Black Sabbath | The 1975 | The Selecter | Cafe Society Swing | Classical & opera highlights 2014
*Black Sabbath, Birmingham*
Christmas isn't really a Black Sabbath time of year, what with their general misanthropy and all those references to depression, war and everything. Still, if you're a heavy rock fan, this year's re-formation of the original lineup of the band (or as close as you can get without heavy-swinging drummer Bill Ward being involved) is the best gift you're ever likely to receive. Made with that master of the Lazarene resurrection Rick Rubin, the band's new album 13 stuck closely to the downtuned guitar/lone-shooter-in-a-rainstorm vibe of their first five records. Here, though, you can expect something a bit more familiar. Ozzy Osbourne, in fine voice and invariably covered in water; the lithe rumble of Geezer Butler; the extraordinary riffs and solos of Tony Iommi. At this homecoming show, they celebrate their return with an undiminished howl through the apocalyptic doomfest that is their greatest hits. Merry Christmas!
*NIA, Birmingham, Sun 22*
JR
*The 1975, Blackpool & Edinburgh*
A personable bunch, the 1975 get away with a good amount of their slickness – the band make shamelessly commercial indie-dance-rock – by having a bit of a sense of humour about themselves. In interviews, frontman Matt Healy unselfconsciously references his parents (actors Denise Welch and Tim Healy), while their videos actively mock their pretensions to be anything other than a chart-friendly band. In that, they're succeeding. During 2013 they've not only supported Muse and the Rolling Stones, and headlined a Glastonbury stage, but also scored a No 1 album.
*Winter Gdns, Blackpool, Sat 21; Edinburgh Hogmanay, New Year's Eve; touring to 11 Jan*
JR
*The Selecter, Guildford & London*
There are people who will get worked up about Jerry Dammers not being in the lineup of the re-formed Specials. But when you travel slightly further down the food chain of "2Tone" groups of the late 1970s and early 1980s, we should be grateful the band are around at all. The Selecter, for example, have had their own fairly restive history, but they've been back in a recognisable form for three years, since Pauline Black and Arthur "Gaps" Hendrickson reconvened to honour their debut album Too Much Pressure. This current formation is a festival-hardened entertainment spectacle to behold – evergreen, much like the ska originals they were themselves emulating 30 years ago.
*Rubix, Guildford, Sat 21; New Cross Inn, SE14, New Year's Eve*
JR
*Cafe Society Swings, London*
At Greenwich Village's Cafe Society club in 1939, Billie Holiday used to close her show with Strange Fruit, with the lights down except for a spotlight on her face. Her frequent tears when she sang it would prompt applause, and the song helped put Holiday into Time magazine, in an era when African-American faces rarely appeared in the publication. Cafe Society Swing is a musical show based on the remarkable story of the left-liberal establishment they used to say was "the wrong place for the right people". British pianist, writer and academic Alex Webb's engaging musical has already played sold-out shows at the Southbank and the Tricycle Theatre, and this run stars US cabaret artist Harold Sanditen, China Moses, British jazz crooner Alexander Stewart, and a sharp band including Empirical sax man Nathaniel Facey and expat American saxist/arranger Frank Griffith.
*Leicester Square Theatre, WC2, Sat 21 & Sun 22*
JF
*Classical & opera highlights 2014*
After this year's glut of high-profile musical anniversaries, orchestras are now revving up to mark Richard Strauss's 150th birthday in 2014. Manchester gets in first with *Strauss's Voice*, a two-month-long series of concerts (Bridgewater Hall, 9 Jan to 8 Mar). Away from anniversaries, the Welsh National Opera's *Fallen Women* season (Millennium Centre, Cardiff, 6 Feb to 1 Aug, then touring) features La Traviata, plus new productions of two works based upon Abbé Prévost's novel *Manon Lescaut*: Puccini's opera of the same name, and Henze's updating of the story, *Boulevard Solitude*. There's a lot of brand-new opera around, too, with Julian Anderson's first opera, *Thebans* (Coliseum, WC2, 3 May to 3 Jun), with Frank McGuinness's libretto based upon Sophocles, and the biggest new work of spring, David Lang's *Crowd Out*, for 1,000 singers, which premieres in Birmingham (Millennium Point, 8 Jun).
