But it’s no surprise, Ed has been having that effect wherever he has travelled with his new show, “Different Class.” He has been wowing punters up and down the country. The good news he is now bringing the show to a theatre near you very soon. And you’re in for a rare treat. The lovable stand-up is in the form of his life.

Don’t just take my word for it, though. The critics have been queuing up to praise Ed’s dazzling new show. The Guardian enthused that, “his wit won deafening cheers and feet stomping,” and The List said that, “tickets for his shows are like gold dust … truly a master of the art of comedy.” The Scotsman raved that Ed is, “masterful … in complete rapport with his capacity audience.” Metro commented that the comic is, “at the top of his game, splitting plenty of sides into the bargain,” while The Independent reported that, “you just stand up and cheer with everybody else.” Couldn’t have put it better myself.

With the applause still ringing in his ears, Ed takes time to chat to me in his dressing room after his rapturously received show at the Riverside. The comedian, whose cracking live DVD, “Ed Byrne – Pedantic and Whimsical”, is out now, is just as charming off stage as on it. He possesses a genuine magnetism which he exudes like one of those force fields in an old episode of Star Trek. It is a real pleasure to spend an hour in his company. It’s like being treated to a command performance to an audience of one.

Ed, who hails from Swords in Dublin, starts by assessing why his “Different Class” is striking such a chord with audiences. He thinks they are lapping it up because he reveals so much about himself in his act. What is appealing is how candidly the comic discusses everything from his recent wedding to his frustration at only thinking up the appropriate bon mot long after the moment has passed.

“The best comedy comes from a personal angle,” declares 36-year-old Ed, who has shone on such TV shows as Have I Got News For You, Mock the Week, Never Mind the Buzzcocks and 8 out of 10 Cats. “Sometimes you hear a comedian on stage saying, ‘I’m single,’ and you think, ‘no, you’re not, you’re married with kids!’ I think it makes a great difference if as a comic you can take your own life and tell the truth about it. If it’s real, it makes it so much better. It gives it much more authenticity and has far greater punch.”
The Irishman, who since last summer has been very happily married, continues that, “you could be accused of self-indulgence, but my experience has been that audiences really like it when you reveal something of yourself on stage. It’s not funny unless they believe it.

“For instance, one section of ‘Different Class’ that goes down very well is where I talk about my status. I discuss the difficulty of neither being massively famous nor totally obscure and how strange it is simply to be known as ‘that bloke’. The audience really enjoy the feeling of getting to know me better.”

One of the many outstanding sections of “Different Class”, which completely sold out during its month-long run at this year’s Edinburgh Festival, concerns Ed’s recent wedding. He extracts loads of laughs from highlighting the numerous rip-offs in the wedding industry. He jokes, for example, that, “the best thing is that since I’ve been married, I haven’t had to plan a f****** wedding!”

He also wants to congratulate the man who invented the tradition that the groom should never see his bride’s dress before The Big Day: “I want to shake his hand for getting us out of that particular shopping expedition. ‘Honey, nothing would give me greater pleasure than watching you try on infinity wedding dresses!’”

Ed reflects that in this part of the show, “I’m not slagging off my wife, I’m slagging off the wedding industry. Everyone can relate to the minor frustrations that any wedding involves, such as arguing about stuff that you don’t really care about!”

In this show, the comic also proffers some very strong material on that perennial obsession: the class system. Ed comes up with some great lines about it. “Pheasant is posh,” he muses at one point, “even if you eat it with Alphabetti Spaghetti!”

The stand-up observes that, “we’re all fascinated by the subject of class, and there’s a lot of comic mileage in it. It’s a leitmotif that runs through the show. The funny thing is, when I’ve been asking the audience here at the Riverside, ‘who would call themselves middle class?’, only one brave soul usually puts his hand up. I can’t believe that in an affluent West London there is only one middle-class person!”

Ed is delighted that “Different Class” is quite rightly receiving so much acclaim. He tries to appraise quite why it has chimed with audiences to such a degree. “I’ve been reliably informed that this is my best show yet,” he smiles. “It’s partly down to experience. More than anything, though, as mushy as it sounds, it’s down to the love of a good woman. That really helps my comedy because it means I’m freer to focus on it.

