ANVIL

This is Anvil, above. This is Anvil's famously filmed story LINK. This is Anvil's audience, below. Brixton's, Redondo Beach CA 10.28.11

BP FALLON

Above and below, BP Fallon delivering a trenchant spoken word piece in the midst of the Michael Des Barres Band set on 10.29.11 as a pre-Halloween treat. (See forthcoming blog.)

Writer, raconteur, much in demand DJ, performer, photographer, Beatles' publicist and fellow Irish U2 confidant, BP had performed his unique takes at another event I photographed in 1995 at the Met Theatre, Hollywood: the "Rock and Roll in Literature" spoken word series. On various nights it featured Ed Harris, Beverly D'Angelo, Bill Pullman, Chloe Webb, Tim Curry and assorted actors, poets and musicians reading Patti Smith's, Bob Dylan's, John Lennon's or the own compositions. See LINK for some of my photographs of same, (and LINK for its context, my portraits of Hollywood alternative elite for one the event's instigators Harvey Kubernik.)

For more info on Fallon's international, multifarious talents, click to his website LINK .

The Best Genuine Rock’n’Roll Films You’ve Never Seen

The Happy Mondays, as portrayed in "24 Hour Party People" (C) 1991 Heather Harris

Everyone's caught DIG!, Some Kind of Monster, No Direction Home, Mark Wahlberg's weird turn in Rock Star, etc. Here's the best rock 'n' roll films, both fiction and non-fiction, that you've never seen and should. Some are readily available, others require deep Googling.

STILL CRAZY (comedy, fiction) Didja like This Is Spinal Tap, comrades? Still Crazy is its companion film, done Brit-style, and with a soulful redemption story at its core. Rife with musician in-jokes galore like the former, it follows a reunion of 70's Brit-rockers 25 years later, which prompt fist pumping yells of "rock and roll!" to be immediately followed by doubling over in back pain, as we geezers are wont. And it forecast the Chainsaw reunion tour of Italy I later photographed with Mr. Twister 28 years after their punk glory days disturbingly accurately, venue-wise.

Great cast with Bill Nighy (Pirates of the Carribean, and far better, with expansive screen time and more authentic as a rocker than in Love Actually), Timothy Spall (Harry Potter and the Assorted Movies), Chris Rea (The Crying Game, the surprised one) Juliet Aubrey (Primeval's mad Jurassic scientist) amongst others, and a mysterious Syd-Barrett/Richie Manic character buried in ghosts from the past. Everything rings true, rare as we know in films about rockers. Treat yourself to a parallel universe Spinal Tap.

24 HOUR PARTY PEOPLE (comedy, non-fiction) I photographed the Happy Mondays in 1990, the film about the subject, its origin and expanded universe of its surrounding phenomenon came out in 2002, and the film's real life main character died about two years ago, completely off the map to my fellow Americans. I just saw the movie for the first time recently on cable. Are we all too late to the dinner table?

Nosirree. Share the fun in retrospect, for the film 24 Hour Party People remains one of the alltime best music films ever, wholly successful in conveying its subject matter accurately- despite its Python-esque edge- and bringing to life a specialty music understandable to the non-cognescienti. It's also hilarious, insider-joke-heavy which matters not a whit to non-insiders cinematically overall, and features a commanding, intellectually fun and dry as champagne performance by its lead, Steve Coogan (already godhead to myself and others for his "Alan Partridge" satire on punitively vacuous talk shows.)

24 Hour Party People traces the beginning, full flowering and decline of the Rave phenom,first pollinated in Manchester, England before germinating worldwide,as it was engineered by a single human being, Tony Wilson. Wilson found the bands, started the music label with assorted deranged partners, owned the main music/dance club and held it all together, all the while keeping his "day job" as a British television personality, both reporting features and even helming the U.K. Wheel of Fortune!

