Hawkwind founder and bandleader Dave Brock has responded to the negative portrayal of his band in the recent BBC documentary Paul McCartney: The Hunt For The Lost Bass with anger and dismay, saying, “I was pissed off. This disrespects the band.”

First aired on BBC Two on April 11, the documentary looked into how McCartney’s first bass guitar – a Höfner 500/1 violin bass, which he’d bought in Hamburg during the Beatles’ residency there in 1961 – went missing.

The bass was used on the albums Please Please Me and With The Beatles, then replaced in 1963 by a newer model gifted by Höfner. McCartney’s original became a battered backup instrument until the Beatles split and was still in his possession when he went solo and formed his next group, Wings.

In October 1972, when Wings were recording their second LP Red Rose Speedway, the bass was part of a haul stolen from the back of their van, which had been parked overnight in Cambridge Gardens, Ladbroke Grove. In an unexpected plot twist, The Hunt For The Lost Bass names local residents Hawkwind as potential culprits, particularly Michael "DikMik" Davies, their late roadie-turned-electronics pioneer.

Dave Brock had settled in for a night in front of the TV to watch the doc. He was shocked to see Hawkwind dragged into the story. “I’d read about the film in the Radio Times," he tells Classic Rock, “It mentioned the counterculture scene in west London but I didn’t realise we were going to be in it.”

In the documentary, Wings roadie Ian Horne explains how, while transferring their gear to Basing Street Studios in Notting Hill, he decided not to unpack the backline at the end of a day but instead parked the van in a spot suggested by his friend Trevor. The next morning the lock was broken on the back shutter, and the gear gone.

The area back then was a post-war slum populated by squat-dwellers, working-class families, hippie creatives – and bands such as Hawkwind. DikMik’s basement flat was beside where the van was parked. Horne says, “Trevor thought DikMik was a bit iffy,” but is unable to back this up before elaborating, “I did feel it was one of that mob because they all knew we worked for Paul.” Horne then recounts that he and Trevor, armed with wrenches, forced entry to the flat where they found an alarmed DikMik but saw no sign of the bass, or any of Wings’ other gear.

“But did they?” Brock says. “That sounds to me like a tall story. We toured a hell of a lot in 1972 and might not have been in London at that time. And if two guys with wrenches had burst into DikMik’s flat accusing him of stealing Paul McCartney’s bass then we – the band and our manager Doug Smith – would certainly have heard about it from him. But we didn’t. I don’t believe it.”

The lost bass project was initiated in 2018 by Höfner UK boss Nick Wass who, in 2023, enlisted the sleuthing skills of journalists Scott and Naomi Jones, dubbed The Bass Detectives in the film. The duo eventually unearth the light-fingered miscreant, but during the documentary they claim that Hawkwind were “famously anti-Beatles” and wrote anti-Beatles songs.

“What a load of rubbish that is,” Brock says. “I think every band member had a copy of Magical Mystery Tour and Sgt Pepper. Lemmy loved The Beatles, they were his rock'n'roll heroes. As for anti-Beatles songs… I have no idea what they’re going on about."

Another idea posited as a motive for the theft was that Hawkwind had recently had around £10k’s worth of their own gear stolen.

“That was Bickershaw festival [in May ‘72]. The gear was stolen, and the van. But we wouldn’t turn around and do that to other bands,” Brock says. “Anyone who knows anything about Hawkwind knows our story. We did loads of free gigs, constantly, we raised lots of money for communities and causes… one of our roadies stole a mic from the BBC at Maida Vale studios in 1971, but we gave it back.”

Brock says the filmmakers, Passion Pictures, never approached him to contribute to The Hunt For The Lost Bass. Instead, bafflingly, they went to Canada to interview Deviants/Pink Fairies guitarist Paul Rudolph. Rudolph became Hawkwind’s bassist in 1975 after Lemmy had been sacked, and he had absolutely no insider intel on the Höfner episode.

“That interview had nothing to do with the story,” Brock says. “I thought, ‘Why have they done that when we’re so easy to contact?’ I reckon it’s because we’d tell ‘em to f*ck off [laughs].”

“We’re easy targets,” Brock says. “We’re anti-establishment and were friends with Hells Angels. They wouldn’t do this to someone like Pink Floyd.”

By the end of the film, when the mystery is solved and McCartney is reunited with the instrument, Hawkwind are fully in the clear.

“It was a boring story that could have been done in half an hour and they needed something to spice it up,” says Brock. “I don’t think Paul had much to do with this. They dragged him into an empty room that looked like an old squat, and then they gave him his bass back.

“I’d tell the filmmakers that there’s a lot of pissed off fans out there, and if DikMik was still alive I think he’d sue ‘em,” Brock states.

“I was pissed off after watching it: it disrespects DikMik, and it disrespects the band, and that wasn’t even necessary in the end.”

Paul McCartney: The Hunt For The Lost Bass is available via the BBC iPlayer.

• Watch BBC iPlayer from anywhere with NordVPN (try risk-free)

Ben Smallwood, Iron Maiden’s Creative Director, has spoken to Classic Rock about his relationship with the band and their new film, Burning Ambition.

"I spent the first few years of my life on the road,” says Smallwood, who was born in 1992, the same year that Fear Of The Dark came out, and, as the son of manager Rod, grew up around the band. “My life took a different trajectory, in the music industry but not with metal bands. Then I re-circled back to Maiden, and one of the first projects I took on was Burning Ambition [for which he’s co-producer]."

As well as the group, fans, ranging from actor Javier Bardem and Public Enemy’s Chuck D, to journalists, retired police officers, company CEOs and Smallwood’s father (“two whole days and his life story”) helped shape the narrative. "Our casting team reached out to fans from all around the world. Their stories and feelings influenced the film. They provided the emotion, the soul and the humanity.

“Hopefully, people will understand more about the band members and their personalities too,” he continues. “But when they’re talking about, say, 1983, you’ll see film of them in 1983. As Steve Harris says in the film, he’s never liked being in front of the camera.”

Instead, an animated Eddie illustrates key scenes: “Like putting Eddie in a straitjacket when Bruce is thinking about leaving the band.”

Like 2025’s official book Infinite Dreams, Burning Ambition and this summer’s Eddfest are the cornerstones of Iron Maiden’s 50th-anniversary celebrations.

“What we’re trying to do with Knebworth is create an unforgettable experience,” says Smallwood. “You buy a general admission ticket and you get access to all this stuff, including the Infinite Dreams Museum, which gives people a chance to take a look at some of the props they’ll only have seen before in the crowd at a show. Knebworth will be a party.”

As Burning Ambition is a film partly about the fans, which is your favourite Iron Maiden song?

“Phantom Of The Opera. But also Killers and The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner. It changes, but those ones always put a kick in my step."

Burning Ambition will be shown in cinemas internationally from May 7. Steve Harris, Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith are interviewed in the new issue of Classic Rock.

A teaser has been released for Gregg Allman: The Music of My Soul, the upcoming documentary about the late Allman Brothers Band guitarist and keyboardist.

The film, which will hit cinemas in the US on June 17, is directed and produced by James Keach, brother of the actor Stacy Keach. James also worked on the Oscar-winning Johnny Cash biopic Walk The Line as well as Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me, David Crosby: Remember My Name, and Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice – and Michael Lehman, Allman's longtime manager.

“Gregg’s story totally resonated with me, especially his relationship with his brother, Duane," says Keach. "I have a very close relationship with my brother. We worked together for years on a lot of great projects – The Long Riders [the 1980 Western notable for having four sets of brothers play the four sets of brothers in the James-Younger Gang] was formative for us as well as for the Carradine and Quaid brothers – and the thought of losing my brother at such a young age really got me.

“Not everyone works this way, but I believe that understanding trauma from the formative years of a person’s life is central when telling their story in a documentary. A lot of incredible artists have these shattering experiences in their past that inform every aspect of their lives and talent. Gregg had those demons inside his amazingly creative brain.

"He dove deep into his addiction when Duane died, but later in life, when he was sober, he faced his own mortality with dignity and acceptance. It’s personally important to me to carry Gregg’s message of trying to change the trajectory of people consumed by addiction. You can hear the ache in his voice in his brilliant music."

“I was Gregg’s friend,” says Lehman. “This movie is personal to me because I want the world to know the Gregg behind the music.

“Gregg was impacted by, among other things, his profoundly close relationship and the tragic loss of his brother Duane. His music reflects the joy and the pain of his life experiences. I chose James Keach to direct this film because James is both an incredibly talented director and has a close relationship with his own brother, Stacy.

"I knew from the start that he would bring to life Gregg’s story, including the relationship with Duane and with his band, The Allman Brothers Band, and that James would be able to create both an enjoyable and deeply memorable film.”

Gregg Allman: The Music of My Soul will premiere on June 9 at the Gramercy Theatre in New York City, NY, and will feature live music from Devon Allman and Duane Betts. A second showing will take place on June 11 at the Grand Opera House in the Allman Brothers Band's hometown of Macon, GA, and will include an appearance by the band's longtime keyboardist Chuck Leavell.

Both screenings will also include Q&A sessions with the filmmakers.

