The Multi-Platinum selling Michael Bublè wowed Newcastle for the second night of his sell out World Tour at the Metro Radio Arena.

With confident swagger, sophisticated suit and touch of cabaret, Michael and his support act, Naturally 7, left the crowd eager for more with their stunning stage design and Las Vegas style pyrotechnic effects.

Naturally 7 had the audience in awe after covering Coldplay’s Fix You. With their clever rendition of Stevie Wonder’s 1963 Ed Sullivan Show appearance, the crowd delighted in joining in and the group had the audience on their feet. The “architects of vocal play” from New York who formed in 1999, certainly earned their place on this talent packed tour.

Disappointingly, there followed a 20 minute interval which lost the momentum. This disjointed the performance and interrupted the flow of what was otherwise a great start to the show.

A visually impressive wall of fire heralded the arrival of the Canadian superstar for the second half. As Bublè slid down the moving stage to perform Fever, he crooned around before delivering tunes from jazz royalty, including Sinatra, Bennett, Williams and Martin.

Although covers, Michael imprinted his own inimitable performing style to You Make Me Feel So Young and I’ve Got The World on a String. He mixing them effortlessly with his own back catalogue, built up over nine years since he first hit the international stage, including Beautiful Day and Still Haven’t Met You Yet.

Michael’s encore was a masterpiece of vocal strength and talent. He pulled out his earpieces and threw away his microphone, leaving him vocally naked in front of the transfixed arena before singing A Song For You. The lyrics were emotionally haunting and he brought them to life with a voice as rich and deep as the darkest chocolate.

The arena fell silent in appreciation. It was so emotional the audience gave him a 10 minute standing ovation. It would be hard to see the current stars of reality TV matching this level of style, substance and professionalism. It was a truly exceptional, moving encore and possibly the strongest vocal performance I have ever witnessed.

A fan of old school musical talent – but not necessarily of him – I’m a new addition to his huge UK fanbase. Seduced by his suave, smoky sound, his cheeky personality and commanding stage presence, he showed just what a tour de force his still is after all these years.

Rachel Hore has critical acclaim from sources as diverse as TV presenter Judy Finnegan and the Guardian, who describe the work as “pitched perfectly for a holiday read.” After anticipating “a compelling story of war, secrets, family and enduring love” all that was delivered was a sense of disappointment.

Her seventh novel, typical of her previous work, is set in Paris during the 1940’s and 50’s telling the story of Kitty and her daughter Fay. However, their dark secrets and hidden lives have so many twists and turns the narrative can be hard to track.

It pivots round binding memories, not shared until now, that have the power to protect them yet also to destroy their fragile existence.

Kitty, a promising concert pianist sent to study at the Paris Conservatoire as war with Germany threatens, meets Dr Eugene Knox. 25 years later and her daughter Fay, a promising violinist, goes to Paris during increasing political turmoil over Algerian refugees. She meets Adam Warner – a man she met once before on a school trip to Paris. She is, not for the first time in her life, beset with memories of déjà vu. Has she been here before?

It takes a few chapters to get going. In parts the book is rather tedious and frustrating due to the lack of progress in the story. This is unfortunate given the effort that Rachel, a trained historian, has clearly put in to authenticating the story and crafting the main female characters to the reader.

Although well researched with a remarkably detailed timeline, the pages are littered with clichés. This parody wouldn’t be complete without token romantic interests, and Gene Knox and Adam Warner seem duty bound to be there. Sadly their characters lack as much depth and colour as the main ladies.

However, I did enjoy the contrasting undertones of hope and desperation, friends and enemies, loyalty and betrayal – the juxtaposition between what seems healed and the stark reality.

One of Kitty’s friends, Milly, even comments “When peace was threatened, we discovered the shame of war. When war seemed averted, we discovered the shame of peace”

Full of romantic optimism, the story was not as compelling or as adventurous as other works in the romantic genre from the likes of Susan Elliot Wright, Alison Moore and Veronica Henry. That said it is an honest attempt to engage with the reader nonetheless.

BBC Films Cert 12A Director: Guy Jenkin, Andy Hamilton

With a title that conjures up images of primary school, lumpy custard and cold gravy, it seemed reasonable to be a bit wary about what something billed as ‘family comedy’ was going to offer. But there was no need to be nervous – it was a brilliant treat.

At the heart of the film, the brainchild of Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin (the men behind the BBC’s hit partially-improvised sitcom “Outnumbered”) are Doug and Abi, played by David Tennant, Rosamund Pike, and their 3 children.

This archetypal urban family are struggling to keep their marriage and happy family pretence together under a barrage of secrets and deceit.

The story flits through the juxtaposing themes of reality and fantasy, peace and chaos, despair and hope – outwardly affluent and inwardly poor. Their life is one of sorrow and side-splittingly funny joy.

