special showing
Saturday
August 9th, 2008
11 a.m.
The Fest for Beatles Fans
Grand Ballroom
Regency O'Hare Hotel
Chicago
Saturday
August 9th, 2008
11 a.m.
The Fest for Beatles Fans
Grand Ballroom
Regency O'Hare Hotel
Chicago
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Saturday, July 12, 2008
The Seventh Python introduces the world to Tokyo's top Rutles tribute, The Mountbattens
When we were producing The Seventh Python, were sure to include a section about the role of the Internet in spreading Neil Innes' music and uniting his fans around the world, and it was through the Internet that we discovered what could be the only Rutles tribute group in Japan!
The Mountbattens, named for the Rutles manager who tragically accepted a taching post in Australia), do dead-on, English language versions of The Rutles' greatest hits, and their inclusion in The Seventh Python (they perform I Must Be In Love) proved to be one of the film's most crowd-pleasing, applause-inducing moments.
The Mountbattens were excited to be included in our little film. And they sent along their group bio:
This is our bio.
The Mountbattens are
Yuji Furuhata : Vo, G
Hitoshi Takahashi : G, Vo
Tatsuto Yasaka : B, Vo
Yasushi Suzuki : D
BBC(B) "Tell me about THE MOUNTBATTENS."
MOUNTBATTENS(M) "We love THE BEATLES."
B "Oh! I love them too. Do you cover their songs?"
M "Ahhh.......No."
B "You play just like THE BEATLES, don't you?"
M "You're not far off."
B "Oh I see! You're closely related to Mersey beat, I guess."
M "Absolutely not."
B "Then what kind of music you play?"
M "We dig THE RUTLES."
B "Rat? What?"
M "We play a lot of songs of THE RUTLES. We love them than THE BEATLES."
B "THE BEATLES are the best, you know."
M "Yes, we know. But we love THE RUTLES for ever and ever."
B "No way. You villain!"
M "Yes, we know too."
Roman Shebalin, Russian bard and artist, gets a worldwide audience with The Seventh Python
We've found that one of the surprises in our Neil Innes biopic, The Seventh Python, is the inclusion of two international acts who are influenced by Neil and help spread his music in far-flung corners of the globe.
One of them is the Japanese Rutles tribute, the Mountbattens. The other is Roman Shebalin, an artist we've featured here before, and who's made an impact on YouTube with his Russian-language renditions of English.
In The Seventh Python, Roman performs his version of Neil's signature tune, How Sweet To Be An Idiot-- in Russian!
Roman-- who wears a pig on his head instead of a duck!-- tells us he doesn't speak English, but with the help of a translator friend sent us a bio.
We hope his inclusion in The Seventh Python only spreads his music as well!
Roman Shebalin (born on 25th of October, 1970 in Moscow, USSR) – Russian musician, writer, artist and registrar.
From 1994 to 1999 studied at the College of Literature. Works as a registrar since he has finished College, specializing at documentaries.
During 2003-2005 founded first Russian sites and fan-clubs of Fabrizio de Andre, “Teenage Opera” project, Bee Gees and Russian bands “Tambourine” and “Dialog”. Also he is one of the organizers and an active member of British rock lovers club and the creator and maintainer of Greyclan Studios.
Since childhood he writes poems; later he published his novels in magazines and also wrote a book called “Haunted City”.
Roman is the creator of the band named “Nav’” (1995) which plays art’n’folk, post-punk, minimalism and avant-guard. Main instruments are acoustic guitar, synthesizer and bagpipe. Also plays solo as a bard.
He is an artist, a designer and a participant of “Love Street” exhibitions (1989-1997). His favorite styles are abstractionism and surrealism, favorite techniques – watercolor, oil, collage.
From 1994 to 1999 studied at the College of Literature. Works as a registrar since he has finished College, specializing at documentaries.
