It’s been a busy few weeks for those who love their flicks with a heavy dose of music relevance.  well, its no secret that we love our rock docs and our biopic movies especially when they’re about subjects that we hold dear. When we saw a glut of watchable music-related movies we just had to pick up the popcorn and sit back and wait for the action.  This roundup is of four movies that have just been released or are about to hit the high street on DVD and we begin with punk Rock n Roll Royalty none other than Stiv Bator.  We’d interviewed the maker and reviewed the soundtrack so it would be rude not to give our take on the much-anticipated movie ‘Stiv’: No Compromise, No Regrets.

Stiv: No Compromise, No Regrets (Weinerworld)

Now I know there are a lot of opinions (sure everyone has one) but we have to agree that any Stiv movie no matter where you stand on how good it is is better than NO movie about Stiv right?

Sure it would have been nice had The Likes of Brian James, Michael Monroe or Cheetah included  but they have to agree and signed off their involvement and they didn’t so should the film not be made?  does it fall without their inclusion? Hell no – on with the show kids. there were plenty of pivitol people who did agree and thats what makes ‘Stiv’ a really well-researched movie and the inclusion of some decent footage I’d not seen before made it a must see.

Sure there is other footage out there that might have worked well and it might not have taken too much to get it included but thats for nerds to bicker over and that’s the beauty of debate.  This is one man’s movie and that’s it, I might have done it differently as would the next big Stiv fan but the general consensus is that it’s a good movie and one that is clearly done with much love and respect, oh, and the soundtrack isn’t too shabby either (lets not mention the lack of lords songs, etc etc this wasn’t a bottomless money pit of a project).

whilst time plays tricks with the memory and the old grey matter might not be what it used to be there are a few things I noticed when watching this movie back. One, Stiv as funny engaging and likable as he might be – he always put Stiv first second and third when entering a music project.  He’d use the bands as a vehicle for Stiv and when it was time to move on he would (the wanderers, Dead Boys, Lords).

Maybe there could have been a little more in-depth look at his time in Dead Boys and the timeline could have been clearer but that’s nitpicking because I also appreciate this film in order to appeal to a wider audience has to fit into a certain length restraint otherwise it would be volume 1 volume two etc.  I love the talking heads all speaking fondly of the guy and his contribution to music especially tales from the likes of Dave Tregunna and the punk and post-punk scene Stiv was a rare talent, his legacy is a back catalogue of quite exceptional music from the solo stuff he was working on just before he died through the Bomp stuff and The Dead Boys ’77 punk. Stivv had the midas touch and didn’t make any bad records (not in my eyes anyway) we can argue about the more experimental side of the Lords as they developed from the Punk Rock and Roll of the first album through the more experimental poppier ‘Is Nothing Sacred’ and then the rock of ‘Methods’.

Stiv is a really enjoyable rounded movie of one of Rocks real characters whos talent is understated and often misunderstood it looks great on the TV and I’m grateful it’s been made. It took quite a while but now it’s here embrace it.  there is extra footage, in fact, there are twenty minutes of extras.  to please everyone I guess a movie would need to be about four hours long with another three hours of bonus material.  Lets not split hairs over what’s not here let’s celebrate what is here.  thanks, Danny and Chip Baker films for Stiv now go pick up a copy asap.