JADE at Mighty Hoopla review: Already the stuff of main pop girl legend
'It's no Saturdays megamix…' quipped Jade Thirlwall onstage at London's Mighty Hoopla yesterday, after an energetic, top-tier Little Mix medley that sent Brockwell Park into meltdown. A stand-up comic couldn't have scripted a better, more perfectly contextualised joke: no shade to the Saturdays, whose back catalogue is near-unsurpassed in quality; it's just the world-conquering, 10-year-spanning oeuvre of Little Mix is simply unparalleled.
In less capable hands, this whistle-stop store of the band's best moments – 'Sweet Melody', 'Touch', 'Shout Out To My Ex'; she earlier performers fan favourite 'Wasabi' in its entirety – all reworked so as to sound fresher, but with the lightest of touches so as not to taint their essence, might have overshadowed the rest of the set. A plausible Little Mix reunion certainly would have done. Jade, however, is a straight A student of pop, and intentional in everything she does. Her cowgirl outfit was a nod to the Supremes' Diana Ross, for heaven's sake.
Thus, this was a statement of solo star power, and possibly the most exciting moment Hoopla has ever seen.
Exhaustive choreo, grand, futuristic production and Adele-level charisma between songs – we could listen to Jade say 'Houplah!' in Geordie twang all day long – this was a big, big swing, and in the end, more than the sum of its parts. It's hard to believe the nine-song set was so short, and that we were in a park in south London. It felt like we were in an arena with the roof blown off.
You could almost sense the collective support of girl band members gone solo before her – Destiny's Child, the Spice Girls, the Sugababes – propelling her forward. Although, unlike many of these women, Jade is going decidedly against the grain, and what she has to offer is all the more compelling for it. 'If I don't win, I'm in the bin, you say you never knew me, but when I pop off you sue me,' she sang on chaotic first single 'Angel of My Dreams', with an arch self-awareness suggesting that, actually, if she measures success on her own terms, she can't lose. And so, like that one daring member of many a girl band, she's charting a course that's miles left of centre. This zany, unpredictable set – club-ready visuals Charli XCX would approve of; dancers in tutus regardless of gender; walls of electronic sound flipping to a cappella moments – reflected that choice.
For all the bells and whistles, however, it's the technical prowess of Jade's voice – think Disney Princess gone rogue – that impresses most. She flaunts full-throated volume on 'FUFN' but sends an eerie hush across the 60,000-strong crowd with her operatic control on a soaring cover of Madonna's 'Frozen'. (Who else would dare?!) As for that complicated Sandie Shaw 'Puppet on a String' vocal run on 'Angel of My Dreams' – it's even better live. (Again, who else would dare?!)
She played one unreleased song, 'Plastic Box', but we were whipped into too much of a frenzy to make mental notes about it, except to say it slams. We really couldn't be more excited for Jade's upcoming album That's Showbiz Baby, for her music has an essentially queer sensibility: rather than trying to appeal to everyone, it appeals to a minority. A cool, intelligent, edgy, kind, ascended minority, if we do say so ourselves. And while the LGBTQ community is not solely that minority, we definitely make up a large swathe of it. We embrace her, she embraces us, and so last night the love-in brought Jade to tears. The energy was off the scale.
Her allyship remains unmatched: nothing could have prepared us for the moment when, while leading a chant to introduce the F-bomb-tastic 'FUFN', she called out JK Rowling. It was a rock star moment that made the hair on the back of the arms stand on end. The backbone and the grit of this woman, when so many of us are running scared and feeling the walls closing in on us, when so many of our allies are losing their nerve, is breathtaking.
It's superhero stuff in the vein of Judy Garland in the 70s and Madonna in the 80s and 90s, and won't be forgotten.
The post JADE at Mighty Hoopla review: Already the stuff of main pop girl legend appeared first on Attitude.
