James Kendall: After a life writing about music it must have been a bit stressful making the leap to films, even if it was rock’n’roll movies.
Garry Mulholland: It was such a joy to sit down and watch movies, even bad movies. And quite honestly it’s easier writing about film than it is music – you can refer to actual things that happen. With a record you have to decide what the story is, you have to decide what it all means. I don’t think I realised how difficult writing about music was having only done it.
JK: But there must have been a load of bad movies in a genre best called a mixed bag. Music films can date pretty badly.
GM: Purple Rain I’d absolutely adored. I loved Prince but I hadn’t seen it since it came out. I sat down to watch it excitedly to discover it’s one of the worst films ever. I could not believe the level of misogyny. I think I was so blown away by Prince at the time that if I was noticing it I was putting it out of my head.
JK: We still have the Miley Cyrus and Jonas Brothers types of artists who are already very visual, or even televisual, but on the whole it seems like a genre that’s dying out a bit.
GM: It is dying out for the reason that there haven’t been too many successful rock movies and after a while film companies have worked out that it’s really hard to pull them off. Now it falls into two categories. Firstly, every band now has a documentary on their DVD or CD – apparently its fascinating to walk around behind a band with a handheld camera while they go on tour and make crap jokes about Spinal Tap. And then there’s big blockbuster things like I Walk The Line – dead rock stars and endless themes of cinema redemption.
JK: There must be some bands who suit making movies while they’re still alive though.
GM: It’s hard to get away from the Rolling Stones, in terms that Performance and Gimme Shelter are outrageously good films of two completely different types. And in those two films there’s a vision of everything that is dark and wrong about rock. The Who have come out of it well. Tommy is kinda silly but stood up better than I thought. Quadrophenia is fantastic and The Kids Are Alright shows how much more exciting rock bands used to be. It’s essentially and hour and a half worth of clips and you can imagine how entertaining an hour and a half worth of clips of the Keiser Chiefs would be.
JK: Without his movies Elvis could have been a much more powerful rock’n’roll star. You could say they almost killed his career.
GM: You could say that but he is an extraordinary 20th century story – the king that has too much. This dream career that Elvis was meant to have where he didn’t go into the army and just made tough rock’n’roll records would have meant that Elvis ended up as Gene Vincent or something. The bad movies are vital to the myth. It’s a terrible and sad story but it’s a better story than “he made great records”. It makes the 68 Comeback Special a far more emotional thing.
GARRY’S BEST ROCK’N’ROLL MOVIES
Privilege
“An apocalyptic vision of everything bad popular culture could be used for in your worst nightmares.”
Expresso Bongo
“A hilariously savage and cynical late 50s musical about the utter idiocy of rock’n’roll.”
Easy Rider
“It’s not about people playing guitars but it’s the best film about what people felt rock’n’roll meant in the 60s.”
Performance
“The British mirror of Easy Rider – the whole idea of Mick Jagger and gangsters is inspired.”
Stardust
“David Essex as the most unpleasant human being in film history and his demise from rock god to dead man.”
FYI
BOOK: Popcorn: Fifty Years of Rock ‘n’ Roll Movies is out now
WEB: garrymulholland.com
ON BLACK SABBATH: tinyurl.com/GMsabbath
