David Byrne TV fest

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Sun May 09, 2004 6:22 pm

Well Friday night was a bit of a one for sitting glued to music on the BBC for 2 hours 40 mins! First up Damien Rice (see thread), then a new series of Later with Jools drooling absurdly over the sweet but so bloody bland (give me Diana Krall any day!) Norah Jones, the Scissor Sisters making merry (another hyped band of '04, and the unmistakeable similarities to Elton John not only in voice but also in songs ensuring Ms Mug and other EJ 70s fans would go for them, how come no-one's mentioned them?), and Daivd Byrne. His new LP has been well-reviewed, but I wasn't blown away by the two songs from it, but then he did a lovely arrangement of This Must Be The Place, and I was truly blown away. And then BBC4 had one of their Union Chapel concerts, an hour and a half of him. Brilliant. You knew it was going to be fabulous from the moment he started with Nothing But Flowers accoustically, and then went on to play several TH classics, inc This Must Be again, Once In a Lifetime, of course, closing with Road To Nowhere. And lots of his solo stuff, and some interesting covers, inc. Whitney's I Wanna Dance With Somebody!!!

I still haven't heard any of his solo LPs, though I did see him live in 90/91, very good. He looks great these days, they grey hair suits him, he's tanned and healthy, incredibly unwrinkly, and still has not an ounce of body fat on him. Apart from the hair, you'd hardly notice a difference between him now and the man from Stop Making Sense 20 years ago. A unique and brilliant figure in music.

Look out for repeats, BBC4 do a lot of that.

martinfoyle · Post by **martinfoyle** » Sun May 09, 2004 6:54 pm

Love the Scissors Sisters album. Live, going by the Later performance, they are a bit flat. The Byrne album is a grower, hate the way they tack on that disco hit from last year on the end. Howard Tate stole the show on friday, imo.

BrilliantMistake45 · Post by **BrilliantMistake45** » Sun May 09, 2004 8:32 pm

I am seeing David Byrne in Philly in two weeks and reading this thread makes me even more excited then I already was to be going to this show.

johnfoyle · Post by **johnfoyle** » Mon May 10, 2004 12:50 am

Unlike the bro. I loved the `disco hit ` at the end of the album . Since I don`t listen to pop radio I hadn`t even known it had been a chart item . I`m going to see him in Dublin in July , Tosca Strings `n all - yippee!

PlaythingOrPet · Post by **PlaythingOrPet** » Mon May 10, 2004 7:06 am

Dang. I heard the continuity person say he was on BBC4 straight after Later but I was too tired to watch. Sounded good, Oatie.

What was Jools doing fawning so much over Norah Jones anyway? Nice enough person but oh-oh-oh-so-boring. Good to see Basement Jaxx livening up all the stiffs.

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Tue May 11, 2004 2:01 pm

Yeah, agree re boring, and she seemed a bit embarrassed by the excess of fawn (expression of 'please treat me like a normal guest'!). He's obviously got a crush on her. Couldn't she dress a bit better too, I mean Diana Krall makes an effort, for God's sake!

Howard Tate -brill.

Basement Jaxx - great dance music.

All people going to see Byrne: lucky people. Damn, I need to see him again. Does any of this BBC4 stuff get shown in the States? Look out for it if so. And POP, if you're at all into Byrne, look out for a replay here.

What's his best solo LP? I know we've bdone this before (three times, probably). Rei Momo is in my head. How does the new one compare?

My fave TH LP (that's Talking Heads, in case Jackson or Gilli are reading, not Tottenham Hotspur) has to be Remain In Light, which, apart from the yawnsome Overload, is all stunning. Fear Of Music a close second. The first two tie for third. Then Speaking In Tongues (some great songs, but the overly clinical production and feel of it is wearisome, apart from the immortal naive melody referred to above). Then probably a tie for the last two (not including Real Stories, cos that's not a TH LP proper to my mind), both of which have moments of brilliance but are flawed.

To anyone with TH on vinyl only but wanting to reconnect, Once In A Lifetime is recommended.

PlaythingOrPet · Post by **PlaythingOrPet** » Tue May 11, 2004 2:55 pm

Ah, she may not dress that well but her left breast is much nicer than Krall's.

Yes! How does RM compare to his two previous records? I rememer the Lowe threads but not the Byrne ones.

Otis, give me a poke if you notice BBC4 are showing the Union Chapel session again (or the Stephen Fry-narrated Anthony Trollope docu-thingy....but that's something for another day

). I'm crap at things like that.

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Tue May 11, 2004 5:49 pm

Will give you that poke should the occasion demand, so to speak. Talking of Trollope, I laughed my way through all of He Knew He Was Right, especially the deathbed stuff. Deeply hilarious.

Sorry, have to dispute the left breast theory. DK's has the edge.

Alexis Petridis, I discvered this evening whole sorting mounds of newspaper review sections I can't bear to throw away (an illness of mine) into chronological order (yes, that too), is brilliant on the topic of Norah Jones.

Here's his wonderful 1-star rating of NJ's latest:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/critic/r ... 37,00.html

He's slightly more favourable towards her live show, i.e. 2 stars:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/critic/r ... 67,00.html

martinfoyle · Post by **martinfoyle** » Tue May 11, 2004 5:58 pm

Alexis Petridis is one of the few journalists I take the trouble to read these days, here's a link to his Guardian archive.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/critic/p ... 32,00.html

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Tue May 11, 2004 6:25 pm

I just added that archive to my favourites, thinking it was handy to have access to, and less space-consuming than a lot of paper! So perhaps your respect for his views will encourage you to check out A Grand Don't Come For Free!

His article on trying to track down Kraftwerk in Düsseldorf was a scream.