The Real Thing at the Oxford Playhouse

Tom Stoppard is one of my favourite playwrights, so when the English Touring Theatre's production of The Real Thing was visiting Oxford, I was on my way, Euro Semi-final notwithstanding. This play written in 1982 is brilliantly typical Stoppard. He toned down what the programme called his "dazzling intellectual pyrotechnics" for a play about love, infedility and the business of writing. Stoppard obviously put a lot of himself into the main character. Henry, played beautifully by a bearded Gerald Kyd, is a succesful writer and whose latest plays seem to draw inspiration from his affair with Annie, an equally good Marianne Oldham. Henry is a romantic but when he leaves his wife and Annie moves in, their relationship changes, and this forms the backbone of the story.

However, it is Stoppard's clever way with words, repeating scenes with a twist and the incorporation of clips from plays, both real and fictional, that is completely mesmerising. Henry talks about writing quite a bit. I liked his comparison of good and bad writing to hitting a ball with a perfectly constructed cricket bat with just a piece of wood. But then Stoppard has huge affection for our summer game.

The production is first class. My only reservation was that I occasionally missed bits of the dialogue, more about the speed the actors spoke than diction. The direction by Kate Saxon was excellent and the stage management was the best I have seen for ages. The way the furniture moved around between scenes on the circular stage was fabulous. The inclusion between scenes of old pop songs also reflect Henry's (and Stoppard's) love of a catchy tune, not any particular artist. I went out singing quietly along to the Crystals'  "Da Doo Ron Ron".

Prometheus, Snow White and The Huntsman and Cosmopolis

It felt like we had seen it all before. And I was so looking forward to seeing Ridley Scott's new sci fi adventure Prometheus. That is not to say there was nothing to admire. In fact there were a number of scenes that stick in the memory. Michael Fassbender was anything but robotic as David (his mimicry of Peter O'Toole's Lawrence is fascinating) the automaton but it was sleazily slinky Charlize Theron that captured the imagination as corporate chief  Meredith Vickers. The visuals and technical wizardry are the quality you would expect from a big budget movie like this and the story is quite reasonable. But the dialogue is clunky and unconvincing. There are the odd shocks that are in fact more humorous than they are scary. But we could have done with something far more original. Except, that is, for when the captain played, by Idris Elba, picks up a squeezebox that was apparently owned by Stephen Stills and starts to sing his "Love the One You're With". Surreal.

On my way to see Snow White and The Huntsman, I wondered why I had chosen to see this movie. In the end I was very glad I did. It is uneven in parts, but overall it is a good medieval type adventure and packed with a surprising emotional punch. The screenplay is patch but at times inspired. What more could you want? Well, throw in the cream of British male acting talent amongst the "eight?"dwarves. Ian McShane leads an odd bunch including Ray Winstone, Bob Hoskins, Nick Frost (hmm) Toby Jones and our favourite, Eddie Marsan. Strange that this and the previous film both have Charlize Theron in a leading role. Here she revels in the wickedness that is Queen Ravenna.

You can be sure of one thing with a David Cronenburg movie, it will always be a bit strange, and people will walk out, just as they did at when I went to see Cosmopolis. He has taken the novel by Don Delillo and given it his unique interpretation, having written the screenplay as well as directing. It is set in the near future and follows a day in the life of young billionaire Eric Packer played by Robert Pattinson. And when I say follows, the actor is in every scene. It is quite theatrical as he has one to one meetings with a series of characters, many of which take place in his soundproofed stretch limo as it cruises slowly across New York City. The early dialogue (and this is a very, very wordy movie) is somewhat obscure but perseverance pays off as you gradually work out what the film is all about. Pattinson is completely right for the role, and is actually very good, he has to be or the film would fall flat on it's face. The characters he meets are very well cast, mainly they have their scene and then it's goodbye. There are some shocks that really make you jump, but it is the style of the movie that impresses. Cronenburg has done an exceptional job, it is just that the book, where the central character does not have a single redeeming feature, may have not been the best choice to make this type of film.

Olympic Tickets



Our tickets for the second morning of athletics at the Olympic Stadium have arrived. Although our seats are quite high up, they are in a great position. So we are very much looking forward to the day. They advise arriving two and half hours before the start which would make that 7.30am, and leaving home before 6am. Will have to break the first rule of retirement. No alarms. 



