Sunday 19th August 07 - ThereplicagooseEgg support Chris Mayo at Durty Nellys

Hull's brand new comedy sketch group ThereplicagooseEgg had just over a week to prepare for this, their first ever live show produced by Carnival 69 and they didn't disappoint a packed Durty Nellys. Even though not one of their 4 members had ever had any stand-up experience, their unique, clever, yet twisted approach to comedy carried them through, with a little help from Masked Dan.

Their act was presented to us through a mixture of film and then stand-up from featured player of ThereplicagooseEgg, Masked Dan. Compere Masked Dan's introduction certainly paved the way for what we were about to witness as he arrived on stage wearing his trademark green Mexican wrestling mask. Once he had got a handle on his nerves and the 'pesky mic stand', he grabbed the audiences attention with a subject matter that seemed to be based around the misfortunes of both himself and others. The recent flooding, Chris Langham and paedophilia, all obvious choices - yet delivered in a way only Masked Dan can.

He's a strange one, not unlike his creators Adam Jackson and David Marshall. Imagine Frank Sidebottom with a series of derangement issues and you're about half way there! We were also treated to a series of six short films, each extremely surreal, sometimes thought provoking, but predominately surreal! ThereplicagooseEgg really have come a long way since they started in May, especially as they only picked up a video camera to make a mockery of a friend! To see more of ThereplicagooseEgg visit www.thereplicagooseegg.co.uk or www.myspace.com/thereplicagooseegg

Reviews, Theatre - Lord Of The Rings The Musical By Andy Dykes
	Lord of the Rings the musical arrives on Drury Lane after a popular stint in Toronto. Riding on the coat tails of the Oscar winning trilogy of films and billed as a visual spectacular, the stage version is hotly anticipated by the London crowd. Tonight the Theatre Royal is packed with theatre-goers eager to see just how Tolkien's voluminous tale Read more...

Reviews, Books - Daniel Mayhew - Life and How to Live it (White Horse Publications) Reviewed By Nick Quantrill
	Writing successful novels about music or bands is a notoriously difficult thing to do, and something that rarely succeeds. Step forward Daniel Mayhew to prove the exception to the rule with his debut, which tells the tale of Serpico, the band formed by flatmates, Reilly and Jacob, and the adventure that ensues when Reilly takes a week off work sick, and binging Read more...

Reviews, Films - 300 By Lee Cassanell
	Due to the extreme cheapness of pirate DVDs it is often tempting to hand over a couple of sweaty coins to a council estate heavy at Walton Street market rather than pay six English pounds for a seat at your local cinema because that way you can smoke your lungs black, order a pizza, sit in your pants and not have to brave the uncomfortable chairs, Read more...

Reviews, Theatre - The Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler at Hull New Theatre By Becky Martin
	How The Vagina Monologues reflects wider anxieties and atrocities in modern society. Thank God for Eve Ensler! Finally a strong female figure with the tenacity to stand up for and work to protect women and young girls all over the world, initiated by her wonderfully comic and complex tales of women's experiences of their own sexuality Read more...

Reviews, Games - Mr Smoozles Goes Nutso Reviewed by Daniel Chaplin
	The game was very enjoyable and I think that the game was created for 6-12 year olds. The playability of the game was extremely good but on the other hand I did not understand on how to play the game because I could not find any instructions. The game is about an alien attack that brain washes one of Mr. Smoozles' friends and kidnaps another. Read more...

Reviews, Books - Mark Frankland The Long and Winding Road to Istanbul (Glenmill Books) Reviewed By Nick Quantrill
	It's 1977 and Liverpool FC are set to compete in their first European Cup final. For football crazy 13 year old Mickey McGuire it's the night of his life. Elder brother, Frank has different plans, as he starts working his way up the criminal career ladder alongside local hard-man and minor criminal, Eddie Tate. Volunteering his brother for a Tate job, Mickey is introduced to Eddie's sister Read more...

Reviews, Theatre - October 06 - The Northern Theatre Company - Thoroughly Modern Millie By Dirk Snatch
	It was a Monday and after a cruel weekend of amphetamine abuse and barely legal sex, all I wanted to do was to slip into a Night Nurse induced coma and dream of Monica Bellucci's backside. However my rat bastard agent informed me that unless I produced a theatre review within the next 24 hours, he was going to stop paying my liquor bills and feed me to the poor and so it was, Read more...

Reviews, Books - The Damned United By David Peace Reviewed By Nick Quantrill
	This latest work from Yorkshire born Peace is another slice of his distinctive style that combines fact with fiction to boil down the story to its true essence. Previously tackling the Yorkshire Ripper investigation in his Red Riding quartet, and the miners' strike in GB84, this time Peace turns his attention to Brian Clough's turbulent 44 day reign of Leeds United Read more...

Reviews, Books - Perfume - The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind Reviewed By Laura Kilvington
	Perfume - The Story of a Murderer was recommended to me by a friend who described it as, one of the books you just have to experience before you die. Now, after reading it for myself, I have to agree. Perfume is a bildungsroman (a novel of education), which tells the story of Grenouille who is born into the slums of Read more...

Reviews, Books - The Night Gardener By George Pelecanos Reviewed By Nick Quantrill (Available 10th August)
	The 14th novel from George Pelecanos, The Night Gardener sees him weave an ambitious story that aims to lift him up and beyond the conventions of the crime-fiction genre. Pelecanos has never flinched away from tackling difficult social issues, and his remit here is to take a broad look at how crime touches the lives of those outside of its direct consequences, Read more...

