Argo

Surprisingly excellent thriller which makes Skyfall's second half look especially pathetic. Always had the impression that Ben Affleck was somewhat light weight but in directing and starring in this film was an impressive achievement. Co produced by Clooney who can do no wrong, this should be up for an Oscar nomination.

9/10

Skyfall

Not bad, first half was rather good, but then it disintergrated into the set piece, meglomaniac goes wild with big shoot them up ending.
Chase over the roof tops very good during the opening sequence.

Two mistakes at least. The tube crash in rush hour would have been crowded with bodies flying everywhere, however not a person in sight.
The reflection of the filming helicopter was caught in the landrover's door window. Blink and you miss it, but should have been picked up in post production, very naughty.

8.5/10 First half
5/10 Second half.

Ruby Sparks

First film since July!
And what a good one.
Should have more like this, very enjoyable.
8.5 / 10

The Dark Knight Rises

Yawn,
The lighting of the Olympic Cauldron was far more imaginative, spectacular, awe inspiring and wonderful than this and any like movie could be.
6/10

Cat Woman in her suit.
9/10

Electrick Children

Smashing little film with the lead played by Julia Garner about a 15-year-old Mormon who believes she's had an immaculate conception after hearing a cover of Blondie's Hanging on the Telephone. Garner deserves an Oscar nomination at least.

8/10

Alejandro Escovado and the Senstive Boys @ The Bullingdon, Oxford

Photos to follow

Yet another great gig by a true professional. Did an excellant cover of Neil Young's 'Like a Hurricane' and also rubbed salt into the wound by doing a number called 'No Rain' about his home town of San Antonio.

Hazmat Modine @ Spiegeltent, Bath.

 

Closing out the Bath Fringe Festival in The Spiegeltent on a wet Sunday evening, Hazmat Modine played a very rare live two hour set in the UK concluding their three week tour Europe. If they were tired it did not show although they must have wondered what they had let themselves in for as the opening number was played to an aaudience seated all around the outside of the tent with no one apart from a couple of small children who danced around the circular dance floor in front of the band.
That all changed at the end of the opening number when I led the charge to occupy the area immediatly in front of the band laying out on the floor just like me used to do in the late 60s early 70s.

 

What then followed was a great gig, more and more of the audience joined us down the front and by half way through everybody was up dancing.

This was joyous music, played with gusto, by a eight piece band led by a real showman in Wade Schuman, but make no mistake all the other seven members were not afraid to come forward and solo. A special mention must be given to Joseph Daly on Sousaphone, a mighty marching band instrument which effectively was the bass guitar. How the guy has the puff for two hours is beyond me.
The set ended with a slightly fast rendition of Bahamut and with a ferry to catch to get them back to Germany and their flight back to New York, they played an encore. Brilliant.
10/10

Sebastion Bergman (Swedish tv)

Yet another Swedish crime orientated mini series to hit BBC4 on a Saturday night. Just a two parter each of ninety minute duration starring Rolf Lassgård (of the original Wallander series) who is a bit of a wreck of a character with a distinct predication for sex.
Using hand held cameras and natural sets (school hall for the crime team in first episode, 70s office for the second) you get a distinct 'real' feel to it.
All very enjoyable but my main complaint is the use of coincidence, not once, but twice, where the main character is central to what is going on and is in fact the cause of it (The Bridge is similar)
So 7/10

The Bridge (Danish/Swedish TV)

Last night was the concluding last two episodes of first rate Danish / Swedish TV cop thriller series on BBC4.
Why can't BBC do quality tv like this? Well shot, grey cool landscapes and some interesting houses.A wonderful bridge too. Episode 1 had one of the best jaw dropping surprises I have ever seen.
When is the next one coming, The Killing 3?
9.5/10

Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale

A lovely little 2010 Finnish fairytale of a film that's worth watching but not in front of the children.The poster says it all, but away from the actual story, it gives an insight into the landscape and living conditions on the northern Finland/Russia border.

8 / 10

Camille O'Sullivan @ North Wall, Oxford.

