euro extra per person when you leave the airport on the metro. Exact fares and combinations available alter depending on if you’re arriving to T 1-3, or T4, but the trip takes about 30 minutes, and costs less than 5€ each way.

    Once in town, we had a cosy little apartment looking over Placa del Sol, which is a main meeting point, tourist hub and metro/highspeed rail station. From Sol it’s a short walk up the affectionately named ‘Hooker Street’, which is lined with women asking you to dine in her restaurant, or men and women, offering more intimate nights out, towards Chueca which is the main gay area of the city. Not that during Pride it’s easy to tell the gay areas from the non-gay areas: pride flags fly from almost every balcony, shop window, store front, stores have ‘pride sales’, and seeming pop-up-stores appear out of nowhere to sell ‘minis’, which are basically 700ml cups of mojito or sangria. No one seems to know why they’re called minis – it’s just a Madrid thing.

    Madrid Pride
    Aaron Holloway
    Madrid Pride
    Aaron Holloway
    Madrid Pride
    Aaron Holloway

    All around Chueca you can find singing, dancing, music, and people relaxing and drinking, and generally having a good time. It’s here that you can find tiny little bars that will sell you a beer for 6€ and also give you a plate of tapas for free – each new beer brings a new plate – it can be a very cheap way to eat out on some local(ish) specialties. Speaking of specialties, *the* thing to eat in Madrid is calamari on a baguette, and the best place to have it, is a cute little diner called The Little Bell. It seems to be almost all they serve, and is literally deep-fried calamari on a short baguette bread. It’s wonderfully delicious if not a little strange. As my friend Matt commented: ‘How is seafood a specialty in a city in the middle of Spain?’ While we’re on food, traditional Madrid food is a wonderful mix of seafood and meat. Dishes are covered more in oil than not, and if you want a salad with your plate of meat, make sure you order a side salad, or you might literally get a quarter of a tomato as your salad. It seemed to me that the lovely Spaniards aren’t big on ‘healthy’ eating.

    Aaron Holloway
    Aaron Holloway
    Aaron Holloway
    Aaron Holloway

    Despite the seemingly unhealthy food, the Spaniards are generally a very attractive people. And the Pride parade gives them ample opportunity to show it all off. The parade starts at 6pm, so that it’s not too hot, although when we arrived to watch at about 8pm, the local firefighters were hosing down the crowd with the truck hoses. Unfortunately they were all fully dressed. The crowd on the other hand, not so much. While some people just went shirtless, others came in costumes of all kinds, rainbows were flying from every visible hand, surface, tree, and body. They even had a massive rainbow flag draped over the Madrid Town Hall from top to bottom in the first time in the parade’s history. The parade made its way slowly down the street past a water fountain lit in rainbow colours, towards the Town Hall, where a massive stage had been set up to provide a live band and an all-night party to entertain the crowd for hours. One of the interesting things about the Madrid pride is that it is not only frequented by Madrid’s gay population, but also by other members of the general community, bringing families and friends together to enjoy the celebration of individual expression and acceptance that embodies the modern pride parade era.

    Madrid Pride
    CREDIT: Aaron Holloway
    Madrid Pride
    CREDIT: Aaron Holloway

    Madrid Pride

    ADVERT

    [adinserter block=”1″]

    The Madrid pride festival runs for a week at the beginning of July each year. Dates vary from year to year, the parade is always on the Saturday at the end of the festival beginning at 6pm. Nightly free street festivals and concerts are presented by the City of Madrid free of charge at various sites around the city.

    Madrid Pride
    Aaron Holloway
    Madrid Pride
    Aaron Holloway
    Madrid Pride
    Aaron Holloway
    Madrid Pride
    Aaron Holloway
    Madrid Pride
    Aaron Holloway
    Madrid Pride
    Aaron Holloway

    Madrid is serviced by all major airlines from cities across the UK and Europe.

