Amy Macdonald at the Isle of Wight Festival

 

I hadn't listened to any of Amy Macdonald's music for a while, so it was good to see her impressive set at the Isle of Wight Festival last night. I had forgotten how much I love her up-tempo songs. I had seen her in concert three times and it was great to visit these posts on this blog:

21st October 2010, 4th April 2017 and 22nd March 2019

They bring back some great memories of those nights. She was only twenty three at the first and is now a mature thirty eight! It was amazing to see so many young people in the audience for what is basically old rock and roll. It lives on.

Classic Movies on Sky Arts - Series 3 Episode 4 - The Story of Flash Gordon

 

The opening bars of Queen's soundtrack for Flash Gordon accompany the opening scenes. Maybe not a film I would have chosen for Sky Arts collection of classic movies, but I was willing to be convinced. Never having seen the film. I was immediately struck by the vivid colours on display. Ian Nathan and Steven Armstrong takes us through the history of Flash Gordon, the 1934 cartoon strip for a magazine drawn by staff illustrator Alex Raymond. It was designed to compete with the very successful Buck Rogers adventures.  Different in it's approach, it was an immediate success. It was followed by black and white filmed serials from 1936 to 1940. 

We hear how top producer Dino de Laurentis bought the rights, Steven gives us a run down of his career. The casting was amazing. Sam J Jones was cast as Flash. A marine and American Football player he just had the look that the producers wanted. It had taken a year to finally cast him. Max von Sydow was perfect for the baddie Ming, he looked very much like the character drawn in the comic strip, but with that additional menace only a great actor can bring. Steven says he had "intelligence, weariness and real class". He cannot believe he is beaten by Flash. But he looks as if he is enjoying himself. Maybe he was the template for many future villains. 

It's Neil Norman who says that Melody Anderson who plays Dale Arden is just "perfect". The horrible Princess Aura, daughter of Ming, is played with relish by Ornella Muti. Other members of the cast include, amazingly, Peter Duncan, John Osborne, Richard O'Brien and Peter Wyngarde. There are also two other British actors "who absolutely get it right". Timothy Dalton in a Errol Flynn type roll, and Brian Blessed who was born to play Voltan.

The team discuss the choice of Mike Hodges as director. We hear he knew nothing about the comic strip and only on the plane to see de Lorentis did he first take a look. His immediate reaction was to use the comic strip as the storyboard. There are ground breaking special effects and the use of other sets already in the studio. Shot on British sound stages in a converted aircraft hanger in Weybridge, the production designer Danilo Donat brought that art deco look to the movie: "the skies an inky colour as if painted by Dali". Neil thought it was "beautifully designed". 

Ian talks about the Queen soundtrack that even then "sounds like a rock opera". Steven adds that this was the band's first use of synthesisers. Ian says that the film was a "splendid success in the UK and Europe but less so in a bemused America". Neil thought that people were less ready for this "mutant film", although this is all about nostalgia. The rockets are from the comic so nothing like their modern equivalent. In the end it became a cult film. There are, apparently so many one liners that fans would "use in the pub". Neil was impressed that the "colour was extraordinary". Maybe this was the future of films for superheroes, although Flash is a mere mortal. Just.

Have You Seen ....?: Went the day well?, Ice Cold in Alex and 28 Days Later

 

My post of 27th November 2023 mentions the film Went the day well? in a summary of the programme "The Art of Film - Ealing Studios":

The programme started with some classics from the 1950's but I will start with 1942's Went The Day Well?. A very violent, very dark wartime depiction of a village in rural England invaded by a group of German soldiers in disguise

So I was able to record it when it was shown recently on TV. It was all filmed at Turville in Buckinghamshire, there are a couple of superb walks described on this blog. I was amazed that the film was released in 1942, so right in the middle of the second world war. The German paratroopers who arrive in this tiny village are dressed as British soldiers, all in preparation of an invasion. A quiet weekend in Bramley End takes a nasty turn as the villagers are rounded up in the church. The heroic vicar is shot for ringing the bell.

