The Passing Show - The Life & Music of Ronnie Lane

[Analogman]

Rupert Williams and James Mackie have made this film as a labour of love over about five years. Although we were working in one of the technical departments of the BBC, we were not recognized as program makers, so we had to work as independents in our own time. Eventually we managed to convince the BBC Music Department that we were doing something very special, and we completed the film as a co-production with the BBC.

 

The film is an affectionate portrait of Ronnie, which spares no blushes about his faults. The core of the film is our interviews with Ronnie's friends, family and colleagues, plus Ronnie's own voice, edited from radio and TV interviews. Every single contributor knew Ronnie well. We've also taken great care to keep the interviews relaxed and natural, filming outdoors in rural locations as much as we can. We have filmed by the River Thames, in the Welsh borders, in Ireland, Texas and Colorado.

 

We have found plenty of never-seen-before archive footage of the Small Faces, the Faces and Slim Chance, including performances from Swedish and German TV, News footage from the 1970's, and a moving recording of one of Ronnie's last performances when he was very ill. We have also had access to wonderful collections of still photographs, particularly those taken by Russ Schlagbaum on the Passing Show tour.

 

 

The short BBC version of the film was shown on BBC4 (cable and satellite only) in the UK on January 6, 2006 and was one of the most watched documentaries in the history of BBC4.

 

The longer Theatrical Movie Version had its World Premiere at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas on March 16, 2006 at the Austin Convention Center, as well as several other film festivals in 2006, as well as other theatrical runs and will be released on Worldwide DVD in late October 2006.

 

Contributors:

 

The film includes interviews with:

 

Ronnie himself - US TV interview 1987 and Radio interviews 1973 and 1986

 

Stan Lane (his elder brother)

 

Ron Chimes (school friend and member of Ronnie's first band the Outcasts)

 

Ian McLagan (Small Faces and Faces Keyboards, always remained close and played with Ronnie throughout his career)

 

Kenney Jones (Small Faces and Faces Drummer, knew Ronnie since childhood in the East End)

 

Sue Tacker (Lane) (Ronnie's first wife)

 

Glyn Johns (Legendary producer - produced Small Faces , Faces, Stones, Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Clash etc, etc)

 

Billy Nicholls (long time friend, label mate and collaborator at Immediate records and other projects)

 

Bruce Rowland (Drummer for Slim Chance and the Passing Show. Co-produced albums with Ronnie, formerly of the Grease Band, played at Woodstock)

 

Henry McCullough (Guitarist Slim Chance, formerly of the Grease Band, Wings)

 

Pete Townshend (Long term close friend and fellow devotee of Meher Baba, co-wrote Rough Mix album with Ronnie)

 

Eric Clapton (Guitarist: regular visitor to the farm, played on Rough Mix album, toured with Ronnie, played ARMS concert, along with Townshend godfather to Ronnie's sons)

 

Kevin Westlake (Slim Chance guitarist, co-wrote How Come and other songs, sadly recently deceased)

 

Billy Livesey (Slim Chance Keyboard player)

 

Captain Peter Hill (Legendary lion-tamer, tent-master, mechanical genius and scourge of traffic cops)

 

Lana Lane(Ronnie's step-daughter, lived at the farm in Wales)

 

Graham Lyle (Songwriter for Tina Turner, Michael Jackson etc. Played with Ronnie in Slim Chance)

 

Charlie Hart (Slim Chance violin, accordion, piano etc)

 

Steve Simpson (Slim Chance guitars, violin, mandolin, etc)

 

Russell Schlagbaum (Friend, and road manager of The Faces, The Passing Show, Rolling Stones)

 

Mark Bowman - (Ronnie's close friend during his Texas years)

 

Bucks Burnett - (Ronnie's butler/close friend during his Texas years)

 

Larry Hysinger - (Ronnie's Attorney in Houston)

 

Susan Gallegos - (Ronnie's American widow)

 

Jody Denberg-(Austin DJ , close friend and Best Man at Ronnie's 3RD wedding)

 

JoRae and Theresa DiMenno (Ronnie's caretakers and close friends during his Austin years)

 

Joe Ely (Texan musician and friend. Musically influenced by Ronnie to this day)

 

JD Foster (Austin Musician)

 

Rich Brotherton (Austin Musician)

 

 

This brilliant musical documentary tells the story of Ronnie Lane from his heyday with first the Small Faces and then the Faces, through the sixties and seventies, his experiments with a rural life and the touring musical circus that he dubbed The Passing Show. Finally it charts his latter days once he developed Multiple Sclerosis. Featuring numerous musical clips and interviews with family, friends and colleagues including Eric Clapton, Pete Townshend, Ian McLagan, Kenney Jones, Glyn Johns, Henry McCullough, Joe Ely and many more.

Includes clips from: April Fool, Debris, Whatcha Gonna Do About It?, Tin Soldier, Lazy Sunday, Itchycoo Park, Stay With Me, How Come, The Poacher, Tell Everyone, Annie, Kushty Rye, Ooh La La and many more...

 

BONUS FEATURES

* Acoustic performance of "Kushty Rye" by Henry McCullough.

* Acoustic performances of "Ooh La La" and "Annie" by Jody Denberg & Rich Brotherton.

* Acoustic performance of "The Poacher" by Steve Simpson & Charlie Hart.

* Additional interviews.

[Synthesizer Patel]

They actually showed it on BBC2 as well recently. It's a very good documentary, didn't know it was only the short version of it though. When they put on BBC4, they also showed an hour show of his live performances, which was even better than the documentary. It's fairly clear from all this where the spirit of The Faces lay, and it certainly wasn't with Rod Stewart.

[lizish]

Thanks A-man

[Analogman]

Thanks to Mr. Muller - I saw this a few months ago - or a version of it. I will be buying this soon.

[tongue-tied lightning]

thanks, love Ronnie

this should be something to see

[Analogman]

I should say that parts of this are not easy to watch.

[Synthesizer Patel]

I should say that parts of this are not easy to watch.

 

How do you mean? If you mean it brings a tear to your eye in places, I'd definately agree, but apart from the MS I doubt he'd have wanted to live his life any other way even if he had to live from hand to mouth most of the time. I'd like to think that he'd got more money in his life time, he'd have just spent it on crazy ventures like The Passing Show anyway. One of the most interesting things was that he only had 1 lot of tapes for his mobile studio, so he just used to wipe them after he'd mastered each album - yes, it's a shit for anyone wanting to think about remastering his stuff, but it's part of what makes him and his music so great.

[Analogman]

Yes - I ment watching him waste away.

[Analogman]

Ok - finally got this yesterday. It has more interview stuff in it than the version shown on the BBC. At the very end, it has an interview with his last wife - and I'm not sure how to take what she says. The bonus stuff is just some old Slim Chance bandmembers and people he played with in Austin playing some of his songs. I could have done with out that. Also - I noticed that there is not one Rod Stewart interview in the entire film. I wonder if he refused or they just did not interview him.

[tongue-tied lightning]

so, is it worth getting ?

[Analogman]

I think so - I only paid 10 bucks for it. I was hoping to see more peformance footage in it though.

[skyflynn]

Thanks for the heads up on this, A-man. I swear if it wasn't for you and a few other folks on this board, I'd just be getting the news now about the Beatles breakup..., or the closing of CBGB's.

[mpolak21]

This looks very interesting I'll have to check it out, thanks for the info A-Man

 

--Mike