Fela! by Jim Lewis & Bill T Jones, Olivier Theatre, 11 December 2010

We don’t normally do musicals. But this one sounded interesting and different so we booked it.

Set in Nigeria in the late 1970s, it is basically a tribute to the life, music and politics of Fela Kuti.

It was at the National, so of course no on-line resource to help navigate all the whys and wherefores of the show. This search term – click here – should find the (mostly rave) reviews and other resources you might want.

I’m not sure we need a subsidised National Theatre to import this sort of hit show from Broadway and make a hit of it in London, but anyway I’m glad it was on there and I’m very glad we saw it. This was just the sort of boost we needed so soon after Phillie’s passing. A life-affirming show, but with real grit too.

Here’s the trailer vid:

Changing Money: Communities & Longer Term Finance & You, Ian Harris, Gresham College, Museum Of London, 16 November 2010

This was my second Gresham Lecture (the first was in 2008 – click here).

A larger audience for this one, at the Museum of London; slightly more intimidating feel to the platform too (Barnards Inn Hall sort-of feels like home).

Still, by all accounts it went well. But then people would say that, to me, wouldn’t they? You can judge for yourself, here is a link to all of the resources for the lecture – transcript, slides, the lot.

Or take a look at the YouTube below if it is just the lecture you are interested in:

Guns, pens, cattle, face-painting…all money, of sorts.

After the lecture and post-lecture reception, we decamped to the Bleeding Heart Bistro for dinner.

From Paradise By Way Of Kensal Green, With DJ, To Dagenham, 14 November 2010

DJ tended to hold a Sunday lunch at Paradise By Way Of Kensal Green in those days; 2010 was no exception.

I can’t remember exactly who was there that year, but Kim & Micky for sure would have been there. Gary & Clifford too, I’m pretty sure. The Selby couple were usually there back then. Jeff Harvey occasionally joined us, sometimes with his latest squeeze, sometimes without.

Janie and I went on to see Made In Dagenham at The Coronet afterwards – that’s when The Coronet was still a cinema.

A bit ambitious, going to the movies after one of DJ’s lunches. No wonder neither of us remember all that much about it. Good movie, I do remember that much.

Here’s the trailer:

The Master Builder by Henrik Ibsen, Almeida Theatre, 13 November 2010

We don’t book many classic revivals, but we tend to make an exception for Ibsen if it is a play one or both of us hasn’t seen before. Plus, if it is the Almeida, we tend to trust the place to deliver a classic well and with a modern enough feel.

As was the case with this superb production.

We were a little concerned that it might be a luvvie-fest for Gemma Arterton. But she proved well up to her task and the universally high-quality cast worked extremely well as an ensemble.

It was a well-pacey production; an-hour-and–three-quarters straight through, the extra pace worked well with this play. An object lesson for some of the ponderously long, drawn-out productions of early 20th century plays.

Here is a link to the Almeida resource for The Master Builder.

The reviews were pretty much universally good and most are linked through the above resource, but this search term – click here – should find reviews independently for you.

Gauguin Exhibition, Tate Modern, 12 November 2010

Judging by the absence of appointments in the diary, it looks as though Janie and I had planned to take an autumn break that year but then changed our minds. Given Phillie’s state of health by then, the Price of Fish book deadline looming along with my Changing Money Gresham lecture mid November, it was probably a wise move not to go away and yet to have relatively little work in the diaries.

As a result, we also had relatively little cultural activity scheduled for that autumn, but this particular weekend was an exception.

We took the Friday off work and went to this superb Gauguin exhibition, which we both enjoyed enormously.

An excellent Tate resource on the exhibition can be seen here.

In particular, you might enjoy the colourful vid:

This search term – click here – will find reviews and stuff on this particular exhibition. The critics on the whole loved the show.

As did we. It was just the tonic we needed at the time.

 

Sir Thomas Gresham Finance Lecture & Dinner With Anne Craine, East Wintergarden, 2 November 2010

Michael Mainelli was organising this prestigious event each year at that time. 2010 was the year of Anne Craine, Minister for the Treasury, Isle of Man.

Here is a link to the Gresham College resources for that lecture.

Below is embedded is the lecture itself.

I was an honoured guest at the dinner with Anne afterwards, which I’m pretty sure was at the Four Seasons Canary Wharf (at the time of writing, April 2020, the Canary Wharf Riverside Plaza).

Good meal and interesting discussion over dinner.

Manuel Barrueco, Wigmore Hall, 24 October 2010

This was an excellent Spanish guitar concert at the Wig, performed by the Cuban guitarist Manuel Barrueco.

The link below is a preview on Hispanic London, which includes the programme:

A celebration of Spanish guitar with Manuel Barrueco

(Preview scraped to here if the above link no longer works).

This concert was just the sort of thing we needed at the time – I think we had spent most of that weekend in Oxfordshire with Tony and Phillie.

One or two of the pieces were quite challenging but mostly it was relaxing classical guitar music of the highest order.

Here’s a short vid of the fella:

 

Weekend in Chipping Norton, 22 to 24 October 2010

I think this must have been the weekend that Janie and I stayed at Wild Thyme (which was lovely) – I think Tony joined us for dinner on the Friday evening – then the next day we took poor Phillie from the Katharine House Hospice to Stratford-Upon-Avon for the afternoon for the last time.

Scottish Ensemble, Wigmore Hall Coffee Concert, 17 October 2010

We fancied this concert, which melded Vivaldi’s Four Seasons with Piazolla’s Four Seasons Of Buenos Aires.

So despite its scheduling in the Sunday coffee morning slot, which throws our tennis plans awry, we gave it a try.

A different, wrinkly audience on a Sunday morning. Some perhaps as keen on the gratis coffee (or a glass of sherry if you prefer) as the music.

The music was performed serviceably (I think we’ve heard the Piazolla Seasons done with more flare since) and we were glad to have experienced the Wiggy Coffee morning thing…but it isn’t really our type of gig.

The Company Man by Torben Betts, Orange Tree Theatre, 9 October 2010

I don’t remember a great deal about this one.

Here is the Orange Tree stub on the play/production.

I think it might have been a bit much for us at that time, with Phillie so poorly by then, so perhaps we didn’t even stick it out to the second half.

This search term suggests that the few reviews it got were quite good ones.