Da's 'do' - the cabaret

Da sings Long May You Run

A drink-fuelled rendition of Like A Rolling Stone by The Scoundrels. Paul is so well fuelled he is often incapable of reading from the lyric sheet.

Mr Tambourine Man becomes Mr Cock-up as things degenerate into farce.

Nick Lowe Live at NPR

JFK

Bon Voyage!

Dead Frequency

Debut film Dead Frequency on contest shortlist
Nov 13 2010
by Evening Chronicle

A VAMPIRE film set in Newcastle has got its teeth stuck into an international film festival.

Dead Frequency, dubbed a gritty love story with a vampire twist, has defied its independent roots and gone on to be shortlisted to screen at The Stepping Stone Festival in India.

Writer and director Rob Burrows, of Birtley, Gateshead, was bowled over after finding out his first ever film was selected as one of 21 finalists in the feature film category.

Rob said: "There’s only one other film from the UK and about nine from the USA. There’s quite a lot of competition."

But Rob, who works as an accident and emergency practitioner, has confidence in Dead Frequency, which took nearly a year to finish from writing to final editing.

"I wrote the script and I hadn’t done one before. I really wanted to have it made into a film but nobody wants to hire a writer – they usually have agents. So I formed a company called Solarus (CORR) Films and did it myself."

Rob made sure that the cast and crew were made up of local talent so there would be an authenticity to the Geordie script.

He said: "I found that there’s some very good talent here. You find that everything seems to work from London so that’s why I set this up here."

They filmed all over the North East from Newcastle to County Durham to Sunderland, including iconic locations such as Newcastle’s Central Station and Saltwell Park in Gateshead.

The film follows late-night radio talk show host Sam Stewart who is battling personal demons while also trying to hold down his job and a stable relationship with co-worker Emily.

But a new colleague at the station threatens to reveal their vampire tendencies to the world.

Leading lady Michaela Marshall said she enjoyed being involved with a film that was so close to her home.

The 21-year-old, from Sunderland, added: "It was nice because I felt secure and knew I wasn’t too far from home."

And she now has her sights set on the film taking off after The Stepping Stone Festival in December and is hoping her acting career will flourish as a result.

Rob is currently in the process of pulling together a cast for his next big screen venture, Entwinement. (CORR).

He’s hoping the psychological drama, which will begin filming in Newcastle next year, will follow in the footsteps of its predecessor.

http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/north-east-news/evening-chronicle-news/2010/11/13/debut-film-dead-frequency-on-contest-shortlist-72703-27652927/

For further news, check with: http://www.deadfrequency.co.uk/ and Twitter (details on the site) for details as they become available.

It should be receiving its UK Premiere at Cinewold Boldon in February (Cert.15) - so if you take your car, don't leave anything valuable in it.

THE MANY HATS OF MICHAEL EDWARD LOVE

Smashing shorts, Bruce.

Dennis looks like shit here. Charlie Parker syndrome: late 30s going on mid 60s. And for the same reason.

The Disappearing Skull

FRIDAY NIGHT HORROR MOVIE

http://www.youtube.com/user/DaywaltFearFactory

ONE MAN GUYS

WRITING ON THE WALL...

REBIRTH/RE-BRANDING OF ALL-NEW FRIDAY BOYS

The ALL-NEW FRIDAY NIGHT BOYS will stage their first meeting tomorrow at Tilleys in Westgate Road. We've lost two members, due disloyalty issues, but will be sure to give their able replacements - Warren and Shane - a warm welcome. TK will meet us later, next door in The Bodega, after a poetic detour via Durham.

LARKIN'S BRIEF ENCOUNTER

http://www.youtube.com/embed/-MHicn8GuGs?hd=1"

Jim Loves His 'Vicars and Tarts' tales.

