Live It Up! (film)

Last updated

Live It Up!
Live It Up! film 1963.jpg
DVD cover design
Directed by Lance Comfort
Written byLyn Fairhurst (original story and screenplay)
StarringMusical guests: Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen
Gene Vincent, Patsy Ann Noble
Acting roles: David Hemmings, Jenny Moss, Steve Marriott, John Mitchell, Dave Clark
Cinematography Basil Emmott
Music by Joe Meek (songs)
Distributed by Rank Organisation
Release date
  • 1963 (1963)
Running time
75 minutes
CountryEngland
LanguageEnglish

Live It Up! (U.S. title: Sing and Swing) is a 1963 British musical film directed by Lance Comfort and starring David Hemmings, featuring Gene Vincent, Jenny Moss, the Outlaws, Patsy Ann Noble, the Saints, Heinz Burt and Kenny Ball and His Jazzmen. The film also featured Steve Marriott (later singer and guitarist with Small Faces and Humble Pie), [1] and Mitch Mitchell, later the drummer of The Jimi Hendrix Experience. It was filmed at Pinewood Studios.

Contents

Two years later, Hemmings and Comfort followed up with the sequel Be My Guest .

Plot summary

Dave Martin and his friends Phil, Ron and Ricky are Post Office messenger boys who have formed their own four piece rock 'n' roll beat group, the Smart Alecs. They pool their resources to make a tape recording of their original song "Live It Up". Dave is given a month by his unsympathetic father Herbert to get it published or give up his musical dreams. Sent with a special delivery to film producer Mark Watson, Dave gets into the studio where a musical is being made. He is stunned by a falling piece of equipment and is afterwards photographed with the star as compensation. Next day, when the accident and photo are publicised in a newspaper his friends upbraid him for not having mentioning their tape to the producer. He promises to approach Watson again but then discovers that it has vanished. Watson finds it at the studio and, with the group unknown, tries to interest Radio and T.V. in a mystery search. Finally with the help of Dave's girlfriend Jill and his father, Watson and columnist Nancy Spain are brought by taxi to meet the group and the Smart Alecs then make good. [2]

Cast

Musical interludes

All music and lyrics by Joe Meek, with the exception of "Accidents Will Happen" by Norrie Paramor and Bob Barrett.

The song "Live It Up" featured at the end of the film is not credited because the "group" shown playing it (Hemmings and Heinz on guitars, Pike on bass and Marriott on drums) were not the actual recording artists.

Reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Something of a festival of electric guitars and echo chamber effects, the string of musical numbers are chiefly in the current pop and beat idiom, though Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen contribute a couple of welcome items in traditional jazz style – even if one of these is a perversion of the Turkish March from Mozart's A major Piano Sonata. The slight story has one good moment in which the boys briefly consider, and quickly reject, the possibility of calling their group "The Maggots". [3]

Related Research Articles

This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1962.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Ink Spots</span> American pop vocal band (1934–1954)

The Ink Spots were an American vocal pop group who gained international fame in the 1930s and 1940s. Their unique musical style predated the rhythm and blues and rock and roll musical genres, and the subgenre doo-wop. The Ink Spots were widely accepted in both the white and black communities, largely due to the ballad style introduced to the group by lead singer Bill Kenny.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kenny Rogers</span> American country singer and songwriter (1938–2020)

Kenny Rogers was an American singer and songwriter. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2013. Rogers was particularly popular with country audiences but also charted more than 120 hit singles across various genres, topping the country and pop album charts for more than 200 individual weeks in the United States alone. He sold more than 100 million records worldwide during his lifetime, making him one of the best-selling music artists of all time. His fame and career spanned multiple genres: jazz, folk, pop, rock, and country. He remade his career and was one of the most successful cross-over artists of all time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Hemmings</span> English actor and director (1941–2003)

David Edward Leslie Hemmings was an English actor and director. He is best remembered for his roles in British films and television programmes of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, particularly his lead roles as a trendy fashion photographer in the hugely successful avant-garde mystery film Blowup (1966), directed by Michelangelo Antonioni and as a jazz pianist in Dario Argento's Deep Red (1975). Early in his career, Hemmings was a boy soprano appearing in operatic roles. In 1967, he co-founded the Hemdale Film Corporation. From the late 1970s on, he worked mainly as a character actor and occasionally as director.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Foster</span> Canadian record producer and songwriter

David Walter Foster is a Canadian record producer, film composer, and music executive. He has won 16 Grammy Awards from 47 nominations. Foster's career began as a keyboardist for the pop group Skylark in the early 1970s before focusing largely on composing and production. Often in tandem with songwriter Diane Warren, Foster has contributed to material for prominent music industry artists in various genres since then, and is credited with production on over 40 pop hits on the Billboard Hot 100. He has also chaired Verve Records from 2012 to 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trisha Noble</span> Australian singer, actress (1944–2021)

