With all that’s going on, tonight Xarabank is discussing the REALLY hot issues…

Published: March 21, 2014 at 8:49pm

…Gensna; why Mary Spiteri is not taking part in Gensa (se jkollna ukoll kollegament maghha); Brian May; xufier li ssalva minn mewt.

Time to hang up your clip-board, Joe.




30 Comments Comment

  1. The Observer says:

    At this rate I really don’t know how Xarabank can finish its 39 week schedule. I bet their advertising rates will go down a tot by June in view of lower viewership.

  2. Manuel says:

    With Dr. Gonzi as PM and a Nationalist government, Joe Azzopardi felt safe and secure producing programmes about the real issues.

    Under Dr. Muscat and the PL, he has become part of the culture of not-stepping-on-the-PM’s-toes. He feels threatened with Labour in government.

    • Spock says:

      I don’t think he’s just feeling threatened.

    • Toni Borg says:

      Threatened? Peppi Azzopardi is on a leash just like Lou Bondi. They are now two little Chihuahuas doing what Joseph wants them to do and say what he wants them to say, because they have to pay the bills.

  3. C.Portelli says:

    And Evarist is a hero! Wow, what a farce.

  4. Louis says:

    He does not dare discuss the real issues, because mighty Joe or Manuel might be offended.

  5. The Observer says:

    Now this is a must see, Lou Bondi and Jason Micallef best buddies next to each other.

  6. Spock says:

    He has probably only been allowed to carry on with Xarabank under strict conditions, and the only reason why it hasn’t been axed is because of its great popularity and to show how ‘tolerant’ the government is, retaining Xarabank.

  7. back to the 80s says:

    Come on, Lou, wake up! You are ridiculing yourself.

    Your face shows that you are not comfortable in your role. You are letting yourself down.

    You couldn’t go lower than saying that you had to stop doing journalism because your TVM show was stopped. Is TVM the only station? Is television the only medium?

    So now you’re the government’s impresario. And I’ve just heard you boast that staging Gensna as part of the ‘national celebrations’ was your idea. Do you really expect us to believe you?

    • curious says:

      Lou Bondi stopped doing journalism because he wanted to and not because TVM stopped his programme.

      In a way, The Fat Controller is better than Bondi. Rightly or wrongly, when the going got tough for Grima with his colleagues at Labour, he continued with his ‘profession’ on NET TV.

      Lou Bondi, bahri tal-bnazzi. Nothing to be proud of. In Mintoff’s time he was safely tucked away in Canada and now that Labour is back in power, he lost his journalistic voice and found his father vocation.

  8. pale blue my foot! says:

    Lou Bondi is actually boasting that it was his idea that Gensna should be resurrected. The depths people go to win brownie points.

  9. Brian says:

    I stopped watching Xarabank in March last year.

    • gaetano pace says:

      I never allowed it to rob me of so many precious hours of my life. There were and still are a thousand and one things that I enjoy doing in respect toward myself, my intelligence and intellectual growth.

      I only spared it the odd five minute once every two months to be informed of the goings on in the media and the crowds out there.

      After so many years I could count more blessings than the regrets people are having for having squandered so much precious time. I got more out of not watching Xarabank than most have done in watching it for a decade. Keep smiling.

    • Tracy says:

      I stopped watching TVM since March 2013

  10. Spock says:

    Have you just heard Mary Spiteri? Unbelievable. What a drama queen.

  11. edgar says:

    I was disappointed with Joseph Muscat becoming Prime Minister but was expecting it but was not expecting that Lou Bondi stoops so low. This is how he has ended up: justifying Gensna as a valid part of Malta’s musical heritage, on Xarabank, with Jason Micallef.

  12. Sparky says:

    Honestly, who gives a flying hoo ha about Gensna.

  13. Gahan says:

    In the meantime the organisers of Gensna are making a collection for the victims of the collapsed rigging over the ‘Gensna’ stage.

    “Alms for the poor haddiem please, alms for their families?”

    Who was the safety officer in charge?

    Was there an insurance cover on the injured workers?

    The organisers should fork out all what is necessary for the injured workers and their families to continue living as normally as possible.Not a 10% alms collection. How stupid can we get Mr President.

    The workers want rights not charity .The Gensna lyrics: “Aghtuna x-xoghol aghtuna l-hidma.Aghtuna dak li ggilidna ghalih!” fits perfectly.

  14. Aunt Hetty says:

    Lou Bondi promoting Gensna.

    Now I’ve seen it all.

    BOO HISS.

  15. back to the 80s says:

    Undoubtedly Xarabank has turned into government propaganda by omission or commission. It’s fascinating watching Jason Micallef losing his self-control (such as it is), unable to hold a mature discussion, raising his voice and almost going into a tantrum in an effort to convince the audience that those who criticize him are wrong and he knows what he is doing.

  16. Antoine Vella says:

    I cannot comment about what Lou Bondi claimed or what Mary Spiteri said, on Xarabank. I didn’t watch the programme.

    Last week I watched part of it, because of the political debate, but otherwise never do. It has become irrelevant.

    Those who are unhappy with the way Xarabank has changed should not watch it. Simple.

  17. rob says:

    If only Malta had the Nielson ratings as in the USA there would be undeniable revelations of how many people watch Xarabank.

