Film Review : The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus

Terry Gilliam's film career has generally never been one to court the easy option or to produce an "easy" movie. Where he's attempted the latter (e.g. The Brothers Grimm) it's usually been a bit of a failure. His best movies have tended to be the ones that have allowed his imagination full flow onto the screen - Brazil, in its intended form, being perhaps the best evidence of that.

Occasionally, the mainstream and Gilliam have crossed paths and both The Fisher King and Twelve Monkeys are examples of imaginative and popular cinema that we perhaps don't see enough of these days.

His latest film has received more publicity than most given that its' star, Heath Ledger, passed away during the shoot. Most people were probably ready to put this down as another piece of bad luck of the type that seemingly has nothing better to do than follow Gilliam around. After some thought, Gilliam decided that there was a way to finish the film (as appeared to be the desire of the others involved in the production) without impinging on the credibility of either film or Ledger's memory.

I'm delighted to report that this has been achieved with some distinction. The movie is full of the surrealism and imagination that we've come to expect from Gilliam, but the tale itself is remarkably linear. Certainly, those who perhaps enjoy the visual aspects of Gilliam in full flight but find themselves scratching their heads in puzzlement at what it all meant will find this to be a pleasure.

Ledger's absence was dealt with (as has been more than adequately reported elsewhere) by his character being played by Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell. The general idea of looks being transformed when you step behind the mirror into Doctor Parnassus imagination is set early on so it's no surprise when Ledger's transformation into his three friends occurs.

The story itself is a morality tale involving the Devil (excellently played by Tom Waits) , the titular Doctor (Christopher Plummer in top form) and his daughter (played by relative newcomer Lily Cole - there's no doubt we'll be seeing more of her in the future). Parnassus having previously made a deal with the Devil to gain immortality had entered into a subsequent deal which allowed him to capture the woman of his dreams. As with all such deals this came at a price, and that involved any offspring from the union to become the property of the Devil on their 16th birthday. Needless to say, the story commences a few days before this event.

Ledger is introduced into the tale as a mysterious stranger who was found seemingly hanged. Who is he, and why was he found in that condition? Is he a friend sent to assist Parnassus, or a trick of the Devil to make sure that the consequences of the pact comes to fruition?

Parnassus moves around London with a travelling circus which allows people to enter his imagination via a mirror, and it is by entering this that the other characters covering Ledgers' part come into play. Each time a different element of the character is revealed until the truth is revealed about his life.

It would appear that all of Ledgers' shots were concerned with the "real" world before his untimely death, and the transformations to the other actors works extremely well and seems well in fitting with the story.

Ledger's performance is very good but not quite as all encompassing as his Joker. It is nevertheless clear that the film world lost an actor of the highest calibre with his untimely passing.

This is a wonderfully imaginative film that, whilst not quite up there with Gilliam's best, should do extremely well on the back of the unwanted publicity that it has received. Hopefully, it will encourage others to investigate some of the more challenging areas of Gilliam's canon.

Concert Review : Pallas - The Ferry, Glasgow

There are times you might feel a bit short changed when the support act only plays three songs. But when two of them are fifteen minutes each, and the other is twenty minutes long then that can only mean one thing.

Said support act were Abel Ganz, a local prog band of some repute but which I hadn't heard until this evenings show. Short songs were clearly at a premium, but they had interesting and diverse instrumentation with strong vocals. From my perspective, they ticked the right box as melody and structure was prominent, with technical ability to the rear. (I always prefer musicians with the technical ability to appreciate that less is often better).

With a new album out (four tracks - what else would you expect!) they will probably be subject to closer investigation by these ears.

Headline act for the evening was the Aberdeen-based Pallas. The band made a bit of a splash in the early 1980's but whilst aware of them I never heard during this period. Reconvening in the mid-90's the band have made a series of fine albums, most notably The Cross And The Crucible which was my entry point into their world.

Since then, I've heard their 1980's albums and would suggest that they are a much better band now. Not least, because the music is shorn of some of the 1980's production values which are evident on both The Sentinel and The Wedge which, at least in retrospect, does nothing to enhance the music.

Original singer Euan Lowson left the band after The Sentinel - a powerful singer who also seemed to suggest that it was necessary for prog bands of that era to be fronted by a psychotic Scotsman - he was replaced by the diminutive Alan Reed who brought a very different style of voice to the band. That line-up remains intact to this day and they present a very powerful show that would easily transfer to a larger stage.

