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

[johnfoyle]

This Asian link features what's probably a boot -

http://auviss.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/20 ... elv-1.html





MUSICAL INTRO - ELVIS COSTELLO / NO MORE TEARSTAINED MAKEUP - ELVIS COSTELLO / TRACKS OF MY TEARS - SMOKEY ROBINSON / THE HUNTER GETS CAPTURED BY THE GAME - ELVIS COSTELLO / DON'T KNOW WHY - SMOKEY ROBINSON / YOU'VE REALLY GOT A HOLD ON ME - SMOKEY ROBINSON & ELVIS COSTELLO

1DVDR / NTSC COLOR / PRO SHOT / approx 46min.
BLUE HEAVEN VISION

[Mikeh]

Elvis can't have meant what he said about James Taylor being one of the great American voices along with Sinatra and Billie Holiday, can he? Easy Listening would be my description of the work of Mr Taylor, and that would be a polite description. When I was a student James Taylor was something the girls in the house would put on while making a lentil stew.

Am I being unkind?

And why did they start singing The Hippopotomus songs as they walked off??

[sweetest punch]

From the episode with Smokey Robinson:
The Hunter Gets Captured By The Game: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRF-v5rBxFQ
You Really Got A Hold On Me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAbawZ_76F4
No More Tearstained Make-up: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAyYlBmvQ3M

[sweetest punch]

Lots of Behind The Scenes on YouTube:
Behind The Scenes Week 1 (Elton John): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVBC2VVzsKA
Behind The Scenes Week 2 (Lou Reed): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9TtA8Ce ... re=channel
Behind The Scenes Week 3 (Bill Clinton): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zi85cqKXUaI
Behind The Scenes Week 4 (James Taylor): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkXSRMBBV4M
Behind The Scenes Week 5 (Tony Bennett): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sb6YE3AW6gw
Behind The Scenes Week 6 (The Police): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9Uwv8ECQC0
Behind The Scenes Week 7 (Rufus Wainwright): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCybBxHZdhA
Behind The Scenes Week 8 (Chris Kristofferson, Roseanne Cash, Norah Jones, John Mellencamp): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfxQCh2vWV4
Behind The Scenes Week 9 (Renee Fleming): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USPWqIYFf-o
Behind The Scenes Week 10 (Herbie Hancock): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2Mtl_SUPTU

[FAVEHOUR]

Lots of Behind The Scenes on YouTube:
Behind The Scenes Week 1 (Elton John): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVBC2VVzsKA
Behind The Scenes Week 2 (Lou Reed): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9TtA8Ce ... re=channel
Behind The Scenes Week 3 (Bill Clinton): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zi85cqKXUaI
Behind The Scenes Week 4 (James Taylor): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkXSRMBBV4M
Behind The Scenes Week 5 (Tony Bennett): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sb6YE3AW6gw
Behind The Scenes Week 6 (The Police): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9Uwv8ECQC0
Behind The Scenes Week 7 (Rufus Wainwright): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCybBxHZdhA
Behind The Scenes Week 8 (Chris Kristofferson, Roseanne Cash, Norah Jones, John Mellencamp): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfxQCh2vWV4
Behind The Scenes Week 9 (Renee Fleming): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USPWqIYFf-o
Behind The Scenes Week 10 (Herbie Hancock): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2Mtl_SUPTU

and these are all different from the Behind the Scenes clips on the Sundance site.

[migdd]

Curiously, in the Lou Reed clip, EC tells Lou that he cut a version of Femme Fatale in Nashville with T-Bone Burnette "last month" (May 2008). Could this pop up on the new album?

[johnfoyle]

Anyone who wants this will have got this by now , so here's a scan from the print edition -

The Word, Feb. 09

The Host With The Most

Elvis Costello's new talk show flies in the face of "soundbite culture" Could this be the magic formula for music television? MARK ELLEN investigates

"THERE'S A SHORTHAND FOR a talk show in this country," Elvis Costello believes, "and it's based on the American formula - long roll on the drums and not very much beyond it. You get a monologue, some skits and some conversation designed to show the host - and, occasionally, the guests - in a good light.

