The Grammy’s
The Staples Center
Los Angeles, CA
February 11, 2007
Review & Phone Photos By Victoria Joyce
(SugarBuzz Hollywood)
Don’t ask us how but somebody had an extra ticket to the Grammy’s and we just couldn’t say no.
Yeah, yeah, we know. Did the Ramones ever win a Grammy? The Clash? Hell the Beatles got an ‘official’ one a year after they hit in 1965. (They were on location, shooting “Help,” high as kites and Peter Sellers was the presenter if their ‘Grandmother’ award.)
“Do you want to go to the Pre-Party?” “Sure.” Fancy eats on a downtown roof top with, I swear to God, chocolate pianos. The National Association of Recording Arts and Sciences was born at the Brown Derby in Hollywood when 5 big wigs had lunch in 1957. It’s the Oscars for Music. There is a day before show and a show before the show show. Know why there are so many categories? Seventeen thousand voting members. Wanna join? Its a hundred bucks (www.grammy.com)
Broadcasted from the Staples Center in downtown LA where the our home town teams play basketball and hockey; Clippers, Lakers and Kings. A live feed for the east coast means a 5p start. That’s a tad early for all that glammed up glitz on the red carpet.
The media gauntlet was a city block long and the real people are rushed though in the fast lane and told to ‘keep moving.’ I wanted to stop and check out Imogen Heap’s outfit. Tough luck. Hey there’s the two reject guys from American Idol, doing a live remote for Jimmy Kimmel. We walked in behind Joan Baez and "Weird Al" Yankovic (and please, oh please check out his website http://yankovic.org).
OK, we were totally jazzed to see the Police, even if we were in nose-bleed seats. Sting, Summers and Copeland opened the show and the Chili Peppers closed it 3 ½ hours later. In between we dug Gnarles Barkley who did “Crazy” in Navy dress uniforms. Which is pretty crazy. For a big barn the sound was really good. Pretty sharp and clean. Not the usual muddy mush.
The rest of the show was mis-matched celebs giving out Gramophone statuettes to people we don’t care about. OK, Seal and Burt Bacharach? Cool. Quentin Tarantino and Tony Bennett? Cooler. Queen Latifa and Al Gore? Coolest. Well, it’s cool for the first 5 seconds and then it’s a little embarrassing and just plain awkward.
There were dozens of commercial breaks during the show and the live audience got to watch “Grammy Moments,” highlights from past shows. Very recent shows, like the Clash tribute with Springsteen, Little Steven, Elvis Costello and Dave Grohl covering “London Calling.” If all those guys combined their Grammy’s it would be what? One?
Our favorite part of any major awards show is always the memorial; Gene Pitney, Buck Owens, Desmond Dekker. “Whoa, ohhh, ohhhh, the Israelites.”