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Unsung Forum » Nick Drake on film? |
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MantraMouth 112 posts |
Oct 09, 2015, 19:20
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I spend a good deal of time on Youtube looking for and watching live stuff dating between like 1965-1977 or so, for some reason I just love footage from this period. Thanks to diligent uploaders there is so much out there now even of some Unsung greats. I've never been able to find a single frame of video of Nick Drake. I've been able to find even little bits of Popol Vuh and Agitation Free live but absolutely nothing of Drake. Is there really nothing out there? I know he was known to be shy but given he was recording albums I'm surprised there is nothing out there. Anybody ever seen footage of him playing?
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garerama 1111 posts |
Oct 09, 2015, 19:38
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Allas there is no footage at all. Nothing. I think there is a desparate thing from a festival where a figure in the crowd is allegedly him, It is all part of the myth and mystique built around him. He never made any TV appearances. Concerts were scarce. No-one made a recording of any of the live performances - visually or auditory.
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Pursued By Trees 1135 posts |
Oct 09, 2015, 21:34
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I hadn't realised that. I could have sworn that there was a tiny bit used in A Skin Too Few ... but having checked, it's all just stills and fills.
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MantraMouth 112 posts |
Oct 09, 2015, 21:56
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garerama wrote: Allas there is no footage at all. Nothing. I think there is a desparate thing from a festival where a figure in the crowd is allegedly him, I see, I had suspected it must be rare but non-existent is such a shame. I do remember seeing the little clip once claimed of him walking but it was a BIG stretch, poor quality old film of some tall guy walking around a show...
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Deepinder Cheema 1972 posts |
Oct 10, 2015, 02:36
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I recall some years ago seeing for sale an LP made by educational publishers Longmans for schools had some Nick Drake involvement. The only thing I can recall was that it was orange.
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Yorkshirepedestrian 81 posts |
Oct 10, 2015, 03:35
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Nick played at the Haworth Arms here in Hull when my dad's band was resident there. No idea if he saw him or not though. I was just looking at the short film of an unknown 1970s festival and it does seem to be him walking by. You don't see his face and the film has a haunting, lonely quality to it... It's apparently likely that Nick did perform once on BBC TV but there is no surviving footage from this, but you never know.. There is also some footage of Nick as a child which you can see in the documentary A Skin Too Few on Youtube. All adds to the mythos I guess. I recently became obsessed with an Edwardian artist named Austin Osman Spare. He was hugely talented yet ignored and forgotten. His is a fairly sad story too, in a different way, and no recording of him has survived. Apparently he was interviewed for a BBC radio programme but only a transcript survives.
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Chesterwick 64 posts |
Oct 10, 2015, 11:08
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That 'Nick Drake at 70s festival' YouTube clip has no authority whatsoever. The clip is from a BBC Old Grey whistle Test documentary on festivals that was broadcast in early 2007. The YouTube guy watches that, sees a vague resemblance to Drake and uploads it on April Fool's day a couple of months later. If the film camera had been left running for another minute it's pretty obvious that a fair amount of other guys of similar appearence would have wondered past! It's a hoax. Plus, I've read healthy speculation from a couple of people that it's from the Reading festival in 1975 so that, if true, would blow it out the water completely. The TV appearance that Nick did make was on a long-forgotten arts programme called 'Octopus' that went out in the Granada region at 6.30 on a Wednesday evening in (it is considered) March 1970. The Manchester-based series only ran for around six months and featured a musical spot filmed in the studio (Badfinger and Canned Heat also appeared on it) as well as some filmed reports. Alas, none of the video masters of this series are known to exist - possibly wiped as long ago as just a year or two after original transmission. The only chance of something turning up would be from a 'telerecording' (in-house, 16mm off the TV monitor) but that again is looking unlikely as the programme probably wasn't sold to other, outside of the UK TV stations. Nick was recorded live at a collage concert that Robert Kirby orchestrated in May 1968 by a chap called Peter Rice. Despite the good sound quality and Peter's wishes for it to be released both Cally and Gabrielle don't think it comes up to scratch, citing a rather strained vocal performance from Nick, apparently.
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Popel Vooje 5373 posts |
Edited Oct 11, 2015, 08:59
Oct 10, 2015, 15:17
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Chesterwick wrote: The TV appearance that Nick did make was on a long-forgotten arts programme called 'Octopus' that went out in the Granada region at 6.30 on a Wednesday evening in (it is considered) March 1970. The Manchester-based series only ran for around six months and featured a musical spot filmed in the studio (Badfinger and Canned Heat also appeared on it) as well as some filmed reports. Alas, none of the video masters of this series are known to exist - possibly wiped as long ago as just a year or two after original transmission. The only chance of something turning up would be from a 'telerecording' (in-house, 16mm off the TV monitor) but that again is looking unlikely as the programme probably wasn't sold to other, outside of the UK TV stations. Blimey. I've been a fan for nigh on thirty years and I didn't know about this. It's interesting how neither Patriock Humprhies nor Trevor Dann make any mention of it in their respective biographies. My guess is that if it was transmitted it'll probably turn up somewhere. After all, the Peel session he recorded was thought to have been lost for decades but now it's been restored and released in full.
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Chesterwick 64 posts |
Oct 10, 2015, 15:30
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Yeah, I thought something along the lines of "blimey" as well when this information became clarified (in exactly the same week that the Peel session was revealed, creating, in effect, another Drake holy grail to replace that). As you said, Popel, no mention of this in any Drake book / article etc I can think of. Here's a juicy discussion on it, from just over a year ago, over at the Missing Episodes forum: http://missingepisodes.proboards.com/thread/10183/drake-appearance-octopus-granada-march
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Stevo 6664 posts |
Oct 10, 2015, 16:55
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Quite possibly a lot less likely, an unknown artist on a regional show before widespread home video? & in a time when tape wiping was common. Not sure when Drake started getting more widespread recognition. Was it before the Fruit Tree box set? I think his sister was almost a household name though.
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