New TV show: "Spectacle: Elvis Costello with ..."

[Top balcony]

Well it worked for me tonight.

Thought that EC will never rival Parky in the completely-relaxed stakes, but he took the mickey out of himself and guests quite entertainingly.

Have to confess that I've never really seen the attraction of The Police beyond the humalong choruses. Saw nothing tonight to change my mind.

Just wish to God that Channel 4 were airing these at a reasonable hour.

Next up Sir Elton

....time for bed said Colin

[johnfoyle]

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/ ... mment=true



From The Times
December 16, 2008

Spectacle

Last Night's TV

Andrew Billen

(extract)

A year at Hogwarts wouldn't be enough time to explain to me the black art of television scheduling. For instance: on Remembrance Sunday some genius at the BBC decided to broadcast its Vera Brittain documentary a few hours early, meaning millions of viewers missed it. A more historical grudge - I nurse it to keep it warm, like Mrs Tam O'Shanter's wrath - dates from the Nineties when the BBC scheduled the decade's best two American sitcoms, Seinfeld and The Larry Sanders Show, so as to ensure the nation was asleep when they went out and years of future sales of box sets.

And now there is Spectacle, an event more than a programme that would have graced Christmas night on Channel 4, a treat to compare with the Parkinson that reunited the Goons. In this show, half Inside the Actors Studio, half an MTV Unplugged, Elvis Costello interviewed, and played with, all three members of the Police. My pleasure in this hour-long encounter perhaps locates my youth in the late Seventies more surely than carbon dating, but it would have been shared by millions had only they known it was on.

It opened with Costello singing, and beautifully, Every Breath You Take, a Police number, of course. Then the Policemen came on one by one, each representing a facet of the band's warring person- ality. Andy Summers was quiet and learned, no trouble at all. Stewart Copeland, the barmy American drummer, loudly claimed the band for himself. But the ownership dispute was quelled by the arrival of Sting, exuding authority, charisma and, less expectedly, humour.

Costello worried away at the fake reggaeness of their hit Roxanne. Sting replied that his Geordie accent just sounded Jamaican. The real story was how the song had come to be at all. At the time, he said, all was punk and songs needed titles such as I am Going to Kill You, You Bitch. Costello's Alison had given him confidence to sing a song with “a soppy girl's name”. They sang Alison together and I could have sworn Sting teared up, although he had an alternative explanation for his rheum. “When Elvis expresses himself vocally there is a lot of moisture around. Sharing a microphone with him can be challenging and when he says his aim is true - he is right.” All four musicians ended by singing Watching the Detectives.

It could have been a schmaltzy love fest or nerdishly technical. It wasn't. It had lightness to it, as well as a sense of occasion. Costello, his face framed by a fedora and sideburns, proved an able interviewer, his skills honed from standing in for David Letterman. And yet this gem of programme was thrown away at 12.05 this morning. Even more extraordinary is that it is part of a series recently made for the American Sundance Channel and acquired by Channel 4. Other editions feature Lou Reed, Smokey Robinson, Herbie Hancock, Tony Bennett and Bill Clinton. The next Spectacle is on tomorrow, even later, at 12.25. It features Elton John.

[scielle]

You can now watch it on Channel 4 online catch-up (though probably only in the UK):

http://www.channel4.com/video/brandless ... the-police

[charliestumpy]

Via V+ recording, quite enjoyed these 4 individuals largely from UK plus back-up musicians performing before keen audience in USA.

A bit awkward for 'Sting' at times, it appeared ...

I particularly enjoyed Costello doing 'Every breath you take-Weird nightmare-Alison (Roxanne)-Flow my tears', and the one I'd already seen on Red(Wire) 'Walking on the moon-WTD'.

Thanks CH4 for broadcasting this in UK.

I confess that as well as buying Costello I also bought Police vinyl.

I shall not be keeping the video but shall the 5 Costello singings.

[Neil.]

Saw the first one last night - The Police. I thought it started badly - what the hell was that micro version of Every Breath You Take, mixed with Please Stay? He shoulda done a proper cover. The fairground barker announcing of the guests was embarrassing, but actually, when the chat got going, it wasn't too bad! Elvis came across like a nice bloke and didn't try too hard to be funny - he let the guests be the entertainers, which is as it should be. The stools setup was a bit awkward looking, but I guess that was so that people could pick up a guitar easily mid-chat.

It felt as though there wasn't enough time with each of the guys to really get into depth, but I guess that won't be a problem with the solo guests.

But Elvis - please ditch the hats indoors! It doesn't look cool - especially next to Sting, who looks amazing for his age!

