Jemblog

Flipside on Sky Digital 277

James Brown's first TV project following his unceremonious exit from I Feel Good this is for once, groundbreaking TV.

Clearly taking its cue from the only TV show where you watch grown men discuss what they are watching on TV but you can't see it (Soccer Saturday with Jeff Spelling), this is the logical follow up. A presenter (the ubiquitous Richard Bacon) and a panel (sometimes including James himself) er watch and discuss live TV on all of the other TV channels. And this time you do get to see (but not hear) the footage.
So you have the weirdness of seeing, for example, BBC One but with crazed pundits (Keith Allen, obscure journos who used to work for James B) talking over the top of it.

Cha Cha Cha has an MP3 of last Thursdays show if you want a taster. Tonight's episode veered from What Not to Wear and Superstars to little watched stations like ACTV and Reality TV, and some odd banter with a caller about Harold Shipman.

Some of the Sky channels are pretty brazen about their formats (Video game footage set to music, loops of dating videos, a film channel where the films are all crackly and discoloured) but this is genius.

8-10pm every night on 277.

Make Britain a better place

Much discussed elsewhere for its take on late night reality shows, this is taken from Roger Mosey's
speech last night. It was the first in a series of four public lectures held by the Centre for Ethics, Philosophy & Public Affairs on Practices, Policies and Principles exploring issues facing those in public life and service.

we shall hear a lot about the purposes of the BBC in the next year; but my personal view is that we should be open about wanting to make Britain a better place - a country which appreciates the arts, which has opportunities for lifelong learning, which nurtures an interest in our democracy.

Full Transcript

Macca on Get Back

Not that I want to go on.
and the Let it Be farrago has produced this...





The funniest front cover of all time.

But its this Macca quote (talking about the Glyn Johns tapes from Word.

I was listening to this acetate one night and thinking 'Jeez this is brave. It was The Beatles stripped back, nothing but four guys in a room with Billy Preston. It was almost scary, cos we'd always double tracked, harmonised and so on. I remember being in this empty white room and getting a thrill. It was very minimalist and I was impressed. But then it got re-organised, re-produced for disc.

So why didn't you release that version then.

Andy Parfitt on Radio On Demand

Andy Parfitt in the Dec edition of Word.

"The breakfast show is still very important and it used to be that you had to build a big listening figure in the morning that gets passed onto mid morning and that to the afternoon, but that's beginning to break down now. People are starting to go online and catch up with the programmes they missed in their own time and, in effect, build their own Radio One."

I bought a Sky Plus yesterday. Haven't told F yet. I'm in deep shit.

Dexy's at Royal Festival Hall

Absolutely astonishing. Not far off the moment when Brian Wilson croaked Caroline No in the same venue early last year this was reinvention on a glorious scale. Whereas Brian looked ill, looked Johnny Cash frail, Kevin surrendered to the floor, begged forgiveness and strutted that floor reborn. My more adventurous pals reported back from the after show with the news that it was, like, his 'best night' ever, ever, maybe.
Every decision felt right, the focus on 'Don't Stand me Down', duetting with Pete Williams, the Brighton Rock suits, doing a 'show', dialogue, in 'theatres', in the end the fairly ludicrous cover of 'nightshift'.

Christ I was even attempting 'shapes' for the first time in 10 years during 'Geno' and couldn't stop myself through a lengthy, slower 'Come On Eileen' and the life-affirming 20 mins of '..what's she like'.

I just loved it. I'm in awe.

'It was like being born again.' Everett True on Don't Stand me Down.

'Was Kevin Archer "unavailable?" "You're a prober, ain't ya?!". Dave Simpson interviews Kevin Rowlands in The Guardian.

God was crying tears of joy' More reviews of 'To Stop the Burning'.