The Barry Williams Show


Last update: 12th September 2005

Previous Titles


Notes

This may be the track that the Spencer Bright biography described as being "about Jerry Springer style talk show hosts."

The Virgin press release says "There is dark humour in 'The Barry Williams Show' which explores the outer limits of reality TV and the marriage of dysfunctional behaviour and mass television."

Richard Chappell on the production, "The treated loop I did on this came out of the 3/4 drum tracks that we had put down -- as we did for every track -- and me going, 'right, what can we do to make it different and right?' So I took some Manu parts and looped them up and started to treat them with some samplers and put them back on hard disk. I think you can just play with things and see what happens."


Peter's Comments

"I’ve watched quite a few reality TV shows and talk shows. It’s a little bit like going to the Coliseum and watching guys getting chewed up by the lions. It’s entertainment, but it’s also like junk food. You go in there really wanting it and feel sick at the end of it. It’s good to watch what we consume, because it reflects who we are."

On the difficuly of getting airplay due to the subject matter, "That's a good question, and it didn't occur to me at the time. Because seeing what gets on TV and into newspapers, I thought that this would have no trouble. But already I'm being asked by the English record company to replace a few words with loops or run words backward...explain to me how that's going to be less offensive?"

On the different mood in this track, compared with the rest of the album, "In some ways it's more outside observation and less of an internal track. But somehow sonically it still feels of the same palette."

"I think we're probably just beginning with reality television in some ways. I can enjoy watching it myself sometimes, but it's a little like junk food - after consuming it, you feel like shit. And you're just conscious that some people's suffering is turned into advertising dollars, and it doesn't always feel very good."

"It's remarkable to witness what people will do for a slice of fame."

"It's old, tired and out of fashion, but at the time I was writing it, it was occupying a lot of people's diet. Based on the principle that you are what you watch it's quite interesting sometimes that there's an edge of that behavior which I'm certainly not above."

On The Video

"I'm meeting tomorrow with Sean Penn, who'll direct it. So yeah, hopefully it will still have some balls."

"I like his films a lot..this track should have a dark edge to it, and he definitely knows how to get that."

On the concept for the video, "I was getting the tour ready, so this is very much the director Sean Penn’s baby. He heard the song, and sent me some ideas. There was a line in the song where I say, 'This display of emotion is all but drowning me.' That reminded Sean of a line from Gabriel Garcia Marquez, where he talks about being on a boat in an ocean of blood and watching his family float past. Nice, cheerful stuff! So that was put into the TV studio."

"I'm met him a few times and he'd told me he was into some stuff that I'd done. The films that he's done I think are very strong, like 'The Crossing Guard'. So I thought for that song, which was dark and a bit edgy, he'd be a good person to do it. Although I'm not sure it if's worked out as well as I was hoping it would: I think the concepts and the storyboarding were good, but I'm not sure you feel as much emotion as I was hoping you might."

Commenting on the video being only shown at night "..because of the sex-and-violence angle. That we found a little surprising, given what else is shown to kids. Besides, there's irony in it."

On the pressure to improve on videos like Shock the Monkey and Sledgehammer, "People always expect a lot, but I just get on with it and do what I can with the people I’m working with and hope they like it. I like putting people together from different backgrounds."