Mick Softley's 1972 album released for the first time on CD. Born in 1941 in South Woodford, Essex, Mick Softley was at the forefront of the folk revival scene of the early 1960s. Mick helped Donovan with guitar-picking styles when they were both involved with the folk club in The Cock pub in St Albans. Later, Donovan would record two of Mick's songs 'The War Drags On' and 'Goldwatch Blues'. Recorded at The Manor in Oxfordshire and at Sound Techniques, Chelsea, musicians included Jerry Donahue (Fotheringay / Fairport Convention), Gerry Conway (Fotheringay), Pat Donaldson (Fotheringay), Barry de Souza (Curved Air) and Lyn Dobson (Manfred Mann / Soft Machine). Produced by Tony Cox, talented keyboard player who played with Sandy Denny and Mike Heron. 'Disc and Music Echo' magazine probably captured the essence of this unique recording most succinctly when they reviewed the album and stated that 'listening to it, one almost feels an intruder into the man's soul'.
As the British nation prepares to vote in the EU referendum, cult hit Eurotrash returns with an édition spéciale to remind us of the many, varied and occasionally alarming cultural delights enjoyed by our European cousins. At a time when we are deciding whether to either break up with or embrace the EU, the eternally debonair Antoine de Caunes and Jean Paul Gaultier return with some rudity and nudity to remind us - their straight laced British chums - of some of the best, worst and weirdest things that Europe has offered us over the years.
Philippe Jaroussky as Ruggiero is in thrall to Patricia Petibon as the sorceress Alcina in Katie Mitchell’s virtuosic production of Handel’s opera from the 2015 Aix-en-Provence Festival, described by Bachtrack as “a night of a thousand delights”. Conducted by Andrea Marcon, this was, in the words of Opera News, “musically … a performance of the highest festival level”. The production of Alcina, by the British director Katie Mitchell, was welcomed by the Financial Times as “meticulously executed …, rich in detail, consummately polished”. Like Mitchell’s Aix-en-Provence staging of George Benjamin’s hugely successful Written on Skin (first seen in 2012), it offers simultaneous action in multiple zones of the stage, with Alcina’s elegant boudoir taking pride of place. As the New York Times wrote: “It involves a huge sorcery machine for turning people into animals (or whatever). And Ms. Mitchell works magic of her own onstage, constantly showing the enchantresses Alcina and Morgana alternating between glamorous public personas and their ‘real life’, older, private selves …There are also bits of simulated sex, mingling genders and suggesting, among other things, inventive new ways to hit high notes.”