Sunday, December 20, 2009

The Battle of the Music Quiz Shows Part 1: Rockwiz



Now for all of you out there who like myself have no life and sat at home last night, I hope you were fortunate enough to catch the Rockwiz Christmas Special. Julia Zemiro was her usual rock-glamorous self. She's got quite the knack of improvising with the guests and I find her to be quite witty. And I always like Brian Nankervis in his role of rock overseer. The Rockwiz Orchestra were augmented by a few more players and singers which was nice, and the special singing guests got into the rock-Christmas spirit. With Tex Perkins and Tim Rogers instructing the little drummer boy to get his act together, he wouldn't dare not. Nice harmony Tim. You actually impressed me and I haven't been a fan in the past. What I like about Rockwiz is the way it gets the audience members into the show. Unlike Spicks and Specks, it's music first, comedy second. What I mean is, it's not trying too hard to be funny, it focuses on the music and from that comes both a joy of music as well as laughs and all round amusement. It's fast paced (where SandS can sometimes get bogged down in trying to be funny...I offer for your consideration the game of celebrities playing the mini keyboard). Rockwiz also had the added bonus of Paul Gray with his tinsel covered keytar (or as Flight of the Conchords would say..his "guitboard"). Win.

But we shall see how The Very Specky Christmas stacks up tonight at 7:30. In the meantime, enjoy this, which was a cracking final number sung by Joe Camillieri (spelling...sorry if it's wrong) and his pink saxophone. What a great choice of song for a Christmas special. Sadly, it doesn't look like anyone has uploaded it to youtube yet. You'll have to make do with Elvis.

4 comments:

The RocKwiz Team said...

Hello Wendy. Thanks for your lovely comments. Most of the songs from the RocKwiz Christmas Special, including What's So Funny About Peace Love and Understanding, are on the site at http://www.sbs.com.au/rockwiz/browse. Merry Christmas!

Wendy said...

No problem! I enjoyed it a lot. Off I go to your website now!!
Merry Christmas. You are back next year aren't you?

Kirsty said...

Your analysis is spot on. I could live without Tex Perkins, who does, I think, try to be funny, but, yes, Joe Camillieri rocking out Peace, Love & Understanding was sublime.

Wendy said...

Thanks Kirsty! Yeah I'm fairly ambivalent towards Tex myself and always have been, but that last number was an absolute treat wasn't it!