Elvis Costello & the Imposters 20:05:2013

Windsor Hall, BIC Having resurrected his Napoleon Dynamite persona to compere this most engaging and illuminating entertainment, Elvis Costello also laid to rest another nom de stage in emphatic style. Much is made of his way with a lyric, a melody, even his stagecraft, but his guitar playing is frequently overlooked. Well, no more, for Read More…

Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds 04:09:2012

Windsor Hall, BIC Time was when Bournemouth seafront became the geographical focus for the so-called Battle of Britpop, that moment in August 1995 when Blur and Oasis released singles on the same day. Blur’s Country House famously pipping their northern rivals’ Roll With It to the top spot was followed barely a month later – Read More…

Ricky Gervais

Ricky Gervais revels in the anguish of the uncomfortable moment, he loves to make us squirm and understands the excruciating pain of embarrassment from the inside out. At once brilliant and confounding, he will put himself – and others (ask his mate Johnny Depp) – on the spot in a trice, shining a bright light Read More…

Debbie Harry

They wouldn’t have realised at the time, but the few hundred or so young punks and slightly older pub rockers that gathered at Bournemouth’s Village Bowl on May 20, 1977, were witnessing the start of something huge. Some had probably gone to see an emerging London new wave band called Squeeze, although most would have been there Read More…

Paul Weller

He’s the changing man… Things come and go in our lives, others stick around, keeping us company on rocky roads and high trails. The fleeting charms of some new source of admiration may be sweet, but nothing rewards quite like the tale that unravels over time. And so it is with me and Paul Weller. Read More…

Smokey Robinson

Just when you think you’ve got it all sorted out in your own mind, just when you think you know how everything works, you can guarantee something comes along that blows you right out of the water. Every time. It’s the early summer of 2007 and Smokey Robinson is due in Bournemouth. I request an Read More…