Venue:
The Apollo, Manchester
Date: 02/02/2016
I know some of you have tickets and haven’t seen the show yet so look away now! *** SPOILER ALERT ***
This show celebrates 25 years of Vic & Bob’s TV career – and indeed it’s over 25 years since I last saw them live in 1990 at an all-standing gig at Manchester University which felt more like a rock gig than a comedy show. I was blown away by that show (as I was when I first saw the Big Night Out going out) – it was pure, silly, Dada nonsense and full of those breathless laughs that make you feel like you’ve been winded. So I had mixed feelings about tonight, and booked at the last minute. It was never going to be as amazing as that 1990 show was it?. Nevertheless, R&M’s TV work has been consistently funny over the years and while I was a bit disappointed they were going to be doing a bit of a nostalgia-fest – the shameless nostalgic twat in me couldn’t resist a chance to see Graham Lister and the Man with the Wobbly Hand again.
The stage show itself is pretty minimal, » Continue Reading.
I enjoyed the latest installment, Part 1 I felt played it a little safe but this one covered some less well-trodden ground. Some great footage of JAMC, Cocteau Twins, KLF in their studio, bits about C86, fanzines etc. What I’d sort of forgotten was how badly the major labels seemed to want to find the next Smiths – I remember a slew of bands like the Mighty Lemon Drops, The Bodines, Weather Prophets the majors signed and then didn’t have a clue what to do with. Lord knows what Warners thought they’d got in JAMC. Of course, then Pete Waterman comes along, as does dance music and completely pulls the rug from under the majors by making commercial, chart bound sounds without their backing. What I think you’ll see in Part 3 is the major labels and mainstream media like Loaded magazine and Radio 1 finally catching up figuring out how to market ‘Indie’, to the point where it becomes mainstream pop culture and you’re left with the soulless, vapid sound of Razorlight and a mountain of CD singles by major label indie landfill bands that Jo Whiley played once on the Evening Session.
I was very fond of Tony Wilson who turned his toes up 8 years ago this month. He inspired me in lots of ways – in particular the fact that he was, on the surface, quite an establishment figure, sharply dressed and on yer actual mainstream TV but was also very arty, very naughty and a bit subversive. Above all he was a fantastic communicator – able to relate to TV moguls, lofty intellectuals and senior politicians as easily as hugely ‘refreshed’ rock musicans and foamy mouthed rave monkeys. I rather like this new tribute in the form of a poem and video by Manchester poet Mike Garry. They shored up a good cast list too, although Crispy Ambulance and The Stockholm Monsters are somewhat under-represented.
Although it’s probably over 20 years since I’ve been a regular reader I couldn’t resist buying the final edition before it gets relaunched as a freesheet. I still have some affection for the thing and I wish them well with the revamp. However, one factoid on page 10 speaks volumes about the fact that the paper has probably been stuck in a bit of a rut since 1994, where it reveals who has graced the cover of NME the most in the past 63 years. Not Mozzer, not The Beatles, not even Bowie (who comes a close 2nd with 32 covers). It is in fact those wacky funsters from Burnage, the brothers Gallagher, who have ‘graced’ the cover a whopping 78 times. It suggets the NME never really shook off Britpop, and somewhere along the line lost the confidence in putting ‘New’ on the cover in favour of remaining well in the comfort zone. Perhaps without the pressure of having to sell the thing it can get back to what it used to do and stop being a paper version of Uncut/Mojo
