Review: The Magic Numbers, Bristol Academy, 15 Nov 06

Chubby funsters The Magic Numbers came to town last night, touring their new album 'Those the Brokes'. And from the off, the sell-out crowd were clearly up for a good time, cheering and joining in every chance they got.

In keeping with their music, the whole evening was very bright with the lighting up high throughout, and it was a bit like seeing them on Top of the Pops (had they not walked off!)

Things seemed to go a little flatter when they tried songs from the new album (at least near the back where I was standing), which to be fair has only been out little more than a week. But they soon got people swaying and singing again when they came back with a favourite such as 'Forever Lost'.

The only other bum note came from the drumkit, which had either been badly set up or was suffering from drummer Shaun's over-enthusiastic bashing. Meanwhile bassist Michelle was by far the most active of the group, swinging her guitar and hair around like nobody's business. Singer Romeo concentrated on belting out the words (and yes, they can belt), but it was keyboarder Angela that stole things, with huge cheers every time she opened her mouth, and a warm, wonderful sound came out when she did.

The support group were invited back on stage to cover a Bob Dylan classic, and while the jammin' finale seemed to finish three or four times, people left with what they'd come for - a warm glow and huge, broad smiles.

Oasis flies high

There's been a lot written in the media and online since the new airline Oasis launched, but I have to say I've been very impressed.

Although the flight time was changed to leave two hours earlier from Hong Kong (apparently because of the continued refusal by Russia to let them fly over their airspace), it then actually left 40 minutes later than that. This meant that I still missed my coach home from Gatwick. So with the next coach full and facing a four hour wait at the airport, I bought an extra £53 ticket and jumped on a train.

I e-mailed the CEO (as he was inviting feedback on their website) asking if they'd be good enough to refund me the extra ticket cost, as they'd assured me it would arrive in good time. They replied, not to refund the ticket cost but offering me another free economy return to Hong Kong with them! Very nice too, and I can even transfer it to someone else if I'm not planning on going back so soon.

And this is the impression I get from them overall: new, learning but always keen to help and to right wrongs, whether they are theirs or not. So I'd recommend them completely, even if their flights are currently two hours longer in the air, which they say they are in the process of sorting out by Nov 26. Incidentally, rumours fly whether the 'Russia' problem is down to Oasis, the Russian authorities or perhaps a rival airline greasing palms to ensure permission is not forthcoming...

Oasis takes off

Well, I'm in Hong Kong this week- thanks to the new airline Oasis which took off this week, after the Russians eventually let them fly over their airspace.

Or so media reports said. My flight three days later, and according to the website all others till further notice, will take up to 1 hour 10 minutes longer than scheduled due to "re-routing". Mine actually took a full 2 hours longer, but luckily I ended up with a row of three seats to myself and so I could sleep better than others.

Everything on board is all clean and new, with purple seats and bright orange uniforms the order of the day. The cabin crew are best described as young. All wide eyed and and very helpful, but a little 'green' when it comes even to reading the safety instructions or standard 'Welcome to Hong Kong' messages in English. Not great at putting nervous flyers at ease, I'd imagine.

But the food was better than you had a right to expect- I had a tasty chicken with rice, then a tomato and cheese ciabata before arriving- but no sign of the choice of Asain or Western food, nor the chance to pay extra and upgrade your meal. Entertainment was a good choice of recent Hollywood and Asian films, but they are the same ones as shown on the way back so I have to pace myself.

But overall, very good for the money and more than you really have a right to expect, with no RyanAir feeling of 'you'll shut up and put up' here.

Review: The Departed

There may be bigger films this year, but there isn't going to be one as big as The Departed. From the opening minutes when almost all the main star cast are introduced, you know that there's going to be a lot on screen from Martin Scorcese.

Leonardo DiCaprio gives a tense performance as seconded trainee Boston cop Billy Costigan, sent undercover as a mole in the city's major Irish-American crime gang, led by a crackling Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson) with muscle from Ray Winstone's Mr. French.

Meawhile, brilliant but bent cop Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) is also playing mole within Martin Sheen and Mark Whalberg's Special Investigations Unit, helping Frank stay one step ahead of plod. So the race is on for each side to uncover the traitor in their midst, whatever it takes.

Scorcese plays the story for all its cinematic worth, with huge performances, acres of eyeball-to-eyeball stand-offs and tense moments, not to mention more than the odd flash of extreme violence and bloodshedding.

If there's any criticism, it's that not all of the complicated plot turns are fully tied up (at least on first watch) and it's a little overlong. It also seems that all villians in Boston study the Penguin Dictionary of Classic Quotations, ever ready to drop in a bit of Freud or Wilde when the occasion demands it- normally before, during or after giving someone a damn good going-over or shooting them in the head.

But you're never not watching, wondering who'll make it to the end and who'll get whacked. Big, brutal and bloody brilliant.

Review: Little Miss Sunshine

After 'Crank' (below), Little Miss Sunshine is exactly that - a warm ray to restore your faith that there is someone up there making positive, life-affirming films.

