Author: Mallory

An Interview with Normie Rowe

normierowe1To celebrate fifty years since the release of It Ain’t Necessarily So, Normie Rowe brings FRENZY! – The 50th Anniversary Collection. The new album features 30 of his hits from 1965-1968 remastered for 2015. I attended his album launch yesterday – but before I get to that – here’s the interview I did with him last week.

Let’s start with the new album FRENZY! – The 50th Anniversary Collection …

We decided to go back and revisit songs we recorded in the 60s as a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the release of my first record It Ain’t Necessarily So. To point out the fact that in those times the pop music world was incredibly frenetic. The kids were more enthusiastic about the music than hither to been seen. Much more enthusiastic than I guess the Rock ‘n’ Roll period or the Bobby Socks’ period of the early Frank Sinatra times. The kids were just like maniacs! To get out of a venue with some article of clothing in tact or some part of your hair still on your head was quite a miracle. So we chose the songs that were pretty reminiscent of the sort of things we were singing and playing in those days.

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An Interview With CHESS director Ryan Fogwell and lead Tavis Cunningham

Tavis+Steph Chess hero mediumIt’s hard to describe Chess, the musical composed by Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus from ABBA with lyrics by Tim Rice, with its intricate plot, complex characters and multitudinous themes of love, politics and war – one really has to see it to appreciate it. With such well known songs as Anthem and One Night in Bangkok, this production has won countless fans all over the world and its original London production, starring Elaine Page and Murray Head, ran for three years on the West End. I spoke with Director Ryan Fogwell and lead Tavis Cunningham, who plays Anatoly Sergievsky, about the new production coming to Manly, NSW for a limited run this May.

Let’s talk about Chess. For people who haven’t heard of nor seen the musical before – what is Chess about?

Tavis: It’s set in the middle of the Cold War in 1979-1980 – a bit more into the later of the Cold War I guess, – and it’s really about how people are controlled by their countries and the political machinations that are going on between members of the US and the Soviet Union. It’s all taking place during two chess tournaments – one in Italy and one in Thailand. It follows the Russian chess player [Anatoly] and one of the members of the American team [Florence] who they get together during the first chess match and then various complications happen.

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An Evening With Michael Bolton at the Palais Theatre

Last Saturday night I had the pleasure of seeing the An Evening With Michael Bolton concert at the Palais Theatre in Melbourne. I’ve wanted to see him live in concert for a very long time now. I was raised on his music and having missed my chance twice before of seeing him live, I wasn’t going to miss out a third time. I dragged my Mum along – aka the reason for my love for his music – with me and this is how the night went.

Please note, I am going off memory so some details may be slightly off.

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Interview: Actor Emmett Skilton

MV5BMTY4MzM3NDE2Nl5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwNDU2OTkxMDE@._V1_SX640_SY720_If you haven’t heard of New Zealand actor Emmett Skilton then you probably have yet to discover the brilliance of the kiwi comedy-drama series The Almighty Johnsons. If this is the case, find it on Netflix, buy the DVDs, hell – illegally download it if you must!, however you can get your hands on it – it’ll be well worth your while! Emmett, who plays youngest brother Axl Johnson in the series, speaks all things TAJ and more below.

Please note: There are some slight spoilers from the series in this interview!

Firstly, you’ve been in Los Angeles for quite a while now. What have you been up to?

Sure have. I originally came here for The Almighty Johnsons’s SYFY promotion last year and since then I have worked on various projects, a favourite being a feature film called Bella, being released later this year/early next year. And I have, of course, been exploring this giant country as best I can – Central Park in New York in the snow is a definite favourite so far!

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