Sid's Show - Review

Do you remember last year, when I gave away a family ticket to see CBeebies' legend Sid Sloane in his very own stage show, Sid's Show? Well, I did.  And today, Squeaky and I got the chance to see Sid's Show for ourselves when the tour reached Cardiff.  Off we toddled to St David's Hall, along with about 600 other people for Sid's one & only visit to South Wales in the tour.  He's still going until June, but this was the Wales show, and we were going to make the most of it.  The rest of the tour dates are here, but you know that, right?

It's getting to be a bit of a theme when Squeaky & I go to shows, that we find ourselves in the audience alongside the glitterati of Welsh showbiz circles.  We sat in front of John Hartson when we saw Peppa Pig, bumped into Lucy & Rhodri Owen in the foyer of The Tiger Who Came To Tea, so it was only fitting that we were joined at Sid's Show by his fellow CBeebies presenter Alex Winters (No, not the guy out of Bill & Ted, that's Alex Winter. Different fella altogether).  Squeaky was convinced that the whole show was going to be Sid dipping some bread into sauce.  Specifically brown bread into tomato sauce.  Interesting concept, but I was hoping for slightly more than that!

We settled down in our seats up in the gods for the first half (and moved down right in front of Alex & his family for the second half - yes! That was me ::grin::)  Right on time, Sid bounded onto the stage, there's no other way to describe it.  Full of energy, and had the children and adults in the audience joining in straight away with If You're Happy & You Know It, swiftly followed by a crazy action song about getting up & dressed.

And getting dressed is where Sid's problems all start.  He can't find his favourite socks & shoes, and we're soon off on a fantastic adventure to find them, without ever leaving the comfort of his bedroom.  It's all in the imagination, you see, and Sid's box becomes a hot air balloon, a spaceship, a submarine.  Part of me was a little bit surprised, but it works.  Give Squeaky a box and it becomes a house, a rocket, or a car.  So for the audience, a simple box becoming the key to an adventure is absolutely right.

The box. Or the spaceship. Or maybe the hot air balloon!

We shifted downstairs at the interval.  Not so much for a better view, there aren't any *bad* seats in St David's Hall in my experience, but more so that if she wanted to run to the front, Squeaky would have the opportunity to do so.  She didn't.  Ah well.  During the interval, there was mayhem as children searched high & low (OK, low) for, well, I can't tell you that!  Something special.  No, sorry, wrong show.  Something to help Sid, anyway.  I'm not going to give the story away, but with a bit of help, and another very funny action song, Sid gets his socks & shoes sorted, and even cheers up his dog Fuzzy.

Cheering up Fuzzy

Squeaky was transfixed.  Even Peppa, who was in her bag, was transfixed.  I was amazed that the show was just Sid, and Fuzzy, on the stage for an hour.  No dancers, no supporting artistes, just Sid.  The energy coming from the stage was brilliant.  And Sid is quite a dancer.  I'm thinking of starting a campaign now to get Sid on the next season of Strictly. Are you with me?

A couple of things I loved about the show, just because.  The range of music was fab - there was a blues song, reggae, rap, as well as silly action songs & kids favourites.  And a very simple thing that made me happier than you'd expect.  In one of the last songs, Sid sings "Thank you" to us all for helping him, and he signs "thank you" as he says it.  I know I mentioned Something Special as a joke up there somewhere, but it's such a simple way to make the show inclusive, and such a nice touch.  I'm not going off into Deaf Woman Ranting territory here, it was great.  Thank you!

The foyer area wasn't Merchandise City either.  I've been to other shows where you can't get in without running the gauntlet of glowsticks, balloons, programmes and assorted stuff you never look at again.  I didn't actually notice any merchandise on sale, but that might have been due to being upstairs for the first half & not going into the main bar/foyer area.  Did my wallet the world of good!  We had a great time at Sid's Show, even if he didn't dip his bread into his sauce, Squeaky wasn't disappointed.

Sid's on tour until June, you can keep up with his tour dates here if you haven't already been to see the show.  Or you can keep up with him on facebook, and twitter as well.

Disclosure: I was provided with a family ticket to the show free of charge for the purpose of this review. I was not told what to write and all opinions are my own.  Links are provided for your convenience, I am not a member of any affiliate scheme & will not receive reward for their use.

Cbeebies The Album 2012 - Review

I went away for a few days recently, being a normal person (OK, one with a bit of a nail polish habit), rather than a mummy.  It was great! I spent about 9 hours driving (total), and had my own choice of music the whole time!  Trouble is, I didn't know what to do with myself, and ended up listening to a random Spanish holiday cd, and Radio 2.