Nx

[johnfoyle]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/de ... tv-ratings

TV ratings

John Plunkett
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 16 December 2008 11.05 GMT

(extract)

Elvis Costello's new Channel 4 chatshow, Spectacle, in which he interviewed The Police, began with 100,000 viewers, 4% of the audience, from 12.05am. Spectacle's low-key debut was neck and neck with Five's double offering of Police Interceptors: Special Edition, and Special Forces Heroes, which also averaged 100,000, but lost out to BBC2's coverage of the UK Snooker Championship, which averaged 200,000.

[johnfoyle]

A larger version of that ghastly New Yorker illustration ( by Lara Tomlin) -

[VonOfterdingen]

Might be available on 4 Online. Can you get that over there?

http://www.channel4.com/watch_online/

It does not seem to work - but thanks anyway One day, one day i'll get to see it

[Otis Westinghouse]

Bummer. The link Scielle gave didn't seem to lead anywhere, but I searched and got a URL with Elton John in it which seemed to be the location for the Police one. Anyway, it doesn't work on a Mac. Bastards. BBC: 10, Channel 4: 0. I spent hours doing internet Christmas shopping last night and realised at 12.45 that I'd missed most of it. Too knackered to switch it on for a quick peek. Hoped Virgin would have it on demand, but no such luck. Hope they repeat it.

[johnfoyle]

The Police show was enjoyable, safe stuff. Elvis' effusive intro. style works in that it lifts rather mundane stuff. It's fascinating to see the body language when Stewart and Andy join Elvis 'n Sting on stage. Sting seems to be constantly making wounded glances at Elvis , as if he knows they share a common feeling in having to deal with troublesome band members. It's disapointing that Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic, Purple Haze and Sunshine Of Your Love are not used. It's touching to see Elvis' autograph book from the 1960's used to show how his Dad, Ross McManus, got Andy's signature when his 1960's group Zoot Money's Big Roll Band appeared with him on a radio show.


The Channel 4 presentation was as bad as what I imagine most tv now is ; I just watch torrented recordings ( cop shows mostly) these days so can't really say. The show is chopped up with three ad breaks , with brief highlights of what will follow each break etc., just in case the viewer gets a heart attack by seeing something unexpected. It's a mercy to be watcing a recording , if diverting to notice that ads. for 'girls on phones' still feature on late night tv. The credits zip by and it's nice to see Milo Lewis get a mention.

[scielle]

Hm, I don't know about the Channel 4 setup - the show they're streaming now calls itself the Elton John episode - but the one actually playing is still the Police one...

In any case, I have to agree with Neil on the hats (and the scarves, mind you)
I found the intros a little cringe-inducing, and they really need to edit out a lot more of the audience applause - but the interviews, and the lute number, were great. Looking forward to more of this.

[The imposter]

I managed to see the first show, only because I was in the Canaries watching British TV. Now I'm back in Spain I can't get channel 4. it's really annoying how so much content can only be viewed in the UK, where people could presumably watch it on telly anyway!

Hope it's available to download in some shape or form soon.

Obviously Elvis is no chat show pro, but oddly enough his angle on things make a compelling interview. Unusual too to see all 3 Police members interviewed separately then collectively. I noticed a fair bit of anamosity there, and Sting's voice was shot at the end. EC looked awkward at times, constantly touching himself and swinging his leg about. I agree the hat's gotta go and maybe the jacket too if he's gonna continue sweating profusely like that. Sweating on stage is ok but it's not so cool in an interview.

[johnfoyle]

The Sundance site is carrying some essays on Elvis - all very adulatory and nothing new -

http://www.sundancechannel.com/blogs/music/390379692

[charliestumpy]

Yes. Mr Hatman is very talented/kind to share with us - I think that by now we expect sadly global-media presentational naffness, but we can try to focus on the good things.

It is encouraging to find that not everyone is greedy/has rose-tinted ears.

[johnfoyle]

Some very welcome info. has appeared about the James Taylor episode -

http://www.lauracantrell.com/

Elvis & Laura on TV!:

Elvis Costello and Laura Cantrell harmonize on the old James Taylor/George Jones duet "Bartender's Blues" on the fourth episode of Costello's new Spectacle show on the Sundance channel, airing Wednesday, 12/24 9 pm, Thrusday 12/25 11 pm and Sunday 12/28 2 am and 2 pm ET.

[migdd]

Excellent news!!!