A new feature-length documentary charting the life and career of rock icon Billy Idol is set to hit Sky Arts and streaming service NOW from Thursday, March 26.

Directed by Grammy Award-winner Jonas Åkerlund, the film features previously unseen material and interviews with the former Generation X frontman, alongside his bandmates, Sex Pistols' Steve Jones and Paul Cook, Nile Rodgers, Miley Cyrus and Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong.

Speaking about the project, Idol says: “I’m thrilled the documentary about my life will be available on Sky Arts. I hope everyone enjoys watching the film as much as I enjoyed living it all! Well, maybe don’t have quite as much fun, but you get the idea.”

How to watch Billy Idol Should Be Dead

Billy Idol Should Be Dead is coming to TV and film streaming services from Thursday, March 26. If you want to watch the film, you can catch it through the Sky Arts channel on Freeview from Thursday, March 26.

How to watch from anywhere

If you're going to be out of the UK when the Jonas Åkerlund-directed film airs and don't want to miss it, you can catch it via the Entertainment package on Sky's NOW streaming channel which costs £9.99 a month. And if you do want to watch it immediately, you'll need a VPN to help you.

Virtual Private Networks are used to change the location of your IP address, enabling you to watch the film no matter where you are. Nord VPN is Louder's service of choice and right now, there's an exclusive Future offer that's running until March 28 23:59 BST, where you can get 77% off NordVPN + 4 extra months + an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card.

How to use a VPN

1. Install a VPN. As we've mentioned above, Nord VPN is Louder's favourite.

2. Choose the location you wish to connect to in the VPN. If you're currently outside of the country and don't want to miss the film, just select your country from the list, then log into your Sky account.

3. Kick back and relax: That's it - you're all set to kick back and enjoy Billy Idol Should Be Dead.

Billy Idol Should Be Dead premiered at Tribeca and Sheffield DocFest and, at the start of March, the doc was shown to fans at the London Picturehouse, where the screening was followed by a conversation with Idol, his Gen X bandmate Tony James and Duran Duran's John Taylor.

A press release about the film adds: "Chronicling his anarchic beginnings in the London punk scene to superstardom in the MTV era, when White Wedding and Rebel Yell ruled the music charts, the film reveals what Idol had to overcome to not just survive, but to remain a vital figure in rock‘n’roll almost 50 years into his career.

"With intimate access to Idol’s family and inner circle, including his late mother Joan, longtime girlfriend Perri Lister and all three of his children, remarkably the film also reveals how a DNA test led Idol to discover his long-lost son Brant."

It continues: "Exploring Idol’s cultural impact and near-fatal exploits alike with unflinching candour, Swedish filmmaker Jonas Åkerlund - world-famous for his music videos for major artists from Madonna and Taylor Swift to The Rolling Stones and Paul McCartney - paints a portrait of determination, self-destruction, and redemption; a must-see celebration of resilience and rock‘n’roll."

Check out the official trailer below.

• Watch Prime Video from anywhere with NordVPN (try risk-free)

Amazon Prime Video might be up against some serious competition when it comes to TV and film streaming services, but there's still greatness to be found among the reams of landfill and that awful user interface. Seriously, Amazon, is it intentional?

We're talking content such as the Grammy Award-winning Bruce Springsteen documentary Wings For Wheels: The Making Of Born To Run, Penelope Spheeris' legendary trilogy The Decline Of Western Civilization, and the moving profile of Thelonious Monster frontman turned drug counselor Bob Forrest, Bob And The Monster.

Other highlights include Jim Jarmusch's love-letter to erstwhile Iggy Pop vehicle The Stooges Gimme Danger, Grateful Dead documentary Long Strange Trip, well-received Paul McCartney feature Man On The Run, Elliott Smith study Heaven Adores You, Marcus Miller tribute Marcus and Joy Division, Grant Gee and Jon Savage's deep-dive, are also well worth seeking out.

There's also a variety of live performances, including Lamb Of God's Killadelphia, Live At The Isle Of Wight Festival 1970, which purports to be The Doors' last recorded performance, and Stevie Nicks' 1986 concert Live At Red Rocks.

But what if you're outside the UK? Can you still watch everything on your Prime Video watchlist? The answer is yes... if you have the right VPN. Below, we'll show you the VPN we use and how to set it up in three simple steps.

How to watch Prime free in the UK

A Prime subscription costs $8.99/£7.99 per month (standalone), $14.99/£8.99 per month (with Amazon Prime), $7.49/£4.49 per month (Student), but if you've never used the service before (or you haven't been a member for over 12 months) you'll get a 30-day free trial.

A subscription also comes with a few perks, including free one-day and same-day delivery on eligible items, and exclusive deals.

On holiday outside of the UK? You can still watch Prime anywhere with the help of a good VPN – we'll show you how below.

How to watch Prime from anywhere

• Watch via NordVPN and save up to 74%

If you're outside the UK on holiday, don't worry. You can still feast upon Prime's goodies with the aid of a VPN.

Virtual Private Networks allow you to set your IP location back to the UK, enabling you to access everything on your watchlist from anywhere.

Not all VPNs do this – but NordVPN does, and it's currently available with up to 74% off the usual price. The 30-day money back guarantee means you can try it risk-free.

And right now, there's an exclusive Future offer that's running until March 28 23:59 BST, where you can get 77% off NordVPN + 4 extra months + an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card.

How to use a VPN

1. Install a VPN. As we've mentioned above, NordVPN is Louder's favourite.

2. Choose the location you wish to connect to in the VPN. E.g. select 'United Kingdom' from the list.

3. Goodbye geo-block. You're all set to watch Prime Video from any country.

• Best music streaming services

How we test VPNs

We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example:1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service).2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad.We don't support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.

“FUUUUCK!”

Lars Ulrich screams into James Hetfield’s face, but the frontman doesn’t flinch. It’s an extraordinary moment in the documentary Metallica: Some Kind Of Monster, as the tension that’s been ratcheting up between the pair for decades comes to a shocking climax.

For co-director Joe Berlinger, it was also a scene of great cinematic merit. “From a filmmaking point of view, when your intention is to capture raw human emotion, it was pure gold,” he says.

Some Kind Of Monster was an intimate portrait of a band working through an interpersonal crisis that had been bubbling under the surface long before the cameras started rolling. By early 2001, Metallica’s management company, Q Prime, were aware of fracturing relationships in the band, and had drafted in psychotherapist and ‘performance enhancement coach’ Phil Towle, to help ease relations as they prepared to make their eighth record. His first meeting with Metallica took place at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in San Francisco, but the smooth introduction he had intended on making did not go as planned.

“Jason came in and said: ‘I’m leaving’,” remembers Phil. “He asked me to go to the room adjacent, where I listened to him railing against the bandmates for 10 minutes. And that was chaos. I decided at some point to knock on the door and say, ‘May I come back in? This is exactly why I’m here.’ And Lars said, ‘Let him stay.’ And we started the process, which was an awkward, challenging moment.”

In a statement, Jason cited “private and personal reasons” for his departure, and “the physical damage I have done to myself over the years while playing the music that I love”. A series of interviews for Playboy, conducted two months earlier but published in March 2001, also revealed that James had forbidden Jason from releasing music with his side-project, Echobrain. “The band were stunned, and a fight ensued, and there was a lot of conflict in that first session,” Phil recalls.

The group therapy continued regardless, and during this period documentary filmmaker Joe Berlinger flew over from New York. He had been in talks with Metallica about doing a film that could be released as pay-per-view content, or as a bonus featurette on the CD for their next record, but now Lars told him there might not even be a new record because Jason had quit the band. When Lars also explained they were working with a performance enhancement coach, Joe’s artistic interest was piqued; would they allow him to film the sessions? Incredibly, the band said yes.

“I remember sitting in this nice lounge room of a hotel suite, with these icons of metal, of male testosterone, opening up to each other and exploring how they feel,” Joe says. “There was a little bit of reluctance from James, but as I got to know him better, I’d say it’s amazing that he opened up on that first day with the camera in front of him.”

The session also had a therapeutic effect on Joe; he realised he wanted to continue documenting the process, and after splitting with his longtime filmmaking partner, Bruce Sinofsky, he felt compelled to reach out and bring him into the project. Filming stepped up as Metallica moved into the empty barracks at the Presidio, a former military base in San Francisco, with emotions still running high. After one particularly intense disagreement, James slammed the door behind him and did not come back.

Instead, the frontman checked into rehab. Phil knew that he would be doing intensive therapy there, and was determined that the sessions between himself and Kirk, Lars and returning producer Bob Rock should continue so the band could connect more easily when he returned.

Lars dived deep into his own past. In a segment that held a mirror up to the drummer’s perfectionism, he played demos to his father. In an astonishingly open scene, he also met with Dave Mustaine, who told him how hurtful it was to be fired from Metallica and that he missed “his little Danish friend”. He also, however, alluded to the fact that the absent James was yet to reach out.

“It was a very touching moment for them, and it was the beginning
of some healing, and also they left the meeting with some unfinished business too. It wasn’t all nicey-nice, right?” says Phil. “But I think Lars realised that there were things he wishes he could have done differently with Dave.”

