Mark Figgis' "Red, White & Blues"

I've already watched and reviewed two movies of blues documentary series called "Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues" and they didn't amaze me. This time it's no different, but directed by Mark Figgis "Red, White & Blues" is a nice movie. It contains lots of original material: Jeff Beck, Van Morrison, Tom Jones and others enter famous Abbey Road Studios (I've always imagined it waaay different!) to play and discuss blues standards. It turns out okay.

"Red, White & Blues" is about British blues boom of the 60s and white men playing the blues. Interviews are quite interesting, although it was a pain for me to see how some of the famous musicians aged, Peter Green (known as the man who took one too many trips) seemed like he was far from being fine. Talking are many important figures of blues movement and British music scene. Particularly interesting are scenes with Eric Burdon, Steve Winwood, Eric Clapton, Mick Fleetwood, Tom Jones, Lonnie Donnegan and... B.B. King! There was also a short clip of the Rolling Stones in their early days playing "I Just Want to Make Love to You"... Brilliant stuff.

Of archival material, I loved clips by Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Muddy Waters, Leadbelly and Alexis Korner, who was probably one of the most important British bluesman of all times. And the absolute highlight of the movie was Jeff Beck forced to play the blues... He paired well with old worn-out butterscotch Fender Telecaster ;) He's such a nice guy and one of the greatest guitarists on the planet, for sure one of the most underrated, but he isn't playing too often and didn't record anything interesting between late 70s and late 00s... Just listen to his "Truth" from 1968, though... :) Lulu was nice, too. I didn't know she was such a great singer.

In overall: "Red, White & Blues" is not as interesting as the absolutely perfect "Blues Britannia" documentary produced by BBC, but it's worth watching nevertheless, because it covered quite different aspects. Good work x)

PS. Beautiful redhead Christine Tobin singing an old Bessie Smith's track is a treat, both for your ears and eyes :-)