Review: Hudson Taylor in Bristol

Folk-pop duo, Hudson Taylor, took to the stage at Bristol’s Trinity Centre last night and wowed the audience with an impressive set.

The Irish duo is made up of brothers Alfie and Harry who are set to release their debut album, Singing for Strangers, on the 30th of March. Since 2012, Hudson Taylor have released a number of EPs including Battles, Cinematic Lifestyle, Osea and Weapons.

The sold-out show was full of surprises with guest appearances from singer-songwriter, Gabrielle Aplin, and support act, Jack Morris.

Hudson Taylor kicked off the show with ‘Just A Thought’ which features on their debut album, Singing For Strangers. The band went on to play their popular tracks ‘Weapons’ and ‘Second Best’,  before introducing the audience to the new track ‘Don’t Tell Me’. The song had the audience dancing and Harry confessed that the “song is in danger of being too fun to play”.

The duo, accompanied by their band, played additional tracks that feature on the debut album including their next single, ‘World Without You’, ‘Wildfires’, ‘Trouble Town’ and ‘For The Last Time’.

Hudson Taylor also treated their fans to many of the popular songs from their EPs including ‘Called On’, ‘Chasing Rubies’, ‘Care’ and ‘Cinematic Lifestyle’.

Local to Bristol, singer-songwriter, Gabrielle Aplin, joined Hudson Taylor on stage to sing a beautiful rendition of ‘Beautiful Mistake’. Aplin, later returned to the stage with support act, Jack Morris, to sing ‘Don’t Know Why’, a bonus track from Singing For Strangers. The duet got the audience involved which created an electrifying atmosphere.

The band treated the audience to a completely acoustic version of ‘Holly’ by turning off the microphones to play to a memorised and silent audience. ‘Holly’ received a remarkable reception from the audience with huge cheers for the duo’s performance.

Hudson Taylor shook things up when playing ‘Stranger’ turned in to a cover of AC/DC’s ‘Back in Black’ that instantly got the audience singing along to the rock hit.

The Irish duo finished their set on ‘Drop of Smoke’ from the 2012 EP, Battles. The crowd sang their hearts out to the final song and Hudson Taylor received an incredible roar of cheers as they left the stage.

Hudson Taylor put on an exceptional and intimate show and are certainly one to watch after supporting some big names such as the Rolling Stones, Jake Bugg, Kodaline and The Script. The debut album, Singing for Strangers, is available to pre-order now.

Weekly Watch: Band Aid is Back

Bob Geldof is back with a new Band Aid line-up and the D0 They Know It’s Christmas? single to help fight Ebola in West Africa.

The Band Aid 30 line-up is remarkable with One Direction, Ed Sheeran, Rita Ora, Sam Smith, Emeli Sandé, Ellie Goulding, Bastille, Bono, Paloma Faith, Guy Garvey of Elbow, Olly Murs, Seal, Sinead O’Connor, Queen’s Roger Taylor, Jessie Ware and Coldplay’s Chris Martin.

The video even features some famous You-Tubers including Zoella Sugg and Joe and Alfie Deyes. The vloggers are helping to spread the word about the video to their millions of subscribers.

100% of the purchase goes to the cause and you can buy the single on iTunes here: http://po.st/DoTheyKnow

This is a worthy cause and a great way of donating as you get the classic Christmas song too!

‘Buy the Song. Stop the Virus.‘

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight Review

Who would have guessed that four minutes could change everything?”

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith is a simple and romantic tale of young love.

Hadley is a typical teenage girl who is travelling from New York to London for her Dad’s wedding. The trip hits a bump in the road as she misses her flight by four short minutes but if she hadn’t she would have never met Oliver.

Oliver is an English boy, carrying out his studies in America, who is extremely likeable from the moment he offers to help Hadley with her luggage at the airport. He also happens to be on Hadley’s flight and they spend the many hours to come laughing, flirting and getting to know each other. Hadley opens up about the nature of her trip and about her relationship with her father. She tells him how she’s not seen him in over a year and never met his soon-to-be wife because she’s still angry about her parent’s divorce and her Dad’s move to London.

The pair have a wonderful bond as they land in London. Oliver kisses Hadley as they are about to get separated at border control and when they do, they have no way of getting in contact with each other again. Will they see each other again? Of course not! The flight is only the first half of their love story as they both go on wild goose chases round London to find each other.

The characters in the book are likeable characters and relatable to its young adult audience. Hadley is the fiesty but kind-hearted teenager and Oliver is the charming and funny young man. The reader could easily imagine themselves in the situation of the two lead characters.

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight is an incredibly easy read which is short and sweet. This book is a light read which tells the tale of how two teenagers fall in love during a flight across the world. However, this book is not for you if you’re looking for a challenging read as there is not much complexity to the story, it is very predictable in places and the title says it all.

Details

Title: The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight

Author: Jennifer E. Smith

Publisher: Headline Publishing Group

Published: 5 January 2012

ISBN: 9780755384037

Weekly Watch: Sneaky Starbucks

Have you ever wondered how Starbucks always manage to spell your name wrong? Is it just a publicity stunt to get people to tell their online friends?

