Picture from HF Holidays
I have yet to meet anyone who watches BBC4 on any other evening except Friday when they excel themselves at music documentaries and themed nights. A lot of genres and bands have been covered and even if you're not particularly interested in a band or style of music the channel do make it interesting enough to make you watch. There are still areas that they haven't touched on (I have pitched an idea but have yet to hear back, unless they're just going to go ahead and steal the idea anyway), most of these areas would probably be more interesting than last night's contribution. Frank Sinatra's story has been told a million times so there isn't really anything to be learned from yet another documentary, yet they managed to cobble together enough performance footage to keep my interest. What I really wanted to see though was Seth MacFarlane paying tribute to the great man by giving a concert as part of the BBC Proms season.
After Mr MacFarlane had gone to the trouble of packing a suitcase or two and travelling across the Atlantic (although I'm sure he was paid), getting a taxi from the airport and staying in a hotel, you would be forgiven for assuming that some effort would be made with the sound so that people might be able to hear him singing. I don't know what things were like inside the Albert Hall but from my armchair it was pretty wankish, a bit like when you go to Rock City and try to watch a band from any other position than standing behind the sound desk. Things got slightly better as the night wore on, but there were too many special guests coming on to sing while Seth popped out for a fag break. The show was advertised as a Seth MacFarlane concert but he was not much more than a compere who sang occasionally.
If I had paid good money to see this concert I would have been banging the manager's office door down for my refund before the first half hour was out. Either do a show in which you sing Sinatra tunes, or pick up your pencils and stick to what we know you are good at, making cartoons.
The Sunday Alternative #50 is available from here.
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August housekeeping
We are now in the eighth month of the year and at a standstill as far as work is concerned. In unrelated news, it is my birthday on the 27th of this month so a nice present would be a donation using the PayPal button. This would be spent on creating podcasts, documentaries, short films, comedy sketches and various other entertainments that I will make available to enjoy online for free.
The above t-shirt and bag is also available to buy, all the money goes to the same creative fund. They are on my shop page.
I'll play you a kazoo song request, find out how here.
Letter of complaint written for you for £2, here.
steveEoliver@gmail.com
