Baby Poota

I am the proud custodian of a new addition to the family - Baby Poota.

Baby was acquired today with minimum fuss but the stirrings of much love. He's a Vaio, deep blue on the outside and silver inside. He's not broadbanded up and all that yet (I'll do that at the weekend when I've got time) but he's lovely.

He's shiny.

The Temptations

I have a need in me to express my love for The Temptations, the grooviest group that Motown ever had.

I had a bit of a Motown weekend, here in Plastic Mansions, or more precisely, a Motown lads weekend, with the Four Tops, the Contours, Marvin, Smokey, Junior Walker and a host of others including, of course, The Temptations. After listening to a load of tracks I had to top it off with a viewing of The Temps' 'Get Ready' DVD, a collection of their TV performances of their greatest hits. It features the classic line-up with David Ruffin and then the metamorphosis into pyschedelic soul and radical sounds when Dennis Edwards was brought on board. And they all sang lead at different times, either whole songs or those tracks when they swapped the vocal around the whole group with each of them taking different lines. One of my favourite Temps songs is 'Just My Imagination' which was one of Eddie Kendricks' final songs with them.

Presentation was married to their vocal powers, looking good and having dance routines to liven up their stage presence and make it a more complete experience. The coolest group around and just look at those moves, with Ruffin dropping to his knees in 'Ain't Too Proud To Beg' while the others moved around him. A lot of this was down to Paul Williams who also took lead vocals with his rich voice. And Melvin with his cheeky bass and Otis, the 'glue' in the centre. Every group has a history, disagreements and fights but I'm not interested in that - The Temps were close to perfect and that's all that matters.

So, all you hippity-hoppity wrapper type lads with your jeans falling down and hands never far from your crotch, take a look at The Temptations to see the real meaning of cool and wallow in those glorious voices.

Chickaboom, y'all!

Wotchadoin' Thursday?

Well? Just what are your plans for Thursday? Yes, Thursday this week. Thursday 16 January at 8.30pm to be precise. Ok, I'll tell you what you're doing - you're switching on BBC Four because ...

SLADE IN FLAME is on telly for the first time in an age of ages (if indeed it's ever been on telly before?). You know you need to watch it.

It's part of BBC Four's Pop Season and is followed by 'Pop on Trial' featuring "tracks from glam icon Marc Bolan, funkmeisters Parliament, punk pioneers The Sex Pistols and disco diva Donna Summer, and a 1971 performance of David Bowie singing Queen Bitch". That'll be worth seeing for Bowie alone - I've never seen him sing 'Queen Bitch'!

So, SLADE IN FLAME, one of the great rock films of all time with one of the best soundtracks which is also one of my top five SLADE albums, with the glorious 'How Does It Feel?' as the theme song. Featuring Tom Conti, Alan Lake, Johnny Shannon (reprising his trademark 'nasty' from 'Performance'), a young Tommy Vance and even a short clip of the mightly Emperor Rosco in his hippy finest. What a line-up, and directed by Richard Loncraine with his first film. And topped off with those great thesbians, SLADE, who was robbed at the Oscars. You know it.

I remember going to see it at the big Odeon in the centre of Newcastle when it was first shown in 1975 and sneaking in my cassette recorder to tape the songs to keep me going until the album came out.

If you've seen it then you'll know the joy to come. If you've never seen it before then it's not what you might expect. Get some popcorn and coke or a beer, switch on and relax into it, feet tapping to those great songs and admire the fashion statements.

The Sleep Monkey & his Mallet of Slumber

Have you met the Sleep Monkey? I haven't been formally introduced but occasionally see him flitting about the room out of the corner of my eye and I've certainly noticed his power.

You know when the alarm goes off on these cold, damp, dreary mornings and you turn over and think 'I'll just have five more minutes...'? And then *bonk* an hour somehow speeds by. That's the effect of being bashed over the head by the Sleep Monkey's Mallet of Slumber. How the Monkey manages to swing around the room without dropping his mallet is beyond me since it must be quite heavy, but it's a mighty powerful tool.

He doesn't just do it in the morning either. He could well swing up behind you while relaxing on the couch and then *bonk* an hour or so whizzes by.

*Bonk* zzzzzzzzzz....

