15   THE ART OBSERVER July 2006 Exhibitions MANCHESTER ART GALLERY Button World Until Saturday 26 November 2006 Salvaged: Restoring the Sirens and Ulysses Until Tuesday 18 September 2007 Happy Birthday Miffy! A Celebration of the Work of Dick Bruna Until Sunday 3 September 2006 Pae White: in no particular order Until Sunday 3 September 2006 Liam Spencer: From Manchester to Shanghai Saturday 8 July 2006 - Sunday 24 September 2006 Rene Burri: Retrospective Saturday 23 September 2006 - Sunday 12 November 2006 Georgina von Etzdorf: 25 years of sensuous textiles Saturday 23 September 2006 - Sunday 12 November 2006 Joe Colombo: Design Laboratory Saturday 2 December 2006 - Saturday 24 February 2007 WHITWORTH ART GALLERY Clothing Culture: Dress in Egypt in the First Millennium AD Until September 2006 Cupid and Psyche Until 8 October 2006 LOWRY Graham Finlayson: Simply Black and White Until 16 July 2006 Howard Silverman: Flood Until 16 July 2006 Folk Archive: Contemporary Popular Art from the UK 22 Jul 2006 - 17 Sep 2006 Roddy Woomble Tue 1 Aug 2006 A City’s Pride Until 10 September 2006 Contemporary Popular Art from the UK Until September 2006 Tony Husband Exhibition - The Lowry’s Cartoonist in Residence Until 30 Nov 2006 THE URBIS Manchester 0161 15 July - 2 October 2006 I swear I was there: The Gig that changed the World Until 17 July 2006 The Art of Tatoo 19 July - 28 August 2006 Every Cloud: Ten Years After the Manchester Bomb Until December 2006 Stage Plays ROYAL EXCHANGE THEATRE She Stoops To Conquer Until 1 July 2006 Mirandolina 5 July - 5 August 2006 Mary Barton 6 September - 14 October 2006 Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom 18 October - 25 November 2006 Love And Money 27 October - 11 November 2006 Cyrano De Bergerac 29 November 2006 - 13 January 2007 PALACE THEATRE Jungle Book 27 June - 1 July 2006 The Wiggles 5 July 2006 Stars for Tonight 2006 8 July 2006-06-20 Dance 2006 9 July 2006 Grease 12 - 22 July 2006 Fireman Sam 28 - 30 July 2006 Night of Stars 2 13 August 2006 Vampires Rock 28 September 2006 Puppetry of the Penis 29 September 2006 Rhythm of the Night 2006 30 September 2006 Disney’s Beauty and the Beast 3 - 7 October 2006 David Essex 8 October 2006 Alice in Wonderland: English National Ballet 19 - 28 October 2006 Mamma Mia! 7 November 2006 – 27 January 2007 OPERA HOUSE New Statesman - Blair B’Stard Project 19th - 24th June 2006 What a Feeling 29th June - 1st July 2006 The Best of Broadway 15th July 2006 Tractor Tom 2nd September 2006 Colin Fry 5th September & 6th September 2006 Me and My Girl 19th September - 30th September 2006 Lord of the Dance 2nd October - 8th October Joe Brown 11th October 2006 The Hitmakers 12th October 2006 Joe Pasquale 14th October 2006 That’ll be the Day 15th October 2006 Ross Noble 16th October - 21st October 2006 Chicago The Musical 23rd October - 4th November 2006 One Night of Queen 5th November 2006 Mrs Brown Rides Again 14th - 25th November 2006 Madama Butterfly 27th - 29th November & 2nd December 2006 Die Fledermaus 30th November - 1st December 2006 Snow White 9th December 2006 - 7th January 2007 USEFUL TELEPHONE NUMBERS Manchester Art Gallery 0161 235 8888 Whitworth Art Gallery 0161 275 7450 Lowry 0870 787 5780 The Urbis 0161 605 8200 Royal Exchange Theatre 0161 833 9833 Palace Theatre 0870 145 1163 Opera House 0870 145 1163 Whats ON After seeing The Earlies at the Manchester Academy 3, it is apparent just what a solid fan base they appear to have. The band of four from Burnley and Texas play a combination of unique and varied range of musical styles from psychedelic, to rock, to country and pull it off surprisingly well. For things to run smoothly, the band employ a fair bit of off stage support including different brass instruments and synths which only serves to enhance their sound. The Earlies sound consists mainly of melodic singing and song writing combined with a very relaxed, laid back style that builds, providing the audience with a moving and exciting band to watch live. It is clear that The Earlies have hit upon a simple yet effective