Delirious In DC
- 26 Mar 07, 03:29 PM
Valerie reckons that this is her night. She's made a big sign, telling everybody that she's the right girl for the job. And she's pushed herself to the very front of the stage at the Bender Arena in Washington. She knows that Snow Patrol will pull someone out of the crowd to sing a duet on 'Set The Fire To the Third Bar' - a gig that was originally carried out by Martha Wainwright. Valerie knows the words, can carry the tune and so when Gary spots the sign and hauls her up, she takes it in her stride.
She doesn't bother with the autocue and the crowd is shrieking with approval. She waves her arms in a Martha-esque fashion, and she's playing hot and cold with Mr Lightbody. He's loving it, and by the end we're all stomping like mad. Result.
It's another happy incident on yet another US haul. Snow Patrol are working this massive school hall - like Riddell High on steroids - bringing atmosphere and humour to the gig. While the entire campus is alcohol free, the Patrol method is to intoxicate and this it does - with a titanic 'Chasing Cars', an eerie 'Somewhere A Clock Is Ticking' and the walloping return of 'Hands Open'.
Near the end, we see a very elated Valerie, in conversation with the security staff. "I told you I could do it!" she gushes. And we had no cause to doubt her.
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So Hard to Beat certainly reminds us of all the great musicians that have come from our wee country. I was a bit mystified as to why Enya and Clannad were featured - perhaps its the new era - hands across the border and all that. I also felt the programme was clutching at straws, a bit desperate to show everybody. I dont recall Cruella De Ville having any impact whatsoever but then the producer of this programme was in the band and remarkably managed to feature in the 3 second clip from their video. But in this attempt to cover as much ground as possible was anyone left out, anyone who had an impact beyond our shores and a writeup in the local paper? I can think of one - David McWilliams. 'The days of Pearly Spencer' was not only quite a huge and bizarre sound even on McWilliams version but it became a massive hit for Marc Almond. Anyone else?
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Yes, we tried to find archive footage of 'Pearly Spencer' and there didn't seem to be any available. We tried to feature as many notable acts as possible, but it wasn't humanly possible to get them all in. So apologies to David McWilliams, Mama's Boys and Clodagh Rodgers.
Cruella de Ville were signed to EMI records at a time when few Ulster acts made any kind of a blip. Their videos were shown widely at the time. And hey, wasn't Mike Edgar's mullet just the cutest?
We put Clannad and Enya in the story because they're from the 'north'. I would have put 'Ulster' in the early part of the script, just to make this clear, but apparently that's not allowed.
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Excellent programme, bravo Mr Bailie
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