WikipediaThe Rolling Stones are, by all accounts, total maniacs. Urban legends, memoirs and other films have documented the drug-fuelled, sex-crazed insanity of the world's biggest (still living) rock band, but the first time their true hot messes were about to be unveiled the band, and the studio that financed the documentary, put a stop to it. Which is a rare moment of coquettishness from the infamously shy-and-retiring Keith Richards, a man who once claimed to have snorted his own father's ashes. The colourfully titled Cocksucker Blues (named after a Stones rarity which was renamed and released as Schoolboy Blues), the film directed by famed photographer Robert Frank showed the band's 1972 American tour in support of their classic album Exile on Main St. With unfettered VIP access to the band on stage and behind the scenes, the film was shot by Frank, members of the band and their entourage, as cameras were left around dressing rooms and tour buses for anybody to pick up and film with. Which means that the finished movie included footage of groupies shooting heroin, Keith Richards stumbling around off his face, Mick Jagger snorting coke backstage before a gig, and all the other examples of wild rock 'n' roll hedonism which had previously been the subject of scuttlebutt; now, rendered in clear, defined moving images. Deciding the film showed them in a poor - and possibly incriminating - light, the band blocked its release, despite the fact they commissioned it themselves. Frank is only allowed to show it four times a year, in an "archival setting", and if he's present. Which is some pretty effective burying.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
WikipediaThe Rolling Stones are, by all accounts, total maniacs. Urban legends, memoirs and other films have documented the drug-fuelled, sex-crazed insanity of the world's biggest (still living) rock band, but the first time their true hot messes were about to be unveiled the band, and the studio that financed the documentary, put a stop to it. Which is a rare moment of coquettishness from the infamously shy-and-retiring Keith Richards, a man who once claimed to have snorted his own father's ashes. The colourfully titled Cocksucker Blues (named after a Stones rarity which was renamed and released as Schoolboy Blues), the film directed by famed photographer Robert Frank showed the band's 1972 American tour in support of their classic album Exile on Main St. With unfettered VIP access to the band on stage and behind the scenes, the film was shot by Frank, members of the band and their entourage, as cameras were left around dressing rooms and tour buses for anybody to pick up and film with. Which means that the finished movie included footage of groupies shooting heroin, Keith Richards stumbling around off his face, Mick Jagger snorting coke backstage before a gig, and all the other examples of wild rock 'n' roll hedonism which had previously been the subject of scuttlebutt; now, rendered in clear, defined moving images. Deciding the film showed them in a poor - and possibly incriminating - light, the band blocked its release, despite the fact they commissioned it themselves. Frank is only allowed to show it four times a year, in an "archival setting", and if he's present. Which is some pretty effective burying.