In Praise of Children's TV: Terry Deary's Horrible Histories

AS evidenced by my trip out to see the mighty Big Howard and Little Howard show on Saturday afternoon, my life is less hardcore political stand-up these days and more children's telly.

Now, unluckily for Miss H, being comfortable 21st Century 'pretendy' lefties, me and Mrs H have decided that there'll be no Disney Channel in the house, so Children's BBC is our mainstay.

Luckily the BBC is producing a handful of the best programmes airing anywhere on the planet, and the two funniest.

The first is the aforementioned BH&LH and the other is Horrible Histories, adapted from the best selling books by Terry Deary - more than 200 and counting. His latest WII novel Put Out The Light, signed by the author for Miss H on Saturday at an in store, is being devoured. It's a multi POV book which looks at the blitzes of the second war and how they affected both British and German Cities.

However, I think Deary will be known most for Horrible Histories because it's funny, witty, clever, intelligent and iconoclastic in its approach to explaining history to the pre-teen market.

Sure, it's light on context, but it makes up for its lack of methodological rigour in its post modern plundering of pop culture to explain the Romans, the Greek empires and British history of all eras. I have a friend who teaches Egyptology at the University of Liverpool who uses a sketch in an introductory lecture to first years.

The actors help too: Mathew Baynton, known for his work as Deano in BBC's Gavin & Stacey, Sarah Hadland (from BBC's Miranda), Martha Douglas Howe and the annoyingly talented Ben Willbond are among the pick of a cast which really gathers together a who's who of modern British comedy's top acting talent.

By far the funniest actor on display in the funniest ongoing sketch is The Mighty Boosh's Simon Farnaby as Death in the section called Stupid Deaths, where, er, stupid historic deaths are brought to life.

The sketches are brilliant but for my money it is the songs that win out every time. From heavy metal Vikings to High School Musical Spartans, its' clever appropriation of modern pop idioms to explain broad historical themes and periods - it is both laugh out loud funny and bears frequent watching, as our house can testify.

My favourites, however, are the Westlife style parody of the four King George's of England and the tipper toppermost is Baynton as Charles II of England as an Eminem-style, self styled rapping King of Bling.

Little Howard And The Magic Pencil Of Life And Death

Venue: Lenny’s Bar & Grill, Liverpool

It’s been a rite of passage of mine to bring young Miss H to her first comedy gig, I got to do that today thanks to Little Howard And The Magic Pencil Of Life And Death and the wonderful Tongue in Cheek Comedy organisation in Liverpool.

Part cartoon, part scatological children’s book and part stand-up, Little Howard And The Magic Pencil Of Life And Death is a brilliant vision of comedy at its truest.

Ostensibly children’s show, but with much double entendre-ing for the adults, it is an inventive riot of ideas.

(Big) Howard Read, stand-up and illustrator, took his animated six-year-old alter ego, Little Howard, on a journey to avoid the dark menacing force of Cartoon Death, (actually called Rodney and really Read in a Grim Reaper suit), as the latter seeks to steal back the magic pencil of life and death which allows you to invent and obliterate cartoon characters.

Little Howard and the various other characters come to life on the video screen thanks to Read’s masterful illustration and the wonders of an Apple Mac and a projector.

It’s an anarchic, witty brilliant show with 10 times the number of ideas than the average comedy show - especially in an era dominated by the cheap alpha male macho posturing of TV panel shows.

The first half was ostensibly a warmer for the post interval Magical Pencil of Death segment, which was, in itself, an extended CBBC show on stage.

But, in the first half, the illustration games, audience interaction, which saw children from the audience get up and ‘play’ with Little Howard, was just as enjoyable and, again, more inventive than any show I have seen for a long time.

In the second half Big and Little Howard defeat Rodney (Cartoon Death) but only after Little Howard uses the magic pencil to turn himself into a ‘real’ 3D boy who hovers round the room thanks to the 3D glasses distributed by Read, sorry, Rodney.

You’d be hard pressed to find any theatre experience more riotous, more funny or more life affirming than this as you hear children laughing like drains in a comedy club at three in the afternoon.

At the end of the day, the show’s success is all down to Read himself. He’s a masterful and likeable stand-up in his own right, and leaving aside his illustrations and the brilliant technology that brings the Little Howard world to life in the live environment, his ability to work an audience of any age is extraordinary.

As someone who sees a lot of comedy, I can honestly say that I haven’t laughed as much in years and, more crucially, neither had either my wife or daughter and it was the latter who was most important in our shared rite of passage.  

