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nbc_mediumThe Stones in Exile : An Imagine Special
BBC One, Sunday May 23rd, 10.25pm
Rating: 5 Stars
If it was possible to bottle claustrophobia, director Stephen Kijack would be doing it. If you’re looking for a wild ‘rocumentary’ with thrills and spills, you’re barking up the wrong tree. Cut together using still images, never before seen home video, radio announcers and new interviews … this film gives the viewer a taste of the good, the bad and the ugly that took place in the South of France in 1971 whilst the Stones struggled to record Exile on Main Street in Keith Richards’ basement.
So what were they doing in exile? Well as Bill Wyman explains, with 93 percent tax, “If you earned a million quid … which we didn’t … you’d end up with 70 grand, so it was impossible to earn enough money to pay back the inland revenue and stay here in England.”
This sense of not wanting to leave home comes through from all of the band, but especially Wyman who admits he spent a great deal of effort importing Bird’s Custard, PG Tips and Branston pickle for the duration of his stay … but maybe they needed this isolation, because as Martin Scorsese puts it, “The sense that they can’t go home … I think the music reflects that.”
The first half of the film has shades of Imagine: John Lennon, but the Beatles are replaced by Stones and Ascot is replaced by Nellcote. For a time things seem good. There are friends, family, fun. Keith would get up early and play with his son Marlon before writing songs in the afternoon, Mick would commute to look after his pregnant wife Bianca and the likes of saxophonist Bobby Keys, well as he puts it, “I didn’t mind living between Nice and Monte Carlo one bit … a rock n roll musician in his twenties … that’s when you’re shitting in tall cotton … can I say that, I just said that.”
The music was sporadic and ramshackle – guitars in the kitchen, bass in the hallway and drums in the basement … terrible humidity constantly put the guitars out of tune, fires would break out, equipment would blow up … and if they were lucky something would end up getting to the truck in the garden which had a very patient producer and a mixing desk in it. This was rock ‘n’ roll in the extreme, jams would go on for days and no finished song would emerge, tracks had no vocals or melodies … but it was sort of working, sort of.
Producer Jimmy Miller was aware of how hard this was becoming fairly early on. “They [The Stones] were spread out all over France, it was hard to get people together.” But as time went on, this becomes the least of his problems. As photographer Domnique Tarle (who visited for a day and stayed for six months) notes, “In the South of France, if you have money you can get anything … Marseilles has illegal products and Italy has the Mafia … then join them together … you understand?”
Lightness turned to dark as the drugs got harder and the days and nights got longer. To put things in perspective, eight-year-old Jake Weber describes the days when he was rolling joints for the grown-ups as a “period of grace” before it all got bad.
“You think you’re in control of this wonderful lifestyle, and you are, but then there’s a moment when the lifestyle starts to choose you … that’s the problem” says Jagger. The recording thunders on but band members begin to crack. Keith falls asleep whilst recording vocals, eight guitars are stolen and no one even notices and heroin becomes fair game for breakfast lunch and dinner. As Keith says, “I did it to hide … with a hit of smack I could walk through anything and not give a damn”
Despite a fog of drink and drugs polluting Nellcote, Miller insists, “You get the best from the band when they think they’re not working.” And when you listen to the rock n roll masterpiece that emerges, you can’t help but agree.
This is a documentary that you wish you could turn off, but you can’t. Whether you’re a Stones aficionado or just someone with an hour to spare, you will get something from this experience … I can’t guarantee that will be a god feeling, but there will be a reaction, and somewhere deep down inside … beyond the hangovers and the comedowns, the pain and the misery … a little part of you will wish (if even just for a moment) you’d been there getting your rocks off too.
SOURCE
BBC One, Sunday May 23rd, 10.25pm
Rating: 5 Stars
If it was possible to bottle claustrophobia, director Stephen Kijack would be doing it. If you’re looking for a wild ‘rocumentary’ with thrills and spills, you’re barking up the wrong tree. Cut together using still images, never before seen home video, radio announcers and new interviews … this film gives the viewer a taste of the good, the bad and the ugly that took place in the South of France in 1971 whilst the Stones struggled to record Exile on Main Street in Keith Richards’ basement.
So what were they doing in exile? Well as Bill Wyman explains, with 93 percent tax, “If you earned a million quid … which we didn’t … you’d end up with 70 grand, so it was impossible to earn enough money to pay back the inland revenue and stay here in England.”
This sense of not wanting to leave home comes through from all of the band, but especially Wyman who admits he spent a great deal of effort importing Bird’s Custard, PG Tips and Branston pickle for the duration of his stay … but maybe they needed this isolation, because as Martin Scorsese puts it, “The sense that they can’t go home … I think the music reflects that.”
The first half of the film has shades of Imagine: John Lennon, but the Beatles are replaced by Stones and Ascot is replaced by Nellcote. For a time things seem good. There are friends, family, fun. Keith would get up early and play with his son Marlon before writing songs in the afternoon, Mick would commute to look after his pregnant wife Bianca and the likes of saxophonist Bobby Keys, well as he puts it, “I didn’t mind living between Nice and Monte Carlo one bit … a rock n roll musician in his twenties … that’s when you’re shitting in tall cotton … can I say that, I just said that.”
The music was sporadic and ramshackle – guitars in the kitchen, bass in the hallway and drums in the basement … terrible humidity constantly put the guitars out of tune, fires would break out, equipment would blow up … and if they were lucky something would end up getting to the truck in the garden which had a very patient producer and a mixing desk in it. This was rock ‘n’ roll in the extreme, jams would go on for days and no finished song would emerge, tracks had no vocals or melodies … but it was sort of working, sort of.
Producer Jimmy Miller was aware of how hard this was becoming fairly early on. “They [The Stones] were spread out all over France, it was hard to get people together.” But as time went on, this becomes the least of his problems. As photographer Domnique Tarle (who visited for a day and stayed for six months) notes, “In the South of France, if you have money you can get anything … Marseilles has illegal products and Italy has the Mafia … then join them together … you understand?”
Lightness turned to dark as the drugs got harder and the days and nights got longer. To put things in perspective, eight-year-old Jake Weber describes the days when he was rolling joints for the grown-ups as a “period of grace” before it all got bad.
“You think you’re in control of this wonderful lifestyle, and you are, but then there’s a moment when the lifestyle starts to choose you … that’s the problem” says Jagger. The recording thunders on but band members begin to crack. Keith falls asleep whilst recording vocals, eight guitars are stolen and no one even notices and heroin becomes fair game for breakfast lunch and dinner. As Keith says, “I did it to hide … with a hit of smack I could walk through anything and not give a damn”
Despite a fog of drink and drugs polluting Nellcote, Miller insists, “You get the best from the band when they think they’re not working.” And when you listen to the rock n roll masterpiece that emerges, you can’t help but agree.
This is a documentary that you wish you could turn off, but you can’t. Whether you’re a Stones aficionado or just someone with an hour to spare, you will get something from this experience … I can’t guarantee that will be a god feeling, but there will be a reaction, and somewhere deep down inside … beyond the hangovers and the comedowns, the pain and the misery … a little part of you will wish (if even just for a moment) you’d been there getting your rocks off too.
SOURCE
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Date: 2010-05-20 10:38 pm (UTC)I'm going to try and remember to watch this, or use the catch service to do ao.