Mark Barry's Books on Music, Film, Poetry, Heart Attacks, The NHS, Piles, Discographies...

Wednesday, 27 July 2016

"Star Trek BEYOND" - Finally Going Where 'Star Trek' Should Have Gone Before...

Closing in on the ripe old age of 58 in September of 2016 - I'm unfortunately old enough to remember the long soggy parade of film sequels (I think there was 10) for Gene Roddenberry’s creation – STAR TREK - films with William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForrest Kelly and his ageing buddies from the TV show of the 60ts and 70ts. Some were passable but many were plain God-awful and increasingly ridiculous.

Director and Executive Producer J.J. Abrams then successfully re-booted the series with the inspired casting of Chris Pine in the lead role of James T. Kirk., Zachary Quinto (from "Heroes") as the big-eared and big-hearted Vulcan 'Spock' with the brilliant Karl Urban as the cantankerous Doctor 'Bones' McCoy. Throwing in Zoe Zaldana as communications officer Lieutenant Uhura and Simon Pegg as the wisecracking Engineer Montgormery 'Scotty' Scott as well as John Cho and (the sadly passed) Anton Yelchin as Sulu and Chekov – the new casting worked like a dream. There have been two more blockbusters to add to the vast tally – both rocking and rolling for all the right reasons.

But on the new 'Trek 3' – the makers of these films have hit something of a zenith - the genuine magic of old finally returned for a new generation to lap up.

I've just come from the local Impact Cinema in E17’s Empire (Tuesday, 26 July 2016) with the sound of real applause and audience delight still ringing in my ears. Everything about 2016’s "Star Trek Beyond" rocks - the amazing visuals which at times can only be described as beautiful - the constant wit and comradery that made the original crew such a joy to watch – perfect casting in every single role – a nod to the old whilst embracing the new – and an ingenious script provided by (Scotty himself) SIMON PEGG and DOUG JUNG.

Add in a top baddie in Idris Elba (the reptilian Krall) and a stunning turn by Algerian actress Sofia Boutella as the face-painted kick-ass Jaylah – you get that rare combination of jaw-dropping visuals – wise-cracking one-liners that genuinely elicited laughs – and a feeling of fun and pride in what they were bringing to the screen.

Director JUSTIN LIN is to be congratulated on this – but my heart gives thanks to the real heroes of the piece – the writers Pegg and Jung – who delivered the best script this film franchise has had in decades. In fact I thought "Star Trek Beyond" was a lot better than the wildly overrated "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" in every respect and especially in terms of sheer entertainment value.

Trekkies will need to see it and then own it when it turns up on BLU RAY for Christmas.

And if Pegg and Jung write another script as good as this – then Star Trek will indeed boldly go...and go...and go...and many old farts like me will finally be glad to go back for more...

Thursday, 21 April 2016

"MICHAEL COLLINS" on BLU RAY (2016 Warner Archives Collection) - A Review by Mark Barry...

"...Promise Not To Love Me..."

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*** THIS REVIEW IS FOR THE 20th Anniversary BLU RAY RELEASE in 2016 ***

I won't debate "Michael Collins" as a movie (it still stands up after 20 years having just re-watched it) - but I will rave about the 2K restoration of the new Warner Brothers "20th Anniversary" BLU RAY Reissue from March 2016.

First up the picture is clearly frame-by-frame restored and looks fabulous. There are even scenes indoors with Stephen Rea in Dublin Castle amidst his intelligence papers and the crowd sequences with Alan Rickman (brilliant as the political eel that was Eamon De Valera, Ireland's first President) where the word 'beautiful' leaps to mind. Much of the movie is filmed at night and in foggy streets - so the restoration was always going to be a challenge to keep that fuzz and grain at bay - while at the same time retain the natural colours of the film intact - and this transfer has achieved that. When you watch the 9 or 10 short deleted scenes (mostly containing Liam Neeson and Aidan Quinn as Michael Collins and Harry Boland larking about) - you see the untreated film stock with its scratches and lines and realise what a great job has been done.

