Following on from Brighton Rock and The End of the Affair, the third in our Graham Greene trilogy.
A lot of good candidates and suggestions. Nigel Webb suggested either The Comedians (which I do in fact have a shortlist for on file), Our Man in Havana, entirely dedicated to the Buena Vista Social Club or The Ministry of Fear, re political themes (which we sort of did years and years ago). Pinko Fowler wanted A Burnt Out Case. Barry Peden went for The Honorary Consul – an episode about cars. Maybe Travels with My Aunt or Stamboul Train, although they are fairly limiting in scope.
In the end I went with Lewis Lyons’ recommendation of The Third Man, which was a film starring Orson Welles set in Vienna, written by Greene, as well as a book by him. In fact his last book was called The Tenth Man, but that’s a hard ask.
So the idea is three in a band – and to be enlarge the theme, not just the third man, but the third woman as well.
Three is a slightly awkward number in a band, in the same way that it is in siblings, animals’ legs and relationships. More often than not, someone’s going to get left out (not with animals’ legs though). That might mean the most dominant member of the trio – say, The Jam, where Paul Weller wrongly felt he was doing all the heavy lifting. Or, conversely the least dominant, who feels neglected – e.g. Lou Barlow in Sebadoh.
I suppose the most famous trio is Nirvana, so we haven’t included them out of sheer bloody-minded perverseness.
Somewhat surprisingly this is the first time we’ve played ‘Going Underground’, The Jam’s #1 single from 1980. And the reason is that sadly the band’s percussionist Rick Buckler went to the great drumming stool in the sky this past week. Now The Jam – there was a three person band. Rick was the perfect third man for the band, forming a legendary rhythm section with bassist Bruce Foxton. And everyone agrees one of nature’s gentlemen as well: not one negative word in all the tributes that have poured in. We will miss you and your paradiddles, Rick.
