It’s nice plucking classic pop performances from chatshows, but sometimes things get a bit grizzled. One such case was an appearance by The Bee Gees on the Clive Anderson All Talk show. At the time, I thought “oooh… Clive… you’re pushing it… oooh.. LOOK! They’ve stormed off!” Now, looking at it, the whole thing seems a bit tame and The Bee Gees are left looking a bit soft as they strop off (as opposed to the titillating ’storming off’). Still, it’s good fun watching it again, and note how prickly Barry Gibb is throughout.
[video: tvinsider4]

Posted by Stuart Waterman on Wednesday February 6th, 2008 at 12:02 pm

Every time David Bowie does something you really should prick your ears up, as he’s not one for keeping still. He’s gone through folk, glam, drum ‘n’ bass… and now, covers of Pixies songs. Yup. On Jay Leno, he teamed up with Moby (spit) and rocked “Cactus” which, judging from the amount of screaming and waving, went down quite well with the assembled crowd. Anyways, tune in and drop off… I mean out… drop out… dammit.
[video: suzukuro]

Posted by Stuart Waterman on Wednesday January 30th, 2008 at 1:24 pm

How apt. Getting Amy Winehouse into rehab is more tricky than getting a cat in the bath. Apparently, after getting caught smoking (back to) crack she was going, but it turns out she was just visiting a doctor who she sees all the time (read all abaht it here). Anyway, with that, I’ll give you Amy saying “nooo nooo no” to rehab on Letterman when she was looking a little perkier.
[video: rubyrecluse]

Posted by Stuart Waterman on Wednesday January 23rd, 2008 at 11:54 am

There seem to be a lot of quality musical performances coming from the talkshows across the pond these days. A by-product of the writers’ strike, perhaps?
Well anyway, I couldn’t choose between these two, so I’m posting them both. Nash’s “Foundations” seems a lot warmer when she performs it live, as you can see on The Late Late Show over the page - the sass is softened by the heart when she’s sat there at her keyboard, I think. Her album has just gone Top 40 Stateside, which is no mean feat for an artist so heavy on Brit-slang.
Meanwhile NYC band MGMT made their debut on Letterman last week in a fetching collection of capes. But don’t let that put you off - “Time To Pretend” is a laidback but uplifting psychedelic pop-rock number not a million miles from The Flaming Lips.
Watch both performances after the jump.

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Posted by mofgimmers on Friday January 18th, 2008 at 11:22 am

Mostly, in the section known as ‘It’s Good To Talkshow‘, we get to see wonderful performances from brilliant bands on TV chatterprogs, leaving us happy that there are good tunes and good telly out there in the world. But what happens when the world implodes and we get a drunk actor singing and a host wanting the Earth to open up?
Why, we get Oliver Reed’s barnstorming performance, which lasts a hair-raising 30 seconds. As shambolic as this is, there’s a brief moment where you think Ollie just may just have had a cracking punk voice in there…
[video: dohc123456789]

Posted by Stuart Waterman on Wednesday January 16th, 2008 at 1:27 pm

I’m sure you’ll be very aware of the TV writers’ strike across the pond. I certainly am. It’s the reason I haven’t been able to “acquire” new episodes of The US Office since mid-frickin’ November. I MISS IT. Anyway, as TV Scoop have noted recently, the various late-night talk shows have been among the worst hit, depending as they do on funny writer folk to come up with, well, pretty much everything.
The result is that, returning to work in part to safeguard the non-writing jobs of their other staff, the presenters are needing to come up with a lot more of their own material than they’ve probably needed to since they last did stand-up.

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Posted by mofgimmers on Thursday January 10th, 2008 at 10:00 am

Did you know that The David Letterman Show has been on so long that Jesus Christ (of Nazareth) was a fan? I know! They didn’t even have TVs then! Over the years, Dave has had just about every single person ever to cut a record on his show, including the mad, bad, brilliant, bonkers Tom Waits. Here he is, way way back, doing “Tango ‘Til They’re Sore”. It’s a creepy record that should give you nightmares. Also, you get to see the great man in an (incomplete) interview… and boy, he’s a funny bugger.
[video: Zeemaarten]
For more Talkshow action, click here

Posted by Stuart Waterman on Wednesday January 9th, 2008 at 1:56 pm

The It’s Good To Talkshow section on MyChemicalToilet is usually full of young spurts gettin’ all cool on yaw ass… but knocking all the pretenders in to a cocked hat is the marvelous and joyous racket of The Zimmers. I wrote about these fantastic olds a while ago (click here to read it) who stormed the nation’s minds with missing teeth and youthful vigour. Here they are rattling their brilliant bones through The Who’s My Generation on the Graham Norton Show. [video: Taxiray]

Posted by Stuart Waterman on Wednesday January 2nd, 2008 at 1:25 pm

Stephen Malkmus, of Pavement fame, is one of the most ludicrously talented songwriters on the planet. His first eponymous LP was a riotous success filled with wonky riffs and oddball yet typically brilliant lyrics. Here he is performing “Jenny and the Ess Dog” on David Letterman. Fantastic!
[video: asakawaz]

Posted by Stuart Waterman on Wednesday December 12th, 2007 at 1:44 pm

Letterman has been on TV so damned long, he’s had just about everyone on his show to play live. So, of all the huge bands that have been featured, I thought I’d opt for two-hit wonders, Presidents of the United States of America (or PUSA if you prefer) with their fantastic bubblegum hit, “Lump”. This song is not clever, groundbreaking or even cool, but it’s great fun… and sometimes, that’s all you can ask of a tune. Watch, enjoy and let it get stuck in your head all day.
[video tbrent]

Posted by Stuart Waterman on Wednesday December 5th, 2007 at 10:25 am