Nice things were said (or in this case written)

After feeling a bit down concerning certain reviews for EWFH, I've managed to find a couple more which were really quite nice. First there's this from the Evening Standard...

PICK OF THE NIGHT
Earth, Wind for Hire 11pm, Radio 2
As one of the nation’s most indemand comedians and actors, it’s hard to see how Bill Bailey found the time to make this little gem, but we can be very glad he did. The musical comic pays an affectionate homage to tribute bands, beginning with a look at the origins of what has become a big business.

Yes, how did he find the time? Then there's this from Edd McCracken in the Scottish Sunday Herald...

WHEN it comes to tribute bands, forget the music the name's the thing. Brickies from Croydon and dinner ladies from Kirkcaldy morphing into superstars are secondary to how much fun you can have with a band's moniker. Any documentary called Earth, Wind For Hire (Wednesday, Radio 2, 11pm) understands this perfectly. Real comedian Bill Bailey opened the half-hour with a barrage of pun-filled tribute band names. Pink Floyd become Floydian Slip, Marc Bolan fronts T.Rextasy, and Blondie are Once More Into The Bleach. A Dutch Queen tribute band missed the point and named themselves We Are Not Queen.

In this jaunty perusal of the tribute phenomenon, Bjorn Again founder Rod Leissle revealed his ethos.
"The name should refer to the band they are supposed to sound like, " he said, "as well as giving the audience a hint as to what the act will be like." For his Abba tribute band this principle ruled out some wonderful names. Abbattoir didn't make the cut, while Abbaoriginie was problematic on account of the fact that there aren't many natural blonde native Australians. But Leissle's own theory would suggest that as well as producing eerily flawless versions of the Swedish supergroup's hits, Bjorn Again are out to win some souls for Christ too.

To the sceptic, these bands are what supermarket cava is to Grand Cru Champagne a cheap, wan imitation but Earth, Wind For Hire was told with all the bonhomie of an Abba hit and could break down the resistance of the snarkiest NME reader. Bailey wisely didn't make any excuse for their inherent naffness.
Like many cultural violations of the past 20 years, the baby boomers are to blame for tribute bands.
Thanks to their obsession with 1960s music and their suffocating dominance of the artistic radar, looking back finally became acceptable in the 1980s. It's no surprise that in the history of tribute bands the Bootleg Beatles were the first. They arose in 1979 from the wreckage of a West End show, Beatlemania, and are still on the road. So the baby boomers who were turned off by punk and indifferent to New Wave, flocked to the cosy womb of nostalgia and spawned a massive industry. Today there are more than 80 Pink Floyd tribute acts, 38 faux Queens, five different versions of Bjorn Again (that's right, they're a franchise), not to mention Stars In Their Eyes.

And before you all turn your sneering faces away, remember this: Nirvana only agreed to headline the Reading festival in 1992 on the condition that Bjorn Again were also on the bill. There were many lumberjack-shirted grunge fans standing with clods of mud in their hands waiting to pelt the antipodean impostors, Bailey included, until they saw Kurt Cobain et al standing by the stage lapping it up. And Earth, Wind For Hire had the same effect it was confoundingly enjoyable.

What I like about this review is how Edd seems to imply that he really wanted to hate it, but just found it so darn enjoyable that he couldn't. That's really something. Add to this another mention in The Independent and a four star review in Heat, yeah that's right, then we've managed to get some serious press coverage out of this (which I don't doubt is down to Bill. His name attached to it has given it much kudos) and for our first effort, we should be very proud. Now all we've got to do is try to sell another one (or two).