Wes Anderson's entertaining filmmaking style clicks beautifully into focus for this comical adventure. Films like The Darjeeling Limited and Moonrise Kingdom are packed with amazing detail and terrific characters, but this movie is on another level entirely: fast, smart and engaging, packed with both silly slapstick and intelligent gags. And the sprawling cast is simply wonderful.
It's a story within a story within a story, as an author (Wilkinson) narrates the tale of his 1968 conversation as a young writer (Law) with ageing hotelier Zero (Abraham), who in turn recounts his life as a lobby boy in 1932. Young Zero (Revolori) learned his craft alongside legendary concierge Gustave (Fiennes) at the Grand Budapest Hotel somewhere in Middle Europe, and stuck by Gustave's side when he became embroiled in an inheritance battle with a spoiled heir (Brody) and his evil henchman (Dafoe). As things get increasingly nasty, Zero and his baker girlfriend (Ronan) help Gustave fight for justice, and when that doesn't work he helps orchestrate an elaborate prison escape. Meanwhile, war breaks out twice across Europe.
The double flashback structure makes this a film about the power of storytelling itself, and even more potent is the reminder that we need to remember the old ways, especially as the world changes around us. This simple idea is woven so cleverly into the DNA of the script that it continually takes our breath away, conveying the true importance of history and nostalgia. At the centre, Fiennes gives his best-ever performance, showing a real gift for comedy (who knew?) as he makes the bristly Gustave deeply likeable.
His camaraderie with newcomer Revolori is priceless, as are the cameos from an array of Anderson veterans including Murray, Wilson and the always astonishing Swinton.
Anderson keeps everything moving so briskly that we immediately want to see it again, simply to take in all of the details. The plot barely pauses for breath as it races through exciting action, goofy slapstick and dark drama, all infused with Anderson's wry humour. And it looks utterly gorgeous, as production designer Adam Stockhausen heightens reality to an almost mythical level. And as scenes evoke our own personal memories and thoughts, we find ourselves wishing that life was really like this. Which of course is the reason we love stories.
Watch the final trailer below:
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Bingley Music Live 2014
Bingley Music Live 2013 party was one hell of an event last year and was attended by 15,000 people. CHIC featuring Nile Rodgers were undoubtedly the star of the show, and were so priviledged to have been up on stage with him, The Human League and Primal Scream were the other headline acts turning in amazing set.
This year's event will be on 29 - 31st September and the first headliners have been announced:
The Pet Shop Boys bring their amazing hit packed live show to Bingley
Example
and local boys make good Shed Seven complete this years headliners
Elsewhere across the weekend, Gaz Coombes (ex Supergrass), Naughty Boys, Simon and Oscar (Ocean Colour Scene), Gorgon City, The Wytches and many more
But a better bargain you will not find, a 3 day festival for less than £50 a ticket. BOOM
Adult tickets are an amazing £49 + bf so it doesn’t make sense to miss out.
For the latest news on the event visit www.bingleymusiclive.com or follow them on Twitter @BingleyFestival or Facebook at www.facebook.com/BingleyMusicLive
Don’t worry - they’ve not forgotten the kids. A limited number of child tickets are also available (3 - 12 y/o) at just £34 + bf for the whole weekend and as we will be availing ourselves of this year with babies first festival, under 3's go absolutely FREE!
24 hr ticket hotline Tel: 0871 220 0260
Morrissey today revealed the title of his forthcoming album — the ever-subtle World Peace Is None Of Your Business — and announced that the 12-track album is “provisionally” set to be released in late June or early July worldwide by Capitol subsidiary Harvest Records.
According to a post to the singer’s quasi-official fansite, True To You, Morrissey is “beyond ecstatic” with the album, which was recorded recently in France and produced by Joe Chiccarelli.
No further details were revealed, but it previously has been announced that Morrissey’s touring band — Boz Boorer (guitar), Jesse Tobias (guitar), Solomon Walker (bass), Matthew Walker (drums) and Gustavo Manzur (keyboards) — performs on the album.