Magazine design: Less of a process and more a combination of trial and error and serendipity

THIS wonderful video of  the coming together of a magazine article package goes to show that when designing, it's less about a regimented process of following templates or processes, but more to do with trial, error and simple inspiration.

And, that process is hugely enjoyable.

 

The mighty, mighty James Lee Burke

I have written about American novelist James Lee Burke a few times here and have rather been on another binge of the great man's work in recent weeks.
Having just listened to the fabulous audio book version of his 2008 Dave Robicheaux novel Swan Peak, expertly narrated by Will Patton, I have been excitedly hoovering up reviews and interviews the great man has been doing to promote his newest Robicheaux tome The Glass Rainbow (Chapter one extract here).
I, like all James Lee fans, will always love (and be piqued to the point of frenzy) by any first chapter of a Robicheaux book which sees the hero of the novel's notorious malcontent buddy Clete Purcel entering the narrative with the words: "Am I interrupting anything?"
All hell's going to break loose when Dave's former partner from the New Orleans Police Department, one half of the Bobbsy Twins and long term trouble magnet, turns up saying that.
Here is James Lee speaking to BBC Radio 2's Simon Mayo, a long term fan, about The Glass Rainbow.

Seu Jorge: the greatest encore I ever saw

LOTS is spoken about the best gig and the best solo and whatever, nothing much is ever talked about the best encore you ever saw at a gig.

YET'S TWIST AGAIN... Super Furry Animals

I've seen my fair share of no shows, perfunctory 'Hey let's play the new single again' and 'Here's our favourite cover', but nothing touches two I saw in Liverpool's best music venues.
The second best was the Super Furry Animals (right) coming back on to the stage at the Royal Court, dressed as Yetis and playing a white noise guitar version of That Man Don't Give a Fuck which was introduced with a 10 minute techno mix with a sample of Bill Hicks intoning 'All Governments are murderers and liars'. (Great alternative review here at Time magazine.)
However, the best was Brazilian legend Seu Jorge (Last FM link) at the Liverpool Philharmonic a few years ago.After doing a mesmerising two hour mega show full of solo acoustic hits and full band material, he took the band on a tour of the stalls and upstairs to the balcony of the great old hall one and all beating out a samba rhythm. I was 'that' close to the man, I touched his dreds, blud.
All gigs should close with a parade - or may be that's the Northern Ireland in me coming out.
Here's some more youtube footage of a magnificent evening I enjoyed with our much missed mate Dave McManaman RIP - if you stare closely you'll see me and Macca dancing up on the balcony.

Spotify Playlist for the North West Massive Mingle (which I missed)

I have put together this playlist for the meeting of the North West branch of The Word magazine bloggers. It's a shame I had to miss it due to work commitments, they are among the best nights of the year.
So this playlist features a lot of French hip-hop I eulogised here, one song from Washingtonian Ankh Amen Ra,  the brilliant Rachid Taha makes an appearance and there are some songs I have loved for many years by Irish singer songwriters Nick Kelly, Damien Dempsey, Paul Brady and Christy Moore.
In the cruelly overlooked/ nearly were section, there are two songs by Beulah, one each from Liverpool indiers Smaller, Replacments front man Paul Westerberg and San Francisco indiers American Music Club. Belfast guitar soundscape kids And So I Watch You from Afar get stuck in while Texan country legend Guy Clark performs a song which has haunted me for years.
Spotify users click on the link below, everyone else, the full playlist is below the fold.
Massive North West Mingle

Sweet Seoul Music: #2

Dave Candler has posted his second Korean Homesick Blues podcast. I've not listened yet, but I recognise a name or two that I like and know that Dave knows the score, so go 'ead and listen, la.

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Two interviews with Lloyd Cole: Part 2

You talkin' to me? Well, I'm the only one here. Who (edit) do you think you're talkin' to?

THIS is my interview with Lloyd Cole during my time as the music corresponent of the Liverpool Daily Post, actually, I think it was still the plain old Daily Post. I had offered to caddie for Lloyd around West Lancs Golf Club where my brother was a member at the time and Crosby, the town mentioned in the piece, is where I live and Lloyd's oul fella was brought up.

IT'S A reflective Lloyd Cole who talks to the Daily Post. Maybe it's the bad flu he suffered with while moving house back home in Massachusetts before he flew into Britain. Maybe the fact he's had to leave his beloved golf clubs at home for this two-week tour of Britain grates too.
(He's had to reluctantly decline an offer from the Daily Post to play West Lancashire golf club in Blundellsands due to the aftereffects of the illness. His Crosby-raised father, a former pupil of Merchant Taylors' school in the town, regularly played the famous links course in his formative years on the way to becoming a club professional.)
Either way, it isn't the same cocksure, archly ironic hipster who fronted Scots pop outfit The Commotions to no little chart success in the 1980s and then embarked on an acclaimed solo career more than a decade ago.

