Showing posts with label James Bond. Show all posts
Showing posts with label James Bond. Show all posts

9 December 2008

Sunday 7 December 2008 Chat

The screenplay for Warhead, a James Bond film that was never made, has fetched almost £47,000 at auction.
The script, written by Sir Sean Connery, Len Deighton and Kevin McClory in 1976 had been expecte
d to fetch some £3,000 when it was sold this week as part of Christie's Entertainment Memorabilia sale in London.
In the story James Bond battles robot sharks attempting to plant a nuclear bomb in the sewers beneath New York.

Ironically, the story has appeared just as the big fish above those sewers are creating global meltdown for real.

You know, you're cleverer than you look, Mr Bond.


* * * * * * * * * * *

Graham Norton is taking over from Sir Terry Wogan as the BBC presenter and commentator of the Eurovision Song Contest.
Wogan, 70, has made no secret of his disappointment over bloc voting, saying the competition was "no longer a music contest".
Norton will take over for the 2009 contest, to be held in Moscow.
Stepping down, Wogan said he'll be sad to leave it all behind;
"From my first...it's been nothing but laughter and fu
n...the silly songs, the spectacle, the grandiose foolishness of it all."
"The real highlight was Abba and Waterloo, that was 1974 in Brighton. And Riverdance, which made the small hairs stand u
p on the back of everyone's neck. But that was an interval act and it's the interval acts I remember. Particularly those acts that didn't work on radio, like the clowns."
Norton said, "Sir Terry is a legend and an impossible act to follow, but somebody must and I just couldn't say no".
"I can't wait to get to Moscow. With a combination of cheap vodka and a language barrier what could possibly go wrong?"
But Wogan had the last word; when asked if there was any rumour that he'd left because he himself wanted to perform in 2009, he replied,
"There is no truth in the rumour that I've been dismissed as commentator because myself and Aled Jones are going to sing Little Drummer Boy/Peace on Earth at the Eurovision Song Contest. Musical standards are not that high, but come on, how far down do we have to go?"
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A good number of British acts are included in the shortlist for this year's Grammy Awards.
Better still, as far as I'm concerned, the list includes several albums, songs and acts that have been featured on my radio show over past months.
It's particularly good to know Raising Sand, the excellent album by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss and produced by T Bone Burnett, is up for several awards.
These include
album of the year, together with Col
dplay (Viva la vida), Lil Wayne (Tha Carter III), Ne-Yo (Year of the Gentleman) and Radiohead (In rainbows).
Raising Sand is also a contender for
record of the year with Please read the letter, against Adele (Chasing pavements), Coldplay (Viva la vida), Leona Lewis (Bleeding love) and M.I.A. (Paper planes).
Altogether The Recording Academy will be presenting 110 Awards at the Grammy ceremony in February next year.

3 November 2008

Sunday 2 November 2008 Chat

The 22nd movie in the James Bond cannon, Quantum of Solace (the title of which doesn't sound nearly so bad now we're all used to it) has broken box office records on its UK opening day.
The movie took £4.9m on Friday, beating the previous record for a Friday opening, £4.025m, held b
y Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. That's going some.
The success of the new Daniel Craig epic can be judged when compared with his earlier outing, Casino Royale, which took £2.9m on the first day of release just two years ago.
Casino Royale and Daniel Craig went on to win acclaim among both fans and critics and the film became the most popular of 2006, taking more than £50m that the British box office alone.
As James Christopher, writing in The Times said, "Really, nobody does it better than the new 007."

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Ex studio band for Stax-Volt Records in the 1960s, Booker T and the MGs have been inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame in Nashville, Tennessee.
The band played on many hits including, Sitting on the dock of the bay, Hold on (I'm comin'), Try a little tenderness and Soul man
before establishing a reputation in their own right with the instrumental, Green onions, in 1962.
Named after their young keyboard player and an MG car belonging to record producer Chips Moman, the band backed Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Eddie Floyd, The Staple Singers, Wilson Pickett and many others.
While Booker T was away studying music at Indiana University, Isaac Hayes would sit in, although never an official member of the group.
In 1967 they had another hit with Hip hug-her
, followed by Doin' our thing and Soul limbo, famously used for BBC Test Match Special.
In 1969 they had their second biggest hit with Time is tight
.
Called the most influential stylists in modern American music, Booker T and the MGs were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992, in 2004 Rolling Stone magazine ranked the group 93rd in their list of 100 greatest artists of all time, and in 2007 they were presented with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
My personal favourite? - their version of Winter wonderland.

