Music Television 3.5

MTV Unplugged at Home - Marcus Mumford
He helpfully did his new Major Lazer-linked song, as well as a song he did for some film, and his take on You'll Never Walk Alone, which he did for 2 different charities.

Rock N Roll RoadTrip w/Sammy Hagar - Studio to Stage
The making of his "Space Between" album, with his Circle band (including Jason Bonham among others). One track was specifically inspired by Jason's dad John. Also he went to the Hard Rock Cafe & Casino in Florida where he checked out memorabilia and heard good anecdotes. He was bemused at a jigsaw of the Rolling Stones looking oddly harmless. He performed "Can't Hang" which he had discussed earlier on.

Icons - Big Star Profiles - John Travolta
He did Grease and Saturday Night Fever, which would be enough for most. He also did the Hairspray film, which I gather is also a musical. And Pulp Fiction had iconic music and dance links too. Even if Face/Off, The Punisher and Battlefield Earth aren't really relevant.

ALT - Attic Lights
They signed a big deal before the credit crunch, and have managed to stay true. Also performing were Broken Records and Tommy Reilly, and there was a chat with Camera Obscura too. All good acts.

Cyngerdd y 10 Tenor Cymreig
aka the Ten Welsh Tenors. A fun entertainment show with the usual classical favourites from O Sole Mio to Nessun Dorma and Libiamo. No Bryn Terfel, perhaps too big a star for this setting.

MTV Unplugged at Home: Hayley Kiyoko
Another less familiar name getting her chance, accompanied by 2 musicians via split screen, and only allowed to do 2 numbers.

MTV Unplugged at Home: CNCO
There are/were 5 of them but they only got time for one track. Hmm...

Rock N Roll RoadTrip w/Sammy Hagar - High Tide Beach Party
Sammy's own festival thing, including guests like REO Speedwagon's Kevin Cronin, Motley Crue's Vince Neil, Green Day's Tre Cool and both Eddie Trunk and Eddie Money. It was a bit more aimless amiable than most of the series.

Dennis Miller Plus One - Bret Michaels
The Poison frontman back again, this time pushing his book, the Auto-Scrap-ography, which includes a lot of pictures in telling his story. He talks about being diabetic and right-handed. Has his own health foundation. He's a high risk category for covid-19. His Dad was in the Navy. Poison played their dues. Had a huge stadium tour planned before the crisis, and still expects to deliver it when the time is right - it will comprise Poison, Def Leppard, Motley Crue and Joan Jett, for 31 dates.

Rise Above - 50 Cent - An Unauthorized Story
This 2018 effort covered his singing, his acting, his work with G-Unit, Eminem and the Game. It's odd to consider he had been a middling talent in the mid-90s, given his infamous shooting and sudden career resurgence didn't come until 2002-3. He's had his romances and other issues too.

ALT - The Futureheads
They apparently split only a few years after their peak breakthrough spell around 2006. But they're back together. Also singing with rising band Tide Lines, solo ukelele player Zoe Bestel, and there was chat with Niteworks about their collaborations too.

Arena: The Changin' Times of Ike White
Discovered in prison in the 1960s, he seemed a virtuoso, singing, writing and proficient at several instruments. Thanks to Stevie Wonder's attorney, he was freed after 14 years. But his album didn't fly, and he vanished into obscurity. Cut to decades later where he's remarried, calling himself David Maestro, and seemingly willing to open up about playing with Big Mama Thornton and other R&B stuff as a teenager. But then he dies. And his wife Lana, who was his manager and who met him via a dating website, looks into his archive, and starts to fill in the big blanks in his past, which involves other partners and fathering children. A violent nature and a distrust of authority were repeated themes, but whether that was related to his time in prison, or even the initial shooting that sent him to prison is up for debate. A curiously fascinating tale that continued to surprise as it unfolded.

Rock N Roll RoadTrip w/Sammy Hagar - Tool'n Around in Flavourtown
Larks with chef Guy Fieri on Sammy's plane, as they flew down to meet Maynard Keenan (of Tool) at his winery. Keenan is rightly proud of his business in Arizona, and did chat to Hagar about his music (though they didn't play any, for once in this series).

Astaire & Rogers sing the Great American Songbook
A half-hour filler compiling their numbers from their films - eleven classics in all, from Cheek to Cheek to Night and Day, to Let's Face the Music and Dance.

