BBC4 Friday 28th November, 10pm

not_the_dj

Enjoyed it, but really it was another excuse to drag out the standard library of BBC clips that have been used so many times before (like that guitar riff one recently).

The factory footage and clips/photos of the early days were great though. 

not_the_dj

....and Charles Shaar Murray is still bloody annoying 

thewiddler

I don't care about all the Marshall
PR hyperbole, fair play to them, but my word Jo Wiley boils my piss!

dindude

Thought it was pretty good, although the story stopped at the JCM800 and I'm sure there's a lot more to say on their ups and downs since.

thermionic

I could have done without Jo "Terrahawks" Whiley, but that programme didn't rely much on old clips that I've seen before. Except the Jimmy Page skiffle clip and the Spinal Tap clips (which really, had to be included).

ICBM

dindude said:

Thought it was pretty good, although the story stopped at the JCM800 and I'm sure there's a lot more to say on their ups and downs since.

Not really, they didn't make anything worth bothering about after that.

Apart from reissues of the old stuff, anyway. A real shame...

dindude

ICBM said:

dindude said:

Thought it was pretty good, although the story stopped at the JCM800 and I'm sure there's a lot more to say on their ups and downs since.

Not really, they didn't make anything worth bothering about after that.

Apart from reissues of the old stuff, anyway. A real shame...

I was thinking more from a business point of view, move to offshore manufacture, solid state, etc, it's still the history of the company, but I guess not so important for the purpose of an hour long documentary.

Philly_Q

not_the_dj said:

....and Charles Shaar Murray is still bloody annoying 

He and Malcolm Dome seem to share the same dentist...

monquixote

thermionic said:

I could have done without Jo "Terrahawks" Whiley, but that programme didn't rely much on old clips that I've seen before. Except the Jimmy Page skiffle clip and the Spinal Tap clips (which really, had to be included).

Anyone else LOL at the Zep clips being from JPs Supro era?

thermionic

There were also a couple of AC30s very prominently in the background in some clips. Maybe they were ones that Marshall built.

darcym

it was really poor.

EricTheWeary

Have it on iPlayer with my breakfast. ROCK'N'ROLL! \m/

It's a bit corporate video so far, I'm dreading it finishing in case there's a power point by the head of finance after.

RocknRollDave

darcym said:

it was really poor.

Jo Whiley's narration was excruciating

p90fool

Well I was going to watch it later, but Jo Whiley and Charles Shaar Murray are enough to put anyone off.

Is it very "general interest" slanted or will it actually tell guitar players anything they don't already know?

EricTheWeary

p90fool said:

Well I was going to watch it later, but Jo Whiley and Charles Shaar Murray are enough to put anyone off.

Is it very "general interest" slanted or will it actually tell guitar players anything they don't already know?

I'd be very surprised if you learned anything of significance new based on the first 40 minutes.

mart

Entertaining stuff, but nothing profound.

I don't get CSM. His Guitarist column was brilliant, and lots of his writing is really good. But on TV he comes across as a really annoying show-off.

Interesting comment from the wife, half-way through: "why are the BBC showing an hour long advert for Marshall amps?" Since I'd just been starting to think that I really ought to buy a Marshall, I had to admit she had a point.

Shouldn't there have been some sort of editorial balance, like somebody saying directly that AC30s were better in some ways? 

p90fool

mart;429311" said:

Entertaining stuff, but nothing profound.

I don't get CSM. His Guitarist column was brilliant, and lots of his writing is really good. But on TV he comes across as a really annoying show-off. 

An acquaintance of mine knew him before he contrived the Lydonesque smugness and said he was ok, if a little pompous.

Nowadays he's like a cross between Sid Snot and Will Self, ie; fucking annoying.

andyoz

I always enjoy Pete Townshends sound bites. Also learnt he likes AC/DC.

randomhandclaps

mart said:

Entertaining stuff, but nothing profound.

I don't get CSM. His Guitarist column was brilliant, and lots of his writing is really good. But on TV he comes across as a really annoying show-off.

Interesting comment from the wife, half-way through: "why are the BBC showing an hour long advert for Marshall amps?" Since I'd just been starting to think that I really ought to buy a Marshall, I had to admit she had a point.

Shouldn't there have been some sort of editorial balance, like somebody saying directly that AC30s were better in some ways? 

The thing is that she is sadly quite accurate.  It was a very, very selective history.

The story went - clean amps... guitarists got bored.... Marshall invent distortion, modern rock and heavy metal sounds.  There was no mention of the amount of famous distorted sounds that the AC30 had produced from the 60s onwards.  The was a brief mention of Hiwatt and Orange muscling in on Marshalls turf 'in the 80s'? - no mention of the 70s acts powered by either.  Despite Marshall also 'inventing the sound of metal' there was no mention that Tony Iommi relied heavily on Laney and Orange.  No mention of pedals whatsoever, which is bizarre when you consider how many distorted tones rely either solely or largely on the addition of pedals.

The documentary tailed off in the 80s with absolutely no mention of Mesas largely becoming THE sound of metal that Marshall supposedly invented.  If you had no prior knowledge you were left in no doubt that Marshall is the only amp worth owning for the proper sound of rock.

I'm all for recognising the significance of Marshall but i felt the whole program stretched it to the point where you would believe that rock, hard rock and metal would not have existed without them and that the major bands owed more to Marshall than their own talent.

not_the_dj

Well it was called "Play it Loud, The Story of Marshall Amp" rather than "Play it Loud, The Story of Amps" so focusing on Marshall rather than their competitors wasn't really a surprise.