Lionel Richie - First Direct Arena 4/3/2015 - A Legend in Action

Lionel Richie is many peoples guilty pleasure, he is also one of those artist that can surprise the casual fan with their depth of catalogue.

Since Lionel stepped forward from his position of saxophonist to become front man for the Commodores he has developed into one of the great showmen and kept the crowd in Leeds hugely entertained. His musical education segment – whereby he educates the younger ones in the crowd in how he can musically support you through a break up into a new relationship “when you’re in love and you want the world to know, who you gonna call – Lionel” leads us into a perfectly singalong Stuck On You.

We were promised All The Hits, All Night Long and promises weren’t broken. Easy (like Sunday Morning), Sail On, Three Times A Lady, all Commodores classics and all received last night like warmly welcome old friends and testing the vocal chords of the bottle of wine gaggles dotted around.

My Destiny started a run of huge hits that lit up the arena, as Say You Say Me prompted phones aloft, Dancing On The Ceiling had the whole place on its feet, Lionel offered temporary respite with the housewives favourite, Hello before delivering the killer blow with All Night Long

Returning to the stage for an encore, Lionel, now resplendent in white jacket spoke of the song he was most proud of… The USA For Africa song, We Are The World which he co-wrote with Michael Jackson. In another arms aloft moment, this closed the show to the audible surprise of the crowd.

Guilty pleasure maybe,but one I would happily repeat.

Lionel Played:



1.All Around the World
2.Penny Lover
3.Easy / My Love 
4.Ballerina Girl
5.Running With the Night
6.Truly
7.Still
8.Oh No
9.Stuck on You
10.Brick House / Fire
11.Three Times a Lady
12.Sail On
13.Lady (You Bring Me Up)
14.Endless Love
15.Just for You
16.Angel
17.Don't Stop the Music
18.My Destiny
19.Say You, Say Me
20.Dancing on the Ceiling
21.Hello
22.All Night Long (All Night)
Encore:
23.We Are the World

Uber Taxis - A real positive experience, and here have your first ride on us

We recently used Uber in Leeds on a very busy night (the Arena was chucking out) and we thought we would share our experience, maybe give you a guide as to how it works and because we are nice give you a free £10 credit to use towards your trip(s).

If you haven’t heard or experience Uber before, this is what its about.

Its an app that sits on your smartphone. You register  a debit or credit card with it and you are good to go.
 
So you are sat in a bar or restaurant, cinema, or at home and you need a taxi. Fire up the app, ensure you have your location or GPS service enabled and it finds where you are. Type in where you want to go and it gives you a quote. The quote can vary sometimes, ie. Give a range of £10-£12 for example (usually peak times) but in our experience its cheaper than any other taxi service we have used. 

On our last occasion there was a supplement to pay because it was busy and there was a lot of demand. In practice it meant that a journey that usually shows a range of £17-£20 actually showed at £19-£22. Our usual fare with other taxi companies is about £25. You can choose to accept the far shown or just come out of the app and have another drink, come back in twenty mins. The choice is yours.

The app also tells you how far away a car is…so assuming you are happy press request taxi. It will then confirm the car, the registration number and the name and picture of the driver. No more getting in the wrong cab or illegal cab!

So you have requested your cab and it says it will be here in 3 mins but you think maybe the map isn’t quite right or you have moved to another bar or just down the road. No problem you can press a tab to sms or phone the driver and tell him exactly where you are. This is what happened with us. The map actually had us on an adjacent street and as it was busy we wondered if he could find us so a quick sms, “we are outside KFC” and its sorted. Your app tracks where your car is so you should see it arrive.

Once the taxi arrives, you check it’s the car, the driver and off you go.

Arriving at your destination, that’s it, no fumbling for change or arguing over the fare, your app tells you how much it is and its deducted from the debit or credit card you added. You get an email receipt confirming your journey and cost. You can still tip your driver with cash if you want but we haven’t ever felt any pressure to do so.  

We see Uber as significantly increasing security for user and drivers. Drivers don’t carry cash so won’t be attacked for it, no runners, no arguing over fare. For the user, it’s cheaper, more convenient, generally far less waiting,  you know who is coming, when and in what, you can track the journey, it’s all recorded.

Now why not give it a go, and to sweeten the deal, once you have the app.. tap on promotions and add the code epi9g then apply, bingo, £10 credit to use in bits or against a larger fare.

