"Love hurts": Anton and Erin on tour

So I went to see Anton and Erin's latest tour, Let's Do It, this weekend.

Here's a potted review:

• It was fabulous
• Lance Ellington is still The Man (especially when clad in a purple tuxedo)
• Anton's Rear of the Year win was very much deserved
• If you've seen all the other tours, there wasn't a whole lot of new stuff here. Not necessarily a criticism by the way, just an observation
• I do have one criticism: the inclusion of Paolo Nutini's Pencil Full of Lead. Regardless of the fact I think it's a terrible song, the main problem was it didn't fit with the rest of the show and therefore felt like filler. Which is unfortunate given it was Erin's solo spot
• The return of the O Fortuna tango from Cheek to Cheek was very much welcome. Hot stuff.
• You should go and see it
• You should go and see it now.

In conclusion, I enjoyed an Anton and Erin tour show. Nothing new or eventful here. Why bother blogging it at all?

Well before and after the show were somewhat eventful. On the way, I got the heel of my (gorgeous, bright red and now slightly scuffed up) shoe stuck in a hole in the pavement. This resulted in quite a heroic incidence of falling over. Both knees were cut open in two places and really sore - the bruises are impressive - and I obviously went heavily onto my right hand as I still can't move or put pressure on my thumb properly. (Mum, if you're reading this I'm going to see a doctor tomorrow, promise). We were also running a bit late so I didn't have chance to clean my knees up before sitting down for the show. I don't know if you've ever felt had to extract bits of your tights from a congealing scab? Yeah, I did that in the interval and it's NOT pleasant.

Anyway, after the show we headed backstage as is the tradition. I should at this stage explain that the other half of 'we' was my male friend Chris, who is like 6'2" and very clearly not a woman. 

This detail apparently escaped the notice of the lovely Erin who met us at the stage door with an enthusiastic 'Hello ladies!' followed by a hasty '...and gentleman'. We laughed at that. Well, I laughed at that.

I decided, after some egging on from Chris (and necking half a bottle of wine at the interval), to tell Anton about my various wounds as a way of proving my status as Dedicated Fan. His response was priceless, and the real point of this post. After some quality hugging time he turned to me and said:

Well, they do say love hurts

And I have the bruises to prove it.

BBC reveals new Strictly Come Dancing pro lineup

Exciting news to stimulate some rare lunchtime blogging from me: the BBC has released the list of pro dancers who'll be taking part in this year's Strictly Come Dancing.

And it's good news if you're me. Anton is back for another series! Hurrah! My other favourites, Erin and Brendan, are back too. Slightly-less-enthusiastic-but-pleased-nonetheless hurrah! All three of them will have been in every series since the beginning, a not inconsiderable feat given the Beeb's propensity to fiddle with the pro lineup every year.

That said, though, this year's fiddling has been kept to a minimum with just one change: Jared Murillo is out, Pasha Kovalev is in. Honestly, I'm kind of glad to see the back of Jared. As cute as he was paired with Tina O'Brian last year, I never felt he clicked with the show. Maybe it was because he was too young, I don't know, but I did find him pretty annoying. His replacement, a veteran of the US version of So You Think You Can Dance and the stage show Burn The Floor, is older and, frankly, hotter.Good stuff.

The full pro line up for Strictly 2011 is:  Artem Chigvintsev, Brendan Cole, Anton Du Beke, James Jordan, Pasha Kovalev, Vincent Simone and Robin Windsor; Erin Boag, Flavia Cacace, Ola Jordan, Natalie Lowe, Kristina Rihanoff, Aliona Vilani and Katya Virshilas.

You can read the BBC press release here.

Things I'm loving this week: #11

Have to be honest, the main thing I'm loving this week is the fact that I'm only working for three days of it. Bank holiday + taking Friday as leave to go back to Wales for my dad's birthday = win. Other than that, though...

Films

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. I'm a bit of a devotee of this franchise mostly, and highly obviously, because Johnny Depp's Cap'n Jack is pretty much the best movie character of recent times. Savvy? And for my money POTC4 is the best of the three sequels to the outstanding originals. I love the new characters it introduces, Penelope Cruz's Angelica and Ian McShane's (Lovejoy to Blackbeard via Al Swearengen, oh for his career!) Blackbeard especially. Frankly, I'm quite glad to see the back of the irritating Will and Elizabeth too, and the new love birds (the missionary and his mermaid) are charming in a cute-if-contrived sort of way. Watch out for genius cameos from Keith Richards, Richard Griffiths and (blink and you'll miss her) Judi Dench. Overall a great watch that's a lot of fun. Bring on part five...

Quite excited to be heading to see X Men: First Class this week too - another film franchise I love. Will it be as good without Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen driving it though? And finally on film, if you're a Harry Potter fan and haven't picked up the current issue of Empire then do so, now. It's amazing. 

TV

I kind of gave up on my much vaunted guilty pleasure of last week, Geordie Shore. I was a bit concerned that it was just going to basically be the same show every week and so it proved. Instead I've been getting back into Inked and rekindling my desire for a tattoo. For my money Inked (also set at a Hart and Huntington, the one at The Palms in Vegas) is much better than the '... Ink' series of shows. It cuts out the soap opera crap and just focuses on the tattoos. 

Incidentally, and I'm sure it'll never happen (I'm too chicken and not cool enough), but if I ever did get ink of my own then I'd be going here for some inspiration (I like the Mirror of Erised ones) and getting it done at Hart and Huntington at Universal Resort in Orlando. Or such is my geeky fantasy. I mean how cool would it be to wander into The Wizarding World of Harry Potter and show fellow visitors to Hogsmead your Potter-based tattoo? Stop looking at me like that - cool is a subjective concept. But I digress...

