Well, as they say, all good things must end. And for me, that means my tenure as Goldmine editor and the man behind the World's Forgotten Boy blog.

I've greatly enjoyed my time here, and to everyone who's kept up with this blog, thanks for reading. This blog was a real labor of love for me, and I'm going to miss it. Look for a whole new group of Goldmine bloggers when we roll out the new Goldmine web site, which will be happening soon.

In the meantime, so long and keep reading Goldmine. It's been a great magazine to work for and they've got some great new things happening.

Free was never what you would have called a "quiet" band.

Their heavy, pendulum-swinging rhythms, back-breaking beats, the burning heat of Paul Kossoff's guitar leads and Paul Rodgers' gravelly howl coalesced into powerful blues-rock sound that stomped loudly on the strewn carcasses of its competitors through the late '60s and early '70s.





Normally, when Free played live, they could turn up the volume as high as they wanted. But, performing on TV was a whole different ballgame. And then, there were the cameras. It was not a very natural environment.

"I always found playing live in front of TV cameras a little bit restricting, because you could only play at a certain volume," says former drummer Simon Kirke, who joined Rodgers in Bad Company following the demise of Free. "Otherwise the camera men can’t hear their cues from the producer in the booth. We found that out pretty quickly that you had to sort of keep it fairly quiet, which was a bit of a drag for us because we liked to play it raw and loud, you know."

A new DVD, titled "Forever," from Eagle Rock Entertainment presents Free in a variety of live settings, from TV shows like "Beat Club" in Germany in 1970 and Granada TV that same year. It also includes original videos of "All Right Now," "The Stealer," "My Brother Jake," "Love You So" and "Wishing Well," plus interviews and from Free's 1970 Isle Of Wight gig, some video and a whole lot of audio.

"'Beat Club' was good," says Kirke. "It was a chance to get out of England. The audiences were pretty knowledgeable. And there were always other acts on the bill, you know. I believe that when we were there, we played with Black Oak Arkansas and The Allman Brothers, and I believe Pink Floyd did a short set. So it was quite a hip ... Ten Years After, they were very big out there. Deep Purple ... so, yeah. It was a very hip show, 'Beat Club.' It was in Bremen, in Germany, I remember."

Granada TV was a different experience, according to Kirke. For one thing, Free was playing in front of the natives.

"Oh, Granada, yes ... typical English audience," remembers Kirke. "Very quiet. All sitting on the floor, if I remember. All looking very studious with long hair and glasses. A very quiet audience. (laughs) I remember it very well, but you know, they were a very sympathetic audience. They listened, but they just weren’t very animated."

At the Isle Of Wight in 1970, Kirke was an animated as a rock 'n' roller could get. His excitement got the best of him.

"I wasn’t as schooled in the art of performing to large crowds, so I thrashed and I ran out of steam — roughly by the fifth song I was pretty much spent," says Kirke. "Yeah, I was just so filled with adrenaline. I remember getting very, very hot and sweaty, but it was an amazing experience."

That despite a little bit of trouble at the beginning.

"I think we had a bit of trouble with Paul Kossoff’s guitar," says Kirke. "I think he got a bad lead. I believe it was in the first song, but that was soon sorted out. And you know, basically, we just played our club set, one that we’d been playing months and months before that.

Kirke continues, "But, it was pretty nerve-wracking still, because I had never seen such a huge mass of humanity in my life. And, of course, in those days, there were no monitors. Hard to believe, but even the smallest club now has a couple of monitors on the stage, but there were no monitors. We just used the P.A. system and what back-line amps had been provided. But I remember it was very, very exciting, and I’ll never forget it."

The stage was set for Free to take the Isle Of Wight by storm when the single "All Right Now" and the album it wound up on, Fire And Water, became smash hits. But Free's previous work was just as interesting, especially the self-titled sophomore record.

"Well, the first record, Tons Of Sobs, was basically just a re-creation of our club set," admits Kirke. "And the second one, Free, which I still think is a marvelous album — it was a lot more countrified. The Band, Music From Big Pink, were on the scene, and they were knocking everyone out. And I remember Paul Rodgers and Andy were quite enamored of them, and I think it influenced their writing to a degree. So Free was a little bit not quite as raw bluesy, although I still think it stood out as one of our best albums."

These days, Kirke is preparing to go out on tour with Bad Company. But he's got other irons in the fire.

