Some promise lately but please get some new shows! (VH-1)

Member Name: bbwjayne

Product:	VH-1
Date:	26/07/01 (74 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Three hours of rock and indie music, Tommy Vance once a week

Disadvantages: Shows repeated too often

I don't know what has happened to VH1 over the past week or so but suddenly they have discovered that there is a whole audience of rock and indie fans out there that aren't being catered for in the non digital music television market. I was suprised and pleased when we tuned in around midnight and discovered this new program called Flipside. I tend to do a lot of work over night at my computer ( the joy of being a student) so I have figured out that the show goes on till about 3am. Durring this space of time they are playing both new and old indie and rock. Last night they played some of the older Red Hot Chilli Pepper's songs along side the brand new Fun Loving Criminal song and then some Papa Roach and some new bands that I had never heard before. Not a single boy bland in te mix. Of course you have to pay for this and at 3am they went from the wonderful REM directly to the very much less wonderful Mariah Carey. A bit of a shock to the musical system.

So, this is roughly three hours a day of good music. However, that leaves a lot of time when the channel has been a growing source of disapointment. The main source of disapointment for me is the large number of repeated progtams. For example, the rock years programs that are hosted by Paul King were made as a run up to the year 2000 and have been running nonstop since then. The behind the music shows are sometimes interesting - the first dozen times they are shown. Another thing that bothers me about the behind the music progams is that they are revoiced with British voices. Why? On visits home to my family in the States ( I am American by birth) I have seen the exact same shows with American accents and since they talk mostly about American things it is rather obvious. Why not make shows that are relevant to UK audiences and they you don't have to overdub.

For those of us who love hard rock there is however a once a week treat in the Friday Night Rock Show hosted
by the excellent Tommy Vance. If I am even half as cool as he is when I am his age I will be a very happy lassy. Simply the best hard rock/metal show on tv.

Bands on the Run has been an interesting watch when I have managed to catch it. Much better than Big Brother but I seem to miss it most weeks.

So, VH1 manages to be a really good station for three hours of the day. They have the potential if only they would do some new programs so we didn't have to see the same shows over and over again.

Summary: