This 1967 Rolling Stones promotional film for “We Love You” reenacts the trial of Oscar Wilde with Mick Jagger, Keith Richard and Marianne Faithfull standing in for Wilde, the Marquess of Queensbury and Lord Alfred Douglas. The fur rug is a not so sly reference to what the otherwise naked Faithfull was wearing at the time of the infamous Redlands drug bust, as described below in this except from the exhaustively detailed Rolling Stones entry on Wikipedia:

Jagger, Richards and Jones began to be hounded by authorities over their recreational drug use. In early 1967 when News of the World ran a three-part feature entitled “Pop Stars and Drugs: Facts That Will Shock You”. The series alleged LSD parties hosted by The Moody Blues and attended by top stars including The Who’s Pete Townshend and Cream’s Ginger Baker, and alleged admissions of drug use by leading pop musicians. The first article targeted Donovan (who was raided and charged soon after); the second installment (published on 5 February) targeted the Rolling Stones. A reporter who contributed to the story spent an evening at the exclusive London club Blaise’s, where a member of the Stones allegedly took several Benzedrine tablets, displayed a piece of hashish and invited his companions back to his flat for a “smoke”. The article claimed that this was Mick Jagger, but it turned out to be a case of mistaken identity—the reporter had in fact been eavesdropping on Brian Jones. On the night the article was published Jagger appeared on the Eamonn Andrews chat show and announced that he was filing a writ for libel against the paper.

A week later on Sunday 12 February, Sussex police, tipped off by the News of the World, who in turn were tipped off by Richards’ chauffeur, raided a party at Keith Richards’ home, Redlands. No arrests were made at the time but Jagger, Richards and their friend Robert Fraser (an art dealer) were subsequently charged with drugs offences. Richards said in 2003, “When we got busted at Redlands, it suddenly made us realise that this was a whole different ball game and that was when the fun stopped. Up until then it had been as though London existed in a beautiful space where you could do anything you wanted.” On the treatment of the man responsible for the raid he later added: “As I heard it, he never walked the same again.”

In March, while awaiting the consequences of the police raid, Jagger, Richards and Jones took a short trip to Morocco, accompanied by Marianne Faithfull, Jones’ girlfriend Anita Pallenberg and other friends. During this trip the stormy relations between Jones and Pallenberg deteriorated to the point that Pallenberg left Morocco with Richards. Richards said later: “That was the final nail in the coffin with me and Brian. He’d never forgive me for that and I don’t blame him, but hell, shit happens.” Richards and Pallenberg would remain a couple for twelve years. Despite these complications, the Rolling Stones toured Europe in March and April 1967. The tour included the band’s first performances in Poland, Greece and Italy.

On 10 May 1967—the same day Jagger, Richards and Fraser were arraigned in connection with the Redlands charges—Brian Jones’ house was raided by police and he was arrested and charged with possession of cannabis. Three out of five Rolling Stones now faced criminal charges. Jagger and Richards were tried at the end of June. On 29 June Jagger was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment for possession of four amphetamine tablets; Richards was found guilty of allowing cannabis to be smoked on his property and sentenced to one year in prison. Both Jagger and Richards were imprisoned at that point, but were released on bail the next day pending appeal. The Times ran the famous editorial entitled “Who breaks a butterfly on a wheel?” in which editor William Rees-Mogg was strongly critical of the sentencing, pointing out that Jagger had been treated far more harshly for a minor first offence than “any purely anonymous young man.”

While awaiting the appeal hearings, the band recorded a new single, “We Love You,” as a thank-you for the loyalty shown by their fans. It began with the sound of prison doors closing, and the accompanying music video included allusions to the trial of Oscar Wilde. On 31 July, the appeals court overturned Richards’ conviction, and Jagger’s sentence was reduced to a conditional discharge. Brian Jones’ trial took place in November 1967; in December, after appealing the original prison sentence, Jones was fined £1000, put on three years’ probation and ordered to seek professional help.

 
Previously on Dangerous Minds
Simon Wells: The Great Rolling Stones Drug Bust

 
What becomes apparent is that one documentary is not enough to cover the life, times and creative career of Frank Zappa. This one, recorded the year of his sad and untimely death, tries very hard and does capture much of what was best loved about the great man.

Originally shown on BBC 2’s The Late Show (now there was a pretty funky arts series, one that’s still missed) on July 23 1993, it contains one of Zappa’s last (lengthy) interviews (full meat and gravy), as well as contributions from a host of diverse supporting players - The Mothers to The Dubliners to Matt Groening, plus full pics and story.
 

 
Previously on Dangerous Minds

Unaired 1985 interview with Zappa: Too Hot for TV

Frank Zappa 1971: Progress is not possible without deviation

Young Frank Zappa plays the bicycle on ‘The Steve Allen Show’

 
Vancouver radio deejay and TV personality Jack Webster interviews Jimi Hendrix’s paternal grandmother Nora in 1968.

At the very beginning of the interview, she describes seeing her grandson perform for the first time at the Vancouver Pacific Coliseum earlier that year.

It’s unfortunate that Webster steers the conversation in the direction of Hendrix’s drug use. I personally would have preferred to hear more of Mrs. Hendrix’s amusing take on the Vancouver concert.

“The way he was picking that guitar. I don’t see how he could stand all that noise.”

“I knew he was musical, but I didn’t know he had that much music in him.”

Mrs. Hendrix had a musical background herself, having spent her youth in a touring vaudeville troupe as a dancer. Years later, she co-founded the Vancouver branch of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. She died in 1984 at the age of 100.
 

