I met David Hemmings a few years before he passed on. I mentioned what a big impact this movie had on the culture at the time. He was very humble about it. A very cool and decent gentleman.He was still full of fire and passion for acting.
I saw this movie when it came out. I was 16 and years later when I thought about smashing the guitar I thought it was the Who before they were known in North America. This is the first time I’ve seen it since 1966 and holy shit it was Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck. Amazing.
When I saw this at the movies, this was the first time I'd ever heard "Train Kept a Rollin," and it's been one of my favorite songs ever since. The Yardbirds were not the first to play this song, but they made it sound boss; and the movie scene here is terrific.
Always a great scene to watch. Jimmy Page on one side of the stage. Jeff Beck on the other side of the stage, wrecking his his guitar that wasn't functioning well. RIP Keith Relf.
A great film and one of my favorites. It said a lot about my generation. I think there was more rebel in us during the 60's. We were not sure of where we were headed but got there somehow.
i love the end that it's just a broken guitar piece.. how it's cast off, but, the kids were killing each other for it earlier if you were part of the scene. layers so many layers..
Wish I was living in London during the "swinging years". Just for 1 week or 1 month. Going back to time.I think there was a huge sense of freedom and liberty gone today. I wish I was living there.
Love it when Beck smashes his hollow body in frustration, then plugs in another guitar and keeps playing- classic. If only the passer-bys on the street knew where that neck came from they would think twice about casting it off.
The interior scenes were shot inside the Windsor Ricky Tick. The exterior was made up for Oxford Street. (A bit of Antonioni film license) I still have my 1966/67 membership card. Some of the bands we used to see were The Graham Bond Organisation, Zoot Money's Big Roll Band, John Mayall's Bluesbreakers etc. It was the best of times and it was....
I'm showing my age but I've been in this exact scene (all except for the guitar smashing part). This is exactly what these "concerts" were like at that time (1966). Nobody dancing, except for the very daring. Everything way up in the head. Entirely cerebral. It took a few years and a lot of dope to reconnect people with their bodies.
Makes me wonder if they asked The Who for this sceen and they wanted too much money? Great footage of the Beck&Page era! The Yardbirds are still great!!!
According to Steve Howe, the band he was in at the time, Tomorrow, was supposed to be in this film - I've forgotten why it turned out to be the Yardbirds, but holy crap Page and Beck???
@johnnyjblair the movie is also inspired by the short story "Las babas del diablo" (the Devil's drool) written by argentinian Julio Cortazar. One of the most important writers of southamerica
Man, how young they were back then, in Jimmy Page's pre-Led Zeppelin days. Page, now 70, is about to receive an honorary degree and deliver the commencement address at Berklee College of Music in Boston. And it was in Boston that Led Zeppelin gave one of their first performances in January 1969, at the psychedelic rock club The Boston Tea Party (now condominiums) in the Back Bay. That gig lasted three hours! (For its press release, check out this link: www.ledzeppelin.com/lzprogrammes/69_boston.html) Incidentally, it was Jeff Beck that smashed up that Hofner guitar in "Blow-Up." Antonioni instructed him to do so in imitation of Pete Townsend of The Who, whom Antonioni really wanted to appear in the film but they declined. He couldn't get the In-Crowd or the Velvet Underground either, so that left The Yardbirds. But they were fabulous, hip, mod! Thanks for posting this!
This is one of my favorite rock 'n roll performances--truly thrilling, but the best thing about this scene, for me, is that the spectators are all staring frozen like narcotized zomboid mannequins, except for the hot devotchka in the silver jacket and cat-in-the-hat pants. The scene feels a little hallucinatory, surreal.
Famed photographer David Bailey was Antonioni's the role-model for Blow Up, the story of a photographer who can't figure out if he's involved in a murder. Antonioni toys with the photographer's decreasing grip on morality, reality and sanity against the scrim of "Swinging London." The nightclub episode with The Yardbirds may be Antonioni's indictment of Youth Culture. The scene was first optioned to The Velvet Underground and The Who. A young Michael Palin can be seen in the audience.