Charvil 5K

Charvil is a village just off the A4 between Maidenhead and Reading, and on Sunday they had their first ever 5K fun run. It was organised by Alice, a friend Alison has made through a thread on Runners World magazine. There were only just over 100 runners, and only two men over 60 (one of whom may have walked it), so it was pretty obvious that I would win the trophy for the first male 60 plus. I thought there were only prizes for the first man and woman home, so when my name was called it was a huge surprise.

Apparently Alice is a friends of Teresa May, the Home Secretary, and it was she who started the race, gave out a medal to everyone who finished, and presented the trophies at the end. It was all quite surreal.

After the race we wandered over to the village fete that was also taking place on that day. A Pims and a burger is not the most likely combination, but they went down very well.



A Small Town In Germany, Whatever You Love and The Cement Garden

John Le Carre has written twenty one novels and A Small Town In Germany was his fifth, written in 1968 and the last of his for me to have read. The book is set in the 1960's (when the author was actually stationed there) and the small town is Bonn (the second sentence in the book describes it as "a Balkan city, stained and secret, drawn over with tramwire"), the artificially created centre of West German government since 1949. The British Embassy has a problem. A foreign worker there is missing, and so are confidential files. Alan Turner is sent from London to investigate. But is he more interested in finding the missing man or the files? He is not well received by the staff he interviews, particularly because of a tense political situation. I felt that the novel occasionally got bogged down with a succession of characters Turner talks to, but apart from that, it is a rattling good yarn. Le Carre is comfortable in the setting and plot, and he makes Turner an engaging and interesting hero. Not his best work, and maybe that is why his next book, The Naive and Sentimental Lover was such a departure from his secret service themes. But it all came good when up next came Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

Whatever You Love is one of the recent breed of contemporary fiction that combines well written middle class family drama with a violent edge. Laura is our heartbroken narrator as she tries to cope with the death of her daughter in a road accident. Her quest to find the truth behind the mystery driver sets her on a dangerous path that reaches an unexpected climax. These are the books I really enjoy. This is Louise Doughty's sixth novel and her writing is never less than gripping and powerful. Superb.

There are still a couple of Ian McEwan's novels that are still on my reading list, and one of them was The Cement Garden, his first. He had previously published two books of short stories, and indeed this story is only half the length of a normal novel. Four children from young Tom to eighteen year old Julie are alone after the death at home of their recluse mother. Fifteen year old Jack is our narrator, a strange boy, but aren't we all at that age. One review says how even here, McEwan has already, unlike many of his contemporaries, kept his authorial voice absent from his narrator and so brilliantly captures what makes this person tick. Having come to his first novel from reading all his later works, it does seem different. Is that because he is developing as a writer or is it the narration by a boy who is as morose as can be. In any event, a startling and memorable story.

ELO - The Classic Albums Collection

On my wish list for last Christmas were a couple of CD's by The Electric Light Orchestra, to replace those old vinyl LP's now hiding under the stairs. So it was a big surprise when Michael and Sara presented me with the box set of all their eleven albums. And what a superb present this has turned out to be, now that half way through the year I have just listened to the last one.

Not only does each CD come in it's own cover that represents the original album sleeve, but there is a booklet with additional information, photos and a commentary from Jeff Lynne written in 2006. So for a big fan of ELO, the whole compilation is brilliant. What is fascinating, having all the recordings together, is to see how the productions developed with each album.

The first (No Answer) recorded in 1972 is a little strange. The great opening track 10538 Overture is rarely repeated elsewhere on the songs half of which are written by Jeff and half by Roy Wood. Roy had not only become a superb cello player (the only other string instrument is Steve Wollam's violin) but had become a brilliant multi instrumentalist. As Jeff says "if you could blow it, pluck it, strum it or blow it, Roy could play it). And that is what makes it so interesting.

The next two albums, ELO 11 and On The Third Day are very much experimental. After a couple of contributions from Roy Wood, he left the band for good to develop his own group Wizard. So all the new writing is Jeff's. He is still in the learning process regarding how to write songs, so nothing particular stands out. Again the strings are limited to two or three instruments which are double tracked. But the albums show how Jeff is developing a style both as producer and song writer. Bev Bevan was already a fixture on drums, but the latter album saw Richard Tandy (piano) and Mik Kaminski (violin) join the project.

