Review of TV program 2001-03-18: The Making of For The Stars
2001-03-20
- Nick Ratcliffe

 

The Making of For The Stars

The South Bank Show last night (was) on ITV here in the UK. The show was an hour long (from 10.45pm to 11.45pm). It was mostly filmed in Stockholm, showing EC and ASVO(!) recording the new LP. Various critics popped up from time to time to "explain" EC's eclectic choice of collaborators. EC himself and ASVO were interviewed separately explaining how they came to be working together.

The programme was also punctuated by clips of EC doing other things, for instance a bit from the 1981 South Bank Show showing EC recording Cry, Cry, Cry with Billy Sherrill in Nashville. A bit from an early Attractions performance of Oliver's army to show how it stole the piano theme from Abba's Dancing Queen. Benny Andersson from ABBA was also shown playing piano in the studio, as ASVO recorded an Abba song - Like an angel passing through my room.

We also saw old footage of the Beach boys singing "Don't talk, put your head on my shoulder". We were also treated to a clip of EC singing "Baby plays around" from (I think) the BBC Late show programme on Spike. This was interspersed with ASVO singing the same song, with help from EC. Other bits I can remember was an extract from "Toledo" as performed with BB in the Sessions from West 54th street (or whatever it is called). There was also a few minutes of a live daytime performance in Stockholm in February with ASVO and EC singing No wonder (an EC composition), backed by a lot of bearded swedes, including a percussionist.

We also got a section on how EC had written words to a tune by a Swedish Composer (Svante Henryson) and the result was "Green song", all about someone leaving the countryside and a dark incident to live in the city.

Trivia corner - Elvis wore hats throughout, either it really is cold in Sweden, or he is anxious about his bald patch! At one point in the studio footage, we see EC resting his head on his right hand. On the back of his hand in biro, the word Nieve is clearly visible along with two others that I missed!