Yes me too. I had and used one for years, an AC30 piggyback amp and cab bought in Liverpool for a pittance but tragically I sold it due to home moving etc. Another regret, swoon, Stu X
it's pretty profound in its own little way. in about 4 minutes (less than really) he explained away the whole uselessness of image and status to the hipster crowd (which still exist today in full swing). also its open to multiple interpretations. it's purely poetic compared to literature explaining the same concept.
I heard the Velvet Underground was Antonioni's first choice but couldn't get visas due to a drug conviction. Just as well. The Yardbirds are more suitable for the movie's mod London setting. I love the way you hear the feedback out on the street and the man follows the sound of the feedback to the club.
always loved this movie, i cant figure why the main character wanted to take that broken guitar part...it seems an analogy for his life, he reached for things that were not important, he screwed up on the important things like when he allowed Redgrave to steal that roll of film from him...he is angry at himself, for being purposeless, as the kids in the crowd were.
sadly, too many of us musicians have experienced this at some point. even less fun than it looks. these days it's phone zombies, back then it was apparently just zombies.
OK, from what I understand you say the crowd only acts wild when the director is on his chair. I'm inviting you to see the early Deep Purple concert footages.
Oh well. It was a a piece of Jeff Beck's guitar neck. I just don't understand why the main character threw the guitar neck out on the sidewalk after he expended so much energy getting it. i actually recall watching this movie years ago, and there never seemed to be any resolution for getting the murder resolved, that the main character caught on film..Maybe I was passing out at the time. Well, maybe I'll watch the whole movie again (snore) to try to make some sense of it.lol :)
@GlassOrchidAftermath Thanks, can't seem to find much info on Ricky Tick club on Oxford street, loads on clubs in Windsor and Hounslow though. I wonder what became of the Ricky Tick ? Was it actually in the 100 club which is still there ?
creepy how no one is moving except 2 dancers until the neck hits the audience and they literally go crazy. too funny. I was also thinking that as Beck smashed his guitar Page realized he could handle all guitar duties in the band. the rest is history.
recently posted in britmoviedotcodotuk: "According to the response from my enquiry to Michael Palin regarding Blowup, he did not take part at all and was surprised to hear that he did! Where did this rumour start? Regards, Ian" another urban legend debunked
The club, the Ricky Tick, was a famous blues club, recreated for the movie. I think it's incredibly cool looking, especially compared to the grimy venues in Manhattan at the time like the Cafe au Go Go or the Cafe Wha.
@fanzappa I've heard Antonioni originally wanted the Who but fell out with Kit Lambert. Jeff Beck refused to break his Les Paul, so Antonioni got a few cheap guitars from Hofner and had Beck destroy them with the Hofner rep watching! So the story goes...
Isn't it ironic that, in the concert hall, pieces of Beck's smashed guitar are a prized possession. Outside the concert hall, people could care less. In fact, after Hemmimgs tosses it away, someone else picks it up and discards it. I think that's what the movie is about, Context. Point of view. But what do I know? Anyway, great movie.
If you would like to hear and see the original distortion guitarist on this song cut in 1956 and covered by these guys..search Paul Burlison..Go to Rock and Roll Trio Part Three..second song recorded in 2000..then go to the 1956 version..search Johnny Burnette-Train Kept Rollin
I met David Hemmings a few years before he passed on. I mentioned what a big impact
this movie had on the culture at the time. He was very humble about it. A very cool and
decent gentleman.He was still full of fire and passion for acting.
I saw this movie when it came out. I was 16 and years later when I thought about smashing the guitar I thought it was the Who before they were known in North America. This is the first time I’ve seen it since 1966 and holy shit it was Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck. Amazing.
The director apparently wanted to have The Who for this scene, but they declined. So the Yardbirds got the gig and imitated The Who.
When I saw this at the movies, this was the first time I'd ever heard "Train Kept a Rollin," and it's been one of my favorite songs ever since. The Yardbirds were not the first to play this song, but they made it sound boss; and the movie scene here is terrific.
