The Cult Movie Club: Halloween (1978/1982) Revisited (with spoilers)

Posted on by

John Carpenter’s classic horror movie ‘Halloween’ enjoyed its nationwide British TV premiere on 5 February 1982* (reportedly much to Mary Whitehouse’s chagrin).

It’s etched upon your correspondent’s memory. My parents recorded it onto VHS and my uncle thought it would be a laugh to show it to my brother and I. Instead it scared the hell out of me. But it’s remained a favourite movie over the years.

(And that premiere was edited for TV – watching the full version now, it’s always a shock when Michael Myers/The Shape admires his ‘handiwork’ after the kitchen murder, a moment that was cut from the original showing…).

It’s interesting that Carpenter’s work is still pretty much go-to Halloween horror fare for British terrestrial TV. Sky Arts celebrated the day with ‘The Fog’ while the Beeb have been showing ‘Halloween’ for a few weeks now.

And watching it again recently 45 years after my first viewing, it still proved itself a stone-cold classic – and offered up a few new insights:

The odd/inexplicable lines of dialogue
Carpenter and co-writer Debra Hill generally do a great job but there are still lines that baffle, maybe due to the actors’ delivery. Three from Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis): ‘Well, kiddo, I thought you outgrew superstition’ and ‘The old girl scout comes through again’ and ‘What’s the boogieman?’ Maybe ‘What IS the boogieman?’ (with an emphasis on the ‘is’) would have been better…

‘Sexualised’ Jamie Lee in the second half?
In the first half of the movie, Laurie wears she wears a long skirt, bobby socks and cardigan, maybe a rather clever bit of character ‘motivation’ for Michael Myers/The Shape – Laurie possible reminds him of the sister that he murdered (there’s no evidence that Laurie and Michael are related in ‘Halloween’ – that silly idea only came later…). But in the second half of the film, she’s arguably ‘sexualised’ with tight blouse and tight jeans – better equipped to face her demons?

The massive influence of Hitchcock’s‘Psycho’
Obviously it was a coup to cast Jamie Lee, daughter of Janet Leigh. And Donald Pleasence’s character is named ‘Sam Loomis’ after a character from ‘Psycho’. Then there’s that brilliant tracking shot that follows Jamie Lee towards the ‘haunted house’, and Laurie’s entry into the ‘bedroom of horrors’ where evil lurks, as it does in ‘Psycho’. There’s also rather an effective use of a staircase, as in ‘Psycho’ where Martin Balsam meets his grisly end. Also it seems Carpenter wanted to do for cars what Hitchcock did for showers – see below.

The strange moving shape
Check it out – while Lindsey is watching ‘The Thing’, a weird shadow moves behind her in the corner of the room. For UK readers, it’s at 45:20 on iPlayer. Possibly camera shadow? Possibly not…

Illogical plot points
How does The Shape/Michael Myers get into the car to murder Annie (Nancy Loomis)? Carpenter makes a big deal of showing us that the car door’s locked – Annie then goes to get the keys – but when she returns it’s unlocked. Did he have a key? Then there’s the trowel locking the kitchen door when Laurie tries to escape the ‘haunted house’ (in the shooting script it is ‘key-locked’). Also why does it take Sam Loomis (Pleasence) so long to spot Michael’s car when he’s staking out the Myers house in the middle of the night?

The Shape/Michael Myers’ inhumanity
The naturally mild-mannered and sensitive Carpenter saw a lot of scary stuff growing up in the Bible Belt South, and it informed his writing. It’s clear he invested something absolutely immoral into The Shape, but it has precedents in the head baddie played by Frank Doubleday in ‘Assault On Precinct 13’ – shocking inhumanity and a reluctance to die, even when shot and stabbed a few times…

*Reportedly ‘Halloween III: Season Of The Witch’ got the biggest audience of all the UK ‘Halloween’ premieres though, 11 million when shown on the Beeb in 1986…

Book Review: Truly Gifted Kids (A Book About A Band Called Prefab Sprout) by Nige Tassell

Posted on by

Nige Tassell would appear to be a good choice for a book on Prefab Sprout, coming hot on the heels of his enjoyable ‘Whatever Happened To The C86 Kids?’

And ‘Truly Gifted Kids’ certainly adds something original to the pretty scant literature on Prefab. It’s an eccentric fan’s perspective (Tassell sets out his stall in the first chapter: ‘I would have taken a bullet for them’), starting with a fine summary of their status as 1980s pop-tribe outliers.