Sweeney Todd at the NFT

This evening I was treated to a preview of 'Sweeney Todd' at the National Film Theatre (a nice way to end a long week). I saw the musical performed in the West End a few years ago, the production involving pouring buckets of blood all over the place that transferred to Broadway (I wasn't blown away by it and recall the tiniest seats with no leg room in the theatre). Anyway, with Tim Burton directing and Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham-Carter as the leads, it has to be worth a viewing.

It opens as it means to go on, very dark and brooding, oppressive atmosphere and Johnny and Helena incredibly and painfully pallid (I suspect the sun was banned from London back in those days). Both had interesting east end-type speaking and singing accents and, within a few words of his first song I couldn't help but wonder if David Bowie ('Laughing Gnome' period) had dubbed Johnny's vocals. He pulled it off though and so did Helena (I was quite impressed with Helena).

Johnny was almost painful to watch some of the time, all haunted eyes and obsession - I'd definitely cross the road to avoid him if I saw his Sweeney in the street. Helena was excellent and helped to lighten the tone every now and then with a quip or a look. Of course, she was all hair and lips and big frock. Alan Rickman was suitably pervy, Ali G was oddly built in the trouser department and Timothy Spall was nicely creepy (I liked his cane-work, must have done lots of practicing and had sore hands for a while).

Apart from the seeming physical relief when the almost-monochrome transformed into much-needed colour every now and then, the only problem was that the sound mix sometimes didn't work for me (unless my hearing's going dodgy) - in a couple of songs the music was too far to the front, partially obscuring the vocals. Overall it was a good marriage of sound and visuals even though I looked away at a couple of the throat-slashings and ouch-inducing body dumpings ...

I enjoyed it and Chris and Angela (both Sondheim fans) agreed that the right songs had been cut to make it work as a film. So thumbs up all round.

As a surprise treat, Tim Burton went up on stage after the film for a short interview and then some Q&A. It was interesting to hear him talk about the film but the Q&A from the audience was a bit predictable as these things often are. So that made for an interesting Friday evening!

X-RAY SPEX Live at The Roundhouse!

Can it be true? How over has my cup runneth? It's gone splurge over the sides, into the saucer and dribbled onto the floor even as I type with excited fingers.

POLY STYRENE RETURNS!

X-Ray Spex will play The Roundhouse on 6 September 2008. I'm speechless, one of my impossible dreams is coming true, just like seeing the Pistols last November. It's the 30th anniversary of 'Germfree Adolescents' this year so that might be the reason. My blog is, of course, named after her magnificent song, 'Plastic Bag', on that album.

There are no details of which of the original Spex will be there, but I'm hopeful Lora Logic will grace us with her sax.

I'm ever so excited and instantly bought tickets. Might there be a live album and DVD and lots of merch and reissues and all sorts in the pipeline? I'd better start saving my pennies just in case. O gosh... Poly and the Spex on stage! I am *so* looking forward to this gig!

The Roundhouse website announces:

THE RETURN OF X-RAY SPEX

Poly Styrene and co prepare to rock London’s Roundhouse on September 6th 2008.Who could forget Poly Styrene’s rallying cry of ‘Oh Bondage, Up Yours’? Well, get ready to yell along once more as punk icons X-ray Spex are back to celebrate over 30 years of punk rock in style.

Poly and the band will be giving a plethora of X-ray classics an airing, including ‘Germ Free Adolescents’ from their hit 1978 album of the same name, ‘I Am A Cliché’, ‘I Am A Poseur’ and of course, ‘Oh Bondage, Up Yours’.

And with the Camden Roundhouse being a venue, which has not hosted an X-ray Spex gig since the height of the punk rock era, In 1978. The venue witnessed some of the most iconic bands of what was to become a worldwide movement (it’s the place where Patti Smith sang to an audience consisting of, amongst others, The Clash, the Slits before they were the Slits and many other burgeoning punk luminaries,) it is the perfect venue to stage an X-ray Spex celebration of 30 years of Germfree Adolescents.

Over time Poly Styrene and X-ray Spex featured a number of musicians in a co operative, some playing on live shows, others on record, but the legacy remains and has influenced many bands right across the globe ever since. A truly iconic British band.

