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Thread: Midnight Special Releases Rock Films

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    Midnight Special Releases Rock Films

    While Sean has posted about the KC release, I wanted to post here since this pilot is about rock in general and has great stuff. The channel is releasing some stuff that is based on film stock.


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    Pretty sure I watched that episode when it premiered and most of the first season or two; you had to sit through the whole show to see a few interesting artists.

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    Quote Originally Posted by soundsweird View Post
    Pretty sure I watched that episode when it premiered and most of the first season or two; you had to sit through the whole show to see a few interesting artists.
    Do you mean March 6 2023, when these videos released on the channel? Any group you see on the pilot could be in individual videos released.

    https://youtube.com/@themidnightspecialtvshow

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    cunning linguist 3LockBox's Avatar
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    Too bad Don Kirshner was such a cheapskate. Re-used video tape to save money and a lot of great concert footage was lost. In Concert was better than Midnight Special.

  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by 3LockBox View Post
    Too bad Don Kirshner was such a cheapskate. Re-used video tape to save money and a lot of great concert footage was lost. In Concert was better than Midnight Special.
    My understanding is, the only reason Deep Purple's California Jam survived intact is because Deep Purple's management were smart enough to buy the footage from ABC. So, perhaps it's the management/record companies of the various artists whose performances didn't survive who were the cheapskates.

    Erasing videotape was common practice in the TV industry back then. Lots of talk shows, game shows, etc, got sacrificed. And when once something was edited down, the raw footage, which was deemed no longer useable, was reused. Once again, I point out, nobody knew anyone was going to care about this stuff years later, never mind decades later. And I seriously don't think anyone saw the home video market being what it ended up being.

    The music industry wasn't much better.

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    Quote Originally Posted by 3LockBox View Post
    Too bad Don Kirshner was such a cheapskate. Re-used video tape to save money and a lot of great concert footage was lost. In Concert was better than Midnight Special.
    Even worse if he used video instead of film. These Midnight Specials only look good now, because they were filmed, or at least the ones I’ve seen so far. Even SNL didn’t use film, and it shows on those old episodes.

    Hard to believe that the episode of In Concert I saw on a Sony Trinitron in 71, with stereo sound simulcast from a local progressive FM (when FM actually sounded good before station crowding) of ELP with Keith Emerson flying a keyboard over the stage, wasn’t filmed.

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    Quote Originally Posted by GuitarGeek View Post
    My understanding is, the only reason Deep Purple's California Jam survived intact is because Deep Purple's management were smart enough to buy the footage from ABC. So, perhaps it's the management/record companies of the various artists whose performances didn't survive who were the cheapskates.

    Erasing videotape was common practice in the TV industry back then. Lots of talk shows, game shows, etc, got sacrificed. And when once something was edited down, the raw footage, which was deemed no longer useable, was reused. Once again, I point out, nobody knew anyone was going to care about this stuff years later, never mind decades later. And I seriously don't think anyone saw the home video market being what it ended up being.

    The music industry wasn't much better.
    Video sucks from back them, they should have filmed it.

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by Firth View Post
    Video sucks from back them, they should have filmed it.
    Well, the one thing I do notice on a lot of old concert footage that were shot on videotape is microphony, which is those lines you see going through the image, the result of the loud music causing the tubes inside the cameras to vibrate. Even something like firing a prop gun on camera would cause this, as can be seen on some of the 70's era Doctor Who episodes (lots of other TV shows too, but as a loyal Jon Pertwee/Tom Baker era Doctor Who geek, that's where I notice). And from what I gather, the technology still doesn't exist to removes the lines.

    You don't get that with film, but I gather that filming was much more expensive. I think most music related TV shows were produced with extremely tight budgets, so filming stuff wasn't really possible.

    You mentioned Saturday Night Live. How were they going to do a live TV show with film? I think you can only do that with video.

    Also, there's quite a few concerts that only exist on video today, because they had video screens in some arenas and stadia, and someone was bright enough to hook a video recorder up to the video feed. Also, the Yes QPR video (regardless of how bad the audio mix is, it's still a cool video to have) probably wouldn't exist if you only show on film, "due to the unique way the BBC is funded" (as Jeremy Clarkson once put it).