Following Some Kind Of Monster’s release in 2004, Dave condemned the scene and said he had asked for it not to be included, citing unhappiness with the final cut and describing the unsettled mood he was in during filming, two days after the terrorist attacks of 9/11. However, he had already signed a release form, granting the filmmakers legal permission.

“I think two years later when he saw the scene and 9/11 was now a thing of the past, and people weren’t spiritually awake the way we were that first week, he regretted perhaps participating,” says Joe. “But I think that’s a shame. I think he is very strong and human.”

James returned from rehab with new ground rules: he would only work on their album between noon and 4pm. Resentment flared between him and Lars; was Lars allowed to listen to songs after James left for the day, if he didn’t change anything? Why couldn’t Lars just do what he wanted anyway? That frustration exploded via the sweary drummer’s most notorious utterance of one simple word: “FUUUUUUCK!”

“These guys are waiting for James. Waiting, waiting, waiting – not only waiting, but wondering whether James was ever going to come back. They were scared it was over,” explains Phil. “And when James comes marching back and says, ‘I can’t work between certain hours and certain hours’, Lars was really pissed off. Like, ‘What the fuck? We’ve been waiting for you, and you’ve controlled us for 10 months.’ And he probably felt that James had controlled them for more than 10 months, right? So this was the collision of years of frustration.”

Because of the outburst, because Lars already had a reputation for running his mouth off, and because of the recent media attention surrounding his battle with file-sharing service Napster, some fans began to turn on him.

“Lars was not being an asshole, he was just somebody who was expressing the pent-up anger he had felt,” says Phil. “And James was saying, ‘Look guys, I have to work with my family, maintain my sobriety and maintain my composure.’ So that collision was scary, but it was necessary.”

To Joe’s mind, the overarching issue was that Metallica were trying to reconcile how to make music without indulging in the practices that had earned them the ‘Alcoholica’ tag in their younger years. “I think living that ethos of sex, drugs and rock’n’roll in their 40s wasn’t working for them,” he says. “A lot has been said about the tension between James and Lars, but I think the larger issue is that the band was wanting to continue to make music, but they didn’t want to live that life that made them famous.”

Following the bust-up, work on what would later be titled St. Anger gathered speed, alongside their journey of self-reflection. Encouraged by their work with Phil, the band had started contributing lyrics collectively, but there’s one moment when the coach himself offers a suggestion, which is highlighted in the film. “That to me was a crossing of the line,” says Joe.

Not long after, James rounded on Phil and accused him of becoming too attached to a future with Metallica, suggesting it was time to terminate their involvement with each other. Caught off guard, Phil is visibly teary-eyed and shaken.

There was some background to this encounter, says Phil. A year or so earlier, he and Metallica had agreed to part ways – but then Lars had called and asked him to stay. He’d been under the impression that the partnership would continue, and admits it was difficult to hear he was no longer needed.

“The unhealthy part of me is guilty of wanting to hold on to something, because this was like a family to me,” says Phil. “It was like something I had never experienced before, personally and professionally. No person in my work gets to be with a group of people, almost every day, for 12 hours a day. The embedment makes it difficult for an ending like that. Then it was done on camera, in contradiction to what I thought was agreed upon. So that was a moment when I fumbled the ball.”

After fans saw Some Kind Of Monster, some cast Phil as the villain of the piece – criticism that was difficult to stomach, especially as he had no right of reply. But last year Lars publicly stated that Phil saved Metallica – and Joe agrees.

“I think the misperception is that he had his hooks in the band for fees and he was just looking to milk the situation,” says Joe. “I don’t think that’s the case at all. I think he’s a caring human being who wears his heart on his sleeve, and did great work in the band, and it got to the point where his job was done, and he had a hard time saying goodbye. But in having a hard time saying goodbye, he unwittingly gave Metallica the tools they needed once again to come together as a brotherhood.”

St. Anger was released on June 5, 2003. Reactions were mixed, with widespread criticism over the album’s production, in particular Lars’s snare sound. But when Some Kind Of Monster followed six months later, fans were shown how lucky they were to still have Metallica at all.

“Prior to making it, I would have told you that the role of the documentarian [during filming] is to observe, but not affect or change the outcome,” says Joe. “But what’s interesting about the Metallica film is that Lars said the cameras were like a truth serum. He felt that the therapy would not have worked if there weren’t cameras there to record it. And so while I don’t want to take credit for the salvation of Metallica, I do think Some Kind Of Monster really helped them work through their issues.”

The film was a true first, taking viewers into the private lives of one
of the world’s biggest bands, as well as showing metal musicians – with their reputation for bravado – being vulnerable with the aid of a therapist. There might be sensational scenes and occasional bursts of levity, but Joe says fans have told him it helped them to address alcohol problems, and bands have thanked him for allowing them permission to be human.

By making Some Kind Of Monster, he and Bruce, who passed away in 2015, captured an incendiary time in Metallica’s history and reimagined what a music documentary could be and do.

“When some people dismiss this film as Spinal Tap, I find that deeply offensive, because I think these guys were brave and honest and dealt with real issues that all creative people go through,” says Joe. “If you think it’s a real-life Spinal Tap, you’ve totally missed the point of the film.”

Originally published in Metal Hammer issue 355 (November 2021)

A new documentary focusing on the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ formative years and late guitarist Hillel Slovak is explored in a new documentary film hitting Netflix on Friday, March 20.

The Rise Of The Red Hot Chili Peppers: Our Brother, Hillel was directed by Ben Feldman and charts the high school friendship between Anthony Kiedis, Flea and Slovak - a friendship that would see the trio join together with drummer Jack Irons in the Chili Peppers' early line-up before Hillel's death in 1988 of an accidental heroin overdose.

Said to be a "raucous, moving, and surprisingly tender look at the power of adolescent bonds, and the enduring legacy of Hillel,” the film is told through Hillel’s journal entries and uses "unseen archival footage, and emotional interviews with current and former band members, including Chili Peppers and Pearl Jam drummer Jack Irons, as well as Alain Johannes of Eleven, and funk legend George Clinton."

The 93-minute film made its debut at the SXSW Film & TV Festival last week.

How to watch The Rise Of The Red Hot Chili Peppers: Our Brother, Hillel

If you want to watch The Rise Of The Red Hot Chili Peppers: Our Brother, Hillel, you'll need an active Netflix subscription. Here's the pricing details:

Monthly price:
$7.99/£5.99 per month (Standard with Ads)
$17.99/£12.99 per month (Standard ad-free)
$24.99/£18.99 per month (Premium)

Once your subscription is set up, you'll be able to watch the Chili peppers' documentary from Friday, March 20.

How to watch from anywhere

If you're going to be outside of the country when The Rise Of The Red Hot Chili Peppers: Our Brother, Hillel is broadcast and you want to watch is immediately, you'll need a VPN to help you.

Virtual Private Networks are used to change the location of your IP address, enabling you to watch the Chili's film no matter where you are. Nord VPN is Louder's service of choice and it's currently available with 73% off the usual price - and there's a 30-day money back guarantee.

How to use a VPN

1. Install a VPN. As we've mentioned above, Nord VPN is Louder's favourite.

2. Choose the location you wish to connect to in the VPN. If you're currently outside of the country and don't want to miss the film, just select your country from the list, then log into your Netflix account.

3. Kick back and relax: That's it - you're all set to kick back and enjoy the Ben Feldman-directed documentary.

• Listen to BBC Sounds from anywhere with NordVPN (try risk-free)

BBC Sounds is home to BBC Radio. Not just the many music and news stations but also podcasts, audiobooks, playlists, dramas, documentaries and every kind of digital audio format in between.

It was once a globally accessible service – an extremely popular one at that – however, in July 2025, the BBC abruptly cut off international access to BBC Sounds. The website and the app now only work in the UK.

Worse still, BBC Sounds users based outside the UK quickly discovered that they'd lost their subscriptions and bookmarks too.

The move came as a major shock, but it's just as surprising that it hasn't felt compelled to reverse course under the sheer weight of criticism.

The BBC instead wants listeners abroad to use BBC.com or the BBC app, each of which carry BBC Radio 4, BBC World Service English and select podcasts.

BBC Radio stations remain accessible to international audiences, but via web browser only (the directory is listed at the bottom of this page).

Needless to say, it's an awful user experience, and not only because of how clunky it is.

Many people like to wake up to their favourite BBC Radio station, but due to lack of app support, that's now only possible if you want to set BBC Radio 4 or BBC World Service up as your morning alarm.

Furthermore, it's not possible to do something as rudimentary as view a radio broadcast schedule.

Not all hope is lost. With a little bit of effort and for a small fee, you can listen to BBC Sounds from anywhere in the world.

How to listen to BBC Sounds free in the UK

• UK residents listen to BBC Sounds for free

If you’re in the UK, you can stream BBC Sounds for free. Just register for an account with your email and a UK postcode – no TV Licence required.

On holiday outside of the UK? You can continue to listen to BBC Sounds for around a month. After that, your access will be cut off.

Fortunately, a good VPN will help you tune in from anywhere. Read on for all the details.

