The illustrated Hello: Willy Wonka

Willy Wonka. The famous, fabulous, fictional factory owner who made a special invitation for a lucky few to come inside his sugar walls...



No, no, Sheena Easton, not now.

Wonka was created by Dahl, brought to life by Gene Wilder, and then destroyed by Johnny Depp in a pointless remake (Kind of the Nestle buyout version, I'd guess). Wilder got to sing in the 1970s version, in this clip which represents, I think, the first-ever appearance of Roy Kinnear on No Rock:



One of the winners of the golden tickets allowing a trip round Wonka's factory was Veruca Salt. A spoiled brat who got everything she demanded (and, you'd have to suggest, more than a little cribbed from the mighty Violet Elizabeth Bott) - what better name could you pick for your indie guitar band?



By law, that had to be played on every edition of The Evening Session, that did.

[Buy: Resolver - Veruca Salt
Manthology - Gay For Johnny Depp]

[Part of The illustrated Hello]

Veruca Salt weekend: All Hail Me

Not, perhaps, the sort of video which makes investment in one of those giant wall-covering web browsers worthwhile, but the tune is - from earlier this year, Veruca Salt in British Columbia, doing All Hail Me:



[Part of Veruca Salt weekend]

Veruca Salt weekend: Shutterbug

Continuing our weekend with Chicago's finest - this is Shutterbug, from Saturday Night Live On The Sunset Strip:



[Part of Veruca Salt weekend]

Veruca Salt weekend: Number One Blind

Continuing our trawl through Veruca Salt's back catalogue, this is the promo clip for 1994's Number One Blind:



[Part of Veruca Salt Weekend]

Embed and breakfast man: Veruca Salt weekend

Oddly, although they've been prone to disintegration a wart in a bottle of Bazuka, Veruca Salt have never quite gone away completely - although on this side of the Atlantic, you could be forgiven for thinking they did Seether and that was it. So, this weekend, we've got a slew of stuff from the band through their half-dozen line-ups and decade-and-a-half of releases.

To kick off, this is 1997; the band are on Rosie O'Donnell's show - and this is Morning Sad. We don't know why a bottle of Listerine appears on the screen before the interview:



Purchases are possible:
1997's Eight Arms To Hold You, the album being promoted on O'Donnell
IV, the sort-of-comeback from last year on Sympathy For The Record Industry
Resolver - we were listening to this when we thought "it's probably time for a Veruca Salt weekend"
Former Salteen Nina Gordon's second solo album - don't say Aimee Mann, she gets sick of that

As usual, we'll list further dips into the Veruca Salt catalogue from across the weekend at the foot of this post
Number One Blind - video from 1994
Shutterbug - live on Saturday Night Live
All Hail Me - live in British Columbia, 2007