BBC4TV showed a lovely documentary about the Rockfield recording studio in Monmouth, Wales.

The studio was created at the end of the 1960s by two farmer brothers as a residential studio providing a country oasis of bucolic calm. An oasis in which, ironically, heavy-metal, amongst other genres, flourished. Almost thirty years later, Oasis recorded there too.

The two brothers originally drove to London and met with George Martin at EMI. They came away without a record contract, but understanding that there wasn’t enough recording capacity for the developing music scene in Britain.

The Stone Roses liked it so much, they stayed for almost two years…

You can watch the film, here

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000l3vn

Interestingly, the freedom of this residential facility reminded me of Black Mountain College (USA) or Corsham Academy in the UK.

https://mubi.com/films/the-salt-of-the-earth

The mubi streaming service are showing the Salgado documentary by Wim Wenders (2104). Beautiful and heartbreaking…and only a couple of moments when I think he crossed a line.

Really interesting to watch this against the 2020 backdrop of climate emergency and pandemic…

BBC4TV showed a documentary of clips of Nigel Kennedy playing and speaking about music. Kennedy is one of the greatest living violin players and was identified as a child prodigy. He has lived-up to expectations, and fulfilled his potential entirely.

You can watch the film , here

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04w0fyx

Kennedy is an interesting cross-over personality and plays jazz and Hendrix. There were interesting clips of him playing with the great jazz-violin player Stephane Grappelli, who had played with Django Reinhardt.

There’s a short clip of Django playing at the Tabarin club, in Paris, here

https://www.are.na/block/7275521

Kennedy’s career breakthrough was a recording of Vivaldi’s, Four Seasons…from 1989. More recently Max Richter ha deconstructed this Vivaldi in the most interesting way. You can watch Daniel Hope playing the Richter version, here

https://www.are.na/block/3094072

If you are interested, the history of violin making and the distinctive sounds made by different instruments is well-worth finding out about. I’ve posted about this on my New Pamphleteer blog, where there is also a post about the jazz scene in Paris (Boeuf sur le Toit).

The Storyville documentary strand on BBC4TV showed a lovely film about the roller skating scene in the USA. Roller rinks are a long-standing part of American popular culture.

There’s a famous roller-skating scene in the great western film, Heaven’s Gate (1980). And the drive-through diner waitress in American Graffiti is on roller skates. There’s a big roller aesthetic in street wear.

The roller rink scene is a bit different. It’s a big cultural thing for the African-American community, who enjoy family outings to the rink. Everyone gets on.

But, the rinks are closing because of zonal planning (rates) and because there is a huge misunderstanding about large groups of African Americans gathering. There are rules and security checks shown that aren’t applied to their white counterparts. The whole thing is beautiful and too sad…

You can watch the film here

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000kxl0/storyville-united-skates