The movie follows Wilson's dry-humored (over-educated Oxbridge bombast as sound bytes, and solumnly intoned asides with narration like "This is my date Miss United Kingdom. I like her for herself. I know what you're thinking, and we're still together.") ascent and decline, and that of his colleagues, while being utterly true to its subject and as entertaining as if Monty Python fashioned a music documentary.

Biographical depictions include Ian Curtis and Joy Division, Happy Mondays and New Order, all ascending and declining as well. Actor Andy Serkis (Gollum) turn as a renegade producer is a hoot, and the music is to die for (as Curtis unfortunately proved.) My personal ethos of non-censorship comes into play in recommending this picture whole-heartedly, since there's an animal cruelty scene that I personally must fast-forward, and a LOT of (don't do as we did boys and girls, do as we should have done) drug-taking, but these indeed further the story.

And it's a singularly fascinating one of a lone, creative man finding himself, as he puts it, "in the right place, with the right music, the right bands, the right record label, the right partners, the right club and the right drugs, all at the right time." The place was Manchester, England, the man was Tony Wilson, and the movie was 24 Hour Party People. They are still yours to enjoy immensely.

EDGEPLAY (documentary) Former bassist of subject turned director Victory Tischler-Blue ("Vicki Blue") cajoles The Runaways, their associates and family to explain what went right and what went wrong in the legendary teen girl group who were monster players as well as jailbait.

Shot without legal authorization of Joan Jett, copyright holder of most of their original songs, it fills this vacuum very cleverly with a soundtrack wafting in and out of the few Runaways' live numbers in a dream-like fashion, very apt for hazy by nature recollections of thirty years ago that can be pleasant or genuinely nightmare-like, depending on the memory invoked. You're not going to envy the Runaways...

SUNSET STRIP (comedy, fiction) Sunset Strip should be viewed as a character study companion piece to Almost Famous with far more accurate verisimilitude. Famous is a wondrous pastiche, lotsa entertaining bang for your buck. But Sunset Strip represents the real sh-t. I know. I was there. And here's why you should take my anonymous word for it.

When I first saw this movie I was astonished that I didn't recognize the name of its writer, for I recognized every one of his characters, literally as well as figuratively. The writer obviously was exactly the same age I was, worked in the exact aspects of the entertainment industry that I did, at the exact same time in the early 70's at the exact same spots in Hollywood and knew the exact same people I did (or knew of.) Anna Friel was Genie the Tailor, who did in fact die in an auto accident with several members of British band Fairport Convention. The geeky manager/producer was seemingly an early Geffen clone. The dissolute songwriter was a Warren Zevon-alike, while Jared Leto was, dare I say, a completely interchangeable popstar type of the era. Stephanie Romanov played a Catherine James-type, musician's muse beautiful both outside and inside. My own future beloved, glampunk rocker of that era, lived in the exact same Laurel Canyon mountain aerie depicted in the film (replete with same benevolent landlord), while I worked as a music photographer amongst the same scenes as the main protagonist's doppelganger.

And I did know who he was. He was one of the names you'll recognize on photo credits of the era, who owns a major restaurant here. But he didn't want his name on the writing credits, so I'll respect that. Sunset Strip is a highly entertaining character study that is unbelievably accurate in its depiction of an assortment of characters on the perimeter, or the earliest stages of ascent, of the music scene in Los Angeles in the early 1970's. It's all true. And we did go out there every night. . .

I JUST WASN'T MADE FOR THESE TIMES (documentary) Producer, eccentric musician and genuine good guy in the business Don Was fashioned a documentary about the mid-1990's Brian Wilson that explained the latter's genius to musicians and fans alike better than anyone ever has. You'll actually understand the enigma, as rare in films as it is in real life.

C.S. BLUES (documentary,) and the title here a family-friendly version for this site. It stands for C--k S-ck-r Blues, the scatological song Jagger and Richards wrote and the Stones recorded to get out of their one-single-left London Records contract.) Acclaimed photographer Robert Frank had all-access to the early 1970's Rolling Stones touring. He documented just what you'd expect, but artily. It's strange and sad to see a Stone actually topple over unconscious in a quasi-O.D., and everyone behaving really badly in the process of making legendary music. It will be pretty obvious why this was banned, despite Frank's superb reputation in the art world.

