Sunday 08 November

BLOGS

blogCategory
Previous
Back to blog
Next

Singing with the Enemy

Singers behind microphones
  • Posted at 11:51am
  • 09 October 2007
  • by RhodriMarsden-RT
  • 3 comments

The most glaringly absent channel on digital TV is something that would probably be called The Reality Channel. It would be wonderful if all the shows dependent on contrived clashes of conflicting personalities were dumped onto it, leaving the rest of television unsullied. You could dip in and out of these shows at will, and you'd never stumble across one by accident.

But it doesn't exist, so I stumbled over Singing with the Enemy by accident. Two bands of differing musical styles were stuck in a house far larger and more pleasant than their own and given a week to write and record a song together. The aim, as stated by Tommy D, the pompous, old-school music-biz producer in charge of the project, was to use the wonderful gift of music to bring people together.

"You've been picked," he told the bands, "because of your strong convictions." This wasn't telling the whole truth. The bands were mainly picked because one of them is a Christian rock band from Coventry called Dweeb, and the other is a bisexual punk band, Paparazzi Whore, whose stage act mainly revolves around stripping and pole dancing.

The musicmaking was pretty uninteresting. Both bands were, in the grand scheme of things, "working" in vaguely similar areas – distorted guitars, chunky riffs, heavy doses of shouting and screaming – and they had little trouble in cobbling together a tune with lyrics vague enough to be appealing to both parties.

The deep philosophical musing of "The Truth behind the Lies" neatly combined Dweeb's love of Jesus with Paparazzi Whore's enthusiasm for mild obscenity, and as such was a triumph of compromise, if that's not a contradiction in terms.

More fascinating was the subplot of how Tim, Dweeb's singer and "moral guardian", managed to persuade Suzy, Paparazzi Whore's pole dancer, that Jesus might well be the way, the truth and the life.

She was impressed by his self-control during a Paparazzi Whore gig when he refused to watch semi-naked women gyrating provocatively, and when it was Tim's turn to perform, his midsong Bible reading caused Suzy to experience what she later referred to as "an enormous rush through my heart chakra", whatever that might be.

Suzy would, as a result, leave the band before the end of the show, terminate her bisexual relationship with Paparazzi Whore's singer, and undertake missionary work in Borneo, maybe.

Inevitably, neither band will make it. As genres, Christian prog-rock and strippergram punk are too marginal to graze today's anodyne Top 100. Dweeb, for all their enthusiasm, are probably happy to let their "awesome God" take control, and probably don't care too much.

At one point their commitment was questioned in a baffling interrogation by Tommy D. "I'm concerned," he said in all seriousness, "that the passion you have for religion is detracting from your ambition as musicians." Dweeb, quite correctly, failed to understand what on earth he was going on about.

Meanwhile, Paparazzi Whore – who, we were told, have given up their day jobs in pursuit of fame – showed their commitment by getting really annoyed when Tommy D told them to get up and, er, be on television. They defended their laziness by playing the "we are free spirits, no-one tells us what to do" card.

Incredibly, this particular reality show wasn't a competition, but if it had been, the God-fearing boys from Coventry would have won by several lengths. Others might say that music was the winner – although those people probably haven't heard "The Truth behind the Lies".

This episode of Singing with the Enemy is repeated tonight at 9:00pm on BBC3 (Sky 115, Virgin 106, Freeview 7), and continues on Sunday nights at 10:00pm.

Link to this post
Post a comment | 3 comments

Comments

  • Posted on 18 October 2007
  • at 1:24am
  • by luvthang

actually I say

"I'm a little concerned that the passion you have for your religion detracts from the passion of making yourself better musicians"

I wanted to emphasise the point that in my experience as producer of over 20 years and 50 million records sold, most genuine musicians want to better themselves within music over everything else in life. Fame and Money are great but its not what drives them. They need to make music. They will work 24/7 to achieve this. Whether its Hendrix who would always have a guitar round his neck, Oasis who rehearsed 12 hours a day for the first 2 years or KT Tunstall who played gigs up an down the country for 10 years before being discovered "overnight"

I wanted to establish that the Dweeb boys were more passionate about Christianity and living by the word of God then their music and the need to be better musicians. I felt this was an important point as it seemed to contradict what I believed. In the end Dweebs heartfelt belief in themselves won everyone over. I think they're a great band

Some of the series tracks work and some don't but then thats pretty typical outcome when you make music. We have two days to write, record and mix each shows track so theres little time for real expermentation.

I was happy to get involved with Singing With The Enemy because it showcased unsigned musicians doing their thing, something that is sorely missing from primetime TV. How the bands are judged is purely up to them. Each show poses some really interesting questions about the modern world of music and I think its up to the viewer to try and find the answers.

I would hope the show sends out the message that you have to take risks with music not just copy whats already successful. Too many young musicians are only interested in becoming stars and not prepared to put the time and effort in and work at making a great sound.

So what if its done in a Reality style thats what the fuck it is. Real people trying to do what they love and having a camera up thir arse filming their every fart.

If your a musician your a musician for life and thats all you should do not fuck around writing blogs that mis quote to make some ill informed point, so get off your fat arse and get back in th studio and make something decent

yours

Pompous Old school (I'll take that as a compliment) TommyD

  • Posted on 12 October 2007
  • at 1:50pm
  • by CarsmileSteve

dweeb have been knocking round for ages, didn't realise they were Xtians...

  • Posted on 09 October 2007
  • at 1:46pm
  • by scissorkicks

"an enormous rush through my heart chakra"

I saw this, and that moment made tea go up my nose.

Post a comment

Do you have something to say about this post? Share your thoughts…

Post a comment

(first or nickname only)

Please do not include any personal or personally identifiable information about yourself or others (including email addresses). All information you submit about yourself or others can be viewed by others.

Thank you for your comment

Thank you for your comments. All comments will be looked at by a moderator, however, due to the numbers of comments we receive, we can't promise that all will be posted on the site.

Post another comment

More


Advertisement