Oz TV Reviews
Australian television programme reviews
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Popularity: 21% [?]
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Royal Pains
Royal Pains is a US medical comedy drama series that currently airs on Channel 7 in Australia late on Sunday and Monday nights. It’s a pity it is tucked away in this spot as I find it very entertaining and it may be missing a much wider audience.
The background story to the series is that Dr Hank Lawson (Mark Feuerstein) made was an esteemed surgeon in New York who made a call that resulted in a young poor man’s life being saved and a old rich man, who happened to be a benefactor of the hospital, losing his life. As a result he was fired and given the old “you’ll never work in this town again” treatment. His brother Evan (Paulo Costanzo), a much more frivolous character, manages to drag him out of his depressive slump and take him for a weekend break to the Hamptons.
 Mark Feuerstein as Hank in Royal Pains |
 And Paulo Costanzo as Evan |
While in the Hamptons Hank revives a girl who collapses at a swanky party and as result he is set up by Boris, (Campbell Scott) an obscenely rich German, in his mansion as a “Concierge Doctor”, a Doctor that makes house calls on the rich and influential.
Hank’s brother Evan establishes himself as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Hank Med, as the new business is called, a position that seems to cover promotion, schemes, scams and spin doctoring as well as keeping the books.
Hank also meets up with Jill (Jill Flint), the ludicrously attractive administrator of the local hospital and she persuades him to take on a number of pro bono clients who are less rich and influential. So Hank does good work as well as making a buck for himself and his brother.
Rounding out the regular cast is Divya (Reshma Shetty), Hank‘s medical assistant (Nurse to most of us) an Indian girl who wrestles with her traditional background and the world she now lives in, where it seems important that she wears extremely short skirts.
 Jill Flint as Jill Casey in Royal Pains |
 And Reshma Shetty as Divya |
The stories on the whole are pretty good with a weekly medical crisis and some laughs along the way. Hank is often called upon to improvise, MacGyver style, in medical emergencies, but he always gets through.
There are also long running themes through the shows, such as Boris having some fatal genetic disorder that Hank helps him cope with and must be kept secret from everyone else.
In the current series Hank and Evan’s father shows up in the Hamptons which pleases Evan and annoys Hank as he sees him as a con-man who ran out on their mother when they were young. Their father is played by none other than The Fonz himself Henry Winkler.
Henry Winkler and his new sons in Royal Pains
You may well recognize Mark Feuerstein from a show that ran here and was repeated a fair bit too, Good Morning Miami. Paulo Costanzo will be recognized by most as Joey’s nephew from the Friends spin off series.
If you haven’t caught Royal Pains you should check it out. I think you will find it a painless hour’s entertainment. As well as Channel 7 I believe that the earlier series is also running on Foxtel. DVDs and downloadable episodes are also available by clicking on the deals below.
Popularity: 4% [?]
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Upstairs Downstairs 2010
The 2010 version of Upstairs Downstairs recently aired on Australian television. This is of course an update of the classic series from the 1970’s that ran for 5 years. The links to the original series are that the new episodes take place in the same house, 165 Eaton Place and the new owners Sir Hallam Holland (Ed Stoppard) and his wife, Lady Agnes (Keeley Hawes) call upon Rose Buck (Jean Marsh) a long-time former servant at the house, to recruit the new downstairs staff for them.
Jean Marsh as Rose Buck in Upstairs Downstairs
Jean Marsh played the role of Rose in almost all of the original episodes of Upstairs Downstairs and was herself one of the creators of the series, along with Dame Eileen Atkins, who appears as the matriarch Lady Maud Holland in the new series.
The new series takes place in the 1930’s, a troubled time in the UK with the depression and the rise of Fascism in Europe, which had it’s supporters in England. The old King, George V died and his successor Edward VIII abdicated leaving his reluctant brother George VI to inherit the throne. In the series George VI is a personal friend of Sir Hallam Holland and he is closely involved in all of the business of the royal succession.
The cast of Upstairs Downstairs for this millenium
The story lines are good and I liked the way they introduced real life characters into them. As well as George VI, Joachim von Ribbentrop Hitler’s ambassador in London and Oswald Moseley leader of the British Union of Fascists were also featured.
