Peter Viney's Blog

This has been a week for film reviews. There’s so much on at the moment on premium TV channels. This is THE SECRET GARDEN. (linked) OK, a children’s story, but this is a deeper and more interesting interpretation and is a visual feast from the Harry Potter / Paddington producers. I think most adults will enjoy it. We did. Colin Firth and Julie Walters are the adult stars.

Netflix is great value this month. Now we have a full movie Netflix original in REBECCA (linked) with Lily James, Armie Hammer and Kristin Scott-Thomas. We watched the 2020 film, I started the review then looked up the critics online. They all refer loftily to comparison with Hitchcock’s 1940 classic with Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine which of course they found superior. We were intrigued, so we watched the 1940 one the next night, and I did a comparative review at the end. It changes the assessment.

AROUND AND AROUND is growing fast. Today’s addition is ELECTRIC MUD by Muddy Waters, the 1967 “psychedelic album” backed by Rotary Connection. It’s in the “Reviled Albums” section, because it was, by no less than Muddy Waters himself. This is a co-write with Rob Millis. He suggested the album, and I hadn’t played it in years. It turned out that we had diametrically opposite views on the album, which hopefully makes for more interesting reading.

The latest page on AROUND AND AROUND is in the “Reviled: The albums they love to hate” section,. and is Lou Reed’s 1973 album “Berlin” (LINKED) It’s a perfect example for Reviled in that the critics’ pens were dipped in vitriol back at the time of release. Now it’s considered a masterpiece. Read and see why. There are comments on “Metal Machine Music” too … and take a look at the other pages on Around and Around. There’s a LOT there apart from reviews.

It’s on Netflix now. It was made at the end of 2019, and despairing a proper theatrical release, it’s on Netflix after a week. THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO SEVEN follows the events of 1969 following the riots at the 1968 Democratic Convention. It’s laden with apposite parallels to 2020 and at least four actors deserve an Academy Award … Mark Rylance as the defending lawyer, Frank Langella as the senile ultra-conservative judge, Eddie Redmayne as Tom Hayden and Sacha Baron-Cohen as Abbie Hoffman. It’s a brilliant film all round. Catch it now!

I was reminded of Eyam the 2018 play by Matt Hartley which we saw at the Globe. It’s about the village that isolated itself in 1665 after contracting the plague. It really happened. If there were any theatres still operating, it would obviously be one to revive in 2020. I think it could be improved too. Still, it was lockdown taken to the extreme. REVIEW IS LINKED HERE.

The latest addition to my AROUND AND AROUND site is another in the series “Reviled: The albums critics love to hate” and it is a prime example … “Their Satanic Majesties Request” (LINKED) from 1967, by The Rolling Stones. There are some contrary revisionist views to the bile it received back in the day too.

At last! A review of a film a lot of readers will have seen, and only three years after its release too. Review added of WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES (linked) It garnered lots of five star reviews … but NOT from me. Read on …

The latest article on my new site AROUND AND AROUND starts a new section on record labels belonging to artists, this one on GRUNT the label for later Jefferson Airplane, Hot Tuna and Jefferson Starship. (LINKED) Highly illustrated. Written witrh Rob Millis. Do have a browse around the rest of the site- there’s a lot of stuff on there.

Here we go. This is where I’ve been (or as Fairport Convention might have said “What We Did On Our Holidays.”) for the last couple of months. 

I’ve been putting my long and heavily illustrated book on records, music in general and record collecting onto a new site “aroundandaround.com.wordpress.com”. It’s too long to publish, so I’m taking Karen’s advice and giving it away. 

Only about 20% is done … and I’ll be adding the rest regularly for months or years to come. It’s already a large site. Have a look … start where you like but I’ve explained more, with links to a few selected sample pages on the INTRODUCTION (linked here). 

You can also SUBSCRIBE for updates which will be continual …