I would say that the next album Elderado from 1974 is the breakthrough album. This was the first time Jeff uses a big orchestra, and for the instrumental version of the title track, a 20 piece choir. And it shows. Louis Clark had arrived to make the arrangements and conduct the orchestra, the first of five albums to which he should make such a huge contribution. Believe it or not, he was only 24 years old and just graduated from Leeds College of Music. I Can't Get It out Of My Head is, I believe, Jeff's best song so far. In all there are four different versions of the terrific title track.

The following year the band were off to Munich with an equally big orchestra to record Face The Music.The album was their biggest success so far and made platinum thanks to songs such as Evil Woman. However, the next album was even better.

A New World Record contained hit after hit. Jeff's songwriting and producing skills had hit a peak, and the band and orchestra responded with some wonderful recordings. When it comes to choosing my favourite ELO song, I have to pick Telephone Line, and not just because it made the top ten in the UK and USA. But there are other great tracks on this album notably Rockaria! where Mary Thomas adds her operatic talents.

Jeff says in his notes of Out Of The Blue " that this "was probably the hardest work I have ever done". He was on a roll as a songwriter and admits "it was the most prolific I have ever been". There were not only a number of terrific individual songs but Concerto For A Rainy Day was the weather inspired side three of the original double LP. It concludes with the genius that is Mr Blue Sky. This was the third successive album recorded in Munich after ditching a posh studio lined up after their previous success.

After releasing an album every year, ELO coasted for two years before recording Discovery, another album I owned on vinyl and one I always have rated very highly. The forty piece string section are still there in Munich, and Kelly Groucott on bass is on his fourth successive album, now with just Bev Bevan and Richard Tandy to make up the band. The songs remain consistently good.

Time was another successful album with the same personnel as the previous release. The songs are still strong, including Hold On Tight and Twilight. Rainer Pietsch had taken over arranging and conducting the strings, which seem less prominent than before.

The following album is not as consistently good as all six previous recordings. Secret Messages still has the odd stand out track, Four Little Diamonds is a real belter of a rock song. Louis Clark is back arranging the strings, but conspicuously only on three tracks. Jeff seems to be looking to get back to a basic electronic sound.

The final album of the set from 1986 is Balance of Power. Having never replaced my vinyl copy, it was great to hear all these songs again. It is still a really good album. Getting To The Point is an absolutely brilliant piece. No strings this time, no orchestra, just the band as the last three albums, plus a saxophone. But Richard Tandy does replicate some string parts on his keyboards.

There are lots of bonus tracks on every album and these are a welcome addition. There are two omissions from the complete works of ELO. The very last album Zoom was released in 2001 but is really a Jeff Lynne solo recording plus the odd guest contribution. It was not well received, and my copy of the CD was found in the bargain bin. ELO also contributed four tracks to the soundtrack of Xanadu. Three of those find their way into the box set. Only The Fall misses out, but it will not be missed. Jeff also released a solo album in 1990 called Armchair Theatre. This should have done better than it did, there are some very good songs and is definitely worth a listen. I'm glad to have the CD in my collection.

That just leaves me to thank Michael and Sara once again for such an amazing present. Jeff Lynne is one of my musical heroes and I now have his complete works. Fantastic.

Jubilee Party

The plans were all in place for our first ever street party on Sunday. The road closure had been accepted, and all we needed was some decent weather. Unfortunately the forecast was for rain with very cool temperatures. So on the Saturday, we helped putting up a big marquee and three gazebos in one of the back gardens, just in case.
As it turned out, it was raining lightly on Sunday morning, so the tables and chairs all went inside. At 2pm, the rain relented, just in time for the arrival of the Queen, complete with corgi, to cut the tape and open the party.

There were nearly fifty of us sitting down together to enjoy the buffet to which everyone had contributed. We sat under huge amounts of bunting and flags. Alison had compiled seven CD's of music across the six decades of the Queen's reign. We also had a quiz about the Royal Family and our street.



The buffet stretched from the marquee to one of the gazebos.



By late afternoon, the rain was coming down harder than ever. And with it, the temperature fell. Extra layers were put on under coats, but our spirits remained high. In fact we had a wonderful party.



We knew so few of the people at the top end of the road, so it was really good to get to know them. At 7pm, it was time for a chili , so we all went inside the house whose garden we had occupied. It was so nice to get warm and have something hot to eat. The next three hours went in a flash. But the music was much better inside, and by 10pm Alison wanted to go. I stayed, but only for a very short while as people were beginning to drift home. Everyone agreed it was a great party, and are looking forward to the next one.