Off Topic The Review Thread

There’s a *****ing* virus now? When will it ever end!

 

I see the line-up of Strictly is a veritable who’s that of British celebrity.

 

Off to some live music for the first time in the new era.

Slightly odd set up, drive down to Henley-On-Thames for the Garden Party, a Tom Kerridge food and music thing, a socially distanced version of his pub in the park. You get a ‘garden’ where you park your car and some outside space, they bring you pre ordered meals (which better be good at these prices) while the music - Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel followed by Squeeze, vintage stuff - plays. Looking forward to it. Booze and other ‘street food’ available on site, apparently.

 

Sounds great.

 

Who's this auditioning for the part of Mr. Creosote?.....

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Jealous as ****! Enjoy

 

Fatty McFatbastard?

 

Johnny McFatbastard.

 

Ahhh, I see it now! Mr Lydon has fair put on a few pounds!!

 

Must be all that butter.

 

Looks like he has his hair in that carrier bag.

 

Well that was fun.

Festivals aren’t really my thing, much prefer cramped, sweaty clubs, and a festival where people couldn’t get close to the stage or even approach it, and were distanced from each other very effectively, was not promising.

But the joy of live music overcame. Given the potential risks/difficulties the organisers, Pub in the Park, did a superb job, especially as when they started planning it it was technically illegal. Audience was aged and well heeled (some big motors around), and I think my kids (20 and 24) were about the youngest people there apart from staff, whizzing around on golf buggies delivering food and booze to your little zone. All ordering done online on their WiFi network covering the field. Stunningly expensive.

A really tough gig for the performers, very hard to get any real time feedback from the punters, or even see them as the evening wore on. Started with Leon Tillbrook and his 12 string acoustic guitar. Presumably Squeeze’s Glenn’s son, he would have been great in a pub/club, and started in a winning way with a good cover of Peter Green’s Oh Well. Then came poor old Steve Harley, needing a crutch to get to his seat, who kicked off with Here Comes the Sun which his sound man destroyed, got the mix all wrong and took the whole song to sort it out. Steve really struggled with not being able to interact with the audience, and the paucity of his back catalogue was cruelly exposed - only a few of us remembered Judy Teen and Mr Soft, and not in the blanded out versions offered here. Finished, of course, with Come Up and See Me, which was great and we would have all been happy with a 30 minute version of this. Steve’s rather rambling between song commentaries were a bit odd.

Then came Squeeze, who were simply magnificent. A big band in this version, only Tillbrook and Difford from the original line up, with a percussionist and extra multi guitarist in addition to them and drums, bass (Yolanda Charles, brilliant) and keyboards. Great song after great song, delivered perfectly with real joy detectable from the big screens, (the stage was a couple of hundred metres away for us). Stripped down version of Tempted a stand out for me, and only the faux country of Labelled with Love (which I’ve never liked) a disappointment, but even that was perfectly performed. Pulling Mussels remains a prime example of intelligent pop songwriting and musicianship. By the end they had a few hundred range rovers and volvos flashing their lights and sounding their horns in attempted unison.

We were anticipating chaos and huge delays on departure, getting all these big cars off Temple Field in Henley, where the only exit route is down a near single track country lane for a couple of miles to the nearest A road. To our amazement we got there in 10 minutes from starting the car.

Hats off and thanks to all involved.

Poor old Johnny. I think this is from a couple of years ago, and he attributed the weight to a thyroid issue. I have seen some pictures from this year and he has lost some weight but still has a huge gut, though his head is at least recognisable. He is also caring full time for his wife, who is a good few years older than him and has had dementia for some time. Apparently he is completely devoted to her.

 

Mortimer and Whitehouse: Gone Fishing - just beautiful.

By ****, I'm getting old.

 

Stones In the Park on Sky Arts now.

Not allowed to watch it so I'm recording it. Mainly out of curiosity though - to see if they were as bad as I remember.

 

Anyone who watched and enjoyed ‘Gomorrah’ (and I know there were a few on here who did), should certainly watch ‘L’Immortale’’ which ties in with the story.
Won’t give too much away but it’s ****ing brilliant

 

They are on great form in tonight’s episode.

Strictly for men of a certain age and with a particular sense of humour and comradeship.

 

Apols if it's been reviewed on here already but I listened to 'Leading' by Sir Alex Ferguson over the last few days. Also my first experience of listening to a book as I had a four hour car journey and was bored with most of the podcasts I'd been listening to. Enjoyed the format, and being able to listen while driving/walking/running. Certainly got through it more quicker than I would normally.

The book itself is very good - some more obvious lessons with interesting anecdotes to back then up, other chapters which were more original and thought provoking. The premise of the book is taking his lessons from football and applying then to other settings like business, which feels like a stretch in some places but definitely works at points.

A good 'read' and will probably re read chapters over the years.

 

Just finished watching "From Scotland With Love" on BBC Scotland.

From Scotland with Love: www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b047lx52 via @bbciplayer

A beautiful 75 minutes of archive footage, edited together and then accompanied with a soundtrack by Scottish composer and lyricist King Creosote. It covers such topics as love, loss, resistance, migration, work and play. Normal people, caught on camera doing normal things, but it's such a pleasure to watch. Plenty of lovely flat caps for you too Stan!

Here's a taster....

 

I was going to download the new Carl Hiaasen book, Squeeze Me, simply because Waterstones didn’t have a paper version in stock, but then read some of the reviews on Amazon and it seems it’s a long sub satirical attack on Trump. I’m sure I’d agree the **** out of it, but that’s not my idea of a fun read especially compared to his previous very funny Florida based crime capers. So I bought JG Farrell’s Singapore Grip, which has a TV version starting tonight, and Erik Larsen’s Thunderstruck instead. About £8.00 investment. Farrell was a great writer, hope they don’t **** this up for the telly. I am reading his empire trilogy in the wrong order, started in the middle with The Siege of Krishnapur, Singapore Grip is the last part, and the first one, Troubles, set in Wexford in 1920, still to come. Larsen is a superb non fiction writer, his Devil in the White City should be compulsory reading for any visitor to Chicago and In the Garden of Beasts (aka the Tiergarten in Berlin) a riveting account of life in pre war Nazi Germany is brilliant. Thunderstruck is a combination of Dr Crippen and the development of the telegraph.

I’ll report back on both. If I remember.

 

Perfectly put.