I'll be doing an article on childrens TV violence very soon, in the meantime, here is a music video set to one of the very best.
H
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2C9llLkidG8
Monday 26 September 2011
Doctor Who Experience Review
Here is a piece I wrote for the Celestial Toyroom in February. It is a great day out for fans new and old. Subscribe to DWAS
Hayden
Doctor Who Experience; The Trip of a Lifetime
By Hayden Gribble
WARNING SPOILERS!
Remember that dream you had when you were a kid. The one when you are lying awake in bed, your young restlessness refusing you sleep and wishing something, anything will prevent that the inevibility of school the next day. When all of a sudden, an all too familiar whooshing sound erupts in the corner of your room and a bluer than blue box materializes before your eyes. You throw back the bedsheets, gasping in awe as one of the doors creaks into life and bursts open revealing a universe of wonder inside. Not to mention a strange looking man who promises to show you all the wonders you could ever imagine and who has more magic in his eyes than Christmas Day.
What we would give for a trip in the TARDIS, an adventure through time and space and the chance to celebrate our favourite programme in the world. Well now dig deep for that inner child inside of you and get yourself to Olympia and join the adventure first hand. As soon as I heard the plans for the new Doctor Who Experience I thought it was a fantastic idea and one that filled me with excitement. The 10 year-old inside me was screaming to get out and have a once in a lifetime adventure inside the TARDIS.
So with the new exhibition barely a few days old I leave my house bound for Olympia armed with my tickets and a friend of equal love for Doctor Who, both boiling over with the anticipation of a memorable day. Not even the dark clouds and moist February air could dampen our spirits as we set off at the crack of dawn on that gloomy Saturday morning.
After a trek across London, our final destination was Kensington Olympia and we were greeted with more rain and a queue the size of the station itself. I couldn’t believe it. Here we were sodden and tired and we had to participate in the most British of past times. Waiting. Luckily for us, this was the line to see Who Do You Think You Are? Live and the queue for the Experience was far more modest but still none the less impressive. I do have to pinch myself at just how successful the show has become since its hiatus.
Before we know it we are sheltering indoors waiting to enter the main Experience. To the left of me is one of Bracewell’s ironside Daleks, to the right, Liz 10’ costume and mask and that of one of the winders stand proudly to attention as the Doctor’s Theme booms around us. Small Children wait eagerly in bow ties and Fezzes, wielding their sonic screwdrivers whilst counting down to what they have been waiting for all week. Apart of me wishes I was that age again, looking through fresh eyes instead of my dark bags from a late night the night before.
We are invited by the guides to sit on the benches and watch a sort of highlights package from the last series with added narration from Doctor 11, which culminates with the crack in the universe opening the screen, to reveal another world.
Then all of a sudden, the crack opens and we are standing on the Starship UK, where we are greeted by a strangely lifelike and eerie hologram of an information post like the one seen in Silence In The Library/Forrest Of The Dead talking us through the many artifacts in the room. It’s a what’s what of Doctor Who memorabilia, including the telescope from Tooth and Claw, a Smiler, Rosanna’s throne from The Vampires Of Venice and Van Gogh’s painting of the exploding TARDIS. Hard to believe the exhibition bit hadn’t even started yet! All of a sudden an incoming alert disrupts the scary face to reveal the Doctor i.e. Matt Smith trapped in the Pandorica 2 dismaying that instead of finding Amy and Rory he has to rely on us ‘shoppers’ to get him out.
Then before we know it, that old familiar whooshing sound engulfs the airwaves and the TARDIS materializes before our eyes (well everyone elses since I was looking the wrong way). Then I hear the magic words. “Everybody Inside, Quickly!” The stuff of dreams is now reality and I’m running with everyone on board. It isn’t the real interior, but it is a very faithful, if not slightly smaller realization. As the Doctor beckons the children to pilot, the floor shakes and moves and we are off. We really are apart of the adventure. We are off to rescue the Doctor, until a black hole disrupts the journey and we are captured by Daleks. Ah. Whoops.
A run through some very typical Sci-Fi corridors leads us to something truly terrifying indeed. A Dalek Saucer.