"There's also an obsession with consistency of tone, and that tone tends to be set by the host. But the tone that's right for one guest may not be right for another. It was interesting that, after 9/11, David Letterman changed his tone. Normally the Late Show is there to just be amused, but in the light of what had happened it couldn't do that for a while and you immediately felt it had other possibilities. I wanted to find out what this kind of programme could be if you gave it the space."

Costello's own series of televised talk shows began on the Sundance cable channel in December. They're already on Channel 4 and can also be seen online. And you have to admit he's the man for the job. A rare combination of wit, vast musical knowledge and an unfeigned interest in a world beyond just himself has ensured that, ever since the late '805, television executives have been trying to invent a way to put him on the other side of the question-sheet. Costello anchored Letterman's Late Show when its host was off sick in 2003 and covered himself with glory interviewing Eddie Izzard and Kim Cattrall. At this point Sundance began developing an idea for a new music-based chat show with Elton John and David Furnish as executive producers, and Elton thought it was custom-built for Costello.

"We live in this soundbite culture," he told me, "so I thought, `Let's do a full-length musical show. Elvis has the experience, he's got an encyclopaedic knowledge, we're both compete anoraks - geeks, nerds - on music. He's the one!"

They've made 13 episodes of Spectacle:Elvis Costello With...since April last year, all recorded at New York's Apollo Theatre.There's a house band, including the jazz guitarist Bill Frisell,and each show opens with an appropriate number - Presley's Mystery Train for Bill Clinton, Walking On The Moon for The Police (which turns into Watching The Detectives), If l Only Had A Brain from The Wizard Of Oz for Rufus Wainwright "as his own songs are just too difficult to sing". Elvis raises the curtain "like a carnival barker. The feeling is, 'Are you ready for showtime?'

You're impressed by the dgree to which he wants to be involved in every aspect of the programme. Most of questions on his Frost-style clipboard he writes himself and no detail is beyond him ("It's not over-lit;that's always bugged me about television , you feel like meat in a butcher's shop").Much of the research he's conducted personally - he visited Lou Reed's studio before inviting him on- and he's helped unearth arcane bits of footage to illustrate the points he's hoping to make . It's a broad-based chat show , though the guest's records cllection tends to be the frame of reference. He asks Bill Clinton what part music played in his decison-making process - "I thought presidents of old used to read the Bible in times of crisis; now it's highly likely they turn to Johnny Cash for a moral compass."

"Elvis wanted this to be a show about genres of music that may have been forgotten," Sundance general manager Laura Michalchyshyn says, "about artists that haven't been in the spotlight and people performing in a way they haven't before."

He was impressed, too, that there was "no compulsion to talk about the new product, the thing that's coming out next week, and nobody's saying, `Wind it up after a couple of seconds, because we've got to get to the recipes'." Elton adds that he wants the series to be "deeply' historical programmes that people will back on as a historical reference.'

But the problem with British music programmes hasn't been the diversity of acts but the line of enquiry pursued by the presenters. Our shows tend to be stuck between two stools, either hosted by The Music Critic - people like, well, me to be honest, on Old Grey Whistle Test in the'80s journalistic spivs constantly trying to impose their theories on to people's lives and art- or by The Musician, like Jools Holland on Later bonding furiously via the notion that he's playing for the same team as whoever he's interviewing because they both once played the Retford Porterhouse, but never to get below the surface "what was the first record made you want to pick guitar?"-type opening salvos.

Elvis agrees but is now in the rare position of having seen this equation from both sides.

"Jools' show is mostly performance," he point out, "and allows limited time for conversational interludes. So he tends to ask the same questions to everyone as he hasn't really got time to try and develop a different theme. With my show it's the other way around - conversation with musical interludes. But you're right, journalists tend to come to the subject with a precise theory and that's the whole of their argument, often honed without having met you or ever talked to you in the past. So they ask their first question, based on this theory, and you say, `No, it was never like that.' But their second question is based on the assumption that it was - and so it degenerates from there. But I did exactly the same with Tony Bennett! I knew he'd worked with Bill Evans, and they were both painters and liked the same artists,and I thought they both must - must! - have used art as a frame of reference for the way they approached music. And Tony Bennett just said `no'. And of course I've got this clip of him and Evans teed up to play, assuming we'll be off on some sort of conversational tangent here. And we're not!"