How to listen to BBC Sounds from anywhere

• Listen via NordVPN and save up to 74%

If you're planning to spend more than a month outside the UK, don't worry. You'll still be able to listen to BBC Sounds with the help of a VPN.

Virtual Private Networks allow you to set your IP location back to the UK, enabling you to access your usual British services from anywhere.

Not all VPNs do this – but NordVPN does, and it's currently available with up to 74% off the usual price. The 30-day money back guarantee also means you can try it risk-free.

How to use a VPN

1. Install a VPN. As we've mentioned above, NordVPN is Louder's favourite.

2. Choose the location you wish to connect to in the VPN. E.g. select 'United Kingdom' from the list.

3. Goodbye geo-block. You're all set to listen to BBC Sounds from any country.

• Best music streaming services

How we test VPNs

We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example:1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service).2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad.We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.

Heavy metal legends Iron Maiden have released the first glimpse of their imminent new documentary in the form of a brand new trailer.

Helmed by Churchill At War director Malcolm Venvill and Spirits In The Forest - A Depeche Mode Film producer Dominic Freeman, the full-length documentary, titled Iron Maiden: Burning Ambition, will give fans a full, no-holds-barred look inside the five-decade career of one of the world's biggest and most celebrated metal bands.

As well as exclusive footage and behind-the-scenes material, Burning Ambition will feature interviews with Iron Maiden themselves and some of their most famous peers and fans, including Oscar-winning actor and diehard metalhead Javier Bardem, Metallica founder Lars Ulrich and hip hop icon Chuck D of Public Enemy.

Watch the trailer for Burning Ambition below. The documentary hits cinemas on May 7.

Iron Maiden: Burning Ambition comes in the midst of the metal heavyweights' 50th anniversary celebrations, which have been ongoing since last year. In May, they are due to resume their epic Run For Your Lives world tour, playing songs exclusively from the first eight albums of their back catalogue.

The next leg of the tour will run through Europe, Canada, the US, Mexico, South America, Australia, New Zealand and Japan, with the highlight of the trek arguably a special stop-off at Knebworth Park in England on July 11. Dubbed 'Eddfest', the event will see Iron Maiden take over one of the UK's most iconic festival locations for a full weekend of Maiden-themed activities and attractions, with a full supporting bill of bands including The Darkness, Airbourne and The Hu.

For tickets and more information on Eddfest, alongside Iron Maiden's other Run For Your Lives tour dates, head to the official Iron Maiden website.

This weekend's Brit Awards will take place at Manchester's Co-op Arena - the first time the show has ventured north of London in its 50 year history.

Jack Whitehall will host proceedings from 8.15pm GMT on Saturday, February 28 - and you'll be able to watch the evening unfold in a ceremony where artists including Sleep Token, Turnstile, Wet Leg, Wolf Alice, Pulp, The Last Dinner Party, CMAT, Tame Impala and Haim are all up for a variety of awards.

How to watch the Brit Awards 2026

• UK residents watch for free on ITVX, STV Player, ITV & STV

If you’re in the UK, you'll be able to watch the Brit Awards live in a variety of ways. You can watch directly through ITV or STV, but if you're away from your main TV, you'll also be able to experience the night on your tablet, computer or laptop via ITVX or STV Player.

The broadcast is set to get underway from 8.15pm GMT on Saturday evening.

How to watch the Brit Awards from anywhere

• Watch via Nord VPN and save 73%

If you are going to be outside the UK and want to watch the 2026 Brit's, you're in luck, because the official Brit Awards YouTube channel will be streaming the awards show.

Of course, it might be more convenient for you to watch the main event through your ITVX or STV Player account, in which case you'll be able to do just that through a VPN.

Virtual Private Networks are used to change the location of your IP address, enabling you to watch the programme outside of the UK. Nord VPN is Louder's service of choice and it's currently available with 73% off the usual price - and there's a 30-day money back guarantee.

How to use a VPN

1. Install a VPN. As we've mentioned above, Nord VPN is Louder's favourite.

2. Choose the location you wish to connect to in the VPN. If you'll be outside the UK on holiday and want to watch the Brit Awards live, just select 'UK' from the list.

3. You're all set to watch the evening's musical entertainment live.

The background

Speaking to the official Brit's website about the decision to move this year's awards away from London to Manchester, BPI executive Dr Jo Twist OBE said: "At the heart of The Brit's is an amazing awards show that celebrates the brilliant breadth of British and international music that has resonated in British culture over the last year. But for the first time we are also pleased to be able to showcase Manchester's rich musical heritage that has shaped generations nationally and on the global stage.

"This program of events will connect with Manchester's communities and amplify The Brit's across the city region in a way that will create a lasting cultural impact."

Leader of Manchester City Council, Councillor Bev Craig added: “Music, culture, and creativity are a massive part of Manchester's DNA and together have played a significant role in the growth of the city and continue to do so - helping shape both what the city is today and what it will be tomorrow.

"We're known across the globe for our creativity and for our brilliant music scene, which is what makes Manchester and The Brit's such a fantastic fit for each other. Hosting the first-ever BRIT Awards to take place outside London is a really big deal. It's got the whole city buzzing, and showcases the growing success of our city and the opportunities we're creating for people."

2026 Brit Award nominations

Wolf Alice will be performing on the night alongside artists including Harry Styles, Olivia Dean, Mark Ronson, Rosalia, Sobre and Alex Warren.

Meanwhile, a number of rock and alternative acts have been shortlisted, including:

Group Of The Year
The Last Dinner Party
Pulp
Sleep Token
Wet Leg
Wolf Alice

Best alternative / rock act
Blood Orange
Lola Young
Sam Fender
Wet Leg
Wolf Alice

Album Of The Year
Wolf Alice: The Clearing
Dave: The Boy Who Played The Harp
Lily Allen: West End Girl
Olivia Dean: The Art Of Loving
Sam Fender: People Watching

International Artist of the Year
Bad Bunny
Chappell Roan
CMAT
Doechii
Lady Gaga
Rosalia
Sabrina Carpenter
Sombr
Taylor Swift
Tyler, The Creator

International Group Of The Year
Turnstile
Tame Impala
Geese
Haim
Huntr/x, Ejae/Audrey Nuna/ Rei Ami

Visit the official Brit Awards website for a full list of this year's nominees, or check out the video below.

So how well do you really know Paul McCartney? Beatle Paul, sure – one of the four lads who changed the world, right? But what happened next? Man On The Run picks up the story where the Fabs’ tale ends, following McCartney’s scramble to shake off the weight of history and build something new. The film traces his return from post-Beatles inertia and depression to the rise and quiet demise of Wings, the band he formed with wife Linda and ex-Moody Blues man Denny Laine.

What emerges is a vivid study of reinvention. Stuffed with home movies, unseen footage, live performances and fresh voice-over interviews with McCartney and former bandmates, plus archive commentary from Linda and the recently deceased Laine, the film captures the mix of domestic chaos and creative obsession that defined the era.

Retreating to his Scottish farm, whisky as comfort, McCartney set about starting a band from scratch. Wings were meant to be equals, but the presence of a Beatle ensured a revolving cast of members before McCartney finally went solo.

Crucially, it re-frames Wings not as a footnote or an indulgence, but as a necessary proving ground where McCartney failed publicly, learned quickly and rediscovered the joy of recording and performing.

Stripped of Beatle myth, the songs, setbacks and relentless touring reveal an artist rebuilding confidence through graft, humour and an almost religious faith in pop’s possibilities during the turbulent post-60s cultural hangover period.

Front-loaded, and flagging slightly by the finish, Man On The Run is an engrossing, often moving film: proof that stubborn determination, musical genius and a series of terrific mullets can take you a very long way indeed.

Paul McCartney's post-Beatles life and career with Wings will be explored in the new documentary Man On The Run - and it's all set to hit Amazon Prime Video from Friday, February 27.

The film has been directed by Academy Award-winner Morgan Neville and is said to chronicle "the arc of McCartney's solo career as he faces down a myriad of challenges while creating new music to define a new decade."

The press release continues: "Through unprecedented access to previously unseen footage and rare archival materials, the documentary captures Paul’s transformative post-Beatles era through a uniquely vulnerable lens."

In the film, McCartney says: "The Beatles had been my whole life really. When we split up, I thought: ‘I’ll never write another note of music ever.’"

He adds: "We started Wings from square one. It was about trying to do something different. Wings was a dud when it had first come out. If anybody bad-mouthed us, I was thinking: ‘I’m going to make the best record you’ve ever heard.’”

McCartney also served as executive producer on the project.

How to watch Man On The Run

If you're looking to watch Man On The Run as soon as it's broadcast, you'll need to have an active Amazon Prime Video subscription. This is included with an Amazon Prime account, but you can also sub to the video portion only. You can also get a 30-day free Prime trial. Here's pricing details:

Prime video only: $8.99/£7.99 per month
Amazon Prime (with Prime Video): $14.99/£8.99 per month or $139/£95 annually
Prime Student: $7.49/£4.49 per month or $69/£47.49 per year

Once your subscription is set up, you'll be able to watch Man On The Run from Friday, February 27.

