BEATLES ALERT: This post was prepared in a factory that handles Beatles music. If you suffer from Beatles allergy, look away now.
Many of you will remember the contributions of magicman, and he is missed on RR by many of us. Some of you will be aware that he is a renowned film and TV actor, based in Brighton, and that he is also a leading light and prime mover in the Brighton Beach Boys, a tribute band. They have been going for ten years, and for the last five of them, have staged an annual award winning Brighton Festival event, Pet Sounds versus Sgt. Pepper. This involves them playing both albums in their entirety, to a packed church in Kemptown.
Given the studio-complexity of both albums, they enlist the help of the Psychedelic Love Orchestra, to provide string and wind back up.
I love Brighton Festival, and took the opportunity to see magicman in action, and enjoy a brief chat with him about RR/spill, Dorian, African and black American music, and the pleasure he gets from being in the Brighton Beach Boys. In an ensemble 15 strong, he is the only one who is not a professional musician, but you wouldn’t know it from his dexterity on sax, keyboards and vocals. I enjoyed meeting and chatting to him,
I have to admit that this is not normally the sort of thing I go to – I don’t think I’ve ever seen a tribute band before, and I’m not into nostalgia, with so much great music in the here and now. I felt a bit like my gran going to see Vera Lynn do wartime songs when the war was a distant memory. But having said that, I enjoyed the evening immensely in a guilty pleasures sort of way, and the band do a great job. And the audience was drawn from all age groups, not just wrinklies like me!
Here’s a few clips I took at the gig for your delectation (magicman is the one in the hat, and then hatless for ‘Within you, without you’). Given that the venue was a church, we start fittingly with ‘God only knows’. The second youtube is a short vid from LatestTV, with magicman talking about the band.
That‘s magicman?! I’m sure I’ve also been impressed by him as an actor. Hats off time!
He was awesome as the robot in Alien & did a good Bilbo Baggins.
(That should make him appear).
That’s just mean, Shoey!
Funny … but mean.
Don’t think he’ll mind too much. Miss him being around (& I’m not fond of Beach Boys or Beatles).
If we’re allowed to have Spill favorites, Magic fits into that category, one of my Spill hero’s. Great stuff mate, wish I could have been there and thanks to GHE for the post.
Wow! GHE – Great post! Thanks. As I’ve said previously I don’t want to see anyone leave & truly missed Magicman on Summer topic weekend. Would love to see his reappearance crafty asides and all. BTW I’ve seen at least two of these movies & now Brighton’s on my wish list. There’s a bunch having a grand time.
That’s so awesome! I wish that he’d come back. I checked out his wiki page, and i certainly remember him as Dave in The Crying Game, i loved that movie. Imagine we had a star with us on RR all this time.
Thanks, GHE.
I don’t know if this is a good thing to share or not, but I’ve been bursting to share this for ages: DsD knew magicman’s secret identity before probably any of us did and I’ve always been so impressed that he didn’t try to use it in any way. Not even any ”I know something you don’t” hints. If you have secrets, they’re safe with DsD.
(My worry is what dossier he has built on me! All I can say in my defence, should it ever come out, is that the line between admiring and stalking is a very, very fine one.)
Remember last year when he was in South Africa for all that time? Wiki says what he was up to then.
*reaches for the file marked tcm:vol3 to add to the notes*
Did you get my email about how I like long walks on the beach, bubble baths and cuddling?
Well, he’s not gonna reappear now he’s been outed! Props to magicman – had no idea of his ‘celebrity’ status. Not that it makes much odds; he’ll always be magicman to me. I miss him being around.
So do I – in his non-bullying days
Rubbing some people the wrong way is not the same as bullying. You really don’t need to go there.
Actually belittling other posters is bullying and we do need to go there any time it happens on RR or the Spill, no matter who does it.
Crap
We appear to have numerous tincanmen in our midst? Which is the real one and which the impostor?!
On RR you can report “bullying” & other infractions & have the offending post removed.
We all have each others e-mail & can e-mail off line to sort out register any perceived slights.
Or you can look the other way, as a lot of these things are often misinterpreted or unintended.
Start going all Clint Eastwood on someone & you often end up looking just as bad as the original infraction.
Disagree? You have my e-mail.
