I've just started watched We Are Lady Parts on the Channel 4 All-4-Player and am really enjoying it, despite having to battle through quite a bit of "They're Getting It Wrong" FURY. For LO! just like pretty much every television show or film about Being In A Band EVER it appears that the people involved have not really BEEN in a band and have almost - but not quite - no clue how it works.
I think it's the Not Quite-ness that annoyed me most, because there are some bits that DO completely get it, like when they're actually playing a song and LOOKING at each other. People in bands LOOK at each other all the time, in my case usually to see whose fault it is that something sounds wrong and then realising it was ME, but also to say "HA! This is GRATE!" That bit feels TRUE and is lovely, but goodness me the actual MECHANICS of most band stuff fall into exactly the same ERRORS that ALL such fictional band stories do, most notably in the way that they write songs together. In one of the episodes I've watched so far the band write a new song by JUST STARTING TO PLAY IT. Nobody says "hang on, what are the chords here?", nobody stops after three bars because they've started at the wrong speed, nobody tries to interrupt by playing a FALL bassline, and worst of all they just write the words there and then taking it in TURNS so to do.
The only time it EVER happens like that is when Paul McCartney does it in "Get Back" which a) is AMAZING b) is a rare and wonderful thing done by an all-time genius and c) will, I greatly fear, only encourage every other music programmes for the next three thousand years to do it the same way.
This has been going on FOREVER - a key historical example is in the film "The Doors" when one of them says "Hey, how about this for an idea for a song?" and just REELS OFF the intro to "Light My Fire" and then we CUT TO THAT EVENING where they've written and learnt the whole thing perfectly. THAT IS INCORRECT. Why oh why oh why can't they ever show the TRUTH, which would involve weeks of Thinking Of A Clever Rhyme In The Shower, writing down lots of different versions, spending HOURS trying to work out what the chords are, and then taking it to a band practice and spending 98% of the time taking the piss out of each other before trying the song, doing it wrong, worrying about it for a MONTH, and then just about getting to the end of it after several goes the next time. I mean, I am not a Hollywood Producer but that sounds like BOX OFFICE GOLD to me!
However, once I managed to CALM DOWN about all that vital and important stuff it was actually really good. I have watched quite a few of The Young Person Sitcoms over the past couple of years, usually on Channel 4, and they ALL seem to have two things in common. Firstly they are all ABOUT something and have SERIOUS ISSUES and UNREPRESENTED COMMUNITIES - I guess you need to have these to get anywhere with the posh people from extremely over-represented communities who commision everything in The Arts. Secondly, they are then all SURPRISINGLY LOVELY. SO many of these shows go "Prepare for THORTS being PROVOKED!" and then give you a lovely soppy twenty minutes about fundamentally delightful young people who really like and support each other, and I am VERY MUCH here for that sort of thing.
Having said THAT though, I did almost stop watching altogether when they went to an "audition" for a Battle Of The Bands that was PRECISELY UNLIKE ANY Battle Of The Bands that has ever existed, but I bravely ploughed through and am back to enjoying it again. I just hope there's an episode soon where they have an lengthy discussion about the difference between MCPS and PRS. This is the good stuff!
