Well, the holiday has been booked! What a palaver! Never, under any circumstances book a holiday with flydeals.co.uk - they are a bunch of lying shisters out to rip you off. Without going into too much detail, they phoned the day after confirmation to say that the Credit Card had been declined. Jules has a huge balance on her card so she was rather confused by this. They took her Debit Card details instead and then advised her:
a) The Debit Card payments were subject to charges
b) The price of the tickets had gone up by £10 each
When she got off the phone Julie called her Credit Card company to ask why they had declined her card and they advised her that no action had taken place. Basically, Flydeals simply held over the transaction for a day to get more money for the tickets.
Upon questioning Flydeals about this they refused to offer any explanation and said if she wished to cancel now, there would be a fee of £50. Furious, she called her bank and put a stop on any withdraw from Flydeals. She the bought tickets on the same flight for the same price through another company – who couldn’t have been more helpful.
The next day Flydeals had succeeded in withdrawing the total amount from her account and would only return it minus a cancellation fee of £50. There was nothing we could do except swallow the theft and tell the obnoxious Manager Helen – to f**k off!!!
For anyone planning on booking a flight, please don’t use them.
Saturday, 26 July 2008
Friday, 18 July 2008
Zorro!
For those of you reading my blog you will realise I am not uniformly kind to every show I see. I like to think I approach each play, musical or cabaret with an open mind. This week I found myself in the unusual position of reviewing a major West End musical 3 days after its official press night, so that I was free to cover the annual Spotlight Showcases at the Strand Palace Hotel. So by Thursday this week I had already had access to some reviews of Zorro, initially Michael Billington’s 4 star review for The Guardian but also The Metro’s mauling and in particular Mark Shenton’s turn of the screw on his Stage Website Blog. I felt I was not in for a great night. Upon my arrival I discovered that the opening was being delayed – badly delayed. 50 minutes later, with no real explanation, the show opened. I was not in the best of moods and had already sent texts to friends that I would have to cancel a date.
What took me by surprise was how good Zorro is. A real cracker of a show with a lively mix of camp humour, strong if a little sturdy dance routines, great musical numbers and an excellent story.
What took me by surprise was how good Zorro is. A real cracker of a show with a lively mix of camp humour, strong if a little sturdy dance routines, great musical numbers and an excellent story.
Mark Shenton continued his barrage of insults at the show and equally surprisingly began to harangue fellow critics for daring to like it too! I have an inordinate amount of respect for Mark’s place in the industry although I long ago realised our tastes differ to quite a degree. Quite where all this is coming from I am not sure but two of his commentators rally to his cause, in quite a ridiculous fashion, churning out the usual elitist rubbish Mark himself seemed to be hoping to avoid.
Thursday, 10 July 2008
A New Gay Musical
Words that usually send a shudder of anticipation down my spine, usually of a mixture of fear and exhilaration. So heading towards Barons Court with my fellow victim, Scott, I picked up my tickets for 24/Seven. A bigger shambles is unlikely to be seen in London in the London Fringe for quite a while.
Now nobody knows better than I the budget restrictions of mounting any theatre project in London but there is no excuse for, well, for want of a better word, incompetence. Firstly, we had been invited to the opening night as members of the press to review. There were about 6 people in the audience! Please, PR’s, remember if you can’t fill a Press Night, give up now! Give tickets away, if necessary but make sure there is a partisan contingent to applaud when necessary and offer support to the people on stage. The echoing silences between numbers must have been very daunting for the young cast.
That aside, there was very little reason to applaud anyway. The score was leaden, vaguely plagiarising various composers and reaching its notes loftily towards the level of opera. Whereas opera lends itself to broad themes and larger than life characters, 24/Seven was set in a café in Waterloo with work-a-day characters attempting broad themes. Profanity abounded, as it probably would with these characters, but none of it worked at all in this through-sung style. Think of the glorious turn in Jerry Springer – The Opera where Chantelle explains that all she wants to do is fucking dance. Perfectly scanned, musically inspirational and a slick mix of pathos and aspiration. There were a few unintentional laughs from the lyrics which generally ranged from the banal to the hysterical. No attempt was made at design for this show, although the programme looked good. The young cast were very serious but not the greatest – I am guessing it is that time of the year when Edinburgh takes all the seasoned performers.
The biggest surprise were the writers who I had assumed were young college grads who were so new to scene. No! They seemed a little more seasoned than that. It also occurred to me that they may never have stepped into a café in Waterloo in their lives. Let alone one that covered a Prostitution racket, served liquor and did karaoke turns. Dear Lord! Sometimes you just want to give these people a good shake and tell them to go out and see what is being performed out there!
Now nobody knows better than I the budget restrictions of mounting any theatre project in London but there is no excuse for, well, for want of a better word, incompetence. Firstly, we had been invited to the opening night as members of the press to review. There were about 6 people in the audience! Please, PR’s, remember if you can’t fill a Press Night, give up now! Give tickets away, if necessary but make sure there is a partisan contingent to applaud when necessary and offer support to the people on stage. The echoing silences between numbers must have been very daunting for the young cast.
That aside, there was very little reason to applaud anyway. The score was leaden, vaguely plagiarising various composers and reaching its notes loftily towards the level of opera. Whereas opera lends itself to broad themes and larger than life characters, 24/Seven was set in a café in Waterloo with work-a-day characters attempting broad themes. Profanity abounded, as it probably would with these characters, but none of it worked at all in this through-sung style. Think of the glorious turn in Jerry Springer – The Opera where Chantelle explains that all she wants to do is fucking dance. Perfectly scanned, musically inspirational and a slick mix of pathos and aspiration. There were a few unintentional laughs from the lyrics which generally ranged from the banal to the hysterical. No attempt was made at design for this show, although the programme looked good. The young cast were very serious but not the greatest – I am guessing it is that time of the year when Edinburgh takes all the seasoned performers.
