Music Television 3.5

Imagine... - This House is Full of Music
Alan Yentob uses video-call tech to talk to the Kanneh-Mason family, who're all talented musically, and who did numbers in assorted combos with each other.

Music Legends: Neil Sedaka
Another new series of a sort, this one combined vintage clips with the usual narrative. It did move up to mention his lockdown concerts, so fairly up to date really.


Kings of Leon - Live at the O2
A gig in 2009, after their zenith around the time of Sex On Fire & Use Somebody. Much as I like some of their songs, the guy mumbles to an insane degree. The lack of any captions thus compounded my sense of alienation.

The Quay Sessions - Snow Patrol
Can't check whether I've seen this before. From 2018, when they returned after a long hiatus. Gary spoke that they'd spent time in Glasgow before around 1998. They didn't disappoint with their classics.

Lwp - Curadur - Llyr Jones
Glad to see this is a series. Llyr is a member of Pasta Hill, and also Tri Hwr Doeth. He bigged up Pys Melyn, Kim Hon and Papur Wal too, besides Noddfa Records.

Austin City Limits - Florence and the Machine
Despite main billing, she got as much footage as Andra Day, who did a cool cover of Queen's I Want It All. Florence didn't.

Huey Morgan's Latin Adventure
A 3-part series in which the former Fun Lovin' Criminal visited Brazil, Cuba and Puerto Rico, to check out the different sounds and styles in those countries; the wonders of the samba, the rumba and the salsa, among others. A reminder that the world of music spins a lot wider than the white vision of it.

In Session with: Bossacucanova & Roberto Menescal
Shown to match with the Brazil edition of the above. Menescal is a legend, whose son is one of the members of Bossacucanova.

In Session with: Dayme Arocena
Again, shown along with the Cuba episode. She talked a lot inbetween tracks.

In Session with: Edwin Colon Zayas
Finally, shown in accord with the Puerto Rico episode. His siblings joined him on some tracks with different instruments.

Gwerin
Some concert or other from 2016, with various Welsh acts like Georgia Ruth, Sian James, Arfon Gwilym and Y Teiresau. The songs were OK.

Lwp - Curadur - Gwenllian Anthony
The Carmarthen scene, as she bigged up Los Blancos, Hotel Et Al, Libertino Records and her band Adwaith.

Rockfield - The Studio on the Farm
How two brothers hoped to make it as a band, met George Martin at EMI and realised they could do better if they made their own studio instead, and they had the first ever residential studio complex, where bands could stay whilst recording. Black Sabbath were an early success, but Robert Plant, Hawkwind, Simple Minds, Oasis, The Charlatans, the Stone Roses and Coldplay all went there. After a while they set up neighbouring Monnow Valley as a similar alternative, which was also fruitful. Now studio tech is more easily available, they get less trade, though folkie Eliza Carthy was there at time of recording. A largely positive story.

Rodney P's Jazz Funk
How the 1970s in London etc became a test ground for a black music that brought colours and creeds together, and gave a voice to an under-represented minority who had success with bands like Hi Tension and Beggar & Co.

Rock N Roll Road-Trip w/Sammy Hagar - Two Stops - Chicago to Denver
Talking to Cheap Trick's Rick Nielsen in Chicago, then playing a gig at the famous Red Rocks Amphitheatre at the latter.
Rick talked of working with John Lennon on his final Double Fantasy album, how he maintains a consistent look, his admiration for Jeff Beck. He and Sammy jammed a couple of Cheap Trick numbers.
The Red Rocks gig was a first for Sammy, and he was pleased to find the place lived up to its good reputation.

Lwp - Curadur - Ifan Pritchard
He's a member of Gwilym, and he also plugged producer Rick Roberts, and acts like Swnami, Lewys and Elis Derby, as well as football bod Tim Williams and his company Spirit of '58. Ifan had only been in the business 4 years, and understood the value of those in the audience who might be like he was when he was starting out.

ALT - Travis
The Scots band headlined and chatted about being slightly carried along by the Britpop tide, making early videos, how budgets have become non-existent, and parenthood. Also playing with Maeve MacKinnon and the Handsome Boys, Siobhan Wilson with the Demi Octet, and Miss Irenie Rose. I really enjoy the format and acts in this show.

BBC Proms: The John Wilson Orchestra does Broadway
A repeat from 2012, as Seth MacFarlane and others helped belt out a mixture of the famous and the less so for an hour or two.

Music Legends: Cliff Richard
With 60 years and over 100 hits to choose from, this was pretty much hit-to-hit, and still fit in his movies, his love life and his faith, as well as stage experiences. He's had 14 UK #1's, and sits 3rd behind Elvis Presley and the Beatles in terms of success in the UK.

