|
|
|
| Reviews |
 |
 The Pinkypoos Experience:
An instant
review by Robert Hertner
 A Film-ish Debut on DVD -
in PortobelloFilmFestival.com ('s) Video Cafe Night
(every Wednesday evening with free entry) At Westway Studios, Acklam Rd, London,
W11 .
So, going in, for the first screening of 'The Pinkypoos Experience' - little
slivers of paper on the table with a multi-coloured message announced, "The best
review wins a big bottle of Pinky 'flower powered' Vodka".
Hmm. OK, I'll bite.
Well, after screening in all 7 Portobello Film Festivals, with a different
feature in each, an invitation or bribe to effuse - glowingly, of course - on
one's peers works beckons. If nothing else, this is the first one there-for,
written on my PDA immediately after the "Premiere" screening in Westway Studios.
Now, coincidence has it (as if there is such a thing in this conspiracy driven
era), just last week, the European Court ruled that only Parma Ham produced and
processed and packaged in Italy can be labeled Parma Ham. Well, as it happens -
the European Court has yet to rule on ham when produced, processed and packaged
in the Portobello area and screened in pubic - though I am sure they will
eventually get around to it...
It's pacey, quirky, witty, slightly surreal and - without doubt - a nightmare to
edit with more shaky cam shots than should be allowed by law; but justified - as
a mad series of random video snap-shot piss-take clips on and of London's trendy
Portobello Road scene takes over.
Irreverence pervades as:
Vodka adverts with a plastic Messiah punctuate Spitting Image style as they pop
in and out,
Barbie dolls chat inanely about the film content,
Dr. Stoo gesticulates,
JC 001 drivels,
Howard Marks condemns hash, and-
Can Can is revived.
It's a strange little world of inside jokes and vignettes where nothing is quite
as it seems - nor as shown on screen. Whether intended or not, in some ways, an
accurate reflection of recreational: video and substance abuse - that makes big
city life exciting and/or tolerable - for many...
So, Pinkypoo survives being murdered in the shower, Psycho-style and hacked (as
Jack) in The Shining style, to lead us through a myriad of crazoid badventures
as she introduces too many other craziods to remember - much less mention here.
But, most of the 'Bello crowd - not found in Nottinghill The Movie - is there,
cameod, plus the outrageous attacks on Hollyweird 'modern classics' that will
please anyone with an IQ above room temperature Celsius.
Though clearly scriptless and plotless, who cares when everyone is obviously
having too much fun?
Afterwards, ending the briefest of chats, the Producer said to me, "As this is
our first Portobello Film Festival, I am off to check out the competition," and
was gone before I even had the chance to say, "This festival is not about
competition, Grasshopper. It is all about the journey."
Welcome to London alternative filmmakery.
The next known screening of - 'The Pinkypoos Experience'
is scheduled for this summer's 8th (CLICK to FIND: www.PortobelloFilmFestival.com
.)
Check it out. Being all free, it’s a bargain at twice the price ...
Robert Hertner
© , copyright, 2003, all rights reserved.
Having Fun, Not Going Mad
By Pip Batty
One of the more revered faces at The Pinkypoos Experience™ is Blair:
singer/musician/performer with Sacred People.
I first met Blair MacKichan properly at The Real Angelica's house last weekend. He flew into the room like a tornado, thrust a porn mag on the coffee table, playing
'Happy Birthday' on the piano. Nice boy, I thought: runs on batteries.
Of course he's not always the Duracell Bunny. Last night when I interviewed him properly, he had just turned up on the doorstep, demanded some meat, and on realising that this was a vegetarian domain, ordered a takeaway in protest. "I'm tired," he moaned, mid-yawn, then raised an eyebrow. "So, where would you like me?"
Blair, it seems, lives in Harlesden, drives a jaguar that drinks petrol and had a hit in 1998 with Have Fun Go Mad, which everyone knows if you whistle it to them. Having just keyed it into a search engine, it turns out that the song, which opened the Sliding Doors film staring Gwyneth
Paltrow, is also now a popular line dancing song in Indiana. Oh, and he was in the Bisto family adverts on television for 15 years. These days, Blair occupies himself by writing and producing for artists like Sia, vocalist with Mercury Music prize-nominated Zero 7.
 Blair started off his music career as a chef. Well, he tells me that right off, then admits he used to be the washer-upper and chief chip fryer in a flash restaurant in the country somewhere. "I was the lowest of the low," he tells me. "I was always the butt of everyone's jokes. Then one night the restaurant pianist got fired, and everyone was panicking because they needed a replacement. So I said "I can play" and that was that. Suddenly I was
'The Piano Player' playing all these cheesy cover songs and everyone was being really nice. I decided that this was definitely the job for me: You get everyone really loving you." The kind of music I had grown up listening to was stuff like Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller and Ella Fitzgerald; the music my mother was listening to. Then my older sister brought home Stevie Wonder's
'Songs from the Key of Life' record, so there was a lot of piano music going on in the house, which inspired me to learn piano. Up until then I had played drums, but I quickly picked up piano and became pretty good at it.
It was whilst studying business studies in Manchester that Blair got a band together. "We were always being booked to play at Uni events," he tells me. "When I left Uni I moved back to London and carried on the band. We were playing Jazz-Funk songs. As we became more successful I quit my day job and started to concentrate on writing songs. I sent off my demo tapes to record companies and eventually I got a deal."
"I released 3 singles, including 'Have Fun Go Mad', all three went into the Top 40, and I turned 27. And now I write and produce for other artists." So how did he meet Sia? "She turned up at a jam session gig Sacred People used to do about 2 years ago. I always used to invite someone from the audience to come up and sing. Quite often they were crap, until one night a tiny blonde Aussie girl shouted "Can I have a go, mate?" [he mimics the relevant Aussie accent] and she did. I was thinking
'this tiny little thing won't be up to much, and that I'd have to wrap it up sharpish', when she started belting out a song, and everyone in the audience started to cheer!" He shrugs, "When she got off stage, she was totally surrounded by people. So we got her phone number and the rest, as they say, is hysterectomy!"
 As a result of that chance meeting, Sia's debut album Healing is Difficult contains the divine
'Blow it all Away' penned by Blair and Kevin Armstrong (also of Sacred People), which we all recommend you go out and buy today.
As well as writing and producing, Pinkypoos fans will know Blair best for fronting Sacred People, who have been performing in various incarnations at the show since it first began some 6 years ago. "Pinkypoos has actually helped us stay together, because it's been a place for us to play all these years."
 He pauses for another drawn-out yawn. "And as far as the future is concerned I don't really know: One week I'll be sitting around doing nothing, the next I'll be in LA making a record. I'm going to do some more stuff with Sia, and I'm going to Paris next month. Who knows?"
After a quick discussion about where I bought my watch from, Blair saunters off, telling me he's got to go to bed. He goes into the lounge and starts playing piano and singing. Batteries definitely included.
PB
Extract From: Portowebbo
www.portowebbo.co.uk
Bars & Music - May 2000
Pinkypoos™
Weigh out one part burlesque theatre to three
parts semi acoustic performance, stir until the consistency of camp melange,
then throw in a few laughs and some audience participation for good measure -
hey presto - the Pinkypoos experience; An alarming synergy of dysfunctional
performers ekes out a dysfunctional audience on a monthly basis to deliver a
memorable evening's entertainment.
The larger than life, cartoon-like Angelica is erratically effervescent and copiously animative - If I hadn't had the pleasure of meeting her in person, I'd swear Nick Parkes had created her as a Wallace & Gromit extra.
|
|