I enjoyed the new cast, especially Dame Eileen Atkins who played the bossy and scheming mother of Sir Hallam. Keeley Hawes and Claire Foy, who played her younger sister Lady Persie, are both very attractive, but neither of them could hold a candle to Lesley-Anne Down in her prime, who played Georgina in the original series. Of course Lady Persie was a Nazi sympathiser who left for Germany in the last episode, so that did go some way to making her less attractive.
Lesley-Anne Down as Georgina in the 1970's version of Upstairs Downstairs
I have read a lot of negative opinions of the new series on the IMDB boards. But I think it is really unfair to compare these 3 episodes to a series that ran for 5 years and has been seen many times in repeats ever since. Although I enjoyed the new series myself, in many ways I saw these episodes as scene setters, establishing the background and characters for what is to come.
The second series of Upstairs Downstairs is due to be aired in 2012 in the UK so we may not see it until 2013 in Australia, but I hope not. Sadly I have read that Dame Eileen Atkins has withdrawn from the next series, as she was not happy with the way that the story lines were going. That is unfortunate as Lady Maud was a great character, as were Mr. Amanjit, her secretary played by Art Malik and her monkey, who I can only assume will both have to go too.
If you did not see Upstairs Downstairs you can pick it up on DVD or download it by clicking on any of the links below.
Popularity: 4% [?]
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Skins Season 5
Skins Season 5 Episode 2 – Rich
This was a really good episode of Skins, it had a bit of everything, humour, a good story, half hearted romance and great acting from the kids. Where do they keep finding the talent for this series?
Skins Season 5, so far, seems to be a lot less about sex, drugs and alcohol than the previous four seasons.
In the first episode we met Franky, (Dakota Blue Richards) a slightly odd loner girl, who had just moved to Bristol and the college. We learned that she had had problems at her previous school and instantly bumped heads with Mini (Freya Mavor), who appears to be the queen bee of the college girls in this season. We also met Grace (Jessica Sula), Rich (Alexander Arnold) and Alo (Will Merrick).
Franky former loner and victim
Grace is a beautiful ballerina and a crony of Mini, but she took a liking to Franky and sided with her when Mini began to bully her. Rich and Alo appear to be stoners, who very much dress down and spend their time cruising around in a big old van.
Grace, Ballet Dancer and ally of the downtrodden
In episode 2 Alo is getting sick of Rich blowing his chances with girls by being obnoxious. Rich is a metal head and believes that anyone not into heavy metal music is just fake and not worth dealing with, so Alo decides to find him a metal head chick.
 Rich, Metalhead |
 Alo, his mate |
Alo succeeds remarkably quickly, locating an attractive metal chick working in the library at the college. He drags Rich along and forces him to talk to her. Rich becomes tongue tied in front of her, can’t say anything intelligent and ends up leaving with a book on incest. Alo decides that Rich needs some help in how to talk to women.
They approach Franky first, but she says she knows nothing about girls, as she’s an only child with no mother and two gay dads. But she puts them onto Grace who they find practicing ballet in a dance studio. Everyone comments that they can see through Grace’s leotard, well they actually put it much more bluntly than that, but I am trying to keep this at least PG rated.
Grace decides to help Rich, despite a brief run in with Mini who is still friends with Grace, but seems to hate Franky, Rich and Alo.
Rich remains obnoxious to Grace, even when she is trying to help him. He takes her to a heavy metal specialist music shop and blasts her with some brain damage music. But the shop owner is charmed by her and offers her something a little more approachable, which she likes. Everyone but Rich can see that Grace is becoming fond of him.
Mini, Queen Bee and cronies
Blindly ignoring Grace’s attention, Rich asks out the heavy metal chick from the library. She turns him down flat and then gives him a huge list of soul destroying reasons when he asks why.
Grace finds her inner metal chick and goes to a gig with Rich, although he is deaf by this stage from listening to the heaviest album ever recorded. Grace goes a little crazy, jumping up on stage to dance and crowd surfing.