World Peace Is None Of Your Business is Morrissey’s first studio album since 2009′s Years of Refusal.
Morrissey last month announced a full 25-date U.S. tour this May and June that will hit many of the cities and venues that saw cancellations — some multiple times — during the former Smiths singer’s disastrous late-2012 and early-2013 American tour. UK dates are inevitable with a show at Manchesters Move Festival the most heavily tipped.
Thank you very much to Emma who has been holding the fort for us since Saturday morning.. we have been a little bit preoccupied here at Just Music Towers...
Can we introduce our newest correspondent and reviewer, Joe Jack (aka JJ) born at 16.58 on Saturday 1st March. Weighing in at 5lb 14oz he is slight but healthy.
My wife and assistant editor Karen, cam home with Joe on Monday morning and its been a rollercoaster since then, what day is it, when did we last eat, or sleep come to that.
As I write this Joe has had a bath, a feed and is asleep in the sun streaming through the window.
Whilst Joe may well take over our lives, our trusty band of volunteer contributors are stepping up to help, thank you to Emma but honourable mentions to Luke, Rich and Lisa, thank you!
Normal service may be resumed soon... In the meantime, first bath started in tears...ended ok though
The ABBA Deluxe Edition series continues with a landmark release this April. The series began in 2006 with the release of the Arrival album and now reaches its eighth album, celebrating the 40th anniversary of ABBA’s victory in the Eurovision Song Contest with ‘Waterloo’, with a Deluxe Edition of the album of the same name. On this Waterloo Deluxe Edition the original album has been expanded with 8 bonus tracks, plus a DVD of rare and many previously unreleased television clipsl.
This Waterloo Deluxe Edition will be released April 7, 2014
The first disc in the 2-disc package is a CD, which features the original album plus 8 bonus tracks. The bonus selections feature all the various versions of ‘Waterloo’ – the Swedish, French and German versions, as well as an alternate mix of the English version – plus the Swedish version of ‘Honey, Honey’; the remix of ‘Ring Ring’ that was first released on the American version of the Waterloo album; the single remix of ‘Ring Ring’ released as the follow-up to ‘Waterloo’ in the UK; and the Spanish version of ‘Hasta Mañana’.
The DVD features no less than 13 TV selections, most of which are previously unreleased. Naturally, ABBA’s performances of ‘Waterloo’ in the Eurovision Song Contest and the Swedish selection, Melodifestivalen are featured on the DVD. In both instances, the first performance as well as the winner performance has been included. There is also the rare performance of ‘Waterloo’ intended for Eurovision preview programmes; the equally rare performance of the German-language version of ‘Waterloo’; ABBA’s three appearances on Top Of The Pops, performing ‘Waterloo’; an interview with Frida and ABBA manager Stig Anderson on Eurovision night; plus three performances of ‘Honey, Honey’ from German and Austrian television.
The package also includes a 20-page illustrated booklet featuring an extensive essay on the making of the album, with brand new insights from Björn and Benny.
WATERLOO – DELUXE EDITION
Disc 01, CD:
1. Waterloo
2. Sitting In The Palmtree
3. King Kong Song
4. Hasta Mañana
5. My Mama Said
6. Dance (While The Music Still Goes On)
7. Honey, Honey
8. Watch Out
9. What About Livingstone
10. Gonna Sing You My Lovesong
11. Suzy-Hang-Around
Bonus tracks:
12. Ring Ring (US Remix 1974)
13. Waterloo (Swedish Version)
14. Honey, Honey (Swedish Version)
15. Waterloo (German Version)
16. Hasta Mañana (Spanish Version)
17. Waterloo (French Version)
18. Ring Ring (1974 Remix, Single Version)
19. Waterloo (Alternate mix)
Disc 02, DVD:
1. Waterloo (Eurovision Song Contest performance I, BBC)
2. Waterloo (Melodifestivalen performance I, SVT)
3. Waterloo (Melodifestivalen performance II, SVT)
4. Waterloo (Eurovision Song Contest preview performance, SVT)
5. Waterloo (Eurovision Song Contest, performance II, BBC)
6. Interview with Frida and Stig after the Eurovision victory (Rapport, SVT)
7. Waterloo (Top Of The Pops performance I, BBC)
8. Honey, Honey (Disco, ZDF)
9. Waterloo (Top Of The Pops performance II, BBC)
10. Honey, Honey (Spotlight, ORF)
11. Waterloo (German version) (Musik aus Studio B, NDR)
12. Honey, Honey (Ein Kessel Buntes, Fernsehen der DDR)
13. Waterloo (Top Of The Pops performance III, BBC)
14. International Sleeve Gallery
Watch a glam version of Waterloo from German TV (not featured on the DVD)
In addition, the same day see the release of Waterloo the single as a 7” Single Picture Disc. The song of course won ABBA the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest on 6 April and began their path to worldwide fame.
