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7days the Week's Highlights

THE legendary reggae band Toots & the Maytals plus special guests play the Liverpool Carling Academy. Toots Hibbert is one of the great voices and a true architect of reggae so much so that Do the Reggay, a 1968 single by him and the band is credited with giving the genre its name. The band will be playing all their classics plus tracks from the new album True Love that features guests such as Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, and Bonnie Raitt. pounds 16. 00 adv. Also at the New Brighton Floral P...

Already Up and Running

THE comedy festival, which officially started last night with the first stints of the Stand Out and Faith Hope and Hilarity projects, begins in earnest tonight with two major gigs. The Laughterhouse in Fenwick Street presents the acclaimed Canadian comic Glen Wool with his new show Relax (8pm start, pounds 8 admission) while over at Rawhide there's an Irishman, a Brummie and an Aussie -- Sean Percival, Kevin Gildea and Steve Hughes -- with local talent Brendan Riley as compere (8pm start, pou...

Dvd View

Ichi The Killer Box Set (18) WARNING, this is an insanely violent, comic-book gangster movie from Japan. I chi is a very troubled young man who is used by hoods because he is nearly indestructible and has a compulsion to kill.

Films: Showing

Godsend (15) Rating . . . GODSEND is a psychological thriller borne of the fear surrounding cloning.

The Big Picture: Why Bother with Reality ? ; Shrek 2 (U)Stars Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, Antonio Banderas, John Cleese, Julie Andrews, Jennifer Saunders, Rupert Everett. Director Andrew Adamson; 92mins. Rating . . . . .

IN THE Academy Awardwinning, computer-animated fairy tale Shrek, the beautiful princess didn't get her Prince Charming. Instead, she ended up with a hygienically challenged ogre and his wisecracking donkey sidekick. And they all lived happily ever after . . . untilnow.

Films: On

The Ladykillers (15). . . . REMAKE of the Alec Guineess classic starring Tom Hanks and directed by the Coen brothers and this time set in the Deep South. Sounds like a recipe for disaster but they manage to pull it off in style. A little showy at times however. Eurotrip (15). . TEEN sex comedy in the worst possible taste. Scott Thomas believes his German pen friend Mieke is a boy and spurns advances by email. But when he discovers she is a beautiful blonde he sets off on a European adventure ...

Classical

ONE of the star attractions at this month's Chester Summer Music Festival is the visit by the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra. Their recordings continue to appear from Chandos and one has music turned into a hit, when it was used for the TV series Reilly, Ace of Spies. It's the Romance from the music Shostakovitch wrote for the film The Gadfly. The film was set in Italy, so Neapolitan sounds from both mandolin and slithering clarinet, can be heard in the Suite conducted by Vassily Sinaisky. The CD...

Review: Fareway to Heaven/ Royal Court

IT MAY be lewd, crude and as in your face as a full moon from the window of a passing car, but there's no denying the action in Fairway To Heaven has the power to make the hardiest of the politically correct crack into a smile. And we'reonly talking about what's going on in the audience. What happens on stage is very often a great deal funnier. Drama with a message it isn't --but as a series of comic sketches thrown together with some cracking one liners to boot, Tony Furlong's and Jimmy Powe...

Cd Review

The Beach Boys The Platinum Collection (EMI) Rating . . . IF any group deserves a three-CD compilation monster then it is The Beach Boys. This runs right through their career and features highs and lows. Their version of Fun Fun Fun with Status Quo does not stand out as a musical landmark but Good Vibrations, California Girls and I Get Around are all still wonderful tracks. The collection also features extensive liner notes and group photos as well. If we actually get a bit of sun that lasts ...

Bubling Along Nicely ; Liz Vickery Talks the Singer Who has Revived the Art of Crooning

HE HAS a voice of dark velvet that would soothe the heart of young lovers. Michael Buble is only too aware that he belongs to a classical tradition of crooning that stretches back to the elegant days of American music.

