Sunday 19 April 2009 Chat

I'm not a fan of reality TV or talent shows and I find Simon Cowell's persona (and trousers) so unattractive that I don't usually watch his programmes.
But after seeing the phenomenon that is Susan Boyle on Britain's Got Talent last weekend and online via pretty much every world-wide media outlet this week, I've had to adjust my attitude.
What is it about Susan Boyle that's made her admittedly outstanding vocal performance a world-wide success, with some 10m hits on YouTube alone?
Somehow the combination of her appearance and manner and her astonishing performance has reduced a global audience to tears.
Is it her voice, her straightforward, simple manner, her determination to be heard, her frumpiness, her ordinariness, her total lack of ego?
Or has she attracted adulation as a result of the wider recession, global depression and our shared need to be encouraged and uplifted?
Does her joyous performance inspire us to hope that we similarly ordinary folk no longer in the first flush of youth, can also aspire to success?
Whatever it is - and it may be some of all of the above, Susan Boyle has managed to create what so many of us secretly wish we could generate and somehow take advantage of - unparallelled and entirely positive adulation.
And now the person Susan Boyle most seeks to emulate, musical actress Elaine Paige, has offered to duet with her.
Astonishing. Simply astonishing.

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I have never before seen the fruit machine behind anyone's eyes come up all cherries! Watch Simon Cowell's eyes as he watches Susan Boyle and see for yourself!

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Another terrific act from Britain's Got Talent hit the headlines this weekend; check out the performance of Shaheed Jafargholi from Wales. Two incredible performances in two weeks, that's some going, even for Simon Cowell.

Sunday 1 March 2009 Chat

I don't know what it is about the People's Plinth and Anthony Gormley's idea that I like so much, but like it I do.
Anthony Gormley is an artist, sculptor, all-round man of the people and best known (I guess) as the designer of Angel of the North, the immense open-armed metal structure, modelled on himself, that towers above the A1 and welcomes travellers to Gateshead and Tyneside.
Now he's been charged with filling the fourth plinth in London's Trafalgar Square for 100 days from 6 July this year.
I'm guessing it was anticipated Gormley himself might sculpt an artistic creation for the purpose. But no.
Used to producing BIG ideas Gormley's come up with something even bigger and more monumental than anything he's come up with before - and after the Angel nobody thought that was possible.
Gormley's idea is truly monumental; he's inviting people from all over the UK to apply for a one hour slot to do whatever they want on the plinth, as long as it's legal.
For a total of 2,400 hours the fourth plinth will be a representation of humanity, time allocated according to areas of population in an effort to make this a genuinely national 'work'.
For artistic work it most assuredly will become, a 100-day living monument in the company of Trafalgar Square's existing male, military figures, allowing us, the viewer, to reflect on the individual in contemporary society. Apparently.
Thankfully there's BIG money behind this idea, funding 4 cameras on the plinth, all streaming live via Sky Arts and recorded as an archive. A BIG project, indeed.
Will the People's Plinth become an artistic 'Big Brother'? Is this a reality-TV experiment that will attract applicants intent on grabbing 60 minutes of fame where 15 seconds are usually more than enough? Are we going to be watching the creative equivalent of paint drying?
With a sky-high risk factor, a height at which Gormley is after all used to operating, this idea is surely the ultimate in public, community, art and without question a potentially thrilling idea.

Anthony Gormley's People's Plinth project is called One & Another. For an hour on the People's Plinth applicants must be over 16 and UK residents. Volunteers will be lifted to the plinth via a lift platform, making it disabled accessible. Applications can be made immediately and those chosen will be notified from April.
Register at www.oneandother.co.uk or send a large envelope and £1.08 in stamps to Artichoke, Toynbee Studios, 28 Commercial Street, London E16AB.
GOOD LUCK and see you at the Plinth!

Sunday 22 February 2009 Chat

As Festivals Director I've become somewhat concerned by comments made in response to the ValeFest music project's first pilot festival, Winterval, which as regular readers will know, took place in and around the Vale of Belvoir at the end of January.
It feels like the committee is expected to deliver perfect events from the outset, without being given space or time to test ideas and, more specifically, to be allowed to make mistakes.
Events, like almost anything else, have to develop over time, as Scott Berkun suggests in his book, 'The Myths of Innovation',
"The dirty little secret - the fact often denied - is that unlike the mythical epiphany, real creation is sloppy. Discovery is messy; exploration is dangerous. No one knows what he’s going to get when he is being creative.
"Creative work cannot fit neatly into plans, budgets, and schedules. Magellan, Lewis and Clark, and Captain Kirk were all sent on missions into the unknown with clear understanding that they might not return with anything, or even return at all."
Messy and dangerous in its way, ValeFest has already proved it's capable of delivering the goods. It's a good beginning.

