It is Saturday16th November 2013 and just before I get back to digesting the first season of that exceptional Danish political series Borgen which dares to challenge conventional political leadership and management, albeit in a small European country of 5 million people I must catch up on some recent music popular music experience having spent two hours before midnight with Children Rock, the latest Garry Barlow extravaganza, this time for Children in need, playing at the famous Hammersmith Apollo and which I knew at a distance as the Hammersmith Odeon in the 1960’s having commenced life as a Gaumont Theatre in 1932, and remains to day one of the great former picture houses with a capacity of thousands, reminding of the Davis Theatre Croydon from my childhood and as a young man.
The Apollo has changed hands several times during the past decade, recently closing for a major refurbishment and reopening only this September so unless I am mistaken this was it first major event and a new guise and being Gary reminding of the concert he created to celebrate the Queens something of 50th year at the Gates of Buckingham Palace, he produce an extraordinary array of stars to perform on the night suggesting those looking in paid the modest £5 plus call line fees for the experience( if they wished).
The highlight for me although she was not top of the bill was Agnetha Folksgog, yes one of the two female members of ABBA, not seen anywhere before alive general audience since the band broke up in the early 1980’s although she did attempt a career away from the group during the rest of the decade. There was also media speculation about the group getting together one more time to mark the fortieth anniversary of Waterloo.
Top of the Bill in fact was another little known name except for those who appreciated the music of the Electric Light orchestra, Jeff Lynn, who has continued to play music with another member of the original band of some forty years, Jeff subsequently turned record producer for the likes of Ringo Starr, George Harrison, Tom Petty, Bob Dylan Randy Newman and Roy Orbison, whose music as his life, remains timeless, poignant and tragic. Both Jeff and Agnatha are in their 60’s. The other oldie who is finding new fans among the younger rock and pop generation is Tom Jones while the other great treat of the night was when Garry and Robbie joined Barry Manilow for Its Magic .Barry the oldest of them all is now in his 70’s but he sounded and looked as he has for the past forty years, amazing.
The Apollo now comes under the umbrella of Eventim a monster entertainment conglomerate who manages events and establishments across the UK in some thirty tons and cities
Before this I had dipped into Children in Need with Terry where JLS and One Direction played contests while a host of International and national stars primarily from BBC shows, centring on East Enders and Albert Square helped to raise tens of millions as part of an extraordinary nationwide efforts which saw Asda raising £700000 alone. The extent to which children of all ages now dress up of this event now surpasses those on Halloween which is a mighty good thing, For me however, as with the Rock Children concert it is the heart rendering stories of courage and survival although sometimes not which brings hone the true nature of the British people, just as a few days earlier they raised millions to help the devastated people of the Philippines
This was rot have been a longer piece covering several forms of cultural events commencing with another music event, an event which still puzzles me as someone had the bright idea of trying to revive Disco club land by inviting those involved in existing clubs or from past venues such as the Hacienda in Manchester to put on a two hour play session from the capsules, must not all them Pods on the London Eye. Each capsule was large enough to have a full deck of disco playing gear at one end , a narrow central stage which I assumed covered the electrical connections and around a dozen participants, some dancing, some just looking on and some taking photos and generally looking misplaced in what is after all were often dingy venue’s hostess Anne Mac, described several as grimy and where young people danced to hypnotic rhythms largely fuelled on drink (which was mentioned, and was also in evidence and drugs.
The event was indeed a cultural one viewable on the Channel Four Website and sponsored by Red Bull. There was a brave attempt to create a party atmosphere but this mostly failed. All thirty capsules were live with Anne Mac hosting which of the capsules one of the thirty produces viewing their screen decided to push the master producer to tell Annie they were showing. She looked a mixture off bemused and fed up with the chaos as views complained they wanted to hear and seeing everything which was naturally impossible in a situation where the maximum viewing time for each pods was four minutes. A crazy absurd idea which could be described as contemporary performance art. I wondered who else was tuned in
I do possess a three CD set of Hard House, another of Garage, a third of Club Ibiza and a fourth of Ayia Napa and there was a time when I would stay up with Peter Waterman and a young bird whose name I cannot now remember doing the club scene into the early hours. I am listening to the first club Ibiza sound as ten am approach which just about matches the feel of the show on Thursday evening. To have been truly creative the show should have started around 10 pm and gone on until six or 8 am and with a multi screen option which I believe was intended but did not work out as all one had on the multiscreen was the club and DJ info. The holiday season over I forget to check if Sky were showing any of the club nights from the island although the scene has now moved to former central European coastal resort and other distant places where unlimited drinking, drugs and 24 hour partying is promoted to earn the tourist dollars.
For the rest it must comprise only a partial list of my programme of writing of recent experience, but only after I have completed the 6 DVD disk set of seasons one and two of Borgen where I viewed the first season first disk of four hour length episodes yesterday and have still to complete the writing up before the next set
I have at least got the programme in some sort of order with first the back log of live events, albeit seen in relay although in one instance this was a reprise of a live event, The Habit of Art from the National Theatre with Richard Griffiths and Francis Le Tour, who stole the show, I also did not appear to have written up This House which is puzzling, There is also the second performance of Rigoletto from the Met in Feb of this year having previously seen and reported on the Royal Opera House Production in 2012. And there was also the memorable concert given by Anna Netrebko and Dimitri Hovrostovsky from Red square, Moscow.
Then there is the major item already commenced on 50 years of national theatre to which i wanted to match my 70 plus years of theatre and live performance going and where I had purchased and kept only a small selection of programmes.
In terms of films recently viewed the Inn of Sixth happiness with Ingrid Bergman the most adorable of film stars, and the Gladys Aylward story, where I also have a book related to the film production. They Who Dare with Dirk Bogarde, Gangster Squad, Syrianna, Victim. The Master, Savages, The Fifth Women, Paris Blues, Wrath of Titans and the rest the Bond Films and Harry Potter films to write up as well as a reappraisal of Tinker Tailor.
I had also planned to concentrate on the TV series on Channel Four on the work on the physiology of sex of Master and Johnson, titled masters fo sex coupled with Kenneth Walkers book on the subject, Penguin books pelican series back in the 1960’s which I acquired as a student child care officers after a visit to a family Planning Clinic.
There is the latest season of Atlantic City the prohibition era Gangster drama based on the lives of real villains, focussing on Nucky Thompson of Atlantic City and the rise of Al Capone in Chicago and various New York mobs. I suspect. There are the final two episodes of Poirot and of Montalbano plus the last novel of the 12 books I have Tracks in the Sand, which late and tried nights to bed is preventing my finishing.
I never got round to finishing Wallander or starting the books I have purchased. but I did manage the Newsroom, similarly the history of the second World war, The Winds of War and War and remembrance together with the final season episodes of the Sopranos which I did view everything back to back.
But for now as i said earlier it is back Borgen, especially the first four episodes of seasons 1but before then I spend another 40 minutes with Mayo Kermode Podcast where everyone raves positively about Gravity although there is the odd (sic) exception and where the film of the week is the Butler despite the smelts to placate the vast continuing racism brigade and he Counsellor is panned as with Film Review on the BBC but Kermode does think better of the porn v Hollywood romanticism conflict between the couple in the Don Jon, Objectification and commodification of sexual based relationships while Jude law in Don Hemingway rage movie disappoints and the Pilger documentary on Australian Apartheid should be experienced.
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