Did anyone get the chance to see Sky Arts inaugural episode of its From the Basement series on Saturday night? With performances from The White Stripes, The Shins and Neil Hannon from The Divine Comedy, the season kicked off in style and sufficiently set the tone for the next five episodes. What was your reaction to Sky Arts promise of returning live music to primetime TV? Leave a comment below and let us know!
Next Saturday’s installment of From the Basement features Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, The Stroke’s Albert Hammond Jnr, and newcomers The Envelopes – it is looking set to be one of the more unmissable episodes in the series. To further fuel your insatiable desire for all that’s hot, live and aurally-incendiary, From the Basement have set up their own YouTube channel showcasing trailers and clips – including a rather popular and supremely excellent example of Thom Yorke performing In Rainbows (watch it below). For more information about all upcoming episodes, you can visit www.fromthebasement.tv or the Sky Arts website.
Finally, we leave you with some good news for our American readers… From the Basement will be hitting your shores on 22 February 2008, broadcast on the Rave HD channel. In the words of your nation: Awesome.
The 1st December is a significant date of the year for many reasons. Not least because it represents the day your Blue Peter advent calendar first decorates your room in all its coat-hanger glory. The beginning of the winter months also marks for many the last pre-Christmas shopping pay packet, the start of the wind-down at work before holidays, the perfect excuse to begin scoffing more chocolates (just to get into the spirit, mind), and the understanding in the collective subconscious that it’s no longer bloody freezing – it’s simply Christmas-y.
This year, the first day of the most tinselled month in the calendar also represents the start of Sky Arts Centre Stage series of live gigs. And to kick off the performances, Neil Hannon, The Shins, and The White Stripes, head down to the basement for an intimate concert that is being broadcast with the added dazzleance of HD picture and sound quality. Surely, this will be an experience that rivals being there in the flesh….almost. With ArtsWom’s help, and by following our five simple steps below, you can learn to turn your £500 leather armchair, £2,000 HD TV, £1,000 sound system and £300 Sky HD box into the equivalent of the experience you get for the price of an admission ticket…
1. Since July, gigs smell of only two things – beer and sweat. To ensure the accurately stifling odour sufficiently overpowers your viewing environment, simply reupholster your furniture with vests and shorts donated by runners of the London marathon and paint your walls with whitewash mixed from beer dregs.
2. Ask a burly friend to wear an orange jacket and stand innocuously in the corner of the room, pointing aggressively whenever you move from your chair.
3. Build a contraption that periodically pours a pint of snakebite down your neck. This works best if timed to coincide with the start of your favourite song. For the next fifteen minutes, squat under hairdryer in the toilet.
4. Employ a lanky, long-haired goth to block most of your view of the stage. Encourage him to use his spiky, leather DMs to crush your toes.
5. Mid-gig, whack the volume up to 11, give your best mate a ring on your mobile and then hold the handset to the speakers screaming, “this is the best gig ever!” down the line and then hang up.
If anyone has any further tips and tricks on how to bring live gigging home – leave a comment below…. Sky Arts Centre Stage begins on Saturday 1 December at 9pm with exclusive performances from The White Stripes, The Shins, and Divine Comedy’s Neil Hannon…don’t miss it.
And so the impending horror of Christmas television descends upon this miserable, grey island yet again. Already, advertisements abound, striving to forcefully inject the merry, smiling and objectionably glittery seasonal spirit into our chilled, grumpy and flu-ridden veins in the hope that we will spend more money. Having already gobbled the chocs from our advent calendars in the first week of December, what more do we have to look forward to other than the obligatory broadcast of Santa Claus: The Movie, Home Alone, The Snowman, Eastenders Christmas Special and the Queen’s Speech?
Fear not edgy culture-types! Sky Arts has pulled out all the stops to ensure that your December entertainment remains as kitsch-free as possible, with the introduction of Centre Stage.
Starting on the 1st December and continuing every Saturday at 9pm until March, Centre Stage is Sky Arts’ most ambitious and dedicated foray into offering live performances and is likely to develop in reaction to popular demand. Throughout December and leading into early January, contemporary artists including The White Stripes, Thom Yorke, Beck, Jarvis Cocker, Free Blood, Autolux, and Sonic Youth will be performing intimate gigs ‘from the Basement’. We haven’t been able to glean much information from the Sky Arts team as of yet, but we are chasing up for more details and you’ll be among the first to know. That’s our Christmas present to you.