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A number of radio listeners have been in touch asking what was meant by my reference to Quincy Jones' 'living Grammy record' in last week's blog.
The answer is reasonably simple;
Hungarian-born orchestral and operatic conductor Sir George Solti was awarded the most Grammies ever, winner of 31 awards and mentioned on a further 7: 6 won by an engineer and 1 by a soloist.
Sir George died in 1997.
Quincy Jones has so far won 27 Grammy awards. He has a prodigious musical output and shows no sign of slowing down. He could well win further awards in coming years.
Including her wins of a week ago, Alison Krauss has so far been presented with 26 Grammies. She too has a vast output and is, of course, far younger than Jones.
Whether Alison Krauss can overtake Quincy Jones and if either will succeed in beating Sir George's all-time Grammy award-winning record, time alone will tell.

Sunday 15 February 2009 Chat

Pleased as I was to see Duffy, Estelle and Adele receive Grammy honours, I was chuffed to bits that BB King, now 83 years of age, has been recognised for his brilliant album, 'One Kind Favour'.
Possibly his best work of the past 10 or more years, this album compares favourably with the all-time best Traditional Blues Albums.
Incredible work justly rewarded.
As if that wasn't enough, the Blind Boys of Alabama won their fifth Traditional Gospel Grammy for the fantastic 'Down in New Orleans'. What an amazing legacy for gospel music.
But it was Robert Plant who with Alison Krauss (now winner of 26 Grammy awards!) who picked up 5 awards and stole this year's show.
The blissful harmonies and delicate production by T Bone Burnett rightly won 'Raising Sand' Album of the Year, plus Record of the Year for Just Read the Letter, Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals for Rich Woman, Best Contemporary Folk/Americana Album & Best Country Collaboration with Vocals, for Killing the Blues. Some haul!
And Alison Krauss is now just one Grammy away from Quincy Jones's living record of 27 Grammy wins.
Finally, because it was released earlier in the States which brought it into the eligibility period, my current album of the month, the fabulous Dr John & the Lower 911, with their album 'City that Care Forgot', won the gong for Best Contemporary Blues Album.
Happy? If there had been a chandelier handy I would still be swinging from it!

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After the success of ValeFest's pilot music festival, Winterval (25-31 January) here in the Vale of Belvoir (pronounced 'Beaver'), I've received some quite humbling comments and testimonials from children, bands and others involved in the project.
Taking on the task without payment, if anyone ever asks whether all the effort to bring the community together through music, promote local musicians and help the local economy was worthwhile, I have only to look at those messages.
Some are or will be featured the ValeFest website shortly. Meanwhile, here's an example from a Vale of Belvoir venue manager;
"After talking to Mitch at length about the idea of ValeFest I decided it was a great idea and I'm glad we got involved.
"We thought at The Manners Arms that we would be best suited to an acoustic session held in our bar and lounge area, partly due to the night we chose and also the question would we fill it?
"Well, what can I say? - we had the busiest Thursday in months! We were full from 7.30 til close and a great night was had by all.
"This is definitely something we'd do again and help to support the ValeFest vision."

Paul Hoad,Chef Manager
The Manners Arms, Knipton

How cool it that?!

