In The Words Of by

Carl Marsh

any newly found prosperous voters from voting for Welsh Labour. Sadly we won’t know, as the M4 relief won’t happen. We’ll just be getting loads of fancy new cycle lanes [to drive past]…

Tv Review

Kaleidoscope - Netflix

I hope all of you are well and getting into 2023 as best as possible.

January has been a bit quiet - as it always is - but I did get invites to a couple of film premieres in London, although I didn’t go: one I didn’t fancy, whilst the other I could not make. The one I wanted to go to was for a film called ‘Plane’, which stars Gerard Butler. It looks decent. I have plans to get over to London a lot like I used to, but this time only for stuff I want to do, if other commitments don’t clash, instead of going to the opening of every ‘barn door’ like I may have thought I did in the past! Some people like that lifestyle, and some believe it will improve their social status. I have news for them… it won’t unless you have something to offer through natural talent, press [media] or financial gain.

Intro Rant

This month, the bargain basement show that’s ‘Love Island’ is back on your screens. No matter how much ITV make out that it’s nice, not judgemental and against body shaming AND meant to depict a good mix of society - it’s none of these. So tune in, and tell me how many fat/obese contestants are in it. I’ll take a nap until someone wakes me up.

How many of you were aware that the Welsh NHS is the worst out of all the four nations in how it’s run, funded and waiting times? You might not know if you read a particular “news” website! Wales is devolved. And what about the M4 relief road that was scrapped? It would have brought more business and prosperity to those living in Wales and over the border regions. It’s like the powers that be don’t want that. One can suspect it could diminish

Like most offerings these days, I saw that this was trending at number one in the Netflix charts. So, we [my family] started to watch the teaser trailer. The concept is mad. You can watch the episodes in any given order or non-linear for those that like big words. But you get the same outcome. Netflix randomly selects which order you watch. Just go with it. It is a heist thriller set in New York. It’s a great watch, but I can only give it 4 stars out of 5 as I felt it lost its way after the fifth episode, a little after such an epic start. I don’t think it would matter in what order I watched them. But I have to be honest. Do give it a watch, and see what you think. I hope more shows are set up like this. I really do.

Interviews

My first chat is with Suzanne Vega. She was the first female singer to headline Glastonbury [1989] and is also the only one to have had to wear a bulletproof vest since a deranged fan threatened to kill her. How times have changed for the former, perhaps less so for the latter. She’s at St David’s Hall - 26th February.

The next chat is with Brendan Murphy, bringing his stand-up comedy show ‘Buffy Revamped’ to the New Theatre on 7th February after his successful run at the Fringe in Edinburgh in 2022. Buffy first aired in 1997, lasting 144 episodes over 7 seasons. Brendan has condensed all that down in his routine to about 70 minutes! It’s very, very funny. And you don’t have to be a fan of Buffy, but it helps! Not aimed just at adults aged 14 plus, although under that age is by parental guidance.

Have a great February, and see you all next month!

Carl Marsh

Twitter - @InTheWordsOf_CM

YouTube - InTheWordsOf

Carl Marsh

With you performing again in the UK, which is something you’ve done extensively over the years but are you able to recollect any good times performing in Wales?

Suzanne Vega

Gosh, you know, I’ve toured the UK a lot. So to kind of remember my specific memories of Wales... I mean, my main connection with Wales is just John Cale [The Velvet Underground]. I had opened for him a few times, and he opened for me a few times, especially at the beginning of my career. We had the same agent. So I have some dim memory of playing in a sports hall, you know, in the 80s. And since then, as I said, I’ve been through the UK many times, so it becomes a little bit of a blur.

Carl Marsh

I wouldn’t be far wrong in saying that the UK is like a second home for you, musically.

Suzanne Vega

Oh, God. Yeah. It’s where I had my first successes. And I’ve toured the UK more times than I can tell you… all the little towns.

Carl Marsh

And this new tour, is it a stripped-back affair with just you on the stage or with a few other musicians with you?

Suzanne Vega

It’s Jerry Leonard and me. He is my musical director. He’s Irish. We’ve worked together for 20 years now. He used to be David Bowie’s musical director when he was alive and touring. So, that’s the show, it’s the two of us, and he plays the guitar. He plays in a very unusual way. He’s like a full band, but he does everything on guitar. And I play the guitar and sing.

We make a good team because I have this variety of songs and song styles. I go from very intimate folk songs to things that are more rock’ n’ roll. He’s really versatile. He’s got a natural gift, not just for playing the guitar, he works with loops and technology to create bigger sounds that are very dynamic. And nothing is pre-recorded. It’s all created in the moment.

