Music Television 5

Shayne Ward - My Career in Music
From his X Factor triumph, through a slow downward spiral, though he seems upbeat enough, and has worked outside the pop scene anyway. He did a cover of Over The Rainbow which raised money for the NHS.  He's been working in Nashville, so there'll be new material later in 2023.

Generation Change - Argentina
Iman Amrani talks to social worker Orenelia Steffanazzi and rapper La Joaqui about their approaches to resolving issues. Loaqui has made 3 albums, and had to deal with being one of few female rappers in a predominantly male scene. She's 28 and a mother of 2, and made records with other women to give them a new platform.

Motown Master - Lamont Dozier at the BBC
A useful hour compiling many classics and covers, and ending with Lamont himself singing How Sweet It Is. Trevor Nelson introduced and signed off on the show.

Noson Lawen - Nadolig Y Cymoedd
Shelley Rees introduced this seasonal special, with turns from Calan, Angharad Rhiannon, Delwyn Sion, Rhydian Jenkins, Huw Enron and others.

Behind The Music: Pitbull
Born in January 1981, he came from Dade County, did what he did to survive, but once he learned to "spit" then things began to turn around. He impressed Irv Gotti and Lil Jon, and went on to work with many people across many genres, largely with success. This 2011 feature was updated with more modern events.

Later w/Jools Holland - US Hip-Hop
A compilation of performances and some chats, ranging from the Fugees and Ice T in the 1990s, through Jay Z and Black Eyed Peas in the 2000s, and up to Anderson.Paak and Syd in the 2010s.

Joesef - I Think I Miss Glasgow
Rising star revisits his Garthamlock upbringing, how he met his manager at a music college, and being included in the Sound of 2020 hoopla. He recently had an album out.

Oidhche gun tamh - Lewisian Nights
Marking 50 years of acts like Astrid, Island Express, Draggingthelake and Colin MacLeod, as well as Honcho Promotions. A largely likeable bunch.

Belladrum '22 - Dadi Freyr
Icelandic rock, with a couple of crowd-pleasing Scottish covers thrown in.

Gene Sings Pitney
A charming half-hour from 1974, as Gene talks through his works, film themes like The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, having written Hello Mary Lou (Goodbye Heart) and ending with Twenty Four Hours From Tulsa.

Una Healy - My Career In Music
The Saturdays seemed to film in Los Angeles a lot after they became known, whereas her solo efforts seem to be mainly shot in London. They didn't meet Flo Rida for their collaboration, but they did meet Sean Paul.

Stock Aitken Waterman - Greatest Hits
Two lengthy compilations of videos from the producers' heyday of the mid-late 1980s. So plenty of Kylie Minogue, Rick Astley and Bananarama, but also some Donna Summer, Cliff Richard, Brother Beyond and Mel & Kim.

Generation Change: Kenya
Rapper Dash Johnte and activist Wanjira Wanjiru talked to Imani Amrani about times in Nairobi, the problem of extra-judicial police killings, using Nina Simone's Mississippi Goddam for inspiration, why young people reject voting, especially after covid curfews, and how social media can make a difference.

Akon: My Career in Music
Had low expectations for this, but it was actually quite busy, he's done more collaborations than it might be easy to keep track of, from Eminem to Gwen Stefani to David Guetta and more. Some of the more recent choices were less familiar, but he seems happy enough.

Shirley
An end of series compilation from Ms Bassey's 1977 series, including guest turns from Charles Aznavour and Johnny Nash, and outdoor performance skits in a hot air balloon among others. She ended with her version of My Way.

Noson Lawen - Edward H Dafis
Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the legendary Welsh band, three of whose members were still alive and present. More modern acts like Mei Gwynedd and Plu were among those doing covers of EHD's music. Pleasant enough.

Lwp - Ar Dap - Miwsig Cymru
Neal Thompson presented what seemed to be an overview of Series 2, and the 6 acts who were Adwaith, Eadyth, Chroma, N'famady Kouyate, Tara Bandito and Gallops, most of whom were very familiar from shows like this.

