Mind the Blog ‘on tour’ 2019

Even though I’ve become quite tired this year, and have tried to keep some sort of balance in there, I couldn’t resist nipping out of London every five minutes to see what was going on in theatres across the country. I even managed to start my 2019 theatregoing with a trip to Paris, courtesy of […]

2019 mid-year update

Once again things started off steadily and sensibly, but then too much interesting sounding stuff (both in & out of London) came up and ended up taking over my diary… I may have again gone down in terms of the amount of shows I’ve seen in six months (103 different shows, 126 individual visits to theatres), but I […]

Wise Children (2019)

“Welcome to the wrong side of the tracks.” Emma Rice’s Wise Children began their journey back at the Old Vic in October last year, and since then they’ve been touring all across the country – from Bristol & Oxford to Chester & York. Their final week will be spent at Coventry’s Belgrade Theatre (one of […]

Most popular posts of 2018

I’m always fascinated by the stats page here – in particular, which of my posts end up attracting the most hits! It definitely can take you by surprise at times. So, here are the top 15 most viewed posts from 2018… 15. Section 2 Teamed with No One Is Coming To Save You is Paper […]

End of 2018 report

Gone are the days of one show or one venue to rule them all! Obviously I will still happily make repeat visits to shows – or follow them around on tour – if I really enjoy them, but variety has very much been the spice of life in 2018. That covers venue as much as […]

Favourite shows of 2018

As I ended up seeing more different shows than last year (and almost as many in total, thanks to some repeat visits), I decided enough was enough – it’s finally time to branch out from the weird top 12 idea. Beginning with a short list of around 40 (admittedly this doesn’t sound very short), I […]

Mind the Blog ‘on tour’ 2018

I had such a good time travelling around for shows last year that I decided I should keep it up again this year. There may not be any international travel in there, but Mind the Blog has definitely covered a good proportion of Britain at least! With an incredible amount of irritation to be found […]

We’ll Live and Die in These Towns

The Bhagavad-Gita from Hindu mythology and a working class rock band from Coventry sound about as disparate as you can get – but not if you’re playwright Geoff Thompson. His latest show, We’ll Live and Die in These Towns, blends the two together to create an original story, forming a musical that features songs from […]

We’ll Live and Die in These Towns: cast announced

Tom Clarke, former frontman of Coventry rock band The Enemy, and playwright Geoff Thompson have collaborated to create brand new musical drama We’ll Live or Die in These Towns. Set to make its world première at Coventry’s Belgrade Theatre this autumn, it is soundtracked by The Enemy’s debut album of the same name (with Clarke as […]

Sunshine on Leith

The first spark of an idea for this show came back in the noughties, when director James Brining decided it would be a good idea to create a brand new Scottish musical – writer Stephen Greenhorn came back with the thought of using the music of The Proclaimers and it took off from there. Since […]