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Watchdog to probe X Factor voting complaints

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 12:52:57 GMT

Broadcasting regulator Ofcom was today investigating complaints following Simon Cowell's decision to let the public decide who was to be voted off the latest episode of The X Factor.

Free podcast: The Bernstein Project at Southbank Centre

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 12:46:32 GMT

Listen to the famed icon’s daughter Jamie Bernstein speak about her father, Leonard Bernstein in this podcast specially commissioned for Southbank Centre’s The Bernstein Project.

Guy Adams: The Dambusters remake has gone back into its hangar, says Peter Jackson

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 10:14:58 GMT

Earlier this year, Sir David Frost announced to much fanfare that he was to executive-produce a remake of the classic WW2 movie Dambusters, in conjunction with the Director, Producer and all round film mogul Peter Jackson.

Turing play stays on website indefinitely

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

The pioneering internet audio drama about the death of the Enigma code-breaker Alan Turing, is to remain available indefinitely on The Independent website.

Wilco, Forum, London

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Where you been?" responds an amused Jeff Tweedy to a punter's call to "play the hits", midway through Wednesday's show at the Forum. "These are the hits!"

Last Night's Television - Collision, ITV1; The Execution of Gary Glitter, Channel 4

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

The vehicular accident that kills or injures lots of people is fertile ground for dramatists. It offers the story-teller a way of bringing together a random cross-section of folk, and therefore an opportunity to create all kinds of juicily disparate characters, whose destinies collide in the blink of an eye, or the crash of a plane, train or automobile. On the silver screen this was done brilliantly by Paul Haggis, who wrote and directed the Oscar-winning 2004 film, Crash. Collision, which runs every night this week in what is beginning to look like a new trend for primetime drama, rather prosaically replaces the Los Angeles freeway in Crash with the A12 in Essex, but offers similar fare: ordinary people with lives in varying states of complication, whose stories are told in flashback after those complicated lives are suddenly reduced to a simple “deceased” or “critical” on a policeman’s wall chart.

A Shirt Box Full of Songs, By Barbara Dickson

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

In an age when a few weeks' exposure on grim reality television leads inexorably to at least one memoir, how refreshing to discover that a singer whose career spans 40 years, a million-selling record, a handful of theatrical awards and an OBE had to be persuaded to put metaphorical pen to paper – and that money wasn't a deciding factor.

Uncle Vanya, Old Vic, Bristol

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

The best news is that the Bristol Old Vic is up and running. The artistic director, Tom Morris, will announce his plans on Friday and the stage of the great Georgian theatre has been extended beyond the proscenium, making more sense of the exquisite architecture.

Lou Reed: Photographer

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Lou Reed may be a rock legend, the founding member of the Velvet Underground, inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, a man so cool that fans keel over in the reflection of his mirrored shades. Yet he has an alter ego, a solitary figure, a man who retreats quietly into nature to observe the light and make elegant, romantic photographs, far removed from his life at the heart of New York City. The process could not be more different but there are parallels between his music and his photographs. Putting together a book of photographs is, says Reed, like sequencing a CD. It is intuitive, an indefinable way of working where things happen not through planning and preordained ideas, but because they feel right. He approaches photography with the qualities of a musician. "The response is emotional. That's all I want; they are taken with emotion and put together with emotion, equal emotion," he says.

Steve Martin with The Steep Canyon Rangers, Royal Festival Hall, London

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

"It's always been a dream of mine to play banjo at the Royal Festival Hall," says Steve Martin, banjo in hand, from the stage of the Royal Festival Hall. The briefest of pauses, and then: "And tonight, I feel one step closer to realising that dream." Written out like that, it doesn't seem quite as funny as it did earlier this evening – but then, comedy is all about timing and delivery. And jokes. And some other stuff too humorous to mention, probably.

