Tuesday 9 August 2011

The Alternative TOTP Canon #28: Fiddler's Dram - Day Trip To Bangor

Made up of moonlighting members of the Oyster Ceilidh Band (now just Oysterband, very much still going in trad folk circles, usually those called out between songs) and written by a future EastEnders scriptwriter, the answer to the conundrum of how to draw attention to an extraordinarily mumsy piece of surprise hit English folk seems to be to just crowd out the stage. There's definitely a bassoon that's being proffered for decoration only. Good to see Aslan on guitar. SHUT UP, WRIGHT.

3 comments:

Steve Williams said...

The best member of this band is the one in the black jumper next to the drums who ostensibly appears to be a backing singer but is miles away from the microphone and the director keeps framing him out of the shot of the three seemingly official backing singers (neckerchief, muttonchops and the one who looks like a young David Jason), so is seemingly just their mate along for the ride.

I like how the guitarist emphasises his ludicrous afro with that nodding action throughout. The friction that must have generated!

Arthur Nibble said...

Actually written about a day trip to Rhyl, but Bangor fitted the song title better. That Jeff Lynne's let himself go - no balloons allowed in the house!

wilberforce said...

guy at the back: air-bassoon mate! also the female singer appears to be taller than any of the 11 (yes 11 - count 'em) geezers on stage - even the guitarist's afro can't make the difference! either she was very tall or they were all very short...

talking of top-heavy bands, this reminds me of one of the few genuinely amusing moments on "never mind the buzzcocks", when they showed a clip of earth wind & fire and the emotions doing "boogie wonderland" and the tie-breaking question was simply: "how many people are there on stage?" (btw, you can work it out for yourself here)

ps - ew&f sax player andrew woolfolk was another noted air-instrumentalist: although credited as a core member of the band, the sax solos were always performed by associate member donald myrick...