Having survived the rain, the wind and the mud, Peter Moore muses as to why British people are drawn to muddy music festivals

Like it or not, us Brits just have to put up with the fact that we are no longer one of the global big boys. In the event of Russia or China sending up a few scuds, or the Indians taking a fancy to skittling us with some carpet bombs, the best we can hope for is hiding behind the skirts of the Americans.

These days we gather our self respect from rather different quarters. Because whilst the mines of Wales have been trumped by Middle Eastern oil, English factories have been squashed by the Chinese and Scottish shipyards have fallen empty with the emergence of Eastern European ports, there are few countries in this galaxy or any other that can keep pace with the British music scene.

I’ve just returned to my clean, cheerfully furnished office from the deepest throes of the English countryside, where all weekend the mud sat around my ankles, the wind ripped through my ears and the rain collided viciously against my face. That is to say, that I have just returned to London after a music festival.

What is it, you might ask, that compels otherwise sane individuals to such levels of insanity as a stint at a festival with 30,000 others dangerously close to the beginning of autumn. Some tents flooded, others collapsed, a number of people were hospitalised with hypothermia, mobile telephones faltered by the thousand, and those who forgot their Wellington boots have now got trench foot.

Indeed, by the time I left our ramshackle campsite yesterday it resembled a cross between an African refugee camp and the Third Battle of Ypres. I half expected to see Field Marshall Haig on the way out asking me ‘how it went.’

The reason we Brits put ourselves through such horrid conditions is quite simple: we love our music and we are passionate about it. Over the past half century we have given the world a million bands from the Shadows to the Klaxons and for all their cultural superiority the Yanks have never come up with a band that is half as good as The Beatles.

Indeed, the British musical legacy only begins with our bands. Just think of the dance music, the funk and the punk, there are singer songwriters by the bucket load, we’ve more indie bands than we have NHS doctors and the urban music scene has gone off in an atomic mushroom.

All of these wonderful things have sprouted, quite literally, from the minds of those that are willing to spend a weekend of their lives getting drenched in a field. If you think of it, music festivals combine many of the things that us Brits hold dear: our unpredictable weather, vast quantities of drink, silly dancing and music that is fit to rock the world.

Tags: Digital TV, Music by Peter Moore
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With a new season of television programmes imminent, Sky One have decided that the time is right to change their style. Peter Moore explains more

Just as September heralds the start of a new academic year, it also ushers in the beginning of a new wave of television programming. The nation’s most prominent channels frequently use the autumnal season to promote their latest series and, of course, with the full fanfare of an elephant parade the top sports providers unveil their all-new coverage of the new sporting seasons.

Along with the barrage of new programmes, new presenters and new action, one of the leading digital channels, Sky One, has undergone a thorough makeover. Traditionally considered an afterthought in Sky’s programming selection, suffering in the shadows of Sky Movies and Sky Sports, Sky One has undergone something of a renaissance during the past eighteen months.

The catalyst for this change seems to have been the appointment of Richard Woolfe, the former controller of Living TV, as the channel’s boss in early 2006. During his tenure, Woolfe has re-organised the rather cluttered schedule of Sky One, which traditionally hid behind thousands of Simpson repeats, and encouraged a rich blend of new programming: from the return of the clinging lycra of The Gladiators, to the exploits of Ross Kemp with the British Army in Afghanistan.

Woolfe’s achievements at Sky One were recently recognised that the ‘Broadcast Digital Channel Awards’ where they received the winning accolade as the top digital channel. As a reward, it seems that Sky bosses have bestowed a thorough paint-job on the Sky One image, which has seen the website and logo disappear under a new colour scheme of midnight blue and black and punctuated by floating airborne ice cubes.

So, times look exciting at Sky One, and a cursory look over their programming schedule reveals a host of autumnal treats just waiting to be dispatched. There is a second series of The Gladiators, a new series of Ross Kemp on Gangs, a new series of Lost and the musical Hairspray. All in all, it seems that the return to the office, the school or the university can be stomached much better with the return of quality British broadcasting.

Tags: Digital TV, Sky by Peter Moore
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As the first punches are being thrown in the Obama McCain presidential duel, the Democrats will be rubbing their hands at the prospect of an early-arriving all American scandal. Marie Kemplay explains.

A fascinating little rumour regarding Republican Presidential candidate, John McCain’s newly announced running mate Sarah Palin, is currently doing the rounds. If it is to be believed his butter-wouldn’t-melt vice-presidential hopeful isn’t quite as saccharine sweet as they would have you believe.