Audio Bullys

THE Audio Bullys are one of a new breed of groups currently breathing fresh life into dance music. Simon Franks and Tom Dinsdale have only been working together for a few years but they are already writing and recording their second album.

Not Shakespeare -- But Not Bard Anyway ; Mike Chapple Previews an Everyman Coup

THE Everyman is celebrating a coup after securing Henry IV for a July mini-run. This is not The Bard's Henry -- but the "other one" by the 20thcentury Italian playwright Luigi Pirandello which has as much to do with Shakespeare's as Macbeth had to do with bloodstain removers.

Festival has the Last Laugh ; Mike Chapple Meets the Local Comic Talent Lining Up to Make You Laugh

FOR those who used to say, in a less polite fashion, that Liverpool couldn't organise a booze up in a brewery, the city is having the last laugh with its third annual comedy festival. Bigger and better than ever before, this year it's spread over 17 days with over 100 shows featuring over 200 performers and the reare so many potential highlights that its difficult to know where to begin.

Get Ready for a Fab Cinema Experience

5-4-3-2-1!THE long-awaited live action version of Gerry Anderson's classic puppet series -- or Supermarionation as it was once called -- is almost ready for launch. The original captured the hearts of a generation of 60s children and has continued to do so with its tales of International Rescue and the heroics of the five Tracy brothers -- Scott, Virgil Alan, Gordon, and John.

Summer Special

By the Book: My Life, by Bill Clinton; Hutchinson, Pounds 25

HE lost his father before he was born and grew up in a little town called Hope to become the 42ndpresident of the United States -- Bill Clinton isn't joking when he writes that his life "is a good story". He is more modest about whether he has fulfilled his ambition to write a great book -- and, again, rightly so.

Film: Ogre Enthusiasm ; Shrek 2(U, 92mins)Animated Comedy. Featuring the Voices Of: Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, Antonio Banderas, John Cleese, Julie Andrews, Jennifer Saunders, Rupert Everett.

IN the Academy Award-winning, computer-animatedfairytale Shrek, the beautiful princess didn't get her Prince Charming. Instead, she ended up with a hygienically challenged ogre and his wisecracking donkey sidekick. And they all lived happily ever after. . . until now. After a whirlwind, around-the-worldhoneymoon, Shrek (voicedby Myers)and his beautiful bride Princess Fiona (Diaz) return to the pungent splendour of his ramshackle house in the forest.

Film: Independent Cinema Listings

TODAY Coliseum Cinema, Porthmadog Shrek 2 (U)(until July 15). Ucheldre Centre, Holyhead 21 Grams (15). 5. 30pm& 8pm. Clwyd Theatr Cymru, Mold The Station Agent (15). 8pm (until Wednesday, except Sunday). Neuadd Buddug, Bala Van Helsing (12A). 7. 30pm(also Saturday). SUNDAY Theatr Gwynedd, Bangor Repulsion (15). 7. 30pm. Ucheldre Centre, Holyhead 21 Grams (15). 3. 30pm. MONDAY JULY 5.

Rental: Epic Journey Reaps Reward ; Cold Mountain (Cert 15, 147 Mins, Starring: Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, Renee Zellweger, Ray Winstone, Charlie Hunnam, Donald Sutherland, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Natalie Portman, Giovanni Ribisi

HAVING been seriously wounded in battle, Confederate soldier Inman (Law)leaves his hospital bed and begins the slow journey home to his sweetheart Ada (Kidman)in the remote North Carolina hills. Deemed a deserter, Inman keeps to the back roads to avoid capture, where he encounters outlaws and good samaritans who help and hinder him.

Centrepiece: Eisteddfota - We Should Have Cancelled

T'S become more and more obvious in recent weeks that this year's National Eisteddfod in Newport should have been cancelled weeks ago to enable Eisteddfod officials to put their house in order financially. There are many who have voiced such an opinion privately.