The Human League 'thrill' packed crowd at Llangollen Pavilion
The synth-pop pioneers delivered a hit-filled set packed with fan favourites as they whipped the crowd into a frenzy. Opening with Sound of The Crowd, Mirror Man and Heart Like A Wheel, they continued with such hits as All I Ever Wanted, Love Action, Fascination, Don't You Want Me before an encore that ended with 80s anthem Together In Electric Dreams.
Kicking off the evening were fellow 80s favourites The Christians and Altered Images, who performed beloved hits such as Harvest For The World, Forgotten Town and I Could Be Happy.
The headlining show from The Human League marked the finale of TK Maxx Presents Live at Llangollen Pavilion, which launched on June 26 with a star-studded lineup featuring Texas, Rag'n'Bone Man, UB40 featuring Ali Cambell, James, The Script and Olly Murs. The headline concerts are presented in a partnership between Live Nation promoters Cuffe and Taylor and Llangollen International Eisteddfod.
Celebrating 78 years, the Llangollen International Eisteddfod kicks off on Tuesday July 8, featuring a stellar lineup with headline performances from Sir Karl Jenkins, KT Tunstall, Il Divo, Beyond Time: The Music of Hans Zimmer, Choir of the World with special guest Lucie Jones, and Bryn Terfel joined by Fisherman's Friends and Eve Goodman.
In keeping with tradition, the festival also offers a full daily programme of competitions and field entertainment alongside the headline shows.
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Scotsman
7 hours ago
- Scotsman
Fringe theatre reviews: ALTAR I Was A German
Sign up to our Arts and Culture newsletter, get the latest news and reviews from our specialist arts writers Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... ALTAR ★★★★ Underbelly, George Square (Venue 300) until 25 August From the particular shade of napkin to the hang of the organza drapes, everything has to be spot-on for Sutton's long-planned-for wedding to reformed school bad boy Ethan. That even extends to ensuring an invite for Sutton's old flame Dana - who in the intervening years has transformed into Dan. There's a danger that writer Em Tambree's heart-on-sleeve two-hander bites off more than it can realistically chew, tackling not only casual transphobia but also blind religious belief and scientific certainty. And there's a nagging question of how and why a neurotic bride would spend an hour away from the scene of the action. But suspend your disbelief, and Tambree navigates a persuasively smooth course through her panoply of issues, while also refusing to paint butter-wouldn't-melt Sutton or more progressive Dan as the show's particular goodie or baddie. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad They're rounded characters, too, struggling with their evident deep love for each other while sometimes being appalled by one another's beliefs. Evie Korver fractures Sutton's stiff reserve with glimpses of emotion, while Eddie Pattison's Dan hints at a vein of vulnerability under their know-it-all assuredness. Director Kathryn Yate makes the most of the venue's intimate space, and ensures time and space for Tambree's observations to make their mark. It's a poignant, provocative, quietly heartbreaking gem of a show. David Kettle Lioness ★★★ Greenside @ Riddles Court (Venue 16) until 23 August Every woman who pulls on a strip to play football is a Lioness, according to this new solo play by its performer Kate Coulson, and not just the recent English Euro-winners who enjoy the official nickname. Her character Marnie Cole, a fictional goalkeeper for the real-life London City Lionesses, goes on to illustrate why that's the case, by playing out a sporting life which is as much about the off-field trials a male footballer will never experience as it is the pride, pressure and emotional onslaught of keeping things together on the pitch. Coulson is constantly moving on a stage layered with green astroturf, in front of a goal frame which appears specially constructed to fit precisely this compact space. The effect of this and the strip she wears is to place Marnie within the identity of a footballer 24/7, even when a scene change takes us off the pitch and into, for example, her relationship with her dismissive professional footballer boyfriend or her day job as a PE teacher at a private school. Marnie is played surly and businesslike by Coulson, but her pain at being dismissed or having to play on through an endometriosis flare-up feels convincing. There is no glory on the international stage for her, just the hard-fought satisfaction of staying in the game and competing. David