How can I say anything about this gig as I became personally involved when Camille came and sat on my lap during her performance, could not be helped, I was front row dead centre, and my legs were perched on the small steps that led up to the front of the stage, therefore my views can only be compromised.
But what the fuck....an absolutely excellent gig with Camille on top form, mixing her genres with a degree of theatricality rarely seen on the performance stage. She puts 99.9% of groups/singers to shame, and unlike the likes of (spit spit) Madonna etal, that performance is all of her own making.
A great repertoire of songs, In These Shoes played out right in front of  me, ably supported by a number of props and finishing (before the inevitable encore) with a great rendition of Nick Cave's Ship Song. I know I called for it but it was probably the closing number.
The only trouble being in the front row is that it is difficult to photograph. In the end I resorted not to use the viewfinder on my Nikon DSLR but rely on pure guess work by having the camera in my lap and just pointing it in the right direction and letting the auto focus do its job after setting the speed to 1/100. Out of the 50 shots taken, here are the best.
A mention is necessary for the band, the ever present Fergal Murray on Keyboards and MD, Paul Byrne on Pecussion and the excellent Ant Law on guitar.
Another mention is also necessary for the venue, The North Wall. Designed by Architect's Haworth Tompkins for St Edwards School, occupies the site of a once Grade 2 listed Victorian swimming pool and as the name suggests, it is pressed up against the stone north wall that forms the boundary with South Parade. A quality small building that won both the RIBA's national award in 2008 but also a Civic Trust award.
Why Camille O'Sullivan is not better known I cannot say, for she is one performer you should not miss!
10/10 Meow indeed!

Great Tracks No7, Bahamut, by Hazmat Modine

This is something completely different, Hazmat Modine are a blues/folk/world fusion/jazz musical group from New York. "Hazmat" is a portmanteau of "hazardous material" and "Modine" is the name of a company that manufactures commercial heaters and is appropriate since thy "blow a lot of hot air," from instruments including harmonicas, tubas and saxophones.
Bahamut is half sung, half spoken and about a vast mythological fish that supports the earth, where in some sources is described as having a head resembling a hippopotamus or elephant. The song is pushed along by a tuba carrying out the duties of a bass, has a mid section of the spoken word followed by a riotous finish.
Jeff Tamarkin of  AllMusic praised the band for successfully fusing styles as disparate as blues, jazz, klezmer, calypso, and ska into "music that sounds at once ageless and primeval, authentically indigenous and inexplicably otherworldly, familiar and unlike anything else.
Whatever, it is indeed excellent and surprisingly unknown in the UK, am I their only fan?
Well no, two days later I find that they are playing the Bath Fringe Festival in six weeks time! Tickets duly bought and quite excited to be seeing them.

Well, Bohemoth calls us his own
While Bahamut wanders alone
They both go out to play
On that cold and rainy day

And Bohemoth sings us his song
While Bahamut wanders along
But in the glory of this spring
You can hear Bahamut sing

Whoa-ho-ho
Are you as big as me?
Whoa-ho-ho-ho
Way too big to see
Whoa-ho-ho-ho-ho
Bahamut he goes so slow
Whoa-ho-ho-ho
Too big a place to go

(Solos)

(Spoken)
The entire known universe
Floats suspended in a thin silver bowl
Which rocks gently on the back
Of an immense blue-green tortuga
And the tortuga's scaly feet
Are firmly placed on the topmost
Of seven craggy mountains
Which arise from a vast and arid plain
Of drifting, fetid, yellow dust
And the plain is balanced precariously
On top of a small thin green acacia tree?
Which grows from the snout
Of a giant blood red ox
With 50 eyes that breathes flame
The color of the midnight sky
And the ox's hooves are firmly placed
On the single grain of sand
Which floats in the eye of Bahamut
Like a mote of dust
No one has ever seen Bahamut
Some think it's a fish
Some think it's a newt
All we know is that the lonely Bahamut
Floats endlessly through all time and all space
With all of us and everything
Floating in a single tear
Of his eye

Well, Bohemoth calls us his own
While Bahamut wanders alone
When they both go out to play
On that cold and rainy day

And Bohemoth sings us his song
While Bahamut wanders alone
But in the glory of their fall
You can hear Bahamut call

