Confessions of a Pop Performer

It's apparent that the British love their sex comedies. The U.K. was a veritable hot-bed for the genre. The Confessions series, much like the Adventures Of series, was an R-Rated version of the Carry On movies. Same dated humor but with younger casts, nudity, and the swinging 70's as their setting. I've seen about 15-20 of these films and they all are the same middling British comedies that Canadians and Americans won't get.

This one stars Robin Askwith as Tim Lea, a clumsy young man who gets in cahoots with his brother-in-law over managing an unproven rock band called Kipper. Askwith's job is to get venues and record deals for them and all he does is get into a lot of crazy situations and into the bedroom of some fine women (for the 1970's).

Typically, the acting is filled with double entendres and British humor. Nothing awful but nothing spectacular, either. Interestingly, in this film, Askwith looks like a young Mick Jagger and two scenes in the film extenuate this. In one scene, Timothy needed to replace the drummer for their first gig and he does a pretty good job; enough that he is being chased by groupies. He goes into hiding but one of them finds him and seduces him because she thinks he's Jagger. In another scene, he is in the office of some woman. She asks for a light. Somehow later, the garbage can is on fire and he tries to fan the flames with ridiculous results. He finds an extinguisher and starts spraying this foamy white liquid all over the place and destroys the office. It reminded me of The Rolling Stones' video for "It's Only Rock 'N Roll" where tons of soap bubbles appear on the set. Funny.

It's an O.K. timewaster. I haven't seen the others but I'm guessing like the Carry On series, the Adventures Of series, or the Beach Party with Frankie and Annette if you've seen one, you've seen them all.

Why people insist on being so "holier than thou" about this genre escapes me. It's good escapist fun. Askwith and Booth are having a bit of fun with the girls and scoring a lot of laughs in the process. From an age of more innocent sensibilities, these films rank as some of the funniest ever made, alongside Carry On, Benny Hill, Are You Being Served etc., etc. And the girls!!!! WOW!

Stop analysing it and just enjoy! In the meantime, if anyone would like to re- open the series with "Confessions of a film reviewer", I'd love Askwith's role!!

Confessions of a Pop Performer, the second film to star Robin Askwith as randy, accident prone fanny-magnet Timmy Lea, sees our clumsy hero trying to find fame and fortune as the drummer for up and coming band 'Kipper'.

Timmy's equally libidinous brother-in-law Sid (Anthony Booth) acts as manager for the group, successfully exploiting his showbiz contacts—including the sexy wife of a music mogul—and it's not long before Timmy is being mobbed by gorgeous groupies and banging much more than his drum kit!

Offering saucy soft-core sex (including frequent, full-frontal, female nudity) and smutty seaside humour, the Confessions series is aimed squarely at those who enjoy their comedy lewd, crude, and unsophisticated, but in an effort to be more outrageous than the first film, Pop Performer takes the crassness and stupidity a little too far and loses a fair amount of the original's charm in the process.

The basic plot is rather hard to swallow (Timmy's drumming skills are non-existent), the tried and tested 'Timmy meets a nice girl' subplot is used once again but goes nowhere, and whilst the first film did at least attempt to throw in some genuinely well written jokes and inventive innuendo along with the slapstick comedy and jiggery-pokery, Pop Performer doesn't try very hard in this department: the humour in this sequel gives new meaning to the word 'lowbrow' and the result just isn't very funny.

Still, even though the format is already beginning to look tired, and the laughs are few and far between, this chapter does deliver the goods when it comes to nudity, and fans of the female form will have much to enjoy: a sexy fan mistakes Timmy for Mick Jagger and tries to seduce him; a kinky S&M swinger gets nekkid at a party; Timmy has it off with a tasty record shop salesgirl; TV star Jill Gascoine gets the not-so-gentle touch from Anthony Booth; and curvy Carry On girl Diane Langton appears as one half of a singing act called The Climax Sisters.

Other familiar faces also appearing, but keeping their clothes on, include Dads Army stars Ian Lavender and Bill Pertwee, husky redhead Rula Lenska, DJ David 'Diddy' Hamilton, and Hi-De-Hi's Linda Regan.

I'm a Confessions lover, yes. This second installment has just what you expect: Many Saucy hotties exposing their goods, and much laughter intermittently, courtesy of the bumbling Timmy Lea, that our unexceptional Askwith, plays it down to the T. He was born for this role. That's it. From the very start, he gets himself in strife, where as a window cleaner, he is doing a married woman, where husband comes home, and you can guess what happens. Finding a new career path, him and his enterprising brother in law, Sid (the much charming Booth) come across a fake rock band, and sigh em' up, Sid, the manager, Askwith, the promoter. Check out the lead's frizzy hair, the in thing those days. Hey all you need is that get up, and someone else's deafening singing voice, playing in the background on tape, and you've got one sweet set up. Though really, we wanna see what chaos our clumsy klutz, Askwith, will cause next, and like Alvin Purple, here's another enigma, to why hotties fall at his feet. He is Mick Jaggerish looking, one young, extra hot hottie/groupie, believing he is Mick Jagger. These two wind up in trouble, while horsieng around, one could say. Even if you're from a rock band, you'll laugh and identify, with this lightweight adult romp. Two of my favorite scenes are humping ones, that steal the movie. Too I guess it's kind of sexy to see drummer, Askwith, wearing just a dress, and the wheels are turning in your head to where his normal attire went. I loved the band's name. Kind of fishy. What I love too or respect about these Confessions films, are family time, shed, where Askwith's father Bill Maynard is classic as the grumpy hoarder. I can identify very much with these characters and the others of the Lea household. If nudity's your thing and you like laughs, you'll like this adult frolic caper, where if a Confessions fan, that is advantageous. Much an improvement on the first weak outing.

Robin Askwith was one of the most popular actors of the British sex comedy arc of the 70's and 80's, and there were four "Confessions" films. This one is about window cleaners (Robin and Anthony Booth) who stumble upon a band called "Kipper". Anthony's character Sid ends up managing the band, while Robin's character Timothy Lea (no pun intended, I'm sure!) ends up being the drummer. A clean comedy could have been light hearted fun, but this film is full of nudity and general mayhem. The dialouge is generally flat also. The very pretty Carol Hawkins is wasted here. I wouldn't call it an abomination, but there is a lot of sleazy stuff going on (I felt bad for the mom who discovers her daughter in the van with the band-surely the girl could have done better). This is recommended for fans of the genre mostly, and there is a 4 disc box of all of the Confessions films. Casual watchers beware.