Just got home from a night shift and started watching the second episode of ‘24 hours in police custody’ Enthralling viewing involving a case of a man (if you can call him that) who has been caught in possession of child pornography. Total respect for the police officers who have to spend their days watching this vile stuff and bringing ****s like that to justice. The series is well worth watching.
I finished watching this last night and agree it was superb. Some excellent characters and some funny lines but overall it was very poignant.
Glam Rock at the BBC on BBC4. My formative years, early teens. I’m hoping Mott the Hoople will feature, but am sure that Gary Glitter will not. Apart from the dressing up and the manufactured Chinn/Chapman from some bands, these groups didn’t seem to have much in common musically.
An interesting point about Gary Glitter. Not saying it’s wrong to do it, ‘cos the fella is evil, but isn’t it weird how we write these people, who were at the time massive stars, out of TV history. Never to be shown again..... Jimmy Saville, Rolf Harris.....all staples of our youth who we grew up watching (‘Jim’ll fix it, Rolf on Saturday).....never to be seen again.
I feel lucky, comparatively, that in my early teens (the late sixties) the music was much better. Or was it? I've got tickets to see one of my musical heroes in July. Van Morrison at the Roundhouse - can't wait.
I’ve seen Van 3 times, all more than 20 years ago, and had the complete 360 degree experience. Once was fascinatingly dire, he didn’t want to be there and wasn’t for long, played for about 30 minutes and stormed off. Second time was utterly brilliant, full of passion and soul (can’t remember where this was, but a relatively small venue, which always helps for me). Third time was bewilderingly professional, very good indeed but very different to the first two.
Have to say all three creeped me out even before any rumours, let alone proof. I think a lot of people felt like that about Saville in particular, my mum couldn’t stand him, said he was ‘weird’, Jim’ll Fix it was never watched in our house. I’m quite happy for them to be airbrushed out.
Yes, the size of venue is very important, and the Roundhouse is about perfect for me. I've never seen Van live in his own right - the one time I have seen him was when we went to see Elvis Costello at the Albert Hall some time in the 90s and Elvis introduced him as a special guest for a couple of numbers, which was pretty wonderful in itself. Hopefully he'll be at his soulful best in July.
I saw van when he sat at the back of the stage in the dark The last two albums ibought the other week were Scritti politti and Rolf Harris
I saw Van last year at Kelvingrove Bandstand - a small outdoor venue. He started out quite jazzy, which I struggled with, but then he started to belt out the old hits and he was superb - brilliant band with him too. It stayed dry too, which is always a bonus in Glasgow!!
The Roundhouse will be perfect for the man. Does he still have Georgie Fame playing keyboards for him?
Following on from Strolls’ anticipation of seeing Van Morrison, I have just discovered that one of my favourite singers, Zucchero Fornaciari, is playing at the Albert Hall next year. I suppose he’s best known for the rather cheesy Senza Una Donna with Paul Young over here (his stripped down solo version of this is great though), he is a proper blues man songs full of soul but also Mediterranean melodies and melodrama, with a fantastic voice. Very nostalgic for me, saw him several times when I lived in Italy (we were both much younger) he always puts on a great show, especially when he has genius bass player Polo Jones with him. If you are unfamiliar with him have a look at You Tube live performances, recommend Diavolo in Me as a taster or Dune Mosse with Miles Davis for the slower stuff. Most songs are in Italian. Oro, Incenso e Birra (Gold, Incense and Beer) from about 1988 is my favourite LP. I’ll post some stuff on the music thread, though that is a bit of a black hole as far as I’m concerned, several lifetimes of stuff on it now. Scrub the Albert Hall, this is worth a jaunt to Italy, if I get it right might get a visit to the San Siro in too.
Wouldn’t describe myself as a great Van Morrison fan, but saw him as part of a double bill with Robert Plant and really enjoyed his full set. Band was tight and he was in good fettle. Enjoy Stroller.
Anybody watch the Ch4 series SAS:Who Dares Wins? It's a bit cheesy, but easy viewing. Mrs Monkey loves it, so bought a couple of books by the ex-SBS guys who are on the show, Ant Middleton and Jason Fox. I've read them both, and whilst the Middleton book is a story that can be found ten-a-penny in the military bookshelves of any book store, recalling his military career bit by bit, the Jason Fox book is brilliant. Battle Scars, by Jason Fox, really delves deep into what damage the trauma of being exposed to combat over a prolonged period can do. He suffered extreme PTSD, culminating in him standing on a cliff ready to throw himself off. The book is brutally honest in how his mental health spiralled out of control, and then his attempts to recover from the mental health problems and turn his life back around. It's a dark road that he's travelled, and thankfully emerged out the other end of the tunnel in a much better place. Even if you're not into military books, this frank disection of mens approach to mental health issues and how we try to cover them up with a facade of bravado is a brilliant read.
Enjoying a great night of TV on BBC2, three hours of shows about one of my childhood favourites, Dave Allen. First program is going through his career, from radio and Aussie TV, to mainstream BBC shows (where he generated more complaints than many other shows, including being banned from Irish TV due to a sketch showing the Pope doing a strip-tease which also saw him receive death threats from the IRA), and interestingly a fab documentary he did searching for Britains most eccentric person (he'd have done well spending some time on here....) I'd imagine all the shows will be available on iPlayer if you were a fan...
I watched that Steely it was really good TV.......apparently he had a clause in his contracts that only allowed a show to be repeated once, hence we don't see as much as we ought to, hard to belief he's been gone 14 years now........ Also I don't know if anyone else has been following the BBC2 programme Race across the World but its been very enjoyable. Basically it started with 5 ordinary pairs of people having to race from London to Singapore over land only as Singapore is the furthest point that can be reached without flying having to pass through 5 checkpoints en route, they have no mobile phones and money equivalent of 2 economy flight tickets to Singapore, roughly stg£2300. If they run short of money they have to find work to bump up their funds. It's been interesting to see how people get by having to think on their feet without modern technology to help them, it also shows what is possible to do if you think about things rationally........