For full disclosure, I will get a credit when you have your first journey, but give your own code to friends, give them a credit and you can reap the rewards when they start using Uber Taxis

Uber is currently operating in Birmingham, London, Leeds, Manchester, Wakefield and Dublin with more cities being added

Movie Review: Unfinished Business - Vince Vaughn be very ashamed

More than just a misfire, this attempt at a rude comedy goes so spectacularly wrong that it actually contradicts its own jokes even as it's telling them. But then it undermines everything as it goes along, for example indulging rampantly in comical cruelty before trying to say something meaningful about the dangers of bullying. The real question is how the cast members could have agreed to make a movie in which they all come across as incoherent idiots.

The story opens as Dan (Vince Vaughn) clashes with his boss Chuck (Sienna Miller) then quits dramatically, taking newly retired Tim (Tom Wilkinson) and airhead newbie Mike (Dave Franco) with him to start a new sales company. But after a year, business isn't good, and the future hinges on making a massive deal with Bill and Jim (Nick Frost and James Marsden). The problem is that Chuck is also bidding for the business, so Dan, Tim and Mike fly off to Maine and then Berlin to seal the deal with a handshake. Impossibly they arrive in Berlin at the same time as Oktoberfest, the marathon, a gay S&M festival and the G8 Summit, with its accompanying anarchist protest. Meanwhile back home, Dan's wife (June Diane Raphael) is having problems with the kids.

Frankly, there is so much going on in this film that it's exhausting. It's as if screenwriter Conrad just threw everything he could think of onto the page and didn't worry if it made even a lick of sense. Every scene feels interrupted by a bit of random chaos that isn't remotely amusing. And despite making a movie that's obsessed with sex, the filmmakers are unable to decide whether they want to make fun of it or are terrified of it (so they end up being both at the same time). Each time something interesting or funny threatens to happen, it's sideswiped by something so breathtakingly bungled that we don't know where to look.

While most of the side characters emerge with their dignity relatively intact, the three central actors are simply inexplicable. Vaughn is an even more smug version of his usual screen persona, Wilkinson is just embarrassing to watch, and Franco's character is too stupid to believe. Then they spend the entire movie teasing and picking on each other before suddenly spouting messages about the dangers of bullying in the social media age. We know that it's possible to make a hilarious movie about Americans acting like morons in Europe (see 2004's EuroTrip). But this is such a disaster that it's likely to vanish without a trace. Except from the worst of the year lists. If you are a glutton for punishment, the trailers above..

Bingley Music Live 2015 announces first headliner

Well our fave Northern fest Bingley Music Live last night announced its first Headliner. Yes, last night, sorry but we were at Lionel Richie in Leeds - more on that later - and there is famously very little signal in the First Direct Arena.

The legendary James have been announced as the first of the headliners at Bingley Music Live 2015

In a double whammy for fans of the festival, not only are the Myrtle Park faithful set to see the return of James, but tickets are to be frozen at last years prices.

An incredible, hay, unbeatable £49 for three days of international acts with the option to pay by instalments for those that are quick off the mark.

This year’s Bingley Music Live will take place on 4th – 6th September. Tickets to see three days of international acts are now on sale at £49 for adult weekend tickets and £34 for child weekend tickets plus booking fee with the option to pay by instalments for those that are quick off the mark. See here for details.

Rumours that we are particularly delighted by James headlining as it means we can leave early and get the train home, meaning a few more scoops are currently unfounded.

Retro Acts - Not what they used to be

When retro isn’t as retro as you hope..
Aka the case of the missing band members

Retro music is big business, the various 70’s and 80’s festival do great business year on year. Inevitably a kind of saturation point arrives as the same artists appear year after year, festival after festival, the search then for new “old” artists has mixed results.

With many band having being inactive or disbanded for many years it’s probably unlikely that the likes of Rewind Festival will pay enough to tempt a band back together again. At best you might get just the lead singer – generally acceptable, sometimes very welcome. This is best illustrated in the case of Tom Bailey, ex Thompson Twins, its so good to see and hear those songs sung again but once the excitement has died down, you recall how visual a band the Thompson Twins and just what Alannah and Joe brought to the band, vocally and visually. Watch Tom singing Doctor Doctor last year



The worst scenario those in increasingly creeping out now.. bands performing under a name but not including the lead singer, or in some cases none of the original members at all.

An example of this flashed across my desk earlier today…a press release asking would I be interested in interviewing Hot Chocolate. Now at Just Music and in this blog we don’t mind a bit of retro so we delved a little deeper…we could chat with the lead singer Kennie Simons..

