Oh come on. Who really has a stag do the night before their wedding? Hugh Sundae reviews last night's feature length episode.

The orchestra's second Inspired by Bach concert on Thursday dispensed a flurry of fugues, with toccatas and chorales on the side.

Jon Toogood couldn't be more grateful for his sold-out crowd braving the bitter elements to put their faith in a brand new band.

Like the under-appreciated Tell No One in 2006, this French film is an adaptation of an American crime novel (by Harlan Coben and Douglas Kennedy respectively).

Graham Reid encounters a legendary lost rock classic that some think never existed.

While it is spare and beautifully poised country music, there's a raw and pure refinement to these 10 songs - and Welch's devilishly dark words, that have a wry twist every so often, are the work of a seasoned, yarn-spinning poet.

It's over, finally - and thank goodness. Exhilarating, moving and visually impressive, watching boy-wizard Harry Potter face his fate in the battle between good and evil in the climatic finale is exhausting stuff.

Auckland band The Vietnam War have been building momentum for a good five years, so it doesn't come as a surprise that their debut album sounds anything but amateur.

Graham Reid reviews the newest album from indie.folk duo, Rosy Tin Teacaddy.

Though there was always an inviting pop side to the Mint Chicks, what made their music most striking was the volatile and often violent outbursts that took the songs to a more intense and interesting level.

Second week of short plays bigger, brighter and better.

Is my tray table stowed and my seatback upright? Oh, what's that? I'm not on a plane. Oops, I just blacked out for a minute and woke up in a puddle of dribble when I heard "Gidday.

The 22 Spanish writers in this entertaining collection were all born in or since 1975, the year General Francisco Franco died after 36 years of repressive rule in Spain.

Once again Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Geraldine Brooks takes a simple, barely known historical fact, fattens out and brings it to life so lyrically you feel transported back in time.

When Simon Trpceski made his debut with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra three years ago, he gave us Rachmaninov's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with the impetuosity and zeal of a youthful athlete.

Tracing a fine line between being twee and elegant, the quartet-now-sextet of classical players who back fellow Icelanders Sigur Ros have produced a cool balm for busy eardrums with this, their second long-player.

Yeah, yeah, you knew Slim Shady would be back. Bad Meets Evil is his collaboration with fellow Detroit rapper Royce da 5'9' and this mini album is the duo's first work together since the early 2000s.

For Def Leppard fans this is all you could ever want in a live album.

The third - and apparently the last - album from techie Christchurch musician Annabel Alpers under the name Bachelorette was recorded in fashionable New York but seems to be inspired by homesickness or, perhaps it's lovesickness.

Do you tire of the people who always bang on about how much better the book was than the movie? Well, you can rest easy if this James Bond yarn is ever committed to screen.

Photographer extraordinaire Bill Cunningham makes his living in the thick of the action.

Graham Reid reviews the latest album from Seattle trio, The Cave Singers.

He's a bit of a mysterious one, that Jolyon Mulholland, whose back-lit spiral-haired silhouette evokes a certain album cover by the Rolling Stones.

Urge Overkill were touring mates with Nirvana and Pearl Jam but their increasingly power pop sound took them to a mainstream audience.

Back in the 90s when local rock music was dangerous, Head Like A Hole were the most dangerous of all - and early on they did it naked. New album, Blood Will Out is potent, fun, and dangerous.