The Story of The Who
Thoroughly enjoyed 2 hours of 'The Story of The Who' last night on BBC4. What a story it was.
The ultimate rock'n'roll band. A Rolls Royce driven into a swimming pool, copious amounts of drugs, lots of girls and the premature death of two band members. During one gig, Moon was carried off stage - completely comatose.
30 years on, Pete Townshend looked visibly choked when talking about the (not wholly unexpected) death of Keith Moon and Roger Daltrey remarked 'Keith seemed to think he was invincible. He thought I am "Keith Moon of The Who".'
Townshend's and Daltrey's immediate reaction to Moon's death was ironic; they tried to assuage feelings of guilt by going out, doing 'crazy things' and experimented with 'even more substances'.
I never appreciated what a great bass player John Entwhistle was and he seemed the quiet, sensible one although he later died on tour in Las Vegas, in bed with a woman, after snorting cocaine (from a heart attack). Well it sure beats dying in your sleep.
There was some great footage and interviews but this clip epitomised The Who at their supreme best.
The American host has a chat with the band and introduces 'My Generation' with the immortal words: 'You're going to be surprised at what happens. This is excitement.'
The band ended a brilliant performance by trashing their instruments with the normal dry ice and smoke bombs.
However, no-one (not even the other band members) knew that Moon had bribed a stage-hand to pack his drum kit with explosives. The effect reminds me of the line from the classic film 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid' - 'Do you think we used enough dynamite there, Butch ?'
High Definition TV on Virgin Media V+
I finally caved in and replaced a 15 year old Sony TV with a Panasonic 32″ LCD TV (TX32LXD700) for Christmas. Although the aging Sony still worked fine, it did cycle through Red/Green/Blue and took 5 minutes to fully warm up.
Before taking the plunge, I read various reviews and looked at the televisions on my shortlist in shops. Most stores (understandably) use High Definition (HD) broadcasts or Blu-ray discs to show the digital technology at its best. Cartoons are another popular choice to demonstrate LCD TV’s displaying a very high quality picture.
As the range and number of programs actually broadcast in HD on Virgin Media is currently relatively limited, I explicitly asked to see a conventional TV channel which was enlightening. You could often see pixellation and blurring which was disappointing but not wholly unexpected.
Undoubtedly, the Panasonic had the best picture quality both for standard and HD programs. I could have got a better deal on the previous model (TX32LXD70) but opted for the 700 for the better sound and additional HDMI input (3 in total).
Finally, the time came to actually buy the TV but, unfortunately, I now discovered the model was out of stock at most online retailers and good old fashioned shops. Eventually, I found the TV in stock (1-2 days delivery) at dabs.com for £769 including free delivery (normally £25) so I placed the order and waited.
After placing the order, I received various helpful emails from dabs:
Thank you for the order you placed with dabs.com on 01/12/07
which included an item or items which were out of stock at the time of
order.We’ve just received notice of a lead time change from our supplier which
affects the following product(s) included within your order:Quicklinx : 4HFN
Manufacturer : Panasonic
Product : TX-32LXD700 32″ LCD TV
Old Estimated Delivery : 05/12/2007
New Estimated Delivery : 13/12/2007Please note that the new estimated delivery date given above is the best
possible date we can provide at this time. Rest assured that should this
date move forward or backwards, we will keep you fully informed by email.
Strange. The TV wasn’t actually listed as ‘Out of stock’ when I placed the order. Worse, the projected dates kept slipping and slipping (like an IT project) until, tantalisingly, we reached 18 December.
I took the precaution of printing a large picture of the LCD TV on glossy paper and wrapped up the HDMI cable to give to Norma for her Christmas present - ‘This is what you could have won’.
Finally, some good news - dabs took the payment from the credit card which meant the TV was shipping imminently and the expensive package was delivered just in time for Christmas.
I resisted the temptation to open to package to check the contents and hook the TV up and managed to leave it propped up in the hallway until Christmas day.
Connecting the Panasonic to the Virgin V+ box was easy. You just need to buy an HDMI cable (not supplied with the TV) and modify the settings on the V+ box to output a HD signal.
Using the V+ Remote, select ‘Home’ followed by ‘Settings’. Then select ‘Change Display and Audio Settings’. Then select ‘TV Display Format’ and change the value to ‘Hi Def HDMI’. You can experiment with the screen resolution by changing the value of ‘V+ Box HiDef Output’ but I found the optimal setting was ‘1080′.
Currently, Virgin Media only carries one High Definition channel (BBC HD) but the picture quality is simply staggering. We watched ‘Extras’ and ‘Robin Hood’ on HD and were able to compare and contrast the picture with conventional BBC1 (as both programs were broadcast simultaneously). The picture is absolutely razor sharp and has a sense of ‘depth’.