By Paul Myles-Kelly
A 'VICARS and tarts' party has led to an unholy row – after a fun-loving South Shields clergyman donned a short skirt and high heels.
The Rev Martin Wray, of St Lawrence the Martyr Church at Horsley Hill, has been on sick leave for almost three months after some of his parishioners expressed alarm at his part in a charity night at the town's Steamboat pub in August.What was meant to be a fun-filled affair has divided opinion, with claims that the vicar's decision to dress up as a "tart" brought his parish into disrepute.But today a friend of the clergyman claimed his participation had been "blown out of proportion" – and suggested there was a "whiff of homophobia" about the reaction, because the Rev Wray is gay and entered into a civil partnership with his partner, Lee, in May.But parishioners at St Lawrence's claim a photograph of The Rev Wray at the party, published in the Shields Gazette back in August, was "just a trigger" amid other concerns.One member of the congregation – who refused to be named – said: "Having his photograph taken in the Gazette was something he should not have allowed to happen, associating St Lawrence's, as it did, with the event." The event was held partly to raise funds for the church congregation itself, to pay for activities and outings.However, the unnamed parishioner added: "It was a mistake, but that incident was just a trigger. We had other concerns. "We have not heard from Reverend Wray for some time, but the congregation is sticking together and keeping the church services going. "We're not sure what his intentions for the future are."The Rev Wray, who has been at St Lawrence's for five years, did not want to speak to the Gazette directly, but a friend, speaking on his behalf, said his participation in the 'vicar and tarts' party was "made in good faith to support a worthy cause".He added: "He is being pilloried for something that was meant to be just a bit of fun in support of a good cause."I can't help but think there is some sort of homophobic undercurrent here, which is very disappointing. "He just dressed as a tart because he's a vicar, and coming to the party as a vicar really wouldn't have made sense."It was a very respectable event. "There were two former mayors in attendance, although they weren't dressed up. "The money raised on the night was to be divided between the Arts 4 Wellbeing charity in South Shields and St Lawrence's. "In the end, St Lawrence's refused to accept the money, claiming it was 'tainted'. I think it's a terrible attitude."The Rev Stuart Bain, archdeacon for Sunderland, who helps oversee the work of clergy in the town, said: "Martin took part in a charity event for a good cause and it's true that some of his parishioners – I'm not sure how many – were unhappy with his participation. "It was clear there was no intention on his part to create upset in any way. It can happen that parishioners fall out with their clergy for all kinds of reasons."With a shortage of clergyman nationwide, efforts are being made to ensure that all services, funerals and baptisms are covered at St Lawrence's.

The set list

At The Habit, York: -

Love Song
Is It Only The Moonlight*
Heart Of Gold
Helpless
Out On The Weekend
I Don't Want To Talk About It

*As performed at York Brewery on Saturday night.

For my next trick...

FRIDAY NIGHT BOY COOL #81

Like A Rolling Stone - Scoundrels style

Best question of the weekend:

"Who was that singing, in the glasses with the Jedward haircut?"

Neil Fujita RIP

Neil Fujita obituary
Hawaiian-born graphic designer best known for his innovative album and book covers

Michael Carlson
guardian.co.uk
Friday 5 November 2010

Neil Fujita, who has died aged 89, made a lasting impact in the field of graphic design. He revolutionised the concept of album covers for Columbia Records in the 1950s, and in the following decade produced book covers with outwardly simple designs of great power, most notably for Truman Capote's In Cold Blood and Mario Puzo's The Godfather.

Fujita brought the influence of modern art, including his own paintings, into his work, but rather than using them as decoration, he emphasised the concept of the cover reflecting the music or words inside. The designer Milton Glaser said Fujita "distinguished himself by having a rigorous design objective. It was a kind of synthesis of Bauhaus principles and Japanese sensibility."

More at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/nov/05/neil-fujita-obituary

http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/s-neil-fujita-1921-2010

