*Keepin' Up With Rob*
NEWS
Travel has been the name of the game since last week, with a wedding and visits to family and friends taking us to Gretna Green, Glasgow and Central Scotland. Then, next week I’m off to South Africa for a month where I’ll be spending a lot of time with my mum who’s based in the North Western Province, and will also be visiting Durban, Johannesburg and the Kruger National Park.
It’s great to see that over 1100 people have now read previous newsletters on my MySpace blog. Along with the folks who read it on my website, I also e-mail the newsletter directly to many friends. If you’re reading this online and would like to receive the e-mail version, then please just sign-up on either my website or the MySpace page. (Look for the sign-up boxes)
(opens on a new page)
In recent weeks I’ve been working on three different music projects. As usual I’ve been gigging at the weekends, both as my solo act and a few nights with Craig as ‘The Duelling Pianos’. Work continues on the TV / Radio and Corporate Production music and it looks as though a short piece I’ve arranged will be used on a South African TV program later this year... fingers crossed!
I’m also arranging some new song ideas for the solo and ‘Duelling Pianos’ shows. At the moment I’m wading through the most wonderful jazz chords putting together a swing-like ‘Tribute To The Ratpack’. Hard work but fun! Other ideas to follow are, a big version of Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Born To Run’, a ‘Madness Medley’ and a brand new ‘Movie Medley.’
So with a new ‘Movie Medley’ on the horizon, I thought it might be an idea to chat a little about the old one...
THE MOVIE MEDLEY: THROUGH THE YEARS
Anyone who’s seen my live act is probably familiar with the movie medley. Those who know me often ask just how long I’ve been doing it. Some even ask why, after so many years, am I still doing that bl***y medley! The short answer to that, is that people still keep asking for it. Now and again I’ve been to venues where I’m well-known and have tried to leave it out, thinking that it might be overplayed... but chances are someone will come up and request it!
For the uninitiated, my arrangement features 3 different themes... ‘Close Encounters Of The Third Kind’, ‘Chariots Of Fire’ and ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’. Now and again I extend it with a quick version of the theme from ‘Exodus’... especially if good friend Steve is in the audience. Those who know me as a huge movie buff probably guess that these are 3 of my favourite movies. However, for the record... I’m not big on ‘Close Encounters’, quite like ‘Chariots’ and love ‘2001’.
Through the years I’ve tried to get more chatty with audiences, introducing a bit of ‘patter’ into the act. I don’t try a be a comedian, but rather try to build some ‘character’ and ‘fun’ into the show and do my best to get some interaction with the people. I mention this because, when I do get an attentive audience, it can be quite a laugh introducing the ‘Movie Medley’.
First, I play those famous 5 notes from ‘Close Encounters’ and ask the audience... what’s the movie? Just in case you can’t hear those notes in your head... they’re... ‘dee dee da dee da’ - got it now? (Report of my office later, if you haven’t!) It’s surprising how many people confuse this theme with E.T! No, I remind them... this is the movie that ends up on top of a mountain. There’s an ‘orrel speler’ (South African Afrikaans for organ player) with what looks like a well-lit Lowrey organ (remember the ad SA folks? - ‘if you can point a finger... you can play a Lowrey’).
Now a great big saucer-shaped Spaceship is landing and hopping out are a few strange-looking aliens. When I say aliens... I mean proper aliens from out of space. We’re not talking about illegal aliens here... these aren’t wee Zimbabweans crossing the border. For some reason a French genious has told the ‘orrel speler’ to play the famous ‘dee dee da dee da’ notes. What these notes are supposed to mean to an alien race is never made clear. My best guess?
‘Who the hell are you?!’
Other than seeing ‘Close Encounters’ a couple of times, I’ve never actually heard the proper theme to this movie. I’ve simply taken the famous 5 notes and built my own ideas around it. Not a single person has ever come up to me to point out that my version is nothing like the film’s! Once people hear those famous 5 notes they simply seem to associate all that follows as being from the movie. Amazing the power of a short recognisable phrase!
In fact the ‘orrel Speler’ is playing this rather complicated looking synthesiser on top of the mountain. It’s an ARP 2500 which hopefully sounds a bit better than the ARP Odyssey that I used to own ... which would surely send our weird friends whizzing back to their home planet with their tentacles rammed right into their pointy little ears! (See the July Newsletter for more on that).
The thing about the second theme... ‘Chariots Of Fire’, is that a lot of people only have 2 memories of it. One is that it’s a good British-made film about the Olympics. The other is a long line of semi-naked men running in slow-motion down a beach. Go on, close your eyes, play that Vangelis piano theme through your head, and tell me you don’t see these early century geezers puffing and panting down your local blue-flag shore.