Rich goes to his dad (who he calls Kevin, much to his displeasure) for advice about women. He tells him just to be brave and go ahead and ask her out. Rich tries and despite plenty of encouragement from Grace fails to do so.
It was a great little episode with uplifting moments and real teenage angst. Series 4 of Skins received some criticism for getting a little dark and dismal. I suspect this series will be brighter and who knows maybe we see this bunch of Skins through without any of them dying or being killed.
I don’t mind a bit of drama, but I like to see some positive outcomes too, maybe we’ll see more of that. I think this could possibly be the best series of Skins so far.
Skins season 5 airs on SBS on Mondays at 10:30. If you missed this episode you can watch Skins season 5 online free at the SBS web site
Popularity: 29% [?]
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The Return of Two and Half Men
Nice to Meet You, Walden Schmidt
The long awaited return of Two and a Half Men went to air last week, almost simultaneously in the USA and Australia. In the USA Charlie Sheen went up against his old show with The Comedy Central Roast of Charlie Sheen going to air at the same time. But Channel 9 in Australia did some smart buying and aired the show after the Two and a Half Men return on the same channel. Sticking with the title I gave them some time ago of Channel Charlie.
Much was revealed in the Return Of Two and a Half Men
Unless you have been living under a rock, you will have heard all about the famed series of events, or breakdown, that led to Charlie Sheen’s sacking from Two and a Half Men. He seemed to have got away with all the bad publicity of drug binges, hookers and porn stars, but when he started to insult the producers in the media they sacked him. John Cryer towed the party line last week when he received his star on Hollywood’s walk of fame, saying they did it to help save him.
To make sure there was no come back, they killed him off in the series, which, considering he was the show, I thought was a bit mean spirited. Now death in a comedy show is not easily handled, especially of the lead character. But the writers did really well. Charlie having accidentally fallen in front of a metro train in Paris after the crazy Rose caught him in the shower with another woman.
Charlie’s funeral featured all of his old girlfriends, some of them wanting to spit on his body, but Alan said the body was not in a spit-able condition. The show continued with several cameos including John Stamos and Dharma and Greg (Jenna Elfman and Thomas Gibson) as potential buyers for Charlie’s beach house. Sad to see Dharma and Greg’s marriage is on the rocks.
Ashton Kutcher’s entrance as Walden Schmidt was well timed. Appearing at the window of the beach house causing Alan to spill Charlie’s ashes all over the floor, they later picked him up with a Dust Buster.
Kutcher then spent a great deal of the show naked, much to the approval of the females in the cast and probably the audience. There was a good line about drinking to feel tall, good looking and smart, to which Kutcher replied “I am tall, good looking and smart”. Very much in line with his Kelso character from That 70’s Show, except the smart bit.
Ashton Kutcher revealed a great deal in the return of Two and a Half Men
There were lots of laughs and I think the show may continue to succeed and the writers will continue to surprise us with how they deal with Charlie’s departure and Walden taking his place. I assume we will find out this week how Alan and Jake continue to live in the house now that Walden is buying it, which should be interesting.
The Comedy Central Roast of Charlie Sheen was a hit and miss affair, as many comedy shows are. It was good to see that Charlie was looking fit and healthy and could laugh at all the gags at his expense. Interestingly so did Brooke Mueller, his most recent ex-wife, who was in the audience.
Charlie Sheen is back looking fit and in control
But a lot of the jokes were not funny and various targets were chosen for some nasty jibes. Patrice O’Neal a black comedian with diabetes and a weight problem caught a lot of racist and size-ist flack. Gay jibes were aimed Seth McFarlane (creator of the Family Guy) and the youthful Anthony Jeselnik and Amy Schumer were also a target for un-funny digs. Although in Jeselnik’s case he probably deserved it, as his segment averaged about a laugh an hour, but as he was only up for a few minutes there were no laughs.
Now I believe that anything can be a target for comedy, as long as it’s funny, but many of these guys do not know the difference between funny and just sensational and really should learn that before they are given a platform again.
Jeffrey Ross, who was unknown to me and most likely many people outside of the USA, was probably the pick of the comedy routines. He appeared dressed as Colonel Gadaffi, just why was never explained. But his material was really good, as was Patrice O’Neal’s. The rest were pretty mixed including Seth McFarlane who was the host and Mike Tyson who appeared to be drunk or high.