X-ray Spex were one of the first bands, labeled as punk to get signed to a major label – Virgin – and despite not being considered a radio-friendly band at the time, rapidly built up a massive worldwide following, from their blistering live performances and sessions on John Peel’s legendary Radio 1 show in the late ‘70s. They also landed a residency at the iconic punk dive CBGBs in New York – making a deep impression on New York’s New Wavers such as Blondie and (a rather smitten) Richard Hell, later onto kurt Cobain. Independent and determined to be taken seriously alongside her male counterparts, Poly Styrene once stated she would “shave her head” if anyone tried to make her a sex symbol. And she did. So there.

Being a female of mixed race at a time of much political and social unrest, X-ray Spex took part in the unification of British youth in the rock against racism events of the mid 70's turbulent London.

After X-ray Spex disbanded in 1979, Poly joined the Hare Krishna movement, being very active in food for life, both with fund raising and physically feeding London's homeless. And musically, worked on solo material, culminating in 1980 album ‘Translucence’ and the EP ‘Gods and Goddesses’ in 1986.

Fast forward to today, and the band which brought us that raucous, high octane sound are firmly ensconced in our hearts as punk legends with Poly at the helm, fighting sexism and consumerism with her famous lyrics and feisty persona. ‘I made a commentary of society how I saw it, and I thought it was getting really plastic. Most songs for women then were very romantic and I wanted to write about other things. So I wrote about genetic engineering.” Inventive, original, fiercely bright and fun, X-ray Spex are back to shake us up and show us how it’s done.

Punk Cabaret Ragamuffins

Those delightful punk cabaret ragamuffins, The Dresden Dolls, are on tour in Americaland and that means new pics and dribbles of news.

Fairytale Vegas has posted some great photos of the Dolls' New Years Eve gig in New York on her Flickr site (so go and look at them now) and, in a review of the Chicago gig on his blog, Zeroskilz reports Amanda referring to a new Dolls 'B sides' album due later in the year. Now that's news worth having.

May the gods of cabaret forgive me, but I've shamelessly nicked this pic from Fairytale Vegas because I *like* it.

La Cage Aux Folles - Chocolate Factory

Spent a very enjoyable afternoon at the Menier Chocolate Factory theatre seeing the excellent new production of 'La Cage Aux Folles'. I like the Choccy Factory (even if they do hide the chocolate) as a venue, small and intimate, but why oh why won't they start numbering the seats and having proper seats? Agony on the back after a while and everyone's squeezed together most uncomfortably. Whinge over and on to the show...

'La Cage' is a high camp farce that got off to an excellent start with the energetic dancers in sparkly frocks and too much make-up having a right old time with the opening number before moving upstairs to the tired romance of Georges and Albin who've been together for 20 years and no-one is getting any younger. We then learn that Georges' son is getting married and off we go with the roller coaster of songs and intrigue, of Albin feeling too old and fat to keep Georges even though Georges obviously still loves him... it's the story of two love affairs and two generations, of Georges and Albin and of Jean-Michel and Anne.

The sexual orientation doesn't really matter and is only overtly mentioned in the heat of argument or as insults. In the first half when Georges and Jean-Michel are arguing about whether Albin can be present at a planned dinner the ultimate attack Georges throws at his son is that he's heterosexual. In the second act Anne's right-wing father accuses Georges and Albin of being 'two homosexual transvestites' to which Albin holds up a finger and says there is 'one transvestite' and Georges does the same saying 'one homosexual'. Jean-Michel sees the error of his ways and acknowledges that Albin has, in reality, been his mother and they all live happily ever after - sort of.

It was all great fun. Philip Quast and Douglas Hodge were great as Georges and Albin and it was quite fun seeing Una Stubbs as Anne's mother. I particularly enjoyed the drag/tranny dancers and winced whenever they did the splits (where on earth do they put their bits?). I thoroughly enjoyed it! Go and see it if you can.

Previous Chocolate Factory productions have transferred to the West End ('Sunday In The Park With George' and 'Little Shop Of Horrors') and one even to Broadway ('Sunday In The Park') so here's hoping that 'La Cage' follows suit. I'd certainly go and see it on the big stage.

The Golden Compass

I finally got round to seeing The Golden Compass last night, and it was worth the wait. I haven't read the books or seen the play but, of course, I'm aware of some of the basics from press reports over the last few years. I'm pleased I saw it with a relatively fresh pair of eyes and a reasonably open mind.

