Stan Tracey, Bobby Wellins and the awards…

The Ivor Novello Awards have presented their first ever Ivors Jazz Award to one of our greatest musicians, the wonderful Stan Tracey, who is still composing and playing beautifully crafted and inventive jazz in his eighties. Here's a short commentary from London Jazz on the award. It's fitting that one of Stan's long-time musical partners, …

Neil Brand: The Silent Pianist Speaks

This is an expanded version of my short review published online in One Hundred Words magazine [no longer available]. An appreciative audience in Welwyn Garden City were treated to Neil Brand’s hugely entertaining one man show, ‘The Silent Pianist Speaks’, when he brought it to the Hawthorne Theatre, Campus West last week. With his charismatic …

The Turin Horse

An expanded version of my short review published online in One Hundred Words Magazine:- I feel very fortunate to live near such an inspirational cinema as the Arts Picturehouse in Cambridge; a venue always keen to bring the best in cinema to its appreciative audience. As a huge (though not uncritical) fan of Bela Tarr, …

Visages d’Enfants

Here is my (slightly modified) review of Visages d'Enfants, as published in Issue 2 of Take One's special publication for the British Silent Film Festival in April (the review is on the last page). It's a film which was one of the highlights of the festival for me. Thankfully, the journey of discovery for cinema …