No Rock And Roll Fun

YESTERDAY'S MEN: Much as we like Abba (come on, everyone does), the success of that play-spun-from-their-songs Mamma Mia is a curse. Not only has it led to that ridiculous Queen musical, but now the music of Madness is being recrafted into a stage event. It's been written by the bloke who did Preston Front, so it might not be quite as bad as Ben Elton's piece (the similarities between the book of which, and Rush's concept album 2112 were usefully pointed out in a letter to the current Private Eye, by the way) but even so, for every good argument about collecting the works of Stiff's finest and stringing them on a plot, there are at least sixteen thousand reasons screaming "No No No." These things have, despite the best intentions, a tendency to collapse into AmDram meets The Tribute Band. For what it's worth, it's called Our House, and opens not in the middle of our street, but in Cambridge. Meanwhile, we await Tunic, a fantasy about a teenage riot set to the songs of Sonic Youth. "But, you have dirty boots..."
Chas Smash seems pleased by it all -but so do the Daily Mail, which is worrying