What do you feel you've brought to music TV? "When you go on TV shows, you get that sinking feeling that no matter what you do and no matter what your new record is like, you will be placed in the context of some kind of reductive shorthand for what you are. So if I'm going to going on to talk about opera or classical music, they'll still start with a clip of me singing Oliver's Army - which I understand as they have to locate you in the minds of a general audience of `pop-pickers'. But those clips have no pertinece to what you're going to talk about. Our clips do have a pertinence. And we do get away from the shorthand. Elton is on the first show, and instead of the the costumes, etc he's talking about Laura Nyro, Leon Russell,David Ackles - people who were his contemporaries. At one gets up and shows me piano chords he's nicked from a Russell song.
"And I like that opportunity to break away from what people expect you to talk about. There's a reductive view of Lou Reed - 'The Prince of Darkness', based on a series of songs he wrote 35 years go - but when he was on [with his friend Julian Schnabel], Julian talked about his father dying and how he'd Lou Reed round to hold his father's hand. And I found that intensely moving."

Give us a few highlights. "Me and Jakob Dylan playing Straight To Hell by The Clash. The Police at the end of their tour - I interview them all separately and then they all come on and talk at once. It's very end-of-term, very let out-of-school; you know they won't be seeing each other again for a while! Smokey Robinson asking me to take the lead - he takes the harmony - for The Beatles' You Really Got A Hold On Me. You have to try and keep your nerve and your self-respect at moments like that. But most of all, the interview with Smokey Robinson. We were recording in The Apollo, where he played when he was a kid, and he told this story about how he'd turned up there at half-seven in the morning for the matinee with the wrong charts and the promoter was ready to throw his group The Matadors off the show, they were bottom of the bill. And Ray Charles, who's headlining, overhears this, sits Smokey down and plays the song and dictates the parts to him, thus
not only saving his place on the bill but - I think you can honestly say - saving his entire career. He also talks about prejudice. He's considered this lovegod, this romantic balladeer, but he goes into this ten-minute monologue and ends by saying, `If we were attacked by aliens and had our skin burnt off, we would all be the same: And this from the man who wrote Ooh Baby Baby! So sometimes you get a little more than you bargained for - but in a good way."

Most people seeing themselves presenting a TV show for the first time want to hide under a duvet till Christmas. How was it for you? "Well, I hope people get over the somewhat halting nature of my presentational style, but the guests will hold their attention! I got a brief impression of what those five nights-a-week shows must be like for the hosts - what it would be like to be dealing with people you don't want to speak to, or people who have nothing to say - but you can see my interest is genuine. At the very least I have curiosity. And I'm not forcing them to confess anything sinister. If we do a second series it'll be for all the right reasons. If we don't, it's not the worst thing that's ever happened. I'm not giving up live music. Singing in front of a band is like standing in front of a jet engine, so I'm not looking for a long-term career in television here!"

[pophead2k]

The She and Him, Jenny Lewis, and Jakob Dylan episode is the most musically satisfying for me. All of the performances are excellent.

[Boy With A Problem]

Elvis can't have meant what he said about James Taylor being one of the great American voices along with Sinatra and Billie Holiday, can he? Easy Listening would be my description of the work of Mr Taylor, and that would be a polite description. When I was a student James Taylor was something the girls in the house would put on while making a lentil stew.

Am I being unkind?

I agree completely. Still, he seems like a nice enough man and he did a really decent job in Two Lane Black-Top and this was one of the better Spectacles. I never could get into his music though.

[Boy With A Problem]

The She and Him, Jenny Lewis, and Jakob Dylan episode is the most musically satisfying for me. All of the performances are excellent.

