The Kids Are Alright (1979)

Director:

Jeff Stein

Writer:

Jeff Stein (writer)

Release Date:

21 December 1979 (West Germany)

Genre:

Documentary | Music

Tagline:

Seeing is believing!

Plot:

From the early black and white days to their colourful hedonistic era, you will Rock! See them at their most creative, and destructive, and experience The Who: Here!

Plot Keywords:

Performance | Interview | Archive Footage | Rock Music | Rockumentary

Cast

Roger Daltrey	...	Himself (The Who)
John Entwistle	...	Himself (The Who)
Keith Moon	...	Himself
Pete Townshend	...	Himself (The Who)
Tom Smothers	...	Himself (as Tommy Smothers)
Jimmy O'Neill	...	Himself
Russell Harty	...	Himself
Melvyn Bragg	...	Himself (as Melvin Bragg)
Ringo Starr	...	Himself
Mary Ann Zabresky	...	Herself
Michael Leckebusch	...	Himself
Barry Fantoni	...	Himself
Jeremy Paxman	...	Himself
Bob Pridden	...	Himself
Keith Richards	...	Himself (as Keith Richard)

Also Known As:

The Who Rock Concert (Philippines: English title)
The Who: The Kids Are Alright (Australia)

Runtime:

101 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White | Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Australia:M | USA:PG | West Germany:12

Filming Locations:

Ramport Studios, Battersea, London, England, UK

Company:

The Who Films

Trivia:

In addition to compiling rare clips, Jeff Stein arranged for The Who to film a concert for invited fans. The show, performed at Shepperton Film Studios in London on 25 May 1978, turned out to be Keith Moon's last concert with The Who before his death on 7 September at the age of 32.

Goofs:

Continuity: Rick Danko of The Band is listed in the end credits as appearing in the film, even though his segment was deleted from the final print.

Quotes:

Pete Townshend: When I'm on the stage - let me try to explain - when I'm on the stage, I'm not in control of myself at all. I even don't know who I am. I'm not this rational person that can sit here and talk to you. If you walked on the stage in the middle of a concert for an interview, I'd probably come close to killing you - I HAVE come close to killing people that walked on the stage. Abbie Hofmann walked on the stage at Woodstock and I nearly killed him with me guitar. A cameraman walked...

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Sex at 24 Frames Per Second (2003) (V)

Soundtrack:

Can't Explain

The Who: 1964 - 1978.

Well, I've been sat here for the last five minutes thinking what I could write about the Greatest Rock 'n Roll band in the World, or more to the point, one of the best Rock Documentaries to come out of the 1970's.

Seeing The Who live only four time's since 13th July 1985 to November 10th 2000. The original line up would have been great, but time and history say different.

This is where Jeff Stein has a wonderful idea (the film was being made when Keith was still very much alive, but as reference to today's generation) if you can no longer go to the mountain, then he has brought it to you, enter stage right, The Kids are Alright, 109 minutes of pure Rock 'n Roll documented history.

The film start's of with some fantastic black and white footage (the early gigs must have been out of this world) of one of the hardest working bands to come out of the Sixties and to continue to World domination, a cliché I know, but it works.

Interviewing them must have been a night where you earned your money, poor Russell Harty, (in case of Keith Moon break the glass).

The 1970's tracks see them develop into a real tight outfit, if not a "little older" , performing most of their classics without fault. Jeff Stein has done a great job of bringing together this visually collective musical collage to a wider audience. I say lets turn the record over and begin side "B"...

Thanks Jeff.