Music – Well Eye Never

Queen Album Review – A Kind Of Magic

By the mid-1980s, it seemed as if Queen weren’t on top of their game any more. Their 1984 album The Works had sold well and they were still attracting big crowds to their shows, yet something was missing. The band were tired of the endless cycle of recording and touring – particularly Freddie, who went off to make his own solo album, Mr. Bad Guy – and they weren’t dominating the music scene in the way they used to.

It felt like the band had passed their peak, and they were just sailing along without making much of a splash. But then fate smiled upon them and presented them with the crest of a huge wave in the form of Live Aid in 1985. Their barnstorming 20-minute set of classic hits, regarded by many as the best rock set of all time, delighted existing fans and drew in many new followers who had little to no awareness of them. And most importantly, it re-lit the fire within the group, reminding them what they were capable of and why they were loved.

They capitalised on that success by releasing the song One Vision in November 1985, and then a couple more songs the following March, before blessing the world with their latest album, A Kind Of Magic, in June 1986, which also served as the soundtrack to Highlander. It deservedly shot straight into the UK charts at number 1, and stayed in the top 10 for 16 weeks, out of a total 30 weeks in the top 40.

It was their first chart-topping album since The Game in 1980 and Greatest Hits in 1981, and their final 3 studio albums with Freddie that followed all reached number 1 as well. This was therefore the start of their revival – although, as the Magic tour would be their last set of concerts together, it was also the beginning of the end in a sad way, which Freddie was privately aware of.

So to celebrate the 40th anniversary of this classic album and Freddie’s final ever concert, I’m going to dig through each of the tracks here, looking at music videos, alternate versions, live performances, covers and so on. And don’t forget you can find lots of videos in the playlists that I’ve linked to beneath the table of contents as well. I hope you enjoy!

Double page spread from the booklet with Queen's album A Kind Of Magic. It shows a dazzling, colourful array of cartoon imagery against a black background littered with tiny colourful stars and other objects. The large cartoon imagery across both pages includes representations of all 4 band members, some dancers, a microphone, two bowls of water that each contain a fish, another fish flying around with a wide open mouth that gives it a shocked expression, a rabbit jumping out of a top hat while a frog appears to be diving towards it, a cauldron, a lamp with a large genie that has emerged from it, and a blue book with the word Magic on the cover.

July 2026 Favourites

Hello again, hope you’re doing well. I know it’s lovely to have sunshine in the summer, but this exceptional period of hot and dry weather is getting a bit much now isn’t it? If you or someone you know is affected by wildfires, droughts or the heat in general at the moment, I hope you’re staying safe and comfortable as best you can.

Naturally it’s been having an impact on my mother, so even though after my foot injury I’m feeling well enough to go out a bit more again, I’ve still had to stick around at home a lot of the time to make sure she’s ok. I’ll be giving a little update about my caring situation in this post.

So again there’s nothing for me to write about in London just yet, but I’m hopeful that will finally change during August, particularly with a booking I have for my birthday that I’m very much looking forward to.

However, there is plenty of entertainment for me to review from July, including a couple of crime dramas I discussed on Radio 4’s In Touch, along with some audio and TV comedies, and I’ve even tried getting back into playing video games. And, as ever, none of it’s sponsored or gifted. So I hope you enjoy!

Queen Album Review – The Works

Following the poor reception to Hot Space in 1982, which had focused too heavily on funk and disco sounds, Queen took the hint and brought more rock elements back into the mix for their 1984 album The Works. It also helped that they had taken a break in between those releases, focusing on solo work instead, so they came back refreshed as a group.

The result is a combination of 70s and 80s styles that is much more interesting, and it gave us huge hits like Radio Ga Ga, I Want To Break Free and Hammer To Fall, although the video for one of those songs didn’t go down well in America.

In the UK, the album jumped straight into the charts at number 2 for a week, and while it never managed to reach the top spot, it did return to the second place position 3 months later for a fortnight. It spent 57 consecutive weeks in the top 100 initially (25 of which were top 10), but then kept returning for a little while every so often. So in total it was in the chart for 94 weeks, which is the longest for any Queen album. It’s also their only album from which all of the songs were released as either A or B-side tracks on singles.

So for the latest in my series of Queen album reviews, here’s a look at each of the tracks, along with alternate versions, live performances, covers and more. I hope you enjoy!

June 2026 Favourites

Hello again, I hope you’re doing well. This has been another quiet month for me, which is a good thing, and there has been some positive progress too.

In terms of my home situation, there isn’t much to update you on. I’m still feeling good about the fact that I left my job to become a full-time carer for my mum 3 months ago, with a little bit of accessibility testing work on the side, because my days are now much less intensive. My time is still productive, as I have plenty of tasks I can do and lots of things I enjoy to keep me occupied, but I can also spread things out and relax much more easily. We’ve also survived another uncomfortable heatwave, so we’re quite relieved that’s over, although we know there are more on the way this summer, and there could be worse to come in the decades ahead.

