Much A-Stew About Nothing – Leicester Square Theatre - November 2013 Chortle - By Steve Bennett - November 7th, 2013

This, Stewart Lee warns his audience in general and the two critics in the room in particular, is not like his usual shows. Not one long, continuous train of thought with a perfectly neat conclusion, but three half-hour works in progress, ideas which will eventually become his next BBC Two stand-up series when he records…

Motorhead – Aftershock - November 2013 November 3rd, 2013

Separate Motorhead’s 20th album from the Lemmy legend, and it’s a set of effective punk metal belters. But the 67 year old frontman’s ravaged growl remains unique, unexpectedly suggesting a speed-damaged Louis Armstrong on the contemplative Dust And Glass. Keep Your Power Dry sees enduring outlaw truisms coagulate into the gnomic, but the album’s fatally…

Comedy genius of a 45-year-old railing against the world - October 2013 This Is Cornwall - By David Thomas - October 31st, 2013

REVIEWING a comedy show is normally a pretty straightforward affair. Simply cherry-pick two or three of the best gags from the evening (filtering for a family audience of course), babble about audience reaction, add a cliché or two, and it’s job done. However, reviewing Stewart Lee is a much more complicated affair. For a start,…

King Crimson – The Road To Red - October 2013 October 27th, 2013

King Crimson’s epochal 1974 album Red remains progressive rock’s finest recording, collaborative and curiously egoless, its brutality as undeniable as its beauty. So, who wants a 24 disc set of American live dates leading up to Red? Someone, evidently. Crimson spew recent wrestles with free improvisation at the emerging edifice of supersized stadium rock, tilting…

The Devil – The Devil - October 2013 October 27th, 2013

For two decades Ben Wallers has been head-butting hotspots of race and gender, but his viscerally shambolic garage band The Country Teasers were sacred clowns, not dangerous dictators. The Devil, however, is a polished gothic edifice, Wallers dwarfed by the sepulchral keyboards and Frippertronic guitars of some Satanic ’70s Italian prog band. A stunning ten…

Review: Stewart Lee @ Colston Hall ★★★★ - October 2013 Intermission Bristol - By Sid Sagar - October 26th, 2013

Stewart Lee has long been held in high regard and has been branded as “probably the cleverest comedian working in Britain” (Guardian). Given this reputation, the anticipation at the sold out Colston Hall was almost tangible as the lights went down. Lee emerged to rapturous applause before explaining that the material for this ‘Much a-Stew…