Rock Follies of '77

...well, it is in the UK anyway. My wife brought both Rock Follies series back from the UK this summer. Excellent. When they were originally shown in the UK, the second series had some associated industrial dispute and I never got to see the last episodes.

The music is great, Andy Mackay (Roxy Music) showing a huge range of styles. Only JC can actually sing, but the band holds it together. Well worth a watch. I think the songs are better in series one, the "single" in RF77 is okay, though the B side is more to my taste, despite Charlotte's dodgy voice.

There are obvious comparisons with other fictional rock-mock-umentaries, but for my money this is up there with "The Commitments".

This ran in the US as "The Rock Follies" on Public Television and is probably the best dramatic series ever made about the rock industry. It followed the rise and inevitable disintegration of a female pop trio called the Little Ladies (not the Follies as described in the previous comments) and was totally unflinching in its portrayal of the greed, sleaze, egos, illicit sex and drugs and all of the stuff that goes with rock stardom, particularly 1970's rock stardom. The songs themselves are seen in fairly elaborate production numbers and are pretty weak (except for the ass-kicking theme song found at the start of each episode and heard in its entirety at the end of the series), but if this comes on again, do not miss it. It's 13 60 minute episodes long so have the necessary number of tapes at the ready! And if you recall those ads i the late 1970's with a woman turning to the camera and proclaiming "I'm Rula Lenska," this is where you can finally answer the question "Who the #*&@ is Rula Lenska?"

I agree with the previous poster, and wish this were on DVD. Is there a master "Wish List" anywhere?? I'd also want to add "My Mother Fred" to that list if it exists!

Rock Follies was a wonderful series, and I would dearly love to revisit it. It played on PBS in the Chicago area, I think. It was worth the trouble to juggle schedules in order to enjoy this one as a couple, since it was romantic, dramatic, musical, and funny. I do remember the hair commercials by Rula Lenska, who was quite a character.

One song that has always haunted me was sung by the group while dressed in WW2 uniform - something like "Glenn Miller is missing, why do I feel so cold?" There were recent articles about the centenary of Glenn Miller's birth, which made me remember this show.

This was a brilliant series about a trio of young women who form a group, the Follies of the title, and become hugely successful. We follow their ups and downs as they perform on numerous tours and venues. The actresses actually sang to live music, quite an achievement compared to the boy and girl bands of today, who can only manage to mime during P.A.'s (Pah!). One of them, Julie Covington, had a solo number one hit in England during the '70s. Rula Lenska, a real life member of the Russian royalty, went on to star in many TV shows including Minder, among others.