Music documentaries

[Neomod]

When I saw "Lawrence Of Belgravia" at the Hackney Picturehouse, Lawrence said he didn't want it to be released online as once it's on there it'll be everywhere and we'll get no money for it.

I bought a copy of "New World In The Morning" from him. He refused a photo with the person in front of me so I just shook his hand. I've not washed it since.

Didn't the film show Lawrence's small ad looking for 'a vigilante type into army manuals, genital mutilation and pooping'.

Might be time to wash that hand.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Wasn't really aware of the Disco Sucks movement. Just looked it up. How delicious that the main twat behind it was from Chicago. How he must have loved house music.

When I first started listening to Peel in the late eighties there were always people moaning about hearing hip-hop, techno and African music.

Dunno if you've ever listened to the Chart Music podcast, but in the mid-90s the Asian-British music journalist Neil Kulkarni received a letter from some cunt complaining about his coverage of hip-hop and any artist who wasn't white. "Your dark mates" was the chilling phrase used.

Melody Maker published it to take the piss out of the witless correspondent, and Chart Music occasionally calls back to it as a bleak running gag, but fucking hell.

[Satchmo Distel]

Wasn't really aware of the Disco Sucks movement. Just looked it up. How delicious that the main twat behind it was from Chicago. How he must have loved house music.

When I first started listening to Peel in the late eighties there were always people moaning about hearing hip-hop, techno and African music.

It started earlier than that, with several people moaning about Peel playing roots reggae in the late 70s. Only one of these people was Morrissey.

[Pauline Walnuts]

I was listening to a late 80s Peel show the other day, towards the end I was praying for Acid House to arrive and save us from this endless display of six string bashers.

[jobotic]

It started earlier than that, with several people moaning about Peel playing roots reggae in the late 70s. Only one of these people was Morrissey.

Oh I'm sure.

As an impressionable teenager I think I definitely benefitted from hearing Peel's response to this moaning - basically "do one".

[Jockice]

Didn't the film show Lawrence's small ad looking for 'a vigilante type into army manuals, genital mutilation and pooping'.

Might be time to wash that hand.

First I've heard of this. Tell me more.

[Neomod]

First I've heard of this. Tell me more.

Actually it could be 'peeping'?



Nope, there it is.

Got a big laugh at the Barbican screening.

[Pauline Walnuts]

Nice little thing about Too Pure from 1993,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUTR9kVKPEA

At the risk of sounding like an ungrateful so and so, wish he wouldn't crop them into widescreen. It's really not that hard to preserve the correct ratio these days.

[Better Midlands]

How he must have loved house music.

"Disco's revenge" to quote Frankie Knuckles.

[PeterCornelius]

Made in Merseyside - early Beatles years doc - v good

Not wishing to spoil it ... but it's riddled with inaccuracies and fabrications. Mark Lewisohn's biography has dispelled the many of the myths. The worst offender is Joe Flannery and his "I was the Beatles booking manager and I would have managed them if Epstein hadn't signed them" fairy story.

[The Mollusk]

"I Called Him Morgan", the story of the short, troubled but magnificently talented life of jazz trumpeter Lee Morgan, is well worth a watch on Netflix. A touching human drama which is told with as much delicate heart and soul as necessary whilst also profiling a remarkable young artist whose incredibly photogenic physical form was precisely as fucking cool as the sound that came out of his instrument. A fascinating story recounted by some excellent musicians and archive interview footage of his wife who shot him dead in a sad fit of passion when he was just 33 years old. Really really good film.

[PeterCornelius]

Hail! Hail! Rock n' Roll is a great documentary about Chuck Berry. I have the DVD expanded edition which has a load of additional footage, interviews etc. His interactions with Keith Richards are unintentionally (or maybe not?) hilarious.

Worth seeking out:

Tony Palmer - All You Need Is Love
Standing In The Shadows of Motown][url]Standing In The Shadows of Motown[/url]
The Wrecking Crew

Hopefully, the hyperlinks work!

[Pauline Walnuts]

This might be interesting

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sinceyesterday/since-yesterday-music-documentary

[jobotic]

Did anyone watch the Delia Derbyshire one last night? I forgot about it but it's on iPlayer for a year, will probably watch this week. Looks really promising

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000w6tr

[steveh]

Yes, I liked it though the reviews are rather mixed. It interweaves dramatised scenes with interviews with people Delia worked with and (mostly) audio interviews with her while Cosey Fanni Tutti provides a soundtrack edited and expanded on from some of Delia's previously forgotten tapes.

