PET SHOP BOYS PLEASE

Beneath the minimnilist sleeve lies a layered and significant British album. Lyrically saying a lot about the UK of the past and its present, Please is a notable album which contains some superb songs; possibly the best work of their careers. 

Pop hit's flourished from within and Pet Shop boys became household names following the runaway success of West End girls http://youtu.be/p3j2NYZ8FKs. The album is up there with The Kinks, The Who and The Jam with it's Britishness but it has an international sound; a vibrant electronic pulse that is part Moroder, part Kraftwerk, part Arthur Baker and a full on pop sensibility with melancholia alongside subtle humour.

Released in March 1986 it crystalises a time and place beautifully. Stand out tracks are Opportunities, the superb Suburbia http://youtu.be/-VCqAjYO3NM,the understated Violence, Two divided by Zero http://youtu.be/kPqyDm7FFug, the soaring Tonight is forever http://youtu.be/dQycRzcxsSM and my personal favourite of theirs, Love Comes Quickly http://youtu.be/QHaA1beOwrY. In fact all the tracks are excellent.

Please is an album that is worth revisiting, an album that ultimately is one of the great British Debuts.

MOVIE FACE OFF #1 Starring Star Wars v Flash Gordon

Some movies have remarkable symetry and stand comparison, often that comparison leads to some interesting and no doubt controversial conclusions; let battle commence

Suture

v

Seconds
Both films are about ideas of identity. Frankenheimer's Seconds is a little seen movie with a great central performance from Rock Hudson. Suture is a more questioning film about identity and leaves the viewer to draw their own conclusions
RESULT: DRAW 

Flash Gordon

V

Star Wars

Flash Gordon is a purer movie than Star Wars IV and because it doesn't take itself seriously, unlike Lucas' space opera, it has none of the analytical trappings and contrivences.

WINNER: FLASH GORDON

City on Fire

V

Reservoir Dogs

One cannot, on the one hand, praise Welles for learning his cinematic trade from watching Stagecoach or The french New wave directors for their Hollywood influences,or Noir for it's German Expressionism roots, and then criticise Tarantino for being a magpie. obviously City on Fire is basically the blueprint for 'Dogs' but both films work as two versions of the same story.

RESULT: DRAW

The Terminator

V

Hardware

Suprisingly both had relatively small budgets but Cameron's Terminator trumps Stanley's Hardware in the inspired casting of Shwarzenegger; perfect for the part.

WINNER: THE TERMINATOR

Jezebel

V

Gone with the wind
Vivian Leigh and Bette Davis are superb in each movie, however what Jezebel lacks is Clark Gable. Both are great movies and 'Wind' always puts Jezebel in it's shadow. Gone with the wind is, however a heavy weight champion of a movie.
WINNER: GONE WITH THE WIND

Get Carter

V

The Limey
Vengeance, wrath, quiet fury; both films have these attributes in abundace. Both owe a great debt to Boorman's Point Blank. Stamp and Cane are equally as impressive in their lead roles but Get Carter edges it due to the terrific ensemble cast.
WINNER: GET CARTER

Darkman

V

The Invisble man
Seperated by decades and directed by free spirited directors both films riff on the mad scientist but in differing ways. There is a twisted humour in both movies and the lead actors are far better known for serious roles. Both are tongue in cheek and tremenfdous fun.
RESULT: DRAW 

KISS meets the Phantom of the Park

V

Phantom of Paradise
Gothic horror and sledge hammer Rock 'N' Roll make strange bedfellows and these two movies are utterly insane but hugely enjoyable for their cack-handedness.
RESULT: DRAW

The Dark Crystal

V

The Lord of the rings
Pomposity, pseudo religion, grinding seriousness, all absent from the Dark Crystal. There are scarey moments, action, adventure and charm in Henson's puppet tale which can be watched without the feeling you are attending a state funeral, unlike The Lord of the Rings.
WINNER: THE DARK CRYSTAL

Duel

V

The Hitcher
Spielberg is a phenomenal director who is strangely unpopular amongst those 'in the know' his debut Duel is an excellent stripped down thriller. The Hitcher is equally lean and is perhaps Rutger Hauer's best performance.
Yes Duel is like the face that launched a thousand imitators, but The Hitcher has a raw power that is hard to better.
WINNER: THE HITCHER

http://veehd.com/video/4693721_The-Hitcher-1986-Original-version-Rutger-Hauer

MY HIT LIST-VEEP



http://youtu.be/ZUnAbwaDYr0

Sky Atlantic, since its arrival earlier this year has become the home of quality TV. Currently they are showing the Holy Trinity Mad Men/The Sopranos/The Wire and the channel has bought us Hit& Miss, Game of thrones, Curb your Enthusiasm and recently has seen the return of Alan Partridge and Kathy Burke’s Walking and Talking. The latest show that Sky Atlantic has bought to us is the superlative Veep.

http://youtu.be/lUbg5fg9SdU

Written and directed by the extremely gifted Armando Ianucci along with Simon Blackwell Veep is a wonderful political satire with some of the best and wittiest dialogue on TV; you almost need to watch each episode twice so you don’t miss anything. Julia Louis-Dreyfus stars as Vice President of the United States Selina Meyer along with a tremendous cast, who are uniformly good, playing her entourage and other Capital Hill personnel. Veep is an outstanding show because it combines intelligence with ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ dialogue that is both funny and true. prescision timing and spot on characterisation compliment the word play perfectly. TV viewing does not come much better than this.

