Wednesday 26 June 2019

The unlikeliest of rabbit holes

In replying to Rol's latest Hot 100 post, I stumbled across Terry Christian's YouTube channel. Yes, you heard me. Terry Christian has a YouTube channel. As far as I can see, it consists solely of band performances from 90s late-night music show The Word and, if the quality is anything to go by, most of them are ripped from poor quality VHS recordings. But it's a real Internet rabbit hole, and once you disappear down there you might be gone for hours...

Easy to dismiss The Word now, with its laddism, neon/lairy backdrops and token dancers, but I used to like it. Even easier to forget how, back in those pre-web days, you had to rely on programmes like this to hear live music and discover new bands.

Anyway, here's a selection from the rabbit hole to whet your appetite...





15 comments:

  1. Terry Christian - the bastard offspring of Noel Edmonds and Janet Street-Porter!

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    1. Agreed. Not quite the "legend" Noel apparently is though... :)

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  2. I had a VHS tape primed and ready each week to record the music from The Word. The actual content of the show veered wildly from riveting to knuckle chewingly awful, but these performances are terrific snapshots of the time.

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    1. Aren't they just? Much rose-tinted enjoyment to be had here.

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  3. I read Christian's autobiography My Word earlier this year. Great read, made me reconsider my opinion of the man somewhat. Don't get me wrong I still think he's a bit of a dick, but he got a lot of flak from all sides that really wasn't deserved.

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    1. Another book to add to my "to read" pile...

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  4. I suppose that's the closest Terry can get to TV these days.

    I always used to like Rob Newman's Terry Christian impersonation.

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    1. Interesting you mention Newman Rol - in Christian's autobiog he reveals that Newman auditioned for his job on The Word when it started and that there was a case of sour grapes there. When he and Baddiel guested on the show, they had an agreement that Christian couldn't take the piss out of them during the interview (the only guests to make that proviso) and proceeded to rip the piss out of him knowing he couldn't bite back. After the show Harry Enfield, who was filming in the next studio, provided some friendly support to Christian, saying that the pair were out of line when he had been nothing but courteous to them.

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    2. Rob Newman's Terry Christian impersonation: https://youtu.be/tCgDp9aVnw4

      A bit of Newman and Baddiel on The Word: https://youtu.be/evyXQhcHX2Q

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  5. I think Rob Newman has admitted that at the height of Newman & Baddiel fame, they both became insufferable. I'm not sure David Baddiel has ever acknowledged that though.

    Watching that clip of Terry Christian trying to interview them though... bloody hell, there's a lot of Partridge there!

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    1. Yes, real accidental Partridge. "If you're a killer, and you're good looking, and you don't kill yourself, that's your ticket to media stardom. Do you think that's the same for comedians like your good selves?" What?!?!

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    2. "I believe, David, you actually had a neighbour who was a serial killer." What?!?! If he'd only added, "This country..."

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    3. Baddiel thinks his arse is a perfume factory. Such a hypocrite to condemn racism knowing that he used to black up to mock a rastafarian footballer and mine laughs for being mistaken for a 'p*ki'

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    4. Hmm. Quite a thread, and variety of opinions, on this here.

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    5. Yeah he still doesn't get it does he? I like how he lists a load of other names who have blacked up or performed offensive racial stereotypes as if it'll make anyone accusing him of racism reconsider. It doesn't. Incidentally, Matt Lucas recently apologised profusely for some of the racist stereotyping he employed in Little Britain and Come Fly With Me on Richard Herring's podcast. Indeed many claim the reason him and Walliams no longer work together is because of that issue. Baddiel will never apologise as long as he has a hole in his arse.

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