Tuesday, 29 January 2008
Zep at the O2 - a belated tribute
A very pixellated photo of Led Zeppelin taken on my mobile at the O2 on 10/12/07.
I've been meaning to scribble down a few musings about Led Zeppelin at the O2 and a recent tribute to the venue in the free rag, The London Paper, has jolted me into action. I picked up the paper yesterday on the tube and read guest contributor, Louise Claridge's article "Why the O2 arena rocks my world". I enjoyed her celebration of a great venue in East London so much I felt compelled to add my experience of returning from December 10th's Led Zeppelin reunion concert. Hopefully you will find her article here: http://www.thelondonpaper.com/cs/Satellite/london/talk/article/1157150430729?packedargs=suffix%3DArticleController
Oh how sad, it says I wrote my contribution at 1:18 this morning but I know for a fact that I hit my pillow at 12:30!
Guest_Eclectic Trains says: Great article. I saw Led Zeppelin before Xmas and got home in a jiffy. Couldn't contain the smug smile on my face as the majority of fans headed West whilst I was a mere 4 stops from Upton Park (home). Bring on the rise of the mighty East London! It's been a long time... Tuesday 29 January 2008 01:18 Mark as offensive (what's that about?)
I wasn't a Led Zeppelin fan the first time round. "Stairway to Heaven" was enough to put me off. In 1976, aged 12, I had just graduated to Pink Floyd and Punk came along. The albums "Dark Side of the Moon" and "Animals" had to be hidden as The Clash, Pistols etc... went to the front of my LP box. Punk was pithy, angry, urban and cool and rock was what local biker gangs listened too. They were tough but they weren't cool. But like a lot of people whose music tastes were shaped in the 1970s you signed up to the revolution but also, over time, began to appreciate the evolution. What I mean is the raw energy to be fun in "Pretty Vacant" by The Sex Pistols could also be found in "Rock and Roll" by Led Zeppelin. In fact the first drummer we had in our teenage punk band, was a orange-dyed haired, proto-Rotten look-a-like called "John the Punk" who used to entertain us with the opening drum break from "Rock and Roll" just to get an ironic laugh out of us. Once we managed to shut him up, Downstream, our band, went on to pen little Oxfordshire punk classics called "Punk Rock Superstar (what a hypocrite you are)", "Harlequin Man", "Apocalyptics" and "(Living in these) Financial Times". Oh those were the days...
Anyway my simple point is that Led Zeppelin have attracted wave after wave of new fans since their real demise in the late 1970s because they have a distinct and awesome sound. I think a housemate in Nottingham lent me the tape of "Houses of the Holy" in 1986. I didn't listen to it straight away, but a few years later I found it again, played it and started to get hooked (thanks Grant - I've still got your tape!). I'm no mystic. The mystic lyrics of "Kashmir" make me smile but they don't transport me. The relentless power of the music blew me away on the night and their performance of that song will stay with me for a long time. I enjoy the groove, from hard rock to funky riffs to spacey experimentation. Very rarely do lyrics catch my imagination. But on the night of the gig, whilst I was waiting to meet my brother, who had luckily, and legitimately, been sold 2 guest list tickets, I was moved to text him with some trivial and banal Led Zep (LZ) lyrics that were blasting through my iPod headphones as I emerged with fellow LZ fans up the North Greenwich escalators to the O2 Mecca. Here is my text:
------ SMS ------
To: +44**********
Sent: 10 Dec 2007 18:58
Subject: "Night Flight" by LZ
"Night Flight" by LZ
"I received a message from my brother
'Cross the water,
He sat laughing as he wrote 'The End's in sight'.
So I said goodbye to all my friends
And packed my hopes inside a matchbox
Cos I know it's time to fly...
Ohhh yeah come on meet me in the morning,
Meet me in the middle of the night..."
Nuff said. I'm here!
------------------
Pop Music is about capturing a musical moment. When it works special songs can coincide with moments in your life. I think I probably reverted to an over-excited teenager just for one night and Led Zeppelin at the O2 are to blame for that.
Saturday, 8 December 2007
Ricky Gervais World Takeover
Digression completed. She was enjoying the fluffy, celeb-packed commentary programme after the show where everybody and anybody is stuck in front of a camera to say why they are H addicts. And guess who is a H addict? Ricky Gervais [RG] and from the moment his cheeky, podgy, elf-like visage appeared on the TV screen, my partner in crime began to huff and puff with quite understandable statements like: "Is there any programme that Ricky bloody Gervais doesn't appear on?" (That was the toned version).