I've also been fascinated at a slightly higher level by TV this week in the form of BBC1's excellent Egypt's Lost Cities. The technology on display here - using satellites to map long lost settlements, pyramids and tombs - was incredible. Also? I want to be Indiana Jones. With a tattoo.

Unattractive personal quality of the week

Stubbornness. I don't know why but this week I've been in one of those moods where if you tell me I can't do something then I'm sure as hell going to do it. Case in point: chatting to a friend on the phone whilst in Morrisons getting some lunch today. Conversation went like this:

Me: hey they have WWE Magazine here. I should totally buy it.

Friend: you're so not going to. 

Me: *proceeds to checkout, WWE Magazine in hand*

I don't really want said magazine. And it was £4 which, given for a similar price I could've got Vogue, is not money well spent. Still, it has some nice pictures in it: 

John Morrison's abs. Wowza. 

Web stuff

First of all a recommendation for fellow fashion bunnies: High Fashion Society. This is a great 'designer resale' (ie vintage) site that's definitely worth keeping an eye on. I bought an almost mint condition bright pink patent Miu Miu purse that I'd been lusting after for literally years from them this week for a tiny fraction of what it should really be worth. Their customer service, delivery and super luxe packaging all scores top marks and I'll definitely be using them again. 

Launching this week, and looking damn fine, is the new Anton and Erin website. This is ace and I love it. I especially recommend investing some time perusing the gallery. I'm sure you can imagine why..! The new site is very obviously based on Erin's recently relaunched site - no bad thing as that too is very good, useful and usable. And it has a shop so, y'know, if you're ever wondering what to get me for my birthday... 

  

Anton and Erin Puttin' on the Ritz: best thing ever?

I think that title gives you an idea of where this post is going..! But then, to be honest, it's got Anton in it. I think that's a bit of a mega give away straight off the bat really.

So I've seen Puttin' on the Ritz twice now - a Saturday night in Dublin and a Sunday matinee at the Sage in Gateshead. Little author's note first: should you ever get the chance to visit either of these places, do. Dublin is an amazing city. Amazing. Grown up, laid back, fun with some cracking bars, restaurants and shops. I loved it and fully intend to go back as soon as I have an excuse to. It's even better if you're a politics geek and visit during an (STV) election campaign! And the Sage is a fabulous venue. Very funky and modern with great acoustics in the actual hall. Again, I fully intend to go back. But I digress.

Puttin' on the Ritz is a completely wonderful show. Completely and utterly wonderful. If you've seen Anton and Erin's first two tours (yes, I have, obviously) you will love it. For my money, it's by far the best of three for a couple of reasons. Honestly, the biggest of these reasons is probably the inclusion of the genius Lance Ellington (of whom more soon) on vocals. He is just amazing and if his voice doesn't blow you away then, frankly, you need to have a long hard look at your life! I also think it's a better show than the previous two as it's more brazenly about entertainment rather than just dancing. There is more Anton and Erin banter, or perhaps more accurately more Anton banter whilst Erin tries to get a word in edgeways (which is fine by me - she gets the gorgeous dresses so it's only fair Anton gets something!), and more - and better quality - old school variety song and dance numbers.

This is the point at which I suppose you expect me to pick a favourite number. Well I can't. There are too many. And I'm not going to do a number by number rundown either, because as I've said re: Strictly review writing I find those immensely tedious. What I will do is a bit of a highlight real.

I literally can't pick a favourite dance number. It's impossible. There are a series of ridiculously fast and perfectly pulled off quicksteps all of which I adored. There's also a brilliant charleston and a fabulous ballroom tango. Those are my favourites, but I have described about 70% of the show there to be fair. You can't make me choose between them. It'd be like Sophie's Choice! (Author's note: who are you calling over dramatic?!) I feel like this paragraph should be much longer, but there's not much more to say other than the dancing is universally superb. It just is. For the Dublin show we were front row, eye-to-stage, and I think I spotted one mistake all night. Which is pretty damn incredible when you think about it. It's Anton and Erin dancing self-choreographed ballroom. What more do you need to know?

Both Anton and Erin sing this year. Now when it comes to singing I'm a picky bitch having had lessons and taken exams for the best part of eight years. That said, they both have a good stab at it although Anton is a lot better than Erin - he's done this before (last tour and, of course, the epic Me and My Shadow with Brucie a couple of Strictlys ago), she hasn't and you can tell. That's not to say she's bad, by the way. She isn't. I love her number - Me and My Baby from Chicago - it's great fun and super-high energy.

Anton has two songs this year, one of which is a duet with Lance (which is exceptionally brave, there's no way in hell you'd see me duetting with someone that good!) and one on his own - All I Need is the Girl. The solo one is the best. I'm not sure if you're aware of the lyrics of this song? It features much talk of 'my tweed suit and my striped tie.' Spot the costume opportunity. I can't honestly claim to have ever been sexually attracted to a man in a three piece tweed suit, until now. Seriously. Tweed? It's not right - it should not be possible to look that hot in tweed. It's only right that the tailor of said suit gets a credit in the programme! I'm just going to bask in the memory for a while, excuse me.

...

Mm. Right. Sorry about that. What can I say? It's a fucking amazing suit.

I could go on about how great this show is for a very *very* long time. It really is superb. I don't know if there are still tickets available for any of the remaining dates - there shouldn't be, frankly - but if there are you must go. You will not regret it.

So, to answer my own question, is Anton and Erin Puttin' on the Ritz the best thing ever? Honestly? Right now I'm struggling to think of anything better. Go. And. See. It.