In January, Centre Stage takes something of a dramatic twist by moving away from the intimate gigs to broadcasting influential concerts from such legendary performers as The Rolling Stones, Eric Claption, Elvis Costello, The Pixies, and Queen and Paul Rodgers. Not to be missed.
Fans still smarting from Wilco’s recent cancellation of the UK leg of their worldwide tour may not want to read this review of their electrifying Dublin gig…
Sky News Sportscaster, Chris Skudder, received the opportunity to watch Wilco live at Vicar Street last week and wrote a highly entertaining review of the concert for the Sky Arts website, a gig which ends with some enviable personal abuse from Jeff Tweedy himself captured on video.
There are few occupations in life that allow you to mock and insult those supporting your livelihood (with the possible exception of the most discriminating restaurateurs), but we seem to welcome such public derision from rock stars. If any of the ArtsWom crew were to bump into Chris Skudder while out shopping for the lace-trimmed top hats and gold-tipped canes that are a prerequisite for anybody writing for the web’s most unashamedly opulent arts blog – we can imagine a less than pleasant reaction to any cries of “Oi, Bacharach!”
Maybe Tweedy is just more charming than us. Sigh.
Have you been the willing victim of verbal abuse at the hands of a personal idol? If so, share your stories with us…
Miss Piggy and Ozzy Osbourne, Kylie Minogue and Nick Cave, Beavis and Butthead with Cher - all sound like recipes for ungodly cacophonies, and unsurprisingly the results were enough to make you wish you had ears like a rugby player. Whatever possessed the ‘mainstream’ artists (Ozzy, Kylie, Beavis, Butthead) to select such partners for these crimes against music is beyond us, but they did and the results are truly awful. For a discussion of more mainstream collaborations, the Albums You Should Hear forum has some suggestions of things to listen out for.
How about four musicians in four helicopters playing from the same score? Sounds about as promising as the duets above, but the product is unexpectedly stunning. The work of Karlheinz Stockhausen (apparently inspired by a dream in which musicians could fly), the piece for string quartet in helicopters aims to mimic the flight of birds. Composed using a different colour for each instrument and where musicians jump from stave to stave like birds on wires. Stockhausen also intended the quartet’s music to merge with the sonic signature of the helicopters. This Sky Arts film (showing today at 5.10pm and tomorrow at 2.25pm) follows the intricate and delicate preparations for the inaugural performance of this ambitious work, including the enlisting of the Dutch navy and the many complex rehearsals.
Ending with the performance of the piece, the film documents the fulfilment of the dream, and fittingly is shot from a fifth helicopter. Whoever said helicopters and strings wouldn’t work?
This image from the portfolio of ~XavierRed on DeviantART
Nina Simone was arguably the original diva (without the unreasonable demands and frankly ridiculous behaviour), a legendary jazz performer who arranged, played and sang her own songs and was considered one of the finest songwriters of her day (see this previous ArtsWom article about her live performance). A truly accomplished musician, her repertoire included such diverse styles as gospel, blues, pop and classical counterpoint. Living a long and successful life (documented well in the official site), she performed to the last, singing in Europe until shortly before her death in 2003.
Simone’s voice was her power, having the ability to switch from dark and raw to soft and sweet, and utilising every aspect of vocal range, shouting, whispering, moaning and occasionally using silence as a musical element. Her repertoire included songs with civil rights motifs, which covered topics such as the assassination of Martin Luther King and being young gifted and black in America. She surprised fans by releasing an album which was an introspective collection of songs featuring just her and a piano, and a series of versions of popular tunes from the likes of Leonard Cohen and the Bee Gees.
This huge range added to the spell-binding performance that had her audiences eating out of her hand. Her life is profiled in the Sky Arts documentary (airing today at 1pm and Saturday at 7pm) that takes an in-depth look at her music and her legend.
There are many sites dedicated to the discussion of her life and work, one of the best being the Nina Simone Community. Here fans discuss many aspects of Simone’s music and share personal stories of their experiences with each other.
Here’s some tissue-worthy news for all who entered the recent Wilco competition - the band has regretfully announced that they will be unable to meet their dates for the UK portion of their world-spanning tour due to a scheduling conflict. The band released this information last night on the Wilco World website, after we posted details of the Sky Arts contest. Thanks to The Line of Best Fit who blogged this information and to Mrs Leroy Brown of Last FM who tipped us off about the cancellation before any official announcement and received only disbelief for her trouble.