During 2003-2005 founded first Russian sites and fan-clubs of Fabrizio de Andre, “Teenage Opera” project, Bee Gees and Russian bands “Tambourine” and “Dialog”. Also he is one of the organizers and an active member of British rock lovers club and the creator and maintainer of Greyclan Studios.
Since childhood he writes poems; later he published his novels in magazines and also wrote a book called “Haunted City”.
Roman is the creator of the band named “Nav’” (1995) which plays art’n’folk, post-punk, minimalism and avant-guard. Main instruments are acoustic guitar, synthesizer and bagpipe. Also plays solo as a bard.
He is an artist, a designer and a participant of “Love Street” exhibitions (1989-1997). His favorite styles are abstractionism and surrealism, favorite techniques – watercolor, oil, collage.
PRESS RELEASE: "Innes-influenced indie acts get international exposure in 'The Seventh Python'"
Neil Innes biopic plays August 9th at Chicago Fest for Beatles Fans/Russian folk artist and Japanese Rutles tribute are featured in acclaimed film
Innes-influenced indie acts
get international exposure
in "The Seventh Python"
HOLLYWOOD (JONAS PR) -- A folk-rock musician from Moscow and an offbeat tribute band from Tokyo are getting their first international exposure through their surprise inclusion in The Seventh Python, the acclaimed musical biopic of satirist, Monty Python collaborator and Rutle Neil Innes, that heads to an exclusive showing at the Chicago Fest for Beatles Fans on August 9th.
Roman Shebalin is featured in the Frozen Pictures film, singing a Russian-language version of Innes' signature song, How Sweet To Be An Idiot.
From the rock ‘n' roll nightclubs of Tokyo, Rutles tribute band The Mountbattens are shown performing I Must Be In Love, a classic song from the Rutles album and mockumentary, All You Need is Cash.
'We first heard and saw Roman's work on YouTube while we were in post-production,' says Seventh Python director Burt Kearns. 'He's a passionate performer and he's made it a crusade to spread Neil Innes' work in a part of the world that knows him even less than here! He's a great example of how Neil's work has spread across the globe, and how fans in distant places are united, thanks to the Internet.'
'The Mountbattens make pure, perfect pop music," says producer Brett Hudson, 'The fact that they're playing Rutles music and not the Beatles, capturing every nuance and in sound and performance, is totally bent! And truly a tribute to Neil's talent!'
Both performers have atttracted strong word-of-mouth since The Seventh Python premiered June 26th as the opening selection in the Mods & Rockers Film Festival in Hollywood. They managed to grab attention amid the brilliant starpower of Innes, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin, Terry Jones, and, in his introduction to the US and world stage, the hilarious comic and Innes compadre Phill Jupitus.
Shebalin, 37, who founded the first Russian fansites for bands including the BeeGees, is also an artist, published poet and author, and a founder of the post-punk, minimalist, avant-garde band, Nav. His main instruments are acoustic guitar, synthesizer and bagpipes.
The Mountbattens are Yuji Furuhata on vocals and guitar, Hitoshi Takahashi : guitar, vocals; Tatsuto Yasaka, bass & vocals; and
Yasushi Suzuki on drums.
The Seventh Python, hailed by the Los Angeles Times as 'charming and illuminating,' will be presented August 9th in a special 11:30 a.m. screening in the main ballroom of the Hyatt Regency O'Hare Hotel amid the Fest for Beatles Fans. Neil Innes will be there for the showing.
Roman Shebalin is featured in the Frozen Pictures film, singing a Russian-language version of Innes' signature song, How Sweet To Be An Idiot.
From the rock ‘n' roll nightclubs of Tokyo, Rutles tribute band The Mountbattens are shown performing I Must Be In Love, a classic song from the Rutles album and mockumentary, All You Need is Cash.
'We first heard and saw Roman's work on YouTube while we were in post-production,' says Seventh Python director Burt Kearns. 'He's a passionate performer and he's made it a crusade to spread Neil Innes' work in a part of the world that knows him even less than here! He's a great example of how Neil's work has spread across the globe, and how fans in distant places are united, thanks to the Internet.'
