Some questions:
What makes great Rock'n'Roll bands work?
Why and how do they do what they do?
Why are the best bands more than the sum of their parts?
Why do we love them so much?
A phalanx of BBC Music Entertainment's most inquisitive minds have been sent out into the field on a global mission to observe the rock'n'roller at large. Back they have duly returned - to their rain-buffeted multi-story shack HQ at the rear of TV Centre - anxious to reveal their findings.
These discoveries are to be disclosed in five documentaries narrated by Mark Radcliffe airing from Saturday 1 May and a live studio finale hosted by Jonathan Ross.
Befitting the larger than life characters populating the series and the stranger-than-fiction tales they have to tell, we have allowed the shows to venture into novel territory - graphic novel territory to be precise. As some of Britain's top illustrators, feted for their work in comics like Marvel, have added their considerable talents to the mix.
This animation element makes it possible to journey into the private thoughts, childhood memories and backstage lives of some of the great performers of our times. No cameras were there to record what happened on these occasions but, through the power of animation, moments of rock'n'roll history, large and small, can be brought to life.
From Jim Morrison of The Doors coming over all Oedipal in sixties L.A. to how Black Sabbath'sTony Iommi managed to resurrect his fledgling guitar career after chopping off two fingers in a factory accident in the West Midlands.
From the unsettling moment when Sex PistolGlenn Matlock opened a packet of crisps to find a piece of paper with his name in it, to the honing of The Police's breakthrough hit, Roxanne, from bossa nova original to the taut post punk reggae groove that conquered the world.
The graphic novel feel has created a distinct and contemporary look for the shows. Steve Beaumont has been getting most busy with the charcoals, with back up from Mike Collins and Leigh Gallagher. While the ingenious graphic designers at SumCreative under the Creative Direction of Paul Peppiate have turned the sketch material into animations created on After Effects.
Guiding 50 plus animated sequences through the circuitous process of conception, story-boarding, sketching, inking, colouring and finally animation is a brain-mashing exercise in logistics.
But fortunately any thoughts along the lines of 'I must have been mad to pursue this idea, is it too late to drop it?' are completely blown away by those 'You have mail' moments when new sketches and animations arrive. The ability to capture the likeness (and just as importantly the essence) of some of the great names in rock'n'roll to order is startling. How lovely it would be to have a proper talent like that.
Malcolm McLaren's step-son Ben Westwood put it best. Malcolm used to tell him and his brother Joe fantastic bedtime stories, spinning out exciting adventures that always stopped halfway through. And that was the thing about Malcolm said Ben, speaking at his funeral on Thursday - "he told the greatest stories, but you had to finish them yourself". I'm 52 and, like a lot of my generation, Malcolm whispered a story in my ear too and yes, it was the greatest, the most exciting story that I'd ever heard. The ideas in that story - that swirling, chaotic, glorious, beautiful story - profoundly changed the way that I thought about life and helped me to start telling my own. And on a lovely spring day in a deconsecrated church in London it was time to say goodbye.
Malcolm cut wide and Malcolm cut deep. I went to the funeral with a friend of mine who'd been there at the beginning and who confessed in a slightly surprised tone that she was more upset by his death than she had been by that of her father. Over there were Glen and Paul from the Pistols, over there Pete and Steve from Buzzcocks, over there Viv Albertine. Behind them,Tracey Emin and Dinos Chapman along from Jeremy Thomas, Alan Yentob and Bob Geldof. Don Letts with Pam Hogg, Jon Savage and Adam Ant. Paul Cook's daughter Holly, now in the Slits, and seemingly endless numbers of musicians, film-makers, designers, artists, producers, teachers, and writers standing alongside Malcolm's family and friends all touched and moved by this remarkable man.
I was thrilled the first time I met him back in 1994. He was promoting his Paris album and I was working at VH1. Malcolm talked and I listened. This was how it usually went with Malcolm - a flood of anecdote, ideas, odd historical facts and endless enthusiasm which left you overwhelmed, and over-stimulated. In the last few months of his life, I was working with him on a major Radio 2 series and every email, every phone call and every meeting brought with it another reason to be excited and to be inspired. It usually also brought with it another reason to gently bang your head against the desk but somehow that didn't really matter because at the bottom of it all you knew that you were dealing with real genius and that it would be worth it in the end.
