July 16, 2009
NUTTY ROOM NEWS!
LOOK AT THE JARS! LOOK AT THE JARS!!
Hello friends! It’s been so long. So much has happened. I’m so sorry. We only just finished shooting the BBC2 sitcom I’m acting in last Friday and I haven’t had a free blog shaped minute for ages. In between the sitcom and the radio show I’ve also been making a few short videos for the BBC’s wonderful relaunched comedy website which I heartily recommend you visit and bookmark forthwith.
As well as my Nutty Room video, which you can see below, there’s also a thing I did for Eurovision a few months back which is exclusive to that site for the time being.
I’ve also finished a video for a drum’n’bass/pirate radio song about the film Ratatouille which should be up there before too long so keep an eye out (though if you are coming to/were at BUG at Latitude you’ll have seen it), but for now, here’s Nutty Room and beneath it some info about its creation.
The song was created as part of Song Wars, the competitive song-writing feature our 6 Music show in which Joe and I write songs on a given subject and our listeners vote for which one they like best. The theme of that week’s battle was ‘scary songs’. Joe did one about a ghost that I recall he wasn’t that pleased with and I did one about the lair of a movie style disturbed nutbag called Nutty Room. I’m proud to say our listeners voted my song the winner that week and I was delighted as I had spent many long minutes on its complex harmony arrangements. In fact Nutty Room is considered one of the best songs ever written (if the list of the best songs ever written were to include every song ever written).
The video was shot on Thursday 23rd April 2009 in an old abandoned house nearby where I live in Norfolk. It was boarded up years ago but dishonest people bust in and stripped out the fittings, floor tiles and everything else of any value. Now it’s just a shell, overwhelmed by vines and weeds, the walls crumbling and the floorboards rotten and treacherous. According to many local residents the house is haunted by the ghost of a monk (as opposed to being haunted by a living monk which can also happen). I often passed the house on walks and after a few weeks I couldn’t resist poking around. It scared the crap out of me, not so much because of the ghost monk (who I imagine would be fairly mellow) but because there are so many dark corners, blacked out rooms and cellars. As everyone who’s ever watched a horror film knows, these are exactly the kinds of places in which twisted homicidal nuts love to hang out and dissect annoying teenagers. I knew this was the perfect place to make a video for my song.
To create the nutty room you see in the video I spent a couple of weeks painting crazy childish art all over the walls just as twisted lunatics so often do in films to create what looks like the cover of a bad indie album. There were times when I worried that spending lonely hours scrawling on the walls of an abandoned house for a 3 minute internet-only video was not a good use of my time and might even indicate that I was partially insane but when I started collecting jars and filling them with sausage meat and hair to enhance the nuttiness of the room, those worries seemed quaint and trivial. Finally the nutty room was complete and all that was needed was someone to help me realise my vision.
I called my friend Dougal Wilson, the award winning director of videos for Coldplay, Dizzee Rascal, Jarvis Cocker, and many others and he got on the next train to Norwich. Dougal arrived around 11pm and we drove straight to the scary house where I had set up some lights and my video camera. I put on my best nutty-hat and an old lab coat, loaded a syringe with red paint and we got to work. Filming went smoothly apart from a moment when we set light to a load of old newspapers from the 60’s that we’d found in a bath tub in one of the rooms. It was a profoundly stupid thing to do and we nearly died of smoke inhalation. By 4am the next morning we decided it was time to pack up and go home only to find that the lights of the car had been left on and the battery was dead so we had to walk back to my house in the foggy chill of the night. We didn’t care because we felt that we had created something truly stupid. I hope you agree.
Adam Buxton, July 2009
ADDENDUM
I just came across this animation that a chap named Jordan made for Nutty Room a few months back. Nice job yo! And of course he has used the version that was originally broadcast on Song Wars last year which contains the reference to Patrick Swayze rather than Kevin Spacey as it is now. A few people have asked why I changed it and it was simply that I wasn’t aware how ill poor old Patrick Swayze was when I did the song and upon making the vid decided to switch the names (which were only ever intended to rhyme with ‘crazy’ of course) to avoid potential ghoulishness of an unpleasant kind, as opposed to fun ghoulishness like making clothing out of other people’s skin and keeping winkies in jars. Cheers Jordan!