The performance included three new songs from their forthcoming album (written but yet to be recorded) which suggests that their fine run of form is likely to be maintained. The set featured recent material more strongly but still found room for some earlier material, including Euan Lowson featuring on a couple of songs.

It's probably usual to regret how a band of such obvious quality aren't able to reach a wider audience. However, the balance is that I suspect is that the quality of what they do is also a result of the band not being the be-all and end-all of their lives. The band have "serious" jobs which means that whilst their musical adventures have to be secondary - but that could well be the secret ingredient that makes what they produce when they are able to play all the better for it. And for that we should be grateful.

Film Review : Up

I've always been a fan of the Pixar movies as they have never forgotten the primacy of the tale in their productions. They make great use of the latest technologies but not at the expense of a story you can commit to regardless of age.

This continues with their tenth film Up which has proven to be a runaway success in the United States where it was released in the early summer. That will almost certainly be repeated here in the United Kingdom following its' belated release last Friday.

Where it does move into fresh territory is in featuring a grumpy old widower in his seventies struggling to cope with the death of his childhood sweetheart. The first ten minutes of the movie presents a snapshot of the key milestones in their life together, and if you get to the end of this without a lump in your throat then you do need to check if you are the owner of a heart, lonely or otherwise.

This sequence has attracted some criticism for one particular scene where it shows that the couple were unable to have children. I'd got the impression that this was laid on somewhat thickly and have seen it described as overly manipulative but it didn't strike me that way at all. On the contrary, it seemed to provide a necessary understanding to why the lead character Carl found it difficult to build a relationship with young Russell when he appeared on the scene - an older man with a family would have been able to empathise much more readily than occurred in our tale.

Whilst the introduction is very serious and emotional (but without becoming too sentimental) the film moves on to the main story. Carl seeks to revisit the dreams of his youth and, in particular, to make the trip that he'd promised his late wife and to try and expunge some of the guilt he feels about his apparent failure for not being able to fulfil this whilst she was alive.

Needless to say, the inevitable children and animals are called in to support the tale, with Christopher Plummer voicing the villain in disgraced explorer Charles Muntz in grand style.

The film is primarily a 3-D movie (or, at least, in the Cineworld in Glasgow you can see it regularly in 3-D but only once a day in 2-D) and this is well done providing a real sense of depth and perspective. It's very light on tricks and a lot better for this in my opinion.

Next up for Pixar is Toy Story 3 which will be out next summer - the trailer looks enticing and there's no sign of the Pixar bubble bursting any time soon.

Concert Review : Man - The Inn At Lathones

It's been a turbulent period for the Manband with the band disintegrating during the recording of a new album. The end result was that Martin Ace, Phil Ryan and Josh Ace have regrouped bringing in James Beck on guitar and Rene Robrahn on drums. The ejected George Jones and Bob Richards are looking to regroup themselves with some new musicians as well, but it's the new version of the Manband that have proven to be first out of the traps to hit the road.

Following the sessions which precipitated the split, the album was resurrected and with the addition of a couple of new tracks and the replacement and/or removal of George's guitar parts was issued earlier this year as Kingdom Of Noise (Bob remained on all bar the two newer tracks). The album shows every sign of its' difficult gestation and struggles to really cohere as a collection of songs. Perhaps most disappointingly was the seeming absence of Phil Ryan on the composing front, and the more background role he seemed to be playing on the keyboards.

The band toured Germany earlier on this year and bravely (or foolishly depending on your view) built their set very firmly around the new album and put some of the classic Man songs to one side, but also perhaps some of the style that I've come to admire went with it too. The recordings I heard certainly indicated a more than competent band but what was missing was that magic spark that has singled out the Manband in all its' varieties over the decades.

A brief British tour was announced for late September/early October and part of the schedule was a gig at The Inn At Lathones. This is actually about seven miles outside of St Andrews in Fife. Certainly, my initial intentions had been to give this a miss as it represented about a four hour round trip there and back from Paisley, and the combination of the albums and the earlier recordings rather made me feel that this wasn't worth the effort. A far cry from the times when I'd happily drive to Swansea for the once regular Christmas Parties!!

However, the indications from the earlier gigs (Lathones was the last date in the tour) were that the band had reinstated some of the older classics but, more importantly, were approaching the material with a fresh eye and consequently were playing with some vigour and purpose. From reports from a number of gigs came similar reports so I was forced to reconsider my position.