Two interviews with Lloyd Cole: Part 1

Lloyd appears sceptical at the choice of Leon Osman on Everton's right 
Picture: Boston Globe

I did two interviews with Lloyd Cole while working for the Liverpool Echo and Liverpool Daily Post.
In hindsight, they aren't very good, Lloyd's answers were great, they're just not terribly well written. They are what they are. I'm not looking writing plaudits, 'Good job too,' says y'all.
Here's the first:

FROM his Stuttgart hotel room, one of the coolest songwriters of the last 30 years is talking about his admiration for Gerry Marsden.
Lordy, Lloyd Cole , the king of intelligent 1980s pop praising the bard of Mersey River crossings?
"I have more respect for Gerry and the Pacemakers, still playing the oldies rather than writing mediocre new songs, " he says earnestly.
Some might think that the erstwhile Commotions front man, known for his candour and wit, has gone soft prior to his first Liverpool show in donkeys' years.
But no, the Derbyshire-born, 'naturalised' Scot now living in Massachusetts still airs his opinions very freely, taking in everything from The Waterboys to The Clash, and US indie band The Strokes.
For many, Cole, now 42, signifies an all-too-brief moment in the 1980s when pop music was smart, when Manchester's The Smiths, Australia's The Go-Betweens and Glasgow's Aztec Camera along with Cole And The Commotions looked set to dominate the charts.

Michaél Ó Muircheartaigh: A tribute in text and sound

IN THIS era of wall-to-wall sport coverage, where every hack commentator turns to the US or wherever for a gimmick to set them apart in a crowded market, one man (and one voice) has set himself apart - Michaél Ó Muircheartaigh.
A Kerry man who has been one of the key voices of Irish GAA sports on RTE radio since 1949, he has, mercifully, never been one to let his own opinions intrude in the key job of a radio commentator - vividly describing a match for those who can't get to see it.
While British soccer commentators are seemingly in thrall to imparting their own op-ed opinions on what is going on - step forward Alan Green, no cares what you think, you boor - Ó Muircheartaigh, 80, has established himself as a real time storyteller and, if I may be excused a cliché, a painter with words.
Some of his classic quotes are here.
His rapid fire, high octane delivery and encyclopaedic knowledge of the games perfectly captures the spirit and energy of gaelic football and hurling. His frequent interruptions in Irish into English commentary, his shout outs to ex-pat Gaels listening in across the world and brilliant turns of phrase have marked him out as being, literally, one of a kind. Listen to this clip to see what I mean if you have never heard the man before.

Lloyd Cole Interviews: Part 2

Maconie and Radcliffe react to Cole's 'You think I asked for a 12" pianist?' joke punchline

EDIT NOTE: Made a gooly on album title and name of a track played here. Lloyd's album is called Broken Record and the title track of the album is 'Like a Broken Record'. Sorry, haven't bought mine yet. You can buy yours from Lloyd's own shop here.

THIS is the second part of Lloyd's one day blitz of two BBC radio stations earlier this week.
And here is a great piece of funny, interesting radio thanks in no small part to the hosts, Mark Radcliffe and Stuart Maconie, having a genuine affinity with Lloyd and letting him talk.
There are live acoustic versions of Writers Retreat! The (see got the title and punctuation correct this time, although I still have reservations about the lack of an apostrophe), 'Flipside' 'The Flipside' (from Broken Record) and a brilliant version of 'Perfect Skin'.

Get on board the Seoul Train: a guide to the music of an expat in Korea

DAVE Candler (right), a great Merseyside/ Cheshire journalist has gone on a remarkable journey in the last 10 years. The journey has seen him swap the strip lighting of the night shifts of Liverpool ECHO and Daily Post for first, Manhattan and the New York Daily News, and then the bright lights of South Korea.
Along the way he has met Paul Simon and Lou Reed, taken people to Johnny Thunders' grave and guided a local journalist around New York during the days after September 11, 2001. And then he and his wife upped sticks and headed for Wonju in South Korea.
He's a difficult man to keep track of, jaysus, Lord alone knows where he is right now, but at least he is making podcasts of the things he holds most dear. It appears he is back in the Far East and turning an ear to some of the music of his adopted homeland.
See, at heart he is still a punk rocker and in this, the first of hopefully a series of shows, he guides us through some of the music he is listening to now. It's a selection of flinty guitar pop with the kind of lo-fi atmosphere sadly lacking on BBC's 6Music and which would fit Late Junction on BBC Radio 3 perfectly.
Better than tha, the so and so has the greatest voice for radio ever. Mr Thompson, I think you have found the new Peel, but, he'll have to work out of the Seoul bureau.
 
