... Fifth Anniversary Show Hampstead Comedy Club This fifth birthday celebration was stand-up in the most literal sense. So packed was the basement of the Washington pub in north London's Belsize Park that I had to stand for more than two hours which, eventually, proved worth it. It was understandable that Jewishness featured strongly in what was a celebration of the endeavours of a venue at the ...

... Shakin' Stevens/ Linda Gail Lewis Brentwood/Touring Being the younger sister of one of the most infamous rock'n'rollers of them all has proved to be both a blessing and a curse to the professional aspirations of Jerry Lee Lewis' sibling. After years spent as a backup singer, show opener and occasional duettist, Linda Gail Lewis is now ploughing her own musical furrow with the release of ...

... Piccadilly Dance Orchestra Liverpool On any occasion, the art deco splendour of the Philharmonic Hall would have been the perfect setting in which to enjoy the Jazz Age dance music re-creations of the Piccadilly Dance Orchestra, but this concert was particularly special. Compered by Sheridan Morley, it celebrated the cente nary of Noel Coward's birth with a programme of melody and wit from ...

... Ladysmith Black Mambazo/ Alvin Youngblood Hart Royal Albert Hall/Touring Another packed midweek crowd gave a hearty cheer as opening act Alvin Youngblood Hart strode on. The award-winning bluesman had journeyed over from the Deep South to share the intimate songs which have made him one of the few to successfully take blues a generation further. Shades of delta and Chicago blues, Robert ...

... Moore than just the tunes Purcell Room Words and Music by Jamie Moore Guitarist, vocalist and composer Jamie Moore is that rare commodity-- a highly original musician whose sense of humour does as much to colour his work as the business of chord structures and melody lines. His individuality was apparent from the start of an enthralling performance, and was backed by an outstanding jazz ...

... Visual path to remember Brighton Festival Absolute Zero A sell-out at the Corn Exchange, this specially commissioned premiere supported by SouthEast Arts created a really exciting festive feeling. It was a show that set people talking and fired the imagination with its innovation and accessibility. Walter Bailey's evocative ice and scorched wood sculptures sited in and around a shallow lake, ...

... Arid Land Jacksons Lane Proffering a theme about people, places, about misplaced people and people being misplaced, Arid Land sets out to explore everyday life when relocated to an unknown enviropment Created by Sylvia Bazzarelli, one of the Passo a Passo Dance Company's directors, the piece employs two orvstage musicians guitarist Paulo de Oliveira and percussionist Bosco de Oliveira ...

... Nightlight Spring Loaded: The Place Based in Amsterdam, Gary Carter is an executive director for an independent television company. He also trained as an actor, has made works for the ICA and Chisenhale and appeared in Neil Bartlett's Splendid at the Lyric, Hammersmith in 1995. But quite what he is doing in Spring Loaded which I always thought was meant to present dance by British-based ...

... Election 99 Glasgow/Touring Two days into Scotland's brave new world, and someone was taking the mickey out of it. God, what a great evening this was. 7:84 Theatre Company's bright boys and girls landed in the Tron Bar and left the audience ill with laughter. Election 99 proved a winner after the real thing, swamping us with smart-ass cyni cism, throwing quick-fire sketches our way and ...

... The Golden Years Eastbourne Summer shows at the Royal Hippodrome have been in song-sheet style for several years--but not this time. From curtain up on sharp rockin' fifties routines, the pace quickly settles into a controlled speed. Although voices rise for several irresistible melodies, there is otherwise no pressure for the audience to do the bulk of the work, and there is not much time ...

... Arte Flamenco Queen Elizabeth Hall To fill a theatre in London, you only have to do one thing--engage a flamenco company. Londoners simply cannot get enough sultry passion and tempestuous zapateados, and a full house greeted the Israel Galv-n Flamenco Dance Company. Perhaps I had not yet pluggec in my flamenco antennae, but the introductory passage soundec like a wasp trying to escape frorr a ...

... Salome St Pancras Chambers We are let in, one by one, with explicit instructions to do whatever a Salome may ask us to do--and I was stupid enough to be the first of 25 to visit this performance by the Seven Sisters Group. Tentatively following a red string decked with silver pointers up the endless stairs in the dank St Pancras Chambers, I was happy enough to be overtaken by a woman impatient ...