Oddball Films Media
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Oct 19, 2014
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Over the course of several years in the mid-to-late 1960s, rock music changed more quickly and unpredictably than it did in any other time in history. With so many artists competing for attention, it was inevitable that many innovators got lost in the shuffle or at least did not get the recognition they deserved, especially those who were boldy and experimentally fusing rock, blues, psychedelia, classical music, comedy, the theater, and more. Lost British Invaders, psychedelic pioneers, rock funnymen, blue-eyed soulsters, overlooked folk-rockers, behind-the-scenes producers -- all find a home as part of Urban Spacemen & Wayfaring Strangers, for which Unterberger drew on first-hand interview material with the artists and their associates. He'll talk about both the artists and the footage he presents between the clips.
The event will include footage of "the god of hell-fire," Arthur Brown; the Pretty Things, the best British Invasion band never to invade the United States; UK comedy rockers the Bonzo Dog Band; psych-garage oddballs the Electric Prunes; San Francisco's own Beau Brummels, the first American band to successfully answer the British Invasion; Bobby Fuller, who successfully channeled the best of Buddy Holly before meeting his own premature end; Thee Midniters, the best Latino rock band of the '60s; and pioneering folk-rockers Tim Buckley and Richard & Mimi Fariña. Signed copies of Unterberger's books will be available for purchase at a discount.
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Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street San Francisco
Admission: $10.00 Limited Seating RSVP to RSVP@oddballfilm.com or (415) 558-8117
Highlights include:
Arthur Brown performing his hit "Fire" in a helmet of fire, in stage costume that obviously influenced Alice Cooper;
The Pretty Things playing R&B/rock even wilder than the Rolling Stones (where Pretty Things lead guitarist Dick Taylor started before breaking off to found his own group), with loonier-than-Keith Moon drummer Viv Prince;
The Bonzo Dog Band on Do Not Adjust Your Set, the TV series in which Eric Idle, Michael Palin, and Terry Jones starred just before joining Monty Python;
The Electric Prunes jamming with Get Smart's Barbara Eden!;
Richard & Mimi Fariña singing songs of anti-imperialism on Pete Seeger's public television show;
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Thee Midniters performing "Love Special Delivery" in Angel Stadium, MC'd by Casey Kasem;
Bobby Fuller playing his sole big hit, "I Fought the Law";
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Rare early clips of The Who and The Yardbirds, clients of two producers profiled in the book, Shel Talmy and Giorgio Gomelsky;
And more!
About Richie Unterberger:
San Francisco resident Richie Unterberger is the author of numerous rock history books, including Unknown Legends of Rock'n'Roll and a two-part history of 1960s folk-rock,Turn! Turn! Turn! and Eight Miles High. His book The Unreleased Beatles: Music and Film won a 2007 Association for Recorded Sound Collections Award for Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research. His latest books are White Light/White Heat: The Velvet Underground Day-By-Day and Won't Get Fooled Again: The Who from Lifehouse to Quadrophenia.
He gives regular presentations on rock and soul history throughout the Bay Area incorporating rare vintage film clips and audio recordings, at public libraries and other venues. Since summer 2011, he has taught community education courses on various aspects of rock history of rock from 1955 to 1980. He'll be teaching a five-week course on 1960s San Francisco rock at the Fort Mason campus of City College on Saturday afternoons from mid-October/mid-November. For more info, go to his website, richieunterberger.com.
About Oddball Films
Oddball films is the film component of Oddball Film+Video, a stock footage company providing offbeat and unusual film footage for feature films like Milk, documentaries like The Summer of Love, television programs like Mythbusters, clips for Boing Boing and web projects around the world.
Our films are almost exclusively drawn from our collection of over 50,000 16mm prints of animation, commercials, educational films, feature films, movie trailers, medical, industrial military, news out-takes and every genre in between. We’re actively working to present rarely screened genres of cinema as well as avant-garde and ethno-cultural documentaries, which expand the boundaries of cinema. Oddball Films is the largest film archive in Northern California and one of the most unusual private collections in the US. We invite you to join us in our weekly offerings of offbeat cinema.