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Zappa's 200 Motels at The Southbank Royal Festival Hall

Started by Retinend, October 11, 2013, 02:18:21 PM

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Retinend

http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whatson/frank-zappas-200-motels-71696

Anyone interested in this? I don't really understand the description, but I'm going. I thought that 200 Motels was a film (more a long music video) with a score, rather than a piece of music designed to be played as kind of opera. Anyway, it's very good album and not a bad film at all (especially that black-haired groupie who used to hang around all the time back then...) so I'm excited for this. I don't know if they'll try to follow the staging of the film or whether they'll make it more professional-looking. There'll be some exclusive historical chat with Gail Zappa at the start too.

The film is a load of bollocks but I've never heard the score isolated, one of the only Zappa albums I've not heard.

Bloody hell, Bridget Christie is in it? That's bizarre.

Maybe.

Don_Preston

If the publicity leads to a reissue of the album, I'll be chuffed. Two new Zappa albums are expected 'soon,' including a Roxy release and another Road Tapes from my favourite line-up with Ponty, the Underwoods etc.

Pepotamo1985

I saw this last night, and it was fucking mesmerising. Played most of the best songs from the soundtrack, removed a lot of the crasser songs (Lonesome Cowboy Burt, She Painted Up Her Face, etc.) and the orchestra was mind-blowingly good. Just splendid to see Frank's compositions played by such a blinding ensemble. Strictly Genteel raised goosebumps. It reminded me of just how much I like Zappa, and I'm going to spend the next week or so listening to nothing but.



And bizarrely, it featured Jessica Stephenson/Hynes of Spaced semi-fame.


massive bereavement

Good to see "200 Motels" is being brought to the attention of a new audience. I had it on VHS in my mid-teens and although I enjoyed it, I did find it all a bit confusing until I revisited it the first time I ever got seriously stoned - then it all made perfect sense.  The DVD release was apparently a bit of a disaster as it used an inferior copy with bits missing. The laser disc version is currently on you tube as one big file.

Pepotamo1985

Quote from: massive bereavement on October 30, 2013, 12:17:48 PM
The DVD release was apparently a bit of a disaster as it used an inferior copy with bits missing.

Disaster is too kind - I'm not the biggest fan of the movie but it's one of the better Zappa films, and pretty much everything about that DVD is so atrocious it borders on offensive.

SOTCAA covered this in quite some detail - http://sotcaa.org/editnews/200-Motels-On-DVD.html. Amidst the froth and exaggerated vitriol there's shedloads of good technical points in there.

Talulah, really!

It's being broadcast this Saturday on BBC Radio 3 at 22.00 in the Hear and Now slot (till midnight), details here,

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03h3kk5

Imagine it will be on iplayer.

Followed at midnight by a portrait of Bill Evans in  Geoffrey Smith's Jazz ahead of next week's Composer of the Week Monday to Friday 12.00 and 18.00. The Miles Davis one is on Monday.