There is talk that 44 year old, Sarah Palin’s fifth child, Trig, born four months ago with Down’s syndrome, is not actually her son but rather the child of her eldest daughter, 17 year old Bristol Palin. Ironically enough the former beauty queen is regarded by many as a whiter-than-white candidate with no real scandal to her name, but having had her personal life thrown into the public sphere, she might find that that is about to change.

Although, admittedly, this story is very much hearsay there is quite a lot of compelling if not necessarily conclusive evidence to support it. Here goes:

There are a number of photos circulating showing Palin looking decidedly svelte when she would have been 7 months pregnant. Her staff also expressed shock when at 7 months Palin announced the pregnancy; none of them previously had any idea. Palin claimed she had been hiding the bump with ‘scarves’.

Meanwhile pictures of her 17 year old daughter Bristol from a similar time show what some have described as a ‘definite pregnancy bump’ rather than belly fat. Coincidentally Bristol was also absent from school for the final three months of her mother’s pregnancy with mononucleosis (glandular fever), a common excuse for absence among teenage girls at Roman Catholic schools

Even more interesting is Palin’s behaviour the day of the birth. On the morning of April 30^th she supposedly began leaking amniotic fluid but rather than attending a medical facility she delivered a keynote speech to the Republican Governor’s Convention in Dallas, Texas. Speech over, Palin then took an eight hour flight back to Alaska and gave birth a few hours later. This is reckless behaviour; for safety reasons women are not supposed to fly after seven months of pregnancy, Palin was about eight months pregnant and she had already started to have contractions.

If she was indeed in labour during the flight she managed to hide it pretty well as an Alaskan airlines representative claims that ‘she didn’t show any signs of distress.’

After landing in Anchorage, despite apparently being hours into labour, she was driven for a further 45 minutes to a remote regional medical centre where she finally gave birth, rather than choosing any of the much better equipped medical centres in Anchorage. Perhaps she was fleeing the prying eye of the public?

It is difficult to gauge how such a scandal would affect the Republican presidential campaign, and so far there has been no official response. In the turbulent world of American politics Palin’s actions could be read in a number of ways: is she merely a selfless mother who is protecting her daughter, or has something a little more sinister occurred?

Tags: Digital TV, Politics by Marie Kemplay
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McClaren’s Academy of Odd Accents

Perhaps we are a little late with this one, but I reasoned that it was probably too good a video to pass up. We’re all well acquainted with Steve McClaren after his disastrous stint at the helm of the English football team; a spell so disastrous in fact, that he had to travel as far as Holland and the little known team of FC Twente to resurrect his career.

Anyhow, a touch too much of the Dutch Edam seems to have taken its effect on the Wally with the Brolly. His grammars gone, his answers defy explanation and the hand gestures are, well, operatic. Enjoy Steve McClaren and a lesson in ‘Dutghlish’. Yeesshhh!

Tags: Digital TV, Sport by Peter Moore
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Here is the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, in his own words making a speech after the closing ceremony of the Beijing Olympics.

‘Ping pong was invented on the dining tables of England in the nineteenth century and it was called wiff waff.’

‘Other nations, the French, looked at the dining table and saw an opportunity to have dinner. We looked at a dining table and saw an opportunity to play wiff waff. That is why London is the sporting capital of the world.’

‘And I say to the Chinese, and I say to the world, ping pong is coming home!’

Tags: Digital TV by Peter Moore
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One of Britain’s finest directors brings his familiar breed of grit and working class charm to the nation’s capital

Curiously, whilst most people don’t relish such things as violence, social dysfunction and the abuse of hardcore drugs in their own lives, they seem quiet motivated to go to the cinema and watch films about them. Perhaps this desire to peer over the fence and observe the life of others is a distinctly British quality and if so, its citizens have no better opportunity for a helping of social voyeurism than they do with the films of Shane Meadows.

About Britain now, Meadows’ reputation as a gritty and talented director is assured. Testament to his success was the declaration by The Times of London that, ‘certainly Meadows bears comparison with (Ken) Loach.’ Not faint praise for the lad who started off life in the 1970s in the distinctly downtrodden Staffordshire market town of Uttoxeter.

Meadows forged his reputation with a succession of low-budget features that were released to a quiet flutter of critical excitement at around the turn of the millennium. Amongst them was A Room for Romeo Brass, where he revisits his childhood home, conjuring a thought provoking and gritty portrayal of the characters to be found there. In 2006 he suddenly struck it big, with the release of This is England, which that year won the Best Film category at the British Independent Film Awards.