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Alas and alack, it has been announced that David Tennant is to stand down as Doctor Who.
This is a bitter blow for fans of one of the most popular Time Lords ever, even if his recent outings with the Royal Shakespeare Company did perhaps suggest the tardis may have lost something of its sparkle.
Tennant took control of the BBC police box and sonic screwdriver in 2005.
The 10th actor to play the Doctor, Tennant replaced Christopher Ecclestone, who reinvented the role after a broadcast gap of almost 20 years.
This week that role won Tennant the outstanding drama performance prize at the National Television Awards for the third time.
He'll appear in a Christmas special, The Next Doctor, before filming four more specials in January.
"They'll be the last four stories that I do," he said.
The question now has to be who will replace Tennant at the helm of the tardis, and whether, with executive producer Russell T Davies also leaving the show, another change of Doctor may be a regeneration too far.
This is the Doctor and time alone will tell.

4 August 2008

Sunday 3 August 08 Chat

It's been announced that R&B singer Alicia Keys and Jack White, the rocker from White Stripes and The Raconteurs, have recorded the theme song for the James Bond movie, Quantum of Solace.
An unlikely coupling on the face of it, but no more so than the now successful artistic pairing of jazz diva Amy Winehouse and DJ Mark Ronson, who, let's not forget, were in the running to compose the new Bond song until Amy's demons surfaced once again.

We'll have to wait until November for the 22nd Bond movie and Daniel Craig, while the film of the moment and proclaimed 'artistic crime of the century' is the astonishing Man on Wire.
This is the much applauded feature-length documentary about the exploits of Frenchman, Philippe Petit, who in August 1974 and 1350 feet up, wire-walked between the Twin Towers of New York's World Trade Center. Eight times.
Petit, now 58, was never prosecuted for the illegal act. Rather his bravery was recognised with a lifetime pass to the Twin Towers observation deck.
At the time he can only have expected the Towers would outlast him, but as we now know they were destroyed by terrorists on 11 September 2001. Which makes Petit's amazing courage and
this film all the more poignant. See it if you can.

If you haven't been to the cinema this past week perhaps you've been to something a little more humdrum, such as the famous Hen Races at Bonsall near Matlock in Derbyshire, where the 'World's Fastest Hen' was crowned on Saturday.
As well as being a lot of fun (chickens have been known to run back to their owners rather than to the winning end of the 2-meter course), the event at The
Barley Mow in Bonsall raises money for the Battery Hen Welfare Trust, which as a committed supporter of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's Chicken Out campaign to see chickens reared outdoors, is also endorsed by yours truly.






As well as homing ex-battery chickens through the Trust, for £17.99 it's also possible to sponsor ex-bats and ensure their free-range future.

Mum & dad, I've got news for you: you've got everything you could possibly need so I've bought you a ex-battery hen from BHWT for your anniversary... The good news is that with sponsorship you'll never need to clean up the mess on the carpet.

3 August 2008

Sunday 3 August 08 Playlist

The Surfaris: Wipeout
Los Lobos: The fat man
Amanda McBroom: Erryl Flynn
Paul Simon & Ladysmith Black Mambazo: Diamonds on the soles of her shoes
Marilyn Monroe: Diamonds are a girl's best friend
The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain: Miss Dy-na-mi-tee
Silje Nergaard: Paper boats
Bill Monroe & his Bluegrass Boys: Orange blossom special
Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong: Our love is here to stay


Featured album: The Golden Age of American Popular Music -
The Jazz Hits
Herbie Hancock: Watermelon man
Mel Torme: Comin' home baby
The Vince Guaraldi Trio: Cast your fate to the wind
Cannonball Adderley: Mercy, mercy, mercy




Featured film: Kill Bill Vol 1 OST
Nancy Sinatra: Bang bang (my baby shot me down)
Quincy Jones: Ironside (excerpt)
Charlie Feathers: That certain female
T
he 5.6.7.8's: Woo hoo



Overall show theme: James Bond
Shirley Bassey: Goldfinger
Duran Duran: View to a kill
Sheryl Crow: Tomorrow never dies
Paul McCartney & Wings: Live and let die
Shirley Bassey: Diamonds are forever
Louis Armstrong: We have all the time in the world
Sheena Easton: For your eyes only
Matt Monroe: From Russia with love