The blue-collar Hoover family of misfits take their daughter from Alberquerque to California to perform in the Little Miss Sunshine contest, and learn more about themselves and each other on the journey.

Although pitched as an indie film, the cast has a solid A-list of actors, rather than stars. led by frazzled mum Sheryl Toni Collette, who has yet to turn in a bad performance in a film, whether playing Aussies (Muriel's Wedding), Americans (The Sixth Sense) or Brits (About a Boy). Then there's dad Richard (Greg Kinnear), who believes he's struck gold to market his shonky nine-step positive thinking programme. Sulky big brother Dwayne hasn't spoken for nine months, but perfers to communicate through scribbled messages such as 'I HATE EVERYONE'.

Meanwhile Granpa Edwin (Alan Arkin) is quite content to see out his days smoking heroin and cursing like a trooper to anyone who tries to cross his path. That means on-the-brink depressive brother Frank (Steve Farell), who is left under his big sister Sheryl's supervision. And of course the family is completed by Little Miss Sunshine Olive herself.

What follows on their journey is a series of mishaps, disasters and general bottoming out for everyone in the custard yellow VW Camper van they ride in, which is as temperamental as the rest of them. Directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Farris frame the whole trip very matter of fact with natural direction and long pauses, showing us Arizonan gas stations, the LA fringes and Californian costal concrete intersections with the same love and affection. In all but a couple of scenes they keep what could have been a nudge-wink farce or engineered tearjerker into a piercing thoughtful image of a very unnormal, normal family learning to rub along together and appreciate the little things in life.

Review: Crank

First of all, apologies that this review is so late. If i thought that a single other soul had been hard at work, then decided to spend some of that hard-earned money on going to see this film, then may a thousand misfortunes plague me for eternity.

I can't remember that last time I really felt like walking out of a cinema- in fact, i don't think I ever have. After all, how can you criticise a film you've not seen all the way through? But two-thirds of the way through 'Crank', the latest with gruff whispering shorthouse Jason Statham, I was so gasping for daylight and real human contact that i almost- almost - did.

But let's be fair- Jason Statham's only mistake was saying 'Yes' to this film. After all, Transporter I and II weren't bad. Fun even. The real criminal prosecution should surely be served upon writers/directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor, previously ad men who clearly have issues.

But what can be so bad, you're asking? Well, the plot is simple: JS has been injected with a lethal cocktail that will mean he will die if his adrenaline level drops. So far, so Speed. But what could have been a clever, real-time race against town starts off that way, then suddely decide it would be more fun to shock and offend everyone who might be watching.

Statham's character quickly shows himself to be really not very nice at all. Yes, he's a hitman but he crashes through a hospital knocking patients out the way and pointing guns at doctors. He then steals an Arab man's cab and to distract passers-by, throws him to the ground and yells "Al-Quaida!". And then, when his girlfriend doesn't believe his story, he decides the best way to prove it would be to basically to rape her outside in front of hundreds of people.

But when the directors aren't trying to make the teenage Beavis and Buttheads in the audience grunt with laughter, their style is so frenetic it makes your head spin. But all the handheld camera shots, 80's Nintendo graphics and use of Google maps just try and disguise the unrelenting awfulness of this film. And the 80's straight to Betamax finale and poorly CGI'd final scene feels like a huge 'gotcha' to the audience- 'ha ha, we made you watch it all!'

You can wash, but after watching this film, you won't be clean.

Review: John Legend at the Royal Albert Hall

On Monday night I caught John Legend live at the Royal Albert Hall in London, in a special one-off gig before a bigger tour later in the year to support the new album, 'Once Again'.

Firstly, for me it was a concert of two halves really. The first five or so songs was spent up in the Gallery at the very top of the famous dome. While the view up there was great, the sound was dreadful, echoing and booming around the roof.

So we asked if we could move down into the half-empty main floor, where the orchestra normally sits. And we weren't the only ones- the ticket desk was a steady stream of people asking how to move or even asking for their money back. But they happily swapped our wrist passes and let us in, and- what a difference.

Clear and warm, you could hear every note and what John was singing & saying perfectly. Only a dozen rows from the front, it was great to see and hear him go through songs from the first album and the new one, which sounds just as good.

But the place really erupted during 'Number One' when KanYe West strode on stage to deliver his rap live! John picked it up with him, the two swapping sides of the stage, and he stayed to sing on just one other song.

John spent the rest of the set switching between standing at the mic and sat playing the piano, ending with a croud-silencing rendition of 'Ordinary People', sounding better live than on the album.

The gig was clearly a pre-promotional event as well. It was streamed live on MSN and also looked like it was being filmed for TV or a DVD as there were cameras everywhere. Also, the lighting was much brighter than you'd normally expect for a gig, presumably again for filming, and there was more than a few drunken 'VIPs' out on a corporate freebie to see John SomeoneOrOther.

John name-checked the album and release date very clearly twice (for the kids at home?) and, of course, KanYe West putting in an appearance doens't happen every day!

But with what sounds like another good album on the way, John looks sure to build on his reputation as the man, the Legend. :)