A track listing, biogs and links have been requested from Dave.
I really think this is what the internet may have been invented for.

Huzzah: Lloyd Cole on network radio

Lloyd Cole was on the BBC Radio 5Live mid-morning show's music review section today and the peerless Radcliffe and Maconie on BBC Radio 2 this evening.
He was promoting his new record, Broken Record, which was financed by fans through his brilliant website. 'Writer's Retreat' is the first single from it - it's not really a single - but it's the one he has chosen to film a promo for.
For my money it is the closest album he has recorded to 1995's Love Story, my favourite of his. (See GMs passim) Crucially his voice gets better as the years go on and he gets even more wry, which is, in the parlance of modern girls the world over, 'a good thing'.
I've filleted the section from Radio 5 below, the longer Radcliffe and Maconie session will follow when I have time to edit it.

Beulah's Miles Kurosky's brilliant solo album

I have eulogised about Beulah here before and it was great news recently that the band's lead singer Miles Kurosky had released a debut solo album The Desert of Shallow Effects. Here's a stunning video released on Miles' website.

Do you know a lad down the chippy who thinks he's Elvis?

Again, another of my blog posts on The Word Magazine which gained some very funny replies.


Camping in beautiful Pembrokeshire last week I marvelled at the night sky of an evening.
On Thursday night I saw two shooting stars - when I mentioned this to the GLW she replied in a cod Barking accent 'But they were only satellites.' Everyone's a Billy Bragg these days.
The shooting stars weren't satellites, they were shooting stars and no camping holiday is complete without seeing one, or two in this case.
What have you heard in a song and experienced in real life?

Who would be in your Fantasy Writers team?

I wrote this on The Word magazine blog - there were some interesting replies.
FOR a long time I have pondered the death of the print only publication as we are apparently amid the 'vinegar strokes' of getting writing from one roster of writers. With the impending revolution of the iPad/ slates many writers believe that it will herald the opening up the possibility of a new era of micropayment-as-you-go media which unpackages the old print bundles. 
But that's not enough for me.Alas, a google reader service is not enough, I want it in a leaf through package - either physical or online.
What I mean is a product a bit like the service The Week provides now. I kind of crave for the time when I can get an aggregation of all the writers I like on a given day - weekly or monthly - whereupon I can indulge myself.
I read several newspapers daily most weeks and a few monthly magazines and have a wish list of people I would gladly pay to follow if there was, say, a nice iPad app which packaged them up in a format which I found agreeable aesthetically. I'd buy an iPad solely for that express service.
My list is:
Laura Barton
(The Word Sycophancy alert) Hepworth, Du Noyer, Fitzpatrick, Jim White
Paul Kimmage/ David Walsh (Sunday Times)
Charlie Brooker (The Guardian)
Sandy Toksvig (The Telegraph)
Mark Steel (The Independent)
Andy Gill (see above)
Caitlin Moran (The Times)
Matthew Norman (The Guardian)
Dave Simpson (see above)
Gavin Martin (The Daily Mirror)
William/ Alistair Fotheringham (cycling & rugby)
Eddie Butler (literally the king of sports writers) (The Observer)
Joe Queenan (The Guardian)
Mark Lawson (The Guardian)
Tom Humphries (Irish Times GAA writer, see Eddie Butler) (The Irish Times)
Brian Reade (The Daily Mirror)
(Irish politics writers) Eamonn Mallie, Mark Devenport, Mick Fealty, Jason Walsh, Malachi O'Doherty, Eamonn McCann, Splintered Sunrise & Anthony McIntyre.
These are the people I always read.
NB:If Drakeygirl, Backwards7, Pat Carty, Archie V, Crowther, Amitri, Law, Stimps et al (sorry if I missed someone out) wanted to put their heads above the parapet and write a column on a semi regular basis, I'd also pay for an aggregation of that.
Who would form your Fantasy Writers League?

