Peter Viney's Blog

I usually only review recently released films or 60s classics. However, MISBEHAVIOUR (LINKED TO REVIEW) is so entertaining, that it gets a review. It’s 2020 / 2021. It’s based around the events surrounding the Miss World Contest in 1970 which was disrupted by the Women’s Liberation Movement. It has a great cast … Keira Knightley, Jessie Buckley, Keely Hawes, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Lesley Manville, Rhys Ifans, Greg Kinnear. They’re all playing real people too. Bob Hope will never be the same again.

A major section has been added to AROUND and AROUND on demos and promo discs. There is a MAIN PAGE HERE and six sub-pages too. Take a look into the arcane world.

There’s much more … SEE SUB PAGES: (each is a link)

DJs and Radio promos

Test pressings and acetates

Demo sleeves

Demo samplers

Demo values

Demos for hifi shops

Review added of AFTER LOVE (linked) which we streamed after Joanna Scanlan got best actress for the lead role at the BAFTA awards. She gives a good performance, but we found it underwhelming. Take away the interest of the ethnic dimension of a British woman who has become a Moslem then finds her husband had an alternative life in France, and there’s not much else to get excited about.

Review of WEST SIDE STORY in its new version directed by Stephen Speilberg. Follow the link. It started streaming on Disney Plus on 2 March 2022. Settle down for two and a half hours, which is long, but the music and filming will hold you. I’ve made comparisons with the original film, in the weird realisation that SIXTY years have passed since it was made.

The latest on Around and Around: Blue Horizon Records added to Producer Record Labels section. It was founded by Mike Vernon, specialized in blues and released Fleetwood Mac and Chicken Shack among its 60 singles and 100 albums. It ran from 1968 to 1972. The article includes the collectable mail-order Blue Horizon which preceded it as well as Vernon’s Purdah label.

A GIRL ON THE SLEEVE is the latest addition to “The Art of The LP” on AROUND AND AROUND, this one a tribute to the designers and many, many models who ended up on LP sleeves. It was genre specific. Easy Listening, Stereo Samplers and Budget cover labels went for sticking pictures of girls on the covers. There are rock examples, but they’re fewer. It has to be gratuitous – nothing to do with the artist or the theme. Very heavily illustrated.

At last! Back to The Royal Shakespeare Theatre for the RSC’s MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING (link to review). This spectacular version is set in an Afrofuturist world (or planet!) with an eight piece live band. The set and costumes are astonishing. Definitely one to see, though not perhaps for the purists. We loved it.

Wes Anderson’s THE FRENCH DISPATCH (follow link to review) is now streaming on Disney +. It’s technically brilliant, as you would expect. It divides into four separate stories, framed by the idea of journalists in the French office of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Star. The in-jokes on journalism and film and indeed France tumble over each other. We thought it tried too hard to be funny and zany and suffered as a result, but given the list of five star reviews elsewhere, you may disagree. Wes Anderson’s original film poster:

The latest label article on Around and Around is on the Ember label, (Follow the link) which ran from 1960 to 1979. It was a serious attempt by Flamingo Club owner Jeffry Kruger to break the monopoly of the British Record Industry, shared by the “Big Five.” The adventure had varied and fascinating stops along the way from Onward Christian Soldiers for Christmas release through John Barry film themes to the Profumo Affair and Christine Keeler (allegedly) and Mandy Rice-Davies. On the label went, releasing Glen Campbell when EMI declined, some great soul records, rediscovered Jimi Hendrix rarities. Yes, there were some records with “misleading” artist attributions along the way. All part of the fun.

Review of THE PLAY WHAT I WROTE by Hamish McColl, Sean Foley and Eddie Braben. (FOLLOW LINK to review). This 20th Anniversary Revival tour is directed by Sean Foley. We saw it at Chichester. The base story is that Dennis and Thom, a comedy duo are lost between doing one of Thom’s “plays what I wrote” or switching to becoming a Morecambe and Wise tribute act. As in the Morecambe and Wise Show format, there is a mystery guest nightly. We hit that one well … we got Tom Hiddlestone. Most reviews are ecstatic and positive. We’re curmudgeonly and negative.