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?
September 21, 2007
FAMOUS GUY AUTOREVIEW, DE-NIRO CALYPSO COVER & SHOCK VIDEO CLIPS!
KNOCK2BAG AUTOGIGREVIEW
I do live gigs so infrequently at the moment that I seldom have the pre-show confidence afforded you by consecutive nights of doing the same material until you’ve nailed it. Thus I cycled off to Shepherd’s Bush on Wednesday with a not inconsiderable sense of dread and fear. I think that’s something everyone gets before a gig, no matter how seasoned they are but this was a little more intense than normal. It’s hard to analyse exactly what it is that makes one so anxious. I suppose the most obvious thing is not wanting people to think you’re crap and if you don’t have the wherewithall to tell yourself for sure that they’re wrong and it was just an off night, that’s a frightening prospect. It’s not dissimilar from the dread of visiting a doctor when you suspect there might be something badly wrong with you except with an audience you’re worried you’re going to be diagnosed with terminal mediocrity.
The flipside of all of this diffidence is the coke style sense of euphoric indestructibility that a good reaction from an audience can give you. Presumably that’s why so many performers end up hedging their bets and just taking Charlie Farley but that’s not a route I want to go down just yet. Anyway, Knock2bag at a nice little place called Bar FM off Shepherd’s Bush green turned out to be great. The MC was Jarred Christmas who kept the audience very happy and was a bit spikey without being horrid, which is hard to do well. The first act I saw was Dave Earl as Brian Gittins who I’d heard about from Tony Law but hadn’t seen before. He was brilliant and he’s only been doing live stuff for a year and a half so he’s just going to get better and better. The character he does is a weird creepy guy who runs a mobile café and you keep thinking he’s going to say or do something revolting but he constantly up-ends your expectations winningly.
After the break I was on and it went really well. I did Famous Guy with a few of the new bits that died so spectacularly at The Albany a while back and I was very glad to find they went down a treat although it should be said the audience was amazingly supportive and I got away with a few slips and lapses that would have stuffed me with a tougher crowd. I was so relieved it had gone well that rather than get back on my bike immediately and begin the rainy trek south, I accepted a delicious beer form the organiser and watched as the next act came to the stage.
From where I was standing I couldn’t quite see him properly but I could hear he was a Kiwi and he sounded funny. Then I got a closer look and holy shit! It was Murray (aka Rhys Darby, the manager from the Flight Of The Conchords TV show!!! He is the Bob Fossil of the Conchordsphere with all the brilliance that implies! He wasn’t in character obviously and his act (which he’s been doing for a while and involves a lot of beautifully executed impressions of odd sounds and mechanical noises) was very slick and as funny and inventive as you’d hope from one of The Conchord team. The audience went nuts for him too and when he finished I couldn’t help going up and introducing myself in quite an overwhelming and stalkerish fashion. He was dead nice and said he really liked Famous Guy, which was a kick. Also I got my photo taken with him. When I got home I kept looking at it. Me and Murray!! BAND MEETING!!! If you still haven’t seen the Flight Of The Conchords show BBC4 are running it from next Tuesday so check it out. The first episode is great so you’ll know pretty quick if you’re going to like it or not, but you in for a very happy time if you do. Also get down to Knock2bag it’s a good scene and all the acts that night were excellent.
Thanks for coming down if you did and to the guy I spoke to about acting, give us a shout via You Tube, I’m afraid I laundered your details!
WE’VE ARRIVED!
Someone forwarded me this link featuring some chaps doing The Robert De Niro Calypso at a gig, which you can see here. As they admit under the clip, they start off a bit shaky but they do it proud later on. It’s amazing when people you’ve never met like something you’ve done enough to do their own version. I saw Sam Bain the other night (he and Jessie Armstrong write Peep Show) and he was saying how thrilled he was at having seen a fan version of Peep Show on You Tube. One of the very first things Joe and I did with a video camera when we were about 13, was to reconstruct Monty Python sketches. I still have the one we did about the man who writes the funniest joke in the world then dies laughing. It’s not quite as good as the original but it’s got something. OK, it’s got 2 quite posh 13 year old boys and that’s about it, but it was fun doing it. Oh, and in case you thought I was drawing a direct comparison between The Robert De Niro Calypso and Monty Python, you’re absolutely right. Checkon!
ADAM & JOE RADIO SHOW LACK OF NEWS!
We have a couple of offers floating about at the moment for podcast and radio things but we’re still waiting on the BBC for a decision. This may take a little longer due to the resignation of Ric Blaxill, the man responsible for getting us into 6 Music in the first place. There’s a story about the whole ludicrous fartstorm here. The situation seems way out of control over there at the moment and my heart goes out to Ric and Leona McCambridge and anyone else losing their job and for what? They were trying to put an enjoyable show on and a few times they cut corners in one area that they presumably felt no one in their right mind would ever give a flying fuck about. Could they not have been warned? These are talented, hard working people here! Fair enough, routine deception isn’t to be encouraged but it’s hardly the same as the wankers on those late night TV call-in shows who would do everything they could to fleece people and not even give them anything more entertaining in return than Brian Dowling giggling distractedly next to some barely sentient girl. And the Blue Peter debacle beggars belief! Joe’s theory is that the viewers actually voted for the wretched cat to be called ‘Pussy’ not ‘Cookie’ and that was the reason for the switch to ‘Socks’. Either way, this is a chapter in the BBC’s history that people are going to look back on with bafflement in a few years.