At this moment I can feel my friends fingernails digging into my arm as we await our imminent slaughter to the new Dalek Paradigm. Three of the new Jelly Baby Daleks emerge from the shadows to all give us a lump in our throats. But we are saved by an attack by Davro’s Daleks and once again we are running for our lives. The frights are not over yet. For the Weeping Angels await us in the dark.
Although the Angels were kept in the dark this made for a truly chilling part of the experience as the expectation for them to jump out at us built and built. The tension soon subsided as we survived the forest and stood in a chamber with only a dismembered Cyberman arm and the Pandorica for company. Now here was came the Hi-Tech bit. Armed with 3-D glasses, the Doctor was free from the Pandorica (how I don’t recall as it seemed slightly baffling and definitely wibbley wobbly timey wimey) and we were being sucked into the crack and the monsters were coming to get us. As we watched we saw bolts from the Cybermen’s guns blaze towards us, a Daleks sink plunger nearly bop us on the nose and a Weeping Angel clawing at your eyes every time you blinked, which is something I have heard you shouldn’t do.
Whilst all of this is happening I have been oblivious to the Doctor’s attempts to save us on the screen to my left and the monsters hurtle way from us quicker than they did towards us and the crack finally seals. The adventure is over. The Doctor says goodbye, but the Experience is not over.
The exhibits were as extraordinary as they were interesting and insightful. At first there seemed too much to see, as I had later thought I had missed parts out. The Radiotimes front covers, starting from William Hartnell’s Marco Polo debut to the latest Matt Smith cover plastered the walls leading to the pieces of Who History. And then there they are, all ten of the previous incarnations costumes lovingly semi-circling the current TARDIS prop and a realistic waxwork of Matt Smith, complete with sonic screwdriver.
I asked the attendant if these were really what the great men wore, to which he replied mostly, although I am saddened to report that William Hartnell’s wig, Patrick Troughton’s recorder and Sylvester McCoy’s trademark umbrella were sadly absent. Thank god for Tom Baker’s god like scarf and the fresh stick of celery in Peter Davison’s lapel, the former something religious sects in a thousand years will worship like the Turin Shroud. One grumble though, where was Bessie!
To me the older parts of the exhibition the most impressive such as Bernard Bresslaw’s restored Ice Warrior costume, Robot K-1 in all its metallic splendour, and a Sontaran whose eyes seemed to follow you around the room. Maybe it was because I had previously visited the Earls Court event three years previously that I did not find the latest monsters on display as exciting to see, but then again in twenty years time I might go mad at the sight of an Ood or two.
Another highlight were the staggering inclusions of Peter Davison’s console room and the coral console room from Mr.’s Eccleston and Tennant’s reign, accompanied by a clip of the the latter’s violent regeneration. Unfortnately for us fans both of the consoles are sealed off so we can’t touch them but still, I’ve stood on the TARDIS set! One dream fulfilled then.
Then there are the costumes for each and every companion since the show’s return in 2005. Apart from Mickey and Wilf, who have been surprisingly excluded from the collection, even Kylie Minogue’s tiny dress from Voyage Of The Damned is held aloft with the K-9 prop thrown in for deserved measure. Even the 1980’s TRADIS prop and the Melkur hover in the corner of the room, although somewhat hidden in the dark.
They are all here. The stuff of nightmares I mentioned earlier. What a funny feeling to be standing next to these fictional giants who have frightened children of many generations into their Mother’s bosom and feel totally in awe yet wary that when your wits are missing, they may still come and get you. Decapitated heads of every model of Cybermen we have seen sit in spooky cubby holes, a line of Daleks through the ages poised on the command of a likeness of Davros and a cubby hole where you can move like a monster, design one for Doctor Who Adventures or make a noise like a Dalek, this experience ticks every box for every fan. There is even a recreation of the Mill’s Visual Effects Office, which sadly the non-fans in the audience found to be rather pointless, but I found an insightful nugget into how the show is made.
