Twenty three years and counting

December 3, 2015 1:47 PM

Jools Holland picks his 10 most memorable performances from 'Later...'
posted by fearfulsymmetry (29 comments total)

Radiohead's only live performance of "Life in a Glasshouse," alongside the Humphrey Lyttelton jazz band.
posted by Rhaomi at 1:58 PM on December 3, 2015 [6 favorites]

My favorite 'Later...' performance. I was obsessed with this Novice Theory song for a while and this clip from Jools' show was the only place I could find it. I bought the album, but I still prefer the live version.
posted by Drab_Parts at 2:02 PM on December 3, 2015 [1 favorite]

I have to admit that while I have heard of Later... with Jools Holland, I have clearly never seen it, because right up until this minute, I assumed Jools was a woman.
posted by jacquilynne at 2:10 PM on December 3, 2015 [3 favorites]

From the Portishead write-up: “It's important to know the camera what some people are doing, and some it doesn't." Is that an English colloquial phrasing that I'm not understanding, or just inattentive copy editing?

It's only mentioned in passing in TFA but this At the Drive In appearance was pretty fierce.
posted by Mothlight at 2:14 PM on December 3, 2015

Yeah, that Portishead blurb's first sentence is nonsensical. You can get the gist of what he's trying to say from the rest of it, but the sentence is missing some words because it just doesn't parse. It looks like two or three earlier revisions of the sentence just got Frankensteined together.
posted by axiom at 2:21 PM on December 3, 2015

Thanks for much for this! My favorite Jools performance is a different Amy Winehouse one. Two years before the "Don't Talk To Strangers" performance mentioned in the article (and before the beehive!), she was at the 2004 Hootenanny, doing this knockout version of Dinah's "Teach me Tonight".
posted by beisny at 2:22 PM on December 3, 2015 [3 favorites]

Ruby tears it up...
posted by jim in austin at 2:22 PM on December 3, 2015

A favorite of mine: The Arcade Fire -- Power Out / Rebellion (2005)
posted by schmod at 2:29 PM on December 3, 2015 [1 favorite]

Specials, Madness
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 2:36 PM on December 3, 2015 [2 favorites]

In this clip Oasis do not play 'I am the Walrus' correctly (verse chords), yet someone has scored the strings accurately. It's clearly not an interpretation thing - they just don't get it right. They play a V chord when in fact that chord (E) does not appear in the verse and is held back in the song until the chorus's final line! (I AM THE EGGMAN). Thus basically rendering the entire song pointless. Idiots.
posted by colie at 2:43 PM on December 3, 2015 [4 favorites]

(Actually the final line with the V is of course 'I am the Walrus, goo goo g'joob'. That will teach me to not call successful and passionate musicians idiots.)
posted by colie at 3:11 PM on December 3, 2015

One of my favourite Later moments was KT Tunstall's TV debut. You cannot take your eyes off her. I'm not even a fan of the song but that performance stuck in my memory. Damn.
posted by kariebookish at 3:15 PM on December 3, 2015 [9 favorites]

i was going to post that kt tunstall clip! best part to me was she was a last second addition to that show after someone else had to back out. it's a performance she had been honing on the festival circuit for some time so she was ready to knock it out of the park. i don't much care for the album version (or the album version of most of her songs) but i'm so glad she was able to do that performance on tv before she really blew up.
posted by nadawi at 3:20 PM on December 3, 2015 [2 favorites]

Shouldn't this post be saved up for Hoganoony?
posted by Artw at 3:22 PM on December 3, 2015 [2 favorites]

I always find Jools Holland as a presenter deeply irritating but Later is a gem in general (and its series are always too short).

There's a much better list of ten performances here
posted by brilliantmistake at 3:31 PM on December 3, 2015 [2 favorites]

It's probably not one for the ages, but seeing FFS (Franz Ferdinand and Sparks) do a medley of "This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us" and "Take Me Out") will always be incredible to me.

(And count me in the Jools Holland is very irritating camp as well.)
posted by SansPoint at 4:10 PM on December 3, 2015

Can I nominate this version of "Hi Ho Silver Lining" as one of the low points of the show?
posted by kendrak at 4:16 PM on December 3, 2015

Yeah, Jooles is hard work. But he does make good things happen.

I have to say, the whole FFS project is one of the purest joys in rock music to gladden my heart these past couple of years. Musically, it's just ephemeral fun, but it's some of the finest ephemeral fun going. That makes me very happy.
posted by Devonian at 4:35 PM on December 3, 2015 [1 favorite]

So, errr, what is the best process to extract audio of the best quality from clips similar to this? Just curious. Really.
posted by jadepearl at 4:50 PM on December 3, 2015 [1 favorite]

I saw Jools play in Madison Square Garden 35 years ago. He played a short set on the piano after the opening band Sector 27 and before The Police came out.
posted by octothorpe at 6:42 PM on December 3, 2015

This took me down quite the rabbit hole, and I ended up here, and I. can't.even. 1/11/97 Verve Bittersweet Symphony.

You can hear Jools cackle at the very end, like he can't believe it either.
posted by maggiemaggie at 7:10 PM on December 3, 2015 [2 favorites]

I mis-remembered this Carla & Steve & killer ensemble piece being from Jools; it's actually from Night Music. But it kills, so enjoy.
posted by j_curiouser at 8:00 PM on December 3, 2015

Night Music had some really fantastic performances.
posted by kenko at 9:06 PM on December 3, 2015

I mean Stevie Ray Vaughan, Pharoah Sanders, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, The Platters, Van Dyke Parks, and Maria McKee? Or Leonard Cohen, Sonny Rollins, Ken Nordine, Was (Not Was)?
posted by kenko at 9:08 PM on December 3, 2015

I saw Jools play in Madison Square Garden 35 years ago. He played a short set on the piano after the opening band Sector 27 and before The Police came out.

That may have been the same tour where they got a lot of the footage for Urgh! A Music War

Here he is in '80 or so opening for The Police in France
posted by sourwookie at 9:54 PM on December 3, 2015

The show is totally hit and miss but there have been so many cracking performances over the years. Would never have become such a huge fan of Country music if it wasn't for this performance by Steve Earle, Emmylou and Daniel Lanois. haven't missed a Steve Earle gig since.
posted by twistedonion at 1:38 AM on December 4, 2015 [1 favorite]

Kenko Night Music had some really fantastic performances.

Like, say, The Residents!
posted by SansPoint at 8:16 AM on December 4, 2015

Performances that stick in my head decades later (ahem!) are the band Ruby's Paraffin and Beck's Devil's Haircut. I didn't get the fuss about Roni Size/Reprazent until I heard them live on Jools either.

There's a decent hour-long BBC compilation of Grunge-era appearances on Jools that's probably on YouTube somewhere too.
posted by comealongpole at 10:30 AM on December 4, 2015

nth-ing the KT Tunstall performance. A great story, and in the list of things I show my 4 year old daughter of Awesome Things Girls Can Do.
posted by bright cold day at 11:50 AM on December 4, 2015