I am happy to report that I am extremely glad that I did. The performance was excellent and the familiar numbers had been sharpened up with some fresh arrangements - many of the changes were minor but had the impact of catching the ear turning, as an example, opener The Price into a much more substantial number than it had ever previously seemed to be. Similarly, the rhythms on Mad On Her were subtly amended which made it just a little less of a straight forward rock song.

Of course, the biggest questions would be answered by how the classics were tackled - the setlist included C'Mon, Spunk Rock (unusually in midset), Many Are Called But Few Get Up and, as part of the encore, Bananas. All were more than recognisable but there was no attempt to mimic what had gone before, and in doing so made the songs sound remarkably fresh instead of the almost 40 year old warhorses that they are.

Of the recent album, only three tracks remain and they held up remarkably well. They showed some fine tuning from the recorded versions - they probably reflected three of the four best songs on the album - which suggests that the band might have been better served by working this material out on the road before recording them.

New guitarist James Beck was impressive and seems to have stamped his authority on the songs, without ever stooping to attempting to copy or match what we've been used to by the Jones family. I've no doubt he feels a little overawed by the legacy he has taken in but he certainly gave the impression of wearing this lightly.

Josh Ace gave the most assured performance I've seen from him and his singing was the strongest I've heard from him. He's much more of a no-nonsense player than others in the band, and doesn't appear to have inherited any of his father's more extrovert genes.

New drummer Rene Robrahn adds a very different feel to his immediate predecessors. He can be as direct as we'd become used to by Messrs Richard and Weathers but also seems to be able to play at the lighter end of the scale when needed and, as such, is perhaps the closest the band have had to the style of the peerless Terry Williams.

Old hands Ace and Ryan weren't allowing the younger members to have it all their own way and gave every impression of thoroughly enjoying themselves. The older numbers in particular were used as jumping off points for some jamming and Phil made full use of his solos to impress.

Also worth mentioning are the vocals. There are now four voices in the band and many of the songs were enhanced by making full use of these. Phil also sang a delightful Dream Away which was impeccably delivered.

The venue itself was based in a pretty high end hotel and was formerly the stables in bygone days. It only held about 36 people and allowed for a wonderfully intimate experience. As a consequence none of the instruments were miked up via the PA but the sound was more than fine for all that. Lathones does seem to be a few miles beyond the middle of nowhere, but the surroundings make it more likely that I'll be seeking out some other suitable gigs there.

Following the recent splits, it's been far from certain what the future held for Man. Musically, last night showed that there is life left in the old dog yet and I'll certainly be looking forward to seeing this lineup again in the future.

No pictures from last night, I'm afraid, but there are plenty from recent gigs on the Manband Archive.

Music Review : Rod Stewart - The Rod Stewart Sessions 1971-1998

Despite some of their sins over the years, most of the major artists of the 1960's and 1970's have tended to have their reputations rekindled in their later years. Elton John is in a fine vein of rich form (although I usually think the quality of his albums are in direct relation to how hard Bernie Taupin works on his lyrics) and Eric Clapton seems to turn up at many gigs like everyones favourite uncle. An exception to this appears to be Rod Stewart who, despite remaining very popular, has never been on anyones list of credible rockstars probably since he left The Faces.

It's always been way to easy to suggest that Rod lost his way after the break-up of The Faces. Certainly, Atlantic Crossing was a weak album with watered down rockers on the one hand with some asinine ballads on the other. On the other hand, it did contain a superb reading of Danny Whitten's I Don't Want To Talk About It which (just) managed to keep on the right side of the saccharine line. However, once he got his touring band together and used them for his albums the quality level increased markedly. Unfortunately, this coincided with his squiring of Britt Ekland and his seeming efforts to look as ridiculous as possible.

Topping and tailing that period with Do You Think I'm Sexy which suffered from the twin sin of utilising a disco rhythm as well as being the polar opposite of his earlier guise as just one of the lads.

Like many artists of his vintage, much of the 1980's were a time of poor choices and poorer production values (although it's hard to beat Dylan in this regard for plumbing the depths in this decade) but since then he's reverted to sound choices of covers and his albums recovered an aura of consistent if not outstanding quality.

It does seem that the days of Stewart the songwriter are gone but he does remain a superb interpreter of the right material. Although much maligned by many, I thoroughly enjoyed the American Songbook series (although he was stretching it at four volumes) but I was already a convert to the quality of the songs from that era.

To counter that, his album of classic rock covers Still The Same really was scraping the bottom of a very mucky barrel with most of the songs barely qualifying as rock and almost none of them worthy of the use of the word "classic"

Whilst there has been much talk of a reunion of the surviving Faces (and this proceeding or not seems to be entirely down to Rod) he is continuing his endeavours with a new album Soulbook featuring his interpretations of a number of soul classics. Many of the songs selected for this look like they might be good choices for him but the proof of the pudding will be in the eating.

