is 40 years old today, and I’ve never seen it.
Probably scared off by the limp reviews and “it ain’t all that” warnings … but No More Lonely Nights is a superb Macca toon.
(and no, I’m not posting a video in the box!)
Has anyone actually seen it, and is it worth seeking out for a watch?
Worthwhile addition to the cannon or a combination of over-estimating one’s abilities and audience acceptance (and/or a (potential) tax dodge)?
Give My Regards To Broad Street
by 32 Comments
I saw it at the cinema and enjoyed it – but then again when I go to see a film I do generally enjoy it no matter what. Given that, I remember the plot concerning a lost/stolen master tape being a bit lame. My take on that was – a) why no back up and b) it really isn’t the end of the world. Worth seeing for the music I’d say – Ballroom Dancing, Wanderlust, No More Lonely Nights, Long and Winding Road, For No One, Eleanor Rigby.
I seem to remember the film has a performance of Maxwell Silver Hammer but the OST LP doesn’t have the song listed. This is a very troubled song I think.
You just killed any passing interest I might have had. The stress of worrying that MSH might pop up isn’t worth it.
I have seen it, it is terrible. There are some fairly nice videos connected by the godawful plot, script and most of the acting. Nice to see Ringo and Macca on screen together though
Music-wise all the remakes are inferior (except Ballroom Dancing), new songs not bad. No more Lonely Nights is magnificent but slightly ruined by David Gilmour’s awful guitar at the end for me
Listening to Radio 4 while I made dinner reminded me it is also 40 years today since this report from Ethiopia, which sparked a whole new strand of popular culture.
How silly we humans were back then, what with the famine, inequality, and wars. Thank goodness we put all that behind us.
Was thinking to myself t’other day:
… surprised there’s been no mumblings about a Band Aid 40. And will Bonio get to do his line again (or will he have to fight it out with Ed Sheeran, Harry Styles , or Adele?)
I say this as an absolute HJH obsessive, but Broad Street is appalling. It cannot be underestimated. If you don’t like Macca, think of everything you dislike about him and multiply it by 1000 and make a film of it. That is Give My Regards To Broad Street.
No More Lonely Nights is a banger, though.
Brilliant post.
This is worth a watch. The movie is apparently on YouTube…
Give my Regards to Bored Street
I was in London on a 6th Form day trip (triffic!) only, get this, it was a really great 6th Form day trip.
Day off school for one thing but, because our English A-level included Macbeth, we saw, at some ridiculously early time in the morning, Polanski’s Macbeth. Now I couldn’t give a monkey’s about Macbeth, and still don’t, but Polanski and late 60s British cinema in the style of Witchfinder General et al? Now you’re talking. Exactly what Channel Four was showing at the time. Brilliant it was, and I’m sure I enjoyed it more than anyone else there. I was buzzing when we left the screening. They were all watching Macbeth, I was watching the 60s.
My other memories of the day were that, in the middle of Piccadilly Circus, there was an appalling record shop which looked like a grocer’s shop and I presumed was kind of front for organised crime and, because I had a bit of folding in my back pocket (as you always did on a school trip), I decided – hastily, and with regret – to buy a ticket for the following night’s opening of this film. Why not? Wasn’t doing anything else.
On the night itself… I remember a lot about Ethiopia on the news (might have been the first appearance of Bob Geldof on the subject – ‘Sixty Minutes’?), the Rupert film was indeed shown beforehand (I’d forgotten about that), and I bought Roy Carr’s ‘Rolling Stones’ book at a knock-down price… which proved to be a much more important purchase long term.
The film was awful and I’ve never seen it since. I don’t even like ‘No More Lonely Nights’. You can tolerate that dire 1980s production? Fine… I can’t. It’s like having a cow pat served with yer fish ‘n’ chips.
Of the film and the dire 1980s in general… someone really needed to tell Paul – ‘Do you know who you are?’ I’d have done it. It seems incredible that someone so talented wanted to compete in an era with so many who were distinctly less talented.
I’ve been listening to bits and pieces of the excellent ‘Nothing Is Real’ podcast recently, and the three-part (!!!) analysis of the truly woeful Press to Play from the truly woeful 1986 is a real eye-opener into Paul’s psyche at that time. I think he wanted to be in Culture Club, which is like Real Madrid wanting to be Stockport County.
“They were all watching Macbeth, I was watching the 60s.”
The key revelation, I feel…
It’s often said those who can remember the 60s weren’t there.
Would the same principle not apply to those who remember watching the 60s?
There’s a paper in that…
… if it made sense. Get the Ready Reckoner out. There’s a Venn Diagram there somewhere!
Suits me just fine. I saw its graphic violence as a comment on the time in which it was made, enhanced by the fact that the director’s pregnant wife had been murdered. An unreasonable analysis? Spot on, I’d have thought.
I did pass.
In January we went to Stratford to see a Shakespeare play on stage… I didn’t like that half as much as Polanski’s film.
It also featured a distinctly creepy soundtrack courtesy of the Third Ear Band, IIRC.
Yesterday was 40 years to the day since Michael Burke’s shocking report from Ethiopia on BBC News.
He was talking about it on The World At One on Radio 4.
I too saw Polanski’s Macbeth and thought it was so awesome I bought it on DVD when Twang Jr did it in school.