This is my all-time favorite film. I've seen it at least 50 or 60 times, and every time I watch it, I see something new. This film is a classic!
Wow! My two loves, Jimmy Page and Michael Palin, in the same room! And one of my favorite songs playing! Awesome!!!
What? Where is Palin in this????
Didn't see Palin either😮
One of my all time favorite, surrealistic movie scenes!
+EdiSchwager Yeah. What I love about sixties movies is that not everything must make sense.
Always a great scene to watch. Jimmy Page on one side of the stage. Jeff Beck on the other side of the stage, wrecking his his guitar that wasn't functioning well. RIP Keith Relf.
Its a testament to how fashion repeats itself that I thought this was filmed recently until 2 minutes in!!!!
My favorite music "video"! Reminds me of every garage band night I had the pleasure to be part of!
I was shown this art skool for film stuidies. My mind was blown up...
Great way to capture the culture of the time.
A great film and one of my favorites. It said a lot about my generation. I think there was more rebel in us during the 60's. We were not sure of where we were headed but got there somehow.
i love the end that it's just a broken guitar piece.. how it's cast off, but, the kids were killing each other for it earlier if you were part of the scene. layers so many layers..
Wish I was living in London during the "swinging years". Just for 1 week or 1 month. Going back to time.I think there was a huge sense of freedom and liberty gone today. I wish I was living there.
This scene gave me a lot of thoughts since when I was 10. Thank you for reminding me.
Never forgotten still nice after so many years. Sigh. Thanks Poseida.
Unbelievably stylish film!
That's Janet Street Porter dancing - she's so coooool!!
Love it when Beck smashes his hollow body in frustration, then plugs in another guitar and keeps playing- classic. If only the passer-bys on the street knew where that neck came from they would think twice about casting it off.
The first riff my brother taught me on guitar. Yardbirds. This video is CoOl!
Nifty song, this original sounds tight. Nice to see Jimmy Page laughing as Jeff Beck starts pounding on the amp. Gotta love those 60s chicks too!
- Świetny film. Mój ulubiony. Kapitalna muzyka. Kapitalni wykonawcy. Mogę to oglądać w nieskończoność...
The interior scenes were shot inside the Windsor Ricky Tick. The exterior was made up for Oxford Street. (A bit of Antonioni film license) I still have my 1966/67 membership card. Some of the bands we used to see were The Graham Bond Organisation, Zoot Money's Big Roll Band, John Mayall's Bluesbreakers etc. It was the best of times and it was....
this is the best band period. you cannot get a band today to match the talent. too bad relf is gone
and now JB is gone also... RIP Guitar God
Reminds me of my first gig...people just stood there staring while we played "Jumping Jack Flash" ha ha ha...
another masterpiece(Beck and Page)
Jimmy Page 😍
And Jeff Beck 😀
I'm showing my age but I've been in this exact scene (all except for the guitar smashing part). This is exactly what these "concerts" were like at that time (1966). Nobody dancing, except for the very daring. Everything way up in the head. Entirely cerebral. It took a few years and a lot of dope to reconnect people with their bodies.
I can't believe I searched and found this! Thank you so much for editng beautifully and posting!
love this film and songs!
Makes me wonder if they asked The Who for this sceen and they wanted too much money? Great footage of the Beck&Page era! The Yardbirds are still great!!!
According to Steve Howe, the band he was in at the time, Tomorrow, was supposed to be in this film - I've forgotten why it turned out to be the Yardbirds, but holy crap Page and Beck???
@johnnyjblair the movie is also inspired by the short story "Las babas del diablo" (the Devil's drool) written by argentinian Julio Cortazar. One of the most important writers of southamerica
Love this movie
WOW!!!
Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck in the same band???
That is some serious two-guitar attack!
Eric Clapton had also been in band.
