Hi everyone!

So this week's featured film's an animation - do I hear groans at the back? This time it's a stop-motion affair, directed by Wes (The Life Aquatic) Anderson. It's The Fantastic Mr Fox voiced by George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Michael Gambon, Willem Dafoe and - er - Jarvis Cocker! As it's from a book by the great Roald Dahl it's a bit on the dark side, but the source material is strong enough to stand the inevitable Americanisation, with or without a 'z'. What helps enormously is the team of Aardman animators who bring their trademark detail into every frame which makes you want to see what you missed the first time. Not completely fantastic, but very good, nonetheless.
 
Now how's NOTP doing? Well, still going on despite computers crashing at every step. Three in a row was a a bit strange - Magic (ELO), Little Girl (Stranglers) and People (Doors). And, because I couldn't resist making it four in a row, Billie Holliday's definitive 'Strange Fruit'. Sublime.

Kitsch'n'Sink featured Trevor Horn - again - and his days in The Art Of Noise - this time with 'Close To The Edit'. Fairlight to the fore, Mr Horn!

Talking of Jarvis, Charity Shop Corner came up trumps with Pulp and an alternative version of 'The Birds In Your Garden' - from 2001, would you believe?

What - no album of the week? Well, a last minute decision brings us Ziggy Stardust so three tracks from that. With 'Five Years' opening and 'Rock and Roll Suicide' closing what more could you want? Well, the nine superb tracks in between, that's what.

The Long Song was a live version of 'At The River' by Groove Armada. Of course, if you're fond of sand dunes and salty air you'd do best to be at the seaside, but we'll let that one pass....

Coming along just for the ride were Television, Muse, We Are Scientists, Blur, Edwyn Collins, The Ramones, Howling Bells, Bob Marley, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Dexy's Midnight Runners, Thievery Corporation, Tracey Curtis, Goldfrapp, Peter Thorogood, Godley and Creme, Belle and Sebastian and Joy Division.

If you want to get in touch with me try my temporary e-mail - glyn.tudno@gmail.com while they try and fix the real one.

So wrap up warm and don't forget your umbrella!

Glyn

Surrounded by faulty computers I think I can just manage to get the blog done! Technology - who needs it?

Let's get to The Scene first - and my film of the week is Terry Gilliam's 'The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus'. In case you're unsure, the imaginarium is a travelling show in a caravandrawn by horses offering entertainment. Trouble is it doesn't go down well in modern-day London. The good doctor - a Dumbledore lookalike played by Christopher Plummer (whose appearance is mandatory in almost every film at the moment) - has sold his soul to the devil (as you do) in return for immortality. Trouble is the devil wants his daughter. Enter Heath Ledger as Tony Liar found hanging under Blackfriars Bridge. Follow the irony? Gilliam creates a London of such dirt and decay that even Dickens would have found it too scary. Sadly, Ledger died during filming, so his later scenes are divided between Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell and Jude Law. The acting and dialogue veers between charming and amateurish, but just when you begin to worry, Terry opens his toybox and takes us to some fantastic lands, and that's where plot no longer matters. Stunning effects, and a show stopping moment when Parnassus' daughter (Lily Cole) dances with the devil (the excellent Tom Waits in a sharp suit and pencil moustache) in a landscape of broken mirrors. Buildings dissolve before your eyes and we're reminded how lucky we are to have a true maverick Anglophile making films here in Britain. Like the imaginarium the film may be lumbering and ramshackle but does have some magical moments.

Talking of lumbering and ramshackle what has NOTP been up to tonight? Three in a Row came courtesy of Ben - Ben's Brother (Stuttering), Ben Watt (North Marine Drive) and Ben Folds (Jesusland).

Other items on the agenda were Muse, The Undertones, Ed Harcourt, The Upper Room, Elastica, Supertramp, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Echo and the Bunnymen, The Marvelettes, Blondie, The Doors, Pixie Lott, Catatonia, ELO, Neil Young and Crazy Horse, Juliet Turner, Rufus Wainwright, Patti Smith and the aforementioned Tom Waits.

Kitsch'n'Sink was the Trevor Horn production of Propaganda's 'Duel'. That's given me an idea for Three in a Row - songs that don't have the title in the lyrics. Any ideas?