Reviews, Humber Mouth 2006 - Friday 30th June 2006 - Galloway: A Language Of Dissent? A Personal View By Pablo Luis González
	Having watched the rather impressive performance that George Galloway MP put at Hull Truck Theatre on Friday 30th of June 2006 as part of the Humber Mouth Literature Festival, where he spoke without notes or sitting down for nearly an hour, in spite of the rather fancy white leatherette chair provided for him on stage. I was enthralled not only for what he Read more...

Reviews, Theatre - Northern Broadsides Company at Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough - Wars of The Roses by Patrick Henry
	Battles depicted by semaphoric flag-wielding and huge rattling drums, vigorous balletics, sack-barrows deployed as steeds or track-turning tanks; speeches characterised by robust Northern or Midlands accents, and their inherent ironies and wiliness; intrigues concocted rapidly and sadistically, mirroring statecraft strategy related to our day now. Such are the best Read more...

Reviews, Humber Mouth 2006 - Saturday 1st July - Germaine Greer at Hull By Laura Kilvington
	As a enthusiastic follower of feminist literature, I attended the talk by Germaine Greer with the expectation of an intense, second wave feminism discussion like the, all societies on the verge of death are masculine (Greer:1984) type opinions which I associated with her. Instead, the rubric of Greer's discussion was Anne Hathaway, the older and greatly overlooked Read more...

Reviews, Humber Mouth 2006 - Friday 30th June - Galloway Trucking in Hull By Martin J Deane George Galloway Photographs by Ben Gurevitch
	George Galloway, MP for Tower Hamlets in East London played Spring Street Theatre, Hull on Friday. Despite introducing himself as having spent 6 hours in the back of a car suffering from food poisoning he delivered an entertaining, insightful and though-provoking show. Here is a flavour of it! It's not verbatim but from notes so any errors are my own! Read more...

Reviews, Humber Mouth 2006 - John Pilger at the Ferens By Martin J Deane
	Blair is the most right wing Prime Minister I have ever known. And that includes Thatcher! In a wide ranging talk on Tuesday night, John Pilger shared his experiences of nearly 40 years of investigative journalism giving a flavour of the man who, over 40 years, has made it an art. In his opening remarks, John Pilger said how he used to cover northern England for Read more...

Reviews, Books - The Storm Watcher By Graham Joyce Reviewed by Steve Rudd
	Simultaneously an unusual and extraordinary story set in France, a multitude of winning elements ensure that The Storm Watcher is always an engrossing read, as sheer drama is played up against some chilling thrills and spills. The author in the award-winning Joyce grew up in Coventry, but over the years he has lived in various places, such as on Read more...

Reviews, Books - Bowie : Loving The Alien By Christopher Sandford Reviewed by Steve Rudd
	Rock writer Christopher Sandford sure doesn't beat around the bush when it comes to writing highly detailed and thoroughly engrossing biographies of some of the biggest names in rock music. As well as having written this mini-masterpiece about Bowie, he's also dedicated huge swathes of time and energy to documenting the fascinating lives and times of other rock Read more...

Reviews, Books - Lunar Park By Bret Easton Ellis Reviewed by Steve Rudd
	This has to have been one of the most extraordinary and surprising books published in 2005, simply because it has been written by the hugely controversial author of American Psycho - and because the form that Lunar Park takes is so jaw-droppingly unexpected. Bret Easton Ellis is one clever man, as revealed by the way in which this novel unfolds, Read more...

Reviews, Books - Surfacing By Margaret Atwood Reviewed by Steve Rudd
	Poetry and prose. Two separate entities, right? Wrong! Surfacing bears full-frontal, gob-gawping witness to that as one of the most important novels of the 20th century (according to the New York Times anyroad) in this bizarre beauty naturally glides with sheer poetry within rasping prose. Set in remote Quebec, this super slow-burning drama shadows a young Read more...

Reviews, Films - Welcome to Silent Hill By Margaret Ryan
	A deliciously dark film of fear mongering, Silent Hill takes you on a terrifyingly absurd quest. Where to? That is a question this film doesn't answer, but enjoys twisting round you to find it. Of course playing the game helps understand this film. I found the game itself to be relatively arbitrary and linear, rather like this film. However, the game is foreboding and visually Read more...

Reviews, Books - Magic Hoffman by Jakob Arjouni Reviewed by Steve Rudd
	'We were young then, as if getting older were some kind of illness for which there was no cure.' Magic Hoffman, the novel, is translated from the German original and follows the captivating story of Fred and his best friends Nickel and Annette. Following a botched bank heist, Fred serves 4 years' porridge and - as any friend would do - refrains from dobbing his mates in. Anyway, Read more...

Reviews, Films - An American Haunting (15) By Margaret Ryan
	Possession? On rental, probably. Call yourself a horror movie fan? Perhaps you'll get something from this. Not particularly focused on horror movies? Then you may still enjoy it. Imagine The Exorcist set in 1800s God-fearing America over the period of several weeks. The premises for this film look awesome on paper. Taking into account you've watched the trailer, Read more...

Reviews, Books - Stuart MacBride - Dying Light (HarperCollins) Published 2nd May 2006 Reviewed By Nick Quantrill
	Dying Light is the eagerly anticipated second novel from new crime-fiction hotshot, Stuart MacBride, and follows sharply on the heels of last year's critically acclaimed debut, Cold Granite. Once again following the story of Detective Sergeant Logan 'Lazarus' McRae, Dying Light opens with him set to cement his position as the rising star of Aberdeen's CID. Read more...

Reviews, Films - The Dark (15) By Margaret Ryan
	Clever psychological horror, perhaps too clever? This clever psychological horror film perhaps lets itself down by being too clever? If you enjoy the blurred boundaries of the supernatural/subconscious, however, this is a well-paced, atmospheric film about a couple losing their daughter, only to believe they can bring her back from the dead. There are criticisms, however, that Read more...