“Were they Frenchmen and, preferably, dead,” the works of the East London Group artists would “already command high prices”. This was the verdict of one contemporary critic on the group’s 1930 show at the Alex, Reid and Lefevre Gallery.

These East London artists – working class men whose only artistic training had been evening classes in Bow under an ambitious Yorkshireman, John Cooper – enjoyed a string of successful exhibitions at the Lefevre before the Second World War. They had previously exhibited at the Whitechapel, of which one critic wrote, “the excellence, good taste and originality of the work… would easily hold its own by comparison with many seen in our West-end galleries.” By 1936 two of the group reached the summit of exhibitions: the Venice Biennale.

Despite the enthusiasm of contemporaries and the quality of their output, today this group is barely remembered. They suffered the double blow of war and the demise of their leader and teacher Cooper, who died of encephalomyelitis in 1943. Cohesive continuation proved impossible, although individual members carried on painting.

But a hefty new book, and accompanying exhibition of several of their extant works, may do something to reverse this trend. From Bow to Biennale: Artists of the East London Group, written by David Buckman, has been extensively researched, (the credits run to several pages) and was done so in the nick of time. Buckman began work in the late eighties, and managed to meet and interview several artists involved with the group, most of whom died in the mid-nineties. The result is something both academic and entertaining; much of the work is focussed on establishing the facts, but it is brought to life by the opinions and memories of those the author managed to track down.

From Bow to Biennale is lavishly illustrated, too. Much of the East London Group’s output was rooted in the everyday experiences of the artists. Particularly stunning is Bow Road (1931) by Elwin Hawthorne (or, Elwin Hawthorn; the “e” was a mistake introduced in a catalogue of the first Lefevre show). The scene is, at first glance, quite tedious: a few people stand around on a grey street, one of whom seems to wait for a bus. Yet Hawthorne introduces a sense of mystery. The shadows are long, and the outermost branches of the trees appear as thin as spiders’ webs. One cannot help wonder why there are so few people on what appears to be a main road, and why everything is so desolate. And this was painted well before the notion of nuclear holocaust was conceivable.

But their output was not restricted to scenes of East London. There are pictures of Brighton and Ilfracombe. Nor did they just paint. Their lithographs were used for Shell adverts, and Cooper produced a number of mosaics. The artists were of humble backgrounds, but their work was far from parochial.

The exhibition at the Abbott and Holder gallery celebrates the publication of the book. Buckman talked of how difficult it had been even to assemble the paintings that they had, and of how, given the productivity of the group, there must be tens of works by the East London Group lying forgotten in attics and under beds – so it might be worth getting round to that spring clean.

From Bow to Biennale: Artists of the East London Group, by David Blackman, is published by Francis Boutle. The accompanying exhibition takes place until 6th April at Abbott and Holder, 30 Museum Street, London WC1A 1LH.

Doctor Who’s return in ‘The Bells of St John’ was a funny mishmash of an episode, that welcomed (well, sort of) a new companion with what seemed like a rehash of several episodes from the last few seasons. We had a monster consuming people through new technology (as in ‘The Idiot’s Lantern’), spinning head robots (as in ‘The Beast Below’), and the Doctor using a robot to act as himself (mirroring The Tesseract). More generally, the style of the episode was very reminiscent of series four’s first episode (in which humans are converted into walking fat). The list goes on, and this level of recycling came across as a little odd in my book — though almost certainly unintentional, it made the episode one of the weaker openings since Steven Moffat took over the franchise; even though I didn’t like ‘Asylum of the Daleks’ all that much, it had a bit of originality to it.

The episode saw the Doctor trying to track down his sort-of companion from the Christmas special, Clara, who is also both a futuristic Butlins redcoat-Dalek and a Victorian governess. Sort of. Her importance and mystery was front and centre, but it’s hard to fully engage with such a similar storyline to that of River Song, and it doesn’t feel like Clara’s been around long enough for us to get on board with the Doctor’s obsession. Also, given that he hadn’t really met Clara before, the amount of physical contact he made with her was genuinely slightly uncomfortable – I mean, he stroked her hair a lot. I’ve never been more aware that the Doctor is supposed to be a 1,000-year old alien, and that the women he picks up are generally in their twenties. 

Clara certainly seems a lot less insufferable than her Oswin persona last year (I was concerned we might end up with a Jar Jar kind of scenario), but it’s early days. Certainly, I would say that it’s becoming harder and harder for the companions to seem distinct from one another as the series goes on. The recent backlash against Doctor Who’s treatment of women has been slightly blown out of proportion I think (especially the online arguments about Amy changing her surname), but as time and actors move on it is becoming clear that female characters do come across as less developed than their male counterparts in the series. Compared with characters like Rory or Captain Jack who really brought something different to the TARDIS crew, it feels that the primary companion role is in danger of becoming generic. Admittedly it is part of the structure of the show to have a character acting as a surrogate for the audience, but Doctor Who should be capable of meeting higher expectations. Amy Pond, for example, really did seem quite different to her predecessors.

