Following the Oscar win for the Bond theme “Skyfall” Adele is being tipped to record the theme from the next James Bond movie as well. She wrote the song with Paul Epworth and she will need to record another two Bond themes to catch up with the current record holder for recording the most theme songs to this iconic film franchise. Dame Shirley Bassey has sung three Bond songs;
“Diamonds Are Forever” – (1971) – written by John Barry and Don Black.
“Moonraker” – (1979) – written by John Barry and Hal David.
All three were produced by John Barry. “Goldfinger” was the best chart performer of the three reaching number 21 in the UK and number 8 in the USA. Shirley was initially earmarked to record the opening credits song for the Thunderball film from 1965. The song was called “Mr Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” but Cubby Broccoli the film’s producer decided that the song had to have the same title as the film. This resulted in a new song called, unsurprisingly, “Thunderball” being written. It was recorded my another Welsh singing star, Tom Jones. A version of “Mr Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” was recorded by Dionne Warwick and this version is included on the film’s soundtrack album. Incidentally Adele’s “Skyfall” is only the second Bond theme song not to appear on the accompanying soundtrack album. The first was “You Know My Name” sung by Chris Cornell for Casino Royale from 2006.
Earlier this evening we went to the local Vue multiplex, which frankly isn’t as nice as the Picturehouse City Screen cinema in York. However putting that aside the film we saw was ‘The Woman In Black‘, it is an adaptation of Scarborough born Susan Hill‘s 1983 novel of the same name. Incidentally the book is bloody good too. It is the first production from a newly reincarnated Hammer Studios.
Daniel Radcliffe plays the main character, Arthur Kipps. He is a lawyer sent to a desolate coastal town in the north-east of England to close the estate of a recently deceased woman. I won’t add any spoilers in this post but if you like classic horror in a gothic style take a trip to the cinema as soon as you can. In the UK it is a 12A certificate, but I’m not sure I can think of any 12 year olds that wouldn’t be scared shitless!
Was it scary? Well there were a few ‘make you jump’ moments but personally a film has never scared me and this one was no exception. It did scare the living daylights out of my beautiful wife Catherine a.k.a Catwoman. It is a great film though; excellent acting, brilliant script, perfect casting and wonderful locations and cinematography. On this showing there is clearly a long life after Harry Potter for Mr Radcliffe, he has the makings of an award-winning actor.
Hammer is back with a vengeance with this slice of classic British Horror. (My late uncle, Ron Jackson, would have been proud. He was Production Manager of many of the great Hammer Horror films). Hollywood couldn’t have made this and let’s hope they don’t try. This is not a musical nor is it a music related film, but I felt the need to talk about it. So in keeping with this being a music blog please enjoy a few appropriate songs. Also click here to see a great spoof based on the film.
I watched the classic Peter Sellers movie ‘Being There’ for the first time in years yesterday. I went out and bought the DVD at the weekend following a chance (no pun intended to fans of said movie!) conversation at work last week.
My memory of the film was always that it was quite deep, funny, emotional, spiritual and very well written and acted. On this occasion
my memory has certainly not failed me, this is truly a classic film, featuring in my opinion Peter Sellers finest performance. The supporting cast is equally accomplished too.
If you haven’t seen it I will try to describe it simply and with no spoilers. Sellers plays a character known as Chancey Gardener, who in
fact is just a gardener…… or is he? It seems that everything he knows he has learnt in the garden or from watching TV. His simple, yet powerful thoughts on life in relation to gardening can be seen as the ramblings of a slow-witted person or something much more profound. Personally I’d opt for the profound.
If you haven’t seen this film yet then I would strongly recommend that you do. If you come away from watching it not feeling better
than you did before then you really are hard-hearted.
It’s not a musical but I felt able to include it in my music blog simply because of its excellent use of two seminal 70s tracks, the latter
of which is one of my all time favourites. If you have already seen this film or have watched it on my recommendation I would love to hear you opinions on it.
