Pop Gear

This is a difficult film to rate. Most viewers will find it an annoying bore, but devotees of the bands who appeared over the first year of the British Invasion will be mesmerized. The movie is a series of lip-synched "performances" by the also-rans that flourished in the wake of The Beatles during 1964, including The Honeycombs, The Spencer Davis Group, The Animals, Tommy Quickly, Peter And Gordon, Herman's Hermits, Nashville Teens and several others. The standout is probably The Animals featuring a young and deadly looking Eric Burdon. The film is decorated with tons of 1960's set design and art direction and a team of pretty dancers in gold-lame hip-huggers shaking same in Hullabaloo style choreography.

I had wondered what had happened to a little film I saw in the early 70s called Go-Go Mania and now I know - its original English title is Pop Gear.

Nice viewing for pop music historians. There are good performances by obscure groups here that never made it to the US. Too bad the performers didn't always think to write the name of their group in bigger letters on their drum kits, sort of as a way of preserving their work for posterity. Nor does the film pop up the name of the group and the song the group performs (the benefits of pop-up video!)

I caught this film on a cable channel over the July 4 holiday and sat frantically flipping through a book on British pop music trying to identify some of these groups!

Anyway, for those of you not familiar with British pop music of the 60s, here's what I caught:

The Nashville Teens perform "Tobacco Road" and "Google Eyes", both written by John D. Loudermilk. Do not be fooled by the name - it is a British group.

The Honeycombs are identifiable by their female drummer, Honey Langtree.

I thought the performance by the Four Pennies was particularly good - they sang with a passion. This was a group that unfortunately never even surfaced in the US - Lionel Morton, Fritz Fryer, Mike Walsh, and Alan Buck. Too bad we missed out!

Another good performance by a 5?-man group whose lead singer has red hair - sadly I couldn't identify these fellows. Anybody out there who can help me out?

Eric Burdon and the Animals are always a treat. A little guy with a huge voice.

The description of the film says Spencer Davis is in here too, though I turned it on too late to catch them.

And the grand finale looked like footage of the Beatles from "A Hard Day's Night". 'Nuff said about the Beatles.

The music holds up extremely well - the dance numbers were something else. They positively date the thing in the 60s. The tight gold pants worn by one group of women look awful. And the dresses worn by another group look like sacks - they called this fashion?

I just caught this this morning. Pop Gear is a British film recapping some pop hits of 1964 with staged performances by bands such as The Spencer Davis Group, Peter and Gordon, The Animals, and many others. Concert footage of the Beatles (singing She Loves You and Twist and Shout) opens and closes the film. The producer assumes familiarity, an intimacy between performers and audience, to the extent that the Master of Ceremonies (whose hair resembles a worn-out blond mop) never bothers to introduce himself, nor does he bother to introduce many of the pop groups by name. This is irksome for a lay cultural historian like myself, but that's the way it was, baby. There's a lot of good music and the songs are generally rather brief - 2 minutes on average. A cinematic, widescreen variety show, with more hits than misses. Recommended for fans of 60s radio pop.

Having been 16 at the end of 1964, this took me back. Great history here too with some acts that never translated to this side of the ocean. (Although The Rockin' Berries had a pretty good U.S. hit with a cover of the Reflections "Poor Man's Son".) More history - The Fourmost and Tommy Quickly were in Brian Epstein's stable and each got to record Lennon-McCartney cast-offs; Hello Little Girl (Fourmost) and Tip of My Tongue (Quickly) - the latter possibly the worst song ever written by L&M. What a trip hearing early Spencer Davis with 16 year old Steve Winwood picking up lead guitar and vocal in the middle of the song. And Alan Price on keyboards for the Animals - a group he founded - just before he split with Eric. (And the late Chas Chandler on bass - he more than anyone responsible for bringing James Marshall Hendrix to the world.) Forgive the wardrobes (gold lame pants) and the sets - just early Carnaby Street sign of the times. And Matt Munro - an accommodation to the older set during the period of transition - he was thought to be the Sinatra of England.

I could have watched five hours of this! Bob Lewis

What a great relief it was to see this rare "rocumentary" again this year....I first saw it on cable TV during the July 4th holiday in the US. Since then, I had been searching the WWW for more information for this rare film, with not much success, except from the exhaustive database by IMDB. (Luckily, it came back onto cable TV on October 14.)

I really like this film because of the music and the fashion during the 1960's. True, the Beatles, the Animals, Peter & Gordon, and Herman's Hermits were very popular during the 1960's here in the US and many of their songs have become a permanent part of our musical memories.

However, it was wonderful to see and hear some of the less popular British bands of the 1960's, such as Sounds Incorporated and the Honeycombs as well as the Rocking Berries and the Four Pennies. Each of them had their own "60's" flavor. (But, not all of those featured were bands as there were a few British solo singers on Pop Gear. They were a treat to listen to also.)

Personally, I liked the female drummer of the Honeycombs, whose name was Honey, as I found out on the WWW. I also liked the first dance routine with the female dancers and their colorful tops and gold hiphuggers. The second dance routine was interesting with the men wearing coats and ties and the women wearing short dresses.

(Today, you can't see many dancers wearing that kind of garb. But, there were a few all male bands on Pop Gear who didn't coats and ties.) The music during those dance routines is very symbolic of how unique the 1960's really was. (I can't find much of that "uniqueness" during the year 2000.)

Overall, I would definitely recommend this film to anyone who is interested in British pop, the 1960's, or is in a band. Kudos to this rare unique "rocumentary" even if the bands were staged, except for the live footage of the Beatles at the beginning and the end of Pop Gear.