With 2021 looking brighter for all, love really will be all around as Wet Wet Wet are heading back out on the road for a full theatre tour in autumn. Kicking off ‘The Journey’ tour in their beloved homeland of Scotland, the band will visit 20 cities across the UK…

Tennyson’s rejoinder to the comforts of domestic inertia jolts the imagination into action: Ulysses’ refusal to accept the torpid duty of his office at any price is embraced most fulsomely on his seaborne return from Troy – nothing matters beyond the tumultuous journey and the unyielding spirit. A similar revulsion to…

Back in 1967, the Milk Marketing Board ran a competition to promote their dairy products. Pictures had to be sent from entrants depicting the wholesome quality of milk, cheese and/or eggs. My dad, a milkman working for the Co-operative, brought an entry form home and at six years old, I…

Over the years I have seen Leeds finest, Kaiser Chiefs in concert countless times from the early days at Leeds Town Hall to their home-coming gig at Elland Road. Only in January, in what now seems a lifetime ago, they never missed a beat at their gig in the Empress Ballroom…

Deep down Celeste probably knew her calling was to be a singer, but it's a difficult career with many obstacles, a decision not to be taken lightly. Celeste found singing to be the ultimate way to express her self musically. The sheer joy of performing, and her desire to communicate this…

It’s a long time since I romped through a book this quickly. Two sittings and only because bedtime came and went and I had to delay finishing it until I could sit up with a cup of tea in the morning. Sara Foster’s Hidden Hours is an exciting and engaging…

Fans of Matt Bianco have been used to changes over the years: the band were originally a 3 piece until Basia left to pursue a successful solo career, then they became a two piece with Mark Fisher sadly dying in 2016, which leaves Mark Reilly who is really Matt Bianco. On…

As a writer and singer Neil Diamond has given his fans some of the most memorable songs of the last 50 years. As the title of the album suggests the hits are performed with the London Symphony Orchestra. Stevie Wonder crops up playing harmonica on September Morn. If you saw Diamond on…

Michael Ball and Alfie Boe have just released their new album, Together at Christmas. The album follows the phenomenal success of the duo’s previous three duet albums, their debut Together, which became the UK’s best-selling album of 2016 and beat the likes of Little Mix and The Rolling Stones to the…

Snowdrop Now is the globe shrunk tight Round the mouse’s dulled wintering heart. Weasel and crow, as if moulded in brass, Move through an outer darkness Not in their right minds, With the other deaths. She, too, pursues her ends, Brutal as the stars of this month, Her pale head heavy as metal. The weather, for the arse end…

When you hear these 60 tracks spread over three CDs you realise what a great decade this was for music. Many of the acts featured here are still active and touring when conditions allow! The first CD starts off with 'Killer Queen' from Queen, almost 46 years to the day the…

There might not be the traditional Andre Rieu Christmas concerts this year, instead this bumper release has come as an early Christmas present to his fans. A bonus DVD is a Christmas concert recorded in his home town of Maastricht. In the DVD the Dutchman takes the viewer behind the scenes…

In Lorraine Brown’s debut novel, Uncoupling, we spend just over twenty four hours in the company of Hannah, the central protagonist, who, finding herself mistakenly in Paris, stumbles into Léo - prompting her to reassess all that is right and all that is wrong in her world. Lorraine told me that…

Kayleigh Campbell’s Keepsake is number 7 in the list of work published by those producers of wonderfully presented pamphlets based in Marsden, UK, Maytree Press. The editor, David Coldwell, wanted to establish a poetry press specialising in beautiful pamphlets and anthologies, combining poetry with art through the use of unique…

The Royal Variety Charity has announced that the Royal Variety Performance 2020 will take place at the Blackpool Opera House, within the Winter Gardens complex, on Sunday 29th November. This year, the charity has continued with its support of current members of the entertainment industry with a nationwide grants scheme, assisting…

How much wishful thinking is insinuated into fiction is a question perhaps best answered by others. But in the case of Tim Binding’s new novel – a long symbolic excursion through the arterial heartland of England – one infers an authorial projection into a visionary kind of escapism, which may…

Lorraine Brown's debut novel, Uncoupling, will be published on February 18, 2021, the timing of which couldn't be more perfect. Released at the point when we will all, undoubtedly, be tired of the endless winter nights, the novel transports us for a day to gay Paris, dexterously illustrated by the…

If you have tickets to see Paloma Faith on tour next autumn you are in for a treat - if the show is based around this strong return. Older and wiser, the 14 songs on the album, her fifth - all showcase her powerful voice without losing any of her strong…

Penny Batchelor’s debut novel, My Perfect Sister, published by RedDoor, proved to be a book which forced me to momentarily press pause on my life. Whilst it offered me another page to be turned, the insignificances of life were willingly ignored…you know, things like mealtimes, personal and professional obligations and…

Sunset in the Blue is the fifth album from American jazz singer Melody Gardot, now residing in Paris. Recorded in the French capital during lockdown it has all the moodiness of walking along the side of the Seine during a misty autumn morning. On 'C’est Magnifique' she duets with Antonio Zambujo…

Preoccupation with the pandemic need not excuse the government’s apparent unwillingness to engage with the emerging crisis in the Arts. If we think we can ignore the problem – as some do, on grounds that plays, books and exhibitions do not make an appreciable difference to the way we live…

The debut collection of Katerina Neocleous, aptly titled Wish, would grant an afternoon of delight for anyone lucky enough to have a copy. The poetic skill of the author and the care with which she crafts each piece, weaving imagery through words that evoked a range of emotions in this…

There have been enough gaffes so far in 2020 - and we still have a month to go yet. It’s been a long year, but 2020 will always be remembered as the year of coronavirus - 12 months in which we forgot about Brexit, to turn our attention to the…