Do It Again

Congratulations to master artist Dave Plunkert. His poster for “Do It Again” has been accepted into the 2010 Society of Illustrators exhibit in New York City. I’m sure this is just the first of several shows for his razorific image. So let’s give Dave some props. The exhibit runs from Feb. 12 – March 19 at the Society, which is at 128 E. 63rd St NY 10065.

For more Plunkert art, go here: SPUR Design

It is the million dollar question, or perhaps the $45,000 question. What is to become of “Do It Again?” The film has been on the festival circuit since late January. We’ve played about 50 cities and received some excellent reviews. But as you probably noticed, there’s no DVD, no broadcast deal, no theatrical release. First, let me assure you. We are working hard. We’ve had some bites and offers but we’re not yet ready to move forward. One major issue is licensing. If there were no Kinks songs in this film, we would have likely already released it. But when you use other people’s music, you need to pay for it. In our case, that’s complicated by the low budget of our film and the general risk that comes with an independent release. In brief, we ain’t “Juno,” capable of slapping down $10,000 for “Well Respected Man” or some other classic ditty.

After much wrangling and attempts at creative deals, we finally submitted our formal request to the record companies. They were kind enough to give us a deal which, if it goes through, will allow us worldwide licensing for around $40,000 to $50,000. But that’s a big if. First, the artist – and that’s Ray – has to allow us to spend that money. At the moment, a DVD and press packet (and button) is in his hands. We’re waiting for Ray.

If Ray says yes… then we’ve got to sell the film for enough to allow us to pay for the licensing. We’re grown men with families. We’re hesitant to go broker for this movie.

What can you do? Sit tight. Tell people how much you love our movie. Go to the IMDB website and post a few positive comments on there to make up for the cranky dude who said he didn’t like the film six times. And keep following. Because this process is pretty much like everything connected to “Do It Again.” We have no idea where we’ll end up, how we’ll do it and what it might mean. But we’re refusing to stop for any reason, be it financial, psychological, logistical. We are going to do everything within our means to get this film to a wider audience.

God Save the Kinks…

We’ve only got three days left on our Kickstarter campaign, so I figured I’d make one more pitch. (And there may be another…)

You might think, “Hey Geoff, isn’t the movie done and playing in film festivals. And hasn’t everybody already been generous enough?” And I’d say, “True and true, but that doesn’t mean I’m done.”

Here are two examples: We were so pleased to be invited to show the film at the Reykjavik International Film Festival later in the year. But then, after chatting with one of the staffers there, I learned that we need to send a PAL formatted tape. We only have the NTSC format. That means heading over to National Boston today and paying them to dub a PAL tape. That’s $320. See, money!

(As you probably figured, even when we sell out a 1,000 seat hall, we don’t get paid. The film festival gets the cash, as it should… Those festivals are run on a shoe-string by dedicated people working way too many hours.)

Same goes for our screening in New Orleans in October. We’re thrilled to be showing the film there and wouldn’t consider pulling out. But they want the film transferred as a data file and sent on a hard-drive. Hence, I’ve got to buy another hard-drive.

I know, this couldn’t me a more boring blog entry. Who wants to hear about PAL and NTSC and data files, etc.? I don’t. Which is why you should help me reach my Kickstarter goal. Then I promise… I’ll shut up and talk Kinks!

Those of us who couldn’t travel to Denmark for Pete’s memorial service can at least think of him when we gather in Los Angeles later this week for our screening of “Do It Again.”

Allison Anders sent along some pretty heart-warming news.

It turns out Los Angeles City Councilman Paul Koretz is a huge Kinks fan. So on July 2, Koretz adjourned the LA City Council’s session in honor of Peter Quaife.

Thursday night, at the Silent Movie Theater, Koretz will be letting our audience see this document of adjournment before sending it off to Elisabeth, Pete’s fiance, in Denmark.

Here’s what the certificate looks like:

In the entertainment world, there are lots of times we’re told an event is “one night only” or “see it now while you still can.” I felt that way sitting in the audience as Brian Wilson performed “Smile” and, to a lesser extent, when Simon & Garfunkel hit the road again.

