The newspapers are full of examples of people either saying what they don't mean or not thinking about what they're saying. It's difficult to know which is worse.Below is the statement put out by the Radio Two press office to explain the deeply uncalled-for idea of getting Noel Gallagher and a load of rock's other hod carriers to cover Sergeant Pepper track by track.
Lesley Douglas, the Radio 2 controller, said: “This will be not only a unique radio event but also a very special musical moment."
That "not only but also" formulation is presumably press office talk for "is this long enough yet?"
The range and quality of artists involved ensure that this will be a fitting tribute to one of the great albums of all time.”
James Morrison? The Kaiser Chiefs? Razorlight? Who would have to have been on this album for it not to be a fitting tribute?
And if you want to get the measure of this piece of fluff think who would have been on it if they'd done it on the twentieth anniversary. Swing Out Sister? Curiosity Killed The Cat? Living In A Box? Very probably.
PA bluster a go go - It's a unique event only in so much as it's going to be on the radio. The NME actually released a track by track cover some time back which is where the Wet Wet Wet cover of With a little help from my friends camefrom along with Billy Bragg (bless him) strangling She's Leaving Home.
ReplyDeleteYeah, 1988's Sgt Pepper Knew My Father, which did begat Bragg getting to number one. Hurry! It's got Hue & Cry on it. And The Christians! And, ahhh, Three Wize Men. And the Fall doing A Day In The Life (actually I've heard this track, it's fun for its few minutes, it sounds exactly as you'd expect). The whole thing was in aid of Childline, so I remember WWW & BB being featured on That's Life.
ReplyDeleteIt was also done a couple of months ago on Mojo Magazine's giveaway cd - it had the effect of making me want to go back and listen to the original, so I suppose it wasn't a complete waste of time.
ReplyDeleteJust what we need, eh? Dull covers by dull bands trying too hard. Leave it.
ReplyDeleteEvery time something like this happens – and I do think of it as something "happening", much like an earthquake, or a drive-by-shooting – I'm always reminded of the travesty that was Band Aid II. What a bright idea – Do They Know It's Christmas Time? tackled only five years after the original event by such raging talents as Bros, Jason Donovan and Big Fun. Jesus, I was 11 and kissing my Luke Goss poster goodnight every night at the time and even I thought it was ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteStop it, stop it now, and behave.
Surely the "special musical moment" was when the album was first released - why don't Radio 2 just play Sgt Pepper from start to finish if they want to pay tribute?
ReplyDeleteBut then they wouldn't have anything to talk about. Radio is driven by the need to pretend that what's about to happen is going to be great. (Explained to me once by an insider as "it's coming it's coming it's coming....you missed it you missed it you missed it". The sobering truth is that all any of us want from the radio is the same thing all the time.
ReplyDeleteIt's not so much the thought of the Kaiser Chiefs dragging the corpse through the streets again (let's face it, Sgt Pepper never recovered from the BeeGees); it's the insistence on doing it on the original equipment, with the original technology. It only needs Nick Ross to top and tail it, doesn't it?
ReplyDelete