    The sad truth is that many hardcore Labour find it amusing enough.

  18. Chris says:

    What’s really in it for Lou Bondi?

    On Bondi+ before the general election, Muscat told him ‘One day I’ll get you to vote Labour’.

    I don’t know about that, but he’s managed to get him to Jason Micallef’s level. Muscat must have loved every minute of watching Xarabank tonight, seeing Lou Bondi reduced to that: paid by his Labour government to stage Gensna and defend it, seated next to Jason.

    Lou ain’t stupid. He must realise that all this is designed to discredit him.

    Even worse, he knows that this is being done to discredit the PN.

    Muscat is feeding the popular belief that the two political parties are no different. They both lack principles and they both have a price.

    Lou’s actions are irresponsible. He is not a private person. He’s an icon. And Muscat knows that by buying Lou and discrediting him, he’s discrediting what Lou used to stand for.

    So again, what’s really in it for Lou?

    • calypso says:

      Lou Bondi has an indefatigable ego and when Joseph Muscat gave him an opportunity to remain a public figure he didn’t think about it – he jumped at it. What is really scary is that Joseph Muscat knew exactly how to stoke that ego and pulled it off.

      Bondi has manipulated the National Festivities Committee into his own personal fiefdom using national feasts as the excuse for him to organise rock concerts that are his passion. He has been wheeling and dealing behind the scenes with various organisers as though this were his own personal business.

      In the process he has managed to put a couple of noses out of joint – promising A and giving to B.

      He cannot issue his own media releases because he is just one of a number of persons on the committee/board – but how many of you know who else is on the board or even who the chairman is? Most people think he’s the chairman, but he isn’t.

      You don’t know because they have been sitting in the background nodding their approval at Bondi and letting him get on with it. Most on that board do not want to publicise the fact that they sit on it; they would rather keep a very low profile. They felt they had to accept out of a sense of loyalty to the country or maybe because they worried about the repercussions of not keeping on the government’s right side, and then took a back seat to distance themselves as best they could.

      But Lou Bondi and his ego are different. He uses Facebook like a council-estate teenager whose girlfriend has just had a baby, uploading a mix of pictures of guitars, performers and the baby in a series of outfits, as though the baby is a dress-up doll accessory to a teenage dad.

      In this he is undignified, but his ego is more important than his dignity or reputation. Like his buddy Peppi, Lou is past it as a media personality and in his twilight years has shoved aside what he believes in to keep his ego fire alight.

      Good luck to him if he is enjoying it and using his position to organise music that a very small sector of our society really enjoys. He has let down many of those who considered him a hero for sticking it to the PL, even if by the end he had evidently lost the plot, because it was more important for him to enjoy the limelight, even if the PL has exploited his appointment well beyond what it signifies, than to stick to his values.

      You, Daphne, would not have allowed the PL to use you like this had you been approached for a similar position. They are able to read people sufficiently well enough to know they should not even bother trying it with you.

      You would not allow yourself to be exploited like that but Joseph Muscat, in that cunningly evil way, knew exactly what he was doing and sadly, Lou fell for it and now thinks it’s all a bit of a joke – but it is not.

      No, Lou – you have not let yourself down because you are enjoying the limelight like a Brian May who thinks he is a One Direction (or is it the other way round), but in the process you have let down many of those who had some respect, even admiration, for you.

      Let us see what will happen as the year approaches its end and there are no more ‘national festivities’ to organise – my bet is Joseph will appoint Lou elsewhere, using the excuse of his being so effective on this committee, and in the process continue to exploit a figure that is more about ego than it is about values and principles.

  19. T. Cassar says:

    Mr. Bondi went from Bondi Plus to Bondi Minus in just a flick of a governmental position. Shame on him.

    He dares compare Brian May & Elton John taking part in a British national celebration with the same Brian May being invited to Malta. They are British and we are celebrating a Maltese national event: independence from Britain, becoming a republic (after the British monarch) and ‘kicking out the British’, with British performers.

    So where is the comparison?

  20. Tracy says:

    I can’t stand watching Peppi Azzopardi overdramatising……
    I prefer watching Affari Tuoi with Flavio Insinna on Rai 1

  21. M. Cassar says:

    While channel hopping I saw Lou Bondi on Xarabank, how sad. Then came an ugly outburst from Jason Micallef and though that if this is our face for culture and if this is the way heads of projects think they should behave in public, we should go back to loin cloths and clubs…are there bunks available at Ghar Dalam?

  22. citizen says:

    I fully agree with your comment Daphne.

  23. socrates says:

    Xarabank yesterday made three things very evident.

    Joe Azzopardi is hopeless and by time he’s getting worse: he has nothing more to tell the public. He is simply regurgitating PL’s nonsense.

    Public broadcasting is once again in the hands of PL. Apart from Jason Micallef’s mantra that he’s simply the best and Lou Bondi’s almighty approach that he is not responsible for anything that’s wrong and that all his and his team’s choices are impeccable and the best ever, Xarabank proved to what extent there is internal disagreements between the PL people.

    The celebrations planned by V18 and their associates are the cheap stuff one would expect from the local PL – they don’t know how to govern this country, and they’re not even capable of providing some decent entertainment.

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