Half a classic widescreen pop rock album, half phoned in makeweight filler.

I bought this to make up the numbers in my local charity shop's 3 for 1 pound deal on CDs, mostly because, having heard that all time classic widescreen summer staple: Sunshine On A Rainy Day, I wanted to see if the rest of the album was up to much...

...I wasn't optimistic, given that it's been years and years since it's release, and I figured if the rest was any good, I'd have heard some of it over the years, surely?

Fortunately, it kicks off with a stonker, that I have indeed heard before, but just forgot: Lightning, every bit the equal of that previously mentioned hit, and indeed, the whole first half of this album is full of very strong, memorable tunes done in that huge, big energy widescreen pop rock style underpinned with a synthy / hip hop - ish beat... so much so, that the first enormous surprise comes in this fashion, in shape of the title track: Scarlet, Red and Blue, which, if I didn't know otherwise, I could swear was a Massive Attack song!

(seriously, you cannot tell the difference)

And while Mountains, Loving Kind, and Holy Days are all of this standard of epic pop-ery, worthy of the price of the CD on their own, after the pinnacle of this album, Sunshine etc. the level seems to fall away considerably, either because it was always asking too much to keep that level up (and having front loaded the strongest stuff) or they just ran out of ideas, and had to pad it out a bit, it feels a bit flat thereafter...

...But, that said, the final song: Smile In The Darkness does pick it right back up to the standard of the first half... so a good save on the last tune.

Possibly the other tracks will grow on me over the time a little, but even if not, there is more than enough on this album to make it a great buy, so much so, this one is not going back to the charity shop!

>It's a keeper!<

:)

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Annotation:

Several authors have attempted to cover the mountain of material connected with the Paul McCartney death hoax story, but Andru Reeve's text of over 300 pages includes some excellent secondary research on the topic.

For example, the text contextualises key moments extremely well, as when on October 12, 1969 WKNR-FM's Russ Gibb opened the phone lines for his usual Sunday afternoon with listeners. Eastern Michigan University Student Tom Zarski called in with questions about the supposed death of Paul McCartney. This was effectively the catalyst for the tall tale that would immortalize both 'Uncle Russ' and WKNR-FM in the annals of Beatle history.

In addition to outwardly dissecting almost every possible lead, the author apparently spent thousands of dollars to secure rare photographs and memorabilia directly connected with the event, all of which are on display in the pages of his book - a dedication to historical narrative that goes well beyond the call of duty. Reeve lists 140 clues discovered over 35 years, including every Beatle lyric that conspiracy fans say 'prove' that the Paul McCartney we 'know' today is actually an imposter. This is fascinating stuff: excellent detective work of the very highest quality.

Michael Brocken

Source: The Beatles Bibliography: A New Guide To The Literature - Michael Brocken and Melissa Davis (The Beatle Works Ltd., 2012), with acknowledgement, and used here with permission from the authors for educational and historical purposes only.

✔︎ Helpful Review?

Most of the name cast looks like they invested 1-2 days to shoot their parts, with the majority of the screen time occupied by Richard Harris and Justin Henry. Both are annoying, truth be told, so by their occupying most of the film puts it at a disadvantage from the starting gate. Very often, Canada-isms get shoved to the forefront, but on the flip side, the locations do look pretty nice and remind me of my one and only trip there. And I always appreciate watching Lindsay Wagner.

The storyline seems to be a mere excuse to trumpet a handful of social issues (ie, teen incarceration creates innocent criminals, parental issues, environmental concerns, etc.) Most of those are served up with music so thick in melodrama that it has the opposite of the intended effect.

There's no real reason to seek this one out, but if you have insomnia and it's on the late, late show, it's not a total loss.

5 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

**This was review was first posted on IMDB by myself**

This was broadcast under the title "Spice Girls: How Girl Power Changed Britain", Girl Powered is the working title. This documentary is a history of The Spice Girls with references to the girl group promoting feminism. Love them or hate them, The Spice Girls were no doubt the biggest bands in the UK and maybe the world for about two years. I appreciate that they have been a massive influence on pop culture and I like some of their songs, but I'm certainly not a superfan.

The documentary features a lot of talking heads from people like Miranda Sawyer who attempts to clumsily make out The Spice Girls are in some way feminist icons. Matthew Wright who wrote several hit pieces on The Spice Girls attempts to clear his name after being made out to be a villain. Some of The Spice Girls PR team from back in the day recount their experiences of the band. It is all good stuff, but like most people I would have liked to hear from the girls themselves. Instead we are just shown archive clips.

The documentary manages to gloss over a few key events and the cynic in me would suggest this feels more like a puff piece than a serious documentary, especially given it is nearly 3 hours long in its entirety. The Spice Girls panned commercial flop "Spice World" movie wasn't mentioned to my knowledge or if it was I blinked and missed it. A pivotal moment in that it suggested The Spice Girls maybe weren't as popular at that time than was made out. Very little was mentioned of Mel B's single - "I Want You Back" with Missy Elliot which was massive. Also to my knowledge no mention of the Mel B documentary "Voodoo Princess" which was made for Channel 4. If I remember correctly there was no mention of the original demo version of Wannabe which was a slow R&B song similar to something like The All Saints "Black Coffee" in terms of tempo. There's no doubt in my mind giving it a fast paced europop style tempo gave it the kick in the face it needed to be a chart success; especially given dance music was dominating the charts in 1996.

The latter half of the documentary manages to segue in some frankly jarring references to feminism and even features footage of recent-ish protests for nearly 15 minutes. I think it's maybe a stretch too far. The Spice Girls were absolutely massive, but as important as Stevie Nicks or Debbie Harry at influencing young women into pursuing musical careers? I honestly don't know. I do know nostalgia for the 90s is bang on trend at the moment. The 00s will be next! This documentary took a few years to put together and 100s of hours of clips were sorted through and carefully selected. It is a real shame that some of the footage isn't better quality. A press conference video on episode 3 looks like an awful 240p YouTube clip and some footage looks has watermarks. On a big budget documentary I expect higher production values. With a press conference surely the original source clips are available. This isn't the only documentary to use low quality clips, but it is a real shame especially now as most people watch films and TV on HD quality equipment.

This is a mixed bag. The opening episode is fantastic and gives a good history of how the band got started with some rare footage. As the documentary goes on it looks like a bit of a filler was used or maybe my interest ran out. I think for anyone interested in 90s pop culture or asks the question "Mummy, who were The Spice Girls?" this is a pretty good watch.

3 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

''as a contribution to natural history, the book is negligible.'' - the times literary supplement 1908

1 person found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Benny Hill Sings? Yes he does and very well at that. He also wrote his own material.

With top arrangement by Tony Hatch, it's a must for fans of humorous records and the work of Hatch. I like both, so it's a match made in heaven for me. The mono mix is also far better.

My only gripe is the lack of credit for the female co vocalist on a couple of songs.

Really is a fine album from start to finish.

3 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Incredulously terrible.

Nothing about the film merits sitting through it, but the acting is particularly poor. The support players are all nobodies because none of them have any talent. The two "stars", Kris Kristofferson and DMX, amateurishly attempt to create some semblance of the buddy motif that has been beaten over moviegoers heads ever since the success of the first Lethal Weapon film. Kristofferson is such an old codger at this stage, and he attempts to replicate the witty repartee Nick Nolte enjoyed with Eddie Murphy in 48 HRS by babbling on about Willie Nelson. We're supposed to be amused by this and the incoherent, mumbled responses by rapper DMX, but since the latter star has the same talent as the no-namers, the only word that can even be understood is "fuck".