We never knew he was ill; I don't think anybody did. Young Kim, his long-standing partner said that the day before he died he was talking about being discharged from hospital; she told me he was planning the radio programmes right up to the end.
And so we sat in the church and gulped as the spray painted coffin - "Too Fast To Live, Too Young To Die", how apt - was carried in and set down. We gulped a bit harder as Young bravely and touchingly talked about the final hours. And we shuffled our feet and felt a bit embarrassed as Bernie Rhodes - "My name is BERNARD!" - staged a bizarre intervention to insert himself into the narrative and then went on to heckle Vivienne Westwood. Was it what Malcolm would have wanted? We weren't sure.
We smiled as a 10 year old girl tap danced along to the Tiffin Boys Choir rendition of You Need Hands, the Max Bygraves song memorably performed by Malcolm in The Great Rock'n'Roll Swindle and then cried a little as we sang it ourselves and endeavoured to follow the order of service instructions to "dance around".
Then the exit of the coffin to the strains of Sid Vicious singing My Way accompanied by cheers and applause, out into the sunshine to the traditional glass sided hearse pulled by black horses with black feathers on their heads waiting take Malcolm away for his final curtain call.
And on the way to Highgate Cemetery we slid out of the procession in Camden to marvel at the hundreds of people lined up to pay their respects and to stand with them for a while, young Rasta guys pulling their hats off as the coffin passed, standing with Paul Cook anonymously in the crowd as they sang Sex Pistols songs at the tops of their voices.
Andy Parfitt|12:29 UK time, Thursday, 22 April 2010
Many years ago, I played in bands and went through the standard (but wonderful) adventure: recording demos, sending them to record companies, music papers and of course the late John Peel at Radio 1 and hoping for a response that in my case never came. Probably the worst moment of my younger life was hearing the 'great news' that a bass player friend who'd recently left our band (equipment differences more likely than musical) had bagged a Maida Vale session for John Peel. While the rest of us languished in a Bristol basement, he travelled to Radio 1's London studio to record three tracks for the great man.
Meeting and working for John Peel some years later - first as his Maida Vale 'Tape Op.' and then later on as Radio 1 leader - you couldn't help but have your breath taken away by the sheer volume of new music incoming to John and his production team; Peel Acres had a barn full of it.
Across the last decade or so, music recording technology has revolutionised the ease with which decent quality tracks can be made (from Garageband to Pro Tools). If John had a barn full of new music, the combination of tech and broadband has turned the output of young UK musicians into an industrial sized-harvest.
So this week is something of a landmark for one of the smaller but significant projects I oversee - BBC Introducing - as we announce that 20,000 artists have submitted their music to the Introducing site. So far we've received more than 45,000 tracks. The Introducing uploader lets new bands send their music directly to the BBC, where producers and presenters decide which acts to play on-air and can recommend these artists for a slot on the BBC Introducing stage at music festivals.
This is the 21st century version of the C90 in the Jiffy bag and gives a systematic way for their material to be heard by BBC producers and played across BBC Radio, TV and Online. Through this method and also through the BBC's wide sharing of new music across networks and local radio, emerging artists give themselves a chance to follow in the footsteps of acts like Florence and the Machine or Chipmunk onto the Introducing Stage or into a studio at Maida Vale to record a session.
One of the coolest features is that the site automatically keeps you informed about your demo's progress - when we've got it, if it's been listened to, where it's been played. But of course one thing hasn't changed and won't ever change - the heart-stopping moment of flat-out joy - hearing that you have been picked to play Glastonbury on a BBC stage and recorded for broadcast later - I can only imagine!
Andy Parfitt is Controller of Radio 1, Popular Music, 1Xtra, Asian Network and Switch
The BBC Introducing web site and blog, where Huw Stephens, Tom Robinson and producer Richard Banks post regularly about new acts, labels and events.
Tom Robinson is hosting 'Introducing Week' on 6Music from 26 April. Steve Lamacq, Andrew Collins, Lauren Laverne and Marc Riley will all have live sessions and interviews with new artists, unearthed via the BBC Introducing network.
The picture shows What Makes You Beautiful performing on the Introducing stage at Reading 2009.
