It was a great effort. I'm sure that somewhere John Barry will have been smiling.

Great job Mark ^_^

Considering you're an amateur player of the chromatic harmonica, performing live with one of the finest orchestras in the country, I'd say you did pretty damn well Mark. I really enjoyed those two shows, by the way. The saxophone in the Taxi Driver score was phenomenal. And the Star Wars melody was great too, I turned my speakers up to max for The Imperial March.

There are often times when "celebrities" talk down their skills and it's very much a case of false modesty. Mark, you give the sincere impression that you undervalue your musical talents, which, to be honest, is very refreshing. It's underlined in an example like this, despite your obvious nervousness, the rendition was wholly beautiful, bravo sir, bravo.

A fine job.

Good job, Doctor Kermode! :)

Whilst i always knew you could pull it off,when i heard the first few bars i thought i was listening to recording it was so pitch perfect. You surpassed all expectations it was utterly sublime and you should definately keep playing.Althought while you were preoccupied the Barbarians of world cinema have been feeling smug thinking old Kermode is out of the way leaving them to run amok. I hope it will be buisness as usual from now on.

Great job Mark! Learning a new instrument is never easy, especially if you're performing a huge gig in just a matter of days.

That was fantastic. You're incredibly versatile. Look forward to your next challenge - perhaps the harp in a Marx Brothers tribute?

Considering jut how nervous you clearly were just before your performance, and what a tricky piece it is even though it sounds quite simple, you really did a fantastic job Dr K. Well done! :D

Kudos Dr. K, a lovely rendition, did justice to one of the most indelible melodies of cinema!

Do you know what Dr K whether you had been good, bad,or indifferent (actually I thought you were a triumph) the most important thing for me personally was to see you put your heart and soul into it all. No one can ask for more, and the look of sheer achievement on your face at the end of it all, was I'm sure worth every hour of nerve jangling practice. Well done!

Although it is obvious that you are nervous, I hadn't realised what achingly beautiful music it is. Don't duck out now!

Dr. K, the rare critic with actual talent! Great job! I enjoyed the rest of the show, too.

Great Mark, just great! :D

Sounds very good from here! Was fun to see the videos of build up.

Very nice work Sir.

Don't completely give up on the chromatic harmonica now Dr K! Not after all this effort you've put in to getting to playing it in the first place.

Being honest (I watched the long version on YouTube); you did well, but this is the highlights version video.

There was some faltering in the first half, nerves I imagine, but with the main melody you did really well.



Given you only had two weeks prep it was really good, and in public too! Cojones Dr K!



But as good as Toots Thieleman on the original? Or Tommy Reilly on the soundtrack album?

They're both clearly both more relaxed about playing this (and did it for a living).

There's a version from each below.

Toots:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eu0hO3BpFpg

Tommy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pT9rqL0dSlU



But a hell of an effort. Well done.



So what's next with the harmonica?

I'll suggest something from Once Upon a Time In The West...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIgNCD3nzOg

Congrats on a fine performance - hoping to see all of the song one day- life is hard for us colonial commoners - perhaps Youtube will be in the offering?



Do not put the chromatic harmonica in its case, keep it going with some new skiffle songs.



What's next for you? A screenplay? A directorial debut -- I have a feeling 'Iron Sky II 3D' :) will need a director...

I love Film Music so first of all THANK YOU for a great afternoon of music. Even better watching it as a live screening. Mark, you played very well after perhaps an understandably nervous start. You then played with depth, emotion and feeling and reached the heart of the piece. I was moved by your performance. Thank you and well done again. Will you be playing it at again at the John Barry Memorial Concert on 20th July? Someone should seriously sign you up!

Congrats on a job well done Mark... it sounded great.

You gave a superb performance, so it did turn out 'alright on the night'. Your rendition of Midnight Cowboy with the BBC Philharmonic did bring a tear to my eye. It is one of John Barry's best and most evocative pieces written for the screen.



I can only admire your talent and guts in playing this piece with such a short rehearsal time. Nerves aside, it was brilliant.

Dr K, this was magnificent! I was sitting in my car, in Sweden, listening live and I thought i was a real fine moment. The music is very emotional but the fact that you showed such a brave heart added something very fine to this experience. Doing something when you´re really terrified of doing it is being truly brave. I am a musician and I can fully understand your feeling when you dicovered that it was the chromatic harmonica instead of the bluesharp. I am also a lecturerer in motivation and I will use this as a very good example on the importance of challenging your comfort zones. Thank you!

Dr K - I listened live last Friday and what a sterling gig.

At the end of your performance, I was stood at my desk, a tear in my eye and applauding loudly (much to the puzzlement of those around me).



Thank You...

Great jo Dr K, especially with the short time you had to learn it. I swear it brought a tear to Simon Mayo eyes. Now all you need is a pair of sunglasses and a white shirt and tie combo to go with your natty suit and you're a dead ringer to what Elwood Blues would look now.