THE MANY HATS OF MICHAEL EDWARD LOVE

The Friday Night Horror Movie

http://www.youtube.com/user/Fewdiodotcom

MAGNIFICENT SEVEN SAIL INTO SUNSET

By Paul Myles-Kelly

THE Magnificent Seven have sailed into the sunset.
As young men, they put their lives on the line during the Second World War, and now the last surviving members of the Russian Convoy Club in South Shields have bid each other a final, fond farewell.
They were among the brave naval heroes who served on the convoys between 1941 and 1945, making their way through Scapa Flow to Murmansk and Archangel to keep Russia supplied with desperately needed materials and provisions.
About 2,800 lives were lost on the 78 convoys, and 100 allied vessels ended their journey on the bottom of the ocean – many the target of German U-boat attacks.
Some of those who survived went on to form the convoy club in 1956, which has met at the town's Mission To Seafarers ever since.
But after more than 50 years of regular get-togethers, seven remaining members of the borough branch have gathered for their last meeting.
The decision to fold has been made inevitable due to falling membership and ill-health.
Yet as they met at The Steamboat pub on the Mill Dam, the war veterans were philosophical about the end of a remarkable era.
"Everything has got to end sometime, and we've had a good run," said Bob Robertson, 89, of Mortimer Road, South Shields.
Aside from Mr Robertson, the club has two remaining members from South Tyneside – Gordon Johnson, 93, of Durham Court, Hebburn, and Charlton Innes, 92, of Central Avenue, Harton, who actually served on the Malta convoys.
The remainder are: John Clayburn, 85, of Sunderland; Harry Thirlaway, 85, from Gateshead; Alex Kirk, 84, from Hartlepool and Robert Eke, 88, of Fenham, Newcastle.
Mr Robertson added: "It's rough to be saying goodbye, but you always have to move on sometime and nothing lasts forever."
However, there are regrets.
Among them is sadness that the mission's former chaplain, the club's honorary padre, the Rev Andrew Bealing, was unable to attend the last meeting due to ill-health.
And Mr Robertson had a parting shot at the national Missions To Seafarers in London for removing the pumps at the Flying Angel Club bar at the Mill Dam mission.
It was the bar where the convoy members had gathered for decades, sharing recollections and a pint or a dram. He added: "I think it's disgraceful that the pumps have been taken out. It puts the mission in an uncertain position. It's a place where you could enjoy a pint, a tot of rum or a dram of whisky. Some of the remaining members just have a soft drink these days, but at least the club was somewhere they could enjoy a social get-together and that has been taken away from us."
There will be a farewell dinner for the last of the few at the mission on Wednesday, November 17, and a handing over of the club's standard at a later date.
Mr Robertson, secretary of the convoy club, said: "We've met up on the third Wednesday of the month for more than 50 years.
"When we first met up in 1956 we had 40 members and now we're down to less than 10. We've lost three members in the last three months alone.
"We have to face the reality of dwindling numbers and old age. We're leaving this behind with happy memories of the times we've shared."
Two members were unable to attend the meeting but plan to be at the final dinner – Steve Pearson, of Hartlepool, and Fred Jewitt, from Heddon-on-the-Wall.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BILLY

By Paul Myles-Kelly

AS the nation commemorated Armistice Day yesterday, a Tyneside hero revealed for the first time in almost 70 years his part in one of the great naval disasters of the Second World War.
Billy Jager, who today celebrates his 90th birthday, has finally spoken publicly on the sinking of the battleship HMS Barham by a German U-boat in the eastern Mediterranean on November 25, 1941.
When the vessel perished, an estimated 861 seamen lost their lives.
And of the 450 who survived, Mr Jager, of The Lonnen, South Shields, is one of only a handful still around to tell the tale.
The former pitman, who had just turned 21 at the time, jumped from the battleship after the first of three torpedoes hit, and was later picked up by a fishing vessel.
Minutes later, two further torpedoes struck, causing devastation captured on remarkable film footage shot by a journalist on another vessel sailing close by.
But for Mr Jager, the events that followed the tragedy proved just as remarkable.
The German U-boat scuttled off immediately after the bombing, and its crew was unaware if the torpedoes had struck their target.
As a result, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill ordered a media blackout, and the fate of the Barham was kept out of the British press.
In the aftermath, Mr Jager's parents, Annie and Charles, of St Cuthbert's Avenue, Horsley Hill, South Shields, were informed their son was among those to have perished.
It was a belief they held for almost another year – until their son walked up their garden path.
Mr Jager recalled: "My brother Tommy looked out of the window and told my parents that I was coming up the path.
"My mother told him not to be silly, that I was gone. When they opened the door, my mother collapsed when she saw me."
The sinking of the Barham remained a secret for another month – under Government instructions.
Now not a day goes by when widower Mr Jager, father to nine daughters, grandfather to 21 and great-grandfather to 22, does not think of the day the Barham, sunk almost 69 years ago. Mr Jager, who finished his working life as a caretaker at South Tyneside College, added: "I can never believe they are so sure how many died on the Barham. So many weren't even meant to be on board that day. I was only on the ship because HMS Formidable, which I had been on, was struck by heavy bombs and I was transferred. The memories of that day will never fade."
Mr Jager's granddaughter, Joanne Clark, 39, of Seaburn, Sunderland, said: "My grandfather doesn't like to make a fuss.
"He's a very private man – he's not even having a party for his birthday. But he went through so much in the service of his country, and it's right that he's speaking out now on Remembrance Day. He represents everything that's great about this country."
Log on to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HSY94QVIss to see footage of HMS Barham sinking.

