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10. Blondie: One Way Or Another – If you only have time to watch one of these harrowing tales on this list I would say this is the most cautionary. This extraordinary tale appears on first watch to be another tale of in-fighting, affairs, falling out, illness, drug and drink abuse. But what transpires is something very different. An extraordinary lesson about keeping an eye on your rights and the deals you sign which will leave you heartbroken but forwarned.
9. Backstreet Boys: Show ‘Em What You’re Made Of – In one of two entries from director Stephen Kijak is a documentary that describes everything that can go, and does, often, wrong with the music industry. It is a sordid, sad tale of the exploitation and squandering of talent, effort, in a sea that is void of human compassion and kindness. It’s a popcorn view though. Quite an extraordinary tale masterfully told.
8. Fleetwood Mac – Don’t Stop. Or rather, stop stop STOP in lord’s name! The overriding sensation I took away from watching this was “I’m fucking glad I wasn’t in that band”. The Fleetwood Mac story is a serpentine one. Many members, many hits, many years. And it seemed that they all shagged each other, broke each other’s hearts and created hits about how horrible and heartbroken and devastated they were about each other which they would all have to play and sing. As enmeshed and toxic environment as you could possibly imagine with a group of uniquely talented individuals and drugs. Lots and lots of drugs.
7. Dig! – I couldn’t do a list where one everlasting facet of Rock N Roll is band / artist / sexual rivalries. They permeate through all walks of lives forged as music-workers. Whether you be rapping, rhythm guitar playing or blowing down an oboe at a concert of classical music. There is no better documenting of this than with Dig which centres around the relationship between Anton Newcombe and Courtney Taylor of The Brian Jonestown Massacre and The Dandy Warhols respectively. Made in 2004 the narrative arc denies the hindsight we can afford it some two decades later. It ends as if The Brian Jonestown Massacre imploded in a shitstorm of drugs and mental illness. How things played out is different from the conclusion this film draws us to, with Anton Newcombe and the ‘Massacre still going strong, still making albums, still touring.
6. Fyre – Narcissism, Delusion, Fantacism and downright price-gauging fraud plays a central role in this account of a festival where people were expected to pay a premium to hang out on a Caribbean Island with a bunch of supermodels and influencers listen to music, drink expensive champagne and shag. Whilst the central figure is a chancer of the highest order it says as much about the cynical people who supported him in his disastrous scheme, and the shallowness people who thought they could buy their ways into living an elitist a-list ideal for a weekend. There are heroes though, and these, the empaths, are the only ones who shed true tears despite being very much the saviours of a terrible situation they were not responsible for.
5. Woodstock ’99 – Or “how to engineer a human disaster and pretend it was a good idea”. An utterly tragic account of the most disastrous music festival in the history of music. This tale, as it unfolds takes you way further than you will expect to go. It gets dark.
4. A Band Is Born – The “inside story” of the formation, or rather manufacture of boyband Upside Down. A portrait of the out-and-out shameless exploitation of young musical talent and fans alike. The sheer arrogance of the managers behind this enterprise makes for agonising viewing. They are under the illusion that money, some half decent looking young impressionable idiots is all it takes to make a mint out of the music industry. They expect to walk through the doors of power at record labels. They expect songwriters to throw their best works at the project (this scene …. just absolute gold…. Arnold S…. brilliant). These wankers, playing on young people’s desires to get famous despite not having the talent, training, experience or wisdom, and using this carrot to whip them with at every turn with unreasonable demands and preposterous contractual expectations. It is only when the parents of these young lads get involved (much to the massive annoyance of the managers) does the veneer of promised stardom and riches start to flake off. This documentary was made at a time where money was to be made in home grown manufactured talent before the onslaught of musical virtuosisty that was the American invasion by Backstreet and NSync.