It also feels like my injury has almost fully healed now, touch wood, as I’m not getting pain in the ball of my foot any more. But I know I need to be careful, given how long it took to go away, as it’s probably still repairing and strengthening itself, and I’m anxious not to trigger the issue again if I can help it. So I’m currently taking some short local strolls to ease myself back into things, and I’m seeing if I can get better trainers and socks as well. It’s all a bit trial and error really, and my foot is still giving me occasional gentle warnings not to push things too far too quickly, as if the issue is still a bit borderline. The hot weather probably hasn’t helped either. But I’m glad I’m a lot better now.

All of which means there are no major outings to mention again this month, which is a shame as I had a theatre show booked that I really wanted to see, but never mind. I still have other things arranged in the months ahead, one of which is a birthday surprise from a close friend, so that’ll be fun.

I can, however, talk about things that I’ve been watching and listening to as usual. In particular, there are 3 new Blu-rays that I’ve bought, so I’ve devoted most of my viewing time to those. But there are other things that I’ve been watching and listening to as well, in terms of comedy and music. So there’s a nice variety for you to look through here, none of which is sponsored or gifted, and I hope you enjoy!

Queen Album Review – Hot Space

We’re really Under Pressure from this latest heatwave, so it would help if someone could take Action This Day to Put Out The Fire in order for me to be a Cool Cat again. Then I can start Calling All Girls to pass on The Words Of Love and emphasise my Body Language as a Dancer. I’ll prove that I’m a Soul Brother who knows that Life Is Real, I have the Staying Power and I won’t take any Back Chat.

Yes, that’s right. For this next post in my series of Queen reviews, we come to an album that proved to be quite controversial – Hot Space. It was hardly unusual for Queen to be experimental, but this foray into funk, disco and R&B, with a heavy focus on synth sounds (although there were still rock elements as well), was too much of a change from their traditional style. Even within the band there were arguments as they put it together.

The reaction from their fanbase wasn’t lost on them either, as Freddie remarked during a show in Milton Keynes: “Now, most of you know that we’ve got some new sounds out in the last week. And for what it’s worth, we’re gonna do a few songs in the funk/black category – whatever you call it. That doesn’t mean we’ve lost our rock ‘n’ roll feel, ok? I mean, it’s only a bloody record, people get so excited about these things. We just want to try out a few sounds.”

It is fair to say that Hot Space is their weakest studio album as a result (if we don’t count the soundtrack score for Flash Gordon that preceded it). However, it’s not awful either, and there is some good stuff on it, especially Life Is Real, Las Palabras De Amor and Under Pressure, as they’re closer to Queen’s usual style. It also peaked at number 4 in the UK chart, altogether spending 3 weeks in the top 10 and 13 weeks in the top 40, which is fairly good. And when they performed some of the tracks live, they were interpreted in a more heavy rock style that made them sound better, because of the instruments the band used on stage.

So here’s my personal review of each of the tracks, along with alternate versions, live performances, covers and more. I hope you enjoy!

An artistic image showing images of the 4 members of Queen against a black background. Each is facing forward with light hitting their face from the left side of the image, leaving the other side of each face in shadow, blending into the black behind them. Each face is shown in a different colour, with John in red, Brian in blue, Freddie in yellow and Roger in green.

Doctor Who Review – The Movie (30th Anniversary Blu-ray)

My interest in Doctor Who has mainly been confined to the Modern era from the 2005 reboot onwards, as that was when I first got into it, and I’ve been gradually revisiting and reviewing those series in recent years. It looks like I now have quite a bit of time to complete those reviews too, given that the show is going on hiatus again.

However, I have very little experience of the Classic era. I was still in my childhood for most of the Wilderness Years, when the programme was off air between 1989 and 2005, so it wasn’t a big part of my life growing up.

I did of course become aware of the show, particularly via a couple of charity specials that were broadcast on TV in the 90s, because it is a British institution that is deeply embedded in popular culture. It’s impossible to live here in the UK and not know about it. But I was too young to care. It was just one of those many old programmes that the adults used to watch, and it had long gone. And since getting into the Modern era, I’ve only seen occasional stories from the old days, either in their original form or via modern re-edits.

During its 16-year absence, however, there was an attempt to bring the show back in 1996, via a feature-length American TV pilot simply known as Doctor Who: The Movie, featuring Paul McGann as the 8th Doctor. A lot of fans in the UK liked it, but there wasn’t enough interest in the States to resurrect the show fully.

So it completely passed me by at the time. But I did eventually see it many years later, on Netflix in December 2013, when it was available there alongside a tiny selection of Classic era episodes that I also watched. I had taken the opportunity to check out those stories because of the 50th anniversary of the show – which means my first experience of Paul McGann had actually been his Night Of The Doctor mini-episode the previous month, showing his regeneration into the War Doctor. And as it happens I’ve recently seen that story again, having just rewatched the 50th anniversary specials during May. He also later made a cameo in The Power Of The Doctor in 2022 that I enjoyed.

