albums net nightlife television

18
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2006
ent@waikatotimes.co.nz
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Tony Bennett
DUETS: AN AMERICAN CLASSIC
(Columbia)
He has a phenomenal, smoky voice, probably
only rivalled by Frank Sinatra for recognisability
and class among master crooners. Given Ol’
Blue Eyes died in ’98, that makes Tony
Bennett the king. And to celebrate his 80th birthday in August,
he got in a live studio with a genre-crossing who’s who of admirers
including Bono, Elton John, Paul McCartney, Barbra Streisand,
Stevie Wonder and kd lang, and cranked out 19 duets. With his
orchestral quartet accompaniment, Bennett and the luminaries
tour his easy-listening songbook — If I Ruled The World, Put On
A Happy Face, etc. The chemistry with Billy Joel (The Good Life)
and Diana Krall (The Best Is Yet To Come) is delightful, while in
other tunes the likes of Elvis Costello, Bono and James Taylor
seem content to let themselves be overshadowed by the master.
His signature I Left My Heart In San Francisco, with only a piano
for company, is Bennett superbly and defiantly greeting his 80s.
This will be a huge pre-Christmas seller and delight many, but I
think it’s a concept which doesn’t quite work. Currently floating
about in New Zealand’s top 10 album chart.
Lester Thorley
homegrown
Jacquie Walters
STEP INTO THE LIGHT
(Independent release)
Miriam Clancy
LUCKY ONE (Desert Road Records)
Auckland’s Miriam Clancy is a name which
will be on many people’s lips if she tours to
promote this, her excellent debut album. With
deliveries ranging from the personal to the
rhythmic, Clancy’s tales are wonderfully
absorbed. With crisp acoustic guitar over a
tight band, her stark ballads — including the
lyrically adept The Game, Solemn Brigade,
And So It Begins — expose her soul, laying bare songs of sorrow
and loss. Her assured and distinctive vocal is at one with her
commanding presence. Elsewhere, the catchy pop of Don’t Let
It Get You Down and the upfront Transistor Radio display more
energy. For a debut album Lucky One is mature, passionate and
highly memorable. Kerikeri’s Jacquie Walters releases her second
album, Step Into The Light, and it’s more in the fine folk vein,
the focus on meaningful reflections. And with hints of cello and
violin creating slight avenues between Walters’ inventive picking
and rich vocals, the songs are warm performances. Driving
Home, Harvest of Tears and Icarus — a tribute to David Lange
— speak volumes of Walters’ sincerity. And while a country flavour
is revealed on My Little Girl, the atmosphere changes once again
as subtle harmony and the glorious cello embrace the beauty of
Shine On. Step Into The Light is an engaging listen with a fine
wine on a cosy evening.
(Jaquie Walters)
(Miriam Clancy)
Steve Scott
A new book celebrates the escapades
of left-field ’70s British TV comedy
heroes, The Goodies.
“An agency of three blokes, who do anything,
at any time.”
And for The Goodies, that pretence meant
everything from basic sitcom-type humour to
mercilessly satirising the Grand National
steeplechase with riders hurling their mounts
over and through Aintree’s giant fences. Even
their own employers, the BBC (with which they
never had a formal contract), copped The
Goodies treatment, with news broadcasts to sex
education films having the mickeyy
taken from them.
Every Tuesday night, the
nutty British trio of Tim
Brooke-Taylor, Bill Oddie
and Graeme Garden
climbed aboard their
“trandem”, and cut loose
with a brand of madcap
slapstick humour. In early
series, each episode started
he
with the three — Garden the
inventor, Oddie the rough
environmentalist type, and
Brooke-Taylor, the effete and often maniacal
establishment figure — waiting for their next
“job”.
Only Monty Python’s Flying Circus came
close to the utterly ridiculous — sometimes
surreal — humour of The Goodies. In fact, The
Goodies and Python’s John Cleese, Eric Idle and
Graham Chapman all attended Cambridge
University at the same time in the 1960s.
Perhaps, with the benefit of hindsight, the
foundations for the two famous British comedy
troupes were laid when the comic geniuses
worked together at the Cambridge University
Footlights Club, an amateur theatre group.
While Python created iconic animated
humour, as Times film critic Sam Edwards
points out, The Goodies stuck with live action
throughout their 12-year, 70-episode run from
1970.
“It had a reality element — you could see
4:21...THE DAY AFTER
(Def Jam/Universal)
Wu Tang Clan heavy-hitter Method Man is
back with his fourth solo album. One of the
best live performers on the scene, he hits
back at a lot of criticism he caught from the media for his last
offering, Tical O: The Prequel. The 20 tracks feature guests
including Streetlife, Raekwon, Redman and Inspectah Deck. A
strong combination of New York lyrical sword-swingers feature
on Ya’Meen, which has Fat Joe and Styles P banging it out with
“Mr Mef”. Deceased rap legend ODB appears on Dirty Mef,
keeping the raw Wu sound alive. Numerous producers lend a
hand, among them Erick Sermon, Allah Mathematics, Kwame,
Havoc, Scott Storch and The RZA. The popular radio track Say
featuring Lauryn Hill (The Fugees) is also here, as is 4 Ever
featuring Megan Rochell singing a classic Atlantic Star hook which
I’m sure will be popping up on playlists soon. A strong release.
Brett “Omega B” Wagner
wh
where it (The Goodies humour) came
from,” says Edwards.