"Well, we do the odd little tour," says Kirke. "I teach. I teach drums and guitar, and I’m writing a book about my life in Free and Bad Company, and I write songs. I’m doing a solo CD, and I do solo shows. And I’m sort of hurtling into middle age now (laughs). So I’m still enjoying life. As long as I can get up and play well, then that’s all I would expect out of myself. I love playing music. I love Bad Company, but there will come a time when that’ll fade into the sunset. We’ve had a pretty good run ... "

But, Kirke isn't ready to call it a day yet. He's hoping Bad Company won't go out quietly.

"I really would like to make one last album. I’ve got to say, I think that’d be wonderful," says Kirke. "We’ve all got songs, and I don’t see why we couldn’t do another album. But only time will tell."

Here's hoping Kirke and company can pull it off. Go to www.eaglerockent.com for more information on the new DVD.

David Peck was part of the team that brought the incredible new "British Invasion 5 DVD Box Set" to life. With individual documentaries on Dusty Springfield, Herman's Hermits, Gerry & The Pacemakers and Small Faces, as well as a bonus disc of treasures from that era, the collection is a must-see for anybody who is fan of the British Invasion era or just music in general.






Peck, who served as producer, was kind enough to answer a few questions about the set (visit www.the-britishinvasion.com for more information).

What sparked your interest in producing this set of documentaries?
David Peck: We'd been quite successful with producing DVD series including the "American Folk Blues Festival," the "Motown Definitive Performance" series (Marvin Gaye, Temptations, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles) and our 30 title "Jazz Icons" series.

In November of 2008 I was thinking what monumental dates in music history were coming up that we could tie something into, and then I realized that 1964 was the start of The British Invasion, making it a 45th anniversary. I then started to think about all the great British Invasion artists that never got their due and decided to try to build a series around that idea. There have been many things produced about The Beatles, Rolling Stones and The Who but nothing official or authorized on many of the artists we currently have releases on.

The goal with the series is to entertain and educate as to the importance these artists had on the music and culture of the world. While The Beatles kicked the door in, it would have stopped with them were it not for all of these other amazing and diverse talents that made up "The British Invasion."

This isn't about the screaming girls or the mayhem that ensued but, rather, the lasting impact this music has had on all of us. Each title is like another piece of the puzzle, and I think that after watching these, the viewer will have a better understanding of the music and the overall music scene. What's fascinating to me is that not one of these groups sound the same, even though many of them cite the same influences. Certainly, one could classify Gerry & The Pacemakers and Herman's Hermits as "pop," but they sound nothing alike, even though they formed only an hour's drive from one another; Gerry is from Liverpool and the Hermits are from Manchester.
 

How long did it take to put these together?
DP: Once I had the idea I ran it past Ian Brenchley at Voyage Digital Media, and while he loved it, he had to get approval from the heads of his company. Based on my previous work with Ian when he was at Universal we were given the go-ahead in December of 2008. We then began the clearance process, which is a royal pain in the (fill in any word you like as long as it rhymes with grass). We approached some artists who said "no" due to differences within their respective groups that go back 40 years. Others I had to chase down through agents or managers. Trying to convince someone to be part of a series that hasn't proven itself is a hard argument to make, but the thing that helped in the end was when they saw our previous work and the love and respect we show the music.
 
What was the most difficult part of the job, and conversely, what was the most interesting?
DP: The most difficult was dealing with clearance issue; the most interesting part is when we sat in the room and listened to the artists tell these stories like it happened yesterday. When you hear Gerry Marsden speak of calling John Lennon up on the phone and rubbing his nose in the fact he turned down "How Do You Do It" which gave Gerry & The Pacemakers their first #1 — on some British charts they beat The Beatles to the top! When you're sitting there listening to this guy speak about John Lennon like you and I might speak about our next door neighbor, it's a very powerful experience. Of all the British groups from 1963-1964 none is more closely associated with the Beatles then Gerry & The Pacemakers: same city, manager and label.
 
How much tape did you have to dig through to get the performances you wanted?
DP: Because I've been dealing with music footage for the past 25 years I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted before I approached the artists for clearance. 
 
Was there any piece of footage that was particularly hard to find or that surprised you in any way?
DP: The footage of Herman's Hermits at the Cavern club before they had a record deal in February of 1964 was an amazing find. On the Small Faces DVD the footage of them during their debut performance was jaw-dropping. It was filmed by a Belgian news crew and sadly only a few minutes survived. There are so many amazing moments on all of them that it's hard to single out individual performances. 
 

What's been the most gratifying aspect about this whole project?
DP: That these artists have trusted me to document their music and preserve it for the world to enjoy is truly an honor and not something I take lightly. Whenever I'm doing one of these films I always remember that's it not my music, it's theirs and I owe it to their legacy to do it right. What we do is different than most filmmakers because our first goal is to show FULL songs, not a 30-second snippet and then cut to a photo and then a talking head that has nothing to do with the actual music. 
 