Trail Blazers - Tinie Tempah 
He was interviewed in 2017 about London. He has a mens fashion label, and some kind of consultancy. And the music career of course. They went to Claridges, which is where he signed his record deal and remains a special place to him. He had a humble start, and has been able to elevate himself, and he puts back into his community.

Imagine... Citizens of Boomtown
How Bob Geldof put together the Boomtown Rats, and how they shook Irish music out of its torpor, paving the way for U2 to conquer America. They hit big with Rat Trap and went to the USA where Bob found the tale that inspired I Don't Like Mondays, which immortalised them. The turn of the decade to the 1980s left them a bit at a loss, and as the band wound down, Band Aid took Bob's attention, and Paula Yates brought him love. But now they're back together and have just released a new album.

TUNE Stays In
Another lockdown collection, held together by Kerr Okan. Biffy Clyro topped and tailed, there were the Snuts, Tamzene, Be Charlotte, Chef ft Nathan, and he also chatted to Nina Nesbitt.

ALT - The LaFontaines
A new series (of repeats from 2019), the acts included Modern Studies, C Duncan, Inyal, a chat with Justin and Iain from the legendary Del Amitri, and the main act, who turned out to include Kerr Okan as their frontman, so that answers that one.

Rock N Roll Road Trip w/Sammy Hagar - Best Seat in the House
At SIR Studios, Sam chats to Kenny Aronoff, Sheila E and Jason Bonham about drumming. Sheila and Jason were the children of drummers. Jason also shares his birthday with yours truly (and Trevor Horn and Linda Ronstadt). They finished off with a version of "Wipeout".

al Jazeera World - Ali Ismael: Egypt's Musical Maestro
The story of a pioneering composer who made a big impact in the middle of the 20th century, but became a bit put out by political upheavals.

Dana - The Original Derry Girl
How a teenager won the 1970 EuroVision Song Contest and saw her life change forever. She made political sorties in the 1990s and later, but was the victim of vicious smear campaigns.

Icons - Big Star Profiles - Justin Timberlake
From child success to global superstar fame, singing, acting and romancing. He made cool collaborations with Timbaland and Madonna and others.

Metal Mania
A fun compilation of many and various groups, including Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Alice Cooper, Kiss, Aerosmith, AC/DC, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Def Leppard, Metallica and Poison. Plus a surprise appearance from former US President George W Bush.

Dennis Miller Plus One - Dennis Quaid
He played Jerry Lee Lewis on film, and remains a fan - the "Killer" suffered a stroke last year and is still in early stages of recovery. Quaid got his first guitar on the night of Elvis' '68 Special, and did his interview in front of a wall of guitars. He has few actor friends, but lives in LA not too far from Billy Bob Thornton.

The Big Interview w/Dan Rather - Bret Michaels
You wait years for profiles with the guy, and this is the 3rd interview I've seen him do in the last 3 months. He talked about being a victor, not a victim, about his diabetes. He talked about a 30 year career with Poison, the Rock Of Love dating show, his family in the military, and broke down in tears about a friend Kimo. He expected to be touring with Poison this year, having done a solo tour last year. He's always got projects on the go. He gave Dan a guitar, and got him to accompany him doing a couple of songs at the end.

Lleisiau Aur - Y 70'ea
Or in layman's terms, a compilation of Welsh acts from the 1970s. Inevitably, the more interesting were ones which turned out to be Welsh language versions of more familiar hits, like Reason to Believe or I Don't Know How To Love Him.

Private Passions - Harry Enfield
A rare example from the radio, as the successful sketch comedian talked about using Verdi for 2 of his show's theme tunes, and other usage of light opera in sketches, partly in accord with Paul Whitehouse. He also managed to include some Florence Foster Jenkins.

ALT - Kyle Falconer
The frontman from The View, here solo. Also present were Iain Morrison, Rachel Watson and Daniel Docherty, with chat from Roddy Woomble of Idlewild.

Icons - Big Star Profiles - Richard Branson
Sometimes easy to forget the entrepreneur made his mark with a record company and the Virgin chain of megastores, and then the V2 label, and the V Festivals too. This prog didn't really stress this side too much, when it could dwell on his many other brainwaves, from cola to airlines, to owning his own island, to getting a knighthood.

Cyngerdd u Deg Difa aka a Concert of 10 Divas
Andrew Greenwood presents as 10 Welsh divas sing various arias, sometimes in unison and sometimes in Welsh. A jolly enough hour or more.