The single became their first No. 1 hit in several countries, reached the U.S. Top 10 and went on to sell nearly six million copies making it one of the best-selling singles of all time. At the 50th anniversary celebration of the Eurovision Song Contest in 2005, it was chosen as the best song in the competition's history!
River Street Events, organisers of the BBC Good Food Shows, recently announced the launch of a new Spring Show, in the beautiful spa town of Harrogate, North Yorkshire. The newly confirmed line up for the event consists of Mary Berry, John Torode, James Martin, The Hairy Bikers, Shellina Permalloo, Lisa Faulkner and Dhruv Baker.
The Show will follow the format of the established event that takes place in Scotland, London and Birmingham, bringing some of the most popular features to the Harrogate International Centre. This includes celebrity chefs & experts, the best producers of fine food and drink, state of the art kitchenware and gadgets and live cookery demonstrations.
Visitors can look forward to:
The Supertheatre - Hosting live sessions from the nation’s TV favourites, the 950-seater Supertheatre will occupy the Edwardian grade II listed Royal Hall. This stunning performance hall and theatre, built in 1903, will contrast the pop-up theatres seen at the other shows.
BBC Good Food Bakes & Cakes Village - If you’ve caught baking fever then don’t miss out on all things bakes and cakes. You will find an array of gifts, home-wares, new kit and accessories to inspire you to bake like the experts. Plus you can pick up advice from top baking and cake crafting enthusiasts and specialists.
Interview Stage - Discover the secrets of our experts’ success at this stage. Come along to one of the many free Q&A sessions taking place giving you the opportunity to quiz the stars of the show.
Producers' Village - The Producers' Village is a speciality food market at the heart of the show, packed with small artisan producers who pride themselves on the quality and provenance of their produce. Taste and buy the finest seasonal ingredients and talk directly to the producers to get tips and advice on how to get the best out of their food and drink.
Look out for the Deliciouslyorkshire section of the village, where you can find producers local to the area.
Our sister mag, Just Families have been huge supporters of the Good Food Show over the years, an essential day out and not just for foodies.
Tickets are now available for the BBC Good Food Show Spring HERE
With their second album 'The Brink' having been recently released in the UK, fresh off the back of a prestigious support slot to Depeche Mode, we spoke to The Jezabels' lead singer Hayley Mary as the band prepare to head out on tour once again. Having previously taken a break from the world of touring after a bad case of land-sickness, the group are well and truly ready to reach their fans live once again.
Hayley spoke to us about the trials and tribulations of being on the road, getting bad reviews and adapting their music for live shows.
Your new album 'The Brink' is out in the UK today, what can you tell us about that?
Hayley: I think it's a little shorter than our last album, I think it's a little bit more optimistic, warmer, possibly a little bit more poppy and concise. The themes we touched on were gender and romance which are things I tend to be attracted to but I think moving to London and writing this record kind of made us a bit more aware of the world and world issues and the things that the UK has in contrast to Australia. It's colder and harder here, it's less isolated, there's class issues and they're inherent, there's immigration and there's people coming from places where I can't even imagine how hard it is. There's just a hell of a lot more going on in every way and I think there's also a sort of cynicism that I had not encountered in such quantity before, living here. I think that affected the record quite a bit. I think everyone expected to write a darker record but I think we made a lighter record, a more upbeat, positive record as a result of feeling a little bit overwhelmed by the issues of the world.
