Thank you Alan G Parker for Hello Quo

So I went along to the 2nd cinema screening of Hello Quo, directed by Alan G Parker.  And it was one day before the 33rd anniversary of Live Aid. 

I'd been lucky to go to the premiere in 2012 when I won tickets in a free draw.  That night was an emotional rollercoaster nostalgia fest for me.  Not long back into Quo again. The band were present. I found it particularly moving seeing John and Alan again on screen. I remember when I first saw Alan talking, I wanted to cry because I was back in my teenage bedroom remembering the Quo posters and all that. And that jam at the end of the film had me actually in tears. Afterwards I even dared to chat to John and Gillie who were not part of Q&A, and sadly seemed a bit on the outside. I remember floating home that night. So would seeing the film again be an anti-climax?

I love the Regents Street cinema which I know well since it re-opened in 2015.  Originally the first cinema in the UK, built in 1848 in art deco style. Its got a very weird steep rake and for once its best to sit in the lower seating section for the best view. And I made sure we sat in those seats.



There were no queues of fans when I arrived but a modest crowd with many familiar faces from the Quo camp were in the foyer.  John and Gillie, Bob Young, Dave Ling were the ones I recognised immediately.  

Alan Parker introduced the film before it began by explaining why he had set up this screening. 1) He got fed up fans thinking that only the 90 min BBC edit was available when he hates how they cut it. He wanted us to enjoy the proper version as screened in 2012.  And also it was his dedication to Rick's memory.  And in the Q&A we discovered just how influential Rick had been for the next few years of Quo's history.

Seeing the film again was pure joy. That early footage, on the big screen with a decent sound system, I defy any Quo fan not to enjoy that. And I happily bounced to the music in my seat until the post Live Aid section.

This time around I was able to appreciate how well put together the film was. There is unseen early footage that even Rick and Francis hasn't seen until the film came out.  The talking heads from the band and other industry spokes-people are well conducted and cleverly interviewed. I even enjoyed the promo years because it gave me another insight into surviving in the music industry.  In a nutshell the 2 hrs 37 mins flew by.

The Q&A with Alan.

No one interviewed Alan.  And John and Bob remained in the audience.  

He started by telling us how the film came about. It was suggested that he make Quo his next documentary subject when he saw them play in Blackburn. And it wasn't hard for him to get Quo on board as we know Simon Porter would see this as a great opportunity to promote the band.

The big revelation of the night was that it was not Alan Parker's producer Alexa's idea to get the band to jam again but Rick's.  I'm guessing that this detail was withheld to keep harmony amongst the band members.  Basically, Alan didn't know how to end his film. He got to 2011 and the release of Quid Pro Quo. And as he explained, the difficulty with bands which are still going is that their story continues after the film ends.  So when Rick said, "should we get the band together again?" Of course Alans' answer was yes!  As it was the perfect ending to the film.

The other surprise was that the 4 did not rehearse the jam for the cameras.  What we see is exactly what happened.  How impressive is that!  We get In My Chair as the final song of the film because that was the best one from the jam.  It had been a closely guarded secret. And they tried to set it up twice but each time the press got wind of what has happening and it was postponed and new venue found.  After it was filmed they had months of denying it happened so that they wouldn't ruin the surprise when the film was released.

The unsurprising and frustrating news was learning why there had been no cinema release.  Rick and Francis had been due to do a Q&A at a number of screenings around the UK but one of them didn't want to do that. And it wasn't Rick.  This was back in 2012.

However, I now feel eternally grateful to Francis for giving us those two tours considering how much he didn't want to play with this line-up again, even after the jam. So thank you Francis for putting the fans, John, Alan and Rick before yourself and playing so well at those gigs.

The other interesting fact is how much these feature length documentaries cost to make, ideally for cinematic release. The final cost for the making the film was £1.41million. And most of that money went on archive rights.  Alan Parker has been asked by fans to do a similar documentary for Sweet and Slade but he can't raise that kind of money for those bands easily.

And that does make you think. If those bands had kept going could the money may have been found for them too?  I guess it still might but not that easily.  Watching Hello Quo again is fascinating from a survival point of view.  The publicist, Judy Totton says in the film that Quo became national treasures after the Charlie gig in 82.  And that thread of their charity work for the Princes Trust and keeping in the public eye is an interesting narrative strand which helped them survive.  And I wondered if we would have had a documentary, let alone any reunion tours, if Quo had not kept going in some form or other at such a high profile. 

So thank you Alan from the bottom of my heart for a beautiful documentary legacy of my favourite band and for helping us get those fabulous reunion tours.  It was a great Quo night out too.

Here is Accident Prone for you.  (for those who were there, it is Alan's favourite song.)