It wasn’t a bad start to this run by any means — it looked great, some of the ideas were pretty cool and a motorbike charge up The Shard will always get my vote. But fundamentally it just didn’t seem particularly original, and the ‘modern technology is trying to kill us’ trope has been done to death (in Who and elsewhere). Still, while Clara may never eclipse Amy, I’m willing to give her the chance over a series that includes a long-overdue journey through the TARDIS and a Cyberman episode written by Neil Gaiman. 

Oh, but please stop doing the ‘Doctor Who?’ question. It was never funny or deep, but now it’s starting to grate.

3 stars

At the end of the first season of New Girl, we were largely left where we started, with the four central characters all back in the apartment. Nick had decided to stay rather than move out with his ex-girlfriend Caroline. Jess was recovering from her break-up with older man Russell. Schmidt had ended things with Cece and had his penis broken. Yes, that’s right. He broke his penis.

Several months down the line and we rejoin the friends after a period of healing. In the first episode, Relaunch, Schmidt decides to host a danger-themed party to reaffirm his ‘personal brand’ now that his penis cast is off. Jess is made redundant from her teaching job and tries her hand at being a shot-girl for the evening, to limited effect. Schmidt goes out of his way to impress Cece, who arrives at the party with new boyfriend, Robbie. 

The seeds for some of this season’s key narrative arcs are established in the first episode. In the next weeks, Jess will have to come to terms with her unemployment, Schmidt must suppress his infatuation with Cece, and Nick’s protective instinct towards Jess will continue to grow. This is a season in which many supporting cast members will come and go. But the core of New Girl is immutable: Schmidt, Nick, Winston and Jess muddling along in their warped little loft world. 

My relationship with the New Girl characters is difficult to define. Frequently they annoy me: they’re overly loud, melodramatic and barely believable. Yet I have an affection for them which keeps me tuning in. Many criticisms of the show seem to stem from Zooey Deschanel’s image as a manic pixie dream girl, and while this does appear to be her default setting, it is an unfair judgement. Her character, Jessica Day, is more nuanced than that. Sure, Jess is super optimistic and ‘quirky’. But she also gets low sometimes, is wholly dedicated to her profession and is a reliable friend. Could I tolerate her company for more than thirty minutes? No. But she’s an almost-plausible human.

The biggest laughs, however, come from her male flatmates: Schmidt, Nick and Winston. Schmidt is a corporate narcissist whose overinflated sense of his own brilliance manifests itself in naivety. Winston is an anxiety-riddled ex-professional basketball player who mediates the group. Nick is a grouchy barman with crushingly low self-confidence. Every time he and Jess have an intimate conversation, I fear that they will end up kissing. This has seemed like a foregone conclusion since the pilot episode, and I desperately hope New Girl can resist the fulfilment of this romantic cliché.

Although it would be impossible to definitively say which of the characters is the lead, the show certainly does not favour Winston, who for the most part continues to be restricted to subplots. In a moment of introspection, Schmidt analyses the characters’ unique brands. ‘Winston,’ he says, ‘your brand is Winston.’ Although I have appreciated how New Girl’s gradual development of Winston’s character has made him a more complex and intriguing persona, I think it is a shame that he remains the character we have got to know the least. Lamorne Morris is a talented comic actor, and deserves greater attention from the show’s writers. 

The opening episode of season two of New Girl is on a par with the quality viewers had come to expect from the first. It’s certainly still amusing, if not always laugh-out-loud funny. The fact is, there is almost no distinction between the first and second season of New Girl, and disappointingly, Relaunch falls back on New Girl’s staple devices: Jess talks like an old time gal, Nick gets shouty, and some combination of the cast break into ridiculous song and dance. Rather than treading new ground, the coming episodes reinforce the lacklustre but comforting repetitivity which New Girl has by the bucketload. 

In what is being hailed as the year of the guitar band (yes, we know, that happens every year), the music world has been rocked by the announcement that the greatest guitar band in history will be returning to centre stage. Last night, Sir Paul McCartney announced that The Beatles, the best-selling musical group of all time, will be re-uniting for one last world tour.