Headphones provide you the chance to mix that everlasting them tune yourself and there is even a tribute to Delia Derbyshire in the form of a documentary presented by music man Stuart Maconie in a booth entitled ‘The Sound of Doctor Who’ which was an affectionate storytelling device to inform the younger fans of how the theme tune was created. Time will only tell if a tribute to the one and only Nicholas Courtney will also be included after ‘The Brig’ sadly passed away just a couple of days before we visited Olympia. Splendid Chap.
After a chance for a picture in the Pandorica chair (for an extra cost) and a glimpse of the next series on a flat screen (which looks brilliant I must say!) the Experience ends with a visit to The Who Shop, which was quite dear and made my eyes water a little. Apart from that, I left the Experience with a smile on my face and a memory placed in my minds eye forever by the Doctor and those strange, strange creatures. This is an opportunity not to be missed and I hope I haven’t spoilt it for you if you have not gone yet, just wet your appetite a little. You’ll Love it.
Hayden
Doctor Who Experience; The Trip of a Lifetime
By Hayden Gribble
WARNING SPOILERS!
Remember that dream you had when you were a kid. The one when you are lying awake in bed, your young restlessness refusing you sleep and wishing something, anything will prevent that the inevibility of school the next day. When all of a sudden, an all too familiar whooshing sound erupts in the corner of your room and a bluer than blue box materializes before your eyes. You throw back the bedsheets, gasping in awe as one of the doors creaks into life and bursts open revealing a universe of wonder inside. Not to mention a strange looking man who promises to show you all the wonders you could ever imagine and who has more magic in his eyes than Christmas Day.
What we would give for a trip in the TARDIS, an adventure through time and space and the chance to celebrate our favourite programme in the world. Well now dig deep for that inner child inside of you and get yourself to Olympia and join the adventure first hand. As soon as I heard the plans for the new Doctor Who Experience I thought it was a fantastic idea and one that filled me with excitement. The 10 year-old inside me was screaming to get out and have a once in a lifetime adventure inside the TARDIS.
So with the new exhibition barely a few days old I leave my house bound for Olympia armed with my tickets and a friend of equal love for Doctor Who, both boiling over with the anticipation of a memorable day. Not even the dark clouds and moist February air could dampen our spirits as we set off at the crack of dawn on that gloomy Saturday morning.
After a trek across London, our final destination was Kensington Olympia and we were greeted with more rain and a queue the size of the station itself. I couldn’t believe it. Here we were sodden and tired and we had to participate in the most British of past times. Waiting. Luckily for us, this was the line to see Who Do You Think You Are? Live and the queue for the Experience was far more modest but still none the less impressive. I do have to pinch myself at just how successful the show has become since its hiatus.
Before we know it we are sheltering indoors waiting to enter the main Experience. To the left of me is one of Bracewell’s ironside Daleks, to the right, Liz 10’ costume and mask and that of one of the winders stand proudly to attention as the Doctor’s Theme booms around us. Small Children wait eagerly in bow ties and Fezzes, wielding their sonic screwdrivers whilst counting down to what they have been waiting for all week. Apart of me wishes I was that age again, looking through fresh eyes instead of my dark bags from a late night the night before.
We are invited by the guides to sit on the benches and watch a sort of highlights package from the last series with added narration from Doctor 11, which culminates with the crack in the universe opening the screen, to reveal another world.
Then all of a sudden, the crack opens and we are standing on the Starship UK, where we are greeted by a strangely lifelike and eerie hologram of an information post like the one seen in Silence In The Library/Forrest Of The Dead talking us through the many artifacts in the room. It’s a what’s what of Doctor Who memorabilia, including the telescope from Tooth and Claw, a Smiler, Rosanna’s throne from The Vampires Of Venice and Van Gogh’s painting of the exploding TARDIS. Hard to believe the exhibition bit hadn’t even started yet! All of a sudden an incoming alert disrupts the scary face to reveal the Doctor i.e. Matt Smith trapped in the Pandorica 2 dismaying that instead of finding Amy and Rory he has to rely on us ‘shoppers’ to get him out.
