Sky Arts Channel
 

Yeah I know it's a Sky channel and promoting such a channel does annoy me a little but it's one of the few channels worth watching on Satellite/Cable (U.K only as far as i know).

They have put up some great music docs and concerts, usually around the 9 P.M mark.

Recent views were:

The History of the Clash
Talk Talk live concert 1986
The Specials 30th anniversary tour concert
A Kaleidoscope Dream ( Pink Floyd and others in the late 60's)

The programmes have no ad breaks and are almost always decent docs with band members involved. You also get arthouse movies in their entirety too.

Sky Arts

On BBC 4 this week:

Thursday: 23:00–00:55
Iron Maiden: Flight 666
Film documenting the first leg of Iron Maiden's Somewhere Back in Time world tour.

Friday: 21:00–22:30
Heavy Metal Britannia
Documentary which traces the origins and development of British heavy metal.

22:30–23:00
Heavy Metal Britannia at the BBC
Performances from the BBC archive, including Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath and Judas Priest.

23:00–00:00
Iron Maiden: Live in Concert
A 60-minute concert filmed in different cities around the world in early 2008.

00:00–00:50
Rock Family Trees
Series 2, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
2/6. Black Sabbath have caused outrage with their lifestyles as well as their lyrics

Well worth staying up for I hope.

I watched Heavy Metal Britannia.

Pretty decent documentary although I felt it was a shame it seemed to cut off at around 1983.

That's the first time I've ever seen Diamond Head playing live.
They must have been the unluckiest band in the world because they were fantastic.

Either that or Metallica stole their thunder.
I think there's a drinking game in there somewhere. Play a Diamond Head album and have a drink everytime you hear a riff used on Metallica's first couple of albums.

There was some footage from an age old BBC arena programme included in this doc that wasn't relevant all ( the guy slam dancing in a circle, Shane Emburey and Bill Steer on a bed watching a movie (Dawn Of The Dead)) and there were curious sound effects throughout the film that grated on my nerves but there was some good footage. Never even heard of the Edgar Broughton Band and as Urban said the Diamond Head footage was spectacular.

Rob Halford is such a genuine guy though bless him.

I'm Extremely jealous. It's unfortunate That none of all the many music channels that we have, or have had in the states, haven't had programming that have come close to being as relevant to the subject of music as what you've given an example of here. It seems counter-intuitive that we can have 10 different variations of MTV and VH1 that are all dedicated to reality television. It boggles the mind.

Well to be fair all the music channels here are exactly the same.

The only reason the BBC can do it is because they are publically funded and it's in their charter that they have to do this stuff, and even then these things are an occasional thing rather than the norm.

Well sky arts has a couple of nights a month with music related programmes but they also broadcast programmes about Art, opera, classical musicians etc so it isn't music specific and is only good on 'themed' weekends. BBC4 is similar but Fridays are usually music nights that broadcast all manner of genres and some nights are better than others. Next Friday is a repeat of their Blues night that was on a few months though and is a great night of viewing. Blues Britannia: Can Blue Men Sing the Whites? is a fascinating doc regarding Blues music and it's proliferation into British music in the 60's with some great tales regarding Blues legends such as John Lee Hooker gigging over here in the 60's due to a lack of recognition stateside. Well worth a watch.

Our dedicated music channels here suck too with Kerrang playing some utter ****e these days pandering to pop metal music that appeals to teenage girls and not the average Metal fan. Avoid.

Wait...you have a Kerrang channel?

Yeah and it absolutely sucks. I remember when that mag constantly promoted new and cult bands. Nowadays it's nothing more than a teen mag pandering to the teenybopper crowd. It is quite embarassing.

I put Kerrang on yesterday for the first time in a long while and they played this utter crap:



That's nothing short of Pop music and I can hear this on the damn radio if I choose too. Kerrang should be about promoting obscure bands and having an identity of it's own. Once again: embarrassing.