Waste an hour and a half of your life at your own peril.

5 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Annotation:

This is a local history-cum-vanity text, which uses the advent of Beatles as a way of creating a historical illusion concerning the ending of a previous and more authentic way of life in Devon. Silly, really, but at least 'the Beatles' in the title has done its job in attracting the attention of this bibliography.

Michael Brocken

Source: The Beatles Bibliography: A New Guide To The Literature - Michael Brocken and Melissa Davis (The Beatle Works Ltd., 2012), with acknowledgement, and used here with permission from the authors for educational and historical purposes only.

✔︎ Helpful Review?

I was never aware of this album. It turns out to be the same as Under The Boardwalk except it includes Drip Drop from the late 1950s in place of that hit. They must have just switched their attention to the Boardwalk LP soon after.
As a hits LP this one is dire. Only 3 hits. It illustrates the trouble they had after Leiber and Stoller left the company. The other staff were not very good at picking hits. B2 and B3 are rather bizarre compositions. It's possible to enjoy a few of the others.
Vaya Con Dios was a good single I thought, but radio decided it was just a remake of an earlier hit and did not promote it.

3 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Kind of a whodunnit journey through the underworld of purgatory for a Catholic Priest that touches on all the current hot button topics you can image for the Catholic church.

It begins in the confessional booth, where Brendon Gleeson's Priest, Father James, hears the confession of an unseen confessor, who informs him of his personal childhood abuse at the hands of some other priest... and that because of this, he is going to kill Father James in one week, on the local beach, where they are to meet... not because he is guilty of anything, but precisely because he is innocent, reflecting his own torments, and so to exact the perfect vengeance on the church itself through this murder.

The confessor leaves, and James, somewhat sceptical, appears to be a little dismissive of it at first, but something troubling is evident... that the confessor may actually mean it.

This sets in motion Father James' journey through the local community...

(Comprised entirely of people exhibiting almost every shade of "sin" any good catholic can imagine, form adultery, terrorists, and even Cannibalism!)

...in order to try and discover who this person was, and try to convince them not to go through with it, and perhaps, being a good priest, help them instead.

As he progresses through the community, the persecutions he suffers from this unknown person become more real, and more threatening... from the burning of his church, to the (rather upsetting) killing of his dog, and as he does so he is at once forced to consider his faith, not only in God, but the church, and also his own past, in his relationship with his daughter from his prior marriage.

It does spring to mind, that this takes it's leaping off point from Father Ted, oddly, but rendered deadly serious, and accusatory, rather than funny, and simply cynical of the Catholic church.

It's grim in places, and dry and unsettling, but very deftly handled.

If you are a Catholic, it will be uncomfortable watching, and maybe you may even take some offence, but only superficially, as there is, I believe, a deeper message that is entirely consistent with the message of the Catholic beliefs... the sacrifice of the innocents for the sins of the world.

...And just one more thing (to quote Columbo :) ... once the film is finished, and you think about what you just saw, you may conclude, as I did, that maybe there was something else, plot wise, concealed within the film, which is never actually made plain, or overt, but puts an entirely different meaning on the whole film.

3 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

The classic tale of boy meets operating system, and falls in love.

This is therefore a movie about the dangers of Artificial Intelligence... but at a more personal level.

(As opposed to the usual, machines go crazy and "Kill All Humans!" (to quote the estimable Bender from Futurama :)

In the believably not too distant future, Theodore makes a living creating personal letters for the lost and the lonely who populate this fragmented, alienated world who pass each other on the street with blank expressions while all quietly dying inside.

And he, himself, after a messy, bitter, and devastating separation, a prelude to the divorce he so desperately wishes to avoid, seeks solace on the "personal" contact he feels in his work.

Until, one day, a new operating system comes to his attention at a sales booth in a lobby, and he decides to give this new AI OS a go...

...After just a couple of set-up questions (disturbingly few! - (you are being analysed!!!) the OS pops into life, with the husky, sexualised tones of one Miss Scarlett Johansonn (probably a bit of typecasting, but got to give credit for her performance with just a voice here!) who promptly names herself Samantha (obviously, based on Theodore's unconscious profile, that even he is not aware of), and she, the titular "her" begins, to set about fully integrating herself into Theodore's life, as a quasi- personal assistant, who he begins to discover is becoming a little more indispensable than even he would like to admit.

Samantha, being AI rapidly begins to develop, and evolve personally, as does her and Theodore's relationship, until love blossoms.

Basically, this is a romantic comedy / tragedy set against the backdrop of the technological concerns of our age, and the increasing isolation that permeates our human lives that comes of it.

All the expected social stigmas, taboos around machine love are here, but all handled with great humour... although sometimes excruciatingly... but always credibly, and convincingly, and this is a movie with great er... pathos (?), real heart, and great warmth.

I'd say that if you have any interest in AI sci-fi type movies, and want a different angle on it, or if you love romantic movies / rom-coms of the feel and kind like Lost In Translation, or Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind... this will be just your thing.

This was perhaps, still within the realms of specultive when it was made, but as each year passes, and technology progresses, it seems more spookily accurate, and relevant... destined to become a classic, I feel.

...And if you didn't already, it's one more reason to love Mr Phoenix, and Ms. Johansson.

(I'm really warming up to her lately, having been a little sceptical at first)

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Out of hundreds of Live gigs I've been to over the last half century..Gulp! THIS one was up there with the VERY best. The two support acts were fantastic..but U2 were something else (In fact, I would go as far as saying the boys were out of this world..it was THAT good). We had the best seats in the house!! (first row of the new directors' seats that had been used for the very first time)..Celtic Park was in the middle of a new stadium build at the time.

2 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

This compilation is amazing!

Got it yesterday... already my favourite CD in the last year or so.

Hyper-intense, synth and punky indie stuff... all complicated rhythms, and never boring.

✔︎ Helpful Review?

the not-entirely coherent memoirs of one engendered by the devil upon a woman, so half-human, half devil and intended by his father to be the antichrist key in his revenge upon heaven for the harrowing of hell, but saved - or, half-saved? - by the intervention of heaven, constantly re-involved by his demonic relatives in their plots and schemes, ever-hopeful of winning him back to the one true infernal path, whilst he is - by his account - striving to - mostly - do right, whilst definitely not immune to succumbing to the most appealing, delightful - or appalling - temptations, told from his final imprisonment which, having essentially been brought upon himself, by himself, may yet prove to be eternal. . .

- not to be recommended to proponents of the one, true, heroic and even knightly way of the round table.

- not entirely serious.

