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PREVIEWS: Ladyboys of Bangkok, Nelly, Basement Jaxx, Going Dutch
16/ 6/2005
TELL your wife you're going to spend an evening with 16 ladyboys
and her reaction could be anything from a raised eyebrow to
divorce.
But for the next month, those of you with an interest in frocks
and, er, boys from Bangkok have the perfect opportunity to indulge
in guilt-free ogling.
The
Ladyboys of Bangkok return to The Lowry this
month with their new show Cabaret of Smiles.
Sixteen of the world's most glamorous transvestites will - this is
the press release talking, not me - "tantalise with sparkling
entertainment from the heart of Bangkok's exotic pulsating
nightlife".
I've dressed as a woman three or four times for fancy dress student
parties and the like, but definitely looked more Little Britain
than Britney.
These boys are something else.
Director/promoter Philip Gandey, from Congleton, brought the troupe
to the UK after seeing their show in the Thai capital and tweaking
it for a Western audience.
They made a sold out debut at the Edinburgh Festival in 1998 and
have returned to the UK every year since, performing contemporary
pop tributes to Kylie, Britney, Sophie Ellis Bextor and the
like.
Reading some of their past reviews, by the end of the show most of
the reviewers are either in awe or in therapy - with some not
believing the cast are all packing more than the venue.
But all seem to agree it's fun, flamboyant and completely
unmissable with sumptuous costumes, sensational numbers,
show-stopping choreography and, of course, painstakingly immaculate
make-up.
The Lowry from today (Friday)
ADOPTED Brixton boys Felix Buxton and Simon Ratcliffe are pretty
much the only survivors from the 1990s dance scene.
With each album and single release they just get better - like
Stilton but less smelly and perishable.
The boys have worked with Dizzee Rascal, Kelle Le Roc and Seventies
punk icon Siouxsie Sioux but they started their careers by putting
on club nights in the back room of an Irish pub in Camberwell,
south London.
Newcomers might not know that Felix has a degree in languages and
that Simon has a degree in engineering and that Felix's dad is a
vicar.
Their records burst with sunshine, horns, salsa, filthy vocals and
shouty party music that makes you want to get up and jump up and
down on your table.
Sometimes when you see a dance act play live it's a bit rubbish
because all they do is stand behind decks and occasionally wave
their arms around.
But not
Basement Jaxx.
They have carnival queens, live percussion, women on leashes, big
gorillas, guitarists and vocalists with cast-iron lungs.
Tomorrow's gig should, at the very least, include old favourites
such as Red Alert, Rendez vu, Romeo, Jus 1 Kiss, Where's Your Head
At, Good Luck, Do Your Thing and Get Me Off as well as newer tracks
Oh My Gosh and You Don't Know Me.
They might even perform Plug It In, which features vocals from one
JC Chasez, a former member of US boyband NSync, who have worked
with Nelly.
Small world, Planet Pop.
Apollo, Saturday
OUR earliest memory of rapper
Nelly is when he
packed his trunk and said goodbye to the circus. Off he went with a
trumpety, trump, trump, trump, trump.
You think someone would have told him about the cultural resonance
of his name wouldn't you?
I bet Nelly's really called Bob. Actually he's called Cornell
Haynes Jr. What's wrong with that? It sounds reet posh.
Anyway Nelly is in town tonight (Friday) at MEN Arena for an
evening of bass and booty.
Thanks to his leanings towards bubble-gum pop - witness his
collaborations with NSync, Kelly Rowland and Christina Aguilera -
the audience is likely to be younger than you'd expect.
Indeed, when I had the misfortune of seeing him in Manchester there
were many 12-year-old girls gyrating away like seasoned
poledancers. It's just wrong and it reminds me of the time when I
was on a London to Manchester train and these two girls, who can't
have been older than eight, were singing about how hot it was and
how they were going to take off all their clothes. Please
don't.
His sold-out Arena gig was about as ghetto as Derek from Big
Brother. There was lots of shouting - not rapping - and
half-hearted performances from men in baggy shorts and
hairnets.
But Nelly's not done bad for a pachyderm.
His first album, Country Grammar, went nine-times platinum. His
second, Nellyville, went six-times platinum.
So he's shifted about 30 million units.
And he's done this all while sporting a rather silly bandage under
his eye, which he wears to show support for his incarcerated
brother.
Although I don't know if that's his biological brother or his
figurative one.
MEN Arena, Friday
IT'S often said, and some argue unfairly, that the only
worthwhile thing to come out of Hull is the M62. And yet Manchester
theatreland is currently in the grip of East Ridings mania.
Larkin with Women continues its run at The Library, and the
Hull Truck Theatre Company brings the latest
offering from the legendary John Godber to the Lowry.
Going Dutch is typical of Godber's output - and none the worse for
that.
He follows a tried and trusted technique of taking a small group of
disparate characters, throwing them into close proximity and
watching the sparks - and wisecracks - fly. For the nightclub of
Bouncers, the dressing room of Up and Under and the staff room of
Teechers, substitute a North Sea ferry on its way to
Rotterdam.
Going Dutch is the final part of Godber's Brits Abroad trilogy
which includes On the Piste and April in Paris. Cue Bruce
Springsteen groupies, an aging porn star, booze cruise aficionados,
feeling fifty and frustrated and strong language - typical Godber
fare in other words.
Lowry from Monday
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