I loved the whole show - a gorgeous reminder that film scores are worthy of more respect than they normally get. And the harmonica playing was great once you (and the band) had settled down.

i think you were excellent Dr K. the whole show was fantastic

If I wasn't so skint I'd go out and buy a cap specifically so I could doff it to you. Kudos to you and your titanium testes Dr K.

impressed!

Well done Mark

I'm a keen amateur chromatic harmonica player and I play this theme often. Take it from me, you're good! (P.S. I don't agree that you can't play a duff note on a blues harp - I find it easy)

I'd say that was perfectly fine! Really fun to watch.

FANTASTIC JOB!!

You and your big mouth organ deserve respect as a fellow gob iron player whose never touched a Chromatic one appreciates the effort and skill required,as mentioned to a fellow National Harmonica League member perhaps you have ushered in a new era of cool which was lost thanks to a former politician. Respect my friend

I have these weird parental feelings, as I've seen you practise and then, your eventual performance of it :) I felt like cheering! Shame Simon had a tepid expression on his face.



Having played the clarinet and recorder as a child, its almost nostalgic even if it is different instruments :D



I have slagged you off in the past for one of your vids, but here, I noticed that familiar shiver I get whenever I'm impressed by something(am I the only one that experiences this?) and while it wasn't perfect(got better when you got into it), it was a commendable effort, esp. as you learnt to play it in such little time. Well done :)

Well done, and congratulations on successfully concealing your terror!



I've also just listened to the 5live podcast, and was impressed by the collection chosen for the orchestra (special thanks for Paloma's tango). But, and forgive me if I'm bringing up something that has already been debated, I think there was a glaring omission from the chosen composers - Lalo Schifrin. I know that some of his work is the stuff of ringtones - Mission Impossible, for example, but shouldn't he have been considered for some of his better scores, such as Bullitt, or the Dirty Harry movies? That jazzy style epitomises the 'gritty cop' genre from that era and has had a recent resurgence in cinema, tv and even video games.



Too late now, I know, but if you ever plan something like this again....

It was brave to volunteer to play with the orchestra and doubly brave when you realised you'd have to play an instrument you'd not touched before; the results were excellent though!

Excellent, you did Barry proud. PS Will the video EVER be available to us Americans? I'd love to watch and hear the whole thing.

THE KERMODE PREVAILED, as expected. I think Mark faked not knowing how to play the chromatic though and was a boss on it all along.

Good job.

"That'll do, Kermode... That'll do."

I would have been more impressed if you'd played it on the Theramin, but...yes I reckon you pulled it off.



Excellent backing band by the way!



Liminal

Fantastic effort under the circumstances Dr K.



The beauty of the piece really shone through. I shut my eyes and in my mind I was on the bus with Voight and Hoffman watching the Miami palm trees go by. What more can we ask for?

Pretty damn impressive learning a new instrument in a matter of days! Great session of music - enjoyed it all :)

Very good, Did you really have only a week to learn the Chromonica?!? Concerning Taxi Driver though Ronnie Lang was saxophonist on the film. Tom Scott just did a few of pop versions on the soundtrack album. Nice one John!

Well done, Mark. What an achievement. There's nothing better than that feeling of transcendence you get when you go from being all wobbly kneed in nervous anticipation and just become absorbed in the task at hand to the exclusion of all else. That's the point at which you relax and get on with truly performing and start enjoying yourself and it all comes together. This has got to be the realisation of a dream you never even knew you had.

I'm going to be super lazy and just say in reference to all the above comments: dito!



Oh and one other thing.... I really don't think you should put that harmonica back in the box!

No Ennio Morricone? Why? You could have done Story of a Soldier.

I think we live in a strange world when online film bloggers are popular enough / profitable enough to justify getting the bbc philharmonic to accompany them on mouth organ. Not that I didn't love the performance. Or to put it another way, how many more people will view this video than view some of the year's best indie movies? Just weird.

I've had this tune in my head for the last week since I heard the programme so I just had to post a comment as I thought it was such a great performance. Both the concerts, the 5live one and the Radio 3 performance, were just brilliant but Midnight Cowboy was a particular highlight. Well done Mark! (Don't give up on that chromatic harmonica just yet.)

Well done sir.

fantastic performance, truly memorable, will go down as one of the magical moments of the show's history that we'll all look back on in years to come.



Wish you could play that clip at the end of the show next week so we can have the show played out by your Midnight Cowboy before they switch over to Drive after.



That is of course if a) you didn't do it this week(haven't caught up with the podcast yet) or b) some poxy tennis have shoved you from the schedule for next week(again, will find out in the podcast).



Either way thank you Mark.

to be honest, it was rubbish. but like a parent attending their child's recital, I couldn't be prouder.

Well, considering how little time you had to practice, you did a pretty good job, Dr. K., but I would be dishonest, if I said that it sounded flawless, even to my unmusical ear.

Nevertheless, I'm quite impressed. Not as much about your performance but about your courage to go through with it and I think a hint of amateurism is not even a bat thing for an event like this ;-)

A great emotional piece of music and you did it justice Mark....great job!

Fine work, Mark. You really blow. Pretty good backup band, too.

Sublime playing Mr Kermode! Unlike most critics you are willing to put yourself out there to be judged.