Patricia Ann Ruth Noble was an Australian singer and actress. Initially performing as Patsy Ann Noble, she was a teenage pop singer in the early 1960s, with regular appearances on the Australian music and variety television series Bandstand. In November 1961, she released her biggest hit single, "Good Looking Boy", which reached the Top 10 in Melbourne and Top 20 in Sydney. At the 1961 Logie Awards, she won the Best Female Singer of the Year award from TV Week. By 1962, she had transferred to the United Kingdom and continued her singing career by releasing singles there.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kenny Ball</span> English jazz musician (1930–2013)

Kenneth Daniel Ball was an English jazz musician, best known as the bandleader, lead trumpet player and vocalist in Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chris Barber</span> English bandleader and trombonist (1930–2021)

Donald Christopher Barber was an English jazz musician, best known as a bandleader and trombonist. He helped many musicians with their careers and had a UK top twenty trad jazz hit with "Petite Fleur" in 1959. These musicians included the blues singer Ottilie Patterson, who was at one time his wife, and Lonnie Donegan, whose appearances with Barber triggered the skiffle craze of the mid-1950s and who had his first transatlantic hit, "Rock Island Line", while with Barber's band. He provided an audience for Donegan and, later, Alexis Korner, and sponsored African-American blues musicians to visit Britain, making Barber a significant figure in launching the British rhythm and blues and "beat boom" of the 1960s.

<i>Tubridy Tonight</i> Talk show on Irish TV

Tubridy Tonight is a talk show hosted by Ryan Tubridy that aired on RTÉ One for five seasons between 2004 and 2009. The programme featured guest interviews, audience participation and live music from both a guest music group and the house band. Tubridy Tonight aired every Saturday night, except during the summer months, directly after the main evening news. The show's house musical act was Clint Velour and the Camembert Quartet.

Venetta Lee Fields is an American-born Australian singer and musical theater actress, and vocal coach.

Lambert, Hendricks & Ross were an American vocalese trio formed by jazz vocalists Dave Lambert, Jon Hendricks and Annie Ross. From 1962 to 1964, Ross was replaced by vocalist Yolande Bavan.

"I Wan'na Be Like You (The Monkey Song)" is a song from Walt Disney's 1967 film The Jungle Book. The song was written by songwriters Robert and Richard Sherman, and was performed by singer and musician Louis Prima as King Louie, with Phil Harris providing additional vocals as Baloo the bear.

<i>Its Trad, Dad!</i> 1962 British film by Richard Lester

It's Trad, Dad! is a 1962 British musical comedy film directed by Richard Lester in his feature directorial debut. It stars singer and actress Helen Shapiro alongside Craig Douglas, John Leyton, the Brook Brothers, and Chubby Checker, among other rock-and-roll singers, as well as several Dixieland jazz bands. The film was one of the first produced by Amicus Productions, a company known predominantly for horror films.

The Saints were an English instrumental band, that worked for the record producer Joe Meek.

Charles Randolph Goodrum is an American songwriter, pianist, and producer. Goodrum has written number one songs in each of the four decades since his first number one hit, 1978's "You Needed Me".

<i>Be My Guest</i> (film) 1965 British film by Lance Comfort

Be My Guest is a 1965 British musical film. It was filmed at Pinewood Studios, England. The film is notable for the appearances of Steve Marriott and Jerry Lee Lewis. It was released as a B movie to support the Morecambe and Wise feature film The Intelligence Men.

The Butterfly Children is the title of a series of children's books created by husband and wife team Pat and Angela Mills. The books were published during the 1990s by Peter Haddock Ltd. In 1990 a musical based on the characters was staged featuring songs written by Martin Lee, Paul Curtis and David Kane. A corresponding album was recorded in 1992 by pop group Brotherhood of Man.

Pop Go The Sixties! was a one-off, 75-minute TV special originally broadcast in colour on 31 December 1969, to celebrate the major pop hits of the 1960s.. The show was a co-production between the United Kingdom's BBC and West Germany's ZDF broadcasters. The latter showed it on 18 January 1970 under the title "Schlag auf Schlagers". Although a co-production, it was primarily produced by the BBC and recorded at the BBC's Television Centre in London, in late 1969, featuring largely only British pop acts and hits.

<i>Paradise for Two</i> (1937 film) 1937 British film

Paradise for Two is a 1937 British musical comedy film directed by Thornton Freeland and starring Jack Hulbert, Patricia Ellis and Arthur Riscoe. It was released in the U.S. with the alternative title Gaiety Girls. A chorus girl is mistaken for a millionaire's girlfriend.

"Hong Kong Blues" is a popular song composed by American songwriter Hoagy Carmichael in 1939. It was featured in the 1944 film To Have and Have Not, an adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's novel by the same name.

References

  1. "BFI | Southbank | the Flipside: Live It up". Archived from the original on 22 October 2007. Retrieved 13 October 2007. BFI: Steve Marriott in Live It Up!
  2. "Live It Up! (1963) - BFI". bfi.org.uk. British film Institute. 9 December 2021. Archived from the original on 23 June 2016. Retrieved 9 December 2021.
  3. "Live It Up!". The Monthly Film Bulletin . 31 (360): 10. 1 January 1964 via ProQuest.