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The greatest show and other bromances: Adam Riches and John Kearns ARE Ball and Boe @sohotheatre

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Alfie Boe and Michael Ball seem to be a bit of a joke act anyway. Their endless interpretations of popular songs (also known as covers) and their double-act bromance make them quintessential crossover artists where popular music meets opera and Broadway. And a perilous choice for the discerning listener. It’s not that they aren’t talented musicians and performers in their own right. Still, their musical choices are always safe, predictable and less than their potential. But every country deserves to have a pair of self-described national treasures that can tour the local arenas and give people a good time for the bargain price of £175 a seat.  And so the concept of Adam Riches and John Kearns - two world-famous from the Edinburgh Fringe comedians taking on this bromance seems like a curious choice for a Christmas musical fare. One can only hope that over the fourteen nights, it is playing at the Soho Theatre that the show evolves into something more substantial than a series of po...

Music: Those crazy chicks...

The Dixie Chicks are on BBC TV tonight. They are keen to plug it as the scene of the crime, but all controversy aside their new album Taking the Long Way (which is on my iPOD) has some pretty darn good songs on it. Here's hoping they keep writing about themselves, being themselves and just writin'…  

The album really deals about their experiences post 2003 when in an off-hand statement at a London concert they told the crowd they were ashamed to be from the same state of the US as George W Bush. That apparently is disrespecting the President as he was just about to commit troops to the war in Iraq. Every country has its sacred cows, but this album is full of little "fuck yous" to their fans who used to have them with Reba McEntire on their CD changer. Combined with great melodies, great voices who could ask for anything more?

Interestingly they are not the only ones disrespecting the President nowadays. Pink has a great song on her latest album Dear Mr President. The protest song is alive and well in 2006.

Btw since when has the act of showing disrespect been allowed to be called disrespecting?

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