Blue skies, a blissful country house setting and a virtuoso performance by a world renowned cellist. You can’t get much better than that. And luckily for an audience of around 100 people, that was the treat in store at Encombe House in Dorset on a sunny June morning. The walk from Kingston to Swyre Head, past Encombe, is one of my all-time favourite walks. My family did it every Boxing ...keep reading
Two years ago, on a scorching hot afternoon, we perched on a bench in Avignon, ate ice creams from Regal Glace and listened to an amazing Flamenco guitarist busking in the street. The musician’s name was El Kado and it turned out that he was a self-taught guitarist from Lille who was playing at the Avignon Festival that year. The crowd was so transfixed by his talent that an audience ...keep reading
What on earth possessed Justin Bieber to be two hours late for his own concert? In one fell swoop the 19-year-old singer disappointed hundreds of young fans, infuriated their parents and set Twitter ablaze with criticism. I reckon they should have gone to Amy Macdonald’s concert at the London Palladium the night before instead. The Glaswegian singer-songwriter (responsible for one of my all-time favourite tracks, Let’s Start a Band) arrived ...keep reading