Rather than a chronological biography with access to any of the principals, Tassell offers chapters on various notable aspect of Prefab – the ‘God thing’, Thomas Dolby’s production skills, the influence of Jimmy Webb, the making of I Trawl The Megahertz, Paddy’s hearing problems, his legendary ‘lost’ albums etc. Along the way he delivers many unexpected treats for the serious Sprout fan.

As befitting Tassell’s vivid sense of place, he visits the McAloon family home near Newcastle, their famous petrol station in Witton Gilbert and even stays a night at the B&B which was once Paddy’s school (St Cuthbert’s).

He also visits the Brewers’ Arms in Durham, scene of Prefab’s first residency, and the site of Guardian Studios, where they laid down first single ‘Lions In My Own Garden (Exit Someone)’.

A real coup for the book is a lengthy interview with Muff Winwood, legendary Sony A&R man and brother of Steve, who reveals that he was played Swoon by manager Keith Armstrong and immediately offered them an advance of £100,000.

There are some gripes though. Some may balk at Tassell’s chatty, very modern, sometimes over-twee writing style (‘The King Of Rock’n’Roll’ is described as having ‘a chorus that invited the world to sing along’). And the chapter on replaying I Trawl in the London hotel room in which Yvonne Connors performed her narration is pretty excruciating.

It’s occasionally short on detail (which West London studio was used to record Stevie Wonder for ‘Nightingales’?) and there’s probably not enough info on Wendy Smith, and not much about Paddy’s early musical influences (and no index).

There are also some errors regarding the music (the wait goes on for a really decent technical analysis of Paddy’s songs): ‘Cruel’ is not a ‘shuffle’. It’s a bossa nova (straight 4/4, not swinging). The trombone solo on Thomas Dolby’s ‘Hyperactive’ is very much not a Fairlight sample – it was played by Peter Thoms (but there is a flute sample towards the end…). And Nile Rodgers didn’t have any input into Bowie and Jagger’s ‘Dancing In The Street’.*

But overall this is an enjoyably original take and a great summary of how Prefab were seen by the music press in the mid-1980s, especially useful for those were a bit too young to witness it (like this writer). It’s definitely not for the casual ’80s music fan though.

*Your correspondent was sent an uncorrected proof to review. These errors may have been corrected in the final edition – you’ll have to buy it to find out…

Frank Beard (1949-2026): ZZ Top @ Rockpalast

Posted on by

This writer had been subconsciously drawn to ZZ’s Tres Hombres (1973) several times over the late summer without quite knowing why. But maybe now it’s clear.

Drummer Frank Beard died at his Richmond, Texas ranch on 17 August after cancelling an appearance with ZZ at the Hollywood Bowl a few weeks earlier.

He had a lovely, flowing style. He never hit particularly hard but tuned his drums beautifully. Comparisons to Jim Gordon, Alex Van Halen and John Bonham are totally relevant. His playing on Tres and Deguello was every bit as subtle and tasteful as Gordon’s on Steely’s Pretzel Logic.

When this writer used to play the drums at school, ZZ’s ‘Gimme All Your Lovin’ was by far the most requested beat (though it now sounds a bit like a combination of real drums and an Oberheim DMX machine…).

No one played a Texas shuffle like Beard, with formidable kick-drum technique. ‘La Grange’ is much imitated, never bettered. There were many other tricks in his box too.

He was apparently an early adopter of hearing protection, with those big headphones, pre-click-track/sequencers(?). Photographer Ross Halfin also told a funny story about an ashtray being built into his kit so he could smoke throughout live sets.

Beard was famously modest about his skills and hardly gave any interviews. And yes he was generally the only ZZ member sans beard, despite the name.

ZZ’s whole 1980 Rockpalast gig is worth watching but here’s a fine version (with not great sound quality) of a movingtheriver favourite. Zappa meets ZZ, as someone said on YouTube, with ingenious use of backing tapes and a cooking Beard groove. Even after watching it a few times it’s still hard to work out how they did it. Play LOUD…

Greatest Music Quotes Of The 1980s #3: Bob Geldof Special

Posted on by

It’s fair to say that Bob Geldof’s efforts to kickstart Band Aid (‘Do They Know It’s Christmas’), USA For Africa (‘We Are The World’) and Live Aid were full of tension, drama and bruised egos.

And as each year goes by, more stories are coming out about that watershed 1984/1985 era, and many feature in the superb recent doc ‘The Greatest Night In Pop’ and Paul Vallely’s book ‘Live Aid: The Definitive 40-Year Story’.

There are sundry tales of managers trying to get their artists higher up the bill at Live Aid (and trying in vain to get soundchecks…), egos running wild (especially in the USA), but also gratifying tales of altruism and friendship.