I have a small selection of oddities for you in this post. Starting with the Arctic Monkeys, no I’m not suggesting that the Monkeys are oddities, but a funny little story about what rude boys they are! Apparently their new album will suffer the indignity of having a sticker placed over its title when it goes on sale in a large US supermarket chain. Not because it has nudity, pornography, swearing or anything like that on the cover, but because the title is said to be very suggestive. I don’t agree at all. So what is that offending title? Why it’s a phrase I have often used myself. It’s ‘Suck It And See’ Now I can hear all of you with an honours degree in double entendre sniggering, but frankly what’s the point in stickering (stop sniggering again ok) that? I thought it was pretty stupid when a pretty tasteful naked girl on the cover of the first Darkness album was covered with a sticker in US supermarkets. But the funniest for me was that the todgers on the classic statues on the cover of the Dame’s second Tin Machine album were removed for the US supermarkets. What a pathetic bunch of arseholes! Tipper Gore this is your legacy!
Liam shows just how much he enjoys lay lady lay by laying down
Now for some Gallagher brother news. It would appear that Liam Gallagher is not a big fan of Robert Zimmerman aka Bob Dylan. Liam likes Dylan’s “Lay Lady Lay” but thinks that Bob is a ‘bit of a miserable c*nt’. He also has a dig at 60s and 70s bands that reform to rake in festival money with greatest hits sets. read what he had to say by clicking here for the NME site. In another piece of Gallagher news it appears that Noel and Liam’s Mum is ready to bang their heads together. She says that the only way she expects Liam to miss Noel’s forthcoming nuptials is if both his legs are broken. If I were Liam I’d be afraid, I’d be very afraid. Read about that in the NME as well by clicking here.
So tell us Gaga, how many Muppets were harmed or killed in the making of this outfit?
It appears that Amazon have had one of the biggest loss leader products in recent years. They have been charging just 99 cents for the download of the new Lady Gaga album ‘Born This Way’, but they have been paying her record label 9 dollars per album downloaded! It is estimated that in about a week they have lost around 3 million dollars. Now is that just pure waste or some kind of reverse greed? Click here to read the story.
And finally, Catwoman and I went to see the new Marvel movie Friday evening; ‘X Men: First Class‘ I won’t be doing a full review as it’s not really a music related movie. But it is an excellent film and for me one of the best Marvel adaptations so far, go and see it if you get the chance. But there is a small music link as the song that is played over the closing credits is the new Take That single “Love Love”. In spite of the fact that Robbie is involved and regular readers will know I really don’t like his stuff, I sadly really like this song. Do I need therapy?
OK I know i's not actually Friday today, but that's not really the point is it?
Just a few morsels of news for you with this post, ok for a couple of these ‘news’ might be stretching it and ‘olds’ might be a more apt description. Especially this first one. Many of you will have no doubt heard of Rebecca Black. She is the young lady who recently released what many consider to be one of the worst songs and worst videos ever. There has been an awful lot of nasty, vicious, vitriolic comment about her song. So other than saying I really don’t think the song or video are very good I will try not to add to what has already been said. The key thing that concerns me about this sad affair is that the poor girl recorded the song for a vanity music label; the Ark Music Factory. So now everyone can be a singer, just pay a few grand, or indeed get your parents to stump up the cash and you will get a song, a guest rapper, a vocoder and a naff video. sounds great doesn’t it? But surely you need talent as well? But in these days of X Factor and Idol that probably isn’t the case. Now that in my opinion is a really sad state of affairs. the one saving grace for Rebecca (apart from the millions of YouTube hits) is that the proceeds from any sales of her song “Friday” will go towards the earthquake relief in Japan. judge for yourself, if you haven’t already, by watching the video below. I would also love to hear your opinions on vanity record labels.
Talking Heads - Digging for Crist!
The BBC reported today that David Byrne off of the Talking Heads has settled his case against former Governor of Florida, Charlie Crist after the politician used the Talking Heads song “Road To Nowhere” to attack his opponent in the race for the senate. personally I am really pleased that Byrne took Crist on. What do you think? Read the story on the Beeb by clicking here.
