You Can Be Heroes
Bowie/T.Rex producer Tony Visconti fronts new TV music talent show.
September sees the arrival of a new music talent show on our TV screens, Tony Visconti’s Unsigned Heroes, to be broadcast on the Sky Arts channel.
Visconti tells Classic Rock: “The whole thing started when I was a judge on two of the Guitar Star series on Sky Arts. In the second series I was chief judge, and after the great mutual experience we had, Sky wanted to do another series.”
The format for the new series is based on a live show that Visconti has been doing in New York, called The TV Show (geddit?), where the legendary producer invites unknown musicians to perform a set of songs “that have something to do with me”.
Over the years, Visconti has worked with a range of artists that includes everyone from T.Rex to Thin Lizzy and, most famously, David Bowie, which means the choice is wonderfully broad.
The new Unsigned Heroes show will follow a similar format, except extended over a series, while featuring young and, in Visconti’s words, “unbelievably talented young people that just blew me away seeing what they could do”.
The series builds to a live show finale – filmed at London’s Union Chapel – that will be titled Tony Visconti: A Life In Music. It will include contributions from musicians such as former Police drummer Stewart Copeland, Bob
Geldof, original Spider From Mars drummer Woody Woodmansey, and Visconti’s occasional band Holy Holy, who feature Heaven 17 vocalist Glenn Gregory, whom Visconti says “does an incredible version of Life On Mars, a very hard song to sing”.
The series will also see Visconti sending out Imelda May to uncover talent in the Celtic heartlands of
Ireland and Scotland [What, no Wales? – Welsh Ed], while Stewart Copeland will be heading to London, where
The Police played their earliest gigs. Meanwhile, Visconti himself will look to the north of England.
They will soak up the atmosphere of each of their designated regions, uncovering the exciting, unheralded music scenes underneath all our noses. Visconti’s incredible career will give a sense of purpose to this quest – he has worked with artists and bands from all over the UK and is attuned to the musical qualities of each locale.
The trio will each find three new talents from their respective areas, and will work with them ahead of the big event at Union Chapel, which will be aired as a 90-minute special
As Stewart Copeland tells us: “This is not like any other TV talent show. This really is about the music, and only the music. I have been stunned by some of the talented people on the show, including one female rapper who sings the best version of Children Of The Revolution I’ve ever heard.” MW