Sunday 1 February 2009 Chat

John Martyn has died aged 60.
He battled alcohol and drug addiction throughout his adult years and yet was widely regarded as one of the most innovative singer songwriters of his generation.
Producing a unique blend of blues and folk and with a tape device known as an Echoplex, he developed an original sound and his albums were considered classics although his work seldom reached the charts.
As a teenager John was a regular at Les Cousins Soho folk club, along with Al Stewart and Ralph McTell. He became the first white act signed to Island Records.
In 1968 he released his first album, London Conversation, and in 1973 dedicated his best-regarded album, Solid Air, to his friend and fellow singer songwriter, Nick Drake, who overdosed and died just after the album was completed, aged 26.
In 1969 John had married blues singer Beverley Kutner but post Solid Air his dependency on drink and drugs toppled into alcoholism. The substance abuse couldn't fail to effect his marriage which ended in the late 1970s.
He later claimed to recording engineer, Phil Brown, never to have written a good song since leaving his wife. Even so, his later albums with WEA, Glorious Fool and Well Kept Secret, were the highest-charting records of his career.
In the 1990s he experimented with electronic dance sounds and featured as a vocalist on the Sister Bliss hit, Deliver Me.
In 2003 he began performing from a wheelchair following the amputation of his right leg below the knee, as a result of complications of drug dependency and alcohol abuse.
He told Q Magazine he had no regrets,
"If I could control myself more I think the music would be less interesting," he said. "I'd probably be a great deal richer but I'd have had far less fun and I'd be making really dull music."
On 4 February 2008 John received a lifetime achievement award at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. Accompanied by John Paul Jones on mandolin, he performed Over the Hill and May You Never at the ceremony and will be remembered for Bless the Weather, Couldn't Love You More and Sweet Little Mystery from his considerable output.
John's work also influenced others, among them Eric Clapton and Phil Collins.
He was appointed OBE in the 2009 New Year Honours and died just a few days later on 29 January.
John Martyn will be missed by everyone who loves original music.

Sunday 11 January 2009 Chat: WINTERVAL!

Click on image to download Winterval poster.

I'm incredibly proud of what ValeFest, Vale of Belvoir Festival of Live Music, has achieved in realising its first week-long festival across the Vale, Melton Mowbray and Grantham, 25-31 January 2009.
Bringing the community together through music, there is something in the events programme for everyone.
For a full list of activities see www.valefest.com
If you enjoy music why don't you come along? I look forward to meeting you.

Sunday 21 December 08 Cool Yule Volume 2/2 Chat

Only the Americans would investigate the effect of climate change by introducing plastic ducks into the equation!
Yep, 90 of the little yellow bath-mates were chucked into a drainage hole in the Greenland ice in September.
But not one of the pesky critters has re-emerged.
The low-tech experiment, conducted by NASA, the US Space Agency, aimed to establish how melt waters find their way through 'plug holes' to the base of sheet ice.
It was hoped the duckies would float along subglacial channels and eventually pop out into the sea.
But not one has so far reappeared.
There's nothing quite so disappointing as taking your ducks to water... and having them sink.

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It's a well known fact that Christmas makes us sentimental and perhaps sentiment, as well as canny business sense, prompted the purchase of a collection of drawings this week.
The originals by EH Shepherd for AA Milne's Winnie the Pooh children's books fetched £1.26m at auction in London.
The top lot, "He went on tracking and Piglet ran after him" was sold for £115,000, a record for the artist, whilst another, "Bump, bump, bump, going up the stairs" fetched £97,000, twice that estimated.
I remember my own much-worn, hard-cover edition of Winnie of Pooh.
The drawings by EH Shepherd drew me into Milne's stories and even now I recall feeling sorry for Eeyore and childish frustration at Pooh's ineptitude.
Between them, Milne & Shepherd created a wonderful world of much-loved characters that helped to shape my childhood.
Judging by the sums raised at this week's sale, clearly they did the same for many others.

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According to an academic at Durham University, one of our most popular Christmas carols contains a secret political code.
Prof Bennett Zon, head of music at Durham, believes O Come all ye Faithful is really a birth ode to Bonnie Prince Charlie, who became the focus for Catholic Jacobites wishing to restore the monarchy to the House of Stuart.
The Bonnie Prince was born in exile, grandson of the last Catholic king, James II, and killed at the Battle of Culloden in 1746 after raising an army to take the British throne.
After the Prince's death the Jacobite cause lost impetus and the carol's secret meaning seemingly faded from memory.
Whatever its rascally political origins, O Come all ye Faithful remains one of Britains' best-loved carols.

