Pleased to say, fans of music films are spoiled over the next few weeks, with a strong selection of docs and drams showing at two imminent London film festivals.

Raindance – which runs from September 20 – October 1 – kicks off a solid line-up with On The Sly: In Search Of The Family Stone, which I wrote about recently in Uncut, and Teenage Superstars, Grant McPhee’s look at Glasgow’s indie music scene in the mid-Eighties.

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Things move swiftly on with Stooge – a film about Robert Pargiter, Iggy Pop’s No1 fan – and Melody Makers, about my alma mater though, mercifully, it focuses on a period long before I turned up to spoil the party. Interestingly, there’s also a doc on PiL called The Public Image Is Rotten – though, alas, I can’t find a trailer for it at the moment.

On The Sly: In Search Of The Family Stone

Teenage Superstars

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOzNCacVFT0

Stooge

Melody Maker

The Public Image Is Rotten

Meanwhile, over at the BFI London Film Festival – which runs from October 4 – 15 – you can see the splendid documentary on England’s first lady of folk, The Ballad Of Shirley Collins, and a film about another of music’s grande dame – Marianne Faithfull, as captured by Sandrine Bonnaire.

One film I am very much looking forward to is Nico, 88, which appears to cover the same period as James Edward Young’s excellent book, Nico: Songs They Never Play On The Radio. There’s also a documentary on The Slits, G-Funk and – this looks pretty essential – Bamseom Seoul Pirates Inferno, about Korean punk band, Bamseom Pirates. Sample lyric: “Grandma our roof is leaking / Don’t worry son, Twitter will save us!” For more heartwarming fare, there’s The Drummer And The Keeper – the first feature from former musician, Nick Kelly.

I hope you agree, it looks like there’s plenty out there to enjoy.

The Ballad Of Shirley Collins

Faithfull

Nico, 88

Here to be Heard: The Story Of The Slits

Bamseom Seoul Pirates Inferno

G Funk

The Drummer and the Keeper

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The November 2017 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – featuring The Beatles on the cover. Elsewhere in the issue, there are new interviews with Beck, Michael Head, The Jacksons, Neil Finn and we celebrate the legacy of Woody Guthrie and remember Walter Becker. We review David Bowie, The Smiths, Margo Price, Robert Plant and Kurt Vile and Courtney Barnett. Our free CD features 15 tracks of the month’s best music, including Courtney Barnett and Kurt Vile, Gregg Allman, Margo Price, The Weather Station and more.