Shockheaded Peter (+DVD) - Tiger Lillies (The)

Psycho stories for children brought into music

Advantages: Crazy performance, songs well taken from the book
Disadvantages: Falsetto could be too much at certain times

Earlier today, I reviewed a Frank Zappa album and that immediately made me think of The Tiger Lillies, another band fronted by a dramatic genius Martyn Jacques who supposedly spent several years living in a brothel in Soho whilst perfecting his falsetto voice. Martyn leads the line well with his hillarious face, intonation and general onstage behaviour. This album covers the songs from the Shockheaded Peter tour, a collection of tunes based on the stories from the children's book Struwwelpeter (Shockheaded Peter) written in the 1840's which I imagine would be fairly terrifying for any child but is supposedly for 3-6 year olds! Anyway the performances from the dark trio are immense and really bring the stories to life. Martyn is completely insane on the song "Dreadful story about Harriet & The Matches", where he plays a cat who ...

dangaroo 04.05.2008 · Read full review
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Review of Shockheaded Peter (A Junk Opera) - Tiger Lillies (The)

With friends like Peter's . . .

Advantages: Easy watching, some good acting and great vocal performances
Disadvantages: Acting from some of the cast is a bit over-the-top

're meant to be, she takes the advice of one of the self-help books about being direct and presents herself at Peter's bedroom door, revealing her hidden passions (and a bit more, too . . .), which forces Peter to explain one of the reasons he has become celibate (the second comes later) and, with a bit of inspiration from Carole, Maggie finally gets to uncover her more sensual side with someone nobody expects her to . . . Peter's Friends will probably never be one of those globally famous films - seventeen years after being released, I know plenty of people who have never heard of it - but it's something that I often put on when I've got a night or even an afternoon to myself, and I certainly think that the parallels between the characters and the lives of some of the cast (Thompson, Fry, Laurie and Slattery were all in the Cambridge ...

KateHurst 12.08.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Peter's Friends (DVD)

Peter Kay Comedy DVD

Advantages: It makes you laugh a lot
Disadvantages: none

I first saw Peter Kay on Jonathan Ross. One bit that amused me was that he was in the same green room as a pretentious pop-star who had brought ?imaginary? Japanese people with her who just posed. Peter Kay pulled some great ?they?re nuts!? faces and his rapid wit contrasted delightfully with their posturing silence. This DVD was an opportunity to see the effect he had on a live audience. Despite the introduction and ending in which he did a rather unnecessary, I thought, sketch involving a taxi-driver, the actual performance itself was electrifying. Kay?s humour is based on observation of working class family behaviour with much of his material being derived from the foibles of his own mother and grandmother who ? in this DVD ? are in the audience, and whose faces reveal the accuracy of his send up. The camera flicks onto his ...

FlameDruid 09.01.2005 · Read full review
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Review of Peter Kay - Live At The Bolton Albert Halls (DVD)