After the success of your previous releases, did you feel any pressure to ensure 'The Brink' lived up to that level?
Yeah, but successes are relative. People say that 'Prisoner' was successful and I guess to an extent it was; we got to tour internationally and we live off our music. There was definitely pressure but it was probably to make something more successful. We tried to be more concise in our songwriting and a little bit less indulgent with how much we put into a song; we kind of were a little bit more ruthless with ourselves. That might have been pressure, subconsciously that might have been a desire to break through some kind of wall into a more mainstream world but we never really talked about that. We just wrote more poppy stuff.
You've previously mentioned that it was tough taking a year out after all the touring you did, does that come through at all in the album?
I think it does. I think it was kind of like land-sickness; you know when you go on a boat for ages and then you get off and you still feel like you're on a boat? That's worse than sea-sickness. It's just a bit of a whirlwind going all over the world, a different city every day and knowing you're doing the same thing in every place. When we arrived in London which was a new city to us at the time, we were like, 'Okay, it's freezing, it's raining, everyone's a little bit depressed and we're now here for good until we make a record.' I think the touring had both physical and mental tolls on us; some of us got physically sick, some of us got mentally not so good. That comes out in the record I think, in that maybe I talk a little bit about cynicism and feeling alienated and that kind of thing, but I think also we used the music as a kind of therapy. We made a really positive record because of how down and out we felt.
Were the songs written more for a live audience or more as a narrative for the album?
Probably to be played live. 'Prisoner' turned out to be a concept album; it wasn't written like that once I had the idea that it should be a letter to a prisoner, it became a story for the album. We played live for a couple of years on that record and we played a lot live on the EPs and we discovered things that just don't work and things that do. We really are a live band; it's a contemporary thing to be a live band because that's where bands exist now, in the live sphere. Albums don't sell unless you're massive/mainstream.
So were you adapting your songs for live purposes with this last record?
Yeah, we were. It was a real struggle. Part of it is just practice, some things just click easier and some things need a lot of practice, but some things are just impossible. You just can't do them live without six session musicians or something and not many indie bands can afford that. You've always got the advantage of being live as an element in itself that the record can never give you, but records also have that magic that live can never give you, that perfect sound. We're adapting a lot and we were conscious of trying to make songs that work live this time.
You've been compared to Paramore and Evanescence, - both bands which you're very different to - how do feel seeing those sorts of comparisons?
I find it interesting because that wasn't the case with our last record which was much more gothic and possibly should've been more comparable with those bands. This one is much more pop and I'm sort of surprised but as a musician you start realising that even Paramore and Evanescence deserve a little bit of respect for how hard they've probably worked and how much skill goes into actually making a pop record. The honest answer is I think people making those comparisons are missing the point with that record and missing the meaning entirely. That's fine but it's just lazy; particularly as a female vocalist, I've gone through my career noticing the different female vocalists that I get compared to. None of them have actually knocked the nail on the head except Kate Bush - sometimes I am influenced by her but the majority of my influences are male.
The album art is very unique, who was behind the design?
Jarek Puczel. He's a Polish artist and we honestly just found him because we were talking about the themes of the album with our graphic designer and we decided that the record was sounding a lot warmer than our previous stuff and that photography might be a little cold for what we were doing and we wanted to make a painting instead. I talked to him about intimacy versus alienation and that resonated with him and he found those artworks. The cover artwork is beautiful; I believe it's two people kissing but you can't see their faces and it's the perfect contrast between the most intimate thing and the most anonymous thing.
Were you listening to any albums whilst writing the record and did they influence the sound?
