Posts by boredatwork

  • Punk, keeping it real, musical snobbery and all that B***CKS.

    Quote from Backdrifter

    I absolutely love St Vincent. She doesn't particularly come across to me as trying to look cool but even if she is I'm not bothered as I find her one of the most consistently interesting acts at the moment.


    Yeah Bunnymen were not good. Sad when you think back to that deep sonorous voice back in the Ocean Rain days. I'll have to investigate Lemon Twigs, recommended anything in particular?

    St Vincent was lying on her back & saying “Yaaah!” a lot in an extremely mannered way. Perhaps she was trying to fit in with the “cool” ethos of Later but I’d never seen her before & it really put me off.


    Echo & the Bunnymen were terrific around 1980 but frighteningly, that’s 40 years ago(!) & Ian McCulloch has obviously been taking huge quantities of drugs ever since, which probably hasn’t helped! :/


    As for the Lemon Twigs I can honestly say I’ve loved almost everything they’ve done since the official debut album “Do Hollywood” in 2016. Nearly all of it can be found free on Youtube. “These Words” is a good accessible starter (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LncJE2otRVA ), or any live version of “Small Victories” (such as https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQ5-M-RY2Sw ) or “The Fire”. From the current album “Songs for the General Public”, try “Live in Favor of Tomorrow”, “Hog”, “The One”, “Why do lovers own each other?”. “Tailor Made” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qd5yGb1A8ac ) from 2018 is perfect for driving fast along winding country lanes. And their lovely 2-minute version of “The Coventry Carol” is worth much more than the 99p it cost on Amazon Music. Currently 23 & 21, they’re still in that early top-of-their-game period that Genesis were in from Nursery Cryme through Trick of the Tail. As with Genesis, it won’t last forever - but most bands never experience it at all!


    Sorry that went really off topic, but I don't need much of an invitation to plug them! :D

  • Punk, keeping it real, musical snobbery and all that B***CKS.

    Quote from Backdrifter

    Interesting, I don't really get that from it, I usually find it has quite a good range of acts and at times appreciated their showcasing of interesting new acts or ones unknown to me which have led me to delve into their work. Not that I've been a regular viewer in recent years, I should add. The things I tend not to like are JH's appalling amateurish interview style, being able to see grinning audience members clustered around the acts, and the occasional tendency to bring on some revered act from the 60s who gets treated like royalty but sadly is simply unable to cut it anymore.


    An example of this was Martha Reeves. I'm not a Motown fan but appreciate its impact and importance for many fans, and that she was one of its popular exponents. But when she appeared on Later a few years ago, in all honesty her voice was like a frog complaining hoarsely as it tried to force its way through a sandpaper tunnel. Yet JH was practically bowing before her and a friend of mine was outraged when I dared to say MR's voice was wrecked, which it so blatantly was.


    And the annual 'Hootenanny' shows have long since been an extended excercise in cringe-inducingness mixed with tedium.


    Quote from foxfeeder

    Didn't see Martha Reeves, but I think it was Jools shows where both Chrissie Hynde and Ray Davies both demonstrated that their singing careers were effectively over.

    I tend to agree with all of this. Jools’ banal interviewing technique is cringeworthy, & the Hootenanny thing has gone way beyond its sell-by date.


    But Later’s strength is in bringing a range of disparate acts together in the same programme so each episode usually has at least one act worth watching like Interpol or Marc Almond to compensate for the several others that aren’t. Also as foxfeeder said, some of them try so hard to look cool it’s embarrassing, witness Serge Pizzorno prancing around in pyjamas, & as for St Vincent.... :rolleyes:


    The top-billed acts are often disappointing: I didn’t see Martha Reeves, or Chrissie Hynde & Ray Davies (were those two on the same episode?!), but the once great Echo & the Bunnymen were clearly past their best. However if I hadn’t switched on that particular episode to witness their decline I’d never have stumbled across the Lemon Twigs, & for that I’ll forgive Jools anything ;)

  • The Thread Of Complete Randomness

    Quote from thefarmer

    Just heard to Dancing Queen by Abba on the radio. Whenever I hear it I get a strong visualisation of 3 or 4 women dancing somewhat awkwardly in circle around their handbags early on at a wedding reception!

