Free tickets abound for this TV show, so I snapped one up and went along to watch The Album Chart Show being filmed. A bunch of bands play live in Koko, playing 3 or 4 songs from their album. A vain and talentless TV presenter shouts excitably in between, and they film some footage of the audience clapping wildly.
The TV show is supposed to seem just like a televised gig, in reality it is somewhat different to that. The bands play 3 or 4 songs each, there is far more time spent without bands playing than with them playing, and the presenter needs numerous takes to film the link sections between bands. It is most definitely focussed on filming a TV programme, rather than putting on a gig and happening to film it. But then again, the tickets are free, so no complaints at all here.
The hosts and security guards could not have explained more that they needed everybody not to take flash pictures of what was going on, and not to film it on their phones. There was after all several grand's worth of TV filming equipment in the building, so it was being captured just fine, thanks, and the flashes don't look good on telly. This seems to be an impossible message to get through, as either deaf, stupid or ignorant people continued taking photos with flashes throughout.
Morrissey came out first (strangely), and played his new single, You Have Killed Me, and 3 other songs from his new album. I had heard none of the other 3 songs before, but all sounded very good indeed. That is one problem of the Album Chart Show, they try to film enthusiastic audiences, but play them songs from as-yet unreleased albums, that they can't have heard yet! Also, they do nothing to make sure that the audience are actually fans of the bands playing - which you would think makes the job of "audience enthusiasm" a lot harder.
After Morrissey was the White Rose Movement, a band I had heard lots about before, but not seen before. I won't be rushing to one of their gigs anytime soon, they were a Bravery-lite, with ridiculous 80s haircuts, and more (bad) style than substance. Only 2 songs, so bearable for that long.
Last band I saw were the Yeah Yeah Yeahs - never seen them before either, despite liking a good few of their songs. I have to say they were fantastic, they played 2 excellent songs from their new album, which really left me wanting to watch them play a whole gig.
Tragically, the producers weren't 100% happy with the sound they had recorded, so the band had to come back and play again - playing 1 new song and repeating 1 song from the first attempt. Now that is a bonus you don't get at a normal gig!
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