“I don’t think there’s ever been such a rush towards insignificance in the name of the historical future as we’ve seen in the last 15 years.” — Robert Hughes concluding his TV series The Shock of the New in 1980
➢ War: the 20th-century way to build a new world — Robert Hughes laments the effects of war in The Shock of The New
Posted in Europe, North America, TV
Tagged Art, Robert Hughes, Shock of the New, Tributes, TV shows
Meeting of two queens on June 4. At Facebook Ivan Antunovic adds this caption… The Queen: Tell me your secret, dear… Grace: Nightclubbing, your majesty, nightclubbing. (Photograph: PA)
❚ IT WAS A MEETING OF TWO QUEENS in their own realms… This isn’t a new photo but it was published yesterday on Grace Jones’s Official Facebook page as if the singer is suddenly chuffed to bits with the moment it captures. Just as chuffed seems to be the expression on the face of one’s monarch as HMQ greets Grace backstage following the star-studded Diamond Jubilee Concert on June 4. The official Facebook caption marks the two-month-old occasion: “It was an honour to play a part in the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations with such an incredible band… two months ago this weekend.”
Between the regal pair, the photo captures the terminally unfunny comedian Rob Brydon giving his impersonation of the nation in shock. Other videos record how his gags died the death on the Jubilee stage, but Grace’s video continues to make compulsive viewing as she twirls a hula-hoop (Why?) while singing Slave To The Rhythm, her biggest hit and title track from her triumphant seventh studio album, produced by Trevor Horn in 1985. Priceless cutaway shots of the royal box as Grace performs might have come straight from the Mel Brooks movie satire, The Producers.
The Jamaican-American singer, supermodel and actress Grace made her home in Britain after settling down with music producer Ivor Guest, 4th Viscount Wimborne. Didn’t she do well?
Grace’s showstopper: This BBC video cutaway to the Royal Box during Grace Jones’s orgasmic act is a dead ringer for the gobsmacked audience watching Springtime for Hitler. How many astonished princesses, archbishops, ex-prime ministers and director-generals can you count?
Grace’s finale: Another cutaway as Grace bids farewell to her audience and becomes confused about the occasion: “We love you! Happy birthday, our Queen.” How many humourless heirs to the throne and bemused princesses royal can you count?
Posted in Culture, London, Media, Pop music, TV
Tagged Concert, Diamond Jubilee Concert, Grace Jones, HM Queen Elizabeth II, Mel Brooks, Slave To The Rhythm, Video
Aug 3, 2012: Today’s Metro, the free city newspaper
❚ THIS MORNING’S METRO NEWSPAPER in the UK reports Spandau Ballet’s 1983 chart hit Gold moving up the UK iTunes Top 200 Chart from 165 to 143, also trending on Twitter, while, thanks to Team GB, two Gold slots were filled on the Absolute Radio “Tonyliser”. Somebody manning the signal beacon back at Spandau Towers still has a knack for PR!
➢ Check progress on the Tonyliser in the Team GB Spandathon – For every gold medal Team GB win, Absolute Radio will play Spandau Ballet’s Gold that many times on the Breakfast Show of Monday August 13.
➢ July 6 update: Gold has shot up to No 6 in the iTunes UK Rock Chart
➢ One Direction should have closed the Olympic opening ceremony, according to Tony Hadley: “They’re our biggest export at the moment, pure pop.” However, The Sun’s Gordon Smart disagrees, Aug 3: “Macca is one of Britain’s biggest living legends. Everything about the ceremony was spot on.”
Tagged Gold, London 2012, Olympics, Spandau Ballet, Tony Hadley
Bowie papped as he hails a cab in New York City, April 13, 2012. How cool is that silhouette (hashtag_unpolished_shoes)
Papped in sequence: Bowie hails a cab in New York City, seemingly on April 13, 2012, though online source is unclear
➢ Jagger, Bowie were an “item”, biographer claims
— Huffington Post, July 30
Posted in Fashion, Media, North America, Pop music
Tagged cab, David Bowie, Mick Jagger, New York City, paparazzi, shoes
❚ “THIS WORK CONSISTS OF trying to ring all of the bells in the whole of Britain for three minutes, as loudly and as quickly as possible for three minutes, and that includes all types of bells that you can find. I don’t know which notes are the best ones, I think it’s best just to try and to ring them all at once… It totally relies on people to make it happen.”
Martin Creed’s Work No 79 from 1993: Some Blu-Tack kneaded, rolled into a ball, and depressed against a wall
So says Turner Prize-winning artist and musician Martin Creed, promoting his mass participation project, Work No 1197: All the bells in a country rung as quickly and as loudly as possible for three minutes.
He has been specially commissioned as part of the London 2012 Festival to help mark the first day of the London 2012 Olympics today at 08:12. If you have a smartphone you can use the Shake & Play feature at All The Bells.
❏ Here’s the world premiere of Martin Creed’s All The Bells on board HMS Belfast, moored on the Thames. For three minutes from 8.12 this morning, hundreds of thousands of people across the UK rang bells, while HMS Belfast fired its cannons and 300 children rang bells accompanied by Ruth Mackenzie, director of the Cultural Olympiad, Jeremy Hunt, the Culture Secretary and Channel 4’s Jon Snow. The ships of the Royal Navy and the Royal Fleet Auxiliary across the world also rang their bells. Quel ding-dong!
➢ Earlier this month Creed talked to Dazed Digital about his debut EP out on cult label Moshi Moshi
Posted in Culture, London, Media
Tagged All The Bells, Art, Cultural Olympiad, London 2012, Martin Creed, music
✱ Deejay legend Robbie Vincent has returned to JazzFM on Sundays 1-3pm… Catch up on Robbie’s JazzFM August Bank Holiday 2020 session thanks to AhhhhhSoul with four hours of “nothing but essential rhythms of soul, jazz and funk”.
◆ Who was who in Spandau’s break-out year of 1980? The Invisible Hand of Shapersofthe80s draws a selective timeline for The unprecedented rise and rise of Spandau Ballet –– Turn to our inside page
✱ If you thought there was no more to know about the birth of Blitz culture in 1980 then get your hands on a sensational book by an obsessive music fan called David Barrat. It is gripping, original and epic – a spooky tale of coincidence and parallel lives as mind-tingling as a Sherlock Holmes yarn. Titled both New Romantics Who Never Were and The Untold Story of Spandau Ballet! Sample this initial taster here at Shapers of the 80s
✱ Jawing at Soho Radio on the 80s clubland revolution (from 32 mins) and on art (@55 mins) is probably the most influential shaper of the 80s, former Wag-club director Chris Sullivan (pictured) with editor of this website David Johnson
➢ Search for all on Bowie here
at Shapers of the 80s
✱ “I’m not a rock star” Bowie often said – No, David, you were a messiah – Obituaries and key videos about
the godlike one
✱ Prince Rogers Nelson RIP: ‘A funny cat’ and ‘sole authentic genius’ of the 1980s
➢➢ Shapers of the 80s ➣➣ 