DA 'TRIBUTE'

RAVIN' RAVENSCROFT -
NOT FOREVER YOUNG!

IT should have been a meeting of two great musical minds.
When Cheshire-born warbler Ian Ravenscroft linked up with Canadian rocker Neil Young on the 'Checked Shirts For Men' internet dating website, it seemed a match harvested in heaven.
Within minutes of swapping tales of lonesome dusty roads travelled the kindred spirits were plotting a recording session in the egotistical Englishman's Haxby hideaway .
Their joint venture had been due to hit the shops today to coincide with worldwide celebrations marking hedonistic Ravenscroft's 60th birthday - a landmark he was once famously cursed never to reach.
But the collaboration - tentatively titled 'Yee Yee and Shakey Sing Songs of War and Masturbation' - will never see the light of day after Young removed his partner's vocals from the album, citing the Newcastle-based uncivil engineer's 'alcoholic amnesia' and 'psychotic passion for prescription drugs' as motive.
And in a fall-out even deeper than that which led to Lennon's ferocious attack on McCartney - the vitriolic 'How Do You Sleep?' - Young has lambasted Ravenscroft and the "sycophants that surround him" in the deceptively jaunty country-blues tinged, 'If He Was My Da (I Would Never Admit It)'.
In a statement issued through his fanzine, Thrasher's Wheat, Young bleats: "There's a small group Ravenscroft keeps close to him. I think they're called the Friday Night Freaks. They are his Memphis Mafia and their influence is insidious. They lick his ass at every opportunity, stroke his fragile ego and no doubt provide him with sexual release in the darkest hours of his night."
Young added: "It's a pity. During the recording process I felt close to Raver, my affectionate name for Ian. We were like brothers. Sure, some of his vocals were sickly, rancid and syrupy sweet, but on other occasions he really touched my soul. There was one song of his we recorded called 'War is for Wimps'. I could have written it. It was that good.
"Trouble was he couldn't get through a session without reaching for a bottle or staggering to the drug cabinet. If it wasn't Deuchars it was Diazepam. That guy was rattling."
Happily, a few of the duo's original duets have found their way into the hands of bootleggers.
In one of the best recordings, the punk pastiche, 'Old Tommy Makes Me Puke', Ravenscroft wails, Yoko Ono-like: "I like to prance and have a laugh, take chemical stimulants and break wind in the bath."
Approached for comment at a bar in the heart of Newcastle's Pink Lane, a happily inebriated Ravenscroft, said: "Yeah, I enjoy a drink as much as the next man but I always take a day off the sauce whenever Halley's comet is visible with the naked eye. The truth is that Neil gave me an ultimatum - "It's the Friday Boys or me!" I told him: "Eat a peach, Neil!"

SHURLACH ROAD by Bruce Williams (2010)

SHURLACH ROAD

Frogspawn, newts and butterflies,
As a kid you almost died.
Marsh dweller of Shurlach Road,
Took sixty years to solve the code.

Husband, father
Engineer and son.
Look back now on
Tales that I have spun...

Barman to barfly
Such a Cheshire cheese,
How come old Shakey
Brings you to your knees?
Family 'round a radio
Tuned in to 'Ray's a Laugh',
I like to think that's where
You honed your Muttley larf.

