Lancelot Link Secret Chimp (Shock)

Inspired by UK institution The Old Grey Whistle Test, famed record producer Nigel Godrich has created a music show without overzealous hosts, audiences of screeching provincial teenagers or seizure-inducing editing and lighting.* Originally envisaged as a podcast, that format was – as with most good ideas – soon found to be financially non-viable and the program was shopped to the networks, which is why we have to make do with this highlights package from the first season.

As befits its ‘serious music program’ status, and unsurprising given Godrich’s involvement, Radiohead feature heavily, but we also have, amongst other things, Sonic Youth’s sublime rendition of The Sprawl, a glorious turn from Super Furry Animals, Albert Hammond Jr ploughing through Guided By Voices’ one-chord chugger Postal Blowfish and Eels’ Mark Everett delivering a positively heartbreaking solo performance.

While programs like The Word or Top of the Pops undoubtedly have their place, providing a platform for any number of infamous performances over the years, it’s quite nice to be able to actually enjoy the tunes on offer – and with Godrich behind the mixing desk the sound here is, obviously, spot on. As are the visuals, with the artists shot in beautifully composed, lingering frames.

Given the complete dearth of quality music shows on Australian TV, the scraps from Ol’ Blighty’s table will clearly have to suffice.

*For one of the worst offenders, track down The Prodigy’s 1992 appearance on the excellently titled Dance Energy.

 “I don’t do fashion, I am fashion” said Coco Chanel, a few words reducing the fashion industry to its core elements: self aggrandisement, hysterical narcissism, wit, a thin grasp of grammatical construction and image obsession. It’s about living in an alternate reality and in an industry built on unchecked ego Anna Wintour is some sort of terrifying, figurehead. As editor of US Vogue, Wintour’s job remit is to organise lots of pretty pictures on pages so they look fabulous next to each other, yell at her staff and sit dispassionately in sunglasses at fashion shows whilst young designers throw themselves at her feet. It’s a uniformly vulgar display of obsequiousness, but that’s the business folks. 

The September Issue - directed by RJ Cutler, also responsible for the insidery The War Room which followed the Clinton campaign in its 1992 White House tilt - is in the same boat as last year’s doco about disgraced boxer Mike Tyson (Tyson). Whilst both films project impartiality, they are hagiographic apologias. In Tyson’s case it was a overcoming a charge sheet as long as it was violent. In Wintour’s case it’s reversing her well earned hard faced bitch reputation; in fact the doco seems like a reaction to the thinly veiled attack book/film about her, The Devil Wears Prada. So we get lots of footage demonstrating her considerable business acumen; we also get plenty of footage confirming her status as a style maker and a family scene or two to soften the edges. But we also get a glimpse into the beating heart of Vogue in Grace Coddington; ex-model and Wintour’s long-suffering offsider and only person strong enough to stand up to her severely-fringed  boss. It may be Wintour’s magazine – but Coddington is the star. She almost makes you forget how venal the fashion industry can be.