THREE REASONS TO BE EXCITED ABOUT
ANYONE CAN PLAY GUITAR
1 WE ARE LIVING IN A GLORY AGE OF MUSIC DOCUMENTARY
Music documentaries can easily escape the criticisms sometimes thrown
at documentary film in that they are usually joyously fun to watch,
without ever being void of intelligence Stewart Lees narration
on Anyone can Play Guitar promises to provide some well-informed
wit. The success of the excellent Creation records documentary Upside
Down seems to have laid the foundations for this kind of well-made entertaining
film, usually crafted by independent film makers but also not shied
away from by major directors witness, for example, Martin Scorseses
Living In The Material World (on George Harrison) and Shine
A Light (on the Rolling Stones.) John Spiras direction on
Anyone Can Play Guitar will be as well-informed and interesting
as previously well- directed documentaries from filmmakers of all levels.
2 SUCH DOCUMENTARIES ARE OFTEN TO BE FOUND IN EXCELLENT CINEMAS
Documentary film, with a few exceptions, often never reaches the soulless
multiplex, something particularly true of music documentaries. My local
screening of Anyone Can Play Guitar will be a Nottinghams
Broadway cinema, a truly wonderful intimate venue. For the past seven
years, the Broadway has been the only cinema I have been to warm,
friendly and comfortable, with a terrific bar- if anybody spots me at
the premier, feel free to buy me a Sailor Jerrys.
3- ITS GIVING EXPOSURE TO AN UNDERRATED SCENE
Anyone Can Play Guitar has been selling itself by talking
about how nobody acknowledges Oxford as musical scene, but it undeniably
has one. Ride, Supergrass and of course, Radiohead
we have all
heard of these bands, why do we not give any thought to the City that
produced them, in the same way we would if they were from, say, Manchester?The
truth is, like its neighbour Cambridge, there is clearly an exciting
scene embedded within Oxford. Radiohead in particular have provided
some of this generations most important music. Somewhat surprisingly,
there has not been any documentary films made about them throughout
their career. Anyone Can Play Guitar (which draw its title
from a Radiohead song) is this and more, focusing on not only Radiohead
(referred to as the R word!) but the wider scene around
them. It is also neglected as a scene due to an apparent lack of unity,
but I feel this may not be the case look at how Radiohead were
prepared to delay having John Leckie produce their second album The
Bends in order for him to go and do some emergency production
on fellow Oxford band Ride?
This city clearly has a musical story to tell. Anyone Can Play
Guitar should be the film to do it.
Amy Britton
Catch the film here
15th Oxford Phoenix Picturehouse
17th Sheffield Showroom Workstation
18th Nottingham Broadway
22nd Preston Continental
25th Leeds Hyde Park Picture House
26th Bristol Watershed
29th Edinburgh Cameo
1st Dec London Prince Charles Cinema
Buy the DVD here
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