16 March 2021
A three-part documentary following ska band
MADNESS from the early days in Camden Town,
London until now, 12 studio albums and four
decades later.
Named after the band’s 2019 biography.
Premiere on 1st May exclusively on AMC
and on demand Via BT TV.
– TRAILER –
– BIOGRAPHY –
More info here
– DEBUT SINGLE –
The Prince (1979)
MADNESS: Facebook
About old and new music movies…
10 March 2021
Documentary about multi-faceted British punk legend Poly Styrene who introduced the world to a new sound of rebellion, using her unconventional voice to sing about identity, consumerism, postmodernism, and everything she saw unfolding in late 1970s England, with a rare prescience. As the frontwoman of X-Ray Spex, the Anglo-Somali punk musician was also a key inspiration for the riot grrrl and Afropunk movements. But the late punk maverick didn’t just leave behind an immense cultural footprint.
Directed by: Poly’s daughter Celeste Bell (interview here under) and Paul Sng
Released: 27 February 2021 – Now streaming through independent cinemas in the UK
and Ireland and will premiere in North America at SXSW from March 16-20.
More info ‘to watch’, here via Modern Films.
Louder Than War wrote: “A dazzling documentary that will renew your faith in the
power of cinema to depict lives that aren’t so easily narrated… This film is so much more than a documentary. Certainly, it offers insight into Poly Styrene’s life and career in X-Ray Spex, and it brings together incredible commentary from voices that include Pauline Black, Ana da Silva, Kathleen Hanna, Rhoda Dakar, Don Letts, Neneh Cherry, Vivien Goldman, John Robb, Gina Birch, and so many others. But even more, it’s an elegiac rumination on a complicated yet beautiful life, and the power of narrative for those, like Bell, who do the storytelling.” Full review here.
The trailer…
The cliché…
Turn Up The Volume‘s numero uno X-Ray Spex cracker…
POLY STYRENE: Facebook
Rest in peace, heroine…
7 March 2021
AMERICAN UTOPIA (2020)
About: Live recording of a Broadway play with David Byrne
performing – alongside 11 musicians – several songs and
contributions from his long career (Talking Heads/solo work).
Director: Spike Lee/Screenplay by David Byrne
Trailer…
DAVID BYRNE: Website
The play was named after his 10th solo album from 2018
23 February 2021
JOY DIVISION
A Documentary
What: this docu follows the unlikely rise of working-class lads Joy Division up to Ian Curtis‘s suicide with rare footage of the group and interviews with band members, their entourage and other Manchester punk celebrities of that era, as well as their moody and starkly photographed videos, capturing the essence of what made Joy Division so special and
so tragic.
Directed by Grant Gee – 2007
Film critic Philip French wrote: “Someone says in the film that the revolutionary step they made was to progress from the usual punk group’s angry statement: ‘Fuck you.’ Joy Division were the first to say: ‘We’re fucked.’ There is a particularly impressive sequence in which dark, despairing tracks of urban alienation and angst from the 1979 album Unknown Pleasures are accompanied by a speeded-up nocturnal journey around Manchester. It has the hallucinatory sci-fi feeling of Jean-Luc Godard’s Alphaville.”
The trailer…
Full documentary…
JOY DIVISION: Facebook
THE DAMNED: DON’T YOU WISH WE WERE DEAD
A crazy mix of archival, interview and contemporary footage
of punk legends The Damned. The film also discusses the hot
rivalry between members Captain Sensible and Rat Scabies with
their disagreement over unpaid royalties.
Released: 2015
Trailer…
Happy B. to guitarist/songwriter Brian James.
He celebrates his 66th birthday today.
Give him a new rose…
THE DAMNED: Facebook
17 February 2021
Title: THE VELVET UNDERGOUND
What: In-depth interviews with the key players of that time combined with a treasure trove of never before seen performances and a rich collection of recordings, Warhol
films, and other experimental art that creates an immersive experience into what founding member John Cale describes as the band’s creative ethos: “how to be elegant and how to be brutal.”
Director: Moviemaker Todd Haynes who already made some music movies in the past, like Velvet Goldmine (about glam rock) and I’m Not There (about Bob Dylan)
“Because although there’s very little traditional footage of them playing like you’d see in other rock docs, what you have is the exquisite Andy Warhol films that they played a part in, that he often shot in order to project them on the stage over them while they performed. And so, it really uses the language of those films. It’s just stuffed with the most gorgeous experimental film and photography, and what I hope is that it will take the audience back to that time and also let you hear the music in that context and hear it anew,” said Haynes in a statement.
Release: This summer via Apple TV+
THE VELVET UNDERGROUND: Biography – Discography
BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY
1998
The story of the legendary British rock band Queen and
probably the best rock entertainer ever Freddie Mercury.
With Rami Malek, Lucy Boynton, Gwilym Lee
Trailer…
Eternal hero…
ALMOST FAMOUS (2000)
The journey of a young music journalist writing for
legendary rock magazine Rolling Stone in the early
1970s. He tours with fictitious band Stillwater, and
works on his first cover story.
Starring: Billy Crudup, Frances McDormand,
Kate Hudson, and Patrick Fugit.
Director/writer: Cameron Crowe.
Inspired by being a teenage writer
for Rolling Stone himself.
Trailer…
A documentary film made in 1982 chronicling the messed-up adventure of two American punk bands, Social Distortion (still active) and Youth Brigade (still active), as they go on their first international tour. They meet another progressive punk band Minor Threat (1980-1983), whom they hang out with for about a week near the end of the chaotic tour.
Starring Mike Ness, Dennis Danell, Brent Liles, Derek O’Brien
The trailer…
Biographical musical drama film about Johnny Cash – 2005
Featuring Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon.
R.I.P. Johnny Cash