Classic TV Review: Tales of the Unexpected

A recent lucky find in a second-hand bookstore led to this review for I happened upon a rather dog-eared paperback copy of an anthology of Roald Dahl’s short stories with this same name.

It immediately brought to mind the wonderfully evocative opening titles and theme music which I simply had to pull up on YouTube as soon as I arrived home. And as I’ve explained in one or two other pages on this website, it was another fine example of a theme tune instantly transporting me back a few decades to a time when I’d be heading up to bed just as this atmospheric piece of music (written by Ron Grainer, whose other TV credits include Doctor Who and The Prisoner) filled the living room with the promise of must-see entertainment for my parents.

The stories in the book are a selection from two earlier collections Someone Like You and Kiss Kiss published in 1953 and 1960 respectively and as with all Roald Dahl writing, they are a delight to read.

A writer of short stories myself, I know the joy to be gained from managing to craft a tale that culminates in a gob-smacking twist that the reader didn’t (hopefully) see coming and Dahl was truly a master. On top of this, his narratives are often erudite, frequently dark but always, always entertaining.

The television series ran from 1979 – 1988 during which there were 112 episodes and while I’ve only seen a small number of these, I get the impression from my research that – like so many TV shows – the earlier episodes are the ones to see. The first two seasons were, for the most part, adapted from Dahl’s stories and the author even appears at the beginning of these shows to introduce what you are about to see and to offer a brief explanation as to what inspired him to write it.

And there really are some delights to be had here. Of course, it’s impossible to explain in any detail what the stories are about without giving away or at the very least hinting at the final “twist” but I will say this; for a half hour TV show, you could watch a lot worse. And there is great variety in his situations too which add to the overall interest. Two of my favourite episodes from the first season are Neck – a story about an art lover and his disrespecting, adulterous wife and The Landlady – about a young man from London who arrives at a bed and breakfast in Bath run by a taxidermist.

The series attracted some high profile actors along the way too and the guest stars included a veritable who’s who of Pinewood as well as Hollywood – Joseph Cotton, Derek Jacobi, Joan Collins, John Mills, Janet Leigh, Rod Taylor, John Gielgud and Denholm Elliott to name just a handful. While the episodes may have been produced on modest budgets (something that certainly by today’s standard is quite obvious) there’s no doubting that the talent was there in the acting and writing departments.

So, if you are unfamiliar with this TV show – go on, give it a look. There are worse ways of spending half an hour. And I almost guarantee you’ll be humming the theme tune for the rest of the day.

 

Dog Society Spreads Its Welcome Shade

Bruce (guitar & back-up vocals), Rich (bass & back-up vocals), Brian (lead vocals) and Joe (drums) make up Dog Society, a long-standing band from New York City. After their debut album, Test Your Own Eyes from 1993, it was a long time until the next one, with Emerge coming out in 2013. And just like buses, along comes another one in hot pursuit, with the third full-length album, In The Shade, scheduled for release on July 22nd, 2014.

They come from NYC but sound more like a West Coast band on this 12-track release. With jangly guitars and pleasing harmonies that strongly echo The Beatles and other 1960s sounds, that magical decade is never very far away.

Behind the cover art of a lonely-looking tree against a blue-rinsed, storm-promising sky, joy and melancholy reside together on In The Shade. As for their band name, it refers to the traditional dance of the Hidatsa Plains Indian tribe. You knew that, didn’t you.

Of the 12 tracks, the following stand out for me. First one up is Heal Me Friend. Short and sweet, it’s a catchy tune, as if grunge had gone back in time to the 1960s with Rickenbackers and cute fringes. Emerge and The Laughing Song (my favourite) both build layers of soothing psychedelic rock. In the Shade,the title track, takes us for a walk,starting with a Latin percussive beat, leading us to a path strewn with Stone Roses and ending with the psychedelic scent of incense wafting on an Indian breeze. Losing Her Again blasts us with Sgt Pepper-era, Beatle-like harmonising and heavy drum beat.

