Amy Macdonald at Cambridge Corn Exchange

On the strength of her second album, Amy Macdonald has moved up to bigger venues. From the Shepherds Bush Empire to Hammersmith Apollo and from Cambridge Junction to the Corn Exchange (where I previously saw Sarah McLachlan). I chose this in preference to Hammersmith as it is a more intimate hall. I had the choice of ground floor standing or a seat in the balcony. In one way I was glad that I chose a seat, but Amy's uptempo folk rock fused with a Celtic beat is made for jumping up and down. And that would have probably done me no good at my age. There also seemed few in the audience who felt the way I do about her music, so their participation was sadly lacking.

The concert was a run through almost every song from her two albums, and the ninety minutes went in a flash. LA, Poison Prince and Mr Rock & Roll started the proceedings with many of her latest songs in the middle half, including the frantic Love Love. Coming back on her own for an encore, Amy gave a superb solo acoustic rendition of Born to Run before the excellent five piece band joined her for What Happiness Means To Me and a rousing Let's Start A Band. The only thing missing was her cover version of Caledonia found on the live CD that accompanies her latest recordings.

The sound quality did not seem to be the best, but it was just the right loudness. Amy's voice was spot on and she looked great in her sparkly silver dress. It is just a shame she does not have the same enthusiastic following here as in the rest of Europe. Joining 17,000 at the O2 in Berlin would have been great.

Ingrid Michaelson, Jenna, Jewel and Thea Gilmore

I was going to buy just the latest Ingrid Michaelson album Everybody, but Amazon sold a double CD which includes her first album Girls and Boys and three tracks from her second Be OK. I have to say that Everybody is much the stronger, except for the superb "Glass" from Girls and Boys. Her songs are sometimes a little quirky and lightweight for my taste, but they are beginning to grow on me.

In my never ending search for female singer songwriters I sometimes find a little known gem. This time it is Jenna, or Jenna Witts to give her full name. Another album with acoustic backing to some truly superb songs. The strong title track on Brother sets the standard for a succession of remarkable tunes. Outstanding.

I had given up on Jewel after she went far too country after her excellent albums Pieces of You, Spirit and This Way. But I did find this 2006 album Goodbye Alice in Wonderland. Not up to the standard of the previous three but the odd good track. And not at all too country.

Murphy's Heart is my ninth Thea Gilmore album (I have only avoided her Christmas collection so far) and I have to say one of her best. Although listening to the first five tracks I thought I was hearing something fairly ordinary. But halfway through the songs pick up and one after another they are just great. You're The Radio and How The Love Gets In are already big favourites.

The Hole 3D, Made in Dagenham and Red

The only reason I went to see The Hole in 3D was because it was directed by Joe Dante. It is twenty six years since Gremlins, so letting him loose with a 3D shocker for teens sounded interesting. And it was. With writer Mark L Smith in familiar territory after scripting the scary Vacancy, the movie zips along with good special effects and reasonable dialogue. There are some frights along the way, but none the worse for these being fairly lightweight.

I had put off going to see Made in Dagenham until the last day it was on. A British film about women striking for equal pay did not sound like something I would like. How wrong I was. This is a great emotional rollercoaster, full of lump in the throat moments. Such as when towards the end, Rita (the reluctant leader played by a superb Sally Hawkins) on her way to see the minister, goes to borrow a Biba dress from the bosses wife played by Rosamund Pike. Brilliant. The direction by Nigel Cole is spot on and the opportunity is here for some of our best actors to shine. Geraldine James and Miranda Richardson are wonderful, but it is Rosamund Pike who brings a huge subtlety to her role that is the biggest surprise. The men too are terrific. Bob Hoskins, Kenneth Cranham's awful shop steward and Daniel Rhys Mays as Rita's husband give stand out performances. Watch out for them at the Baftas.

It was half term week, so I decided to pick a movie where any background noise would not be intrusive. Red proved to be a wise choice. Some chatter behind me early on, but quite soon the movie took over and I cannot remember another sound. The plot was pretty thin but the action was pacy enough. The shoot outs were only just tolerable but what made the film was the terrific ensemble acting of Bruce Willis, Mary-Louise Parker, Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren and a superb hilarious performance from John Malcovich. This was even better than his roles in such movies as Burn After Reading. A good action-comedy.

Eddie Marsan

Ever since Eddie Marsan appeared as Mr Pancks in Little Dorrit, he has been one of our favourite actors. He has had cameo roles in many movies including Gangs of New York, 21 Grammes, V for Vendetta, Mission Impossible 111, Miami Vice, The Illusionist, Hancock and Me and Orson Welles. He had a bigger role in Vera Drake and more recently playing Inspector Lestrade in Sherlock Holmes. He has appeared in many TV dramas including last year's Red Riding. I guess that I first admired his work in Stephen Poliakoff's Friends and Crocodiles in 2005 where he played an author who could not finish his second book. Watching the DVD last week, I just wished that he had a bigger part. And I am looking forward to watching him in The Disappearance of Alice Creed when it comes on TV. His latest role comes in the TV adaptation of Mark Billingham's Thorne:Sleepyhead. As AA Gill wrote in his review "I'd still watch him in anything he'd turned up for". I could not agree more.