formula in their song writing and it is with no surprise that they are enjoying some success right now. It doesn’t take long for the crowd to get into The Earlies’ unique brand of music and by the third song in their set the audience is obviously having fun and by the end of the night there is not a single person who doesn’t appear to be having a great time, no doubt aided by the excellent lighting and by the interaction that the band seem to enjoy with their audience. The sheer number of people on stage and the diversity of instruments played lends both a dramatic and exciting atmosphere which the audience definitely seems to appreciate and this is aided by the fact that the band obviously enjoy playing live. After going to this gig with little idea of what to expect I can honestly say that I was very pleasantly surprised and would definitely make the effort to see and hear more of The Earlies. They are a very refreshing sound in an industry that has been stagnating recently with a dirge of copycat indie bands and as a result I would urge anyone to check out this band as soon as they can. JACK LEVY REPORTS ON “THANK YOU FOR SMOKING”  CERT 15 Aaron Eckhart leads an all star cast on brilliant form in this new satirical comedy which is strikingly original. Despite a number of films focusing upon corporate America over the last few years ‘Thank You For Smoking’ stands out from the crowd because it is one of the few that is a comedy, and a very funny one at that. The film has been adapted from a Christopher Buckley novel to the screen by the director Jason Reitman, and tells the story of Nick Naylor who is a lobbyist for the tobacco industries. Naylor’s (Eckhart) job is to spin the truth in order to convince people that smoking is, in fact, not that bad and the tobacco companies are actually caring, concerned people. Naylor narrates us along his story to try and stop the work of Senator Finistirre (William H. Macy) who is leading the witch hunt against the tobacco industry and is trying to push through a new bill which will see the branding of poison labels upon all packets of cigarettes. He also comes up with the idea of paying top Hollywood producers to ensure that their stars smoke plenty of cigarettes in the movies, so making smoking once again cool. An incredibly relevant argument as there is currently a resurgence in actors smoking in films, so much so that it is as common today as it was in the fifties. Despite this however, rather ironically, no one is actually shown smoking in ‘Thank You For Smoking’. We see Naylor dealing, rather well, with being the most hated man on the planet. Which leads to death threats, kidnappings and other general abuse, yet he isn’t portrayed as a martyr or a victim. Nor is he the villain, he is more of an unlikely hero and is in fact an incredibly likeable character, which explains why he always ends up winning people over to his point of view. Cameron Bright makes a break from his past scary roles as the demon child in films like ‘Godsend’ and ‘Birth’ to appear as Naylor’s overly mature twelve year old son, Joey, with whom he is trying to better his relation- ship by taking him on one of his business trips. The dishonesty in his job is in stark contrast to the honesty which he shows his son. He is honest about being dishonest, which earns the appreciation and admiration of Joey, if nobody else. The best thing about this film is that it is not trying to push over one particular point of view, rather it makes fun of both sides. Finistirre is shown as comical and weak, whilst Doak “The Captain” Boykin (Robert Duvall) the head of the tobacco industry is shown as corrupt and ruthless. In short this is one of the few films that actually lets you, as Naylor says everyone should be able to in regards to smoking, make up your own mind. Rob Lowe, Katie Holmes, JK Simmons and Adam Brody add to the strong acting calibre and ensure that ‘Thank You For Smoking’ will become one of the year’s best cult films. Dark comedies rarely come much better. An ‘Earlie’ Night by Dave Croft MUSIC REVIEW