Then before we know it, that old familiar whooshing sound engulfs the airwaves and the TARDIS materializes before our eyes (well everyone elses since I was looking the wrong way). Then I hear the magic words. “Everybody Inside, Quickly!” The stuff of dreams is now reality and I’m running with everyone on board. It isn’t the real interior, but it is a very faithful, if not slightly smaller realization. As the Doctor beckons the children to pilot, the floor shakes and moves and we are off. We really are apart of the adventure. We are off to rescue the Doctor, until a black hole disrupts the journey and we are captured by Daleks. Ah. Whoops.
A run through some very typical Sci-Fi corridors leads us to something truly terrifying indeed. A Dalek Saucer.
At this moment I can feel my friends fingernails digging into my arm as we await our imminent slaughter to the new Dalek Paradigm. Three of the new Jelly Baby Daleks emerge from the shadows to all give us a lump in our throats. But we are saved by an attack by Davro’s Daleks and once again we are running for our lives. The frights are not over yet. For the Weeping Angels await us in the dark.
Although the Angels were kept in the dark this made for a truly chilling part of the experience as the expectation for them to jump out at us built and built. The tension soon subsided as we survived the forest and stood in a chamber with only a dismembered Cyberman arm and the Pandorica for company. Now here was came the Hi-Tech bit. Armed with 3-D glasses, the Doctor was free from the Pandorica (how I don’t recall as it seemed slightly baffling and definitely wibbley wobbly timey wimey) and we were being sucked into the crack and the monsters were coming to get us. As we watched we saw bolts from the Cybermen’s guns blaze towards us, a Daleks sink plunger nearly bop us on the nose and a Weeping Angel clawing at your eyes every time you blinked, which is something I have heard you shouldn’t do.
Whilst all of this is happening I have been oblivious to the Doctor’s attempts to save us on the screen to my left and the monsters hurtle way from us quicker than they did towards us and the crack finally seals. The adventure is over. The Doctor says goodbye, but the Experience is not over.
The exhibits were as extraordinary as they were interesting and insightful. At first there seemed too much to see, as I had later thought I had missed parts out. The Radiotimes front covers, starting from William Hartnell’s Marco Polo debut to the latest Matt Smith cover plastered the walls leading to the pieces of Who History. And then there they are, all ten of the previous incarnations costumes lovingly semi-circling the current TARDIS prop and a realistic waxwork of Matt Smith, complete with sonic screwdriver.
I asked the attendant if these were really what the great men wore, to which he replied mostly, although I am saddened to report that William Hartnell’s wig, Patrick Troughton’s recorder and Sylvester McCoy’s trademark umbrella were sadly absent. Thank god for Tom Baker’s god like scarf and the fresh stick of celery in Peter Davison’s lapel, the former something religious sects in a thousand years will worship like the Turin Shroud. One grumble though, where was Bessie!
To me the older parts of the exhibition the most impressive such as Bernard Bresslaw’s restored Ice Warrior costume, Robot K-1 in all its metallic splendour, and a Sontaran whose eyes seemed to follow you around the room. Maybe it was because I had previously visited the Earls Court event three years previously that I did not find the latest monsters on display as exciting to see, but then again in twenty years time I might go mad at the sight of an Ood or two.
Another highlight were the staggering inclusions of Peter Davison’s console room and the coral console room from Mr.’s Eccleston and Tennant’s reign, accompanied by a clip of the the latter’s violent regeneration. Unfortnately for us fans both of the consoles are sealed off so we can’t touch them but still, I’ve stood on the TARDIS set! One dream fulfilled then.
Then there are the costumes for each and every companion since the show’s return in 2005. Apart from Mickey and Wilf, who have been surprisingly excluded from the collection, even Kylie Minogue’s tiny dress from Voyage Of The Damned is held aloft with the K-9 prop thrown in for deserved measure. Even the 1980’s TRADIS prop and the Melkur hover in the corner of the room, although somewhat hidden in the dark.
They are all here. The stuff of nightmares I mentioned earlier. What a funny feeling to be standing next to these fictional giants who have frightened children of many generations into their Mother’s bosom and feel totally in awe yet wary that when your wits are missing, they may still come and get you. Decapitated heads of every model of Cybermen we have seen sit in spooky cubby holes, a line of Daleks through the ages poised on the command of a likeness of Davros and a cubby hole where you can move like a monster, design one for Doctor Who Adventures or make a noise like a Dalek, this experience ticks every box for every fan. There is even a recreation of the Mill’s Visual Effects Office, which sadly the non-fans in the audience found to be rather pointless, but I found an insightful nugget into how the show is made.