I agree, packed with great performances. Nice to see Pete and Tennessee playing together too.

[sweetest punch]

From the episode with She & Him, Jenny Lewis and Jacob Dylan:
Straight To Hell: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04rTOToUmWo
Show Bizz Kids: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHJnnE3H ... re=channel
Pretty Bird: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJ5PZLk4 ... re=channel
Peace, Love and Understanding: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlXeLgfB ... re=channel
On Up The Mountain: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hk2CTLKf ... re=channel
Go Away: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRzVKYdH ... re=channel
Change Is Hard: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oE7D7DYF ... re=channel
Carpetbaggers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNWjprGW ... re=channel

[sweetest punch]

Lots of Behind The Scenes on YouTube:
Behind The Scenes Week 1 (Elton John): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVBC2VVzsKA
Behind The Scenes Week 2 (Lou Reed): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9TtA8Ce ... re=channel
Behind The Scenes Week 3 (Bill Clinton): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zi85cqKXUaI
Behind The Scenes Week 4 (James Taylor): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkXSRMBBV4M
Behind The Scenes Week 5 (Tony Bennett): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sb6YE3AW6gw
Behind The Scenes Week 6 (The Police): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9Uwv8ECQC0
Behind The Scenes Week 7 (Rufus Wainwright): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCybBxHZdhA
Behind The Scenes Week 8 (Chris Kristofferson, Roseanne Cash, Norah Jones, John Mellencamp): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfxQCh2vWV4
Behind The Scenes Week 9 (Renee Fleming): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USPWqIYFf-o
Behind The Scenes Week 10 (Herbie Hancock): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2Mtl_SUPTU

Behind The Scenes Week 11 (She & Him, Jenny Lewis, Jacob Dylan): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWYxrx4K ... re=channel
Behind The Scenes Week 12 (Diana Krall): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vRomG2jwP0

[charliestumpy]

Here in UK yesterday morning the Kris K-Norah Batty-R.Cash-JM show was IMO great with 8 fine songs.

Yesterday I got out my great Kristofferson vinyl and enjoyed it again.

[And No Coffee Table]

"Nickyboy" on the wiki site has spotted a second instance of the UK broadcast omitting a song shown in the US: John Mellencamp's performance of "Small Town."

[scielle]

Someone on Diana’s forum said they finally saw an ad for Spectacle on Canada’s CTV – apparently it is to start airing in early April.

[johnfoyle]

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/s ... /20090223/

'Spectacle: Elvis Costello With...' premieres April 3/4 on CTV and Bravo!

It's the ultimate front row seat for any music fan. Music legend Elvis Costello strikes a chord when creative minds come together for intimate discussions and unparalleled musical performances in the greatly-anticipated new CTV/Bravo! original series SPECTACLE: ELVIS COSTELLO WITH....

As announced last night during CTV's broadcast of THE ACADEMY AWARDS®, the Canada/United Kingdom production premieres Friday, April 3 at 10 p.m. ET on CTV, immediately following hit drama series FLASHPOINT (visit ctv.ca to confirm local broadcast times).

Premiering just days after CTV's broadcast of THE 2009 JUNO AWARDS, the music series will air throughout the weekend, with encore presentations of CTV's Friday night broadcast airing on Bravo! Saturdays at 8 p.m. ET and Sundays at 6 p.m. ET (following INSIDE THE ACTOR'S STUDIO), beginning April 4.

Conceived and developed in Canada by creator/Executive Producer Stephen Warden, SPECTACLE is co-produced by Toronto's Tri-Fi Productions Inc. (a partnership of SpyBox Pictures, Prospero Pictures and reinvention entertainment) and Sir Elton John and David Furnish's Rocket Pictures.

In the critically-acclaimed, hour-long series, music legend Elvis Costello conjures up eclectic performances and candid conversations about the creative process, the power of music and the impact it has on creators and the world at large.