Jeffrey Ross one of the best of the Comedy Central Roasters of Charlie-Sheen
Jon Lovitz and surprisingly William Shatner and Kate Walsh had their moments, as did Amy Schumer. Australian viewers may have seen her before in one of the series of Last Comic Standing that was shown here, an attractive girl with some good material. But Anthony Jeselnik (who?) and Steve-O from the Jackass movies had nothing. Steve-O decided to round off the show by launching himself into Mike Tyson’s fist and breaking his nose. Apparently that is entertainment in his book.
Amy Schumer former Last Comic Standing and Charlie Sheen roaster
Charlie Sheen gave a good response to all of the roastings and as I said earlier, it was good to see him looking more healthy and controlled. Personally I hope he remains healthy and we see him back in another sit-com soon.
Popularity: 14% [?]
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Crownies
Crownies ABC1 Thursdays, ABC2 Fridays
The ABC‘s new drama series Crownies is causing quite a stir. It is a series about the Crown Prosecution Service and focuses mainly on five young ridiculously attractive solicitors.
Most of the stir on the ABC boards is due to the amount of focus on sex. All of the female leads have been seen in their underwear and one of the male leads shirtless. Two of them are involved in illicit affairs and one is shacked up with a drug sniffing, playboy, car dealer.
Each episode has several storylines. There are the cases that each of them are involved in, which are mostly murders and sex crimes. The personal (sex) lives of the solicitors and there is an ongoing story line about a major case, involving a leading government official, that was leaked to the press and consequentially could not be prosecuted. All five of the young solicitors are suspects in leaking the story.
The lead characters are:-
| The exotically named Tatum Novak, played by the even more exotically named Indiana Evans, a former star of Home and Away and children’s TV. Far too good looking and young to be a solicitor. Tatum is 24, but Indiana actually just turned 21, so really is too young to be a solicitor.
In Tatum’s opening scene she was seen wandering around the office in a skimpy 1930’s outfit reminiscent of what Liza Minelli wore in Cabaret. She was dressed for the 1930’s themed office Christmas party. She lives with the afore mentioned drug sniffing, playboy and her colleague Richard, who she and her boyfriend believe is gay. Her father is apparently a former high profile hard man criminal and she is spoilt to say the least. But that does not mean she is not good at her job and has a big heart, offering Richard a roof over his head when she found out he was homeless.
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 Indiana Evans plays Tatum Novak in Crownies |
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 Chantelle Jamieson and Todd Lasance |
Ben McMahon is the slick smooth and somewhat arrogant son of a senior legal figure. His grandfather was also a senior policeman who was killed in the third episode and became one of the CPS cases.
Ben is having an affair with an Associate to a senior judge with whom he had sex on his bosses desk after the Christmas party. This of course could lead to accusations of impropriety in any case in which they are both involved. Ben McMahon is played by Todd Lasance another Home and Away alumni. He has also appeared in Rescue Special Ops and Underbelly - Tell Them Lucifer Was Here.
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Lina Badir is a Muslim from a Palestinian family, but she is played by Andrea Demetriades, who I assume from her name is of Greek descent. But if you look exotic enough the cap fits I guess.
Andrea looks remarkably like Zoe Carides, who appeared in the series G.P. in the mid 90′s and I actually thought it was her when I first saw her in Crownies. But there are several years age difference between them. Lina is also carrying on an illicit affair, with a Policeman who seems to be involved in all of the cases that the CPS prosecutes, so this also could lead to accusations of impropriety. Lina‘s religion and Arab background also features in some of the story lines.
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 Marta Dusseldorp and Andrea Demetriades in Crownies |
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 Andrea Demetriades & Ella Scott Lynch play Lina and Erin |
Erin O’Shaughnessy has so far avoided any affairs on screen. Although she is being quietly pursued by an older, married Barrister, who has just joined the CPS. Erin seems to be a crusader for the downtrodden, the disabled and abused. She shares a house with Lina, but knows nothing of her illicit affair, despite the fact it is taking place right under her nose.
