I’m not often lost for words – when writing, at least – but right at this moment I’m blocked. I’m aware of the source of my difficulty, so let’s begin with that.
If I hadn’t been invited to a media screening of In Search of Beethoven followed by a Q&A session with the director, award-winning documentary film-maker Phil Grabsky, I probably wouldn’t have made the effort to see it. And would have denied myself one of the best movie experiences of this year – ah damn it, of any year. Continue reading ‘In Search Of Beethoven’ – Movie Review→
Steve ‘Lips’ Kudlow’s recollection of the beginnings of his musical union with fellow founder member of Anvil, Robb Reiner, was one of many moments in this movie that set the theatre a-chuckle on the night I went.
It was Toronto, 1973. Reiner, 14 at the time, routinely practised his drums in the family home. Flaying the skins as he played his favourite records through a big mother of a speaker set up in a front window (?!), he attracted the interest of a passing Lips, who approved of the rockin’ sounds blaring forth: “Sabbath, Iron Maiden and Cactus…[afterthought, tone of incredulity and unfettered admiration]… I mean, who likes Cactus, let alone listens to them?!” Continue reading ‘Anvil! The Story of Anvil’ – Movie Review→
Background (Limited concentration span? Skip the background and go straight to the review under picture – see below)
Any cinematic recreation of 1969’s Woodstock music festival is destined to divide its audience – especially the baby boomers who might be expected to make up the main target demographic.
For those boomers who hold the event dear – and often possessively close – as the spectacular generation-defining culmination of all that was good and groovy about the 60s (and their youth), anything less than a reverent portrayal will be pelted with charges of blaspheme. Continue reading ‘Taking Woodstock’ – Movie Review→