The Famous scene from Chariots - no gender-benders in this race I’m afraid!
I find 2001: A Space Odyssey a very divisive film, and most of my friends seem to fall into one of two schools. Those who love it, and those who hate it. For example, I urged Craig (my ‘Duelling Pianos’ partner) to watch it recently and he phoned me up after a few minutes with:
‘What is this c**p Rob? I’m watching a load of monkeys fighting here!’
And this coming from a guy who liked ‘Lost In Translation’!
The first time I watched 2001 was when I was about 11 years old, and my Dad took me to see it at the old Durban Playhouse. There was an interval in the middle and I remember standing in the foyer and Dad saying something like:
‘Well this is a load of rubbish. Do you want to stay for the second half or should we head for home?’
After some debate, we decided to stay, but eventually went home unimpressed, even though we both agreed that the special effects were clever and well done. But here’s the funny thing. I never forgot that movie! Certain scenes just wouldn’t leave my mind. A few years later when I was about 16, it came back on the circuit and I went to see it again. This time I quite liked it although didn’t really understand it very much. But now I was even more intrigued... what did it all mean? So a year or so later I read the Arthur C. Clarke book. That gave me a much better idea of what was going on and I’ve since seen it about another 4 times, enjoying it each time.
Love the part where astronaut Dave Bowman, who’s outside the mother
ship in a ‘pod’, says to the ship’s computer Hal 9000...
‘Open the rear doors Hal’
After a pause... that chilling reply...
‘I’m sorry Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that’
...and you realise that the computer has taken the decision not to let him back in, obviously very bad news for Dave!
Unfortunately for Hal, Dave does manage to re-enter the main craft and the computer finds himself being disconnected. As he reaches his last few chips of brain power Hal give us what must be the first instance of a computer singing on the big screen. He sings ‘Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do’ gradually winding down like a dying record player.
Hal Gets Disconnected!
It’s amazing to think that some of the famous Classical pieces of music used in 2001 including Richard Strauss’s ‘Also Sprach Zarathustra’ (the famous 2001 theme) and Johann Strauss II’s ‘On The Beautiful Blue Danube’ nearly didn’t make it into the film. This from online dictionary Wikipedia:
‘In the early stages of production, director Stanley Kubrick had commissioned a score from noted Hollywood composer Alex North, who had written the score for ‘Spartacus’ and also worked on ‘Dr. Strangeglove’. However, on 2001 Kubrick did much of the filming and editing using, as his guides, the classical recordings which eventually became the music track. In March 1966, MGM became concerned about 2001's progress and Kubrick put together a show reel of footage to the ad hoc soundtrack of classical recordings. The studio bosses were delighted with the results and Kubrick decided to use these 'guide pieces' as the final musical soundtrack, abandoning North's score. Kubrick failed to inform North that his music had not been used and, to his dismay, North did not discover this until he saw the movie just prior to its release.’
Naughty, naughty Mr. Kubrick!
My movie medley actually began in the 1980s while I was still with Wizard. Initially there was no backtrack, and I just played whatever came to mind while sticking to the basic movie themes. I’d usually do my solo bit and then the band would join in at the end launching into one of our songs. After a while the band took to leaving the stage, presumably leaving me up there to have a good time. Or maybe it was their way of saying:
‘Oh... go on, show-off... but we’re not standing up here listening to it!’
I began to suspect that this feeling was creeping in, particularly when one night at The Godfather in Hillbrow, Johannesburg, the band left the stage and disappeared into the staff bar at the back of the club. So I did a few minutes, but after a while was running out of ideas and still the ‘buggers’ hadn’t reappeared. They left me up there for what felt like ‘hours’ and eventually I just sort of finished off and sheepishly left the stage. Very embarrassing... I’m not sure what the audience made of it! Needless to say, there was an almighty row in the back bar later! (I have eventually seen the funny side guys, and forgiven you).
On another occasion, a drunken member of the audience decide that I needed some help. He jumped up behind the keyboards and tried to play along. I ended up trying to kick him off the stage... and I mean kick, shouting over the mike for a bouncer while still trying to keep both hands on the keyboards. Tricky!
By the late 80s and early 90s I had joined up with UK based band Wozani. Our home-base pub in Leeds was the Harvesters in Bramley, where landlord Phil let us practice during the days, and in return we put on some fantastic Saturday night gigs, which are still well remembered in this part of the world! (I’m hoping to do an article about the Harvesters in a future newsletter).