Erin is played by Ella Scott Lynch, yet another former Home and Away cast member. In fact she played lead character Hayley Lawson, replacing Bec Cartwright, when she married tennis player Lleyton Hewitt and left the series. Ella has also appeared in the movies Charlottes Web and Emulsion as well as TV shows The Falls, The Silence and City Homicide
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Richard Stirling, is the most quiet, studious and least self confident of the young solicitors. He gets tongue tied and flaps in court, but produces fantastic briefing notes. In fact Ben pays him to produce his for him.
Richard became homeless, as he could not evict a sitting tenant from the flat that he bought and slept in the office under his desk for several weeks. That was until Tatum spotted it and offered him a room at her luxury apartment. Tatum believes that Richard is gay, but he says he isn’t. The jury is still out on that. Richard is played by Hamish Michael who has a
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 Hamish Micheal palys Richard Stirling in Crownies |
If you get a chance, catch an episode of Crownies. So far it has had good scripts, storylines and acting and I have really enjoyed it.
Popularity: 49% [?]
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Al Murray the Pub Landlord
Comedian Al Murray plays the character of a British pub landlord, most famously in two TV series Time Gentlemen Please and Happy Hour. They were both shown on Australian TV some time ago, but were tucked away late at night and suffered the wrath of Australian TV scheduling, being moved around to different times, different days, shown some weeks and not others, you know the score.
This was a great pity, as both series were really funny and if you missed them I really recommend that you seek them out on DVD or You Tube. Al Murray has graced the Australian shores and I believe performed live at the Melbourne Comedy Festival.
Al Murray the Pub Landlord
The pub landlord is a right wing, very pro British, old school Xenophobe (Please explain!).
He has very fixed views on many subjects “Pint for the fella… Glass of white wine/fruit-based drink for the lady!” and vehemently expresses many of the “ism’s” racism, sexism, conservatism, bigotry, you know what I mean.
He has particular disdain for the French and Germans “if we had no rules where would we be? France! And if we had too many rules where would we be? Germany!”
In his live act Murray challenges the audience to name any country in the world and then gives them some plausible example of Britain bettering it.
This clip does feature some use of the F word. Please do not play it if you are likely to be offended.
The character is obviously a caricature, but is so close to many old school publicans in the UK, which is what makes it so funny. The amazing thing is that Al Murray‘s own background could not be more different to The Pub Landlord. His father was a Lieutenant Colonel in the British Army, his grandfather was a British diplomat, Sir Ralph Murray. He attended one of Britain’s most prominent public schools and is an Oxford graduate in modern history. That’s probably why he knows so much about British victories.
If you haven’t seen Al Murray live, catch him soon, there is a great opportunity here to pick up one of his DVD‘s, just click on the link below.
Al Murray live at the London Palladium
Get it now while it’s on sale four pounds or six dollars
Popularity: 14% [?]
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The Kennedys Sundays ABC1
The U.S. mini series The Kennedys finished on ABC1 this week. It aired over the last four weeks and included some great performances from all of the lead actors and some great insight on modern history for those of us that were too young to know and were not born in the USA.
The Kennedys mini series
Greg Kinnear played John F Kennedy with a suitable accent and hairpiece. Katie Holmes played his wife Jackie, she was stunning and you could believe that she could have been the fashion icon of her generation. Barry Pepper was great too as Jack‘s saint like Brother Bobby and Tom Wilkinson was suitably seedy as the ultra ambitious and scheming patriarch Joe Kennedy Senior.
Other family members were featured and Diana Hardcastle also deserves special mention as Rose Kennedy, the mother of the President and Attorney General. As does Kristin Booth, who played Robert Kennedy‘s wife Ethel, as a sort of grown up Bobby Soxer of that era. But I do not remember any mention of Ted Kennedy, the youngest brother and longtime U.S. Senator, who died in 2009. But I suppose you can only fit so much in, even in a show that ran for almost 6 hours.
Greg Kinnear and Katie Holmes as John and Jackie Kennedy
The show took us from before JFK was President, the planning and scheming of his father. First of all to get his older brother Joe Junior into the White House, after he himself had been disgraced as the U.S. Ambassador in London, before and during the second World War. But Joe Junior died in combat and the focus fell on John Kennedy, although he was shown not to be so keen himself for the office initially.