  • THEATRE REVIEW | Into The Hoods: Remixed, National Tour

    ★★★★ | In The Hoods: Remixed

    Two children are lost on the Ruff Endz Estate and in exchange for a bus ticket home; they agree to help The Landlord, who sends them out on a quest to find the gifts he wants to give his daughter for her 18th birthday.

    Their search, to find an iPhone as white as milk, a hoodie as red as blood, weave as yellow as corn and trainers as pure as gold, leads them on an adventure with the residents of Beanstalk Towers. Spinderella, wants to DJ at the ball, Lil Red has just signed a recording deal with Wolf, of Big Teef Records, Jaxx lives in the basement and is trying to avoid eviction and Rap-en-Zel will do anything to escape her room.

    In this hip-hop, street-dance fairy-tale, the story is little more than an excuse for some spectacular choreography, made up of routines laced with humour and character. There are some superb set pieces, nowhere more evident than in the 70’s style afro-tastic party of the local gangster and the explosion of break-dancing pensioners in Grandma’s retirement home.

    Borrowing from the familiar fairy-tale stories which are re-written for the hip-hop generation, the show is incredibly well presented, made up of superb animated backdrop projections, clever lighting and simple division of the four intertwining stories by use of colour and character. The routines provide for clearly defined and detailed characters that come across solely by the use of dance and music; and Kate Prince’s confident direction is effective in conveying the narrative and bringing out the best in the ridiculously talented cast.

    Based loosely on the Stephen Sondheim musical, of a similar name, Into the Hoods: Remixed is a streetwise, mash up of music with a smart, sassy and humorous personality performed by a slick, polished and disciplined cast. With its use of snippets of a variety of songs from different genres and styles to tell the story, it has a hint of “Moulin Rouge” about it and an energy which falls somewhere between relentless and jaw dropping. Into The Hoods is both impressive and great fun, and you cannot help but be swept up by this very entertaining and vivacious production.

    Into the Hoods is currently on national tour until the 9th April 2016. Full details can be found on the show’s website at www.intothehoodsremixed.co.uk .

    Into the Hoods: Remixed was reviewed at Sheffield Theatres , who have recently launched their new season, which includes No Man’s Land starring Sir Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart.

  • CAR REVIEW | Mercedes-Benz CLA Shooting Break

    The Mercedes-Benz CLA Shooting Brake is a bit of a mixture. Based on the A-Class Hatchback, the normal CLA is a four-door saloon with the swooping roofline and dramatic looks you’d expect from a coupe. So what does the Shooting Brake bit mean? This is an old term that has come to mean an estate car that puts style on an equal level of importance to practicality. Think of it as a four-door coupe with room for a short dog.

    From the windscreen forward, you can clearly see the Shooting Brake is based on the A-Class; not necessarily a bad thing. From the windscreen back, the roof sweeps gently down as it approaches the tailgate which itself is heavily raked. Despite this and a narrow opening, there is a decent amount of space in the boot however back seat passengers may feel a little claustrophobic. Taller occupants in the rear may feel their head brushing against the roof too.

    Up front there are no complaints. Despite this being towards the lower end of the Mercedes range, fit and finish is excellent with everything laid out in a logical and easy to understand manner. Some may find the steering wheel column mounted stalk that controls the seven-speed automatic gearbox a little odd (it took some getting used too), but this is normal for Mercedes.

    Not only is the interior well put together, it’s a fantastic place to spend time in. Even after a few two hour journeys with plenty of traffic, I was still more than happy to jump back in the Shooting Brake. The infotainment system proved easy to use with its rotary controller although it could be a little slow to respond to inputs at times. The menus were clear and attractive while the sat-nav worked faultlessly though.

    A range of petrol and diesel engines are available but I decided to try the most powerful diesel, the 220 d. It’s the same size as the lower powered 200 d at 2.1 litres but here produces 175 bhp to give a brisk 0-62 time of 8.3 seconds. Coupled to a fast acting seven-speed auto, it felt a lot quicker than those numbers suggest. Not only was it quick, it proved capable of around 50mpg on a long trip if you were careful with the throttle.