Meadows’ latest film is Somers Town, which quibblers may say is a touch short at 72 minutes in length, but is heralded by the Edinburgh Festival as one of the top British films this year. In the same vein as many of Meadows’ films, the plot follows the experiences of two adolescent boys: there is Tommo, a runaway from the Midlands, and a Polish boy that he befriends named Marek.

Their unlikely partnership is cast into the unfamiliar territory of north London, running the streets that line the Euston Road around the great St Pancras Station. Shot with typical spontaneity, much of the dialogue is ad-libbed, keeping it fresh, witty and smooth, whilst Meadows’ mines the humour of the situation for all that it is worth.

It is not merely the characters the characters that are dragged out of their familiar environments, it is also the director. Propped up behind the lens for the first time in London, Meadows confessed to being frustrated by the bustle and noise of the Big Smoke: ‘If someone isn’t reversing up the road in a digger, it’s jumbo jets flying overhead. I’ve never known anything like it. How anything ever gets made in London I’ll never know,’ he said.

Somers Town is being tipped by the critics as one of the year’s finest feature films. It is currently under release across the United Kingdom.

Tags: Digital TV, Films, Sky by Peter Moore
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The shift towards high-definition digital television grows stronger with Sky’s latest announcement

For those amongst us who are fond of the good things in life, the news that Sky are upping their number of high-definition channels by seven to 26 can only be welcomed warmly.

Sky HD technology is one of the impressive cutting innovations of the past few years. Just as digital television cast away for good those days of thumping the roofs of televisions to encourage good reception, high-definition has chased away the presence of dull colours, ill-defined images and the slightest prospect of a blur.

Sky High-definition television betters the traditional digital signal by four times: that means sharper images, vivid colours and the portrayal of an unprecedented level of detail. Amongst the new channels that will be available on Sky HD will be Sky Movies Action/Thriller, Sky Movies Sci-Fi/Horror and Sky Real Lives.

Originally, when Sky launched their HD service in 2006, they offered just nine different channels, but now digital customers are offered a wide and alluring choice. The new channels add a wide selection of the Sky Movie cannon to the HD service for the first time, augmenting the existing sports and documentary HD channels.

Hilary Perchard, a Sky spokesperson commented that, ‘With equipment prices falling and the choice of content increasing, this is shaping up to be a big year for HD. Almost half a million homes are already enjoying Sky + HD and we are exciting to be offering even more  to our customers.’

Tags: Digital TV, Sky by Peter Moore
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Stories to surprise you over your morning toast

There is nothing quite like an odd news story as a morning tonic. And as you stare down in disbelief at the latest report of a UFO landing in the fold-yard of a farm in Norfolk, it is well worth remembering that this is the month of August and about now things tend to get a little silly.

Just like complaining about the weather, tinkering in the garden and getting excited about DIY, the silly season is a well-worn British staple. Arriving each summer during the fallow summer months for news, Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable defines the period as, ‘the part of the year when Parliament and the Law Courts are not sitting.’

This dearth of activity leaves newspapers scrambling about for news stories. Funded by advertising revenue and horrified at the prospect of slimming down over the summer or displaying too much white space, news editors instigate searches for bizarre, sensational or panic-inducing stories that will see them through until the machinery of society starts to whir once again in September.

2005 was a particularly rich year for silly season stories: ‘Victor Meldrew found in space’ announced the Sun on 9^th August having located a constellation that when charted with a line vaguely resembled a cantankerous UK television character. Meanwhile the Daily Express were busy reporting on Tony Blair’s holiday to Barbados where he was recovering from the effects of sunburn which had hit his ‘chest, stomach and arms.’

On 2^nd August 2000, The Star slapped down a headline documenting that an angler was ‘speared’ through the stomach by a giant swordfish which jumped into his boat. The following day The Express published a story about 30 hopefuls who had answered an advert in the Job Centre, applying to be a knifethrower’s assistant for a salary of £240 a week.

It is not just the UK which celebrates this silly season; it is a prominent in any country that boasts a strong national press. The Germans, who are not renowned for their sense of humour, are one nation that commemorates the silly season with the far more frivolous name of ‘cucumber time’, which seems a far more apt name – because vegetables are always funny, aren’t they?

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Have you come across any odd stories during the past few weeks? If you have, then why not send them over to us at Select Digital where we can try and compile a list of 2008’s top Silly Season stories. Remember that you can keep in touch with all of the latest news developments on Sky, BBC and ITV by subscribing to digital television. Find out about the best online prices by clicking this link.

Tags: Digital TV, News by Peter Moore
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