Once he was in office so many things happened in those 3 short years. I had of course heard of the Bay of Pigs invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis, we’ve all heard the Billy Joel song. But I never realised how close we came to a third World War and what John Kennedy did to avoid it.
Of course his indiscretions with actresses, including Marilyn Monroe, were covered and his father’s, who seems to have schooled him in philandering. But I was also unaware of the situation that the Kennedys got themselves into with the Mafia. Having sought their help in getting JFK elected and then Bobby going after them with the FBI once they were in office. This, coupled with the Civil Rights riots and disruptions in the South, make it highly unlikely that the assassination of the two brothers was by men acting alone.
The Kennedys on TV
The real Kennedys
Coincidentally there was a program on Channel 9 recently where Michael Parkinson interviewed David Frost. Now Frost has interviewed most of the major figures of our time and Parkinson asked him who was the most impressive. He of course mentioned Nelson Mandella, adding that even his jailers on Robben Island were in awe of him. But he said that Robert Kennedy was a man who really believed that one man could make a difference and it was probably a great loss to the world that he never became President.
If you did not catch The Kennedys on ABC, I highly recommend that you track it down. It is very long, but well worth watching.
If you would like to download The Kennedys series or
individual episodes from iTunes just click on the image below
Popularity: 21% [?]
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Body of Lies Sunday 12th June Go
Body of Lies aired on Go Channel in Australia on Sunday 12th June. I must have missed the promotion for this film when it was released and it must have been released here, as two of Australia‘s favourite sons in the acting game were featured, Russell Crowe and Vince Colisomo. But I must admit that I had not heard of it before.
Russell Crowe as Ed Hoffman and Leonardo DiCaprio as Roger ferris in Body of Lies
It was an excellent film with good performances from Russell Crowe as a hard headed CIA boss and Leornardo DiCaprio as the CIA man on the ground in the Middle East, who has almost gone native. But the man who really made the film for me was Mark Strong. He’s an Englishman of Italian descent, but played a very convincing Jordanian. I found myself smiling every time he came on camera, you just knew he was the man with all the answers.
Mark Strong as Hani and Leonardo DiCaprio
I’ve seen Mark Strong in caper films before and this seemed to be one too, as well as a spy film, a thriller, action movie and romance too.
The rough story line is that CIA agent Roger Ferris (Leonardo DiCaprio) uncovers a lead on a major terrorist leader, suspected to be operating out of Jordan. He teams up with Hani (Mark Strong) the head of Jordanian intelligence, whose only rule is “Do not lie to me”. But of course they all lie, because they are spies. To make matters worse Ferris‘s boss Ed Hoffman (Russell Crowe) is watching all that happens via satellite, back in the States and is pulling his own strings behind both their backs.
Hani sets up his own double agent in the terrorist’s camp and Hoffman wants access to him. Hani denies this and Hoffman tries anyway, which upsets both Hani and Ferris. Hani then boots Ferris out of Jordan, not believing that he was not involved. Ferris then sets up a sting operation to draw out the terrorist, but this backfires on him.
I don’t want to give the whole plot away, as this is a movie well worth seeing if you have not caught it. It gives some insight into how war goes on in the modern era and in the Middle East.
Vince Colisimo appears in several scenes as a CIA henchman, ironically named Skip, who is torn between Ferris and Hoffman. It makes you wonder what all the American actors are doing in Hollywood. Iranian actress, Golshifteh Farahani also puts in a good performance as a local nurse and DiCaprio’s love interest.
I must admit that I was not keen on Leonardo DiCaprio at the beginning of his career. I was probably prejudiced by his youthful looks and teenybopper fans, but he really can act and chooses good films. I have now got the point that I will check out anything that he is in. Ridley Scott directed Body of Lies, so there was no lack of action scenes and explosions.
The scenes from the Middle East in this film, coupled with a Louis Theroux documentary from South Africa aired this week, really made me feel lucky for living in a country like Australia. The scenes of lawlessness and squalor in both of them made me realise how much we have to appreciate here and other Western Countries too.
