Tag: music

‘Are we no all trying to get through our day without crying, or dying, or just fucking falling down and giving up?’ Seeing Alan Bissett as himself, Billy Connolly and a heart-breaking Alasdair Gray. Edinburgh Day one

August 16, 2026

So here I am at the age of fifty unemployable. Two weans. Nae savings. Nae pernsion. Shiteing myself. / So it does make you question some of your life choices. / But is that not what we are all doing? Are we no all questioning some of our choices? Are we no all worrying about … More ‘Are we no all trying to get through our day without crying, or dying, or just fucking falling down and giving up?’ Seeing Alan Bissett as himself, Billy Connolly and a heart-breaking Alasdair Gray. Edinburgh Day one

Superpower: the power to disallow others from having power over you ever again. In the end, it’s a paltry power but somehow it’s all we want and admire. A case study from seeing the Metropolitan Opera production of Tchaikovsky’s ‘Eugene Onegin’.

May 6, 2026

Superpower: the power to disallow others from having power over you ever again. In the end, it’s a paltry power but somehow it’s all we want and admire. A case study from seeing the Metropolitan Opera production of Tchaikovsky’s ‘Eugene Onegin’. First of all, since I have twice blogged on preparations to see the present … More Superpower: the power to disallow others from having power over you ever again. In the end, it’s a paltry power but somehow it’s all we want and admire. A case study from seeing the Metropolitan Opera production of Tchaikovsky’s ‘Eugene Onegin’.

The meaning of the weather depends on what its changes mean to you, your community, your present and your future. This blog is about seeing the Opera North production of ‘Peter Grimes’ at the Theatre Royal Newcastle at 7.00 p.m Friday 20th March 2026.

March 22, 2026

The meaning of the weather depends on what its changes mean to you, your community, your present and your future! This blog is about seeing the Opera North production of ‘Peter Grimes’ at the Theatre Royal Newcastle at 7.00 p.m Friday 20th March 2026. Theatre Royal. Awaiting the performance I prepared myself as always to … More The meaning of the weather depends on what its changes mean to you, your community, your present and your future. This blog is about seeing the Opera North production of ‘Peter Grimes’ at the Theatre Royal Newcastle at 7.00 p.m Friday 20th March 2026.

Is there a rationale or purpose for a queer reading of Benjamin Britten’s operatic drama, ‘Peter Grimes’?

January 20, 2026

Worthwhile modern readings which root Peter Grimes in the experience of Benjamin Britten as a queer man may be available, although I think Phillip Brett’s Cambridge monograph on the opera may have served as a last word on why it both requires that perspective and why it is insufficient to provide a satisfactory reading on its … More Is there a rationale or purpose for a queer reading of Benjamin Britten’s operatic drama, ‘Peter Grimes’?

My head is in a shed after seeing Northern Rascals play out their wondrous multi-genre and multidisciplinary art form in their current touring production that ended in Bishop Auckland Town Hall last night.

March 20, 2025

My head is in a shed after seeing Northern Rascals play out their wondrous multi-genre and multidisciplinary art form in their current touring production that ended in Bishop Auckland Town Hall last night (Wednesday 19th March 2025). But what a wonderful gift to every sense and to the co-interpretation it invited between audience and the … More My head is in a shed after seeing Northern Rascals play out their wondrous multi-genre and multidisciplinary art form in their current touring production that ended in Bishop Auckland Town Hall last night.

‘Would You Let Yourself In’ : Leigh Bowery’s inclusively exclusive or exclusively inclusive dilemma and other contradictions inside Leigh’s outside keeps us outside his inside. This is my blog reflecting on visiting the new Leigh Bowery exhibition at Tate Modern with the help of it the Tate’s  publication Alice Chasey (Ed.) [2025] ‘Leigh Bowery!’

March 1, 2025

‘Would You Let Yourself In’ : Leigh Bowery’s inclusively exclusive or exclusively inclusive dilemma and other contradictions inside Leigh’s outside keeps us outside his inside. This is my blog reflecting on visiting the new Leigh Bowery exhibition at Tate Modern with the help of it the Tate’s  publication Alice Chasey (Senior Ed.) [2025]  Leigh Bowery! … More ‘Would You Let Yourself In’ : Leigh Bowery’s inclusively exclusive or exclusively inclusive dilemma and other contradictions inside Leigh’s outside keeps us outside his inside. This is my blog reflecting on visiting the new Leigh Bowery exhibition at Tate Modern with the help of it the Tate’s  publication Alice Chasey (Ed.) [2025] ‘Leigh Bowery!’

Feeling the Baroque and Roll of the Classical Drama and Leigh Bowery over two days in London.

January 29, 2025

Now hubby Geoff is so unexpectedly well so soon, I am off comprehensive culture -seeking in London again on the 26th-27th February. It’s a return that promises to make me feel the Baroque and Roll of the Classical Drama and Leigh Bowery over two days. Hubby Geoff now so well he is finding fault with … More Feeling the Baroque and Roll of the Classical Drama and Leigh Bowery over two days in London.

‘When will I, will I be famous?’: A blog on the question of desired ‘fame’.

January 9, 2025

The song by Bros ‘When will I, will I be famous?’ with lyrics by Tom Watkins and Nicky Graham seems silly enough when it gets into your head like the ear worm it is. But I often find that seeing the lyrics in print rather changes how you read and interpret it, when not driven … More ‘When will I, will I be famous?’: A blog on the question of desired ‘fame’.

2025. What’s New about it? What we might think tomorrow when the booze abaits into split head, hopefully only your own?

December 31, 2024

The eve of this New Year, again, dangerFlows fluid, booze’s fast flux in venousVain channels, popping in the throat and thenThe flood follows. Scars of dependent bloodFrom ‘kiddies’ too, fallen near that flawed tree.Hogmanay wishes for that newer thingBound, as they know, to be nothing newer Than  subsequent pain, just that bit older Than is … More 2025. What’s New about it? What we might think tomorrow when the booze abaits into split head, hopefully only your own?

‘It was like everything you thought you knew could be rewritten. / like learning that time can sing and that it’s old and young, …’. (Brice in Ali Smith’s ‘Gliff’) What song might time sing?

December 5, 2024

They were dancing to the music of timein those days, gliding through the moleskin hours,or so it seemed to us. Our vocal chordsbroken now, each song we sing lacks the air that my love struggles to take. Raking backthe sound that coughs all night: the rasping hackthat like Lear’s hand smells of mortality.The air that … More ‘It was like everything you thought you knew could be rewritten. / like learning that time can sing and that it’s old and young, …’. (Brice in Ali Smith’s ‘Gliff’) What song might time sing?

Thoughts Before my Seventieth Birthday on Thursday 24th October 2024: An Acrostic: ‘Does Steven Fear Being Seventy‘

October 23, 2024

Thoughts Before my Seventieth Birthday on Thursday 24th October 2024: An Acrostic: ‘Does Steven Fear Being Seventy‘ Do larks ascending raise up such volumeOf song as the rich racket in his heartEach time Steven’s shaken with sonic boomSome tolling bells of time, seem to shock-start;Surprised, that such a sage and serious Timorous soul has reached an … More Thoughts Before my Seventieth Birthday on Thursday 24th October 2024: An Acrostic: ‘Does Steven Fear Being Seventy‘