I'm not sure if anyone else noticed it, but the most recent Top Gear episode (Burma, pt. 2) features a nice Zappa tribute. Check it out and see if you can spot it...special kudos if you can name the song
!
I'm not sure if anyone else noticed it, but the most recent Top Gear episode (Burma, pt. 2) features a nice Zappa tribute. Check it out and see if you can spot it...special kudos if you can name the song
!
Last edited by Big Hairy Monster; 03-18-2014 at 02:45 AM.
Wakeman was on "Top Gear" once. I think Clarkson himself got a little nervous when he was told that Wakeman had had a few heart attacks.
"Arf." -- Frank Zappa, "Beauty Knows No Pain" (live version)
Clarkson's apparently a fan. There's been copious progressive rock allusions on the show. One series had The Stig listening to various progressive rock things while doing the power laps. The one time that Richard Hammond did the commentary, they cut to the interior of the car, and you hear the guitar solo section of Dancing With The Moonlit Knight, with Hamster remarking, "Jeremy really must stop loaning his CD's to The Stig". On other occasions that series, it was Caravan, VDGG (who Jeremy says he never really liked), Greenslade (which Jeremy pronounced as "Greenslide"), and I've forgotten what else.
The Wakeman appearance was during the inauguration of the new Reasonably Priced Car, where several celebrities are brought down in one afternoon, to take successive turns at the car. In this instance, Wakeman threw a fit (or pretended to) at a footballer who apparently caused Wakey to lose a wager on a football match several years earlier. He also apparently drove very slowly.
Getting back to Hammond, he apparently doesn't like Genesis, and apparently especially doesn't like I Know What I Like. So on their Middle Eastern, Clarkson wired up the stereo in Hamster's car so that only Clarkson would have control over it, allowing him to play I Know What I Like repeatedly. And at high volume levels. During the India trip, Clarkson wired up one of those horns that rednecks put on their pickups to the stereo, thus, once again with I Know What I Like being his chosen method of annoying Richard (I believe it was on this trip, Richard revealed he particularly doesn't like the wordless vocal thing at the end of the first verse). And most recently, Jeremy played the song over a PA system wired up to his car during the final stages of the "searching for the source of the Nile" debacle.
In one episode, Jeremy is seen wearing a recent issue Yes shirt (I think from the 2004 touring cycle), and in another he mentions both Camel and Gong in the same sentence.
Oh yeah, and Mike Rutherford has driven the most recent Reasonably Priced Car, coming in stone dead last (at least, until they got a guy on who apparently had never driven, and went even slower).
And in one episode the original single version of Silver Machine by Hawkwind is heard briefly as the lads hit the road in one of their stupid "challenges".
Phew, that's a comprehensive list, you watch way too much Top Gear
In the early 70's box set of re-masters, I think Clarkson wrote the sleeve notes to Selling England too. I do mostly like Top Gear but can find Clarkson rather insufferable at times, but if he has prog credentials he can't be all bad!
I started Burma Pt. 1 but had to go to bed. It had me laughing out loud at several points. Sorry I missed the rest.
Reruns.
What is Top Gear? I only know it as the old British music TV show. Is this a show like the TV equivalent of NPR's Car Talk?
Not really. Well sorta -- cars, especially fast exotic cars, form the basis of it. But from there they go off in all sorts of directions and do all sorts of wacky adventures.
It's mostly hilarious and mostly good natured. Occasional digs at the French. And Swedes.
I've never listened to Car Talk, so I don't know what it's like. Top Gear originally was a straight laced car oriented program, when it began in 1977. They did very straight faced car reviews, of all sorts of vehicles, not just the overpriced "super cars". I imagine they probably did more serious comparisons of different vehicles, ya know things like which new car is best for a long distance trip, or which car holds up best on the second hard market, etc. On the other hand, if you check out the early 90's episodes, Clarkson's hair is sure to raise a few laughs (he looked back then as if he'd stuck his finger in a light socket).Originally Posted by JKL2000
Then, around 2000, the BBC cancelled the show, then relaunched a year later, with a very different vibe. They started playing for laughs, and doing stuff that was deliberately intended to make the hosts look like idiots. One time, they flew to Miami, with the intention of finding out if it was possible to find out if it was cheaper to buy a used car rather than rent one on a trip. The idea was that they would each buy a second hand vehicle, drive to New Orleans, and then attempt to sell them. Along the way, Hammond and Clarkson sabotaged the air con in James May's car (this is a running theme with these type challenges, whenever May has a car with working AC, the other two sabotage it), Clarkson "finds" a dead cow (they were supposed to be attempting to eat road kill) and they almost get killed by a bunch of rednecks in Alabama (you kinda have to see it to understand why, it'll take too long to explain why).
When they finally get to New Orleans, this being only a year after Katrina, they decided they couldn't in good conscience attempt to sell the cars to the people of a city still recovering from such a disaster. So they gave them away at a church. Well, they gave away two of them. Apparently, nobody wanted James May's Cadillac (which needed a jump every time one wanted to start the engine).