The collaborators featured with Costello in the series reads as one of the best concert line ups ever. He is joined by musical heavyweights The Police (in their final TV performance and interview), Sir Elton John, Tony Bennett, Lou Reed, Kris Kristofferson, Herbie Hancock, Renée Fleming, Rosanne Cash, Smokey Robinson, John Mellencamp and James Taylor, among others.

The series also features a fascinating hour with President Bill Clinton and highlights Canadians Rufus Wainwright and Diana Krall, as well as a new generation of influential musical voices including Norah Jones, Jenny Lewis, Jakob Dylan and She & Him (actress Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward).

"SPECTACLE is for the inquisitive. Each week viewers eavesdrop on fascinating conversation while being treated to front-row seats at intimate performances," said Susanne Boyce, President, Creative, Content and Channels, CTV Inc.

"It's a window into the musical world that each guest inhabits, that only Elvis Costello can open up."

"It has been quite head-spinning to find myself in conversation with some of my favourite musicians and even share a song or two with them," said Costello.

"The response we've had to the show is so gratifying - not only from people who've seen it, but all the artists who've come on with Elvis have been thrilled to be a part of something that's genuinely - and passionately - about music," said Executive Producer and guest star Sir Elton John. "We can't wait for Canadians to see it."

"SPECTACLE is an international success story that is truly Canadian at its core," said Jordan Jacobs, Executive Producer and President of Tri-Fi Productions and SpyBox Media.

"SPECTACLE was conceived, developed and produced by Canadians, has been hailed by U.S. critics as one of the very best shows on American television and has been sold around the world. As producers (and host) who live in Canada, we are thrilled to share the series with our fellow Canadians and watch it at home on CTV and Bravo!"

SPECTACLE was taped last year in New York, with exciting, on-the-edge-of-your-seat, night-of-your-life, sold-out tapings at the world famous, legendary Apollo Theater in Harlem, as well as the infamous, rocking SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE studios at 30 Rockefeller Center.

The series premiered to critical acclaim on the Sundance Channel in the U.S. and Channel 4 in the U.K. in December 2008. It made numerous year-end, Top 10, Best-Of lists from Los Angeles to London with The New Yorker exclaiming, "Costello's ear, intelligence, and musicianly generosity are all in play in SPECTACLE."

The series kicks off on a high note with "SPECTACLE: Elvis Costello With...Elton John" (Fri., April 3 at 10 p.m. ET). The two Rock and Roll Hall of Famers prove that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery as the artists discuss each other's work and give the viewer priceless insight into their collective creative genius.

Executive Producer Sir Elton John, an admitted Costello fan, discusses his love and passion for many of the musicians who have had an impact on his life and career. In a television first, Elvis and Elton perform together, and Elvis covers some of Elton John's most beloved songs. Special musical guests include Allen Toussaint and James Burton, who join Pete Thomas and Davey Faragher of Elvis Costello's band The Imposters.

Consistent with executive producer Sir Elton John's long-standing commitment to philanthropy and music, the series producers have struck an exciting association with the (Product) RED (www.joinred.com) campaign created to raise awareness and money for the Global Fund (www.theglobalfund.org) to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in Africa. In addition to giving a portion of the profits of the series to the Global Fund via (RED), select program excerpts and performances are given for free to the cutting edge (RED)WIRE digital subscription service, which delivers exclusive music and video content to subscribers and pays all profits to the Global Fund.

Spectacle: Elvis Costello with... is produced by Toronto's Tri-Fi Productions Inc. (a partnership of SpyBox Pictures, Prospero Pictures and reinvention entertainment) and Sir Elton John and David Furnish's Rocket Pictures, in association with CTV, Sundance Channel, Channel 4 and FremantleMedia Enterprises. Executive Producers are Sir Elton John, Elvis Costello, David Furnish, Steve Hamilton-Shaw, Jordan Jacobs, Martin Katz and Stephen Warden. Co-Executive Producer is Alex Coletti. For CTV, Ed Robinson is Executive Vice-President, Programming, CTV. Susanne Boyce is President, Creative, Content and Channels, CTV Inc.