Bish – I didn’t ‘out’ him – I asked him beforehand if it was ok to do a post, and he has since said he’s fine with it…
I was only teasing, ghe. I wouldn’t have expected anything less of you. Sorry – realised straight after posting that it might come across as narky/critical but didn’t follow it up as I didn’t want to look paranoid!
Jesus! Danny from Withnail & I is without doubt one of the finest cameo parts in any film (as its reprise in Wayne’s World 2 acknowledges). I also remember watching that BBC Ivanhoe and commenting on how good Prince John was, though I had no idea it was the same person.
I remember various short-lived magicman departures, but I think I missed his final flounce. Shame – I always knew I’d enjoy his recommendations.
Gosh, a really famous person.
It is like 6 steps to Kevin Bacon here.
Us -> were in The ‘Spill with Magicman -> who was in The Crying Game with Forest Whitaker -> who was in The Air I Breathe with Kevin Bacon
magicman and I never did get on, unfortunately, but I certainly agree with the sentiment that we are a missing an opinion without his presence.
“…we are
amissing…”I’m also a non participant at RR so I’ve no idea what the ‘missing’ is all about, he’s still one of us right?
Just noticed that he was in series 2 of Nighty-Night (as the new age therapist/perv). He knows comedy royalty! We are not worthy!
The guy must have a strong personality to succeed at what he does. I suppose it shouldn’t really be a surprise that he also has the capacity to nudge the occasional nose out of joint (including mine once, I think).
Well, all those drugs must have taken their toll so it’s no surprise that – wait, am I blurring boundaries between iconic fictional character, the actor playing him and the blogging alternative identity? It’s just too meta-textual. But that sure beats Gilbert O’Sullivan writing to Maddy about not getting listed or Jonathan King flouncing onto RR in the stakes of celebrity shoulders we’ve rubbed. Great sleuthing, ghe!
Wow! Who knew!
(oh, yeah, DsD did)
That is a surprise! It’s funny he’d tell us about the Brighton Beach Boys but not about being a movie star, isn’t it?
He resisted signing up for dropbox for ages and even then was very very leary about his email address getting out. I didn’t think anything of it because others have been, too. Much later when he told me who he was I realized he wanted to be able to speak freely musically; it would take the fun out of RR if you ever thought people were donding or picking your songs because they wanted to get into your britches, so to speak. (Not that I would ever know LMAO)
He never ever that I know of tried to trade on his celebrity. We disagreed on order of play of Earworms a few times, but his argument was always musical rather than ”I’m a celebrity, get me into here.” And I don’t think he ever tried it on RR either.
So respect for that. And respect for his musical acumen, for sure.
I agree with everyone that he is missed. I’d love to have him back and ever wanted him to leave. But I will continue to speak out about bullying behaviour by anybody every time I see it.
My supremest apologies to GHE for even mentioning this yesterday and sidetracking a great post.
Real identities are something that those of us who have been involved in the collaborative side of posting here do come across at times. I was aware of magicman’s identity through a combination of hints dropped by him and the email address he used for his contributions. It’s a responsibility we all share not to let this sort of info out and one I believe that everyone understands and has exercised in all cases.
I use a dedicated email account for all my RR / Spill activity (not that my real life identity is any secret or even worth knowing) and would recommend anyone worried about identity issues does the same.
As for magicman – I did ask recently if he’d like to take part in earworms again and was told in no uncertain terms that no, he wouldn’t. A shame. We rarely saw eye to eye but that doesn’t mean I’m not missing him as others so obviously are as well. I suppose he may well be reading this post at some stage. If he is, I hope he will accept my warmest regards and my admiration both for what I already knew about his career and the contents of the video, which I have enjoyed enormously.
Just to stress, re identities, that as remarked above, I did the post with magicman’s knowledge and assent…
Aware of that GHE. I was just musing in response to tin’s comment. It didn’t cross my mind that magic wasn’t aware of this.
All you had to do was go to the Brighton Beach Boys website and you’d see s profile with his acting credits.
doh!
Vera Lynn was one hell of a singer…
Phew, back on safe ground. Yes she was, BOK.
Night night, all. You’re all my favourites. x
It is very interesting to see we also have famous people here from other areas of the arts who are interested in music. The Brighton Beach Boys are interesting band and look like they are trying to do some innovative things and not just be a covers band, well done to them.