Two boys in cowboy hats
Early Christmas morn',
Holdin' up mum and dad
At the break of dawn.
There's always a free beer
At The Farmers Arms,
After your favourite barmaid
Fell for Yee Yee's charms.

Cornet player
blow your horn,
Time just
can't stand still.
But your melodies
haven't faltered yet,
I hope they
never will.

You left Jack and Hilda
For John and Paul,
And those sounds of the sixties
In the student hall.
A mother and a daughter
A father and a child,
You don't forget
You just drift on for awhile.

Turn off the waterworks
Goodbye Haxby nights,
Your future clings so close
To the Tyne's bright shinin' lights.
Take your Heart of Gold
Rage Like a Hurricane,
Never be an Old Man,
Just a Crazy Horse in the rain.

Cornet player
blow your horn,
Time just
can't stand still.
Your melodies
haven't faltered yet,
I hope they
never will.

Cornet player
blow your horn,
Time just
can't stand still.
Your melodies
haven't faltered yet,
I know they
never will.

Frogspawn, newts and butterflies,
As a kid you almost died.
Marsh dweller of Shurlach Road,
It's sixty years, you've solved the code...

Song and vocal: Paul Kelly. Additional lyrics: Terry Kelly.
Played and produced: Tony Bengtsson.

Jack Kirby

NEW Newcastle-based horror movie

http://www.deadfrequency.co.uk/?p=trailer

New Paddy McAloon 'interview'

Paddy McAloon of Prefab Sprout

by Noel Murray

November 8, 2010

Since debuting in 1982 with the dreamy single “Lions In My Own Garden,” English singer-songwriter Paddy McAloon and his band Prefab Sprout have distinguished themselves from their UK contemporaries by embracing the unfashionable: musical theater, romantic pop, vintage Americana, and the like. The band’s early albums, Swoon and Steve McQueen (also known as Two Wheels Good in the States), are considered classics of the mid-’80s post-punk/new-wave era, even though they don’t sound like they belong to any particular movement. Later albums Jordan: The Comeback and Andromeda Heights—the former a semi-concept album about the meaning of Elvis, the latter a group of songs about stars—show a level of sophistication and imagination that was rare in the ’90s, and is just as precious now. McAloon has been plagued by health troubles over the last decade, including failing vision and an inner-ear disorder that’s made it difficult for him to be around amplified sounds. Nevertheless, Prefab Sprout recently released Let’s Change The World With Music, an album originally intended to come out between Jordan and Andromeda. The A.V. Club sent McAloon a list of questions by e-mail, asking about his career, his influences, and his philosophies of songwriting. Here are his replies:The A.V. Club: Like a lot of Prefab Sprout’s albums, Let’s Change The World With Music is organized around a few key themes: God and music. Do you find it helps you write if you have a larger plan in mind?Paddy McAloon: Why do I seem to organize around themes? I like the idea of creating an arc to the listening experience. Asking the listener to surrender to a certain mood for 40 or 50 minutes. That’s part of it. But I’m fully aware that the mood of a record is a slippery thing, and that the listener may provide the organising principle. By this, I mean that we all attach our own moods and memories to songs and records, and the writer has only a limited control over this side of things. Even more so in the pick ’n’ mix download era.I don’t want to labour the point, but I think listening to an album is a bit like going to the movies. You choose the world you want to be in for a while, and once you’re inside the cinema, the director has a lot to do with your experience. (Mind you, so does the person selling popcorn, along with that hyper-earnest macho voiceover artist who tries to persuade you that every formulaic action film is a work of genius… but I feel the analogy is slipping out of control, so I’d better back off.)So yes, I like to write around themes. I like the way painters return to a subject, looking at the same subject in a different light. Sometimes a theme simply emerges. I’ll look back at a few songs, and notice my preoccupations, and decide I need to make a virtue out of my lack of imagination; that’s when I tie them together! Of course, I write a whole lot more than I release, so I do have some projects which are simply disparate collections of songs. But I fear I’m becoming a bore. Let’s move on.
AVC: The song “Music Is A Princess” on Let’s Change The World With Music is so romantic in its lyrics and performance that it risks being over the top. That’s been a common mode for you throughout your career: a kind of delirious romanticism. Is there a wink behind that, or are you just drawn to music that puts it all out there, heart-on-sleeve?