'The Mountbattens make pure, perfect pop music," says producer Brett Hudson, 'The fact that they're playing Rutles music and not the Beatles, capturing every nuance and in sound and performance, is totally bent! And truly a tribute to Neil's talent!'
Both performers have atttracted strong word-of-mouth since The Seventh Python premiered June 26th as the opening selection in the Mods & Rockers Film Festival in Hollywood. They managed to grab attention amid the brilliant starpower of Innes, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin, Terry Jones, and, in his introduction to the US and world stage, the hilarious comic and Innes compadre Phill Jupitus.
Shebalin, 37, who founded the first Russian fansites for bands including the BeeGees, is also an artist, published poet and author, and a founder of the post-punk, minimalist, avant-garde band, Nav. His main instruments are acoustic guitar, synthesizer and bagpipes.
The Mountbattens are Yuji Furuhata on vocals and guitar, Hitoshi Takahashi : guitar, vocals; Tatsuto Yasaka, bass & vocals; and
Yasushi Suzuki on drums.
The Seventh Python, hailed by the Los Angeles Times as 'charming and illuminating,' will be presented August 9th in a special 11:30 a.m. screening in the main ballroom of the Hyatt Regency O'Hare Hotel amid the Fest for Beatles Fans. Neil Innes will be there for the showing.
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
Our next music bio film is about Chris Montez
We're still working on the aftermath of the world premiere of our Neil Innes biopic, The Seventh Python, but why waste time when we've got something great? We've already begun pre-production on our next nonfiction, musical feature film: the story of Sixties rocker Chris Montez.
Chris is a Mexican American rock legend who grew up in Hawthorne, California, went to school with the Beach Boys, met his hero Ritchie Valens as a teen, carried on as his successor, toured England with the Beatles as his opening act, and pioneered the lounge movement with hits like Call Me and The More I See You. You'll recognize his hit, Let's Dance. It played during the food fight scene in Animal House, and the Ramones covered it on their first album.
Here's the press release:
FROZEN PICTURES TO FOLLOW
ACCLAIMED NEIL INNES BIOPIC
WITH NONFICTION FILM
ON THE LIFE AND MUSIC
OF CHRIS MONTEZ
HOLLYWOOD, July 2 (JONAS PR) - Hot on the heels of the world premiere of its Neil Innes biopic, The Seventh Python, Frozen Pictures announced today that its next nonfiction musical feature film will focus on the life and career of rock and pop star Chris Montez.
Montez, best known for 1962 rocker, Let's Dance and Swingin' Sixties hits like Call Me and The More I See You, has seen international success whose versatility has moved him beyond the Oldies circuit.
“Chris Montez is an incredibly influential musician whose life and music have touched on every major thread in rock ‘n' roll, from Latino rock to R&B, Sixties pop to lounge, surf to punk,” says Burt Kearns, who writes, produces or directs all of Frozen's projects with Brett Hudson.
"His story is epic. He grew up in Hawthorne, California and went to school and jammed with Brian Wilson and his brothers. He met his hero Ritchie Valens, months before his death. He toured the Deep South at with Sam Cooke and Smokey Robinson. The Beatles were his opening act on their breakthrough British tour. He was washed up at 19. And then he met Herb Alpert and began a very unlikely second act.”
“This film will rewrite rock ‘n' roll history,” adds Hudson, who wrote part of that history with The Hudson Brothers in the Sixties and Seventies. “There's a legendary story about Chris getting into a barroom brawl with John Lennon. There are questions about where those Beatle suits came from. And there's lots more."
International Production
Plans call for filming in Los Angeles, Branson, Europe and Mexico, including an all-star jam session that will feature Montez' greatest hits in a casual setting. “What Bono did for Roy Orbison, what Rick Rubin did for Johnny Cash and Neil Diamond, we'll do for Chris Montez,” says Hudson. “He's a very special talent who really communicates with his music."
