... Jimeoin Cochrane I rather regretted leaving my large holdall at the Cochrane's cloakroom before Jimeon's 90-minute show because the Northern Irish/Australian comic proved once again an ideal person to take home to perform a whisky-fuelled encore for my flatmates. Think of him regaling the throng with witty skits about an r old woman shocked to learn in the middle of the night that the Princess ...

... Simon Day Preston There has got to be a reason for a one man comedy show with no sets, no scene changes and no props other than a video screen to keep its audience waiting 35 minutes at Preston Guild Hall's recently revamped Charter Theatre. Simon Day is the latest of the Fast Show team to capitalise on the television series' success and risk headlining a solo show. Three of his four ...

... Blues Estafette Utrecht, Holland Considered by many aficionados of the genre to be Europe's principal blues festival, the 20th event lived up to the expectations of the thousands of blues-lovers attracted from all over the world. The all-American line-up showcased a number of artists rarely seen outsioe tneir nome country, several of whom have never found their way to the UK. Colourfully ...

... Chuckles for a cheeky chappie Apollo Jeff Green--Love Bites When asked to compare his sell-out season at this year's Edinburgh Festival Fringe, with appearing in his West End debut, Jeff Green remarked that the West End demands something more august. He is spot-on with his recognition of that fact, but whether he actually abides by this observation is another point entirely. Certainly ...

... Red Roses, Blue Ladies BAC It has been a genuine pleasure encountering Barb Jungr in her new show. It has also been rather a frustrating encounter. The programme digs away at the thornier side of love, the blues ever-present in the wings, but the evening remained too unfocused i iiiw uiv iuu ivi gUIIUIUUJ Ol IC\* dotal linkage neither sharpens the focus nor opens it out. Jungr possesses a ...

... You Ain't Heard Nothin' Yet! Yeovil There is much in this new Octagon Theatre/David Lee co-production that we have already heard--for it relates the life story of Al. Jolson. Producer and erstwhile Jolson impersonator David Lee has written this show, including three excellent original songs, as a tribute to his boyhood hero a self-indulgence perhaps, but one in which we can happily share. With ...

... Moscow State Circus Clapham Common It is impressive to note that after almost nine months of touring, the artists of the Moscow State Circus are still performing with verve and enthusiasm. Even more so when it is in front of a dispiritingly small crowd. mt;ie are bume gurgwub and unusual acts, my favourite being the lovely Irina Pilipovitch on swinging trapeze, beautifully choreographed to ...

... 'Cos we can dance By LISA MARTLAND Contemporary music is always being affected by trends which come and go as quickly as the bands which follow them, but there is still a great deal of mileage left in seventies disco, as Paul Nicholas explained in Boogie Wonderland-the Story of Disco (R2, Saturday, November 28). It may be easy to make jokes about how insubstantial the decade's music was, ...

... Average White Band Blackpool Twenty-three years in popular music is a long time. Some performers retire for good, some watch tribute bands playing their music and some reinvent them- selves with a new line-up and some old material. Into this last category comes I the Average White Band origi nally a Scottish outfit which in the mid-seventies proved you did not i have to be black and American ...

... Rebecca Hollweg Cabot Hall These days, it seems to me, singer/songwriters tend to be women and generally American, so it is good to be able to report the arrival of a British entrant upon this particular scene. Despite her name, Rebecca Hollweg is English, living in London but raised in Somerset, and her songs, heard at a lunchtime concert in the distinctly unatmospheric Cabot Hall at ...

... Fascinating solo selection Memories at the Langham Hilton Adele Anderson Adele Anderson is probably better known as the deep-throated diva from Fascinating Aida, but if her performance in this brand new cabaret space is anything to go by, she is likely to enjoy a good deal of solo success as well. True, Anderson naturally wanted to promote her debut ouixj aiuuiit vm tjc ujr uj unan^c Me Now?, ...

... The International Cafe Grace Theatre Bar Locally-based, the Chamber Theatre Company attracted an even bigger following at this year's Wandsworth Festival with a revival of Rupert Degas' one-man show, an interactive performance piece, designed to play in spaces not conventionally theatrical. In this case it was the theatre s popular supper bar, upstairs at the Latchmere pub, its bemused, ...