PM: This is a great question, one that I can only answer by asking: Am I allowed to have it both ways? Like most of us, I’m not without cynicism, but I try to keep my cranky misanthropy from poisoning my songs. Or at least I try and make something useful out of it. I’m currently deep into a project called “Zero Attention Span,” and it’s the antithesis of the delirious romanticism you detect. Lyrically, it has a different attitude altogether.

But you know what? I think it’s interesting to write with a somewhat idealistic tone of voice. It may not be visible, but often there’s irony in the distance between my opinions, or moods, and the tone of the songs. And I hate to say this, but… Irony is easy. This may be a personal quirk of mine, but I reckon irony has to be the second most overworked tool in the songwriter’s toolbox. Coming a close second behind… sincerity! This is the beauty of song to me… you’ll never know if the songwriter really means it. And while this leaves very many people feeling slightly queasy—most of them rock critics who worship authenticity—it only makes the listening, and the writing, more interesting for me. In a nutshell, I write what I would like to hear, not what I’m feeling. Maybe that’s the key here… I’m not what you might call a diary songwriter.

By the way, I like that “delirious romanticism” phrase of yours. I wish I could get closer to that feeling. There is a project I’ve been working on over the past few years, called “Digital Diva,” and it’s very much an exercise in delirious romanticism.

AVC: How about the overtly spiritual themes on Let’s Change The World With Music? Jordan: The Comeback also featured some religious imagery, though Jordan’s take on religion was somewhat cheekier. Was Let’s Change The World intended as a more sincere expression of faith, or were you just using religious imagery as a motif?

PM: At a certain point during the recording of Let’s Change The World With Music, I wrote three new songs: “Ride” and “Sweet Gospel Music” among them. It was then that I knew that the album would have—shall we say—a spiritual theme. I did consider, briefly, how this might be off-putting to the skeptical listener. But I came to the conclusion that even if you have an allergy to apples, you might still appreciate a painting of a bowl of fruit.

AVC: One thing that’s striking about Let’s Change The World With Music is that because of its origins, it sounds like a pop artifact that’s been lost in time. Was there any temptation on your part to “contemporize” it? (Aside from the Auto-Tune on “Meet The New Mozart,” that is.)

PM: I’m still using the same equipment that I used in ’91/’92… I worry that all subsequent recordings will sound like artifacts lost in time! No, I didn’t want it “contemporized” in any obvious way. But my friend and colleague Calum Malcolm, who “restored” the recording, did firm up the bottom end of things for me. The original recording was made to 16-track tape. There was a fair bit of “bouncing down,” and certain frequencies were muddied. Calum reinforced the bass drums in certain instances.

As for the vocal effect on “Meet The New Mozart,” I think Calum ran the voice through a Vocoder, which was the original voice-processing synth back in the ’70s. I have one in my studio, which we used on the title track of Andromeda Heights. Incidentally, I wanted the “rap” intro to “Let There Be Music” treated in the same way; unfortunately, I forgot to inform Calum of this when he mixed the record last year. ( You read it here first, if I’ve not sent you to sleep with an overabundance of technical info. )

By the way, I actually like Auto-Tune™ as a studio tool; it’s a remarkable piece of equipment. It is over-application that has turned it into a sonic cliché.

NM: When I listen to “Lions In My Own Garden” or the Swoon album, I can’t hear any clear antecedents to what you were doing, outside of maybe early Steely Dan, ’70s musical theater, and to some extent the Postcard Records stable. Where were you drawing inspiration back then? And did you consider yourself a fellow-traveler with the other pop and post-punk acts of the early ’80s?

PM: Although we only started releasing records in the ’80s, our tastes and style were formed much earlier. I started to write songs in ’71, aged 14. By ’72, the idea of having a band was in place. I started to play with my brother Martin, and our best friend Michael Salmon round about then. You’ll probably think I’m joking, but really, we were a ’70s band. Unfortunately, we spent so long playing for our own amusement, building up a pretty baroque repertoire, that we didn’t get round to properly capturing our early style on tape, which is a shame. It was very different from our eventual “career” recordings. Much more energetic, freeform and electric. We evolved into something quite different when we stopped being a three-piece, after “Lions In My Own Garden.” Something was gained, and a lot was lost.

