Posted: 09:15am Fri 09 May, 2025
I’ve been watching music documentaries recently; they’re getting weirder.
Last week I got Covid. Yes I know – who would have thought? Like that nice Mr Baker keeps telling us, apparently it’s still a thing.
It’s been so long I’ve lost track of guidance about isolation, going to work, things that were once second nature. So, to be safe, I took the week off and watched music documentaries. They seem to be heading in one of two directions, either the “safe” route – uncontroversial films about Taylor Swift, Bob Marley, Led Zeppelin – or the weird, including Robbie Williams, Pharrell Williams and Kneecap.
Led Zeppelin. Photo / Supplied
There’s nothing inherently wrong with the safe route, if there’s compensation. Take the new ‘Becoming Led Zeppelin’ documentary. It focuses solely on the band’s formation and first year, which was bookended by the debut album and ‘Led Zeppelin II’.
Allow me to first commit musical heresy by saying I’m not a Led Zep fan.
Except…
That said, I know the basic story and nothing in the amiable interviews was new to me. Except that Jimmy Page and bass player John Paul Jones both played on the ‘Goldfinger’ theme song. There is no mention of drugs, under-age groupies, Satanism or other peccadillos. So I found it a bit dull, except …
Except the live footage. All from that first year. It’s incredible. Jaw-droppingly stunningly incredible. I now “get” Led Zep. Luckily there’s a lot of it, showing Led Zeppelin to be more like an improvisational jazz band, but playing aggressively heavy rock. The musicianship is astonishing and the power they generate together is … well I run out of superlatives. Breathtaking.
There’s another “safe” documentary about to arrive that I haven’t seen but is getting rave reviews: Kevin McDonald’s ‘One To One: John & Yoko’, which recounts the couple’s first year in New York, 1971, culminating in John’s Madison Square Garden benefit concert. Colour me excited.
It works…
On the “weird” side there is also much to enjoy. ‘Better Man’ is about Robbie Williams, a “warts and all” tale of his life, drug abuse, depression ‘n’ all. Except Robbie throughout is portrayed by a CGI chimpanzee. It works better than you’d expect.
Meanwhile, Pharrell Williams has one foot in each camp. ‘Piece By Piece’ is a tediously safe look at his life – brushing aside ‘Blurred Lines’ and lawsuits – but the people in it are all Lego bricks! It helps, slightly.
Kneecap. Photo / Supplied
Most extreme is ‘Kneecap’, about the eponymous Belfast Irish-language rap band. It’s not exactly a documentary, more a fictionalised account of the band, including prolific swearing, violence and industrial-scale drug use. Much of it is in Irish and it’s a wild, wild ride.
One gig…
Before I go, one gig. Next Friday, May 16, at Katikati’s Arts Junction, the Folk Club present arguably the finest guitarist in the country, Nigel Gavin, who will be accompanying highly-regarded Paris-born singer Sonia Wilson. Every time I see him play he inspires me with the possibilities of the instrument. Bring it on.
Nigel Gavin and Sonia Wilson. Photo / Supplied
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