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Documentary about how a much-derided music actually changed the world. Between 1969 and 1979 disco sound-tracked gay liberation, foregrounded female desire in the age of feminism and led to the birth of modern club culture as we know it today, before taking the world by storm. With contributions from Nile Rodgers, Robin Gibb, Kathy Sledge and Ian Schrager.
You know the music - now meet the man. Still Bill is an intimate portrait of soul legend Bill Withers, best known for his classics Ain't No Sunshine, Lean on Me, Lovely Day, Grandma's Hands and Just the Two of Us. With his soulful delivery and warm, heartfelt sincerity, Withers has written songs that resonate within the fabric of our times. Through concert footage, journeys to his birthplace and interviews with music legends, his family and closest friends, this documentary presents the story of an artist who has written some of the most beloved songs of our time and who truly understands the heart and soul of a man.
By 1969, the Doors had found themselves at the forefront of a movement that consisted of a generation of discontents. Operating against a backdrop of the Vietnam War and of social unrest and change in the USA, the Doors were hip, they were dangerous, they were anti-establishment, anti-war and they were hated by middle-America.
Featuring exclusive interviews with surviving band members Ray Manzarek, John Densmore, Robby Kreiger and their closest colleagues and collaborators, along with exclusive performances, archive footage and examination of the original multi-track recording tapes with producer Bruce Botnick, this film tells the amazing story of landmark album LA Woman by one of the most influential bands on the planet.
The BBC have raided their remarkable archive once more to reveal evocative performances from Burt Bacharach and Hal David's astonishing songbook. Love songs from the famous songwriting duo were a familiar feature of 1960s and 70s BBC entertainment programmes such as Dusty, Cilla and The Cliff Richard Show, but there are some surprises unearthed here too.
Highlights include Sandie Shaw singing Always Something There to Remind Me, Aretha Franklin performing I Say a Little Prayer, Dusty Springfield's Wishin' and Hopin', the Stranglers' rendition of Walk on By on Top of the Pops, the Carpenters in concert performing (They Long to Be) Close to You and Burt Bacharach revisiting his classic Kentucky Bluebird with Rufus Wainwright on Later...with Jools Holland.
John Edginton's documentary explores the making of Pink Floyd's ninth studio album, Wish You Were Here, which was released in September 1975 and went on to top the album charts both in the UK and the US.
Featuring new interviews with band members Roger Waters, David Gilmour and Nick Mason alongside contributions from the likes of sleeve designer Storm Thorgerson and photographer Jill Furmanovsky, the film is a forensic study of the making of the follow-up to 1973's Dark Side of the Moon, which was another conceptual piece driven by Roger Waters.
The album wrestles with the legacy of the band's first leader, Syd Barrett, who had dropped out of the band in 1968 and is eulogised in the album's centrepiece, Shine On You Crazy Diamond. Pink Floyd had become one of the biggest bands in the world, but the 60s were over and the band were struggling both to find their purpose and the old camaraderie.
Documentary which records and celebrates the life and works of 'punk poet' John Cooper Clarke, looking at his life as a poet, a comedian, a recording artist and revealing how he has remained a significant influence on contemporary culture over four decades.
With a bevy of household names from stand-up comedy, lyricists, rock stars and cultural commentators paying homage to him, the film reveals Salford-born Cooper Clarke as a dynamic force who remains as relevant today as ever, as successive generations cite him as an influence on their lives, careers and styles.
From Bill Bailey to Plan B, Steve Coogan to Kate Nash and Arctic Monkeys front man Alex Turner to cultural commentators such as Miranda Sawyer and Paul Morley, the film reveals the life behind one of Britain's sharpest and most witty poets - a national treasure.
We Who Wait tells the story of punk band the Adverts and the continuing music career of their former frontman TV Smith, one of the most talented, literate and passionate - yet curiously overlooked - songwriters to emerge from London's vibrant '77 new wave scene.
Smith formed the Adverts in late '76 with his girlfriend Gaye and press criticism of the band's alleged musical ineptitude was answered by a defiant and iconic debut single, One Chord Wonders. A couple of months later, they secured their first chart hit with the macabre punk classic, Gary Gilmore's Eyes. Gaye's status as reluctant punk icon ensured the band received a lot of press attention and a promising future beckoned. However, after a well-received but underperforming debut LP and a critically-reviled follow-up, the Adverts suffered an acrimonious collapse.
