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Rosie's Pop Diary

Mixing stand up, storytelling and acoustic versions of her songs, singer-songwriter turned acclaimed comic Rosie Wilby delves into a personal treasure trove of old photos, fan letters, reviews and the original Rosie's Pop Diary (her '90s column in the now defunct music magazine, Making Music) for this funny and touching new show that explores the nature of nostalgia.

Rosie's Pop Diary traces the weird and wonderful story of a singer that nearly made it - from bizarre auditions, supporting Bob Geldof and Jamie Cullum to walking barefoot along one of London's busiest roads just because it would make a good album cover.

Old Joint Stock Pub & Theatre,
4 Temple Row West,
Birmingham B2 5NY.
T: 0121 200 0946.
£10.
7.45pm for 8pm start.
www.oldjointstocktheatre.co.uk
www.rosiewilby.com
twitter @rosiewilby
www.facebook.com/rosiewilby .

Review:
Vintage Champagne sipped from a chipped mug is the best way to describe the enjoyably eccentric Rosie Wilby. With her self-deprecation and spiteful bitchy asides, Rosie Wilby's Pop Diary blended delicious volumes of vocals and sparkling stand-up humour. The singer songwriter, who achieved modest success for her reflective acoustic sounds at the height of 1990s Britpop, chatted, joked and sang her way through an hour long pre-Edinburgh set in the trendy studio in Taunton 's Brewhouse Theatre.

Rosie's material is essentially her own life with its angsts, oddities and lesbian love affairs - with lots of local colour and modern cultural references from the decade of the Spice Girls, Oasis and Blur. Her voice is one part blackberry, one part honey and one part Burgundy - sharp, rich, emotive - and slides over the audience with a spellbinding seductiveness.

Alone on stage, save for a few props, a projector and her guitar, Rosie lays bare the missed opportunities of her life and her various fractured relationships. It was just enough but with more plastic '90s props, slides of recognisable '90s icons and maybe more Dillie Keane-esque humour in her songs this could become a five star show. Wilby certainly has the potential for her Champagne of a show to be served in a flute.
Harry Mottram, Western Daily Press

Review:
Comedian Rosie Wilby used to be a musician back in the glory days of Brit Pop and this show at the Copa Upstairs was a trip down memory lane using material from her old reviews, letters and her '90s magazine column Rosie's Pop Diary. It follows Rosie's life as a musician and her own personal life journey. In case this sounds indulgent or a bit potty I must immediately say it is not - it is a funny, occasionally philosophical, reflection of an interesting phase of an interesting woman's life.

Her story is engagingly interleaved with lots of great songs from her former repertoire. Accompanying herself on the guitar, Wilby has a great voice (she tells us that her teacher said it was a cross between Eartha Kitt and Whitney Houston - hopefully because that was the only two singers he knew the names of!) she actually sounded rather like Barbra Streisand to me, with super rich tones and controlled power. Good music, good comedy and a feelgood show - a winning combination.
Angie Johnson, The Oxford Times