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Entertainment Extra Rod is a rising talent


Friday, May 8, 2015 Follow us on Twitter @Argus_The Guide New‘uplifting’ play Theatre


IN 2015, Chainworks Produc- tions, in association with RCT Theatres, will present and tour a brand new pro- duction based on the story of the first racing bike – The Gladiator. This inspiring and funny story comes to The Riverfront Theatre on Saturday, May 16, at 7.30pm. Before the Tour de France


JOURNEY: Rod Woodward


INTRODUCING award-win- ning Welsh comedian Rod Woodward, who became an overnight success in Decem- ber when he was invited to perform at the 2014 Royal Va- riety Performance (ITV1) in front of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. Rod performs his eagerly


awaited nationwide debut tour The Journey Starts Here this summer. The son of renowned Welsh


sports writer Karl Woodward, Rod was tipped for stardom by such luminaries as Peter Kay and Bob Monkhouse and has since gone on to win the Best Newcomer to Variety award, Encore Magazine’s Enter- tainer of the Year and BBC’s Funny Business. His TV appearances include


The Comedians (Sky), The Rush Hour (BBC Wales), A Bit Off The Fringe ( BBC2 Wales), and Am I Talking To You (BBC). He has also supported the likes of Paddy McGuin-


ness and Russell Brand on tour. He also makes an ap- pearance on Sunday Night at The London Palladium on ITV1 this Sunday (May 10). In 2000, Rod was invited to


be guest speaker at the Pro- fessional Footballers’ Asso- ciation Footballer of the Year Awards dinner. He hosted Max Boyce’s 50th Anniver- sary Celebration at the Wales Millennium Centre, per- formed at the Planet Holly- wood Hotel in Las Vegas after the weigh-in for the Bernard Hopkins v Joe Calzaghe fight, sold out the Cardiff Inter- national Arena Conference Theatre, wrote and performed the Cardiff City Fans anthem Do The Ayatollah’, which had over 200,000 hits on YouTube, and wrote and performed 3 series of his own Radio Wales Comedy series, Doing It For A Laugh. Rod plays Cardiff’s St Da-


vid’s Hall on Friday May 22. Call 0292 0878500 for details.


and before Sir Bradley Wig- gins, there was Arthur Lin- ton from Aberdare in South Wales. A world cycling champion in 1895 who took on the best and left behind not only the first drug scan- dal, but also the first racing bike – The Gladiator. Fast forward to modern


day and we meet 18 year old Jimmy, who stumbles upon the Gladiator in his garage – along with the ghost of trainer Choppy Warburton, who has returned in search of ‘honour and dignity’. Unfortunately for Jimmy


this involves embarking on the epic Bordeaux to Paris bike race – without ever leaving his garage. A sur- real journey full of pitfalls and punctures where he must survive the attentions of his goth-girl neighbour, his mother’s slimeball of a boyfriend – and the lure of shame or glory. Written by Wales’s very


own Laurence Allan, this brand new production is an inspiring, funny and uplift- ing drama.


Music still fresh after 25 years


“YOU’RE getting a bit of a different show tonight,” an- nounced Texas’ Sharleen Spi- teri to the band’s St David’s Hall audience on Tuesday evening, “because it’s the 25th anniver- sary.” To me, this was my first at- tendance at a Texas concert and I’d longed to see the band live for several years. This concert was therefore quite a treat, with Sharleen opening up with a solo acoustic rendition of the band’s most recent hit Start a Family, before been joined on stage for a bluegrass-tinged rendition of debut hit I Don’t Want a Lover. Between tracks, Sharleen shared stories behind some of the bands songs, including working with Serge Gains- bourg and TLC producer Dallas Austin (where she broke into a stunning brief rendition of the hit Waterfalls). With frequent audience inter- action and at one point making an eight-year-old fan’s evening by posing with her for a selfie, Sharleen clearly loved the audi-


REVIEW: Texas, St David’s Hall, Cardiff


ence as much as they loved her. The rest of the band were


just as prominent in driving forward the evening’s music and getting the audience out of their seats, providing electrify- ing accompaniment to Shar- leen’s soulful voice on classic hits Black Eyed Boy, In a Life- time and Say What You Want aided by a fabulous brass sec- tion. There was also a perfor- mance of two tracks from Shar- leen’s much overlooked solo album Melody, a release which was personal to her but not out of place at a Texas concert. In- deed, the renditions of Stop! and All The Times I Cried were both welcome and enjoyable. Twenty-five years of Texas


it may be, but the music still sounds as fresh as ever. Here’s to the next 25 years! ANDY HOWELLS


SOULFUL VOICE: Sharleen Spiteri of Texas DRAMA: The Gladiator


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