Daniel Mumby
Airborne Toxic Event
Every year certain albums are held aloft as the ‘sound of the summer’, and every year we enjoy said albums through May to September and then completely forget they existed. There are a few exceptions, like Jollification by Lightning Seeds, which have stayed lodged somewhere in our consciousness, but otherwise...
Read More
Life Could Be A Dream
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (nearly) wins Daniel Mumby over.
Read More
No pity, only joy
In my three years at Warwick I have seen a lot of plays, and many of them have been good. But up until this May only three had ever occupied the ‘sub zero’ section of my cool wall: Clockheart Boy, Wonderland, and Under Milk Wood. Now, however, there are four....
Read More
The last polymath?
Reflections on the passing of Sir Clement Freud, MP, comedian, writer and chef.
Read More
Sounds Of The Universe
This 1980s revival is starting to get up my nose. Partly it’s the fashions, and partly it’s all the old bands getting back together and being just as talentless as before. But mostly it’s because so much of today’s ‘new sounds’ and ‘next best things’ are simply rehashing what has...
Read More
Tommy, Can You Hear Me?
This May marks the 40th anniversary of the release of Tommy, the first of two rock operas by English rock icons The Who. Widely acclaimed by both critics and fans of the band, it has become one of the most iconic albums of the 1960s, had a profound influence on...
Read More
Education 2.0 beta?
Hi-tech schooling can only work well if it is tempered with high quality teaching.
Read More
Places We Neglect
In a piece I wrote for the _Boar_ last November, I claimed that Lewis Garland & The Kett Rebellion were “among the brightest, cleverest and most talented musicians on the folk scene today”. I said that their live act was “pretty much, as good as it gets”, and that when...
Read More
Britain is dead, get over it!
Normally, Philip Pullman doesn’t get on my nerves. I’m not a fan of his books, or his beliefs, but I accept his right to hold said beliefs and publish said books.
Read More
No Line On The Horizon
So far 2009 has been a bad year for big bands, with Imogen Heap’s new album being endlessly delayed, and Franz Ferdinand’s comeback proving to be something of a damp squib. And then we have No Line On The Horizon, U2’s twelfth album and their first in five years. Let...
Read More
Heads, shoulders, knees and toes
The increase in the number of people opting for cosmetic surgery is economically troubling, whilst also denoting a more fundamental malaise in society. In 2008, over thirty-four thousand people went under the knife.
Read More
Cook of the walk
If I could go back in time to anywhere, and see any comedian perform live, there would be only one place on my list: the Establishment Club in Soho, London, in October 1961, where the British satire boom began.
Read More