The Overtones ~ Saturday Night At The Movies (A preview - part 3!)

Oh how I do love it when The Overtones kick into promotional gear - particularly in the run up to the launch of a new album. As you will well know by now from my musings on their first album preview (here) and a scarily detailed look at their album cover (here), the fab five are all set to release a movie themed album later this year (November 4th, don'cha know) entitled Saturday Night At The Movies. But don't let the title fool you - it's released on a Monday and honestly, I'm pretty sure you will be able to listen to it any day of the week (not just Saturdays). This week they've been particularly busy generating column inches and tv exposure for the big launch. It was revealed that they are duetting with Susan Boyle on her festive album Home For Christmas on the track Little Drummer Boy (which I think means the boys got to work with one of my musical icons, Steve Anderson?); they performed the title track of the album on Daybreak and released a second album teaser online featuring some of the new tracks. Let's focus on the Daybreak performance first which you can view here. They are introduced by lovely little Aled Jones as the wonderful Overtones (surely a future title for a best of collection?) and lit up television screens across the nation with their vibrant coloured jackets. What I loved about the jackets was that it reversed their chinos and waistcoats look from earlier this summer - that look (see here) saw them adorn their bottom halves with individual colours while wearing matching waistcoats-shirt-tie sets. And jolly lovely it was too. But now - hurrah! The Overtones are no longer bottoms, they are tops! Each bloke looking brilliantly dapper of course (though Mark looking resplendent in mustard :D) as a perky guitar based instrumental with a lively percussion & orchestral strings acts as the backing track to their always glorious voices. Tim, looking positively jubilant, takes lead vocal while the rest of the gang give those deliciously textured accompanying vocals that we all know and love so much (I really hesitate to call them backing vocals as they have redefined the prominence of harmonies in songs - so much so that they are equally as important as whoever takes lead vocals). What follows is a delightful performance that makes me yearn hard for a new tour - here are some of my favourite bits...

• 01 ~ Timmy Eyebrow Raise (24s)! No botox for this quifftastic chappy as he grabs the mic and gives it some deep shoulder action. Love how his eyes crinkle when he smiles :)
• 02 ~ Walking on the spot dancing (51s)! Ooo the easy to master dance moves are back so you can look as good as the guys (as long as you dress up like you are going to the Rainbow version of a Downton Abbey dinner party)! Make sure you do the hand movements with it or you'll look a right goober :P
• 03 ~ Effortless cool (1m)! I'd have probably gone dead cheesy at the "hugging and kissing" bit of the lyrics and done that thing where you pretend you are smooching someone but really it's just you! No such cheap gimmicks for the fine fellas. They have one hand behind their back & continue their nifty foot shuffling.
• 04 ~ When the venga rhythm starts to sway (1m10s)! I've always thought The Overtones would be brilliant entertainment on a cruise (hey! there was a whole Backstreet Boys cruise once, I don't see why the Toner lads can't do it! They can call it Ships and Dips) and this mesmerising swaying would be just enough movement to get you used to the flow of the ocean. Lovely!
• 05 ~ Microphone Seduction (1m22s)! Across the ages, the microphone tilt has always been an effective pop trick that always adds to a routine. Heck, Girls Aloud did it way back in Sound of The Underground (way before Cheryl got her teeth done and my nan's curtain pattern tattoed on her back). The Overtones manage to make tilting a microphone deliriously romantic as if they are mid dance and dipping their special lady/bloke friend. Sigh. I've never wanted to be a microphone stand more. Particularly the one on the right of the screen :D PS! Someone get these guys on Strictly Come Dancing NOW!
• 06 ~ The Glide & Swoon (1m52s)! As we come to what I call the middle 8 but our American friends refer to as "the bridge", the crooning five take a break from singing and do some lovely gliding style dance moves that will make you swoon. A little. Or at the very least come over with the vapours. Their cheeky grins & hip wiggles suggest that they might have just a little more than dancing on their minds. Heavens to betsy! WHAT WILL THE CHURCH ELDERS THINK?!?! :P
• 07 ~ Good God (2m15s)! Just how big are Mr Franks feet?! Perhaps it's the camera angle - but you know what they say about big feet?! (Yes, you need big shoes)...
• 08 ~ Mike Makes Love (2m50s)! He may be one step back, but the perfectly coiffed one takes the limelight when he practically straddles the mic as the song comes to a close. He shimmies forward into position and it's all rather tremendulent...
• 09 ~ The Final Pose (2m54s)! Get your pause just right and it's an absolute corker. frankly (Mark Franksly) I would expect nothing less :)