Of course I do not know the acting work of magic man but he has an impressive cv for sure!!!
Maybe one day he will comment or nominate again on RR or here. I think it must be very hard to completely step away…I am sure he is lurking out there wishing to contribute!!!
You should check out “Withnail and I”, Sakura. It is a classic British film (of its time, anyway). And magic’s character is certainly one of its highlights.
You can see his showreel.
Tremendous actor, I must say.
Also, screening “Withnail…” is the McFlah family christmas eve tradition!
We have so many talented folk on RR, it would nice to see some posts about the work of our other stars – clips of steen’s movies, rockingmitch on stage, SOWC gig on a Dutch schooner – the list is endless. C’mon, spillers, don’t be shy….
The 4 Lads From Liverpool?
I was moved and thrilled by GHE’s post, and it was great to see him at the concert. Thanks for the warm review Paul, the show is a true labour of love.
The comments below the post have turned into a review of my ‘secret identity’ which was never a secret, it was just never relevant or important. I long ago learned not to drop names, etc into conversations where they didn’t belong. It’s just self-regarding and stupid. Those who asked or were curious were told. Others found out. It matters little.**
The band was relevant a few times which is why it was raised on the blog. (steenbeck et al) I had no issue whatsoever with people either knowing or not knowing “who I was”, and I still don’t. I have been an actor for 30 years and I have got used to being me, with all the pitfalls, embarrassments, humiliations and misunderstandings.
But nevertheless, I thank you for the kind remarks on my acting, which has been showcased above by a kind soul, some of which I am very proud of.
Right – sorry bishbosh – marshy ground ahead…
DsD – I didn’t think that we “didn’t get on”. I just think you assumed things that weren’t true a few times but I never held that against you. We don’t have the same musical taste, but neither do Shoegazer and I, who turns out to be my unexpected legal assistant.
If RR was a country I would call for a public enquiry.
I do truly feel that I was bullied off the blog. My comments may have been snide or waspish from time to time, (I’m a sarcastic bugger and I like chilli in spag bol) but never directed at an individual’s personality or style or anything other than simply taking issue with their posting. Tincanman’s absurdly righteous reaction to me (still evident above as the original knee-jerk reaction, later retracted, kind of, but not really) was both abusive and personal and went way beyond anything I was supposed to have done or said. My comments are always about the music, or the vibe and never went personal. Never belittled anyone. Was actually belittled myself, but I’m a big boy and it wasn’t the first time and won’t be the last. Why Tincanman feels that he has the right to issue personal abuse at me and then have the over-enthusiasm to dress it up as a karmic police act (to protect the grown-ups discussing music) was what made me leave the blog and what keeps me away.
I have my theories but they’re best kept to myself, instinct tells me.
Oh, and nine other people also agreed with his original abusive comment and clicked ‘recommend’ which kind of helped. It also meant Tincanman didn’t have to question his position as self-styled bully vigilante. Clearly I have irritated (at the very least) enough people on the blog for them to click on a post which asks me to “take my personal issues elsewhere”.
thus Readers Recommended magicman take his personal issues elsewhere. Fine. I did.
I’ve never worked out who the nine are because it started to get rather hurtful, but I know one of them was Maki, and I thank him for his comments above on both my work and my band. No offence meant or taken (any longer).
There are many more things I could say about this, but sometimes things are best left unsaid.**
But I’m afraid you have a zealot in your midst and it ain’t me babe, no no no it ain’t me you’re lookin for.
Babe.
Oh and I don’t have an issue with “people wanting to get into my britches” either Tincanman. It’s part of my life I’m afraid and I’ve learned to smell a rat a mile off. But I don’t want to subject your faintly warped views on my profession to any further scrutiny.
I am passionate about music and enjoyed my time on RR. It is essentially a lovely community, with a great many learned and passionate, not to say eloquent contributors and there is a great deal of kindness.
“Whatever”
Hey. The rest of you – all the love is appreciated and felt, and if you have my email address get in touch if you feel moved to do so. If you don’t, ask goneforeign, amylee or fintan.
You know I got embroiled in the Magicgate scandal – but I only ticked the box in a reflex fit of pique
for the ‘Stick to the day job’ flippant critique.
Anyway – great acting… as I said then, you should have stayed – everyone has differing voices and typing styles.. I’ve become a right ranting bore to make up for your missing posts.
