Whatever happened to weather presenter Penelope Barr?
Last I heard, Penelope married Johnny from Shortland Street but that collapsed like a weather bomb in the Waikato, Nu Zillan.
You see what I did there didn't you? Made a joke about Penelope being a weather presenter didn't I?
Penelope got up to some crazy adventures as a weather presenter, why once I recall she, she got comment that the weather would be fine and sunny for the Doctor Who convention being held in Auckland, Nu Zillan.
Penelope also helped host the much loved TV show, In the Bag? with the great John Hawkesby.
What was in the bag was actually usually an old sock, Invercargill, but sometimes you'd get a nice new washing machine and everyone would go home happy that the sheets would be clean at Audrey's place.
Not that they were ever not clean at Audrey's place you understand, more that they would be cleaner.
Penelope Barr understood this of course and was well respected for it.
So like when I was in Auckland last week I scored myself a copy of David Gilmour's Remember that Night. For those of you old enough to remember or cool enough to check them out, David Gilmour was the guitarist for Pink Floyd. So I'm gonna review it for you...
Since Roger Waters left Pink Floyd in a real huff in the mid 1980s, Pink Floyd has largely been the moniker for a David Gilmour solo album i.e. Momentary Lapse of Reason and The Division Bell. I guess a reluctance to continue as Pink Floyd has lead to Gilmour to release his third solo album, On An Island
It's a melodic piece, with a brilliant opening track, Castellorizon, which is a basically a guitar solo with a few melodies that hint at things to come throughout the rest of the album.
But who am I to say? Rolling Stone magazine chimed in with:
"It's a crawling headphones record that puts germs of ideas - leaden riffs, astral soundscapes, hazy psychedelia - where fully realized songs ought to go. "
That sounds a lil grumpy so lucky for David The Guardian was more enthused:
"The title track sums up both the album's appeal and its limitations: a slow, anthemic waltz with modest lead vocals, sweetly sung harmonies (courtesy of David Crosby and Graham Nash), lashings of overdubbed guitars, sweeping orchestrations and a big solo at the end."
So all this leads to David Gilmour filming a DVD of of a London concert where he plays the whole of On an Island with his regular backing band - being regular Pink Floyd performers over the years and even Richard Wright himself on keyboards.
The concert is called Remember that Night which is a lyrical taken from the album.
The concert kicks of with a few old school Pink Floyd Songs from Dark Side of the Moon and then launches into the whole On An Island. I sat there enthralled at the sounds and songs. Everyone complains about bands that just do endless solos, well I love that and that's what I got.
After the album, they got back into some Pink Floyd numbers. The band is sharp and know there places. I was heartened to see Richard Wright totally loving playing Coming Back to Life.
And then they played a song I'd never heard before called Echoes. I knew it existed as a song as it was the title of a Pink Floyd Greatest hits album and was originally recorded in 1971. This song is a monster epic and you you know what I thought midway, it sounds like the Phantom of the Opera. I couldn't believe it so I looked it up on Wikipedia and sure enough Roger Waters is quoted as saying
"Yeah, the beginning of that bloody Phantom song is from Echoes. *DAAAA-da-da-da-da-da* [sic]. I couldn't believe it when I heard it. It's the same time signature - it's 12/8 - and it's the same structure and it's the same notes and it's the same everything. Bastard. It probably is actionable. It really is! But I think that life's too long to bother with suing Andrew fucking Lloyd Webber".
Which totally explains why on Roger Water's song Amused to Death (which I first heard when I watched his In the Flesh DVD last month) he rants about human behaviour and that of Andrew Loyd Weber, who wrote The Phantom of the Opera:
"We cower in our shelters, with our hands over our ears Lloyd Webber's awful stuff runs for years and years and years / An earthquake hits the theatre, but the operetta lingers / Then the piano lid comes down and breaks his fucking fingers / It's a miracle"
Remember, I'd never heard the song before but I saw the Phantom In Melbourne in January so I knew what it was when I heard.
Anyways Echoes is a mega epic rock song and its worth watching Remember that Night for that song. Or you could watch it on youtube.
Now if I was a proper journalist I'd probably write a really witty closing off paragraph here but I'll suggest you just watch this:
"Speak to Me"
"Breathe"
"Time"
"Breathe (Reprise)"
"Castellorizon"
"On an Island" (with David Crosby and Graham Nash)
"The Blue" (with David Crosby and Graham Nash)
"Red Sky at Night"
"This Heaven"
"Then I Close My Eyes" (with Robert Wyatt)
"Smile"
"Take a Breath"
"A Pocketful of Stones"
"Where We Start"
"Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Pts. 1-5" (with David Crosby and Graham Nash)
"Fat Old Sun"
"Coming Back to Life"
"High Hopes"
"Echoes"
"Wish You Were Here"
"Find the Cost of Freedom" (with David Crosby and Graham Nash)
"Arnold Layne" (with David Bowie)
"Comfortably Numb" (with David Bowie)
Pink Floyd have regrouped to do The Endless Summer -check the lyrics to the song Louder than Words.
It was that wise fellow Lenin said who once remarked that quantity has a quality of its own. I think he may have been referring to having the most marbles in the play ground being a good thing. Lenin did not like to share you see. He pretended he did, but he didn't.
Lenin was also fond of lentils. I have no idea why.
Here's a thought on American Idol - that more people will vote over the current series of American Idol than will vote for Barrack Obama and John McCain in the American Presidential election.
As usual I do some inscrutable cabbage maths:
Every week 20 million people vote for David Cook or just happy to be there for the exposure wannabe. American Idol runs for like 20 years. Multiply that by the people voting for Ryan Seacrest and you get 5000 million billion votes for Idol.
America has an exact population of 199,999,007 people. If every single one of them voted for Obama or the dude that enjoyed 5 odd years at the Hanoi Hilton, you would only get 199,999,007 votes. Which is about 75 googillions short of what American Idol gets.
I know I'm write about this, Ben Stiller helped with the maths.
The policy implications are clear - Obama and McCain should have a sing off on the seasonal end of American Idol. The person with the most ring in votes can be President and have a generic well produced but with no memorable melody number one hit.
