Mitch Benn

> Norwich Playhouse

I remember Mitch Benn from observing back stage at Radio 4's The Now Show. Whatever the topic, he could think up a funny lyric.

So it's good to see that he's out on tour with a proper band, and letting the music take centre stage.

The show opened with a Viking fantasy about Ikea conquering the world with their flat-pack furniture, and then went surprisingly wistful in the ballad of the stalker.

There were songs about being famous and numbers where we watched impersonations of Elton John, Duran Duran, The Beatles, and even Metallica type thrash (according to Benn, you don't actually hear Heavy Metal, you just feel the pressure of it on your skin).

But the centre-piece of the evening was the new single: a wry satire on Coldplay, which is apparently accompanied by a video in which the comic struts his stuff in one of those trademark Chris Martin shirts, if you care to look on-line.

Tash Baylis on bass, keyboards and vocals had her share of the limelight, too. And her finest moment came in a truly nasty 1980s-type solo, in which she bumped off her boyfriends one after another in order to feel more romantically about them.

As for drummer Kirsty Newton, she twiddled her drumstick like no other woman I have ever seen.

Not quite like Radio 4, and all a bit loud. But we liked it.