Q Magazine publishes its final issue this month
ending 34 years of music coverage, a victim of the pandemic lockdown which made
it impossible to sell the last few issues though it had falling readership even
before this happened. In some ways, Q was like the Top of the Pops of magazines showcasing whatever was popular. While it never had the bite of the old style
weekly music press it made itself an indispensable successor as those papers
fell away one by one. It was less
inclined to push new artists onto success as the weekly papers had done, rather
it watched established acts develop. With excellent access even to the most
elusive stars they were able to remain across the pop axis with aplomb adopting
a breezy but often forensic approach that both informed and entertained. They
even got an interview with Prince once, albeit one in which the interviewer was
not allowed to take notes.
Q journalists also
painted the more human side of stars while retaining an objective opinion of
their music. This was not the place for scathing reviews, often it felt as if
the reviewer was disappointed at a weak album. Q never stuck too rigidly to one
genre allowing it to slide easily across all areas while keeping the writing
lively and not too technical. Visually it made the very best of the format with
excellent photography and layout supporting the variety on offer each issue.
Until an artistic revival over the past 3 years, Q did lose its way for a while falling for
the easy option of lists and summary features rather than the in depth profiles
it did so well. Its demise leaves just two mainstream music magazines- Select
and Mojo – both of which tend to be drier and more serious chroniclers of music
history rather than having an interest in its future. Q had a wider remit and a more satisfying
balance of past, present and future. Its demise also highlights the rise I suppose of blogs like this and all other self produced material. We're all experts now and the role of entertainment journalists may be on the way out when anyone can find a platform for their views. If any of us could write as well or eloquently as Q's best work it would be something but this seems like another little shove towards the ordinary. Like all good things, we’ll miss it now it
is gone.
One week on
last year’s series of Strictly Come
Dancing, when they announced the social media feeds you could use, a new
one was included- TikTok. Even the
normally savvy Claudia Winkelman said the name as if she had no idea what it
was. The very next week the Strictly TikTok mention was absent and was never
referred to again. Was this because the BBC were tipped off that they had
unknowingly picked up a political hot potato? TikTok is the latest social media
thing to get people worked up - this year’s Snapchat if you will. It’s rather
similar to the defunct Vine in that it showcases short video clips shot on
smartphones mainly it seems of people re-creating dances. Successive cultural
developments are always blamed for adversely affecting young people; whether it
was rock and roll or videos or electronic games or social media, the
instinctive reaction seems to be to criticise them. Then about five years later
they become mainstream and everyone likes them! With TikTok though matters have
gone further. Of course older people don’t see the point of something that
offers functionality similar to SnapChat or even YouTube but the real arguments
seems to hinge on the fact that this is something that originated in China. It’s
not especially new, and was created as far back as 2012 though it wasn’t
launched outside the country till 2017. Growth since has been rapid to the
point where there are now TikTok `stars` who earn a living from their videos in
the same way that YouTubers do.
Like Huawei,
TikTok is now seen a tool of the Chinese authorities whose alleged subversive
aims have made it the number one enemy as far as Donald Trump’s somewhat
scattershot approach to foreign policy is concerned. Perhaps the US thinks
China’s aim is to cause us all to spend so much time dancing and singing we’ll
not notice them take over. There is a lot of hypocrisy over the claims that
Chinese tech is somehow there to infiltrate and undermine our society as if the
UK and US governments would never consider such espionage themselves! Every
major power is up to their eyeballs in spyware, covert surveillance and
technological interference, let’s not believe China is any different than we or
the US are. It seems unfair to labour something as fun as TikTok with such a
burden. After all it wasn’t that long ago that Twitter was viewed with some
suspicion- and now it is the communication tool of choice for one Donald Trump…
I must confess
to being underwhelmed by Gerald Durrell’s famous book `My Family and other
Animals` when we did it at school but pleasingly The Durrells is an altogether livelier tale. Now finished after
four seasons it had passed me by till it turned up as one of the many old
series being repeated during the pandemic. Based on a trilogy Durrell penned, the series’
key decision was making Gerald’s mother Louise the central character. Adapted by SImon Nye, whose work is always
enjoyable, (Is It Legal? Is one of my
favourite sitcoms) the series plays as a spirited characterful drama. I’d
hesitate to call is a typical Sunday night drama though, it has more energy
than that. The brilliant cast is led by Keeley Hawes. Louise is a whirlwind being
both free spirited yet also a worrier. Doing her best while trying to have a
life for herself Keeley Hawes is a triumph in the role and this makes the whole
story roll along easily.
Josh O’Connor
is frequently funny as Larry whose writing has made him somewhat prone to
elitism but crucially he’s there for the family when needed and over the course
of the series grows into a surrogate father figure. Daisy Waterstone is excellent
as precocious daughter Margo whose rebellious spirit brings her into the employ
of an agoraphobic countess (played by movie legend Leslie Caron!). Callum Woodhouse gets the broadest comedy as
hapless Callum the gun toting brother who is “really unlucky” and during the
course of just six episodes manages to end up in jail twice, get bitten and
endures humiliation from the girl he meets in the village. It’s a gem of a part
and the actor has a lot of fun with it. Gerald Durrell, ably played by Milo
Parker is the quietest character spending his time collecting animals and
pleasingly the script does address the rights and wrongs of such a pastime. Though it is often played for laughs, the
series does have something to say about family life and the struggle to
establish yourself in a different culture.
Along the way
we meet numerous Greek eccentrics, and this brings us into the culture though
whether the people who really live there would mind being depicted as so shouty
I’m not sure. The landscape is of course another star of the show being as warm
and colourful as you’d expect. Moreover in these hard times it is escapist
entertainment that I would unashamedly recommend if you want to a break from the depressing `New Normal`.
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