gdead.berkeley.edu/gdead.berkeley.edu.tar/gdead.berkeley.edu/pub/gdead/miscellaneous/FestivalExpress

Text File | 2001-12-05 | 9KB | 219 lines

FESTIVAL EXPRESS

In 1976, The Grateful Dead wrote a song called "Might As Well" about
their journey aboard the Festival Express, a few years earlier:

Never had such a good time in my life before,
I'd like to have it one time more.
One good ride from start to end,
I'd like to take that ride again.


The Story

In 1970, a train was chartered to cross Canada carrying some of the
greatest rock bands of the time. The Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin,
Ten Years After, Traffic, The Band, Buddy Guy, and others lived (and
partied) together for five days, stopping in major cities along the
way to play live concerts. Their journey was filmed.

Due to the bankruptcy of the original production company, the film
materials were taken into receivership and stored in the Canadian
National Film Archives for 25 years. Rumours about the existence of
the film persisted, but it wasn't until 1995 that the materials were
rediscovered. Fortunately, they were found to be in a pristine
state.

Watching this wonderful material for the first time was an
extraordinary experience. Not only had it never been exploited,  it
hadn't even been viewed before. The potential was immediately
obvious.

The Festival Express artists have sold tens of millions of albums
all over the world. Audiences everywhere have come to know and love
music films such as Monterey Pop (1968), Woodstock (1969), Gimme
Shelter (1969), and The Last Waltz (1978).

Festival Express gives us the opportunity to make the last great
rock music film.


The Project

We have exclusive rights to 46 hours of never-seen-before footage,
of both the concerts and the train voyage, together with
professionally recorded sound, of these events.

From this footage, we're producing:

?    a 85 min. theatrical feature film
?    a VHS home video
?    a longer version DVD video with interactivity
?    a soundtrack CD
?    an Internet site


The Creative Team

We have assembled a world-class creative team:

Director:        Bob Smeaton
(The Beatles Anthology     - Grammy Award 1996;
            Hendrix: Band Of Gypsies     - Grammy Award 2000)

Producers:        Gavin Poolman/ Apollo Films
(The Zookeeper w/ Sam Neill & Gina Mckee -
completed);
10 years as a senior film executive, with Mayfair
Entertainment International, Glinwood/ Film
Trustees.)

John Trapman
(over 100 commercials)

Music Producer:    Eddie Kramer
(Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin.)

Cinematographer:    Peter Biziou
(Mississippi Burning         - Academy Award;
Richard III;
The Truman Show;
Guinness Ads.)


The Event

The Festival Express might just have been the greatest, and
certainly the longest, non-stop rock and roll party ever. Referred
to by Rolling Stone as "The Million Dollar Bash", Festival Express
was designed to capitalise on the then-burgeoning craze for multi-
day, talent-heavy music festivals. Following in the footsteps of
Woodstock, by the summer of 1970 such festivals were a regular de
rigueur part of the rock and roll landscape.

Festival Express was planned as a festival with a difference - it
would be portable. The artists would be showcased at festival sights
spanning the breadth of the Canadian heartland, from Toronto to
Calgary. And transportation was by chartered train. This proved to
be a stroke of genius, indelibly stamping the event with an aura of
magic, as a number of performers, including Janis Joplin, The
Grateful Dead, and The Band signed on despite being offered fees
substantially below their going rate. The musicians thought the
train ride sounded like the "party to end all parties".

The musicians were right. The five day train ride provided a unique
vehicle for artists as disparate as Rick Danko of The Band, Jerry
Garcia, Janis Joplin, Delaney and Bonnie, and Buddy Guy to relax
with one another in a setting unlikely ever to be repeated. Wholly
unsupervised, some of the most famed musicians of the day journeyed
together across Canada. This meant copious amounts of drugs and
alcohol consumption, musical jamming that has to be seen and heard
to be believed, and heavily psychedelic conversation.