I WANNA HOLD YOUR HAND (comedy, realistic fiction) Yes, everything you see depicted here is utterly 100% true about the genesis of Beatlemania in the U.S. Robert Zemekis' first film, and quite well done. Girls really did every single thing depicted here, and all youth celebrated the rebirth of actual rock and roll here during a decade of otherwise mellowmush.




ALL DOLLED UP (documentary) Bob Gruen and first wife Nadya's video documentary of the New York Dolls, young, fresh, outrageous, believable show-offs, so alive. Probably the all-time best roc doc to show actual backstage shenanigans as normal, with priceless live footage. If you know nothing of the NYDolls, you'll understand the appeal instantly, it's that good a documented depiction thereof.

MC5: A TRUE TESTIMONIAL (documentary) Wow. Quite possibly the greatest rock documentary ever, and it's still held up in the courts unwatchable to you the public. Totally portrays historical context, personalities involved, greatness of and uniqueness for the times music canon, and the prototypical rise, fall and rediscovery of this rowdy band of late 60's, mega-influential Detroit legends.

Do you remember hard-assed smartypants John Lydon uncharacteristically being reduced to tears talking about his dead friend Sid Vicious in The Filth and the Fury, acknowledging they were all too young to know how to help their out of control chum? Multiply that times two and eat yer heart out Barbara Walters, for the interview honesty here, yet without any of the innate fun-ness of the band being surgically removed from the DNA.

Worth every second of the film and special features. Widows of the two deceased end the film by yelling "Kick out the jams, Moth-r-f-ck--rs!" despite their now boho but matronly appearance. Yes, fun! Work this out already, litigators, it's only the best roc doc ever!

30 CENTURY MAN: SCOTT WALKER (documentary) (review circa 2008, now available worldwide)
It's not released in the U.S. yet, but eventually should be. The subject is American, but his pre-eminence is strictly European. Fans of Absolutely Fabulous should remember Patsy's older sister claiming she was the subject of a Scott Walker song, fans of director Minghella's first (and best) film Truly Madly Deeply (comedy-tragedy-ghost story: deserves own eventual blog) should remember the woman and her ghostly dead lover singing a raucous cover of "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore," while fans of oldskool retro-60's classics on classics radio should recall "Make It Easy On Yourself" plus many anthemic others done with the same sonorous baritone over an orchestral sweeping vista.

The film is 30 Century Man and the subject is Scott Walker. Once upon a time in the 1960's, three typical tall, skinny Sunset Strip denizens with long hair and bangs past their eyebrows plus failed C.V.s as musicians moved to England, wherein the intrinsic lack of tall, skinny Sunset Strip denizens with bangs past their eyebrows would allow them to actually stand out. And they did, to eventual mega-stardom.

Precursors of the Ramones' hat trick, these unrelated chums named themselves the Walker Brothers, surrendered to mainstream pop, and had enormous hit after enormous hit there, with their flagship sound of Scott Walker's baritone crooning. However mushy the MOR slop tended to be, at least it was interesting having "one of our own" youth culturers singing this way, and all three looking so shaggable. Believe me, David Bowie was listening INTENTLY to this particular sound, and you can hear it every concert he sings to this day.

Huge hits written by the era's best other songwriters, genuine Beatles-esque fan mobbing, compromises, breakdowns, substance abuse, what photographer/director Larry Clark called "the usual betrayals in the music biz," then it gets weird. Prettiest boy and main voice Scott derails, joins a monestary, emerges as a Jacques Brel interpreter, then a techno-artist songwriter before there actually is techno, then avant-garde orchestrator cum performance artist for music that has no categorizing description, all of which he warbles the highest brow intellectual themes over. He releases his work maybe once a decade.

