So what is her problem?

PATTIE PEGLER

PERFECTION: The title is a play on 'unnecessary roughness', a penalty in American football.

'Life is like a football game, there's winners and there's losers."

So says the opening line of new US dramedy Necessary Roughness (starting tonight, 9.30pm, TV2). It's a pretty banal observation. But it's at least a good indicator of what to expect from the rest of this first episode.

Dr Dani (Callie Thorne) is that cliched female lead, the beautiful but feisty mum juggling work and family life. Then she finds her husband, a cliched, middle-aged philanderer, has been cheating on her with multiple women.

"Next time you screw someone in the guest bedroom, just remember I do box pleats, not hospital corners," she says about the bed sheets. It was one of the few mildly amusing lines in the show.

Add into the mix a carb-addicted therapy patient, an abrasive mother with a comical gambling problem and two stroppy teenagers – and you've got your full set of cookie-cutter, light entertainment characters.

It's difficult to make an interesting and convincing story peopled by cardboard cut-outs and so the writers don't try. Instead we get a chain of deeply implausible events.

No sooner has Dr Dani finished throwing her cheating husband's clothes out of the bedroom window (yep, another cliched scene), then she is heading out for a night on the town with one of her girlfriends. You know, like feisty, one-dimensional women do when they're in the throes of divorce.

In a nightclub, she gets hit on by a handsome trainer for the New York Hawks, an American grid iron team. Nek minnit she's been assigned as therapist to one of the star athletes.

However, he'd rather be out boozing and clubbing than listening to Dr Dani and her hypno-babble. And frankly, who can blame him?

Apart from the therapy issues, the writers have also tried to get in some tension with the cheating husband, the divorce and the work/family conflicts. But they're glossed over so quickly in favour of some pointless action that you get no sense of Dr Dani suffering at all.

And that's half the problem. Here's a main character who hasn't really got much to be upset about because her life seems pretty good by most standards. Sure her ex-husband is a jerk. But she has met a great new man, she has been handed a chunk of lucrative therapy work. She lives in a fantastic house with two kids and she's gorgeous.

Where's the "dramedy" there? Good stories are about things going wrong, about misery, struggles and problems. They're very rarely about people who have a few hiccups, but then everything works out really well.

The only plus point is actress Callie Thorne who puts in a good performance as Dr Dani and makes the most of the few decent lines. But that's simply not enough to carry the whole show.

Weak writing, one dimensional characters and a lazy storyline make this one to miss.

Necessary Roughness: Tuesdays, 9.30pm, TV2.

- © Fairfax NZ News

Adele, LMFAO sweep Billboards

WINNERS: Redfoo (L) and SkyBlu of LMFAO with their awards.

Energetic performances and heart-felt tributes took centre stage at the Billboard Music Awards overnight, as Adele, LMFAO, Justin Bieber, Katy Perry and Taylor Swift came away top awards.

British Grammy-winning singer Adele won 12 awards from 18 nominations for her juggernaut album 21, including top artist, top female artist and top album. Her awards were not presented during the live show and the singer was not present.

But LMFAO, the uncle-nephew duo Redfoo and SkyBlu, showed in trademark outrageous fashion and picked up two awards, song of the year for Party Rock Anthem and the top duo/group, along with four more honours.

Rappers Wiz Khalifa, Lil Wayne and R&B singer Chris Brown took honours for top new artist, male artist of the year and R&B artist of the year, respectively.

LMFAO kicked off the show with an energetic medley of their hits Party Rock Anthem and Sexy And I Know It. They were followed later by a shirtless Chris Brown performing his dance single Turn Up The Music with BMX bikers doing stunts.

Katy Perry, clad in a white dress, hung above the stage in a swing to sing her latest "personal and intimate" heartbreak single Wide Awake, while Justin Bieber, one of last year's big winners at the Billboard show, presented a grown up image this year after turning 18-years-old, singing Boyfriend with dancers dressed as clowns and neon geisha girls.

Other performers included Kelly Clarkson, The Wanted, Carly Rae Jepsen, Usher, Carrie Underwood, Linkin Park, Nelly Furtado and Billboard Battle of the Bands winner, Patent Pending.

Taylor Swift was given the Billboard Woman of the Year honour for her success as a recording artist, and she picked up the award from New Girl TV star Zooey Deschanel and veteran artist Kris Kristofferson, who praised Swift for having "done it the old-fashioned way by speaking the truth beautifully."

Bieber picked up the award for the most social artist, thanking his 22 million Twitter followers and 43 million Facebook fans, saying "the Internet is where I got my start."

Perry was given the Spotlight award for being the only female artist in history to see five No. 1 singles from one album. Michael Jackson is the only artist to have received the award previously.

