The Star's critics ANDY HEDGECOCK, MARTIN HALL, MICHAL BONCZA, ANGUS REID reviews Holy Cow, One to One: John and Yoko, King of Kings, Panda Bear in Africa
Latest editorial
Fighting spirit required
BEN LUNN draws attention to the desperate straits into which classical music is being pushed by a hack-and-slash government that cares nothing for the culture of the working class
marxist notes
PATRICK JONES recommends a vital anthology from Afghan and Iranian poets where the political and personal fuse into witness-bearing and manifesto-making
WILL STONE is impressed by Hania Rani who is already making a name for herself in the male-dominated world of modern classical music
MIK SABIERS enjoys the theatrical feminist six piece who have a lot of fun that the audience feeds off as the set rolls on
New releases from Ibex Band, Lucy Dacus, and Various Artists
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by characters so un-nuanced as to be unreal, a stereotypical plot and a conceptual vampire
WILL STONE appreciates an artist who can swerve from industrial noise to clubby trance pop without missing a step
SHORTLY after the announcement of Arts Council England’s National Portfolio Organisations (NPO), I wrote in the Morning Star about the questionable choices which ultimately were a hack-and-slash at the arts and warned about the negative connotations which were going to follow.
Since then, there have been many developments and announcements – including Glyndebourne and Welsh National Opera reducing touring, English National Opera making some developments but still without anything completely finalised, and the Oldham Coliseum permanently closing its doors.
On May 5, the North-West Psappha Ensemble announced that due to the 100 per cent funding cut from the Arts Council, which made up 40 per cent of their overall annual income, they were unable to overcome the deficit and will be permanently closing when they finish their “Composing for…” series and completely shut up shop in the summer.
More from this author
BEN LUNN draws attention to the way cultural expressions of solidarity with Palestinians in the UK are being censored by Israeli-sponsored lawfare
BEN LUNN reports from a new music festival in New York, and singles out a breathtaking composition that protests directly against femicide in Mexico
The centenary of his birth is a chance to assess the remarkable combination of Marxism, activism and modernism in the works of Luigi Nono
As the debate around voluntary euthanasia returns, we now have some seriously disturbing evidence from those places where it has become recently legalised to convince us that Britain is not ready, argues BEN LUNN