February 9, 2009
6 MUSIC COMPILATION NEWS!
ADAM & JOE’S NEW YEARS DAY RADIO 2 SPECIAL TO KEEP!
No doubt I’m breaking all kinds of Big British Castle rules by doing this, but as the show went out weeks ago and is apparently floating about on other parts of the web and no money is changing hands, I’m hoping no one will mind if I enable you to download the New Year compilation I put together for Radio 2 along with artwork should you wish to burn a CD and print out a sleeve like in olden times.
Just click on the links below, which will take you to Sendspace where you can download the 4 WAV files that make up the 2 hour show. If you want to print out artwork for your 2, 1 hour CDs just click on the ‘COMPILATION CD INLAY’ links then right click on the artwork to save them to your desktop and when you print them out they should fit into an old school jewel case. Of course now, evil geniuses have introduced a new design of jewel case, which will force everyone to invest in new printing software for the inlays, but I’m encouraging you to recycle the old ones. Simply locate a CD by some unbelievably over hyped band from a few years ago, pop open the jewel case and substitute this exclusive artwork instead! Everyone wins! Even the overhyped band because they already have your money although they’re probably wishing they could have just matured slowly rather than being thrust into the limelight so quickly and having all kinds of unwanted pressure put on them as a result.
The Best Of Adam & Joe Part 1A
The Best Of Adam & Joe Part 1B
The Best Of Adam & Joe Part 2A
The Best Of Adam & Joe Part 2B
ADAM & JOE 6 MUSIC COMPILATION CD INLAY FRONT
ADAM & JOE 6 MUSIC COMPILATION CD INLAY BACK
Photograph by the brilliant Perou
January 19, 2009
SONG WARS VICTORY NEWS!
AUSTRALIA VIDEO
Here’s the video for my song about Baz Lurhmann’s film Australia, which I’m probably a little too delighted to say, won Song Wars on our 6 Music show last weekend. I liked Joe’s song a lot, but I would have been depressed if he’d won having simply sung over the intro for Kim Wilde’s Cambodia when my effort (though heavily indebted to Rolf Harris’s Aussie classic Sun Arise) was at least constructed from scratch. When I say ‘from scratch’ I mean from scratch and the possibly harder work of both Harris and Luhrmann of course.
Anyway, I hope you like the song and the video, which is the first I have uploaded to You Tube in HD! Double click on the video below to open the You Tube page then click ‘watch in HD’ beneath the vid window to get the full effect. It took me a while to figure it out because I still favour a 4:3 frame with 720 x 576 resolution. I like things boxy, like an old TV set and to me that will always be the most desirable aspect ratio and resolution for anything that isn’t a an actual feature film but I’m aware that I’m part of a dying breed. Plus, if I switch to HD for everything I’m just going to have to invest in twice as many storage drives to accommodate the bigger file sizes. Fucking technology. Huge Jackman’s manly pecs certainly have come out nice though.
September 11, 2008
6 MUSIC & BUG 09 NEWS!
I HAVEN’T TAKEN MY OWN LIFE!
You could be forgiven for thinking that back in July this year I posted about MeeBOX not being commissioned then immediately sank into a deep sofa of depression from which I have only just hauled myself, hence my lack of on line activity. Nothing could be further from the truth. I’ve been skipping about, dancing and laughing and singing with friends, family and TV commissioners and there was simply no time left to attend to my blog duties. Apologies. I’ll try to reduce the gaps in future.
ADAM & JOE ON 6 MUSIC
In the meantime things have been going well at the Castle, despite it being tough to fit in radio duties with our other work commitments recently. To be specific, Joe has film commitments and I’m trying to reform The Commitments but I’m having trouble with Andrew Strong, he’s a loose cannon I tell you! Because of all this we’ve been doing Song Wars less regularly than we might otherwise but sometimes a show where we have absolutely nothing prepared turns out to be very enjoyable. Whether it’s as enjoyable for listeners I don’t know.