Both were extraordinary for me as it was the first time I had seen them play live with these side-projects and then Thom Yorke went and played acoustic versions of two Radiohead songs, Airbag and Everything In Its Right Place. A perfect finale to a great weekend of music. To top it all off we just went for a walk in the national park at Joshua Tree, the area where Arctic Monkeys recorded their latest album Humbug.
Here are three of my favourite snaps that sum up my experience of Coachella.
1. Danny DeVito
The festival is glamorous. Everyone there is out to impress. It's seriously intimidating how many good looking people are around the place. One day I was sitting in the press area doing interviews and I saw a pair of girls literally lapping the VIP area for the best part of three hours. That's how it is. Star spotting comes easy. The likes of Arctic Monkeys, Kelly Osbourne, Alexa Chung, Jaime Winstone and Daisy Lowe were out in force. Beyonce and Jay-Z seemed very comfortable wandering among the punters and were standing a metre behind me to watch Thom Yorke! They were loving it. Another friend saw them watching The Dirty Projectors with B's little sis Solange. Apparently they were singing every word. My colleague Rodrigo Davies even spoke to Danny DeVito, who was there for a sixth year in a row.
2. The Dead Weather
After an hour of stress while no calls and text would connect because of bad reception, I ended up being driven high speed in a gold buggy through the backstage area and interviewing The Dead Weather as they were gearing up to their performance on the Outdoor Stage. Massive highlight to meet Jack White and Alison Mosshart.
3. Sunsets
There's not a festival in the world I don't think which has better sunsets than Coachella. The warm sun drops behind the mountains and you get this.
I have now experienced a day at Coachella Festival, what's tipped as America's answer to Glastonbury, and feel suitably informed to be able to give you the lowdown.
I've come here to report on it for BBC 6 Music with a fellow music journo, but also to see what a festival in the desert has to offer for a hardened festival nut like myself.
Photo by Vaughn Youtz from coachella.com
We're doing this festival with a group of American Coachella old-timers who know the game. They've hired 'condos' for us in the sleepy city of Palm Springs, known for its retirement credentials.
The festival itself is an hour drive away from our peaceful retreat. I think it's the way to do it as camping would be uncomfortable in this heat, to say the least. You'd wake up half-baked at sunrise. However, it's swings and roundabouts. Last night it took two hours to get out of a grid-locked car park. It not just the UK's infrastructure that can't cope with the influx and mass-exodus of festival-goers!
To picture it, imagine an expanse of polo fields, surrounded by palm trees, set against a backdrop of mountains. By day it's a scorcher, 86 degrees plus, which apparently is quite 'cool' according to our American friends. It's not! By night, the temperature drops and it turns into an otherwordly land of beautifully lit art installations with a pyramid of lasers shot into the sky directly above the plot.
A fenced-off VIP area, fit with speakers, looks out over the pitch where the main stage is located so all the media lovies, hollywood stars and groupies don't even need to move and get to see some music as well. Bonus! Mind you that is where the beer is so I'm not surprised it's always full. Even the latest Dr Who, Matt Smith, has parked his tardis here and got involved. Other spots include Danny DeVito, the Arctic Monkeys, Alexa Chung, Jaime Winstone, the list goes on.
The crowds are some of the most attentive and polite audiences I think I have ever experienced at a festival. Maybe that's because of the strict rules of where you can drink alcohol and where you can't. You have to buy and finish any beverage in the drinking area from which you brought it, which means... shock horror... you can't have a beer while watching the bands, rendering you thirsty for ever-more. Every cloud though, it does mean there is not a flying cup of urine in sight. You have no chance of a crowd-surfer landing on your head, or getting insnared into one of those mosh pit circles of death.
The 75,000 strong hoard each day is mostly made of up people dressed to impress, but not in the English way where you don a silly hat and some garish lycra. Here the masses don their finest shades, are on trend in every way and it's less 'put your lighters up', more 'put your iphones up'. I've even seen a stretch hummer leaving the car park.
I don't want this post to sound too scathing because on the whole this festival does have a LOT to offer. The surroundings and idyllic sunsets are a thing to behold and above all, the music is excellent, which is why I've come. Pretty much every act I've seen has been a highlight and I was fully blown away by Fever Ray's set. The sound at every stage and tent I've visited has been bang-on and the artists have exceeded my expectations, but it's just it's so regimented. There are so many rules in place that you can't quite let go. You don't see the unique spectacles that grace festivals in Europe, whether it's the emo trolley wars I've seen at Reading, a gig from a band hanging in a tree at Secret Garden Party or the general fancy dress idiocy of Bestival. It seems like a bit of a trade off to me, but my mind might be changed. I've still got two more days to go!
