Tag: lyrics

Pink Floyd at Pompeii

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 23 April 2025
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Director – Adrian Maben – 1972 – UK – Cert. PG – 93m

*****

Around the time of Meddle, Pink Floyd perform in the amphitheatre at Pompeii and in a Paris sound studio; later, at EMI Abbey Road, they work on their next album The Dark Side of the Moon – Pink Floyd at Pompeii – MCMLXXII is out in UK cinemas on Thursday, April 24th

This review is of the Pink Floyd Live at Pompeii – The Director’s Cut version that came out on DVD in 2003. There have been various versions over the years; indeed, that DVD release also contains the 62-minute cut which excises all the Abbey Road material. The newly released version (as yet unseen by this writer) boasts a 4K restoration and a new sound mix by Steven Wilson. Even without these new enhancements, the film is pretty impressive some fifty odd years on.

It starts and ends with a version of Echoes (which originally took up the second side of Meddle and is here conveniently broken up into a part one and a part two). This is followed by Careful With That Axe Eugene and another lengthy opus A Saucerful of Secrets. Three more numbers are recorded in Studio Europa-Sonor in Paris: the shorter, punchier (to give it its long title used in the film, which also constitutes the song’s entire vocal lyrics) One of These Days I’m Going To Cut You into Little Pieces, a blues called Mademoiselle Nobs similar to Meddle’s Seamus without lyrics but with a dog (the eponymous Nobs) howling along, and Set The Controls for the Heart of the Sun.… Read the rest

Tags A Saucerful Of Secrets, Adrian Maben, amphitheatre, bass player, blues, brain damage, canteen, Careful With That Axe Eugene, circular structure, David Gilmour, Director’s Cut, dog, dog howling, dog singing, drums, DSOTM, Echoes, guitar, London, lyrics, Mademoiselle Nobs, Meddle, music, Nick Mason, One of These Days, Paris, performance, piano, Pink Floyd, Pink Floyd at Pompeii, Pink Floyd at Pompeii – MCMLXXII, Pink Floyd at Pompeii MLMCXXII, Pompeii, prog, prog rock, progressive, progressive rock, psychedelic, recording, recording studio, Richard Wright, rock, rock music, Roger Waters, Seamus, Set The Controls for the Heart of the Sun, sound studio; EMI Abbey Road, Studio Europa-Sonor, talking heads, The Dark Side Of The Moon, UK, Us and Them

Animation Features Live Action Movies

The Lyricist Wannabe
(Tin4 Ci4 L,
填詞L,
lit. Lyrics Nerd / Dickhead)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 14 March 2024
No Comments on The Lyricist Wannabe
(Tin4 Ci4 L,
填詞L,
lit. Lyrics Nerd / Dickhead)
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Director – Norris Wong – 2023 – Hong Kong – Cert. 12a – 112m

****

A girl pursues her dream of becoming a Cantopop lyricist – out in UK cinemas on Friday, March 15th

The movies are full of rags-to-riches stories in which someone dreams of becoming a star, works hard to achieve that, and it ultimately all comes true. While that can happen, because in real life there are clearly stars out there, in most cases it doesn’t. This film follows a similar path: a girl gives her all to achieve her chosen dream but ultimately doesn’t make it, which is probably a far more common occurrence than the one in which the aspirant succeeds.

Law Wing Sze (Chung Suet-Ying) is a student at a church school run by nuns. She doesn’t read music, but is obsessed by Cantopop and wants to write lyrics, spending much time rewriting lyrics of old Cantopop songs such as Infernal Affairs which she rewrites as Student Affairs. For this endeavour she is summoned to Sister Che’s office where the nun / teacher helpfully gives her a crit session and suggests she change certain words to more accurately express what she’s trying to say without unintended double entendres.… Read the rest