Often scathing of the British establishment
and politics, The Goodies’ humour incorporated
elements of comedy classics like the Keystone
Cops and Charlie Chaplin. A “normal” joke or
skit would spiral into something totally absurd,
like the giant Dougal from The Magic
Roundabout chasing the three comics across
fields.
“Giant Dougal had about 10 people in it, all
running behind us. Thank God for silent movies,
because there was an awful lot of swearing,” said
Oddie in a recent interview.
Says Edwards: “And they weren’t just into
fantasy, but it was surreal fantasy. A lot of it was
to do with extraordinary narratives — the
images were put together in strange ways, which
really made people laugh.”
All except Americans, notes Edwards: “They
just didn’t get it.”
nightlife
rap
Method Man
THE GOODIES:
Bill Oddie, Graeme
Garden and Tim
Brooke-Taylor
waikato
FRIDAY
— Yawn Yawn Yawn: A Club Night — a new
monthly event under the auspices of
Hamilton recording label Mole Music at
Castle. Mole Music DJs and guests, games,
projections and short films. $5 entry.
— Steriogram, Deja Voodoo and Shaky
Hands at Altitude.
— Electrosoul at Catalyst — house, breaks
and electro from DJs Caliph, Mach 1 and
Seth. Free before 2am, $5 after 2am.
— Charlie at The Loft, Darren Souljah
(Auckland) with “a night of pure soul” at
Sekure.
— Dynamo Go and Phony Bone EPs release
show at Sohl. Also on the bill are Hollow
Grinders and The Lovehaters. Entry is $5, or
$15 with a CD.
Characters and identities from different
historic eras would crop up in various sketches,
some of which jumped between full colour and
black and white — Frankenstein’s monster would
clash with cowboys, who in turn would bowl
over a neanderthal (all at accelerated speed).
Initially with the BBC before switching to a
short stint with London Weekend Television,
The Goodies were part of an important period
in British broadcasting.
In the recent documentary Goodies Rule...OK!
(yet to screen in New Zealand), producer John
Howard Davies said: “There was more money
than we knew what to do with. We’d just
colourised, and it was a period of huge expansion
for the BBC at the time.
“The Goodies was very lucky — anything was
possible, provided you could think of what it
should be.”
Whatever they wanted to try, chances were
The Goodies could pull it off.
“Although it was expensive, there was very
little money wasted. We literally priced jokes!”
recalled Bill Oddie, who often drove the show’s
musical elements — including the famous Funky
Gibbon tune.
Despite its success and cult following, the
BBC was never particularly keen on The
Goodies. Unlike other popular comedies —
Fawlty Towers, The Two Ronnies and Dad’s
Army — The Goodies wasn’t repeated
extensively. The “Beeb” refused to run Goodies
repeats after 1986.
Perhaps, with a new book out and DVDs
available from various online retailers, it’s high
time The Goodies made us laugh again.
The Goodies Rule OK, by Robert Ross (with
contributions from The Goodies themselves) is
in bookstores from tomorrow through Allen
and Unwin. Recommended retail price is $55.
www.goodiesruleok.com
television
— A Knight with a Dame — Dame Malvina
Major and Sir Howard Morrison at Founders
Theatre.
SATURDAY
— Deadly Deaths, Gadget Goose and Liz
Judd at Sohl. $5 entry.
— Momentum at Catalyst — drum ’n’ bass
from DJs Blazem, HSD, Q-Bik and NIG. $5
entry.
— Charlie at The Loft, Sophie at Sekure
(house and electro).
auckland
FRIDAY
— John Rowles at Sky City, Auckland, then
again on Saturday.
SATURDAY
— The Living End, Kings Arms. Tickets from
Ticketek.
Music broadcaster C4 continues its
Tuesday night music documentary series next
week with Freestyle: The Art of Rhyme. The 2000
documentary explores the art of freestyle rapping,
an improvised or “off the dome (head)” variant
of hip hop culture’s verbal form. Filmed in a gritty,
almost handicam style, Freestyle features some
of the form’s finest exponents, among them the
incredible New York-based MC Supernatural (pictured), an outstanding
live performer who can reel out witty, intelligent and non-stop freestyle
rhymes better than some rap recording artists can ever dream of
(he also holds the world record for freestyling, producing impromptu
rhymes at a Welsh nightclub for more than nine hours). Other rap
stars featured include Eminem — who, compared to others, looks
positively amateurish — Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Kool Moe Dee, Tupac
Shakur, Divine Styler, Pharoahe Monch, Craig G plus a 17-year-old
Biggie Smalls/Notorious BIG tearing it on a New York street corner.
Worth watching for an infamous freestyle battle between Craig G and
Supernatural alone, this is a must-see film for students of hip hop
culture or anyone who enjoys quality music documentaries.
Freestyle: The Art of Rhyme, C4, Tuesday, 8.30pm.
net
Beauty is only skin deep,
but at www.fugly.net ugly goes clean to the
bone. This is an archive of pictures of
people who saw fit to post their own
portraits on the internet, despite being
wince-inducingly unattractive. As the home
page explains: “The images in this site
were gathered from the far corners of the
world wide web, in places where dreary,
commonplace (commonface) people
desperately scrabble for attention by
posting their mugs for an international
audience to gawk. The images that follow
were all posted by people whose message
is ‘Hey, look at me!’. So look at them, they
asked for it!” Often the accompanying text
is funnier than the pictures, but this is one
of those websites your mother warned you
about. It’s puerile and not nice. But in a
cruel sort of way, it is funny.
Bruce Holloway
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