Now, I have a lot of sympathy with this view. RG does get around a bit it has to be said. Loved "The Office" and chuckled along with "Extras". The "Flaminals" books are for kids but I think they are a bit weak. He has done a few average cameos and I loved the Podcasts/Vodcasts with Stephen Merchant and Karl Pilkington (before you had to pay for them). I don't think he is the world's most natural stand-up - he is certainly not in the Peter Kay league - but I giggled away to the "Politics" DVD (I haven't seen him live yet). So on the balance of things I would say I am a fan. Is he over-exposed? Yes. Does he fawn rather too much in front of his idols? Yes, but it is part of his comic silliness. I have only seen one episode of his documentary series about living comedians (yes, you guessed it where RG gets to interview them) and that was with Gary Shandling (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LljWm8umGIE). They are far more engaging than Dawn French's interviews but let's not go there. Was he embarrassing at the Diana Tribute concert? Yes. Did he have to do "the dance"? I think he most probably did and in a strange way sealed the complete absurdity of the occasion...
...Where am I going with this? I don't know. I'm heading off the RG backlash before it has actually happened. I suppose I feel a certain kinship with him. He is my age(ish), he loves comedy, his is not afraid to be silly (I've tried to kick the habit but I can't) and is enjoying life. But he is famous, rich, annoying and didn't make it until he was well into his 30s.
Sweet as.
Friday, 7 December 2007
Need to get out more
...Okay, you've guessed it, I signed up to both and one good friend, who laughed at me when I mentioned blogging and "facing", has also signed up to FB! She said it was for research purposes. Funny that because I used the same excuse. Someone I knew was developing applications for FB (and making some money, don't ask me how) and I wanted to see what he was creating but to do that I had to join. There's the rub. Once you have joined you are at least partially committed. Who wants to be a mere question mark? Load up your photo, have a poke and away you go.
Incredibly distracting? Yes. Contributing to the expansion of human knowledge through seamless digital communication? The jury's out.
What I find strangely reassuring is that the only people who have asked me to be friends (and vice versa) are people I know in the real world. So what is the point? Fun, I suppose.
Bring it on...
Monday, 22 October 2007
Introducing the Giant Argos Cookie Jar Web Viral...
I am fascintated by the power of the internet as a way of communicating. I love the way that information shoots across global networks. Serious news, for sure, but the really silly stuff too. YouTube has been a constant source of entertainment over the last year and a half. Can you remember your first faddy, YT moment? I can. It was that video clip that did the rounds called "Evolution of Dance" of the chap dancing to a 'Stars on 45' type mix of classic pop from yesteryear. It is still hilarious in a weird kind of ploddy, geeky way and I heard the other day it is the most watched video on YT - 61,780,947 views and rising.
It was great to be asked by Meteorite, a direct marketing company, to produce a web viral for their client Argos. It came online on Friday (19th October 2007). Meteorite (http://www.meteorite.co.uk/) had this idea to create a giant cookie jar which would be filled by 5 storeman with tons of Argos stuff. The public are invited to guess how many items are in the jar and also get a chance to see the film of how we filled it. Intrigued? This is what the Xube team (http://www.xube.co.uk/) came up with:
1. The YouTube version - http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Rpybk5tL5QM
2. The Argos version - http://www.giantjar.co.uk/
Click on "Behind the scenes" button on the top menu bar and then click on "The Making of".
3. Another version - http://visit4info.com/details.cfm?adid=51293
This is a site for the advertising industry where you can see the viral as a "Full Screen Version".
Making the film was great fun. It was all filmed in one day. My colleague and I, director Jeremy Henderson, knew we had to fill the jar by 5pm at the very latest. This was a tight deadline with so many items. I thought we were going to get through the whole day without any breakages and then I went snapped a fishing rod into my arm whilst trying to reposition it behind the giant plasma screen. Could have been nasty but it was only a scratch as they say in the movies.
Go on enter the competition! A prize of £10,000 worth of Argos goods - who can say fairer than that. I certainly won't give away how many items there are in the jar (but there are more than 10).
Creative London - E2 is where it's at
http://www.uel.ac.uk/risingeast/currentissue/journalism/woolfenden.htm