So a lot of people had a lot of entertaining things to say. Here are some choice quotes from the era, with a cast of characters including Geldof, David Bowie, Freddie Mercury, Bob Dylan, Michael Jackson, Ray Charles, Diana Ross and Paul Simon.

‘It sounds like f*cking “Z Cars”.’
Bob Geldof upon first hearing Midge Ure’s ‘Christmas’ synth melody in the middle of ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas’

‘You’re a f*cking millionaire and you want free food? There’s a f*cking chip shop on the corner. Go and buy your own lunch.’
Bob Geldof’s response to a star asking if there would be catering during the recording at Sarm West in Notting Hill

‘A huge voice erupted out of this little guy. I was standing next to Bono and I jumped. It felt as if I was standing next to an opera singer. He had the same massive power.’
Midge Ure on hearing Bono’s ‘Well, tonight thank God it’s them instead of you!’ line

‘I can’t go until I see Phil Collins play.’
Culture Club’s Jon Moss explaining why he was hanging around in the studio for so long

‘It’s pathetic but the price of a life this year is a piece of plastic with a hole in the middle.’
Bob Geldof tells Radio 1 DJ Simon Bates why people should buy the single

‘It’s really great what you’re doing. We want to do that over here. Will you come over?’
Michael Jackson rings Geldof from LA

‘It was a slap in the face. I know she felt bad. They didn’t think she could sing. It broke her heart.’ Nile Rodgers on Madonna not getting an invite for ‘We Are The World’

‘That’s like the Statue Of Liberty walking in.’
Billy Joel watches Ray Charles entering A&M Studios

‘Daryl, I’m your biggest fan. Would you sign my music for me?’
Diana Ross to Daryl Hall during the recording

‘Say what?! It’s three o’clock in the goddamn mornin’ – I can’t even sing in English no mo’! Ring the bell, Quincy, ring the bell!’
Ray Charles loses patience with Stevie Wonder’s attempts to teach the assembled vocalists a Swahili chant

‘That wasn’t any good.’
Bob Dylan after the vocal take that producer Quincy Jones deemed the keeper

‘Nice, Dylan.’
Bruce Springsteen to Bob after the aforementioned take

‘If it all goes well, no one will ever hear about you. If it’s a disaster, you’ll be famous.’
Harvey Goldsmith’s final words to Live Aid band organiser Pete Smith at the end of his interview

‘Oh Bobsy, I’m not so sure. I just don’t think it’s the right thing for us.’
Freddie Mercury’s initial response to Geldof about Queen playing at Live Aid

‘Is Geldof involved? I’m only doing the Geldof thing.’
David Bowie to his PR Bernard Doherty after getting TWO invitations to do charity work in 1985

‘You’ll never get Keith to agree. Cos Keith don’t give a f*ck.’
Bill Wyman to Geldof on his chances of getting the Stones together for Live Aid

‘Bob picked the wrong year, the wrong decade actually, to ask the Rolling Stones to do anything.’
Bernard Doherty on getting the Stones to appear

‘I took the idea from the television programme “Sunday Night At The London Palladium” which had a revolving stage at the end with all the performers of that week saying goodbye.’
Bob Geldof on the Live Aid revolving stage

‘I’ll do it. But Roger (Daltrey) will only do it if Kenney (Jones) doesn’t play. And John (Entwistle) will only do it if Kenney DOES play.’
Pete Townshend to Geldof on getting The Who back together for Live Aid – Kenney Jones had been their drummer since the death of Keith Moon

‘If The Who appear, we know we will get an additional million pounds of revenue. Every pound we make will save a life. Please, Roger, do the f*cking show.’
Bob Geldof pleads with Daltrey to do Live Aid – he did, and Kenney did appear on drums

‘Well, pull out, dude. You announce it, though.’
Bob Geldof to Bryan Ferry who was angry that he had been announced for Live Aid without even agreeing to participate

‘Oh f*ck. I didn’t think you could actually fix that!’
Phil Collins’ manager Tony Smith on being told by Geldof that Phil would play in both London and Philadelphia (he would also drum with Led Zeppelin at the latter gig)

‘We had this unbelievable discussion with Michael Jackson’s people. We were saying this is to help people in Africa and he just wasn’t interested.’
Harvey Goldsmith on trying to get Jackson to play Live Aid

‘They couldn’t give a f*ck, Bob.’
Quincy Jones whispers to Geldof his summation of why Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Prince and Stevie Wonder failed to appear at Live Aid

‘Call NASA, Harvey!’
Bob Geldof to Harvey Goldsmith, getting excited about sending Mick Jagger up in a space shuttle to duet with Bowie at Wembley