SHOCK VIDEO CLIPS!
I got a message from a You Tube type the other day requesting some Shock Video clips. I had a quick search to see if anyone else had put anything up from either of the 2 groundbreaking series but then I remembered…it’s the show with tits in it, so they wouldn’t have been able to due to You Tube’s sensible no-porn policy. You can find out more about the genesis of Shock Video in the ‘Career’ section of this site but for now here’s a couple of specially censored clips for you. I might put some more up in a few weeks but the censorship is fairly labour intensive! The one about Morten Gungle who wants to be gay took us about an hour to record because we were laughing so hard. The bit that really got us was the name ‘Frunke’ but it was all quite tricky. You can still hear Joe struggling with some chuckle stifling around halfway through. Apparently they’re having chuckle stifling in the Olympics now. Joe could well be coming back with gold!
September 10, 2007
TEXT THE NATION JINGLE & 2 FAVOURITE MUSICAL PERFORMANCES!
TEXT THE NATION JINGLE ETC!
Hey ho hi! It’s exclamation mark time again!! If you enjoyed listening to us on the 6 Music breakfast show a couple of weeks ago, here’s a very special treat for you! It’s the multi award-winning jingle from the nation’s favourite feature*: Text The Nation, as well as my brief but powerful rock song Jane’s Brain and Joe’s triumph of chilled electro tourism, Euorpean Supermarket. My life will be nearly perfect the day I hear a stranger’s phone emitting the Text The Nation jingle as a text alert or ringtone.
EUROPEAN SUPERMARKET by JOE CORNISH
It looks as if the powers that be at 6 Music were sufficiently happy with us and the positive feedback they got from listeners to try and find us a regular slot of some kind. It’s too early to say when that might be, or indeed if it will definitely happen but it’s looking good. I’ll keep you posted, and thanks very much if you were one of those to feedback positively! Thanks again to Lisa, our fantastic producer, Jenny who gathered important facts and helped Joe marshal the texts and e-mails and Milly who did something so complex and important that I can’t properly describe it. Good work team!!
*Technically it was not award winning or in any way the favourite of the nation but if you make these kinds of claims they generally go unchallenged and impress those of us who assume there must be some kind of truth to these kinds of statements for them to be made in the first place.
I’M HOSTING BUG 03 THIS FRIDAY 14th SEPTEMBER @ BFI SOUTHBANK, 8:15PM!
Buy tickets here for a night of top class music video and inconsequential chatter from myself and some of the industry’s brightest stars.
2 ALL TIME GREAT MUSICAL PERFORMANCES!!!
I used to have a VHS tape with amazing musical odds and sods I’d taped off the telly, most of which were missing the first few seconds as I scrambled to stick the tape in the VCR and hit record. Then I mislaid the tape and for years I mourned those lost musical TV treasures and they became legendary in my head. Of course thanks to You Tube, they’re found again! There’s a little muso snob part of me that thinks that’s a bit of a shame; that my VHS tape represented a hard won journey of chance musical discovery more valuable and meaningful than simply typing a name into a search engine. On the other hand seeing those clips again was a fucking treat and nearly every one was as wonderful as I remembered. Here’s a couple for you.
The first is a very famous clip of Bruce Springsteen and The E Street band doing Rosalita in 1978. I think I originally taped it off The Rock’n'Roll years in the early 90’s (so much for my hard won journey) and despite not being much of a Bruce fan then or now I was completely electrified by this performance. It’s a good song (very much the template for a lot of what makes The Hold Steady enjoyable) and they play all the shiz right out of it, but check out Bruce! In a time before irony it’s as if the biggest Bruce Springsteen fan in the world has somehow been transported into the body of his idol (has that been done in a film yet?) and suddenly there he is, duelling with sax genius Clarence Clemons, fighting off beautiful stage invaders and fizzing with energy as he plays one of the gigs of his life. Check out his expression when he finally disentangles himself from the tenacious blonde who’s managed to get a full-on snog off him at the end of the song! Bemusement! Joy! Rock’n'Roll!
