Pixies on TV

One TV channel that I don't look at often but am always really impressed by when I do, is Sky Arts. Wanting something on in the background as I read the Sunday papers, I discovered that it was "Pixies day" on Sky Arts 1 with three long programmes on them - a festival concert film, a long documentary about the 2004 comeback tour called LoudQuietLoud and a film of an acoustic concert at the Newport Folk Festival.

I only saw the Pixies once - on the 1988 tour with Throwing Muses. I do have all the cds but never really considered them among my favourites. But like many others, I have found myself returning to them over the past few years. Recently I read Josh Frank's book on them, Fool the World, and this resulting in another burst of re-listening.

The highlight was LoudQuietLoud. I was surprised by quite a few aspects of this. First up, the concert footage was very impressive. Then there is the sheer size that Black Francis now is - few rock bands have succeeded so well with such a big, fat, bald frontman. Then there is Kim Deal, still looking pretty good, despite what has been quite a few years of "hard living". Yet it was actually the drummer, David Lovering, who seemed the most spaced out - for much of the film he was behaving pretty oddly. It was certainly quite a nostalgic film to watch

Black Francis and Kim Deal