Simon Houghton

So two weeks ago my Girlfriend and me drove down to London, well aqua planing would be more apt! to see The Lord Of The Rings Musical… Her sister had bought us tickets to see it along with her husband. We met up at Covent Garden Tube Station, had a wander and a spot of lunch before the performance. Covent Garden is an area of London I’ve never been to before, it was alright suppose. Anyway after a nice Pizza at one of the Many Italian restaurants in Covent Garden we made our way to Theatre Royal Drury Lane, to check out what the most expensive Musical ever put on was like.

Now before I go any further here.. let me make it blatantly obvious how I really feel about Musicals… I know hate is a strong word, but in this case it really is justified, I really do honestly proper HATE Musicals. They seriously do my head in, i just don’t see the point at all of all that singing, give me a good play any-day, but when people start having impromptu fully choreographed sing alongs in the middle of a good play, it really makes me feel like gouging my eyes out and putting them in my ears…. So just thought I had better let you know where I’m coming from when it comes to this subject My Fiancee on the other had Loves them and as this was her Birthday present, I thought I would show her how much I Love her and go along too….

Now The Lord of the Rings is perhaps my favorite book of all time, yes I’m a Fantasy nerd, so given this fact and the previously mentioned love of the Musical, perhaps not the best reviewer ;)The first thing that hits you are you enter the theatre at Drury Lane is WOW! No wonder this is the most expensive musical ever staged, the set is breathtaking, seriously cool, the curtain is a huge gold ring surrounded by intertwining branches that spread out to fill the whole area where the normal curtain should be and doesn’t stop there, the branches twine up and out covering almost all of the celling and both sides of the theatre, literally covering most of the boxes on the left and right. It really is a sight to behold, I tell thee. At the front of the stage you can see a small part of the circular stage sticking out.

So after a bit of time where the Hobbits mess about catching fireflies the show begins…I’m not going to tell you too much about the actual show, if you want to see it you should go and see it or get a DVD of it. What I did like about the show was the stage, the lighting, the sound and some of the acting was ok…The Stage was a huge circle, that looked like a cross section of a tree and throughout he show, spins and moves up and down with about twenty different moveable sections, it was really impressive and gave great depth to the performance. The lighting and projections were second to none and really added to the atmosphere of the show. The sound was strong and impressive. On the whole the acting was good, but some of the actors had weird accents.. but since seeing this show which I forgot to add was a pre-show before the official opening, we have found out that a good few of the actors were from the Canadian show hence the accents which at the time were strange, but understandable now.

Now the gripes…. Maybe I’m just too much of a Lord of the rings Snob, but they seriously have condensed so many parts of the trilogy, I found it quite irritating, at times it was almost like they were flying throughout the lines just to get to the the sing song bits… For me they just messed with the core story way too much… The Ents were odd but I admit, they are a hard undertaking especially when Peter Jackson did such a good job in the film. Shelob was good though and Gollum was also class! Well done indeed. The Elves were just weird, they couldn’t keep still, kept moving their bloody arms around all the time, I suppose in an attempt to look more mystical, to me it was just naff. Finally the Singing… just don’t get me started, I just don’t like Musical style singing and I never never will its crap.

So in conclusion, I have to say I think I’ve ended up not slating it as much as I thought I would, If it hadn’t been for the singing I think I would have been singing its praises. I think its worth seeing if you like musicals, or even if you not too fussed but like Lord of the Rings. But if you like me and don’t like Musicals I wouldn’t loose any sleep over not seeing it, Just treat yourself to a Lord of the rings day and watch the extended films back to back Bliss.

If you really want to see all the bloody singing.. then check it out here

Tags: Lord Of The Rings Musical, Lord Of the Rings, Theatre Royal Drury Lane, Tolkien, Drury Lane

I grew up in Bratfud (Bradford if your from daawn souf) so I’ve always loved Bratfuds own Seabrook Crisps. They are the best Crisps in the world, I’m serious if you’ve never had the ultimate Crisp experience that a lovely packet of Seabrooks can give you, then I urge you to waste not a moment more! Get thee to the corner shop!