The second clip is Jonathan Richman from what must have been one of the first series of Later with Jools Holland around 1992-3. While I think of it, Later provides me with one of my Bad Jokes That I Won’t Stop Using Despite The Fact That No One Ever Finds Them Funny. In this case if someone asks me a question to which the answer is ‘later’ I will reply, “Later, with Jools Holland!” I can almost hear people thinking ‘you’re a prick’ but I can’t stop saying it. “I’ll be back later. With Jools Holland!” Ha ha ha ha! Anyway, Jonathan Richman…
Here he is playing a song called Now Is better Than Before which I believe is only available on the currently deleted album Rockin’ & Romance although you can order a privately burned CD here. There’s a version on his lovely Spanish album Jonathan, Te Vas A Emocionar but, well it’s in Spanish. Everything about this performance is appealing from the song, his voice and guitar playing to the daft commentary he provides with his range of facial expressions and hand gestures. His guitar solo is beautiful but he does this madly exaggerated acoustic whammy bar thing with his arm, which looks insane, something he acknowledges with a little smile at one point. Then when he slightly cocks it all up he gives a look of slightly hurt confusion that more or less sums up my entire life! If you’ve had a horrible bad tempered day this should fix you right back. Guitar!
August 30, 2007
6 MUSIC, MeeBOX, BUG 03 & KEN KORDA’S SADDAM COMMENTARY!
MEEBOX NEWS
You may have noticed that I have removed the Spoon video I made from You Tube. This is not because the band were unhappy with it but because looking at it again I thought it might actually fit quite well into my BBC pilot so now that most of you, my dot comrades have had a look, I’m going to keep it in my trousers for the next few months. As far as the rest of the pilot goes, it’s just such a great feeling to actually be working on something like this again. I have no idea what it’s chances of being commissioned are, but I’m digging it while it lasts!
6 MUSIC NEWS
Tomorrow is our last day covering for Sean Keavney at BBC 6 Music. We’ve had a blast there and although I never want to get up that early for that many consecutive mornings ever again in my life, I really hope it won’t be the last time we do a radio show for the Big British Castle. Sure, they can be a little rigid with certain rules and regulations, making some of the spontaneity we use to enjoy at Xfm a little harder to indulge, but that’s more than made up for by the smoothness with which everything runs (thanks to our great production team for that!) and the variety and quality of the music which you get to play. Plus I’ve got a plastic pass with my photo on it that makes all kinds of doors click and swish open gratifyingly. Aaah, the feeling of belonging, if only for a couple of weeks! Thanks if you listened and texted or e-mailed. We were very heartened by the messages we got. It makes a big difference!
GIG NEWS: KNOCK2BAG @ BAR FM, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19th 2007
I’ll be performing at the Knock2bag Comedy night, on September 19th at Bar FM, but you probably worked that out from the headline, right? I thought I’d make it perfectly clear. You can see details of how to find Bar FM here and reserve tickets for the night here. Make sure you specify which night you’re reserving for, otherwise there might be a slip up of some kind and the world could end. Apparently someone made a mistake reserving tickets for one of these nights a while back and the next thing you know; Global Warming. So do be careful. I’ll be doing about 15 minutes of something or other. Probably Famous Guy, I don’t know…
BOOK NOW FOR THE NEXT ‘BUG’: FRIDAY 14th SEPTEMBER 2007 @ BFI
There’s been a bit of confusion about the exact date for this, the 3rd BUG (a selection of the most mind blowing and innovative new music videos hosted by the dreadful Adam Buxton) but I have been assured by the organisers that it will be on Friday 14th of September and not Thursday 13th and has been indicated in some BFI publications. So do book now; it was fairly rammed last time. Now, if I was reading that about someone else’s event I would think ‘well if it’s rammed I’ll skip it’ because I don’t enjoy the discomfort of the rammed, but at the BFI Southbank (formerly the NFT!) your comfort is always guaranteed as the cinema seats are spacious and comfy and best of all, you can take booze (or soft drinks if you’re one of those non boozers!) into the auditorium with you. It’s a fun night so book here.
KEN’S SADDAM STATUE COMMENTARY
To make up for taking down the Spoon video, here’s one from the vaults, part of which turned up in Time Trumpet last year. I was sat home one afternoon in April 2003 when I turned on the TV to find several of the big terrestrial and digital channels had decided to provide live coverage of a small group of western troops and Iraqi civilians laboriously yanking down a statue of Saddam Hussein. It took fucking ages to get this thing down, but the TV stations had all decided that this was ‘an historic occasion’ and the fear that if they cut away to something else they would miss the actual tumble was so intense that they just kept broadcasting this utterly rubbish footage. The unfortunate reporter charged with turning the torpor into telly gold for the BBC was Iraq Invasion journo star Rageh Omaar. He did is best it but wasn’t enough to paper over some desperately crap questions from the studio as well the overwhelming sense that we were watching something that may well have been stage managed to give the invasion some kind of uplifting conclusion. Anyway, I didn’t have a lot going on at the time so I taped the coverage, removed the Rageh (can’t help saying that name in a Scooby Doo voice) and replaced him with Ken Korda. It was one of the first kinds of these things that I did and it was fun although not brilliantly funny. This is a much bigger chunk than the one that appeared in Time Trumpet. That may be a good thing or a bad thing depending on your affection for Ken. Ta ta!