VT’s Music Chat

[bickster]

Hey @veloman did you ever come across this band? (around ‘73 I think)

[veloman]

No Can't say that I do. Where were they from, do you know.?     '73 , I was in a residency in Stoke on Trent so a bit out of "the 'scene". Looks like a Gibson SG on the right; if so that would be worth a bit now.

[bickster]

2 hours ago, veloman said:

No Can't say that I do. Where were they from, do you know.?     '73 , I was in a residency in Stoke on Trent so a bit out of "the 'scene". Looks like a Gibson SG on the right; if so that would be worth a bit now.

Definitely Brum based, cabaret band. On the right is Kevin Rowland of Dexys Midnight Runners, on the left is (I presume his older brother Peter? I think) and some bloke on drums

[veloman]

11 hours ago, bickster said:

 and some bloke on drums

What !!! You mean the most important musician !!!!!

[bickster]

1 hour ago, veloman said:

What !!! You mean the most important musician !!!!!

I mean the person that hangs around with musicians  

[maqroll]

Random factoid: Mid 80s global smash hit "We Built This City" by Starship, often ranked the worst song of all time, was co written by Elton John lyricist Bernie Taupin and J. Geils Band lead singer Peter Wolf, former husband of actress Faye Dunaway.

Until recently I also despised this song. The lyrics are inane, but musically the song is kind of interesting. The production value is typical of mid to late 80s pop music. All bright and brash with a big drum sound, so in that regard, still somewhat repulsive to me. But the melodic structure is unusual and it works. So I have a grudging respect for it.

"You Might Think" by the Cars falls under this category for me too.

[bickster]

19 minutes ago, maqroll said:

often ranked the worst song of all time

Did they rule out Love Me Do on a technicality?

[bickster]

Ed Sheeran won his court case

[KentVillan]

As much as I hate his music, glad the decision went this way:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-65480293

Quote

Ed Sheeran did not copy Marvin Gaye's Let's Get It On when composing Thinking Out Loud, a US court has ruled.

The British singer-songwriter had denied stealing elements of the song for his 2014 worldwide hit.

Heirs of Gaye's co-writer argued that Sheeran, Warner Music Group and Sony Music Publishing owed them money for copyright infringement.

Sheeran reportedly told the trial in New York that if he was found guilty he would give up his music career.

"If that happens, I'm done, I'm stopping," he said when asked about the toll the trial at Manhattan federal court was taking on him.

Sheeran's lawyer, Ilene Farkas, told the jurors that similarities in the chord progressions and rhythms of the two songs were "the letters of the alphabet of music."

"These are basic musical building blocks that songwriters now and forever must be free to use, or all of us who love music will be poorer for it," she said.

It's a shame he did actually give them a huge incentive to rule in the other direction by ending his career.

But there needs to be a review of this stuff, because the Blurred Lines case was an enormous miscarriage of justice which was bad for music in general. The line about "the letters of the alphabet of music" is a very good one from the lawyer.

[blandy]

On 03/05/2023 at 09:35, bickster said:

I mean the person that hangs around with musicians  

"Any requests?"

"yeah, play one the drummer knows!"

 

[blandy]

22 hours ago, maqroll said:

Random factoid: Mid 80s global smash hit "We Built This City" by Starship, often ranked the worst song of all time,

It inspired* this

* it didn't, apart from the p*sstake.

[chrisp65]

On 01/05/2023 at 19:08, Seat68 said:

There is a documentary on Fanny next Friday on BBC4. Fanny are a band that I never hear spoken about outside of the four virtual walls of VT but I know it will be of interest to one or two of us. 

 

[Rugeley Villa]

Early Starship is pretty decent stuff. Not as good as they were under the Airplane name but decent . 

[Seat68]

Fair to average Fanny doc watched. Now on to females in rock at the BBC. The titles teased Tina Weymouth. 

[blandy]

10 hours ago, Seat68 said:

Fair to average Fanny doc watched. Now on to females in rock at the BBC. The titles teased Tina Weymouth. 

Average. Gave up after about half an hour.

[chrisp65]

10 hours ago, Seat68 said:

Fair to average Fanny doc watched. Now on to females in rock at the BBC. The titles teased Tina Weymouth. 

It was ‘annoying’ from my point of view.

Now, I’ve got my brother in my ear coaching me through it like some director’s cut additional rolling information so it kinda made sense to me. But they had an hour and a half to explain the whole bloody point of it, and they didn’t.

Did you get irritated, like me, that at 25 minutes in they hadn’t actually played a track by the band? Even that quiet underneath the talking heads music which I presumed was 20 seconds clips to avoid royalties to some shit head manager that had done them over, that music wasn’t Fanny. It was library clips of generic rock.

Turns out Warner still own all the rights and have decided it is not for release, not even by the band members themselves, in a documentary about the band. What’s more Warner want $750,000 to even begin a negotiation. 

So the only music you got to hear was brief clips of live recordings that weren’t directly Warner owned. Or the ‘new’ stuff. The band were buried. Which was sort of supposed to be the point, but they didn’t quite say it, for fear of legal action meaning even the documentary got buried by lawyers.

Did you notice the talking heads didn’t have names, unless you already knew and recognised that person, they were just anonymous talking heads. Earlier versions of the film includes names and references as per normal. They were removed on last night’s screening.

The irony then, was that immediately after the documentary, the next programme showed 5 full minutes of a whole song. That footage, on the BBC, was owned by the BBC.

The whole bloody film could have done with another voice over, over the top, explaining in real time what the **** the were hinting at and why there was no music in a band documentary.

[chrisp65]

One more thing!

About 10 years ago, they actually got close to a re release of their back catalogue. 5,000 copies of a CD box set were produced. Then, with the actual product made and sat in a warehouse waiting to go out on trucks, Warner had a change of heart and had them destroyed.

[bickster]

5 minutes ago, blandy said:

Average. Gave up after about half an hour.

You can get little blue pills for that  

[Seat68]

52 minutes ago, chrisp65 said:

It was ‘annoying’ from my point of view.

Now, I’ve got my brother in my ear coaching me through it like some director’s cut additional rolling information so it kinda made sense to me. But they had an hour and a half to explain the whole bloody point of it, and they didn’t.

Did you get irritated, like me, that at 25 minutes in they hadn’t actually played a track by the band? Even that quiet underneath the talking heads music which I presumed was 20 seconds clips to avoid royalties to some shit head manager that had done them over, that music wasn’t Fanny. It was library clips of generic rock.

Turns out Warner still own all the rights and have decided it is not for release, not even by the band members themselves, in a documentary about the band. What’s more Warner want $750,000 to even begin a negotiation. 

So the only music you got to hear was brief clips of live recordings that weren’t directly Warner owned. Or the ‘new’ stuff. The band were buried. Which was sort of supposed to be the point, but they didn’t quite say it, for fear of legal action meaning even the documentary got buried by lawyers.

Did you notice the talking heads didn’t have names, unless you already knew and recognised that person, they were just anonymous talking heads. Earlier versions of the film includes names and references as per normal. They were removed on last night’s screening.

The irony then, was that immediately after the documentary, the next programme showed 5 full minutes of a whole song. That footage, on the BBC, was owned by the BBC.

The whole bloody film could have done with another voice over, over the top, explaining in real time what the **** the were hinting at and why there was no music in a band documentary.

All of this, immediately the talking heads thing came up here. We worked out most of them in all honesty but it was amateurish. Also them playing live, the audio wasn’t the audio. It wasn’t great. 
On the whole it was a wasted opportunity. 

[mjmooney]

Didn't watch the Fanny doc. After reading the above, I won't bother now.