In reality, each of these moments could be re-experienced with little trouble. All you needed was a few days off from work, some wheels and tickets to the next show. That’s not the case with the Muswell Hillbillies, a band formed exclusively to play the 1971 Kinks record of the same name.

I feel pretty confident telling you that the group’s Aug. 1 gig at B.B. King’s in New York might be one of their last.

That’s because they’re not a normal band. They’re led by Dave Simons, a geezer like me, and his Kinks compatriots drummer Dave Sokol and guitarist Bill Howard. But they’re also made up of a group of kids from a high school, Hopkins Academy: Trumpeters Nate Aldrich and Chris Leveille, saxophonists Hayden Durand and Michael Leveille, and trombonist Emily Eagan. She’s 16.

In other words, this a band built to break-up. These kids gotta go to college!

Quick back-story of how I met the Hillbillies. Dave heard about “Do It Again.” He lives out in Western Massachusetts and told me about his kooky idea, to form a band to perform, in its entirety, “Muswell Hillbillies.”

I considered asking why. I love the songs “Muswell Hillbilly” and “20th Century Man,” on the record but something about the LP has always seemed too samey to me. “Muswell” certainly couldn’t stand up to my big five: “Face to Face,” “Something Else by the Kinks,” “The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society,” “Arthur (And the Decline and the Fall of the British Empire),” and “Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One.”

But I did find Dave’s idea intriguing. Somehow, it seemed cosmically aligned with my bizarre mission. I also knew I had an important screening coming up at the Independent Film Festival Boston. I had hoped to find a band to play our after party. Dave’s price was right. Would the band be good? Dave e-mailed me a recording of his group playing “Waterloo Sunset.” It sounded decent, but I know it’s easy to manipulate a recording. I had to bring in the Hillbillies based on faith.

The good news is that there was really nothing to worry about. You’ve got the mustached Simons, in his ‘50s, serving as lead singer and Kinks ambassador. You’ve got Howard, his next door neighbor, channelling Dave Davies with his gritty, spot-on guitar work and then there’s Dave Skelly, a 2006 Hopkins graduate who plays multiple instruments and sings backup.

Considering how dysfunctional the Kinks proper are, I also kind of like the family connections, with Dave’s wife, Paula, singing backup and his son, Jack, playing bass.

But let’s get back to the point. The point is that I’ve seen these guys twice, at the Boston party and a few weeks later at the Iron Horse in Northampton. For me, they’ve brought an underappreciated record to life. They’ve also gotten much tighter than the first show. “Do It Again” – and please find me another band that covers that song – was a bit ragged in Boston. It came alive in Northampton. So did “Victoria” and “Waterloo Sunset” and Sokol’s vocal turn on “I’m Not Like Everybody Else.” Sitting there, I felt as if I were at a celebration, a concert and a family sing-along.

Don’t believe me? Head to B.B. King’s and hear for yourself.

The last time I talked to Pete Quaife he was coughing a lot, but I didn’t think all that much about it. Because every time I talked to Pete, he seemed in rough shape. “They have to cut my forearm open from wrist to elbow and re-arrange some arteries and veins,” he wrote one time when I was trying to track him down. “Sound like fun, huh?”

That was typical. He was always upfront and never mopey about his health problems. That translated into his drawings. I mean, tell me somebody else capable of making cartoons about dialysis that are actually funny.

I’ll let the music historians talk about Peter Quaife, original bass player of the Kinks. Let’s just remember for a moment that Pete played on “You Really Got Me,” “Sunny Afternoon” and, of course, he plucked out the most important bass line of my life, the descending notes marking the start of “Waterloo Sunset.” All that even though Pete, or Crutch as so many people knew him, stopped playing in the Kinks more than 40 years ago.

I first e-mailed Pete two years ago as I started work on “Do It Again.” Back then, I was naive enough at that point to think there was an actual chance of bringing together the original four members. (I still count Mick as an original member, despite Bobby Graham’s role.) What struck me the most about those early conversations is that Pete really didn’t seem to care all that much about reuniting. I’m so used to people in Pete’s position desperate for a payday and an ego stroke. Not Pete. He made it clear, early on, that he was happy where he was, overlooking the sea in Denmark.

