lee perry-producers

Made at the Red Bull Studio in London, the six episode series of The Producers documents the progress of a top music producer when they collaborate with an artist of their choice in the studio.

The series includes top producers like Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, Diplo, Mark Ronson,Jamie Reynolds of the Klaxons, Gareth Jones and the series kicked off with Sheffield beatmaster Toddla T

This episode features Diplo and Lee Perry collaborating on a track in the studio, culminating in Perry preforming with Diplo and Switch’s Major Lazer at the 2010 Notting Hill Carnival.

The Producers is a co- production between Red Bull and VBS.tv, is a six-part documentary series showcasing a selection of the most innovative and exciting producers in the world, working in the Red Bull Studio London as their creative hub.

A big country music fan, he would listen to Wally Whyton’s evening shows on Radio 2 with a massive pair of headphones, so big he would have to lean back in his armchair through fear they would breaking his neck, should he fall asleep!

Forgetting his James Last albums, he would also occasionally listen to classical music albums.  I particularly remember Holst’s The Planets, Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and Tchiakovsky’s 1812 Overture; and once a year the regular Saturday night TV viewing schedule was replaced by The Last Night Of The Proms.  Above all, I remember rousing performances of Land Of Hope & Glory and my father’s personal favourite, Jerusalem.

In recent times I have found myself listening more to classical music and intrigued to find how groups like Sigur Ros and electronica music, the likes of Susumu Yokota and d_rradio among others, are blurring the lines between these music genres.

Tonight sees the start of the annual BBC Proms, an eight week celebration of orchestral classical music spread over seventy concerts, held mainly at the Royal Albert Hall.

The BBC Proms or to give them their full title, The Henry Wood Promenade Concerts presented by the BBC begins with music from Ligeti, Tchiakovsky, Langgaard and Sibelius; and continues with a mix of music from lesser known (to me) composers and well known music from the likes of Bach, Chopin, Beethoven, Cage, Wagner, Mahler and Mozart; culminating with The Last Night Of The Proms, and climaxing with the ubiquitous performance of Thomas Arne’s Rule Britannia!

BBC Proms Tickets are difficult to acquire, especially for the Last Night Of The Proms, but the live experience is completely amazing.

The BBC Proms Tickets

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The sit-com is set in a radio station and follows two deejays, played by Chris O’Dowd (The IT Crowd, Under The Blue Sky) and Kevin Bishop (The Kevin Bishop Show, Star Stories, Fat Pig).

Each episode includes a live performance in the FM studio from the likes of The Charlatans, The Wombats, Guillemots, Ladyhawke, The Subways and Sway; as well as celebrity guest appearances from Justin Hawkins, Marianne Faithfull, Toyah Wilcox and Tim Westwood.

The soap will feature Amy Winehouse, Bloc Party and Razorlight, along with guest appearances from Duffy, Girls Aloud and The Feeling.

The Daily Star reports that the soap will be set in the offices of Universal Records and will follow the fortunes of teenager Sam King, who works in the post room and sets up his own office in the back of a stationary cupboard.

The soap will only be available to users of the Bebo network.

Ryder is allegedly a huge fan of the TV show and thinks it is really funny says an insider, ‘His scenes in it are particularly hilarious, He has a very dry sense of humour.’

The singers role coincides with a plot line that sees Micky and Shane McGuire open a tourist business called Madchester, taking tourists around the Manchester music landmarks. Shane dresses up as Morrisey  and ‘Looks brilliant’ says the insider ‘More convincing than Shaun as Shaun, who sent himself up a treat.’

Can’t wait, Shameless is possibly the most under rated series on UK TV.

In April ITV2 beat Channel 4 to the television rights to show this year’s Isle Of Wight musical festival. Channel 4 had previously shown the festival in the past four of its seven years, since the famous festival’s reincarnation.

But how disappointed I was to know ITV2 were only dedicating one hour per night! It would have been bad enough if they only showed one complete hour of performances, but it was much worse than that!

Take away the annoying Lauren Laverne’s rambling introductions and pointless interviews, the boring on-site adventures of the young festival-virgin presenter and a heaped spoonful of commercials and I was left with about six songs from a few bands.

On Friday and Saturday that included just the first two songs from headliners Kaiser Chiefs and The Sex Pistols. On Saturday night, No Fun was the only track shown by Iggy & The Stooges.

I was so pissed off with the coverage that I skipped Sunday night altogether.

It’s not as if ITV2 is crammed full of great programmes. If ITV2 want to show the festival then why not show the highlights for a two or three hours per night, at least?

Fortuntately, they have not wrestled the rights to show Glastonbury from the BBC, who I hope will this year once again show hours of live and recorded highlights over the whole weekend, across different BBC channels.

Yes, I know it is annoying when Jools Holland has to play piano with as many of the artists as possible, and as my good friend (name dropping) and exceptionally talented hammond organ player James Taylor once said he’s only famous for playing boogie woogie.  But who likes boogie woogie?

Later… celebrates its 200th show tonight at 11.35pm on BBC2.  The show has a great line up that includes the beautiful Cat Power, the gorgeous Feist, the wonderfully talented Soft Boy himself, Robyn Hitchcock and the awesome Radiohead.

There was me thinking it was actually live.  Obviously not, as there is an after show special performance of House of Cards by Radiohead on the BBC website.

