artswith Music Songs of fury aim to raise spirits Film


Non-Fiction On national release Juliette Binoche stars as Selena, the actress wife of literary editor Alain, in this wry, slyly seductive tale of sex, lies and literature. In the Parisian publishing world, Alain and author Leonard try to cope with a midlife crisis and a changing industry. https://iffr.com/en/2019/films/ doubles-vies


Critics frequently complain there’s no politics in music any more. They should listen to the Wood Burning Savages. The Derry rebel rousers, who


have played alongside Skinny Lister, Billy Bragg and Snow Patrol this year, are looking forward to playing at the Tolpuddle Martyrs’ Festival (19-21 July). “I’m proud to be heading over


with the album we have and the set we have because I think it’ll raise a lot of spirits in difficult times,” says frontman Paul Connolly. They’ll raise a lot of eyebrows too, I


reckon, with their raucous punk rock guitars and riotous live show opening the main stage on Sunday, booming across the Dorset countryside, stirring a few hangovers. But if the band’s music is a slight


departure for the festival, their politics hit the right chord, with powerful songs about the devastating effects of austerity. For example, single I Don’t Know


Why I Do It To Myself, addresses suicide rates in Derry, beginning with the line: “Queuing in the rain for the dole again, I hold up my hands, I hold up the begging bowl.”


20 | theJournalist It is hard hitting and, as Paul


explains, pulls no punches. “We’re in the situation now of engineered poverty. Universal credit’s been a compete balls-up, homelessness is on the rise in smaller and smaller towns and villages, and that’s depressing. “We’re very quick as countries to


say how modern we are, but there are people living with nothing, just the clothes on their back. Food banks – food poverty is a big thing. “A couple of us in the band work in


education and we’ve seen firsthand the effects of kids coming in on a day-to-day basis who haven’t eaten breakfast. That’s not their parents’ fault. That’s our government’s fault.” “It wasn’t a difficult decision to


sing about politics,” Paul says. “Coming from Northern Ireland, it’s be political or languish away in a bar somewhere and say nothing and play to nobody and have songs that in 10 years’ time we’d be deeply embarrassed by.” • The Woodburning Savages play


at the Tolpuddle Martyrs’ Festival alongside Eddi Reader, Los de Abajo, Pete Bentham, the Dinner Ladies and many more. www.tolpuddlemartyrs.org.uk/festival


Transit Released on 3 August Based on Anna Segher’s 1942 novel, this German drama tells of a Nazi concentration camp escapee attempting to flee occupied France. In his quest, Georg assumes the


identity of a dead author … and then falls in love with the author’s wife, who is unaware of her husband’s suicide. Christian Petzold’s film has been


described as a “brilliant and haunting modern-day adaptation”. www.imdb.com/title/tt6675244/


Blinded by the Light Released on 9 August Broadcaster and Guardian journalist Sarfraz Manzoor is the inspiration behind this Luton-based comedy recounting how an obsession with Bruce Springsteen helped a teenager cope with the racism and austerity of Tory Britain under Margaret Thatcher Blinded by the Light is both a tribute to the power of music and a moving account of a generational and cultural divide between a father and a son. https://cornerstonefilm.com/films/ blinded-by-the-light/


attitude


by Tim Lezard


Comedy Rhod Gilbert The Book of John On tour until 13 December


A lot has happened to Rhod in the six years since he last toured. Almost all of it bad. And, just when he thought he’d hit rock bottom, he met a bloke called John.


Rhod’s new show sees him as funny


as ever, but like never before – raw, personal and brutally honest. No more lies, no more nonsense. http://rhodgilbertcomedian.com


Music


Paddy Nash Gate Fever The new album by Derry singer- songwriter Paddy Nash takes its name from the anxiety experienced by prisoners when they are nearing the end of their sentences. Artists of all sorts need to counter what is ‘fake’, especially as it “seems to be the new ‘real’,” he says. “I hope I reflect what’s good in


the world too because I see it in the ordinary things, the people I meet and the things we do.” https://paddynash.com


Theatre The Night of the Iguana Noel Coward Theatre, London, until 28 September Clive Owen, Lia Williams and Anna Gunn star in Tennessee Williams’s last great play. In a Mexico hotel during 1940,


a group of lost souls – a defrocked priest, a grieving widow, a family of


Some of the best things to


see and do with a bit of political bite


For listings email: arts@NUJ.org.uk


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