The interviews are really in-depth. You were able to get them to really go into detail about the music without getting bogged down in minutia. Did you find that everybody was really enthusiastic to talk about their careers and interested in trying to get across to people something about themselves that few people know about?
DP: First of all it's VERY important that most of the credit for the interviews goes to Rob Bowman who is a Grammy-award winning writer and a professor of music at York University in Toronto. Every single DVD I've done that requires new interviews has involved Rob, because his style is so amazing.

When we did Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, Smokey sat for 4 1/2 hours! When the interview was over, he told Rob that not only was it the longest interview he had ever done, but the best. People think that anyone can ask questions, but they're wrong. it takes a certain style and an incredible knowledge of the subject to be able to converse properly with the artist and to make them comfortable and let them know that you care about their work.

When that happens you get AMAZING stories from them. It's also important to note that with all of our DVDs, we only care about the music, not who is sleeping with whom or what drug they might have taken. I just care about the music. When I listen to "What's Going On" by Marvin Gaye, I don't think about his father shooting him to death. What I do think about is how beautiful the melody is and what was the inspiration behind the lyrics. My philosophy is quite simple: If it has nothing to do with the music or it's not focusing on the positive, then it's not going in my film. If someone wants to find out the "dirt," then use Google; it's easy to find. Our films are designed to entertain and educate. I enjoy making films that I can show my children and other parents can show their children, and they can learn about these great artists. Were these artists saints? No, but was their music timeless? The answer to that would have to be "yes' or we wouldn't be having this conversation right now. 

Looking back, do you think you accomplished what you set out to do?
DP: One of the biggest goals with the series is to make people re-evaluate an artist about whom they may have thought negatively or were, perhaps, just not all that familiar with. I can’t think of a more perfect example than the Herman’s Hermits title. Here’s an artist that, second to The Beatles, were the biggest-selling British Invasion artist between the years 1965 -1967, and yet when they’re discussed in the context of the era, most critics act as though they are just a novelty act that didn’t play their instruments — none of which is true.

The thing that makes me most proud is when people who had this negative view of the group watch this film and come away with a new outlook. Of course, they are not The Beatles, but that’s what makes this whole series so great. So many artists made great music that shouldn’t be compared to The Beatles but should stand on its own merits. I think that's certainly true of all of the artists we've covered so far. 

It's amazing what can happen in a very short window of time. Overnight, in the spring of 1969, everything changed for legendary guitarist Peter Frampton, who went from the up-and-coming band The Herd to the powerful blues-rock supergroup Humble Pie in short order.

But Frampton had another difficult decision to make, one that he's not sure if he's ever talked about before. Had he chosen differently, the entire history of pop music could have changed.






Let's set the scene. Frampton had just returned to England after working with the Small Faces and producer Glyn Johns on French rockabilly sensation Johnny Hallyday's 1969 self-titled album. A huge Small Faces fan, who idolized singer/guitarist Steve Marriott, Frampton had become fast friends with all of them and was still basking in the afterglow as Johns invited Frampton to his home to hear a new album that he'd mixed and recorded in just 10 days.

"'Who is it?' I asked," remembers Frampton. "'Led Zeppelin,' he says. Never heard of them. Anyway, my jaw is on the floor, and then Steve calls and says, 'Can I talk to Pete?' Steve says, 'I've left the band.' I said, 'You're kidding me!' He says, 'Can I join your band?' And I just had (drummer) Jerry Shirley in my band. I said, 'Well, OK. Of course.'"

Frampton had also spoken with former Spooky Tooth bassist Greg Ridley about possibly joining forces. He was up for it, and within a few days, what became Humble Pie was rehearsing in the front room of Shirley's mother's house. But that's only half the story.

"The following day, I get a call from Ronnie Lane," says Frampton. "He says, 'Can we come 'round to see you?' I had a feeling what would happen. They asked me to join the Small Faces. I said, 'First of all, a little late (laughs).' I would have loved to join the Small Faces, but I said, "I can't really turn down this situation. I'm honored that you would think of me.' The only thing is, it would take more than one person to replace Steve Marriott."

It was tough being caught in the middle, and for Frampton, who had gained some fame with his band The Herd, this was the crossroads. There was no turning back, whatever choice he made.

"It was a very sad situation for me," says Frampton. It was the one time in my life where there was no clear direction."

The good-natured Frampton wants to make it clear that " ... I was not the Yoko of the Small Faces," he jokes, "but I guess I was the last straw. But believe me, that's not what I wanted. But who's going to turn down a chance to be in a fresh band with Steve Marriott."