'Christmas Carol' hits high note at box office

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

The festive season lured North American movie-goers at the weekend to leave "Disney's A Christmas Carol" on top of the box office rankings, final figures showed Monday.

Judge approves extension for revised Google book settlement

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

A US judge agreed on Monday to extend the deadline for Google and US authors and publishers to submit a revised settlement that would clear the way for millions of books to be sold online.

Russian rock band plans worldwide tour dates

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

The Russian rock band Mumiy Troll has a huge following in its native country, where it plays more than 100 gigs a year. Now, the band is selling out shows in North America, and Variety Magazine reports that 2010 tour dates are expected throughout Europe and Asia.

Michael Bublé plans re-release of 'Crazy Love'

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Canadian singer Michael Bublé plans to reissue his album Crazy Love in 2010, announced Billboard.com on November 9. The release will include additional songs Bublé recorded during the album recording sessions, among them "Hollywood Dead," which will be released as a single after "Have I Met You" and "Hold On."

Paltrow joins Kidman for gender-bending 'Danish Girl'

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Oscar-winners Gwyneth Paltrow and Nicole Kidman are to play husband and wife in an upcoming film about the world's first transsexual, it was reported Monday.

Jedward 'racked with guilt' over Lucie's departure

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:03:31 GMT

Twins John and Edward Grimes have been racked with guilt after knocking Lucie Jones out of The X Factor, she revealed today.

Les Arts Florissants, Union Chapel, Islington

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:45:23 GMT

Of all the ensembles celebrating an anniversary this year, William Christie and Les Arts Florissants - now toasting three decades of ground-breaking experiment - have most reason to congratulate themselves. Thirty years ago, when they embarked on their still-ongoing project to bring French Baroque music into focus, they were tilling virgin territory; if it’s now all flowers and fruit trees, that’s largely thanks to them. Moving on from Charpentier (who gave them their name) to Purcell, Handel, and Haydn, they have continued their quest: hats off to the Barbican, which - in collaboration with the Salle Pleyel and the Cite de la Musique - has commissioned their lap of honour this autumn.

Michael Church: Brilliance and brainlessness at ENO

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:41:06 GMT

To see the revival of David McVicar’s fabulous ‘Turn of the Screw’ (left) is to be reminded just how good English National Opera can be when it sticks to its metier: getting brilliant directors to give tried and trusted classics a new and original twist, with singers who understand how to work as an ensemble.

Britney Spears 'upset' over Australian tour complaints

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 11:40:04 GMT

Britney Spears has done it again, hitting the headlines during her first Australian tour over a row about lip-synching and a lacklustre performance that her tour promoter said had left her "extremely upset".

Why Simon Cowell didn't boot Jedward out of The X Factor

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 10:46:31 GMT

He had the power to send them packing — but when it came to the crunch, he couldn't let them go.

Frank Auerbach - in the thick of it

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:48 GMT

I could write like that if I had enough ink," Stravinsky said about Olivier Messiaen, (those densely scored compositions). Artists have had similar doubts about Frank Auerbach.

Voices Against War: A Century of Protest, by Lyn Smith

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:48 GMT

My father had a bad war, but then most pacifists did. He didn't have a very good peace either, as soldiers returned from a victory in which he was only too aware he had played no part.

Royal Ballet Triple Bill: Mark Morris Dance Group, Royal Opera House/Sadler's Wells, London

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:33 GMT

The Royal Ballet's latest triple bill keeps falling short of its ambitions.

Royal Ballet Triple Bill: Mark Morris Dance Group, Royal Opera House/Sadler's Wells, London

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:33 GMT

The Royal Ballet's latest triple bill keeps falling short of its ambitions.

I Love Techno, Flanders Expo, Ghent, Belgium

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:30 GMT

Techno has acquired a reputation somewhere between Eurotrash and Madchester in recent years in the UK, but Ghent's annual I Love Techno festival is proof that neither the music nor the fans are as naff or as addled as either of these connotations unfairly suggest.