Thanks Da for introducing me to Freddie White

MY da gave me the second greatest gift of them all: the first album I ever treasured: Freddie White Live On Tour (1978).
I still play parts of it at least once a week such is my deep affection for it.
I went to the primary school that da taught in 10 miles away and every day the car was filled with great music.
Pa H was never what you could have called a trendy - illustrated by the fact that the journey to school was always Mike Murphy's breakfast show on RTE Radio 1.
But on the way home it was always his home made tapes of Beatles/ Stones/ Dubliners/ Van/ Chieftans/ Paul Brady/ The Johnsons/ Planxty/ Moving Hearts/ David McWilliams albums.
It really was a great, unspoken education into my own culture in the midst of the Troubles.
And while all those albums were fabulous, the one album that got me into music when I was about nine or ten was Freddie White's live covers album.
It was the perfect gateway drug to the history of modern music - he did songs by Hoagy Carmichael, Tom Waits, Guy Clarke, Frank Zappa, Randy Newman and Joan Armatrading.
His guitar playing was beguiling, his voice gorgeous and soulful and his version of Guy Clarke's 'Desperados Waiting for a Train' was so brilliant that it haunts me to this day - in a good way.
After 25 years, I still have the thread worn TDK C90 with it on one side with Paul Brady's Hard Station on the other. (Don't start me on what Brady's song Nothing but the Same Old Story means to me, there'll be tears before the looming bedtime. See Gobshites passim.)
Freddie never achieved big success and moved to Boston for years making money in the clubs of the eastern seaboard. He returned to Ireland a few years back.
He remains a kind of underground national treasure, but I hope some of you here get something from the clip below and if you do, raise a glass to Freddie and to my da too. I'll always treasure the music the oul fella introduced me to.

Top 5 Liverpool albums

RADIO contact resumed after a tough month at work and we start off with another doozy of a subject beloved of saloon bar bores in fading tour t-shirts the world over - Top 5 albums.
And we're kicking off with one of the most contested of all - a Liverpool Top 5.
As an introduction, below is a wonderful wee slice of the late and much lamented Brian Reade Show on City Talk. I contributed to the show and guest hosted it on a couple of occasions too, but that's enough self-regarding nonsense.
Here Brian (right, looking like he's heard Gillett and Hicks have called for Liverpool to move out of Anfield and on to Stanley Park's public pitches) talks to Al O'Hare of The Trestles in his day-to-day guise of music journalist, Ian Prowse former lead singer of GM faves Pele and now the main man in Amsterdam and award winning journalist Mike Chapple about a survey conducted in 2008 to see Liverpool decide its own Top 50 greatest albums.

Political songs for after election day: Part 3

A FEW gems, I think you'll agree, from 'Widnesian' and Tom who responded to Part 2 on Friday night. Please keep them rolling in.

Fire Next Time are a new one on me, but there are fewer more knowledgeable music fans than Widnesian Tony Dagnall, a Cheshire lad safely billeted in Winston Salem, North Carolina.








It's featured here before, but this is mine (and Tom's) favourite song about being Irish in Britain.

Political Songs for after election day: Part 2

IF YOU have read the last post, you know the score, add your own political songs below the fold. If you haven't read the last post, what you waiting for?

Here's Part Two of my favourite political songs for after election day.

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised – Gil Scott Heron: Intellectual black consciousness, proto rap which lambasts the growing commercialisation of American life in the age of television advertising. Sadly, not on his play list in Liverpool last week, but still a very potent example of political polemic nearly 40 years since it was first written.

Shipbuilding – Elvis Costello: The bitter sweet ironic reality of politics in a song. Costello juxtaposes the prosperity that the Falklands War brought to the working class shipbuilding communities in the early 80s with the reality that these people were building ships to kill in the South Atlantic. Best version is this much shown Robert Wyatt cover from the Whistle Test.

Beds are Burning – Midnight Oil: There can’t have been many more political bands to have worked over the last 30 years and there can be very few who have had a global hit about Australian Aboriginal land rights. Lead singer Peter Garrett is now Australian Minister for Environment Protection, Heritage and the Arts.

Killing in the Name - Rage Against the Machine: A popular anarchist/ left wing band writes an anthemic protest song that accuses the military and police of being in the Ku Klux Klan. And now all we know about it is that it kept Joe McElwotsit off the Christmas Number 1. Go figure.

Vive la Quinte Brigada – Christy Moore: He wasn’t afraid to put his head above the parapet during the Troubles and say what he felt even if it was controversial, but this beautiful song is a loving tribute to the Irish Socialists who fought on the Republican side during the Spanish Civil War. It’s an education listening Christy.

If you are in the orbit of Spotify, I have started a playlist here Political Songs for Election Day