Live Performance Review: Martin Carthy, Monday 23.02.2015 19:30, Traverse Theatre Bar, Edinburgh 

This is a musician I have wanted to see perform for some years. I have read in various publications this musician being cited as the greatest living English Folk musician. Martin primarily performs solo acoustic with a guitar, this is the form I wanted to see him perform in, and this is what we got.

The set-up was intimate with a tiny stage and comfortable seating. Martin performed with mastery and humble wit. It was one of those charming performances where each piece, while he was tuning up, was being introduced with some genuinely interesting information about the songs. 

At the beginning of the second half Martin performed a song written by a brother-in-law of his. From the intro it sounded intriguing and low and behold it turns out it was the one song of the night that I already knew very well. Before the end of the gig, Martin encouraged people to approach him afterwards if they had any comments or questions. I don't need asking twice, so I checked if he was aware of the version by Chumbawamba called 'Stitch That'  from the album 'Shhh' (1992). It turns out he had heard of it, though not heard it. I took the opportunity to suggest, that if he were to seek it out, in my view the more interesting version by the Chumbys is on a Japanese Mini-Album called 'Amnesia' (1998), where it is done in a Country 'n' Western Stylee.

This was an utterly absorbing evening at a good reasonable price. You can't ask for more. 

Rating: 10/10.          

Film Review: Whiplash (15) (U.S.A. 2014) (Director: Damien Chazelle), Filmhouse, Screen Two, Edinburgh, Sunday 08.02.2015, 18:20

This is the film that J.K. Simmons won the B.A.F.T.A. Best Supporting Actor Award for this evening. As some will know this is the film that centres around jazz drumming. J.K. Simmons is good as the tutor, though I found to be sadly quite one-note. Some of the dialogue I found to be quite clunky and not very believable. I also found the progression of the story to be utterly predictable with nothing to say.  

The biggest issue I have with the film though is that both of the lead characters, tutor and student, I found to be as much of an egomaniac as each other. Even worse the tutor is a bullying homophobe and the student is an arrogant dick. The central characters are so reprehensible, that when the student is involved in a serious car-smash while trying to get to a performance in time to keep himself in the ensemble and prove himself to the bully, I found it hard to stop laughing. I have a sense I should have felt sympathetic towards the student though the only way he could have improved his standing in my view is by standing up to the bully, which he never does. 

Predictably this period of the story results in the tutor and student going separate ways. Though by the end they are back together, without addressing any of the previous behaviour towards each other, clearly for what they can both get from each other without any mutual fondness or respect, i.e. they are both users. 

Not that I am a big fan of 'learning' in films, as people tend not to learn in life, though this is a film that could really have done with some. I found it hard to give a monkeys about any character by the end. 

The defining characteristic of the film is narcissism. This is an element the film shares with 'Raging Bull' (1980). It is this reason why I find that film very hard to care about. Now Whiplash can join this select band of films that mean nothing to me (Oh Vienna).   

Rating: 04/10.