The extras include:

A feature-length Commentary by Director NEIL JORDAN

In Conversation with Neil Jordan (new)

The South Bank Show Special from 1996

Theatrical Trailer

Deleted Scenes (about 10)

The new "In Conversation With Neil Jordan" has him reminiscing (in Warner Brothers seating) about the making of the film and 20 years of hindsight (Ireland was only just emerging out of the Troubles with both the IRA and The UVF having cease-fired when it was being made) - but it's criminally short and not particularly informative. A hundred times better is the near 50 minutes of “The South Bank Show” filmed in 1996 just after the launch of the movie. It features properly in-depth interviews with Director and Writer Neil Jordan, Tim Pat Coogan the Irish Author of Collins' life, Unionist peacemaker David Ervine and England's film and book critic Tom Paulin. It also has Producer Stephen Wooley fondly discussing the use of Dublin as a set (the whole city – unprecedented access) - the 5000 extras who turned up in period costumes for the shoot - short interviews with Neeson and glimpses of on-set shooting (Julia Roberts, Stephen Rea, Ian Hart and Brendan Gleeson). It goes into Collins' early 20's life as a worker in England for the Post Office, his grounding in Accounting so that he managed the finances of the revolution and in particular the paradox of the man - part gentleman - part ruthless killer - and probably the inventor of modern-day guerrilla warfare. It talks also of his eventual assassination by his own army in Cork at the age of 31 and how Jordan re-wrote the Croak Park black and tan murders and that controversial 'was De Valera involved in the assassination, possibly ordered it' scene (which Jordan argues was never his intention).

The BLU RAY of "Michael Collins" of course also avoids that crappy 'flipper' of a DVD we've had to live with all these years where you had to turn the damn thing over to view the remainder of the movie - and in 1.78:1 Aspect Ratio - fills the entire screen with a lush picture that thrills all the way to the end ("Michael Collins” looks like way better than its $28 million-dollar budget). The 5.1 Audio rattles those explosions and gunfire shots around your room with renewed force and you also get to appreciate the stunning commitment of the actors involved (Liam Neeson and Aidan Quinn have been lifetime friends ever since).

Part of their respected and applauded 'Warner Archive Collection' series of BR reissues - "Michael Collins" is a triumph on BLU RAY. If you love this movie - you need to own it on this format. And that truly beautiful version of "She Moves Through The Fair" by Sinead O'Connor as the credits roll still moves me to tears...

AUDIO:

English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1

German Dolby Digital 2.0

Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0

Japanese Dolby Digital 5.1

SUBTITLES:

English (for the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing), French, German (for the Hard-Of-Hearing), Spanish Castellan, Japanese, Spanish Latin, Czech, Polish, Turkish, Mandarin

Thursday, 17 December 2015

Home From Home - A Poem For My Father JOHN FRANCIS BARRY Who Passed Monday, 7 December 2015 in Dublin's Beaumont Hospital, Aged 86... Love From All Of Us To You...

HOME FROM HOME

And so it begins – the final journey from a Cancer Bed we’ve all been dreading

Five siblings united from afar by a loss that seems so unreal and stark –

Remembering the devotion of all those Nurses at Dublin’s Beaumont Hospital

Following nine long years of care by Jonathan & Mum at Castilla Park -

But I keep on thinking about your sheer enthusiasm for life at ‘86 years of age’

“…Live and let live…” was your simple and often-quoted philosophy –

Journeys in the Anglia to Waterford’s Mount Melleray Abbey with nattering kids

Buttered Marietta biscuits, egg sandwiches and mugs of Volcano Tea -

Our Dad loved King Kong, The Guns Of Navarone and Jason and The Argonauts

Dusting with Emitex Cleaning Clothes and the warmth of Classical LPs –

He played a mean upright Piano and Organ and did zippy licks on the Trombone

Once graced the Dublin Orchestral Players with his phrasing expertise –

Poppy loved train journeys, garden rockeries and biogs about Historical Figures

Drives out to Howth, his wife’s angel paintings and a browse around HMV –

He’d marvel at the frame-by-frame clarity of “Snow White” on a restored Blu Ray

Looking spiffing on our hugely with it Samsung Plasma upscaling 4K TV –

He’d travel to the other side of Dublin to get a raised batch of freshly baked bread

And risk hours of allergic sniffles for some Neapolitan ice cream and jelly –

He adored Carl Sagan, Kenneth Clark, Jacob Bronowski and David Attenborough

The Antiques Roadshow on Sundays & the consistent quality of BBC telly –

He fell madly in love with Olivia de Havilland in “The Adventures of Robin Hood”