Comedian, Paul Gale, has created a video which has to make you think whether Starbucks staff’s misspelling of the most simple names is actually done on purpose.

Are Starbucks purposely spelling people’s names wrong to get their customers to upload pictures to social media sites and tell their friends? It makes sense as they get a huge amount of publicity from customers sharing online and surely it’s not upsetting enough for their consumers to boycott the coffee shop.

This is something we will never find out if it’s true or false as Starbucks’ PR team would look guilty either way if they were to comment!

Check out this blog (http://starbucksspelling.tumblr.com/) with tonnes of photos of Starbucks misspellings which is sure to give you some laughs!

Oh dear, Starbucks! Photo courtesy of http://www.reshareworthy.com

 

The Rosie Project Review

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion is a wonderful book which reminds us that love will find us when we’re least expecting it.

The book focuses on the life of Professor Don Tillman and his search for love. Don devises ‘The Wife Project’ by creating a questionnaire to find a suitable romantic match but when he keeps failing, he focuses his time to help his new friend Rosie find out who her father is.

Don Tillman is a thirty-nine year old geneticist professor who has trouble of getting to a second date in his love life due to his autism creating a lack of social skills. He has a resemblance to Sheldon Cooper from the American TV series, Big Bang Theory. As a lead character, he is very likeable and will have you feeling sympathetic towards him but also laughing hysterically.

Rosie is a Psychology student who has grown up never knowing her father. Rosie is a wild, unpredictable character who is the complete opposite of the protagonist, Don Tillman. She is an exciting and fascinating character who will have you wanting to read on.

The novel is incredibly well-written from the perspective of Don in an intellectual, concise and to the point manner. Although, the book feels repetitive at times, overall, the book is enticing from it’s likeable and intriguing characters.

The author, Graeme Simsion, is a full-time writer who previously worked as an international IT consultant and taught at four Australian universities.

The love story of Don and Rosie is unique, fun and heart-warming which tells a tale of how opposites really do attract! You can buy The Rosie Project from Amazon here.

The Rosie Effect, the sequel to the book, is due to be released on the 25th September so now is the perfect time to pick up a copy of The Rosie Project and have the next book ready and waiting for you!

Details

Title: The Rosie Project

Author: Graeme Simsion

Publisher: Penguin Books

Published: 2 January 2014

(First published 11 April 2013 by Michael Joseph)

ISBN: 9781405912792

Review: Shrek the Musical

Photo courtesy of the Bristol Post.

Shrek the Musical left the West End and headed to Bristol with the green, fun-filled musical. The show embarked on two and a half weeks of shows at the Bristol Hippodrome and wowed the audience with an all-singing and all-dancing musical.

Shrek the Musical is based on the storyline of the Dreamworks animation film, Shrek, with the addition of new songs and wonderful costumes.

Visually, the show was a wonder to the eyes of the audience with numerous set changes each revealing a magical new set. The costumes added to the outstanding appearance of the show with bright coloured and creative outfits.

Photo courtesy of groupleisure.com

The cast included Dean Chisnall in the lead role of Shrek, Faye Brookes as the beautiful Princess Fiona, Idriss Kargbo as the hilarious Donkey and Gerard Carey as the extremely small Lord Farquaad.

The Dragon was captured perfectly on stage towering above everybody with her ruby skin and mesmerising eyes.

Photo courtesy of ATG Tickets

Photo courtesy of sheptonmalletjournal.co.uk

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The popular character, the gingerbread man, was as funny and likeable as in the original film. The gingerbread man was voiced by the fairy and it was brilliant how the gingerbread man well-resembled his animated character.

The musical also featured Princess Fiona as a child who impressed the audience with her brave solo at such a young age.

The highlight of the show was the finale of the show where the cast sang ‘I’m a Believer’ which is the fun-loving song that features at the end of the film.

Shrek the Musical is undoubtedly cheesy but if  you like the film, you’ll love the musical as it brings the story to life on the stage.

Shrek the Musical is the perfect theatre trip for the whole family with both children and adults enjoying the show. The tour now continues onto Nottingham, Belfast, Dublin and many other locations across the UK. If Shrek’s coming to a town near you, be sure not to miss it!

Weekly Watch: Friends Reunited

The leading ladies of the popular US TV show, Friends, were reunited on Jimmy Kimmel Live! During Jennifer Aniston’s appearance on the talk show Kimmel asked her to act out a scene from Friends with him which resulted in Lisa Kudrow and Courteney Cox joining the reenactment.

Jimmy Kimmel Live created their very own replica Friends kitchen where they acted out the scene. Jimmy Kimmel starred as Ross and the ladies starred as their characters from the show.

The beginning of Friends is about to reach it’s 20th anniversary and has been over 10 years since the sitcom ended but remains extremely popular.

The Friends cast very rarely make joint TV performances so check out this treat!

We’re on Facebook and Twitter!

Follow Intuitive Mind on Twitter:

http://twitter.com/IntuitiveMind_

and like us on Facebook:

http://facebook.com/intuitivemindreviews

Thank you!

 

This week a review of ‘The Shock of the Fall’ by Nathan Filer will be up. Keep an eye out for the book review!