Sunday 14 December 08 Cool Yule Volume 1/2 Chat

A new housing development in Dartford, Kent, the town where Mick Jagger and Keith Richards grew up, is to have streets named after Rolling Stones' hits.
"It's not just fun, it puts the place on the map and links to our heritage", Leader of Dartford Council, Jeremy Kite, said when the names were approved this week.
Royal Mail and the emergency services have also OK'd the names, including Little Red Walk, Dandelion Row, Lady Jane Walk, Cloud Close, Angie Mews, Stones Avenue, Sympathy Street, Babylon Close and Ruby Tuesday Drive.
"It's a very groovy development", said Councillor Kite.
It may not have been quite so groovy for future residents if certain alterations hadn't been made; Satisfaction Street has a much more contented ring than the original song title.

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It's an odd thing when someone you know from TV dies.
If they're a good actor you feel you know the person rather than the characters they played.
Otherwise, when an actor dies we recall the roles they inhabited and our relationship with those characters. They anchor us to our past.
Re-runs aside, I'm not sure we feel sorriest for them, for the roles we'll never see them acting again or for the years that telescope behind them, and us.
So it was with mixed feelings that I learned of the death of Kathy Staff who played battleaxe Nora Batty in BBC TV's Last of the Summer Wine.
Kathy Staff was 80 and it's difficult to remember a time when she hasn't been on our screens in one role or another, as cleaner Doris Luke among the wobbling sets of Crossroads, Emmerdale Farm, Coronation Street or with David Jason and Ronnie Barker in Open all Hours.
In Last of the Summer Wine alone she appeared in more than 240 episodes, and although I have fond memories of the famous wrinkled stockings and patterned pinnies, and Nora's antagonism for the ever hopeful Compo, I have no idea what the real Kathy Staff might have been like.
Her characters lived alongside me for years yet the person who gave them substance remained a complete stranger.
Whoever she was, through her characters Kathy Staff brought laughter, warmth and fun into our homes. For that we thank her.

Sunday 16 November 2008 Chat

Singer, songwriter and pianist Aretha Franklin has topped Rolling Stone magazine's list of Greatest Singers of All Time.
179 musicians, producers and other music industry insiders submitted their top 20 choices for the poll, including James Blunt, Ginger Baker, Liam Gallagher, Iggy Pop, Etta James, Booker T Jones, Carole King, Brian Wilson and Keith Richards.
The soul legend's top 5 playlist was (You make me feel like) A natural woman, Respect, I never loved a man (The way I love you), Think, and Chain of fools.
Second in the poll came (my hero) Ray Charles with, What'd I say, Pts 1 & 2, and Elvis Presley was third with Mystery Train.
Sam Cooke was 4th, John Lennon 5th and Marvin Gaye came 6th.
Aretha, who has influenced Mary J Blige, Annie Lennox and Alicia Keys, among others, is the definitive soul singer of the 60s and one of the most influential voices in popular music.
Known as The Queen of Soul, she has made more than a dozen million selling singles and 20 Number One R&B hits in the US alone.
That success, despite a turbulent private life, enabled her to become the first black woman to appear on the cover of Time magazine.
Aretha was the first woman inducted into the Rock and Rock Hall of Fame and in 2005 was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She has won 21 Grammy Awards to date.
Now 66, she thankfully shows no sign of giving up her remarkable gift, has launched her own record label and studies piano at the Juilliard School, New York.

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Mamma Mia!, the musical, has become the highest-grossing British film at the UK box office.
The film, starring Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan, features the songs of 70s pop group, Abba, and has taken £67.2m in the UK since its July release.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was the previous holder of the British record with sales of £66.1m.
If just a few more go to see the feel-good sing-along, Mamma Mia! could beat the highest ever grossing film, Titanic, which has made £69m in the UK.

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From this week it'll be possible to purchase XO laptops in Europe.
The XO is a small, powerful laptop designed for school children, primarily in the third world.
Supposed to cost less than $100 per unit and sell by the million, the final version ended up costing $188 and the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) organisation has apparently sold only 600,000 units.
Yet the distinctive and robust green and white machines are becoming a design classic and under the Give one, get one scheme 190,000 units were purchased & given by Americans over a 2-month period in 2007.
Through Amazon this scheme is now being opened up to 27 European countries where the XO is expected to cost the equivalent of c. £260.
If you're thinking of buying a new laptop, do consider the XO through Give one, get one; you'll be purchasing a hardy and functional machine with excellent design credentials AND be giving a worthwhile gift to a school child in a one of the world's poor countries.
On the basis that a country's future lies in its young people, the XO could be a more valuable gift than a goat this Christmas.

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 by 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.