On a completely different note:
I know you wouldn’t of liked the music (I realised too late that our tastes were incompatible and I had already produced the artwork) but did you ever receive the ‘Ghosts’ ‘spill stake package? It boggled my mind that someone with quite a vocal opinion wouldn’t comment about it – I guess it just went missing.
Hope the original material went well for the band at The Festival.
Laters – shane.
It’s awfully nice to see that beautiful icon again. I’m still hoping that you won’t let a few posters keep you off the Spill and the mothership in the future. Not enough soul noms now.
Hey, Magic! Good to hear from you.
There are no stupid recommend buttons on the ‘Spill to misuse or hide behind & we only have hostilities here every 17 months or so (followed by group hug & fence mending). Don’t be a stranger, it’s too much fun.
Your call.
DsD – I didn’t think that we “didn’t get on”. I just think you assumed things that weren’t true a few times but I never held that against you. Yeah, probably true dat. Jumping to conclusions is about the most strenuous exercise I get these days.
We don’t have the same musical taste, but neither do Shoegazer and I, who turns out to be my unexpected legal assistant.
Off out to enjoy the sun now.
MM – I’ve just seen your post & it’s great to have your feline visage peering out at me again. Sorry to hear you still wish to stay away though as I miss the passion of your posts. I can understand your feelings though. I thought Tin had overstepped the line during the foreign language weekend in that at least one & probably two of your excerpts he used I felt were meant more as advice to people struggling with the topic. I may have missed an opportunity to speak then but Shoe made such a solid defense later in the weekend I settled for merely ticking the recommend button. The problem with excerpts is they are out of context & may have led to the Nazgul (the nine) ticking Tin’s recommend button more as an agreement to the form we would like to maintain on the RR than a direct condemnation. Problem is there is no way to ascertain these things. Which brings me to the point. I felt so depressed reading the reaction above to GHE’s wonderful post (maybe he needs to think about changing to glasshalffull) I went back and read nearly the entire Foreign Language week of posts. It served to reinforce my impression that you were having considerably more fun than most with that topic as evidenced by your prolific amount of noms. None of your posts rose (at least for me & I try to approach people with an assumption of good intention) to the level of personal maligning. I don’t feel one can ever be 100% sure they’re able to infer someone’s true intent from the black & white words staring at us from a computer screen & therefore it’s advisable to proceed with caution. As Shoe pointed out the week before you had called a foul on yourself for a post that got beyond your intent. My read was of someone trying to remain aboveboard the next week. I would offer the same expectation of good intent to Tin who clearly feels passionately about the RR & may have seen only a negative tone to your post. Only he can answer that one. I’ve clearly rambled on way too long here. I had hoped with time you would return to share your fine sense of music with us but can understand your trepidation in doing so. My best wishes & keep us in your thoughts. PS – Now that I know your true identity I’d just like to say – & no offense intended- You’re acting is fine but bugger all it’s you’re musical knowledge has me in awe. Cheers!
Hello, Magic! Nice to hear your distinctive voice again. I hope you know I didn’t mean that as a criticism about telling us about the BB Boys and not being a movie star. Of course it makes sense given the musical connection, but my first reaction was that it was so sweet that the BB Boys meant so much to you!
Enjoyed your reel very much.
I just also want to say to GHE…thank you for being such a kind and generous person! I always enjoy the posts in which you share your experiences round and about, and you’re so supportive of everybody you encounter!! Thank you.
There’s something happening here and I for one don’t appreciate it.
Earlier Steenbeck posted a comment at June 1, 2011 at 4:09 pm
‘It’s funny he’d tell us about the Brighton Beach Boys but not about being a movie star, isn’t it?’
I responded at June 1, 2011 at 5:08 pm
“All you had to do was go to the Brighton Beach Boys website and you’d see his profile with his acting credits.’
It was posted immediately below Steen’s.
Now when I scan the list of comments someone has chosen to insert Tincan’s June 1, 2011 at 10:21 pm , Maki’s June 1, 2011 at 10:34 pm, GHE’s June 1, 2011 at 11:29 pm, Maki’s
June 1, 2011 at 11:32 pm so that my comment which is a direct response to Steen’s has been displaced and is not relevant to anything!
