Brett Anderson and ParaOrchestra's "Death Songbook" is on next Friday (Sky Arts) - one of my musical highlights of 2021. Absolutely beautiful and highly recommended.
After last Saturday's Paul McCartney night on BBC2, this coming Saturday they are taking a similar approach with Freddie Mercury, who died 30 years ago this week: Queen At The BBC An long compilation of clips from the BBC archive, which according to my TV listing includes the Montreux Pop Festival and the Hammersmith 1975 concert. On the face of it, it sounds great but if you are a fan I suspect you will have seen most clips. Freddie Mercury: The Final Act A new documentary exploring Freddie's last years and preparations for the 1992 tribute concert. Features interviews with Roger Daltrey, Joe Elliot and Anita Dobson. I will probably watch this but it does sound rather maudlin. Would rather see Freddie at his best rather than hear stories of him being ill. Queen - The Legendary 1975 Concert Although this is an example of Freddie at his best, I am sure someone is getting a commission every time this is shown! I would have loved it to have been screened when I first got into Queen in the early 90's. Now it seems to be on almost every month. I have even seen weeks when both the BBC and Channel 5 are showing it. There are so many riches in the vaults - Hyde Park '76, Earls Court '77, Hammersmith '79. Give us something new!
On BBC4 tomorrow at 1130 John Martyn Live at the BBC and at 930 Lindisfarne’s Geordie Genius: The Alan Hull Story
here's an early heads up as I'm sure I'll forget to do it nearer the time Phil Lynott: Songs for While I'm Away Documentary on the life and music of Phil Lynott, telling the story of how a young working-class black boy from 1950s Dublin became Ireland's greatest rock star. As lead singer of Thin Lizzy, Phil was a songwriter, a poet, a dreamer and a wild man. Told extensively through the words of Phil himself and focusing on some of his iconic songs, the film gets to the heart of Philip as a father, husband, friend, son and rock icon. Release date:04 December 2021 1 hour, 30 minutes BBC Two - Phil Lynott: Songs for While I'm Away
If anyone spots another repeat of the Runrig film - There Must Be A Place - let me know on here, as I had the subtitles turned on by mistake when I recorded it and I'd rather watch it without them! EG.
Have to say I was very disappointed with it. I'm not a fan though so maybe if you are a fan it will have more of interest.
Beat me to it. If you can get past the flappy flares, it's a hell of a great John Martyn gig. Amazed it's being reshown - bravo!
It looks like the Nick Cave documentary One More Time With Feeling, about the making of his Skeleton Tree album, will be on Sky Arts tonight. I haven't seen this so will definitely watch it.
It's a great story. The early photos look exactly like my childhood holiday photos from the West of Ireland in the early 70s (my parents were from Galway) Like another world completely disconnected from modern city life.
Only 30 minutes on TV but in the big JM Island boxset the included DVD has three bonus tracks from that concert that were recorded, but not shown at the time. Bless the Weather, Inside Out and Spencer the Rover, an additional 20 minutes.
The lads watched the Hugh McDonough telly show on London weekend last week at the arms. Who knew yer man was shaggin Sara Lancashire then? We drank with McDonough enough ta know ta keep yer dosh off the bar ya would If yer man would down a bottle of navy strength before sunset ya’d know ta steer clear. Him would end up out in the bloody lash and terrorize the staff at the bloody Bens Cookies in Newquay him would
According to setlist.fm, adding those 3 tracks gives you the whole gig. I don't know if he was supporting another artist that night.
It was! I have never knowingly listened to Lindisfarne as I just didn't think they'd be my thing. Turns out I knew more by them than I realised - some great songs. My admiration for him grew as the programme went on, and I ended up discovering a new favourite song. What a beauty this is -
Dusty Springfield bio on Sky Arts: The British Invasion Season 1 | Radio Times + Elvis: The Final Hours | Radio Times + Elvis '68 Comeback Special (1968) | Radio Times
Caught up with the Alan Hull doc last night (Liv Tyler stopped us watching it on Friday): excellent! I'd forgotten just how good the first 3 Lindisfarne albums are, not to mention Pipe Dream (Peter Brophy still don't care!). Sam Fender also went up in my estimation. Both of us, having been teenagers in the North East in the '70s, were dragged back to our youths.
Just flicking through next week's TV listings, there are a few things that have piqued my interest: On Sky Arts on Sunday evening there is a programme, marked as 'new' that is listed as: The Who Hits 50 - Live. Now this could just be the concert that is on Blu-ray as The Who Live In Hyde Park, but if so why would they change the name? And on Friday 10th December, on BBC4 there are the following Nick Cave programmes: Idiot Prayer - his piano concert without audience at Alexandra Palace BBC Four Sessions- with the Bad Seeds. Not sure when this was recorded but I think this is an old programme.
If you log into the BBC home page and type in the name of any programme, you'll usually be able to find out from the page that comes up, when the programme has been shown before. As when I checked the BBC Four sessions "The bad Seeds." It was shown six times between 04/7/2008 and 11/7/2009 It'll be on for the eighth time on Saturday 11th December at 0.2.40am.
Aye, its very well done. A lot of focus on family + his Dublin roots which has been been lacking in other retrospectives of the great man. I really enjoyed it.