These days, Frampton is promoting a new solo album called Thank You, Mr. Churchill. We'll have more on Frampton in a future edition of Goldmine's print edition. To learn more about what he's up to, go to www.frampton.com.

We live in a very vulgar, obnoxious age, don't we? So much of our media, especially in the realm of entertainment, is driven by digging up the most embarrassing details about a celebrity's private life and splashing them across a TV screen or a magazine cover in big, bold headlines.







And we eat it all up, every last crumb. Well, the good news is, not everyone in the media is out to sling mud. The documentary filmmakers behind the new British Invasion DVD series, for example, were not interested in all that rot.

No, for them, it was all about the music, and Grammy-winning writer Rob Bowman helped in that regard with new in-depth, probing interviews of artists like Gerry Marsden of Gerry & The Pacemakers, Peter Noone of Herman's Hermits and Ian McLagan of the Small Faces.

"With all of our DVDs we only care about the music, not who is sleeping with whom or what drug they might have taken," says the series producer David Peck. "I just care about the music. When I listen to 'What's Going On?' by Marvin Gaye, I don't think about his father shooting him to death. What I do think about is how beautiful the melody is and what was the inspiration behind the lyrics. My philosophy is quite simple: If it has nothing to do with the music or it's not focusing on the positive, then it's not going in my film. If someone wants to find out the 'dirt,' then use Google; it's easy to find. Our films are designed to entertain and educate. I enjoy making films that I can show my children and other parents can show their children, and they can learn about these great artists. Were these artists saints? No, but was their music timeless? The answer to that would have to be 'yes' or we wouldn't be having this conversation right now."

As for Bowman, Peck gives him all the credit for how engrossing the interviews are in these new DVDs, which cover the careers of the Small Faces, Herman's Hermits, Gerry & The Pacemakers and Dusty Springfield.

"First of all it's very important that most of the credit for the interviews goes to Rob Bowman, who is a Grammy-award winning writer and a professor of music at York University in Toronto," explains Peck. "Every single DVD I've done that requires new interviews has involved Rob because his style is so amazing. When we did Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, Smokey sat for four and a half hours! When the interview was over, he told Rob that not only was it the longest interview he had ever done, but the best. People think that anyone can ask questions, but they're wrong. it takes a certain style and an incredible knowledge of the subject to be able to converse properly with the artist and to make them comfortable and let them know that you care about their work. When that happens you get amazing stories from them."

For more information about these DVDs, visit www.the-britishinvasion.com and www.reelinintheyears.com.

Here's the thing about stardom: You cannot predict when, or if, it will ever happen. So, if really, really good fortune does come your way, you can't say, "No, thank you. I'll wait for the next bus to come along." You've got to grab the golden ring while you can.

And that's what Herman's Hermits did. In the summer of 1964, when all the boys were just that, mere boys, or rather, teenagers, Peter Noone and company were experiencing their first taste of runaway success with their hit debut single "I'm Into Something Good."






"We had all our success before we became accomplished musically," says Noone. "Suddenly, we're like 16 years old, and we're doing all this, while The Beatles were about 22 when they started recording."

That does not mean that the string of exuberant, buoyant pop hits Herman's Hermits produced in their early years should be dismissed. Far from it, in fact. Their tight, somewhat complex harmonies are a marvel, and perhaps no other song exemplifies that more than "A Kind Of Hush."

Noone, however, liked "No Milk Today" and "Sunshine Girl" more. He's always been a bit troubled by the intro to "A Kind Of Hush."

"It's not a great time code at the beginning," says Noone. "It kind of goes haywire at the beginning. But people don't realize that."

Hardly anyone, save for the most snobbish musical killjoy or Herman's Hermits themselves, have ever noticed it. Nor have people ever really thought about the band being in any way associated with punk.

Noone does, though. And it has everything to do with the simple innocence and not-a-care-in-the-world attitude with which Herman's Hermits went about creating a sensation.

"We never did have a plan," says Noone. "I guess we were punk-ish in that way. We never did have any aspirations but to be in a band."

A new DVD titled "Herman's Hermits: Listen People — 1964-1969" does a fine job of detailing the band's life and times, while culling choice vintage live and TV footage of the band. It's part of a whole British Invasion DVD series being put out by Reelin' In The Years Production, along with Voyage Digital Media and Naxos of America, Inc. Other DVDs deal with acts like the Small Faces, Gerry & The Pacemakers and Dusty Springfield. Plus there's a bonus disc of material.

