That'll Be The Day / Stardust

On the face of it, this is a two part music biop of an imaginary figure using an amalgamation of the life stories of many of the sixties pop icons and their rise to fame and excess. We follow Jim Maclaine, quite surprisingly under played by David Essex, on his journey from his dull, 50’s working class roots toward late 60’s super stardom. Borrowing heavily from the stories of The Beatles/Doors/Who legends, at first glance it threatens to be yet another cliché ridden journey over what these days is now well trodden ground.

On a deeper level, it is a harsh investigation into the post war, “You’ve never had it so good” generation and the move into an era of selfish abandon masquerading as personal freedom. It also takes on the insecurity of the human psyche in the face of material success alongside such subject matter as friendship, responsibility, ego and drug taking.

If you can bypass some of the acting, terrible overdubbing and idiosyncrasies of two films now nearly forty years old, you are left with a pair of surprisingly good, mini masterpieces.

I adore these films for the performances of Keith Moon and Adam Faith alone. Larry Hagman is at his pre JR Ewing best and the musician/actor/singer, jack of all trades cast (Ringo Starr, Billy Fury, Paul Nicholas, Karl Howman, Dave Edmunds/Marty Wilde) works to perfection most of the time. Proper actresses do a wonderful job as the women in Jim’s life too.

One huge continuity error though is the 1965 poll winners segment. Essex’s fan club was brought in as audience extras and it shows as they’re all wearing distinctly 70’s fashions almost a decade early.

Towards the end it gets dark, embittered and psychologically quite disturbing. I was just a kid when these films came out but I can’t help thinking they must have been quite shocking and way ahead of their time back in 1973/4. Casting the then heartthrob, poster boy Essex as the narcissistic yet ultimately insecure lead was a master stroke. One wonders what the teenyboppers of the time who could get into the cinemas to see him actually thought. I suspect they may have exited just a little bit shell shocked.

Ground breaking and highly recommended.