Déjà vu… I saw yesterday on the BBC News that
Johnny Marr is to receive top NME honor.

You might ask what have I got to do with Johnny Marr?

First… This is my last post for a while, in a few days I am leaving for yet another very long Journey to Myanmar and Cambodia. I am really looking forward in meeting some new and old participants for my Photo Tours and Workshops. Please forgive me if there are no Blog posts for a few weeks, and only sporadic posts on Twitter and Facebook. But I make up for it once I return.

But now…Congratulations to a very nice person
and a super cool musician, called Johnny Marr.

Former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr will be awarded with the Godlike Genius accolade at this year's NME Awards. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-21409581
The event takes place on 27 February at The Troxy, an east London gig venue.
Johnny Marr received also the best re-issue award for The Smiths Complete at last year's NME Awards

Well, it was way back in 1991 when I wrote and directed the music video "Get the Message" for the English band Electronic (Warner Bros., USA ) Johnny Marr and Bernard Sumner came to the Philippines from the UK to shoot the Video covering areas like the sand dunes in Ilocos, Vigan, Taal Volcano and many different places in Manila.

Credit must also go to a very good Filipino crew; lets not forget, it was 1991. Everything was shot using 35mm movie film, quiet a task them days, not to mention the postproduction.

For example our radio communications in the field looked like monsters… no iPhones them days and you almost needed an assistant to carry those huge things around.

Shooting out of a helicopter without a Gyro Stabilizer (not available) and shopping for a whole school in Ilocos; purchasing 50 pair of shoes, Pants, T-shirts etc. (at least the Kids where very happy with all their new cloths) and then there where the Kites… we had to bring in from Germany.

I never forget the face from the owner of the shoe shop…
Sir can I help you? Certainly… I need 50 pair of different sizes and color shoes!
I honestly had to reassure him that this was not a joke.

We had so many challenges those days but managed very well and ended up with a nice MTV. The whole Filipino Crew did their utmost best and performed outstanding.

I might add Johnny and Bernard are both super cool guys and exceptional Musicians and we had a real great time and lots of fun together.

Please Note:
There are actually two version of this MTV; the one on YouTube was reedited by Warner Bros. and is the one with the text blocks, but I never liked this version myself, the one that was used in the UK and the original one in my opinion was so much better.

Unfortunately I can’t find it anywhere, but see below the LINK to the Warner Bros. version:

Left to right: Johnny Marr and Bernhard Sumner
clip from the MTV 'Get the Message"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBRXTWaTDp4

This was one of the first 35mm MTV production in the Philippines of the single “Get the Message”, that later enjoyed top ratings on international music charts.


Excerpts from an interview with Johnny and Bernard:
-The single was promoted by a colorful music video in which Marr and Sumner strolled through the Philippines and atop the still-active Taal Volcano.
Directed by Gunther Deichmann, whose published photographs in one of his Books had impressed Electronic. -


Excerpts from the BBC:
During a recent interview when ask What's the best song you've written?
Johnny replied:
The best song I've written is “Get The Message” by Electronic, with Bernard Sumner. It's great because I have no idea how it happened - I can remember starting with a bass line.
It was the second single from their 1991 debut album Electronic and was a commercial success around the world. It is a good example of Marr and Sumner's original concept of mixing the fluid synthesizers of New Order with The Smiths' rich guitar sound.


And for our Music and Guitar buffs out there check the LINK below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=6PD2qRyL470

Johnny Marr plays riffs from The Smiths, The The, The Kinks

Johnny Marr plays guitar and demonstrates the differences between five Fender amps at Seedy Underbelly Studios in LA during the mixing of The Cribs album "Ignore The Ignorant" in 2009. The opening riff is 'That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore', :22 'Dogs of Lust' by TheThe, 'All Day_ And All Of The NIght' by The KInks, 'What Difference Does It Make', 'Hey, Scenesters' by The Cribs and 'The Headmaster Ritual'. Not sure about the other (rifftastic) riffs.

Tags: Music, MTV, Film, Cambodia, Myanmar, New Order, Directed, Gunther Deichmann, Director, Bernard Sumner, London, The Troxy, The KInks, Get the Message, Electronic, postproduction, 35mm movie film, Video, Philippines, Johnny Marr, Musician, NME honor, guitarist, Smiths guitarist

“Time to Remember” © Mark-Lee & Gunther Deichmann -
(click on the link below or the image for the 1 min.Video, approx.2.5 MB)
Podcast

The other day Mark-Lee borrowed my small Sony Video Cam and took some cool footage at this Disco… and I was trying to relax that day after some editing in Aperture making up some more soundtracks for future presentations. But honestly… I was just messing around relaxing with GarageBand when I looked over to the Mac my Son was working on…hey cool footage son, please let me have some of this stuff…OK Dad... I whipped it into iMovie and about half an hour later had this little Video up and running.
It just gets to show you how easy it is sometimes…of course you need to have a Mac where everything just works so well together, including the transfer of the Video file from his G5 to my PowerBook Pro via Wi-Fi network, super fast...
Cant beat this integration, he,he….plus NOW in YouTube @ http://www.youtube.com/user/TIMEJOURNEY
By the way the still shot at the start of the Video came straight from the Aperture 2 Library using the Media Browser in iMovie, the same with the Soundtrack created only hours before in GarageBand.
GD

Tags: Time to Remember, YouTube, Video Cam, MTV, Mark-Lee Deichmann, Disc DJ, Video, Sony