131 Songs - Numbers 60,61 and 62

Number 60 - Legacy by Carole King

It would have been usual to choose a track from Carole King's most famous 1971 album "Tapestry", such as "You've Got a Friend" or "Will You Love Me Tomorrow". But she made a brilliant but fairly unknown album in 1989 called "City Streets". There are so many great tracks but I have gone for "Legacy" co written with her producer, and guitarist, Rudy Guess. There are also some great ballads with King's voice on top form. And the production quality is superb, the clarity of the instruments just perfect. One of my favourite albums.

Number 61 - Hard to Make a Stand by Sheryl Crow

After breaking through with "All I Wanna Do" from her eventual Grammy awarded debut album, "Tuesday Night Music Club", Sheryl Crow recorded a self titled album that was released in 1996. This also gained Grammy awards and propelled her to being another highly successful singer songwriter. Although my chosen track from this album, like many of the others, is co written, it has the distinctive Crow voice and the sharp guitar work that runs through this collection.

Number 62 - Goodbye to Love by The Carpenters

You could not get anything more different to the last track than this one. The dreamily soft easy listening of The Carpenters is not usually my cup of tea, but the voice of Karen Carpenter is unique. And it's true, we do play their greatest hits compilation at home when we need something quiet. They did not write all their own material, but Richard Carpenter did compose quite a few of their biggest hits, with contributions from co-writers. John Bettis added some lyrics to my chosen track, but it is Richard's melody that is captivating.

The last warm day of the year

Early October has been lovely and warm. Yesterday was a beautifully sunny 18C as I rode my bike to Princes Risborough. The garden has still had lots of colour with a fresh bloom of roses and the bedding plants still going strong around the patio.

The Acanthus is better than it has been all summer. It originally flowered with just one stem, but after I cut this back in August, half a dozen new stems appeared. Gorgeous.

However, the weather has cooled down today and the forecast is for cloudy and cooler days. Well it is autumn.

Tamara Drewe, Buried and The Town

You have to hand it to Stephen Frears, he does try to make decent British movies and avoid the Hollywood treadmill. Although I prefer it when he explores the seedier side of urban Britain with films such as "My Beautiful Laundrette" and "Dirty Pretty Things". After his success with "The Queen", he is less sure with "Tamara Drewe", a comedy drama set in the rural idyll which is the countryside of Dorset. Moira Buffini has written the screenplay from Posy Simmonds' graphic novel and her inexperience shows. Although I guess that Frears had a huge part to play in it's adaptation. The acting is pretty good, but you would expect nothing else when actors such as Tamsin Grieg and Roger Allam are given parts in, what for them is a major movie. Gemma Arterton plays the title role and does OK, but she is on the screen a lot less than I thought she would be. There were a few funny moments and it was beautifully shot, but there was little intensity and ended up a reasonably diverting couple of hours but without any involvement with the characters or story.

It is very hard to make a judgement on "Buried". A low budget indie movie takes place only in a box below the ground. Ryan Reynolds wakes up to find himself incarcerated by his kidnappers with only a mobile phone they have purposely left him for company. The great strength of the movie is the script by Chris Sparling who must at least have an Oscar nomination lined up. How he and director Rodrigo Cortes ramp up the tension is amazing. If there is one fault, it may be just a fraction too long. There was no reason why it could not have been cut to an hour instead of the obligatory 90 minutes. Then the device of the whole thing being filmed in a box would have worked so much better. Even so, we have a little miracle of film making. I nearly forgot, the only actor on screen is Ryan Reynolds. Who would have guessed he can actually act his socks off.

Ben Affleck revisits Boston after his marvelous movie "Gone Baby Gone". He is assisted on the screenplay once again by Aaron Stockard and this time Peter Craig, based on the novel "Prince of Thieves" by Chuck Hogan. Again the film is shot entirely on location, and what locations they are! It is basically a tale of cops and robbers, but mainly the latter. The Charlestown district of Boston is apparently notorious for breeding bank robbers and it is the lives of it's latest criminals that elevate the movie to such an excellent standard. Ben Affleck not only directs, but stars as the "brains" of the gang while Jeremy Renner is the out of control muscle. However the casting of Rebecca Hall is a gem. She is just brilliant. I have to say that Ben's lead role could have been done by a better actor, but who cares. This could have just have been a great action movie, but the interaction of the main characters elevates the film to being a classic. Stick to directing Ben, we want more like this.