Showing off their rock guitar feedback, Dear Brother shows that the band can be heavier when it feels like it. The Killer You Can’t See drips languid guitar, taking us somewhere where Richard Hawley’s grandeur has been transplanted from the streets of Sheffield to distant golden sands. Our Own Parade has great harmonies and percussion, but is also a departure. Its wonderfully soaring trumpet solo doesn’t really belong, but I’m glad it’s there, and the 6-piece brass band adds a madcap free for all, elevating the track to something unique.

In The Shade is music to blow bubbles to, to walk in the park to or to seek the shade of a lonely tree and listen to it whisper between the songs.

 http://dogsociety.tv/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The King of Synth-Pop Has a New Release

Feeling stressed? Put your feet up and have a listen to Non Sequitur (released 29th May, 2014), 44 minutes and 13 seconds of one continuous piece of music.

Described as “progressive instrumental synth-pop”, it’s the work of Italian composer, Andrea Remondini. This is his debut full-length CD and is self-produced.

Taking the listener through different and sometimes recurring melodies and variations of melodies, sounds capture various moods using a variety of synth effects and tempos. It’s like a stream of consciousness but, of course, must have been very carefully constructed.

Given Non Sequitur’s retro feel, it’s not surprising that Andrea Remondini is an admirer of early Mike Oldfield and Jean-Michel Jarre, without copying them.

Non Sequitur’s cover art manages to be both playful and a bit sinister; you don’t know what to expect. Sometimes dramatic, sometimes quiet and delicate, the music ranges from a single synth piano to two or three instruments or more, with background vocals on occasion. It’s a tour through the orchestra and a fun challenge to try to pick out different instruments. I thought I heard keyboards, percussion, woodwind, xylophone, tubular bells, crashing cymbals, electric guitar and kettle drums.

Remondini is a master of atmosphere and knows how to present melodramatic, melancholic and upbeat tunes. Melody is the priority here, and it never gets overly complicated. For me, it’s gentle Sunday morning music to mentally limber up to. As for public performance, I think it would work better as a film score or as contemporary dance music rather than a concert piece.

From his early foray into electronic music when a young boy in the mid-1980s, Remondini progressed to enjoy a long successful career as a musician, songwriter and sound engineer. Working in the world of dance music, he has collaborated with DJs from Italy and elsewhere in Europe, gaining chart entries in various European countries. However, he wanted to produce his own sounds outside of dance music, so he established his own recording studio and Non Sequitur was born.

Other musical projects and collaborations in Remondini’s back catalogue include Greece 2000 by 3 Drives on a Vinyl, I Feel Love by CRW, Komodo by DJ Picotto and Home Again by Jimmy Somerville.

If you like an ever-changing soundscape that you can mostly chill to, with some drama here and there, you will enjoy Non Sequitur.

https://andrearemondini.bandcamp.com/track/non-sequitur-extract

 

 

Joel Has Gotta Lot of Soul

For late night music when you’re feeling mellow and the moon is up, Joel Havea is the fella you need. His five-track EP, titled Strings & Wood (released 24th May, 2014), is an acoustic set which perfectly demonstrates the singer-songwriter’s expressive vocal delivery, soulful voice and guitarist skills. Joel is an Australian, hailing from Melbourne, but lives in Hamburg, Germany. From his family background and his travelling, he has absorbed many cultures over the years.  After playing with his younger brother in the aptly named duo, The Havea Brothers, it was time for a solo career to blossom. His debut album, You Make Me Believe from 2012 was well received, and he has embarked on extensive touring throughout several countries.

Strings & Wood is designed to capture the style of Joel’s live acoustic shows. Acoustic soul is a refreshing take in the never-ending swirl of genres, and Joel’s long experience as a performer bears fruit on this casino online smooth and tight production. Contributions from other musicians on the EP put a cherry on top, whilst still allowing Joel to shine.