Sunday 26 October 2008 Chat

The late DJ John Peel has had a train named after him.
The John Peel, to be run by Merseytravel, will be based in Liverpool, John's favourite city and home to his beloved Liverpool Football Club.
Merseytravel said the tribute was 'to a true broadcasting legend.'
Sheila Ravenscroft, John's widow, said her husband "Would have been absolutely chuffed to know that an engine running through Liverpool had been named after him."
"He wasn't a train-spotter but he loved trains and every boy dreams of becoming a train driver."
The naming ceremony coincided with John's second posthumous publication, The Olivetti Chronicle, which follows his autobiography, Margrave of the Marshes, completed by Sheila after his death.
The new book is named after the typewriter at which John wrote articles for national newspapers and music magazines.
John Peel was a keen supporter of young musical talent and the longest-serving BBC Radio 1 DJ.
He died unexpectedly of a heart attack while on a working holiday in Peru in October 2004 aged 65.
He is still greatly missed.

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Jerry Lee Lewis hopes to have Mick Jagger and Keith Richard guest star on his new album.
The singer, best known for Great balls of fire, is headlining the London Rock 'n' Roll Festival next week. The performance is the first of his European tour.
Now 73, Lewis was asked if he still lives up to his nickname of 'The Killer'.
"Yes, sir. I'm a mean old man. I knew The Stones back when they were kids. They ain't kids no more."
You can say that again, Jerry.

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By popular request,
Lyrics: Tom Waits, 1976 - The Piano has been Drinking

The piano has been drinking, my necktie is asleep
And the combo went back to New York, the jukebox has to take a leak
And the carpet needs a haircut, and the spotlight looks like a prison break
And the telephone's out of cigarettes, and the balcony is on the make
And the piano has been drinking, the piano has been drinking...
And the menus are all freezing, and the light man's blind in one eye
And he can't see out of the other
And the piano-tuner's got a hearing aid, and showed up with his mother
And the piano has been drinking, the piano has been drinking
As the bouncer is a Sumo wrestler cream-puff casper milktoast
And the owner is a mental midget with the I.Q. of a fence post
'Cause the piano has been drinking, the piano has been drinking...

I'm going down, hang onto me, watch me skate across an acre of linoleum
I know I can do it, I'm in total control
And the piano has been drinking and he's embarrassing me
The piano has been drinking...

And you can't find your waitress with a Geiger counter
And she hates you and your friends and you just can't get served without her
And the box-office is drooling, and the bar stools are on fire
And the newspapers were fooling, and the ash-trays have retired
'Cause the piano has been drinking, the piano has been drinking
The piano has been drinking
The piano has been drinking
The piano has been drinking
Not me, not me, not me, not me, not me

Sunday 19 October 2008 Chat

Levi Stubbs, lead singer of the legendary Four Tops, died at his home in Detroit this week, aged 72.
With Stubbs' powerfully emotional voice leading, the Four Tops sold millions of records and became one of the most successful and influential groups on the Motown Records label.
They signed with Motown in 1963 and had 20 world-wide hits over the next 10 years, powered by Stubbs' great sound; I can't help myself, Reach out I'll be there, Barnadette and Standing in the shadows of love all went to the top of the Billboard pop chart.
They toured for decades. In 1988 they were in the charts again with Indestructible on Arista. In 1990 they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and given a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame.
Stubbs also voiced Audrey, the man-eating plant, in the film, Little Shop of Horrors.
Motown Historical Museum's Audley Smith said Stubbs had a voice as unique as Marvin Gaye or Stevie Wonder. Dennis Edwards, former singer with The Temptations, called Stubbs, "the greatest lead singer ever".
Born in Detroit in 1936, Stubbs knew future bandmate Abdul 'Duke' Fakir at high school. The pair met Lawrence Payton and Obie Benson while singing at a mutual friend's birthday party. Fakir is now the only surviving member of the quartet.
Barry Gordy, Martha Reeves and Smokey Robinson were among the mourners at Stubbs' funeral.
"These are four of the greatest people I have ever known. They were major pros even before they came to Motown", Gordy said when the Four Tops' star was unveiled in Hollywood.
As Smokey Robinson told mourners, "Levi made his mark on the world. All over the world, you'll be able to hear Levi Stubbs forever."