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Los Angeles Times
18 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
Why a boutique video label is taking over L.A.'s theaters, plus the week's best movies
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So that's what I tried to do with these screenings is kind of hone in on what demographic those spaces are going to reach and what film made the most sense for each one.' On Sunday at Brain Dead Studios there will be a restored 4K screening of the exuberant 1983 remake of 'Breathless' with director Jim McBride in person. That will be followed by the Los Angeles premiere of the 4K restoration of Bob Saget's 1998 comedy 'Dirty Work,' starring Norm MacDonald, in its newly created 'Dirtier Cut,' which restores the film to a version screened for test audiences before it was chopped down to earn a PG-13 rating. Co-writer Frank Sebastiano will be in attendance. On Monday, LaLiberty will be at a pop-up at the Highland Park video store Vidéotheque, selling discs from Cinématographe, Vinegar Syndrome and affiliated titles from OCN Distribution — including some that are out of print. (Discs will be on sale at all the events too.) On Tuesday at Whammy Analog Media, 1994's essential lesbian rom-com 'Go Fish' will show in a 4K restoration with director and co-writer Rose Troche in person. On Wednesday, there will be a 45th anniversary screening at Vidiots of the 4K restoration of Ronald F. Maxwell's 1980 'Little Darlings,' starring Tatum O'Neal and Kristy McNichol as two teenage girls having a private competition at summer camp to lose their virginity. On Thursday, in conjunction with Cinematic Void, the Los Feliz 3 will host a showing of John Badham's 1994 action-thriller 'Drop Zone' starring Wesley Snipes, with the director in person. And while it may seem counterintuitive for a home video label to be encouraging people to go see movies in theaters, for LaLiberty the two go hand in hand. 'My ultimate mission is for these films to find an audience,' LaLiberty said. 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'The Seven Year Itch' 70th anniversary On Wednesday the Laemmle Royal will present a 70th anniversary screening of Billy Wilder's 'The Seven Year Itch' introduced by film writers Stephen Farber and Michael McClellan. Starring Marilyn Monroe and Tom Ewell, 'Itch' was written by Wilder and George Axelrod, an adaptation of the hit Broadway play that also starred Ewell. Though the movie does include the iconic scene of Monroe standing over a subway grate, it deserves to be remembered for much more than that. It's a bracing satire of midcentury masculinity, with Ewell playing a mild-mannered family man who lets himself be taken away by fantasies of what may happen while he is on his own for a summer with a young single woman living upstairs from his New York apartment. Writing about the movie in June 1955, Edwin Schallert said, 'This picture is nothing for the moralists, though it may not quite satisfy the immoralists either, whoever they are.' Tom Cruise, Dolly Parton among honorary Oscar recipients This week the motion picture academy announced four honorees for the Governors Awards in November. Dolly Parton will receive the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, while honorary Oscars will go to actor, dancer, choreographer and director Debbie Allen, production designer Wynn Thomas and actor and producer Tom Cruise. As always, it must be noted how disappointing it is that these awards will be bestowed at an untelevised ceremony and not as part of the Academy Awards telecast itself. The idea of giving an award to Tom Cruise, who has recently refashioned himself as nothing less than an international ambassador for movies and Hollywood in general, and not putting it on TV is just beyond reason. Here is hoping that Cruise will perhaps be able to do what his co-star in 'The Color of Money' Paul Newman once did, which is win a competitive Oscar after already being given an honorary one.