Related Links 6 Music News - more coverage of Coachella
Paul Rodgers|13:02 UK time, Wednesday, 7 April 2010
Let me start with the understatement of my year thus far: There's a lot of stuff going on in and around 6 Music at the moment.
But amidst all the grabbier statements about 6 Music's future (or lack of one) and its plans, its new talent, new shows, the high birth rate among its presenters, the news that the Station's overnight schedule has been given a Spring Clean might understandably have been overlooked. So, for anyone who is interested in what 6 Music does with its archive documentaries, music sessions and concerts, here's a brief outline describing our arrangements from Easter 2010 and some background to add a bit of context.
Night times on 6 Music used to be largely voice-tracked. From midnight to the early hours of the morning, Chris Hawkins, Clare McDonnell (and others) would link the various documentary series, music sessions, concerts and tracks which were scheduled throughout the nights. The theory was that using presenters would give these oftentimes quite disparate elements some personality appeal as well as greater consistency of tone. However, a problem started to become apparent. It was clear that grouping this content within single shows with long durations meant that listeners couldn't easily find the documentaries and music archive when they were using the iPlayer.
To make orientation on the iPlayer and other schedule information clearer, we've exposed the elements of these long shows, so that people can now more easily find the great material they contain. Documentary series such as The Beginner's Guide To Reggae, profiles of George Martin, Glyn Johns, Tony Visconti, Chris Thomas and Todd Rundgren in The Record Producers, and the excellent Me & Billie Holliday are now more visible, as are some compelling music sessions and live gigs from artists such as White Stripes, Working Week and World Party.
As well as achieving clearer billings information (something which is essential in the digital domains) the reorganization of the night time schedule has made space to repeat some of the important music interviews and journalism originated on 6 Music. So, if you missed Craig Charles' edgy interview with the poet, author and musician Gil Scott Heron, you get a second chance by tuning into the new Joy of Six slot, or want to hear what Steve Lamacq and his guests think of the week's new releases, you can try before you buy by listening to 6 Music Recommends. Both these programmes are also offered as downloads, and another benefit of the night-time re-jig is to free up space for regular and ad hoc downloadable content. The dozen Easter Egg Podcasts from Adam & Joe fits this category, as does the soon to be available series, the Best of Tom Robinson's Introducing .
Finally, the reorganization of the night time schedule has given 6 Music the chance to give a little bit back to the lovers of Stuart Maconie's Freakzone, which airs on Sundays at 6pm, straight after Jarvis Cocker's Sunday Service. Because of the ambition to evolve the Sunday schedule over recent months, the Freakzone has gradually been clipped from three to two hours duration. Not a popular move with the Children of the Zone, I am aware. But it doesn't seem too unreasonable a trade-off as it helps make space for new additions such as Cerys Matthews, Adam Buxton, Jarvis Cocker and 25% more Huey Morgan.
But from Easter, Stuart Maconie's exploratory music surgery gets its lost hour back, albeit at midnight on Saturday. We hope listeners to the new Freakier Zone who don't want to stay up late will use the iPlayer to access Stuart and the Prof at a more convenient time.
Usually something purely perfunctory sits here; a paragraph or two of nonsense that you most likely skip through. But this month it's important to note the passing of two powerful creative forces in music, two inspirational individuals whose legacies will rightly linger for many years to come.
Alex Chilton, guitarist and vocalist with Big Star, died of a heart attack on March 17. A tribute show replaced the scheduled Big Star performance at this year's South By Southwest conference in Austin, Texas. Chilton released several solo albums in addition to many with both Big Star and The Box Tops - newcomers are advised to introduce themselves to the man's talents via the acquisition of last year's fantastic Keep an Eye on the Sky set or, if money doesn't stretch so far, 1972's Number 1 Record, Big Star's debut. News items on Chilton's death can be found here.