The greenlighting of the Montez project comes less than a week after Frozen Pictures' latest film, The Seventh Python, had its world premiere at the American Cinematheque's Mods & Rockers Film Festival in Hollywood.
Reviews have been uniformly impressive, with The Los Angeles Times calling the film “charming and illuminating,” and LAist praising it as “inspired and hilarious.'”
Hudson says the Montez story, besides "reflecting the journey and assimilation of the Mexican American from the 1950s to the first years of the 21st Century," fits in well with the Frozen Pictures' other entertaining, innovative and surprising nonfiction projects that that include the Bravo miniseries, All The Presidents' Movies with Martin Sheen and the television special, The Secret History of Rock ‘n' Roll with Gene Simmons.
“I want to be an example”
Montez, who recently starred at the Dick Clark ‘s American Bandstand Theatre in Branson, Missouri, is eager to bring his story to a new generation “and influence as many people as I can.
"For me, it's always been about overcoming obstacles,” he says. “I'd like to say I grew up in a bilingual home, but my parents never spoke English. I grew up with four brothers and four sisters, and none of them finished school. I've seen discrimination against them and I've experienced it myself. But though I know the struggles of being a Mexican American, I also had tremendous opportunities. I ended up working with the Beatles-- and having the Beatles open for me!
"A lot of Mexican Americans know about me, and I have a lot of older fans, but I want to be an example to young people. An example that everything's possible. I've had lot of Mexican people say to me, 'You're a legend'-- I don't know what that means. I've always been an underdog. And whether you're worth ten million dollars or ten bucks, you're the same person as long as you keep that focus.”
Lensing is set for late summer.
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
"One big happy singalong!": LAist reviews Neil Innes' concert at The Seventh Python's Mods & Rockers Film Festival premiere
Yes, we've been busy this past week! We've told you that we'll be screening The Seventh Python, August 9th at the 32nd Chicago Fest for Beatles Fans-- Neil Innes will be appearing that event, as well.-- and meanwhile, Elise Thompson at LAist has a review of Neil's performance at the Egyptian Theatre Friday night (see some great fan reviews at Neil Innes fansite:
LAist
JUNE 30, 2008
Neil Innes at the Egyptian 6/27/08
(Written with Bob Thompson)
It was an intimate night of music and comedy as Neil Innes entertained an enthralled crowd in The Egyptian Theater on Friday night, the second of a two-night Innes-Fest at the Mods and Rockers Film Festival.
It was more like hanging out in the local pub than attending a rock concert. Switching from guitar to keyboard to ukelele to something resembling a zither, Innes kept stressing it was an "interactive" night, inviting friends like animator and webmaster Bonnie Rose and Emo Philips up on stage to accompany him. Ken Simpson and “Rutling Ken” Thornton, a pair of guitarists from the Midwest, made especially strong contributions, Thornton adding Harrison-esque leads to several of the most moving songs. Innes often relied upon the audience to provide background vocals, and the theater turned into one big, happy sing-along. Imagine being part of a huge theater crowd hollering along to songs like “Jollity Farm” and “The Bruces’ Philosophers Song”.
The show opened with a “medley of hit”, the Bonzo Dog Band’s "Urban Spaceman", a big single in 1968 England, and heard by Yanks in Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl fourteen years later. Innes then ran through a number of Monty Python, Bonzo Dog Band, Rutles and solo songs with a good mix of the popular and the obscure.
While Innes famously employs the dreaded mix of music and comedy, his schtick is quite different from the numerous guitar-wielding comics we’ve been seeing lately. Innes’ tunes are finely crafted, never just set-ups to a punch line. Even at his most pointedly parodic – jabbing Dylan with “Protest Song”, sampling the Beach Boys doo-wopping on his new keyboard or lampooning the Beatles in the Rutles segment – his songs are good enough to pass as those of his subjects. As insightful and subtle as Spinal Tap, Innes realizes that in satire, it’s worth sacrificing a couple of easy laughs in order to set up the really big one.