No such luck the rest of the time.  Squeaky loves her music.  We have a couple of CDs made especially for her, titled "Really Very Annoying CD" and "Annoying vol 2", featuring such wonders as Agadoo, Chocolatte,  Star Trekkin', Purple People Eater, and "1,2,3,4,5" (actually Mambo Number 5).  You can imagine how much I love listening to these, especially on long journeys.  That's the same sort of love I have for watching Deal or No Deal.  (I have trained Squeaky to slap Noel Edmonds' face every time she sees it)

So when I was given the chance to review the NEW CBeebies cd with Squeaky's help, I was glad of the chance for a change of music.  We bought the previous one a couple of years ago, only it's living in Daddy's car, so I don't get to listen to it.  I've claimed the 2012 version as my own.  The CD arrived just in time for us to take on a weekend trip away.  As soon as the first track started, Squeaky was singing along.  And looking slightly confused, as to why she could hear all her favourite tv shows, but not see any of them.  Given not much time at all, she was soon asking for her favourites on repeat.

I did wonder why there needed to be a new CBeebies CD, when one came out a couple of years ago, but there's a pretty fast turnover of shows.  I only noticed one song repeated from the previous cd - Timmy Time.  Other than that it's new shows, different songs from within the shows, and happily some of the other CBeebies songs - including our favourites, The Winter Song, and Goodbye Sun, Hello Moon.  There's even "Meet The Veggies" from Mr Bloom's Nursery and "I Am A Shape" from Mr Maker.  I'm *this* close to putting them on my phone as ringtones.  That would be normal, right?

There were a couple of "oddities".  Songs from single episodes of shows, that I barely recognised, mostly from shows that don't really have a distinctive musical theme tune - Charlie & Lola and Grandpa In My Pocket.  They slightly seemed like filler tracks, but given there's 50 tracks in all, a couple of less familiar songs is to be expected.  Oh, and as a word of warning, there's a bit of Justin Fletcher.  It's CBeebies, it's inevitable.  I know some people may have issues with too much Justin, but 4 isn't really too much, is it?  You can skip those tracks, if you must.

Is it worth getting? Yes!  The schedules are so different to when the last CD was released, if you have a current CBeebies addict, it's well worth the cash to keep them entertained.  The next thing I want to see, and I really, really do mean it, is a CD of Sid & Andy's number raps.  Seriously. I'd buy that.

The 2012 CBeebies CD is available from Amazon for £7.99.

Disclosure: I was provided with a copy of the CBeebies CD free of charge for the purpose of this review.  I was not told what to say, and all opinions are my own.  Links are provided for your convenience, I am not a member of any affiliate scheme, and will not receive any reward for their use.

CLOSED Win Tickets to Sid's Show!

If you've got children in the house, this will be a very familiar face.  Sid Sloane, CBeebies' longest serving presenter, often to be found leaping around rapping about the number 4.  Well, this autumn, Sid's making the leap from the small screen to the big stage, with his very own live show!  And you could win tickets right here!

The Sid's Show tour has its official premiere in Brighton on 30th October, so I hope he's busy rehearsing now, in between episodes of Balamory!  There's a first cluster of shows in the autumn before a break (theatres full of  panto, I would guess) and the tour continues well into the new year, calling at over 30 venues.  Join Sid as he sets out on the quest to find where his favourite shoes & socks have gone - follow his adventures to the bottom of the ocean, outer space & deep in the jungle, in an interactive show filled with games & songs.

This sounds right up Squeaky's street.  We've taken her to a few live shows in the past and she's loved every minute of them - glowsticks at the ready!

And as if that wasn't enough, Sid's also going to be presenting his own show "Let's Play" on CBeebies later in the year.  Along with Rebecca Keatley, the show's all about encouraging children to discover the world around them through dressing up & creative role play.  Again, this is right on target for Squeaky at the moment, she's just discovered the joys of the dressing-up box, and spent a happy hour yesterday bouncing around the living room saying "I'm a rabbit! Hop Hop Hop!"  And then eating me, because apparently I'm a carrot.  The minds of children are fascinating!

If you'd like to join Sid on his adventure, it couldn't be easier.  I've got a family ticket to give away (2 adults & 2 children or 1 adult & 3 children) for Sid's tour, and I'd like you to win it!  (October dates are excluded, tickets subject to availability)  Just follow the instructions on the rafflecopter widget below, and you'll be in with a chance of seeing Sid's Show live, in a theatre near you.


a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Beaten to the punch

I'd been having a really good thought this week.  One that was going to make for a fantastic blog post, just as soon as Daddy was on a late shift & I got some uninterrupted keyboard time.  It was going to make everyone sit up and say "Woah, yeah, I hadn't thought of that, but you're right!", and make me the star of the blogging world for at least half an hour, until something else distracted everyone & I slipped back into obscurity.

And then I picked up this week's Radio Times, and found I'd been beaten to it. By the letters page, of all places!  Such are the trials of a part-time blogger's existence.  Still, the post, such as it is, went something like this...

Have you been watching CBeebies recently?  No, I mean actually watching?  Because I've noticed something.  It seems to be getting progressively more & more male-centric.  Where are our children's female role models? Where are the strong female characters?  Let's have a look at an average day's viewing, shall we?  I'm looking to identify the main or majority characters. Where they have no clear gender, I'll mark as Gender Neutral, where there are multiple lead characters and a rough balance, I'll mark as Ensemble shows.  You may want to disagree with some of them, but these are just my opinions. Schedule is Monday 16 April 2012, from Radio Times.  Hidden behind a jump, because it's one heck of a list!