This is the story of Scott Walker, a man rightly called the most enigmatic figure ever in the history of popular music, depicted from infancy to 2006 in 30 Century Man. The director gives us "listening heads" instead of the talking variety, what with David Bowie coming aboard, Radiohead, Brian Eno and others chatting about Walker's influence upon their own work. Even 60's compatriot Lulu inquires to the only director that's managed to snag an interview with Walker if he's still gorgeous (A: yes, in a tall, skinny, bit of receding hairline, wildly creative, intellectual mien way. Plus he's sober now for decades. The guy laughs a lot for a supposed morbidly reclusive type, too.)

Many depicted fans of old don't "get" his newest work, voicing Luddite disdain for something so far ahead of what's going on now (whenever "now" is: that's the beauty of the avant garde) that they fail to embrace pure innovation for its own sake. You'll see recent footage of him orchestrating in the studio (replete with a percussionist pounding a huge side of pork, or recording sounds under a wooden box,) and explaining his difficult themes with assured ease and aplomb.

Thank God Scott Walker is still around, for this is one former pop star turned composer who is actually working at the peak of creative powers right here, right now, a massive acheivement for anyone, but especially former popstars. Trent Reznor should be so lucky when he's Walker's age. Check out 30 Century Man when it's released to watch a fascinating musical journey.

Bonus essays on rock-related films with sufficient veracity to warrant inclusion in the Fastfilm blog pantheon, with pix:
THE TOUCHABLES LINK* and PRIVILEGE** (LINK)

*http://fastfilm1.blogspot.com/2011/01/touchables.html
**http://fastfilm1.blogspot.com/2010/06/privilege-social-engineering-lessons.html

THE LORDS launch smoke babies to the sky

They made videos sufficiently creative (cue: fleeting image of the four group members stomping around in a Lilliputian-undersized children's sandbox) that the general public assumed The LORDS already constituted a band of some renown. Then each video was deemed part of an ongoing documentary. And the selfsame cinema veritè traced The LORDS' ascent via social networking. 

  According to same, guitarist Calvin (far left, 3 of the 4 photos) credits this 'fait accompli' tactic with securing the band's upward arc in popularity, "Suddenly we had hundreds of people a day 'friending' us," with a tacit suspicion that some of the more fanciful monickers were pseudonyms ("Iamthethin King," "Rosey Futura" or "Iknow Disfusion" par example.)

 Speaking (or in this case writing) of social networks, that of charismatic, leonine-maned singer John's (front right, top photo) own Facebook page features these soaring aphorisms:"If you're being run out of town be out front & make it look like a parade... Good times call for great outlaws. Chandler dissidents. Safe daemons..."whereas The Lords' bandpage on assorted social networks like LINK and LINK or website LINK feature descriptions of the group as follows:

"A vehicle to bring up; a hot air balloon for a crew piling into the basket. The newborn's imagination from the sun. A group of perceivers, in an army of the night assembled. Wildly differing views united. Film-makers, musicians, artists, visionaries and pioneers here to burn the floor with a fire by friction. See us rise like smoke babies to the sky, no lie, the time now is ripe and practical as a Skype call to Japan."

The entire ensemble is Benjo Vander Broek- bass,
Andrew Tyler- drums, Calvin Pfeffer- guitar and John Mooar- vocals. Yes, they combine trippy and magnificent. And well.

Then I was hired to photograph the LORDS on break from recording at Clear Lake Audio, where all these shots were taken including the one striding outside the studio which they playfully termed "their 'Entourage' shot." Me, I liked the huge commitment of the personnel so immeditely apparent, in their overall sound and in the quasi-reggae of  "Ocean Town." 

Sample of social networking on The Lords/The New Seers (their A.K.A.) Facebook wall-- The Lords/The New Seers: I'm back!  FB 1: Huzzah!  FB 2: Where have you been John?  John Mooar: I have no idea. 

 

EXTRACURRICULAR PHOTOGRAPHY ASSIGNMENTS 2.0

Housecleaning unearthed a whole trove of photographs I took for real, live assignments while I was still at university (we creative pros always start young.) A continuing series dependent upon my prowess for domestic grime-fighting.