I’m not in the habit of seeking out criticism, either good or bad but a couple of reviews of Joe and myself on the radio were pointed out to me by almost everyone I know over the last few weeks. Amazingly we appear to have earned a regular listener in the form of Telegraph radio critic Gillian Reynolds who makes kind mention not just here but here! I’ll let you know when the backlash starts but until then my Mum and Dad have never been prouder.
Here’s a pic of me and Joe with our Video Wars competition winner Chris Salt, The Saltman, Salty, A Salt With A Deadly Chris, Ready Salted Chris, Sea Salt, Summer Salt etc. A very nice guy and a very worthy winner.
BUG 09, BFI SOUTHBANK, SEPTEMBER 18th & 23rd, 8.45PM
I’ll be back in the warmseat at the BFI Southbank on Thursday 18th September for BUG 09. If you’ve not made it along to one of these, it’s a bi monthly evening of top-notch new music videos, which I host. As well as the vids there’s also an interview of variable ridiculosity with a painfully hip director (Romain Gavras this time I think) and my occasional rambles through the joyous lunacy of the You Tube comments paddock. If it’s sold out, which tends to happen, then why not come along to BUG The Directors Cut the following Tuesday 23rd, also at the BFI Southbank. It’s basically the same show as the previous Thursday but minus the director interview (hence ‘the directors cut’ you see!!) so although my stupid chatter will still feature, it makes for a leaner show overall!
You can book tickets for BUG 09 or BUG 09 The Directors Cut here
Hope to see you there.
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September 11th, 2008
October 20, 2007
A&J STARTING ON 6 MUSIC & STARDUST PREMIERE NEWS!
ADAM & JOE ON 6 MUSIC, SATURDAY MORNINGS 9-12 FROM 27th OCTOBER 2007!
It’s finally official! Joe and I are taking over the Saturday morning show on 6 Music as of next Saturday (27th October). We’ve signed on for a years worth of shows (minus a few holiday weeks) so it’ll be the longest unbroken run we’ve ever had on the radio (unless we get fired/suddenly very ill etc.) In some ways it’s a little daunting because both Joe and myself are as busy as we’ve ever been with various odds and sods, but a regular show at the great Big British Castle is too good an opportunity to pass up.
Our new producer will be Jude Adam who also produces Stephen Merchant’s very good Sunday afternoon show at 6 and used to produce Roundtable which I went on a couple of times years ago so I’m pleased we’ve got her! As far as the podcast goes we’re having a meeting next week to establish what we will be able to do with these. Joe and I are very keen for it to be as much like our old Xfm ones as possible, ie around half an hour containing good bits of the broadcast show and a few new tittles too. I really hope we can find a way to do it without it being as time consuming as it used to be at Xfm.
As far as the Saturday show goes it’ll be the usual sort of thing: me and Joe talking a lot of bollocks about TV, movies, music and anything else that occurs to us on the way in. I imagine Text The Nation will return, and I’m keen to continue our version of Sean Keavney’s feature Band Aid, with Joe and me pitching home made tunes against eachother to play out at the end of the programme. Anyway I need to talk to Joe and Jude about all this so I should shut up for now but I’m very excited and I really hope you like it. The picture above is from a few weeks back of us at 6 Music with Jenny who assisted us so wonderfully when we were covering for Sean. We really need to get some new pictures taken.
STARDUST PREMIERE GOSSOP!
I’ve been increasingly busy with the BBC3 pilot so I failed to deliver exciting premiere gossop immediately after the exciting premiere, but to be honest it wasn’t the most exciting night of all time, for me at least although it was great being there with my Ma. For a start I was feeling quite fluey and then me and Mummy (to use her proper name) made the mistake of turning up to the Odeon Leicester Square on time, ie. much too early. If you arrive with all the famous people you can pretend that the paparazzi and the crowd are screaming for you as well as Tina Sparkle or whoever, but when you’re alone on the red carpet and not a single person has a clue who you are it tends to bring you back down to earth in a way that’s unwelcome at the premiere of a film you’re actually in.