The Big Interview w/Dan Rather - Gene Simmons
The KISS frontman is always good material, whether his studded lovelife, his longevity in rock, his impoverished background, or his pro-American stance.

Modern Lives - The Brooklyn Scotsman
Stevie Creed tried his luck in New York, became a boxer, made friends, then returned to life in Scotland. Here, he tries again to crack the business as a rapper, reconnect with old friends, make new ones, put on a gig, and see what sticks. He does finish an album, gets hard pushed by a producer, but returns to Scotland because of covid. Quite charming, in its way.

Yws Gwynedd Yn Maes B
Maes B is a festival on the isle of Anglesey, and this 2017 gig by Yws Gwynedd was pretty decent.

FCT/Tiree Music Festival 2020 - Air Chuairt
A lengthy lookback over the history of this Scottish festival, as it wasn't on this year for the usual reasons. There were some new performance footage, and the "best" of previous stuff, a lot of which seemed to come from the same year.

Concert - Mahalia Jackson Sings
No clue when this might have happened, but she delivered a solid half-hour set packed with classic numbers.

BBC Proms Classics: Radio 1 Ibiza Prom
In 2015, Pete Tong led the Heritage Orchestra to the Royal Albert Hall, leaving Jules Buckley to conducting duties. Ella Eyre and John Newman guested on a few songs. Supposedly the idea was to celebrate "20 years of Ibiza" even though that was a conservative under-estimate. Good gig, and mainly good choice of material too.

Gospel According to Mica - The Story of Gospel Music in 6 Songs
80s hitster discussed how gospel music developed, and her choices were
1 - Amazing Grace
2 - Go Down, Moses
3 - Precious Lord, Take My Hand
4 - Touch The Hem of His Garment
5 - Oh, Happy Day
6 - Blinded By Your Grace, pt 2
Part of the cycle of the story was the recent success of British grime artist Stormzy, and his willing use of religious faith in some of his songs.

Goreuon Lorient
This is normally an Inter-celtic festival of Lorient (in Brittany), but like most festivals it's not on this year and has been a cue for a reflection on previous shows. A wide swathe of acts were included, from Skipper's Alley and Pendevig, to Alaw and the ubiquitous Julie Fowlis.

BBC Proms Classics: The 1Xtra Grime Symphony
A repeat from 2015, which I suspect I missed the first time. Jules Buckley conducted Metropole Orkest this time, and Stormzy, Little Simz, Fekky, Krept & Konan and Lethal Bizzle all contributed, whilst Shola Ama made a surprise appearance, and Wretch 3-2 did the bulk of the work.

ALT - Kathryn Joseph
The series continues, and besides Kath, also featured Pictish Trail, Whyte, and The Nineth Wave, plus a chat with Pat & Greg from 80s legends Hue & Cry.

Maes B - O Bell
Another retrospective from the Anglesey festival, with performances from Alffa, Aswaith, Swnami and Elis Derby.

BBC Proms Classics: Rattle and the NYO Plays Mahler's Eighth
From 2002, a complex piece with multiple choirs and soloists.

Trace Yards: AM Sniper
Someone else I've never heard of, but his selection of tracks was refreshing, and some of them were his own, which helped for once.

Austin City Limits: Pretenders
A gig from 2017, followed by a chat with Chrissie about the way MTV has shut down the opportunities in the industry.

Paul Shaffer Plus One - Smokey Robinson
Thought this might be a major new series, but this was the only one I saw. Smokey discusses the Motown process, and Paul plays "My Girl" which he loves.

Hitsville - The Making of Motown
An impressively major effort, headlined with Berry Gordy and Smokey Robinson, though many other acts and writers were included, from Holland-Dozier-Holland to Ashford & Simpson, and then more modern fans like John Legend and Dr Dre. Charming work, really.

Lwp - Curadur -- Gruff ab Arwel
He gave props to Bitw, Group Listening (a duo), Dyfan Lewis, She's Got Spies (a female-fronted band), and Ynys (a male-fronted band). 

Austin City Limits - Pearl Jam
This was from back in 2009, and they brought on Ben Harper for one number as he was their support act or something. Eddie seemed moved by veterans in the audience. He was also impressed by the history of the venue.

Gig Chiz O'r Steddfod
Chiz seems to be the name of the act. They did a decent set in Aug 2016 in Monmouthshire, and chattered a bit between songs to presenter Lisa Gwilym.