How to watch from anywhere

If you're going to be outside of the country when Man On The Run is broadcast and you want to watch it immediately, you'll need a VPN to help you.

Virtual Private Networks are used to change the location of your IP address, enabling you to watch the McCartney doc no matter where you are. Nord VPN is Louder's service of choice and it's currently available with 70% off the usual price - and there's a 30-day money back guarantee.

How to use a VPN

1. Install a VPN. As we've mentioned above, Nord VPN is Louder's favourite.

2. Choose the location you wish to connect to in the VPN. If you're currently outside of the country and don't want to miss Man On The Run, just select your country from the list, then log on to your Amazon Prime Video account.

3. Kick back and relax: That's it - you're all set to watch Man On The Run as soon as it premieres

In addition to the home release of the documentary, Man On The Run: Music From The Motion Picture Soundtrack will also be released on February 27 on vinyl and CD. Amazon have an exclusive orange vinyl pressing of the record which contains a total of 12 tracks, including a previously unreleased version of Live And Let Die, a rough mix of Arrow Through Me, and a demo of Silly Love Songs.

What else is on Prime Video?

Amazon Prime Video is just one of the many excellent TV and film streaming services currently available - and it's home to loads of brilliant music content and more.

You can watch all four seasons of The Osbournes, Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, the unmissableWe Are Twisted Sister, Pink Floyd: The Wall, Led Zeppelin: In The Light, and live offerings including Amazon Music Live: Foo Fighters and Guns N' Roses Live Rarities.

Away from music, and Amazon Prime video is home to video game spin-off Fallout, The Rings Of Power, six seasons of sci-fi epic The Expanse, based on the brilliant James S.A. Corey books, and a huge library of classic TV series and movies including The X-Files, Back To The Future, RoboCop, Labyrinth, Mad Max, Batman Begins and The Dark Knight.

Amazon Prime Video also has a whole bunch of Live TV channels showing a huge variety of constantly streaming content. Some of my favourites streaming around the clock include FIFA+, Super Bowl Champions, The Incredible Hulk, History Hunters, Hot Ones and the brilliant cult classic TV series Northern Exposure.

Amazon Prime Video also serves as a hub for other streaming services such as Paramount+, Apple TV, Discovery+, Shudder and Crunchyroll, while TV favourites and films are also available to rent or purchase through the service.

• Watch BBC iPlayer from anywhere with NordVPN (try risk-free)

BBC iPlayer is a treasure-trove of music documentaries, myth-making live performances and long-buried archive footage. The platform also overs Glastonbury live streams.

But what if you're outside the UK? Can you still watch BBC iPlayer from anywhere?

The answer is yes... if you have the right VPN. Below, we'll show you the VPN we use and how to set it up in three simple steps..

Once you're up and running, you can deep dive into the BBC archive, filled with profiles of music titans such as Brian Epstein, the Rolling Stones, Billie Holiday and Ozzy Osbourne.

BBC iPlayer also explores the lore of New York’s Chelsea Hotel, where Janis Joplin and Leonard Cohen hung out, and streams music docs such as Kurt Cobain: Moments That Shook Music.

Without further ado, here's the easy way to watch BBC iPlayer from anywhere in the world.

How to watch BBC iPlayer free in the UK

• UK residents watch BBC iPlayer for free

If you’re in the UK and have a TV Licence, you're good to go. You can stream BBC iPlayer for free. Just register for an account with your email and a UK postcode.

On holiday outside of the UK? You can still watch BBC iPlayer anywhere with the help of a good VPN – we'll show you how below.

How to watch BBC iPlayer from anywhere

• Watch via NordVPN and save up to 74%

If you're outside the UK on holiday, don't worry. You can still feast upon BBC iPlayer's goodies with the aid of a VPN.

Virtual Private Networks allow you to set your IP location back to the UK, enabling you to access your usual British services from anywhere.

Not all VPNs do this – but NordVPN does, and it's currently available with up to 74% off the usual price. The 30-day money back guarantee means you can try it risk-free.

How to use a VPN

1. Install a VPN. As we've mentioned above, NordVPN is Louder's favourite.

2. Choose the location you wish to connect to in the VPN. E.g. select 'United Kingdom' from the list.

3. Goodbye geo-block. You're all set to watch BBC iPlayer from any country.

• Best music streaming services

How we test VPNs

We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example:1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service).2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad.We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.

The Black Friday streaming deals are in full swing and Disney+ just launched their best money-saving deal of the year – get a Disney+/Hulu (with ads) bundle for only $4.99/month for 12 months – that's down from the usual monthly price of $12.99 – a saving of more than $95.

It's a great deal whichever way you slice it, but for music fans it's particularly excellent timing, coinciding with the release of the 8-part docu-series The Beatles: Anthology. First released in 1995, it has been restored and remastered and is now showing exclusively on Disney+. The first 3 episodes went live earlier this week and if you want to watch all 8 episodes alongside a brand new Episode 9, then this is the best deal to get your hands on right now.

This offer runs through December 1 and is for new and eligible returning subscribers.

The 2025 version of The Beatles: Anthology is presented in HD, Dolby Vision with 5.1 surround sound, with the project overseen by the Apple Corps’ production team. Peter Jackson (who produced The Beatles: Get Back documentary in 2021 that's also on Disney+) is also onboard with his Wingnut Films team, and it features new audio mixes by Giles Martin.

Describing the series, Disney say: “The series’ original eight episodes trace the legendary journey that began in Liverpool and Hamburg and soon captivated the world. They bring to life the timeless stories - of Beatlemania, the band’s groundbreaking arrival in the USA, their role at the forefront of the 1960s counterculture, their spiritual exploration in India, and their eventual breakup. And through it all, the constant thread: the music, always the music.”

The new ninth episode includes previously unseen footage of Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr together in 1994/95 to work on Anthology and reflect on their time in the band.

Disney+/Hulu is home to a host of music films, the entire Disney universe, all things Star Wars, Marvel, Pixar and National Geographic, so even outside The Beatles doc, you'll have more than enough to keep you entertained right through the festive season and well into 2026.

Shop more Black Friday deals

• Paramount+: Up to 50% off monthly or annual sub
• Paramount+: 7-days free (then $7.99/month)
• Peacock or Paramount+: Free sub with Walmart+
• Amazon Prime Video: Music docs, films & series from $8.99
• Amazon Prime Video: HBO Max, Apple+ add-ons for less
• Apple TV+: Apple Originals and more from $9.99/month
• HBO Max w/ads: $10/month - ad free $17/month
• Starz: Annual plan only $3 per month
• YouTube TV: 10% off 3-month sub

The Mercury Prize album of the year 2025 is set to be announced on Thursday, October 16 at a ceremony at the Utilita Arena in Newcastle, with a total of 12 artists on the final shortlist.

You'll be able to watch the evening unfold on BBC Four from 21:30 BST via the BBC iPlayer with artists including Pulp, Wolf Alice and Fontaines D.C. hoping to claim the prestigious award. The evening will be presented by Lauren Laverne.

It's the fourth time Wolf Alice have been nominated, making it the first time an artist has seen their first four albums make the Mercury shortlist. The band won the award back in 2018 for their second album Visions Of A Life.

The other nine artists on the Mercury shortlist are CMAT, Emma-Jean Thackray, FKA Twigs, Jacob Alon, Joe Webb, Martin Carthy, Pa Salieu, PinkPantheress and Sam Fender.

Save big on home entertainment with our pick of this year’s best Black Friday streaming deals.

How to watch the Mercury Prize in the UK

• UK residents watch for free on the BBC iPlayer

If you’re in the UK and have a TV licence, you'll can stream the Mercury Prize via the BBC iPlayer. Simple as that.

If you're on holiday outside of the UK and don't want to miss the action as it happens, you can watch with the help of a VPN. We've got the full lowdown below.

How to watch the Mercury Prize from anywhere

• Watch via Nord VPN and save 72%

If you're going to be outside the UK on holiday or travelling with work when the Mercury Prize for album of the year is announced, don't worry, as you'll still be able to watch with a VPN.

Virtual Private Networks are used to change the location of your IP address, enabling you to watch the programme outside of the UK. Nord VPN is Louder's service of choice and it's currently available with 72% off the usual price - and there's a 30-day money back guarantee.

How to use a VPN

1. Install a VPN. As we've mentioned above, Nord VPN is Louder's favourite.

2. Choose the location you wish to connect to in the VPN. If you'll be outside the UK on holiday and want to watch the Mercury Prize when it's broadcast, just select 'UK' from the list.

You'll then be all set to watch the evening's entertainment.

Mercury Prize: Background

The Mercury Prize: Album Of The Year is held annually, and celebrates the best new British and Irish music across a wide variety of musical genres.

This year's ceremony takes place at Newcastle's Utilita Arena - the first time the award has been held outside of London.

Leader of Newcastle City Council, Cllr Karen Kilgour, told the official Mercury Prize website: “We can’t wait to welcome everyone to our city – the atmosphere will be electric and the economic boost events like this give to a place like Newcastle can’t be overstated. 

"I know they’ll have an amazing time and be blown away by the welcome they will receive."