The main thrust of this patriotic story is how the villagers quietly start their resistance on the quiet, although there are some horrific deaths. There are threats to kill five children as reprisals and much of the film is pretty nasty. It all then happens at night and you can guess the outcome. Those in the cast I recognised included a very young Harry Fowler together with Mervyn Johns and Thora Hird. The producer was Michael Balcon for Ealing Studios from a story by Graham Greene.  

In David Thomson's book Have You Seen ... he reminds us  "this very English film it was directed the Brazilian Alberto Cavalcanti" and has "an excellent cast". But "you can't see it without the occasional shudder". Peter Bradshaw in his five star review in The Guardian called it "a black-comic nightmare and a surrealist masterpiece". I would not go that far, It did seem a bit of a jumble, but an iconic movie for all that. And we do see a lot of Turville. 

We are somewhere in the Western Desert of Egypt and Libya in 1942. Captain Anson (John Mills) is commander of an ambulance company that are ordered to evacuate to Alexandria. His ambulance becomes detached and with his Sergeant Major (a superb Harry Andrews) and two nurses on board (Sylvia Syms and Diane Clare)  they head across the desert for Alexandria. The film follows their adventure that includes picking up an Afrikaner officer in Anthony Quale. 

So a different kind of road trip movie, across minefields, coming across the enemy, and everything that could go wrong with the ambulance does just that. The cast is excellent, particularly John Mills playing against type as the blond drunk theoretically in charge. In my post of 19th March 2021, under the section about the director J Lee Thomson, I included this note:  The following year (1958) came one of Thomson's big successes with Ice Cold In Alex with Sylvia Simms, John Mills and Anthony Quale. I agreed when it was described as "one of the great British war films". 

There is another note of this film on my post of 19th April 2024 when it was included in the series. World War 11 and Cinema. Ice Cold in Alex was released in cinemas in 1958 and gained critical success and a number of award nominations.

My collection of cinema tickets tells me I went to see 28 Days Later on it's release on 6th November 2002. I don't think that I have seen it since. All the actors seem so young. Cillian Murphy must have been twenty five when the film was made. Naomie Harris about the same age. They have both gone on to greater things, Harris as Moneypenny and an OBE. Brendan Gleeson has a smaller role as Frank and this daughter Hannah is played by Megan Burns. Christopher Eccleston is Major Henry West who is as bad as all the soldiers under his command.

Of course it is Danny Boyle who directed a script by Alex Garland. I did not remember how violent and gory are the later parts of the film. I wonder if the latest installment 28 Years Later will be the equally horrible. Same director and writer apparently. The locations were all interesting, the early iconic scenes in London all filmed so well including then the relatively new Canary Wharf Station. The ruins of Waverley Abbey were a pleasant interlude in all the mayhem. Then at the very end, Ennerdale Water in the Lake District is a pleasingly gentle finale.  

Roses in June

 

The roses are at their best this month. The first to flower, as usual, was the Blue For You under the living room window. All these flowers are now sadly over but hopefully there are more to come.

The following photos are from the beginning of June.

And now later in the month there are some more.

"It's been a good year for the roses".

Classic Movies on Sky Arts - Series 3 Episode 4 - The Story of Scott of the Antarctic

 

Ian Nathan introduces the 1948 film of Scott of the Antarctic that was directed by Charles Frend and starred John Mills as Robert Falcon Scott. Ian talks to Steven Armstrong about the background to the movie and that failed mission to the South Pole. We are shown a page from his diary: 9th September 1904. "1,756 miles to go". With a landscape that is "remote and alien". They want to be the first to the pole, but is this mission courageous or reckless? Neil Norman tells us about Scott and the Royal Geographical Society and and his first expedition gathering scientific samples. We hear a lot about the history of these earlier expeditions including the one where Shackleton nearly reached the pole.

