Live It Up!

The late David Hemmings plays teenager Dave Martin, a postman who fronts his own group called The Smart Alecs who dream of being bigger than The Beatles. They record a demo tape at a recording studio to take to the record companies, but things seem to be going pair shaped when he loses the tape. There is also his father to contend with who thinks he's wasting his time with all that pop music nonsense.

A minor British pop musical made at the height of Beatlemania. There are some well staged musical numbers from Kenny Ball & The Jazzmen who perform Hand Me Down My Walking Shoes, Heinz sings the title song and Don't You Understand while Patsy Ann Noble's in there too with Accidents Will Happen. The direction by Lance Comfort is smooth while the musical numbers are composed and arranged by the legendary British pop producer Joe Meek who made hits such as Johnny Remember Me by John Leyton, Just Like Eddie by Heinz and Have I The Right by The Honeycombs. All in all nostalgic fun!

I bought this film on video in Oxford just before Christmas on the same day that the press announced David Hemmings had died! Incidentally, the cast includes Nancy Spain and the film was shown at our local cinema on Grand National day in 1964 when my father saw the film - the day that Spain was sadly killed in a car crash.

Live It Up was followed by a sequel, Be My Guest, which is in the same dated but entertaining and nostalgic vein as this one.

Good God, this shows us why the British film industry was never really going to be able to rival Hollywood. I kind of liked the bizarrely unmotivated musical numbers - especially one scene which featured abeehived girl in a rather fetching synch waisted dress but the plot was contrived in the extreme. The scene with his father was handled with an admirable restraint, but on the whole this film is just too embarrassed, too self-conscious, too aware of its own limitations. Hard to believe this comes from the same decade as Blow-Up - far more savvy about fashion and 'swinging' London

I saw this movie in 1964 at the local theatre when I was 14 years old. Its about a bunch of young British teens who want to form a rock band. No doubt the Beatles were an inspiration for this movie and one of the players mentions the Beatles by name in one scene. Nobody in America had heard of the Beatles when this film was made. The plot is pretty forgettable. What I really enjoyed most was the musical numbers that would come up every few minutes. The two groups I remember most were The Outlaws and Sounds incorporated. They were instrumental bands and the two numbers performed made an impression on me as the sound was so very indicative of British pop music of this time.I was always big on pop music from England and there are many fans out there who would really get a charge out of the musical sequences. As a matter of fact Sounds Incorporated opened up for the Beatles during the 1965 Shea Stadium concert.For fans of this specialized kind of pop this movie is a must. I wish I could remember the other acts in this movie. The musical numbers are well staged and the movie has a good professional feel about it. At last check this film is not available in video. Too bad. Its all but forgotten really.

I've been watching some of the US (dating before Hard Day's Night) rock and roll movies over the last few months, and this UK effort from 1963 is much better than virtually all of them. First, it's very well acted and the script is full of little details that make the characters seem real--the Dad who works the night shift and rides on his son, but privately hopes that the son proves him wrong and stands up to him; the Mom who once had been an entertainer of some sort and understands her son's need to perform, but is also grounded in the real world; the hilarious American TV and film producer who is a tasteless and boorish man (kind of like Jack Palance's character in CONTEMPT but funnier) yet incredibly creative in his own strange way (a shame he didn't arrive on the scene 30 years later, he could have worked for the Fox Network!). David Hemmings does a fantastic job as the young messenger-service worker who buys all the music magazines, practices the guitar, listens to records all the time, and has the burning desire to play rock and roll. UK singing sensation and Joe Meek protégé Heinz Burt, whose records I always enjoyed (and who sings a few songs here), handles the acting well also as a member of Hemmings' band (as is a young Steve Marriott). As for the music, well, how much do you like Joe Meek's patented other-worldly production sound? I played my fiancée a few of the songs, and she asked "is that sea of echo and all the distortion intentional?" Yes is the answer. Meek also wrote virtually all the music in the film, including one number sung by Gene Vincent (I thought I had most of Vincent's records, but I sure as heck do not have this Meek-produced song, which Vincent sings while polishing some huge steam-powered locomotive or something, and while flirting with a young lady). Some of the female Meek vocalists are a little imprecise in the intonation department, and on the whole the rockers work better than the ballads, which tend to be of the moon/June variety. But the rockers are incredible, including the title track, LIVE IT UP, which is performed a few times in the film. Some of Meek's fine instrumental units perform too, and it's fascinating to see a world depicted where the musical backdrop is produced by Joe Meek. It's like some kind of alternate universe. My copy is a few generations removed from a UHF TV broadcast in the early 80's (probably the last period when one could see something like this on TV), and it also sports the much less interesting US release title SING AND SWING. For any fan of Joe Meek or of David Hemmings, this is an amazing film, and as an American I find the depiction of the up and coming British rocker quite convincing. I wish that I had seen this film as a child back in the 60s--I didn't see it at all until the late 1980's. It is crying out for a DVD release. Fans of 1960's rock and roll films should track this one down...

Since I was only four in 1963 the actor who's presence in this film is for me most evocative of the early sixties is dear old Peter Glaze from 'Crackerjack'. But there's someone for everyone to watch out for in this agreeable time waster by veteran director Lance Comfort; including Kenny Ball and Patsy Ann Noble (stars of Pinetree Studio's 'Don't Give Me That Jazz').

And of course there's the 21 year-old David Hemmings, already capable of carrying a feature film on his young shoulders while convincingly playing a teenager.