Tags 0243 method of writing Cantonese, 2D animation, achieve, apartment, bestie, bounced email, brothers and sisters, BVM, Calvin Poon Yuen-leung, Cantopop, Chu Pak Hon, Chung Suet-Ying, church school, contest. Shortlist, contract, cooking, crit session, death and love, demo, double entendres, elevator, Eric Kot, farm, Henick Chou, home, Hong Kong, inspiration, internet, Jeannie Ng Ka-Yan, lift, Luna Shaw, lyrics, music, Norris Wong, nuns, object animation, parents, parents and children, parents and daughters, performance, performance slot, piano, producer, professional, radio station, read music, record company, record producer, rhyme, rhythm guitar, Sabrina Ng Ping, school, singer, songwriting contest. songwriting, star, statue, Stephy Tang, student, studying, success, Tai Yukki, Teachers’ Day, tone, Tony Wu Tsz-Tun, travel, tune, university, Virgin Mary, work hard, write, write lyrics, Yeung Wei-lung

Animation Features Live Action Movies

a-ha The Movie

Directors – Thomas Robsahm, Aslaug Holm – 2021 – Norway, Germany – Cert. 12a – 108m

***

The rise and career of the enduring, three-piece, Norwegian band a-ha – out in cinemas on Friday, May 20th

Norwegian trio a-ha are arguably best known for two songs. They swept to fame on the strength of their first hit Take On Me, which features extensively in this documentary. They were later asked to do the title for Bond movie The Living Daylights (John Glen, 1987), which gets only a few minutes screen time somewhere in the middle here, so I’ll get that out of the way first. The band write their own material and found themselves having to work with legendary Bond composer John Barry as their producer on this gig who, as they saw it, was used to having musical input and getting his own way. They talk about recording the song in such a way as to get round him.

Perhaps what this best illustrates is that musicians (artists, composers, bands) often work and operate within their own sealed worlds and if they have to work with rivals, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. In this instance, it doesn’t sound a good experience for either party.… Read the rest

Tags 2D animation, a-ha, Alan Tarney, animation, Aslaug Holm, attention, Australia, author, authorship, composer, concert, craving attention, demo, dispute, Germany, gig, global pop, global pop phenomenon, guitar, hit, hit record, illustrative style, JamesBond, Japan, Jeff Ayeroff, John Barry, keyboard phrases, keyboards, limelight, live action, London, lyrics, Magne Furuholmen, Morten Harket, MTV, music, music authorship, music demo, music producer, music video, New York City, Norway, Oslo, Pål Waaktaar, performance, pop, pop music, pop phenomenon, pop video, press conference, producer, punk, rotoscope, singer, song demo, soundtrack, Steve Barron, style, Take On Me, The Living Daylights, Thomas Robsahm, Tony Mansfield, UK, US, Warner Bros. Music

Features Live Action Movies

Cyrano

Romantic self-doubt

Cyrano
Directed by Joe Wright
Certificate 12a, 124 minutes
Released 25 February

Edmond Rostand’s 1897 romantic play Cyrano de Bergerac concerns a man who, because of his long nose, considers himself too ugly to tell the girl of his dreams and childhood friend Roxanne that he loves her. This new version ditches the nose to cast Peter Dinklage (Game Of Thrones) as the hero whose dwarfism becomes his reason for thinking Roxanne (Haley Bennett) couldn’t possibly love him. Then she falls in love… with one of the men in the regiment he commands.

However… [Read more]

Full review published in Reform magazine.

Cyrano

Director – Joe Wright – 2021 – UK – Cert. 12a – 124m

*****

The short stature of Cyrano de Bergerac makes him believe that no woman could ever love him – not even his beloved friend Roxanne, who he can’t bring himself to tell – out in cinemas on Friday, February 25th

17th Century Italy. Witty and articulate Captain of the Guard Cyrano de Bergerac (Peter Dinklage) is never at a loss for words. His rapier wit defeats any opponent, as does his rapier proper should any be foolish enough to challenge him to a duel. Being short in stature, he can’t imagine that any normal sized woman could love him for who he is.

He is therefore unable to confess his love for her to the beautiful Roxanne (Haley Bennett), the woman and lifelong childhood friend for whom he would do anything. So when she falls in love at first sight with Christian (Bashir Salahuddin), a new recruit to Cyrano’s regiment, Cyrano finds himself torn between her rejection and his desire for her to be happy with the man she loves. Unfortunately, this intelligent and free-spirited young woman enjoys nothing more than the literary cut and thrust which Cyrano is able to provide but the inarticulate and out of his depth Christian is not.… Read the rest