Rock N Roll RoadTrip w/Sammy Hagar - Our Biggest Issue Ever!
A double-length episode looking at a concert supporting "Acoustic-4-a-cure", which was the premiere episode for his 2nd series. Sammy talks to Joe Satriani, John Mayer and Melissa Etheridge, with Train's Pat Monahan and Metallica's James Hetfield also around the place. They do a couple of songs along the way. Satriani shares his birthday with Jason Bonham (and me).

Icons - Big Star Profiles - Victoria Beckham
She was Posh Spice in the Spice Girls, then married David Beckham, and became a fashion designer. Little else to note.

ALT - Glasvegas
The Scots with the black-shades frontman seemed to be marking 10 years since their breakthrough, rather than any new material. Vistas and Wuh Oh were more fresh. There was also a couple of songs from Idlewild's Roddy Woomble, and a chat with Eddi Reader.

Psychomania! The Best of Psychedelic Rock
Supposedly from 1991, various performances from acts like Cream, the Byrds and Jefferson Airplane, but also including the Steve Miller Band and Captain Beefheart too.


Talk to al Jazeera: Daniel Barenboim
He started performing in 1950, so marking 70 years this year. He founded the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra in 1999. He refuted the suggestion that he was a bullying autocrat. He's enjoyed being able to play piano during lockdown, but worries for the careers and future of the young. He feels nationalism is not patriotism. He's scornful of social media too.

The Quay Sessions - More Greatest Hits
Another set of performances, from the likes of Hue and Cry and Snow Patrol, to Gun and KT Tunstall.

MTV Live @ Home - Tom Grennan
He's got his 2nd album out, partly inspired by the break-up of a relationship. Been trying to learn piano during lockdown. He did a few songs, including a good cover of Celeste's Stop This Flame. He's not been drinking, but he has bought his 1st laptop.

Trace Yards: Izzy Bizu
She talked about her finishing off her album during quarantine, writing songs when she worked as a waitress, raving about Doja Cat and Juice WRLD and others.

Cofio gyda Hogia'r Wyddfa
Welsh trip who formed in 1963 and went through line-up changes. This 2011 retrospective interviewed surviving members and told how they diversified their live act to include comic sketches as well as musical numbers.

That'll Be The Day
David Essex leads as Jim McClain, a bored teenager who forsakes his school education for the delights of the grown-up world. He slowly gets drawn towards the world of rock n roll. Notably, other cast include Ringo Starr and Billy Fury. The sequel, Stardust, is more about the rock world, but shown less often.

The Big Interview w/Dan Rather - Carlos Santana
He started off as a blues act, but took over control when he realised somebody needed to. Woodstock made him a big star, despite the accidental mishap with drugs beforehand. His 1999 career revival album Supernatural did him a world of good. He's been working on a follow-up project with an all-Latino perspective. He expressed gratitude for his life, and pointed up the difference between medicine and drugs. He got divorced after 34 years. There was a curious glitch resulting in several minutes being repeated, yet it didn't over-run.

Popstar - Never Stop Never Stopping
Amusing 2014 film with Andy Samberg of the Lonely Island fame, as Conner4real, the ex-member of the Style Boyz, whose solo career starts to nosedive with some bad decisions about his 2nd album. Can he reform his old band, can he grow up enough to turn things around? A great many cameos, from Usher to Mariah Carey to Seal to Ringo Starr to Michael Bolton and beyond...

The Mysterious Murder of Nipsey Hussle
I recall being dismissive when we covered his death last Spring, and this doc with Ben Zand did at least try to uncover the truth of the story. He was someone trying to elevate his community, but he was also a gang member. He was shot multiple times and the police only have one suspect. It's a murky world.

Elbow @ Glastonbury 2011
A repeat from the time of their "Build a Rocket, Boys" album. A steady enough show, with a few from that album, and rather more from their classic "Seldom Seen Kid" collection.

Glastonbury Festival 2003: Love with Arthur Lee
A surprising repeat but welcome for that. They got a good hour to work with the Forever Changes set and beyond.

Toots and the Maytals @ Glastonbury 2010
They were on the West Holts stage for a decent hour of stuff, including a take on Country Roads, which was unexpected.

MTV Live @ Home: James Arthur
I preferred the Unplugged format really, but Jack Saunders chats with the former UK X Factor winner as he managed to do 4 songs, including a cover of Billie Eilish' Everything I Wanted.  He's working to support mental health charity SANE.

