''Rockshow'' is a 1980 American

concert film A concert film or concert movie is a film that showcases a live performance from the perspective of a concert goer, the subject of which is an extended live performance or concert, by either a musician or a Stand-up comedy, stand-up comedian. Ea ...

released by

Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained global fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and the piano, and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John ...

and Wings, filmed during the band's 1976

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

n tour. The film features 30 songs from segments of four concerts of the tour: New York, on May 25 (four songs); Seattle, Washington, June 10 (five songs); and Los Angeles, California, June 22 (fifteen songs) and June 23 (six songs). However, both the cover of the home video release and McCartney, in his intro to '' The McCartney Years''

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, acknowledge only the Seattle concert. These concerts were part of the 1975–76 Wings Over the World tour, which also produced the triple live album '' Wings over America'' (1976) and the '' Wings Over the World'' television documentary (1979). This is also the first film released by

Miramax Miramax, LLC, formerly known as Miramax Films, is an American independent film and television production and distribution company owned by beIN Media Group and Paramount Global. Based in Los Angeles, California, it was founded on December 19, ...

Production

The music for what was to become ''Rockshow'' and part of '' Wings Over the World'' was produced by Chris Thomas and engineered by Phil McDonald during 1979. However, the processing of the ''Rockshow'' overdubs was obviously completed by the airdate of ''Wings Over the World'', as these same performances were featured in both productions. Not all of the songs made it to the film in their entirety ("Medicine Jar" and "Letting Go" have been edited), and the song introductions did not always match the performance that followed. For example, several of the introductions came from the Seattle performance while the actual song was taken from a Los Angeles show: "Magneto & Titanium Man", "Spirits of Ancient Egypt", "Lady Madonna", "Let 'Em In", and "Soily". The introduction of the horn section was a composite as well with portions coming from Seattle and the final Los Angeles show.

Release

The film premiered on November 26, 1980 at the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York; McCartney did not attend, as he was in the studio at the time. He did attend the London Premiere at the

Dominion Theatre The Dominion Theatre is a West End theatre and former cinema on Tottenham Court Road, close to St Giles Circus and Centre Point, in the London Borough of Camden. Planned as primarily a musical theatre, it opened in 1929, but the following ye ...

Piccadilly Circus Piccadilly Circus is a road junction and public space of London's West End of London, West End in the City of Westminster. It was built in 1819 to connect Regent Street with Piccadilly. In this context, a ''List of road junctions in the Unite ...

on April 8, 1981. The film was later edited down to 102 minutes for its home video release. Its first home video release was on

Betamax Betamax (also known as Beta, and stylized as the Greek letter Beta, β in its logo) is a discontinued consumer analog Videotape, video cassette recording format developed by Sony. It was one of the main competitors in the videotape format war ag ...

in October 1981, with a

VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...

laserdisc LaserDisc (LD) is a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. It was developed by Philips, Pioneer Corporation, Pioneer, and the movie studio MCA Inc., MCA. The format was initially marketed in the United State ...

, and CED release in 1982. This would be the last time a feature-length version of the film would be available to the general public until 31 years later, as McCartney had remained reluctant to make the entire film available on VHS or

. In 2007, a shortened cut with only seven songs was released as part of '' The McCartney Years'' DVD set – one of which, a version of

the Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...

' " Lady Madonna", was originally left out of the ''Rockshow'' home video release.

2013 re-release

In June 2013, a new version of the film was released. The longer 125-minute version was digitally restored from the 35mm negative with the

soundtrack A soundtrack is a recorded audio signal accompanying and synchronised to the images of a book, drama, motion picture, radio program, television show, television program, or video game; colloquially, a commercially released soundtrack album of m ...

remix A remix, also sometimes called reorchestration or rework, is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, poem, or photograph ca ...

ed in 5.1 surround sound. The film had a limited worldwide cinema re-release on May 16, 2013, with an exclusive introduction and interview with McCartney. An exclusive VIP premiere screening, with McCartney in attendance and introducing the film, took place at

BAFTA The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA, ) is an independent trade association and charity that supports, develops, and promotes the arts of film, television and video games in the United Kingdom. In addition to its annual awa ...

on May 15. This restored cut was released on DVD and

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

in June 2013.

Song listing

The following list is for the full-length, 125-minute version of ''Rockshow''. * Songs edited out of the first home video versions of the film.
+ Songs included in ''The McCartney Years'' DVD box set. # " Venus and Mars" + # "Rock Show" + # " Jet" + # " Let Me Roll It" # "Spirits of Ancient Egypt" (lead vocal Denny Laine) # "Medicine Jar" (lead vocal

Jimmy McCulloch James McCulloch (4 June 1953 – 25 September 1979) was a Scottish musician best known for playing lead guitar and bass as a member of Paul McCartney's band Wings from 1974 to 1977. McCulloch was a member of the Glasgow psychedelic band One i ...

) # " Maybe I'm Amazed" + # " Call Me Back Again" * # " Lady Madonna" * + # " The Long and Winding Road" * # " Live and Let Die" # " Picasso's Last Words (Drink to Me)" * # "

Richard Cory "Richard Cory" is a narrative poem written by Edwin Arlington Robinson. It was first published in 1897, as part of ''The Children of the Night'', having been completed in July of that year; and it remains one of Robinson's most popular and an ...

" (lead vocal Denny Laine) * # " Bluebird" + # " I've Just Seen a Face" # " Blackbird" # " Yesterday" # " You Gave Me the Answer" # " Magneto and Titanium Man" # " Go Now" (lead vocal Denny Laine) # " My Love" * # " Listen to What the Man Said" + # " Let 'Em In" # "Time to Hide" (lead vocal Denny Laine) # " Silly Love Songs" # " Beware My Love" # " Letting Go" # " Band on the Run" # " Hi, Hi, Hi" # " Soily"

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rockshow 1980 films 1980 documentary films American documentary films Concert films Films set in 1976 Films shot in Washington (state) American independent films Paul McCartney video albums American rock music films Paul McCartney and Wings video albums Miramax films 1980s English-language films 1980s American films 1980 independent films English-language documentary films English-language independent films