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

And here in a nutshell is the evolution of The Benny Hill Show from the time he joined Thames Television in 1969 to when they ignominiously dumped him in 1989. The first half (dubbed "The Naughty Early Years" in the first three sets when issued individually) was infinitely better, quality-wise, than the second half ("The Hill's Angels Years"). It is very likely no coincidence that the show's quality - and its esteem, plus its UK ratings over the long term - fell into the toilet once Dennis Kirkland assumed the reins as producer/director in 1979. It was under his watch, after all, that Hill's Angels were created - and in their early years, were presented in such a way as to almost solely pander to the crowd that read "girlie" magazines like Playboy, Penthouse, Hustler and Mayfair, having almost nothing to do with comedy or making people laugh. Too, in the '80's as he got older (and heavier), the repetition factor in his gags began taking a rote, lifeless, by-the-numbers, phoning-it-in, "been there, done that" approach that is utterly deadly in terms of attracting audience interest. It is that type of approach that was most evident in the last years of Jackie Gleason's variety show (from his 1964 move to Miami Beach, FL until his show's final cancellation in 1970), Dean Martin's top-rated NBC variety show (after his second wife Jeannie divorced him that same year), Bob Hope's last years of NBC specials to the end in 1996, Lucille Ball's TV output from the second season of The Lucy Show onwards (culminating in her last-ever series, the very short-lived Life With Lucy), and other "legacy" entertainers who got especially long in the tooth (as, for example, prompted Johnny Carson, after 1992, to disappear from the limelight completely once his nearly 30-year run as host of The Tonight Show ended).

The real travesty in this otherwise complete set is the total absence of his 1977 made-in-Australia special (aired in Britain in 1978 as Benny Hill Down Under) with such local talent as Max Phipps, Barry Otto, Ron Shand, Dawn Cusack, Carmel Cullen and Lorna Lesley; there are apparently two versions, one as shown originally in Australia (with Chow Mein as Chinese Minister of Culture and Mr. Phipps as his straight man) and the other for UK airing which apparently replaced that with the "Love Will Find A Way" period sketch from one of the "Colour Strike Three" of 1970-71 (which contents are infinitely superior to the '80's remakes in every which way - and which are among the 58 shows on here). The Aussie show is also vastly superior to the later show he did after Thames canned him, where outdoor location scenes were shot entirely in New York City with a local cast while the studio segments were taped at Teddington with his usual cast of familiar faces. This show bore such classics as "Archie's Angels" (with Benny in the Farrah Fawcett role, natch'), "Hold Back The Wind" (with Benny as a Southern "Big Daddy" where the running gag is his catchphrase "Cut out the middleman! That's how I made my money - by cuttin' out the middleman!"), and a sketch of Benny and a stablemate (Otto) tending to Lady Godiva's horse on the day of her famous ride through Coventry.

5 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Seems fitting to watch this on Friday 13th

A true cult classic. A no-budget horror film. Terrible acting. Cheap 'special' effects. Lousy script.

BUT... Amazing lo-fi synth soundtrack which makes it all worthwhile.

Interestingly this film features heavily in Adjust Your Tracking as it's one of the most collectable VHS tapes in the USA and they interview the maniac who paid $700 for a copy!

8 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Well, I've only gone and read it!

One of those books that just kept nagging at me to be read... always appearing in lists of greatest books you must read before you die, explode or are crushed by a meteorite, and if you don't read it, one of those things probably will happen, so read it... or else!!!!

...Not to mention, It's always there, on the bookshelves of charity shops and at boot fairs, following me around constantly, and reminding me of the fact I haven't read it yet.

(Is it possible I have been stalked by a book?)

So, in spite of my severe misgivings about it, and the apparently unending TV and movie adaptations that keep popping up all over, I gave it a go, at last.

I was worried about the language, mostly, as the snippets I'd seen of those adaptions led me to believe this was not strictly speaking... English:

"Wherefore, forthwith perchance to extemporise on my pre-postulisation..." etc.

(or what that sounds like to me)

Eh?

But actually, it's a lot easier to read than I had imagined, the lingo makes sense, so I conclude most of the reason I didn't understand it has more to do with pretentious thespian types acting their arses off in order to appear more thespian-ic.

True, most of the early dialogue is like chewing dry crackers in the mind, straight up statements of morality, like a barrage of proverbs in "conversation" form in order to instruct or sermonise to the reader. Especially around social etiquette and other shit I care not a jot for, especially in this, stiff period world in which Jane Austen lived.

But thankfully, it all begins to go awry, as shit goes down, the done things are not done, and people begin to crack, all of which is reflected in the dialogue, which opens up, becomes looser, and more natural, as the pro-tangle-ists Ms Elizabeth Benet and Oh Mr. Darcy! (to give him, what I believe to be his proper name :) loosen up, and break through all that Prejudice and Pride of theirs (or in todays money: Sexual tension :D.

So it's a bit of a prototype Mulder and Scully situation, among social hoo-ha and incomprehensible, cultivated family connections that are the bedrock of this world, where social scum like the Bennets, daring to have only daughters (how very common of them! :), to to sell them off to better families than their own.

Nice characterisations, a little dull subject matter for me personally, but quite an easy read, even over it's rather lengthy almost 400 pages.

In my view though, you're better off reading something by one of those Twisted Bronte sisters (I love those girls! ), as they're totally rock and roll, compared to this relatively literary elevator music.

2 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

What wonderful arrangements and performances! I grew up with this LP – my father was a great Ellington fan, who had seen the Duke in concert in the US before I was born. (When I was a youngster, we saw the orchestra together twice at the Hammersmith Odeon in London in Ellington's last years).

The versions of "Sophisticated Lady" and "In a Sentimental Mood" on this record are symphonic movements in perfect miniature, with the subjects, developments and transitions compressed into a couple of minutes, somehow containing an expansive sound but intense and exciting because they are so concise. (You could call them the perfect antidote to Bruckner!).

Other highlights of these particular performances and arrangements include the controlled dissonance in "Caravan", the power and beat of "Black and Tan Fantasy", the propelling swing of "It Don't Mean a Thing" and the sweet vocal of "I let a Song go out of My Heart".

Other performances of these pieces recorded by the Ellington orchestra are equally wonderful but very different. I love hearing his different arrangements and performances of a given composition - it's part of the joy of listening to Duke Ellington - but I keep coming back to this LP. (I stream its tracks now - my copy is pretty scratched).

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Annotation:

This fictitious account of a Beatle-mad fan during the British Invasion of America is intended, according to the author, to encourage an intergenerational discussion about the pitfalls of idol-worship, as relevant today, if not more so, than in 1964. An oddly parallel book to Date With A Beatle (see Kristen, within), with different portrayals of the Beatles' characters - and different results. An indication, perhaps, that as the group enters its second half-century, The Beatles both individually and collectively are more or less available for appropriation for many purposes.

Melissa Davis

Source: The Beatles Bibliography: A New Guide To The Literature - Supplement 2013 - Michael Brocken and Melissa Davis (The Beatle Works Ltd., 2014), with acknowledgement, and used here with permission from the authors for educational and historical purposes only.

✔︎ Helpful Review?

Annotation:

Once Upon a Time in Liverpool, is a delightful surprise and welcome addition to the expanding genre of children's books about the Beatles. Special mention must be made of the extraordinarily well-done art of Eric Cash; merely noting 'illustrations by ... ' falls far short of describing his fine watercolors of the Beatles and the city. His work is much more nearly impressionistic - Mendips, the Cavern, a skyline of Liverpool are accurate while at the same time beautiful and evocative, as is the cover - a fantasy of four young boys running down a Liverpool street. Views of the group performing show particular imagination - from the balcony at the Prince of Wales Theatre of the Beatles performing at the Royal Command Performance in November 1963 and a close up on the set of the Ed Sullivan Show. These provide a 'you were there' feel; the choice to show the Cavern from behind Ringo looking out through the brick arch, past the front three Beatles out to the audience is exceptional and refreshing. But it is in the depiction of the Beatles themselves where Cash truly excels. He captures the distinctive features of the four without resorting to the cartoonish caricatures (Lennon's sharp nose, McCartney's cherubic cheeks, Harrison's strong jaw line, Ringo's beagle eyes) that are cheap shortcuts to real portraiture, giving the next generation of Beatle fans, the children who will enjoy this book, images of real people rather than cartoons, to get to know. Another piece - John and Paul singing together at the St. Peter's Church Fete didn't happen, of course - but the artist nails the look and feel of the moment so perfectly you wish they had.

