Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist Amy Macdonald played the York Barbican on 29 March 2017. Macdonald impacted the music scene in 2007 with her debut album This is the Life, which flew to number one in the UK. After achieving a consistent string of other major music milestones and albums, the Scottish singer released Under Stars ten years later, which blitzed the mainstream charts. Consequently, when the merry York portion of those fans chose to spend the evening with such a spirited lead

Local Indie Rock band Pura Vida have released their latest E.P. featuring their latest single Sundae. Pura Vida are fresh faces to the music industry, having been around for less than a year and already making ripples with their new E.P. The band have established a solid foundation in Sundae and have recently been featured on BBC Introducing and BBC Radio 6. Though they are currently searching for their own place in the heavily crowded Music industry, it becomes immediately clear that this proj

Josie Long recently had York in fits of laughter as part of her eighth solo stand-up tour, Something Better. The Crescent Community Venue in York was jam packed with a tipsy audience, poised for a giggle from the outset. Sat squeezed together in intimately arranged rows, pre-show antics included Long dancing goofily whilst mockingly reminding us that we paid for it, as well as treating us to a rib tickling analysis/karaoke of Rupert Holmes’ Escape (The Piña Colada Song). Though Long herself rep

An exciting batch of ten essays published by the Science Fiction Foundation explore how a 50-year-old show can be a contemporary hit. Doctor Who is a hugely popular program that unlike the TARDIS is as big on the outside as it is on the inside. With over 50 years of cultural significance, thirteen canonical iterations of its titular character, along with a great many more iconic companions, gadgets and monsters, the show has barreled along through time and space spurred on by its own evolution.

When The Doctor visits a city, the usual suspects often crop up: London, New York, Cardiff. However, this time writer Robbie Morrison sends The Doctor to 17th Century Paris, with a viper of a companion at his side as the universe teeters on the brink of darkness. It’s classic Doctor Who with a few fresh spices mixed in, making issue #13 a gripping story from the get-go! New companion Julie d’Aubigny is a swashbuckling opera singer from 17th century France. She acts in a similar vein to River So

Supremacy of the Cybermen #3 is more a collection of four, pulse-pounding adventures than it is an entirely linear narrative. Similarly to 2013’s The Name of the Doctor, the Time Lord’s timeline is being viciously attacked as a whole. However, this time, as opposed to The Great Intelligence, Rassilon and his army of Cybermen are responsible. The Cybermen are very much supreme. Not even the Sontarans and Time Lords can hope to withstand them. Each Doctor faces a different challenge with their co

Titan Comics tackles The Time War as Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor and John Hurt’s War Doctor return for a new adventure. ‘The Organ Grinder’ is part of the Eleventh Doctors ongoing comic book story and the start of a new story arc. During the run of the television series, the Time War was but a great, intriguing mystery. Doctors 9, 10 and 11 rarely spoke of it, and when they did it was through tears and sour expressions. But in this new story, fans are helped to further understand as to just wh

Titan Comics last left fans with a cliffhanger, with The Doctor and his newfound friends imprisoned by intergalactic foxes: The Foxkin. Furthermore, with the human colonists revealed as reconstructed clones – nothing on the Twist can ever be as it seems. Surprisingly, there is moral conflict within the ranks of their captors and as with any conflict – not all of those on the opposing side are wholly good or evil. Writer George Mann’s characters try to define who is good or evil, but as with rea

Issue #6 picks up where issue #5 left off. With a 50/50 chance to either live or die, Sherlock must determine which offered pill will save him and which will kill him. However, with Watson racing to the scene and the killer cabbie sitting adjacent, both Sherlock’s time and luck are quickly running out. The discourse between Sherlock and the killer is on the surface, a fight to stay alive. However, the excellent dialogue allows readers to look deeper, unearthing a sense of social power politics.

Sherlock’s relationship with the law is famously fickle. The comic opens with a ‘drug bust’, police swarming the famous 221B London flat of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson. Again, Steven Moffat’s television script remains intact in Jay’s adaptation. However, Jay atmospherically adds to the mystery of the episode. Launched into an unnerving distrust of its central character, A Study In Pink #5 employs the manga art style that compliments Sherlock brilliantly. Each panel is laden with panic as it

It would be testing to build a friendship with a man such as Sherlock Holmes; Watson experiences this fully. After all, Watson has ignored advice from the police themselves in steering clear from Sherlock Holmes. Readers of issue #2 will remember Sergeant Donovan’s opinion of Sherlock, stating that he ‘got off’ on crime scene shenanigans. In issue 4’s opening moments, Sherlock defines a murdering genius the same way, that they need the ‘spotlight’ to feel fulfilled. Consequently, the opening mom

The adventure picks up in the heart of the mystery, as Dr John Watson answers a ringing red phone box. Passersby seem to ignore it, isolating Watson to his changing world. Moffat’s eerie originality is ever present, regardless of whether readers have seen A Study In Pink on television. Security cameras look out for Watson, and cars pull up to whisk him away. Issue #3 opens with the full hit of suspense following the cliffhanger of issue #2. This new issue focuses on the psychology of its two le