Influences? We loved all kinds of stuff… very broad tastes. It wasn’t just pop or rock music that we liked. Naturally, we loved The Beatles, and followed David Bowie’s every move. You mention Steely Dan; wonderful. Melodic music and strong chord changes allied to intriguing lyrics. (Thinking about it now, it occurs to me that both Bowie and Steely Dan are linked by these features, as well as by a very strong conceptual overview.)

1977 was a key year for us. For a lot of British bands, it was year zero, the year of “God Save The Queen.” Sociologically, that was interesting. But we were on a private path even then, and new wave was just too fashionable for us. That autumn, we were rehearsing “Bonny,” which I wrote in May of that year, eight years before it saw the light of day on Steve McQueen. We rehearsed for years, with passion. I seem to remember us listening to Heroes and Aja back then.

What else did we like? Well, we’d always been intrigued by modern classical music. I wrote to Stockhausen when I was 17, and he sent me an autographed score which I still treasure. But we liked T. Rex too. We just don’t happen to sound too much like Stockhausen or Bolan. And we loved Igor Stravinsky. Here was classical music that didn’t sound quaint. The coda to “The Firebird Suite”? I thought that we might sound like that. Why? I don’t know. There was just an attitude, or a colour in the music that I wanted to get close to. I thought I heard the same thing in “Marquee Moon,” by Television. (Is Tom Verlaine a fan of Igor?)

Do you want more on this subject? I’m much happier talking about someone else’s music than my own. One of our earliest songs was actually called “Igor Stravinsky.” That’s how keen we were on him. We loved “The Rite Of Spring” and “Petrushka.” I realize that it sounds presumptuous and ludicrous, but the experience of hearing these records coloured my own writing enormously. You might not hear it, you may even think I’m teasing you. But straight from the heart, it was nourishing.

By the way, none of us were highly skilled musos. (I’m talking about our original lineup.) My brother Martin has always been quick to learn stuff, but I can only do things the way I’ve written them. I’m slow to relearn an arrangement. And at that time, I didn’t know anything about music theory. I couldn’t read a note, and even as late as the ’90s, I was never sure what an actual bar of music might be. But I loved to make up chord shapes on the guitar. When people detect a jazz influence, I know what they are getting at, but the simple truth is, I liked Stravinsky, and viewed the fretboard as a shape-making device. If you think like that, you will automatically come up with complex chords that are associated with jazz. Back then, I didn’t really know any jazz. I seem to remember a Charlie Parker album kicking around, but it would have been like nuclear physics to a maths novice. Too fast, too blurry. Igor was slow enough for us to hang on his coat-tails. These days? Yes, I’m a fan of Miles Davis, Gil Evans, Sun Ra, and Louis Armstrong.

So… in the beginning, we were an extremely eccentric mix of total formal ignorance and wide-eyed curiosity. But I should emphasize that this was when we started out, which is my favourite Prefab Sprout period. By the ’80s, I think pop music had lost some of its thrill for me. I look back and wonder if the act of making records changed something for me as a listener. Perhaps I felt like we were competing with Top 40 radio, or the charts. I probably just got old! It happens, you know. Sure, we loved Prince, and Michael Jackson made great-sounding records… (By the way, I’m taking it for granted that you realize I love old school poetic songwriters like Dylan, [Leonard] Cohen, Joni [Mitchell], and Neil Young. Plus a hundred more troubadours.) But by the ’80s, I was listening to the surfaces of records. I wanted us to have the gloss of pop music, along with less common lyrical attitude. I didn’t want us to be a scratchy alternative band. (I like the scratchy aesthetic, but I was after something else back then.) I’m sorry, I’m rambling. I’ll try and stick to the point.

AVC: Did you give much thought to the musical trends of the times when you recorded Steve McQueen, From Langley Park To Memphis, Jordan, et cetera?

PM: This may be a question for Thomas Dolby, who produced Steve McQueen and Jordan, and half of Langley Park. Personally, I remember wanting us to be “on the radio,” but I had no idea of how to do that. In the end, I followed a whimsical trail as a writer, and everyone was kind enough to go along with me.

