Kraftwerk Documentary On BBC4

BBC 4 at 10:00pm Friday Jan 30th

Documentary telling the story of how a group of reclusive Rhineland experimentalists called Kraftwerk became one of the most influential pop groups of all time.
It is a celebration of the band featuring exclusive live tracks filmed at their Tate Modern shows in London in February 2013, interwoven with expert analysis, archive footage of the group going back to 1970, newsreel of the era and newly-shot cinematic evocations of their obsessions.
With contributions from techno pioneer Derrick May, Can founder Holger Czukay, DJ and remixer Francois Kevorkian, graphic design guru Neville Brody, writer Paul Morley, band photographer Peter Boettcher, Tate Modern curator Caroline Wood and others.

 

Sure, hide it on BBC 4. I suppose the main channels have no room left among the inane quizzes and talk shows.

 

If it had been on the main channels I probably wouldn't have noticed it was on, seeing as BBC4 tends to be the place to look for good music documentaries.

 

Great news! Don't have BBC4, but I hope I'll be able to see it somewhere else.

 

It's very difficult to get a real look into Kraftwerk. So I guess with those contributors this documentary - like many others - will only scratch the surface.

But for those who can read german, there is a recent book out about the whole electronic scene of Düsseldorf. It's put together from quotes/interviews with
musicians from that scene. And this book gives some very interesting new aspects. Also into Kraftwerk.

http://www.amazon.de/Electri_City-E...&qid=1422211571&sr=1-1&keywords=electric+city

 

Will be watching

Derrick May

 

You can watch it live on iplayer using a dns changer, thats what I do in Ireland.

 

Great, surely the most enigmatic and perhaps, most influential, band in popular music history, Miley Cyrus could learn a thing or two from them.

 

You can watch BBC4 on youtube!

 

Not live though, the way you can with iPlayer. You have to rely on someone to upload the programmes at some later stage.

 

True.

 

Only takes a few minutes to set up free dns changer like Hola though

 

Having seen this documentary, this sums up pretty well my initial thoughts about it. Nevertheless, it surely is worth watching.

 

BBC4 has been the home for a Friday night music documentary for the last couple of years. I'm not sure if they're making them for any other slot currently. Also not sure what the story is on releasing them commercially beyond the i-player which is only available to people whose computers have UK addresses showing.

Was that Gene Clark documentary last year a BBC original or just shown in that slot? I think that's getting wider distribution, definitely seen it advertised as being shown in certain theatres, may get a dvd release too?
Otherwise I think you need to find somebody who can record and copy the thing for you.

 

Just spotted that too. I wonder if the nick cave or Midlake docs will get an airing soon

 

I don't know if it is hidden, like a lot of people I am more aware of stuff on BBC 4 than I am on any of the other Freeview station in the UK. They consistently broadcast shows I am interested in whereas BBC 1 + 3 are dreadful and BBC 2 is a pale shadow of what it used to be.

 

True. Thing is, I'm on the Continent. BBC 3 and 4 are not part of my standard cable package.

 

Thanls guys for all your advise! I'm already looking forward to it. Anything Kraftwerk is worth watching!

 

I agree, 1 + 3 does not equal 4.

 

Nor mine as I don't have cable, easy to watch it online as I discussed above.

 

I sometimes run into what seem to be rights issues though. "This content is not available in your country", and so forth. I'm sure I can access it, somehow--but anyway, that's why I used the word 'hide'.

 

Add Hola to your browser, select uk and you can watch any bbc stuff.

 

Just a reminder that this is on BBC4 tonight.

 

Paul Morley: 'The Beatles never influenced anyone'. What a load of rubbish this guy is quite comfortable spouting! The Fab Four laid down the templates and mix-ups people are still using in popular music. I've also never heard a group so over estimated in such a naive way, a psuedo intellectual style attributing all kinds of cultural importances to fairly elementary German robotic electrivia. Better to refer to Tangerine Dream, Tonto's Expanding Head Band, Walter Carlos. Perhaps the prog is aimed at 15 year olds, to whom Paul Morley's pontifications might seem worthy.

 

It was quite an underwhelming documentary. At the beginning the producers mentioned they had had unprecedented access to Kraftwerk but that was still very limited, just some lengthy liveshots and old archival footage. The talking heads in the documentary ranged from snobbish to just simply pointless. They had nothing interesting to say, certainly weren't able to put Kraftwerk's output and influence into perspective / focus. Morley's Beatles statement was indeed rubbish.

I do however agree with some of the underlying points this documentary makes: Kraftwerk's influence is all around us and will be for years and years to come. The only insight that was interesting came from the Kraftwerk's main photographer (who only is able to shoot the robots in most cases) who IIRC said something along the line that Kraftwerk is an ongoing "Gesammtkunstwerk" focusing primarily on the liveshows where the concert location, the sound, the visuals all are essential parts of the whole.

I am going to see them for the first time this year at a very special show here in the Netherlands at the Grand Depart of the Tour De France (the city of Utrecht is the starting point of the Tour De France this year) where they will be playing the Tour De France album first followed by their usual 'greatest hits' set.