Love Songs Volume 2 at the BBC
A new round-up for Valentine's Day, running from Al Green and Mama Cass, through Billy Joel and the Pointer Sisters, to the inevitable Ed Sheeran and Snow Patrol. A few surprising and even downright odd choices, but generally all plausible.

Louise - My Career in Music
A brief selection of tracks from Eternal (to be fair she only did their first album), then more from her own, working with director Jamie King, and a couple of her more recent attempts, not that she seems to have set the charts on fire in the process.

Luke Evans - Showtime
He did a big show for a Welsh audience, with star guests like LeAnn Rimes, Nicole Scherzinger and Beverly Knight, most of whom were allowed to do a number without him. 

Paul Tortelier at the BBC
A repeat from 2014 about a noted cellist whose name rang no bells. He presented a Masterclass format for many years, and there were performance clips from 1955 through to 1989, though presenter Petroc Trelawny pointedly inferred that his later material might have been an embarrassment. His proposed anthem for world peace perhaps pointed in that direction.

Isle of Wight Festival '22: The Charlatans
A revised repeat focusing solely on the band, and a fairly lengthy set. Easy to overlook their longevity and multiple albums.

Hip-life Rewind
Ghana's answer to Afrobeats started out as High-life music, before being crossed with Hip-hop. In fact, Afrobeat is more associated with Nigeria, and the Ghanaians here were a bit narked to have had their thunder stolen, and their genre mistaken for part of their neighbour's.

From The Vaults - 1978 Revisited
A 4th series starts with chats from John Peel, Bob Geldof, Elton John, Ian Dury, John Cooper Clarke and others, as well as performance footage from Steel Pulse, Magazine, The Only Ones, The Fall and more.

Mansour meets... Harry Song
He's an afrobeats star who has worked with UK acts as a producer. He has over a million followers on Instagram, and has won some awards during his 15 year career. The chat ends with a short bit of performance of one of his songs.

The Playroom - D'banj
Performance interspersed with Q&A as he talked about his success with Oliver Twist, his pride in the successes of Wizkid and Burna Boy, how South Africa feels like a 2nd home, having had a brother killed in a plane crash, further respect for Davido and Mr Eazi, and so on. 

Movie Themes at the BBC
This round-up ran from Simon & Garfunkel (weirdly with their take on Scarborough Fair, perhaps for a change) and Dolly Parton, through Bill Medley & Jennifer Warnes and Kenny Rogers (again weirdly with Just Dropped In etc), to more modern takes from All Saints and Pharrell Williams.

Cheryl Cole - Northern Star
Hard to know if I've seen this before or not. A 2014 unofficial account of the rise of the Geordie member of Girls Aloud, covering her early solo work, romance troubles off-stage, and other problems. Very little footage of Cheryl speaking for herself either.

Isle of Wight '22: The Proclaimers
They had a new album out last year, and many much-loved old hits to work through as well.

From The Vaults: 1982 Revisited
Performance footage from XTC, The Beat, Bow Wow Wow, Yazoo and Wah, with rare chat material from Bryan Ferry, Kevin Rowland, Boy George and Clare Grogan, plus an unseen pilot fronted by Pauline Black.

P!nk - Live in the Piano Room
A selection of works from her new album and from across her 23 year career, some with the BBC Concert Orchestra, as well as a few brief chats with presenter DJ Jo Whiley. She covered Nothing Compares 2 U as well.

Where You're Meant To Be
Arab Strap frontman Aidan Moffat tours parts of Scotland with a set of songs adapted and updated from traditional Scots tunes. He gets a mixed response, some crowds livelier than others. One trad singer, Sheila Stewart, takes inordinate offence to his rewrites, but he effectively makes this prog a tribute to her as she seems to have died since recording.

Isle of Wight '22: The Kooks
A good long hour+ set including their main big hits, and plenty of others. They went quiet in chart terms around their third album, which was around 2007.

Inside Classical: Stravinsky's Rite of Spring
Josie D'Arby presented the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, from St David's Hall in Cardiff, as they ran through Rachmaninov's 3rd piano concerto, and the titular Stravinsky, which was actually shorter than the supporting piece.