Several times, he reminded me he wasn’t interested in strapping his bass back on. The closest he came to sounding amenable to a reunion was in December of 2008. Pete wrote about “debating heavily with myself about rejoining the Kinks. Ray certainly wants  to do it and I assume that Dave, too, wants to. But the real bugger is my health. Its been pretty crappy the past few days and I am scared that it might surface again in London. If it did I wouldn’t be able to do a thing!”

In the end, Pete stated in an A & E biography that he wouldn’t want to rejoin the band. He also released a statement confirming that thought on Dave Emlen’s site.

Still, I kept in touch. Why wouldn’t I? Pete was hilarious. I recorded three interview conversations over the phone with him over the last two years. I’m glad I saved those. I was also impressed by his incredible generosity.

One example: In the quest for material for “Do It Again,” I stumbled upon a DVD labelled “Pete Quaife’s Home Movies.” An American fan had sent it my way during my search for footage. I wrote Pete about the movies. “I ‘lost’ that particular bunch of home movies whilst I was living in Canada,” he wrote. “And now they have turned up! I have been going frantic trying to find them and, at last, someone has them in his possession.”

In many cases, I’d imagine somebody in Pete’s position would demand the disc be returned and that I turn in the supplier. Perhaps a legal threat would come. That wasn’t Pete’s style. He asked nicely if I could burn him a copy and said he’d be glad to let me use the material in “Do It Again.” He said he’d appreciate I pay him to license it but he didn’t tell me how much to pay, just an amount I found fair.

So that last time we talked was around February. I had sent Pete a DVD of the film and I returned from lunch to find a voice mail on my machine. “Brilliant,” he shouted, and continued to rave. I called him back because, well, Pete Quaife had told me my movie was brilliant. I needed to hear more. We talked about my trying to get the film into the fantastic CPH:DOX festival in Copenhagen later in the year and having Pete come as the guest of honor. We talked about Dave, who had recently had to postpone his spring tour. Pete was concerned about Dave and we both talked of how we hoped Dave might feel well enough to travel soon.

Then he asked me kindly if I might send one of Dave Plunkert’s posters in the mail. Pete, an artist himself, really loved it and wanted a copy. Sometimes, I let things slide, procrastinating because there’s so much else to do. I’m glad in this case, I popped the poster in the mail along with a few “Do It Again” buttons. Even if my film never gets out into the real world, I’ll always treasure his rave review.

A final thought… Back to November of 2008. I was heading to London to attend the Kinks Konvention and in my twisted mind, I thought I might be able to manipulate the situation to create a full-scale reunion. Only a few things got in my way. Dave said he was too busy. Ray’s peeps said he’d only come into the Boston Arms if I turned off my cameras. And then Pete. I had offered to fly him in and put him up. But he told me on the phone how fearful he was of traveling and worrying about what might happen were his health to go south.

He wrote:

I am so sorry – I can’t make the trip.
It would appear that I am a living wonder (says the doc) and a trip like that would probably cost me my life.
Apparently, my chemical makeup is completely out of whack and they are very concerned about it. It makes sense when I think about how I am feeling – tired, listless and without any energy at all. I don’t think its going to be long before I will have to do all of my traveling in a wheel chair!
I hope the evening goes well for everyone – even though I don’t think either Ray or Dave will turn up! Tell the fans from me that I will always think about them and thank them for their support throughout the years. Remember, it was them, not us, that made us  what we are.
Now, leave me the f#&-! alone!

Ever google your own name? Too ashamed to admit it? Here at “Do It Again,” we’re willing to confess that yes, we have taken to googling, Facebook searching and generally dragging the lake, as it were, for any and all comments on the film. We want to feel the joy of praise and pretend that the critics are obscure and nearly impossible to track down.

With that in mind, I point you – our fans, we hope – to a couple of places in which our reputations could be juiced. (Or perhaps a better word would be “enhanced.”) First, head to IMDB and click into the discussion of “Do It Again,” which is so far limited to a single person calling me annoying. Okay, fair enough. But doesn’t that annoying-thing come with some qualities? Persistence? A love of the American way? A perfectly formed G-chord? I leave it to you to add to the commentary.

Same goes for our primitive Wikipedia entry. How one adds or edits or contributes to Wikipedia remains above my paygrade. But perhaps a loyal DIA viewer can off some deeper thoughts for everybody’s encyclopedia.