“If you can remember the 70s, you weren’t there!” A quote very freely adapted from Timothy Leary, or was it Pete Townsend, or maybe even Robin Williams, when commenting on the 60s …  to be honest I’m actually not sure who said it. Anyway they were two tremendously creative decades in rock history. We still have the recordings, some films of concerts, and some ageing rockers are still touring. But what was life really like for a band like Sharks on the edge of the big-time? They made good music and were signed to Island Records. They even had a shark-shaped car. What could possibly go wrong? 

Fortunately their frontman Steve (Snips) Parsons is also a filmmaker. Despite a very limited budget Steve, along with Anke Trojan, made Not a Rock-Doc to share his experience of the ups and downs of being in a working band. As the film title says this is not a traditional documentary. What we have here is a series of impressions of people, places and sounds, some fleeting, drawn from hours of film footage. We meet other band members, in particular accomplished guitarist Chris Spedding. The film touches on the formation of Sharks in 1972, the people, the glamour, the top musicians, the American tour, the albums, the rise of Sharks, their decline, their resurgence in the 21st century, and their subsequent collapse. We join band members in the dubious joys of playing a gig in Scarborough, answering questions from punk icon Jordan Mooney, and declining an audition for the Rolling Stones.

This film does for rock documentaries what Almost Famous (2000) does for rock journalism. It gets behind the glamour while recognising the talent and hard work of the music industry. And it also shows the big egos, personal problems and pettiness surrounding the mythical band Stillwater. Of course Almost Famous had a much bigger budget than Not a Rock-Doc. But Not a Rock-Doc may well follow Almost Famous as another cult classic. 

Not a Rock-Doc is fun. It’s also very human, silly, and sad, and a tribute to creative people struggling against the odds to bring their art to the public. Screen 2 of The Hyde Park Picture House was ideal for a screening of Not a Rock-Doc, followed by Q&A with director Steve Parsons, moderated by Alice Miller. An intimate auditorium. Up close and personal. Snips is refreshingly open in responding to audience questions. He is now using his energy to promote the film to wider audiences and to get funding to get the film on to DVD.  

In short another great Picture House event to celebrate our cultural lives.

Bill Walton