Cymru I'r Byd
A special celebratory concert from Sony Hall, New York City, MC'd by actor Ioan Gruffudd, as he introduced performances from various Welsh alumni, from Sir Bryn Terfel to Mared Williams, with a couple of recorded performances from elsewhere (Arizona). The event marked St David's Day and the Welsh links to New York. As good a reason as any.

Isle of Wight '22: Happy Mondays
A good lengthy set featuring most of their big hits, ending with W.F.L.

When Motown Came to Britain
A mid-1960s tour of Stevie Wonder and co, helped in part by fan Dusty Springfield, but also superfan Dave Godin, who contacted Berry Gordy Jr to set up a UK fan club, and apparently advised Gordy to streamline his many labels and was the first to link Tamla with Motown. The tour was appreciated by those who saw it, which wasn't a sellout, and a special Ready Steady Go edition promoting things wasn't shown until it was over and the acts had gone home.

From The Vaults - 1984 Revisited
Rare gems from New Model Army, Pogue Mahone (as was) and John Martyn, as well as chatter from Holly Johnson, Shane McGowan and the aforementioned John Martyn. Also space for more mainstream choices like Sade, Big Country and Billy Idol.

Trace Talks: Conor Maynard
He had some success and a #1 album a decade ago, and now is back with a new single If I Ever. At no point did he address this quite long hiatus. He did part of a world tour last year, and expects to finish it this year. He talked about the video homaging Sliding Doors (as the hugely successful Head & Heart also did a few years back, which he again didn't mention). He did some big collaborations on his first major label album, but is now on a more minor label. He was signed at 17, and hasn't taken a holiday for 15 years.

Right Here, Right Now
The story of Big Beach Boutique II, a free gig on the sea-front at Brighton put on by Fatboy Slim one night in 2002, how over a quarter of a million turned up, about 5-10x the forecast, but there was such positivity in the crowd that there was very little damage done, and only one accidental death. Besides residents and ravers, plus police and council bods, were a few celebrity attendees like Simon Pegg and John Simm, all of whom also shared their sides of the story.

Inside Classical: Ravel's Daphnis et Chloe
Tom Service presented but didn't even get his face on screen, as the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Ryan Wigglesworth, did 2 works by Messaien, then the titular Ravel piece.

al Jazeera World: Turkiye's Arabesque Music
From 1934 onwards, how the battle to hold back decadent Western music led to strange hybrid off-shoots, and how changing tastes worked both for and against this.

Louis Theroux Interviews - Rita Ora
The last in the series. She's in her 30s now, and has a high opinion of her statistics, which sound more spurious the prouder she claims to be of them. Has had 13 UK top 10 hits which is some kind of record. She has done ad campaigns and judging on talent shows, rather more than she has had hit records in recent years. She wrote Champagne Kisses with Prince, the ace ping-ponger and R&B legend. She supported Craig David on an early tour, and had a troubled time on Jay Z's label. Her hit Hot Right Now was partly a way to show said US label what she was capable of. Eventually there was a lawsuit in 2015, though she calls it an amicable split now. She's close to her family. Louis also met her at a video shoot in LA for a Netsky collaboration. Her boyfriend is director Taika Waititi, whom she met in Australia. She was a friend of the late presenter Caroline Flack.

Jeff Beck - Live at the Hollywood Bowl
A 2016 gig marking his 50 years in the business, with his band supplemented by guests like Beth Hart, Buddy Guy, and ever-dependable Steven Tyler and Billy Gibbons. Some song choices were welcome, some were surprising. They concluded with a group bash at Purple Rain, presumably a tribute to the late legend.

The 411: Our Career In Music
Whoever the current three members are, they were together to discuss their actually really brief career (On My Knees and Dumb were their best). There were 4 of them at one point. Sony brought them together, and they featured in label-mate Lemar's 50/50 video too. They mentioned being in competition with Girls Aloud, though I'd have assumed Sugababes were nearer their pitch. They had a long hiatus from each other, but are now on some kind of 90s reunion tour with 911, 5ive, Damage and many others of similar calibre. It's preferable to a day job, they said.