Phew. That was exhaustive wasn't it?! Have a little break, grab a kit kat and come on back to examine the best bits of the 2nd album preview which can be viewed at the top of this very post! How convenient :)

• We're back at the Electric Cinema where all the shenanigans of Preview Number One took place. The chaps are all still in their 3d glasses so are probably just done appreciating Channing Tatum in a vest in White House Down. Or Stockard Channing in Grease. Whatever floats your boat...
• Popcorn malarky still continues. Lachie is just so hungry that he is shovelling the popcorn straight from the bag, right down his gullet. Mike on the other hand is so over the popcorn that he is using it as a cheap confetti based alternative. Ideal if you go to the cinema on a Friday night, buy a jumbo size bag then have some left over for a wedding on the Saturday...
• OOH! The boys are talking. I love how Lachie leans into the camera as he talks - makes it quite intimate and charming. I am also loving Mike's collar pins and Darren's bow tie. That man hasn't met a bow tie he can't make look amazing.
• Mark has a lovely bit about reminiscing about great movies which is so true (remember the days when media was more restricted and a movie would air on tv, sending the main song rocketing back into the charts? Sigh!) and then Timmy gets one line! ONE LINE! At least his eyes crinkle with his smiley excitement :)
• Cleverness! They show clips of the films while the most teasing of soundbites from the new album tantalise us. First up is Grease and some ramalama ding donging. I really want to go on a shake shack now!! "Let's hear it for the toilet paper"!
• Next up is Pretty Woman (which is one of those movies - everytime it was on in the 90s, It Must Have Been Love would rocket back into the top ten) and the guys doing the title track to that film. A gloriously earnest vocal from Lachie is elevated by some amazing double time "shoop shoop"s from the troops! "You work on commission right? Big mistake. Big. HUGE"
• Bare Necessities is always a riotous good time ("Tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk. Pitiful. Hey, kid. You need help, and ol' Baloo's gonna learn ya to fight like a bear") as is (in very different ways) any song from Dirty Dancing. They've wisely chosen Do You Love Me and I just can't wait to grind groins with whoever is lucky enough to be standing next to me at their next concerts :P (Jo? TallcatKay??! Any Toner?!) "I carried a watermelon" *looks mortified* "I carried a watermelon??"
• Twistin! Now hurry and pre-order this bad boy right here. Right now. Done it? Have you or are you just saying that??! I'll be checkin' :P

Top 21 songs of the week:

21 ~ Ola, Jackie Kennedy (NE)
20 ~ Agnetha Faltskog, Back On My Radio (NE)
19 ~ One Direction, Best Song Ever
18 ~ Fifth Harmony, Miss Moving On
17 ~ Darin, Give Me Tonight
16 ~ Asher Monroe, Hush Hush
15 ~ Sugababes, Flatline
14 ~ Agnetha Faltskog, Dance Your Pain Away
13 ~ The Feeling, Rescue
12 ~ Celine Dion, Loved Me Back To Life
11 ~ Olly Murs, Right Place Right Time
10 ~ Lady Gaga, Applause
09 ~ Neverest, Rewind
08 ~ Betty Who, You're In Love
07 ~ Eric Saade, Boomerang
06 ~ MKTO, Classic
05 ~ Scarlett's Roses, King of Hearts
04 ~ Pet Shop Boys, Love Is A Bourgeois Construct
03 ~ Cher ft Lady Gaga, The Greatest Thing
02 ~ Ed Drewett, Blink
01 ~ Sara Bareilles, Brave (5 weeks)