Peter Straker: I’m Still Here

Pleasance at Ghillie Dhu
4-30 August, 18.00

Still here? Peter Straker sure can say that again. He’s really gone and done it this time: the best hour’s cabaret he’s ever delivered, and in the festival’s best new venue.

The Ghillie Dhu is a newly converted chapel right next to the Caledonian Hotel, with a big, buzzy bar and a superb cabaret space in its vaulted upper regions.

Straker’s show, directed as usual by Mel Smith, comes with a five-piece band led by Warren Wills at the piano and an added bonus of that great revue and Joan Littlewood veteran, Toni Palmer.

The main man’s on fire, singing an incredible range of stuff from “Moon River” to “MacArthur Park” (yes, it’s funny and ridiculous), Harry Belafonte, Alan Price, Queen, Mika, Simon and Garfunkel, Jaques Brel, Randy Newman and Peter Gabriel.

If you’ve seen Straker before, you’ll want to go again. If you haven’t, do yourself a big favour, and just go.