Now hang on wasn’t the lead singer called Errol Brown, he of shaved head and budgie smuggling trousers, thats him on the left..


This is Kennie Simons here on the right

Not entirely dissimilar are they?, now its not for me to suggest that Mr Simons has been stylised to be a lookalike for Mr Brown, I don’t know but will anyone point it out that it isn’t that silky voiced purveyor of You Sexy Thing.  Would you really know when they trotted out that this wasn’t the singer, wasn’t the voice that featured on all those glorious hits. Are you being conned? Should it be far clearer?

Fact is Errol left the band many years ago. Let’s be honest could you picture any other member of the band? In this case the band are actually, more or less, the actual band, would you know, or even care. The casual observer wants the original vocalist or else it’s just glorified Karaoke. Having seen Hot Chocolate at a couple of events, I would dare to suggest that the crowd were sure it was Errol..

Consider Odyssey – they of Native New Yorker, Going Back To My Roots and Use It Up Wear It Out – are also touring this year and take in the Lets Rocks shows around the country. Admittedly its very unlikely anyone will go to these shows expressly to see Odyssey but were I not to know better I would go and see them as they were classic songs of the era.
See Odyssey singing Looking for a way out..

The only trouble is dear reader that you, your mate and I may as well get up on stage and call ourselves Odyssey because the trio that will have nothing to do with the original hitmakers. Unfortunately original lead singer Lillian Lopez died in 2012 and had retired from music some years prior to that. Instead now it’s some bloke Steve Collazo (some family relation I understand) together with two twins (absolutely no relation).  Since 1990 The Flying Pickets have been performing with no original members in the band. Close your eyes and remember Only You, if you are of an age you can picture a couple of blokes surely, the one with the big sideburns and the big bald bloke…  I contend this does matter. OK Odyssey and The Flying Pickets are not the biggest pulls but would you be happy to go see Go West and find a couple of young dancers performing We Close Our Eyes instead? They do it because they can and because often nobody knows or indeed cares.

Its why you see mostly solo artists on these shows, as long as you have the singer you cant go far wrong. Katrina from Katrina and the waves, Clare Grogans Altered Images, the rest of the bands were after all largely just sleeperblokes (sorry for the mid 90’s reference there).

Occasionally legal issues mean you are alerted to the fact this band may not be the complete package. The Straits (who actually called it a day last summer) performed the music of Dire Straits, the name though tells you something is missing, most of the band in fact but predominantly for audiences sweat banded guitar hero Mark Knopfler. The Straits were one former member and two occasional members but at least you couldn’t say you weren’t warned.

It can also get a bit ridiculous.. two versions of skirt ripping Eurovision bothers Bucks Fizz are on the circuit…one is doing a 70 date tour this year…one isn’t.

Cheryl Baker, Jay Aston, Mike Nolan and Bobby G were Bucks Fizz and they had a stack of hits leaving behind their Euro beginnings. Much has happened since but the net effect is that Baker, Aston and Nolan are essentially Bucks Fizz but have to be called (deep breath...) Cheryl Baker, Mike Nolan, Jay Aston formerly of Bucks Fizz. Just so you aren’t in any doubt.. Poor old Bobby it seems would cut off his nose to spite his face as he toddles around in Bobby G’s Bucks Fizz with his wife and two other revolving door singers.

The split in the UB40 camp and subsequent legal issues sees Ali Campbell, the undisputed voice of the band now being legally obliged to be billed as Ali Campbell - The Legendary Voice of UB40 reunited with Astro and Mickey, two other founding members of the band. Again two versions now battle for space on the bills but frankly, if it don’t say Ali Campbell then you aint going to hear those One In Ten and Red Red Wine vocals. Again clarity provided.

Am I too precious about my music, maybe, but I think, when paying what can be big money for some of these festivals we are entitled to authenticity around what and who are seeing and hearing. Some won’t care as I said early.. some just want to hear the songs, close their eyes and be transported back to their youth. Me, I want more than faceless karaoke.

Big Feastival Announce First Acts

The Big Feastival today announced that Groove Armada will be getting the party started on the opening Friday night.  BRIT Award winning songstress Paloma Faith will be taking over the main stage on Sunday night.  With a whole host of favourites expected to be announced soon including the  Saturday Headline Act, this year’s festival is predicted to be the best yet.