Another time they drove across the Middle East, from somewhere in Iraq to Jerusalem, reputedly following the path of the Three Wise Men. In a bid to get out of Iraq fast (because you know, there's a war going on there), they fled first to Iranian border (despite it being literally in the opposite direction they were supposed to be going in), but when the Iranians refused to allow them into the country (because they're from the BBC), they had to back track up to a road that would take them to Turkey. Once crossing the Turkish border, they refused their instructions for the next part of their journey, which began thus: "You idiots! You've fled from a region where there is no war, into one where there is" (apparently, the part of Iraq they were in was peaceful, but there the Kurds and Turks are fighting over a section of Turkey, including the area where their border crossing happened).
Then when they got concerned they wouldn't be allowed into Israel if the Israelis found out they had been through Syria (apparently, every time Top Gear goes somewhere, it's front page news), James May reckoned that "they don't watch Top Gear in Syria, nobody will know". But as Clarkson explains in the narration, "When we got to the next town, James' theory rather crumbled". Apparently, they do watch Top Gear in Syria, and they got mobbed by people in the next town. So they decided to go off road, in an attempt to avoid further such commotions. That didn't work out too well either. And finding the appropriate gifts for the child they were visiting in Jerusalem also proved difficult (apparently, frankenscence and myrrh are hard to come by).
On two different occasions they've built (or attempted to build) amphibious cars, converting existing road vehicles so they could also be used on the water. Jeremy naturally put a too powerful engine on the back of his Toyota Hilux, causing it roll (well, actually what caused it to roll was Jeremy's instance of going full throttle, which in turned caused water to spill into the payload, and that caused it to roll). Some improbably, they managed to cross the English Channel on the one occasion.
OH yeah, and one more progressive rock related moment on the show: a few years ago, Ferrari put out a limited edition car. They only made 50 of them, priced at like a million bucks, and Ferrari chose who got to buy them. Since the car company refused to send one to the show to let them test, they went down their list of celebrities who had bought one to see who would loan them one. Finally, Nick Mason allowed them to borrow his, so long as they plugged his book on the show, which is precisely what they did (and not very subtly either). The actual car review was also laden with Pink Floyd allusions, as well.
But yeah, basically, the modern version of the show is very wacky, silly, hilarious, and well worth watching if like British humor and/or cars.
I was fortunate to accompany Carl Palmer to a recording of Top Gear back in June 2010. This was during the rehearsals for High Voltage. Myself, Carl, his girlfriend and his daughter attended the show. Knowing that Jeremy Clarkson was a fan, Carl's daughter arranged this as a belated 60th birthday present. We had drinks afterwards with Clarkson and May (Hammond went off on a helicoptor flying lesson!!). I can definitely say that Jeremy is fairly knowledgeable on most things prog although he did ask Carl 'were you on the Tokyo Tapes CD?'. I had to tell him it was Chester. The 'Star in a Car' was Alistair Campbell so if you look out for the repeats you will definitely see Carl in the audience.
The Miami - New Orleans USA show is a stone-cold classic !!
(I think I heard The Stig playing some Gong once....)
I do remember someone telling me he was at one of our Caravan shows around 2003. Jezza loves his prog!
I thought it was a radio show.
♫ I can still remember
The last time we played on Top Gear
And though each little song
Was less than three minutes long
Mike squeezed a solo in... somehow
And although we like our longer tunes
It seemed polite to cut them down
To little bits - they might be hits
Who gives an... after all?
Tell me how would you feel
In the place of John Peel?
You just can't please
all of the musicians all the time ♪
I wonder if the MOI were ever on.
I'm glad it wasn't just me! Nice little bit of Bobby Brown sang there....
Yes, it was a radio show. And then after the radio show ended, the Mighty Beeb recycled the show name for the original iteration of the car show (which as I said, for more than 20 years, was a very serious show).
Actually, one of the funniest things about the Miami-New Orleans junket was what happened afterwards. Apparently, on their visa applications, they said they wanted to come Stateside to make a documentary. The US State Department apparently decided the resulting program was more "entertainment" than "documentary", and when they did their west coast trip (when they went to the Bonneville Salt Flats), they were told (because apparently they said again on the visa applications that they were going to be making a documentary whilst in the US) that they had to make sure it wasn't "too entertaining". So they had to censor several bits, including a race and some arguing, and stop dead in the middle of conversations they believed might be deemed "entertaining".
Then they got pulled over by a cop. Jeremy says "We're absolutely making a documentary, this is not a fooling around show". Richard then told Jeremy that "Everything you just said only made matters worse".
Then there was the East Coast trip, where they were knackered by the speed limits, though somehow Jeremy still tore up the special, nearly irreplaceable tires on whichever car he was driving. And then there was the NASCAR history lesson. Then when they got to NYC, they had to race to a TV studio to see which one of them would get to appear on an American TV program (which turned out to not be the kind of program they were expecting).
