Bingley Music Does It Again - First Bands Announced

They've done it again, Quite how they do what they do at the price they do it for, well, other festivals must just shake their heads.

Already Bingley Music Live had announced the top move of on site camping which turns the heat up on those  other festivals, but tonight (Thursday 25 Feb) they have announced their first three headliners.


Friday sees the permanently brilliant Echo and The Bunnymen closing. Regular readers will know we saw them recently in a sold out show in Wakefield. The band continue to be in top form, are not afraid to visit their hits faithfully (despite having a rather spiffing new album) and will be sure to end the first night of BML on a real high

Saturday sees Tinie Tempah do his thang. We cant dress it up, he isnt our thang but we get that he is many other peoples so get yer dancing shoes out..

Sunday sees the return of Travis...slowly building up momentum after several years away, again some fine new music and a shed load of hits in that back catalogue. I predict a warm balmy night as they sing "Why Does IT Always Rain On Me".Its a fact that the weather at Bingley is always warm*, it never rains* and you are advised to wear factor 30 to be safe*


* Please note the facts stated as facts may not be actual facts.

They will join a host of very special guest artists each performing their favourite David Bowie track who will pay tribute to the music legend in what is due to be a very special festival…

For a limited time you can avail yourself of the cheapest tiered tickets (the earlier you but the cheaper they are, Installment purchases can also be done so you see, you are running out of reasons not to buy tickets now. Dont wait, as with the next wave of bands due to be announced soon, these tickets will fly, already sales are brisk.

Tickets here: http://bingleymusiclive.com/tickets/

Mattel Play - A world to feed your childs Imagination!

Update 19/2/16

New images of the fascinating Mattel Play attraction due to open in Liverpool this Easter

The three new images show parts of the Fireman Sam area (top) Bob the Builder (middle) and Thomas and Friends (bottom)

Please read on for more details and find out how you can keep in touch.

Mattel Play! is a brand new indoor activity attraction opening at the Albert Dock in Liverpool this Spring.

Ticking all the boxes for our two year old son, its based on the popular TV characters that he and most others of his age...and older know and love – Thomas & Friends, Bob the Builder and Fireman Sam. The attraction encourages you to come along and inspire your child’s imagination with over 13,000 square feet of interactive adventure play across three uniquely themed zones. 

Once inside you don’t sit and watch, but instead it is your child’s creativity, physicality and natural curiosity that brings their favourite characters and stories to life even more than done at home!

The attraction is taking shape inside the former home of ITVs This Morning, and its hoped will be ready for the Easter Weekend, sure to be a hugely succeful launch!

The proposed Thomas and Friends Zone

Introductory pricing at £10 per child and £2 per accompanying adult makes this good value. We are told you will begin your adventure with Thomas as you explore the Island of Sodor from Knapford Station to Tidmouth Sheds and Farmer McColl’s farm. There will be life size engines including Thomas and Rosie for children to play on plus a farmyard and trains children can pedal around the track. There will also be the Sodor Docks and various other activities to get stuck into.Then grab your tool belt and hard hat and lose yourself in the adventures of Bob The Builder and Wendy as they construct projects using a foundation of determination and teamwork. You can visit Bob’s yard, go to Bob’s hub, meet Bob and go to Wendy’s workshop and do various interactive activities, plus there will be sand cranes and a large-scale Scoop to play on. Finally be transported to the Welsh village of Pontypandy where you can climb aboard Jupiter, explore the Ocean Rescue Centre and put fires out at sea, just like our heroes next door Fireman Sam and Penny! Visit the Pontypandy Fire Station and walk around Pontypandy shops and do various activities as if you were actually there and of course you get to meet Fireman Sam himself.Just dont be naughty like Norman!!

With free entry to the on-site café and retail area, as well as two themed party areas for your special celebrations and an interactive green screen experience, Mattel Play! is sure to be one of the most unique family attractions in Liverpool. We hope to bring you a sneak peak look at Mattel Play to fully report form an adults and childs view!

Stay in touch as opening day arrives....toot toot!

F: facebook.com/MPlayLiverpool

T: twitter.com/MPlayLiverpool

I: instagram.com/mattelplayliverpool/

Movie Review: Dads Army - clumsy and lacking

The beloved 1970s British sit-com gets the big screen treatment, although there's been very little attempt to do anything clever with it aside from A-list casting. There are some terrific gags in Hamish McColl's script, but director Oliver Parker (Johnny English Reborn) fails to find the comical potential in the material. So the film feels clumsy and muted, which is certainly not going to attract a new generation of fans to the premise.


It's 1944 in the small village of Walmington on the southern English coast, where the men who were unfit to serve in the regular army have volunteered for the Home Guard when they're not working their normal jobs. The platoon's captain is bank manager Mainwaring (Toby Jones), who leads a ragtag group of retirees (Tom Courtenay, Michael Gambon and Bill Paterson) and younger army rejects (Daniel Mays and Blake Harrison) through a series of exercises along the seaside cliffs. They've been tipped off that there's a Nazi spy in the area, but they're all so smitten by the curvy visiting journalist Rose (Catherine Zeta-Jones) that they fail to notice that she's up to something nefarious.

The material is ripe for political-edged comedy, which the script touches on in between the relentless double entendre. And the cast is definitely up for it, delivering solid performances that bring out character details while playing up the goofy interaction between them. But Parker leaves them looking adrift on-screen, never cranking up either a sense of pace or a spark of life. Each set-piece falls utterly flat, starting with the movie's opening scene in which the gang is chased around afield by a supposedly angry bull. And everything that follows feels half-hearted, which means that the Carry On-style innuendo, physical slapstick and nutty action all fall flat.

The general nostalgia may keep the TV series' fans engaged, as will the terrific cast. Jones and Nighy have some amusing moments as the bickering senior officers, working class and frightfully posh, respectively. Gambon and Courtenay find some witty angles to their dopey characters, Mays is snappy as the wheeler-dealer Frazer, and Harrison has fun quoting famous movie scenes as the dim-witted Pike. And the women's auxiliary unit is a nice touch. Zeta-Jones is always enjoyable as a slinky seductress, but the filmmakers seem even less sure what to do with her character than the idiotic soldiers do. So neither the verbal jokes nor the crazy action mayhem hits a comical mark, and the more intriguing historical elements are just as bungled. In other words, there is a lot of potential in this project, but little of that ends up on-screen.