All of this is a long introduction to the four disc set that's just been issued covering sessions from 1971 through to 1998 of outtakes, demos and alternative versions as well as some songs that never saw the light of day. This appears to be a precursor to a wider release programme for his post Faces material - Atlantic Crossing and A Night On The Town have already appeared in special editions.

Like many of these kinds of collections, there is a range of material on this set. Some that you really enjoy hearing, and others that you wonder why they were allowed to see the light of day. In the latter category is included an early version of Maggie May which opens the set. That's early as in before he'd really settled on a melody or written any words for it! It's no more than Stewart extemporising over the backing track clearly seeking to come to terms with what the song might later become. It really doesn't add anything to your appreciation of the finished article, or have anything much to offer in its' own right.

However, there is much to enjoy on this album. By its very nature, the versions here are less produced than they might otherwise have been and that's usually to the benefit of the performance. As we progress through the years, there's a greater preponderance of songs that didn't appear on albums and in many cases these seem to be truer to his spirit. You can't help but feel that this is better material than was issued, and that he was on the end of some poor advice about where he should be heading. Perhaps too keen to put out something modern sounding rather than good listening!

The set ends with a delicious version of the late John Martyn's May You Never. You only need a cursory knowledge of the song to know that this is the type of song that Rod could readily make his own.

If you're a casual fan, this is certainly not going to be of interest to you. However, for those who have loved Rod and perhaps those who wondered where it all went wrong, this provides an interesting alternative history that suggests the last thirty years have been perhaps unfairly maligned.

Now, Rod - do the decent thing. Stop fannying around and get back with Ronnie, Mac and Kenny!

Film Review : Pandorum

This will be brief and to the point. This film is pure and utter drivel with a story that would like to be admirably complex but is in fact ineffably stupid.

Dennis Quaid should be ashamed of himself for associating with such tosh.

I've already wasted a couple of hours of my life - it doesn't deserve to take any more

Music Review : King Crimson - Red

It's 40 years since King Crimson helped to create the genre known as prog by releasing the seminal In The Court Of The Crimson King. To commemorate this, the KC catalogue is receiving yet another brush up and the equally seminal Red is the first to be released.

This is an album whose reputation has grown over the years, and it's clear when you listen to many of today's prog bands (and particularly at the heavier, more dynamic end of the spectrum) that they've taken a lot from this collection.

The third album from the second major phase of Crimson's career (and, yes, that means I'm counting the first four albums as phase 1 to which I know some would suggest should be split into two or three!) the momentum was somewhat dissipated when guitarist (and undoubtedly leader) Robert Fripp decided to disband meaning that the music was never able to develop further in live performance.

The band has slimmed down to a three-piece with Fripp being joined by the excellent Bill Bruford on drums and percussion with John Wetton on bass and vocals. Wetton's vocals talents came to the fore for the first time in Crimson and he adds a weight of authority to the songs performed. They are augmented by a bunch of others on the album who help to spice up the sound without getting in the way of the dominant trio

Weight, of course, is something that certainly isn't lacking in the music on this album. The songs that made up the original side 1 of the album form a trilogy (of course, they would. It's prog after all!) with crashing riffs, great dynamics and some melodious singing from Wetton. This music still sounds very modern not least because there's so many bands now trying to recreate the power and authority of this music - although many of these attempts are worthy, they all fail to reach the high water mark set by this album.

Side 2 contains two longer tracks one edited down from a longer in-concert improvisation, and the second being the utterly peerless Starless which brings dignity, poise and grace to one of Crimson's most distinguished creations.

In addition to the original album, we are also treated to bonus tracks from the sessions, and also the full version of the aforementioned improvisation. And on top of all that, the album is also available on DVD with a 5.1 surround mix from Porcupine Tree's Steven Wilson and some old video of the band featuring some songs from the previous two albums.

The series continues with the classic debut itself (and which comes in a variety of packages including a 5 disc set including rehearsals and new mixes) and Lizard, their third album. Lizard was actually the first Crimson album I heard - I was fourteen at the time - and it was as astonishing then as it is now.

Throughout their history and the many line-ups, Fripp has maintained Crimson at the cutting edge of the times. With prog now being in danger of being hip once again, it's a great time to introduce yourself to one of the genuinely innovative and challenging bands to bear that trademark.