Pushed to the margins of the music industry by shifting musical trends and a stubborn refusal to compromise, Smith nonetheless continued a dogged struggle to make a living as a singer and songwriter in the face of critical hostility and industry indifference. After years of bad luck, personal loss and failed bands, Smith's persistence is finally paying dividends. He has carved out a career as a solo artist and troubadour and painstakingly built a new audience through constant touring. To this day, he remains a fiercely inventive songwriter and an electrifying live performer - an enduring embodiment of punk's DIY ethos, passion and power.
The film is a testament to one of UK music's great outsiders, featuring a wealth of stills and archive footage and contributions from former band members, collaborators, critics and friends including Smith and Gaye Advert, Brian James, Richard Strange, John Robb, Greil Marcus, Miles, Henry Rollins, Ian MacKaye and many others.
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars is arguably the most important album in the mind-blowing career of David Bowie. Released in 1972, it's the record that set the mercurial musician on course to becoming one of the best-known pop stars on the planet. In just over a year, Bowie's messianic Martian invaded the minds of the nation's youth with a killer combination of extraterrestrial rock 'n' roll and outrageous sexuality, all delivered in high-heeled boots, multicoloured dresses and extravagant make-up. In Bowie's own words, Ziggy was 'a cross between Nijinsky and Woolworths', but this unlikely culture clash worked - Ziggy turned Bowie into stardust.
This documentary tells the story of how Bowie arrived at one of the most iconic creations in the history of pop music. The songs, the hairstyles, the fashion and the theatrical stage presentation merged together to turn David Bowie into the biggest craze since the Beatles. Ziggy's instant success gave the impression that he was the perfectly planned pop star. But, as the film reveals, it had been a momentous struggle for David Bowie to hit on just the right formula that would take him to the top.
Narrated by fan Jarvis Cocker, it reveals Bowie's mission to the stars through the musicians and colleagues who helped him in his unwavering quest for fame - a musical voyage that led Bowie to doubt his true identity, eventually forcing the sudden demise of his alien alter ego, Ziggy.
Contributors include Trevor Bolder (bass player, Spiders from Mars), Woody Woodmansey (drummer, Spider from Mars), Mike Garson (Spiders' keyboardist), Suzi Ronson (Mick Ronson's widow, who gave Bowie that haircut), Ken Scott (producer), Elton John (contemporary and fan), Lindsay Kemp (Bowie's mime teacher), Leee Black Childers (worked for Mainman, Bowie's production company), Cherry Vanilla (Bowie's PA/press officer), George Underwood (Bowie's friend), Mick Rock (Ziggy's official photographer), Steve Harley, Marc A
In his home studio and revisiting old haunts in Shepherd's Bush and Battersea, Pete Townshend opens his heart and his personal archive to revisit 'the last great album the Who ever made', one that took the Who full circle back to their earliest days via the adventures of a pill-popping mod on an epic journey of self-discovery.
But in 1973 Quadrophenia was an album that almost never was. Beset by money problems, a studio in construction, heroin-taking managers, a lunatic drummer and a culture of heavy drinking, Townshend took on an album that nearly broke him and one that within a year the band had turned their back on and would ignore for nearly three decades.
With unseen archive and in-depth interviews from Townshend, Roger Daltrey, Keith Moon, John Entwistle and those in the studio and behind the lens who made the album and 30 page photo booklet.
Contributors include Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey, Ethan Russell, Ron Nevison, Richard Barnes, Irish Jack Lyons, Bill Curbishley, John Woolf, Howie Edelson, Mark Kermode and Georgiana Steele Waller.
In 1978 The Undertones released Teenage Kicks, one of the most perfect and enduring pop records of all time - an adolescent anthem that spoke to teenagers all over the globe. It was the first in a string of hits that created a timeless soundtrack to growing up, making the Undertones one of punk rock's most prolific and popular bands.
Unlike the anarchic ragings of The Sex Pistols or the overt politics of The Clash, The Undertones sang of mummy's boys, girls - or the lack of them - and their irritating cousin Kevin. But their gems of pop music were revolutionary nonetheless - startlingly positive protest songs that demanded a life more ordinary. Because The Undertones came from Derry, epicentre of the violent troubles that tore Northern Ireland apart during the 1970s.
Featuring interviews with band members, their friends, family, colleagues and contemporaries, alongside archive and music, this documentary is the remarkable, funny and moving story of one of Britain's favourite bands - the most improbable pop stars who emerged from one of the darkest, most violent places on the planet.
Documentary which gets to the heart of who Jeff Lynne is and how he has had such a tremendous musical influence on our world. The story is told by the British artist himself and such distinguished collaborators and friends of Jeff as Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Tom Petty, Joe Walsh, Olivia and Dhani Harrison, Barbara Orbison and Eric Idle.