Headphones provide you the chance to mix that everlasting them tune yourself and there is even a tribute to Delia Derbyshire in the form of a documentary presented by music man Stuart Maconie in a booth entitled ‘The Sound of Doctor Who’ which was an affectionate storytelling device to inform the younger fans of how the theme tune was created. Time will only tell if a tribute to the one and only Nicholas Courtney will also be included after ‘The Brig’ sadly passed away just a couple of days before we visited Olympia. Splendid Chap.
After a chance for a picture in the Pandorica chair (for an extra cost) and a glimpse of the next series on a flat screen (which looks brilliant I must say!) the Experience ends with a visit to The Who Shop, which was quite dear and made my eyes water a little. Apart from that, I left the Experience with a smile on my face and a memory placed in my minds eye forever by the Doctor and those strange, strange creatures. This is an opportunity not to be missed and I hope I haven’t spoilt it for you if you have not gone yet, just wet your appetite a little. You’ll Love it.
Epilogue to Unfinished Story
Here is an epilogue to a story I wish to finish one day, enjoy!
Omelus had a strange purple sun, which glistened in the pink night sky as it set on the shores of the citadel. The sight of eagle-like Selgaes whistling past the rooftop of the building was enough to take the breath away of any hardened traveler. As the lone, deflated figure of an unknown warrior stared up into the emerging stars, each one looking like diamonds of hope breaking through the darkness, he wondered how he came to be on this beautiful yet imprisoning planet.
He and his comrade had seen it all, planets made entirely of water and fire and Demons who had pursued them across the universe and who had left them helplessly lost millions of millions of miles away from their Galaxy. The splendor of his surroundings escaped his troubled mind. All he could think about was the same problems he had faced since that fateful day so long ago now. What made him stowaway? What was that green gas? And were both he and his companion so hideously mutated that even if they did get home, then how would they be treated when they got back? Like freaks? Or were they an example of what their kind would eventually become. Like those, who kept them and owned them. Like pets.
The figure inhaled deeply. So many questions, how to answer them. He closed his eyes and dreamed of the simple life he once led. He had been well treated back home. Clean bedding, food and water but was never given the chance to escape his glass house and venture out into the world of blue skies and green grass. Now he just wished he had stayed there and never, ever let his quizzical mind implore him to escape and leave the comfort zone we all call home. Thank god, he thought, he was not alone.
Moments later, he heard foot steps approach him from behind. The footsteps were stumbling, as if the owner was in a great deal of pain. The sound of his paws dragging into the dust on the rooftop was like the sound of nails down a blackboard, it filled him with agony. After a few steps the second creature paused and steadied himself as he drew a tortured breath.
‘ Do you reckon they are gone for good?’
‘I can’t say’, replied the first creature in his scouse accent, who could not turn around to confront his friend, ‘But we shouldn’t have come here, all this traveling and what for?’
The second creature moved slowly forward and placed his paw reassuringly on his companion’s shoulder. The recipient winced, as if his paw was sandpaper rubbed against an open wound.
‘We have come too far to turn back, even if we hadn’t been ambushed on this strange planet, we probably would still have been drifting lost, maybe it is time we found ourselves a new home’, his tone was reassuring but just as scared as the other creature.
The first creature turned to meet his companion, and as their eyes met, they filled with lonely tears. It was just them, there was nobody else like them anywhere in the cosmos, and they had to survive, but could never turn back.
What he was about to say was just heartbreaking as it was Impossible.
‘I just want to go home”.
Omelus had a strange purple sun, which glistened in the pink night sky as it set on the shores of the citadel. The sight of eagle-like Selgaes whistling past the rooftop of the building was enough to take the breath away of any hardened traveler. As the lone, deflated figure of an unknown warrior stared up into the emerging stars, each one looking like diamonds of hope breaking through the darkness, he wondered how he came to be on this beautiful yet imprisoning planet.