Of course even if they’d seen the film they would have a hard time picking me out of a Krypton Factor style line up, but that’s not the issue. I consoled myself with the fact that these days the red carpet and screaming crowd has been replaced with a small rather antiseptic press enclave, temporarily walled off to exclude the throngs of passers by and honest everyday folk for whom I am a kind of legend. If they’d let the REAL people in, the place would have gone mental when me and my Mum showed up. They probably just didn’t have the police to deal with it is all.
Once inside we were ushered into an empty VIP holding cell downstairs, as I was going to be going up on stage with the rest of the cast before the film. I felt bad that the place wasn’t rammed with people I could point out for my Ma, but she seemed to be having a good time, sipping her warm, flat champagne and checking out the wall of old black and white photos from 50 odd years of premieres at the Odeon. Odd to see them all there in that lost world of old school movie stardom, smoking and drinking away luxuriously, looking young and sexy and properly famous, no cheeky TV presenters waiting nearby to spit in their face. It must have been fun, surely.
Finally it was time to join the other members of the Stardust cast on stage with director Matthew Vaughn. There was no De Niro, Danes or Pfeiffer (although Michele did appear briefly for the cameras outside) but most of the Brit comedy types showed up. On our way down the side of the auditorium a few people saw Ricky Gervais and Dave Walliams and started snapping away on their camera phones. One guy called out to Dave ‘here he is! What a joker!’ which made David laugh. Then we all stood about rather awkwardly in the wings waiting to be introduced. I found myself stood next to Jason Orange (Take That did a song for the film) and we shook hands for something to do. He seemed nice although I noticed that none of The That said their names when being introduced to people as if there was no possible way you wouldn’t know who they were. Even Mark who I thought would have better manners. Ricky and David amused eachother in the gloom and Sienna Miller squeezed my arm affectionately, possibly by accident as I’m sure she didn’t know who or what I was. Rupert Everett didn’t acknowledge me in the slightest, despite having spent a good 5 days working with me and the others on our ghost scenes last year. Perhaps he’d read an interview I did recently where I described him as a bit of a twat when you first meet him but very nice after a while and didn’t appreciate it. Or perhaps he was just nervous to meet me again. Yes, that’s probably it.
Here’s a picture I took from my spot on the stage. On the extreme left you can see the edge of Julian Rhind Tutt’s face, next to Mark Strong who is looking at Walliams and Sienna Miller and that’s Vaughn behind her with Ricky Gervais behind him. Then there’s Take That at the end.
Favourite part of the night: meeting Neil Gaiman and chatting with he and Dave Walliams about Lou Reed whom, Dave pointed out repeatedly, Neil resembles somewhat (see pic below). Neil told us a story about having supper with the irascible ex-Velvet a while back. Apparently Lou was interested in getting Neil to turn his album Berlin into a graphic novel of some kind. What a whimsical delight that would have been! According to Neil he was not the cantankerous tyrant of legend. That doesn’t surprise me. I’m sure he’s not the easiest of people but when you think of all the tedious questions he must get asked over and over again by half witted rock journos, is it any wonder he occasionally decides to behave like a prick, if only to give them something fun to write.
And that was about it. I was sorry not to hve seen Jonathan Ross and his wife Jane (who co-wrote the screenplay) as Jane got me involved with the whole thing in the first place by suggesting me to Matthew Vaughn for the role of Quintus when Noel Fielding had to drop out, but it’s always impossible to have a normal conversation with anyone at those things even if you can find them so hopefully I can say thanks under more normal circumstances in future. Premieres tend to be a bit anti-climactic unless you’re off to some party or other, but I wasn’t so I stepped out of the cinema into the small gang of onlookers hoping to catch a glimpse of someone exciting. By this time the walled press enclave was gone so it was open season for onlooking. And still there were no screams when I emerged. Bastards. I think my Ma had a good time though and that after all, should always be the main thing, right?