National Theatre of Wales Launches

The National Theatre of Wales announced its arrival today with a press conference that was broadcast from Cardiff to the world via the internet.

The company's Artistic Director, John McGrath, announced their first year of work which will kick off in March 2010 with Alan Harris' A Good Night Out in the Valleys, an agenda-setting play about the Welsh Miners' Institutes. Harris and McGrath have visited a number of these places, asking the locals about their idea of a good night out, and turning some of their repsonses into the basis of a play that will tour the Miners' Institues throughout March.

This will be followed by Shelf Life, a collaboration between Volcano Theatre and Welsh National Opera, and a revival of The Devil Inside Himself, John Osborne's first play, written when he was eighteen.

Later productions in their inaugral year will include The Perisans,a new version of Aeschylus’s classic play by Kaite O’Reilly and Welsh playwright Gary Owen's exploration of the youth of Bridgend, Love Steals Us From Loneliness.

For further information visit the website NationalTheatreWales.org.

Record Of The Day Awards: musicOMH nominated

Following on from The Independent listing musicOMH as one of the 25 best music websites in its feature last month, we've now been longlisted in the Best Digital Publication category in the 2009 Record Of The Day Awards.

Not only that but our writers Michael Cragg, Jude Clarke, Camilla Pia and Christopher Monk have all been individually nominated for their reviews.

In our 10th year this is all very welcome news.

You can vote for the site and the writers here.  In fact, we'd love it if you did.

VIDEO PREMIERE: MaJiKer - Tongue

After producing singular French diva Camille's last two award-winning albums Le Fil and Music Hole, Birmingham-born, Paris-based MaJiKer released his ambitious debut album Body-Piano-Machine earlier this year.

Made up of body percussion, piano and the sounds of a Yamaha PSS 270, it's one of 2009's most original releases and we've been obsessing over it ever since.

Now, ahead of his three-date UK showcase tour in November comes MaJiKer's second single, Tongue. Already available as a free download, it now gets a video treatment in time for the release of two remix EP packages. 

"The whole song is about yearning to understand somebody: what they feel, what they think, where they came from, and where they are going," says MaJiKer. "It's about desire, empathy and emotional connection."

The lyrics include a rhythmic mechanical mantra – a machine speaking in tongues – that echoes the meaning within the track. 

The Tongue EPs are released as a download package over two weeks: AfterTastes (26th October) and TasteDubs (2nd November). 

musicOMH is delighted to host the premiere of the mysterious and not a little pervy Tongue video, which you can see below.  It was directed by Raphaël Neal, with cinematography by Julien Gidoin. 

We'll have a full interview with MaJiKer, aka Matthew Ker, later this month. In the meantime you can give the uplifting electro GRAND son remix of Tongue - and the original version - a good licking for free, after the jump.

 

MaJiKer: Tongue, from the album Body-Piano-Machine

• MaJiKer - Tongue (MP3)
• MaJiKer - Tongue (GRAND son remix) (MP3) 

MaJiKer plays Birmingham's Hare & Hounds on 3rd November, Brighton's Unitarian Church on 6th November and London's ICA on 9th November. The album Body-Piano-Machine is out now through Gaymonkey. Check out his MySpace for more here.

Theatre News: Lily Allen Headed for the West End

According to The Sun, Lily Allen has been lined up to star in the West End transfer of reasons to be pretty.

The inevitable internet babble has begun over whether this is a move of huge cynicism on behalf of the show's producers - grab a famous name, any famous name, and people will fork out for tickets - or something altogether more savvy, especially given the nature of the play. reasons is the final part of Neil LaBute's loose trilogy of plays about body image, a follow up of sorts to his previous plays, Fat Pig and The Shape of Things.

reasons focuses on Greg and his girlfriend Steph, whom he insults by calling "regular" (which, in her book, is worse than "ugly"). It started life off-Broadway at MCC Theater at the Lucille Lortel Theatre last year before making the leap to the Great White Way (and being considerably re-written in the process).

The casting of musicians and 'non-professional' actors is par for the course in shows like Chicago, so it seems a tad harsh for some commentators to already be citing Madonna's ill-advised stint on the West End stage in comparison. We were early adoptors on the Allen front, so we will refrain from passing judgment until we've seen her in action. But whatever happens with this play, it's sure to make a noise.

Bestival Day 3 - Bestival ends

Bestival 2009 is now at an end. We couldn't have asked for anymore as each day and performance progressed it simply got better. Review and Bestival in pictures to follow in next few days. Good night friends.