The production looked gorgeous and the effects were seamless and excellent. I loved the design of that world's version of London seen from the air. Nicole Kidman was beautiful in an ice queen kind of way but I was particularly taken by Eva Green as Serafina, the flying witch who radiated Pre-Rafaelite beauty with the nose, cheekbones and cascading locks that shrieked Rossetti and Burne-Jones at me (take a look at Rossetti's Persephone to see what I mean). She radiated some very powerful imagery and archetypes as witch, wise woman and warrior.

I also liked Dakota Blue Richards (fabulous name, by the way) as Lyra, our young heroine with the odd estuary accent playing it as rebellious privileged-child-turned-street-urchin, a wild girl without parents who likes sitting on rooftops. Her interactions with the icebear were really good and given that the icebear was CGI I wonder who she acted with in his role to get that kind of performance?

Anyway, I liked it and look forward to the next installment. Of course, by then I will probably have read the books since this film has hooked me.

'Much Ado About Nothing' - National Theatre

Tonight got the New Year off to a good start with an excellent production of 'Much Ado About Nothing' at the National Theatre with Zoe Wanamaker as Beatrice and Simon Russell Beale as Benedick, the unlikely (but most likely) lovers. It also featured Mark Addy and Trevor Peacock (reprising his Dibley role) as the comic turns (there's always a comic turn). And it featured music and dancing and rip-roaring jest and wit! Oh, and dodgy morality (of course).

I've never seen it before, either on stage or film and haven't read it (that I recall) but I'm familiar with the story. I want to see more Shakespeare on the stage so this was a good opportunity to start the year off with some culture. Throughout the first half I kept thinking to myself that some of the word-play and wit would have been totally lost on me reading the words on a page - they come alive when spoken from the mouths of experienced actors in a good production. It was also interesting to have more, ahem, mature leads rather than youngsters which adds another dimension to the play, both in terms of happiness for them when they finally get together at the end but also a drop of sadness for the lost years.

It's the story of two sets of lovers, the 'anti-lovers' Beatrice and Benedick who despise all things to do with marriage for themselves and any notion of romance, and Hero and Claudio, the young lovers whose love falls apart over false accusations of harlotry (a nice word) and infidelity. It's a testament to the power of Shakespeare's writing and the production that, 400 years after he wrote it, I was still engaged and outraged at the treatment of poor Hero (an odd name for a girl). Her father believes the accusations of Claudio and the Prince before even hearing what his own daughter has to say by hoping she won't wake up from her faint following accusations of being a tart.

At least Beatrice has the guts to want revenge on foul Claudio. And I'm fully on her side in that. My outrage went up a notch at the end when Hero's father is still happy for her to (foolishly in my view) marry him because he was duped too... Duped? The bastard had already planned to expose her during their wedding ceremony in church in front of everyone before he even had any 'proof' of her tartiness. I dislike him, the beardless, callow youth, and I don't care if it was only a play! I'll give him a piece of my mind if we ever meet in the street - that's no way to behave and just because you're a Count doesn't give you any moral superiority. Ooops, pardon me, but back then it did...

Anyways, it was excellent and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The actress playing Hero annoyed me a bit by lack of projection and diction (I could hardly make out what she was saying a few times) but she was ok - I preferred the feisty Margaret, her sidekick. The Prince was suitably pompous and full of himself and Claudio deserved to be horsewhipped and then hung, drawn and quartered (am I reacting too much, I wonder?). I loved the music and songs, very mariarchi and very well delivered on stage and from the balconies.

The stars of the production were Zoe and Simon, the stage almost visibly brightening virtually every time Zoe came on. They both played it for laughs big time and were excellent. The sheer unexpectedness of Simon jumping in the fish pond to avoid being discovered overhearing people talk about him and then having it duplicated only slightly differently by Zoe was a stroke of genius, that feeling of 'no they won't do it again' with Zoe and then in she goes was wicked! And it was with no small measure of pleasure at the end when they finally agree to marry and go dancing round the stage - that was wonderful. I'm a big ole softy.

But what was it with beards? Lots of references to beards on-stage and insults to Claudio about being beardless and when I looked around at half time the audience was awash with beards! Well, the male part of the audience, particularly over a certain age. How odd. And why do people simply *have* to cough during the quiet bits? I really felt like shouting 'shut up' at one point.

It's an excellent production and Zoe and Simon were a joy to watch. Go and see it if you can. You don't *have* to have a beard to be allowed in (but it helps).