Rock movies aim to break X Factor’s stranglehold
A backlash has begun against the stranglehold that television talent shows have on the British music industry. Films about rock history are the first line of attack, according to the leading directors and musicians who are driving a growing public interest in the bands that have shaped popular music.
Ten films chronicling the lives of pop stars and rock musicians have been released or gone into production in recent months. John Lennon, Ian Dury and the record producer Joe Meek have already been the subjects of biopics, and screenwriters are now delving into Britain's rich rock past to tell the stories of other musicians.
This week sees the release of Oil City Confidential, an account of Canvey Island pub-rockers Dr Feelgood. The film's director, Julien Temple, is already working on his next film, You Really Got Me, about Ray and Dave Davies, the brothers who formed the Kinks. The year will also see the release of a coming-of-age biopic about the 1970s teenage band the Runaways, in addition to Upside Down – The Story of Creation Records and the White Stripes film, The White Stripes Under Great White Northern Lights. Following the release of Blur's No Distance Left to Run and the guitar documentary It Might Get Loud, the British band Muse have announced that they will make a behind-the-scenes film, inspired by Nirvana's 1994 tour documentary, Live! Tonight! Sold Out!!
It all amounts to a new crusade against the influence of The X Factor, according to the acclaimed musician Peter Hook, who accuses the show of treating participants as "singing prostitutes".
Temple, too, is keen to use his films to remind the public of the dedication and flair that once marked out rock talent. "We want film to provoke questions about what could happen now," said Temple, who also made The Filth and the Fury, on the Sex Pistols, and Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten, about the late Clash guitarist. "Why can't we come up with this kind of passion any more? Now it's the blandest of the bland who reach whole new audiences on shows like X Factor."
While singing stars who are chosen by public vote – such as Leona Lewis and this year's X Factor winner, Joe McElderry – reach an international audience after only a few months in the business, the current spate of rock tribute films offers some solace to those backroom musicians who face a long slog touring pubs and clubs.
"It's interesting that these films have come about now," said Hook, a co-founder of Joy Division and the former bassist with New Order. "It's like we're gearing up for a backlash against X Factor. It's about nostalgia, but also inspiring people to do something. There have actually never been more groups than there are out there right now, and I hope when people see the films they will want to go and do it, too.''
Hook, who is about to open the Factory 251 club in Manchester to promote new live and indie music, added that, while films may inspire some young musicians, there is a danger that they "glamorise the business".
"The myths have grown enough to warrant a film," he said, pointing out that Joy Division have more fans now than they did in their heyday.
Some of the new films say as much about failure as success, however, and provide a vivid contrast with the sudden celebrity status of finalists in television talent shows. Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, starring Andy Serkis, charts Dury's troubled rise to fame in the 1970s. Crippled by polio at the age of 10, his love of performance established him as an anarchic star. Last year's Canadian film, Anvil! The Story of Anvil, concentrated on the struggles of an 80s metal band still trying to make it big 20 years later.
Dramatised biopics such as Sam Taylor-Wood's Nowhere Boy, about the early life of Lennon, and Anton Corbijn's Control, about Joy Division's Ian Curtis, both highlight the problems confronted by these cult heroes. Such deliberately unromantic portrayals underline the dedication that was once required to forge a career in live music.
It is a point that Sting made last year when he criticised the talent show impresario Simon Cowell for creating a "karaoke" contest with The X Factor. "I am sorry, but none of those kids is going to go anywhere, and I say that sadly," he said of the contestants. "It is a soap opera which has nothing to do with music. In fact, it has put music back decades."
Sting went on to argue that talent shows favour performers who lack "any real unique signature or fingerprint", but this is a slur too far for Britain's Got Talent judge Piers Morgan. "The idea the Sex Pistols were some kind of music ensemble – forget it. I don't accept the argument that we just churn out good-looking singers now," he said.
"And what's wrong with wholesome family fun anyway? Pop music is always going to be bland. It was just as bland then as it is now." Morgan also resists the idea that the past produced more authentic pop stars. "It's quite possible that Joe McElderry could be the next Paul McCartney," he said.
But Hook, like both Sting and Temple, disputes any claims that talent shows allow creative talent to shine. "Simon Cowell wants people to sing perfectly. Ian Curtis and Ian Dury couldn't necessarily sing properly, but they could perform. These shows treat people like singing prostitutes."
The veteran film producer Stephen Woolley – who made Stoned, about Rolling Stones founder member and guitarist Brian Jones – supports the new appetite for rock history, but suggests there may need to be another strategy to defeat the power of the television talent shows because audiences even for good films about music are likely to be small.
"The fact that movies like Blur: No Distance Left to Run and Oil City Confidential exist doesn't mean there is an audience for them," said Woolley.
"I'm a big fan of Dr Feelgood– they are the ultimate pub-rock band – but most people will just watch it on DVD. And Anvil! was great. You couldn't ask for a film to get better reviews, but still nobody went to see it."
Sex And Drugs And Rock And Roll Film Page
Source: Guardian Online