The film reveals that Lynne is a true man of music, for whom the recording studio is his greatest instrument. With access to Lynne in his studio above LA, this is an intimate account of a great British pop classicist who has ploughed a unique furrow since starting out on the Birmingham Beat scene in the early 60s, moving from the Idle Race to the multimillion-selling ELO in the 70s and then, with Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Roy Orbison and George Harrison, as a key member of the Traveling Wilburys.
On October 5th 1962 the Beatles released their first single, Love Me Do. It was a moment that changed music history and popular culture forever. It was also an extraordinary year in social and cultural history, not just for Liverpool but for the world, with the Cuban missile crisis, John Glenn in space and beer at a shilling a pint.
Stuart Maconie explores how the Beatles changed from leather and slicked back hair to suits and Beatle mops, and how their fashion set the pace for the sixties to follow. Pop artist Sir Peter Blake, Bob Harris and former Beatles drummer Pete Best join friends to reflect on how the Beatles evolved into John, Paul, George and Ringo - the most famous band in the world.
Glenn Tilbrook and Chris Difford, the men behind Squeeze, have been called everything from the new Lennon and McCartney to the godfathers of Britpop. Now, 35 years after their first record, this documentary reappraises the songwriting genius of Difford and Tilbrook and shows why Squeeze hold a special place in British pop music.
Difford and Tilbrook, two working class kids from south east London, formed Squeeze in 1974 with the dream of one day appearing on Top of the Pops. In 1978, they achieved that dream when the single Take Me I'm Yours gave the band the first of a string of top 20 hits. The period from 1978 to 1982 saw the group release a run of classic singles, timeless gems such as Cool for Cats, Up the Junction, Labelled with Love, Tempted and Pulling Mussels (From the Shell) to name but a few.
Although the line-up of Squeeze would go through various changes of personnel (another founder member Jools Holland left in 1980 and then rejoined the group in 1985) it is Difford and Tilbrook's songs that have remained the constant throughout the lifetime of the band.
The duo explain how they came to write and record many of their greatest songs. Although their relationship at times has often been tenuous at best, the mutual admiration for each other's talent has produced some of the best songs of the past 40 years.
With contributions from former band members Jools Holland and Paul Carrack, together with testament from Elvis Costello, Mark Knopfler and Aimee Mann to Difford and Tilbrook's songwriting talent and why they deserve to be placed alongside such renowned songwriting partnerships as Lennon and McCartney, Jagger and Richards and Elton John and Bernie Taupin.
Filmed at the Barbican in London, this tribute concert to the singer-songwriter Sandy Denny spans her career with Fairport Convention, Fotheringay and as a solo artist. Her most famous song, Who Knows Where the Time Goes, has been covered by everyone from Judy Collins to Nina Simone, but when she died in 1978 aged 31, Sandy left behind a rich songbook and here an eclectic cast from the folk world and beyond set out to explore and reinterpret it.
English folk queen and Sandy contemporary Maddy Prior performs the menacing John the Gun and the courtly Fotheringay. Veteran Sandy cohorts are represented by Fotheringay and Fairport guitarist Jerry Donahue and fiddler extraordinaire Dave Swarbrick. Fine young troubadours Sam Carter and Blair Dunlop - son of Fairport's Ashley Hutchings - show the tradition is in safe hands.
With a house band featuring members of Bellowhead, the line-up also includes former Scritti Politti singer Green Gartside, Joan Wasser aka Joan as Policewoman (with a heartbreaking No More Sad Refrains), Trembling Bells singer Lavinia Blackwall and American soul singer PP Arnold (with a roof-raising Take Me Away), plus Thea Gilmore, who was asked by Sandy's estate to put some of her unset lyrics to music.
The performances on stage are interspersed with interviews and behind-the-scenes footage that shed light on how the concert came together, plus rare archive of Sandy herself. The show is evidence that, even without the magic of her singing voice, the songs still shine.
Over the last five years an independent record shop has closed in the UK every three days. This film is documentary portrait of one of the very last still trading - a vinyl record shop in Teesside, a cultural haven in one of the most deprived areas in the UK. Filmmaker Jeanie Finlay, who grew up three miles from the shop, follows daily life in a place that is thriving against the odds, ensured of survival by the local community that keeps it alive. A distinctive, funny and intimate film about men, the North and the irreplaceable role music plays in our lives.