He and his comrade had seen it all, planets made entirely of water and fire and Demons who had pursued them across the universe and who had left them helplessly lost millions of millions of miles away from their Galaxy. The splendor of his surroundings escaped his troubled mind. All he could think about was the same problems he had faced since that fateful day so long ago now. What made him stowaway? What was that green gas? And were both he and his companion so hideously mutated that even if they did get home, then how would they be treated when they got back? Like freaks? Or were they an example of what their kind would eventually become. Like those, who kept them and owned them. Like pets.
The figure inhaled deeply. So many questions, how to answer them. He closed his eyes and dreamed of the simple life he once led. He had been well treated back home. Clean bedding, food and water but was never given the chance to escape his glass house and venture out into the world of blue skies and green grass. Now he just wished he had stayed there and never, ever let his quizzical mind implore him to escape and leave the comfort zone we all call home. Thank god, he thought, he was not alone.
Moments later, he heard foot steps approach him from behind. The footsteps were stumbling, as if the owner was in a great deal of pain. The sound of his paws dragging into the dust on the rooftop was like the sound of nails down a blackboard, it filled him with agony. After a few steps the second creature paused and steadied himself as he drew a tortured breath.
‘ Do you reckon they are gone for good?’
‘I can’t say’, replied the first creature in his scouse accent, who could not turn around to confront his friend, ‘But we shouldn’t have come here, all this traveling and what for?’
The second creature moved slowly forward and placed his paw reassuringly on his companion’s shoulder. The recipient winced, as if his paw was sandpaper rubbed against an open wound.
‘We have come too far to turn back, even if we hadn’t been ambushed on this strange planet, we probably would still have been drifting lost, maybe it is time we found ourselves a new home’, his tone was reassuring but just as scared as the other creature.
The first creature turned to meet his companion, and as their eyes met, they filled with lonely tears. It was just them, there was nobody else like them anywhere in the cosmos, and they had to survive, but could never turn back.
What he was about to say was just heartbreaking as it was Impossible.
‘I just want to go home”.
I'M BACK
Hello Bloggers, I'm back. It's been a while I know, sorry about that. I have been writing every month for the Doctor Who magazine, Celestial Toyroom and working full time but from now on normal service is being resumed.
Just to let you know where I am with things. I'm currently in the process of writing two stories, one I am co-writing and the other I'm just beginning to write. I will let you know how I'm getting on in the coming weeks/months/years.
Furthermore, some of the best articles I have written during my hiatus on here will be reposted through blogspot. In the meantime, here is a picture of me with a cheesy thmubs up.
Till the next time
Just to let you know where I am with things. I'm currently in the process of writing two stories, one I am co-writing and the other I'm just beginning to write. I will let you know how I'm getting on in the coming weeks/months/years.
Furthermore, some of the best articles I have written during my hiatus on here will be reposted through blogspot. In the meantime, here is a picture of me with a cheesy thmubs up.
Till the next time
The Greatest Album You Have Never Heard
Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over The Sea- 1998
Ah the classic album, the once proud and great tradition of going into your local record shop and buying a big flat vinyl offering of an hour of quality music. Unfortunately the album, like vinyl records themselves, are a dying breed, whilst downloading is instant and don’t take up any space (apart from on your hard drive) and the once great art of the classic album is withering away in the sand dunes of time.
Think to yourself of some of the greatest albums you have ever heard and the same names keep coming up. The Beatles? Oasis? Nirvana? Limp Bizkit and The Chocolate Starfish In Hot Dog Flavoured Water? Well okay maybe not the last one, but there is one band by one album that is sorely missed off anyone’s list. And you have probably never heard of them.
Neutral Milk Hotel’s second album ‘In The Aeroplane Over The Sea’ can be summed up in one word, masterpiece. It’s up there with the all time greats of modern music, a story of one man’s obsession with the tragic Anne Frank, the little Jewish girl who hid for her life while all the horror of the Second World War unfolded around her.
NMH’s main man, Jeff Mangum, is a genius. His songs are filled to the brim with melancholy and inspiring lyrics, some which are slightly cryptic and require delving into, while others portray raw emotion as naked as the day we are born.
