For Documentary I'd throw in Meeting People is Easy about Radiohead by Grant Gee, not very informative really, it's more...just odd and atmospheric and quite quite awful,

Since the band have kinda distanced themselves saying that it was filmed at a nadir and before and after were great fun heh and it wasn't all that miserable. Still I find it weirdly compelling

With Leonard Cohen documentary Bird on a Wire about to hit TV screens

WHEN??!!!!!! And on what channel - if this reasonably essential piece of information is containted in the interview, then apologies, but I don't have time to spend listening to it. In fact i'd rather just watch the doc if I knew WHEN IT WAS ON!!!!!!

It's on in November or something. Look up the listings on BBC4,

Don't care anyway. I bought the DVD, which is a nice set. Not a doc I'd watch often though, if I even watch it again. Watching Cohen break down ain't comfortable viewing, nor does it feel necessary or that you're gaining anything from seeing it. That other one, Song of Leonard Cohen', by Harry Rasky, should have a decent DVD release. That's a fab film.

Christ what have they done to Alex Petridish's face

The last London concert double album is great as is the footage of the same event. He has mellowed and is far more self deprecating these days.

He still surrounds himself with very accomplished musicians.

Another great podcast - singles club good as always. But in the future, could you please pronounce Lykke Li's name correctly? Y's in Scandinavian languages have the same sound as U's in English. So it's more 'Loo-keh Li', than 'Lik-keh Li'.

As long as it's presented by the wonderful Steve Wright it's gonna be all Wright with me.

The Cohen doc's meant to be on 19th November, BBC4, 10pm, so I gather. Their web site doesn't seem to come up with it.

Hai Rosie <3

Thanks Nobbo

Or 9pm according to a tv listing. It's followed by 'Songs from the Road', extra stuff from the recent tour. I like that one.

Confirm that BBC4 10pm 19 November according to this podcast at 25:09

Leonard was always self deprecating - like when he started a lengthy concert again on his 40 birthday and kept going until they switched off the power. It is only the feminist movement of the 70's that didn't like him because he ..... well appreciated women!

I have a bootleg DVD of Bird on a Wire from years ago; but I have no idea which version it is. So I've ordered the new one.

Of the other Len DVDs knocking around, I love Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr Leonard Cohen, which was made on a poetry tour in the mid 60s, before he'd made any records. It's hilarious, and wonderful, and really intelligently made. If you like Len, this is THE must-have film. Also the late 80s film, Songs From a Life, is really good.

The footage from the Live in London album is really disappointing - all close-ups, no sense of depth. The stuff on the Songs from the Road DVD is much, much better. I've only seen the first of the Under Review DVDs, but it's very well done.

The footage from the Isle of Wight DVD? Hmm, wasn't blown away by it.

Broadening the field, my favourite rock doc is Julien Temple's Oil City Confidential, about Dr Feelgood. Incredible stuff - and all the more interesting because it's about a largely forgotten band.

Half way between a U and an ö.

Had the fabulous luck of seeing Bird on A Wire at its UK Premiere (I think) at the GreenMan festival in August - a brilliant, brilliant film! Can't wait to see it again!

Documentaries-wise, Anvil was absolutely lovely. Still haven't got round to seeing Dig!, thanks for the reminder.

I liked what I heard of the Gatekeeper tune, but I think 'goth' is a bit of a lazy description. Sounded to me more like wonky electronic 70s/80s horror soundtracks, Goblin, John Carpenter, Hot Ice etc.

Sorry, not keen on the other singles, the Lykke Li one just sounded like KT Tunstall, and I like Robert Smith but the tune was fucking horrific.

I saw this at the Barbican on Tuesday with Tony Palmer's introductory talk - it's great that he managed to put it back together after so many years, and what an improvement on the previously released version (German subtitles and all ;) ). I'm glad it's getting a wider audience and that BBC4 is committed to quality music programming.

@zukotron I agree, there's more to the track than we really delved into and you're dead right about the horror soundtracks. It's certainly not a goth track, but I do think it ties in a bit with the new gothic revival and we perhaps got sidelined discussing that rather than the track itself.

I so look forward to this - was at the World Premiere at the Rainbow and enjoyed the film then so look forward to the DVD...