The guitarist, Sam, was listening to Talk Talk a bit; I don't know Talk Talk but I'm told they influenced the sound. For me, I think Cocteau Twins. I discovered them in the last couple of years and think they're pretty cool, mainly because people told me I would like them because we sounded like we were influenced by them before but weren't. I think influences are not as direct a thing as people think. I don't feel like I had anything that I was particularly listening to as I don't really listen to much music while I'm writing. I don't listen to much music full stop, actually. Influences are just there; you can't always name them, it's not always conscious.
Do you find it difficult to make the contrast between upbeat melodies and darker lyrics?
I don't find it difficult, I find it necessary. I love epic and beautiful melodies that make you feel good but I find it really hard to sing like that. I write some pretty cheesy lyrics, don't get me wrong, but there's a level that I just won't go to when it comes to cheese and I think if you have a really cheesy, melodramatic melody that sounds uplifting and then you put uplifting lyrics in it as well, it's almost intolerable. You need a poetry to it all, you need a contrast or juxtaposition otherwise it is one-dimensional. I can't believe in something unless it has some ambiguity to it because I don't believe that there is some kind of fundamental truth in the world. Similarly, I can't just write depressing shit, there has to be a positive angle or a silver lining otherwise it doesn't really reflect life or who we are as people.
You're back on the road soon, are you glad to get back to touring?
I wondered why people asked, "Do you prefer touring to writing and recording?" because I didn't really think about it but this time round I realised I loved touring. I need people to be clapping at me nightly or I get depressed [laughs]. I love being in the same place and I love London and various other cities but there is something magical about playing shows and getting on stage and playing songs that you've worked on. There's nothing like it, it's just the best part of music I think.
Do you have that spotlight mentality that you like to be the centre of attention?
Well, sort of but I also, like most people who like to be centre of attention, underneath it all have low self-esteem. I don't think I'm particularly great but I'm not particularly happy when people say I'm not great. Any singer who pretends they're not an egotist is, again, lying. Anyone in a band who pretends they're not doing it for other people to love them is also lying.
Where'd been your favourite place to perform so far?
I really like Scotland and Ireland for some reason. I like the peripheries of the really major markets like Canada, Scotland and Ireland, and New Zealand. When you're just outside America or England, it's that regional vibe that you get where people are not as snobby and spoiled for music as they are in London, for example. I love Germany as well. There's nothing like home as well; Australia has the greatest crowds. It's not a coincidence that our shows are selling out in Scotland and Ireland, I like playing those places because they like coming. I like people who like us.
What can we expect to see for the rest of 2014 from The Jezabels?
It all depends on whether you people stop giving us terrible reviews or not. We might never come back here! [Laughs] No, it's all about touring for us this year. I don't know how long it will last for; it depends on how many people come and how many people buy the record. I think we'll go to America after the UK and Europe and then we'll go to Australia - we get to play the Opera House which I'm pretty excited about. Two nights and one of them's on my birthday. Then we're not sure; maybe we'll come back to Europe for some festivals if they'll have us.
Wes Anderson's entertaining filmmaking style clicks beautifully into focus for this comical adventure. Films like The Darjeeling Limited and Moonrise Kingdom are packed with amazing detail and terrific characters, but this movie is on another level entirely: fast, smart and engaging, packed with both silly slapstick and intelligent gags. And the sprawling cast is simply wonderful.
The double flashback structure makes this a film about the power of storytelling itself, and even more potent is the reminder that we need to remember the old ways, especially as the world changes around us. This simple idea is woven so cleverly into the DNA of the script that it continually takes our breath away, conveying the true importance of history and nostalgia. At the centre, Fiennes gives his best-ever performance, showing a real gift for comedy (who knew?) as he makes the bristly Gustave deeply likeable. 
Anderson keeps everything moving so briskly that we immediately want to see it again, simply to take in all of the details. The plot barely pauses for breath as it races through exciting action, goofy slapstick and dark drama, all infused with Anderson's wry humour. And it looks utterly gorgeous, as production designer Adam Stockhausen heightens reality to an almost mythical level. And as scenes evoke our own personal memories and thoughts, we find ourselves wishing that life was really like this. Which of course is the reason we love stories.
