Regina Spektor was quite good. Not that you’d have noticed, with her entire set hidden away on the BBC’s red button service while they showed Lily Allen on a loop on “real” telly.
If you missed it, the video is available on the BBC website for an indeterminate amount of time.
So, after a 13-hour shift on Thursday, I went out for a quick drink — and was almost instantly called back into work to co-ordinate the BBC’s Michael Jackson coverage. This included, frighteningly, having to decide at what point the Beeb would declare the King Of Pop dead (11:52pm, if you’re interested – not until we’d received verification from three separate, reliable sources).
I also had to write an appreciatiion of his music at four in the morning. It may be the most pretentious, least lucid thing I’ve ever committed to print. And, thankfully, a sentence about a snare drum “cracking like the whip that Michael was, presumably, flagellating himself with” was removed by the sub-editors.
After that all-night extravaganza, I had to go to Wimbledon, where I promptly fell asleep during an otherwise thrilling Hass / Cilic five-set epic. And then I spent the weekend recovering on the sofa, to the soundtrack of the BBC’s Glastonbury coverage.
Highlights included:
There’s no point in going into the bad bits because (a) the whole point of Glastonbury is that it caters to thousands of different, diverging tastes, and (b)
something that works brilliantly live can come across completely flat on TV. I suspect Florence and the Machine’s set fell into this category.
But, my overall highlight was little Emiliana Torrini playing an acoustic set in the BBC encampment. I could watch this again, and again, and again, and again. And you should, too.
…It even survives this:
Cha’mon.
RIPx
Oh. My. God. This. Video. Is. Amazing.
I know what you’re thinking — are there any women left in England who don’t make quirky electro new wave pop music? Of course not. It’s on the national curriculum. But, all the same, Marina and the Diamonds (actually just Welsh-born, Greek-named Marina Diamandis) seems rather special in a “Bjork and Kate Bush go shopping for shoulder pads” kind of way.
Those of you concerned for Marina’s health after being coated in all that glitter for the video needn’t worry – apparently the story about Goldfinger actress Shirley Eaton dying of pore asphyxiation is a myth.
The single is out now [iTunes link]. And, er, that’s it.
We’re not sure what Ciara is referring to in this lyric, but we hope it’s not related to those spam emails we keep getting.
Anyway, here is her new video – which is all a bit Benny Benassi, but features some of the spectacular dance moves that made her support slot with Britney Spears more watchable than the main show. We’re particularly enamoured by the eye-popping hyper-real colour palette – which comes courtesy of Beyoncé’s go-to video director, Melina Matsoukas.
You can fast forward the bits with Missy Elliot.
