Robert Wyatt is one of the best-kept secrets of contemporary British music. Drummer and vocalist in Soft Machine which played with Hendrix and Pink Floyd in their heyday, he split from the group in the late 1960s and started recording solo albums. A fall from a window left Wyatt confined to a wheelchair, but he continued recording, even in hospital. His most well-known song is probably Shipbuilding, a protest against the Falklands war written for him by Elvis Costello, while his 1997 album Schleep won acclaim as one of the best albums of the past 10 years. In addition to performance footage of the famously retiring musician, the documentary contains interviews with John Peel, Brian Eno, Annie Whitehead, Alfie and Robert Wyatt himself.
The enigmatic and critically acclaimed British folk rock singer is explored in this profile. Contributors to the programme include Billy Connolly, Bonnie Raitt, ex-wife Linda Thompson, Harry Shearer (Spinal Tap's Derek Smalls) and Richard's wife Nancy Covey. As Thompson, hailed as one of Britain's finest songwriters, releases his first album in four years and tours the UK, this documentary films him at home in both London and Los Angeles - the first time such intimate access has been granted. Billy Connolly observes: "He's a quiet guy, he's almost an anorak our Richard, you wouldn't think he's the guy with the guitar shaking the town!" In the 1960s, while still a teenager, Thompson wrote generation defining songs like Meet on the Ledge. As founder member of Fairport Convention, as a duo, with then wife Linda and more recently as a solo artist, Thompson's unique mix of rock and traditional music has been massively influential. Ironically, he is now more popular in America than in the UK. When Fairport Convention were at the height of their success a motorway accident killed their engineer, drummer and Richard's girlfriend Jeannie Franklyn. The music they subsequently created was stark, adapting traditional songs for a young electric band and spearheading Folk Rock. Richard and Linda Thompson became Sufi Muslims in 1975 and spent three years building a religious community in England. Returning to mainstream music in 1978 the couple's musical partnership ended with the release of Shoot out the Lights in 1982. Their divorce coincided with a final US tour and this documentary contains footage recorded from this time which has never been seen on television before. Since then Richard's solo career has burgeoned, especially in America, with such songs like Vincent Black Lightening 1952 celebrating a classic British motorbike. The programme features powerful performances of songs such as The End of the Rainbow, A Heart Needs a Home, Solitary Life and Kidzz.
In 1966 John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers were acclaimed by music critics as the "most influential blues band in the Western world" after the release of their Bluesbreakers album featuring guitarist Eric Clapton. This film probes beneath the surface of the man who, despite the ups and downs of his 40-year career, has remained true to the blues throughout. It looks at the man and musician behind this influential new force in music, finding out where he came from, what his influences were, how he managed to attract so many top musicians to his Bluesbreakers band and what really led to his 'wilderness years' and subsequent relaunched solo career.
This documentary from Grammy-winning director Don Letts looks at the godfather of rap's significance to music and civil rights. Scott-Heron's confrontational, no-nonsense street poetry and songwriting skills have inspired the modern Hip-Hop generation. He is perhaps best known for his two 1970s RnB flavored chart hits - The Bottle and Johannesburg - but his work includes more than 20 albums and two novels. Gil has documented, and in many cases anticipated, the massive political and social changes in the United States with anger and integrity. This program features concert footage and contributions from disciples such as Chuck D and Mos Def.
Emmylou Harris's beautiful voice has made her the queen of country music for over 30 years. Following the tragic early death of her mentor, the cult singer Gram Parsons, Emmylou brought his unique vision of country with rock'n'roll attitude to the mainstream. She became a respected songwriter as well as harmony singer to the likes of Bob Dylan and Neil Young. From a Deeper Well charts Emmylou Harris' development into one of country's biggest stars and her subsequent move in a more 'alternative' direction. As well as providing a comprehensive look at Emmylou's life, the programme examines the changing face of country music.
