John Shand | Music & Other Spheres Posts

February 15, 2015 / Theatre Reviews - Archive

Playhouse, February 10 For all Dame Edna’s technicolour bravura and Sir Les’s slobbering buffoonery the most telling segment of a Barry Humphries show could often be Sandy Stone’s. Suddenly a cloud of wistful poignancy passed across the comedy. At the end of Max Gillies’ one-man show Once Were Leaders he…

February 14, 2015 / Features - Archive

Blame Sting. He was the one who gave Jo Lawry the guitar that added “songwriter” to a CV previously dominated by “jazz singer” and “Sting’s backing vocalist”. The resultant folk-pop album, Taking Pictures, follows the Adelaide-born Lawry’s appearance in the Oscar-winning documentary 20 Feet From Stardom (about backing singers), and…

February 11, 2015 / Concert Reviews - Archive

The Basement, February 4 Among the many casualties of aging is the capacity for being surprised. From broken promises to broken records and from Mahler to Madonna one has seen and heard it all before. Perhaps the odd sunset and a straight-talking pollie may still do it, and in the…