The night will see performances by Pulp, Wolf Alice, Emma-Jean Thackray, FKA Twigs, Jacob Alon, Joe Webb, Martin Carthy, Pa Salieu and Sam Fender, with each artist playing one song from their nominated album.

Mercury Prize: Album Of The Year list

• CMAT: Euro-Country
• Emma-Jean Thackray: Weirdo
• FKA Twigs: EUSEXUA
• Fontaines D.C.: Romance
• Jacob Alon: In Limerence
• Joe Webb: Hamstrings & Hurricanes
• Martin Carthy: Transform Me Then Into A Fish
• Pa Salieu: Afrikan Alien
• PinkPantheress: Fancy That
• Pulp: More
• Sam Fender: People Watching
• Wolf Alice: The Clearing

Following on from the recent release of the hour-long BBC documentary Ozzy Osbourne: Coming Home is a new feature-length film about the late rock icon’s life which has been produced in association with the Osbourne family and broadcast on Paramount+.

Ozzy: No Escape From Now is available to stream right now on Paramount+ (following its October 7 release) and features interviews with Ozzy, Sharon, Jack, Kelly and Aimee, and also stars artists including Tony Iommi, Zakk Wylde, James Hetfield, Duff McKagan, Tom Morello, Billy Corgan and Robert Trujillo.

The two-hour film looks at the health issues Ozzy suffered from 2019 onwards - and his collaboration with Post Malone on the single Take What You Want.

Ozzy: No Escape From Now also charts the creation of the singer’s 2020 album Ordinary Man and 2022’s Patient Number 9, his decision to play at the Commonwealth Games’ closing ceremony in 2022, his performance at his October 2024 Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction ceremony and putting the plans in place for his final Back To The Beginning Show in his hometown of Birmingham just weeks before his death.

Here's how you can watch Ozzy: No Escape From Now from anywhere in the world.

Save big on home entertainment with our pick of this year’s best Black Friday streaming deals.

How to watch Ozzy: No Escape From Now

If you want to watch Ozzy: No Escape From Now, just head over to Paramount+, log into your account and you're all set.

If you're not yet a member, you can currently get a free 7-day Paramount+ subscription. After that, a monthly pass to the streaming service costs from $7.99/£4.99 a month. of course, you could always take advantage of the free trial, watch the doc, then cancel.

There’s plenty of other music content available on Paramount+ right now too, including Behind The Music, Geddy Lee Asks: Are Bass Players Human Too?, How Music Got Free, Nothin’ But A Good Time and Lolla: The Story Of Lollapalooza. Plus there’s loads of classic movies, TV series and family favourites.

How to watch from anywhere in the world

If you're currently outside the US or the UK on holiday, or traveling with work and want to watch Ozzy: No Escape From Now before you get home, you'll still be able to watch wherever you are with the use of a VPN.

Virtual Private Networks are used to change the location of your IP address, enabling you to watch any show outside of a streaming territory. NordVPN is our service of choice and it's currently available at a great price and with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

How to use a VPN

1. Install a VPN. As we've mentioned above, NordVPN is Louder's current favourite.

2. Choose the location you wish to connect to in the VPN. If you're currently outside the US or UK on holiday and want to watch Ozzy: No Escape From Now, just select 'US' or 'UK' from the list.

3. Turn the volume up and relax. Just sign into your account and you're all set to watch this poignant look at Ozzy's life and career.

Our review

Louder recently reviewed No Escape From Now, with our writer Matt Mills calling the documentary an "imperfect but essential look at Ozzy Osbourne’s final years."

Matt added: "No Escape From Now was not intended to be a posthumous film, which may explain its occasionally rough-around-the-edges delivery, but missteps aside, it’s a moving coda to its subject’s life.

"It documents Ozzy’s final years while touching upon so much more, illustrating how the same personality traits that brought him to the frontier of heavy metal tortured him when he couldn’t do it anymore. Some fans might find it difficult, but many more will find it fascinating."

Trailer

There are people who’ll hate seeing Ozzy Osbourne the way that he is in No Escape From Now. Directed by Gogglebox and Undercover Boss alum Tania Alexander, the film has no interest in the mythological Prince Of Darkness persona that generations of metalheads have attached themselves to. There’s no discussion of that time he drunkenly urinated on the Alamo cenotaph and only a passing mention of the gig where he bit the head off a bat.

Instead, Paramount Plus’s new documentary seeks to understand John Michael Osbourne, the working-class kid from Aston who defied all odds to become a rock star, and finds him towards the end of his life: living with the effects of Parkinson’s disease and the constant pain caused by multiple, aggressive spinal surgeries.

Chronicling the six years between a bedroom fall that broke Ozzy’s neck and his retirement concert and death in July 2025, Alexander enjoys near-total access to the singer’s life. She films inside his home and interviews him, his wife/manager Sharon (who executive-produces) and all three of their children, as well as friends, producers and fellow rock icons. There’s also behind-the-scenes footage of the most high-profile moments of Ozzy’s final years, including his 2022 Commonwealth Games closing ceremony performance, his 2024 Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction and his swansong show.

However, the most revelatory moments come in between. Ozzy darts between yes and no on every big opportunity offered to him, and Alexander does an insightful job not just connecting this to the depression he felt because of his sickness and 2023 touring retirement, but delving back even further. She unearths a childhood where the future Black Sabbath frontman was constantly told he couldn’t do things, be it by his school bullies or his family; those naysaying voices persist in Ozzy’s head as what he calls ‘the committee’.

Plus, Alexander contextualises the albums that Ozzy made post-fall, 2020’s Ordinary Man and 2022’s Patient Number 9, and makes them even greater monuments to the singer’s passion for music. The days where he got to go into the studio with producer Andrew Watt were when he woke up the happiest, Sharon says. The theme of insanity on the Patient… album wasn’t just Ozzy tapping into the version of himself he presented on 1981’s Diary Of A Madman; it was him scratching against the walls of his own home, where, in one of the documentary’s especially candid moments, he admits he’s maddeningly under constant watch from his family and personal trainers.

Although Alexander deals in plenty of honesty and raw coverage, there are parts that come with awkward-feeling artifice. Ozzy and the family’s recollection of the singer’s fall is accompanied by the kind of wobbling POV shots, stock ‘ominous’ soundtrack and faux-cataclysmic bangs usually reserved for reenactments in Unsolved Mysteries. Later, in a confusing display of emotional whiplash, a victorious shot of Ozzy beaming onstage during his final show abruptly jump-cuts to footage of his funeral cortège.

No Escape From Now was not intended to be a posthumous film, which may explain its occasionally rough-around-the-edges delivery, but missteps aside, it’s a moving coda to its subject’s life. It documents Ozzy’s final years while touching upon so much more, illustrating how the same personality traits that brought him to the frontier of heavy metal tortured him when he couldn’t do it anymore. Some fans might find it difficult, but many more will find it fascinating.

Ozzy: No Escape From Now starts streaming on Paramount Plus on Tuesday, October 7.

A new documentary charting the last three years of heavy metal legend Ozzy Osbourne’s life is available to stream right now on the BBC iPlayer.

The 60-minute film, titled Ozzy Osbourne: Coming Home, was recorded between 2022 -2025 and was due to be broadcast back in August. However, the BBC decided to postpone the documentary after Ozzy passed away on July 22.

The film follows Ozzy and Sharon as they return to the UK after living in Los Angeles for 25 years. It also shows Ozzy's preparations for his poignant Back To The Beginning show at Villa Park, Birmingham back in July.

The doc first aired on BBC One on Thursday, October 2, and is now available to stream via the BBC iPlayer. Here's how you can watch Ozzy Osbourne: Coming Home from anywhere in the world.

Save big on home entertainment with our pick of this year’s best Black Friday streaming deals.

How to watch Ozzy Osbourne: Coming Home in the UK

• UK residents watch for free on the BBC iPlayer

If you’re in the UK and have a TV licence, you'll can stream the hour-long documentary via the BBC iPlayer. Simple as that.

If you're on holiday outside of the UK and don't want to miss Ozzy Osbourne: Coming Home, you can watch with the help of a VPN. We've got the full lowdown below.

How to watch Ozzy Osbourne: Coming Home from anywhere

• Watch via Nord VPN and save 72%

If you're going to be outside the UK on holiday or travelling with work when Ozzy Osbourne: Coming Home is shown, don't worry, as you'll still be able to watch with a VPN.

Virtual Private Networks are used to change the location of your IP address, enabling you to watch the programme outside of the UK. Nord VPN is Louder's service of choice and it's currently available with 72% off the usual price - and there's a 30-day money back guarantee.

How to use a VPN

1. Install a VPN. As we've mentioned above, Nord VPN is Louder's favourite.

2. Choose the location you wish to connect to in the VPN. If you'll be outside the UK on holiday and want to watch the Ozzy doc when it's broadcast, just select 'UK' from the list.

You'll then be all set to watch Ozzy Osbourne: Coming Home.

The background

Speaking about the film, BBC Head Of Commissioning, Documentaries, Clare Sillery said: “We are honoured to have had the opportunity to film with Ozzy and his family. The film captures an intimate glimpse into their journey as they prepare to return to the UK.

