North Stars – January 2002

North Stars was a 2002 Series on ITV where various luminaries from the North were interviewed on themselves and others. Paddy’s “others” included Jimmy Nail and Lindisfarne.

I can’t help feeling there’s probably a better copy of this somewhere. This transfer was from a 2nd or 3rd generation copy, and suffers from a bizarre slowing of Paddy’s voice during the Jimmy Nail piece that was probably something I did when transferring it (it was one of the first things I ever did) but given it was relatively recent in terms of the fanbase, someone must have grabbed it onto VHS. Check your lofts when you put your decorations away.

Otherwise it’s pretty good. And the Lindisfarne segment, which I’ve included the whole of, is great for this time of year because of the inclusion of “Winter Song”, about the best seasonal song ever written.

One thought

  1. Gosh, I am really fond of this segment. I had seen it once before and as I am a card-carrying Wobbly and deep Prefab Sprout fan, I remembered the moments from this video where Paddy is remarking about Alan Hull being a socialist. It made an impression. I know that in another recent post, Paddy is remarking (in one of the 80s interviews that Tim posted recently) that it isn’t the kind of thing he wants to do, to write “The Sound of Crying” as an ongoing M.O. rather than write it once, carefully. Or to write Costello’s “Tramp the Dirt Down”. It wouldn’t be Paddy. Yet Alan Hull’s politics are not anything to disdain for Paddy. He seems to respect it, in the context of, and weaving in and out with, Lindisfarne’s music being “so melodic” and a source of joy. Paddy McAloon’s writing is very compassionate towards human beings. I could be projecting, but I think he has more in common with the left than he does with (events from the UK from that period that I know about just as an American, not firsthand), attacks on the miners, Orgreave, attacks on social democracy, attacks on the Liverpool dockers, high unemployment. In Paddy’s world, is there an NHS? I have never picked up anything in Prefab Sprout’s music that was ever *gleeful* about capital running amok or about The City, or that sneered at ordinary people. … as an unrelated remark, I had seen the “King of Rock’n’Roll” video several times but I had forgotten about Neil with a parrot on his shoulder! Hee hee. Happy holidays.

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