Thursday, 10 June 2010

Standing in the Shadows of Motown



One of the biggest of influences on a band such as Metropolis is the unmistakable Motown sound. Back in the '60s many of the musicians who created this music were never credited. In 2002 what started with a book dedicated to the phenomenal bass work of James Jamerson (Motown's iconic house bass player) turned in to a film.

Check out:

Standing in the Shadows of Motown -

http://www.standingintheshadowsofmotown.com/

Here is some more information:

Standing in the Shadows of Motown is a 2002 documentary film directed by Paul Justman. It recounts the story of The Funk Brothers, the uncredited and largely unheralded studio musicians who performed on Motowns' recordings from 1959 to 1972. The film was inspired by the 1989 book Standing in the Shadows of Motown: The Life and Music of Legendary Bassist James Jamerson, a bass guitar instruction book by Allan Slutsky, which features the bass lines of James Jamerson.
The film covers the Funk Brothers' career via interviews with surviving band members, archival footage and still photos, dramatized re-enactments, and narration by actor Andre Braugher. The film also features new live performances of several Motown hit songs, with the Funk Brothers backing up Gerald Levert, Me'shell Ndegeocello, Joan Osborne, Ben Harper, Bootsy Collins, Chaka Khan, and Montell Jordan.

Further infomation can be found here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standing_in_the_Shadows_of_Motown_(film)

Sunday, 6 June 2010

Dreamweaver arrived and much updating has taking place!

Please check out the link page, extras page and articles section.

I've starting putting together a comprehensive list of venues which we've performed at over the years. Many people often enquire about what venues are suitable - so hopefully this'll go some way towards helping...

As always check out the website http://www.metropolis-live.co.uk and see what we get up to...

James

Saturday, 29 May 2010

Links

Well... the new website is up and running! However, a few of you have noticed there are still a few bits which need to be finished. Never fear... a new copy of Dreamweaver (and 100% legal too) is wending its way from Adobe to me! One of the things we'd like to do is put a very comprehensive links page to all the musicians, crew and associated companies we work with... hopefully to work as little bit of web resource. So if you have a website which you think could be relevant to what we do please just let me know (metropolislive@mac.com) and we'll stick it up. If you could furnish us with a reciprocal link that will also help things along too.

Please check back soon.

JAMES

Wednesday, 26 May 2010

New HTML Website LIVE!

Dear All,

Just to let you know the brand new Metropolis HTML website has just gone live! Check out www.metropolis-live.co.uk

The old one has now been relocated to www.metropolis-live.com

Take it easy!

JAMES

Thursday, 29 April 2010

Metropolis - The First Blog!

Hi All,

Welcome to the first ever Metropolis Blog. This blog is deisgined to keep you up to date with whats happing with band; give advice to any clients booking the band; the music industry and tell you a little about the musicians we love and admire!

Please check back soon!

James

www.metropolis-live.co.uk