Re: Lip-synch performances

[uli@zoodle.robin.de (Ulrich Grepel)]

Hi!

> 	Why is it that so many of Kate's performances on the tapetree
> collection are lip-synched, rather than live?  Is it simply a British TV
> tradition that popular artists don't get to perform "live"?  I recall that
> when Howard Jones actually sang live on _Top of the Pops_ in '84 it was
> unusual, and that a newer show featured more live performnaces (The Tube
> --witness here Kate's live "Under the Ivy"). I suppose that TOTP had the 

> problem of needing to get sveral acts on and off quickly.
[.....]

Well, here in Germany (probably similar in the UK) it's an absolute rarity
that anyone performs live instead of lip-synch in a TV show. The only
way to get some live music on TV here is to a) watch Letterman or Jay Leno
on Satellite TV, b) watch complete concerts etc. or c) be very lucky to
catch one of the maybe two dozen not lip-synched performances per year.

Tori Amos for example [oops! wrong list...] actually performed 5 or so
times in German TV shows:

- Der Grosse Preis: Crucify (live to prerecorded backing tape)
- Gottschalk: Silent All These Years (live)
- Elf 99: SATY (don't remember, have to check whether live or lip-synch)
- laenderjournal: Cornflake Girl (live to prerecorded backing tape)
- 3 nach 9: Cornflake Girl (live to prerec. backing tape), Past The Mission (live)

This is an ABSOLUTE exception. Normally we are not allowed to hear something
interesting on TV. "What would happen if a) the musician can't perform
properly live?" [then s/he shouldn't be on TV anyway] "or b) if something
happens?" [then shit happens, happens anyway, so why not?]

German (and probably UK) TV audience is not believed to be able to get along
with a recording that they are not perfectly used to from radio. Since
enough of us ARE able to, we are very often using the songs in regular
shows to go to the kitchen to get something to drink or to go to the toilet
or whatever. Of course the percent-o-meters find out that from maybe 15 million
people watching a favourite show about 2 million are suddenly away during
the music. And of course they get the WRONG conclusion: they think aloud
about stopping music within those shows completely, instead of making it
more interesting. Two ways to make it more interesting, the first one
seems to be more important: let the musicians play live. The second one:
chose better musicians...

Sigh,

Uli


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