I recall seeing Be Bop Deluxe at DeMontfort Hall, Leicester twice during my first undergrad year. The first time was in late September 1976 and that was the one that was filmed for the Star Rider video: I was standing right next to their desk alongside the mixing desk at the back of the hall. The second time I saw them at DeMont was in February 1977 (billed as "Be Bop Deluxe Winter Tour 1977") and there was no filming of that gig as far as I recall.
It's great you got to see them. I had an opportunity in Toronto around the same time (late 70s) and missed it because I wasn't up on what acts were passing through. I'm looking for older footage, and I'm amazed how many people want to play those songs and record them for Youtube. Having read some remarks and they were all very appreciative. With Red Noise you get very mixed reviews ranging from they were superlative to they were crap. It's amazing that Bill can go from absolutely worshiped to a lukewarm indifference so quickly. He is the same guy and nothing has really changed... except maybe the public tastes. As a musician, I am very happy to have missed rock stardom because I would certainly have handled it badly. Falling from grace within the constellation of pop stars would still be a bumpy ride. I am happy I missed all the psycho drama and God knows what pleadings and possibilities. I think musicians in general feel very powerless. Other forces determine their fate. And yet everything flows from them...
The 1977 tour was professionally filmed. I went to the Sheffield City Hall and Leicester De Montfort Hall concerts on that particular tour and can remember seeing several movie style cameras filming at the Leicester gig. In fact, unless my memory is playing tricks with me, one of the cameras filmed me and my friend walking in to the venue. This whole 'missing film' thing, is quite infamous in Be Bop Deluxe lore and still remains an unsolved mystery, including the disappearance of one of the main guys involved...But it was filmed.
I don't have the Esoteric Recordings 16 disc box-set of LITAA, but one of those discs is a DVD of Star Rider In Concert, shown on TV in 1977.
While looking for Star Rider, I found this footage that I remember at the record show years ago. It still looks wonky in parts just like the VHS tape. And I found the Star Rider footage, which is the "Maid in Heaven" video that I mentioned earlier. It's too bad that the tapes were lost, or maybe they got ditched because of the poor quality of the film used. As you said, nobody knows...
Just had a quick look at the box-set and here is the list of songs captured from the Star Rider In Concert film, including, as you say, 'Maid In Heaven':
DISC SIXTEEN:BE BOP DELUXE –STAR RIDER IN CONCERTPREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED
1. FAIR EXCHANGE (STAR RIDER IN CONCERT FILM)2. SHIPS IN THE NIGHT (STAR RIDER IN CONCERT FILM)3. MAID IN HEAVEN (STAR RIDER IN CONCERT FILM)4. BRING BACK THE SPARK (STAR RIDER IN CONCERT FILM)5. BLAZING APOSTLES (STAR RIDER IN CONCERT FILM)
...I've not seen the footage from this official DVD, so can't comment, but seem to remember reading it was of good/very good quality, but you would need to confirm that.
One slight caveat if you were thinking of buying the LITAA boxset, there appear to be slight variations with track listings and the DVD footage (discs 13-16) with a couple of slightly different releases. I'm looking at two variation right now. I think the one to go for would be the Esoteric Recordings 15CD+DVD super deluxe edition, with disc 16 being the Star Rider DVD.
It was 1977, remember? Doing it professionally would have meant considerable expense. And the home movie equipment available to the average punter would have been something like a Super 8 camera - expensive, impossible to conceal, taking only a few minutes of film, and maybe (I don't know) not able to cope with the lighting conditions. Maybe somewhere there's a few seconds of shaky, hand-held, local news footage.
I guess the record company thought they were spending enough by hiring the Rolling Stones mobile to record the audio. Though of course this would almost certainly have been cheaper than hiring a studio for the same length of time, especially since the band was actually bringing in money at the same time.
The other thing I should have said was that in 1977 there was no domestic video market. So a professionally-shot film would have been only for cinema release or for selling to a TV company - not for selling to masses of domestic customers.
The Beatles did videos for their songs and there is a lot of footage of them live, as well as the Stones. I saw one live video, "Maid in Heaven," from that period and thought there would have been more. There were different camera angels, so it was done with probably three cameras. So I'm curious where are the other songs they filmed. It's hard thinking they set up like this to film only one song. And wouldn't there be other concerts as well? Anyway, I thought if there was one... there would have been others.
I recall seeing Be Bop Deluxe at DeMontfort Hall, Leicester twice during my first undergrad year. The first time was in late September 1976 and that was the one that was filmed for the Star Rider video: I was standing right next to their desk alongside the mixing desk at the back of the hall. The second time I saw them at DeMont was in February 1977 (billed as "Be Bop Deluxe Winter Tour 1977") and there was no filming of that gig as far as I recall.
The 1977 tour was professionally filmed. I went to the Sheffield City Hall and Leicester De Montfort Hall concerts on that particular tour and can remember seeing several movie style cameras filming at the Leicester gig. In fact, unless my memory is playing tricks with me, one of the cameras filmed me and my friend walking in to the venue. This whole 'missing film' thing, is quite infamous in Be Bop Deluxe lore and still remains an unsolved mystery, including the disappearance of one of the main guys involved...But it was filmed.
I don't have the Esoteric Recordings 16 disc box-set of LITAA, but one of those discs is a DVD of Star Rider In Concert, shown on TV in 1977.
I can't believe there is no live footage from this period. Odd that they have such a great volume of music but no video of the live shows?