It was clear that after the 1996 debut album ‘On Avery Island’, that NMH were destined for great things, even if they never received the commercial success they truly deserved. Record Conpany Elephant 6 gave NMH, and master of ceremonies and Mangum in particular a free rein and both he and his band took full advantage. Just listen closely to what you are hearing when you put the record on. Mangum, like his peers Elliott Smith and Jeff Buckley, wears his heart on his sleeve but keeps his hands in his pockets, allowing you in but imploring you to look closer at the bigger picture and not to get too close.
The album opens with King Of Carrot Flowers Pt 1, a simple yet very satisfying opener which tells the short story of an unhappy family of which the parents will do anything to escape, while their teenage child experiences sexual contact for the very first time. The lyrics ‘as we would lay and learn what each others bodies were for’ and ‘from above you I sank into your soul, into that secret place where no one dares to go’ depicts the tentative exploration of a couples first time and also acts as a metaphor to a persons inner psyche and opening up in more ways than one. For a song that just scrapes the two-minute mark, ‘Carrot Flowers Pt 1’ delves very deep indeed.
After parts two and three of the first song drown out, the title song is definately one of the highlights. This is where tribute to Ms Frank is really laid bare and Mangum encourages the listener to live in the moment because there are things in life that can end it so suddenly. ‘And one day we will die and our ashes will fly from the aeroplane over the sea, but for now we are young let us lay in the sun and count every beautiful thing we can see, love to be, in the arms of all I’m keeping here with me’.
Another notable highpoint of the album comes after the brass interlude in the form of ‘Holland 1945’. Never has such a linear story been told so fast yet so complete, with the starkness of war imagery and life after death and playing piano’s filled with flames explaining Mangum’s passion through music for such a destructive time.
The epic ‘Oh Comely’ is a battle, a duel between the simple acoustic strumming and the strong, rough vocal chords of Mangum and the graphic, almost uncomfortable lyrics depicting a cheating father and a yearn to have saved Anne Frank ‘in some sort of time machine’.
Aeroplane’s finale ‘Two Headed Boy Pt 2’ is an exceptional piece of music and this is where Mangum, who sounds as if he is wrestling with his emotions throughout the track, lays the agony of love and loss bare. The lyric ‘God is a place where some holy spectacle lies’ is better than anything Lennon and McCartney ever wrote and its such a shame that this was NMH’ last album because Mangum would now be known as well as they are. But maybe that was the point, his star shone brightly for a short space of time and this makes him more special than some of those we as music fans have grown tired of over the years.
What happened next is as much a disappointment as it is important to ‘Aeroplane’s cult status. Mangum, burnt out and tired of the music business, turned his back on the big time just as it looked as if he had made it, by turning down an offer from REM to support them on tour and soon after NMH disbanded, with Mangum making a final solo appearance in early 1999. It would be nearly ten years until he would perform any NMH material live again, at the Elephant 6 birthday tour in 2008.
Sometimes songs like those on ‘Aeroplane’ are designed to be music for the brave. It is an emotional roller coaster of poignant love songs written to an icon of a time gone by, when the world was breaking all around her and finding beauty is the worst of situations. It is easy listening to some, but to others can be exhausting to listen to and not the ideal choice for those who prefer the more commercial offerings spin-doctors like Simon Cowell peddle onto our airwaves day after day which is a shame as soon I am sure most people will look like a reject from a bad Skins audition, wearing pink tank tops borrowed from your sister and going to Lady Gaga concerts.
If you have never listened to Neutral Milk Hotel’s masterpiece I encourage you to do so. You won’t regret it.
Ah the classic album, the once proud and great tradition of going into your local record shop and buying a big flat vinyl offering of an hour of quality music. Unfortunately the album, like vinyl records themselves, are a dying breed, whilst downloading is instant and don’t take up any space (apart from on your hard drive) and the once great art of the classic album is withering away in the sand dunes of time.
Think to yourself of some of the greatest albums you have ever heard and the same names keep coming up. The Beatles? Oasis? Nirvana? Limp Bizkit and The Chocolate Starfish In Hot Dog Flavoured Water? Well okay maybe not the last one, but there is one band by one album that is sorely missed off anyone’s list. And you have probably never heard of them.