Children and the adults reading to them will enjoy the book, as Kristen has found the right tone and the right words to tell the Beatles' story. Although one might wonder about the message on the back cover (' .. .it's not where you start that counts ... it's how you finish! '), Kristen resists the temptation to over-dramatize and in reading the text it is easy to see how the story could resonate with so many children who face similar situations of modest circumstances, broken homes, step-parents, childhood illness and even dead mothers. Kristen has an honest, yet delicate touch here that will be welcome to parents and children's librarians; the story also includes Stuart Sutcliffe and Pete Best, as well as a period when they 'called it quits for a few weeks' (in real life the post-Hamburg deportations in December 1960), which is admirable. The story, therefore is neither all sunshine and light nor all poor boys on the docks in gritty, grimy Liverpool as is so often the case. There is hard work, perseverance, friendship and above all - music. And that's a good message for any reader, regardless of age.

Melissa Davis

Source: The Beatles Bibliography: A New Guide To The Literature - Supplement 2013 - Michael Brocken and Melissa Davis (The Beatle Works Ltd., 2014), with acknowledgement, and used here with permission from the authors for educational and historical purposes only.

✔︎ Helpful Review?

This one is in the "killer kids" style of horror film like: Children of the Corn, The Damned series and Who Can Kill A Child?; all better films than this one.

A group of children go missing in a forest and the adults investigate what is going on. They find their leader is a teenager and the children are murderous cannibals.

It doesn't really do anything well. The script is half-baked with corny dialogue and an absurd plot were the humour doesn't land. As with most Troma films the acting is bad, but not the worst I've seen. It tries to merge a few tropes: the gory slasher movie, the supernatural mystery and the backwoods cannibal.

It's not really worth your time despite a good ending. For killer kids films there's loads that do it better; Who Can Kill A Child? is the pick of the bunch with Mikey, These Are The Damned and The Children all being better choices.

Versions: The Blu-Ray from Vinegar Syndrome has a superb print from 35mm negative. The film is unreleased in the UK, maybe Troma got cold feet due to Child's Play 3 being withdrawn. If it was to be released it would easily pass uncut at 18.

5 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Annotation:

Includes DVD. The DVD features the last filmed interview with Lennon and Paul McCartney, conducted by Kane in 1968 when the two were in New York to announce the formation of Apple. The former Philadelphia anchor man dredges his memories of covering The Beatles and few encounters with Lennon afterward to pad this hagiography. Kane covered the Beatle tours as a radio reporter and his book about them, Ticket to Ride, is an excellent fly-on-the-wall account.

Here, however, he takes his material and pads it with uniform praise for the group and nearly everyone who knew or worked with them. He then tacks on 33 pages of fan letters. One major drawback here is that there is too much fulsome prose: The Shea Stadium concert? 'An epic moment in contemporary entertainment'; onetime band mate Stuart Sutcliffe? 'In the formative years of John's march to eternal greatness, Stu Sutcliffe was a colossal figure'. Even Beatle experts are not spared this praise, with one authority called 'the world's greatest scholar' on the group. Tony Bramwell is mysteriously described as a 'British musical icon'; such gushing is, for this reader, unjustifiable. While this text could be described as an appropriate study in journalistic licence, the DVD it comes packaged with, an uncut interview Kane conducted with John and Paul from 1968, is a truly a fascinating glimpse into the tense chemistry between the two frontmen shortly before they went their separate ways.

To its credit, the prose settles down considerably when Kane describes the private moments he shared with Lennon while on tour. The aforementioned accompanying 40-minute DVD mixes a promotional interview with Kane with that 13-minute Lennon and McCartney interview (an important moment, the last one they did together in America), together with a few seconds of Lennon giving the weather report as part of a charity telethon at Kane's Philadelphia station. Perhaps this is overall something of a curate's egg: agreeable in parts, but a little unsatisfactory as a whole; nevertheless Larry Kane has a great memory for detail. This is not a tell-all or expose, therefore, despite several flaws, is a recommended text.

Michael Brocken

Source: The Beatles Bibliography: A New Guide To The Literature - Michael Brocken and Melissa Davis (The Beatle Works Ltd., 2012), with acknowledgement, and used here with permission from the authors for educational and historical purposes only.

✔︎ Helpful Review?

John Lennon's centuries of family history in North Wales uncovered by new research by Christopher Davies, 1 May 2022, MSN

✔︎ Helpful Review?

Very deceptive CD this...

I thought it would be, judging by the cover (as you do :) that it might be the girl on the cover was the artist, as either singer / songwriter, maybe electronic artist, but actually this artist is an indie group (male singer) who have a very easy listening / middle of the road, Indie Eagles sound.

(Quite a good cover of the Black Sabbath song, later done by Osbourne and Daughter).

Fairly good all round, a bit slow, but tuneful, and a little better than average.

2 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

“George Harrison In the 70s”: His Decade of Change by Cindy Grogan, Culture Sonar

Editor’s Note: Eoghan Lyng is a longtime contributor to Culture Sonar, having written many of our most popular posts. We’re pleased to share a look at his new book about George Harrison.

✔︎ Helpful Review?

Musically the album is similar to Big Blue Ball, as it features additional vocalists, but has a more interesting atmosphere, more ambient. Interesting recordings are certainly "Low Light" and "The Time Of The Turning". However, the biggest misunderstanding is the opening track of the album, "The Story Of OVO". The rap that appears in it is a completely wrong idea and fortunately, the artist rarely experiments with this kind of music.

1 person found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Hi, you person who reads this. Hope you like this review.
First of all, this album is an important one, for young boys and girls who saw a “revolution” n these four man.
If I were an American little boy of 8/10 years old, this album, in any sound, would meant something, a something that people loves and appreciate.
Second a more deeper critic
Cover: truly, is a tiny big difference, leaving in evidence the difference of UK and USA until 1966/7 with the covers and songs.
Cold colors helps to notice this. The blue and serious faces are the best, with the promotion slogan.
Songs orders: yeah, I admit that is just a take-and-put album, but the arrangement is very energetic and appreciated. First, a little twist with touches of love; second is a twist and energetic dance with a wondrous story by the hand of Lennon-McCartney; third one is a big difference between those first two, talking about a heartbreaking situation for a young man; fourth seems like the case of the first two, with changing tempos; fifth is the same as the fourth, with another kind of arrangement; sixth one is a good closing face.
On the side two, first song, we star with a early George Harrison composition, which shows how dramatic and heart touching George can be. Seventh one, is like a cup of coffee, but a cup of energetic that makes your body moves. The third one is truly a good one by Paul cover. He did a great job, with the Spanish vocals and Spanish guitar. Fourth it isn’t my favorite, but I admit that h they did a great job, truly a decent one
Fifth song is a good one by Ringo. Is like some kind of tradition, he appearing on each album, with good vocals.
Sixth and last one is a good closing theme.

