Tonight. Channel 4. 9:30pm. Saw it recorded. Funniest thing I've seen in ages. Watch.

Yes.

Rhodri Marsden : journalist, musician and all round excellent feller.

The Schema : the result of a project undertaken by the above "to record, distribute and promote a single from my bedroom in a 30-day timeframe."

"Those Rules" : the resulting single and accompanying (brilliant) video, in which you may also spot a number of NOTBBC alumni.

You : someone who is going to watch the above, and then buy the single online, right now. Yes?

These Pop Music Festivals have never really appealed to me, for various reasons. In addition to my reluctance to surrender home comforts like electricity and warmth to sleeping in a flimsy tent in a muddy field two miles away from an overflowing chemical toilet, I had no desire to contract pneumonia, dysentry, to pay eight pounds for a kebab that would most likely kill me, or in all honesty, desire to see very many of the bands that made up this years uninspiring festival line-ups. But this Summer has dragged terribly, with it's inclement weather and the least interesting Big Brother since the one with Gos and Cameron. So I decided to accept the offer of two VIP tickets to The V Festival. Despite the health risks, I summised that festivals must have something going for them, and whatever that was would be a little bit sweeter given that it was free. So I ironed some shirts, stocked up on bog roll, enlisted a friend with a car, tent and good map-reading skills (the enigmatic Oscar Godfrey) and set off as bright and early as we could muster (about 11.30) with the coolbox full of cider, gin and vodka still sitting on the kitchen table, something which we would realise to our dismay some time later.

Continue reading "The V Festival (Staffordshire) - Review" »

There's a plus-side to over-exposure, I've decided. Had the Superbad trailer just rolled by once, or even twice, I wouldn't have seen the film. Because...well..."teenage sex-romp" isn't exactly my favorite genre.

But I ended up seeing the trailer...oh...maybe ten times or more. Which, coming from somebody who doesn't watch much television that isn't on DVD, is an awful lot. And you know what? It started to grow on me. I started to find a lot of it very funny. And, what's more, I became intrigued by the undercurrents of basic male friendship. Each time the trailer re-appeared, I became a little more hopeful that maybe, just maybe, Superbad was actually going to be a good movie.

Continue reading "Review: Superbad" »

Right, listen up. Ooberman are a fucking excellent band. A fucking, fucking excellent band, beloved of every good radio DJ and music journalist worth their salt, but largely ignored by the general public and NME. If you've never heard anything by them, then it's the fault of folks like YOU, not listening to them or buying their albums, that led them to split up a few years back. Thankfully, they've given you another chance by getting back together last year and releasing a stonkingly great (although not quite as good as the one before it) third album, Carried Away. And now they've given you the chance to hear how great they are without having to shell out a single penny.

Continue reading ""Amazing Free Ooberman Jukebox"" »

The first article I wrote for NTS, if I remember correctly, consisted of gushing praise for the 1991 Belgian film "Toto Le Heros", which was the directing debut of one Jaco Van Dormael. His follow-up was "L'Huitieme Jour", a well intentioned but bloated and patronising mess which nonetheless was a critical success, largely thanks to the stunning performance of it's downs syndrome suffering lead actor Pascal Duquenne, and the emotional honesty hiding behind the predictable plot shenanigans. It's not an entirely bad film, it's just a seriously disjointed film with some insufferable moments. Perhaps aware that the bit with everyone dressed up as clowns in a shopping centre was enough to discourage even his most ardent fans, Van Dormael has waited more than a decade to return to the directors chair.

Continue reading "Exciting pre-production artwork from Jaco Van Dormael's "Mr. Nobody"" »

Anthony H Wilson, the man who founded the 'Madchester' music scene in Manchester and helped made the city a centre of musical talent, has died, aged 57. I'd be rubbish at trying to write an obituary, so here's a list of other people's efforts:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/6941105.stm
http://music.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,2146720,00.html
http://uk.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idUKL1032477920070810

I'll put links to the papers' efforts tomorrow. RIP.

Edit:
Daily Telegraph - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/news/2007/08/13/db1302.xml
The Times - http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article2241770.ece
The Guardian - http://music.guardian.co.uk/tonywilson/0,,2147733,00.html
The Independent - http://news.independent.co.uk/people/obituaries/article2859056.ece

Matt Groening has said in interviews that several aspects of the recently-released Simpsons movie will carry over into the television series. I thought it was my holy duty, then, to present all the possible elements of the film that I think could theoretically make it into the world of the television show, and present the odds of such a carry-over occurring.

I figured I'd wait to post this until everyone who wanted to see the film fresh had the chance to do so, but I'll still make the obvious point that this article is rife with spoilerinos.

Continue reading "Carry-over aspects of The Simpsons Movie: A Bettor's Guide" »

I've found it really hard to give a shit about this series of Big Brother at all - by the end of the first fortnight, I was so bored I wanted to die, and every time I bothered to tune in after that I didn't recognise half of the people onscreen. None of them really were interesting enough to stand out from the endless arguments about hair straighteners or more frequently about *nothing at all* between Charley, the vile, malicious "star" of BB8 and you know, everyone else. I've always taken issue with people who go "YEAH BUT BIG BROTHER IS SOO BORING" because the social interaction in a large group of people under stressful situations is one of the most obviously compelling things you could possibly have a television show about, but the incessant focus this year on that sniping, fame-hungry bastard completely scuppered my enjoyment of the show. However, she's gone now, and I've tentatively started watching again, and I have a few questions for anyone who has been watching the whole time.

Continue reading "Big Brother News" »

In tribute to the internet recently going ga-ga over the reveal of not one, but two tantalising movie teaser trailers - for The Dark Knight, as mentioned here previously, and the altogether more mysterious 1-18-08, of which more later - I thought it was high time to take a look at an art that is both one of cinema's best-loved, but also arguably one of the hardest to do truly well...

Continue reading "Top Ten Teaser Trailers" »