The set is being released March 30. For more on the DVDs, visit www.reelinintheyears.com/britishinvasion.

There will never be another T.A.M.I Show. It was a once-in-a-lifetime cavalcade of rock 'n' roll stars who performed for a screaming throng of teens, the first televised rock concert.

And now, everybody's going to have a chance to see it again. Shout! Factory is releasing "The T.A.M.I. Show" DVD on March 23. Quentin Tarantino has said it belongs "in the top three of all rock movies," and VH1 listed it at No. 15 in its compilation of the "100 Greatest Moments In Rock History."






Why was it such a monumental event? Just look at who performed. From The Beach Boys to Chuck Berry to Smokey Robinson & The Miracles and Marvin Gaye to The Supremes ... I could go on and on. It's also famous for the Keith Richards' quote about the biggest mistake the Rolling Stones ever made, which was following James Brown at the T.A.M.I. Show.

So owning this DVD is — and I can say this without sounding overly dramatic — is like owning a piece of history.

Director Steve Binder, who filmed the show along with the crew he worked with on the "Steve Allen Show," says that what shows through on the DVD is the purity and exuberance that rock 'n' roll has always had.

"I think what really made 'The T.A.M.I Show' historically important — and if I can remove myself as the person who directed it, but just as a layman — it was what rock 'n' roll was intended to be from the very beginning, and that is fun and honest," says Binder. "And there were no frills, no real gimmicks. We didn't rehearse the audience and tell 'em when they were supposed to scream and yell. Matter of fact, just the opposite. We were trying to figure out how to get some of this stuff out of the track."

Binder compared shooting it to another performance he filmed, one that would bring his career in full circle as a former T.A.M.I. Show celeb took center stage.

"It's like when I did Diana Ross in Central Park, and we had this huge rainstorm," says Binder. "I'd seen a few shows in Central Park before and I said, once you saw the opening titles, you could have been in any park in the United States or the world for that matter. You never knew where you were. And I wanted to make sure when I shot that, you know, I saw the New York skyline in the background and so forth and so on. And with 'The T.A.M.I. Show," I wanted to make sure everybody who watched the film knew that this was not put together in piecemeal fashion, where James was there on Monday and Smokey on Tuesday ... I mean, everybody was there the entire time we filmed it."

That goes for all the artists, not just the stagehands.

"I arbitrarily picked — since there were no commercial breaks or anything, it was just a film — when halftime would be after the Lesley Gore performance, and [I] brought out the cast on to the stage that had previously performed before Lesley," remembers Binder. "And then at the very end of the show, I brought out the entire cast on to the stage. And what was interesting was, nobody went to their hotels or went home while we actually filmed. They were all there backstage or they were in the audience, or what have you. So it became like an adventure for everybody. You know, it wasn't just a job."

To learn more about the upcoming DVD of "The T.A.M.I. Show," visit www.shoutfactory.com. And watch the April 23 issue of Goldmine for more of our interview with Steve Binder.

It's a question we all think about, but hardly any of us actually will ever have to deal with at any point: If a movie was being made about your life, what actor or actress should play you?

Cherie Currie, former lead singer of The Runaways, did not have a say in the matter for the new movie that's coming out in March about the renegade band of teenage girls she once fronted that challenged the male-dominated music business in the 1970s with their rebellious, punk-spiked rock. But she could not have made a better choice.







Young starlet Dakota Fanning played Currie, and that's all right by Cherie.

"Oh, it was a dream come true, because she's my favorite actress of all-time," say Currie. "Yeah, from the first time I saw her, and I was actually sitting with my sister, Marie, watching, I believe, it was 'Man On Fire,' and our jaws were just on the floor and we were saying, "Who is this girl?" And I just became a huge fan of hers. And I ended up finding out that she was playing me, or was in negotiations to play me, on the 10 o'clock news, and my knees just buckled, because I just couldn't believe it. It was just ... it's beyond words."

And really, it was meant to be, which Currie found out in a lunch with Fanning.

"I asked her how she got involved in the film and wanting to do the film," relates Currie. "She had gone to school, and one of her schoolmates had brought these little temporary tattoos, and [Fanning] had picked a single cherry and put it on her arm. And when she got home, her mom had this script and said, 'Dakota, you're not going to believe this, but this girl has a cherry tattoo.' And she kind of figured that was a sign, and when she read the script, she knew there was no one else who could do the part as far as she was concerned. 'What are they gonna do?' she said. 'Get some 27-year-old to play a 16-year-old.' And so she really knows she's got that edge, you know that old edge that this part really needed."

For more on The Runaways, visit www.therunaways.com.