Sunday nights, however, were quiz and jam session nights. At one stage we had a kind of resident Sunday night band consisting of Wozani’s George Van Dyk on Bass, Tim Delaney on drums... who would later be my partner in ‘Sample This’, and myself on keyboards. At the start of each night we didn’t really have a clue what we were going to play and just kind of made it up as we went along. Great fun. Sometimes it could be a bit of a shambles but other times it could click together quite brilliantly!
One night when the 3 of us were really rocking, George got a bit excited and jumped up onto his bass amplifier and then launched himself into a flying leap across the stage. Unfortunately, this particular stage was a bit of a temporary set-up and not built to withstand such an assault. With a loud crack, George went clean through it, and ended up with the lower part of his legs through the wooden planks and the rest of him poking out through the top. I remember that we had to abandon the song we were playing due to the tears of laughter from Tim, myself and the audience.
The movie medley became a favourite at our Sunday night sessions and really sounded great with the addition of a rock and roll beat from Tim and a simple but driving bass line from George. A few months later when Tim and I were putting together our repertoire for ‘Sample This’ I programmed a backing track onto a very early Roland Sequencer. (A sequencer is basically a computer used for recording musical information). Because of the Roland’s limitations, that version had to be kept very basic. Later on I got my first real computer... an Atari ST (which by today standards was also a very basic machine), and managed to re-programme the medley adding some more sounds. And that’s the backing track I still use to this day.
So it’s evolved quite a bit over time, but still lives on! But maybe it is time to add another medley and I’m still busy deciding which themes to use. Here’s a few early ideas...
THE FALKIRK WHEEL
Here’s a picture that looks as though it could have been taken straight out of the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey!
In fact this contraption is The Falkirk Wheel which we’ve just visited in Central Scotland. So what does it do then? Well, it’s basically a rotating boat lift connecting the lower Forth and Clyde Canal to the higher Union Canal which helps boats to move up and down from one canal to the other. Years ago the 2 Canals were connected by a series of 11 locks, but by the 1930’s these had fallen into disuse and were filled in. However, the Falkirk Wheel now means that Glasgow and Edinburgh are once again connected by a canal route, and a good tourist trade on the waterways is starting to flourish. The wheel was completed in 2002 with much money coming from lottery funds, and was officially opened by the Queen.
If you look closely you’ll see that one boat is halfway up and one is halfway down. It takes just 4 minutes to get from bottom to top, or visa versa. The lift height is 24 metres, roughly the equivalent of an 8 storey building. We had a ride on it, and it’s very smooth... you hardly realise that you’re in a kind of lift filled with water... a bit like a moving bath tub!
If you’d like to read more information about the wheel, then please check out:
(opens on a new page)
LAST BITS
To end off, here’s a ‘funny’ sent to me from a South African friend Ernst.
A couple were 85 years old and had been married for sixty years. Though they were far from rich, they managed to get by because they watched their pennies.
Though not young, they were both in very good health, largely due to the wife's insistence on healthy foods and exercise for the last decade.
However, their good and healthy ways didn't help when they went on a rare vacation and their plane crashed, sending them off to Heaven.
They reached the pearly gates, and St. Peter escorted them inside. He took them to a beautiful mansion, furnished in gold and fine silks, with a fully stocked kitchen and a waterfall in the master bath. A maid could be seen hanging their favourite clothes in the closet. They gasped in astonishment when he said,
'Welcome to Heaven. This will be your home now.'
The old man asked Peter how much all this was going to cost.
'Why, nothing,' Peter replied, 'remember, this is your reward in Heaven.'
The old man looked out the window and saw a championship golf course, finer and more beautiful than any ever built on Earth..
'What are the greens fees?,' grumbled the old man.
'This is heaven,' St. Peter replied. 'You can play for free, every day.'
Next they went to the clubhouse and saw the lavish buffet lunch, with every imaginable cuisine laid out before them, from seafood to steaks to exotic deserts and free flowing beverages.
'Don't even ask,' said St. Peter to the man. This is Heaven, it is all free for you to enjoy.'
The old man looked around and glanced nervously at his wife.
'Well, where are the low fat and low cholesterol foods and the decaffeinated tea?,' he asked.
That's the best part,' St. Peter replied. 'You can eat and drink as much as you like of whatever you like and you will never get fat or sick. This is Heaven!'
The old man pushed, 'No gym to work out at?'
'Not unless you want to,' was the answer.
'No testing my sugar or blood pressure or...'
'Never again. All you do here is enjoy yourself.'
The old man glared at his wife and said, 'You and your bloody Bran Flakes... we could have been here ten years ago!'
That’s all for this month and chat again next month from South Africa.
Rob.
(Be a friend on mySpace)