I think some people disliked it for not being a straight documentary and spending time covering other aspects of her life and relationships, rather than strictly being on her work. The arty, almost experimental approach some reviewers dubbed as pretentious, but I thought it was appropriate to both her as a person and the spirit of the times she was living through.

Probably best watched alongside that earlier Alchemists of Sound documentary about the Radiophonic Workshop.

[Neomod]

This might be interesting

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sinceyesterday/since-yesterday-music-documentary

Looks interesting. I would like to see an actual Strawberry Switchblade feature doc. There was a website, now gone, which had interviews with all of the main players and it's a fascinating story.

[Goldentony]

Yeah id be into a solo Switchblade doc too. Shame about the fan site, the level of work that went into a band as small but rewarding as those was astounding, and the CDs and DVD the guy put together were an amazing bit of work too given it's all archive stuff pre youtube (I think).

There's a fanpage on FB that's good because Rose McDowall posts there every so often and for a while was commenting on peoples pictures of their bootleg shirts going EY HANG ABOOT WHERES THIS FROM and stuff, really funny

[holyzombiejesus]

I recently sold a copy of the Strawberry Switchblade demos 7" and the buyer was a 'Rose M'...

[DrGreggles]

Since Yesterday was one of the best singles of the 80s.

Anyone who disagrees is a silly sausage.

[bos]

It Is Not My Music follows Don Cherry from his rural Swedish idyll to the streets of Harlem. A lovely doc about a beautiful man.

Eubie Blake at 100 and he's still got it.

Genghis Blues is simply magnificent. One of the very best music documentaries.

[SteveDave]

I'm going to see the Velvet Underground on Friday and I am excited. I'm going to wear my Doug Yule t-shirt and cheer loudly whenever he appears. I expect to cheer twice.

[Smeraldina Rima]

Looking up that Velvet Underground doc I saw that Freakscene: The Story of Dinosaur Jr. is also showing in UK cinemas at the moment. Hadn't heard about either. There are screenings next week but some cities (Manchester, Glasgow) have the last tomorrow.

[Head Gardener]

I enjoyed this good hour long doc on Moe Tucker & The Velvets last night https://youtu.be/26Y-qPglJQ0

[SteveDave]

The Velvet Underground documentary is really good. Much better than I was expecting it to be. There's so much footage I'd never seen before including a tarot card reading of the band (with sound) in the Factory and a shot of Lou, Sterling and Doug live in 1969 that gets synced up to "Candy Says". That bit made me stop breathing. Not permanently.

[holyzombiejesus]

What's it like? Standard 'story of the band' stuff with talking heads going 'it was wild'? I'm kind of hoping it is, especially if one of the talking heads is Jonathan Richman. Does it mention Squeezed and them reforming?

[the science eel]

I'm still waiting for Home in Manchester to post times so I can book to see the VU doc.

[SteveDave]

What's it like? Standard 'story of the band' stuff with talking heads going 'it was wild'? I'm kind of hoping it is, especially if one of the talking heads is Jonathan Richman. Does it mention Squeezed and them reforming?

It is a standard re-telling of the story but they've obviously been able to do a deep dive into Warhol archive and have found clips of them that I've never seen before- a few shots of them walking down a street mob-handed looking like vampires and photos I've never seen before- Lou and Andy with floating silver pillows in the street.

No mention of "Squeeze" even in the closing captions. Doug gets "Doug Yule has made one solo live album and lives in Seattle".

There's no mention of the band carrying on after Lou leaves either and the timeline gets fucked up towards the end to make it look like Sterling left before Lou. Moe tells the story of them (Doug, Moe, Sterling and Willie Alexander I think) at the airport in Houston getting ready to fly back to New York and Sterling saying "I'm not coming with you...I'm staying here to go to school" but then everyone talks about the night that Lou left the band at Max's Kansas City.

I sort of wish they'd not had the talking heads and gone the route of the "Laurel Canyon" documentary and just had voice-overs. That way you get to see them as they were all young and beautiful instead of weathered and old. Except for John Cale. He still looks great.

[Custard]

The VU documentary is apparently going on Apple TV in three days time. You can sign up for a 7 day free trial, then cancel here - https://tv.apple.com/

[SteveDave]

Or just go online and illegally download it.

[Custard]

Well, there's that option too