Live In London Vol.2 - Sonny Rollins

Advantages: Possibly the best tenor saxophonist ever - without a doubt the best still alive!
Disadvantages: None - if you want to see him live, you should try to soon - he's getting on a bit now - 73 yrs old now - still as good as ever though!

...with many jazz greats, having already done so with Babs Gonzalez, J.J. Johnson, Bud Powell and Miles Davis before he turned twenty, and also benefitting from having Thelonius Monk as a mentor. Later in his life, during the mid-sixties, Rollins stopped playing in public and tried to get into religion, and especially eastern religions, spending time in Japan and India, and also spending a lot of time in a monastry. In the 70's however, Sonny resurfaced again and returned to recording and playing again, making his next recording in 1972, and is still going strong. Recently, I had the chance to see Sonny Rollins playing in a rare appearance at the Barbican in London, and I must say that he was absolutely fantastic. Although he may now look slightly older, his playing is still as good as when he was younger and on those classic recordings... Read review

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Advantages: Actually very good
Disadvantages: overlooked for more well known martial arts actors

...Sonny Chiba movies seem to often get overlooked for the more glitzy martial arts actors such as Jet Lee and Jackie Chan and Chow Yun Fat. Many of Sonny Chiba's movies are often mature, and totally action packed, with very good storylines. Many of Sonny Chibas films are traditional period types, such as samurai's or ninjas. The fight scenes are often very good indeed, especially the sword fights. More often that not the films are in the native Japanese language with subtitles which is better, becuase that way you are getting the original script, rather than sometihng made up. For me these are the movies that opened the door for movies such as Azumi, Azumi 2, and Versus. These movies are most definitely worth a look.... Read review

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Advantages: Brilliant rooms, service, food, internet etc
Disadvantages: expensive!!!

...In the middle of February, I was lucky enough to be whisked away for a long weekend in London with my grandma. I?m a huge fan of west end shows and musicals, and so our trip was booked- we would go and see various different shows. I couldn?t wait to go. One thing I hadn?t thought of before going however was which hotel we were staying in. I reckoned that we wouldn?t be spending too much time in the hotel itself, as we were going to be very busy, so as long as it had two beds, a bathroom and some sort of wardrobe I?d have been happy. I knew the name of the hotel was The Grosvenor, however I didn?t have a clue what its reviews were like, or in fact how many stars it had. Getting to the hotel We had absolutely no problem finding the hotel. We took the train from our hometown, to King?s Cross in London. We only had to wait... Read review

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