Perhaps more shocking than Chilton's sudden death was that of Sparklehorse main-man Mark Linkous, who committed suicide on March 6. He is reported to have shot himself in the heart. On a personal note, this hit me much harder than Chilton's death - the music of Sparklehorse is ripe with the most exquisite melancholy, and though Linkous had almost died once, in 1996, I didn't see a similar event occurring. I met him, a few years back, and was charmed by an unexpectedly sunny disposition. He'd moved into the country, and seemed happy with his lot. Sparklehorse's third album, It's a Wonderful Life, is one of my favourites. At the time of his suicide he was working on a new Sparklehorse record, and had only recently completed his collaboration with Danger Mouse, Dark Night of the Soul. The latter is released officially this summer, and new Sparklehorse material, one imagines, will emerge in similar fashion to Elliott Smith's posthumous fare. A BBC news article on Linkous's death can be found here.
Just quickly, a slight aside. One of my favourite British bands of recent years, Youthmovies, called it a day in March. Their farewell tour culminated with an impressive concert in the round in their hometown of Oxford, which I was lucky enough to attend. Obviously this isn't a 'passing' of comparable import to the above, but the five-piece's ambitious, prog-flecked indie will be missed. They were, perhaps, just a little too far ahead of the commercial curve.
Onto brighter matters: the following represents a selection from a fine crop of new albums released in March. The month, as in years past, has been kind to ears but less so to wallets, with an abundance of long-players well worthy of investing in.
- - -
Liars - Sisterworld
(Mute, released 8 March)
"Even after taking their brilliant previous form into consideration, Sisterworld is perhaps Liars' masterpiece, showcasing as it does all strands of their sound so far. They are unlikely to be part of a Facebook campaign to get to number one anytime soon but, as a thrilling, dense and slightly barmy proposition, this is the ideal entrance that any floating voters had been looking for."
Liars - Scissor (audio only - official video on YouTube)
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Erykah Badu - New Amerykah, Part Two (Return of the Ankh)
(Island, released 29 March) Recommended by MistaJam
"Badu sings of love with a reverence and poignancy that brings to mind previous masters of this form, like Marvin Gaye (whose lissom, feather-light melodies she evokes with ease) and Stevie Wonder. She is, by no means, 'retro' in her art; it's just been a long time since anyone sang soul music as passionately, wittily and inventively as she does here."
"There was little in Bonobo's first two albums to suggest that Simon Green could ever craft anything as grand, expansive and accomplished as Black Sands. Although parallels with peers are obvious, his fourth album doesn't just sit in their shadows. Rather, it's an inspiring example of how, free of pressure and publicity, he has blossomed into something beautiful at his own pace."
"From its opener, onwards, Option Paralysis' assault (pleasingly) rarely relents. The title might be an acknowledgment of the temptation to repeat a winning formula, but TDEP's fourth LP stretches its makers' imaginations and abilities superbly. Consider it another singular success."
"It's an album that essentially works on intimacy, stealth and guile. Never does it take the grandstanding option, even when the pace steps up a gear. Glimmers of blues, salsa and funk seep seductively into the action, but a strong African heart drives Mulatu as he weaves his highly individual magic in a probing style that is as infectious as it is mysterious."
"'Who am I to say I'm always yours?' she asks, and in one line addresses more romantic uncertainty than entire albums from her would-be peers. Who, if you'd not already guessed, she spectacularly surpasses. 2010's poll-winners' party has only just begun, but expect Goulding to be the last one standing."
Titus Andronicus - The Monitor
(Merok, released 8 March)
"This second full-length from Titus Andronicus (who, like Bruce Springsteen, hail from New Jersey) is an epic and ambitious concept album based around the American Civil War. It sounds both nothing and everything like The Boss - they've taken his influence, twisted and distorted it and made a quite remarkable record."
"Looking from the outside, the job of following up 2006's Ys appeared a task most unenviable. But while, as an album, Have One on Me is huge, sometimes overwhelming, such is the strength and individuality of Newsom's vision that it seems almost inconceivable she could produce anything unremarkable."
"Theirs is the sort of patchwork, irreverent treatment to a genre that could see an outfit critically overlooked, or even maligned. Polar Bear, however, have already drummed up plaudits from such a wriggly approach - 2005's Held on the Tips of Fingers was shortlisted for the Mercury Prize - and Peepers is every bit as good."
"Errors' past material could feel cold, clinical, but not here: where once they chattered like robots, the Scots have grafted real flesh to synthetic bone, threaded veins through tissue and grown a skin that isn't so thick that admirers can't glimpse the inner-workings. This is the machine made man."
