The Mods & Rockers Film Festival presented a free open-air concert on Sunday followed by a set of films that transported revellers back to Swingin' London circa 1966-1967. Writer Brad Schreiber took a ticket to ride. (He didn't know what he would find there...)
It was live rock by day, filmic rock by night on Sunday, at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, beginning with tribute bands and rocker returns, culminating with a program of films making me want to climb into a time machine, find a ruffled shirt and full-length, brocade coat and head for 1966 London.
The crowd for the "Rock Like an Egyptian!" free music concert was doused in summer sun and it brought out some free-spirited sartorial splendor. There was a Jimi Hendrix lookalike who flashed an insistent peace sign for the tribute band Monterey '67, while a Janis Joplin lookalike, complete with pink and black feathers in her hair, velvet bellbottoms and round, rose-colored shades, belted and growled out "Piece of My Heart."
I only wish I had my camera for the thin, tough-looking, aging hippie woman with the tie-dyed shirt-skirt, one that sported a black line at crotch level and the words "You Must Be This High to Ride the Ride." And when Monterey '67 leaped into some numbers a la the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, an elderly black man in his Sunday finery began showing the crowd his smooth moves.
"The Ravers!" covered the Beatles and Stones, with lead guitarist Howie Anderson getting a nice sitar sound out of his ax on "Paint It Black." Martin Lewis's special guests were Stephen Bishop, who did not only his hits but a very sweet version of the Liverpool lads' "All I've Gotta Do". And Spencer Davis not only whipped and stirred the crowd with hits such as "Gimme Some Lovin'" and "I'm A Man" - he was joined on soprano sax by former Van Morrison bandleader John Altman and Phil Chen, whose bass work has supported the likes of Jeff Beck and Pete Townshend.
It was a celebration of 60s London on the Egyptian screen and producer-director Peter Whitehead, who did so many promotional films of musical greats, had his work amply on display. A wave of giddiness ran through the crowd as we saw the Stones all cross-dressed as uptight English matrons in the music vid "Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadows." And Whitehead's ultra-rare "Tonite Let's All Make Love in London" not only features a soundtrack from the early, Syd Barrett-led Pink Floyd but wonderfully surreal snippets of interviews with 60s icons: Mick Jagger on political violence. Julie Christie on the shifting reality of "hipness." Michael Caine, uproariously, on English sexual repression.
But your intrepid blogger was most impressed by Whitehead's "Pink Floyd in London 1966/1967". To be treated to the Floyd's late, great, demented mate Barrett, in studio, creating a controlled freakout of guitar sounds was ecstatic, cathartic and yes, melancholic. Intercut were the band's performances at the UFO Nightclub, clips from "Tonight Let's All Make Love in London" and a spring 1967 happening known as the "14 Hour Technicolor Dream" at London's cavernous Alexandra Palace with Pink Floyd playing "Interstellar Overdrive."
Listening to the two extended pieces Pink Floyd played in Sound Techniques Studio, both of which brought applause inside the Egyptian upon their conclusion, I thought about how remarkable their own brand of psychedelia was: not noodling but synchronized explorations of peaks and valleys, propulsive, then delicately weird. It is the music of the spheres, with showers of sonic comets to boot. When it ended, I did not walk down Hollywood Boulevard to my car. I levitated...
THE "MODS & ROCKERS FESTIVAL" BLOGS
• GREGORY WEINKAUF - Picking Up Every Stitch...
• D.A. PENNEBAKER - Inside Pennebaker's Soul
• STEVE HOCHMAN -
Memo To Al Gore
• BRAD SCHREIBER - Monterey Pop Goes Pow!
• MICHELLE PHILLIPS - California Dreaming Becoming a Reality• JERRY MILLER - Grapeful for Monterey
• HARVEY KUBERNIK - UP In Monterey...
• GREGORY WEINKAUF - Skidoo Does Hollywood...
• STANLEY DORFMAN - Zeppelin Takes Flight
• BRAD SCHREIBER - Tripping Back to 1960s London...
• D.A. PENNEBAKER - Pennebaker on "Pop"
• MARTIN LEWIS - ROCK Like An Egyptian!
• DAVID HABER - Really With The Beatles
• PAUL WILLIAMS - Nilsson Is My Cup Of Tea
• BRAD SCHREIBER - Festival Opens & Explains "What's Happening!"
• PAUL KRASSNER - Skidoo
• MARTIN LEWIS - First Night Report!
• STEPHEN BISHOP - The Beatles Were My True Parents
• ANDREW LOOG OLDHAM - Mocking The Rockers
• BRUCE SPIZER -The Beatles Were Coming!
• MARTIN LEWIS - Movies For Nothing And Kicks For Free..
MORE "MODS & ROCKERS FESTIVAL" BLOGS COMING SOON FROM
• ERIC BURDON