“In 2004, a lot of my show was centred on my bitterness about a previous girlfriend. It was cathartic, but at the same time it wasn’t very fair, as she wasn’t there to stand up for herself. That style didn’t suit me. I think what I’m doing now suits me much better.”
The stand-up adds that, “I’m now leading a life that lends itself much better to comedy. I’m doing lovely things like getting married and reporting on that and audiences seem to warm to it.”

Never more than a minute or two away from the next joke, Ed concludes with a mischievous grin that, “of course, if my wife ever left me, I’d end up doing the divorce show, and it’s quite possible that that wouldn’t go down very well at all! People prefer me when I’m happy.”

Because he makes the rest of us happy, too.

Interview By James Rampton

Recorded at the Lyric Theatre in London’s West End as part of his sell-out Citizens! tour, Britain’s Got Idiots Live illustrates how, as citizens of the world we could change it, if we really wanted to …..if only we could be bothered. No subject escapes Andy’s finely tuned satirical gaze as he singles out the foibles of today’s Britain, from merchant bankers to traffic wardens.

As well as first rate comedy gags, viewers can expect banter-a-plenty with the audience, including a sensational candid camera send-up, and an unexpected dance routine which has to be seen to be believed!

Andy Parsons: Britain’s Got Idiots Live is available to pre-order from Amazon now: www.amazon.co.uk

Britain’s Got Idiots Live will also be available on CD and audio download from: www.audible.co.uk

Everywhere you look at the minute there seems to be yet another example of our cultural excavation of the Eighties – shoulder pads, Transformers, leg-warmers and even white cars have all made recent comebacks. With strike threats and recession blues currently dominating the news it seems the escapist themes that characterised music and fashion in the Eighties are well and truly back in vogue. Lucky then, that Eighties music wasn’t all about bad clothes and soulless, synth-laden pop songs. Bands like Joy Division helped make the Eighties bearable; and following in their post-punk footsteps are Editors, doing their bit to make the current Eighties obsession tolerable by drawing on the decades best musical aspects for inspiration.

While they may not like the persistent Joy Division comparisons, Editors don’t do themselves any favours. The first song tonight, ‘In This Light And On This Evening’, is dominated by a throbbing, Joy Division-esque soundscape while Tom Smith’s vocals owe much to Ian Curtis’ trademark intense mumbling. ‘Bricks And Mortar’, with its Blade Runner synths and electro-drums also has the whiff of a Joy Division album track to it, before it morphs unexpectedly into something a bit more anthemic and modern.

Although they are undoubtedly influenced by Joy Division, Editors are definitely no copyists. Their talent lies in building euphoric anthems out of the introspective themes of isolation and despair that were first dwelt on by Joy Division and their peers over 20 years ago. Songs like ‘Blood’ and ‘An End Has A Start’ burst from the stage, bristling with nervous energy and provoking mass sing-alongs. It’s amazing just how many ‘beer-in-the-air’ moments Editors have in their back catalogue: ‘Munich’, ‘The Racing Rats’, ‘Bullets’, ‘Fingers In The Factory’ and even ‘Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors’ all incite hands-aloft moshing.

As well as having the kind of back-catalogue to embarrass much older and more established bands, their new songs hint at a growing maturity. If their older songs were all about the nervous tension and jagged guitars, their newer efforts seem more measured and deliberate. ‘You Don’t Know Love’ and ‘Like Treasure’ are both future fan-favourites, both rousing anthems that left most of the crowd wishing they could sing along with the actual words. Tom Smith is also turning into a more than competent front-man, most noticeable as he predatorily stalked the stage during ‘Eat Raw Meat = Blood Drool’.

The highlight of the night came in the encore with ‘Papillon’. More New Order than Joy Division, it turned the O2 Academy into the best nightclub in town with its bouncy synths and infectious rhythm. It’s one of the best songs this decade to merge rock and dance and, along with their back-catalogue and impressive new material, suggests Editors will be a massive hit on the festival circuit next year.