Who has the authority to edit these comments in this way and to totally change the meaning and placement of comments? And what was the justification of inserting those four comments out of sequence? What was gained by that?
This is becoming commonplace here, I complained about it some weeks ago to no effect, if my comments are going to be displaced I’d like to get an email notifying me and justifying the move before it happens. Plus I’d like to know who’s doing it.
GOneforeign – nobody is moving comments around (I don’t think.) It’s all about the way wordpress organizes responses to comments. If somebody makes a comment you want to respond to particularly, you click on the word “reply” in green, up on the right by the date. Then your comment will scoot in up against theirs. And this comment will appear next to that comment even if somebody else makes a NEW comment immediately after. Does that make sense? That’s why comments seem to be staggered and tiered on WordPress. It can be quite confusing, I know.
And I understood that your comment was addressed to me, but I have to say that I’ve never googled a ‘Spiller or any information about them, ever. So I wouldn’t have looked up Magic’s band, or gone on to look up information about him. I know most people’s real names, but I’d never try to find out more about them that they haven’t already told us. I’m sure he wouldn’t have minded us looking up BB Boys, but I just wouldn’t have done it.
Some years ago Magic mentioned his association with the BB band and he also mentioned that they had a website, I was interested primarily because he plays the alto sax so I checked the site and read all the details, there was also a page with a bio of each band member and on it it listed Magic’s background plus his acting credits, it was never a secret, I thought everyone knew about it particularly when the was a lot of discussion about Withnail at one point.
Someone is moving comments around, just look at the timestamp on the comments list, I have no doubt that my comment was immediately below yours, I saw it there. plus the four that were inserted between your comment and mine were not relevant to either. You seem to be suggesting that it’s automatic and controlled by WordPress, I think not.
Here’s my 2nd & later reply to your 4:47 post, using the “reply” button.
Here’s my 1st reply to your 4:47 post, not punching the “reply” button. Spooky isn’t it?
I have way too much time on my hands
Shoey is right.
Also, there’s only one person who has the ability to edit comments. That’s me. And I rarely, if ever, do so.
Then just tell me how those four comments were inserted, you only have to look at the time stamp to see that they were, It’s not just this one instance, it happens all the time, if not Blimpy then who, someone is shuffling the order and my irritation is because I’d like to know why. Shoey, your 1st and 2nd comments prove nothing, my initial comment was was directly related to a question that Steen asked and it appeared right below it, are you saying that Tinny’s comment about dropbox et al was posted as a specific response to that question also and that he chose to hit ‘reply’? That makes no sense.
GF – on your browser can you see a green “reply” button above your avatar? Click on that…then type a comment in the box and hit “post comment.” You’ll see that it’s inserted before some comments that were posted earlier. Give it a try…
You can tell from the indents that they were all replies to steen, or replies to the replies to her. If you don’t want your response to get separated from the original comment, you have to hit reply, otherwise anyone can knock you off your perch!!
@GF- it’s possible the heirarchy isn’t visible to you, depending on how you view comments. If you post a comment to a thread it will be appended to the end. However it is also possible to “reply” to specific posts, in which case you’ll begin a sub-thread (or “branch”) to which others can add their comments; these get “inserted” into the chain rather than being added at the end, so chronological order is not retained.
To “reply” to someone’s comment, you need to hit the “reply” button above their avatar.
Because the comments are stacked vertically this is only apparent through the “indents”, which are visible if you call up the thread itself. Think of it as a tree which has been compressed into a single vertical line; comments referring to the main trunk get added “on top”, whereas comments which are linked to “branches” get inserted into the chain at the appropriate place. So if you comment generally on the thread, and someone “replies” to the post before yours, their comment will be inserted between yours and the preceding one, thus apparently “changing” the order.
OK, Alright, you win, as someone once sang in a soon to be released blues post.
I’m convinced and I appreciate all the trouble you took to clarify this to my paranoid persona.
The main issue for me was not the importance of my comment re. Steen’s which was fairly trivial but rather Tinny’s comment appearing where it didn’t seem relevant to the question at all, but I accept your explanation and realising that he’s sort of Canadianish and as such we tend to allow a bit of latitude to our north-of-the border brethren; if he thinks it fits, then so be it. ‘Nuff said, and now where did you say that green button was, I need to start practicing.