This is way overdue for posting, but I wrote the programme note for GFT’s screenings of The Master (Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson, 2012). Now the film is out on DVD/Bluray, the piece should hopefully still be interesting. Anyway, you can find my note for The Master here and GFT archives all their programme notes online here.
Popcorn II: Electric Boogaloo poster by Moonshake Design
I’m very excited to be responsible, alongside my good friend Chris Boyd, for presenting the Popcorn II: Electric Boogaloo event as part of Glasgow Film Festival 2013. We’ve invited lots of our favourite local musicians to play selections of whatever movie music moves them at The Flying Duck, Glasgow on Friday 15/02/2013.
Although we can’t yet reveal what they’ll be playing, expect a wide range of theme songs, scores and songs famous from movies – and all kinds of movies, from Hollywood blockbusters to art house favourites, from 1980s bombast to understated indie, from spy flicks to sci-fi to all-out horror. The bands will kick off from 8pm and we run until 3am, with dancing to yet more awesome movie music (courtesy of The Dirty Goon) after the live portion of the evening. If you come in movie-character costume, you’ll get a discount on the door. Otherwise, entry is £5.
The line-up is (A-Z):
Brains
Camino SurReal
The Downs
Grandpa Granola & The Spuds
Stevie Jackson
Kaldi’s Goats (feat. members of UG, Hummingwards & Sunsmasher)
Rory McIntyre (Ballad Of Mable Wong)
Martial Arts
MikePapaZulu
The Paraffins
Howie Reeve (Tattie Toes) & Michael Angus (Foxface)
Skullwizard
Spread Eagle
The Store Keys
Original Popcorn poster by Moonshake Design
As I say, their selections will hopefully be secret until they take the stage. Popcorn II: Electric Boogaloo is, however, a sequel and the first event took place on 22/06/2012, also at The Flying Duck. We decked The Duck out movies-style, with projections, posters, cinema reel bunting and free popcorn everywhere. With a translucent silver screen in front of the stage, the bands performed with clips from their chosen films projected on them (see recordings, video and photos at the end of the post).
Popcorn was supposed to be the last gig I organised and promoted. I’d done it a wee bit on and off for a few years, and Chris had done it separately too. I didn’t want to do regular monthly nights any more, just one-offs when they were really worth it. And Popcorn was definitely the last. But then it went really well, folks seemed to enjoy it and it was super cool seeing all the amazing, one-off performances from the bands. A big thanks to all the performers, everyone that came along and to everyone that helped out (to Stewart, Tam and Tommy, Barney & Del and everyone at The Flying Duck). So when we got the chance to do it again, in association with the film festival, we couldn’t not.
We have a bunch of exciting new faces for Popcorn II, but some of the same folks will be returning for the new event. The running order from the first time round might give you some idea what to expect (although, of course, nobody will be playing the same songs as last time). This is who they were and what they played:
Sophie Sexon
“Canned Heat” by Jamiroquai (Napoleon Dynamite)
“Bang Bang” by Nancy Sinatra (Kill Bill Vol 1)
Craig McClure & Dave Milne
“Crazy For You” by Madonna (Vision Quest)
“Licence To Kill” by Gladys Knight (Licence To Kill)
Alistair Beith
“When Doves Cry” by Prince (Purple Rain)
“There’s Something About Mary” by Jonathan Richman (There’s Something About Mary)
Stewart Smith
“In Dreams” by Roy Orbison (Blue Velvet)
“Paris Texas” by Ry Cooder (Paris Texas)
The Paraffins
“Blade Runner Theme” by Vangelis (Blade Runner)
“Fame” by Irene Cara (Fame)
“Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence” by Ryuichi Sakamoto (Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence)
Rory McIntyre
“Laura Palmer’s Theme” by Angelo Badalamenti (Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me)
“Assault On Precinct 13” by John Carpenter (Assault On Precinct 13)
“Rosemary’s Baby Main Theme” by Krysztof Komeda (Rosemary’s Baby)
“Koyaanisqatsi” by Philip Glass (Koyaanisqatsi)
John Petrie
“Love On A Real Train” by Tangerine Dream (Risky Business)
“Turtle Power” by Partners in Kryme (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)
Barry Cossar (Rekha Barry & Steven Cossar)
“Tonight You Belong To Me” by Steve Martin & Bernadette Peters (The Jerk)
Camino surReal
“Faust” by Paul Williams (Phantom Of The Paradise)
The Downs
“Goldfinger” by Shirley Bassey (Goldfinger)
“Misirlou” by Dick Dale & His Del-Tones (Pulp Fiction)
Spread Eagle
“Needle In The Hay” by Elliot Smith (The Royal Tenebaums)
“Bad Moon Rising” by Creedence Clearwater Revival (An American Werewolf In London)
Skullwizard
“On The Road Again” by Canned Heat (Alice In The Cities)
Roy Moller
“In Heaven (Lady In The Radiator Song)” by Peter Ivers (Eraserhead)
“Kissin’ Cousins” by Elvis Presley (Kissin’ Cousins)
“Sea of Love” by Tom Waits (Sea Of Love)
“Cocksucker Blues” by The Rolling Stones (Cocksucker Blues)
Graeme Ronald
“Goodbye Horses” by Q Lazzarus (Silence Of The Lambs)
Full and up-to-date details on Popcorn II: Electric Boogaloo can be found on the Facebook event page.