As usual the Big Feastival whas more than its share of culinary talent taking centre stage. Among the top chefs joining Jamie Oliver are Two Star Michelin masters Raymond Blanc, Ashley Palmer-Watts and Nathan Outlaw with the inspirational Monica Galetti and many more.

This year will see the return of Feastival favourites including Adam Henson’s Cotswold Farm Park, Little Dudes’ Den, The Big Top in association with Mini Nom Noms and, of course, Alex James’ Cheese Hub. Brand new for 2015 are the Village Green Games, Weber Grill Academy On Tour and the Healthy Living Zone

We are making The BIg Feastival on of our two festivals of choice, the Northern one announced tomorrow!

Tickets for the Big Feastival available now, here

Paul Whitehouse and David Cummings Interview: Nurse, BBC2

Paul Whitehouse stars in Nurse, a poignant character comedy drama for BBC Two. Whitehouse plays eight different characters whose lives are connected by Liz, an overstretched Community Mental Health Nurse played by Esther Coles.

Nurse is written by Paul Whitehouse and David Cummings with additional material by Esther Coles. Paul and David have collaborated many times in the past on The Fast Show, Down The Line and Happiness.

Nurse is based on the acclaimed BBC Radio 4 series of the same name, which aired in February 2014 and was commissioned for BBC Two shortly after.

This series includes a mixture of returning characters from the radio series, plus many new characters.


Each episode follows Liz as she does her daily rounds visiting the homes of her patients (or 'service users' in today's jargon). The series recounts the humorous, sometimes sad and often frustrating daily interactions with the nurse, whose job is to assess their progress, dispense medication and offer comfort and support. Paul Whitehouse takes on the roles of Liz’s clients or their relatives. With supporting roles from Rosie Cavaliero (Inside No. 9), Simon Day (The Fast Show), Ben Bailey-Smith (Law & Order: UK), Vilma Hollingberry (Psychoville), Colin Hoult (Being Human), Jason Maza (The Hooligan Factory), Cecilia Noble (Waking The Dead).

We caught up with Paul and David to find out a little more about the new show..

What was the idea behind Nurse?
Paul: We wanted to explore the world of a Community Mental Health Nurse with warmth, compassion and humour. Mental health issues touch most people’s lives but there is still something of a taboo around the subject. Mainly we wanted to create memorable characters, that viewers would enjoy, who just happen to require this service. This is a show about people, not about mental health.

What made you come up with the different characters? Some of them are from the radio comedy, and some are brand new, correct?
Paul: Some of the characters even precede the radio version! Graham Downes first came to life on our radio comedy Down The Line. For the TV version of Nurse we have expanded the characters from the radio series and created some brand-new ones. One of the more poignant ones would be Jack, the PTSD soldier.

David: It’s interesting, we spent some time with a community mental health nurse and just spoke to her about her work and her patients. At the moment they are mainly PTSD soldiers.

Paul: She’s at the end of a phone if we need a little bit of advice. It’s a delicate area. But for people who work in community mental health and people who are touched by it, either through their own troubles or those of relatives and friends, actually there’s always some humour in those situations. People find humour in the most difficult of circumstances and if you don’t you’re in trouble really.

Characters such as Graham and Billy, we think the fact they’ve got mental illnesses is almost irrelevant really. They are just people dealing with life who have slightly more severe problems than the rest of us. We like to think they will strike a chord because we are all there or thereabouts. In a way it’s not really about mental health it’s more about the state of the nation or the lives we lead now.

David: It’s a comedy about people, relationships, families. The hook we used to hang it on is the community mental health nurse.

Paul: She’s the line through it, and then me playing the different 'Service Users' or the relatives of the characters who require treatment. The nurse has a sympathetic heart but has to be quite firm with the patients as well. She takes us through it all while trying to deal with problems of her own.

David: I get the impression it’s a job only for people who have a huge amount of empathy because one thing we’ve learnt is many patients don’t really get better, they just learn to cope.

What is the transformation into the characters like?
Paul: I play a variety of characters on this show. To differentiate them from each other, visually, requires prosthetics. The prosthetics on this show are sensational, but they take a hell of a long time to apply. I can’t really complain too much but it takes about two or three hours usually to get it done. The most depressing element is at six o’clock in the morning, knowing I’m going to be stuck in the prosthetics for another 12 hours or so. They're hot, heavy and itchy! But the team are fantastic and I am unrecognisable in some things.

David: I’ve known Paul since we were both 18 and when he was made up to be Maurice I found it actually quite weird speaking to him. It was his voice, his personality but it was coming from a different human being. I was quite spooked.