Veteran soul singer Stevie Wonder, 62, was honoured with the Icon award this year and sang Higher Ground and Overjoyed with R&B singer Alicia Keys, wrapping the set with his hit song Superstition.

TRIBUTES TO THE FALLEN

With some big losses in the music world already this year, the awards show featured numerous tributes to late artists.

Early in the show, hosts Julie Bowen and Ty Burrell paused to remember late Bee Gees singer Robin Gibb, who died on Sunday after a long battle with cancer, with a moment of silence.

New Zealand artist Natasha Bedingfield paid tribute to late 'Disco Queen' Donna Summer, who died earlier this week after fighting lung cancer, saying "if we can remember her through her music, this will never really be her last dance," before kicking off into Summer's hit, Last Dance.

Wiz Khalifa paid tribute to late Beastie Boy Adam MCA Yauch, who passed away earlier this month after battling cancer, while Cee Lo Green joined his hip hop band Goodie Mob to perform Fight For Your Right in Yauch's memory.

The biggest tribute of the night was for Whitney Houston, who died suddenly aged 48 in February this year. The late singer was posthumously given the Millennium award, while singers John Legend and Jordin Sparks led heartfelt renditions of The Greatest Love of All and I Will Always Love You against a backdrop of photographs of Houston.

Houston's sister-in-law Patricia Houston and teenage daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown accepted the award, with the late singer's emotional daughter saying "I'm just blessed to have been in such an incredible woman's life, there will never be another one ever."

- Reuters

NZ's worst album covers

Recently I asked you all to put forward submissions to Right This Blog! With that in mind please welcome today's guest post from m.s.p.

I remember as a kid before I knew anything about music, I would look through my parents' record collection and pick out ones to listen to based simply on whether I liked the cover or not. That was my way in. And the reverse was equally true.

There are, of course, plenty of good albums - great albums, even - with terrible front covers. nobody ever put Pet Sounds on because The Beach Boys hand-feeding llamas looked cool.

They say image is everything. There are those that will say how important is an album cover anyway? A musician's merit should be judged on their music alone! This is not in the least bit unreasonable of course (particularly now, in the age of the thumbnail) but it is fair to say many of us are guided in our initial relationship to the music by the visual stimuli on hand.

Radiohead's The Bends is one of the best albums of the last 20 years - but the cover is easily one of the worst. Once you hear the music, then that is really all that matters. But what if you never get that far, simply because the cover image is stink?

NZ Music Month is again upon us, so here are five of our own album covers that may have benefited from a rethink.

Tomachi - The Hotel Vermont Sessions (2005)  

Tom Atkinson - aka Tomachi - one of Auckland's most in-demand session drummers of the past decade, took time out from such bands as Breaks Co-op, SJD and one million dollars to create this solo album ("hip-hop soul with a jazz-funk twist") between 2002-2004. He called on an impressive array of star guests - 22 in total, including such luminaries as Dam Native and King Kapisi - to add to the songs he had built around his own (mostly improvised on the spot) performances on keyboards, analogue delay and drums. Indeed, the music within makes you want to dance. But the front cover makes you want to take a shower. Imagine pulling the curtains back and seeing that looking through your window.

Craig Payne - 2nd Time Around (2011)

Craig, formally of the band Dizzy Heights, is an accomplished rock guitarist based in Christchurch. He is also one of the Garden City's hardest-working musicians, having for many years balanced an impressively prolific output (during 2007 he released two albums in a single month) with the usual grind of various fulltime jobs. This even at one stage included a stint working as an embalmer (which may have inspired this album's cover photo). He looks here like he's had a bad lunch (or two). What "feeling" is he trying to project with this facial expression here? Is it anger? Is it defiance? Or has he just soiled himself?

Steve McDonald - The Riddle and The Rhyme (1980)

That's a shotgun Steve's holding. At first glance I thought it was a jousting stick. To be honest, I'm rather split on this one. On another day I would probably argue that this is actually one of the best NZ album covers ever. I couldn't wait to put it on. I mean, looking at this, you just have to know what it sounds like. It looks as though he's going to burst through the cover at any second and fly around your lounge, trailing stars. The album itself sounds like Steve Miller fronting Genesis doing Dennis Wilson covers. Quite brilliant, in other words.

Lionel Reekie - From Russia with Love (2011)

Lionel's album of well-known songs from stage and screen (such as Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables and My Fair Lady) was recorded in Novosibirsk, Russia, with the Siberian Festival Orchestra last year, which just in itself is an impressive accomplishment. But as well as being a versatile singer, he is arguably New Zealand's top accordion player. He is the Dan Carter of the accordion. Lionel is also an accomplished conductor - in 2007 he conducted the New Zealand North Shore Accordion Orchestra in Washington DC and New York. Accordion music doesn't get enough press in this country. This cover is a straight-up shocker, but it makes me kind of happy too. That's clearly a man who loves what he does.