    It was under gentle loads the diesel engine felt most at home. Should you demand hard acceleration, the gearbox could sometimes prove a little too keen to change down a few gears revealing a coarse edge to the diesel motor. It was pretty loud too. There was a ‘sport’ mode but this tended to leave the car in too low a gear which exacerbated the problem. In the end I just left it in ‘eco’ and enjoyed the low to mid-range torque rather than let the engine rev.

    As for the handling, the Shooting Brake cornered quickly with little roll but never felt like it was happy to be hustled along. Ride comfort was good on smooth motorways but elsewhere it was less impressive. Despite being fitted with the smallest available wheels, rough surfaces and big bumps caught the suspension out causing a rough ride. I would have happily traded some of that roll resistance in corners for a softer ride.

    There’s a lot to love about the CLA Shooting Brake. It’s a good looking take on the estate car while the interior really is quite special. That Mercedes could combine such potent performance with a lack of thirst is impressive too. Unfortunately, while I could live with the narrow boot opening and occasionally noisy engine, the tuning of the car’s suspension really lets it down. At nearly £31,000 before options, it’s also pretty expensive. Even so, I’d still be tempted.

     

    LOVES

    Looks

    Economy

    Cabin ambience

    LOATHES

    Expensive

    Noisy

    Crashy ride

    LOWDOWN

    Car – Mercedes-Benz CLA 220 Shooting Brake

    Price – £30,930

    Power – 175bhp

    0-62mph – 8.3 seconds

    Top Speed – 142mph

    Co2 – 108g/km

    Find out more at Mercedes-Benz

  • CAR REVIEW | Volvo V40

    ★★★★ | Volvo V40

    Your Personal Volvo Has Arrived.  And it’s almost autonomous!

    I took delivery of Volvo’s latest V40 R-Design Lux Nav and immediately liked what l was seeing. And then I wasn’t. For a V range model it wasn’t exactly versatile in load carrying space if you like to load the boot to the gunnels with flat pack furniture from Sweden’s best export company. The opening is too shallow in height for what is sold as an estate. Add to this the rear seats’ quick folding system with neat folding rear head restraints it still didn’t make the boot as big as you’d expect from Volvo. For those who love a Jack Russell the boot it’s perfect but don’t try and carry a greyhound. It all added up to a boot that was ok but not deep enough in height. Sometimes l feel Volvo should have introduced an H range for hatchback.

    On the road the 1.6 litre turbo is a wonder of smoothness and refinement. For the size of the engine it boasts a modest sounding 120 bhp but the lowdown torque of 280NM available from 1500 to 2250RPM makes driving a breeze. Either way for a lazy driver like l am most of the time or spirited when you need to be, it will satisfy all but the most ardent of boy racers out there. Trouble is the car likes to keep itself at 1500RPM. Not bad l suppose if you like economy but l found keeping it at 2000RPM made for a much better car with power more on tap when you needed extra oomph. This also added another problem to my 21-years of driving. Around town only the first 4 gears were needed. So high is 4th that 5th leaves you with gutless performance and 6th was a no go zone. On the open stretches 5th and 6th were acceptable but 6th was just too tall for use with the two cruise control systems unless you were going very fast.

    That’s right reader l did say two. One keeps you at the set speed regardless of how far the accelerator is pressed which is ideal on the motorways with cameras almost every 200 yards, while the other is called Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC). This fabulous system keeps you at a set distance and applies the brakes to slow you down if the car in front slows for any reason, returning to the set speed when it can. As naughty as it sounds it was brilliant in the fog keeping me at a safe distance from the car infant even when l struggled to see it clearly.

    The mere mention of the word Volvo and you instantly think of safety and acronyms. And there are plenty to be had because the V40 is buzzing like a rampant rabbit and all of its seven settings.

    Along with the aforementioned ACC, there is also DAC (Driver Alert Control) CTA (Cross Traffic Alert) and BLIS (Blind Spot Info System) At first the BLIS system annoyed , however, ts alert did prove handy for when cyclists would come up around you in traffic or motorbikes when on the move. Sadly the passenger’s side alert light was too far out of my peripheral vision. l didn’t quite have the balls to try out the full auto brake system but it did activate when a bus pulled out in front of me on a roundabout.