Man, how young they were back then, in Jimmy Page's pre-Led Zeppelin days. Page, now 70, is about to receive an honorary degree and deliver the commencement address at Berklee College of Music in Boston. And it was in Boston that Led Zeppelin gave one of their first performances in January 1969, at the psychedelic rock club The Boston Tea Party (now condominiums) in the Back Bay. That gig lasted three hours! (For its press release, check out this link: www.ledzeppelin.com/lzprogrammes/69_boston.html) Incidentally, it was Jeff Beck that smashed up that Hofner guitar in "Blow-Up." Antonioni instructed him to do so in imitation of Pete Townsend of The Who, whom Antonioni really wanted to appear in the film but they declined. He couldn't get the In-Crowd or the Velvet Underground either, so that left The Yardbirds. But they were fabulous, hip, mod! Thanks for posting this!
This is one of my favorite rock 'n roll performances--truly thrilling, but the best thing about this scene, for me, is that the spectators are all staring frozen like narcotized zomboid mannequins, except for the hot devotchka in the silver jacket and cat-in-the-hat pants. The scene feels a little hallucinatory, surreal.
That's the critique of Antonioni- like the final ghost tennis scene. He was not impressed with "Swinging London."
@@badeneunson561It's more than just about London
Famed photographer David Bailey was Antonioni's the role-model for Blow Up, the story of a photographer who can't figure out if he's involved in a murder. Antonioni toys with the photographer's decreasing grip on morality, reality and sanity against the scrim of "Swinging London." The nightclub episode with The Yardbirds may be Antonioni's indictment of Youth Culture. The scene was first optioned to The Velvet Underground and The Who. A young Michael Palin can be seen in the audience.
I love those old VOX amps. Those are the kinds of amps James Brown used.
Yes me too. I had and used one for years, an AC30 piggyback amp and cab bought in Liverpool for a pittance but tragically I sold it due to home moving etc. Another regret, swoon, Stu X
it's pretty profound in its own little way. in about 4 minutes (less than really) he explained away the whole uselessness of image and status to the hipster crowd (which still exist today in full swing). also its open to multiple interpretations. it's purely poetic compared to literature explaining the same concept.
Jimmy Paige...yes.
amazing movie.. so avant garde!
eléggééééé szeretjük!
Hemmings was a gifted singer (classical music) as a child and appears on some recordings I believe.
Coolest thing ever!!
I heard the Velvet Underground was Antonioni's first choice but couldn't get visas due to a drug conviction. Just as well. The Yardbirds are more suitable for the movie's mod London setting. I love the way you hear the feedback out on the street and the man follows the sound of the feedback to the club.
Existential angst over a broken guitar 🎸😂🤔
🤣🤣🤣🤣💯🎸🔝
@@kissalara 🤣😂🤩🤩🎸
Awesome
Don't forget the young pre-"Monty Python" Michael Palin
as one of the audience onlookers as the camera passes
over the crowd scene.
I want that Zoot Money T shirt - never noticed that before!
UK people check Janet Street Porter dancing from 1:10 - 1:20 !
luv jimmy's solo
momento cumbre del cine y la música
God, look how young Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck were!
That's pretty good!
The pieces of that guitar would be worth tens of thousands of dollars today at Southeby's or Pawn Stars or eBay.
i LOVE how no one is dancing. they are just standing around looking bored. except for 2 people. that girl in the striped pants is so funny
I wouldn’t say she’s funny. Stupid pants but nice body. I wonder how she held up over the years.
sooo good
always loved this movie, i cant figure why the main character wanted to take that broken guitar part...it seems an analogy for his life, he reached for things that were not important, he screwed up on the important things like when he allowed Redgrave to steal that roll of film from him...he is angry at himself, for being purposeless, as the kids in the crowd were.
hes just in a bad mood and doesnt want anyone else to have fun. so he gets it and then just throws it away.
I think it'd be harder to play with everyone just staring at you, as opposed to grooving with the music.
They were zonked on microdot.
sadly, too many of us musicians have experienced this at some point. even less fun than it looks. these days it's phone zombies, back then it was apparently just zombies.
It's a film and the audience's passivity has meaning. It's not a real concert
Funny I was thinking the same thing about the crowd, just listless and yet the Yardbirds are rocking.
Masses fighting in the club for a piece of guitar that become useless ans insignificant outside of the club's audience.
Un capolavoro.
