Top Gear

You've got such a poetic turn of phrase, you have.

Remember Chinnichap?

 

I do. I guess you're agreeing with me? While some of those songs
(Blockbuster by Sweet, Tiger Feet by Mud, a couple of the Suzi Quattro
hits) are indicative of an era, they're pretty throwaway stuff, and
none of the bands managed any success without the Chinn/Chapman
writing team.

 

Would I?

Yeah, and where are Sweet, Mud etc nowadays? Suzi's still around, but
that's mostly down to the hard-working bass player thing.

 

There was definitely a comedy circuit in the 70s & 80s. Mostly fuelled by
the cabaret circuit in working men's clubs, Pontins etc. Lenny Henry would
never have received a booking.

There are comic talent shows nowadays. Google shows many clubs with open
mic sessions. Then there are festivals such as the Edinburgh Fringe where
the likes of Simon Amstell come to the fore by winning a Perrier Award.

There's a lot of truth in what you say. However, you don't need to be a
songwriter or composer to have an enduring career as a performer.

Again, the chap that started this sub-thread, demonstrates that not all of
the winners end up as Callow's pawns. I'm no big fan of his music but I
know he co-writes his songs. He's also co-starred in a film with Bob
Hoskins and Dame Judi Dench. According to speculation on wikipedia, he'll
be on Question Time soon. I think he'll be around for a while as he seems
to be quite shrewd about the projects he gets involved with.

 

Mud are a really, really bad example. Rob Davis, guitarist in Mud, went
on to write Groovejet (Spiller) and Can't Get You Out Of My Head (Kylie)
with Cathy Dennis, herself a briefly shining star of yesteryear.

I fear you're missing the point of pop. It's meant to be throwaway. It's
meant to be performed by bright young things of today, many of whom go
on to be the writers and producers of tomorrow, most of whom fade away
into obscurity with nothing but their memories of having a fucking great
time. Would you write off someone like Trevor Horn just because Buggles
only had one big hit?

Your mind is stuck in a 70s rock rut - not every act is destined to
churn out thirty albums of steadily declining quality. The epitomy of
pop is the one-hit-wonder and long may it continue.

 

FFS get a grip. Cowell, not Callow. From Champ, it may be excusable.

 

@text.news.virginmedia.com:

Sobriety is a bad thing.

 

I thought about an Avantime, but my experience of the Renault Espace kind of
put me off. Anyway, I could get most of the Avantime experience if I got
Angel Engineering to remap the Multipla to 150bhp.

 

heh. That's different. Up until the Beatles it was OK to sing other
people's songs. They broke the mould.

 

Who were influenced by Buddy Holly no?

--
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
| Pete Fisher at Home: |
| Voxan Roadster Gilera Nordwest * 2 Yamaha WR250Z |
| Gilera GFR * 2 Moto Morini 2C/375 Morini 350 "Forgotten Error" |
+----------------------------------------------------------------+

 

" "

--
_______
..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (b.rogers at ifrance.com)
\`\ | /`/
`\\ | //' BOTAFOT#3, SbS#2, UKRMMA#13, DFV#8, SKA#2, IBB#10
`\|/`
`

 

Six of the fourteen songs on their first album, six of the fourteen on
their second album and six of the fourteen on their fourth album were
written by other people. CBA to check the rest.

 

This was the star in a reasonably priced car, I assume? I still don't
know who/what he is. Imteresting he wasn't.

Haven't seen many recently, but if that's the benchmark, they've
really gone downhill.

Eh? What?

Hah! You fail, broken-leg-boy!

See, I had no idea.

Well that's hardly a relevant criterion for inclusion, although yes,
I'd prefer to see interviews of people I can respect in some way or
another. But then again, they've had soap stars and all, haven't they?

--
_______
..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (b.rogers at ifrance.com)
\`\ | /`/
`\\ | //' BOTAFOT#3, SbS#2, UKRMMA#13, DFV#8, SKA#2, IBB#10
`\|/`
`

 

It still is OK to sing other people's songs.

 

It might be "ok", but it's unlikely to give you a long (a decade or
more) career.

 

Not really, they did a lot of Chuck Berry stuff until they started writing.

 

That's a fair point. The music business is pretty broad, and I'm not
anti the frothy stuff. But I don't think being part of the froth
means you've achieved anything - certainly not enough for me to be
interested in hearing you interviewed (to drag things back to the
original point)

Stinky bait - is that what you think of acts like The Killers, Kaiser
Chiefs, Goldfrapp...

OK, when you put on some music, do you play "Now That's What I Call
One Hit Wonders 27"? I doubt it. I'll bet you put on something by an
artist who has a recording career. I'll also bet that artist was
significantly involved in writing the material.

 

I found him interesting cos I've seen (and enjoyed) most of his films.

 

He's not a bad actor & most of his films are decent enough.

 

The case for the defence:
http://groups.google.co.uk/group/uk.rec.motorcycles/msg/7d68a2ff2eaa2e67