Be My Baby girl group documentary tonight
Posted by Patrick Crowther on 8 January 2008 - 10:25am.
Just thought I'd let everyone know that there's a documentary on girl groups called 'Be My Baby" on BBC4 tonight at 9pm. Could be wonderful...
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I wonder
how similar it'll be to the second episode of the 1996 BBC series Dancing In The Street entitled 'Be My Baby'?
That's not meant to be as facetious as it probably sounds. The broadcast version of the series differs massively from the one released on VHS and DVD, and in both formats the 'Be My Baby' episode was completely removed. Hopefully tonight's documentary will make some reparations.
The Paul Morley Rock Evening
Surprised nobody seems to have watched TV last night (Mon 7th). Plenty of David, Mark and Andrew Collins and a positive reappraisal of the various versions of OGWT in the pantheon of music TV, particularly from Mark Radcliffe. Too much of Paul Morley and his incredible disappearing designer stubble. I was up until until one, you know.
I bailed out
I bailed out halfway through that "pop on kids TV" show. As soon as Andy Peters popped up I scurried to bed.
The Whistle Test programme was good. I‘d forgotten what a fox Annie Nightingale used to be. And Mark and David of course. Bless.
I like Paul Morley on those clip shows, designer stubble or otherwise.
TOTP from '68 was cool too, especially The Foundations and The Move.
Annie Nightingale...
When I was a kid I used to listen to Radio 1 on a Sunday evening and be captivated by the voices of Annie Nightingale and Alexis Corner... so unique, both of them. They sounded as if they'd both been born in some smoky dive and only saw daylight in emergencies...
Bad English...
They were unique personalities, but they sounded rather similar!
Back to the tapes again
I still have dozens of mix tapes - yes, them again - recorded from Radio 1 on a Sunday when the Anne Nightingale show. She was and remains the only DJ`s voice I allowed to be heard overlapping the music, even though this is more to do with my poor skills with a pause button than anything else. What a voice.
fox/dive
I think most foxes live in dives and only see daylight in emergencies! Thanks for the heads up guys, and if you will forgive the opportunist in me giving my show a plug, give breakbeat a chance and check it out on line 24/7 www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/annienightingale/ or if you want listen to it live at 5-7 a.m. on Friday night/ Saturday mornings on Radio 1. In the dark!
I am blushing...
You're very welcome! Plug noted.
Hit or Miss?
But wasn't June Box Jury excruciating viewing? I used to watch it without fail as a youngster, but the pompous David McAllum & Jill Ireland pontificating on 'the nice beat' and 'someone's done a good job on the lyrics' took some getting through.
I reckon that Nina out of Nina & Frederick was a goer, though.
Shame they didn't show the one with Gene Pitney, when they played The Anglos' great 'Incense'. (Steve Winwood vocal).
When asked his opinion, Gene declined to comment, other than mumbling that he didn't think incense was a very nice subject for a pop song.
And does Mike Reid still have to wear skinny ties at his age? Power pop still big in Weybridge, then.
Paul Weller
Miming to Bono's vocal, since not all the acts turned up for the Band Aid song, was a hilarious moment on the TOTP film - not seen that before.
A disappointment...
There I was, thinking that a programme called "Be My Baby" might feature my favourite song, but so far... with 28 minutes left... I am left disappointed. Where's Ronnie Spector?!!!!
The script
Dear God, who wrote it?
Dire...
That was poor. Very, very poor. Perhaps my favourite moment was Scary Spice claiming that the Spice Girls "co-wrote ALL their songs" as if that was something to be proud of. If I was her, I would have kept that claim to myself.
Who indeed
All I can tell is that the writer is obviously someone who sees no contradiction in studying several groups and calling the first one the "ultimate girl group".
Lazy pointless rubbish
Like pretty much all TV music journalism.
What did you expect?
To be fair...
BBC4 has shown some superb music documentaries over the years... shame that wasn't one of them.
Spice Girls co-writes
Interesting Fact!
After John Lennon and Paul McCartney, Mel C has co-written more UK number ones than any other Brits.
Good for her!
She's very talented, isn't she?!
Particularly irritating
was the programme's habit of showing one video by a group whilst playing one of their other songs on top. We've got Martha and the Vandellas doing Nowhere To Run, but let's play Dancing In The Street over it because it's more famous; I like that Spice Girls video where they're wearing skimpy outfits in the desert, but how about a different song on top, etc.
Equally annoying...
was the dismissal early on of the Ronettes and - especially heinously - the Shangri-Las as mere 'fluff', rendered irrelevant by the advent of the Supremes. Apart from being chronologically erroneous, it's just wrong, wrong, wrong.
And, yes, the script was appalling - especially for BBC4. I noticed David Quantick's name as one of the writers...