Madness, BBC TV centre

[Cuntybollocks]

Great gig tonight outside The Beeb!!.

Madness were superb, and to see Wilko Johnson join them for a number was out of this world.

[one eyed jack]

Had the pleasure of Chas Smash giving me a kiss at Stansted while we were checking in and singing a song live over instrumental...well to another that converged to make that inciden thappen out of the blue rmusician I was travelling with

Dont ask its a weird set of circumstances. Being a fan of Madness since I was at school probably had something to do with it

[Arginald Valleywater]

I was the odd one out in my class at school, into Rainbow, Iron Maiden etc and everyone else to a man or woman was into Madness and their ilk. I have warmed to them and think come across as a decent bunch of blokes. Getting Wilko up was a great idea.

[Grendel1]

Been a fan since school, even though my general taste was metal / punk. Madness are a true British institution

[one eyed jack]

Madness is the sound of London

[Robches]

The true madness is closing down Television Centre and spending over a billion pounds turning Broadcasting House into a new Television Centre, but that's what you get from the state broadcaster, they get over three billion a year from us all on pain of imprisonment, and I suppose they have to spend it on something. Of course they might have spent the money on decent programming, but obviously that's not the point. The BBC is first and foremost a bureaucracy, with the inevitable empire building that entails. George Orwell didn't base MiniTru on the BBC for nothing.

[one eyed jack]

They make highly professional product to high standards and to work for them is a passport to anywhere in the film industry on the planet...Yeah thy're not perfect as they came under heavy criticism from me for their handling of the london riots documentary but for the most part...I got mad respect for the Beeb and theyre worth it alone just for not having advert breaks every 10 minutes.

Youre paying for that

Dont like em? Dont watch their product. Thats what I would do.

[number 6]

found this rare madness classic on youtube which i had not heard for donkeys years..great video!!

[Robches]

one eyed jack wrote:

> They make highly professional product to high standards and to
> work for them is a passport to anywhere in the film industry on
> the planet...Yeah thy're not perfect as they came under heavy
> criticism from me for their handling of the london riots
> documentary but for the most part...I got mad respect for the
> Beeb and theyre worth it alone just for not having advert
> breaks every 10 minutes.
>
> Youre paying for that
>
> Dont like em? Dont watch their product. Thats what I would do.
>

I'm afraid that if you have a TV you have to pay the licence fee, it doesn't matter whether you watch the BBC or not. But my main point is that the BBC has spunked away over a billion pounds turning BH into a TV centre, when they already had a purpose built TV centre a few miles down the road. I doubt any commercial broadcaster would piss money away quite so readily, but it helps when you have a guaranteed ?3 billion a year income.

[David Johnson]

"But my main point is that the BBC has spunked away over a billion pounds turning BH into a TV centre, when they already had a purpose built TV centre a few miles down the road. I doubt any commercial broadcaster would piss money away quite so readily, but it helps when you have a guaranteed ?3 billion a year income."

Extreme right wingers will always oppose the BBC. The reason for this is simple. They hate the BBC's independence. What extreme right wingers want is TV on the lines of FOX News and other Murdoch owned TV whereby extremely wealthy right wingers can produce television, particularly news which reflects their right wing political views masquerading as impartial viewing. We see this in action already in the UK where 90% of the press is owned by extreme right wing owners and their newspapers reflect their owners' political views.

The building that the BBC moved from was started in 1928. Hardly a huge number of moves one would have thought?