Pollock I Was A German ★★★ Zoo Southside (Venue 82) until 24 August Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Like many people in the run-up to Brexit, Clare Fraenkel was looking for a way to apply for a European passport. She could, of course, because her grandfather was German, a Jewish journalist who escaped Berlin in 1933. But this knowledge sparked an internal crisis: how could she apply for German citizenship when her grandfather had had his citizenship revoked on account of his Jewishness? The focus of the play then shifts to her grandfather, Heinz Fraenkel, who counted the days of exile away from his native land, and later found himself interred as an enemy alien in the country where he had found asylum. He intended to return to Germany after the war, but, after numerous visits and extensive research, including an interview with a former SS man in a POW camp in Wales, he decided to renounce his country for good and wrote a book detailing his reasons. Clare works hard to find the drama in the story, playing herself, Heinz and a range of other characters, even performing an interlude of Weimar-style cabaret. But, ultimately, she has to tell more than show in order to communicate the complexities of this interesting but not especially theatrical story. Susan Mansfield An Ode to the Casting Director ★★★ Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose (Venue 24) until 25 August If you are an actor trying to get work, here's a possible way forward: make a play for the Fringe about an actor trying to get work. In the sub-genre of Fringe shows about the difficulties of the acting profession, Sophie Fisher's An Ode to the Casting Director is smarter and funnier than many. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Sophie never misses an audition, whether she's being asked to be 'orgasmic' while eating crisps, sliding down a rainbow for a kids' commercial or just giving a blood-curdling scream. She's relentlessly positive, holding on to the notion that she nailed the next step of her career, while encountering directors who think they're Marlon Brando and casting directors who never fail to sound bored. Fisher is a likeable performer who invites empathy without ever sounding sorry for herself, even when dumped by her boyfriend in the middle of a four-day wedding photoshoot. While her delivery rattles along a little too fast and too uniformly, she masters a range of tones, playing the ridiculous anecdotes for laughs while anchoring the more serious moments in authentic emotions. Susan Mansfield Sandbox: Saining ★★★ 42 Dundas (Venue 473) until 22 August At just 25 minutes in length, held in a basement studio on Edinburgh's Dundas Street, Sandbox: Saining promises a refreshing and thought-provoking departure from the busy city centre. Created by local film/makers Kerry Mullaney and Kris Bird, the piece considers themes of memory, consciousness and subjectivity through a fusion of the ancient Scottish Rite and a near-future world. The waiting room functions as a monument to the past, perhaps the infancy of time itself, as it teems with analogue paraphernalia like books and unblinking dolls. There is no computer technology to be seen, save the television on the wall (that we are soon guided to the other side of), showing a girl playing with her toys in woodland. There is snow on the ground, and as she animates her dolls, the saining (a Scots word for blessing) is invoked. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad A contrasting and intimate cinema space offers a powerful audio-visual experience. Led by a faceless, synthetically intelligent narrator, images of trees in the wind, a girl in shallow water, a shadow in the half-light, and a shell on the sand, are made sinister over the deep, resonant soundtrack. The story itself may not be straightforward; however, the richness of the film experience is plenty. Jospehine Balfour-Oatts Do Zombies Dream of Undead Sheep? ★★ ZOO Playground (Venue 186) until 24 August Do Zombies Dream of Undead Sheep? is notable for its inventive, brilliantly detailed animation reminiscent of Quentin Blake. There is little else to recommend this production, however, which is strangely upbeat given its angsty subject matter. The protagonist, played by the Woodlouse (aka John Butler), valiantly navigates the sudden emergence of zombies and the politics of the undead, all whilst ventriloquising a 2D puppet, playing the ukulele, singing, and leading the audience in a series of sing-alongs. It is an admirable endeavour; unfortunately, these theatrical elements refuse to come together in any coherent or satisfying way.