In abstract, a big hit and smash by the Fab Four.

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Annotation:

Upon release in 1999 this text was immediately deprecated as fiction by three key Merseybeat figures (Allan Williams, Bob Wooler and Bill Harry). At one stage Williams even considered a defamation suit. Both tone and content are mean spirited and hurtful concerning those early Beatles related promoters and pioneers - why? We never really get to learn. But we are given clues, for Leach appears consummate in his assertions that he was first to the punch in fully recognising the importance of this local scene (and presumably the Beatles at the head of it). For example, Sam suggests that he coined the 'bigger than Elvis' statement before Epstein, makes a claim to the moniker of 'Mersey Beat' (the title of a Liverpool Echo column for years, actually written by another George Harrison), and he also professes that he was about to start an independent label in Liverpool in 1961 - Troubadour (tape recordings made under the name of Lambda do, however exist); this is all before the character assassinations begin. So what should we make of this text? Sadly for Leach a great deal of his information is speculative at best, and at worst? One suspects downright fable telling. Nevertheless this is recommended as a text to all Beatles researchers, who should read it merely to discover how not to write a Merseybeat vanity text.

Michael Brocken

Source: The Beatles Bibliography: A New Guide To The Literature - Michael Brocken and Melissa Davis (The Beatle Works Ltd., 2012), with acknowledgement, and used here with permission from the authors for educational and historical purposes only.

✔︎ Helpful Review?

Annotation:

This exploration of Liverpool via text and photographs is Lewis's fifth book; previous books include a collection of walking tours and a best-seller about the development of the suburbs around the city. As such, the author is familiar with the phenomenon of Liverpool being an 800 year-old city with a sometimes-baffling inability to grasp the beauty and significance of itself and its treasures. Here, the city is seen as the backdrop for the story of the Beatles, but Lewis goes beyond offering the standard sights of The Cavern, Penny Lane and Strawberry Field. Those places are vital to the story, to be sure and they are covered, but he steps back in time to show the city the Beatles' families were born into and settled in, shaping their histories, as well as that of Liverpool. Lewis has a sense of the Beatles not just suddenly appearing as fully-grown mop-tops, but as Liverpudlians with roots in the city stretching back for generations. As a veteran explorer of the city, he defines his mission as tying their family histories to that of the city. In this, his descriptive, sometimes poetic narrative is excellent, as well as evocative. On the other hand, Lewis's a priori goal sets him to his task with preconceived images of not only the city, but the Beatles themselves - Lennon, the 'darkest Beatle, the angry one, volatile and unpredictable'; Paul drawing confidence from his parents, George the quiet, observant one, and Richie, the sickly one. It is a contrivance that is not needed here.

Something that will surprise many, no doubt, is the pastoral, almost bucolic nature of the area where John Lennon grew up (Woolton Village) and the neighbouring Allerton where Paul McCartney lived from age 13 to the time he moved to London following the Beatles' success in 1963. Those accustomed to seeing the city as a blighted, decaying industrial wasteland or imagining the young Beatles playing on the docks are in for a shock. Liverpool was never an industrial centre anyway, but rather a busy seaport - one of the world's most important. Readers who expect to see dire photos of John Lennon's childhood as a future working class hero will be surprised to see 'Mendips' (his home had a name!) - a lovely two-storey detached home (duplex in American English) with a neat yard and driveway. McCartney grew up in public housing, but his home is nothing like the inner city slum that the phrase conjures up in America (of course, he never represents it as anything like that). Harrison grew up even farther out from the city in a council estate (British for project) that bears no resemblance to Cabrini Green in Chicago or the Baruch Homes in the Bronx; of the four, only Starr grew up in rough circumstances in the city.

A map (several, actually, representing different eras) would have been useful and Lewis takes the poetry a tad far in noting the many opportune places in the city where the four (and others like Stuart Sutcliffe and Pete Best) might have crossed paths by coincidence before fateful meetings at church fetes or on the bus to school, but he does a good job in going far beyond presenting merely another picture book of the city. Lewis brings the tale to the present with a walk around Mathew Street and visits to the Eleanor Rigby and Lennon statues, finishing up with the National Trust tour of the childhood homes of John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Wandering through the rooms, taking a moment to sing in the porch where John and Paul were exiled to practice, listening to a girl play the piano in the McCartney living room, Lewis finally comes to the unavoidable conclusion that the homes and the city around them are living things and that the past is unreachable. We could have told him that, but the journey was (and is) not without interest along the way.

Readers looking for an oversized glossy photo album of oft-seen Beatle-related sights like the gate at Strawberry Field supplemented with the usual views of the Liver Building and the Cathedrals will be disappointed. Those looking to explore the way a city forms and informs its people may well be intrigued.

Melissa Davis

Source: The Beatles Bibliography: A New Guide To The Literature - Michael Brocken and Melissa Davis (The Beatle Works Ltd., 2012), with acknowledgement, and used here with permission from the authors for educational and historical purposes only.

✔︎ Helpful Review?

Annotation:

Leach promoted some of the Beatles' early shows in Liverpool. He also organised the Lennon Tribute in Liverpool in December 1980. This diminutive text is a 32-page magazine full of photographs and drawings discussing the group's early days in Liverpool. There are one or two interesting anecdotes that relate to venues such as the Tower Ballroom and the Iron Door club. There is also a pretty Stephen Barwise's hand-drawn map of Liverpool's Beatle sites. An interesting text for its day, it now more of a collector's item rather than a piece of informative source material. This text was still available from Sam Leach, as of this printing.

Michael Brocken

Source: The Beatles Bibliography: A New Guide To The Literature - Michael Brocken and Melissa Davis (The Beatle Works Ltd., 2012), with acknowledgement, and used here with permission from the authors for educational and historical purposes only.

✔︎ Helpful Review?

In 1964 you got your thrills anyway you could.

In this case by watching a short film of three young women pouring bottles of water into a bucket.

2 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Finally got around to watching this on TV the other day, as despite my best efforts, it's continued existence kept invading my consciousness to remind me of that fact.

Anyway, it's done now, and it's in my brain, and it was every bit as vapid and superficial as I'd expected it to be.

Watching it felt like a slow motion, self inflicted, real time lobotomy.

1 person found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

C-movie, comedy creature feature.

They don't make 'em like this anymore!

Basically a paint by numbers "plot" you've seen a thousand times before, but mercifully, doesn't take itself too seriously at all, doesn't consume an inexplicably large budget the way some do, and at an hour and a half, it's quite short :)

... Toxic goo dumped in pond / lake turns our little furry arachnid friends into massively oversized fiends, who then attack a nearby town, and the locals fight them off.

Well that's the whole plot dealt with.

Obviously, if you don't like spiders, this isn't the movie for you, but the effects are OK, and convincing enough for what it is, and at the time it was made, with some pretty realistic spiders, and the humour is pitched somewhere in the Tremors / Lake Placid / Gremlins area...

... Mildly amusing, and sometimes funny, as the spiders do make little Gremlin like noises and squeaks, which gives them a slightly softer character, and early on, there's even a very "Loony Toons" cartoonish cat / spider battle in an air vent.

Not the greatest movie you will ever see, but probably wasn't trying to be... maybe setting up the possibility for movies like Mega-Piranha, Sharknado and the like to come into being.