@Lucher3 You're too kind, taking time out of your busy day, to point out the obvious. Thank you.
lovelovelove!
Girls save the world
Nurses save the world
happy birthday jeff and yeah they blew it
That's right! I love Cortazar!
GRAN PELICULA DE ANTONIONI
OK, from what I understand you say the crowd only acts wild when the director is on his chair. I'm inviting you to see the early Deep Purple concert footages.
Jimmy!!! 😍
@PoseidaDelAlba I would say one of the most important writers of the world
Most of the club patrons look as if they've been treated with animal tranquilizer
bit early for ketamine
Valium
That music is Honey Hush of Big Joe Turner and recorded by Johnny Burnette Trio in 1956.
Yes and he was also a painter from an early age.
Swinging London!
That which is important to some is disposeable to others.
A piece of a guitar, this is that they all wanted, not the music.
Oh well. It was a a piece of Jeff Beck's guitar neck. I just don't understand why the main character threw the guitar neck out on the sidewalk after he expended so much energy getting it. i actually recall watching this movie years ago, and there never seemed to be any resolution for getting the murder resolved, that the main character caught on film..Maybe I was passing out at the time. Well, maybe I'll watch the whole movie again (snore) to try to make some sense of it.lol :)
Set it on fire, Jeff!
my film and my music !!!!!!!
classic!
@GlassOrchidAftermath
Thanks, can't seem to find much info on Ricky Tick club on Oxford street, loads on clubs in Windsor and Hounslow though. I wonder what became of the Ricky Tick ? Was it actually in the 100 club which is still there ?
@ChrisYonts
I know. You really have to watch the audio commentary on the DVD to keep up with it.
besides being the most awesome guitar player ever, Jeff Beck was also the cutest. I'd totally do him.
Tremendo s los yardbirfs
creepy how no one is moving except 2 dancers until the neck hits the audience and they literally go crazy. too funny. I was also thinking that as Beck smashed his guitar Page realized he could handle all guitar duties in the band. the rest is history.
AND THAT LADIES AND GENTLEMEN IS THE FIRST EVER GUITAR SACRIFICE
Footnote: A young Janet Street-Porter is also in the audience.
@mrbillhicks It's the Ricky Tick. The sign is shown at 3:32.
@ The columnist? That one I don't know. The trivia runs deep.
That is the guitar Jimmy used to record the Stairway solo.
recently posted in britmoviedotcodotuk:
"According to the response from my enquiry to Michael Palin regarding Blowup, he did not take part at all and was surprised to hear that he did! Where did this rumour start?
Regards, Ian"
another urban legend debunked
The club, the Ricky Tick, was a famous blues club, recreated for the movie. I think it's incredibly cool looking, especially compared to the grimy venues in Manhattan at the time like the Cafe au Go Go or the Cafe Wha.
briliant Jimmey Page
Train kept a rollin
@fanzappa I've heard Antonioni originally wanted the Who but fell out with Kit Lambert. Jeff Beck refused to break his Les Paul, so Antonioni got a few cheap guitars from Hofner and had Beck destroy them with the Hofner rep watching! So the story goes...
Isn't it ironic that, in the concert hall, pieces of Beck's smashed guitar are a prized possession. Outside the concert hall, people could care less. In fact, after Hemmimgs tosses it away, someone else picks it up and discards it. I think that's what the movie is about, Context. Point of view. But what do I know? Anyway, great movie.
If you would like to hear and see the original distortion guitarist on this song cut in 1956 and covered by these guys..search Paul Burlison..Go to Rock and Roll Trio Part Three..second song recorded in 2000..then go to the 1956 version..search Johnny Burnette-Train Kept Rollin
RIP Jeff Beck
Wiki says that the woman dancing and wearing a silver coat and striped trousers is Janet Street-Porter!
I was going to say the singerforr Aerosmith...he used to be roadie for the Yardbirds...and I'm only half-kidding...chick's a real gunk neck.
@ one1950smovie ... it's a Hofner Senator e1 thin line, I have one identical.... not in bits though!!!
JIMMY PAGE TE AMO!