    You’re lucky then! Some of us still can’t escape the image of the wretched Theresa May woodenly shuffling across the stage to it, desperately trying to look popular. I’d much rather visualise the handbag dancers ^^

  • Are political threads allowed?

    Quote from Backdrifter

    Already obvious of course. But now it begins in earnest. Confirmation  that Trump will refuse to accept a defeat (though would no doubt be fine if it's a victory).

    Unfortunately Trump won in 2016 because his opponents underestimated him & couldn’t believe he had any skills. But one thing he’s very good at is sowing doubt & uncertainty. So here he’s priming voters either to accept delaying the election or to expect gerrymandering & vote-rigging beforehand, in case it’s a close result. He's behind in the polls, so it’s a tactic worth trying.


    If Biden wins a decisive victory, Trump will probably concede & leave, albeit with a bad grace. If not, surely he can be politely but firmly removed.

  • What TV shows have you been watching ?

    Quote from foxfeeder

    Also, in a similar vein, Dr Who, though it had lost the plot somewhat anyway, has in the last couple of series or so become so "preachy" it's now completely intolerable.

    Dr Who’s unwatchable now isn’t it? They ram messages down viewers’ throats as unsubtly as possible, whether it’s extinction rebellion, civil rights, gay astronauts or whatever. Completely counter-productive as most viewers get sick of being lectured & switch off what was unmissable in the Eccleston/Tennant/Smith era.


    For a more nuanced & interesting take on homosexuality than the makers of Dr Who could imagine, The History Boys was on BBC4 a couple of days ago. Brilliant film set in 1980s Sheffield, made about 15 years ago, but they probably couldn’t make it now for fear of offending somebody!

  • What TV shows have you been watching ?

    Quote from Backdrifter

    I believe art can't help but be seen in context of a constantly evolving present, which is why for example I'm fine with Shakespeare stage adaptations being done with modern dress and settings etc, which some people object to. But ultimately it has to work. 19th/early 20th century pieces with a modern filter are fine in theory but like anything it can't be a shotgun marriage.

    Updated Shakespeare can be okay but it has to be believable. Anthony Hopkins as King Lear dressed as a tramp pushing a trolley around a grotty shopping precinct was just ludicrous. (Apparently they had to stop filming mid-scene when a helpful passer-by butted in to give him the address of the local homeless shelter ^^ ).


    Shakespeare’s plots/concepts often translate better to modern day settings than the actual plays e.g. the film Ten things I hate about you. Similarly, Bridget Jones’ Diary is an inspired updating of Pride & Prejudice.

  • What TV shows have you been watching ?

    Quote from Backdrifter

    Can you give some examples?

    War of the Worlds on BBC a few months ago. They changed the story beyond recognition to make it all about a man trying to get a divorce from his wife so he could marry Demelza from Poldark while the Martian invasion that was the whole point of the book just happened quietly in the background. I’m sure the Edwardian divorce laws were unfair, but I rather suspect that’s not what most of the viewers tuned in to see! :/

  • What TV shows have you been watching ?

    Don’t even suggest it! ^^ Being Genesis fans, the makers might read this & given that all musicians are currently unemployed & TV is desparate for new programmes, it’ll be dragged out into an hour-long concert performance on BBC2 next month, with each band member on his individual Skype screen …. & I bet they won’t even credit you. ;)


    Yes it can get pretty dull working from home & the company is in no hurry to return us to a crowded office. At least you can miss the odd meeting by pretending the internet connection’s failed - not that you need to pretend when Virgin Media does it for you anyway :rolleyes:

  • What TV shows have you been watching ?

