Blogs

This is where you will find short blogs on my favourite themes, or even some random thoughts that pop into my head. Might get political here too!

Designed to complement my Next Stage Instagram account

Culture, Film, Music Nigel Wilkie Culture, Film, Music Nigel Wilkie

A trilogy of music films

To complement my live concert adventures, I have just completed a trilogy of music related films in February!

“Maria”, with Angelina Jolie was as sad and tragic as one might expect. Not only that but I was the only one in the local cinema who turned up, which made it even more poignant! If you remember, O mio babbino caro was my first Desert Island disc and podcast from 2012. Angelina Jolie did a great job portraying Maria Callas in her last years in Paris, a broken woman by that time with an addiction to anti-depressant drugs. As I was on my own in there, it somehow added to the theme of loneliness - no one could see me cry 😭

Next up was “A Complete Unknown”, the film about Bob Dylan’s early years, from arriving in New York in 1961, to going electric and causing uproar at the Newport Folk festival in 1965. Also brilliantly portrayed by Timothée Chalamet. He did well to convey the mystery of the man and how Dylan wasn’t about folk or protest but about songwriting. I thought Edward Norton also did a great job of playing Pete Seeger and it was nice to see other musical characters of the era in the film such as Woody Guthrie and Joan Baez of course but also Johnny Cash, Mike Bloomfield and Al Cooper. A must see for Dylan fans   

Two days later, I took the train into Paris to one of the giant Pathé IMAX cinemas to see “Becoming Led Zeppelin”. I thought it deserved the trek and would give me another chance to get the Tandoori Bagel at le Pick Clops bar, that I had missed the previous week after the Thee Sacred Souls gig!

The IMAX screen was massive, the seats super comfortable and the sound just amazing and very loud – fitting for a Led Zeppelin performance. The documentary format covered their early years and formation up until Led Zeppelin II. They were very young when fame came to them. Most of the video footage I had seen but there were some good insights in the interviews with the band members and even the voice of John Bonham. Interestingly, the interviews were all recorded separately rather than together and we all know Robert Plant is dead against reforming the band. For him it is just too far away in the past, when they were just 20yr old kids and he has moved on. He looks back at the experience fondly but not to be relived.

I saw Led Zeppelin only once, at Knebworth in 1979. John Bonham died on the following European tour in 1980 and that was it, so I count myself lucky to have seen them at all.

BTW: the Tandoori Bagel was good 😊     

Read More
Travel, Music Nigel Wilkie Travel, Music Nigel Wilkie

Onward Travels

After an amazing 2 weeks in Scotland, followed by 2 nights in Paris due to issues with the trains back to Normandy, I am on the move again for a long weekend in Washington DC. Visiting best friends and catching some new music at the same time. I can do this in the Next Stage :) - listen to my next Podcast due out on the 7th April

Read More