Which member of Chris Rea's band on this performance of On The Beach '88 would you most like to hang with?

write-in vote for the nano-snatch of quo at the end

Trucker hat

altho maybe Chris wd get me into better bars

Chris is a cool dude, even though in that video he looks like a Job Centre advisor.

And unfriendly smuggo bassist looks like the other type of Job Centre advisor.

The type who makes you come back two hours later because you were one. fucking. minute. late. for your appointment because the engine on the bus exploded.

fairly sure the answer is trucker hat dude but the cameraman seems determined not to show any closeups of huge guitar guy. perhaps Mr Rea was concerned that a man with such a huge guitar might steal all the limelight if given the chance

nano-snatch

Garu G to thread...

Chris & Trucker Hat at least seem amused/jovial

chris's tiny ponytail & mom jeans make me lean in his favor

smuggo bass player has a wicked toupee/hairpiece/legohair

Wizened child with impossibly huge guitar

It can't be, but it looks like one of those comedy imflatables guitars.

he has a terrible shrinking disease.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaXbs6nN8OY

^ i think many of the same players are on this appearance but maybe the drummer has borrowed soneone's hairpiece and trucker hat has just got back from a fishing trip

btw this song is a deathless classic and easily has the power to make me blub if it catches me at a weak moment

i think if i was a granada-driving toilet brush salesman from the 80s, that song and "sailing" by christopher cross would pretty much be the soundtrack to my inevitable breakdown and subsequent five-a-day scotch egg habit

lol Nickb

Unlikely to get another chance to post this, so apologies in advance. I had no clue that this film existed until a couple of years back, late night showing on ITV3 or somesuch badland, couldn't really believe what was unspooling before me. The trailer captures about 10% of its true, unspeakable, horror.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKh85PJtb04

NickB otm on Josephine. that song kills me

Wow. That is like the essence of every Brit film ever, only instead of Hugh Grant it's Chris Rea.

You say that as if that's a worse thing.

Is it?

I do not! I like Hugh Grant well enough, but am intrigued at the very least by the glimpse that Bill has given us.

I watched it, stupefied, into the small hours of the morning and then resolved that I had to own it - currently only available on Region 1 dvd but can be imported via Amazon for a modest price; I imagine the director (Michael Winner) is disappointed that the UK market doesn't have a strong enough stomach for his work to get a domestic dvd release these days.

I WANT THAT

Like Simply Red's Stars, only more so, The Road to Hell would probably top a poll of massive-selling Brit albums that sold squat in the U.S.

i love this song. i wonder just how many DJs played this '88 Remix at the end of their sets during The Summer Of Love.

jesus how the hell did they get all that Brit talent into that film?? did the producers/Winner have 'dirt' on Cleese, Kingsley, Hoskins et al?

This IMDB review provides a nice précis of Chris Rea's work in Parting Shots; the only omission is that he lumbers through the film, mostly in trackie bottoms and plaid shirt, like he's been given a therapeutic dose of tranquilisers.

I feel duty-bound to give further highlight to the performance and acting prowess of one, Mr. Chris Rea Esq. This faded rockstar was originally supposed to do the music but 'friend' Winner suggested he play the main role, since nobody else could give such depth and realism to the part of such a born loser. Well done Michael. Every word and motion of Rea is pure (unintentional) comic genius, ranging from his heartfelt declaration of love ("I luv you. I do ya' know") to his 'interesting' bodily positions (note his stance beside the swimming pool, or his 'relaxed' look when sipping champagne)...He is the essence of Parting Shots and through him Winner proves to the world that he is, in fact, just fat, miserable, and inhuman.

I can't help thinking it would have been quite unfortunate if his parents had decided to name him 'Connor' instead.

My mate tells the story of having attended a beloved aunt's funeral, then on the drive to the cemetery his dad turning on the radio for a bit of relief. Inevitably it was playing 'The Road To Hell'. He says his dad just quietly turned it off again and nobody said anything about it, but I'm not convinced that's possible.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

i love this song

Goes without saying. In case anybody doubts it's a standard, and not just a pretty riff, I don't know what this older, sadder, latin version is in aid of but it's pretty great:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWVt503zIz8

a+ thread

chris is the answer but second might be artie bucco providing i had an easy exit strategy, he looks like he's got some possibly-but-probably-not-particularly interesting session muso bitching he's dying to get off his chest. trucker hat just seems a little too happy

couldve sworn chris was dead btw

http://i.imgur.com/Immkl.png

lol

you're a fool if you think he's over

It seems he very nearly was, around the turn of the century - probably explains the change from the bear of a man in the op clip to the thin fellow in the most recent one.

Yeah, there's a bitterness about Artie Bucco - the bitching would be engaging for a short while, then you'd realise it was all about how things were conspiring to stop him catching a break, before the final stage where you're part of the problem, always having it in for the bald community or whatever.

Trucker hat would make the night fun, but it'd just keep going and going - you'd find yourselves increasingly largeing it in one half of an empty nightclub, like gas molecules bouncing around an impending vacuum, hectoring any remaining punters to join in even as they've got their coats on. Then back to his at 4am for more drinks.

Smuggo bassist would really enjoy his pint, with only the occasional aside about how he wouldn't enjoy yours.

Wizened child is pot luck, frankly. It could be a surreal evening, playing those weirdo Italian cards with him for ducats, only to find he's not really here, then there he is ensconced on a throne on the ceiling. More likely you'd just have to help him to bed at eight.

So it's Chris imo. Forthright, manly chat, maybe some arm-wrestling. He'd probably deck you at the end of the night, but it wouldn't be personal.

The first close-up of Artie Bucco at around 0:11 makes him look like he's wearing a dreadfully unconvincing bald cap and false nose. Voting for him out of fascination has to who might actually be under there and why he would feel the need to don a disguise.

I'd forgotten what a riot of flashing neon TOTP was at this stage of the 80s. It's like watching five woodwork teachers gigging on the set of Blade Runner.

Rea looks like he worked late at the office, where no one knows he plays concerts and appears on TV.

the guy on the drums looks like the burglar/villain in the naked gun movie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0JkykbHZZ4

Cor, Josephine is so great. How on earth was I not aware of this song before now?

Even though Chris Rea can seem like a B+ Leonard Cohen, interesting how the sound on The Future seems to stem directly from Rea's '88 band. (Later further appropriated by Dylan on "Things Have Changed.")

Josephine is tremendous! I'll try and find the original video to it, cos it's great iirc. There's also a dance version out there that isn't as horrible as that might sound.

I think I've been in that room btw - I won a ticket once to a Mansun radio session at Maida Vale, which was in a studio laid out exactly like that.

It's quite big, but hardly a *clears throat* wide open space...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbCmMaqG8_Q

^ original video for Josephine. SO GOOD!

Josephine is actually his daughter btw and not the woman in the video.

lol xps, I guess the big Radio 2 logo gives it away. Top inside knowledge from Klata there.

I lied, there are about a million dance versions of Josephine out there and I can't remember what the best one is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4I_iIxd2qCg

^ too much fannydangle at the start but this is the main dance version

I'm quite intrigued by the idea of the Blue Guitars boxset - it's the sort of insanely ambitious project that ought to be worth good mileage on ILM. I'm tempted to make my dad's Christmas with it, and then wear out his hospitality over a few mellow evenings.

Ha, I looked at that box before out of curiosity. Crazy big set!

paraphrasing what robert smith said about george michael in 1985 - "hang with these guys? I'd like to hang them"

Ismael's predictions upthread = brilliant.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Well that's that, then!

played Jospehine during a Balaeric-y DJ set the other week...so good