“It features family moments, humour, reflection and shows the enduring spirit that made Ozzy a global icon. We hope it brings comfort and joy to Ozzy’s fans and viewers as they remember and celebrate his extraordinary life.”

Coming Home was initially commissioned as a series but evolved into a one-hour documentary as Ozzy battled health problems.

In 2019, the singer suffered a fall at home that aggravated injuries sustained in a 2003 accident, an incident which resulted in The Prince Of Darkness cancelling that year's touring plans. In 2020 Ozzy revealed he'd been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.

Watch the trailer

The history of heavy metal is marked by remarkable music and inspiring victories, but it’s also characterised by deeply personal struggles. This poignant side of the genre is explored in a new documentary series, Into The Void: Life, Death & Heavy Metal, co-created by Jason Eisener and Evan Husney, known for their work on Dark Side Of The Ring.

The eight-episode series premiered on September 22 in the US on Hulu and delves into significant events such as the tragic death of Randy Rhoads and the controversial subliminal messaging lawsuit against Judas Priest, alongside an episode chronicling the untimely death of Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrell.

You can watch the trailer for the series below.

How to watch in the US

If you are in the US, the show is currently streaming on Hulu, where all eight episodes are available for you to binge at your convenience.

It’s worth noting that Hulu is offering a limited-time student deal at $1.99 per month with ads, which is an 80% discount off the usual price of $9.99. Additionally, a bundle that includes Disney+, Hulu, and Max is available for $16.99 per month, saving you 42% compared to the regular price of each service.

New and eligible returning subscribers can take advantage of a free 30-day trial, meaning you watch the entire series without spending a dime! This is by far the cheapest way to watch Into The Void right now.

How to watch in the UK

Currently, the show is advertised as available on Disney+, but as of now, it still hasn't appeared on the platform, nor does it seem to be available on the UK version of Hulu. We suggest keeping an eye on the platform as we fully expect it to appear soon. It could be a good idea to sign up now in anticipation of its release.

How to watch from anywhere

• Watch via Nord VPN and save 72%

If you're going to be outside the US on holiday or travelling for work but still want to catch Into The Void: Life, Death & Heavy Metal, don't worry, as you'll still be able to watch with a VPN.

Virtual Private Networks are used to change the location of your IP address, enabling you to watch the programme outside of the US. Nord VPN is Louder's service of choice, and it's currently available with 72% off the usual price - and there's a 30-day money-back guarantee.

How to use a VPN

1. Install a VPN. As we've mentioned above, Nord VPN is Louder's favourite.

2. Choose the location you wish to connect to in the VPN. If you'll be outside the UK on holiday and want to watch the Ozzy doc when it's broadcast, just select 'UK' from the list.

You'll then be all set to watch Into The Void: Life, Death & Heavy Metal.

Ahead of the show's release, we spoke with the creators about their inspiration for these stories. Jason Eisener shared that he has always been a fan of metal music. He said, “Evan and I are lifelong metal enthusiasts. Our friendship was built on our shared love for movies, metal, and wrestling, which began about 15 years ago. We are very interested in telling stories from cultures that have been marginalised or misunderstood, with wrestling being one of them. We wanted to explore the human side of these narratives. For years, Evan and I dreamed of creating a series outside of wrestling, and we would love to delve into the world of heavy metal.”

Read the full interview with Jason Eisener and Evan Husney.

A brand new film highlighting Van der Graaf Generator's only live show in the US from the 1970s, is to air this evening (UK time) on YouTube.

Van der Graaf Generator - NYC '76 has been created by band biographer Jim Christopulos and is a deep dive into the band's show at New York's Beacon Theater on October 18, 1976, and has been collated from film footage of the show from various sources, synced with audio from the concert, during which the band performed the likes of Lemmings, Killer and Man-Erg, alongside Still Life and La Rossa from that year's Still Life album.

"Earlier this year, I put together the Toronto ’76 film of Van der Graaf Generator performing at Massey Hall," Christopulos explains. "That film was very popular with the band’s worldwide fanbase and was also the first live concert footage ever seen of Van der Graaf during the World Record era. I’d been in touch with Peter and the rest of the band throughout the making of that short video. Impressed, Peter gave me some silent footage of VdGG’s one and only U.S. concert of the 70’s – NYC’s Beacon Theater, October 18, 1976.

"This was given to him by an anonymous fan years ago (we still don’t know who it was) and comprised short clips of the group performing on stage, ranging from a few seconds to about 20 seconds per shot. In discussion with Phil Smart, my co-author of Van der Graaf Generator – The Book, we decided it would be nice for me to make a short film of those clips fleshed out with commentary from the band (which I had recordings of from my The Book sessions) – a sort of mini-documentary."

"When the footage of the Massey Hall [Toronto] concert showed up and Jim did such a good job of matching it up to existing audio, my mind turned back to a couple of reels of super 8 which I’d been given many, many years ago - of the NYC Beacon Theatre show," adds Peter Hammill. "I’d never known quite what to do with it. If it was sent out into, say, the Web without sound it would be just some kind of a curio. Historical artefact as it clearly was, it also didn’t seem right to put it up for private collectors. In the end, I got it transferred digitally and sent the resultant footage off to Jim."

Prog has seen the finished 88-minute film, which mixes live footage with interview clips with all four members of the band and fan insights as well.

"Jim Christopulos’ film is brilliantly researched and put together, with such great editing and production," enthuses David Jackson. "There are wonderful images and some rare footage and surprisingly great sound throughout. It is a great balance of revealing contributions and secret revelations from everyone thrown together by this epic event in VdGG history: the record companies and management; the media and journalists; the devoted young fans and audience from far and wide; and, of course, thoughts from the band members themselves and their crew - and a lot from close to that time, never before reaching the light of day! There are so many elements I never expected to see or hear. And above all, there is a chance to experience the music expressed at that time and so beautifully illustrated - and to savour the astonishing performances by the band in a multi-sensory way. It is astonishing, moving, revealing and touching - and it delivers unimaginable insights into lost moments in the musical past of everyone involved."

Van der Graaf Generator - NYC '76 will be available to watch this evening at 6pm (GMT), 7pm (CET), 1pm (EDT) and 10am (PT) from this location.

A new documentary charting the last three years of Ozzy Osbourne’s life will shown on the BBC and on the BBC iPlayer.

The 60-minute film titled Ozzy Osbourne: Coming Home was recorded between 2022 -2025 and follows Ozzy and Sharon as they return to the UK after living in Los Angeles for 25 years, and also shows Ozzy's preparations for his poignant Back To The Beginning show at Villa Park, Birmingham.

Ozzy Osbourne: Coming Home was originally scheduled to be broadcast on Monday, August 18 at 9pm, but the hour-long film has been removed from the BBC's schedule.

The BBC explained: "Our sympathies are with the Osbourne family at this difficult time. We are respecting the family's wishes to wait a bit longer before airing this very special film. The new [transmission] date will be confirmed shortly."

How to watch in the UK

• Watch on the BBC iPlayer

If you’re in the UK and have a TV licence, you'll be able to watch the hour-long documentary live via the BBC iPlayer.

If you're going to be on holiday outside of the UK and don't want to miss Ozzy Osbourne: Coming Home, you can watch it live with the help of a VPN. Find details below.

How to watch from anywhere

• Watch via Nord VPN and save 72%

If you're going to be outside the UK on holiday or travelling with work when Ozzy Osbourne: Coming Home is shown, don't worry, as you'll still be able to watch with a VPN.

Virtual Private Networks are used to change the location of your IP address, enabling you to watch the programme outside of the UK. Nord VPN is Louder's service of choice and it's currently available with 72% off the usual price - and there's a 30-day money back guarantee.

How to use a VPN

1. Install a VPN. As we've mentioned above, Nord VPN is Louder's favourite.

2. Choose the location you wish to connect to in the VPN. If you'll be outside the UK on holiday and want to watch the Ozzy doc when it's broadcast, just select 'UK' from the list.

You'll then be all set to watch Ozzy Osbourne: Coming Home.

Speaking about the film, BBC Head Of Commissioning, Documentaries, Clare Sillery said: “We are honoured to have had the opportunity to film with Ozzy and his family. The film captures an intimate glimpse into their journey as they prepare to return to the UK.

“It features family moments, humour, reflection and shows the enduring spirit that made Ozzy a global icon. We hope it brings comfort and joy to Ozzy’s fans and viewers as they remember and celebrate his extraordinary life.”

Ozzy died at his Buckinghamshire home on July 22, 17 days after he reunited onstage with his fellow Black Sabbath co-founders for their final show together.

In 2012 the documentary film The Life Of Riley explored the legend of the one and only King Of The Blues, B.B. King. To mark the release, The Blues magazine spoke to the great man and some of his most famous acolytes and asked them to tell his story.

They hanged a young black man in Lexington, Mississippi. He was castrated, then the mob dragged his mutilated body up and down the street behind a car, as a teenage boy called Riley B. King watched from the sidewalk.