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    Quote Originally Posted by GuitarGeek View Post
    Well, the one thing I do notice on a lot of old concert footage that were shot on videotape is microphony, which is those lines you see going through the image, the result of the loud music causing the tubes inside the cameras to vibrate. Even something like firing a prop gun on camera would cause this, as can be seen on some of the 70's era Doctor Who episodes (lots of other TV shows too, but as a loyal Jon Pertwee/Tom Baker era Doctor Who geek, that's where I notice). And from what I gather, the technology still doesn't exist to removes the lines.

    You don't get that with film, but I gather that filming was much more expensive. I think most music related TV shows were produced with extremely tight budgets, so filming stuff wasn't really possible.

    You mentioned Saturday Night Live. How were they going to do a live TV show with film? I think you can only do that with video.

    Also, there's quite a few concerts that only exist on video today, because they had video screens in some arenas and stadia, and someone was bright enough to hook a video recorder up to the video feed. Also, the Yes QPR video (regardless of how bad the audio mix is, it's still a cool video to have) probably wouldn't exist if you only show on film, "due to the unique way the BBC is funded" (as Jeremy Clarkson once put it).
    The answer for SNL would have been a combination of video and film for archiving. Archiving with film would need appropriate storage. As time progressed that film can be scanned to produce high quality video. I’m impressed with the latest scanning of 8 and 16 mm Genesis shows.

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    Contract – Genesis – The Midnight Special – NBC – December

    Selling England By The Pound – Tour

    This a performance contract for the television appearance of Genesis on the NBC Show – The Midnight Special.

    The performance was filmed on the 18th December 1973, then it was broadcasted on the NBC network on the 20th December 1973.

    Genesis can been seen in film footage performing, Watcher Of The Skies and The Musical Box.
    It is not know if any other songs were performed or filmed.

    The Band were introduced by “Wolfman Jack” aka Robert Weston Smith, who by all accounts did not quite get what Genesis were trying to do.

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    I just looked at the YT versions of Genesis Midnight Special (not this new conversion show) and I’m pretty certain that MS can provide a better version of the video.

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    They should have known 50 years ago...
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    Howabout those Isley Brothers @ 12:50! That is some righteous funk right there...

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    Quote Originally Posted by ronmac View Post
    They should have known 50 years ago...
    They did know and decided not to do it.

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    There's a pretty good cleanup of the Genesis show here:

    Cobra handling and cocaine use are a bad mix.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Sturgeon's Lawyer View Post
    There's a pretty good cleanup of the Genesis show here:

    Not really, wait for the Midnight Special one.

  17. #17
    Quote Originally Posted by Firth View Post
    They did know and decided not to do it.
    If they knew there would be a viable market for this material decades later, they would have invested in preserving it. Clearly, they thought otherwise. So, it appears that either they did not know, or they deliberately chose to throw away money. I'll go with the former.
    "The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"

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    I was at all the the Dk's taped at the Long Beach Arena (it was next to the arena actually) back around 74/75....

    saw a lot of cool bands, they NEVER would tell you who was playing until you got in there, but there were tons of bands that sucked too...

    Saw Jo Jo Gunne, Golden Earring, UFO, Foghat, T-Rex, a bunch more...

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    From Feb 73, a live performance.

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    Parrots Ripped My Flesh Dave (in MA)'s Avatar
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    I remember the first time seeing that video online in a lower resolution and I was initially startled by Fagen suddenly appearing next to Palmer. With the lo-res picture it wasn't obvious that it was a split screen.

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    My first reaction was "Is that Carrot Top?"
    Cobra handling and cocaine use are a bad mix.

  22. #22
    cunning linguist 3LockBox's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Firth View Post
    From Feb 73, a live performance.
    I thought that Fagen did the lead vocal on that one.

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    Jazzbo manqué Mister Triscuits's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by 3LockBox View Post
    I thought that Fagen did the lead vocal on that one.
    He did on the studio version.

    How about Skunk Baxter being relegated to congas?
    Hurtleturtled Out of Heaven - an electronic music composition, on CD and vinyl
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mister Triscuits View Post
    He did on the studio version.

    How about Skunk Baxter being relegated to congas?
    Yes, funny.

  25. #25
    cunning linguist 3LockBox's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mister Triscuits View Post
    He did on the studio version.

    How about Skunk Baxter being relegated to congas?
    I didn't catch that... what a team player!

    In fact, if you look up the credits to that first album, Baxter is credited for guitars, congas, triangles and Mexican güiro.

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