Dave Dobbyn - Loyal (1988)

Long before New Zealand had Hobbits, we had Dave. Love him or hate him (I am in the former category), it is simply a fact that he is one of the best songwriters our country has ever produced. It is hopeless to argue. But it seems to me his biggest obstacle to wider world domination, his Kryptonite was his hair. Those trademark tight ginger ringlets just don't cut it in rock and roll. Never have. Not even in the 80s when the rule was, if you possessed a blonde mullet of spring-curl variety, you played the keyboard. And you weren't in the band photograph. In this picture he looks like someone who has stolen away from the barbecue because he has a bad case of wind to deal with. Worse was to come though: the infamous jumper he wore in the title song's video has gone unforgiven to this day. And quite rightly too. But Dave survived this and other such travails. Why? Simply because he is brilliant.

Now, your turn: have you heard any of these albums? What did you think? Do you have any of your own examples of Kiwi album covers that missed the mark?

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Shortland St: greatest moments, #20-11

Shortland Street - New Zealand's highest-rated scripted show, and the only local scripted production not relying on funding from NZ On Air (a pretty special feat in itself) - celebrates its 20th birthday this week, starting with a feature-length (well, 90-minute) special episode last night, and ending with the official anniversary of the show on Friday.

To mark the occasion at On the Box, I decided to try to figure out the Top 20 Moments over the course of those 20 years - we took nominations back in March, and I asked you all to vote in April - and now I'm able to give you the official 20 Greatest Moments in Shortland Street History (as voted by On the Box readers).

So here are Moments #20 to #11, complete with commentary from some of the cast and crew involved in bringing these memorable events to the small screen.

20) 1994: Stuart (Martin Henderson) stands up and declares his love for Kirsty (Angela Dotchin) at her wedding to Lionel (John Leigh) in the final episode of the year. A fun fact, courtesy of long-time producer Steven Zanoski: "The Shortland Street acting coach, Shirley Duke, played the celebrant in this storyline. Fifteen years later she resurrected her celebrant character when she married Gerald and Morgan."

19) 1997: Ellen (Robyn Malcolm) and David (Peter Elliott) lose baby Rose to cot death. "Baby Rose was played by the real-life baby of our medical adviser at the time," says producer Steven Zanoski. "The whole reason we got David and Ellen pregnant was to do the cot death story, but we got cold feet when two of our storyliners were pregnant in real life as we were writing. Then when the medical adviser's baby played Rose, we couldn't bring ourselves to do the story. It was more than a year later that we committed to going with it and did a cot death story in the last viable week before the baby was too old. The scene in which Ellen found the baby, it was played by the living baby. Robyn Malcom picked her up out of the crib quickly and we cut out of the shot before the baby moved. Robyn Malcolm received her first award nomination for this story."

18) 1999: Greg (Tim Balme) and Caroline (Tandi Wright) ride off into the sunset, on the back of Greg's motorbike. The role of Greg Feeney had an interesting side-effect for actor Tim Balme: "It was no secret Greg Feeney had a drug history. 1994 and Michael Galvin and I were doing a publicity gig in Dunedin. Got off the plane with a massive fever. Got the taxi from the airport to stop at a chemist. Asked for the strongest cold tablets they had to get me through. This was back when pseudoephedrine was freely available. But I was refused. The chemist clearly thought I (Greg) was on the hunt for P. she said 'Mr Feeney, I know what you types are after. It may be acceptable in Auckland but this is Dunedin.' I was sent on my way with a packet of Throaties. Driving off with Caroline put an end to the mistaken-identity episodes."

17) 1996: Carla (Elisabeth Easther) kills husband Bernie (Tim Bartlett) by smacking him with a candlestick, after an earthquake strikes Ferndale - and Bernie is only dazed, not dead. Fun fact: this was the first murder on Shortland Street to take place entirely on-screen - though executive producer Simon Bennett jumps to Carla's defence: "This was episode 1000 in 1996 and the first block of Shortland Street I directed. I remember doing the earthquake scenes with lots of shaky cam and objects rigged by the art department to fall from the walls. Bernie had it coming. His last words to Carla: 'Move your fat butt!'"

16) 1995: Darryl (Mark Ferguson) dies after falling overboard while attempting to murder Kirsty on board her house-boat, the Toroa; she was confronting him about faulty drugs he had provided to patients. Darryl's body is later washed up on a beach, and for a short time Kirsty believes she may have been the one who killed him. (Spoiler: she didn't.)

