I may have got to the party late but at least I arrived before the Watney’s Red Barrel, cheese and pineapple sticks and fun size bags of Quiglets.
As I was such a Jeff Buckley-come-lately I am hardly in a postion to get snarky about the X factor version. However it’s probably not the one I would click to download .
Nor it would seem would Elton John. At the O2 on Saturday night (v good) he declared what he would rather eat than watch X factor and it wasn’t his hat, not surprising for a man so proud of his hair, I’m sure he doesn’t actually own any. (Just to make that clear – I mean hats not hair – he so owns his hair)
Bit surprised then when watching the recorded X factor final on Sunday morning to hear that come New Years Eve Alexandra will be at the O2 - joining Elton John on stage.
I guess it’s welcome to the world of show biz .
Stuck in traffic in Kingston's one way system the other week I was further stopped in my tracks and then moved by this. I'd never heard it before and so listened out for song and artist.
None of this struck me as odd until I heard a trailer for an entire radio programme dedicated to this song. A song which it turned out has meaning for millions of muscians and listeners the world over and has been covered many many times. I can't work out how on earth it passed me by. It would seem it's been used in Shrek, The OC and on American Idol. None of which would necessarily mean that I would have heard it but it does kind of mean that it hasn't exactly been hiding it's haunting light under a bushel.
Where have I been? How come I missed it ? And what else is out there that I am going to love that has to date completely passed me by?
I am full of wonder.
Or is it a bit like Lucy and the wardrobe? Only when I venture into far corners of dark heavy places that I would usually pass without a backward glance?
Today this means reading the whole of the Observer Review section. Amongst other articles I have diligently digested ones on Jeremy Kyle, Cold War design, Billie, Baghdad head bangers and spectacular Scouse spiders. The breath of which begs the question - should I get out more or actually stay in more often?
Page 17 and a little past the halfway mark (phew!) and I read a review of the Proms (Prom 64) and come across mention of a musical instrument which I have never ever heard of. The ondes Martenot. I think I learn that it's the signature instrument for Wagner's Tristan and Isolde.
That absorbed, I move on to Miranda Sawyer's radio roundup and a review of Brel et Moi: Alastair Campbell on Jacques Brel. Yes him ( Alastair - I didn't know who Brel was either). But far more bizarre. 'Brel used the strange sound of a ondes Martenot in some of his songs'. Then also reviewed from Radio 3 that week - 'The power of the Ondes' described as a fascinating summary of this amazing early electronic instrument'. All of which prompted the reviewer to look up ondes Martenot on Google Image. She was duly impressed.
Do Observer journalists operate some kind of buzzword bingo sweepstake ? Or is the ondes Martenot the double decker of the musical instrument world. None and then three all at once ?
Anyway according to Miranda 'you'd know it if you heard it : an eerie horror-film wail'.
Spooky.
