Chikara 15.5 – “For British Eyes Only”
Preamble: This is the first of four shows taped in the UK over the spring bank holiday weekend. Although Chikara has occasionally ventured outside North America before, it’s the first time they’ve run a UK tour.
There are some obvious practical difficulties in writing for a four-show weekend. You can’t really do stories that develop over the course of the four shows, because the audience on night four won’t actually have seen the earlier shows. (They might have read the results on line, but that’s it.) And all four shows need to have cards announced in advance. And of course you’re limited to pretty much the same roster members for all four shows.
Charts – 7 August 2015
If you were expecting Cilla Black to show up in this week’s singles chart, then let’s get your disappointment out of the way now. “Anyone Who Had A Heart” did sell for a few days following her death at the start of the week, but it lands at 41, just outside our remit here. Instead…
36. Shaggy featuring Mohombi, Faydee & Costi – “I Need Your Love”
Charts – 31 July 2015
It’s a podcast weekend, so check one post down for the latest episode (or, if you prefer, two posts down for another Chikara show). Meanwhile, the singles chart remains pretty quiet, though this looks to be the latest week in that vein.
29. Disclosure featuring Sam Smith – “Omen”
House to Astonish Episode 135
The world turns, a new day dawns, and there’s a new episode of House to Astonish for you. We’re talking about Channing Tatum’s trials and tribulations signing on the line for the Gambit film, Bluewater’s ill-advised name change, Chris Pine joining the Wonder Woman movie, Marvel’s newly-announced titles and the upcoming Civil War box set. We’ve also got reviews of Power Up and Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye, and the Official Handbook of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe faces an awful inevitability. All this plus Spider-Man 209099, the Kennedy Nasal Variation Test and Spider-Man’s Face-Sense.
The podcast is here, or here on Mixcloud, or available via the embedded player below. Let us know what you think, either in the comments below, on Twitter, via email or on our Facebook fan page. You can also pick up one of our shirts at our Redbubble store – fashions so sharp you’ll have to watch you don’t cut yourself.
Chikara 15.4 – “Altar Egos”
Preamble: Hey, there’s a pre-credits skit on this one. The Bloc Party attempt to re-enact DX’s invasion of WCW, but they can’t get into the arena, so they give up. Okay then.
Where and when? It’s Sunday 8 March 2015, the day after the previous show. We’re in the Norfolk Masonic Temple in Norfolk, Virginia. It’s an actual theatre with proper lighting and sound, though it’s not ideally laid out for wrestling, since most of the audience is on one side of the ring, and so is the camera. It’s some way from being full. It may have been an overambitious choice of venue. This happens sometimes when they go to new towns and take a guess.
Charts – 24 July 2015
Another astonishingly quiet chart – Radio 1 must be thanking their lucky stars they only have to fill 1h 45 with the run down these days. There’s literally nothing going on in the bottom half of the chart at all. So we pick up with…
18. 5 Seconds of Summer – “She’s Kinda Hot”
Interregnum: There Is Only Secret Wars
It’s been a while since we’ve had any updates with the X-Axis, for fairly obvious reasons. The entire line is currently doing Secret Wars tie-ins, and so the entire line consists of stand-in miniseries which are presently halfway through (aside from Magneto, which is doing a “Last Days” tie-in).
We’ll deal with the individual Secret Wars X-books in due course, but this seems like a good time to throw out a few thoughts on the line and the crossover as a whole, if only to open a comments thread for it.
Charts – 17 July 2015
If the compilers were hoping for some exciting, memorable weeks to liven up the first few charts after the shift to Fridays, it seems they’re going to be disappointed. This is one of the deadest charts I’ve ever seen outside the Christmas-New Year break. How dead? Try this for the lowest new entry…
6. Avicii – “Waiting for Love”
Charts – 10 July 2015
It’s a podcast weekend, so check that out in the post below. Nearly two hours long, this one.
So then. We skipped last week’s chart, which was the last one to be announced on a Sunday, before the music industry’s “Global Release Date” scheme harmonised all new releases on a Friday around the world. So from here on, the chart will be announced on a Friday afternoon. It gets a shorter slot on Radio 1 – cut from three hours to 1h45 – but it’s actually a significant trade up. Listening figures are much higher on a Friday afternoon, and besides, playing the entire chart is just not a sensible format in these days of streaming media, and in an era when the chart itself is relatively slow.
The Sunday night slot is a British tradition – Radio 1 has been playing the entire chart in that slot since 1962 – but like Top of the Pops, it’s long outstayed its usefulness. And the significance of that Sunday slot is easy to overstate, because although the chart was calculated on the basis of a Sunday-to-Saturday week, it wasn’t actually possible to turn around the calculations in 24 hours until 1987. Before then, the chart was actually announced on Tuesday, so the Sunday night show was playing the chart from the previous week. Things moved more slowly in the analogue age.
House to Astonish Episode 134
Paul and I are back after a slightly unusually long break, with a massive run-through of the All-New All-Different Marvel books, the announcements out of Image Expo, DC’s Convergence tie-in launches, Vertigo’s new slate, IDW’s surprising licensed launches and the return of Tokypop. We’ve also got reviews of Archie, The Spire and Dungeon Fun, and the Official Handbook of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe is lovely jubbly. All this plus Little Nico in Slumberland, Belfast’s most bangin’ DJ and the gentle caress of a brick to the face.
The podcast is here, or here on Mixcloud, or available via the embedded player below. Let us know what you think, in the comments below, on Twitter, via email or on our Facebook fan page. Don’t forget that you can also deck yourself out in one of our natty t-shirts by visiting our Redbubble store and, like, buying one. They’re all the rage in Paris, I expect.