12½ years on from my one and only viewing, therefore, I have no clear recollection of the film or whether I liked it. So buying the new 30th anniversary Blu-ray is a bit of a gamble for me, but a fascinating one too, as it’s my first proper deep dive into any Doctor Who story before 2005. It feels like I’m watching the movie for the first time again, and all of the special features (apart from the trailer for this release) are completely new to me, as I’ve never owned any previous editions.

So join me as I experience the movie in all its remastered glory and explore all the bonus material. I’ve also put together a playlist of highlights, music tracks, interviews, convention appearances, etc that you can look through too. I hope you enjoy!

Harry Hill – Stand-Up Comedy & TV Burp Reviews

Former doctor Harry Hill has been on the comedy scene for over 30 years, and is renowned for his surreal mind and daft antics, including the use of silly stories, observational humour, slapstick, music, props, puppets and other quirky characters, often with cultural references, running gags and callbacks woven throughout his performances. Yet beneath all the nonsense there is a lot of structure, creativity and cleverness as well. So sometimes you’ll find him mocking TV shows, celebrities, human behaviour, language, the world around us, and so on, while at other times he’s just delightfully absurd for the sheer fun of it.

He recently had a great new stand-up special broadcast on Sky this month. So because I enjoyed that, I thought I would revisit all of his previous specials as well, just as I’ve done for several other comedians in recent years. And while I’m at it, I figured I would go through his TV Burp DVDs that I own too, because I loved that programme. Plus I’ll briefly mention some of his other work. I’ve also put together a playlist with a wide selection of clips, music, interviews and more, including videos from his own Youtube channel. So I hope you enjoy looking through it all!

Doctor Who Review – 50th Anniversary Specials

Yes, I know, we already celebrated Doctor’s Who’s 60th anniversary a few years ago. It’s all a bit wibbly wobbly timey wimey. But this epic post for the bank holiday weekend is part of my ongoing series of reviews for all the series in the modern era, as I’ve been rewatching them in order. Recently I wrote about Series 7 (Part 1 & Part 2), and the cliffhanger at the end of it directly leads into the 50th anniversary specials, so naturally I wanted to move straight on to those.

The 2013 specials mark the end of Matt Smith’s stellar reign as the 11th Doctor. Some people had doubts about him when he took over from David Tennant – who also appears in the anniversary story, along with John Hurt as the War Doctor – but he really made the role his own, and showed he was capable of everything from chirpy humour to dark intensity. So he’s been very much missed ever since the brilliant send-off he had in these specials.

Meanwhile Jenna Coleman (who dropped the “Louise” from her name from this point onwards) continues to be a wonderful companion as Clara Oswald, with the mystery of why she’s the ‘Impossible Girl’ having been resolved at the end of Series 7. And there’s the welcome return of Billie Piper as a version of Rose that we’ve never seen before.

The score by Murray Gold is sublime as usual, so I’ll be picking out some of my favourite pieces from his soundtrack album in these reviews. And of course everything was overseen by showrunner Steven Moffat, who somehow managed to fit it all in alongside Series 7 of Doctor Who and Series 3 of Sherlock. Plus there was a biographical drama about the origins of the show, written by Mark Gatiss and featuring music by Edmund Butt, that I’ll also be reviewing in this post.

Altogether there’s a lot to mention from the Blu-ray set, along with additional stuff that wasn’t included in that release. So I hope you enjoy celebrating this key milestone in the show’s history with me.

April 2026 Favourites

Hello again, I hope you’re doing well. As I explained in my carer update post yesterday, this has been a good month overall, apart from Mum and I picking up little injuries, but we are both slowly getting better.

Because of that, I still haven’t been out anywhere exciting just yet. But there’s still some entertainment for me to mention as usual, for which the main themes this month happen to be the cosmos and comedy. So let’s crack on with it, and I hope you enjoy!

Doctor Who Review – Series 7 – Part 2

Welcome back to the second part of my review for Series 7 of Doctor Who. As explained in my previous post, I’ve split it in two to reflect how the series was divided up, because each part is very distinctive.

This part of the series properly introduces Jenna-Louise Coleman (who would later drop the “Louise” from the anniversary special onwards) as new companion Clara Oswald, following her surprise appearance in Asylum Of The Daleks. I like her combination of cheeky humour, intelligence and bravery, and she has great chemistry with Matt Smith as the 11th Doctor, so she’s another of my favourite companions. The big story arc looks at why the Doctor has met different versions of her already, while a related subplot is about the threat of the Great Intelligence. These episodes also take us towards the 50th anniversary of the show, as they were broadcast in that milestone year (2013), so they include occasional references to the Classic era for those familiar with it.

So once again, here are my reviews of the episodes and bonus features, and I hope you enjoy!

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