BB King on BBC4 tonight (21st Feb

Subject: BB King on BBC4 tonight (21st Feb
From: Will Fly
Date: 21 Feb 14 - 05:39 PM

Just watched a nice documentary about B.B. King on BBC4. Nothing startling, but good to see the man at various stages of his life, and good to see him on film. I saw him in Brighton in 1981 or '82 - great playing and singing.

How the man keeps on touring at his age - for most of a year - is amazing.

Subject: RE: BB King on BBC4 tonight (21st Feb
From: Rob Naylor
Date: 21 Feb 14 - 06:33 PM

Good programme...with "Blues on the BBC" afterwards... nice evening in!

Though I DO wonder whether the BBC has Bono on a retainer: he pops up on every bloody music programme they do :-)

Subject: RE: BB King on BBC4 tonight (21st Feb
From: Will Fly
Date: 22 Feb 14 - 04:53 AM

He does get a bit tiresome, doesn't he? All these gnomic pronouncements...

Wasn't too sure about some of the "blues" acts on the BBC programme, but it was OK. Did you spot the stunning guitarist playing behind John Baldry - absolutely superb. I remember seeing LJB in Leeds in 1964 at a college dance. He had a similarly stunning (but different) guitarist backing him then, and the whole performance was electric.

It was a bit disconcerting to see him hanging around the gents' toilets in the interval but, hey-ho, that's showbiz for you.

Subject: RE: BB King on BBC4 tonight (21st Feb
From: GUEST,Hootenanny
Date: 22 Feb 14 - 06:58 AM

Will in 1964, that was probably after the sad early death of Cyril Davies. John then took over the band and renamed it The Hoochie Coochie Men. The guitar player you refer too was almost certainly Geoff Bradford.

Hoot

Subject: RE: BB King on BBC4 tonight (21st Feb
From: Will Fly
Date: 22 Feb 14 - 07:59 AM

Thanks Hoot - appreciated!

Subject: RE: BB King on BBC4 tonight (21st Feb
From: Rob Naylor
Date: 22 Feb 14 - 10:06 AM

Yes, Will, I pointed out to Linda (a bit of a LJB fan) that IMO the guitarist "made" the song. He was very good indeed.

The Blues programme was a bit patchy, but there were some very good artistes on, so overall, "Oi'd give it Foive" . :-)

Subject: RE: BB King on BBC4 tonight (21st Feb
From: Sir Roger de Beverley
Date: 22 Feb 14 - 10:23 AM

I enjoyed the BB King documentary but thought that there was surprisingly little music in it! Clearly they were concentrating on his life rather than his style/technique.

R

Subject: RE: BB King on BBC4 tonight (21st Feb
From: GUEST,Fred McCormick
Date: 23 Feb 14 - 06:17 AM

A potentially very fine programme which was ruined by even more talking heads than usual, talking even more nonsense than usual. Forget about Bono. What the **** was Ringo Starr doing in there!?

CTTOI. How many talking heads does it take to say "one note"?

Subject: RE: BB King on BBC4 tonight (21st Feb
From: Pete Jennings
Date: 23 Feb 14 - 06:48 AM

I enjoyed both programmes. Good old BBC4.

Subject: RE: BB King on BBC4 tonight (21st Feb
From: Thomas Stern
Date: 23 Feb 14 - 04:29 PM

Was the documentary "The Life of Riley" ??? or something produced
by BBC ?

The LIFE OF RILEY is IMO a magnificently produced biography connecting BB's life with the tremendous changes in the social
advance of African-Americans in the USA. Fascinating interviews
with a who's who of the music world, and performances spaning BBs
career.

It is available on DVD and BLU-RAY. Unfortunately for folks in the
States, the film has NOT been shown theatrically here (to the best
of my knowledge) and the video is not distributed here. Not surprising since the soundtrack contains a wealth of performances
by BB and others which are under copyright in the US, but PD in most of the world.

The good news is that the BD disc is not zone encoded so viewable
worldwide. The DVD is region 2, so you need a multi-region player.

BB KING - Life of Riley documentary

Best wishes, Thomas.

Subject: RE: BB King on BBC4 tonight (21st Feb
From: Thomas Stern
Date: 23 Feb 14 - 04:36 PM

http://www.amazon.co.uk/B-B-King-Life-Riley-Blu-ray/dp/B009YUB39O/ref=sr_1_2?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1393191119&sr=1-2&keywords=life+of+riley+bb+king

http://www.bbkingthelifeofriley.co.uk/

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/bb_king_the_life_of_riley_2012/

Subject: RE: BB King on BBC4 tonight (21st Feb
From: GUEST,RBG
Date: 04 Apr 14 - 05:16 AM

I saw/heard BBK at the Hammersmith Apollo in the 70s, and was disappointed. He didn't seem to have a genuine blues feel, and too commercial.