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Is it time to call time on "Later..."?
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Message 1.聽
Posted by Lexington 125 (U14635872) on Sunday, 29th May 2011
Much of this last series of "Later... with Jools Holland" has been a struggle to be honest. However last Friday's edition surely has to go down as one of the poorest ever outings. Given that it was the final show in the current run, made it all the more unwhelming.
Friendly Fires
A cross between "Chant no.1" era Spandau Ballet / entire career era Thompson Twins. If you'd lived through the whole sorry affair that was popular music in the 80s, you really wouldn't be trying to recreate it in 2011 lads. Stick to watching that kind of stuff in private on YouTube when you're drunk. Far less embarrassing in the long run.
Donovan
This week's "sucking up precious televisual music broadcasting space at the expense of more relevant artists" award winner. Why this guy was ever mentioned in the same breath as Bob Dylan I'll never know. I realise they did a lot of drugs in the 60's, but still. Donovan & Dylan... really? Oh and best leave the exaggerated English inflections to Ray Davies fella. At least when he does them, it's done with wit rather than affectation.
Yuck
Kentish Town Bull & Gate, any night, any week since 1994. Second song slightly better than the first, but that's really not saying much. Split up gracefully. Now.
Nathaniel Ratecliff
Ok first up, what kind of name is that for a musician? This was Later... not an audition for the new Harry Potter film. Why struggle so? It's what pseudonyms were invented for. Visually, an amalgamation of Paul Giamatti and Bill Oddie. Musically, more acoustic wallpaper for the middle-classes to lap up.
James Vincent McMorrow
Not to let the above outdo him on the stupid name front... Nice first song. CSN influence riding high. Probably mates with either Mumford or Son. Reminded me of drinking warm cider.
Beverley Knight
A bit too... well, a bit too Beverley Knight for my liking. Looking for soul music that black folk don't listen to? Step right this way.
So there you have it. Way to end the series with a pffft Jools. Don't hurry back. -
Message 2
Posted by Swell_Map (U14129256) on Sunday, 29th May 2011
Funnily enough, I though this was the best show of the series mainly because of Nathaniel Ratecliff and James Vincent McMorrow.
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Message 3
Posted by jasonaparkes (U3653332) on Monday, 30th May 2011
I think Later...has been a struggle for years. I usually tape it and fast-forward though the dreck. Let's face it, the programme is a lot more corporate than it used to be and is used by record companies to break new artists now, e.g. Duffy, Adele, Corrine Bailey Rae, Florence & the PR Machine etc.
When it was first on it seemed that the bands were playing album tracks - a change hapenned and they started to play their latest singles, while older artists played a greatest hit. This is probably why someone like The Cure were so dull the last time they were on it - a couple of recent singles and 'Boys Don't Cry'...
Kinda sad that Blondie as a band appear to be two people and so they got to plug their new record without playing anything...
I thought Warpaint would good and it was bold for them to play 'Elephants' instead of a second track from 'The Fool.' & I thought PJ Harvey was great a few weeks ago...but hard to get that excited about the programme. Plus you have terrible interviews by Jools Holland with some of the artists & celebs in the audience. There is also a fear of boogie-woogie and some token world music/happy clappy soul stuff.
Still, I see they have dropped last year's penchant for old post-punk bands who have reformed and play some oldies, e,g, Gang of Four, Magazine, Chicken & the Bunnymen...There has some other oldie type bands that would make a change, e.g. Rush, Wilko Johnson, David Sylvian, Yo La Tengo, Robert Wyatt, Tom Tom Club
Just a shame they don't get artists on who are releasing interesting new records in the last year or so, e.g. Wire, Bill Callahan, Low, Six Organs of Admittance, Sarabeth Tucek, Viv Albertine, Autechre, Connan Mockasin, SWANS, Joan as Police Woman, The High Llamas, Cathal Coughlan, Tindersticks, Lonelady, Small Black, Marnie Stern, Earth etc.
It certainly needs to be more interesting...or another show come on -
Message 4
Posted by LJJsPlectrum (U14169939) on Thursday, 2nd June 2011
Pretty much agree with all this. Had read some good reviews about Rateliff but almost wanted to punch the telly, listening to his dirge like wailing. The new David Gray.
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Message 5
Posted by KingLudd (U14703455) on Friday, 3rd June 2011
I was reading the other day about how the inmates of Abu Ghraib were played David Gray's Babylon.
