Prog Band Bio that Would Make a Good Film

After having recently seen Oliver Stone’s “The Doors,” I was wondering which prog rock band’s story would make a good movie.

 

I was thinking maybe Rush:

 

Plot Synopsis: Film opens with Rush playing rural lumberjack bars in Canada. Geddy is singing his heart out on a cover of “The Immigrant Song” but drunk frothing lumberjacks are mocking his high voice and throwing beer on him and the others. One lumberjack even steals away Geddy’s tipsy girlfriend and has his way with her.

 

By film’s end though, Rush has released “Caress of Steel” and is playing larger venues. In farewell hometown gig, Geddy wins over his lumberjack enemies, who are now complete Rush fans. In a final victory, Geddy steals away the lead lumberjack’s buxom girlfriend and whisks her away to a sold-out London gig where they’re opening for Foghat.

 

Or maybe Gong:

 

Plot Synopsis: Film opens with crash pad squalor of Gong rural home. Hillage is becoming increasingly bitter as his school buddies are selling out and making it big in the French rock band circuit. Pyle and Moerlen et al. can no longer convice him that troubador lifestyle devoted to making music is worth it. In film’s moment of crisis he finally convinces them to sell some of their hits to Airbus for several hundred dollars.

 

However, just before signing contract, the band runs across two German women backpacking across Europe who, upon hearing what the band is about to do, burst into tears and confess that it is Gong and their committment to community and holistic living that has saved them from a life of depravity making money on webcams. Profoundly moved, Hillage and the others have a change of heart and return to the rural crash pad (but in final plot twist, they manipulate the Germans into cleaning it for free.)

 

Does anyone have any other ideas? Don’t forget to include plot synopsis! 

Edited by bluetailfly - January 25 2007 at 00:29

king volta wrote: as cliche as it is, floyd would always make a good film... no plot synopsis needed really, the early days up through syd's tragic decline and through the making of their classics and the tragedy of waters taking control--how bleak the band became, his leaving--the court case over the band's title, and gilmour coming back--a mishap at first with 'momentary lapse', and finally a decent outing with 'division bell'. high hopes at the credits or who knows what as it shows clips of the band recieving award after award and etc. floyd is always a good story...

Shine and Darken: a film about Syd Barret, experiment, art, glory, hype, behaviours and characters, excess and creation, music, noise and ... silence.

Prog-jester wrote:     Rush? I won't watch it! Gong? You should be expecting two or three persons in each cinema theatre then I propose GENESIS. School boys, first steps, masks and disguise, success, The Lamb, Peter's departure, Steve's departure, going pop, stadiums, fading...and reuniting for 2007 tour (kinda happy-end)! If you're looking for someone to play Peter Gabriel's role,call me right now!!!

Edited by bluetailfly - January 25 2007 at 14:08

bluetailfly, excellent!!! I think we should invite Collins for "cameo" role,as he has totally ran out of money (that's why they've started the tour... )

VdGG. Band splits before recording first album "Aerosol Grey Machine" (which was supposed to be a Hammill solo album at first), but record company insists album should appear under band name. Then the band winds up with the line up Hammill/Banton/Jackson/Evans/ Potter for the next 1 and a half albums. Potter starts to freak out because he feels evil entites invoked by the band's music and leaves the band in the midst of producing " to He". Then "Pawn Hearts" gets out and holds the number one spot in the charts in France and Italy for several weeks. The band happily tour Italy, where they are greeted enthusiastically, and have their equipment stolen there. Totally broke, the band splits up. Reunion in 75 with 3 albums in very short time. Band breaks up again because Banton and Jackson can't stand the tour stress. Potter returns, and Graham Smith appears, and a new line up is born, but without financial success. After being one of only 4 bands that play at Scheesel (where the promoter had announced more than 40 acts) the band are broke again and play a phenomenal gig at the Marquee, with Potter in the band again and cellist/keyboarder Charlwes Dickie although Jackson has problems with his equipment all throughout the concert and can't be heard before the 4th song.
Silence for 27 years. The members of VdGG occasionally appear on each other's solo albums, but that's it. Triumphant return in the classic line-up with a new album and an incredible gig at the Royal Festival Hall in London. Announce a sequel at the end of the movie and close it with the song "Abandon Ship!" being played during the credits... ("Well the heptagenarians got behind the desks").

If they do the Floyd movie (which I think they are doing), they should hire Keanu Reeves as Roger Waters!

"Yeah dudes, I got here like...a concept album...about a wall and stuff, it´s good man"



Edited by el böthy - January 25 2007 at 15:38

Spock's Beard could be a tragic and bizarre choice, with Neal Morse quitting to become a religious fanatic just as the band was about to explode into the mainstream...

bhikkhu wrote:     The King Crimson story would also make for an interesting movie.

Yes, the King Crimson saga would make a good film treatment, though it would need to be condensed a bit:

 

Premise: Fripp as sort of a Hercules figure, who has to suffer Herculean humiliation and disappointment before returning to his mythic status.

 

Plot Synopsis: Film opens in soot-covered village in rural England; scene is darkened bedroom with Fripp’s parents having typical British sex beneath thin bedsheet. Suddenly, a golden semi-transparent image of a god-like figure superimposes his body over Fripp’s father’s and begins to heighten the intensity of the passion until Fripp’s mother howls with joyful fulfillment worthy of a Mother Gong follower. Thus, the semi-immaculate conception of Robert Fripp.

 

Cut to Fillmore in 1969: Lake-era Crimson is ending their evening with a blistering version of “Twentieth Century Schizoid Man.” Crowd is going absolutely wild. When band leaves stage, camera slowly pans audience—nearly all young white males—who are completely wild with rapture.

 

Cut to post-show dinner party, in which Lake, Giles, et al. are drinking, talking loudly in scouse accents, making bawdy jokes about French nuns and tropical fruit. In walks Fripp, who scans the scene disapprovingly but forces a tight grin so as not to draw notice.

 

Lake looks up, and with half-eaten turkey leg in hand, begins to sarcastically put down Fripp, “Well, if it isn’t the world-famous guitar-playing toadstool.” Fripp smiles and continues to put up with these petty insults from all members, knowing that without him, they would be nothing. It is precisely at this moment, that Lake drops his bombshell:

 

“Well, Frippy-boy, I’m just gonna cut to the chase. I don’t see a personage of my talent and charisma hanging out too long with a guy like you, no offence.” The others then laugh loudly and arrogantly at Fripp, who in an effort not to cry, turns and walks out.

 

Cut to a queue of rag-tag musicians lined up on the street under a sign that says “Bass Player Needed for Major Band. Auditions Today.” Across the street is also large queue of individuals under a sign that says “Emerson, Lake & Palmer: Tonight – Event Sold Out.”

 

More trials follow, but films ends in this manner:

 

Cut to French villa, where Fripp has wide-grin on his face. A laudatory review of “Red” is shown sitting on his desk. ELP's “Love Beach” is playing on the hi-fi system in the background . Staring directly into the camera, a demeneted look on his face, Fripp slowly begins to laugh, first a cackling snicker, then a couple guffaws, but finally a howling boisterous out of control laughter that scares the pigeons outside and causes a small stir in the town square. As “Love Beach” continues to play and Fripp laughs the laugh of the gods, the credits begin to roll.

Edited by bluetailfly - January 26 2007 at 15:29

el böthy wrote: ^^^^ Whats with the inferiority, the jokes, the throwing beer at the stage and the mockery...??? Did you have a problematic childhood or something? Why would the rest of the band mock Fripp...everybody knows he is the lord of the underworld!