Showreel: Roxette
A welcome surprise, I was also impressed at the inclusion of a few less played-to-death numbers like Small Talk and It Just Happens.


MTV Unplugged: Pearl Jam
A repeat from the spring of 1992, and thus including both Alive and Jeremy. Eddie Vedder wrote PRO CHOICE on his left arm during the latter stages, too.

The Chemical Brothers @ Glastonbury 2000
An odd choice, really, they've done better shows since.

Amy Winehouse @ Glastonbury 2007
Cunningly, a combo of 2 sets she did, one on the Pyramid stage, and the other on the Jazz stage. Hard to pick which was worse.

Isle of Wight Festival 2007 - Amy Winehouse
Clearly, it was her year. This was also a short set, but managed to include her covers of Valerie and Monkey Man.

TUNE Stays In
Another selection here, numbering Tom Walker, Bow Anderson, Colin Macleod, IKLAN ft Law Holt, Idles, Walt Disco and Luke La Volpe. So a few more unfamiliar names among the familiar.

Best of Glastonbury 2000
Their usual 2 hour blend of the great and the good, in a year when Counting Crows, Moby, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Pet Shop Boys, Willie Nelson and Embrace were among the less obvious.

Merched y Awr
A look at 4 different Welsh ladies, their backgrounds and careers in music. One had been a contestant on the UK version of The Voice, and another was a member of the duo of Dusky Grey. Quite a good programme.

Best of Glastonbury 2011
A wide mixture of the great and the good, from U2, Beyonce and Coldplay, through Elbow, Queens of the Stone Age and Mumford & Sons, to Jimmy Cliff, BB King and Kool and the Gang.

The Glastonbury Experience - Backstage Acoustics
A 3-part compilation of acts giving spots away from the stages. So a chance to mop up the likes of Lizzo, Kwabs, Metronomy, Raghu Dixit, Fatoumata Diawara, George Ezra and Andreya Triana.

ALT - Aidan Moffat & RM Hubbert
Aiden was a member of Arab Strap, but was working in this duo at this time. Also present were Colin Macleod, Colin Hunter and Zoe Graham, and also a chat with Clare Grogan telling tales of Altered Images.

Top of the Pops 2 Goes Latin
Part of a theme series, this repeat from 2010 simply brought together clips from Ricky Martin, Los Lobos, Gloria Estefan, Santana and so on, with the Mavericks and Madonna thrown in for good measure.

Opera Italia with Antonio Pappano
Curiously, another repeat from 2010, this time with the conductor detailing the history and heyday of Italian opera, from the early days with Monteverdi and Rossini, through to the heights with Verdi and Puccini.

At Home with Hayley - Ben Haenow
Former UK X Factor winner talked about his current projects during lockdown, and picked many of his favourites acts and tracks. These ranged from Led Zeppelin to Bill Withers, and Queen to Willie Nelson. Also included a few of his own, which is better coverage than he typically gets.

Rock N Roll Road Trip w/Sammy Hagar - Small Town : The Joy of Painting
Sammy went to Bloomington, Indiana, to meet John Mellencamp in his lair/studio. He got his record deal in the early 70s, even with little expeirence. But he found a niche - to "go where they're not". He paints a lot, and did some shows with Bob Dylan, who encouraged him to sell his works. He helped set up Farm Aid in 1985, and is still doing it. He preferred the Stones to the Beatles. He inducted Lovin Spoonful into the R&R HoF. He and Sammy did a song or two, then looked at his pictures. Sammy bought one to put up in his restaurant. John's motto was "rehearsals are for suckers".

The Accordion Kings
The story of vallenato music, originating in Colombia. An annual contest to find the best player, the King, was the peg for this show, with a "King of Kings" being a way to pick the best from previous winners. The contest covers 4 forms of music; paseo, puya, merengue and son. Hugo Carlos Granados, winner in 1999, became the overall winner.


Kylie - Evolution of a Pop Princess
Subtitled "an unauthorised story on Kylie Minogue", it was around an hour on her acting, music and beyond. Her fashion, her health, her love life, the usual story.

Royal Opera House - The Re-Opening
A special highlights show of musical performance, and some ballet, somewhat heralding the Proms season which will be understandably very different to that planned. Antonio Pappano thumped the ivories for many of the acts.

ALT - Mull Historical Society
As well as MHS, there were sections on Colonel Mustard and the Dijon 5, Dancing on Tables, The Ninth Wave, and a chat to Ricky and Dougie from Deacon Blue. Quite the mix really.