Planet Notion - Later Live with Jools Holland. Episode 8.

05/11/2008

Another week, another Jools Holland preview. Sometimes you watch an episode and think “THAT WAS OKAY” and “THEY WERE OKAY” but “IT WASN’T TOTAL ENTERTAINMENT”. Then comes that rarity, an episode that makes you sit back and wonder what the hell is going on, what everyone is doing and how the drink could hit you so quickly... this was one of them.

THE KILLERS: Okay, here’s the deal. I liked The Killers once upon a time. Then I got to thinking, did I really like them, or did I just like them because it seemed like the right thing to do? So I kinda went off them. I couldn’t say whether this performance reinforced that feeling or not, because I was outside having a smoke, but I noticed when I got back that the drummer looked quite constipated and they had fake palm trees with them on stage.

MONKEY: JOURNEY TO THE WEST: Cracked open another can; after this performance I think I needed it. Not that it wasn’t good, but there were these people dressed as pandas with Lycra leggings, swaying about and beating bamboo sticks like they were having a bad trip. Damon Albarn was playing guitar, this being a track from his Monkey opera. It was good though, a mixture of traditional music, electro and rock with three gorgeous Chinese girls singing to the beat. I could understand why the pandas were freaking out…

AL GREEN INTERVIEW: Jools asked the legendary Al Green a series of questions. Al answered “YES” to everything. He said it about six times, like he was drunk or something, happy drunk. Suddenly he broke out into a spontaneous few-lines of song and a bemused Jools clicked his fingers, wondering what was going on. I just knew it was going to be one of those episodes.

PENDULUM: As soon as Pendulum started, I pictured myself driving a beat-up Cadillac into a suburban club full of beauticians and body-builders; men who rub baby lotion on their bodies whilst they shower and girls who sit under the sun-bed for 38 hours; me, mowing the fuckers down! Al Green enjoyed it; he had a massive grin on his face. I didn’t mind it, they’re a good bunch live but they make me have strange visions of club-land hell when I hear them on the radio.

AL GREEN: Jools took to the piano for this performance, a rendition of the Al Green classic ‘Let’s Stay Together’. You know the one, it was on Pulp Fiction? Everyone was clapping! Everyone! Albarn was clapping, the Chinese girls were dancing, and the crowd were dancing and clapping. Al enjoyed himself too; you could see it on his face. He stole the show there and then. He shat all over every other performance, he fucked them all over. Al Green: Starfucker.

FLEET FOXES: And yet the Fleet Foxes didn’t cave. I was thinking “HOW THE HELL DO YOU FOLLOW AL GREEN?” But they did, and they did it well. The lead singer looked like he’d just come out a hippy commune and the music made me float like a hippy. It was beautiful. Fantastic vocal harmonies, sweet sounding – the sound of Love and the Mamas and the Papas and all those bands that probably crashed out when the 60s crashed out, because they were sad and the dream was over. But, for a while, those bands made that period more melancholy and pretty and sweet… despite the 180 comedowns a year. Great performance!

THE KILLERS: I broke the house curfew and had a cigarette whilst watching this performance, so as not to miss it. I suddenly realised why I liked The Killers all those years ago and why, if anything, that love probably should have grown, blossomed, whatever. Sometimes you don’t appreciate a band’s music until you see them live on stage, performing and feeding off the music. Every word of the song meant something, or seemed to mean something to frontman Brandon Flowers. He put everything into it, he was sweating like a hog and looked close to tears; the words meant something… all of it meant something.

Later Live with Jools Holland is broadcast every Tuesday at 22:00 on BBC2. The extender Later with Jools Holland show is broadcast every Friday at 12:35(am) on BBC2. To visit the official website and catch up on the show, CLICK HERE!