    It’s disconcerting at first and makes you wonder what else Volvo could do to better this? Well let us look at “lane assist”. It’s a great idea in principle but it does need further work if it is to save lives. While l understand that it is there as a secondary assist system it does get confused when the lines are not clear. When the lines are clearly picked up by the system, it will actively steer the car for you. The autonomous car is almost here!

    My daily commute of 40 miles, taking in some rough country roads, fast A roads and twisting hairpins did nothing to shake the fillings out of my teeth. You couldn’t say the ride was a compromise between sporty or soft because it soothed out the ruts where needed without sending jarring motions through the seat all whilst retaining total composure in the corners. For an everyday car that has to be everything from entertaining to drive to keeping the eggs needed for the soufflé in one piece I’d find it hard to beat. The V40 does handle well. Doing what it needs to, the electronic stability program feels all very non-health and safety or Volvo like for that matter. The ESP doing what it has to without causing a fuss or alerting you to its presence.

    The wellbeing promoted in the cabin is further enhanced by the ambient mood lighting. There were so many choices you get bored after a while trying to find the right one. It has all the colours of the rainbow! For me the eco facia theme and green ambient lights were to my liking giving it a touch of Avantgarde class and a sense of calmness.

    For decades Volvo have always sat just outside the mainstream in the various sectors they enter but the time has come for buyers to look across to Sweden because there is now a real contender to challenge the might of the Golf. At the end of my time with the V40 l still liked it and liked it a lot.

    Its relaxed driving environment promotes calmness that only citalopram can give you in today’s fast paced, high drama, must have it all now now now world that we live in. You wouldn’t mention the V40 in a Facebook status but given the option you would click a “like” for it.

    All this gushing has to have a down side, there were a few things l didn’t like. Save yourself £600 by not opting for the leather and all its trimmings. Personally it didn’t feel that great to the touch and had the look and felt of vinyl. And then there was the exposed front seat mounting bolts. This might sound a bit petty, however in a car costing as much as this and with the attention to detail that Volvo have lavished on its smallest offering, it is a tremendous let down. And then there was having to give it back. Now that was a sad day.

    Loves

    Safety devices

    Ease of driving

    Styling

    Loathes

    Lane assist a bit hit and miss

    Leather upholstery

    Boot opening

    Lowdown

    Car – Volvo V40 D2 Manual R-Design Lux Nav

    Price – £25,970 (£32,595 as tested)

    Combined MPG – &8.5 mpg

    Power – 120 bhp

    0-62mph – 10.5 seconds

    Top Speed – 118mph

    Co2 – 94g/km

  • THEATRE REVIEW | Beacons

    ★★★★ | Beacons

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  • HOTEL REVIEW: Hotel La Tour

    HOTEL REVIEW: Hotel La Tour

    If you’re planning a city break in Birmingham, then you should check out the modern design of the Hotel La Tour. ★★★★

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  • THEATRE REVIEW | Miss Atomic Bomb

    ★★ | Miss Atomic Bomb

    It’s a bomb that goes off during the production of ‘Miss Atomic Bomb.’ It’s not an actual bomb but a stink and sink bomb.

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  • FILM REVIEW | Marguerite

    FILM REVIEW | Marguerite

    ★★★★

    An aristocrat who thinks she can sing but really can’t is the new French film Marguerite.

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  • CAR REVIEW | Ford Fiesta Black Edition

    Firstly, the Ford Fiesta Black edition is almost exactly the same as the Red Edition, sparing opposite paint schemes. Whichever colour scheme you go for, they are both absolutely stunning cars. Evidently, as I own the Black Edition this is my favourite.

