Legends in our own lunchbox

With the film project hardly underway we are certainly whipping the folk of Canturbury into a fenzy over our topic.

Last Friday The Press ran an article about the project and my phone ran hot over the weekend with people coming forward with information. Please click here to read the item in full.

While there were a few dubious stories, by and large we now have a wealth of information and quite a bit of interesting evidence. We have a filming trip booked for the end of this week with a Backcountry guide from Methven. Over Christmas and New Year we will be researching and processing the footage that we have (with a wee bit of a break of course). Early January will be a busy time for the film as we base ourselves in Mayfield and film a lot of the main sequences that will tie the film together. I'll take a stills camera on the next shoot and post some progress photos on the blog afterwards.

Speeding in Denmark-The Speedbandits

At first I thought this was an elaborate spoof, but aparently it is true! I'm not sure it would work in New Zealand as I doubt motorists would grasp the concept . Got to hand it to those cunning Danes, it certainly is innovative. I doubt Danish women are too impressed, what do the authorities have in mind to stop women speeding, male strippers?

Because the video clip caused frustration for persons trying to follow my blog from work computers with over-sensitive obscenity filters, I have put the link here for you to have a look at.

The Danish Speedbandits

Beware, the video clip contains nudity. If you are offended then please visit another blog.

Last Man Standing

My blogging has been a bit lapse recently, so it occured to me that I should use some of my newspaper music reviews to pad things out for those people who don't have access to the O.D.T. Of course, I only plan to feature reviews of albums that are any good, and this one from Jerry Lee Lewis is great.

"Infamous for bizarre behaviour, Jerry Lee Lewis’ undoubted talent has never been in question. However, the same cannot be said for his desire to perform, largely an enigma for the last 25 years. Enticed into a recording studio by lifelong fan and film hotshot Steve Bing, Lewis reportedly arrived at the first sessions in his pyjamas. What a blessing that he did, this album makes a mockery of all the other old rockers still trying to string together a tune for a buck.

Out of the legendary Sun Recording artists assembled by founder Sam Phillips, names like Elvis, Perkins, Cash and Orbison come to the fore as musicians who helped define popular music. However, it is Jerry Lee Lewis who still burns brightly as the ‘Last Man Standing’. If there was any suspicion that Last Man Standing might be a sentimental marketing ploy to rescue Lewis’ finances then the opening salvo of “Rock N Roll” blows that theory away. Spitting out “Let me get back where I come from, the gritty riffing of Jimmy Page is matched by ‘The Killer’ frenetically thumping the keyboards while squeezing every nuance out of his vocals.

The pace rarely lets up, I doubt John Fogerty has performed Travelin’ Band at the pace cooked up by Lewis. Now 70, the performance is explosive, testament to Lewis’ status as the original bad boy of rock and roll. Whatever you think of his chequered past, it’s simply impossible not to smile when Lewis sings ‘That Kind of Fool’ with Keith Richards. Lewis typically upstages his somewhat younger collaborators. The two best tracks on the album are from two of the oldest pairings, Buddy Guy and BB King, proving that age isn’t any hindrance to real talent. Last Man Standing is a great country-blues album favouring Lewis’s love of barroom honky-tonk. Bad luck, bad decisions and badass keyboard playing, Jerry Lee Lewis is a survivor with one hell of a sound".

Rating: 4.5 stars