If you would like to download Body of Lies from iTunes just click on the image below
Download Body of Lies
Popularity: 14% [?]
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Later with Jools Holland 26th May
Cyndi Lauper, John Legend, Ray Davies…
I made the mistake of tuning in a little late for Later this week, damn the ABC for moving it to Thursday nights. I must set up my PVR to record it automatically, so I don’t miss any of the show again. I think I probably missed the first two, or three songs. But something very interesting was going on when I got there. Cyndi Lauper was singing a blues song with Jools Holland’s band. I’ve never particularly been a fan of Cyndi Lauper, I mean, boys wanna have fun too. But this was really good. The first tune I saw was called Shattered Dreams and was excellent. The second was Just Your Fool, it featured some great harmonica, which I believe is played by Charlie Musselwhite on the album Memphis Blues. I don’t think it was him playing on Later, if it was I didn’t hear Jools mention his name. Gilson Lavis the drummer from Jools’s band was particularly getting into the tunes.
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If you would like to download the album or individual tracks from iTunes just click on the album cover
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Based on these couple of tracks the album will be well worth checking out, it features other guest spots, apart from Mr Musselwhite, such as Allen Toussaint and Anne Peebles and includes the Muddy Waters standard Rolling and Tumbling and Robert Johnson’s Crossroads. |
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Ray Davies was up next, he has released an album of his old songs in a new format. He duets with a number of artists on new versions of his hits. He played Days mixed with a lesser known song This Time Tomorrow backed up by Mumford and Sons. He was later interviewed by Jools Holland and he talked about recording with Bruce Springsteen for the album See My Friends, which also features such luminaries as Jackson Browne, Metallica, John Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora
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If you would like to download the Ray Davies album or individual tracks from iTunes just click on the album cover
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Anthony from Anthony and the Johnsons did a song at the piano, solo, without his Johnsons. This guy always reminds me of Boy George after a bad night, having neglected his make up and thrown on whatever clothes were around. The song Thank You For Your Love was meant to be heartfelt, I guess, but just sounded repetitive to me.
Imelda May was up next with a song called Mayhem. A friend of mine in London put me onto her some time ago and I like her. The band has the Rockabilly look and feel and Mayhem is a really good song. I think it was one of her songs that I missed at the beginning of the show, damn and blast.
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If you would like to download the John Legend album Wake Up or individual tracks from iTunes just click on the album cover 
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John Legend was interviewed by Jools at the piano and came across as very articulate. He talked about Gospel music and sang a little of I Wish I Knew How It Felt To Be Free. Very nice stuff. British readers will recognise the tune from the long running movie review show Film whatever year it was at the time. |
For anyone that needs them we have included Dutch sub-titles
Next up the Ting Tings. If anyone in Australia thinks that they don’t know them, just think about the Hyundai ad that has bombarded us for some time and the tune behind it Shut Up and Let Me Go. They played a song called Day to Day which was much more mellow and featured some nice strings.
John Legend performed Love the Way it Should Be, a lovers rock reggae tune. Nice band, nice song, nice voice. What more can I say.
Next up was a band called Chapel Club performing a song called Eastern Girls. The singer looked a lot like Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory and has probably as much chance of becoming a rock star. The song was a bit dark and gloomy and not to my taste at all.
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If you would like to download the Imelda May album or individual tracks from iTunes just click on the album cover
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Thankfully Imelda May was back to close out the show with Tainted Love. The song made famous by Soft Cell, but was originally sung by Gloria Jones, the woman that drove the car into the tree that killed Marc Bolan of T. Rex. All that aside this version featured some very nice trumpet. |
Tune in early for next weeks Later, I know I will. I only make the same mistake twice.
Popularity: 17% [?]
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Later with Jools Holland 19th May
Duane Eddy, Cee Lo Green, Steve Miller Band
A great Episode of Later with Jools Holland was shown on Thursday night on ABC2. I am pretty sure these episodes are new to Australia, but were recorded in 2010 in the U.K. I’m sorry to see the show moved to this late spot (10:45) on a Thursday night, as I used to really enjoy my Friday night fix of this, my favourite, show. Not too worry though, it just means I’ll record it and watch it when I feel like it.