‘Sorry, sir. It takes six months for us to plan to do something like that.’
The man from NASA – he say no…

‘The Beatles can’t be reformed. John is dead.’
Bob Geldof kiboshes rumours that he’s been trying to reform The Beatles for Live Aid

‘I don’t care how many songs you want me to do, but I’m giving up one to introduce this on stage or I’m not doing the show.’
David Bowie on the CBC video which married harrowing images of starving Ethiopians with The Cars’ ‘Drive’

‘I thought: either I’ve done something really clever or really stupid…’
CBC’s Colin Dean on his edit of the above-mentioned video

‘I’m not going to have someone like Bill Graham talk to me in the way he’s talking to me. I won’t work with this guy. I’m sorry.’
Paul Simon tells Geldof why he’s pulling out of Live Aid

‘I’ve been on tour forever. We’ve just got married and if I don’t give her a honeymoon, then it’ll be a divorce!’
Bruce Springsteen tells Geldof why he won’t play Live Aid

‘Well, f*cking pull out. No one’s getting a soundcheck. I’m going back to bed.’
Bob Geldof to U2 manager Paul McGuinness on the eve of Live Aid – the latter had threatened to withdraw U2 if they didn’t get a soundcheck

‘I don’t think I can do this. It’s been six years since I’ve done anything.’
Paul McCartney has a crisis in the car on the way to Live Aid – his wife’s response was: ‘Shut up. You’re doing it.’

‘She asked me whether I could get her on. I told her to just turn up.’
Phil Collins remembers meeting Cher on the Concorde during his flight from London to Philadelphia

‘I have terrible memories of it all going wrong. Poor David (Gilmour), his guitar wasn’t working for the first couple of songs. With his first hit, the drummer put his stick through the drum skin. Then my mic wasn’t working, which for a singer is a bit of a handicap. A roadie ran on with another mic, so then I was holding two mics taped together and I wasn’t really sure which one to sing into.’
Bryan Ferry looks back on his Live Aid performance

‘Looking back, I think we were all a bit overexcited and I remember coming off and thinking it was very scrappy.’
Brian May on Queen’s performance

‘Queen were absolutely the best band of the day.’
Bob Geldof

‘I walked in and just stood there, and we looked at each other and he burst into tears. I’ve never seen him do that, before or since.’
Bernard Doherty on David Bowie after his Live Aid performance

‘He wouldn’t let go of my hand. He said, “You’re that lovely boy from Boomtown Rats, aren’t you?” I said, “No, I’m the lovely boy from Ultravox…”’
Midge Ure on Freddie Mercury at Live Aid

‘I ain’t taking shit off today. You might hold it against me ten years from now…’
Madonna to the Philadelphia crowd – pre-fame topless photos had just been published in the newspapers

‘No, it doesn’t go like that!’
Jimmy Page to Phil Collins backstage at Philadelphia before performing with Led Zeppelin – he had requested that Collins rehearse by playing air drums through ‘Stairway To Heaven’ to prove that he knew the song

‘The whole thing was a disaster really. Robert wasn’t match-fit with his voice and Jimmy was out of it, dribbling. If I could have walked off, I would have.’
Phil Collins on playing with Led Zeppelin

‘She came out and literally blew the console apart!’
Philadelphia monitor man Dave Skaff on Patti Labelle’s performance at Live Aid

‘This is your Woodstock, and it’s long overdue…’
Joan Baez to the Philadelphia crowd

Book Review: Genesis (Song By Song) by Philipp Rottgers

Posted on by

Despite the twin threats of streaming and AI, it’s gratifying to see that there seems to be an increasing appetite for indepth writing about the good old long player.

This is especially true if you’re into the rich catalogues of the great artists from the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s.

Fonthill Media have put together the latest (hardback) series of ‘song by song’ studies, covering similar territory to Sonicbond’s ‘on track’ series.

Author Philipp Rottgers (he’s also a historian and drummer with the band PARIAHLORD) now enters the fray with an enjoyable new study of pop/prog behemoths Genesis.

The book offers entries on every single song they ever recorded, plus sections on tours, album artwork and contemporaneous critical reactions. There’s also an impressive selection of colour photos, including singles covers new to this writer. There’s no index but an extensive reference section and long bibliography.

Genesis provides an interesting challenge for the discerning author, with such a weighty catalogue and two distinct eras. Rottgers preference seems to be for the 1975-1992 period, when Phil Collins fronted the band.

But the book still offers lots of tasty morsels regarding the band’s earlier Peter Gabriel period. For example, it’s interesting to note that the live debut of ‘Supper’s Ready’ took place at Brunel University, Uxbridge, on 10 November 1972 (one wonders if It Bites knew about this when they played a fantastic 16-minute version of ‘Once Around The World’ at the venue in February 1988).