The Glasgow Film Festival listing can be found here.
The multi-talented and apparently superhuman Jer Reid took care of the sound that night, as he will at Popcorn II. For posterity, Jer managed to snatch some recordings from the sound desk, Graeme Ronald gave us an instrumental mix of his monumental Goodbye Horses cover and Rory McIntyre provided a home recording of the awesome medley he played solo on the night:
Stewart ‘Suave Motherfucker’ Smith at Popcorn 22/06/2012
The Paraffins at Popcorn 22/06/2012
Camino SurReal perform “Faust” from Phantom Of The Paradise at Popcorn 22/06/2012
Me, trying on Camino SurReal’s awesome Phantom Of The Paradise helmet at Popcorn 22/06/2012
I found this record, snappily entitled A Small Computer Plays Some Samples Of Mozart’s Dice-Composition Music, in Oxfam Music on Byres Road, Glasgow, in late 2012. The sleeve suggested it was produced in Glasgow, in 1967.
In 1962, Bell Laboratories had released the landmark Music From Mathematics album, using the IBM 7090 computer to produce a selection of weird sounds, classical arrangements and HAL-style ditties. In fact, their recording of Bicycle Built For Two is said to have directly inspired Arthur C Clarke and 2001: A Space Odyssey (dir. Stanley Kubrick, 1968). In 1967, while Kubrick was nearing the end of 2001‘s four-year production, Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was the best-selling record in the UK and the Incredible String Band released The 5000 Spirits Or The Layers Of The Onion. I basically had no idea anybody was making electronic music in Glasgow then.
Anyway, intrigued, I dug around a bit and found some more information. The following is from the presentation “The Small Computer that Played Tunes” given by Tacye Phillipson (National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh) at the 2011 Scientific Instrument Commission Symposium in Kassel, Germany:
“In the early 1960s most computers were behemoths, and their time was precious and sparingly dolled out. In this atmosphere Glasgow University took the unusual step of designing a small computer for teaching and student use. This computer, called SOLIDAC, is only the size of a desk. It was built by Barr and Stroud, a local firm who were keen to expand their reputation from optics into electronics. In 1967 T. H. O’Beirne of Barr and Stroud released an LP of Mozart’s dice music, tunes where each bar is chosen at random from a selection, both calculated and played by SOLIDAC. This early example of computer music was reviewed in the magazine Gramophone: ‘Not something one can listen right through a side to; but quite ingenious.’ Fittingly for a Scottish computer, it also played bagpipe tunes of its own devising…”
Bill Findlay, who taught at the University of Glasgow, provides a great selection of material on SOLIDAC on his website, including portions of SOLIDAC’s operating manual. You can also find a short essay by Paul A.V. Thomas, the principle designer of SOLIDAC, here.
From the record’s sleeve notes, by T.H. O’Beirne:
“These recordings demonstrate how a small digital computer has been used to produce music – of some interest – which is more often discussed than actually heard. The scores concerned allow the computer to be programmed for continuous play of something like a million different variations on a basic pattern. A few dozen typical specimens are played, with a change of tuning of the scale after each group of four. Listeners can judge the merits of the just-intonation tuning of medieval music, and of other scales which make use of exactly-tuned consonant intervals. They can compare these with the more familiar equal-temperament compromise used in modern-keyed instruments. Rectangular-wave computer pulses are appropriately generated, to produce the notes. The sound is not unlike that of a clarinet.”
Thanks to Stewart Christmas for additional research.
The new documentary McCullin (Dir. Jacqui Morris & David Morris, 2012) is screening at GFT until Thursday 10th January. My accompanying programme note will be available at screenings and online here. GFT archives all its programme notes at their site here.
I’m working as an official blogger for Glasgow Film Festival 2012, which kicks off this week with the Gala Opening on Thursday 16th February (check out the programme here). This year, I’m joined in the role by the indomitable Harriet Warman, of Cinematic Investigations.
You’ll be able to follow our posts here, where we’ve already provided some previews of the programme. The adjoining Glasgow Short Film Festival 2012 has just finished and was fantastic. You can read some of my coverage of that here and here, with hopefully some final words on that up soon.
Physical Impossibility 