Thanks for the reply Tim. Fair enough, I can see how it kind of ties in with that witch house/oOoOO sort of sound. There's also a guy called Com Truise (http://soundcloud.com/com-truise) I'm liking a lot, who's doing something similar in a chunky-analog-synth-80s-soundtrack way.

Tony Palmer. Palmer is responsible for some of the finest music documentaries ever made

Including that one from c 1974/5 that seemed to deny that Bob Dylan was of any cultural, social or artistic interest whatsoever. Even as a 16-year-old I recognized a crock of shit when I saw one.

Recently watched the Justice DVD Across the Universe - good behind the scenes rock doc with Justice on Tour in the USA and their manager managing to get himself arrested a couple of times.

Looking forward to getting my hands on the Cohen DVD - could hear Avalanche in the background of your interview - he doesn't do that song at his concerts anymore (in NZ anyway), would so love to see him doing it "live" in the 70s, rather than in his 70s anyway.

Liking Lykke Li. So much excellent pop coming out of Scandanavia right now.

TulipBlack, Avalanche appears on the recent live album, Songs from the Road - terrific version, too.

Can I suggest there is a ban on Lykke-Li on the singles club? I heard her 3 years ago and she sounded old then - never been keen on her.

Good podding sheeple

In terms of great music documentaries I think the Townes Van Zandt documentary “Be Here To Love Me” is worth a mention. Like Dig! or Anvil you don’t need to be a fan of his music to find moving.

Is this the first mention of a vaguely country person on Music Weekly? How about some country on the pod? What does Brad Paisley have to do to appear on the singles club?

May I second that leroino1?

"Be Here To Love Me" is a fascinating film. The double-CD soundtrack is a killer, too. The live stuff on it is great, including a wretched, slurred, heart-breaking "Maria".

Had a bit of a laugh hearing Rosie call out the Gatekeeper track "blokey." This is the same person who had a go at a publicist for calling out an artist as a "female singer songwriter" and blasting the idea that it might be its own genre.

So which is it? Can music be gender defined or not? Or is that a one way definition reserved for dismantling the patriarchy?

Well, the words female singer songwriter are just descriptions of what someone is, not what they sound like. Feminine is a description of an attribute, as is blokey. I wasn't using the word as an insult, just suggesting that a heavy-sounding bit of computer music that came with heavy-looking, specially designed computer game visuals was blokey. I can understand why it made you laugh though, I am bloody hilarious.

I honestly didn't think it sounded like an insult. But if one musician's work can be described by first and foremost his gender, then shouldn't it be just as easy to open that to a group of songs, records, etc. and therefore define a "genre." I have no problem saying that "male singer songwriter" is a different genre from "female singer songwriter." And I have no problem considering Gatekeeper blokey. I agree. But I do feel as though your reduction of the song/look to a gender to be at odds with your view that a publicist should not describe an artist as a "female" because "female singer songwriter" is not a genre.

Perhaps it's apples and oranges.

hi all -

really enjoy the podcast, great features and often very insightful opinion. however, if I have one complaint its the preponderance of similar music every week in singles club, and indeed in the podcast's general focus. it seems that every week the music choices are weighted towards obscure electronica tinged type music. In fact you seem often to be discussing remixes, which suggests a type of music that is conceptually fluid, and not one in which the artist crafts a single, set song. Do you know what I mean? Maybe i just mean lacking guitars, but, for instance, i've never heard 'balearic' used so many times in one half hour outside of an Ibiza travel program.

Could i suggest veering away from the electronica saftety zone? for example, the frontman of Australian band The Drones (whose last album received a 5 star review from the Guardian), Gareth Liddiard, has just released a frankly astonishing solo album, so unconventional and strange that I'm sure barely anyone over here will ever hear it. Unless, of course, someone like you guys chose to direct a spotlight on it.

Anyway, keep up the good work.

The PR didn't describe their artist as a female singer songwriter, they said: "Are you a fan of female singer songwriters?" Which is like saying: "Are you a fan of DJs?" or "Are you a fan of guitar bands?" To which my answer would be, "Yeah, some of them, but what does this one sounds like?"

I don't think it's reductive to mention that something has a particularly masculine or feminine sound. If I described Eliza Doolittle as "very girly" you'd probably have a better idea of what I was getting at than if I said: "She's a girl". It's seems pretty clear to me.