Anyway a few weeks ago I was very happy to see the New Seabrooks Crisp advert pop onto my telly, FanBloodyTastic, have a butchers here Seabrook Crisp Advert on YouTube.

I remember when I was a kid in the 80’s going on holiday down south and being really disappointed that you couldn’t get Seabrooks Crisps, they dint know what they were missing! Well now I’m happy to report that they can be purchased the length and breadth of the British Isles

So after getting all excited about writing about my favorite crisps I decided to check out their website SeaBrook Crisps, Wow now that is one surreal website! Check it out.

On this website there are many a mention of “The Blah Party”, whats all this I thought to myself?? Well check it out it looks like a proper bonifidy Political Party lead by Captain Sensible!!!

The Blah! Party offers a protest vote to the politically disaffected. We aim to become the UK’s biggest political party, by attracting over 300,000 members.We are the UK’s number one, officially registered party of protest with thousands of members and counting.Let’s send a message to Westminster that we are fed up with political decisions that just don’t make sense and are driven by party agenda; we’re bored of all the spin and lies; we want them to stop spouting hot air and making excuses, and actually deliver on their promises!

Fantastic I say Give em a right Proper Gobb Full!

Tags: Captain Sensible, Seabrook Crisps, Proper Gobb Full, Crisps, Blah Party, Bradford

So I’m looking forward to the Apprentice final tonight, I’ve seen most of this years contest, missed a few, but only really some of the first few ones. The one that sticks in my mind was the one when Sir Alan Sugar sent them to France to sell stuff at a French Market…. totally classic, trying to sell English bog standard cheddar in Makka big blocks, “cheap as cheese” literally! Muppets… Also the cooking stove that Paul Callaghan brought along to cook the sausages… what a plonker, I think he got fired for that choice move, all I can say is Good.

Last week was the semi final, where the final five spent the day being interviewed by three of Sir Alan Sugars mates. Its was entertaining viewing, but the one thing that stuck in my mind was how little some of the contestants had bothered to learn about Sir Alan Sugar or any his companies… come on people! it like the first rule, well perhaps after putting some clothes on.. you’ve got to know about the company that is interviewing you otherwise you WILL look like a pleb, just when you really don’t want to.

My impressions of Katie Hopkins definitely increased during the final when she was offered the Job but turned it down due to not having properly consulted her family about moving to London. Throughout the series she has really irritated me more than anyone, not because she was crap at what she was doing, on the contrary, she was very good at the tasks, but what got me was how she was with her fellow contestants, just being really nasty, things like “hope he dies” etc… yes its survival of the fittest… but no need to be plan horrible. Anyway, she totally redeemed herself in my eye in the semi final by stepping down and allowing Kristina Grimes & Simon Ambrose to go head to head in the final.

So the final is tonight here is the blurb from the BBC website :

Sir Alan’s final test is his most ambitious to date. Having purchased a £120m riverside building, in the future he plans to flatten it. Kristina and Simon have to come up with conceptual ideas for a new building in that spot and, as usual, it must make money. They have just four days to immerse themselves in the highly skilled world of architecture and property development, before they present their plans to 100 hard-nosed property experts.

I’m not sure who I want to win I think they are both excellent candidates, each with their own unique qualities and both bring a lot to the table. I’ve thought for a long time that Kristina Grimes was a strong choice, she has all of the strong qualities of Katie Hopkins, but without any of the negatives. On the other hand I’ve only really noticed Simon Ambrose in the last few weeks. I watched an extra program the other day, I think on BBC2, that showed a little bit more about each of the final five contestants lives and although Simon Ambrose has had a privileged life and he is one of the lucky people who are just good at everything, he did seem definitely one of the strongest all round candidates to me.Well its not up to me is it? Its up to Alan Sugar, sorry Sir Alan Sugar So tonight at 9:00pm is the final, I can’t wait!

If you what to find out more about the Apprentice UK, here is the link to the BBC Apprentice SiteHave Fun

Tags: The Apprentice, BBC1, Simon Ambrose, Sir Alan Sugar, Katie Hopkins, Kristina Grimes