The jazz, which I tend to associate with lazy Sunday mornings, could be better here at Manchester International Festival Pavilion. The young singer called upon to reinterpret Tori Amos’s Cornflake Girl sounds like a cat having its tail pulled. The band, Jendaa, opened their original work with a wail that left the audience Continue reading
Katharine and I were lucky enough to score some free tickets to the public dress rehearsal of Monkey: Journey to the West last night, which must rank as Manchester’s most anticipated arts event ever. It opens and is the jewel in the crown of the Manchester International Festival, the world’s first international festival Continue reading
Here’s some light relief from earlier today, a Manchester choir whose name I didn’t catch getting into (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher, first a UK hit for Jackie Wilson in May 1969, when it reached number 11 in the hit parade. It was these guys job to calm us all Continue reading
Gordon Brown has opened his premiership by promoting the housing minister to the cabinet. And local authorities will be free to participate in house building, albeit in partnership with others. It’s long overdue. Housing affects us all and Thatcher’s legacy — right to buy and a ban on new local authority building — Continue reading
The waiting is over. Harriet Harman, my second choice, is the new deputy leader of the Labour Party. I guess we’ll have to wait and see if that will include the role of deputy prime minister. But I reckon it will. Five close rounds of voting, with the rumour getting it the wrong Continue reading
