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Gigs & Shows

Goals & New Experiences for 2015

By Adventures, Books & Authors, Creativity, Gigs & Shows, Happiness & Joy, History, Life, Nature, Paganism, ThinkingNo Comments
goals-and-adventures-large Goals For Throughout The Year
Unticked Box Read & Review 30 books.
Unticked Box Watch & Review 12 films.
Unticked Box See a show/gig.
Unticked Box Give up smoking for good.
Unticked Box Write, Edit and publish a Novella.
Unticked Box Arrange & Have a Holiday.
Unticked Box Study Something Pagan/Druid with Chrys & Simon.

New Experiences for 2015 by month:

January
Unticked Box To start Writing again.
Unticked Box To write a series of blog posts with a ‘Mental Health Focus,’ publishing one a week throughout the month.

February
Unticked Box Try Yoga. Take a Yoga class.

March
Unticked Box Visit a Museum.

April
Unticked Box See a Sunrise.
Unticked Box Visit a new place. A city or town that I’ve never been to.

May
Unticked Box Celebrate my birthday. A night out to celebrate in style. Possibly in another city or town.
Unticked Box Visit a Castle or a Pagan site.

June
Unticked Box Spend time Walking in Nature.
Unticked Box Take time out to celebrate Litha.
Unticked Box Watch Jurassic World at the cinema.

July
Unticked Box Attend Mum’s events. Birthday, etc.
Unticked Box Watch Minions at the cinema.

August
Unticked Box Visit Chester Zoo’s new Islands exhibit.

September
Unticked Box Learn to Knit.
Unticked Box Donate to charities.

October
Unticked Box Celebrate Samhain.

November
Unticked Box Take some time out to relax.

December
Unticked Box Watch Star Wars: The Force Awakens at the cinema.

Blog soon,

Antony

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Sunday 28 December 2014

The Lady Boys of Bangkok ‘Lack their Sparkle’ in Manchester

By Friends & Family, Gigs & Shows, Happiness & Joy, Reviews, ThinkingNo Comments
lady-boys-bangkok-june-14-manchester

The Lady Boys of Bangkok Stage. They strictly prohibited photos throughout the show.

 Steve and I recently went to see The Lady Boys of Bangkok in Manchester. I had seen them four or five times over the last few years and couldn’t wait. Unfortunately, for the first time, I was to be disappointed.

It started with an embarrassing experience with a rude Door Supervisor. He checked my bag and said that I couldn’t take in a bottle of Lucozade. I explained that I had diabetes. To which he wanted to see a medical card. I showed him one and then he wanted to see tablets (I had to explain that I was on injectable insulin and showed him this). He still looked unsure about whether to let me in or not. So I said, ‘Look if I have a hypo I need sugar quick. I wont be able to make it to the bar. I’ll be on the floor having a seizure and foaming at the mouth.’ What made it embarrassing was his lack of knowledge about diabetes, his attitude and the growing queue of people behind us.

I wasn’t going to judge the production based on the experience I’d had with the Door Supervisor. However the shows atmosphere wasn’t as fabulous as it has been in the past. The Lady Boys cast seemed unhappy. They smiled throughout the show, but the smiles never seemed to meet their eyes. Their costumes were less glamorous, looking cheap at times and there weren’t many opportunities to see the Lady Boys in showoff their wonderful selves.

The audio quality was poor on some tracks, there were some odd choices of songs and some great songs that they only played clips of.

The set was satisfactory. The choreography was fun. Not all performers had perfected their choreography, but this didn’t matter to the audience. The choreography did become repetitive in the second half and had too much use of jazz hands.

The lip syncing has improved year on year, and this year all of the Lady Boys had it spot on. The comedy elements of the show remain as funny as ever, however I was unsure about the humour derived through use of the dwarf.

I desperately wanted the show to be as magical, glorious and brilliant as it had been in the past. But it simply wasn’t. It lacked its special sparkle that makes The Lady Boys of Bangkok production unique. Overall Steve and I had a good time, but I don’t intend on seeing future shows until I’ve got over the disappointment. This is likely to take at least the next few years.