Whoa-ho-ho
Are you as big as me?
Whoa-ho-ho-ho
Way too big to see
Whoa-ho-ho-ho-ho
Bahamut he goes so slow
Whoa-ho-ho-ho
Too big a place to go

Chuck Prophet and the Mission Express @ Dingwalls London

Only got to know about Chuck Prophet through promoter Mike Trotman of Empty Rooms Promotions who operates out of Buckingham and has CP a couple of times, not that I had seen him. So I bought 'Let Freedom Ring' on the back of it and learned a bit about his musical background and liked what I read, Could not get a Green on Red cd though. At the beginning of the year Empty Rooms announced that they are promoting CP at The Bully in Oxford less than a mile away from home on a friday night, which was ok only to find that it was to be an early finish and the chance that I could not make it as I would be leaving London late. So quickly found that CP was playing Dingwalls the night before was good news indeed, and it has been some three decades since I was last in here, Chris Rea I seem to recall, and in that time I have got married, moved to Oxford, children now at Uni, and now living back in London for the week.

Anyway to here I am back at Digwalls, by myself and following a cracking warm up from Danny and the Champions of The World (what is this, a gig consisting of bands with long names?) on comes CP, not the obvious looking rock and roll musician, with the band and for the next 100+ minutes proceed to show how it is done. A great set with great repore between CP and audience, including a bloke who wanted to interrupt a number by saying that some woman's brother was outside to give her a lift, Anne Marie I think she was called, rather unbelievable. Second gig in a row where artist did a Springsteen cover, 'Darkness on the Edge of Town' only weeks before down the road at KOKO with The Felice Brothers and tonight it was Chuck Prophet's turn with 'For You'. A few years back it was common for bands to play a Dylan number, now it appears the Springsteen is the flavour of the year.
Three numbers in the encore the finale being a cover of Bowie's 'Rebel Rebel' where CP called a guy out of the back of the audience to sing along, I thought his name was David, but would not swear to it. Who was he? Now this guy looked liked a rock and roller and with one verse in, pulled up a woman from the audience who was dancing down at the front. They both dueted together but best of all, he had his left leg firmly planted between her legs and was giving it the whole rub up. I looked at James DePrato the guitarist who I was standing right next to, we both looked at the bump and grinding couple, then looked at each other and just grinned. The woman's partner was in the audience too but did not seem to mind and she was loving it. He got a big kiss at the end as did CP with hugs to, although I saw she acknowledged CP's wife Stephie. Mention of Stephie, a useful foil at times for CP, sung her own song and the dueted on Little Girl, Little Boy.
An excellent evening all round, and worth seeing again.

Set list

Like a stone across the sea
Let Freedom Ring
Look Both Ways
Castro Halloween
The Left Hand And The Right Hand
Willie Mays Is Up At Bat
Doubter Out of Jesus (All Over You)
Tina Goodbye
White Night, Big City
A Man Of Few Words
Temple Beautiful
Would You Love Me?
I Felt Like Jesus
Little Girl, Little Boy
Summertime Thing
For You
You Did (Bomp Shooby Dooby Bomp)
Encore:
Don't Call Me, I'll Call You
Shake Some Action
Pipeline
Rebel Rebel (with Dave Kusworth)

Danny and The Champions of the World @ Digwalls London

Opening act for Chuck Prophet, and a blistering 8 song, 40 minute set. Best opening act I have seen for donkeys years.
Set list:
Ghosts In The Wire
Heart and Arrow
Soul In The City
Colonel and The King
Every Beat Of My Heart
Can't Hold Back
You Don't Know (My Heart Is In The Right Place)
Restless Feet

Headhunters

Surprisingly good Norwegian thriller which is far better than most that churns out of Hollywood. A couple of moments when you have to suspend belief but otherwise it hits the spot. These Scandinavians do like escaping by running through forests at night.
8.75 / 10

The Felice Brothers @ Koko, Mornington Crescent

Writing this some two weeks later, I can now recall quite a startling gig. The transition of The Felice brothers from the bar room band I heard at the Shepherds Bush Empire some two years earlier into this rocking band was complete.

