Surprisingly the majority of talking heads said intelligent things and made interesting observations about the music's evolution (note:  no modern day Ozzie). The examples of music footage shown were largely very good, starting with Blue Cheer's version of Summertime Blues. And what tickled my funny bone (suggesting I shouldn't take this too seriously) there were numerous sub-1 second sound effects seemingly to emphasis jokingly some point just made. Jon Lord was on good form, citing where Deep Purple had lifted various riffs (although Bombay Calling  or Bach weren't mentioned). And even when there was a risk of heavy handedness to make certain points, e.g. Steppenwolf apparently using the term heavy metal first in lyrics (in Born To Be Wild ) 'heavy metal thunder', the repetition was in the recording. No doubt BBC4 will repeat this 90 minutes documentary again in the near future - so strongly recommend you watch it, at least for some unexpected intelligence being spoken............ and some good music.

 

What rounded off a good evening of music was the repeat of a documentary on Canadian heavy specialists Anvil - "the real Spinal tap" as BBC announced, which appears to be close to the truth. This was a programme about the persistence of hope against the odds, covering 3 or so years of band trying to resurrect and survive whilst holding done jobs, starting from ~2005. The film kicks off with a lot of successful heavy bands citing the influence Anvil had on them. However,  we were then taken to a food processing plant outside of Toronto, from where Anvil's founder Lips is found to be driving a van of food to local schools. Then we share moments over the next three years of very bad management, being screwed by venue bookers, record companies etc. as the band tries to tour during leave of absense from work.  Very soon you can't help but feel sorry forAnvil since many things have and continue to pass them by, leaving a little fame (and a small devote fan base) but absolutely no fortune - and it continues to happen. A lesson for aspiring new bands.....

 

I think you are right but checking the search engine here didn't produce a strike this morning.  I felt this well put together documentary was worth recommending, since for instance  the relationship between straight prog and heavy rock/metal is touch upon. However, I do get pissed with the tendency in the scripts here and for Prog Rock Britannia, to harp on about prog dealing with witches and fairies - to which I always ask which prog bands? - when the likes of Black Sabbath singing about the dark arts are surely dealing with wizard- and witch-craft..... and not a murmur of sarcasm

I still have it on my hard drive but I've yet to watch it actually. What i saw looks pretty good though. And yes, critics trundle out the old cliches as normal. I have always thought the same thing...the tendency towards elves and stuff in Prog is far and few between .

 

It's available to watch via BBC iplayer.