Christina Newland talks about the director Charles Frend who desperately wanted to tell this story. Ealing Studios it was who produced the movie. One of the most interesting parts of this story was how they mixed location photography (with long shots of specialist explorers) with the actors (and the director) never having left the studio! Neil Norman shows us how the camera "goes right into their eyes" in the final part.

Ian explains how the film gives over a lot to the fund raising, team building and planning before the journey starts. Only the final half hour is when difficulties begin culminating in the disaster. Ian goes on to talk about how John Mills was perfect for the role of Scott and how "the film underlines his ill fated choices". It pulls no punches in this respect. We hear about the team including James Robertson Justice. Christina describes the women left at home. She goes on to explain how the film was made in colour, as at that time such a story would be in black and white. Steven is especially impressed that "the quality was unbelievable" and the  locations stunning. The cinematography is quite brilliant. 

The music by Ralph Vaughan Williams was equally important and Christina tells us it gave "sadness and depth". Ian felt the silence was something else. But we don't hear much about the actual events and the extracts from the film that we do see do not involve that important preparation. But it's all enough to make me want to see this amazing film.

Let's Do It: The Birth of Pop by Bob Stanley - Chapters 31 to 40

31 Someone to watch over me: Vocal Refrains

The end of the second world war sees the demise of the big bands and jazz. (Maybe partly true). It was "singers who began to call the shots". They were leaving the bands and going solo. We hear about Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra and Perry Como. But who was Dick Haynes, I had never heard of him. The author goes on to look at music in post war UK, but this was all so boring.

Johnny Mercer was an important song writer, many of his songs are listed here. Towards the end there is mention of Frankie Laine, but no mention of his biggest hits that I can remember: High Noon, Mule Train and Riders in the Sky. Maybe too low brow for Bob.

32 We had to break up the band: Post-War Jazz

After the war "the big ballrooms across the country ..... and there were hundreds of them ..... just died a slow death". So instead we hear about Bebop, that form of jazz where "mass popularity was never their concern". Although Stan Kenton flourished with a large band while others were working in much smaller units. 

33 Call me irresponsible: Frank Sinatra

This is maybe the first transition to what we now know as pop, or popular music. However this is one of the worst chapters. It starts with a sycophantic introduction and a comparison to Norman Wisdom. Why? Absolutely ridiculous. This chapter is basically a biography that can be found in any of those on Sinatra. However after his successes, we do hear about the bad times, a 1952 concert at the Coconut Grove was "thinly attended". Frank was dropped by his record label, his agent and had no film contract. Not only that but he was "massively in debt to the taxman". But then came a turning point. He starred in From Here to Eternity and an Oscar in 1953.

34 Saturday night fish fry: Rhythm and Blues

Now we are talking. On the 24th October 1942, Billboard magazine inaugurated a sales chart called "Harlem Hit Parade". The first black music chart. By 1949 this chart had become "Rhythm and Blues". There were many new labels distributing this now popular music in a "burgeoning alternative pop world". There is a lot about Louis Jordan's Tympany Five. I had to go onto YouTube to see this comprised saxophone, guitar, keyboards, drums and a female vocalist. Louis introduced that distorted electric guitar on the track that gave this chapter it's name.

Unfortunately the rest of this chapter is mainly about the business men such as Jay Mayo Williams, Ahmet Ertegun, Lester Melrose and then two of whom I had heard. Leonard Chess of Chess records and Alan Lomax. We could have instead heard about how it influenced later R&B.

35 California Suite: The Long Player

Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, the LP was that new 33rpm disc "made of smooth vinyl", and "the past provided a ready made catalogue". Orchestras were the big benefactors, even Mantovani in the UK. I liked the part about Duke Ellington's music getting on to an LP: Masterpieces by Ellington (1951) and Ellington Uptown (1952). They were "landmark albums for Columbia Records". Highly recommended was Ellington's album Such Sweet Thunder. It's all on YouTube. We then go back to Sinatra and the mid fifties magic that included the classic album Songs for Swinging Lovers (1956). This led to some words about the arrangers coming to the fore such as Nelson Riddle.