Pharrell Williams - Happy Go Lucky
This 2015 effort relied on two solid experts and quite a few archive clips of the man himself. Also both of Rizzle Kicks, and no less an obscurity than Mr Oizo. Daryl McDaniels and Grandmaster Flash also had positive things to add.

From The Vaults: 1987 Revisited
Nice to get a few less shown faces here, like the Jesus and Mary Chain, and Chuck Brown, and even the Psychedelic Furs. The Fall, the Housemartins and the Cure are somewhat less under-exposed. Salt n Pepa felt a bit of an outlier amongst a largely white & British line-up.

Justin Hawkins: My Career in Music
A charming rundown given the hits dried up a long time back. He even included his British Whale darts-themed one-off. Hot Leg seems to have been another side-project. The Darkness did recently put out a new album, and he seems irrepressible as ever.

Yn Y Lwp - Catrin Hopkins
A slight variation on the Curadur model, as she pushed the music of Dafydd Owain, Kim Hon and HMS Morris, plus the unfortunate Thallo who seems to be struck down by health problems now.

Mark Read: My Career in Music
He was the keyboard player in turn-of-the-century Brit boyband A1, who managed 2 #1 singles though will be pretty much forgotten now. Mark was cheerful about the band's heyday, and changing their sound on later albums, and even making some solo records himself.

Al Jazeera World: Symphony for Iraq
The story of a symphony orchestra formed in 1944, how its multi-national composition battled through, the difficulties after 1991 and 2003, and being able to find an actual Iraqi conductor to lead them.

Lolly: My Career in Music
Despite a short career, she still had plenty to say, whether filming in Streatham, or making new music during lockdown. Two of her big hits were covers as well.

From The Vaults - Electronica
Another special end to the series, with the theme stretched from Gary Numan and Kraftwerk, through Peter Gabriel and Brian Eno, to New Order and Pet Shop Boys.  A feature on Daphne Oram and Tristram Cary was at least rare, and greats like Herbie Hancock and Giorgio Moroder squeezed in too.

Inside Classical: Elgar's Cello Concerto
Sol Gabetta was the cellist of choice here, and she added a short encore too. The main feature was Sibelius' 1st Symphony, but there was at least a nod to the BBC 100 celebrations with a piece melding 15 popular theme tunes, Party With Auntie.

Lady Gaga - Secret World
A feature from around 2011 which I may have seen before. Michael Bolton was the surprisingly notable interviewee, he having done some writing with her shortly before she exploded as a star. He was very complimentary too. She supported Pussycat Dolls before then. She nearly did a major co-headling tour with KanYe West too, but it fell through.

Wynne Evans - For One Night Only
From St David's Hall, in Cardiff, the advertising star did some fairly safe material like Be My Love, and welcome his brother Mark, and no relation Sophie Evans as guests.

Chaka Khan at the BBC
A shorter than usual round-up which included videos, to mark her reaching the big 7-0 last Thursday. She's won 10 Grammys apparently.

Mya: My Career in Music
A longer slot than many of these shows, perhaps because she had a lot to say about her works, even though she's remembered for only a small handful of hits (and did share a UK #1 in 2001 with Lady Marmalade).

Organ Stops: Saving The King Of Instruments
How many church organs are falling into decline and how some volunteers are trying to save what they can. Martin Renshaw, a tuner and restorer, was the centre of this show, and it was a mixed picture. He did find a new home for one impressively large specimen, but another got cut up for scrap before he could. Many examples get shipped to Europe where they're welcomed. The show also visited a show-room specialising in electronic models, which are cheaper and often smaller.

Dusty at the BBC - Volume 2
Another anniversary, and besides old repeats even I've seen before, a new round-up of material, including some videos which always seems a cheat to me. Nice to get some less familiar tunes, some brief talk-show moments, and they did include In Private this time.