Blog soon,

Antony



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Sunday 29 June 2014

McBusted Live: Fantastic Music, Great Set and Tons of Fun

By Gigs & Shows, Happiness & JoyNo Comments
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Steve & Myself.

 At the weekend Steve and I went to see McBusted at the MEN arena in Manchester. McBusted’s target audience are teenage girls, young women and gay men. We saw loads of teenage girls and a number of young women who had dragged their boyfriends along (bless them). But the audience lacked many gay men, probably because it was Eurovision final night.

McBusted came on stage to teenage girls screaming like banshees. The music was fantastic with McBusted playing a setlist that was an equal mix of McFly and Busted tracks. The set included a Back to the Future style car and a descending UFO. Throughout the show there was a kaleidoscope of colour from lights, screens and illuminated guitars.

McBusted delivered beyond expectations. They gave an energetic performance, had a brilliant stage presence, fluid movements, voices that were spot on and engaged the audience well. Overall the audience seemed to have tons of fun as McBusted played all of fans favourite tracks. Personally enjoyed Shine A Light, which one of my all time favourite songs.

I know from McFly’s 10th Anniversary Concert Live DVD that they are in their element and at their best when performing live. McBusted was no different. If you love any of their music then go see them live. I promise that you wont be disappointed.

Here are some photos, click on any of photo for full size:

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An explosion of smoke.
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The ‘Back to the Future’ style car.
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The stage, complete with stage-walk around the OMFG mega fans.
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The set. Bright lights in all colours.
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The set. Bright lights in all colours.
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UFO in the centre of the audience.
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McBusted performed on the UFO, once it had been lowered into place.
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McBusted attempt at Human Pyramid on the stage-walk as well, very impressive.
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The giant audience balls, let loose into the audience.
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Cannons shot paper and streamers out at the audience.
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McBusted performing one of their last songs.
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McBusted completed their final song, before each of them jumping into a hole set into the stage.

Blog soon,

Antony



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Wednesday 14 May 2014

Barry Humphries: The Eat, Pray and Laugh Farewell Tour

By Gay, Gigs & ShowsNo Comments
dame-edna-march-2014 Recently, my good friend Sye and I went to see a matinee performance of Barry Humphries’ Eat, Pray and Laugh show at the Opera House in Manchester.

The show kicked off with Les Patterson, Humphries’ outrageous politician character and the belly chuckles were immediate. In the Les Get Cooking sketch, Les reveals his four assistants, come dancers and backup vocals. Two gorgeous men (the other two were women) came onto the stage in tight yellow t-shirts and equally tight denim shorts and I have to admit they distracted me at times. It was a great sketch with Les and Gerard (his brother) creating continuous laughter among the audience.

Below are some photos before the show started:

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Me outside the Opera House, Manchester.
The red curtain.
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Pre-show drinks.
Opening set.

The next sketch introduced the character Sandy Stone. This was probably my favourite sketch. Sandy is an old man that reflects on his life in a touching and sentimental way; yet comedy and good humour were used to pitch the sketch perfectly to the auidence. This sketch was theatre at its best and brought us to the interval.

Dame Edna was on top form as she performed for the second half of the show. Laughter echoed through the audience as she arrived on the back of a jewelled elephant, before falling off onto the stage. Dame Edna was her usual warm, funny and engaging self which was a pleasure to watch. She left the audience feeling entertained and uplifted.

Throughout the show there was lots of audience participation and improvisation. Humphries’ demonstrated his extensive theatre expertise; no doubt gained through decades of experience.

The show came to an end far too quickly, with Humphries coming out as himself at the end to thunderous applause. Here are some photos from the end of the show:

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Audience with Gladiolus.
Audience with Gladiolus 2.
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Before the final bow.
A wave goodbye.
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Closing video montage.

Normally, I’d recommend that you buy tickets to see this superb show. However the tour is coming to an end in the UK. But if you can manage to get hold of tickets, grab them and go. You won’t regret it.

Blog soon,

Antony



I aim for posts on this blog to be informative, educational and entertaining. If you have found this post useful or enjoyable, please consider making a contribution by Paypal:


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Saturday 8 March 2014
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