Channel 4's history of House

(oh sod i was going to video this)

the 1st ep i saw was ok, but it did suffer from repetition, the pacing was odd, plus of course the people involved (interestinf though they are) do NOT have faces for telly. keep them physically in the dark.

1st episode was great, 2nd not so good - seemed to lose the strong narrative and interviewed loads of dull people (e.g. Orbital) or obscure duds (MC Kinky).

disagree with the 'not faces for tv comment', at least not in the first programme - Marshall Jefferson was hilarious, and seemed really nice. Derrick May was amusingly pretentious, and totally in love with himself. Farley Jackmaster Funk and Jesse Saunders were cool too...

The first episode was good because it managed to follow a narative - i.e. the evolution of disco into Chicago house. The second was a bit of a nightmare because it kept jumping about all over the place. I suppose this is unavoidable because the whole thing exploded and went of in too many directions.

Best thing I've learnt so far - Ron Hardy's club was so mad because he was high on smack and all the music seemed slow to him!

I really enjoyed the first 2 episodes. The series is intelligent and I like the way it has not tried to cram too much in (but I suspect episode 3 will fall into this trap). The programmes have given a real insight into the personalities involved in the early Chicago scene. I've gone back to a lot of those Trax recordings and have heard them in a new light.

Back in the 80s I first heard house music (mainly of the acid variety) via alternative music radio programmes. I didn't experience it as a pop phenomenon. Hearing the interview with Jamie Principle and seeing the clip of Darryl Pandy on "Top of the Pops" brought it home to me for the first time how important the vocalists were. Previously I'd thought of house music as the work of auteur producers.