To many, ‘pop’ - in the musical sense - is a dirty word. However, getting past such pretensions and stripping it down to its barest essence, pop is simply something musical that a lot of people like. It isn’t any particular style of music, in fact it can straddle genres as far ranging as country to rock to hip-hop to hi-energy, with many more in-between. Love is in the Air, a five-part series from the makers of Long Way to the Top, sets out to celebrate the vast array of Australian entries into this hard to nail down category, ranging from the ‘50s right through to now.
The five episodes, narrated by Toni Collette, are loosely themed. The Last Gig on Earth looks at that old ‘tyranny of distance’ thing, in both what our artists have faced in getting their tunes to the world, and what overseas acts have faced in getting their butts to our shores. She’s Leaving Home makes up somewhat for the shortcomings in highlighting most any female acts in LWttT, concentrating on many of the extremely talented woman performers this country has spawned; in particular Helen Reddy and Livvie. The third instalment is probably the one that will most interest Countdown kids. Ostensibly celebrating the Australian tradition of the ‘novelty’ song, once some filler is passed there’s plenty of Molly and those six o’clock Sunday shenanigans which will have the memories flooding back. I Should Be So Lucky (subtitled The Business of Star Making) is a study of the industry side of things, looking at a few specific acts including Kylie, Crowded House, LRB and Savage Garden. Finally, we’re in for National Anthems, an often entertaining look at many of those great Aussie songs both obscure and overplayed – from I Am Pegasus to Girls on the Avenue, Man Overboard to Accidently Kelly Street, with many more besides. Oh, naturally it culminates in the story of the song the series was named after.
Strewn amongst all manner of often fascinating file footage, both of the interview and performance varieties and including much from the Countdown archives, is a vast collection of newly taped interviews with stars old and current. With more than 50 interviewees on board it’s great to get things from the horses’ mouths as it were, although naturally it’s obvious that some heavy editing has been done.
While your average pop kid with a bit of a sense of musical history will find much to like in Love is in the Air, it does suffer heavily from its incredibly scattershot approach to its subject matter. As we’re shoved around from pillar to post it’s much like being in the back of a Kombi van rolling down a cliff – we get to see the sights, but not in any particular semblance of order or indeed logic. There are also great leaps of illogic made – the inference that the likes of The Ferrets’ Don’t Fall in Love and Sherbet’s Howzat were strictly novelty songs being one particular sticking point for yours truly. Also, let’s not start on the continuation of LWttT’s dogged concentration on overseas success as some gauge of importance, which annoyingly means way too much screen time is given to way too few. We have a rich pop history to be bloody proud of, regardless of whether those overseas ever got a chance to hear it (most times they didn’t, labels the likes of Mushroom may have been great at home, but sucked massive arse when it came to exposing their artists away from our shores), and it would have been nice to see more of the great acts who only had home grown success given a bit of time, rather than just more bloody LRB, Air Supply, Savage Garden etc.
The other issue before they put the gag back on me is with the whole air of “she’ll be right mate” about the titling used in the series. Ted Mulry becomes ‘Ted Mulray’, Flash and the Pan become ‘Flash in the Pan’ – and that’s just a sampling from within one minute of many inexcusable booboos scattered throughout the series. It would have been nice if people who actually knew what they were talking about had been given some involvement here.
Finally, once again those dreaded ‘right issues” raise their snivelling fat heads, so those who caught the series on telly may notice a few things missing or changed in this presentation.
The ABC is really getting with the old 1.78:1 programme, and this ratio (16:9 enhanced) is what we’re given to play with here. The only issue with this, and it will be a big one for some, is that the majority of the footage included was shot in 4:3, a fact that is at certain times quite obvious as there’s a whole lotta scalpin’ going on. Whilst on the subject of the archival stuff that’s included – the bulk of the presentation – the usual laws for such things apply in the visual department. These dictate that all manner of gremlins like grain, interference and video faults are going to creep in, simply as some of the footage dates back to the late ‘50s. There’s nothing in the way of problems with the DVD transfer however, a fact borne out by the crystal clear presentation of the interview footage taped especially for this series.
Despite resembling a ‘70s K-tel compilation album in its higgledy-piggledy trip through its chosen subjects, Love is in the Air does offer up many great insights into the world of Australian pop, presented visually and audibly as well as could be expected considering the heavy reliance on file footage. Ultimately, however, it suffers a similar fate to Long Way to the Top; it takes too massive a bite of the Chiko Roll and ends up choking somewhat, with more holes than it would take to fill the Albert Hall, and too many half-chewed bits that just leave the viewer confusedly muttering, “and…”