[always dancing]

It is strange the episodes in the US are being shown in a different order than the UK. I guess they are showing what they think will work. We got Elton, Lou Reed and tonight Bill Clinton. I found Lou Reed alittle hard to follow and I agree the drunken play write could have stayed in the audience. Someone commented on the audience being boring and white. Well hopefully when they get to the tapings I was at they will see alittle more livelily rock and roll type audience. I was at Rufus/Flemming, Diana and Mellencamp/Cash/Kris/Jones tapings.

[martinfoyle]

Flicked through the audio of the Police show to get the songs, couldn't be arsed watching it. Just checked that the Reg show is recording. Weird body language, little or no eye contact. Elvis was across from a guy, his boss on this gig, who keeps on banging out forgettable albums, knowing that his audience is only interested in his work from the 70's. What does that remind us of? And Reg mentioned Bonnie Bramlett! Did our Dec get a flash of her lethal left hook? To be honest I'm really only interested in seeing the Bubba show next week, mainly to see if the Eric Dolphy mention made the final cut. The appearance by the hopelessly overrated Julian Schanabel sounds just ghastly.

[migdd]

The Bill Clinton episode was, by far, the best yet. Both men were on the same intellectual wavelength and there was some great conversation. The musical numbers were all incredible as well. James Burton has lost none of his chops and the Metheny/Haden piece was stunning. A great, great hour of television and one which I'll replay many times (thanks, DVR) over the Christmas holiday.

[MOJO]

Schnabel is cool. I really enjoyed his recent interview with 60 Minutes. I like his character and work. Who was the old guy that interviewed him? Morley "old as salt" Safer? Toward the end, and for lack of a better analogy, Safer just about had his head wrapped around his tail... NICE one.

[charliestumpy]

Here in UK the Elton John episode 02 was I thought quite interesting for what he kept saying about good old quality musicians. I agree as said earlier that EJ 'body language-failure to eye-contact' aptly was a bit odd.

[johnfoyle]

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/neil_mccor ... of_himself

Elvis Costello: making a Spectacle of himself

Neil McCormick
Dec 18, 2008

The Elvis Costello chat show, Spectacle, debuted on C4 this week with a special on The Police.

I am a big fan of Costello. He is one of the most creative, enthusiastic and genuinely multi-talented musicians this country has ever produced, an incredible singer-songwriter and veritable musical polymath who has turned his hand to rock, pop, country, jazz, classical (and all kinds of unusual blends of these forms), usually with interesting results ... but I am not sure he can cut it as a chat show host.

Why do celebrities always want to do other people's jobs? It's not like they don't make enough money, or get enough attention, doing their own. The funny thing is most famous people constantly complain about interviews, particularly noting the fatuous questions they are asked over and over again. But give them a chance to interview each other and they can't wait to swap sides, only to produce the kind of predictable, softball, ego pampering that they themselves profess to abhor (with an added element of randomness, so that one question never leads to another). Andy Warhol invented a whole magazine, the pompously titled 'Interview', dedicated to famous people applying their tongues to each other's posteriors, which were then presented as apparently unedited Q&A's. Like 'Hello' it was popular with celebrities because it was a world where the journalistic pen was as mighty as a butter knife.

Surely Elvis Costello would be different. He is incredibly intelligent, hugely well informed about music, but also a famously spiky character. He can actually be quite difficult to interview himself, because he talks at such length, with so many digressions, it is hard to maintain a framework for the conversation. But he is always interesting. At least, when he is on the right side of the microphone.

When I last met up with Costello, in Paris, where he was performing in an opera with Sting, he enthused about his new role. "We get to talk a little broader than you usually get on most television programmes about music, or about anything. As much as were on stage, under lights, being filmed, it's a real conversation and not just soundbites."

Sting was equally complimentary. "You are a particularly good interviewer," he commented (to Elvis, not me!) "because you understand what is being said, because you're a musician, and you listen, which most of them don't. It's just question, question, question."

Like "What is your favourite Police song?" Costello actually asked Sting this in front of an audience on television. I would be embarrassed to ask something so trite in the privacy of a hotel room. For the record, Sting diplomatically selected 'Mother' (written by guitarist Andy Summers) and Miss Gradenko (written by drummer Stewart Copeland). To which Copeland shouted "Bullshit!" That was about the level of the conversation.

Costello had The Police on as his first guests, doing their last Television appearance before their final concert. This, of course, is the real advantage of a celebrity interviewer: their phone book. The show was produced by Elton John and his partner David Furnish, and between them they have managed to procure a quite fascinating line up, including ex-President Bill Clinton, Tony Bennett, Smokey Robinson, Herbie Hancock, Lou Reed, Kris Kristofferson, Rufus Wainright, Elton John himself and Costello's jazz singing wife, Diana Krall (wonder where he got her number?).