    The Fiesta Zetec S Black Edition has a bold, sculptured, aggressive look with contrast details that make sure you don’t get confused with any other Fiesta in the car park. Considering, since going on sale in 2008, the Fiesta has been the UK’s best selling car it is in no doubt that you need something to make you stand out. This special edition model composes the great styling of the standard Fiesta with a racy body kit, lowered suspension by 10mm, black 17” alloy wheels and red accents across the car from the grill surrounds, front splitter, mirror caps and roof all presented against Ford’s “Panther Black” paint. The Red Edition is exactly the same, sparing the paint scheme, where there is red it is black and where there is black there is red. The only other difference between the two is the price, the Black Edition is slightly more expensive then the red due to the black paint being a premium choice.

    The star piece of this car is the engine. In most other Fiesta models you can choose boring petrol or diesel engines, which are pretty standard, and nothing special. What is special, is Ford’s 1litre turbos, the “Ecoboost” engines. The standard 1litre turbo gives of an impressive 98bhp – nothing to scoff at. However, Ford have made the engine for the Black Edition pump out an amazing 138bhp, and what a sweet engine it it. Considering how small the engine is it loves to rev, makes a gorgeous thrumming noise and is pretty rapid.

    The Black Edition is almost the same as the standard Zetec, however, here we get some red accents throughout the cabin.

    Where the Black Edition is let down, as with all Fiestas, is the infotainment system, which is immensely dated and aged, where most rivalling cars get a colour touch screen Ford offers a rather analogue looking display, with lots of buttons.

    Another overlook on the Fiesta are the materials. Some of the plastics do feel cheap and scratchy, however considering that the Fiesta is churned out in obscene amounts we have to give credit were it’s due.

    The technology is very good. Considering the look of the bad infotainment system it does fairly well. There’s voice commands to control some of the functions as well as Bluetooth connectivity which lets you make calls, have texts read out, stream music and the car even calls the emergency services for you if you have an accident.

    Other features, which you’ll love to test are the hill hold assist, which holds the car for you for three seconds to allow you to move off without juggling controls and rolling back. The start/stop technology, helps to keep this car’s CO2 emissions low. This feature can be turned off via a button on the dashboard.

    For concerned parents, this Fiesta also comes with “My Key” which allows restrictions to be put on for anyone driving with the spare key. You get two keys, the master and the spare, with the master in the ignition you can set restrictions such as speeds and volume for the audio, it even tells you how many miles have driven with the key. As optional extras on the car you can have rear privacy glass, auto wipers and lights, rear parking sensors, heated seats, cruise control, automatic climate control, and active city stop. So this can be a car for anyone.

    The Black Edition sits in the range between the standard Fiesta and the Fiesta ST. I see this car as a stepping-stone into the true “hot hatch” market. It is faster and sportier than a standard fiesta without setting off alarm bells with the insurance company, as to them this is still a 1.0 Ecoboost Zetec with a body kit. What I appreciate about this car is its comfort. Compared to the shockingly hard suspension on the ST and bum numbing bucket seats this feels like a luxury limousine. Although the Black Edition is lowered and has 17” alloys, it makes almost no difference to the ride quality, only improving handling and driving fun.

    CREDIT: Ford/Newspress

    I live by a philosophy of “if you don’t look back at your car once it’s parked, you’ve got the wrong one”. And not a time goes by I don’t look back at mine and think how lucky I am. I can forgive all the little niggles about it, like the build quality and the infotainment system because when something puts a smile on your face like a Fiesta does, then its perfect no matter what.

    LOVE

    Punchy engine

    Sporty looks

    Great road handling

    Loathe

    Infotainment system

    Poor materials low in the cabin

    Fuel economy

    Lowdown

    Car: Ford Fiesta Black Edition 1.0 litre 140PS Ecoboost

    Price: £16,945 (starting price)

    MPG: 62.8mpg

    Power: 138bhp

    0-62: 9 seconds

    Top Speed: 125mph

    Co2: 104 (g/km)

    Find out more from Ford.

  • THEATRE REVIEW | The Narcissist

    THEATRE REVIEW | The Narcissist

    ★★★★ The Narcissist Portrays Theatrical Therapy

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