And Rottgers reveals that Noel Gallagher of all people was influenced by an early track called ‘The Conqueror’.

We skim through the band members’ early biographies pretty quickly (weirdly Rottgers neglects to mention the location of each founding members’ birth) and learn a lot about the patronage and early promotion of impresario/songwriter Jonathan King (whose subsequent ‘dodgy’ dealings are skirted over completely, probably for good reason…).

There’s some great stuff about Collins’ audition for the band, though it would have been nice to know what they played on that Surrey afternoon. There are fascinating muso details about the middle period, like the fact that Banks, Rutherford and Collins were each given a CR-78 drum machine during the Japanese tour of 1978 as gifts from manufacturers Roland, and it became a key sound of the Duke album (and Collins’ Face Value).

There are some superb tidbits about the band’s mid-1980s commercial peak – the analysis of ‘Land Of Confusion’ is particularly detailed – and Rottgers reminds us that the band did a remarkable FOUR nights at Wembley Stadium in 1987.

The final chapter impressively reviews the farewell 2022 concerts in full and also explains the legacy of the band and also the contributions that Banks, Collins and Rutherford made to their instruments and songwriting in general.

Whilst ‘Genesis: Song By Song’ is a huge achievement and obviously a labour of love for Rottgers, there are some strange omissions. He generally eschews musical analysis, surprising given Genesis are famed for their top-notch playing.

And fans of the early work may occasionally scratch their heads at the lack of space given to important, complex early pieces like ‘Mad Man Moon’ and ‘Can Utility & The Coastliners – both only get three lines each! And some Lamb Lies Down tracks also get short shrift.

But all in all, this is an enjoyable and worthwhile book, doing a good job of taking one back to the music afresh. Looking forward to Rottgers’ upcoming book on Collins.

Scritti Politti: Cupid & Psyche 85 (The Deluxe Edition)

Posted on by

After decades of neglect, Scritti’s classic Cupid & Psyche 85 seems to finally be getting its due.

Rough Trade released a long-awaited remaster of the album in 2021, and singer/guitarist/co-songwriter Green Gartside has put it front and centre of his occasional live shows over the last 20 years or so.

But now a new 2022 remaster (by Chris Athens) has been released as a single CD/2-LP Deluxe Edition, with seven bonus tracks including two extremely rare mixes.

But is it any good? Not ‘arf. It’s the reissue this writer has been waiting for, finally putting his original Virgin CD out to pasture.

The package comprises the original classic album (thankfully with the John Potoker mix of ‘Perfect Way’ rather than the rather puny original), plus the usual mixes that have appeared on all subsequent reissues: ‘Flesh & Blood’ and extended versions of ‘Absolute’, ‘Hypnotize’ and ‘Wood Beez’.

Also included are two out-of-print mixes of ‘Perfect Way’, one only ever released on a US promo 12″. They give a new perspective on the song, with intriguing elements revealed.

And there’s a fun dance mix of ‘Lover to Fall’ that seems to have only briefly appeared previously as a single for the French market. It’s a bit tinnitus-inducing but also fascinating if you love the song.

One of the interesting things about the album is the volume difference between the Arif Mardin-produced tracks (‘Wood Beez’, ‘Absolute’, ‘Don’t Work That Hard’) and the other Green/David Gamson-produced stuff.

No remaster is ever going to square that circle, but this is the closest we’re ever going to get. This new mix also increases the instrument separation and ups the top-end a little bit. ‘A Little Knowledge’ in particular has never sound more sumptuous.

The packaging is excellent – the CD is a solid gatefold digipak with original artwork/photography/lyrics plus very interesting/unobtrusive liner notes from Gartside and Gamson. We find out how long Gary Langan took to mix ‘Hypnotize’, what it was really like to work with Mardin and how Robert Quine came to play on the album, amongst loads of other interesting stuff.

If you’re already a fan of Cupid, the new mixes, pristine sound, liner notes and neat packaging make this deluxe edition an essential purchase. The only downside is the lack of credits for the remixes.

But the album may be relevant for new listeners too. Scritti may have been influenced by Kashif, The System, Leon Sylvers III, Michael Jackson/Quincy Jones and various other early-‘80s acts, but their influence is detectable in much current music.

More knowledgeable bods than your correspondent cite The 1975, Carly Rae Jepsen, HAIM, Dirty Projectors and Hot Chip. So Cupid & Psyche 85 is probably as relevant today as it ever was, and this deluxe edition does it proud.