BBC 4 Guitar, Drums and Bass

shrinkwrap

Last night's was good as history of pedals. I was surprised they didn't end on him waving around a multi FX saying "..and now you can get it all in one damn box". Anything not to end on Ed Blandboy anyway.

EricTheWeary

Had a bit of Uli Jon Roth although surely we've lost all respect for him since he finished a gig slightly late once...

I like how Lenny looped ( cough) it all back to Les Paul at the end. I guess it's a programme you could make again and again and always something different but perfectly nice bit of light documentary. 

dindude

Guitar one was good, just think the personal journey thing that Stuart Copeland had going on the drums one got diluted as the episodes went on and became more standard documentary - I.e. the Edge stuff was existing footage and there were more lone talking heads without the interaction and enthusiasm of the host.

Philtre

No Jeff on the Guitar episode?

Funkfingers

No Ted McCarty, Forrest White or Don Randall either!

mart

I enjoyed it but did wonder why the hell he didn’t tune that Rickenbacker before he played it!

the_jaffa

I’ve enjoyed all three of the shows. Considering they were only an hour each I reckon they did a great job of making a fist of the history of each instrument and covering a decent amount of ground. 

Obviously there are gaps in the people covered in each one but as  general interest show then I thought they were great. As borne out by the apparent number of wives and partners who also seemed to enjoy them (mine included). 

I’d be keen to have a more in-depth series on each like they did with drums recently (the Steve White presented series) as I definitely learnt a chunk from that

EricTheWeary

dindude said:

Guitar one was good, just think the personal journey thing that Stuart Copeland had going on the drums one got diluted as the episodes went on and became more standard documentary - I.e. the Edge stuff was existing footage and there were more lone talking heads without the interaction and enthusiasm of the host.

I think within the limitations of an hour I'd have preferred more of the personal journey as a formal documentary was always going to miss so much out. I know no more about Lenny Kaye now than I did before. 

But looking forward to On Flute, On Harpsichord, On Trombone...

Skipped

I enjoyed the first 2 episodes, but the third one was dull IMO. Joe Bonamassa, or Doug and Pat, would have done a better job, assuming free reign for the most part.

In fact, most of the regulars here would have done a better job. The premise of the show was "An exploration of the contribution of key instruments to modern popular music,"

If you think that Charlie Christian invented the role of the guitar in "modern popular music" and you had made the decision to start and end with Charlie , that would have been fine with me.

The programme needed a stronger personality (like Stuart Copeland) with an angle.