L-R, Renaldo 'Obie' Benson, Levi Stubbs, Abdul 'Duke' Fakir, Lawrence Payton. 1990.

Sunday 21 September 2008 Chat

Deep in the Californian desert strange grooves have been cut in the road. Even stranger, when driven over at an optimum speed the grooves play the Lone Ranger theme tune.
Residents of nearby Lancaster say the sounds are more of a screech and as a result the grooves are soon to be eradicated.
The musical road was the idea of Honda, which engineered the road surface to play Rossini's William Tell overture, from which the Lone Ranger theme is taken, at perfect pitch for motorists driving a Honda Civic at 55mph.
What started out as a fun promotion could also have been good for the local economy, as similar projects have proved in Japan and South Korea.
Unfortunately the music, which was intended to be heard only by those travelling in the vehicles, carried too widely and the road is consequently to be resurfaced. Proving the accuracy of the old saying, "Hi-yo Silver, away".

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The songwriter and producer responsible for some of Motown's (and my own) best loved songs has died.
Norman Whitfield, whose credits include I heard it through the grapevine, Ain't too proud to beg, Cloud nine and War, was 68 and died from complications of diabetes.
Born in Harlem, New York, Whitfield's family moved to Detroit when the boy was in his teens. Famously they hadn't intended to settle in the city but his father's car broke down and the rest, as they say, is history.
Whitfield worked at Motown in the 60s and 70s, beginning as a junior member of the label's quality control team but he was soon writing his own songs, many with good friend Barratt Strong.
His first hit, in 1962, was Pride & joy, co-written for Marvyn Gaye.
Pretty soon he was also producing songs for the Marvelettes, the Velvelettes, the Temptations, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Edwin Starr and Smokey Robinson.
The Temptations' Cloud nine earned Motown the first of many Grammy Awards, then came, I can't get next to you, Ball of confusion, Just my imagination (running away with me), and Papa was a rolling stone, for which Whitfield and Strong won a songwriting Grammy.
His run of hits continued with, I heard it through the grapevine, Too busy thinking about my baby and the anti-Vietnam, War.
A demanding figure said to be able to reduce his artists to tears, Norman Whitfield was a perfectionist with clear ideas about how he wanted his artists to sound.
When Motown moved to Los Angeles he started his own label and had more Grammy success with Rose Royce and the soundtrack to the movie, Car Wash, in 1977.

Whitfield was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame with Barratt Strong in 2002.
More recently, I heard it through the grapevine, which topped the charts in the UK and US in 1969, was voted 65 in Billboard's 100 most successful tracks of the last 50 years.
Smokey Robinson said of him, "He will live forever through his great music." Amen to that.

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It's possible to have too much of a good thing, and announcing there's soon to be an Asian version of the Eurovision Song Contest could be one step too far.
The competition, to be called Asiavision, will involve 15 countries including China and India, with a final expected to attract an audience of up to 500 million viewers.
No surprise then that the company purchasing the format for Asia reckons it's 'highly suited' to the region - the advertising revenues alone must make the event a potential goldmine.
And after the Eurovision experience, I'd say bloc voting in this region was a certainty.
Who, what, me? Sceptical? Get away with you!

Sunday 7 September 08 Chat

Just occasionally one gets the sort of news that thrills the child within. Such was my reaction this week at the joyous tidings that Ghostbusters 3 is 'in development'.
Hooray for Hollywood!
There's no accounting for what thrills one, of course, and Ghostbusters might not be to everyone's taste, but for me it's an occasional necessity to slump in front of the screen and be entertained without having to engage brain.
Even better is the news that the original Ghostbusters (1989) cast of Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis is to reunite on the new venture.
My cup of joy runneth over.

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Is particle physics the new rock and roll? This question led a major feature in one of our more respected newspapers this weekend.
All because CERN, the European Laboratory for Particle Physics, the largest research establishment of its kind in the world, switches on its Large Hadron Collider (LHC) on Wednesday this week, in possibly the biggest science experiment ever staged.

The LHC is a giant circular tunnel, 27 km in circumference, buried deep in the mountains beneath the Swiss / French border.
It is hoped this tunnel, a sort of latterday 'Big Bang' machine, will smash proton particles together at almost the speed of light to recreate conditions immediately following the big bang and by so doing answer the most profound questions about our universe and how it began.