Watching conventional channels is a bit of a come-down after HD but my fears that a conventional TV broadcast (albeit upscaled) would actually be inferior to the 15 year old Sony set were unfounded.
Having said that, the picture quality does depend on the program. Fast moving images (like sports) are still prone to pixellation and blurring which is irritating given the amount of football I watch. The good news is that the England friendly international in February should be available on BBC HD so it will be interesting to see how the quality differs.
The V+ box solely uses the HDMI cable to connect to the Panasonic so I connected the DVD player using the Scart cable and the LCD TV has breathed new life into my DVD collection.
There is also a SD card slot for viewing digital photos which now show up every single blemish in full colour 32″ glory and Norman Jnr is delighted as he can also connect the Xbox 360 via a handy HDMI slot on the front panel and again, the picture quality, as he saves the world, destroying zombies with a flame thrower and hand held rocket launcher, is superb.
Overall, I am delighted with the Panasonic LCD TV and I find myself watching wildlife documentaries on BBC HD just to admire the astounding picture quality.
just a quick word
There are two words that are guaranteed to send Norman Junior and myself into fits of helpless laughter:
- 'Giraffe' - Rick's wrong answer on 'Trick or Treat' to the question 'What is the world's tallest mammal ?'
- 'Horace' - My spontaneous answer to my son's question 'What were you going to call me if it had not been Norman Junior ?'
the real star of 'Saxondale'
Morwenna Banks, who plays Vicky in Saxondale, is superb. While she gets some of the best lines in the comedy series, co-written by Steve Coogan like
'Tell him to put some jam on his shoes and invite his trousers down for tea.'...her delivery and timing is absolutely brilliant.
lost without 'Lost'
'Good evening. Blueyond - sorry - Virgin Media Customer Services. Carol speaking. How may I help you ?'
'Slight problem. I can't get Sky One any more.'
'Yes, Sir. I know [sighs inwardly 'Oh God please not another one']. Those nasty people from Sky increased the prices and Sir Richard called their bluff. Unfortunately, a horrid Australian man called Rupert then called his bluff back so we can't show it any more.'
'But isn't that a prime example of the free market and competition in operation that Richard keeps telling us about ?'
'Oh no, Sir. This is a virtual monopoly that presents a real danger to the media industry worldwide and all our valuable subscribers. Well those that are left, anyway.'
'Well, why doesn't Richard retaliate by charging Rupert 10 times more for Living TV and Bravo+1 ?'
'Sorry, Sir. We did look into that option but it turns there are only 23 people on Sky who regularly watch those channels.'
'But you can't do that. I spend my life nagging my kids to stop watching 'The Simpsons' and knuckle down to their homework. What am I supposed to do now ?'
'I know, Sir. We are very sorry for the inconvenience and upset caused.'
'Never mind that. Don't you realise we are halfway through a series of Lost ?'
'Yes. I know, Sir. I also enjoy that never ending, inane, tedious, frustrating and yet somehow compelling series. If it's any consolation, I will now have to go round our Shirley's in St Helens every Wednesday night and make smalltalk with her idiotic husband just to get my weekly fix. Come to think of it, I might move to Sky.'
'How much refund will I get for the loss of the Sky channels ?'
'Refund, Sir ? Err, well I'm not sure about that, Sir. You see, we really didn't expect it to come to this. However you can always watch 'Little Britain' and 'Spooks' on the newly launched Video On Demand. The marketing lady thinks you might like to call it VOD.'
'Sod VOD. I'm sorry but that's simply not good enough. Please may I speak to Richard Branston ?'
'Sorry - do you mean Richard Branson ?'
'Yeah. That's him. The chap in a white wedding dress with a silly beard.'
'I'm sorry. That won't be possible. Maybe I can help ?'
'Can you get a message to Richard ?'
'Err, well, I'll try, Sir.'
'Has he got Sky One in his palatial Oxford mansion ?'
'Of course. I went there on my induction week. He's also got Sky Plus and a dodgy descrambler from eBay hooked up to receive satellite channels to follow the South American Ballooning Championships.'
'Can you ask him whether I would be breaching the Terms and Conditions by using a BitTorrent client to download the remaining episodes of 'Lost' ?'
'Certainly, Sir. Anything else I can help you with regarding your drastically reduced Virgin Media services tonight ? Perhaps you would like to downgrade your Internet connection to 56K dialup (free modem) for the same money. Or maybe I can tempt with with increased telephone charges to mobile numbers ?'
'Yeah, well actually there is something. Please can I speak to Uma ?'
'Sorry, Sir. Do you have a surname with that ?'
'Thurman. Uma Thurman.'