Sparring Partners
The build up to our live show on Thursday, some background on some of our guests, and some cultural recommendations to get you through the week of April 25th.
It’s a show week at VERYFINE towers, which means we’re cycling through the usual extremes of emotion - buzzing with excitement one minute, flapping about with anxiety the next. The same thing happens to me before every live show, and I keep trying to remind myself that it always works out brilliantly in the end. Maybe I should get that tattooed on my arm… While I ponder that dilemma, here are some titbits, links and recommendations to get you through the week.
The Live Show! Did I mention we’re doing a show this week? I did? Well, I tell you what, I’ll shut up about it if you promise me you’ll buy a ticket. We’ve got a cracking lineup. Potter Keith Brymer Jones will be talking about the post-punk band that soundtracked his younger years; Dr. Rachel Clarke will be telling us about the song she played at the beginning of each shift before going in to ‘battle’ during the early weeks of the Covid crisis. We’ll be rocking out with MyAnna Buring. And actress and campaigner Crystal Marshall will be telling us all about the song that helped her rebuild her confidence after a brain tumour derailed her career. You won’t be disappointed.
Hot Off The (Virtual) Press - the lovely folks at RunRiot have featured us in their blog this week. We talked to them all about some of the highlights of the show over the past six years, (as well as our upcoming Wilton’s show). Check it out here.
A Book! How’s this for a OneTrackMinds-inspired book title: The Sound of Being Human: How Music Shapes Our Lives. I mean, come on! That’s like the whole ethos of our show! Of course we’re going to love this book. It’s written by the brilliant Jude Rogers, and it’s published on Thursday. We’re looking forward to getting Jude on the show later in the year. Watch this space…
More Books! It was Record Store Day on Sunday - up with vinyl! Down with vinyl bores! - and in celebration, the team at Bookshop shared some reading lists of essential music books. Check them out here.
An article! And if you’re already over the vinyl revival, you may enjoy reading Rob Sheffield’s article in Rolling Stone in praise of the CD. Frankly, I hated CDs, and those horrible fragile plastic boxes they came in… (Jewel cases! Pah!)
A Song! Is it just me or are there a lot of very bad movies being dumped on the streaming platforms at the moment? (Perhaps one of the reasons Netflix and others are shedding subscribers by the hundreds of thousands…). Case in point - Deep Water on Amazon Prime. Jeez… If you’ve seen it, you’ll know what I mean. And if you haven’t, don’t bother. It’s such a wasted opportunity! It’s based on an absolutely cracking Patricia Highsmith novel, that shares all the sinister shithousery of her Ripley series; it’s directed by Adrian Lyne, famous for Fatal Attraction, Indecent Proposal and Jacob’s Ladder among other modern classics. And yet… it stinks! We gave it about twenty minutes, which was more than enough time to regret ever turning it on, but just enough time to catch a tiny little highlight - Ana De Armas playing the piano and singing an enjoyably drunken version of Paolo Conte’s Via Con Me. You know it - it was in an advert a while back. Anyway… the film is terrible, but the song is lovely, and you can watch a clip of it here (without having to endure Ben Affleck attempting to look sad).
Another (Bonus) Song and a Film! While we’re on the subject of Paolo Conte, I first came across him after watching the superb French marital drama 5x2 (sadly not available to stream in the UK…) directed by François Ozon. The movie is great - it’s about the slow dissolution of a marriage, told in five parts going back in time from the end of the relationship to the first time the couple meet. It doesn’t sound very cheery, I know. But I promise you, it’s great. And, (bold claim coming up) it features the greatest use of music in an end credit sequence in the history of cinema. (Disagree with me if you will, but let us know in the comments if you can think of a better one). The song, Sparring Partner, is the Paolo Conte track in question, and it’s just brilliant. Listen to it here.
Another Article! Journalist Nick Duerden interviewed a hit parade of pop stars (including Robbie Williams, Kevin Rowland from Dexy’s, Terrence Trent D’Arby (remember him?)) about life after pop stardom. He’s also written a book about it called Exit Stage Left which is published on Thursday. (h/t Austin Kleon).
That’s it for this week. Thanks for reading. Let us know what you think of The Long Player in the comments below. We’d love to hear your thoughts, and any recommendations for books, articles, films, and of course songs. And please come along to our show on Thursday! It’s going to be great.