Carl Marsh

And with you, yourself added to that mix, as I know you’ve never learned to read music, very unorthodox!

Suzanne Vega

Yes, exactly. Yeah, it’s unorthodox. [Laughs] I sort of have to invent my own systems with things because the normal technology or the standard techniques don’t always work for me. You know, but it’s never hindered me. I’ve always been able to figure out how to get across; sometimes, it takes a little time. But you know, I love what I do, and it’s been very successful.

Carl Marsh

Did it raise any eyebrows in the early days when you’d got that recording contract, as your way isn’t the straightforward way of writing music?

Suzanne Vega

Yeah, I did raise eyebrows. I remember some of my rejection letters [Laughs]. I got a great rejection letter from A&M Records. I think they rejected me twice before they finally came around and gave me the record contract. They said: “You know, she’s interesting, but she’s got no sense of melody”. And, of course, we had ‘Cracking’ on the demo tape. So you know, I thought it was kind of wilful that they were not quite getting the point of the song ‘Cracking’. And this was before rap and spoken word had taken off. This was sort of 1982/1983. I think I was sort of prescient in that style, and they weren’t seeing it right then, but you know, that all worked out over time. They signed me in 1984. The [debut] album came out in 1985. And it sold a million copies worldwide. They were expected to sell 30,000. Now it’s gone on to sell; I don’t know how many. It’s probably on Wikipedia. So, yeah, there you go.

Suzanne Vega - St David’s Hall - February 26th (Sunday).

Carl Marsh

I presume Spike is your favourite character from the show, hence why you chose him as your main narrator as the show’s headline is ‘Seventy minutes. Seven seasons. One Spike.’?

Brendan Murphy

Yeah, I think I was initially looking for someone who is a core part of the crew but is also a bit of an outsider. So, someone that could potentially retell the whole story but from a slightly different point of view. You get that from whoever you went with, you know, except for maybe Buffy; although we don’t see the TV series exclusively through her eyes, she can sometimes be flawed. But Spike starts as an antagonist; he becomes a reluctant ally, and then he becomes a romantic interest. He becomes once again a very troubled, complicated character in terms of the relationship he has with Buffy, and then ultimately finds redemption and becomes kind of the hero of the piece. It’s a fascinating narrative arc whilst he is also a very fun character being a sort of cockney punk vampire that’s lived over, you know, 160 years. So that was always nice. And also, like, what a great wardrobe. It’s simple. It’s classic.

Carl Marsh

You’re mid-tour right now, heading to Cardiff on February 7th, but I know you trialled this show at Edinburgh Fringe. A fair amount of people reading this won’t know that it’s just tons of different shows going on all the time, and you can see a different act back-to-back throughout each, and every day it’s on. So my question is, did you attract loads of Buffy fans, just comedy fans, or a mixture?

Brendan Murphy

Oh, yeah, definitely a sort of 70/30 split of people that were already like true hardcore Buffy fans, and the rest were people just having a go at something thinking, “Oh, yeah, that’ll be fun”. It’s because it’s also got that 90s nostalgia thing. You might have seen just a few episodes and go: “What, one person doing all seven seasons in just over an hour? All right, come on. Let’s go and have a look”. But yeah, thankfully, it was a fun response. There was also one of the original Buffy actors, Tom Lenk, who plays Andrew in the series, which is a brilliant, funny character. One of the trio of bad guys in the penultimate season. He was up there doing another comedy show and very kindly told people about my performance and sent some of the Buffy fans along to see it. So it was a nice little bit of synchronicity there.

Carl Marsh

I was about to ask you if any of the cast had seen it, but you answered the question before I asked it!

Brendan Murphy

Well, he hasn’t. He hasn’t seen the show. I think we’re aware of one another. And we had a bit of a back and forth [on social media], but as of yet, none of the original cast has been to see it. We’ll see if we can tick them all off one by one. [Laughs]

Carl Marsh

And lastly, what was your biggest challenge when trying to get it all condensed into, say, 70 mins, as you’ve got 144 episodes of the show to have had to re-watch for your source material? You probably could have done a show for at least 3-4 hours, as a bare minimum!

Brendan Murphy

Oh, absolutely. Yeah. I think my first draft was probably about three and a half hours, and I had to chop it right down because, obviously, who’s got that much time? You might as well watch the bloody series [Laughter] if you’re going to sit in the theatre for that long. Who knows, one day, I might be able to do the extended writers cut edition [Laughs]. But yeah, it was tricky.

Buffy Revamped - New Theatre - February 7th (Tuesday).