Going Gone is the first track, a radio-friendly song on acoustic guitar, perfect for the car system. Despite the very catchy upbeat tune, the song is about him getting away from a toxic relationship and getting on with his life. Simple Things has a slower tempo, with acoustic guitar and melancholic cello.  Going Through The Motions has a funky, R&B feel with guitar and fat keyboards. My Wings is a slow tempo song with beautifully melancholic cello again, but hopeful lyrics, plus acoustic guitar and swelling keyboards. Fading Away is another funky acoustic track, with some nice punchy double bass.

The plan is for Joel to promote the new EP on the road, including dates in America in the autumn of 2014. As well as possessing a quality voice and being an accomplished guitarist, Joel is a good-looking guy with lots of stage presence – his fan base is sure to keep on growing.

https://soundcloud.com/joelhavea/sets/strings-and-wood-ep

 

 

 

 

 

Film Review: The Longest Day (and a D-Day Remembrance)

It’s fitting that I bring this movie up now because as I’m sure anyone who’s watched the news or read a newspaper this last week will realise, today is the 70th anniversary of this most indelible event.

6 June 1944. D-Day. The commencement of the Normandy landings and the subsequent Allied invasion of Normandy. It remains the largest seaborne invasion in history and it led to the restoration of the French Republic and the defeat of Nazi Germany.

With even the youngest of veterans from the Normandy campaign now being in their late 80s, it’s perhaps little wonder that the number of those making the pilgrimage across the channel this year for the 70th anniversary has prompted the Normandy Veterans Association to declare this their final official commemoration of the event. It plans to disband in November owing to dwindling numbers and the increased difficulty of its remaining members to travel. The association, which was set up in the 1980s, had 16,000 members by the 1990s however, five years ago that number had fallen to around 4,500 and now the number is closer to 600. And while this is sad but ultimately inevitable, I don’t imagine it will be the end of our commemorating this epic undertaking. And epic it was.

While The Longest Day may be a flawed movie, it does a fair job of depicting the scale of the operation. It was, after all, a multi-national effort on behalf of the Allies and required careful coordination between all three branches of the armed forces, as well as the French resistance networks. There are many threads running through the near three hour run time showing us as much detail of the operation as time allows. We see numerous individual companies and battalions tasked with their own objectives, the success of each one vital to the next. We see the efforts of the Resistance putting explosives to good use and we also get a perspective from the German side which shows us that some incompetence on their part undoubtably contributed to the final outcome. The truth is (and this is where there are literally hundreds of fascinating individual stories), if it weren’t for a whole host of other factors such as sabotage by the Resistance, misinformation (planned by an organisation called the London Controlling Section) and bad decision making by the Nazis the outcome could have been very different.

Indeed to properly appreciate the complexities of the battle of Normandy would mean to remember everything (and everyone involved) that happened from the moment a cross channel invasion had been given the go ahead at the Trident Conference in Washington in May 1943 to the Liberation of Paris on 25 August 1944.

But this film is limited to the 6th June. D-Day. The Longest Day.

One of the film’s tag-lines reads – 42 International Stars!

And it’s not difficult to name them as they appear on screen – Henry Fonda, Robert Ryan, John Wayne, Richard Burton, Sean Connery…etc, etc. The list really does go on. And on.

But for me, the stars (and let’s not forget some of them actually fought in WWII) are less important than the story itself. Having said that, if you want to watch a serious account of D-Day, you’ll really have to watch a documentary of which I’m sure there are plenty. You could even go one step further and plan a visit, take in a museum or two and put yourself on the same ground that saw that terrible action all those years ago. Trust me, it meddles with your emotions.

Okay, so this is part film review and part a salute to what was undoubtably one of the most important operations of the entire Second World War. But a film review it is, so…

With the help of four other writers, The Longest Day was adapted for the screen by Cornelius Ryan from his own book of the same name which had been an instant hit upon release in 1959. Ryan was an Irish journalist and author of several books on World War II whose interest in the D-Day invasion began during a trip to Normandy in 1949. He also wrote A Bridge Too Far in 1974 which was given the movie treatment in ’77.