Big facts about the Big Bang experiment:
1. The LHC will smash proton particles together 600 million times per second.
2. The results will be recorded by 4 cathedral-sized detectors built deep underground.
3. The experiment will generate 40,000 gigabytes of data every day.
4. The data will be analysed by a virtual supercomputer of 100,000 processors, situated around the world and linked by the internet.
5. The experiment has taken 20 years to prepare at a cost of more than $10 billion.
6. It has involved 10,000 scientists from 70 countries.
7. Scientists call the LHC the greatest scientific endeavour since the Apollo moon landings.

Whatever our personal beliefs about the origin of our universe, for its size alone this monumental research project deserves our full attention.

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Back on the subject of movies, Michael Moore is about to release his new documentary free on the internet.
Moore, whose controversial movie, Farenheit 9/11, made some $70m at the US box office, said the decision recognised his 20th anniversary in the film business.
The documentary, called Slacker Uprising, follows Moore's trip across the States during the 2004 presidential race.
The documentary will be available for download in the US later this month for a limited period.
Michael Moore, never afraid to highlight the idiosyncrasies of life in America, won the Academy Award for best documentary for his 2002 movie, Bowling for Columbine.
He says the internet giveaway is, "being done entirely as a gift to my fans."
Decent chap.

Sunday 31 August 08 Chat

My album of September (yes, I'm early but I make no apologies) is the fantastic, the gob-smackingly brilliant, Sentimental Streak by Catherine Russell.
Who she? She's a long-time backing singer, previously a dancer, whose mum, Carline Ray, is a bassist and vocalist and dad was pianist and orchestra leader Luis Russell, a co-bandsman with Louis Armstrong and eventually a serious rival to Duke Ellington in the New York band era of the late 20s and early 30s.
Catherine's jazz heritage is very much in evidence throughout this wonderful CD, and the tones of Bessie Smith, Lena Horne, Nellie Lurcher, Alberta Hunter and the like come through loud and clear. But alongside the old voices and strengths is a thoroughly modern presentation delivered with class and joy; from the word go we're in no doubt that this is an artist who loves what she does.
I've seldom heard an album that thrilled me so much. Get it while it's in stock!

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The BBC series, Who do you think you are? has been pretty hit and miss of late but last week's show with Jerry Springer was a piece of drama to compete with the best on TV.
Clearly capable and much more intelligent than The Jerry Springer Show or America's got Talent would have us believe, this ex-mayor of Cincinnati proved what he was made of, figuratively and literally, in this heart-rending episode.
Born in London in 1944, his Jewish parents escaped from Nazi Germany three days before the outbreak of the Second World War. But Jerry's grandmothers failed to escape and were murdered in the Holocaust. With them died the knowledge of the Springer family's ancestry.
In an intensely disturbing programme, Jerry discovered his great-grandfather had been involved in the fight against anti-Semitism 50 years before the rise of the Reich, and followed his grandmothers' journeys to their shocking conclusion in Hitler's death camps.
Jerry's struggle to take in the extent of his family's suffering was made all the more poignant when he was introduced to a previously unknown cousin and we viewers felt with him the sense of relief that at last something decent and good had come from this frightful barbarism.
As the programme proved and as Jerry himself says, everyone in Nazi Germany was complicit in these brutalities against their fellow man, and it's all the harder to believe because the acts happened only 60 years ago and in the heartland of Europe.

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45 years ago, on 28 August 1963, Dr Martin Luther King Jr made his famous 'I have a dream' speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC.
The 'Dream' was a departure from the prepared text but urged on by Mahalia Jackson, "Tell them about the dream, Martin", Dr King delivered one of the most outstanding speeches of modern times.
The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom became a defining moment for the American Civil Rights Movement and the march and Dr King's speech put pressure on the Kennedy administration to advance Civil Rights legislation.
In 1964 Dr King became the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize and the Civil Rights Act was passed and signed by President Lyndon B Johnson on 2 July following the assassination of John F Kennedy on 22 November 1963.
Dr King was murdered in Memphis on 4 April 1968. His 'I have a dream' speech causes him to be remembered not only for his Civil Rights achievements but also as one of the world's greatest orators;

• "I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.'
• "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.
• "I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.
• "Let freedom ring. And when this happens, and when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

See Dr King's 'I have a dream' speech here; read the full text here.