Like Woodstock, however, the Festival Express was caught up in the
counter-culture politics of the day. The opening two days in Toronto
set the tone for much of the craziness that would follow. Priced at
$14 for two days and over twenty bands, to some, the festival seemed
like a bargain. Others, picking up from Abbie Hoffman's Yippies,
felt the music should be free. This latter group was incredibly
organised, pamphleting in advance, urging people not to pay. Instead
they suggested simply showing up and storming the gates.

Scenes of the resulting chaos at the stadium open a window to the
politics of the era, as fans are seen trying to climb their way in,
with mounted policemen unsuccessfully trying to keep them under
control. One particularly memorable piece of footage captures police
chasing several fans across the stadium roof.

The Grateful Dead responded by staging their own free festival at a
local park for all those who didn't want to pay the admission price.
This counter-culture festival was also captured on film, as was a
press conference held in Winnepeg, the train's next stop, as the
promoters tried to justify themselves to a hostile media.

Shining through the behaviour of the crowds (and everyone else),
however, is always the music.


The Film

Audiences from all over the world have come to know and love music
festival films such as Monterey Pop (1968), Woodstock (1969), and
Gimme Shelter (1969). Festival Express gives us the chance to make
perhaps the last great rock music film.

The film will tell the story of how, in June 1970, many of the
world's leading rock bands toured together across the Canadian
heartland on a train, giving concerts where and when they stopped.

The film will be primarily assembled from the 46 hours of footage
shot at the various festival locations, and on and during the train
journey. The performers featured include Janis Joplin, The Grateful
Dead, The Band, Ten Years After, Traffic, and Buddy Guy.

The picture quality is outstanding. Every performance was captured
professionally with a four camera crew. The cinematographer was
Academy Award-winner Peter Biziou (Mississippi Burning, The Truman
Show). These never-seen-before performances will be augmented with
scenes of the concerts being set up; wonderful footage of the
audience, both inside and outside the stadiums; interaction between
the artists and locals at various train stops, etc..

The sound quality is just as impressive, having been professionally
recorded on an eight-track console.

Most impressive of all, however, the footage shot on the train is
something very special. Shot in Cinema VΘritΘ style with one or two
cameras, this footage offers us a glimpse of a lifestyle which will
probably never be seen again. Hippy musicians party their way along
a psychedelic tour of northern Canada, as the train teeters through
nowheresville towns with such improbable names as Kawa, Kowcash,
Snakesbreath and Unaka. Footage of surreal shopping sprees in
Saskatoon and Capreol are interspersed with footage of Janis Joplin
singing with Jerry Garcia and members of Mountain, Rick Danko and
Buddy Guy's bass player singing Smokey Robinson and the Miracles
tunes, etc..

The narrative to the film will be provided by filming contemporary
interviews with some of those who were there on the inside - i.e.
the performers - as well as with some who were on the outside
looking in - i.e. the crew, audiences, journalists, etc.. The film
will thus give an insight into the Festival Express Experience, and
with the benefit of hindsight, a reflection on how the relationship
between artist and audience may have changed since the golden days
of rock and roll. The telling of the story will also give us the
opportunity to observe how the 1960's ideals of "free love" and
"free music" has given way to the 1990's culture of corporate
entertainment packages.

The film will be edited in a style that will be in keeping with the
period in which it was filmed, without resort to modern music
television gimmickry, in order to ensure that the film retains a
timeless quality. This will include split-screen techniques,
remaining true to the style of the day, and allowing us to make the
best possible use of the many hours of excellent footage that might
otherwise remain unseen.

We also plan to shoot additional "second unit"-type footage, in
order to give our audience the true feel of a train journey across
the Canadian heartland.

Finally, augmenting the footage already shot, the film will
interview a selection of the musicians, crew, and rock music lovers
who were there, in order to provide today's (and tomorrow's)
audiences with a unique insight into what might have been the
greatest rock and roll party ever.

********************************************************
Posted by

Gavin Poolman

Apollo Films Ltd.
15 Lindfield Gardens
London NW3 6PX
United Kingdom
tel/ fax [phone]
[e-mail]