The Longest Day had no less than five directors, each responsible for a particular section. Ken Annakin directed the British and French exteriors, Andrew Marton, the American exteriors, Gerd Oswald, the parachute drop and Bernard Wicki, the German scenes. Producer Darryl F. Zanuck was an uncredited fifth director.

Because it was made only 18 years after the actual events portrayed, many of those who participated were still alive and therefore the producers employed several generals and high-ranking officers from both sides as military consultants. Curiously, one of them was Lucie Rommel, widow of Erwin Rommel. It won Oscars for Black and White Cinematography and Special Effects and was nominated thrice more.

The film divides opinion. Some like it, some loathe it. There are others movies (and an excellent HBO TV series) that depict D-Day and they may be more explicit and graphic in their action but they aren’t as concentrated on that fateful day and therefore don’t quite capture the immensity of the event.

That these 80 and 90 year old heroes continue to return to the northern shores of France, to the scenes that shaped the rest of their lives and likely still haunt their dreams is nothing short of inspiring. Many of them are accompanied by their families and friends, younger people who will hopefully keep the spirit of the campaign alive for generations to come.

Yesterday a TV reporter asked one of the veterans why he feels the need to keep coming back and as the old soldier’s voice cracked and his eyes pooled, he replied that he comes back to pay his respects to the friends that fell beside him and all those others who didn’t make it home.

God bless them all.

 

 

 

Juliette Jules and the Call of the Black Crow

What were you doing when you were a young teenager? I was skulking in my bedroom writing angry poetry. Singer/songwriter Juliette Jules, however, has been crafting beautiful songs, and this debut EP titled Black Crow (released 23rd May, 2014) is the result. It consists of five tracks, four of which are co-written by Juliette along with Peter Karroll, who also acted as producer.  The fifth is a cover of the famous Hallelujah. Juliette plays guitar, piano and synths, with contributions from two guest musicians. This music is variously described as ‘acoustic’ or ‘folk underground’.

Juliette gave this EP away to lucky listeners as a gift on her 16th birthday. Most 16-year-olds throw a party and pass out after sneaking alcohol into the punch so that gesture was pretty classy. But then this young Parisian shows her class in many ways.

Her inspiration comes from diverse sources, both from the musical and the literary world. You can tell she has absorbed the poetry and drama of all she has read and heard, including punk music, the songs of Leonard Cohen and Patti Smith and the writing of Voltaire, Hemingway and Kafka. Lyrics tend to look toward the sadder portions of the soul. But the mature-sounding voice and ability to phrase so expressively lifts the listener’s mood rather than the opposite. Juliette doesn’t just sing – she delivers a performance.

Johnny Was is the first offering. Its gentle melody and sad, imaginative story about the emotionally disturbed, titular Johnny is the highlight of the EP for me. Juliette delivers a beautifully soulful vocal on the title track, Black Crow, with plaintive piano and strings and poetic, sad lyrics. The Game is a more straightforward and familiar tale of losing a boy to a rival. This song’s promotional video shows various familiar Paris landmarks. To The casino online Mountains ends the EP, finishing on a note of optimism, albeit with doubts.

As for performing Hallelujah, written by Leonard Cohen and covered by such luminaries as Tim Buckley, it is almost mandatory for a young singer-songwriter to cover it. In fact, there is such a long history of covers behind this song that it’s become a sort of rite of passage. Perhaps self-conscious about all the other versions, Juliette has tried to make it very different and to put her stamp on it. Just for my personal taste, I find the style too quirky and prefer a straight arrow rendition such as Buckley’s.

Juliette’s discovery as an artist is the stuff of dreams! She was performing in a park in Paris when manager and producer, Peter Karroll happened to be there. He was duly impressed and thus began their creative collaboration. Hollywood couldn’t make it up! Karroll’s production is spot on, enhancing but not getting in the way. It will be interesting to see how this precocious talent develops. Meanwhile, Black Crow is good company.

https://soundcloud.com/juliettejules/sets/black-crow-ep