Pirate Radio: The Movie

(P.R.) Pirate Radio is the newest ensemble comedy from filmmaker Richard Curtis (screenwriter of Four Weddings and a Funeral and Notting Hill, and writer/director of Love Actually), spinning the irreverent yet fact-based tale of a seafaring band of rogue rock and roll deejays whose “pirate radio” captivated and inspired 1960s Britain. Playing the music that rocked a nation and a decade, the group boldly and hilariously defies the government that tries to shut them down.

Broadcasting live 24/7 from an old tanker anchored in the middle of the North Sea (just beyond British jurisdiction), Radio Rock sends out a vibrant and unifying signal to millions across the nation, ranging in age from wide-eyed pre-teens secretly tuning in long past their bedtimes to everyday people in need of a musical pick-me-up. The Radio Rock roster, overseen by unflappable station owner (and ship’s captain) Quentin (Bill Nighy), includes a risk-prone American known only as The Count (Philip Seymour Hoffman); mystic deejay royalty Gavin (Rhys Ifans); slyly amorous Dave (Nick Frost); idiosyncratic New Zealander Angus (Rhys Darby); the rarely seen Bob (Ralph Brown); the aptly named Thick Kevin (Tom Brooke); lovelorn Simon (Chris O’Dowd); ladies’ magnet Mark (Tom Wisdom); shy Harold (Ike Hamilton); reporter News John (Will Adamsdale); and lesbian ship’s cook Felicity (Katherine Parkinson). One night in 1966, Quentin’s teenaged godson Carl (Tom Sturridge) comes aboard. While Carl harbors romantic aspirations that he hopes will be fulfilled during one of the biweekly visits by Radio Rock’s prettiest fans, he also hopes to find out more about his long-absent father…

As the ship sails on and rocks out, what Carl and the freewheeling, free-loving Radio Rock gang don’t know is that back in London, landlocked government minister Dormandy (Kenneth Branagh) has embarked on a vehement crusade to silence their signal – permanently. To stay afloat and keep their devoted audience plugged in, the crew will have to band together and trust in the power of music like never before.

A Focus Features presentation in association with StudioCanal of a Working Title production. Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bill Nighy, Rhys Ifans, Nick Frost, and Kenneth Branagh. Pirate Radio. Music Supervisor, Nick Angel. Chief Make-up and Hair Designer, Christine Blundell. Casting by Fiona Weir. Costume Designer, Joanna Johnston. Editor, Emma E. Hickox, A.C.E. Production Designer, Mark Tildesley. Director of Photography, Danny Cohen, BSC. Associate Producer, Emma Freud. Co-Producer, Ronaldo Vasoncellos. Executive Producers, Richard Curtis, Debra Hayward, Liza Chasin. Produced by Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Hilary Bevan Jones. Written and Directed by Richard Curtis. A Focus Features Release.

Previously released in the U.K. as “The Boat That Rocked”:

Cut The Rug?

Cut The Rug?

“Cut The Cake” - Average White Band (1975)

San Franciscan Nights

“Save up all your bread and fly Trans Love Airways to San Francisco U.S.A. -

then maybe you’ll understand the song.

It will be worth it - if not for the sake of this song -

but for the sake of your own peace of mind.”

Eric Burdon & The Animals

San Franciscan Nights (1967)

Mambo Sons “Heavy Days” - CD Review

It’s hard to listen to “Heavy Days” – the fourth album from Mambo Sons - without wondering how I missed the other three. Maybe it’s because I can’t remember the last time I heard engaging new music - that also qualified as straight-ahead rock and roll* - on the radio. I discovered Mambo Sons the same way my kids find most of their new tunes – word of mouth and “social media.”

Tom Guerra (guitars and vocals), Scott Lawson (vocals and bass) and Joe Lemieux (drums and vocals) have delivered the type of rock record you wish some of the legendary classic rock bands would put out. Track after track, Mambo Sons prove that a great rock tune – or artist – often comes from familiar territory while being totally original and maintaining an individual identity.

I’m tempted to play the “sounds like” game here to provide a reference point relating to the name-brand bands but that narrows the field too much. It’s just refreshing to hear rock that’s “built right” — solid craftsmanship, structure and melody (without sounding slick) – that maintains real energy throughout the entire two-disc package.  Yes, two discs.  The novel thing here isn’t the fact that you get a double dose of tunes …it’s that you can actually listen all the way through.  Truly a double-album - not a couple potential singles with a bunch of filler.

If they existed “back in the day” - I could imagine Mambo Sons building a tremendous following at major rock clubs, getting discovered by a major label and becoming a staple on FM Rock Radio. By now we’d be out buying Mambo Sons CD’s all over again - this time “digitally remastered.

“Heavy Days” could have been a nostalgia trip. Instead, Mambo Sons have shown us a natural progression – their take on the evolution of  Album Rock. That said, it’s kind of ironic that I first heard about Mambo Sons from Connecticut FM Rock Radio icon Barry Grant — and he nudged me to be sure and listen via Facebook.

Learn more about Mambo Sons and have listen for yourself:  http://mambosons.com/

* Well, not counting Chickenfoot - but, they’re a “supergroup.”

Bowie: A Biography

(Kayos)–He is a style icon and music legend. A master of reinvention. An innovator whose absence from the rock scene for much of this decade has left a void—a void that proves how vital he has been for these past forty years. To fill that void comes BOWIE: A Biography (Crown; October 27, 2009), a David Bowie biography like no other.

Rock ’n’ roll journalist Marc Spitz charts the long and storied arc of Bowie’s life, from his childhood in postwar England as David Jones—an R & B–loving kid torn between suburban comfort and the fast and rough London of the sixties—to his reincarnation as a utopian hippie mime, to his ascent in the seventies as one of the most influential cultural figures of the last half century.

In a major work that was years in the making, Spitz not only recounts Bowie’s career, he also reveals how much his music has influenced other musicians and how his life and style influenced the times in which he lived. BOWIE takes a fresh and in-depth look at the decades that formed the artist, from postwar England to the advent of rock ’n’ roll, as well as the times that Bowie shaped so powerfully, from the seventies “me decade” up until the information age.

With more than one hundred original interviews with those who knew him best, BOWIE offers fresh insight and unforgettable stories about the rock legend. Interviewees include childhood friend George Underwood, Peter Frampton, Angie Bowie, former manager Kenneth Pitt, mentor Lindsay Kemp, author Hanif Kureishi, Siouxsie Sioux, Dick Cavett, Jon Savage, Steve Strange, Camille Paglia, guitarist Reeves Gabrels, filmmaker Todd Haynes, and Ricky Gervais. Little known details about Bowie include the rock legend’s strange fascination with speaking in riddles, his refusal to use elevators, his insistence on hiding knives under his bed, and his secret friendship with Frank Sinatra.

Spitz reflects with humor and infectious energy on how growing up with Bowie and writing this exhaustive history changed him in ways that he never expected. Never before published photographs complete this inspired exploration of a true rock ’n’ roll revolutionary.

About the Author
Marc Spitz’s writing on rock ’n’ roll and popular culture has appeared in Spin, the New York Times, Maxim, Nylon, Blender, and Uncut (UK). He is the author of How Soon Is Never?; Too Much, Too Late; and Nobody Likes You: Inside the Turbulent Life, Times, and Music of Green Day and coauthor with Brendan Mullen of We Got the Neutron Bomb: The Untold Story of L.A. Punk.

Whole Lotta PCD

Whole Lotta PCD

“For all the old school rockers out there.”  Who knew?