Paul Morley (50) and pop music are moreorless the same age and in true Morley fashion he attempts to explain how in the post-empire era, pop music has helped give the world a sense of Britain and Britain a sense of itself.

I assumed the six candidates to be in no order of preference  and more a selection offering the spectrum of Morley’s love & fascination with pop, more than his favourite songs of all time. The songs were:

Kylie Minogue – Can’t get you out of my head
T.Rex – Ride a white swan
The Kinks – Lola
The Smiths – This Charming Man
Adam Faith – What do you want?
Sugababes – Freak like me

The sign of a perfect pop song is to imagine Elvis singing it, Morley explained.  The programme offered renditions of each and for me, Elvis sang Kylie best.

What do you want? by Adam Faith was the first pop song that Morley could remember hearing, and was indicative of the time in the 1950’s when Britain sort after an answer to Elvis. whereas Ride a white swan was a pop song from his teenage years and included magical lyrics as pop turned from hippy to glam. And The Kinks Lola lyrics were dark and interesting to a young boy.

As Morley said in the programme, everyone is introduceed to pop music at a different time, and therefore we all have our own opinions as to what makes the perfect pop song.  I could be wrong but, Adam Faith aside, the shortlist of pop songs have a dark or twisted nature, the use of wonderfully poetic lyrics, and tunes that never escape your head.

The last selection, Freak like me was an odd choice, and though I don’t agree with it, when Morley deconstructed the essence of the song with the producer, I understood why it was there.  The song relies heavily on Tubeway Army’s Are friends electric and marries it with the original Freak like me version, the first single from r ‘n’ b artist Adina Howard in 1995.  What was explained was the idea of mashing up two completely different tracks from two separate eras and making onbe song sound as if it was meant to be.

The show was interesting and entertaining, though I was left wanting a debate on what makes the perfect pop song. The programme is well worth watching.  As Morley says we all arrive and look for different things.  Without too much thought here is my six suggestions for Elvis to sing:

Slade – Cum on feel the noize
Smashing Pumpkins – 1979
Tubeway Army – Are Friends Electric?
The LA’s – There she goes
Doves – Black & white town
Joy Division – Love will tear us apart

What does that say about me? What are yours?

“You have to get rid of things like the X Factor immediately” said Albarn, “It sends out all the wrong messages”. He believes that it sends out the wrong messages by suggesting that you can get something for nothing and that it is easy to acquire status and fame “which is rubbish. It should be one of the hardest things to do.”

Albarn’s comments caused a stir in the music industry who have become somewhat reliant on the X Factor to bolster record sales.

Record giant HMV hit back by saying that “X Factor does raise the expectations of some people with no talent, but it is a way of introducing genuine talent  direct to the public.”

Is X Factor to blame?In another era it would just be simple entertainment. I believe that the press and magazine’s that promote the instant celebrity culture are as much to blame by printing endless crap about people that I don’t know and don’t want to know.

Centre Stage started on 1 December with From The Basement, a brand new groundbreaking music series with intimate live performances, allowing the artists to really take centre stage. The first of the series saw performances by The White Stripes, Neil Gannon  (of The Divine Comedy) and The Shins – who get my vote for best album of the year. There are no annoying presenters, no Top Of The Pops like rent-a-crowd and no dizzy camera effects.  Each week artists old and new play a few songs in the studio basement flanked only by the production team and roadies.

Tonight’s performances include PJ Harvey and  the wonderfully fabulous Super Furry Animals.

The Centre Stage series will also include legendary live footage including Stones In The Park film of the Rolling Stones 1969 concert in Hyde Park that took place just days after Brian Jones was found dead in his swimming pool; and David Bowie in Ziggy Stardust & The Spiders From Mars, in their last ever show at the Hammersmith Odeon from 1973.

You can watch video clips of previous performances on the Centre Stage Microsite

Here is the line-up so far:

1 December 2007: From the Basement: The White Stripes. The Shins & Neil Hannon
8 December 2007: From the Basement: Thom Yorke, Albert Hammond Jr (The Strokes) & The Envelopes
15 December 2007: From the Basement: Beck, Jarvis Cocker & Jamie Lidell (Super Collider)
22 December 2007: From the Basement: Sonic Youth, Jose Gonzalez and Laura Marling
29 December 2007: From the Basement: Super Furry Animals, PJ Harvey, Operator Please and Free Blood
5 January 2008: From the Basement: Damien Rice, Autolux, E (Eels) and Architecture in Helsinki
12 Jan 2007: Queen and Paul Rodgers – Return of the Champions
19 Jan 2008: The Stones in the Park
26 January 2008: Roy Orbison and Friends: A Black and White Night
2 February 2008: Eric Clapton and Friends: Band du Lac
9 February 2008: The Pixies Acoustic
16 February 2008: Eric Clapton: Crossroads
23 February 2008: Elvis Costello Live in Montreal featuring Allen Toussaint
1 March 2008: Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
8 March 2008: Elvis Costello and the Impostors: Live in Memphis

Broadcast times
Sat 29 Dec 2007 9:00pm – 9:50pm
Thu 03 Jan 2008 10:00pm – 11:00pm
Sat 05 Jan 2008 1:00am – 2:00am
Sat 05 Jan 2008 11:30am – 12:30pm