Author Archives: garylongden

Midlands Poetry What’s On June 2014

Posted on August 12, 2014 by garylongden

Sun 1st

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The Cornbury Festival

Posted on July 9, 2014 by garylongden

The posh festival. That is what I read prior to my first visit. So it proved. Behind the posh festival tag lies a much more intriguing sub-plot of “toff wars”, with Cornbury promoter and impresario Old Etonian Hugh Philimore falling … Continue reading →

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20th Century Boy- Wolverhampton Grand Theatre

Posted on June 30, 2014 by garylongden

Modern musicals based upon pop stars and their music continue to find a place on stage. That place is determined by a number of factors; the star quality of the artist, whether they are dead or not, whether they still … Continue reading →

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Buddy- Birmingham Hippodrome

Posted on June 24, 2014 by garylongden

This is the 25th anniversary tour of a show which celebrates the songs of an artist whose recording career lasted barely two years, but whose music endures. A jukebox musical, the two halves mainly comprise his rise to fame and … Continue reading →

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Caught on the Hop- Sutton Arts Theatre

Posted on June 19, 2014 by garylongden

Written by Derek Benfield, and first performed in 1977, Caught on the Hop is a romantic farce as popularised by Brian Rix. Its success is wholly dependent upon the energy and brio of the characterisation. Fortunately Sutton Arts were well … Continue reading →

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Design for Murder- Wolverhampton Grand Theatre

Posted on June 18, 2014 by garylongden

Set in the 1970’s, this psychological thriller, written by Donald F East, unfolds in the living room of Clive and Moira Richards replete with ghastly furniture and a record player. Although the costume is neutral, with the fashion excesses of … Continue reading →

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Lines- Phil Binding

Posted on May 20, 2014 by garylongden

“Stories of Railway Folk and other important people” Some dismiss poetry as esoteric, ethereal, and divorced from the everyday. Those doubters would be well advised to consider Phil Binding’s debut collection. Binding was a railwayman in the days of British … Continue reading →

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Unlucky 2013 by Paul Francis

Posted on May 18, 2014 by garylongden

Poets were once feared and jailed for their forthright and controversial views, yet the contemporary view of poets ,and poetry, tends to be rather more soft than that, with absent punctuation and rhyming the main source of consternation amongst a … Continue reading →

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UB40 at Uttoxeter Races

Posted on May 18, 2014 by garylongden

I have always had an ambivalent relationship with UB40. I still recall the excitement of hearing their debut single, King/ Food for Thought in 1980, and going out to buy it immediately. Like everybody, I assumed the lead singer was … Continue reading →

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Black Adder Goes Forth, Dudley Little Theatre, Netherton Arts Centre

Posted on May 14, 2014 by garylongden

Stage adaptations of television comedy series have a chequered history , but when the script is as well written as this, by Richard Curtis and Ben Elton, the company has a head start , and so it proved for this … Continue reading →

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