A single CD for Charity Shop Corner - The Divine Comedy and the B-side from The Pop Singer's Fear of the Pollen Count - 'Vapour Trail'.

The Long Song is one everyone knows - 'Layla' by Derek and the Dominos (sic), but this time in the full version. Maybe on the playlist, but who cares?

See you next week, technology willing....

Glyn

Hello!

Sorry to be late - the Tudnoputer's hamster wasn't well on Wednesday, but now there's a big fat megahamster spinning Tudno's wheel and generating lots of megabytes for us. So here's my blog!

NOTP featured three nice continental cities - Berlin, (Barclay James Harvest), Vienna (Ultravox) and Geneve (John Otway - again).

The long Song was by The Doors - unfairly overlooked by NOTP, I'm afraid, and Riders on the Storm.

Charity Shop Corner was interesting - the Butch Cassidy Sound System and Cissy Strut. Kitsch'n'Sink was Rick Rubin's impeccable stripped down version of the Nine Inch Nails' 'Hurt' by Johnny Cash.

Other songs were by Talking Heads, Iggy Pop, Mika (really!), Talk Talk, Vampire Weekend, The Smiths, Polly Scattergood, Frida Hyvonen, The Friendly Fires, Steve Harley, Mercury Rev, Simon and Garfunkel, The Beatles, Bowie, The Stranglers, Beth Orton, Van Morrison, Nick Drake and the mighty Tom Waits.

So hopefully the hamster will be fed, watered and ready to run in his wheel for Wednesday night. See you then!

Glyn

Noswaith Dda!

Let's start at films - as I said last week, 'The Invention of Lying' may be flawed but is great fun and nicely irreverent - I think I'd get on with Mr Gervais! Also good fun is Up - Pixar's new animation. Quite moving in parts, too, as well as lots of action sequences. So fun for all the family.

Tunes that aren't on the playlist? They included The Raveonettes, The Stranglers, Blondie, Muse, Vampire Weekend, The B52s, Jarvis Cocker, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Timebox, Stevie Wonder, Finley Quaye, Kate Bush, eels, Katherine Williams and Portishead.

I decided we'd better have a featured album tonight - and what better one than Love's 'Forever Changes' - Arthur Lee's masterwork from 1967? You must have it in your collection, believe me. Forget whether or not you like sixties music - if you like music, this has to be there.

Three in a Row featured film music - well, strictly speaking music about film - 'Girls on Film' by Duran Duran, 'Fade to Grey' by Visage and the deeply wonderful 'The Film of my Love' by 10cc.

Kitsch'n'Sink was another Trevor Horn production - this time ABC's 'Poison Arrow'. I think we should feature one of Trevor's productions every week, don't you?

Unjustly neglected by NOTP has been 'For Your Pleasure' by Roxy Music, so here comes The Long Song - I suspect quite a lot to do with Messrs McKay and Eno - 'The Bogus Man'.

Charity Shop Corner goes global! This week we had an album called 'Novo Musica do Brasil', and I selected a jolly track by Pullovers (really!) called 'Futebol de Oculos'. Odd in a nice way.

Don't forget - any suggestions please to me - glyn.james@tudnofm.co.uk and I'll see what I can dig up.

Have a good week!

Glyn

Hello lads and ladesses!

Right - Scene first and I can recommend 'The Soloist' with brilliant performances from Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr. Also might I suggest 'The Invention of Lying'? Ricky Gervais takes a brave step which might not win him many friends among Coke-drinking Christians....

So how's NOTP this week? Funny you should ask. Random music included Tori Amos, The Good, The Bad and The Queen, The Five Satins, Muse, Wilson Pickett, Emmy The Great, The Jefferson Airplane, Manu Chao, The Only Ones, Dizzee Rascal, The Icicle Works, HMHB, Randy Newman, Klaatu, The Magic Numbers, Magazine, The Concretes, Flash and the Pan, The Leisure Society and Coldplay.

Three in a Row went numbers crazy - Len Barry's '1,2,3', '5705' by City Boy (aargh!) and '12-51' by The Strokes. Which reminds me there's a great new single out in a couple of weeks by Mr Casablancas. Listen out for it.