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Daily Mail
Mark Wright gives rare insight into family holiday with 5 month-old daughter Palma as he reveals 'disappointment'
Mark Wright gave a rare insight into family life as he discussed his recent holiday to Palma, Majorca with his daughter. The TV personality, who shares 5-month-old baby Palma with his wife Michelle Keegan, revealed that 'something left him disappointed' during the trip. As he hosted Heart Saturday Breakfast alongside Olly Murs at the weekend, the duo caught up. When Olly asked Mark how his holiday to Palma was, he admitted: Something disappointed me when we first got there, though. 'Well, obviously Palma is spelled like Palma. Like Palma, the place in Majorca, the city where you land. 'And I was always like, whenever you land in another country and you go through passport control, they're never happy.' Mark continued: 'They never look at them smiley, it's just 'gracias", and just walk off. And I was like, surely they're going to read Palma's passport and be like, a little smile or something. 'Michelle's like, well, make sure you give that, like, her Palma's passport first and like, hold it in front of them. I do, I gave it. He just looked down at his stamps and went on, "you go." 'Palma went to Palma for the first ever time we did a picture in front of the Palma signs. So it was, it was a beautiful week. I ate and drank a little bit too. 'You know, I also realised as well. When I used to go on holiday on my dad and he used to have a beer at like, 12 o'clock in the afternoon, I used to think, how could you want that? Like, maybe at nighttime when you go to the bar. What was I doing… 'Everyday midday beer. I was like, I'm literally turning into my dad.' Speaking about Palma, he revealed: 'She's like her mum. She sleeps a lot! So we get away with, you know, tantrums on the plane, because we just give her a nap time, then she sleeps the whole flight.' Elsewhere, Michelle paid a sweet tribute to her baby daughter Palma as she shared chic holiday snaps. In a close up snap of her outfit, Michelle displayed a gold 'PPP' necklace in a sweet tribute to baby Palma, who she welcomed with husband Mark Wright in March. The three P's on her necklace related to her daughter Palma as well as her beloved dogs, dachshund Phoebe and chihuahua Pip. Since becoming a mum, Michelle has been living it up with luxury holidays, red carpet appearances and a major new deal with Sky, all while flaunting her enviable post-baby figure in skimpy swimwear from her fashion range. It was recently revealed the mother-of-one has signed a six-figure advertising deal to become the new face of the media company Sky. It's the actress' first major job since she gave birth to her daughter Palma in March. Michelle, who found fame as Tina McIntyre on Coronation Street in 2007, will film a series of promo clips with fellow British actor Idris Elba, who already appears as the 'face'. A source told The Sun: 'Michelle has really been enjoying maternity leave with Palma, but she'll be back to work soon to film these new adverts for Sky. ' Brassic is ending after the seventh series and Michelle is keen to still be a part of the Sky brand.'
BBC News
2 days ago
- BBC News
Olly Murs 'looking forward' to Norwich city festival slot
Olly Murs says he is looking forward to headlining a new music and circus festival. Rock 'n' Roll Circus will take place from Thursday to Saturday at Earlham Park, Norwich. Over the weekend, Murs will take the stage alongside McFly, Sam Ryder, and Scouting For Girls. "I think it's been 10 years since I've done a show in Norwich, so I'm looking forward to it," he said. The festival, which director Ali O'Reilly says is based on a travelling circus, is also taking place in Sheffield at the end of August. Saturday's headline slot marks 10 years since Murs' last show in Norfolk. "I think I've done quite a few shows in Norwich, from my first theatre tour to Carrow Road with JLS, to Radio 1's Big Weekend... I've done it quite a few times," he said. 'Bit of a joker' Murs, from Witham, Essex, said his family would visit Norfolk on holiday when he was a child. "As I'm from East Anglia, I do feel like it's nice to come home really and do these sorts of gigs... I miss being round that neck of the woods," he said."We used to do staycations, particularly in Great Yarmouth... We used to go there quite a lot. I remember doing Norfolk quite a bit."On the festival, Murs said: "I don't think I'm rock, I don't think I've got any rolls underneath my top at the moment, but I'm a bit of a joker and a bit of a clown."I'm definitely going to bring the entertainment vibe to the circus." The festival will feature performances from internationally known circus acts, and workshops from Norwich's Oak Circus Centre. Ms O'Reilly said: "Norwich has a rich cultural heritage, a proven love for live music... We're really excited to be coming."It's not just a music festival; the circus element is integral to the show." 'Creating a community' Ms O'Reilly said organisers were excited to see the festival come to life in Norwich."Earlham Park is an incredible setting. We were blown away by how beautiful it was and the connections and proximity to the city centre," she said."It's hard launching a new event, in a new location, but how Rock 'n' Roll Circus has been received in Norfolk has been brilliant."We've invested a lot in creating a community in the region and we're excited to bring it back again in 2026, so watch this space." Follow Norfolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
