Stormy weather = stayed indoors all weekend...

I spent some time, as is becoming a tradition of sorts, over my ‘birthday weekend’ not seeing any theatre shows at all, and had a listen to some music which I had been intending to listen to for a while. There are still others, as they always are, and if I should make it yet another year around the sun, well, I might get around to those at some point. It was nice to step away from the theatre reviews circuit for a couple of days.

Six (six!) studio albums by English singer James Morrison, who as far as I can tell co-wrote most of the songs on all of those albums. Excellent stuff overall, even if recurrent themes common to many singer/songwriters emerge, about love and relationships, and feeling insufficient as a man despite putting everything into being the best lover he can be. After his actual partner, Gill Catchpole, took her own life in 2024, he released the album ‘Fight Another Day’ in 2025 – one of the tracks, ‘Little Wings’, sounds very much like a Stevie Wonder song.

I also listened to ‘Happier Than Ever’, the second studio album by Billie Eilish, which was frankly diabolical. This is someone with in excess of 123 million followers on Instagram at the time of writing, and in her own way, follows absolutely nobody herself. I wouldn’t go so far as to say she can’t sing but she barely enunciates properly, and what lyrics I could decipher were more depressing than Sylvia Plath’s book ‘The Bell Jar’ and every play by Sarah Kane combined. One of the songs is even called ‘Everybody Dies’. Fair play to her though. Over eight billion streams of the album on Spotify. Money for mumbling.

The rest were DVDs of live concerts. I would have thought Kylie Minogue would be a bit more charismatic in concert – she dances and sings well enough on her ‘Golden’ tour (2019) but her interactions with the audience were, in a word, dull. Contrast that with Westlife (‘Live at Croke Park’, 2012) whose songs were dull, apart from cover versions of Robbie Williams’ ‘Let Me Entertain You’ and Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, but who had a great rapport with their fanbase.

Then there was André Rieu with his Johann Strauss Orchestra (‘Power of Love’, 2024), with – as he kept saying – the biggest brass band in the Netherlands, about 400 musicians who came together from all over Holland for Rieu’s big gig. I can see why some classical music lovers turn their noses up at Rieu: it was a bit populist, especially when he brought out a local lad called Phil Bee (yes, really) to belt out ‘Sweet Caroline’ and ‘Delilah’. I’m glad I saw the sort of stuff he does – anything from ‘Nearer, My God To Thee’ to ‘Tutti Frutti’ but I can’t see myself forking out to see his orchestra live. Then again, my frugal living drive being what it is, I can’t see myself forking out to see anything live… for now.

Steps were decent (‘Party on the Dancefloor Live from the London SSE Arena Wembley’, 2017) in what I think was their reunion tour: they had planned a single concert at the Royal Albert Hall, but such was the loyalty of their fanbase even after the five-piece group suddenly became three, and then nothing at all, in 2001, that they ended up doing an arena tour sixteen years later. In what was their 20th anniversary (maybe not the exact date), they brought out their children on stage for one of their mellower songs, but most of it was high-octane tubthumping stuff.

Best of all was Billy Joel (‘Live at Shea Stadium’, 2008) – I was saddened to read recently he has stopped touring due to a neurological condition called Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus, and performing for him is now like getting a concussion. The powers that be demolished Shea Stadium in 2009 (well, ‘deconstructed’ it rather than blew it up), which was bigger than its replacement, Citi Field, at least in terms of capacity. Paul McCartney, a guest at Billy Joel’s concert, had previously played at Shea in 1965 as one of The Beatles, and also played the first concert at Citi Field in 2009. All the songs Joel is known for were there, as well as some lesser-known ones, plus covers and other special guests, including country singer Garth Brooks and the late Tony Bennett.

Your recommendations for what to listen to and watch next October are welcome…