Everything - The Real Thing Story
They started out in the 1960s as The Chants, where they played the Cavern and befriended the Beatles. A decade later, and with some line-up changes, they toured with David Essex, and then they met a pair of songwriters who gave them You to Me Are Everything and Can't Get By Without You, which made them famous and successful. So much that the Amoo brothers wrote their own stuff too, with less success, though they did produce a concept album in 1977 called Four From Eight. They had mixed results with disco, though Can You Feel The Force? became their other big hit. In 1986 their big numbers were remixed, reissued, and hits again. They still tour.

MTV Live: Bush - The Kingdom
Gavin chatted briefly to host Matt, but mainly played new tracks from the new album, and a few oldies. Good stuff.

Edward H Dafis (1973-2013)
A welsh language band performing their last ever gig, though they were only together for around 7 years. Some good songs, and chat inbetweentimes.

BBC Proms Classics: Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela
A gig from 2007, with conductor Gustavo Dudamel bringing the house down with a program comprising Shostakovich, Bernstein and others.

MTV Live - Becky Hill
Jack Saunders chats to the frequent collaborator, who does a few of her many songs, plus a medley of many others, before ending with a cover of iio's Rapture. She talked of being in the industry for less than a decade, having her debut album imminent, answering Q&A, and being "freakishly strong".

ALT: The Skids
Punk legends headlined, and Richard Jobson spoke about wanting the band to stay relevant instead of being a tired heritage act. Emma Pollock, Makenss and Martha Ffion also played, and Duglas of the legendary BMX Bandits chatted about how they never quite made it from critical support to mass sales.

Lwp - Curadur - Ani Glas
Slightly change of form and perhaps the better for it. Ani looked at Cerys Hafana, Rat Trap, Teddy Hunter, Carys Hws and Eadyth. She also chatted in a brief round table segment with Grug Muse, Eadyth and Cerys Hafana.

Pete Tong B2B Bonobo
An enjoyable hourlong mix, on a rooftop in Los Angeles, with face masks in place and social distancing.

Geraint Jarman
This 2015 tribute may have been done to mark him turning 65, as he's 70 this year. He started out in 1976 , and was making his 15th album in 2014 when this was made. He doesn't give many interviews. He disliked school. He sees poetry gives a different release than song-writing. He got married young, and has 3 daughters. He went through spells of depression, and smoked a lot. He writes more now than he used to.

noisey: Bompton
Must nearly have all these episodes seen now. Here Zach met Kendrick Lamar in 2016, and some lesser names. Perhaps the more interesting were those trying to transcend the Crips/Bloods feud and build a catering enterprise.

Austin City Limits: James Taylor
Can't say if I'd seen this before. He was on good form in 2015, and brought Shawn Colvin on for a duet on (at least?) one number. A glimpse of the set list in the closing credits gives the lie to its one hour length.

Lleisiau Eraill (Other Voices)
The first time this event has been held in Wales (at Cardigan, no less), and Huw Stephens and Kizzy Crawford introduced footage from everyone from Boy Azooga to 9bach, Carwyn Ellis & Rio 18 and Lankum. Perhaps the most featured was Gruff Rhys, who topped and tailed the show, and got to chat about previous appearances at the Other Voices event, and how he felt about Ireland.

Our Lives: Pink Dreams
Lorraine is 57, but has been performing as a Pink tribute act for 18 months (though other singing work over the past 7 years). Her husband and helper had a track record of various rock tribute acts. She had trouble with dance routines, and regretted that she needed to work on imitating Pink's non-Glaswegian speaking voice. She even got a leg tattoo to improve her Pink tribute. The film ended with the start of the pandemic, and the cancellation of all her gigs.

noisey - Lil B - Believe in Earth
A shorter version of the usual form, as a rapper with 1.3 million Twitter followers felt a kinship with the natural world. B stood for BasedGod. Lil Yachty numbered among his rapper friends singing his praises.

Share The Stage
An intriguing show from Abbey Road Studios, as various acts sang songs, sometimes each other's songs. As well as a lot of newer names like Celeste and Gracey, there were also a few more established acts like Bastille and Kaiser Chiefs. A good show.

ALT - Highlights
2 shows featuring extra performances from many of the acts seen in previous shows, and a few more chats from the likes of James Yorkston, Aidan Moffat & RM Hubbard, The Little Kicks and Best Girl Athlete. I hope in the fullness of time that there's another series.

BBC Proms '20: Nicola Benedetti and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Jonathan Cohen conducted the O.A.E. as they plunged through a program heavy on the concertos, with Vivaldi and Handel on the bulk of the duties.

Radio 1 Dance Weekend
Another curious medley, with Gorgon City, Raye, Duke Dumont, Becky Hill and Disclosure contributing from locations varying from the back of a boat to some sort of club.