[scielle]

Some requisite CTV hype in this clip (about 2mins into the video)

http://watch.ctv.ca/etalk/this-week/fri ... clip142714

[BlueChair]

Finally!

[Who Shot Sam?]

More Elvis love from Mojo...

So Elvis Costello has a talk show. But where are its teeth, wonders MOJO’s David Sheppard?

Viewers who tuned into Spectacle, the Sundance Channel’s widely syndicated Elvis Costello TV talk show, could be forgiven for finding it a very rum affair indeed - the phrase ‘poacher-turned-gamekeeper’ springing rather too readily to mind.

The first show proffered Costello as the avuncular host, clipboard in hand, bowling gentle daisy-cutters at fellow new wave grandees the Police. Perhaps no-one had reminded the host of his performance on a 1980 BBC Radio One Round Table review show during which he’d opined that, “Somebody should clip Sting around the head and tell him to stop singing in that ridiculous Jamaican accent…” - his unequivocal parting shot about the Police that evening: “I can’t stand them”.

Spectacle offers a deeply incongruous scenario for anyone who recalls Costello as the spiky iconoclast of the late 1970s – an artist trading in righteous anger and invective who carried a vicious masonry nail as a weapon and a ‘black book’ of music biz adversaries and who later foreswore interviews altogether. With all that in mind, there was something fatally undermining about the ‘spectacle’ of Declan Patrick Aloysius McManus mugging merrily along with Messrs Sumner, Copeland and Summers (notwithstanding that he’d spent the autumn touring the States in support of the recently reconstituted peroxide constabulary). The resistance guerrilla turned Quisling, perhaps?

Naturally, mellowness comes with age. Costello is an urbane 54, happily married and an habitué of the opera house. But while no-one expects the one-time poet laureate of ‘emotional fascism’ to swim forever in bile, can he really have relinquished all scruples and critical faculties just to be on the telly with some other famous musos?

It wasn’t just the fawning, anodyne banality of his enquiries that stuck in the craw during the Police show (“what’s your favourite Police song” he asked the haughty Sting, who faux-diplomatically volunteered two of the handful of numbers he’d ever allowed his compadres to pen) but the obsequious display of ‘showbiz’ cordiality between punk’s erstwhile poisoned penman and his self-confessed former bêtes noires. Frankly, from Costello we expect a bit more.

Despite hackle-raising portents - the oh-so-witty title, executive production by Elton John - Spectacle’s premise seemed initially promising. Costello is renowned for his eclectic fandom, his cache of arcane cover versions and articulate forays into music writing, notably for Vanity Fair. All the more reason to expect Spectacle to rise above the kind of trite toadying and luvvy back-slapping so beloved of that other sycophantic new wave escapee-turned bumptious master of ceremonies, Jools Holland.

To be fair, Spectacle’s subsequent cosying-up sessions with Rufus Wainwright and Elton John were marginally less nausea-inducing - the latter saved by a duet on the late David Ackles’ sublime Down River. As I write the Bill Clinton show has yet to be aired; it’s safe to suppose that questions about Whitewater, cigars and Oval Office interns will not be gracing Elvis’s clipboard.

Don’t expect a genteel ramble through the history of US soul music with Stephen Stills any day soon, either.

David Sheppard

[sweetest punch]

From the episode with Diana Krall:
Almost Blue: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zju3lT02PiE
Night Train: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BM1ZE86Y ... re=related
Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruxKIOiI ... re=related
But Not For Me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFQgJCrD ... re=related
A Case Of You: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ejjb6MWn ... re=related
Exactly Like You: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsmaeSs4 ... re=related
Makin' Whoopee: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfYU_xNA ... re=related

[And No Coffee Table]

Elvis Costello's 'Spectacle' shares the inside-the-music spotlight
12:58 PM PT, Feb 25 2009

A&E / Bio's "The Chris Isaak Hour" is the second new hourlong music performance and interview series to show up on cable TV in recent months, coming on the heels of the Sundance Channel's "Spectacle," hosted by the ever-provocative Elvis Costello.

