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Author
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Topic: The Kids Are Alright - Piccolo 2x400ft
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Jean-Marc Toussaint
Film God
Posts: 2392
From: France
Registered: Oct 2004
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posted August 25, 2007 11:14 AM
THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT
Piccolo Film - 2 x 120 m (2 x 400ft) - colour - flat - mono sound - English with German subtitles
Here's a two-parter that will rock your home.
These two reels from Piccolo concentrate on The Who's performances. The German editors in charge of the cutdown have made the excellent decision of saving just a few archive footage and interviews in order to keep some of the musical numbers in their entirety.
Reel#1 opens with "My Generation" performed on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in 1967, then a quick intro of the band members by Tony Smothers.
After some archive bits, we cut to "Baba O'Riley", recorded live at Shepperton Studios in May 1978, specifically for the movie before an audience of 1,200 lucky guests.
Another bit of interview with guitarist Pete Townsend, where he explains why he's such a crazy animal on stage, and we cut to a studio where the band recreates the recording of "Who are You". Actually, in the full feature, this scenes appears much, much later but for obvious timing reasons, it's spliced here in the super 8 version.
Reel#2 is nothing but music. It opens with a cover of Bo Didley's "RoadRunner" and another version of "My Generation" performed in 1975 at the Pontiac Silver Dome in Michigan. It then jumps to the full version (10 minutes) of "Won't Get Fooled Again", shot in Shepperton with the whole laser show (remember, this was very cutting edge in 1978). The digest ends with the band members' names appearing as closing credits.
My wife and I are big fan of The Who. I was lucky enough to find a brand new print of this super 8 cutdown (I mean new-new, the reels were shrinkwrapped-sealed inside their shrinkwrapped-sealed boxes!!!) and when we projected it a few days ago (to celebrate the return of my GS1200 Xenon), we ended up singing along and clapping. As one of the original reviewer said, this film isn't about rock'n'roll, this film IS rock'n'roll. The exact opposite to "The Song Remains the Same", which is quite a bore (and I do love Led Zeppelin)
The print quality is stunning, as it is often the case with films from Piccolo, even the kinescoped part (opening of reel 2, since these archives were originally shot on video) look incredible.
Colours are fantastically vivid, on par with some other later releases by the company, such as "Das Boot" or "Star Crash".
Mono sound is absolutely booming.
I haven't seen this title much often, but if you're into rock films, it's a must-have.
Side note, for those "who" (haha!) don't know the band and their songs, you might have heard them as "Baba O'Riley" is the main title music to CSI:NY, "Who Are You" to CSI and "Won't Get Fooled Again" to CSI: Miami.
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The Grindcave Cinema Website
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Adrian Winchester
Film God
Posts: 2941
From: Croydon, London, UK
Registered: Aug 2004
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posted August 30, 2007 11:37 AM
I was interested to read this as THE WHO is my all time favourite band - I've seen them about 20 times, the latest being in June. I no longer own this release as I obtained a great 16mm print, but although I recall how good the Piccolo print was, I had two different copies both with reel 2 significantly out of sync, so you're fortunate if you don't have that problem. The trailer, featuring Ringo Starr talking to the camera, was also released on Super 8 by an obscure American company, probabably around the last days of US releases.
Incidentally, there's a Niles release that features Pink Floyd in concert: 'Stamping Ground' (a Dutch rock festival). the Floyd sequence must be roughly 8 minutes and is on a 400' version as well as the 5 x 400' full length version.
One rock concert release that's so rare that I wonder if it exists is a 400' version of 'Stones In The Park' (the Rolling Stones Hyde Park performance). I saw this and other US imports on an old cine magazine ad, but has anyone ever come across a print?
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Adrian Winchester
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Adrian Winchester
Film God
Posts: 2941
From: Croydon, London, UK
Registered: Aug 2004
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posted November 15, 2017 12:09 PM
Bill,
Worrying to see that 10 years have quickly passed, but...
I'm virtually certain there was only one '400, so I expect you have an odd reel from the feature. I'm sure my 400' had an opening title, so if your reel doesn't, I think there's no doubt. The Who didn't appear at the festival, but I've just found this page with some good information about the line up, etc: https://johnkatsmc5.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/stamping-ground-holland-pop-festival.html
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Adrian Winchester
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