And let's not forget the trip to Vietnam, where they found just how off the wall the exchange rate is...apparently, 14,000,000 Vietnamese dong, the amount of money each were given to buy a vehicle, was roughly the equivalent to a 1,000 US dollars. So they had to get motorcycles, though Jeremy, having no clue about motorcycles, bought a motorscooter instead (which led to another good music reference, when Jeremy commented about being blinded by all the "Quadrophenia style" mirrors he'd attached to the front of the scooter). And of course they took several jabs at what the Vietnamese call "The American War", because you know they like to make fun of Americans.
OH, and let's not forget the Botswana debacle, where we found out how the people of Botswana get water out of the footwell of a car (hint: it involves a rifle), and that the best car for traveling through Botswana, apparently, is a Volkswagen Beetle.
I also liked James' suggestion that Jeremy would be placed in solitary confinement for two weeks, if he didn't take his BMW in for it's annual maintenance check, because ya know, that's the kind of those Germans do (well, that's what they would do if you were in a POW camp). Another good moment from James was when he suggested that since people slow down when they're driving in the country because "They're afraid of hitting Bambi", maybe they should be deer and other cute wildlife in the cities, so that people will also slow down in that environment as well.
The Rolls Royce Corniche/Mercedes 600 Grosser battle was funny too. James had acquired an old Roller, while Reichsmarshall Clarkson (as James called him) acquired what is apparently the most popular luxury limo amongst dictators the world over (apparently the 600 has been owned by Chairman Mao, General Tito, Pol Pot, Hoxsa, and a whole host of other people who looked down on democracy and human rights. It was also owned by Elvis Aron Presley and John Lennon).
OH yeah, and their attempt to discover whether the Communists have ever built any decent cars was good too. Apparently, the Russians are fond and proud of the Lada, but according to Jeremy and James, it was a terrible vehicle (coincidentally, the night before that particular episode aired Stateside, The Amazing Race had the racers in Russia, driving around in Ladas). Apparently, even their luxury vehicles were rubbish.
Wait, are you guys in the UK, or what? We only just got Burma part one Stateside last night, and part two doesn't appear here until next Monday. What gives?!
I don't mind Clarkson at all. James May, on the other hand, is a major irritant.
We are totally different, I really like Captain Slow, but I think all they are each essential to the mix, and any change in the balance would ruin the show's dynamic.
I especially liked a series that James did in the UK featuring his favourite classic British toys, it may not have transferred abroad as it was particularly British... They too a toy like Lego [building bricks - Ok I think this originates in Scandinavia not Britain] and made a full scale house, an Airfix plane [plastic modelling kit] and made a Spitfire full size out of massive kit components... There were a few others based on Scalextrix (car racing circuits) and Meccano (toy engineering kit), and they all took me back to my 60's/70's childhood.
^ You forget the full length branch railway that they made along the Cornish (I think) coast. That was perhaps my favourite one to be honest.
GuitarGeek, yes part 2 aired in the UK on Sunday just gone so we're ahead of you!
In love the British version of Top Gear, although they diss nearly every American make of car. The American version is very naff I must say; they try too hard.
Yeah, that aired Stateside as well. Good fun show. I liked the one where they recreated the old race track using the Scalextrix, and had to find solutions like how to deal with the office buildings and neighborhoods that had been built on the grounds of the old raceway.
I especially liked a series that James did in the UK featuring his favourite classic British toys, it may not have transferred abroad as it was particularly British... They too a toy like Lego [building bricks - Ok I think this originates in Scandinavia not Britain
The model train one, where they were racing the Germans, I think it was, was fun too.
The Airfix model kit was a 1:1 scale, meaning that it was actually life sized.
Ah, that makes sense, I guess. I seem to recall that last couple years of Doctor Who (once BBC America regained their senses and poached the show back from the Sci-Fi Channel, or however it's spelled this week) were like that, we were about one week behind. Considering the first two or three years of new Doctor Who, were months behind the UK, and some of the Top Gear episodes were nearly 10 years old by the time we got to see them (we still haven't seen any of the episodes from the first 21st century series, when they had the other bloke instead of May...Captain Slow didn't join until the next series).
I loved the one where they did the competition with the German version of Top Gear. Is it ok to totally have the hots for Sabine Schmidt?!
I only watched the American version once, I think the first episode and it was just so...American, for want of a better word. The main host sounded like he was a game show host, or a local news sports commentator. And the attempts at comedy were typically sophomoric American style comedy. I just thought, what's the point?!
Why would they not?
One of the original hosts was they guy who took over Howard Stern's show when the latter had a contract dispute. They should call it Low Gear, just a really bad show.
Love that version of The Moon in June - used to have it on the Triple Echo box set...
...however, hate Top Gear and Clarkson is a total arse
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