Above, two photographs taken in front of the world-famous Troubadour Club* circa 1972 to illustrate the foibles (and pretensions) of rock journalism. The caption read, "What do you mean my name's not on the list?!?!?"

Models for same were two UCLA film students familiar with the music scene, future cinematographer Reed Hutchinson and future "Knight Rider," "T.J. Hooker" and "The Fall Guy" tv writer Janis Hendler. Note the genuine trendy fashions of the era on both, Reed dressed as an Eagles' fan and Janis in a mix of the then latest London/U.S.A.-ware with a soupcon of antique threads.

And lastly below, future Rhino Records co-founder Harold Bronson, seated, indulging his rock star fantasy in front of the Whisky A Gogo groped amidst a bevy of my friends circa 1972, Elyse Wyman, Nancy Stevenson and Sally McMahon.

*Now even more world-famous with its own 2011 documentary dvd: "Troubadours: Rise of the singer/songwriters" featuring not only its performers James Taylor, Carole King, Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt et al when they first started out, but also photographs of Elton John's U.S. breakthrough performance in the club circa 1970 taken by Fastfilm's better half Mr. Twister.

MODELS, INC. episodes filmed CHEZ NOUS plus assorted musicians' tales

The Aron Spelling tv series "Models, Inc.," itself a spin-off of "Melrose Place," shot many scenes at our house for its first eight episodes in 1994. Our unusual-for-L.A. 1912 farmhouse and large grounds attracted rather a lot of location work back in the 1990s when there were still scripted dramas to be filmed. Ratings declined when the storyline was moved away from our home, proof of its innate star power!

Pictured above are: Mr. Twister (fellow homeowner/ Fastfilm better half) and director (the late) Charles Correll whom I already knew as the older brother of my teenhood chum (and current director) Rich Correll; Teresa Hill and David Goldsmith, who portrayed the quarrelsome model and musician enhabiting our house. Of their large ensemble cast, Carrie-Anne Moss ("The Matrix") proved the only breakout performer to date.

Our house tended to be typecast as musicians' dwellings due to our music collections, musical instruments and overall abode funkiness. This scored the ultimate heights when Roger Daltrey, Carmine Appice and Denny Laine performed on our front porch as apex of a 2-week shoot for the (straight to dvd) movie "Chasing Destiny" which also featured Lauren Graham's first leading role alongside Christopher Lloyd and Casper Van Dien.

Both Mr. Twister and I gave Mr. Daltrey our respective best 1970 shots of The Who in a turnabout of folks generally asking musicians/actors for something of theirs as keepsake. By prior agreement, Mr. Twister and I, known photographers, were prohibited from taking shots of this production, but the price was right: that year, our house paid for itself, 100% of its annual mortgage.

video LINK for "Models, Inc." scene starting at our house;

video trailer for "Chasing Destiny":

NOTE: link directly back to http://fastfilm1.blogspot.com if all elements such as photo layouts or videos aren't here.

THE DOGS' VIDEO CASTING COUP! EVITA CORBY and...

Production stills by me from the video production of "Her Name Was Jane" by The Dogs also starring Evita Corby and Mike Hudson. The selection is from The Dogs' newest release "Hypersensitive," due this December.  The one degree of separation garnering the director's services for The Dogs occurred via a Las Vegas location shoot for guitarist Loren Molinare's other band Little Caesar. A rare cover for legendary Detroit-spawned punk/hardest rock trio The Dogs, "Her Name Was Jane" was penned by East Coast fellow punk legends The Pagans. The latter's singer/songwriter Mike Hudson, in another single degree of separation, is related to one of The Dogs via a former marriage. The video's amusing casting coup comes from augmenting The Dogs' own powerful, live performance footage with the lyrics' storyline featuring Hudson himself and Evita Corby as its protagonists.