Bono wonders whether he should have put his $558m in the hotel safe rather than trousered it in the pocket of his Speedos
It has now been confirmed that U2 have achieved the highest grossing tour ever with their 360° tour which began back in 2009. They still have 20 dates to go too, but they have already grossed $558 million. That even allows for missing a few dates, including Glasto last year, due to Mr Hewson’s back problems. Are they really worth it?
Dunc with Dad, Dame Dave
Richard Rich and Max Tannone have put together a brilliant free EP based on mixing hip hop sounds with the soundtrack to Duncan Jones (son of David Robert Jones) excellent movie ‘Moon’. Click here to download all the tracks. It’s called the Selene Project and has nothing to do with song strangler Celine Dion, it’s spelled very differently people!
Finally I was honoured to accompany the delectable Catwoman (aka Catherine Lee, my fiancée) to the studios of Radio York on Saturday where live on air she reviewed the newspapers. Once again she did an excellent job, you can still hear the show for three more days by clicking on Radio York’s Julia Booth’s page here. You can also check out the website for her excellent Virtual Assistant company, Kaleidoscope Business Services by clicking here and she would also love you to comment on her rather spiffing series of blogs.
I know this isn’t music related exactly, well not at all really. (But I’ll address that later!) However I didn’t want to let the passing of one of the most iconic horror movie stars. Ingrid Pitt star of many Hammer Horror classics died this week aged 73. I didn’t realise until I read the report on the BBC website that Ingrid was actually born in Poland. You can read the story by clicking here.
I have always loved the Hammer Horror movies and I have many of them on DVD. Perhaps one reason I love them so much is that my Uncle Ron worked on quite a few of them, he was the Production Manager, which I think means he was responsible for finding the right locations for filming. Which for much of the Hammer Dracula related films, as far as exterior locations go anyway, was in fact Black Park in Slough. Who ever would have thought that Slough could ever be a stunt double for Romania? If you watch a Hammer Horror movie keep your eye on the screen for all the opening credits and you may well see my Uncle’s name come up as Production Manager, he was called Ron Jackson and whilst he died some time ago is still sadly missed!
As I have said on many occasions though, this is indeed a music blog and to mark the death of Ingrid Pitt there can only really be one choice of song, can’t there? ladies and gentlemen and those of you who aren’t quite sure, I give you the delectable Kate Bush and the wonderful “Hammer Horror”
Last weekend I accompanied the beautiful Catwoman to a free preview of the new film ‘The Social Network‘ at City Screen in York courtesy of the Guardian. It is based on the book ‘The Accidental Billionaires‘ which recounts the story of the birth of Facebook.
The script is tight, pacey and at times very, very funny indeed. The film’s strap line is ‘You don’t get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies’ and this is the focus of much of the film, particularly all the legal wranglings about whose idea it was. This largely focuses on the relationship between Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) and his former partner Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield) and his other battle with the Winklevoss brothers who he refers to rather amusingly as the Winklevi.
I never realised the part that Sean Parker, the guy who created Napster, played in the early days of Facebook. He is played incredibly well by none other than former Mickey Mouse Club star Justin Timberlake.
I suggest that you get yourself off of Facebook right now and go and see this movie, you won’t be disappointed! I can also confirm that JUSTWILLIAM1959, WITH JUST A HINT OF MAYHEM and CATWOMAN all ‘Like’ this movie.
As usual this is indeed a music blog so let’s mention some of that. The actual soundtrack was composed and performed by Trent Reznor (off of Nine Inch Nails) and Atticus Ross and it works really well. There are some excellent songs used during the film and you can find a few of them below;
We went out to catch the latest Marvel movie today; Iron Man 2. I felt it was a pretty good movie but perhaps not quite as good as the first instalment, although Robert Downey Jr plays the Tony Stark/ Iron Man role supremely well. Samuel L Jackson is also brilliant as Nick Fury.
The action scenes are excellent and there is a great teaser at the end that points to a forthcoming Avengers movie. So at last the whole Marvel Universe is hitting the screens! I was disappointed that I didn’t see the usual cameo from Stan Lee, but maybe I missed it.
