Random MJ Ramble

Its 34 degrees in my office. The air-con has packed up, and with all the windows in the building unable to be opened due to health and safety (even though we’re only on the first floor and you’d be lucky to break a leg if you jumped), it’s pretty damn uncomfortable.

As luck would have it, I (Phil) have little work to do this afternoon so I’ve just been reading the reviews online of the new Michael Jackson concert film, released internationally last night. The consensus is a bit hit and miss, some of it is good, some bad – in some of it you can see his genius shining through, whereas in other bits he just comes across as a frail man with what seems like the whole world on his shoulders. As expected, every paper, news website etc has a comment on it – which is of course to be expected.

I personally am a little uncomfortable with the fact that this film has been reviewed in exactly the same sort of way any other cinema release would have been. It’s blatantly obvious that this material, however good, was never intended for mass viewing - at the very most a 10 minute segment as part of the extras DVD of what would have been no doubt a tremendous live DVD after the shows had been completed. The fact that respected film critics for national and international news agencies can criticise the filming techniques is a little out of line. I’m sure had they known the bloke was going to drop dead before the opening night, they would have got the finest camera and sound crew available to capture every last detail of the show……but they didn’t, so this is all we have, and maybe we just need to be thankful we even have that – but I suppose that view doesn’t sell papers.

The one thing that is certain is that everyone is in agreement this was going to be some show – so lets hope we actually see it one day, with the worlds top performers taking on the Jackson role.

Anyway – in other news, it looks like we might have finally sorted a date in Reading. After almost 2 years of searching for the right venue, it looks like we’re going to be playing The Varsity Bar on Thursday 17th December, alongside two as yet unnamed acoustic based acts. So, if you’re from the Reading area, like most of us are – stick it in the diary.