Whoa! Look at that bill! Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley and Bill Haley, all on the same bill! What you don't see on the movie poster are the other acts that played that day. Also on the bill were the Platters, the Coasters, the Drifters, Screaming Lord Sutch, Billy Fury, the Move and the MC5 (!). Some of the latter ended up on the cutting room floor, but even if you consider the big five and the fact that they were a little past their prime,...shit, I'd be there in a second even if they were all in their seventies. As it was they ranged in age from Jerry Lee Lewis, thirty seven at the time, to the oldest, Bill Haley, forty seven.
I saw the movie when I was in my teens. It was on a triple bill at a
theater downtown. I don't remember what the other movies were but I do
remember this one. I didn't know what Teddy Boys were back then so that
was the craziest thing. Then a few years later I noticed Malcom McLaren
in a crowd shot, manning his Let It Rock booth (at 20:19, in the leopard
skin cap). (Let It Rock later changed it's focus to more
confrontational styles and the name was changed to Sex, this about the
same time McLaren started managing the Sex Pistols.). Blah, blah blah.
To cut it short, even if you've seen better older footage of the acts,
the crowd shots alone are a hoot.
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