.jpg)
His ultimate Lennon jab, "Cheese and Onions", loudly requested by a pre-teen in attendance, brought the house down. “I’ve got grandchildren now… and I ate them both,” snarled Innes in response to the request, prowling the crowded stage, wondering what instrument to pick up next.
As could be expected, a lot of the folks in attendance were musicians, among them Joe Walsh and Jeff Lynne. Another successful evening ended at The Clubhouse where Seventh Python producer Brett Hudson and director Burt Kearns took over hosting duties.
JUNE 30, 2008
Neil Innes at the Egyptian 6/27/08
(Written with Bob Thompson)
It was an intimate night of music and comedy as Neil Innes entertained an enthralled crowd in The Egyptian Theater on Friday night, the second of a two-night Innes-Fest at the Mods and Rockers Film Festival.
It was more like hanging out in the local pub than attending a rock concert. Switching from guitar to keyboard to ukelele to something resembling a zither, Innes kept stressing it was an "interactive" night, inviting friends like animator and webmaster Bonnie Rose and Emo Philips up on stage to accompany him. Ken Simpson and “Rutling Ken” Thornton, a pair of guitarists from the Midwest, made especially strong contributions, Thornton adding Harrison-esque leads to several of the most moving songs. Innes often relied upon the audience to provide background vocals, and the theater turned into one big, happy sing-along. Imagine being part of a huge theater crowd hollering along to songs like “Jollity Farm” and “The Bruces’ Philosophers Song”.
The show opened with a “medley of hit”, the Bonzo Dog Band’s "Urban Spaceman", a big single in 1968 England, and heard by Yanks in Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl fourteen years later. Innes then ran through a number of Monty Python, Bonzo Dog Band, Rutles and solo songs with a good mix of the popular and the obscure.
While Innes famously employs the dreaded mix of music and comedy, his schtick is quite different from the numerous guitar-wielding comics we’ve been seeing lately. Innes’ tunes are finely crafted, never just set-ups to a punch line. Even at his most pointedly parodic – jabbing Dylan with “Protest Song”, sampling the Beach Boys doo-wopping on his new keyboard or lampooning the Beatles in the Rutles segment – his songs are good enough to pass as those of his subjects. As insightful and subtle as Spinal Tap, Innes realizes that in satire, it’s worth sacrificing a couple of easy laughs in order to set up the really big one.
.jpg)
His ultimate Lennon jab, "Cheese and Onions", loudly requested by a pre-teen in attendance, brought the house down. “I’ve got grandchildren now… and I ate them both,” snarled Innes in response to the request, prowling the crowded stage, wondering what instrument to pick up next.
As could be expected, a lot of the folks in attendance were musicians, among them Joe Walsh and Jeff Lynne. Another successful evening ended at The Clubhouse where Seventh Python producer Brett Hudson and director Burt Kearns took over hosting duties.
Brett sings with brother Mark Hudson at Fest for Beatles Fans in Las Vegas-- and announces The Seventh Python Chicago premiere
On the heels of a blockbuster two-night premiere for The Seventh Python at the Mods & Rockers Film Festival at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, star and subject Neil Innes, producer Brett Hudson, music supervisor Mark Hudson, director Burt Kearns and festival impresario Martin Lewis landed in Las Vegas for the opening of the est for Beatles Fans at the Mirage Hotel (home of the Love show). After catching a performance of Spamalot at the Wynn across Las Vegas Boulevard, Neil Innes made a surprise appearance onstage at the Fest and brought the house down with Rutles favorites.
But first, two-thirds of the Hudson Brothers appeared onstage with Lewis to talk about the new DVD collection of their Seventies TV series, and to announce that The Seventh Python will be shown at the Chicago Fest for Beatles Fans, beginning August 9th.
The film be screened in the grand ballroom of the Hyatt Regency OHare Hotel at 11 am as an "early bird special" for the fans queueing up for the noon opening of the fest.
It will be screened later in smaller fest venues.
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