BBC Proms '20: Anoushka Shankar & Gold Panda
The former is the highly talented and respected daughter of the legendary Ravi, whilst the latter appears to be some DJ. The first part of the gig saw them perform together, before she did a series of numbers with the Britten Sinfonia, conducted by the flexible Jules Buckley. It's Ravi's centenary year.

The Stars of Verona
To the Arena di Verona for the first public performance there since the lockdown, with various tenors and sopranos coming together for the occasion.

Storyville - Queen of Africa - The Miriam Makeba Story
A repeat from 2011, as her friends and family told her tale. She got married a lot, was exiled from her native South Africa for decades, made a good new home in the USA until she got blackballed, and then found a better new home in Guinea instead.

Lleisiau Eraill aka Other Voices
Another selection from the 2020 festival in Cardigan. 9bach seemed the main deal this time, but Celeste was an interesting face among the other performers featured.

Electric Proms: Dame Shirly Bassey
From the 2009 run of these, the Welsh wonder did a decent hour, with guest help from Tom Baxter, Richard Hawley and James Dean Bradfield.

Rock N Roll Road-Trip w/Sammy Hagar - Livin' Live
A compilation from Series 2 of live performances, usually Sammy himself, but also Melissa Etheridge and Tommy Lee among others.

Belladrum 2020 - Air Chuairt
Another "best of"-type compilation looking back over the years, and in 2 shows. Some new stuff included, such as KT Tunstall doing a couple of numbers and sharing an inspiring message. Otherwise Deacon Blue, Franz Ferdinand, Sister Sledge, Edwyn Collins and many more.

Electric Proms: Smokey Robinson
Again from 2009, the Motown legend ran through a plethora of greats, from Going to a Go-Go through to Tracks of My Tears.

Clubland Live! Live at Manchester MEN Arena
Unsure which year this may have been from, maybe 2008 or 9. Ultrabeat, Darren Styles, Scooter and Cascada were the main acts as the event built. A lively crowd helped.

The Quay Sessions - Idlewild
Scottish band run through mostly more recent material, though they do throw in an encore.

Soundstage - John Mayer
A couple of shows from 2005, with the legendary Buddy Guy helping out. He did a lot of banter, and seemed to have an appreciative crowd, but he didn't really win me over.

Radio 2 - Live at Home
Usually they do a big outdoor event at Hyde Park, so this was a trans-Atlantic mash-up, with McFly, Erasure, The Pretenders and Tom Jones from this side of the pond, and John Legend, Sheryl Crow and The Killers over in the USA. Quite a decent effort.

Lleisiau Eraill aka Other Voices
The 3rd & final show from Cardigan, as Gwenno, Celeste, Hayden Thorpe and co-host Kizzy Crawford were among the acts singing their hearts out.

Rock N Roll Road-Trip w/Sammy Hagar - Chicken & Chili
Chad Smith, drummer for hire, chatted about working with the Red Hot Chili Peppers for so long, having worked in at least 9 different acts, including Chickenfoot, a project with Sammy, and Joe Satriani. They did a couple of numbers, then Sammy drove him to his night's gig in a very fast car.

Mixtape - Kevin Cronin
Another series from AXS, here the REO Speedwagon guy talked about being in the band for decades, how he chose the guitar in preference to the drums, the impact of the Beatles and the British invasion, his song-writing, the boost to the band from MTV, playing Live Aid, the grunge fad, and supporting new bands. Dave Amato joined him after a while too.

A Musical Celebration
Stephen Bell conducted the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, as Jamie MacDougall presented (and sang towards the end). There were pieces from Purcell, one of the Strausses, a tribute to Ennio Morricone, and a tribute to Sir Harry Lauder.

Rock N Roll Road-Trip w/Sammy Hagar - Nashville Cats
Sammy was impressed by the musicality in Nashville, checked out some famous haunts, then went to the home of Vince Neil. He seemed more relaxed, and kept horses. He appeared on the Wife Swap show with a member of the band Nelson. Sammy finished at Phoenix Studios to sing an acoustic number.

Soul America
A new 3-part series looking at this topic, from the late 50s to the early 80s. Candi Staton suggested Aretha Franklin was always stand-offish, Motown and Stax got their due, politics came into play, but eventually hip-hop & R&B left simple soul looking old hat. Debatable, that, but at least Luther Vandross got some love for a change.

Live Aid - Against All Odds
The first part of a mammoth documentary, covering the period up to July 12th, 1985, as Bob Geldof was motivated to start the ball rolling for Band Aid, how that then led to more demands for money, how Midge Ure helped but kept getting left out, how the USA got on board, how Live Aid came together despite the overwhelming logistics...