Sir Paul said he was “overwhelmed and inspired” by the positive reaction of the recent Nirvana reunion of which he was a part, and that it was a combination of that and the success of the Let It Be West End musical, which features actors playing songs by The Beatles, that compelled him to reform the band. “It just felt like the timing was perfect, you know? What with it being the 50^th anniversary of our first record” said McCartney. Just as Sir Paul filled in for Kurt Cobain, The Beatles now have two new members. Matt Bellamy, frontman of the hugely successful British rock band Muse, has been drafted in on lead guitar.

Sir Paul was gushing in his praise for the manic rockstar, saying “he’s a wonderfully talented musician, and a brilliant performer. His stage presence as much as anything will make this a great success”. Replacing the iconic figure of John Lennon was always going to be a struggle, but after months of soul-searching, McCartney opted for Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker, whose forceful personality and cult hero status makes him, in McCartney’s eyes, a perfect fit. “A lot of people might be saying ‘why didn’t you pick someone from your era, wouldn’t they fit into the band better?’” he admitted. “And you know, I thought about Eric Clapton, I thought about David Bowie but in the end I decided that The Beatles have always been about reinventing ourselves and moving forward and I think Jarvis and Matt give us more relevance to the music scene and how it is today”.

Bellamy, never one to show overt modesty, claimed he was unsurprised to be chosen. “Look,” he said in a brief interview. “I’ve been called the Hendrix of my generation, and of course Sir Paul’s gonna want the best. Still though, it’s a huge honour. The Beatles redefined pop music, and I think it’s safe to say that Muse would not be what they are today without them”. Bellamy’s band certainly followed in the footsteps of The Beatles as they became another guitar band to leave British shores and become loved all around the world, and Bellamy’s prowess on the guitar has been lauded everywhere he’s been. Total Guitar named him “guitarist of the decade” in 2010 and Gigwise placed him at #19 in a list of the greatest guitarists of all time so it really shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise for him to be chosen to play lead guitar for the best band in history.

Last year Lennon was named as NME’s ultimate icon within the publications own lifetime. He was, therefore, for whoever stepped into his often controversial, but always self-depreciative shoes, always going to be a tough task to replace. In comparison to Bellamy, Cocker was more humble in his reaction to the news characterised by his own iconic drawl and dry sense of wit. The Pulp frontman has previously declared his love for the Beatles going on to say that “I haven’t named any kids after them but I still really love them”. The resemblance between Cocker and Lennon is remarkable, not just in appearances, with both becoming synonymous with their spectacles, notoriously floppy hair and shaggy beards, but also in their working class background and subsequent hero status, immortalised for Cocker most infamously in the Britpop anthem, ‘Common People’.

Talking about Britpop, Cocker remarks that you “cannot do a karaoke version of a social revolution”, in reference to the Beatles. He was, therefore, uncharacteristically, but understandably nervous, in his reaction to the news. “We elevate people to the status of heroes in order to let ourselves off the hook: ‘I’m just a mere mortal – I could never even dream of doing something like that’” he explains in relation to Lennon, but now it is time for Cocker to elevate himself from his already cult heroic status to that of the ‘ultimate icon’ in replacing Lennon. Unlike Bellamy, Cocker has already experienced the reunion tour circuit with his own band Pulp who were hailed as the ‘reunion of the decade’ after their sell-out and critically acclaimed 2011 tour. Hopefully this will aide Cocker in the role that has been placed upon his shoulders in what will surely be soon labelled the ‘reunion of the century.’

Ringo, who infamously called for his fans to stop sending him fan mail, and is known as the ‘quiet one’ in the Beatles, has admitted, in an exclusive interview with Cherwell earlier this week, that he had prophesised and secretly hoped for this reunion tour a long time ago, even amidst the controversial break-up of the band in 1970. The innocence of the Beatles in the early days is widely documented with McCartney reminiscing in a recent interview about the ‘good little band’ he formed, and recruited Ringo to, before Hamberg and the stardom they would inevitably be catapulted into.

Nevertheless, the ‘Fab Four’ were in it for the long haul and, as outlined in a recent BBC Four documentary on the early years of the band “it was too late for them; polite society would never allow them back in”. Pop music in the early 60s was rebellious, unruly and highly uncontrollable. Ringo highlights this sense of longevity present in the band, even in the early years, when he thought they’d “get married, and never split up”.

Even upon breaking up, Ringo was the first to suggest a reunion, another world tour, and a last coming together of what is arguably the greatest collective creative force the world has ever known. “I said let’s all meet up in the year 2000” Ringo remembers, “won’t it be strange when we’re all fully grown”. Although slightly overdue, it seems that the inevitable is here, and we are happy to report in a world exclusive that the Beatles are back, back to where they once belonged…

The Beatles tour commences at the legendary Fairpool Stadium, April 31^st.