The biggest surprise were the writers who I had assumed were young college grads who were so new to scene. No! They seemed a little more seasoned than that. It also occurred to me that they may never have stepped into a café in Waterloo in their lives. Let alone one that covered a Prostitution racket, served liquor and did karaoke turns. Dear Lord! Sometimes you just want to give these people a good shake and tell them to go out and see what is being performed out there!
Wednesday, 9 July 2008
Boots of Shame!
This year, if you have been paying any attention to this blog, I was party to Howard Hardiman’s installation at Gay Shame. The theme of Gay Shame was Masculinity and our corner of the Coronet Theatre was transformed into a Roman Spa, where the men who entered could strip, leave their belongings in a locker, don a white towel and enter at their own risk. Once inside they were at risk to infection from the Cock Zombies – evil, undead beings who would attack them with various fluids transforming them into the living dead.
The whole affair has certainly jumped to the top of my list of ‘Weirdest Jobs Ever’ and the evening was an absolute success. To begin with, Paul, my fellow zombie, were at a bit of a loss and spent our time grinding our hips trying to entice boys to part with their money. In the end we decided this was probably a little too scary and eventually they started trickling in. As the evening progressed it became more and more busy – non stop at one point – with men often stripping!!!! and some guys really getting into the ‘spirit’ – ahem.
At the door, Howard (our bait) lured the boys in, took their money and ensured they were stamped with the infected notice. It was quite freaky to see the zombies increasing in number throughout the evening and hopefully the very subtle point Howard was putting across was noticed by the clientele.
Howard has some images of the evening on his Flickr site (not sure what that is but it has lots of pictures on it) and Lloyd, my V.I.Z. (Very Important Zombie) called me today to let me know I was in QX Mag this week. Shame indeed!
My memories of the event can be summed up in this image. My boots for the evening – I wore boots and a towel for the event - splattered in blood and other vile fluids. What a great evening and many thanks to Howard, Paul and all those brave enough to enter. Also a big thank you to Jonotron – a jock strap no less? Shocking! Hee hee!
The whole affair has certainly jumped to the top of my list of ‘Weirdest Jobs Ever’ and the evening was an absolute success. To begin with, Paul, my fellow zombie, were at a bit of a loss and spent our time grinding our hips trying to entice boys to part with their money. In the end we decided this was probably a little too scary and eventually they started trickling in. As the evening progressed it became more and more busy – non stop at one point – with men often stripping!!!! and some guys really getting into the ‘spirit’ – ahem.
At the door, Howard (our bait) lured the boys in, took their money and ensured they were stamped with the infected notice. It was quite freaky to see the zombies increasing in number throughout the evening and hopefully the very subtle point Howard was putting across was noticed by the clientele.
Howard has some images of the evening on his Flickr site (not sure what that is but it has lots of pictures on it) and Lloyd, my V.I.Z. (Very Important Zombie) called me today to let me know I was in QX Mag this week. Shame indeed!
My memories of the event can be summed up in this image. My boots for the evening – I wore boots and a towel for the event - splattered in blood and other vile fluids. What a great evening and many thanks to Howard, Paul and all those brave enough to enter. Also a big thank you to Jonotron – a jock strap no less? Shocking! Hee hee!
Thursday, 3 July 2008
Catch Me If You Can
I will be at Gay Shame at the Coronet this coming Saturday on one of the stands. Come and say Hi - if you dare..........
New Painting
Inspired by my recent work I have a couple of days off coming up where I plan to make headway into a new art project. See if you can guess the subject of my affection. This one will be a 100cm x 100cm – hopefully it might even find a buyer!
In The Rawle
I had an interview this week with the lovely Matt Rawle who is about to step out on stage as the Latin do-gooder, Zorro! He was an absolute delight to interview - well, it was more like a chat, really - but he did let me take a couple of photos. Thank God! I do hope the show goes well for him.
For those out there who happen to be into feet, then here is a snap I took in the yard of the Garrick Theatre - I call it 'The Boots of Zorro'. It ties in quite nicely with the accidental 'footage' I got whilst I was recording the interview on my camera.
Sleep?!
If I remember rightly that’s something normal people do. My hours of slumberless fancy began, naturally, at the hotel where I managed quite well on Wednesday night. On Thursday morning I managed to snatch about 3 hours before heading off to interview the lovely Matt Rawle about his career so far and his new show, Zorro! I got home, thankfully by 3.00pm only to spend the next hour and a half trying to establish what is wrong with my USB connection. Apparently nothing that T-Mobile can understand! Back at the hotel by 10.00pm. Friday morning I got home and slept for another 3 hours before traveling out to Highbury & Islington for Terri’s wedding. I got back to the West End by about 7.00pm and popped in to see Lloyd. After another couple of snatched hours sleep we headed over to The Vauxhall Griffin for Pie & Mash where Matt ‘You have ruined my ma-ree-arge’ Lucas was DJ’ing. By 1.00am I could help myself no longer and traipsed back to the hotel where I collapsed into bed and slept solidly for about 10 hours. This can’t be healthy!!!! Thankfully it’s pretty rare.
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