The horror. The horror. -
Message 6
Posted by Tim Curtis (U14897227) on Tuesday, 7th June 2011
Several really good acts this series including PJ Harvey, Anna Calvi and Lykke Li.
There's always at least one act on that are pretty dull and bland, but I guess having a mix like this is the main point of the show.
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Message 7
Posted by KingLudd (U14703455) on Tuesday, 7th June 2011
I think the show is eclectic, but in an incoherent sort of way.
It tends to feature a band that people who chatter say are going to be the next big thing. The sort of band that no one remembers a couple of years later. There's usually one of that type of band. Then there's some mainstream sort of gang of earnest lads churning out their latest horribly over exposed and uninteresting stadium rock. And then there's an old stager you thought you'd got shot of, belting out a tired old soul classic, or else there's Zydeco or some damned thing. And Jools gets in there and plays a bit of boogie woogie and we all sigh and wonder what's on the local news.
I wonder if there's a market out there for a tv show that has the kind of music that you might hear on a Sunday on 6 music. Some of Stuart's stuff doesn't have much...mass appeal I know.....but some of it does. Cerys plays good stuff and so does Jarvis. Those shows are eclectic, but they have an identity. They make sense in a way that Jools Holland's show doesn't.
Something late at night on 大象传媒4 on a friday would be good. Just an hour in a room with bands that were on tour. Point a camera at them set up a sound desk. Don't have to do much more than that. The budget would be tiny. Even if it bombed it wouldn't be the end of the world. -
Message 8
Posted by jasonaparkes (U3653332) on Wednesday, 8th June 2011
If 大象传媒4 became exciting again and some stuff like mostly rubbish TOTP from 1976 was put elsewhere, surely there could be a TV version of the Freak Zone?
Synth Brittania and its relatives did well and featured some of the acts covered in the wide temple that is the Zone.
I guess it would be like a freaky version of the White Room - contemporary acts riding the freaky one with whatever joys lurk in the vaults? & if there is no footage of an act and yoy have a song, why not some groovy imagery or some animation or something? It would beat Two Pints of Lager....
An imaginary episode this week might include Oneida, Yo La Tengo, Viv Albertine, Clark, Stuart Moxham...maybe an interview with Julian Cope or Steve Davis....and something older and strange like Magma, Raymond Scott, The Raincoats, & The Focus Group....
Though I am aware we might have to get Julia Bradbury to do some walking in it for it to get on 大象传媒4.... -
Message 9
Posted by KingLudd (U14703455) on Thursday, 9th June 2011
"I am aware we might have to get Julia Bradbury to do some walking in it for it to get on 大象传媒4...."
Well we could set her up at the side of the stage on a treadmill. It'd be eco-friendly, like the (ornamental?) windmill by the pyramid stage at Glastonbury, which they use to power Orbitals torch glasses.
I liked that krautrock documentary on 大象传媒4. There was a good one on Detroit too - MC5 and The Stooges..and another on prog, in which Bill Bruford memorably described joining King Crimson after leaving Yes as like "going over the Berlin wall in the other direction."
" if there is no footage of an act and you have a song, why not some groovy imagery or some animation or something?"
What about the old solution: some sort of reinvention of Pan's People?
It would be a brave troupe who would try to choreograph some of Stuart's free jazz though eh? -
Message 10
Posted by Studio Tan (U14903969) on Sunday, 12th June 2011
'Rock' has been blanding out for some time. It's ironic that the further the technology goes the blander it gets.
Let's hear it for digital '60s reverb'. -
Message 11
Posted by jasonaparkes (U3653332) on Sunday, 12th June 2011
I'd love to see some foxy wenches in special outfits interpretenting Free Jazz by Ornette Coleman...and it would be nice to see Ms Bradbury on a treadmill to some Squarepusher or Plaid...
I have given up taping/fast-forwarding through TOTP from 1976. That Can-performance is great, despite the introduction from Noel Edmonds... -
Message 12
Posted by KingLudd (U14703455) on Sunday, 12th June 2011
If I'd known Can were going to be on it I would've checked it out! Every time I watch those old TOTP's it's Peabo Bryson and Roberta Flack, or Captain and Tenille, or Renee and Renata, or Peters and Lee or Keith Harris and Bloody Orville. The only thing those TOTP's are good for is making sure that you don't view the music of the past with any kind of nostalgia. Or at least the music of the past as televised and archived by the 大象传媒.
Did they do "I Want More'? I had a look on youtube and they're doing that song: HC with a double bass.
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