Cee Lo Green kicked off the show. Cee Lo is a short, stocky man, almost square in shape. He was dressed in a striking pink suit and has a soul voice to die for. Most people would have probably first come across Cee Lo as the voice on the Gnarls Barkley hit Crazy. He kicked off the show with his number one hit F*#% You, which he cleaned up for the show and sang Forget You. Great pop/soul tune.
Please be warned this version features the F word. Do not play if you are likely to be offended.
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If you would like to download Cee Lo’s album or individual tracks from iTunes, please click on the album cover
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I just discovered a strange version of this song, sung(?) by William Shatner (Capt. Kirk, himself), if you are ready for that level of weirdness you can check it out here:- Fook You Jean-Luc Picard |
| The Steve Miller Band was up next. They had just released their first studio album in 17 years. Bingo is a blues album and Steve Miller looked and played a little like the recently departed Gary Moore. His line up included a single male backing vocalist, which was an unusual look, but it worked musically. Their first track was called Hey Yeah and had some nice guitar and amusing lyrics. Their second song was called Don’t cha Know, not very imaginitive lyrics, but a good sound and feel. |
If you would like to download Bingo by the Steve Miller Band from iTunes just click on the image above
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Janelle Monae sang the song Tightrope, which I have reported here before as one of the best music segments I have ever seen on The Letterman Show. This performance was not quite as good as that one. Jools said that she had been ill and had throat problems. I never noticed any voice issues, but there was a little less energy than the earlier performance. That said, it was still an excellent rendition and the studio audience and other musicians were suitably impressed.
Janelle Monae
Next Jools interviewed the legendary guitarist Duane Eddy. He was accompanied by Jarvis Cocker and Richard Hawley from Blur, who are planning a project with him.
Duane Eddy was one of the early innovators of the electrc guitar, with instrumental hits in the late 50′s and early 60′s like “Rebel Rouser”, “Peter Gunn”, “Cannonball”, “Shazam” and “Forty Miles of Bad Road“. He was also immortalised in the Heinz song Just like Eddy. Duane played some of his signature riffs and some mention was made of his upcoming project.
Duane Eddy with Jarvis Cocker in the background
The Jim Jones Revue was not what I was expecting from the name and my initial look at them. They were pretty much a Rockabilly band with some of their stuff played at breakneck punk speed and attitude. I really liked them.
C.W. Stoneking is an Australian artist I had not come across before. He dressed like a 1920′s trad jazz man, played the banjo and his band featured a Tuba and a drummer wearing a Bass Drum on his chest, marching band style. He sang a little like Tom Waits and his style reminded me of Waits too.
Janelle Monae‘s second song was called Faster and again featured a lot of dancing and movement from both Janelle and her band. It would be interesting to see if they kept that up for a whole gig, it would be like running a marathon.
Cee Lo Green was interviewed by Jools at the Piano and he said his earliest influence was Jackie Wilson. They did a few lines of Lonely Teardrops and Cee Lo basically did a note perfect impersonation of Jackie Wilson.
Later would not be Later without a bit of World Music and next up was Cheikh Lo, who sang a nice slow tempo song in his native Senegalese (I assume, I did not recognise the language)
Cee Lo Green followed up with Old Fashioned which was an old fashioned, but very nice soul tune. It reminded me a little of Al Green, but was really all his own. Jools said afterwards “that man could sing anything” and he was right.
Jools then inerviewed Steve Miller, who said the reason he had not made an album for 17 years was because his greatest hits had sold well enough to keep him going. He talked about playing with Lightning Hopkins and T Bone Walker teaching him to play the guitar behind his head and do the splits when he was 9.
For C.W. Stoneking‘s second song Jungle Lullaby the tuba had been replaced by an upright bass and he played a Dobro. It reminded me even more of Tom Waits, but was also true to a blues song of the 20′s or 30′s and had some very nice horns.
Steve Miller closed out a great show with his 1970′s hit Abracadabra. How this show can be tucked away in the schedules I’ll never know, but as long as they keep airing it I’ll be happy.
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