Rockshow (1980)

Stars:

Paul McCartney, Linda McCartney, Denny Laine

Cast

Cast overview:
Paul McCartney	...	Himself
Linda McCartney	...	Herself
Denny Laine	...	Himself
Jimmy McCulloch	...	Himself
Joe English	...	Himself
Tony Dorsey	...	Himself
Howie Casey	...	Himself
Steve Howard Jr.	...	Himself
Thaddeus Richard	...	Himself

Storyline

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Plot Keywords:

rock music | concert film | independent film

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Taglines:

In concert. On film. At last.

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Genres:

Documentary | Music

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Certificate:

G

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

26 November 1980 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Kingdome - 589 Occidental Avenue South, Seattle, Washington, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Eagle Rock Entertainment, MPL Communications

Technical Specs

Runtime:

105 min 134 min (re-release) 141 min (re-release)

Sound Mix:

Dolby Dolby Digital (re-release)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Each concert of the 1976 North American tour provided a different number of songs for this movie. New York provided four songs; Seattle provided five songs whilst L.A. provided 21 songs from two concerts, 15 from the first night and 6 from the second night.

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Connections

Featured in Wingspan (2001)

User Reviews

Paul McCartney and Wings: Rockshow

No director is credited in this film of Wings' last 1976 tour date at the Kingdome in Seattle, Washington. Paul McCartney is the main attraction in this otherwise routine concert film.

Wings also consisted of Linda McCartney, Denny Laine, Joe English, and Jimmy McCulloch (who died in 1979, the year of this film's release, of a drug overdose). Paul is in top form here, and gracious to fellow bandmates who must live in the giganti shadow cast by the Beatles.

Opening with the title tune, the band deftly mixes all their hits with other lesser known songs, keeping a brisk pace. After an explosion filled, strobe light cursed version of "Live and Let Die," the group sits down for actual acoustic versions of a few songs.

"Bluebird" is the best performed song here, a generation before some cable TV exec got the idea for "MTV Unplugged." They also get some great cheers out of "Band on the Run," "Jet," "Let Me Roll It," "Maybe I'm Amazed," and another subdued version of "Yesterday."

McCartney is strongest when performing. He is obviously enjoying the show, smiling and goofing off. When the music stops however, the filler in between songs is full of hesitant introductions of the other band members and clunky lead-ins to the next song.

McCartney gives equal time to the other members, who even get a chance to sing. These songs are okay ("Spirits of Ancient Egypt," "Medicine Jar") but not the huge hits people came to see. The ancient video copy of this from Thorn/EMI Video does not feature a song list, and some fans may be unfamiliar with a lot of the music here. The camera definitely loves Paul, all the adoring audience shots are saved for when he is the main vocalist in the set. Poor Linda McCarthy, often unduly criticized, is in a bad light here, literally. The harsh red spotlight shining on her from above makes her resemble either Ziggy Stardust or the reanimated corpse of Mae West. When the stage is bathed in blue light, the performers disappear into the black background. The left half of Paul's face is shown constantly, I have not seen this much "best side" favoritism since the last Mariah Carey video.

If it has not happened already, this film is in desperate need of a DVD tune up. The songs are there, the dated laser visuals are there, but the enjoyment factor could be cranked up a few notches if this was cleaned up a little bit. I recommend "Rockshow," despite the flaws. It makes for an entertaining hour and three quarters.

This is unrated, and contains no objectionable content.