AVC: What do you think would’ve become of Let’s Change The World With Music if it had been released in the mid-’90s?

PM: I think it would have appeared at a time when our star was due to wane. I wanted it to be a Quincy Jones-style affair, and I’m sure it would have been as out of step with the times back then as it is now. But I would have liked those songs to have been in circulation. I still regard them as personal favourites. However, I can now reap the “lost album” dividend and milk that ’01 recluse mystique. Like I said earlier, something is lost, and something is gained.

AVC: Can we expect more “lost” Prefab Sprout albums in the years to come?

PM: I hope so.

AVC: How prolific are you these days? Are your health problems stabilizing at all?

PM: My right ear is troublesome. I don’t want to bore you with the details, but thank you for asking. I now work almost exclusively with machines. I couldn’t stand to hear a real drum kit, or amplified guitar. But I’m trying to make something unusual and strong out of my new circumstances. I haven’t given up. I still write, and have a vast archive of material which I accumulated over the years when I should have been out there performing like a proper rock star!

AVC: You’ve written and recorded some of the most exquisitely crafted, literate, tuneful pop music of the past 30 years. Do you feel like you’ve gotten your due, or have the bad breaks you’ve endured been too much of a hindrance?

PM: Thank you for your lovely compliment, I am touched by it. Did we get our due? I look at it like this; there’s an ocean of wonderful music out there. So, kids, if you are unfamiliar with Stravinsky, or Maurice Ravel, go check them out first before buying a Prefab Sprout record. (Of course, keep us on your shopping list. Maybe tell a friend or two.)

Is this okay? I hope I’m in the ballpark. (The cross is in the ballpark. What do we think of Paul Simon, eh? Pretty good writer… phew… hellish articulate too. He knows all about songwriting.)

Best wishes, Paddy McAloon.

http://www.avclub.com/articles/paddy-mcaloon-of-prefab-sprout,47300/

Marx and Re-Marx - available now!

Written by Andrew Smith, one of my former students!

In 1932 the legendary Marx Brothers began work on one of their most hilarious and enduring feature films, Duck Soup. At the same time work also commenced on their first ever radio series, a half hour sitcom that featured the adventures and mishaps that befell the underhanded lawyer Waldorf T. Flywheel (Groucho) and his hapless assistant Emmanelle Ravelli (Chico). This series, eventually entitled Flywheel, Shyster and Flywheel, written by Marx collaborators and comic geniuses Nat Perrin and Arthur Sheekman, was popular with audiences but short lived and soon forgotten. The scripts were shelved, the recordings discarded and the Marxes went back to work on Duck Soup, A Day at the Races and other comedy classics.

Flywheel, Shyster and Flywheel, however, refused to remain buried and tantalizing glimpses of routines from the series went on to be reused in classic films like Duck Soup, A Night at the Opera and The Big Store.

Luckily for Marx fans everywhere the scripts to these classic radio broadcasts were rediscovered in the early 1980s, their publication eventually leading to a affectionate and side splittingly funny British remake of the series for BBC Radio 4.

You can't keep a good joke down.

For the first time in detail Marx and Re-Marx takes a look at the history of this enduring series, its genesis, its death and its resurrection.

Featuring:

Previously unpublished letters from the desk of Flywheel creator Nat Perrin.
Full Episode Guides for both incarnations of the Flywheel and a guide to related productions.

Contributions from the cast and crew of the BBC remake of Flywheel; Mark Brisenden (Weekending, Spitting Image), David Firman (Dinner Ladies, Norbert Smith: A Life), Graham Hoadly (The Adventures of Sexton Blake, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: The Stageshow), Dirk Maggs (Superman: Doomsday and Beyond, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency), and Frank Lazarus (Pennies From Heaven, Our Friends in the North).
Transcripts of the remaining recordings of the original series.

http://bearmanormedia.bizland.com/id448.html

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Marx-Re-Marx-Creating-Recreating-Brothers/dp/1593936095/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1288006116&sr=8-7

FRIDAY NIGHT BOY COOL #80