And I was 10 when he took me to see Stanley Kubrick’s Odyssey “2001...” –

We’d all would howl with laughter at Mel Blanc’s Tweety Bird & Foghorn Leghorn

Terry Thomas, Jack Lemmon and Kenneth Williams oohing in Carry On -

He’d devour the Yearly Review in December’s issue of The Gramophone Magazine

And circle interesting programs in yellow in the fortnightly Radio Times –

He proudly collected Jonathan’s paintings on the covers of Wordsworth Classics

Cathy’s books, Ian Fleming, The Bible and Spike Milligan’s witty rhymes –

An Irishman is genetically programmed to talk and our Dad was exactly the same

Praising women on cookery programs with big appetites and Monroe hips -

Regaling stories about meeting Ray Harryhausen and seeing Laurel & Hardy live

While downing Kimberley Coconut Creams and eleven gallons of PG Tips -

Our Dad was a daily communicant at Mass and truly believed in a Higher Power

He practised real-world Christianity and wasn’t just acting out a pious part –

Worked tirelessly as a Leader in Dr. Abraham Lowe’s Recovery for over 40 years

Giving frightened souls - imprisoned by their nerves - a precious new start –

There’s a collage of family photographs pinned to a large noticeboard in our kitchen

Decades of generations flowing from Mom and Dad’s loving parental caress –

Mark, Frances, Catherine, Jonathan and Damien Barry - and all their wee sundries

Sporting natty hairdos from ‘85 and embarrassing modes of Seventies dress –

And now a life well-lived - ends with a Church Service that’s overflowing with love

Remembered as a Rock to us all – left here awash in a sea of emotional foam –

Go to the angels in Paradise John Francis Barry and like that old Fifties photo of you
You’re young again in your dapper sunglasses – in your new home from home...

A Poem For John Francis Barry - My Father

Who Passed Away Monday, 7 Dec 2015 in Dublin's Beaumont Hospital

Aged 86 Years And Counting...

Written by Mark Barry for him and his family....

Sunday, 2 August 2015

"RINGO: With A Little Help" by MICHAEL SETH STARR - A Review Of The July 2015 Hardback Book (on Backbeat Books) by Mark Barry...

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"...All I Have Is A Photograph..."

It's Wednesday morning – the 15th of August 1962. Having had too many beers the night previous playing that lewd and lascivious Rock 'n' Roll music to impressionable teenage girls - Johnny Guitar of Johnny & The Hurricanes is sharing a trailer with a mate of his who is sleeping it off in the back. As Johnny opens the trailer door - he's greeted by two nattily dressed and equally cocky Liverpudlian reprobates. Johnny knows instantly that his band's rhythm section is in trouble.

These two guys are part of the only pop group in Liverpool with an actual recording contract – a deal with a proper record company called Parlophone Records. In a heartbeat Johnny also knows what the young Paul McCartney and John Lennon want – the best Drummer in Liverpool – Richard Starkey - aka RINGO STARR. And thus history is made in a hung-over trailer on an unpromising summer morning. And then in September of the year 1962 - along with George Harrison (who championed Ringo joining the band all along) - they would fly as a foursome called "The Beatles" down to EMI's Abbey Road Studios in the big choke of London to meet professional Producer George Martin and thereafter quietly alter the known Universe...

After all these years later (five decades plus and counting) - it seems odd that Michael Seth Starr (no relation) should be the first to claim an in-depth Biography of the world’s most famous Drummer – Ringo Starr. And it appears he’s done it without the subject’s permission or indeed interest. Yet across the 442 pages of this July 2015 Hardback Book published by Milwaukee’s Backbeat Books – Michael gives a blow-by-blow account of Ringo’s extraordinary life and some would say miraculous survival.

There’s 19 chapters beginning with "Little Richy" (his formative years) and ending with "Peace And Love" (a 35-year marriage of substance with Barbara Bach - an All Starr Band that has featured Joe Walsh and Nils Lofgren in its ranks). In between of course is the sheer lunacy and joy of "Beatlemania" – the movies "How I Won The War", "Candy" and "The Magic Christian" - the split – the chart years on Apple – the "Born To Boogie" movie with Marc Bolan's T.Rex - the drunken oblivion of the mid-to-late Seventies with Harry Nilsson and others – meeting Bond Girl Barbara Bach on the set of "The Caveman" film - Lennon's horrible assassination in December 1980 in New York and so on...

The early chapters describe his harsh upbringing - a toiling mother Elsie trying to put food on the table in Dingle (a rough part of Liverpool) – his father walking out - years of ill-health with stays in boy’s homes and finally salvation through American Rock 'n' Roll 45s coming off the ships down at the docks. Chapters 2 and 3 are called "It Was In My Soul" and "Ringo Starrtime" chart his early passion for rhythms and his rise as a drummer (his first kit was bought for him by a kindly work mate called Henry "Harry" Hunt for £12 – hauled all the way from London). Then that fateful meeting - followed by “Please Please Me" which hits the shelves of record shops in January 1963 and all Hell breaks loose...