"I always said that Nick was born with a skin too few", says actress Gabrielle about her brother, the English singer-songwriter Nick Drake (1948-1974). This documentary approaches the silent landscapes, locations, people and music in the life of this unorthodox loner. Nick Drake is one of rock’s most tragically romantic figures. He died when he was 26: an age that for many would be far too young to develop a talent, or realise an ambition or dream. It took 20 posthumous years for his music to gain recognition. One autumn morning in 1974, Nick’s parents were unable to wake him. Nick Drake died silently and unobtrusively, and to this day it's not clear whether his death was self-determined. The significance of his three albums was only discovered two decades later. Now his music is more popular than ever and appears in big film productions and television commercials. This late success is surprising and tragic, considering Nick Drake's tortured existence. Except for boarding school and university (Cambridge) he seldom left his parents' home. Contact with others became a tremendous effort. His sensitivity was the basis for this talent but at the same time made him unable to face an audience. Caught in this spiral, he became increasingly embittered by his lack of success and gradually isolated himself.
John Martyn is one of Britain's originals; a musician whose distinctive, drawling vocals and virtuoso guitar playing have been an inspiration to household-name musicians for decades. This intimate documentary follows John Martyn as he emerges from a near-fatal encounter with "a dark cow on a dark night", a "hangman's fracture", infected cysts... At the beginning of filming, he's recording a new album in his front room and facing an operation to have his right leg amputated below the knee. With extraordinary behind-the-scenes access, we spend time with him cooking, drinking, recording, trying on silly hats (and latterly his new prosthetic leg) as he makes the painful progress towards getting back on the road
A veteran of the common law marriage between Sixties art school and rock 'n' roll, Stanshall was co-founder, lead singer and co-writer of cult Sixties sensation The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, the missing link between satire and psychedelia, pop and performance art, pastiche and Python. Stanshall was a dapper Zappa, perfecting what he called "ballet for the vulgar". Like Peter Cook, he burnt himself out tragically early, virtually drinking himself to death before dying in a fire at his house in 1995. He was, as the title of his last ever broadcast put it, a Renaissance man: writer, composer, performer and painter. This film tells Viv's life story from mum and dad to Dada and Mummery. It follows his progress from an 'odd boy' Southend seaside childhood, through art school, his intro to and outro from the Bonzo Dog Band and subsequent spectacular resurfacings as solo artist with his Peel Show monologue about Sir Henry at Rawlinson End (later a book and a film starring Trevor Howard), his comic opera Stinkfoot performed on board the Bristol Showboat and at London's Bloomsbury Theatre and his final appearances with Rawlinson DogEnds. Tracing Viv's musical journey from its Bonzo beginnings to Rawlinson End and beyond, this expedition into the archival canyons of his mind is peppered with contributions from colleagues, close friends and comic descendants. But at its centre is a portrait of the man who made his life and art into what he called "a sur-Ealing comedy", drawing on a wealth of largely BBC audio and video. It combines interviews with his collaborators from the Bonzos and beyond, including band members Neil Innes, Legs Larry Smith, Rodney Slater and manager Gerry Bron, plus later associates like John Peel, Jack Bruce and lifetime fan and Stinkfoot financier Stephen Fry.
Following Martin on a very personal musical journey, filmmaker Greg Bailey accompanies Martin as he and his wife Norma Waterson go to Buckingham Palace to collect Martin's MBE; to St Paul's Cathedral to cross swords with the 'great man' theory of English history; and to see Martin's unique guitar style drive the famous Morris Dancers of Bampton in Oxfordshire. The program sees Martin's inimitable guitar playing and singing develop from his groundbreaking partnership in the 60s with Dave Swarbrick, the doyen of folk fiddlers, to the recent acclaimed work with his wife the great folk diva Norma Waterson - along with the leading light of the new generation of folk performers, their daughter, Eliza Carthy. Along the way, this passionate, complex artist challenges many preconceived notions of English identity and culture and suggests how his beloved traditional music could point to a more meaningful, radical alternative. Named Folk Singer of the Year 2002 by the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, Carthy was born in Hertfordshire in 1941 and sang in church choirs as a child. Lonnie Donegan was, in part, responsible for Carthy's love of the guitar and he was consumed by the skiffle boom before enjoying 60s London with the likes of Davy Graham, Bert Jansch, Odetta and Diz Disley. An acknowledged influence on both Bob Dylan and Paul Simon (with whom he recently performed) Carthy's pioneering ventures took him into the heart of the 70s folk explosion. He has also enjoyed three decades of celebrated performance with wife Norma and more recently has toured and recorded with their daughter Eliza.