    Quote from foxfeeder

    Currently watching "The Kemps: All True" which is by the same guy who created Brian Pern/Thotch, but is using Gary and Martin Kemp of Spandau Ballet, and creating a spoof version of their story. It's about as funny as Pern, so probably best you don't waste your time. It uses some of the same actors, including the actor who played Brian Pern.

    Yes I saw that too & was disappointed. I liked Brian Pern in its heyday but by the end it had run out of original ideas & this was just more of the same but without the most amusing people from Pern, notably Paul Whitehouse & Nigel Havers. Martin Kemp’s brief cameo in Pern trying to heat up a pizza in a Corby trouser press was funnier than the whole of "The Kemps: All True".

  • What TV shows have you been watching ?

    Quote from Backdrifter

    I started ep1 of The Secrets She Keeps but didn't finish it. Like ep1 of Cardinal it simply didn't engage me. I'm a bit sick of seeing dramas about middle-class white people and their travails. In this case, a middle-class white woman pregnant with her 3rd child, in a nice big house with her middle-class white husband. All it needed was for one of them to be a lawyer, but I can at least say neither were. At one point they go for lunch at the big house of her slightly disapproving wealthy mother, and the maverick rebellious sister is present. So it ticks a few trope boxes.


    The potential interest comes from a down-at-heel shopworker, also pregnant and due the same time, who appears to have some sort of fixation on the first woman. So we are meant to think, ooh where will this lead, what will she do? And is she responsible for the hateful messages appearing in the first woman's yummy-mummy blog comments? But I couldn't work up enough interest. I might at least complete the 1st ep and see what I think.


    For Downton Abbey fans, the shopworker is played by Laura Carmichael in a jarringly different sort of role and look.

    Thanks for the summary, I’ll certainly give that a miss!


    One of the very few positive results of the pandemic is that some old drama series are being dug out & reshown, including ITV’s Broadchurch series 1 that I missed first time around, & BBC dramas from the 1990s & 2000s like Pride & Prejudice & Tess of the D’Urbervilles, just to remind us they could produce perfectly good adaptations of old classic novels before some overpaid manager decided that everything must be anachronistically rewritten to suit modern sensibilities :rolleyes:

  • Who are your favourite top ten current bands or artists?

    Grouped to try & observe your definition of what constitutes “current”:


    Genuinely new young bands (apart from Backdrifter, these seem to be in short supply elsewhere on this thread ! ;))

    Lemon Twigs

    Starcrawler


    Noughties survivors:

    Franz Ferdinand (far & away my favourite band of the noughties, sadly they’ve run out of steam now)

    Kasabian (who’ve also run out of steam)


    Very old favourites who still release new albums, albeit not as good as their early work

    Joe Jackson

    Steve Hackett

    Johnny Marr

  • What TV shows have you been watching ?

    Did anyone see the documentary “Rock ‘n’ Roll Island” about Eel Pie Island in the Thames on BBC4 last night? It was amazing to learn how many bands & artists either performed there or just milled around in the crowd in the 1960s before they were famous: the Stones, Bowie, Eric Clapton, Elton John, Rod Stewart etc. With reminiscences from many famous contributors, including Steve Hackett lamenting how his 16-year old self never got any of the free love allegedly going on there, much as he’d have liked some! ;)

  • What movie have you watched?

    Saw the latest film version of “Emma” a fortnight ago, directed by the music video director Autumn de Wilde. Surprisingly it was excellent, a real contrast to all the ghastly woke rehashes of classic novels that the BBC have inflicted on viewers recently.

  • Genesis live 2020 - PreSale, venues, tickets

    Got two £136 tickets for the front row of upper tier nearest the stage at Manchester on Weds 9th Dec (the added day there), after the Tuesday venue presale yesterday offered nothing under £181 or the £330-£766 packages. I guess the promoters know which bands have affluent fans who’ll pay up for what’s probably the last chance to see them!