...And at the very least, it makes the world go away for an hour or so :)

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

as the management, maids, porters, guests and kitchen staff - and the ghosts in the attic - at the hotel splendide prepare for a relaxing summer's evening for some, including the grande dame arriving by chauffeured limousine - and the hard work of preparing everything just so, in the public and private rooms, and of producing perfection under the eagle-eyed gaze of the chef for others, only the lovers spooning on the top floor's balcony have noticed - and even they totally misconstrue - it's the night of the full moon...

- with individual plots starting off in the different rooms, running and up and down the staircases, and through the attics, and in the cellars, as well as in the kitchens, and moving - sometimes with difficulty, sometimes running rampant - from one site to another in the cutaway double spread cross-section views of the hotel, their interweaving makes it seem perfectly reasonable that a great ape in a voluminous dress should somehow take centre-stage for a while, for some, whilst a misguided flying saucer crashes into one tower of the hotel - and the bopping vampire disturbs someone or other's mummy, and her majesty's finest boys in blue break in to - well, make matters even worse, in fact...

- and aliens kidnap the possibly innocent chef from the midst of all the chaos caused - with what in mind, exactly ?

- and all, to what end?

- and where did the over-excited, over-sexed boa constrictor come from ?

- not to mention the passing pink elephant poling, or rather, being poled, by ?

- ah; but that would be telling...

5 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

The theme of Jesus' seven last pronouncements on Good Friday has been used by composers over the centuries; probably the best-known is Die sieben letzten Worte unseres Erlösers am Kreuze by Joseph Haydn, in which the final words are delivered in a slow triple time with the major key pointing to the ecstatic release from mortal suffering.

MacMillan's Seven Last Words From The Cross was commissioned by the BBC in 1993 with the seven pieces performed on consecutive days finishing on Good Friday. The sequence begins with a repeated figure which forms the basis for the whole series; it ends with the last words on the Cross, set to traditional Scottish lament music, after which the strings represent the failing breaths with a phrase which slowly grows slower and shorter, working through the keys Dorian on E, G major, and C♯ minor. One music critic describes a performance she attended where the finish of the work was followed not by applause but by silence, with members of the audience and the musicians quietly weeping, until they left in silence.

The first movement is "Father, Forgive Them":
[YouTube Video]

3 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Annotation:

Cadogan claims that John Lennon began his career as 'an ordinary pop star who made extraordinary music'. Lennon, according to this matrix, slowly began to 'evolve' as his fame grew, and this personal advancement also involved Lennon's radicalization via meetings and associations with late-sixties activists. During this time, there is some evidence that Lennon referred to himself, somewhat scurrilously perhaps, as a 'revolutionary artist' and it is on this expression, that the author focuses his attention.

So, 'The Revolutionary Artist' is an attempt at examining Lennon's incursions into activism, his perhaps formless political views, and of course the music he created during that rather ill-defined period. Specific areas of focus include an interesting look at the 1969 Montreal bed-in, plus interviews; a previously unreleased transcript of a far less interesting peace seminar attended by Lennon at the University of Ottawa; discussions between John and Yoko recorded during the Janov primal scream therapy of 1970; and a song-by-song analysis of Lennon's first three solo releases, together with bits and pieces of commentary from John Lennon running through the songs he and Paul McCartney wrote as Beatles.

This is mostly more recycling, together with a massive assumption from the author concerning Lennon's politicised nature. To this day there remains scant evidence of Lennon ever having read Hegel, Marx, or indeed Mao, the texts that so infatuated the London-based counter cultural 'intelligentsia' that (according to some) so influenced Lennon.

But there is a greater problem here, too, for Cadogan merely focuses his research upon this seemingly revolutionary aspect of Lennon because he (the author) likes the idea. So, for all of its so-called methodological rigour (it is actually a 'bits-stuck-anywhere' text), there is little evidence that the interdisciplinary demands of such a complex project have been considered. This work, therefore, is a classic example of an aspect of John Lennon's past produced by someone in the present day corresponding to the usual old a priori assumptions.

Michael Brocken

Source: The Beatles Bibliography: A New Guide To The Literature - Michael Brocken and Melissa Davis (The Beatle Works Ltd., 2012), with acknowledgement, and used here with permission from the authors for educational and historical purposes only.

✔︎ Helpful Review?

very slight novel of an innocent way out of his depth: a bad case of montezuma's revenge isn't the only dangerous affliction to be faced by tony hawkin, a man whose deep experience as an fbi operative prior to getting involved in the mexican connection's artworld crime caper is restricted to running the bureau's ground-floor gift-shop. . .

1 person found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Annotation:

Some would suggest this was the first concept album in the history of popular music, the soundtrack to the 'Summer of Love'. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is certainly first and foremost the album that gave rise to high art elitists suggesting that there were some 'hopes of progress in pop music' (The Times, 29 May 1967) - yawn. This edition commemorates the fortieth anniversary of 'Sgt. Pepper' by addressing issues that help put the record in perspective. These issues include: reception by rock critics and musicians, the cover, lyrics, songwriting, formal unity, the influence of non-European music and art music, connections with psychedelia and, more generally, the sociocultural context of the 1960s, production, sound engineering and musicological significance. The text was winner of the 2009 ARSC (Association for Recorded Sound Collections) Award for Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research: Best Research in Recorded Rock and Popular Music. It was therefore widely congratulated and duly recommended - a couple of sample reviews ran as follows:

Deena Weinstein from DePaul University stated: 'Like the album that it analyzes, this collection of essays by an international array of Beatles scholars has more than just a few hooks to capture everyone's particular fancy. The authors present a wide-ranging and contextualized discussion that shows us why Sgt. Pepper is a monument in the history of rock music. Given the richness of the Beatles' work and the densely dynamic times in which they flourished, all pivoting around Sgt. Pepper, this book is more than welcome.'

Yrjö Heinonen of the University of Jyväskylä stated: 'The eleven chapters, written by distinguished international scholars, approach this groundbreaking album from eleven interrelated points of view: connections with psychedelia (psychedelic lyrics, sonic and conceptual realizations of the psychedelic experience), aesthetic unity and complexity (formal unity, aesthetic divergence of Lennon and McCartney, classical and psychedelic aesthetic ideals, influence of Indian music), production (sound design, position in the rise of a "phonographic tradition", album cover), critical reception and musicological significance. These diverse points of view cover the key issues, which made Sgt. Pepper not only the soundtrack of the "Summer of Love" but also the album of all times - an album which is remembered 40 years after its first release and will also be remembered in the future. This book is a "must" in the bookshelf of anybody interested in the Beatles or Sixties culture in general.'

Michael Brocken

Source: The Beatles Bibliography: A New Guide To The Literature - Michael Brocken and Melissa Davis (The Beatle Works Ltd., 2012), with acknowledgement, and used here with permission from the authors for educational and historical purposes only.

✔︎ Helpful Review?

I bought this album at an outdoor rock festival [Great Western Express] . I had seen a clip of HH&F on the OGWT [I think] and liked what I saw. I had borrowed their first album from a friend who raved about them and thought it was OK, but nothing special - but I bought it later. Luckily I had a plastic bag to keep the records dry as it pi**ed down all the time we were there. Every track on this album is very good and it hasn't aged all that much. Great drumming throughout and some nifty guitar work makes it still playable and enjoyable today. In fact I have it on CD with a couple of bonus tracks. Safety in numbers - Hot property - Jack Daniels are among my favourite tracks. I've since seen Albert Lee with the Everly Brothers and Chas Hodges in the 1960's with Screaming Lord Sutch.