This documentary celebrates the "Godfather of British jazz", Stan Tracey. Using archive footage, rare performances and a wealth of musical compositions, it recreates the times and changes of post-war British jazz. Stan tells his own story in the film which follows his 60-year career epitomized by Under Milk Wood Suite, the masterpiece that single-handedly defined British jazz on the international scene. The self-taught star of the post-World War II London jazz scene, Tracey sailed to New York in the 1950s on the Queen Mary to catch the Bebop Revolution in full swing. His seven-year stint as bandleader at Ronnie Scott's in the 1960s brought him fame and success alongside jazz greats Roland Kirk, Stan Getz and Sonny Rollins. Always forward looking, Tracey went on to embrace the turbulent era of 70s improvisation and free jazz. Throughout the 1980s and 90s, his triumphant career as an interpreter, arranger and composer earned him the affectionate title of The English Ellington. Contributors to the program include jazz greats such as Dame Cleo Laine and John Dankworth, musical collaborators Bobby Wellins and Keith Tippett, friends and colleagues Bob Monkhouse, Humphrey Lyttelton and Michael Horovitz and commentators John Fordham and Val Wilmer. The latest generation to be inspired by Stan Tracey's music legacy such as Courtney Pine, Julian Joseph and son, Clark Tracey, bring the story up to the present day.
Thirty years after his untimely death, BBC Four presents the first-ever documentary film about the musical legend Gram Parsons. Over five years in the making, the 90-minute documentary film tells the story of the musician and heir to a million dollar fortune who died on 19 September 1973 aged just 26, under the influence of drugs and alcohol near his favourite place - the Joshua Tree National Monument in the Californian desert. As the founder of the Flying Burrito Brothers, a member of the hit-making, legendary Byrds, an important influence on the Rolling Stones and the man who discovered the singer Emmylou Harris, Gram Parsons wrote music history in only a few years. The important role he played in the development of popular music and the bizarre circumstances of his early death are the major themes of this documentary. The film was made on location by director and musician Gandulf Hennig and American music journalist, musician and biographer Sid Griffin. Friends, contemporaries and devotees of Gram Parsons talk about the importance of his work and the bizarre circumstances of his early death. Rare footage of his performances shows why Parsons has become a legend. Interviewees include Gram's wife Gretchen, his sister and daughter, Keith Richards, Emmylou Harris, Chris Hillman and "Road Mangler" Phil Kaufman.
Pianist/composer Allen Toussaint profiled during his enforced absence from his New Orleans home. Interviewees include Dr. John (Mac Rebennack) among the sundry pop performers, plus tv footage of Fats Domino.
The inside story of Hawkwind, one of Britain's wildest acid rock bands. Emerging from the Ladbroke Grove underground at the end of the 60s, the band trailed radicalism and counter-culture in their wake, and have been a direct influence on punk, metal, dance and rave. Includes interviews with some of the band's enduring legends, including bassist Lemmy, writer Michael Moorcock, founder members Terry Ollis, Nik Turner and Mick Slattery, and former managers Doug Smith and Jeff Dexter.
An English gentleman, a dandy and quietly yet confidently gay, Baldry's blues enthusiasm and booming baritone voice in the late 50s and 60s inspired The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton. Baldry discovered the young Rod Stewart, whom he chanced upon playing harmonica at a train station, and a chubby piano player named Reginald Dwight, who ended up changing his name to Elton John, partly in tribute to Baldry. Having toured and recorded right up to his death in 2005, this documentary pays tribute to the British blues legend.
Dinah Washington was perhaps the best American blues singer of the 1940s, jazz singer of the 50s and pop singer of the early 60s, and has been called the female Ray Charles. Raised on gospel and blues in black Chicago, she had just crossed over into the white mainstream with songs like What a Difference a Day Makes and Mad About the Boy when she died at just 39. It was a life of excess - too many pills, parties, mink coats and husbands. In this film, her life and music are assessed by people who knew her well and singers who love her, such as Amy Winehouse.
Profile of the late country legend, including performances of many of Tammy's greatest songs. Contributors include husbands George Jones and George Richey, Elvis Costello, Allison Moorer, Bill Drummond of the KLF and actress Anna Chancellor.
Hilarious and colourful profile of the godfather of funk, whose 50-year career has defined the genre. From his 1950s days running a doo-wop group out of the back of his barber store, through the madness of the monster Parliament/Funkadelic machine of the 70s to his late 90s hip-hop collaborations with Dre and Snoop, George Clinton has inspired generations of imitators. Contributors include Outkast's Andre 3000 and Macy Gray.