AC Reported by guardian.co.uk 2 days ago.
*Black Sabbath, Birmingham*
Christmas isn't really a Black Sabbath time of year, what with their general misanthropy and all those references to depression, war and everything. Still, if you're a heavy rock fan, this year's re-formation of the original lineup of the band (or as close as you can get without heavy-swinging drummer Bill Ward being involved) is the best gift you're ever likely to receive. Made with that master of the Lazarene resurrection Rick Rubin, the band's new album 13 stuck closely to the downtuned guitar/lone-shooter-in-a-rainstorm vibe of their first five records. Here, though, you can expect something a bit more familiar. Ozzy Osbourne, in fine voice and invariably covered in water; the lithe rumble of Geezer Butler; the extraordinary riffs and solos of Tony Iommi. At this homecoming show, they celebrate their return with an undiminished howl through the apocalyptic doomfest that is their greatest hits. Merry Christmas!
*NIA, Birmingham, Sun 22*
JR
*The 1975, Blackpool & Edinburgh*
A personable bunch, the 1975 get away with a good amount of their slickness – the band make shamelessly commercial indie-dance-rock – by having a bit of a sense of humour about themselves. In interviews, frontman Matt Healy unselfconsciously references his parents (actors Denise Welch and Tim Healy), while their videos actively mock their pretensions to be anything other than a chart-friendly band. In that, they're succeeding. During 2013 they've not only supported Muse and the Rolling Stones, and headlined a Glastonbury stage, but also scored a No 1 album.
*Winter Gdns, Blackpool, Sat 21; Edinburgh Hogmanay, New Year's Eve; touring to 11 Jan*
JR
*The Selecter, Guildford & London*
There are people who will get worked up about Jerry Dammers not being in the lineup of the re-formed Specials. But when you travel slightly further down the food chain of "2Tone" groups of the late 1970s and early 1980s, we should be grateful the band are around at all. The Selecter, for example, have had their own fairly restive history, but they've been back in a recognisable form for three years, since Pauline Black and Arthur "Gaps" Hendrickson reconvened to honour their debut album Too Much Pressure. This current formation is a festival-hardened entertainment spectacle to behold – evergreen, much like the ska originals they were themselves emulating 30 years ago.
*Rubix, Guildford, Sat 21; New Cross Inn, SE14, New Year's Eve*
JR
*Cafe Society Swings, London*
At Greenwich Village's Cafe Society club in 1939, Billie Holiday used to close her show with Strange Fruit, with the lights down except for a spotlight on her face. Her frequent tears when she sang it would prompt applause, and the song helped put Holiday into Time magazine, in an era when African-American faces rarely appeared in the publication. Cafe Society Swing is a musical show based on the remarkable story of the left-liberal establishment they used to say was "the wrong place for the right people". British pianist, writer and academic Alex Webb's engaging musical has already played sold-out shows at the Southbank and the Tricycle Theatre, and this run stars US cabaret artist Harold Sanditen, China Moses, British jazz crooner Alexander Stewart, and a sharp band including Empirical sax man Nathaniel Facey and expat American saxist/arranger Frank Griffith.
*Leicester Square Theatre, WC2, Sat 21 & Sun 22*
JF
*Classical & opera highlights 2014*
After this year's glut of high-profile musical anniversaries, orchestras are now revving up to mark Richard Strauss's 150th birthday in 2014. Manchester gets in first with *Strauss's Voice*, a two-month-long series of concerts (Bridgewater Hall, 9 Jan to 8 Mar). Away from anniversaries, the Welsh National Opera's *Fallen Women* season (Millennium Centre, Cardiff, 6 Feb to 1 Aug, then touring) features La Traviata, plus new productions of two works based upon Abbé Prévost's novel *Manon Lescaut*: Puccini's opera of the same name, and Henze's updating of the story, *Boulevard Solitude*. There's a lot of brand-new opera around, too, with Julian Anderson's first opera, *Thebans* (Coliseum, WC2, 3 May to 3 Jun), with Frank McGuinness's libretto based upon Sophocles, and the biggest new work of spring, David Lang's *Crowd Out*, for 1,000 singers, which premieres in Birmingham (Millennium Point, 8 Jun).
AC Reported by guardian.co.uk 2 days ago.