link to episodes 1 & 2

http://go.sky.com/vod/content/SKYENTERTAINMENT/Browse_by_Channel/Sky_Atlantic/content/default/promoPage.do

 

MY HIT LIST: BRYAN FERRY-LET'S STICK TOGETHER

http://youtu.be/Z9EbR0ckb40

What makes the song and in particular the video so stylish? The anti style of Ferry's backing band; a motley crew of what appear to be session men (including Chris Spedding) accompanied by Ferry in an Anthony Price suit and an Errol Flynn moustache. The appearance of the lithe Jerry Hall. The mouth organ solo that sounds like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang's horn. The empty theatre staging. All the elements somehow come together to create an ultra cool ultra stylish video to accompany Ferry's no nonsense song

MOVIE MEN

James Cagney & Humphrey Bogart

http://youtu.be/MgcQaCnOEj4

Yes there was a time when male movie stars were real men; unsanitised, average Joe's in the looks departments, carrying timber, grizzled or dashing, charming or curmudgeonly, but men, real men. There are some I would not imagine being stars today as they don't fit a view of perfection, but these guys were huge stars and they appeared in great, great movies. Often they came to the movies via some strange and obscure routes, but they had enough about them to make it in an actors world.

 Here's a sample

Spencer Tracy

Edward G Robinson

George Raft

William Holden

Gary Cooper

Gene Hackman

Yul Brynner

Lee Marvin

Sean Connery

Charles Laughton

Robert Shaw

Burt Lancaster

Antony Quinn

HITCHCOCK'S UNCLE CHARLIE

http://youtu.be/LEoTXa_52A0

...these useless women...

“Women keep busy in towns like this. In the cities it's different. The cities are full of women, middle-aged widows, husbands dead, husbands who've spent their lives making fortunes, working and working. Then they die and leave their money to their wives.Their silly wives. And what do the wives do,these useless women? You see them in the hotels, the best hotels, every day by the thousands, drinking the money, eating the money, losing the money at bridge, playing all day and all night, smelling of money. Proud of their jewelry but of nothing else. Horrible, faded, fat, greedy women.”-Uncle Charlie

“They're alive! They're human beings!”-Young Charlie

“Are they? Are they, Charlie? Are they human or are they fat wheezing animals, hmm? And what happens to animals when they get too fat and too old?”-Uncle Charlie

Shadow of a doubt is one of Alfred Hitchcock's under rated movies; of which there are many. In it Joseph Cotten is excellent and delivers one of the great bitter quotes at the family dinner table. Casablanca, Sweet Smell of success, Whose afraid of Virginia Wolfe all capture bitterness and are well know for it but Cotten's Uncle Charlie verbalises the exact nature of bitterness as we find out that he not only thinks these thoughts but acts upon them. A great moment in Hitchcock; every bit as chilling as knives, showers, birds and Barry Foster.

MY HIT LIST-THE FAT OF THE LAND: PRODIGY

http://youtu.be/6_PAHbqq-o4

Breathe

Having written off the nineties as a barren  musical wasteland because of my non involvement in class A drugs, pseudo Hippiedom and large cavernous ‘raves’ in the middle of nowhere (and Ibiza) I thought it best that I throw some praise in the direction of the Prodigy. Their Fat of the Land album is testament to a punk spirit wrapped up in a musical form that was repetitive and transient to my mind.

The album, released in 1997, is still a blistering work as it retains that vital ingredient; energy. Musically not to all tastes (always a good thing)and controversial, it is a cobweb clearing cacophony that has great merit to these ears.

 http://youtu.be/rxU9zm7t8Cg

firestarter

The tracks that have the most impact are Firestarter, Breathe and Smack my Bitch up. The album was an unprecedented success going into the US top 100 at number 1 and entering the Guinness book of records as the fastest selling UK album of all time.

Since their heyday the Prodigy main man Liam Howlitt has turned to production and most recently remixed Plan B’s Ill manors to devastating effect.

The Fat of the land is not a fad based product but a great British album.

http://youtu.be/r1wwcpyvvX8

Smack my bitch up

HITCHCOCK'S DIETRICH MOMENT

http://youtu.be/-RaBVjQZDNo

...I had a dog...

Stage Fright is a British Hitchcock thriller made in the midst of his Hollywood career and it features a great cast of British actors along with Jane Wyman and the great Marlene Dietrich who shows us all why she is a movie legend; not least in the scene where she discusses betrayal backstage with Sergeant Mellish.Hitchcock lights and frames her in such a way as to capture Dietrich the legend.

WORD WORTHY#8 BASKING

"It's hot on Tatooine"

STAR TREK FANTASTIC FOUR-SYNCRONICITY



http://youtu.be/OMzFL2sQy24

Star Trek: A piece of the action(1968)

Fantastic four #91,92,93 (1969)

1920's gangsters, alien captive gladiators, the Crew of the Enterprise and the Fantastic Four to the rescue. The two episodes of Star Trek broadcast the previous year clearly influenced the team of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby to create the 3 part story presented in issues 91,92 & 93. Sycronicity or imitation? Reed Richards as Kirk the gangster and The Thing as Kirk the gladiator.Two genres inter-connected, three sets of stories to enjoy.  

http://youtu.be/c6lXs6WEm7c

Star Trek: The Gamesters of Triskelion (1968)