Tate Liverpool, Albert Dock, Liverpool L3 4BB • June 22 – October 28, 2012

Tate Liverpool, in conjunction with the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, have brought together the later works of Turner, Monet and Twombly for a remarkable exhibition.

“It’s incredible to think that there are only three generations between these artists but, as this show illustrates, all were engaged in a radical reinvention of what painting is; and it’s this experimental energy that is passed on directly between them.”

Nik Kershaw talks about the new album EI8HT, politics, pop lyrics and how 1980s pop stars thought they were saving the world.

“Back in the day a lot of us took ourselves way too seriously. But we were encouraged to. We were saving the planet with Live Aid, weren’t we? We had this ridiculous sense of self-importance, and it was difficult not to take yourself seriously.”

[rating=5]
US: 99 min • 20th Century Fox • DVD

Sassy, sexy and funny, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is the story of gold-digger Loreli Lee in the booming 1950s.

“Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is a film about glamour, music, money, love and power. It is superb comedy and is carried by two exceptional movie stars.”

[rating=4]
246 pages • Quartet • June 7, 2012 [PB]

Allan Massie’s Dark Summer in Bordeaux, the sequel to Death in Bordeaux, is a worthy successor.

“Massie evokes this increasingly unstable society exceptionally well and provides the reader with a real sense of the anxiety and insecurity that must have ruled the lives of all who lived in Pétain’s ‘French State’.”

A Band to Look Out for.

The Copenhagen duo Shanghai trade on the dark side of music and art.

“They call their particular brand of theatrical ambient music, with it’s signature intricate harmonic structures, ‘Arabesque Pop’.”

The new video for Moya’s second single ‘Making Me Fall’ is gorgeously brooding.

1925-2012.

Gore Vidal, one of America’s greatest writers, died on July 31 at the age of 86.

“Over the course of sixty-six years Vidal published twenty-nine novels (five under pseudonyms), four memoirs (one disguised as an extended essay, Screening History [1992]), and countless essays as well as plays for television, stage & cinema.”

[rating=5]
Walk A Mile/2012 Hours Against Hate, July 24, 2012

2012 Hours Against Hate and the Walk A Mile initiative, headed by Hilary Clinton, launched on July 24 at The Hospital Club in London.

“Music has always been a unparalleled way of uniting people and, despite the twitter feed from those watching the live stream who announced that the audience at the Hospital Club looked bored, there was a wonderful atmosphere in the venue.”