Out On Blue Six: Robert Miles, RIP

DJ and legendary trance producer Robert Miles has died at the age of 47. Reports say he had been suffering with cancer for several months.

Born Roberto Concina, Miles' biggest hit was the 1996 'dream house' club hit Children, a big favourite of mine.

Originally written in response to the images from Bosnia of child victims from the conflict in Yugoslavia, the hit took on a different life when Miles saw the 'Saturday night slaughter' on Italy's roads; numerous car smashes that took the lives of young clubbers returning home from parties. Determined to offer a more sedate, chilled beat to close the night and bring clubbers down enough to drive safely, Miles penned Children; with its natural thunderstorm start and melancholic piano riff, the track made the youth of clubland think and feel nostalgic and reflective, as opposed to still attempting to chase the buzz from earlier in the night.

It remains a beautiful track that hasn't dated a day in the twenty-one years since its release.

RIP

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Out On Blue Six: Orbital

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Loved Up (1995)

After pulling an all-nighter to watch the election results come in and finding myself totally depressed, I needed something to lift my spirits yesterday and that something was a much needed rewatch of the 1995 classic BBC2 film Loved Up.

Written by Ol Parker and directed by Peter Cattaneo, just two years before the surprising success of The Full Monty, Loved Up was a film in a BBC2 season called Love Bites produced in association with the BBC Drama department and Scene, the BBC's education arm, which meant that subsequently, Loved Up was screened several times in the abridged format of two 30 minute episodes for BBC Schools. In fact, you can still see this version on the BBC's Scene website.

Young raver Tom, played by Ian Hart, meets Sarah (Lena Headey) in the cafe in which she works. Sarah has just had a row with her alcoholic mother (Linda Bassett) and, attracted to both Tom and his seemingly easy, assured and optimistic outlook, she is quickly swept up in the clubbing, E popping lifestyle he enjoys, where she finds an escape from all her family pressures.

Loved Up is notable for producing a completely accurate and impartial depiction of the scene at the time. Basically, if you want to know what the 1990s were like, watched Loved Up. It doesn't wag its finger from the moral high ground and it doesn't just depict the club scene as perfect and wholly positive, it just offers a very real snapshot in a balanced, entertaining and informative way - no wonder the Schools programmes picked up on it.

A great cast who have all gone on to better things - Hart, Headey and Jason Isaacs as the dealer Dez 2, as well as smaller roles for Philip Glenister and hell, even the awful Danny Dyer - combined with a fantastic throbbing soundtrack that doesn't fail to lift my spirits from the likes of Leftfield, Orbital, Spooky and The Prodigy makes Loved Up required viewing for anyone with an interest in '90s culture.

Loved Up was released on BBC Video in the '90s but hasn't, to my knowledge, been released onto DVD. It is available to view, unabridged and in full, on YouTube.

To get the BBC to consider repeating some of these classic plays please sign the petition I started here

Theme Time : Massive Attack - House, MD

House MD (or just plain House as it was known here in the UK) was a US medical drama series that ran from 2004 to 2012 and gave British comic Hugh Laurie a turn in his career that no one - certainly not on these shores - ever expected. 

The series theme tune is a bit of a strange one, in that it all depends on which country you watch it!

In America the theme is Massive Attack's 1998 hit Teardrop. But in Europe and in Singapore the theme is a vague approximation of that song and a distinctive soundtrack in its own right.

To prove it, here are the opening credits from each territory

And here are the full length versions of each theme; US, Europe and Singapore (though, oddly in the UK I think we eventually saw the programme with all three themes as the show was subsequently bought and broadcast by various different channels, starting with Hallmark, then Channel 5, then Sky and then various cable channels!)

Out On Blue Six : Wildchild / Fatboy Slim

Chooooooon!

Spurred on by watching Greg Davies' Firing Cheeseballs at a Dog live stand up DVD in which he bemoans being 42 and not being offered a night club flyer with the words "Like I don't know who the renegade master is, D4 damager with the ill behaviour!" 

Song of my teens, the original Wildchild mix and then Fatboy Slim's mix....

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Human Traffic : Remixed (2002)

I've seen Human Traffic before, shortly after its release (so, many moons ago) in fact, but this is actually my first watch of this 'remix'. This version is - I believe -  essentially producer Allan Niblo's cut of the film following a fall out during the film's making with his writer/director protege Justin Kerrigan.

Too long since the original watch to spot any differences I'm afraid.

But, man is this film ever a time capsule! I know people who lived like this. Shit, I kind of lived like this too and I have to tell you it's damn strange to see it now simply as an observer. 

The themes of alienation and having to deal with unemployment or just plain shit employment, living for the weekend when you're in your twenties are palpably real and well created with a suitably anarchic breaking the fourth wall style interposed between the kinetic bombast of images and tunes from the chemical and clubbing culture.

I love the scenes of the alternative national anthem, ranting over pints about shit boy bands, the piece to camera about pill paranoia, the scene where John Simm and Andrew Lincoln (This Life, Afterlife) say to one another what they really think, Nicola Reynolds (later to appear in Ideal) doorstep press conference about joining the two million unemployed and 'looking forward to getting into some hardcore Richard and Judy', Howard Marks' 'spliff politics' cameo, Danny Dyer and Coupling's Richard Coyle's 'Star Wars is a drug film' talk and the overall believability of the group on screen. It really is great casting.

Essentially this is how we used to live circa the end of the 20th Century/start of the 21st. Christ, when did we get so sodding old?!

PS Danny Dyer was an irritating soppy cunt even back then. But at least he was playing one here.

PPS beyond the 90s fashions, Lorraine Pilkington was gorgeous...and clearly talented too

Out On Blue Six : The Orb

Little Fluffy Clouds

One of those ambient house tracks you never tire of, The Orb's hit features the vocals of Rickie Lee Jones as she reminisces about the skylines she recalls from her youth. It was sampled from an interview disc that accompanied her album Flying Cowboys. The track also samples Ennio Morricone's classic score The Man With The Harmonica from the epic spaghetti western Once Upon A Time In The West.

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Out On Blue Six : Rhythm is Rhythm

Manchester vibes in the area!

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