Arts BOOK REVIEW: Blood Relatives Alcock has written that most lovely of books, a wonderfully spot-on working class positive coming out story of the most precious kind, authentic, self-defined and rough, but veined with hope and life lived well. By Eric Page • 3 min read
Arts BOOK REVIEW: The Up Stairs Lounge Arson This grim but absorbing read covers the events of June 24, 1973, when a fire in a New Orleans gay bar killed 32 people. On Gay Pride Day in 1973, an arsonist set the entrance to a French Quarter gay bar on fire. In the terrible inferno that followed, 32 people lost their lives, including a third of By Eric Page • 2 min read
Arts OPERA REVIEW: La traviata I was totally absorbed by its headlong rush into tragedy and the singing and music was of astonishing quality. Overall a music triumph, but with a confusing narrative, but a rich lush evening none the less. By Eric Page • 4 min read
Arts BOOK REVIEW: Spirit of Gin A stirring miscellany of the new gin revival from the delightful Mr. Teacher brings us bang up to date with Hogarth’s favorite tipple, Great Britain’s secret shame and the most modern and chic way to ruin one’s Mother in Shoreditch, Swansea or Seville. By Eric Page • 1 min read
Arts BOOK REVIEW: Cooking with the Bears Angelo Sindaco has given us this curious kitchen cookery book, full of tasty instructions fresh from the hot sweaty recipe books of some sexy semi-naked hairy men. By Eric Page • 2 min read
Arts BOOK REVIEW: An Anthology of Transsexual Memoirs A fascinating and compulsively readable book, filled with anguish, introspection, and courage. By Eric Page • 1 min read
Arts BOOK REVIEW: Camp Carnage Every now and again a book drops into my slot with perfect timing and I got this one for Halloween. Local boy Joshua Winning and his co-author Elliot Cross have conspired on this book based in a 1980s American summer camp where gay teens are sent to be straightened out but- as is the gore-norm for s By Eric Page • 3 min read
Arts MUSIC REVIEW: Peter and the Wolf: Chamberhouse Winds Chamberhouse Winds are a fun local group of professional orchestral woodwind players with a nice line in millinery who also know how to engage and hold the attention of young children for an hour or so and provide and entertaining and unusual performance for their parents too. By Eric Page • 2 min read
Arts BOOK REVIEW: Dear Infidel: Tamim Sadikali Dear Infidel is evocative of the frustrations and challenges faced by British Muslims as the gravity of world politics has a domino effect on their own lives. With the news full of young British men going off to fight in a war and for a reason that many find unfathomable this is a well-timed book on By Eric Page • 3 min read
Arts BOOK REVIEW: The Queen of Clubs: Tobias International This is at heart a book balanced on suspense and if you’ve always wondered quote how much of that makeup, attitude and viciousness is left behind in the dressing rooms of Drag Queens then you will enjoy the rising tensions as these Drag Queens clash and wrestle and worse, and be taken up with the ne By Eric Page • 2 min read
Arts REVIEW: Marriage of Figaro This second outing of Fiona Shaw’s Figaro has mellowed and matured in the few years since the last time it graced the ENO stage. The wit is still there, the endless movement and r revolving stage allowing us insight and side squints into the upstairs/downstairs business of this grand space and the s By Eric Page • 4 min read
Arts PREVIEW: Brighton Comedy Festival The Brighton comedy festival offers the widest range of stand up and performance comedy outside of the Edinburgh festival with the very best up and coming acts, there’s plenty of choice. By Eric Page • 3 min read