 
Great news for people living in NYC, Bjork is bringing her phenomenal Biophilia live experience to the city next month. The shows will be taking place over two different residencies; one at the New York Hall of Science (six dates in all, between February 3rd and 18th) and one at the Roseland Ballroom (four dates there, between February 22nd and March 2nd).

While the Roseland Ballroom is more intimate, the grapevine tells me the Hall of Science will be better as it will facilitate the whole 360 degree stage show, which should hopefully incorporate giant tesla coils, homemade instruments, a large female choir and the full surround sound PA and plasma screens. I was lucky enough to catch a Biophilia show last year in Manchester, and it ranks as one of the best live shows I have ever seen. I reviewed it for Dangerous Minds, and you can read that here.

There have also been Biophilia shows announced at various European and South American festivals over the summer - for more info on the shows (and links to buy tickets for individual performances), visit the Facebook page for Bjork events.

Here’s an inkling of what you can expect:

Bjork “Joga” (Live at Manchester International Festival 2011)
 

 
Thanks to Lee Baxter.

Henry Rollins For President t-shirt by Hello Henry
 
A short video from Big Think wherein Henry Rollins describes the actions he would take if he were President of the United States of America. Say what you like about Rollins’ music and his stand-up (or even his views about the younger generations) but he seems to have a pretty good grasp of what would be expected of him in office. So, would you vote Rollins for President?
 

 
Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Pictures of Henry Rollins with long hair
Does Henry Rollins pass the Man Test?
Lydia Lunch and Henry Rollins: a tale of jealousy, rage and obsession
Henry Rollins mutant gene
“Hi Mom! Still alive!” Black Flag and the Punk violence hysteria of 1980-81

 
New York-based Graphic designer Mike Joyce made a whole slew of super-clean versions of old punk, post-punk, hardcore and indie flyers which he appropriately titles “Swissted.” The concept comes from “his love of punk rock and Swiss modernism, two movements that have absolutely nothing to do with one another.”
 

 
More after the jump…

 
For one of the top-selling rock groups of all time, there are several albums by Pink Floyd that are virtually unknown to the vast majority of people who would call themselves “big” Pink Floyd fans (but who only own The Wall and The Dark Side Of The Moon).

One album is their 1969 soundtrack recording for German director Barbet Schroeder’s More, an English language film about heroin addicts in Ibiza modeled on the Icarus myth.

As Roger Waters said of the working on More:

“His [Barbet Schroeder’s] feeling about music for movies was, in those days, that he didn’t want a soundtrack to go behind the movie. All he wanted was, literally, if the radio was switched on in the car, for example, he wanted something to come out of the car. Or someone goes and switches the TV on, or whatever it is. He wanted the soundtrack to relate exactly to what was happening in the movie, rather than a film score backing the visuals.”

Speaking of visuals, More was shot by Academy Award- winning cinematographer Nestor Almendros (Days of Heaven).

It might be hard to imagine “The Nile Song,” which is undoubtedly the heaviest song in the entire Pink Floyd canon, taking a backseat to what’s going on onscreen:
 

 
The gorgeous “Cymbaline,” sung by David Gilmour, is only heard in the film on someone’s record player. This slower live performance was filmed in the Abbaye De Royaumont, 30 miles north of Paris, in 1971. This would have been one of the final live performances of this song as they would soon drop it from their concert repertoire in favor of the material that would become Dark Side of the Moon.
 

 
After the jump, much more ‘More’!

 
Another BBC curio from the vaults, here we have Kate Bush talking about her favorite vegetarian dishes on the TV show Delia Smith’s Cookery Course in 1980. Smith is a bit of a legend of British broadcasting, having hosted cookery shows since the early 70s, That doesn’t stop the food in this clip looking a bit, well, bland I’m afraid, but Bush aficionados will be glad to hear the story of how she turned vegetarian, and overjoyed to have this first hand peek into her eating habits:
 

 
Thanks to Philip McEachen!

After the jump, the video for Bush’s 1993 single “Eat The Music”...

 
When producer Bruce Botnick was putting together the new 40th anniversary edition of the Doors classic L.A. Woman, he discovered the tape of an unreleased song recorded during those sessions titled “She Smells So Nice.”

Considering how many times this album has been released and re-released over four decades (the 5.1 surround mix in the Perception box set that came out in 2006 is the one I listen to, it’s great) and that this is probably the final time it’ll come out on any kind of disc media, it’s about time they gave the public a lil’ something new.

Pre-order the new 40th anniversary edition of L.A. Woman at Amazon.
 

  She Smells So Nice by The Doors Official

 
Carl Theodor Dreyer preferred to work with non-actors, as he believed they offered a more reactive performance. In truth, it was because non-professionals did as he said without question or interpretation, which gave Dreyer greater control over the film. Jacques Tati and Pier Paolo Pasolini similarly used non-actors. With Tati it often blighted his films (see Traffic), while for Pasolini it brought something sublime (see The Gospel According to Saint Matthew).

For Dreyer, the use of non-actors in Vampyr (1932), added to the disorienting, dream-like quality, drawing the spectator into a strange and compelling, nightmare world.

Following on from his success with Music for Silents, composer and former Banshee, Steven Severin, has written a fantastic new soundtrack for Vampyr, which he will be performing at special screenings of the film across the UK during January and February. Dates include, Edinburgh, Inverness, Aberdeen, Dundee, Bradford, York, Hackney, Brixton, Brighton, Stratford Upon Avon, Ambleside, Oswestry, Cardiff, Bristol, Exeter, Hebden Bridge, Nottingham, Birmingham, Lancaster & Salford. Details here.

Steven will also be releasing a CD of the soundtrack, which you can order directly form his website.