Michelle Heaton: My Career in Music
She was part of Liberty X, who originated on the Popstars reality show, being comprised of the 5 runners-up, under the name Liberty. After a US act of the same name complained, they added the X and improved the name no end. Just A Little was their biggest success, and yet they only really did the 2 albums, including spirited if soulless covers of Got To Have Your Love and A Night To Remember. They worked with cool acts like Artful Dodger and especially Richard X, but once the singles flopped, then the itch for a break from the treadmill became overwhelming.

MTV Push presents Gayle
She broke through at the end of 2021, but had been writing since the age of 10, and is only 17 now. She moved from Dallas to Nashville. The success of breakthrough hit ABCDEFU took her by surprise (and her record company even more so, I bet). What happens next should be interesting to see.

TJ Jackson: My Career in Music
He and his brothers were 90s boyband 3T, forever known as the nephews of Michael Jackson. He mentioned that their mother was dead by the time they came to do debut single Anything, but I'm not sure he mentioned his father at any point.  They did of course make one single with Michael, but it was more interesting to hear of their further works in this century. His young son appeared in one video they did. They seemed to remain a going concern in Europe rather than the UK.

6music Festival '23: Arlo Parks
She's back with her 2nd album, and this short set included guest spots from the drummer of Fontaines DC, and someone from The XX.

6music Festival '23: Loyle Carner
Also at the same event, he managed to get through more songs, and also had some similarly stellar guests. The more intriguing of the two as he gets a fraction of the coverage she does.

Joni Mitchell
Ostensibly new, but not so as you could tell. Some effort to argue that she transcended the label of just being a folk singer, though her greatest successes overwhelmingly were. Her friendship with Crosby, Stills & Nash, especially Graham Nash was best typified with how her manager, David Geffen, got her to miss Woodstock to ensure she didn't miss an interview with Dick Cavett, whereas CSN did go, and booked a helicopter so they could make it to gatecrash her big show with Cavett.

Andrew Lloyd Webber at the BBC
A lengthy round-up, improved by occasional snippets from ALW himself on several projects, and even a couple of his own musical moments.

Ben Ofoedu: My Career in Music
Best known as the face and voice of Phats & Small, he had previously been in an outfit called Benz, and went on after P&S to be part of Intenso Project, before P&S later reformed. His most recent outfit were Boyz on Block, a supergroup which included Dane Bowers, Shane Lynch and Abz.

Greatest Pop Videos: 1990
Finally the inevitable follow-up to the series on the 1980s, and just as arguable. Nothing Compares 2 U, Vogue, Freedom '90, Wicked Game, Enjoy The Silence - all fair enough. But rather a lot aren't in the same class, eg Sacrifice, Ice Ice Baby, Show Me Heaven, etc

James Morrison: My Career in Music
Felt like I've seen a show like his before. He complained of early starts and cold location shoots, and even when he did a record with Nelly Furtado, he didn't get to meet her due to a sudden health crisis. He's kept going, despite his chart success being a long time ago now.

MTV Push presents Sam Ryder
He's from Essex, and was singing from 1993, taking influences from diverse resources. The album took 18 months. He's happy to work with collaborators, and always keeps aware of silliness in his life.

The Piano: The Final
Last show in a "reality" series where Mika and Lang Lang picked a pianist from each of 4 heats, and here tutored them in preparation for a concert at the Royal Festival Hall. Highlights from the gig are shown, as well as backstage comments on each other, and plans for their futures.

The Piano: The Concert
As well as the 4 finalists, Mika and Lang Lang did a number each, then a joint one at the end. The four acts all did really well, and were gifted a piano of their own each as reward.

Greatest Pop Videos: 1991
More triumphs and travesties. No Cathy Dennis and no KLF - quite ludicrous.

6music Festival '23: Christine and the Queens
A fine little showcase for the French whizz, including new/recent single To Be Honest.

The Manics - Back to Blackwood
A "back to one's roots" gig from January 2011, with James and Nicky chatting inbetween performances at the Miners Institute in Blackwood. They ran from Motorcycle Emptiness through to Design For Life, including a few from their then-current album Postcards From A Young Man.

Scooch: Our Career in Music
There were 4 of them, they had a middling run, then came back as the EuroVision entry from the UK. They got to film videos in Madrid, they got a record deal after touring schools.