3 Trouble At The Top – Bucks Fizz – For those outside Europe it is important to contextualise the Eurovision Song contest. It is an annual celebration of pop music that ranges from mediocre to utter shite which garners the biggest TV audience pan-Europe of the year. EVERY YEAR. It is a competition where countries submit acts who are judged on their songs, their performance and their showmanship. One would think, the UK surely the European powerhouse of pop music, rock, songwriting, one of it’s biggest exports. Surely we’d win every year? Sadly… very not. So it is as rare as the UK winning an international football tournament that we actually get anywhere at Eurovision. So when our entry “Bucks Fizz” (what we call Mimosas) caused a stir by doing a sudden costume change during the double outro chorus revealing the girl’s pants and thus ticking a box within the hearts of European judges which sent them on to win – they naturally became an incredibly successful pop act in the UK. For about a year. This documentary joins them as they tour the Falkland Islands… Not for the documentary, they’re actually doing performance dates there. Having hit a low point in their careers a personnel change takes place. In walks David Van Day a narcissist of inappropriately undeserved magnitude. He sets about stealing the band from the original band members setting off a legal battle of flaberghasting pointlessness. It may be no surprise to you that David Van Day went on to famously dump his girlfriend on a talkshow and is widely considered the biggest arsehole in pop. This has to be seen to be believed.
2. Jaco – As in Jaco Pastorius. To the bass guitar what Jimi Hendrix was to electric guitar. A man of extraordinary musical talent that played alongside the narcissistic demands of Josef Zawinul in Weather Report. Playing a knackered old Fender Jazz with the frets picked out and varnished over this man is a leviathan of the bass. However his story is truly tragic as so expertly and heartbreakingly documented here. A testament that the music industry seems to not care about the health or longevity of it’s seemingly endless supply of interchangeable artists. Even though someone like Jaco was so clearly an irreplaceable one-off.
1. Led Zeppelin – Live Aid Set – We’ve all had bad gigs. If something can go wrong in rock n roll it will. We are bombarded daily by Katy Perry’s bras snapping on stage or Taylor’s in-ears failing. Its part and parcel of what makes a professional which is why we enjoy that video footage of BB King restringing his guitar whilst continuing to play a live gig. The key is preparation, rehearsal and experience. But also knowing that those you’re onstage with don’t pose a threat, that they have your back and if need be will vamp around for a bit if your security personnel need to unwrap a stage invading fan from your mic stand.
BUT we also remember the worst gigs. You know… those gigs, the ones that have us waking at night. Not because of some prop malfunction, not finding the stage, or indeed the sandwich bread being too small to fold in the green room. Sometimes its because you haven’t had enough time to rehearse. Sometime’s its because you have a dep in, and sometimes it’s because that dep doesn’t have a clue what they’re doing and you don’t have a clue what they’re going to do next.
Thankfully these are often faded memories from the beginning of our careers, grabbing a buck here, a wedding there, and spreading yourself too thinly between various different projects. Not so in this instance, well… you would think. Somehow someone convinced rock leviathans Led Zeppelin to reform for a one-off short set as part of the original Live Aid concert held in two different cities (Philly and London) on two different continents. A feat of televisual technology at the time with an unprecedented audience; that being, the largest TV audience of all time.
This is 1985, less than 5 years after the death of Zeppelin’s drummer, John Bonham. The reason they hadn’t played as a trio with a new drummer thereafter was because of the fundamental, unique and rarefied contribution John made to the band. His parts, interpretation and style of drumming was almost symphonic in its light and shade, inventiveness and sheer prowess. Zeppelin tracks were never off the radio at this time so there was an intimate relationship between fans to even casual listeners of “how these songs went” and how they went was always a well crafted counterpoint and interplay amongst the quartet.
Originally the drummer for Genesis, a British Prog Rock outfit that also shared a penchant for light and shade Phil Collins was always a respected drummer. But never anything comparable to Bonham. By 1985 Phil Collins had graduated from his drumming position into the band and taken over Peter Gabriel as Genesis front man. In 1985 Collins had also started to peak as a solo artist of rarefied international stature. Basically a busy boy. So to Jimmy Page’s grudging and cautious agreement Phil Collins was booked to play dep to Bonham on this, the biggest stage ever mounted in rock history. There was a catch though. Phil collins was due to start the day performing at Wembley before hopping on Concorde to play Philedelphia. And to play drums, and not just drums, but Bonham’s drum parts (or so Jimmy Page thought)…. playing with Zep the first time…. without rehearsal. But hey, we’re all professionals, what could possibly go wrong?
I’ll let you see how it worked out. But it is clear from the offset that Plant and Page immediately clock that not only is Phil very much gonna do his own thing, but the reason he’s doing his own thing is because he is sublimely unaware of the source material and clearly hadn’t researched it, listened to it or practised it before taking stage with rock royalty. Ever had the desire to hear a version of ‘Stairway with some tubs thumping all the way through it… Here’s your opportunity.