The Greatest Show On Earth? Probably not, but getting close to it. But what is unusual about the band is that they a far greater than the sum of its part. Ian Felice, no great singer or even guitar player. Jimmy Felice, that great bear of a man on electric piano and accordion, Christmas, unremarkable bass guitarist and vocalist, Greg Farley, bar room violinist dub bass sequencer player, gone is the washboard, and finally the basic drummer, Dave Turbeville. But when they come together they are quite something else. It’s a bit like the change when Dylan went electric, but no calls of Judas from here.

The favourites were rolled out, Frankie’s Gun and Whiskey in my Whiskey sung along by the whole audience, James and Christmas sharing the singing duties, to spare Ian’s vocal chords? James electric piano covered in the pink FT making a political point, even Ian at one point was reading the paper on stage. A three song encore, including an excellent version of Springsteen’s Darkness On The Edge Of Town.

A good week later on Tobago I heard enough reggae to last me a lifetime, so I played Frankie’s Gun and Whiskey in my Whiskey to a couple of locals. They got it and they got the groove. A universal band indeed!

The photos were taken by a bog standard Fuji compact camera, I had no control over what it was doing and I did not like it.

The Guard

Watched it on DVD as we failed to see it when it hit the big screen.
No idea why we didn't go.
Best film I have seen for some time.

9/10

The Artist

Finally decided to see what all the hype was about, and with five oscars under its belt some three weeks previous we expecting something great. So what did we get?
A sweet film, nothing more nothing less. Did Jean Dujardin deserve best actor, agaist other short listed artists of Gary Oldman and George Cloony, yes. (have not seen Brad Pitt's or Demian Bichir's performance) but Kenneth Branagh as Laurence Olivier was far better.
Two very good cinematographic moments that cut like ice during the film, but other than that I can't say I was enthralled.
Thought the dog deserved the Oscar.
7/10

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

This is not a bad film, but neither is it a good film. Lightweight story, almost Mills and Boon, clunky dialogue at times, and probably one to many cliches and an Indian love interest sub plot that it could do without. However it is pleasant to watch, India comes over quite true to life although missing the smells, and it reminded us very quickly of our holiday there 18 months before. All our luvvies preform well, as you would indeed expect them to, but best performance goes to Penelope Wilton as her fraying marriage finally falls apart.
6.76 / 10

Clap Your Hands and Say Yeah @ Shepherds Bush Empire

A very AC/DC gig that started so well, then a rather bland directionless middle, then ending well. I managed to get a place on the barrier at the front and the first three numbers stormed along. At the end of those three number, the six photographers who were camped out stage side of the barrier, and who blocked our view from time to time, then left. So without anybodu blocking my view it was time to get out my camera. Managed to get off two shots before big bouncer told me it was not allowed. 'Thats a professional camera, its got a detachable lens, you can't use it.' Yes its a DSLR but hardly the quality of the professionals who minutes before were just in front of me. Christ its an Ebay second hand special 6meg Nikon, hardly professional. So I tucked it away, listened for a couple of more numbers, thought they were becoming samely, vocals not well mixed in. Strange group, looked like they had just left their day job, put some jeans on, and got up on stage.
So I left the front to seek out somewhere else, and yet again, pull camera out, one shot, and 'you can't do that here, its a professional camera.' So yet again I put it away, feeling rather pissed off as there in front of me, were the smart phones, held aloft, taking photos and videos. Whats the fucking difference!
The crowd were strange too. not a sell out, but still quite packed, but whilst a lot were enjoying the gig, with yes hands clapping above their heads etc. the end of each number was greeted with just polite applause. Set ends, no more,more, more, and again a ripple of applause. But everybody stayed, and sure enough, CYHASY came back on stage for a further three numbers which was already planned as they were listed on their set list taped to the stage in front of each member. Very strange gig, 5 or 6 very good numbers but the rest was average. Not the group I saw six months earlier at End of the Road Festival.

Chatted with one of the senior bouncers in the foyer afterwards, he knew about cameras and even he thought this ban was a joke and mainly historical. The tip was to get a compact camera, but can I afford an Olympus Pen?