Anyone who has seen the brilliant ‘Walk The Line’ will know the significance that this singer’s performances had on the lives of his legion of fans. In his best shows, unrefined and untamed, he really let rip. Cash often provided a dynamic and improvised concert, infuriating the record label but delighting his fans. A good place to go to see how affected they were is The Official Johnny Cash Forum.
The Sky Arts documentary - Johnny Cash – Anthology - that airs today (6pm) and Saturday (12.30pm) takes a look at the eventful life of the country singer, and examines why he deserved the many plaudits and tributes that he received when he died in 2003. Contributions from fans, contemporaries and critics give this profile the authenticity lacking in other similar documentaries. Mixing interviews with performances, the programme takes an in-depth look at the life and tough times (Cash was definitely a student at the school of hard knocks) of the Man In Black.
Half singing, half growling traditional Country & Western lyrics, Cash sang from personal experience. Having spent time inside (three days) he could connect with his audiences during his prison concerts and San Quentin and Fulsom, and other life occurrences lent his songs credence that contemporary C & W singers could only emulate.
Modern country is surely only an imitation of the style and substance that Cash exuded. There is a large worldwide following for this type of music, (there’s a fan in every pub, club and company), and organisations can be found in the States, naturally, but also in far flung places (from the US) as Wales and Australia.
Having outgrown former band Uncle Tupelo, Jeff Tweedy put together Wilco, described variously as ‘The finest rock band in the world’ (Independent On Sunday) and ‘One of the best live bands in existence’ (Q). Five years ago Wilco produced their fourth album ‘Yankee Hotel Foxtrot’, but it was deemed too experimental by their record label, who refused to release it. Tweedy found an independent company, and the album went on to be wildly successful. Their next record, ‘A Ghost Is Born’, won two Grammy awards, so in the band vs. record label game, a rare victory for the band.
Now on tour in the UK, Sky Arts has tickets to give away for each of the gigs in four locations. Visit Sky Arts for details of how to enter.
Thu 18 Oct 2007 4:15PM - 4:50PM
Sun 28 Oct 2007 11:40PM - 12:15AM
Sky Arts brings you Led Zeppelin in the raw, an enlightening insight into one of the earliest recorded performances of the musical marvels that were about to go stellar. A rare and delightful performance from one of the greatest rock bands of all time. Recorded when they were on the brink of stardom, this black-and-white studio performance was produced in the last year the band performed on television. The intimate setting, with students seated in a semi-circle around the soon-to-be legends, is a far cry from the one-million-over-subscribed reunion concert that the band are playing later this year.
If you want to share your early memories of Led Zeppelin, you can do so here.
October in the UK is Black History Month and ArtsWom wanted to do something to raise awareness of this fact. Rather than simply write article after article of our own views and opinions, we thought it would be far more interesting to ask bloggers who appear to have an interest in black history or culture what they think. Over the month, we will be posting the replies to our questions. First up, Mark from Urban Review…
1. Can you please explain who you are and summarise your perspective of the aims and purpose of BHM?
My name is Mark Shipton, I am from the UK & run a music based site called Urbanreview.co.uk, I have always had a love for music & I was always telling my friends about different tracks without much reaction, so one day I thought I would find some people who might enjoy my opinionated personality. To my great surprise, people were interested & my site continues to grow, with music fans from around the world.
While I am hardly the best person to comment on Black History, my life has certainly been hugely influenced by Black Culture, since a very young age I have enjoyed modern black music, even before I could recognize it as being “Black”. I love urban music. I would estimate that 80 - 90% of my music collection was performed, produced or written by someone of the black community.
My personal view on the purposes of BHM are that this year it is almost 100% focused on gun & knife crime in the UK, I think this is unfair, as not all violent crime is committed by black people, just as not all crime is committed by the young. I think this may have a negative effect in associating Knives & Guns with the black community but it obviously is a good aim, as educating about the causes & consequences of crime can only be positive.
I think that BHM should be to remember Black icons of the past, Martin L-K being the most obvious, but also icons of modern life, such as the music industry greats; Jay-Z & Kanye West spring to mind as two of the most globally recognizable Black celebrities of modern time, both of which are positive role models in my eyes.
2. For 30 years, October has marked the celebration of black history and culture in the United Kingdom. Why is it important that we carry on this tradition?
BHM should always continue as it can be used as a tool to communicate & inform the Black community of not only the past, but issues that face them today, such as this years theme of Gun & Knife culture.
