大象传媒

We can’t all claim to have attended Woodstock or LCD Soundsystem’s epic ‘farewell’ show at Madison Square Garden. Luckily, filmmakers have often been there to capture great gigs on celluloid, allowing us to experience magical musical moments from the comfort of our cinema seats and sofas. Here are seven memorable films that are almost as exciting as the concerts themselves...

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The grandaddy of concert movies, 1970's Woodstock was as revolutionary as the festival it depicted. A reported 120 hours of footage were shot at the three-day Woodstock Music & Art Fair festival in August 1969, so the film’s editors (including Martin Scorsese and regular collaborator Thelma Schoonmaker) employed a split-screen technique to cram as much as possible into the film’s 184-minute running time. Incendiary performances from the likes of The Who, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Santana and Sly & The Family Stone are interspersed with unforgettable behind-the-scenes moments, from an interview with the man tasked with cleaning the festival Portaloos, to an extraordinarily ‘far-out’ PA announcement - “The brown acid that is circulating around us is not specifically too good - it’s suggested that you stay away…”
Essential song: Where to start? Well, perhaps with Woodstock’s closing act - Jimi Hendrix’s feedback-filled take on The Star-Spangled Banner, performed in front of a remarkably energetic crowd at 8:30 on Monday morning.

Co-directed by The Maysles brothers and Charlotte Zwerin, Gimme Shelter follows the last few weeks of The Rolling Stones’ 1969 US tour, from early euphoric shows at New York’s Madison Square Garden, to the colosally disastrous Altamont Free Concert. Taking place just four months after Woodstock, Altamont was as brutal as the former was peaceful, with fatally over-zealous security provided by Hells Angels, several overdoses in the crowd, Mick Jagger receiving a punch to the face from a ‘fan’ and the tragic stabbing of 18-year-old concert attendee Meredith Hunter. Genuinely harrowing, Gimme Shelter unfolds like a horror movie, as the cameras track a growing atmosphere of violence.
Essential song: Altamont’s spiralling tension comes to a head as the Stones plough into Sympathy For The Devil and the vast crowd deteriorates into a brawl, with Jagger desperately entreating everyone to ‘cool out’.

Forget Woodstock, this is the real deal

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1973’s radical Wattstax depicts the benefit concert of the same name, held to mark the seventh anniversary of the 1965 Watts riots in Los Angeles. Organised by Stax Records and featuring pretty much all of the label’s star acts from the worlds of soul, gospel, R&B, blues, funk and jazz, Wattstax was a milestone in the Black Pride movement. Taking place at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in August 1972 and with all seats priced at just one dollar, the concert opened with a stirring speech from civil rights activist Jesse Jackson (memorably sampled in Primal Scream’s Come Together). Wattstax the movie was directed by Mel Stuart, perhaps best known for Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory, and features performances from The Bar-Kays, Albert King and Rufus and Carla Thomas, alongside commentary from Richard Pryor and segments focusing on life in Watts.
Essential song: As the night draws in, Isaac Hayes (who was celebrating his 30th birthday) takes to the stage to perform a storming version of blaxploitation classic Theme From Shaft.

The real eye-opener was seeing Joni Mitchell, by whom I was completely mesmerised

Mark

Martin Scorsese’s pioneering The Last Waltz documents the event that promoter Bill Graham dubbed “rock n roll’s last supper” - roots rockers The Band’s marathon farewell show. Taking place at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco on Thanksgiving 1976, the concert featured an embarrassment of starry special guests, including Bob Dylan, Dr John, Neils Young and Diamond, and Celluloid Jukebox favourite Joni Mitchell. Scorsese was persuaded to film the show just six weeks before by lead singer (and future flatmate) Robbie Robertson, who would go on to supervise music for many of his films, including The King of Comedy and The Wolf of Wall Street. The filmmaker would later be parodied as Marty DiBergi in mockumentary (or rockumentary, if you will) This Is Spinal Tap, played by its own director Rob Reiner. As the movie’s title card states: ‘‘This film should be played loud!”
Essential song: Gospel superstars The Staple Singers join The Band for a sublime rendition of The Weight (also memorably featured in Easy Rider and The Big Chill).

One of the most celebrated concert movies of all time

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Directed by the late Jonathan Demme (who passed away in 2017), Stop Making Sense captures New York new wave group Talking Heads at the height of their powers. According to frontman David Byrne, the film’s title was chosen “because music and performing does not make sense.” Filmed over three sold-out nights at Hollywood’s Pantages Theater in late 1983, the movie documents a live show conceived by Byrne, and heavily inspired by Japanese kabuki theatre and performance art. The show opens with the singer on an empty stage, but as it progresses he is gradually joined, one at a time, by an extended lineup of bandmates, as the set becomes more and more elaborate around them. The tunes (and Byrne’s suit) also keep getting bigger as the gig builds to a euphoric crescendo.
Essential song: The full nine-piece ensemble in full effect on Burning Down The House. Pure joy.

In Bed With Madonna (released in the US as Madonna: Truth or Dare) was the most successful documentary of all time until Bowling For Columbine ousted it from the top spot in 2002. Following Madonna on the hugely controversial 1990 Blond Ambition world tour, the movie captures the superstar at the pinnacle of her career, performing to sold-out crowds from Japan to Los Angeles. Perhaps the most star-studded film on this list, it features cameos from the likes of Al Pacino, Antonio Banderas and Kevin Costner (who memorably commits the cardinal sin of calling Madonna’s provocative show ‘neat’). The singer’s then-paramour Warren Beatty also makes a somewhat camera-shy appearance. In Bed With Madonna may have been a documentary, but that didn’t stop the Golden Raspberries nominating Madonna for a worst actress award - she lost to Sean Young. Director Alex Keshishian (who was just 26 at the time of filming) would go on to co-write Madonna’s critically-reviled Wallis Simpson biopic W.E.
Essential song: Defying advice from local police in Toronto, Madonna writhes on a bed in a conservative-baiting performance of Like A Virgin.

Madison Square Garden is the location for cult Brooklyn dance-rock band LCD Soundsystem’s 2011 farewell concert. Directed by Dylan Southern and Will Lovelace (who’d previously helmed Blur reunion documentary No Distance Left To Run) Shut Up And Play The Hits was originally intended as a 大象传媒 project. The film went through various incarnations, initially conceived as a straight documentary, then as a fiction film, before the filmmakers decided to record the group’s last ever show. Footage from the concert mingles with semi-staged scenes of frontman James Murphy, hoarse, hungover and emotional the morning after the big gig. Offering a surprisingly moving glimpse into the mind of Murphy, Shut Up And Play The Hits’ impact is only slightly diminished by the band’s eventual reunion just four years later.
Essential song: Show-closer New York, I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down, clocking in at just shy of ten minutes and accompanied by an epic balloon drop.