Abba-dabba-doo

We've not been to the Concert Hall in a while, but for a treat, I booked a couple of tickets to see the opening night of Mamma Mia, which is showing for the next couple of weeks.

It was of course a full house, to see what is now one of the worlds best loved musicals. The storyline is quite a simple one, a twenty year old girl who lives on a Greek island with her mother is about to get married. But one problem, she doesn't know who her dad is. There are three possible contenders, who have all been former lovers of her mum. So she invites them all to her wedding, in the hope that she can find out which man is her real father. This story is weaved around a number of Abba's most famous songs, culminating in of course the title track; Mamma Mia.

The stage setting was simple, but very effective. It was of course very colourful. Like you were watching it live in Technicolor. I could feel that the audience were dying to get up and dance and sing along to the tunes, just like they did a few weeks ago, when we went to see the Abba tribute band at Mansfield. But the audience were very well behaved, and just clapped along to some of the more lively Ulvaeus and Andersson tunes. I have always been an Abba fan, so knew a lot of the lyrics, which I quietly sang to Gail at opportune moments.

I thought there was something missing though. I couldn't really work out what it was, until Gail said that she really enjoyed it, but would have liked to have been closer to the stage. Then it clicked. it was a lack of connection with the artists. Being so far away, I couldn't really make out the actors' faces. The sound level was great, the singing and dancing top notch. I just couldn't see the cast moving their mouths at all. Nobody's fault of course, except mine maybe, being shortsighted. Perhaps I need to take a pair of binoculars next time.

He Let His Fingers Do The Walking

This is Japanese musician Anchorsong, who I went to see tonight at the Nottingham Contemporary.

Besides using a Korg synth, most of his music was created through Akai & Yamaha rhythm machines.

I wasn't sure what to expect, as haven't heard of him before, but being a fan of electronic music, I thought I would pop along and see what music he would be creating. Most of it was through pressing buttons and turning knobs. It was interesting to watch, and he was pretty quick tapping away with his fingers.

There were a lot of people there, bopping along to his unique brand of music. I recorded a couple of his songs on my camera, and have uploaded it to YouTube, so you can all enjoy it. Here is the link Anchorsong.

Glow In The Dark

We went to a gig last night at a bar in the city centre to see a band we are friends with called The Disco Prophets.  We often take photos and videos of them performing at their various gigs around Nottingham.

Of course we took some last night and sifting through them today, I came across this one that looked quite unusual to me, as the woman dancing appears to be glowing, or being zapped by a ray gun.

I promise that I've not fiddled with this photo at all in my digital darkroom, except for a bit of tweaking with the the contrast and sharpening. The strange effect was caused by the bar's disco lights, as they are LED ones, and sometimes cause colour problems with the electronics in my Olympus camera.  Sometimes it's annoying, but on occasions it works out for the best.

"E's" Are Good

Spotted this little fellow in a gift shop window in Beeston. All dressed for Christmas in his scarf and hat.

He actually dances; well wiggles from side to side, like he's doing a belly dance. So cute to watch.

Under One Sky

The Old Market Square yesterday hosted an Afro Caribbean market. There were various stalls selling food, clothing and gifts that represented the black community. There was also this dance troupe that were doing some routines, to prove that they do more than the things that are reported in newspapers.