Neutral Milk Hotel’s second album ‘In The Aeroplane Over The Sea’ can be summed up in one word, masterpiece. It’s up there with the all time greats of modern music, a story of one man’s obsession with the tragic Anne Frank, the little Jewish girl who hid for her life while all the horror of the Second World War unfolded around her.
NMH’s main man, Jeff Mangum, is a genius. His songs are filled to the brim with melancholy and inspiring lyrics, some which are slightly cryptic and require delving into, while others portray raw emotion as naked as the day we are born.
It was clear that after the 1996 debut album ‘On Avery Island’, that NMH were destined for great things, even if they never received the commercial success they truly deserved. Record Conpany Elephant 6 gave NMH, and master of ceremonies and Mangum in particular a free rein and both he and his band took full advantage. Just listen closely to what you are hearing when you put the record on. Mangum, like his peers Elliott Smith and Jeff Buckley, wears his heart on his sleeve but keeps his hands in his pockets, allowing you in but imploring you to look closer at the bigger picture and not to get too close.
The album opens with King Of Carrot Flowers Pt 1, a simple yet very satisfying opener which tells the short story of an unhappy family of which the parents will do anything to escape, while their teenage child experiences sexual contact for the very first time. The lyrics ‘as we would lay and learn what each others bodies were for’ and ‘from above you I sank into your soul, into that secret place where no one dares to go’ depicts the tentative exploration of a couples first time and also acts as a metaphor to a persons inner psyche and opening up in more ways than one. For a song that just scrapes the two-minute mark, ‘Carrot Flowers Pt 1’ delves very deep indeed.
After parts two and three of the first song drown out, the title song is definately one of the highlights. This is where tribute to Ms Frank is really laid bare and Mangum encourages the listener to live in the moment because there are things in life that can end it so suddenly. ‘And one day we will die and our ashes will fly from the aeroplane over the sea, but for now we are young let us lay in the sun and count every beautiful thing we can see, love to be, in the arms of all I’m keeping here with me’.
Another notable highpoint of the album comes after the brass interlude in the form of ‘Holland 1945’. Never has such a linear story been told so fast yet so complete, with the starkness of war imagery and life after death and playing piano’s filled with flames explaining Mangum’s passion through music for such a destructive time.
The epic ‘Oh Comely’ is a battle, a duel between the simple acoustic strumming and the strong, rough vocal chords of Mangum and the graphic, almost uncomfortable lyrics depicting a cheating father and a yearn to have saved Anne Frank ‘in some sort of time machine’.
Aeroplane’s finale ‘Two Headed Boy Pt 2’ is an exceptional piece of music and this is where Mangum, who sounds as if he is wrestling with his emotions throughout the track, lays the agony of love and loss bare. The lyric ‘God is a place where some holy spectacle lies’ is better than anything Lennon and McCartney ever wrote and its such a shame that this was NMH’ last album because Mangum would now be known as well as they are. But maybe that was the point, his star shone brightly for a short space of time and this makes him more special than some of those we as music fans have grown tired of over the years.
What happened next is as much a disappointment as it is important to ‘Aeroplane’s cult status. Mangum, burnt out and tired of the music business, turned his back on the big time just as it looked as if he had made it, by turning down an offer from REM to support them on tour and soon after NMH disbanded, with Mangum making a final solo appearance in early 1999. It would be nearly ten years until he would perform any NMH material live again, at the Elephant 6 birthday tour in 2008.
Sometimes songs like those on ‘Aeroplane’ are designed to be music for the brave. It is an emotional roller coaster of poignant love songs written to an icon of a time gone by, when the world was breaking all around her and finding beauty is the worst of situations. It is easy listening to some, but to others can be exhausting to listen to and not the ideal choice for those who prefer the more commercial offerings spin-doctors like Simon Cowell peddle onto our airwaves day after day which is a shame as soon I am sure most people will look like a reject from a bad Skins audition, wearing pink tank tops borrowed from your sister and going to Lady Gaga concerts.
If you have never listened to Neutral Milk Hotel’s masterpiece I encourage you to do so. You won’t regret it.
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