The story follows the family’s long trip from chaotic London to serene Scotland for the overbearing 75th Birthday celebrations of Doug’s Dad, organised by Doug’s ‘affluent’ brother Gavin and his wife Mary (Ben Miller and Amelia Bullmore).

They bear all the hallmarks of “Keeping Up Appearances” but are suffering their own inward turmoil, with Mary suffering from depression and their son stifled in his musical ambitions by his overbearing father.

In places, the storyline seems to lose its’ edge, but Billy Connelly, who plays the unwell grandfather delighting in the simple pleasures of fishing, horseracing and admiring the stunning Scottish Highland countryside in which the stage is set, uses his comedy skills to great effect and drags the audience straight back.

The feature is punctured with philosophical one liners guaranteed to make you laugh one moment while provoking genuine tears the next.

The children, played superbly by Harriet Turnbull, Bobby Smalldridge and Emilia Jones, bear the brunt of the web of secrets and family disputes.

In trying to a make sense of the world with the help of their Grandfather, they win the day with their honesty, courage and understanding of the outlook that life is not for thinking – it’s for living.

Billed as a comedy, I wasn’t expecting to need a box of tissues. The heart wrenching twists and turns as the story unfolds to its’ conclusion made me weep.

The beautiful simplicity of the cinematography and the awe inspiring landscape, combined with a whit only the calibre of Billy Connolly and his co-comedians could produce, means this a film you won’t want to miss out on seeing.

Award winning playwright and performance poet Kate Tempest, fresh from her debut play Wasted and following a sell-out success with Brand New Ancients, brought the latest offering, Hopelessly Devoted, to Lincoln’s LPac Theatre.

Produced by industry stalwarts Paines Plough, the play is directed by Stef O’Driscoll, who was selected for the Old Vic New Voices New York Exchange scheme and in 2010 became Associate Director at the Lyric Hammersmith.

Hopelessly Devoted follows the story of Chess. Facing a lengthy prison sentence, and with her cell mate Serena getting parole, the lovers and soulmates are forced to face the prospect of separation. The pair struggle to cope with life without each other and the isolation sees Chess immerse herself in music. With the help of music producer, Silver, who has faced her own demons in the past and conquered her fears, Chess finds her voice again. She’s then forced to confront her past in order to face her future.

The thought provoking and powerful performances in the play are as striking as the set design. Simple and effective, the stark black and white set with minimal props and lighting allows the power and emotion of the acting and the music, which includes Massive Attack’s Unfinished Sympathy, to flow uninterrupted into the audience and add meaning to their performance.

There’s clearly been a lot of time spent on selecting the right sounds to reflect both the harshness and the tender emotion of the story, which succeeds in adding the crucial extra layers of understanding which make the themes of love and hate, despair and hope, damnation and forgiveness, stand out for the audience.

Frances Ashman’s vocal stage presence and talent shines through as she delivers some poignant songs in the play which had the LPac audience enthralled.

The subtle messages of the piece are cleverly illustrated by Tempest through gut-wrenchingly honest and rough portrayals of prison life – the language harsh and guttural, the music loud, yet hauntingly moving in places.

On first appearance, there is nothing graceful, serene or calm about this play. Scratch the surface of its roughness and otherworldliness, however, and the superb acting from the leading ladies of Frances Achman (Chess), Sheila Atim (Serena) and Demi Oyediran (Silver) give this piece an honest and touchingly compassionate element – a plea to society that, as Silver comments during the play: “Flaws do not make you a lost cause”.

My musing for today comes after an exhausting day running around soaking up the wisdom and wiseness of media professionals at University and wondering if I will ever attain their heady heights of knowledge!

Surfing social media (as I always do during the day) waiting for that breaking story to chase, I stumbled upon the reoccurring theme of Rene Zellwegger on twitter and this got me pondering about women in the media and the expectations upon us to adhere to exacting standards – except seemingly the goalposts keep changing.

When I saw what had apparently happened to her face, several thoughts crossed my mind and I confess my first was “What has she done?!” However, has she done anything except to do what we all do i.e age?

Do we notice this more because she is a celebrity, and the question does beg, should we notice more because of that?

As someone who realises the tick tock of age and the call of the multi-nationals and their advertisements promising lotions and potions ready to cure all your beauty “imperfections”, it is slowly dawning on me that as the years tick on to my 40^th birthday, I am no longer in the sanctuary or safety of my smallholding where I can get away with growing older gracefully.

I am running with the big and beautiful media kids now, wondering how this thirty-something Mamma can reignite that inner mojo and tap into the “image” of success without selling out to the cure-alls which everyone knows actually aren’t.

I’m even questioning whether I should be trying to tap into this in the first place. Because in the end, we shouldn’t forget that it’s not what outside that counts, poor Rene. It’s what’s on the inside that counts.