Above, Ms. Corby looking very Vivian Leigh. Mr. Hudson, who runs the Niagara Falls Reporter newspaper with his wife Rebecca and is now a multi-published books' author of subjects ranging from crime to music, provided the read, his own "Diary of a Punk" found in a critical scene within the song's breakneck-paced punk confines. Ms. Corby is a well-known rock and roll couturier and runs her own vintage apparel store Velvet Threads in Atwater Village CA. Her first brush with visual rock fame came 37 years ago via her appearance on the back cover of 'Kill City' by Iggy Pop and James Williamson.

photograph above by Suzan Carson

"Do not go gentle into that good night,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light."

Evita takes her Dylan Thomas seriously as she flips off Mike after completion of "Jane's" tragic death scene, fully worthy of Sarah Bernhardt in 'Camille' or Maria Callas in anything. Evita's acting debut also included "Jane" slapping Mike silly.
 

All is forgiven in post-production. Above, left to right: Tony Dog, Evita, Mike. Below, your humble photographer joins the same lineup in a photo by Loren Dog.

LESLIE KNAUER, Architecturally Digested

Mary Kay, bassist of The Dogs stays at her chum Leslie Knauer's (see LINK) polychrome digs whenever she gigs in L.A. Singer/songwriter/guitarist Leslie's celebrated joie de vivre erupts equally in her interior design sense as much as in her songs. While waiting for Mary to get ready to be schlepped to the airport, I took these discrete, non-privacy invasive snapshots of Leslie's guest house for Architectural Digest's hypothetical Fauve/Outsider Art/Bizarro World edition to share with you all.

THE DOGS live 10.15.11 at The Redwood

Legendary Detroit-to-Los Angeles* punk/hardest rock power trio The Dogs --Loren Molinare, Mary Kay and Tony Matteucci-- played a packed Redwood Bar, downtown Los Angeles 10.15.11 with a special sitter-in: Mike Hudson of fellow legendary punk band The Pagans.

A relative by prior marriage to one of The Dogs, Niagara Falls NY newspaper owner/reporter Hudson was only too happy to trek across country to jam their cover of his "Her Name Was Jane" (see photos above.) "Jane" not only will appear on The Dogs' eagerly awaited new "Hypersensitive" release but also was filmed two nights later by big league video studio S.J.S. Entertainment, roping in Hudson and friend of the band Evita Corby, normally a rock clothing couturier, to portray the song's protagonists. (See forthcoming blog.)

Objectively as well as subjectively, I'm pleased as punch to report that this was one of the best Dogs' sets in the 25 (of their 40) years I've been present to witness and photograph. Their massive sound was correctly full on for the venue, their set proffered a perfect combination of older and newest material, and the band, always peripatetic and active, seemed to be having as much of a blast as its loyal fans.

Below, the backstage blues with Mary and Tony waiting to play and kick ass!

Above, all a musician's essentials: set list, Finger Ease, towel and liquid refreshments. In this case it's bassist Mary's.

~

PHOTO OPS section:

Above, left to right Tony Dog, Mary Dog, Evita Corby (who starred in the Salvatore Severgandio video production of The Dogs' "Her Name Was Jane" along with its author Mike Hudson of The Pagans,) Loren Dog and Danny DeMuff (1980s Dog.)

Mike Hudson, fun lovin'
attorney Anne Marie,
Julie Scher Molinare (Mrs. Loren
Dog,) Jimmy Recca (bassist of
The Stooges circa 1971.)

The Three Graces-

Anne Marie, Julie Scher Molinare, Evita Corby.

Below, Rebecca, good lady wife of Mike, gets to know Jimmy Recca somewhat better.

*whereas their spankin' new dvd is called "The Dogs, L.A. to Tokyo." Fuller description and where to order on future blog.

NOTE: link directly back to http://fastfilm1.blogspot.com if all elements such as photo layouts or videos aren't here.

CANINE BEREAVEMENT FLOWERS

A dog bereavement floral arrangement, seen at a veterinary clinic prior to its delivery, 'made me sad...