Kitsch'n'sink? Barry Ryan? Eloise? Need I say more....

Charity Shop Corner showed us the 'New Songs For 2007, and the Tokyo Police Car with 'Citizens of Tomorrow'. Heard of them? Me neither.

Faithless' 'Insomnia' was the Long Song for this week - after inadvertently playing some nasty truncated version a few weeks back I thought I'd redress the balance. So there.

I'll try and search out eels' new single for next week simply because it's really nice.

Have fun

Glyn

Hello!

Right - a new film! This time it's 'Broken Embraces' - a film by Pedro Almodovar with his usual suspects including Penelope Cruz, of course. Longer than usual for him, but good fun nevertheless. Recommended.

NOTP-wise three in a row were Animal, Vegetable and Mineral, represented by Suede's 'Animal Nitrate', Brian Wilson's 'Vege-tables' (from Smile) and GOLDfrapp's 'A and E'. Yes, I know I could have included Neil Diamond, but, hey...

Other suspects included The Ting Tings, Manu Chao, Gogol Bordello, Kevin Ayres, The Sir Douglas Quintet, Vincent Vincent and the Villains, The Lightning Seeds, Richard Thompson, Mott the Hoople, The Leisure Society, Genesis, Ben's Brother, Erasure, Polly Scattergood, Curved Air, Turin Brakes and Elvis Costello.

Kitsch'n'Sink was Lou Reed's 'Waitin' for the Man' - a good earthy production - very sparse and tight. One to turn things up to 11 for. Hope the man turned up and Lou got his washing machine fixed.

Charity Shop Corner gave us a triple album with one missing - but who's counting? Now Decades it's called and leaves out half the nineties, which might not entirely be a bad thing...however, looking at the tracks still there I might be wrong. So we went with 'Brimful of Asha' by Cornershop - the Norman Cook remix, no less. Not much competition - Tiffany, Busted or Yazz, anyone? Thought not...

The Long Song went for 'Born Slippy' by Underworld - this long version is taken from the Trainspotting soundtrack.

And that's it for another week! I'll be away next week, so someone might just fill my chair, so to speak, but I'll be back in a fortnight - so behave!

Night night

Glyn

Good evening!

Well, I decided to see a few films this week if only so I could have a vague idea what I was talking about (this for The Scene on Tuesday evening). So a big thumbs up to Julie and Julia - just don't see it hungry! And a big thumbs down for Funny Men - very long and very American in the worst way possible - avoid! Still suggest you see District 9, annd for something less challenging but nice all the same, how about Adventureland? Rather sweet in its own way.

Right - down to business - NOTP business, that is. Three in a Row went barking with Bowie's 'Diamond Dogs'(live version), 'Hound Dog' by Big Mama Thornton and Pulp's 'Dogs are Everywhere'. Which they are, in a very real sense.

Nice to feature Seargeant Pepper as the album of the week (perhaps 42 years too late) and doubling up as Kitsch'n'Sink with 'A Day in the Life'. Again, just a brilliant production.

What else, I hear you roar. Well, we had Love, Kings of Convenience, God Help the Girl, Richard Thompson, Depeche Mode, The Friendly Fires, Lightning Seeds, Marc Bolan, T-Rex (Marc died 32 years ago today), The Mull Historical Society,  Lou Reed, Morrissey, Ellen Foley and Saint Etienne.

Charity Shop Corner revealed another Ibiza chillout compilation - this time Aphex Twin's Aegispolis.

A bit of a departure into modern classical for The Long Song - we had 'Prematurely Air-Conditioned Supermarket' from 'Einstein on the Beach by Philip Glass. Promise to be a bit more conventional in future - probably...

Don't forget to keep mailing in your suggestions - glyn.james@tudnofm.co.uk will find me. Thanks for reading - and listening, of course!

Glyn

Hi there

Well, hopefully you didn't put money on Florence and the Machine winning the Mercury Music Prize - as usual my prediction was, er, somewhat wide of the mark. So a bit of a leftfield choice, hey? Still, that suits us here at NOTP!

Oh - The Scene recommends District 9 and, in another dimension entirely, The Time Traveller's (or should that be Traveler's?) Wife. Both great fun in different ways.