Hypebeast
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Los Angeles Times
2 days ago
- Los Angeles Times
Lou Christie, singer-songwriter who hit No. 1 with ‘Lightnin' Strikes,' dies at 82
Lou Christie, the singer and songwriter who set teen fans screaming in the 1960s with hits like 'Lightnin' Strikes' and 'Two Faces Have I,' has died. He was 82. Christie died at his home in Pittsburgh after a short illness, his family said Wednesday in an announcement on social media. 'He was cherished not only by his family and close friends, but also by countless fans whose lives he touched with his kindness and generosity, artistic and musical talent, humor and spirit. His absence leaves a profound void in all our hearts. He will be greatly missed, always remembered, and forever loved,' the statement read. Christie was born Lugee Alfredo Giovanni Sacco on Feb. 19, 1943, in Glenwillard, Pa., and took on his stage name, courtesy of a local music producer, when he was a still a teen. Soon he would meet his decades-older songwriting collaborator Twyla Herbert, a classically trained but eccentric musician who died in 2009, and together they would write almost all of his songs and hundreds more for other artists. In Pennsylvania, Christie recorded and released a single, 'The Gypsy Cried,' that became a local hit in the Pittsburgh area. He moved to New York, got work as a backup singer and eventually wound up touring with Dick Clark's Cavalcade of Stars, sitting on a bus with Diana Ross and other standouts. 'I was with Gene Pitney and Johnny Tillotson, the Supremes, Paul and Paula, Dick and Dee Dee, the Crystals, the Ronettes, Fabian, Frankie Avalon,' the singer told writer Gary James for 'To me, this was my graduating class and still is today.' Christie's fans screamed over his signature falsetto when 'Two Faces Have I' made it to No. 6 on the Billboard 100 in 1963, the year he released his self-titled first album. He spent two years in the U.S. Army and upon his return released the single 'Lightnin' Strikes.' The song, off the 1965 album of the same name, hit No. 1 on that chart in 1966. He stirred up a bit of scandal with the 1966 song 'Rhapsody in Rain,' with lyrics that at the time were considered explicit: Baby the raindrops play for me / A lonely rhapsody 'cause on our first date / We were makin' out in the rain / And in this car our love went much too far / It was exciting as thunder / Tonight I wonder where you are' and 'Baby, I'm parked outside your door / Remember makin' love, makin' love, we were makin' love in the storm.' The tune topped out at No. 16 on the charts. His array of album releases grew with 'I'm Gonna Make You Mine' in 1969, 'Paint America Love' in 1971, 'Pledging My Love' in 1997 and more records over the years. The life of a teen idol in the early 1960s was a mix of dismissal and adulation, according to peer Fabian Forte, who performed as Fabian and toured with Christie in rock 'n' roll revival shows in the 1980s. 'They laughed at us. They wouldn't take us seriously as artists,' Forte told The Times in 1985, talking about music critics in the 1950s and early '60s. But, he added, 'Don't get me wrong. It wasn't all bad. For a teen-age boy, you can imagine what it was like having all those girls drooling over you. That was heaven.' The teen idols of that era faded with the British Invasion, but Christie didn't fade with them. 'I hit the end of that whole era,' Christie told writer James for 'I've always been between the cracks of rock 'n' roll, I felt. The missing link. ... We had the teenage idols. We had Frankie Avalon. We had Fabian. That thing was just about closing down when a lot of my records started hitting. ... They all disappeared, but my records kept going through that English Invasion.' In addition to releasing more music later in life, Christie would offer up his vocal talents to help raise money for causes including the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation and a rock 'n' roll retirement home for artists from the '50s and '60s planned by the Starlight Starbright foundation. And in those years after his No. 1 spotlight had dimmed, Christie still knew how to put smiles on fans' faces, as evidenced after a performance at a festival at Magic Mountain in 1985. The event began late on one of the hottest days of the year after its lineup and schedule had switched around repeatedly leading up to the concert and the promoter had gone missing. Some acts that concert-goers expected to see wound up not performing — but Christie was not one of them. 'I'm really glad the show turned out well,' Christie told The Times in 1985, lounging in his trailer after his set at the 'Spirit of the '60s' festival. 'I tell you, I was going crazy with this thing — on, off, on again, off again. I had to cancel some dates I had arranged for after this was canceled the first time. But' — and a big smile crossed his face — 'they got their show, all right. The baby boomers really dug it. Even people backstage enjoyed it.' A representative for the singer did not immediately respond Thursday to The Times' request for comment.
