July 2008 Archives
Review: Heaven on Earth cdbaby.com
Tim Bragg
No, not Billy Bragg! Tim Bragg is not the defanged socialist turned New Labour mouthpiece once known as the Bard of Barking. He's much more insightful than his clapped out namesake.
Heaven on Earth reminds me of Van Morrison in his Avalon Sunset phase. He has the same haunting melodies; the same cry in the voice as Van the Man. I don't know if Tim Bragg is consciously imitating the big lad from Orangefield. I rather doubt it, but the connection is clear. Add the backing clarinets, acoustic rhythm and electric guitars and keyboards and you have a varied but consistent whole.
Some outstanding tracks on this fine album do deserve to be singled out. My favourites are Kick out the Fancy Stuff, Soul-searching and Of Doubts and God. These songs are Bragg's religious and spiritual musings. He is soul-searching. He is looking for a meaning to life. Perhaps the Man from Galilee has the answer to his questions but just like Doubting Thomas he has to see. He's not one for leaps in the dark.
This is thoughtful stuff: it is more about doubt than faith, more about the search for truth rather than the claim to have found it.
The production values on Heaven on Earth are very high. It's just such a shame that the publisher didn't see the need to provide the song lyrics with the sleeve notes. Perhaps this oversight will be remedied when the second pressing comes out. Check out www.cdbaby.com/cd/timbragg5 for some sample tracks.
Tim Bragg
No, not Billy Bragg! Tim Bragg is not the defanged socialist turned New Labour mouthpiece once known as the Bard of Barking. He's much more insightful than his clapped out namesake.
Heaven on Earth reminds me of Van Morrison in his Avalon Sunset phase. He has the same haunting melodies; the same cry in the voice as Van the Man. I don't know if Tim Bragg is consciously imitating the big lad from Orangefield. I rather doubt it, but the connection is clear. Add the backing clarinets, acoustic rhythm and electric guitars and keyboards and you have a varied but consistent whole.
Some outstanding tracks on this fine album do deserve to be singled out. My favourites are Kick out the Fancy Stuff, Soul-searching and Of Doubts and God. These songs are Bragg's religious and spiritual musings. He is soul-searching. He is looking for a meaning to life. Perhaps the Man from Galilee has the answer to his questions but just like Doubting Thomas he has to see. He's not one for leaps in the dark.
This is thoughtful stuff: it is more about doubt than faith, more about the search for truth rather than the claim to have found it.
The production values on Heaven on Earth are very high. It's just such a shame that the publisher didn't see the need to provide the song lyrics with the sleeve notes. Perhaps this oversight will be remedied when the second pressing comes out. Check out www.cdbaby.com/cd/timbragg5 for some sample tracks.
CONCRETE ANGELS
The Shankill Players: Written and directed by Mark McClean
CONCRETE ANGELS is a cheap play to stage. The only props are five stacking chairs, two boards, and a few changes of hairstyle. However, there’s nothing shoddy about the play, the production or the quality of the acting from author Mark McClean’s small theatre company, the Shankill Players.
The play looks at the subject of abuse in today’s society through a series of sketches. The cast really work hard for their art in Concrete Angels. The writer and director Mark McClean plays quite a few roles himself: narrating angel, thieving grandson, abusive husband, abusive father and some more besides.
I was especially impressed by Lynda Hastings. Her best role was as the abused wife who made up all sorts of excuses for the nasty piece of work she had married. He loves me. He doesn’t mean it. He’s only bad when he has drink on him... In the end she does decide to leave him but leaves it too late. In one final row he kills her.
Christine Marshall was especially versatile in her choice of roles with only a couple of changes of hairstyle to indicate a new character. I was particularly moved by the sketch in which she played a lonely bullied schoolgirl. She was bullied by jealous fellow pupils, failed by an indifferent school principal. Even her mum failed her. She fought hard to get the bullying stopped and the bullies punished but this rebounded tragically on the daughter. The bullying intensified and her only way out was suicide. Now you won’t have to worry about me, she thought.
All this makes the play sound totally bleak. Don’t worry, though. It is lightened up with some black Ulster humour and it really does make you think. Life is never a bed of roses. This fine production give some insight into why people do apparently inexplicable things. Bravo to the Shankill Players. Concrete Angels really deserves a wider audience. It would go down a storm at the Edinburgh Fringe.
The Shankill Players: Written and directed by Mark McClean
CONCRETE ANGELS is a cheap play to stage. The only props are five stacking chairs, two boards, and a few changes of hairstyle. However, there’s nothing shoddy about the play, the production or the quality of the acting from author Mark McClean’s small theatre company, the Shankill Players.
The play looks at the subject of abuse in today’s society through a series of sketches. The cast really work hard for their art in Concrete Angels. The writer and director Mark McClean plays quite a few roles himself: narrating angel, thieving grandson, abusive husband, abusive father and some more besides.
I was especially impressed by Lynda Hastings. Her best role was as the abused wife who made up all sorts of excuses for the nasty piece of work she had married. He loves me. He doesn’t mean it. He’s only bad when he has drink on him... In the end she does decide to leave him but leaves it too late. In one final row he kills her.
Christine Marshall was especially versatile in her choice of roles with only a couple of changes of hairstyle to indicate a new character. I was particularly moved by the sketch in which she played a lonely bullied schoolgirl. She was bullied by jealous fellow pupils, failed by an indifferent school principal. Even her mum failed her. She fought hard to get the bullying stopped and the bullies punished but this rebounded tragically on the daughter. The bullying intensified and her only way out was suicide. Now you won’t have to worry about me, she thought.
All this makes the play sound totally bleak. Don’t worry, though. It is lightened up with some black Ulster humour and it really does make you think. Life is never a bed of roses. This fine production give some insight into why people do apparently inexplicable things. Bravo to the Shankill Players. Concrete Angels really deserves a wider audience. It would go down a storm at the Edinburgh Fringe.
