Entertainment

By Jack Peat, Editor of The London Economic  At the back of Turnham Green tube station is one of those cultural gems that reaffirms your choice to live in the cramped, hectic and pricey urban sprawl that is London. The Tabard Theatre lies above the Tabard Pub in Chiswick and has developed a good reputation in its short history for new writing with in-house shows enjoying success on the West End and on the national circuit. On a chance Saturday...

By Thom James thomjames.info @thxmjames On July 24th, I became friends with most celebrated, controversial copycat poet of the last few decades, perhaps even history. And when I say ‘friends’, I actually mean that we became friends on Facebook. We had 16 mutual friends. That’s probably risen by one or two by now. Three if he’s lucky. I sent him an emoticon on chat. He read it an hour later. This is the kind of thing I do. I somehow come...

By Will Bateman Jamie T submerged from the London streets in 2007 as a scruffy, gap-toothed,Kronenbourg-swigging street-poet with Panic Prevention. After 5 long years of excruciating silence after 2009’s Kings and Queens, he takes to the stage to a sold-out Alexandra Palace to promote the recent release of his reflective and matured third album Carry On The Grudge. Diving straight in with album opener ‘Limit’s Lie’, and met with a roar applause and relief from a 10,000 strong crowd of...

By Harry Bedford, Music Editor Folk music has been around forever. It touches the soul in ways that soul music could only dream of. Through the greats such as Woody Gutherie, Bob Dylan and Pete Seeger, but also through the ordinary man, folk music is humane music in its purest form. It’s about life. The good, the bad, the happy, the sad, the rough times and the joyous times. Bellowhead are a folk band very much concerned with the joyous...

By Isla Watton and Holly Carter Guests were greeted at the Dominion Theatre on Wednesday night by a shower of fake snow pouring out of the front of the building. This festive display perfectly established the mood for the evening ahead. Set in the 1950s, Irving Berlin’s White Christmas follows the story of Phil Davis (Tom Chambers) and Bob Wallis (Aled Jones), two ex-army pals with a flair for putting on a good show, who now work as successful entertainers....

Mirrorcity – London Artists on Fiction and reality. By Isla Watton, Arts Reporter In early October a council painted over some allegedly racist graffiti. This standard procedure on the streets of Clacton-on-Sea hurled Tendring District Council into the national spotlight and set the fingers of arts critics and bloggers ablaze as it emerged that what had actually been removed was a satirical and valuable Banksy painting. Perhaps on this occasion fiction sat a little too close to home and some...

Satire from Jack Peat.  Bob Geldof has announced he is to re-re-re-release the Band Aid track ‘Do They Know it’s Christmas’ to fight the latest outbreak of Bird Flu. The Irish musician, known for being in the same room as Midge Ure when he wrote the popular Christmas record, said the cull of 6,000 ducks at a breeding farm in East Yorkshire was “bollocks”, adding that it was “bollocks” after further probing from a Sky News journalist. Leeds rockers The...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor In the heart of Soho on Windmill Street, located next to Paul Raymond’s famous Windmill Club and opposite the new Firmdale Hotel, a brand new radio station has evolved and is aiming to revolutionise the air waves in London and beyond. Soho Radio is a street level visible station, broadcasting via a large shop window which is a unique attraction in itself. I met up with Co-founder Dan Gray, 33, whose day job is in music management representing...

By Harry Bedford, Music Editor  Taylor Swift is one of biggest selling recording artists around today. Her evolution from country teen to pop princess has been incredibly successful and her latest album 1989 is already the best selling album of the year. However, the charismatic 25-year-old has caused a little controversy in the music industry this week by removing all of her back-catalogue from the music streaming service Spotify. In 2012, she refused to add her album Red to the...