Paul: I think Esther’s found it a bit like that as well. Obviously having done quite a lot of stuff on the radio looking at each other just doing a voice, you can stop doing the voice anytime but with the prosthetics you can’t just lose the look. She has found it quite disconcerting. And I thought she might. She really is in a room with these people rather than just a version of me.

But, do you like doing characters, is that what you enjoy?
Paul: I love doing them because I do like playing lots of different characters; I’d get bored just playing one role through a drama or a comedy. I like the variety and I think we have always been able to, or always tried to, imbue our comedy with a huge helping of tragedy as well. So I get asked “Wouldn’t you rather do some straight acting?” Well no, not really, I’d rather do some comedy without any jokes in it, which is what we do quite a lot.

Can you talk to us about the writing process and how long it took?
Paul: Yes its quite simple, isn’t it, Dave? You turn up, I’m usually at the café and then I’ll come back and then we go to the café together. Then we slag off other comedians, we have a little moan about women, we slag off other TV shows, we slag off our neighbours, we slag off our families. And then I say I’m nearly done, I have to go now. That’s it, that’s how we write. We sort of built up via the radio, which was a really useful and enjoyable way to build up to the TV series.

David: Gertrude Stein said, “I only write half an hour a day, but what people don’t understand is it takes a really long time to write for half an hour.” And that’s a sort of intellectual way of describing our process.

Paul: Part of it is us sitting around shooting the breeze and talking rubbish, and then you go yeah that’s good, put that in. You’re actually writing even though you think you’re sitting around talking rubbish.

Did it feel good to get your radio comedy made into telly? Was it daunting?
Paul: No, it was always in our minds going to be a TV project. It wasn’t something we did on radio and then it became a TV show. But we had the opportunity to develop the characters and do it on radio first, and I love doing radio, I really enjoy it. Since doing Down The Line, I really love to be able to do radio. It’s much more spontaneous and you can just do something on a whim. Whereas TV is really slow; it’s like an old oil tanker. It has a very slow turning circle, whereas radio is much more dynamic. So it was good to be able to try the characters out and we whittled the material down to cram it into 15 minutes. The advantage of TV is that we can give it a little bit more space and develop Esther’s character as the nurse more.

Liz’s own story is that she's coping with some of the problems of middle-age. It’s like you have to be a superhero where you’re looking after your young children and your aged parents and you feel like you're overwhelmed with responsibilities in life. So I hope we haven’t lumbered her with too many of those, and where we have, we have tried to do it in our usual sort of tragi-comic way.

Is it tricky playing eight characters in one show?
Paul: I don’t know really - I’m sort of used to it. The only thing I’d say is that there are similarities between the characters. They have similar problems and because it’s nominally based in London - it’s not really but we can’t do loads of regional accents because it would be like ‘where’s her jurisdiction?’ So we are slightly constrained by a little sense of reality. I’ve done some of these characters before or versions of them, so I’m just giving them a different perspective. Graham Downes I’ve done before. Rockin’ Ray we do as a kind of shorthand for any old rocker really. He is a man out of time, language courtesy of The Troggs Tapes. We use that language, not just Dave and me but all our circle of friends, we lapse into that all the time. But we developed the character into a slightly lumpen rocker with a higher opinion of his achievements than they merit. Where do they go, those people, when that career is over? Some of them are quite wealthy but they’ve got no life, their heyday is 30 years ago and they just have to regurgitate their two hits over and over. So they take up something like martial arts to fill the void. Reg Presley got a tidal wave of money from Wet Wet Wet’s cover of his song ‘Love Is All Around’ and spent it all on UFO hunting. I don't think he found any.

Is Nurse very different from playing different characters in a sketch show like The Fast Show?
Paul: It is, in that the content is much more intense, I’m always relating to Liz the nurse. So it’s not like I can come on and do a monologue to the camera or a catchphrase and get off. There is an intensity to the scene. So it is very different to doing The Fast Show, not least because there were six of us and I could have a lie down while the others were filming.

Is it good working with Esther again since the radio comedy?
Paul: Esther is a friend of mine. We haven’t known each other many years, but it seems like we have. I personally have got a lot of time for her. It’s lovely having her on the other side of the set. She’s a very funny and warm person and it was nice to use somebody that hasn’t done a lot of TV recently. It was lovely to be able to write for someone people who aren’t tired of. Like me; “oh it’s not him again.”