36 It's Mitch Miller's world and we just live in it: The 45

What a strange title for this massive development. He was the classic A&R man - recording artists such as Vic Damone and Frankie Laine. I remember many of the big hits from this time such as I Believe and artists such as Johnnie Ray, Rosemary Clooney and Guy Mitchell. All from my younger days. But I didn't know of Bob Merrill even though I knew many of his big hits. I can still sing bits of these such as "There's a pawnshop on the corner of Pittsburg Pennsylvania and you only have to pay five or ten, five or ten" (whatever that is), Who is to blame for "Pretty little black eyed Susie" and "She wears red feathers and a hooly hooly skirt" and even Tony Bennett's "A Stranger in Paradise". All Mitch Miller productions. We hear much about Tony, reminding me of seeing him at the Odeon Hammersmith. We are then onto the early fifties in the UK, even a mention for Radio Luxemburg and Jack Jackson. And all those big stars at the London Palladium. But then why spoil all this great stuff with going back to Vera Lynn and Gracie Fields in wartime??? As I said earlier, sometimes this book is all over the place.

37 Breaks a new heart every day: Peggy Lee

Not sure she broke my heart, but I do have an old LP somewhere. Norma Dolores Egstrom had a Norwegian/Swedish background and became Peggy Lee. Now that I didn't know. She was a vocalist with the Benny Goodman Sextet and recorded "Where or When" inversion  1941 when she was 21. It's on You Tube. By 1945 she was a big star, "one of the definitive jazz vocalists". She could experiment with phrasing on any recording. One song I remember is Fever. I had to look for Peggy's version of the Ray Davies song I Go to Sleep from 1965. We hear about her longevity with vocals for the movie The Lady and the Tramp, her wonderful I'm a Woman and so many more. This part ends with a song that Paul McCartney gave to her called Let's Love.

38 Almost like praying: Post-War Broadway

This part is mainly about how "Oklahoma! had rewritten the rules of Broadway". The very biggest hits of the next twenty years would have Rogers and Hammerstein's names on them. The King and I, The Sound of Music, Carousel and South Pacific. We hear a lot about more musicals, all the way to Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. Although the author prefers Irving Berlin and 42nd Street.

39 Squeeze me: Vocal Jazz

Of course this part concentrates on Ella Fitzgerald who is "in a class of her own". There are other female vocalists such as Dinah Washington and Julie London. But is the latter's Cry Me a River really jazz? I had never heard of Anita O'Day even though it "may have been the highlight of Jazz on a Summer's Day". But why oh why at the very end of this part do we get Chuck Berry and the fantastic Sweet Little Sixteen? It's because this is the future and the author is not impressed, unlike yours's truly. 

40 Experiments with mice: British Big Bands

Big bands in the UK were still going strong in the late 1940's. Joe Loss, Lew Stone (who I didn't know), Bert Ambrose, Harry Roy and, of course, Billy Cotton ("Wakey wake-eeey). The Billy Cotton Band Show was on the BBC Light Programme every Sunday lunchtime from 1949 to 1968. I can remember we listened most Sundays in the 1950's. 

From 1952 "the BBC formed it's own show band under the direction of Cyril Stapleton. It also featured singer Matt Monroe and guitarist Bert Weedon. (Both have entries on this blog). Johnny Dankworth formed his Dankworth Seven in 1951 which became "a full orchestra two years later". (He founded The Stables music venue in 1970 with Cleo Laine). Another big band was under the direction of Ted Heath who had vocalists Lita Rose and Dickie Valentine. There was also the bands of Jack Parnell and Ray Ellington, the latter famous for the music for The Goon Show. And finally a nice page about the John Barry Seven and his orchestra for the Bond movies.

The main border - February and June

 

The photo above is the only one I have of the main border in February. I just wanted to compare it with how it looks in June.