15) 2006: Maia (Anna Julienne) and Jay (Jaime Passier-Armstrong) celebrate their civil union at Parnell Rose Gardens, as protesters from Serenity Church congregate nearby. "We designed and made two wedding dresses in three weeks, says costume designer Nicola Newman. "The wardrobe team put in some pretty big hours to get them made and ready for the big day. And then you only see them on screen for one episode!"

14) 2011: Sarah (Amanda Billing) gives birth to Tillie on the side of a country road, after going into labour during the wedding of ex-boyfriend TK (Ben Mitchell) and Roimata (Shavaughn Ruakere). "It was pretty nerve-wracking having to do justice to a birth scene in a ditch on the side of a road," recalls Amanda Billing. "A little-known fact is that the baby that we used for these scenes was actually a little boy called Nathan. He filmed with us for a few weeks but then he started to get too old and looked a bit too much like a boy so we had to swap him out for a girl child."

13) 1993: Darryl spikes Chris's drink and locks him in a barn, following a stag night ahead of Chris's second attempt at marrying Alison (Danielle Cormack), causing Chris (Michael Galvin) to miss the wedding and Alison to leave the country. "Darryl was the show's first great villain," says long-time star Michael Galvin, "and Mark Ferguson did a great job channelling his inner Satan. I remember shooting the scene where he drugs Chris pre locking him up and Chris collapses on the table. He was just supposed to glare down at me villainously as I slumped, but when it came to the take he looked down at me as per rehearsal then disdainfully pushed me off the table with his boot. I fell out of shot and on to the floor and managed not to start laughing until they called cut. All I remember about the barn/underwear scene was that I had to wear underwear under my underwear so you couldn't see the details, as it were. Spartacus was decades away."

12) 2011: Jill (Natalie Medlock) is accidentally killed and Daniel (Ido Drent) badly injured after they try to stop Hunter (Lee Donoghue) from going through with a robbery at a nearby chemist. Says Drent: "The storyline was really exciting to play out and incredibly challenging in terms of the arc it created for my character, so I was really stoked to be involved in that cliffhanger."

"It proved really difficult to find a chemist that would allow us to shoot in their premises," says production designer Ana Miskell, "so with a week to spare the producer decided to build a chemist set! I spent a few long nights in that set getting it all prepared. We had to create all the drug brands for the chemist because we couldn't show real products. Our graphic design team were pretty frantic. I was pretty pleased with the final product - I hear even the editing team couldn't tell it wasn't a real chemist."

11) 1998: A pregnant Tiffany (Alison James) falls from the roof of a building after talking a suicidal man down; the accident leaves her brain-dead and forces Johnny (Stelios Yiakmis) to decide whether to try to save the baby by keeping her on life support. Fun-fact: the suicidal character was named Tim.

Check back on Friday as we count down from #10 to #1.

In the meantime, what did you think of last night's 90-minute special?

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Or, feel free to email Chris at otbmail@chrisphilpott.co.nz. 
This is a spoiler-free blog - please comment responsibly.

US launch for Kimbra's latest

PALOMA MIGONE

Kiwi singer Kimbra is excited about the release of her new album.

Kiwi singer Kimbra who is set to take the world by storm will be marking the release of her debut album in the United States and Canada with two live shows.

The Hamilton-raised recording artist, who was in Perth today, will be flying to the US tomorrow for the launch of Vows.

Kimbra was planning to spend the week in Los Angeles, where she would appear on late-night talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Wednesday, and perform a sold-out show at the Masonic Lodge of the Hollywood Forever Cemetery on Thursday.

Kimbra recently exploded into the international music charts as the featured singer on Australian Gotye's hit song, Somebody That I Used To Know.

Her previous TV performances with Gotye on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and Saturday Night Live introduced her to the US public, fortifying her meteoric rise to fame overseas.

Since starting out recording her own songs as a student on a small eight-track recorder borrowed from her school's music department she has made enormous strides.

Her album, Vows, was released in New Zealand and Australia last year, and in its first week of release it charted at #3 in New Zealand and #5 in Australia.

Kimbra was up for the APRA Song of the Year and Breakthrough Songwriter of the Year awards.

Earlier this month, she was awarded the Grand Prize of the Nashville-based International Songwriting Competition.

Kimbra has already won top prize in the Pop Category of the International Songwriting Competition for Cameo Lover, the Critics' Choice Award in 2011 and the Best Female Artist award at the ARIAs in Australia.

After a week in Los Angeles, Kimbra would continue on her tour with Foster the People with a concert in New York on May 29.

- © Fairfax NZ News