"Spectacle" is really the brainchild of Elton John and his life-business partner, David Furnish, two of the show's executive producers. John also was Costello's first guest when "Spectacle" premiered last fall, and it was obvious from his impassioned remarks about fellow musicians Laura Nyro, David Ackles and Leon Russell that he was a man on a mission.

Other guests have included Lou Reed, Herbie Hancock, She & Him, Renée Fleming, Rufus Wainwright and former President Bill Clinton, on how his training as a musician informed his political career.

"David and I wanted to make a music show about music that's in-depth, not just a sound bite," John said recently. "Most of the time on TV you never get that chance, you're just going on to plug a new record. But there's nothing on television that gives people an insight into musicians anymore. There are great shows where people perform, but not where they're interviewed in any depth. So we thought, 'Wouldn't it be great?' "
Both shows target music lovers interested in broadening their horizons.

"There's no history in music anymore," John said. "As music has become more and more downloadable, something is getting lost. To me, it's always been about the tangible, starting with the 78, then the 45, then the 33 album, eight-tracks and cassettes . . . . The magic was to put the headphones on and look at the gatefold with the lyrics, read the credits to see who played on it, who the bass player was -- it was the whole journey."

As for the competitive aspect of these shows vying for much the same audience, John and Isaak are shaping up as the world's worst combatants. "The more the merrier," John said. "We really need programs like that, so people can have a reference point, something more than watching a bloody video on MTV."

Said Isaak: "I like Elvis Costello. . . . I saw the list of his guests -- he has fantastic guests. I'm a terrible judge. I think they're very different shows, [and] I think you could watch his and watch mine. To me, I love music, so I'm all for anything where you get musicians on TV and you get to hear them play music and talk about it."

-Randy Lewis

[migdd]

The final show of the season (surely it will get the green light for another 13 episodes) with Smokey was a real highlight. Robinson was an energetic and entertaining interview. The Imposters (with Anthony Brown) were right at home with the material. If I had only a minor complaint, it would be that Smokey didn't get a chance to sing a number on his own. The "Tracks of My Tears" segment with Steve was great but was a bit of a tease.

[charliestumpy]

Yes, over here in the land of Costello we enjoyed the Smokey show on 2009-02-04.

Yesterday morning here in UK or somewhere we enjoyed Renne Fleming's massive ring co-ordinating brilliantly with Bill Frisell's finger-plate in interesting show (which apart from fine Rufus stuff) showed how overpriced/dopey is most opera ...

If we have another 13 shows, ideally they would be the same/on same date all around the world (still 3 to enjoy in UK despite nice links/YouTube clips in advance).

DPAM will soon be down the road in Bristol, England.

[And No Coffee Table]

"Nickyboy" on the wiki site has spotted a second instance of the UK broadcast omitting a song shown in the US: John Mellencamp's performance of "Small Town."

And here's a third instance of the UK getting less than the US, although in this case it's interview material that's missing rather than a song.

The UK version of the Smokey Robinson episode cuts a bit awkwardly from Smokey talking about his vocal influences (and Frankie Lymon in particular) to Elvis talking about D'Angelo covering "Cruising." In between, the US version has Elvis offering his own observations about Jackie Wilson and Sam Cooke and asking Smokey about current singers he likes, with Smokey mentioning Chris Brown, John Legend, Maxwell, Alicia Keys, Beyoncé, Mariah Carey, and Justin Timberlake before Elvis brings up D'Angelo.

Toward the end of the episode, between talk of the Motown sound and Motown choreography, the US version has Elvis asking about the Motown session musicians, with Smokey talking a bit about James Jamerson.

Less significantly, the opening titles and "No More Tearstained Makeup" appear in different spots between the two versions.

[sweetest punch]

From the episode with Smokey Robinson:
No More Tearstained Make-up: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vd-cSpvMwKA
Don't Know Why: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VklI___x ... re=channel
Tracks Of My Tears: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nI0eMC83 ... re=channel
You Really Got A Hold On Me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XH5TTnUh ... re=channel