Iron Man seems to be doing a number two!
The soundtrack is unusually not a mixed compilation, but more like a best of AC/DC, although there are a couple of other noticable songs used during the film; “Magnificent Seven” from the Clash and “Pick Up The Pieces” from the Average White Band. The end credits are soundtracked by one of my favourite AC/ DC songs, “Highway To Hell”
If you like Marvel movies you will love this, I will definitely get the DVD when it comes out too. Now roll on the next Fantastic Four instalment, the Thor movie and then the Avengers!
None of the other kids wanted to get on the slide while Tony Stark was on it
I was at the cinema at the weekend, in fact it was York City Screen, a truly wonderful venue. I popped out with Catwoman to see the new Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant movie ‘Cemetery Junction’ It’s essentially about three young guys growing up in Reading in the early 70s in a real dead-end part of Reading (Cemetery Junction! …….. geddit?). It resonates quite well with me because I entered my teens around the time the film was set; 1973.
In my opinion it was a good film, but not a great film. I would watch it when it is shown on TV but I doubt that I’d buy the DVD. The acting is pretty good though, especially the three lead characters and Ricky Gervais also makes a cameo appearance as the father of one of them.
The funniest line for me was when one of the lads says to his parents that he is going to Paris and his Mum responds with this “Paris? There’s parts of Reading you haven’t seen yet!” Classic!
I did really love the soundtrack though. Click here to see what Ricky Gervais had to say about the film and the soundtrack in a recent interview in the Guardian.
And to finish here are a couple of songs from the soundtrack.
“Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting” – Elton John filmed live in 1974
“Amazona” – Roxy Music – Taken from their third album ‘Stranded’
How many of you have seen the new Richard Curtis movie “The Boat That Rocked”? Isn’t it excellent? If you haven’t seen it I’ll forgive you for just a short while as it has only just been released, but report to the headmasters office if you still haven’t seen it by the end of the month.
It’s a comedy set aboard a pirate radio ship in the North Sea in the 60’s. I don’t know about you but I am old enough to remember the heyday of pirate radio stations. Indeed I remember listening to both Radio London and Radio Caroline as a child at home. The film’s station Radio Rock sounds authentic to me. At the time the BBC’s pop music output was tiny at no more than two hours a week. The British government were keen to shut down the pirates, presumably as this would give them more control. At it’s peak it was estimated that more than 20 million people were listening to pirate stations.The government eventually succeeded with introduction of the Marine Offences Act but they clearly understood the value of pirate stations as the BBC launched Radio 1 on 30th September 1967. In fact many of the Radio 1 DJs had previously worked on pirate stations, including Tony Blackburn and my favourite DJ’s Johnnie Walker and John Peel.
Anyway back to the movie. The script is hilarious and the casting is first class. Bill Nighy is truly wonderful as the stations owner. Thick Kevin is a very funny character too. Some of the funniest characters are Philip Seymour Hoffman as the Count, Nick Frost as Doctor Dave and Rhys Ifans as Gavin. Watch out for the ‘chicken’ contest between Doctor Dave and Gavin it’s hilarious. So is the truth or dare scene about flatulence follow through! A special mention certainly goes to Kenneth Brannagh as a government minister too. My favourite character though was probably Angus ‘The Nut’ Nutsford played by Darby Rhys. You may have seen him before as Murray the Manager in ‘Flight Of The Conchords’
The soundtrack is bloody good too. Some excellent 60’s sounds including Procul Harum’s “A Whiter Shade Of Pale”, Martha and the Vandella’s “Dancing In The Street” There is an excellent cover of Lorraine Ellison’s “Stay With Me Baby” (which is one of the 50 songs in my top 10) from Duffy. perhaps the oddest choice of music though is the use of David Bowie’s 1983 number one “Let’s Dance” to close a sixties movie. In a nutshell that is the only thing I didn’t like about the film.
The Boat That Rocked is definitely a feel good movie and has some great laugh out loud moments. Failure to see it is not an option! Check out the film’s official website here.
With Just A Hint Of Mayhem 