The author keeps the details and facts coming and the two sets of photo plates chart the passing years up to 2014 with a smiling Ringo and Barbara still looking impossibly cool after all these years. Chapter 11 deals with the “Magical Mystery Tour” and “Sgt. Peppers” period of astonishing recording achievements – the pressure of global fame. Aged 30 in July 1970 – Ringo began his solo Apple career with hits like "It Don't Come Easy", "Back Off Boogaloo" and the gorgeous "Photograph" – but he also starred in the disastrous and bloody "Blindman" film and the Frank Zappa Avant Garde indulgence of "200 Motels". By the time we get to Chapter 14 delightfully and honestly entitled "We Were Junkies Dabbling In Music" – the lifestyle rot had set in and his marriage to his wife Maureen was over by 1975. In 1976 he shaves his head bald – in 1978 he makes a dreadful film called "Sextet" with 85-year old Mae West – and in 1984 he plays on stage with The Beach Boys but can’t remember it because he was so out of it (hid behind dark glasses). By the time you arrive at "Getting Out Of Bed's A Problem These Days" and finally "Peace And Love" – you’re amazed him, his family and his relationship with McCartney and Harrison is still intact. There’s an Epilogue, Notes (references), Bibliography and an Index.

Now revered as an Elder Statesman of Rock – Ringo has been there and done that – and has indeed survived with more than a little help from friends. I enjoyed this crazy journey far more than I thought I would. I’ve always had an affection for Ringo Starr and a sneaking admiration for his wit and occasional musical brilliance - and this hugely entertaining read (sanctioned or not) has only made that smile every time I see him - wider..

Saturday, 1 August 2015

"BROOK BENTON: There Goes That Song Again" by HERWIG GRADISCHNIG and HANS MAITNER - A Review Of 2015 Music Mentor Books Paperback In English by Mark Barry...

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"...A Rockin' Good Way..."

Originally published in Germany in 2010 as the last word on Brook Benton’s remarkable recording career and equally colourful private life – "There Goes That Song Again" is now updated and republished in English as a tall paperback (April 2015) by York's 'Music Mentor Books'. And I have to say it’s a magnificent tome that comes buffed up with a stupendous Worldwide Discography stretching an impressive 200 pages (it has also has info on chart hits, him as a songwriter, sheet music, his songs recorded by other artists, his TV and Film appearances etc).

Not quite Soul nor Rhythm 'n' Blues – South Carolina's Brook Benton was often viewed as Easy Listening by his record companies and I suppose by his public – but this serious work of affection goes a long way to arguing that his vocal prowess and way with a tune means he should now be seen on the same par as the greats - like say Sam Cooke. Yet like Jackie Wilson and Bobby Womack – Benton is a Black American Soul Singer and First Class Entertainer who's in danger of being a chart/hitmaking footnote instead of being revered – a talent that time has forgotten and criminally so.

Penned by Austrian authors and lifelong fans Herwig Gradischnig and Hans Maitner – you get 434 pages of in-depth study that includes interviews conducted with family members. Part 1 visits his early childhood, his rise to fame on Mercury, RCA, Reprise and Atlantic’s Cotillion Records, his Stage Craft, his Personality and his social commitment to youth projects. The text from Pages 22 to 212 is peppered with great black and white period photos – on stage with Ella Fitzgerald and Dinah Washington – his 1959 tour bus – with Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin of the Rat Pack - in the studio with Margie Singleton and Damita Jo – posters for concerts with Mary Wells and The Penguins - mobbed by audiences in South Africa’s Johannesburg in 1971 and so on... The last few pages even reproduce the American Funeral Service of 1988, Obits and a final shot of his headstone (Brook Benton, 1938-1988).

The Discography has 660 entries (apparently 300 more than previous printed efforts) and begins with his December 1949 recordings with Bill Landford, The Sandmen and Chuck Willis in 1954 and 1955 and his own debut with "Ooh" in 1955 on Okeh 7058. It then goes into his long and productive stint with Mercury Records (duets with Dinah Washington) and there's even US Radio Spots and Transcription Discs. The exhaustive US Discography is followed by a UK equivalent - then a Worldwide section which features countries like Angola, Hong Kong, New Zealand and one LP from Uruguay! Smartly the endless lists are broken up with LP sleeves, label bags, demo copies etc...

American columnist Dick Kleiner said of Brook Benton's deep affecting tone - "...He has a rich soft voice and a way of using it that makes a sound like a breeze though a field of cello strings..." After reading this wonderful book – I'm inclined to think he was so much more. An absolute must own for fans and a great read for the curious. Well done to all involved...