It still gets a regular spin.
Well worth a listen if you can get hold of it.

6 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

When I bought this I had little idea where Ukraine even was, let alone anything about its people and culture.
Dumka-shumka by Mykola Lysenko is a typically thoughtful and gentle piece:

[YouTube Video]

1 person found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

A great album which I've owned since new. Very few "fillers" here, most are excellent compositions. I'd love to know whether it's Barbara Moore or someone else doing the glorious scat vocals on this album: given that it was Johnny Keating's orchestra and thus at least the backing was recorded in the UK (?), it's possible that that IS Barbara!

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Annotation (Part 1 of 2):

Ilson was a television producer in the 1970s after getting his start with the Ed Sullivan Show in 1963. In the late 1990's, Ilson took a PhD from New York University and the cultural aspects of the Sullivan Show formed the basis for his dissertation: 'High Cultural Aspects of The Ed Sullivan Show (1948-1971) and how it affected Cultural Diffusion in the United States'. This combination of an insider's perspective and an understanding of cultural context puts Ilson in the position of being able to examine the cultural impact of the long-running show in a decidedly unique way.

Today, little is known about the often caricaturized Sullivan who undoubtedly contributed to his image by the delight he took in presenting comedians on the show who mimicked his stilted style, mannerisms and malapropisms. The premise of the show (something for everyone: a comic, a singer, a juggler, a pretty girl, and a dancing bear) was dismissed by some as 'vaudevision', merely the latest incarnation of old-time entertainment, but although Sullivan took pains to ensure there was 'something for the kiddies', the show provided much more. Sullivan had a sixth sense about what the public wanted and his radio
show, 'Cavalcade of Stars', was one of the first to make the transition to television in the early days when networks and programmers.

Right from the start, Sullivan insisted on scheduling opera stars like Leontyne Price (and later, Beverly Sills) as frequently as Peggy Lee and Ella Fitzgerald, once devoting an 18-minute segment to Maria Callas's debut in Tosca. He presented dramatic excerpts from Broadway plays, such as Mr. Roberts and Anne of the Thousand Days; Alfred Lunt, Noel Coward, and Helen Hayes did dramatic readings. Louis Armstrong and Van Cliburn all found an audience on the Sunday night show. Viewers were exposed to rich ethnic and early feminist humor (Woody AlIen, Bill Cosby, and Carol Burnett were among countless other Jewish, black, and female comedians who had their earliest television exposure on his show). Leonard Bernstein and Burt Bacharach were valued equally to Sullivan, who had an early understanding that popular culture had worth and meaning.

He broadcast from outside the United States; from the Kremlin and Berlin in the depth of the Cold War, even during the McCarthy era, negotiating appearances by the Bolshoi Ballet, as well as other Russian theatre troupes. Yes, there was the night Sullivan, standing in the wings, grew so entranced by the performance of Rupert the Bear onstage that he nearly became part of the animal's act, and the host did routinely kiss Topo Gigio goodnight at the end of the rodent puppet's routine. But he also broadcast an interview he taped after flying a small crew to Cuba and driving three hours into the island's interior war zone to get the first post-revolution meeting with Fidel Castro in January 1959.

Sullivan also had a reputation for being 'color-blind' presenting Afro-American stars, sports figures, and personalities on stage and from within the audience, often to the consternation of his tobacco company sponsors in the South. Anyone who saw the Beatles perform from the Deauville Hotel in Miami in their second Sullivan Show appearance (February 16, 1964) would note that although the audience is solidly white, Sullivan goes out of his way to introduce African-American boxers Joe Louis and Sonny Liston from the audience. Television's first integrated chorus line danced on Sullivan's show in 1961 and Mrs. Coretta Scott King, widow of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. made an appeal for racial tolerance just weeks after the assassination. Sullivan's standard was talent and appeal: if someone had those two things, he was adamant: "Nobody tells me who to book on my stage." In the end, the southern sponsors couldn't argue with the ratings
.
Ilson covers the three famous Beatle shows in February of 1964, although he presents the oft-told mixture of myth and memory that Sullivan favored, rather than the more plausible and verifiable reality presented by James Maguire in impresario: The Life and Times of Ed Sullivan (see within, Maguire, James). Still, there is no doubt that the Beatles could not have taken the next step in what now seems their inevitable progression from Liverpool to London to the world stage, had it not been for the Sullivan Show. Quite simply, there was no other venue in the world that could give them the exposure in as favorable light ("Four of the nicest youngsters we've ever had on our show" Sullivan told the audience), to as wide a demographic (the policy of presenting something for every member of the family paid off), or to sheer numbers (73.9 million viewers; over 40% of the American population).

✔︎ Helpful Review?

Annotation (Part 2 of 2):

After the Beatles three record-breaking appearances, Sullivan followed up by being the first to give other British Invasion acts exposure on American television: Gerry & The Pacemakers, Herman's Hermits, The Dave Clark Five, The Animals, and Petula Clark. He is often pilloried for asking the Rolling Stones to alter the lyric, 'Let's spend the night together' to 'Let's spend some time together', for their 1967 appearance, however when taken in context - the BBC would ban 'A Day in the Life' that same year finding objectionable the phrase 'I'd love to turn you on' - Sullivan does not seem entirely out of place with the times. What is lost is an understanding of the value of the Sullivan show as a venue in the first place, which was inestimable even to the 'bad boy' Rolling Stones.

Personal insight into Sullivan and anecdotes about the shows make this text an essential volume for background into why the Sullivan appearances were so significant to the Beatles and other British Invasion groups that followed. Recommended, especially when read alongside Maguire's excellent biography, which does, by the way, provide the 'real' story of how Sullivan first learned about the Beatles and booked them for that first appearance.

Melissa Davis

Source: The Beatles Bibliography: A New Guide To The Literature - Michael Brocken and Melissa Davis (The Beatle Works Ltd., 2012), with acknowledgement, and used here with permission from the authors for educational and historical purposes only.

✔︎ Helpful Review?

Annotation:

Ian Wright was a pop photographer in the 1960s and captured many stars, including the Beatles, on film when working in the northeast of England. Wright's work periodically appears in exhibitions, the latest being in London 2009. His early work is perhaps of most interest, for while it is not 'artistic' in the way one might describe (say) the 'Peter Kaye' shots, Wright's photographs are incredibly vibrant and atmospheric and seem to capture the excitement of those package tours through Britain in the 1963-1965 period extremely well.

Michael Brocken

Source: The Beatles Bibliography: A New Guide To The Literature - Michael Brocken and Melissa Davis (The Beatle Works Ltd., 2012), with acknowledgement, and used here with permission from the authors for educational and historical purposes only.

✔︎ Helpful Review?

Annotation:

This work contains several different parental-children anecdotes, including material provided by Paul and Stella McCartney.

Michael Brocken

Source: The Beatles Bibliography: A New Guide To The Literature - Michael Brocken and Melissa Davis (The Beatle Works Ltd., 2012), with acknowledgement, and used here with permission from the authors for educational and historical purposes only.

✔︎ Helpful Review?

Annotation:

This work contains several different parental-children anecdotes, including material provided by Paul and Stella McCartney.

