The Wrecking Crew - Dir Denny Tedesco (2015)

The 2015 New Zealand International Film Festival has just wrapped up and there was a plethora of good music documentaries on show. One of these was the long-awaited and much heralded film “The Wrecking Crew”. Directed by Denny Tedesco, the film which was originally made for release in 2008, but had its release delayed due to distribution issues is about a group of Los Angeles-based musicians who made up the session group from the late 50s and 60s called the Wrecking Crew. This collective of session players which totalled over fifty musicians played on all the big hits of the period, including those by the Beach Boys, Frank and Nancy Sinatra and the “Wall of Sound” records produced by Phil Spector. At that time big name American pop artists wanted the best musicians backing them on their records and in the form of the Wrecking Crew they knew they were getting the case. In the process this often led as was the case with the Beach Boys to bands ditching their own members for the Wrecking Crew to play on their records.

You might not know the names of the musicians, but you will definitely have heard some of the music they played on, with songs like “Good Vibrations”, “The Beat Goes On” and “You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling” coming to mind. And, this is one of the things the film sells itself on, the idea that these musicians stories have been left untold for too long, while the superstar singers and bands whose records they played on have gained all the fame and fortune. Session musician groups such as the Wrecking Crew are now a thing of the past, and that is one if the sad facts of this story in that once the 70s came, many of these musicians had no more work and simply vanished from the industry as work became scarcer. Some fortunately such as Leon Russell and Glen Campbell were able to get gigs with other big acts, or in the case of Campbell carve out successful solo career. But other interesting personalities such as bass player Carol Kaye and guitarist Tommy Tedesco, both highly influential players struggled to maintain work in an industry which was undergoing significant change as the decades moved on. Session players were out as more and more acts picked up their own instruments. A shame really as these players are talented and extremely gifted players, with the ability to play any style of music, play it more than competently and read music to boot, something which in itself is becoming rarer and rarer amongst pop and rock acts today.

“The Wrecking Crew” is a truly beautiful story which was actually quite a touching watch at times, as these musicians sat with one another yarning and reminiscing of the good times had in the studio. And, although many of them have long since had much to do with the industry, this film was a fitting reminder that they once carved out a place at the centre of the music industry and made their mark well and truly in the process. Thankfully the distribution problems which have prevented the release of this film were able to be sold and the opportunity for these musicians to tell their story has come about. A great rockumentary film which anyone with an interest in popular music history should see if given the opportunity.

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- Sam 

Return of the Rockumentary (2014)

I feel we might be re-entering an age of good music documentaries again. This comes after what could be described as a bit of a dip in the late-90s and into the 2000s. Now obviously the classic age of rockumentaries was the 60s and 70s, with great films like “Dont Look Back” and “Gimme Shelter”, but now, looking round, it appears there seems to be so many good music documentary films doing the rounds.

The last few years has seen the release of some fantastic films. I think of “Twenty Feet from Stardom” that looked into the role of the backing vocalist, “Searching for Sugarman”, the outstanding film about the so-called lost folk singer Rodriguez, while I have also stumbled across some great films about Bob Marley “Marley”, John Lennon “Lennon NYC” and Paul Simon “Under African Skies”, celebrating twenty-five years since the release of his album Graceland. There have also been some very good television music documentaries. The BBC in particular are the masters of this, and have produced some great series on the history of rock “Seven Ages of Rock”, and their “Britannia” series which explored amongst other things different periods and genres in music such as prog rock, synth pop, and Northern soul. This to me is wonderful as a music historian and geek, and to be brutally honest beats your run of the mill concert film or biopic any day of the week. The biopic in particular really rankles me, probably because most of them are very bad, with poor acting.  While I always look at biopics about musicians and think what really is the point of this exercise aside from an attempt to get an insight (whether accurate or not) into the lives of musicians.

So with the rockumentary back in vogue it seems, I am hoping that there are many directors and producers out their willing to get on with the work of making some films that I consider to be in desperate need of production. Just some of the artists who are crying out for a good doco to be made about them include Warren Zevon, Nick Drake, Tom Waits, The Kinks, Steely Dan and New Zealand’s very own Fat Freddy’s Drop. I would also like to see some films which follow in the “Twenty Feet from Stardom” mode, namely films on famous sidemen and producers. Finally, also, given the current climate and changing nature of it, it is high time a good investigative piece into the workings of the music industry is undertaken. This might suit a Michael Moore type figure, or some director who is willing to be daring and take no prisoners.

So, in conclusion, the return of the rockumentary film can only be a good thing, bringing the history and stories of popular music back onto the big screen, and, hopefully, destroying once and for all this at times obsessively horrible infatuation with biopics. Here’s hoping anyway. 

- Sam 

"Message to Love: The Isle of White Festival 1970" directed by Murray Lerner

If you are looking for a good “rockumentary” to watch, then “Message to Love: The Isle of White Festival 1970” could be for you. It covers the 1970 Isle of White music festival and in particular the chaos that went with it when around 600,000 people converged on this tiny island to witness performances from Jimi Hendrix and Miles Davis among others. The film does a good job in highlighting the many problems and incidents the festival faced including performers getting booed, stage invasions, and raucous youth attempting to break into the festival by tearing down the perimeter fence that was built to keep those without tickets out. Apart from some very good performances, the ultimate highlight of the film for me was head promoter Rikki Farr’s rants against the audience, which only got more vocal as the situation involving the people outside the fence worsened. This film is a highly enjoyable watch which delves into one of the climatic moments of the late-60s period, and is made even more interesting considering there would not be another festival held on the Isle of White until 2002.

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- Sam