I remember it coming out but didn’t see it until years later when ITV had it on at 4 in the morning. I bought the No More Lonely Nights & We All Stand Together singles which came out 5 weeks apart at the end of 1984 – I was 10! Just like when the Beatles had the Magical Mystery Tour EP up against the Hello Goodbye single. In retrospect (and I’m not the first person to make this observation) there’s Macca before GMRTBS and Macca after GMRTBS. Even though Flowers in the Dirt would get to number one and he would sell out stadia for the rest of all time, GMRTBS conveyed a naffness/feet of clay that he never got over. Macca was still a pop star going into 1984: Say Say Say, Pipes of Peace… this was not the case by 1986. None of this wasn’t helped by the fact that he felt the need to defend it, then ignore it, and then never talk about it ever again.
So with 40 years hindsight, is it any good. No, no it’s not. Does it deserve endless opprobium? Also no. Should it be unavailable and should we all pretend like it neve happened? Definitely not. It’s part of McCartney’s story, whether he likes it or not. His story is fascinating, and so by extension, GMRTBS is fascinating. And also terrible. But also not that bad. It’s complicated.
Neil Young has made some terrible movies with hammy acting and is forgiven, yet Paul isn’t. Part of the difference is that Neil is not trying to convince you a brilliant actor/director, he’s just following his muse. Paul is also following his muse, but he does want you to think that he’s a great actor. And he is not. GMRTBS also came out at a curious point in time – 1984 was the peak of the music video and GMRTBS has some great music video set pieces. Had it been a tv special, or a home video release, it would have had as much impact as the James Paul McCartney tv special or the Back To The Egg video album. Trying to sell it as a proper Hollywood movie and his new album meant that people expected acting, direction, dialogue and plot. Can I give a spoiler here? The twist in the movie is that it was all a dream. Jeebus.
McCartney should reissue it, shrug his sholders at the naff bits, do a one-night-only cinema thing and put out a CD/Bluray of it. It is what it is.
I sincerely hope Peter Jackson doesn’t read this thread
I have seen it – on YouTube. It’s a clanger for sure, but a few bits of this curate’s egg are of interest. It shows a grimy London in the mid-80s that is long gone – all communication is done on brown telephones and fax machines and it’s possible for the release of an album to be scuppered because someone has nabbed the only master tape. IIRC Macca has a phone in his chauffeured car, which must have seemed quite the thing at the time.
There’s a bit where Macca and his band playing old tunes in the studio, overseen by George Martin. There’s a HORA about a telling aspect of this: Apparently in down time, Paul would breezily say ‘Hey lads, why don’t we try Kansas City?’ and so on, acting like they were a tight bunch of equals. However, when someone ventured playing a similar rock’n’roll classic this was met with indifference: an intermediary told them during the next break ‘Only Paul suggests the tunes’.
The weirdest (that is to say, rubbish) bit of the film is the ‘Silly Love Songs’ sequence where the band are all done up like a Blitz Kids fever dream. And here it is:
It’s the downside of being seen as a genius; everyone else will trust that genius even when you doubt it yourself. Because who’s going to stand up and say, you know what, Paul? This is shit. Get yourself a Lennon or a Costello who you trust to say that.
So which rock stars had decent acting chops? Not Macca, obviously. Sting, awful. Phil Collins pretty decent, but he was trained. Dylan and Jagger knew they’d be dreadful but didn’t care.
Bowie is passable later on, say in The Prestige, but his problem is that he always played characters as a musician, so when he’s on screen you just think, oh look it’s David Bowie playing a character.
More recently Ed Sheeran in Yesterday was more than adequate, but still somehow slightly unconvincing in the role of Ed Sheeran.
@Chiz
Johnny Flynn is pretty much the whole package –
Not just a talented singer songwriter but also an in-demand actor on stage, screen and TV
Decent acting chops?
Well, I was very pleasantly surprised by the three East Belfast hip hoppers from Kneecap in the film of the same name. They are playing themselves but the director/writer has created stories about them. They’ve a good sense of comic timing.
Bowie – dreadful. Even he thought he was terrible and knocked it on the head which was great insight. That scene in “Absolute Beginners” snuffed out my residual 70s affection for him.
Could I post this gorgeous version of No More Lonely Nights here? It’s the only good moment on this wretched tribute album.
McCartney was involved in a real quality release in 1984. No, really, it’s true. It was probably his last real quality release.
On 29th September, the Everly Brothers’ ‘On the Wings of a Nightingale’ came out but tantalizing got to no. 41 in the Singles’ chart, where it presumably rubbed shoulders along with the likes of the clash.
One more place, a Top of the Pops appearance/video clip, and it’s almost inconceivable that it wouldn’t have climbed up the chart. Only the year before Phil had been in the Top 10 with a (really rather good) duet alongside Cliff Richard.
On the excellent 45cat website, there is a recording of a demo which McCartney sent to them.
Compare it to Broad Street and weep. It sounds like an outtake from the White Album.
It is a great song. What I really like about it is as a songwriter for hire, he really understood the brief to create something for the Everlys. Harmonies all ready to go.
Not at all his last real quality release. Check out Chaos and Creation in the Backyard or Electric Arguments, naming just 2. It is magnificent though
I honestly didn’t realise that Give My Regards To Broad Street was actually a feature film. If I thought about it all, I would probably have it pegged as one of those extended videos like Thriller or Undercover of the Night that were rather en vogue at the time.
It would have been a good in that format. It was similar to Absolute Beginners from the same time in that both films featured one exceptional original song.