Hair-Metal.com

January 12, 2015

The Quiet Riot film ‘Well Now You’re Here, There’s No Way Back’ will be premiering on January 29th on Showtime with a DVD and iTunes release to follow on May 19th.

Quiet Riot topped the charts in 1983 with the first #1 heavy metal album, ‘Metal Health’, which sold over 10 million copies worldwide and paved the way for successful metal bands like, Motley Crue, Poison, and Bon Jovi to turn the 1980s into the decade of heavy metal hair rock.

An unlikely and surprisingly personal narrative to conquer the loss of a friend emerges from an odyssey about the rise, fall and resurrection of an 80’s metal band. The career of Frankie Banali, drummer of Quiet Riot, took a major sideswipe when his singer and best friend Kevin DuBrow died in 2007. In 2010 and at a cross roads in his life, Banali has to forge ahead and make a new life for himself and his daughter. At times both utterly tragic, and downright hilarious, the film follows him going through the emotional feat of trying to fill the void left by DuBrow and get the band back together one more time.

The 105-minute character-driven documentary goes beyond the guts and glory of the common getting the band back together tale. ‘Well Now You’re Here, There’s No Way Back’ reveals an unforgettable man who uses ambition, adaptability, relentless determination and principle to navigate through a business, and a series of obstacles that are attempting to control his fate.

“When Frankie Banali told me he was planning to meet with Kevin DuBrow’s mother to get her blessing to go on with the band and find a new singer, I thought this would be an extraordinary story for a documentary.” First time director Regina Russell gained access to the private video and photo archives of the band. She followed them for four years and got interviews with many of the integral characters in the band’s history.

Production on the indie film was launched in 2010 after a surprisingly successful campaign on Kickstarter.com, in the crowdfunding website’s infancy. The campaign raised $25,000 of startup capital from the band’s loyal fan base for over 30 years, and a whole new generation of young head bangers.

‘Well Now You’re Here, There’s No Way Back’ is produced and directed by Regina Russell, edited by Kelly McCoy and executive produced by Gene Raphael Miller.

Courtesy of www.sleazeroxx.com

August 19, 2014

Johnny Thunders was the legendary hard-living rock ‘n’ roll guitarist of the New York Dolls and Heartbreakers who inspired glam-metal, punk and the music scene in general. ‘Looking For Johnny’ is a 90-minute film, slated for release on DVD October 14th, that documents Thunders’ career from his beginnings to his tragic death in 1991.

When Johnny Thunders died in New Orleans on April 23rd 1991, he left behind a mystery. Though MTV and international broadsheets reported the guitarist’s demise, for many in the mainstream, Thunders was perceived as an enigmatic outlaw. He was adored by a legion of devotees and cited as an influence by at least three successive generations of musicians. Thunders refused to play the corporate game and was both elevated and damned for it.

‘Looking For Johnny’ is the creation of the documentary maker, Danny Garcia (‘The Rise & Fall of The Clash’) — through Chip Baker Films in association with Jungle Records and MVD Entertainment Group. The young Spanish filmmaker was seized by a question that wouldn’t let go — “just who was Johnny Thunders?” He spent 18 months travelling across the USA and Europe, filming interviews with fifty of the people who were closest to Johnny, building a compelling narrative drawn from first hand testimonies.

The film examines Johnny Thunders’ career from the early ’70s as a founding member of the influential New York Dolls, the birth of the punk scene with The Heartbreakers in both New York City and London, and later incarnations including Gang War and The Oddballs. It also explores Johnny’s unique musical style, his personal battle with drugs and theories on the circumstances of his death in a New Orleans hotel in 1991 at age 38.

Interviewees include Sylvain Sylvain, Lenny Kaye, Walter Lure, Billy Rath, Bob Gruen, Terry Chimes, Alan Vega, Peter Perrett, Sami Yaffa, three of his late managers (Marty Thau, Leee Black Childers and Malcolm McLaren), and many others.

The film includes forty songs (including “Born To Lose” and “You Can’t Put Your Arms Around A Memory”) and historic film of Johnny with live performances from all periods, including unseen New York Dolls and Heartbreakers footage and photos. Cult filmmakers Bob Gruen, Don Letts, Patrick Grandperret, Rachael Amadeo and others contribute classic archive footage, helping illustrate the charisma, chaos and heartbreak inherent to the guitarist.

Courtesy of www.sleazeroxx.com