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Candlelit tables in the characteristic Iambic Arts Theatre, a glass of red wine, and three talented jazz musicians: Saturday night doesn’t get much better. The atmosphere was just incredible, with people’s eyes glued to the talented Magdalena Reising. Her voice is beautiful and unique, and the compositions of the music (with Magdalena on harp and singing, the fabulous Terry Seabrook on piano and the wonderful Steve Thompson on double bass) touched something, somewhere, for everyone, I am sure. I left feeling relaxed and incredibly happy.

28 May, Iambic Arts Theatre

4/5

Laura Hayward

This gig failed to reach the high standards we’ve come to expect from the Brighton Beach Boys. The first-half performance of lead singer Glen Richardson’s own material failed to energise the crowd, and created a sombre atmosphere that was never really overcome. Things picked up a little for the second-half rendition of The Beatles seminal final album, but the material felt less rehearsed and polished than the band’s previous outings.

The show’s highlights, including an engrossing version of ‘She’s So Heavy’ and a faultless, extended two man drum solo in ‘The End’, were overshadowed by poor
sound-mixing and a lack of gusto throughout the rest of the set. It was an admirable effort nonetheless, and I sincerely hope they give this album another airing in the future to give it the quality performance it deserves.

St. George’s Church, 27 May
Rating:
Adam Lindsay

Claudia Aurora said she had a cold; that she was hungry; that she had been on the M25 all day. It was a measure of how composed and stately her performance was that some in the audience were not inclined to believe her. Not that she was in any way a primadonna – when her performance ran over, she asked, rather than demanded, that the lights were dimmed for one more song. Backed by unobtrusive violoncello, jaunty double bass and guitar, she delivered her shimmering set of traditional Portuguese folk music, dramatic and affecting.

Komedia, 27 May
Rating:
Jim Milnes

In 2002 John Osborne won a box of records in a competition on John Peel’s radio show and while working at a boring data entry job he set himself the challenge of listening to a different radio station every day for a year. These two events, along with his discovery of Philip Larkin’s poetry, changed his life and the show was his charming and bashful account of what happened. The autobiographical tale was punctuated with amusing anecdotes he had heard on the radio during his year’s experiment and a selection of tracks from some of the obscure records from John Peel’s shed. Funny and endearing.

Upstairs at Three and Ten, 28 May
Rating:
Jenni Davidson