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Topic: Festival Express story (nsc) Return to archive
09-19-03 08:04 AM
Mother baby Documentary Brings 1970 Rock Fest to Life
By TOM COHEN, Associated Press Writer

TORONTO - Jerry Garcia jamming with bluesman Buddy Guy. Acid-laced whiskey pouring from bottle to mouth. Music legends howling till all hours as their train roars across the Canadian countryside.

"I don't know where you've been all week," Janis Joplin (news) tells a Calgary crowd near the end of the documentary "Festival Express," "but we've been at a party."

The film that premiered at last week's Toronto International Film Festival chronicles the last of the true '60s rock tribal gatherings, a 1970 train tour of three Canadian cities by some of the era's greatest performers.

Unique footage from the train brings to life one of rock's lingering myths — the traveling party that no one wanted to end.

"I'll carry it the rest of my life," Guy says in the film. "The chance to be with Janis and Jerry — things like that only happen once in a lifetime."

Or as Garcia sang in "Might As Well," his homage to the tour on his 1976 "Reflections" album: "Never had such a good time in my life before. ... I want to take that ride again."


After years of litigation that tied up rights to more than 50 hours of film and sound, "Festival Express" got a standing ovation at its premiere from some of those who took part — and others who wished they had.


The film is about a tour that promoters Ken Walker and Thor Eaton wanted to be the Canadian Woodstock, a year after the real thing and six months after Altamont, the California festival that descended into violence and was considered the death of the '60s ideal of "peace, love and music."


Lacking a venue for one big festival, Walker said that he decided to stage four concerts in different cities — Toronto, Winnipeg, Calgary and Vancouver — with the performers traveling on a private 17-car train complete with diners, sleepers and lounges full of music equipment.


From a business standpoint, it was a disaster. A group called the May 4 Movement — named for the date of the Kent State shootings six weeks earlier — thinned attendance with violent protests against the $15 ticket price. The tour went bankrupt, halting after the Calgary show, and lost more than $1 million.


The footage tells another story — a bacchanalian journey of pre-eminent talents given the freedom to just hang out together, whether on the train or at the outdoor shows.


Most of the film is from the concerts — Garcia crooning "this darkness got to give" as the closing refrain of "New Speedway Boogie," the Dead's take on the Altamont disaster; powerful performances by the Band of "Slippin' and Slidin'" and "The Weight"; Guy ripping through "Money"; the Flying Burrito Brothers minus Gram Parsons (news) (who had been kicked out for his drug use) doing Parsons' "Lazy Day" with future Eagle Bernie Leadon singing.


"I sort of remember the feeling of being on stage without Gram," Leadon said in an interview the night before the premiere. "Like, oh no, it's just us. Step up there, remember those lyrics, sing."


Then there is Joplin, decked out in full "Pearl" regalia with a pink feather boa in her hair, unleashing her raw power in "Cry Baby" and the final concert song of the film, "Tell Mama." The camera stays with her for the entirety of both songs, capturing every nuance of her howling delivery.


Joplin's death from a heroin overdose three months later was one of several reasons the Festival Express tour, and its footage, remained unknown for so long. Legal wrangling over the bankruptcy included a battle between Walker and Willem Poolman, producer of the filming of the tour, over rights to the footage.


Gavin Poolman, Willem's son and one of the film's producers, told how the working copy of the footage spent years in his family's garage. Because the issue remained unsettled in court, the negatives ended up in the Canadian national archives and were recovered in the 1990s.


Bob Smeaton, a two-time Grammy-winning producer, signed on as director and Eddie Kramer, who produced gems with Jimi Hendrix (news), Led Zeppelin and countless others, handled the mix. Much of the dynamic footage was shot by Peter Biziou, a cinematographer who later won an Academy Award for "Mississippi Burning."

According to Smeaton, "Festival Express" might well be the last great film from the era, joining "Woodstock," "Gimme Shelter" and a few others.

"There isn't anything else in the vaults anywhere," he said. "It doesn't exist. This is like finding the Holy Grail."


09-19-03 09:33 AM
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