(The Editors Live at The O2 Academy, Leeds Saturday 17th October 2009)

]]> http://www.bigdistraction.com/2009/10/the-editors-live-at-the-o2-academy-gig-review/feed/ 0 http://www.bigdistraction.com/2009/10/richard-hawley-live-at-albert-hall-gig-review/ http://www.bigdistraction.com/2009/10/richard-hawley-live-at-albert-hall-gig-review/#comments Tue, 13 Oct 2009 23:18:11 +0000 Bigdistraction Admin http://www.bigdistraction.com/?p=261 Since he progressed from his previous life as a guitarist for the likes of Longpigs and Pulp, Richard Hawley has carved out quite a niche for himself as one of the UK’s most distinctive solo stars. Tonight, Nottingham’s historic Albert Hall provided a unique setting for Hawley’s trademark crooned love songs.

The most striking thing about Sheffield’s Richard Hawley, once you’ve got past the gravity-defying quiff and Teddy-boy suit, is his voice. His rich, deep throated, lovelorn baritone gives his classic love songs a timeless air and is reminiscent of melancholic balladeers like Roy Orbison and Scott Walker. Tonight, this trademark voice is on fine form as Hawley delivers a composed, mature and at times exhilarating set.

His sixth studio album, ‘Truelove’s Gutter’, provides the bulk of tonight’s show.  Richard and his band (including a violinist/saw-player!) take to the stage to the atmospheric intro to album opener ‘As The Dawn Breaks’; the chirpy bird-songs and gentle guitars build a beautiful, fragile background to Hawley’s romantic crooning and set the tone for an understated yet memorable night. This is followed by ‘Ashes On The Fire’, a haunting ode to unrequited love which allows Hawley to dominate the opulent surroundings with that rich, textured voice.

After a quick diversion to old favourites ‘Lady Solitude’ and ‘Hotel Room’ (from past albums ‘Lady’s Bridge’ and ‘Coles Corner’ respectively) Hawley and his band illuminate the night with a spellbinding rendition of ‘Soldier On’, a slow-burning epic which builds a gentle tension before clattering into life, the shuddering drums and incisive guitars filling the beautifully lit arena.

Following on from another ‘Lady’s Bridge’ / ‘Coles Corner’ two song sojourn – the shanty-esque ‘The Sea Calls’ and sentimental ‘Tonight’ – comes the highlight of the night and perhaps the best song Hawley has written to date, the exquisite ‘Open Up Your Door’. It’s a heart-wrenchingly emotional ballad that journeys from melancholic desperation to uplifting optimism in the blink of an eye. Hawley’s soulful voice enriches the song and commands complete attention from the seated crowd in front of him; it’s a powerful moment of music at its transcendental best and confirms Hawley’s stature as one of the most accomplished singer-songwriters around.

This notion is given further credence with the next two songs lifted from ‘Truelove’s Gutter’, the deeply personal ‘For Your Lover Give Some Time’ and ‘Remorse Code’, the latter being the perfect showcase for Hawley’s disarming voice. ‘Run For Me’, from the 2003 album ‘Lowedges’, proves to be a popular inclusion in the set, providing a more upbeat tone which displays Hawley’s versatility both as a singer and guitarist. He ends the set with ‘Don’t You Cry’, the final song on ‘Truelove’s Gutter’, before returning for an encore of just one song (‘Coles Corner’s ‘The Ocean’) due to the restrictive 10pm curfew.

With performances like these it is easy to see why Richard Hawley has gradually amassed a sizeable and devoted fan base since his first solo album in 2001. It’s a testament to his ability and the quality of his back catalogue that he can leave out favourites like ‘Valentine’ and ‘Tonight The Streets Are Ours’ and still put on a show to delight and entrance his fans.

(Richard Hawley Live at Albert Hall, Nottingham Sunday 11th October 2009)

For more information on Richard Hawley, visit his official site at:

http://www.richardhawley.co.uk/