Back to NOTP, and Three in a Row featured nothing. Well, strictly speaking three songs about nothing. 'Nothing Rhymed' - Gilbet O'Sullivan's first (and best, though there wasn't a lot of competition, to be honest) , 'Nothin'' by Alison Krauss and Robert Plant and 'We Strted Nothing' by the Ting Tings.

Other tunes came from Iggy Pop, Bowie (of course), Kings of Leon, Speech Debelle, Magazine, Beatles, Aretha, Nicky Thomas, Roxy Music, Ben Folds, ELO, Rev Sinead O'Connor, Procul Harum, Bat For Lashes, Harry Chapin and The Alan Parsons Project.

Kitsch'n'Sink was the sublime 'God Only Knows' by the Beach Boys - not overproduced, just perfect. 

To comensate for not winning the MMP, The Long Song featured Glasvegas and 'Flowers a' Foo'ba' Tops'. 

See you next week!

Glyn 

Good evening ladies and gentlemen!

Not on the Playlist tonight is dedicated to a songwriter not everyone has heard of - Ellie Greenwich who sadly died last week. Well known for working with her then husband Jeff Barry and producer Phil Spector she penned many hits such as 'Da Do Ron Ron' for The Crystals, Leader of the Pack for The Shangri-Las, 'Baby I Love You' for The Ronettes and my own favourite Christmas record - 'Merry Christmas Baby (Please Come Home)' for Darlene Love. And I make no apology for playing 'River Deep and Mountain High' as my Kitsch'n'Sink this week - her and Spector's  masterpiece.

Three in a row were slightly lesser known songs of hers - The Beach Boys' 'I Can Hear Music', The Shargri-Las' 'What's a Girl Supposed to Do?' (I often wonder that myself)  and Darlene Love singing 'Today i Met the Boy I'm Gonna Marry'. all aspiring songwriters should have a look on t'net and see how many great songs she wrote - then weep.

An oldie was the Long Song tonight - 'Mocking Bird' by Barclay James Harvest. Charity Shop Corner came up with some reggae -The Paragons with 'The Tide is High'.

Assuming supporting roles were the Killers, Elvis Costello, Lloyd Price, Furniture,  Creedence Clearwater Revival,  Emmy the Great,The Beatles, Bowie, Elbow, The Colourfield, Beth Orton, Pulp,The Electric Soft Parade, 10cc and The Leisure Society.

 Next week sees the Mercury Music Prize and my shortlist includes Glasvegas, Bat for Lashes and, my favourite, Florence and the Machine. So that's her cursed, then.....  We had a great time last year on Dan's Round Table - now sadly no more - when we confidently chose Elbow as the winner. Oddly we were right. I wouldn't run to the bookies just yet, though....

Keep your suggestions coming in - but not for The Dooleys, please.

Group hug!

Glyn

Hello there

So what's new? Not too much as it's summer so new releases a bit thin on the ground. That does however mean I can feature 'OK Computer' as my album of the week...twelve years late!

Three in a row featured Fish. Not Derek Dick from Marillion (you see why he changed his name) but a seafood trilogy. The Divine Comedy's 'A Seafood Song' from Promenade, 'Fisherman's Blues' by The Waterboys and 'Fish' by Mr. Scruff. Happy splashing!

For once I thought that Kitsch'n'Sink' should feature a really well produced pop song, and so I wheeled out The Love Affair's 'A Day Without Love'. Four tracks achieving something that unlimited noise-free multitracking can't even approach.

A bit of class forced its way into NOTP's Charity Shop Corner - three CDs - sixty songs by Ella Fitzgerald for under two quid! Well, I couldn't leave it there, could I?

The Long Song was Neil Young's rather self-indulgent 'Like a Hurricane' - anyway it's still a blinding guitar solo.

So who else did we meet along the way to midnight? Well, Split Enz, Morrissey, Deaf School, World Party, The Bonzo Dog Band,  Florence and the Machine, Talk Talk, Dizzee Rascal, Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu, Rufus Wainwright, Polly Scattergood, Nick Drake,  John Otway and Klaatu. 

Any suggestions please e-mail me - glyn.james@tudnofm.co.uk. I'd be delighted to play anything left field - or even Leftfield, come to that!

Have a good bank holiday - don't forget the sun!

Glyn