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I’ve listened to the first three, and tried to like it, because I admire Glover. But Saturday Live is a terrible mishmash, with some pretty dire guests. Radio 4 bosses, rarely ones to admit that they get anything wrong, are, I hear, in a real tizz. Expect a rethink soon — but keep Fi.
Anyway, at least it was not as embarrassing as the new Dowland album from Sting. It is fine for Sting to admire Dowland, but for him to drone 18 of his songs, then read extracts from his letters, is self-indulgence. Best stick to the tantric sex, Sting.
Jolly nice, too. But the Barbican’s 25th-birthday commemorations have not started in the finest fashion. Its present from its main paymaster, the Corporation of London, is a cut in its annual grant. So the Barbican, which has prided itself on never seeking Arts Council money, let alone government funding, is being forced to talk with both to make up for the City’s shortfall.
The whole thing is disappointingly shortsighted of the corporation. It should look on the Barbican not as a drain on resources, but as a cultural asset.
This year, even the comment cards at the end of the show lacked originality. In the good old days, the then arts minister, Kim Howells, would scribble some damning remark.
But not a word from the current incumbent, David Lammy. The pathetic cards included “Stick to the music, Phil Collins” and a drawing of a phallus with large testicles.
As I left Tate Britain, I passed a closed glass door to the Holbein exhibition. I could just see four of his paintings. No contest.
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