Granted, The Police can't have been an easy introduction to the art of interviewing. With all of those egos on stage, it was a wonder there was room for Costello at all. Personally, I make it a rule never to interview a band all together, because all of the complications of the relationships between the individuals colour their responses, and you never get any sincerity or depth. What you do get is a lot of fatuous in-jokes, and Copeland's repeated shouting "You're fired" (to which Sting wearily responds, "No, you're fired") provided the best insight into why this group has reached the end of its shelf life.

But even given these problems, Elvis didn't seem to have a strong idea of where the interview was going, failed to construct a narrative, and didn't come up with any line of inquiry that might elicit a story they hadn't been told a million times before. It was fatuous stuff. I was hoping a musician would actually get in there and open up the music a little, dispel some of the myths about composition and get down to the technical nitty gritty, but all we got were bog standard questions about musical influences, and random tour bus stories. Costello also presaged most of his questions with anecdotes of his own, forgetting that an interview really isn't a conversation, it is something more directed and probing than that. But this was just banter, enlivened by musical performances. Which, of course, is probably all the TV company want, a bit of chat and all star jamming.

It is the Jools Holland approach. Although, to be fair, even on this first outing, Costello was miles better than Holland, who must be the worst musician turned interviewer ever to have had his own show on TV. When I watch Later, I see guests frozen like rabbits in the headlights of an oncoming truck, as Holland thrashes around, trying to formulate a coherent sentence. You are never quite sure what he is going to ask, partly because he doesn't seem too sure himself, although all that stumbling usually only leads to vague comments about the loveliness of their recording, often left hanging in a way that doesn't actually invite a reply. Then he interrupts them, to bring up some random bit of trivia from their career. And then he invites himself to accompany them on boogie woogie piano.

Holland gets away with it because he's a musician. He is one of them, a charming host that they can sit and idly jam with, so his guests do their best to compensate for a level of journalist skills that would get him sacked from a local paper.

When Costello told me that he had interviewed Lou Reed, I said, "I bet he was nice to you." Because, Reed is famously rude to journalists. He can be so sulky and unhelpful during interviews, you wonder why he has bothered to turn up, because, as Michael Parkinson pointed out in our recent encounter, it is "a consensual obligation between two people, otherwise it doesn't work". The first time I interviewed Reed, all he would talk about was the sound quality of different amplifiers. The second time was a phone interview set up to garner quotes for a piece on ambient music, which had been set up in connection with his release of a sound piece, 'Hudson River Wind Meditations' and which Reed started off by berating me for using the word ambient. He was so rude and boring I decided to cut the interview short, and never bothered quoting him.

He was, of course, nice to Costello. "Lou was funny and he spoke with tremendous affection and he showed us how to play 'Sweet Jane' properly. He was actually really great. I know his reputation. Obviously there's a little bit of trust because I am a musician and a songwriter."

Maybe I should stick to interviewing other rock critics.

Am I being mean to Elvis because I resent him doing a music journalist out of a job? It was only the first show and it looked like it had been rather brutally edited. Hopefully it gets better, and given the quality of his guests, many music fans will be watching just in case it does.

If he gets anything at all out of Lou Reed then maybe he really could teach us rock hacks a thing or two.

[Boy With A Problem]

It's funny how our impressions differ.

I liked the interview with Elton John - not so much the music on the show. And yes Martin - Elvis certainly missed his big opportunity to tell his Bonnie Bramlett story.

I thought the Lou Reed interview was brilliant until Schnabel showed up and then the show derailed - I like Schabel's art, but didn't like him in the 60 minutes piece and absolutely counldn't stand him in this show. (give him his due for rememebering all the words to Rock Minuet though). He was obviously shit faced.

The only good thing about the Clinton show was James Burton and the Presley covers they did (though these were Elvis covers of other peoples songs and Clinton didn't seem to know who Burton was early on - big hug at the end though) - why didn't Elvis jump on the Anne Murray or Kenny G references? I never was a Clinton fan and this puff piece didn't help my opinion.

And what is with Elvis's socks? Did he borrow them from Poly Styrene?

[migdd]

He's been wearing the same socks for all of the episodes so far. Bring on the exterminator!!

[charliestumpy]

It is quite possible to own/wear/have washed many identical-seeming socks etc.

I am glad that I watch the shows/formulate my personal opinion (subject to change) and ignore the personal opinion of overpaid useless journalists.

I take great pleasure in helping lots of people annually hang up identical-seeming socks at this time of year (they are laundered after December 25th).

Elvis wears a hat, Elton wears a wiggie (both from a selection of aptly-cleaned stock)..