Category: Music

In other news

On By Laura MorganIn Films, Music, Reasons to be cheerful

Apologies for the long silence. I have been getting to grips with my new job; which doesn’t give me much time for thinking, let alone writing. I’ve got a nerdy-obsessive Michael Jackson post fermenting, but in the meantime here are a couple of my highlights of the last few weeks, presented in the style of a tabloid newspaper.

SPOOK

Last night I went to a Ghostbusters-themed comedy night, to celebrate 25 years since the original film’s release. I know what you’re thinking – and, well OK, you’re right; but it was still lots of fun. The highlight was a passionate, witty and informative set from Paul Gannon, who is a bigger fan than I have ever been, and from whom I learned the following new facts:

  • The follow-up cartoon was called “The Real Ghostbusters” because a company called Filmation (makers of Masters of the Universe, among other things) had sometime in the 1970s produced eight episodes of a truly awful live action TV show with the name “Ghostbusters”. When the film was being made they threatened to sue, but they agreed in the end to allow the film-makers to use the name so long as they (Filmation) retained the rights to use the title for any future animated series. So when the film was turned into a cartoon, they had to give it a new name.
  • The scenes between Pete Venkman and Dana Barrett in Dana’s apartment were all improvised by Bill Murray and Sigourney Weaver.
  • There is Ghostbusters porn. It isn’t very sexy, but it’s fabulously funny (he had a selection of clips for our viewing pleasure).

UKE

I am now a world record-holder (along with 850 others).

DUKE (grant me literal poetic license on that one, please)

We went to see Bobby McFerrin at the Royal Festival Hall as part of Ornette Coleman’s Meltdown. I am devoutly atheist, but the closest I’ve come to believing in something higher than humankind is when I watch him perform. It’s just insanely brilliant:

PUKE

I have seen Jeremy Clarkson twice in the last fortnight.

The funk of forty thousand years

On By Laura MorganIn Music, Reasons to be cheerful1 Comment

thriller2

I went to see Thriller Live last week. I wouldn’t have sought it out of my own accord and I didn’t really know what to expect, but I was prepared for something quite weird. And it was quite weird, but in a cheerier and more innocent way than I was expecting. There’s no story; it’s just two and a bit hours of some singers, dancers and musicians performing the biggest hits of Michael Jackson’s career, in chronological order (which, incidentally, makes it fairly easy to work out which ones they’re saving for the encore).

The early songs, performed by a Jackson Five with the worst afro wigs I have ever seen, feature a very sweet little boy with the voice of an angel playing the youthful Michael, but from Off The Wall onwards the lead vocal role is shared between four singers: a guy who sounds exactly like Michael Jackson, a guy who looks exactly like he’s from the 1980s, a woman who is obviously the one they go to when a song is too hard for any of the others, and a guy who sounds more like Michael Jackson than the last two, but makes up for it by being skinny and white. They are backed up by a troupe of dancers, who are kind of amazing, and by a live band who are for the most part hidden, except when one of them is allowed on to the stage to perform a particularly tricky solo, like the guitar line in Dirty Diana.

Everyone is really, really good, and there are some nice costumes, especially in the songs from Bad where everybody gets to pretend it really is the 1980s. But the main thing I took away from it was an overwhelming sense of uncomplicated Eurovisionesque joy. Everybody in it is so happy, all the time! Sensibly, the narrative voiceover which introduces the show and describes the Jacksons’ rise to fame is ditched early on, so that we don’t have to hear any of the less wholesome details of Michael’s life as a solo artist. And even more sensibly, the post-Bad hits are limited to Earth Song and Heal the World. The rendition of the former almost tips over into being unbearably twee, with the performers dressed all in white under a giant projected globe, but they rescue it just in time by bringing back the small boy from the beginning of the show to sing Heal the World.  And it’s just lovely.

Michael Jackson is undeniably a strange and disturbing person, but the songs are as good as they ever were. If you liked them then, I think you should go along. If you tell me when you’re going I might even come with you, but don’t tell anyone I said so.

(Edit: it belatedly occurs to me that describing someone as “skinny and white” is no guarantee that he doesn’t look like Michael Jackson. But he doesn’t – see?)

Advent song for December 24

On By Laura MorganIn Christmas, Music

I’ve enjoyed doing this so much, and there are so many songs I had to leave out, that I’m almost tempted just to keep going and make gladallover a 365-day-a-year Christmas music blog.  But by January I’ll be feeling austere and spartan and bloated, so I’ll stick to tradition and bring it to a close today.  I’ve spent quite a lot of time wondering which songs to include, but there was never any real doubt in my mind as to what today’s song would be, because it has my favourite Christmas pop video ever.  There are so many good things about it that I shan’t point them all out, but I would like you to make a particular appreciation of Cliff’s dancing from 2’25” onwards. It’s really quite something.  Also note the fake snow, which is almost as convincing as my own snow (which will no longer be visible if you’re reading this after January 3 2009).

Happy Christmas!

Advent song for December 20

On By Laura MorganIn Christmas, Music2 Comments

An unprecedented second appearance from George Michael here.  This is still the best Christmas song for singing along to in a crowded pub.  It’s literally impossible for people not to join in.

I like that, while everybody else looks twenty-four years older, Phil Collins looks exactly the same.  And sigh, but young Sting was handsome, wasn’t he?  And young Bono looked perturbingly like Zed from Police Academy.  There’s also a fleeting appearance from my favourite Geldof sister, Fifi Trixibelle.

Incidentally, I’ve no idea who sings the “Here’s to you” and “Here’s to them” lines.  If you can identify them, do let me know.