I also think that it should remember the origins of the modern day Black man & woman, the slave trade, origins on Africa & the integration into modern western society. I think that the UK still has a long way to go to fully accept Black people into every aspect of life, racism is still an issue that faces Black people today, it should be used as a tool to unite people of all back grounds. I also think that as the Black population of Britain grows, there is also an element of racism towards white people form black people, I think that this may form from anger or as a way f revenge, but this issue also needs to be addressed & not ignored.
3. Which black personality has had the greatest influence on your life and why?
The Black personality that has most influenced my life has been Hip-Hop producer “Timbaland”, I belive that he is a musical genius, he is the greatest producer that the music scene has ever known & has influence my love of music 100%. As a child, I was listening to Timbaland’s production without even knowing it was him, only as I grew older & more interested in Tim did I realise the tracks he produced & was like; “I loved that song when I was little”.
My dream one day would be to be a part of the music industry & be as big a Tim, I would love to meet him & just watch him work, he has literally molded my life & I follow his work at every step.
4. Throughout the month there are numerous events running across the country, encapsulating various facets of black history and culture – what would your dream event be? No matter how impossible!
My ‘Dream Event’ to celebrate black history month would be to form a ‘Super Group’ of all the best black music artists from the UK, i.e. Beverley Knight, Lemar, Taio Cruiz, Knao etc to produce an album of covers. Covering songs from previous black artists, i.e. Whitney Houston, Stevie Wonder etc. I think this would be great to hear their spin on the tracks & would summon national coverage to raise awareness of the issues & aims of BHM.
I think that the entire project could be presented in a concert that would be televised by MTV for example, this would culminate the efforts well & simple produce something that was entertaining.
5. Name one website that you would recommend to someone with an interest in black culture or black history (other than your own, of course!).
I have chosen the BBCs 1Xtra website, I think that this is a good place to start if you wanted to catch up with modern black music & culture.
6. The influence of black music on the modern industry is obvious. What three key artists have been instrumental in orchestrating this state of affairs?
The 3 artist that I think have had a major effect on the modern music scene are as follows:
Jay Z - The founder of modern Hip-Hop, before Jay-Z, Hip-Hop was more of an underground scene, he brought it to the masses.
Stevie Wonder - I think Stevie is one of the greatest singers of all time, he just simply makes music you want to listen to, most of his hits were created before I was born, & yet I still love to listen to them. He is the most one of the most respected faces of Black music in the US & UK.
Timbaland - I am very Biased towards this man, but I have chosen him anyway. Although not quite a house hold name, he is always 100 steps ahead of modern music, producers are just making beats now, that he was making in the late 90s. You might not know it, but I can almost guarantee, Tim has produced one of your favorite tracks of the last 10 years. Genius!
For further resources for Black History Month, please read here
These funky, cute little representations of pop stars past and present are well worth a look. Originally created by Craig Robinson as an advertising gimmick for the Observer Music Monthly’s Abba to Zappa feature, the cheeky diminutive depictions have taken off in popularity, causing the artist to generate a whole rockopoly of stars.
The website where the lollipops live now has inhabitants ranging from The Beatles to The Zutons, and the name of the game is to guess the group or individual, then roll the mouse over to discover their identity. Much fun can be had, and there is usually a clue in the drawing to help you along.
If you like the look of these pop idols reduced to faceless icons, have your say here.
This month, award-winning jazz pianist, Chick Corea will be performing in various venues across China as part of the landmass-spanning tour that will later see the much-admired musician coming to Europe.
Chick Corea was a key artist in the creation of the electric fusion movement in the 60s and has since grown to become one of the most influential jazz pianists alive today. Throughout his career, he has been nominated for over 40 Grammy awards and has won 12 and this tour represents his first stage appearance in China. It also might interest some of you to know that he is a scientologist.
For fans of ‘The Chick’ (as the artist is not popularly known), Sky Arts are giving you a chance to see him perform in A Very Special Concert tonight at 11pm. This one-off concert saw Chick joined by other legendary musicians such as Stanley Clarke and Lenny White performing some popular classics. Find out more about Chick Corea: A Very Special Concert or discuss the artist’s work by following this link.
To read some reviews of Chick Corea’s tour of China, click on these links:
Who needs a mighty line-up with the world’s best pop divas and rock and roll stars donating their precious time to prance for twenty minutes in front of 60,000 gullible fans, most of whom can’t see the acts anyway? Who needs artists who are choppered in and spend all their time backstage quaffing enough booze to justify the waiving of their fee. Who needs this when you can go to an Oxfam shop and (literally) rub shoulders with Jarvis Cocker as he DJs?