Michael Brocken

Source: The Beatles Bibliography: A New Guide To The Literature - Michael Brocken and Melissa Davis (The Beatle Works Ltd., 2012), with acknowledgement, and used here with permission from the authors for educational and historical purposes only.

✔︎ Helpful Review?

Chuffed to find this one going relatively cheap on ebay (£12 new) as i did not have any of his TV appearances.
Pleased to say it's worth the money, with some great performances, highlights being "Voodoo Chile" on German TV, and trading licks with Jeff Healey on Canadian TV.
Despite a couple of fashion faux pas from Stevie (it was the 80's after all:), his sheer talent shines throughout, and mesmerises you, truly gifted.
Recommended to old fans and those yet to discover him, 9/10

3 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Annotation (Part 1 of 2):

Ilson was a television producer in the 1970s after getting his start with the Ed Sullivan Show in 1963. In the late 1990's, Ilson took a PhD from New York University and the cultural aspects of the Sullivan Show formed the basis for his dissertation: 'High Cultural Aspects of The Ed Sullivan Show (1948-1971) and how it affected Cultural Diffusion in the United States'. This combination of an insider's perspective and an understanding of cultural context puts Ilson in the position of being able to examine the cultural impact of the long-running show in a decidedly unique way.

Today, little is known about the often caricaturized Sullivan who undoubtedly contributed to his image by the delight he took in presenting comedians on the show who mimicked his stilted style, mannerisms and malapropisms. The premise of the show (something for everyone: a comic, a singer, a juggler, a pretty girl, and a dancing bear) was dismissed by some as 'vaudevision', merely the latest incarnation of old-time entertainment, but although Sullivan took pains to ensure there was 'something for the kiddies', the show provided much more. Sullivan had a sixth sense about what the public wanted and his radio
show, 'Cavalcade of Stars', was one of the first to make the transition to television in the early days when networks and programmers.

Right from the start, Sullivan insisted on scheduling opera stars like Leontyne Price (and later, Beverly Sills) as frequently as Peggy Lee and Ella Fitzgerald, once devoting an 18-minute segment to Maria Callas's debut in Tosca. He presented dramatic excerpts from Broadway plays, such as Mr. Roberts and Anne of the Thousand Days; Alfred Lunt, Noel Coward, and Helen Hayes did dramatic readings. Louis Armstrong and Van Cliburn all found an audience on the Sunday night show. Viewers were exposed to rich ethnic and early feminist humor (Woody AlIen, Bill Cosby, and Carol Burnett were among countless other Jewish, black, and female comedians who had their earliest television exposure on his show). Leonard Bernstein and Burt Bacharach were valued equally to Sullivan, who had an early understanding that popular culture had worth and meaning.

He broadcast from outside the United States; from the Kremlin and Berlin in the depth of the Cold War, even during the McCarthy era, negotiating appearances by the Bolshoi Ballet, as well as other Russian theatre troupes. Yes, there was the night Sullivan, standing in the wings, grew so entranced by the performance of Rupert the Bear onstage that he nearly became part of the animal's act, and the host did routinely kiss Topo Gigio goodnight at the end of the rodent puppet's routine. But he also broadcast an interview he taped after flying a small crew to Cuba and driving three hours into the island's interior war zone to get the first post-revolution meeting with Fidel Castro in January 1959.

Sullivan also had a reputation for being 'color-blind' presenting Afro-American stars, sports figures, and personalities on stage and from within the audience, often to the consternation of his tobacco company sponsors in the South. Anyone who saw the Beatles perform from the Deauville Hotel in Miami in their second Sullivan Show appearance (February 16, 1964) would note that although the audience is solidly white, Sullivan goes out of his way to introduce African-American boxers Joe Louis and Sonny Liston from the audience. Television's first integrated chorus line danced on Sullivan's show in 1961 and Mrs. Coretta Scott King, widow of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. made an appeal for racial tolerance just weeks after the assassination. Sullivan's standard was talent and appeal: if someone had those two things, he was adamant: "Nobody tells me who to book on my stage." In the end, the southern sponsors couldn't argue with the ratings
.
Ilson covers the three famous Beatle shows in February of 1964, although he presents the oft-told mixture of myth and memory that Sullivan favored, rather than the more plausible and verifiable reality presented by James Maguire in impresario: The Life and Times of Ed Sullivan (see within, Maguire, James). Still, there is no doubt that the Beatles could not have taken the next step in what now seems their inevitable progression from Liverpool to London to the world stage, had it not been for the Sullivan Show. Quite simply, there was no other venue in the world that could give them the exposure in as favorable light ("Four of the nicest youngsters we've ever had on our show" Sullivan told the audience), to as wide a demographic (the policy of presenting something for every member of the family paid off), or to sheer numbers (73.9 million viewers; over 40% of the American population).

✔︎ Helpful Review?

Annotation (Part 2 of 2):

After the Beatles three record-breaking appearances, Sullivan followed up by being the first to give other British Invasion acts exposure on American television: Gerry & The Pacemakers, Herman's Hermits, The Dave Clark Five, The Animals, and Petula Clark. He is often pilloried for asking the Rolling Stones to alter the lyric, 'Let's spend the night together' to 'Let's spend some time together', for their 1967 appearance, however when taken in context - the BBC would ban 'A Day in the Life' that same year finding objectionable the phrase 'I'd love to turn you on' - Sullivan does not seem entirely out of place with the times. What is lost is an understanding of the value of the Sullivan show as a venue in the first place, which was inestimable even to the 'bad boy' Rolling Stones.

Personal insight into Sullivan and anecdotes about the shows make this text an essential volume for background into why the Sullivan appearances were so significant to the Beatles and other British Invasion groups that followed. Recommended, especially when read alongside Maguire's excellent biography, which does, by the way, provide the 'real' story of how Sullivan first learned about the Beatles and booked them for that first appearance.

Melissa Davis

Source: The Beatles Bibliography: A New Guide To The Literature - Michael Brocken and Melissa Davis (The Beatle Works Ltd., 2012), with acknowledgement, and used here with permission from the authors for educational and historical purposes only.

✔︎ Helpful Review?

A vigilante group form a military camp called the Fortress of Amerikkka. They terrorise a small town (presumably Tromaville). A wrongly convicted criminal, John Whitecloud and a band of townsfolk try to put a stop to them.

I've been a Troma fan since the early 00s when the films used to be shown on Channel 4 in the UK as part of 4Later. Fortress of Amerikkka is bad even by Troma standards. Bad acting, bad script and cheap production values. Even the nudity is lacking compared to some of their films. The gore effects are on point, with a knife in the throat looking particularly good. The plot should be a lot more interesting than it is. Uninspired dialogue delivered badly ruins it and the climax of the film fails to impress with poor stunts. The voiceover is excellent making it feel like a 1960s exploitation film. The gung-ho tongue-in-cheek patriotism doesn't go far enough; it took something like "Team America" to absolutely nail it.

Versions: I saw the Blu-Ray from Vinegar Syndrome which features an absolute superb print struck from 35mm negative, 100% accurate subtitles and sound about as good as it gets without it being remixed to 5.1. The UK VHS version is cut, but it's unclear what has been cut. Earlier VHS versions are washed out and most likely from a second or third generation print.

Director Eric Louzil went on to direct the sequels to Class of Nuke 'Em High which are truly terrible, even worse than Fortress of Amerikkka which is at least watchable trash.

2 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?