Documentary chronicling our ever-changing love affair with the British singles chart on the occasion of its sixtieth anniversary. From the first NME chart in 1952, via Pick and Top of the Pops to home-taping the Radio One chart show and beyond, we have measured out our lives to a wonderful churn of pop driven, unbeknownst to us, by a clandestine world of music biz hustle. Featuring contributions by 60 years of BBC chart custodians from David Jacobs to Reggie Yates, chart fans Grace Dent and Pete Paphides and music biz veterans Jon Webster and Rob Dickins.
Do you remember buying your first single? Where you bought it? What it was? The thrill of playing it for the first time? What it sounded like? How it maybe changed your life? Lots of us do. Lots of us still have that single somewhere in a dusty box in the attic, along with other treasured memorabilia of an adolescence lost in music and romance. The attic of our youth.
The Joy of the Single is a documentary packed with startling memories, vivid images and penetrating insights into the power of pop and rock's first and most abiding artefact - the seven-inch, vinyl 45 rpm record, a small, perfectly formed object that seems to miraculously contain the hopes, fears, sounds and experiences of our different generations - all within the spiralling groove etched on its shiny black surface, labelled and gift-wrapped by an industry also in its thrall.
In the confident hands of a star-studded cast, the film spins a tale of obsession, addiction, dedication and desire. The viewer is invited on a journey of celebration from the 1950s rock 'n' roll generation to the download kids of today, taking in classic singles from all manner of artists in each decade - from the smell of vinyl to the delights of the record label, from the importance of the record shop to the bittersweet brevity of the song itself, from stacking singles on a Dansette spindle to dropping the needle and thrilling to the intro.
Featuring contributions from Noddy Holder, Jack White, Richard Hawley, Suzi Quatro, Holly Johnson, Jimmy Webb, Pete Waterman, Norah Jones, Mike Batt, Graham Gouldman, Miranda Sawyer, Norman Cook, Trevor Horn, Neil Sedaka, Paul Morley, Rob Davies, Lavinia Greenlaw, Brian Wilson and Mike Love.
The BBC archive uncovers performances of some of the finest Bond theme tunes from its top secret vaults and pays a TV tribute to a classic British icon.
Prepare to be shaken and stirred by Tina Turner and her GoldenEye, Dame Shirley Bassey with her Diamonds, Tom Jones rampaging with Thunderball, Matt Monro romancing in Russia, the Fun Lovin' Criminals taking all the time in the world, Adele's sky-high contribution to 007 and much more from Sheena Easton, Garbage, A-ha and others, from all manner of BBC shows.
Sit back and marvel at our selection of the greatest Bond songs in history - a tuxedo and a dry vodka martini is optional.
From the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Katie Derham introduces a gala concert in celebration of Plácido Domingo, one of the greatest figures in the world of music. On stage with the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House conducted by Antonio Pappano are some of the finest singers of today performing selected gems of the operatic repertory. Opera stars Nina Stemme, Joyce DiDonato, Joseph Calleja, Rolando Villazón perform alongside voices new to Covent Garden - Stefan Pop, Julia Novikova and Sonya Yoncheva.
They definitely know "IT'S CHRISTMAAAASSSS!"
Top pop documentary, narrated by Radio One's Mark Radcliffe, about one of Britain's greatest and best-loved bands. Slade scored six number ones in the 70s, a feat rivalled only by Abba. Formed in Wolverhampton and led by Noddy Holder, Slade sold over 50 million records worldwide during a 20-year career which saw them re-invent themselves as skinhead yobs, then mirror-hatted platform-shoe-pioneering glam gods, before finally re-emerging as hard rock heroes.
Their poorly-spelled, self-written selection of terrace anthems included Cum on Feel the Noize, Coz I Luv You, Take Me Bak Ome, Mama Weer All Crazee Now and, unforgettably, Merry Xmas Everybody. Apart from Noddy and his bandmates - Dave Hill, Jim Lea and Don Powell - the cast here also includes Noel Gallagher of Oasis (who covered Cum On Feel the Noize), Status Quo, Toyah Wilcox, Suzi Quatro and Ozzy Osbourne.
Altogether now "Are you hanging up your stocking on the wall..........?".
Film-maker Rhys Thomas's full-length director's cut of his film exploring the solo career and private life of one of British rock and roll's great frontmen, Freddie Mercury.
Renowned as the bravura frontman of one of Britain's greatest rock bands, Freddie Mercury's life outside Queen is rarely celebrated or explored. In a touching portrait, this film explores Mercury's solo projects and interests, including a previously unheard collaboration with Michael Jackson and the triumphant Barcelona project with Dame Montserrat Caballe, as well as the life of a gay man who was not yet publicly out. Rare interviews reveal a shy man in search of love, and a driven artist living behind the protection of his stage persona.