Jarvis kicked off the Oxjam campaign in the Dalston branch of the charity shop playing discs from his own collection, all of which were purchased from branches in his native Sheffield. The idea behind this crusade is to encourage anybody to put on their own gig anywhere they want (think front room, garden shed or even school), charge friends and family to be a part of the audience and send the proceeds to Oxfam.
The event, attended by two hundred super-excited fans, was designed to blow the myth of the charity concert as a massive over-hyped necessity out of the water, and by all accounts it worked wonders. The shop was transformed into an indoor music festival, with chill-out areas, a DJ booth and moody lighting. There is more detail on the Oxjam blog where you can have your say too.
In six days, one of the most innovative and exciting bands in the business releases its potentially industry-changing album, In Rainbows.
For their seventh album, Oxfordshire-bred quintet, Radiohead, has opted to venture off-label and make In Rainbows available via their website – for a voluntary donation. Or, at least, that is the claim. Word on the ‘net has it that there will be a 45p transaction charge to purchase the album and, if you are one of the old-fashioned sort who fancies something tangible to put with your collection, you will have to shell out a whopping forty big ones for the double-vinyl, double-CD special boxed-set that comes out in December.
Of course, ArtsWom aren’t complaining about a 45p album and (us being honest sorts) we would probably donate a reasonable sum - mainly as an act of support for the bold enterprise. Unsurprisingly, some major record label executives are growing concerned, with one stating that this symbolises the final ‘death knell’ for the big players in the industry. After all, who would continue paying faceless corporations for music when the bands themselves are giving it away?
Despite the inevitable success that this album will be, the executives may be over-reacting. Radiohead are sure to more than cover expenses (we wonder how many “I bought it once for £5, but it was so good I bought it again for £20!” style posts will crop up over the coming weeks) and the number of downloads will be huge, but is this a sustainable model that can be replicated once the novelty factor has worn off?
ArtsWom don’t think so. As we said earlier, we would probably donate a reasonable sum for In Rainbows, but if pay-what-you-like music becomes more commonplace it may seem easier and easier to forgo the irritation of bothering to pay. Besides, few bands could attract this amount of free publicity, so the labels will continue to have a role. Interestingly, Courtyard Management who represents the band, are looking to reach an agreement with record labels to make a conventional release next year. This may be a tough pill for the major players to swallow, but it might give them hope. Now all we need is for them to take the hint and invest more in their consumers than their Cristal champagne.
For thirty years the achievements of the black community have been celebrated in the UK by dedicating the month of October to highlight the impact black history and culture has had on our society. This year, the month is even more important as 2007 marks the bicentenary of the abolition of slavery.
For your resource on everything BHM-related, we recommend you visit www.blackhistorymonthuk.co.uk which is your one-stop shop for news on all activities and events taking place across the country. For our part, we will attempt to keep up to date with the online chatter from the people who have attended these events and try to point you in the direction of all manner of stimulating articles, artists and assorted miscellany.
We will also be devoting some time to focus on the programmes Sky Arts are airing to mark the occasion, which are being led by two UK TV premieres: The Gospel According to Al Green which shows the soul singer in conversation and performance and Black Wax: Gil Scott-Heron which is a profile of the poet, jazzman and black activist. The blog From Da Bricks was able to preview this documentary and arranged an interview with the director – follow this link to read the article.
If you can detect a faint whiff of garlic in the air, it’s because the French Film Festival UK has invaded our shores with the typically-French intention of mocking our dainty, English sensibilities and seducing our spouses. That’s just the price we p
Miss Piggy and Ozzy Osbourne, Kylie Minogue and Nick Cave, Beavis and Butthead with Cher - all sound like recipes for ungodly cacophonies, and unsurprisingly the results were enough to make you wish you had ears like a rugby player. Whatever possessed the ‘mainstream’ artists (Ozzy, Kylie, Beavis, Butthead) to select such partners for these crimes against music is beyond us, but they did and the results are truly awful. For a discussion of more mainstream collaborations, the 
Sounds about as promising as the duets above, but the product is unexpectedly stunning. The work of Karlheinz Stockhausen (apparently inspired by a dream in which musicians could fly), the piece for string quartet in helicopters aims to mimic the flight of birds. Composed using a different colour for each instrument and where musicians jump from stave to stave like birds on wires. Stockhausen also intended the quartet’s music to merge with the sonic signature of the helicopters. This 
This image from the portfolio of ~XavierRed on 
These funky, cute little representations of pop stars past and present are 
