Saturday Night at the Movies

Tuesday night actually, but you get my drift. In any event, it was first time back in a cinema for almost two years. And what did we go and see for this momentous occasion? A limited big screen showing of a film of a concert which took place eighteen months ago. A concert which I had tried - and failed - to get tickets to see. Organised by Mick Fleetwood, it was a celebration of the band’s founder, Peter Green, with music from the early years of Fleetwood Mac. Unusually for such a concert, the reclusive Peter Green was still alive when it took place, though he died not long afterwards in July 2020. So by the time we got to see this film, it was a tribute as well as a celebration.
And a very good film it was too - providing you are a fan of early years Fleetwood Mac. An absolutely stellar line up of musicians. The house band itself, as well as Mick Fleetwood, had Andy Fairweather-Low, Zak Starkey and Rick Vito (former member of Fleetwood Mac) ably supported by Jonny Lang. Guest stars included John Mayall, still going strong at 87 (Mick Fleetwood, John McVie and Peter Green were all in his band at one time), Pete Townshend (who revealed he’d stolen the riff for “Won’t Get Fooled Again” from a Peter Green song), Steven Tyler, Billy Gibbons, David Gilmour and former Fleetwood Mac members Christine McVie and Jeremy Spencer. Two unexpected guests were Bill Wyman (who looked like he was waiting for his care worker to take him home) and Noel Gallagher who challenged the audiences assumption that he couldn’t do blues. I’m not entirely he did, but he made a decent stab at it. Climax of the concert - and the film - was Kirk Hammet of Metallica playing “The Green Manalishi” on Peter Green’s fabled Gibson Les Paul, which he now owns. And that’s what I took a picture of, as it was my favourite song and it sums up the whole event quite well.
Probably not truly representative of a night out at the cinema (only a dozen or so people there) and nowhere near as good as being at the actual concert. But the concert was very well filmed, the sound in the cinema was excellent and there’s a lot to be said for enjoying it from the comfort of a reclining seat with ice cream and drinks on the table next to you!