“Where I came from they used to hang them every week,” B.B. King tells The Blues. “It wasn’t nothing I hadn’t seen before. That was one of the strange things about white people in that area. Usually you had no problems out of a white family. But the guys, the men, they’d hang some youngster, a black boy, nearly every week or so.”

It’s no wonder the blues flourished in a time and place where just having a black face could get you killed. “I grew up knowing that I didn’t have a name but ‘boy’,” says B.B.. “‘Come here boy! That’s your name.’ There were certain rules you grew up knowing about. If I saw a white man at that time and didn’t know him, I’d get off the street and let him pass by.”

Racism is still prevalent in the Deep South, as it is all over, but attitudes have changed over the years (“I was shocked more than most white people to find we had a black President!” laughs B.B.) as The King of the Blues was to discover one life-changing date in the late 60s. It’s early in the afternoon on Sunday February 26, 1967. An old International tour bus nicknamed Big Red rolls up to the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco, California.

As the bus comes to a halt, B.B. King and his entourage peer out of its side windows at the ‘same old funky building’ they’ve played countless times before. On this occasion, the clientele strikes them as unusual. Instead of the mature, well-dressed black patrons they’ve played to since forever, there’s a bunch of scruffy white kids lounging around the Fillmore’s entrance.

“They had long hair,” says B.B. King. “They were sitting out there on the stairs that led to the doorway of the Fillmore. I told my road manager, ‘I think my agent’s made a mistake.’ All these guys, with the long hair, they didn’t seem to be bothered with us at all.”

The Fillmore is run by impresario and promoter Bill Graham. A champion of the counter-culture scene, Graham and his venue host shows by the likes of The Doors and Jefferson Airplane. He will abandon the Auditorium a year after B.B. plays there to open the larger capacity Fillmore West and Winterland Ballroom venues, both in San Francisco; and the Fillmore East in New York City.

In the meantime, back at the original Fillmore, B.B. King is looking for answers.

“I sent my road manager and told him to tell Bill Graham I was there but I thought it was the wrong place. So, we were gonna leave,” says B.B.. “Bill came back out with the road manager, came on the bus and said, ‘You’re at the right place. Get ready and I’ll take you in.’ I followed him into the same old dressing room. I remember that somebody had took a knife and cut the seat. That happened before Bill bought the place but he hadn’t fixed it [laughs]. Anyway, we started to talk and he told me what he wanted me to do.”

B.B. and his band are the headliners for this ‘one night only’ show with support from psychedelic group Moby Grape and The Steve Miller Blues Band. Miller himself is making his debut at the Fillmore that afternoon. As it dawns on B.B. that he has been booked to entertain a young, predominantly white rock audience for the first time in his life, he can feel beads of cold sweat running down the back of his neck. His heart begins racing. His throat goes dry.

“I said to Bill, ‘Man, I can’t handle it. You gonna have to get me a bottle,’” he laughs. “I was drinking then. Bill said, ‘Dude, we don’t sell it.’ I said, ‘I didn’t say nuthin’ about selling it. Get me a bottle!’ He looked at me and said, ‘OK’ and sent someone over with a miniature bottle. I wanted to tell them to send it back but I didn’t. I tried to keep my cool.”

While the support acts do their thing B.B. can only sit and wait. “Bill said, ‘I’ll come back for you when it’s time to go on,’” he says. “So, I grab the bottle and I go glug, glug, glug [laughs], cos I’m nervous as a cat with about six dogs around him. Finally, Bill sent up a message to me to say he’d be up for me in five or 10 minutes. He was a no-nonsense guy. Whatever you had to do you do it and we ok. That’s the way he was.

“So, I sit there like I’m on pins and sure enough he came and got me. I followed him down to where the bandstand was. He walked out on the stage and said ‘Ladies and gentleman… – and I swear, you could hear a pin drop – ‘I bring you The Chairman of the Board, B.B. King.’ I’ve never been introduced like that before or since.”

B.B. walks out onto the stage as the auditorium’s floodlights capture a sea of kids rising to their feet.

“When we used to play the Fillmore [when a guy named Charles Sullivan owned it], it had chairs and tables and stuff,” remembers B.B.. “Now, all the kids were sat on the floor and when Bill mentioned my name they all stood up. For three or four tunes after that time, they would stand up after every tune.”

Nervous to the point of near collapse, B.B. is suddenly hit by the size of the audience. At this point in his career he is mainly playing small club dates, with around 200 to 250 people in attendance. The Fillmore Auditorium holds more than 1000 souls.

The enthusiastic response from the audience, coupled with his nerve-racked demeanour, proves too much for B.B. to handle and he breaks down.

“I was so touched I cried,” he admits. “Cos I was thinking, ‘what am I gonna do with all these kids out here?’ They didn’t know who I was when I was walking through the door, but they had heard of me, they knew about me and for some reason they seemed to think that I was pretty good as a guitarist.”

B.B.’s stock is running high with young rock fans in the late 60s. It’s just that he doesn’t know it yet. When kids ask white American blues guitarists like Mike Bloomfield (of Paul Butterfield Blues Band fame) how he learned to play the blues the response was invariably, ‘B.B. King’.

Now, the Fillmore audience has at last had its opportunity to pay respects to The King of the Blues, and as an emotionally drained B.B. hits his last note of the night, soaks up the applause, then turns to leave the stage, he breaks down once again.

B.B. broke the seal at the Fillmore Auditorium. All of a sudden there was no such thing as a typical B.B. King fan or blues listener in general. The whole white audience discovery thing that had already boosted the careers of John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf and a host of obscure Delta blues artists dragged out of retirement, had passed B.B. King by.

The reason for that is that B.B. was a progressive musician. He moved with the times to keep one step ahead of the needs of his black audiences. They didn’t want a folk-blues revival. B.B.’s audience had sophisticated tastes. They wanted horns, strings, backing singers… the whole nine yards. B.B. wasn’t about to start looking back.

It’s only in recent years that B.B. King has even allowed himself to pause and reflect on his illustriuous past. Hence the 2008 opening of his B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Centre in his old stomping ground of Indianola, Mississippi.

There’s the forthcoming movie – The Life of Riley directed by Jon Brewer – which sees the film-maker burrow into every aspect of B.B.’s past. And there’s this feature, where B.B. and pals like Eric Clapton, John Mayall, Mick Taylor and others discuss his amazing history and why he’s still so revered 63 years after he cut his first record.

The story begins with B.B. King’s birth on September 16, 1925.

“I was born, according to my dad, between Indianola and Itta Bena in Mississippi,” says B.B., who was christened Riley B. King. His father Albert described the exact location of his son’s birthplace (just outside of Berclair in LaFlore County) to B.B.’s biographer Charles Sawyer, shortly before he died. “My dad led us there by tape recorder. By telling Charles how to get there he was able to lead us – and my bus – all the way to where I was born.”

According to B.B., his parents split up when he was around five years old. There was also a brother who died, of whom he has no recollection. His father moved on while his mother, Nora Ella Farr, took the boy Riley to live with his maternal grandmother, Elnora Farr, in Kilmichael, Mississippi.

“I had nothing to say about it,” says B.B. today. “She carried me with her. My mother carried me to church every Sunday too. I didn’t like to go. She made me go cos whatever my mother said to do was done! I loved her but she was strict… very strict.”

Funnily enough, B.B.’s attitude to Sunday morning scripture meetings soon changed.

“I started to see girls,” he laughs. “I would see them sitting down at the front of the pulpit and I got to wanting to go to church! Every time they had a meeting each Sunday I would be one of the first to go in because there was girls there. I’ve liked girls all my life.”

B.B. was also keen on his pastor, the Reverend Archie Fair – but for very different reasons, obviously.

“I liked him because he played guitar,” says B.B., of his first stirrings of interest in the instrument. “I liked the way he played, sang and preached in church. He had a style of his own and I liked it.”

B.B. always gave credit where it was due, claiming that he got his guitar style by trying to sound like T-Bone Walker – and failing. It was also T-Bone that inspired the kid to get an electric guitar, after B.B. met him at WDIA radio station. The credit for giving him the guitar bug in the first place, however, falls to the good Reverend Fair.

“I remember when he would visit my uncle. My mother’s brother was married to the preacher’s sister. He would always lay his guitar on the bed – the soft parts of the bed – and I’d bother with it while they was eating dinner. The adults would eat first, before they would let us kids eat. Well, one day they got through eating sooner than I thought and they caught me with the guitar. My uncle was a mean guy. He figured he’d get ready to beat me up. My pastor begged him not to bother me. He didn’t, and from that moment I adored Archie Fair [laughs].”

Life for Riley was good for a while, but blues-inspiring heartache was on the way. B.B.’s mother passed away when he was nine and a half years old. His grandmother died two years later. “I felt deserted,” says B.B. “When she died, there was no one to live with that I wanted to live with. My uncle still lived in the area, and I had an aunt that lived in the area, but I didn’t like either of them to live with.”

So Riley spent two years on his own – working as a sharecropper – until his father came back into his life. “When he found out where I was, he came back. I was still a minor. He was married again and had four more kids.”

Albert took his son to his home in Lexington, Mississippi to meet his new siblings: “I had been living with other people all of my life. So I learned to live and tried to get along with everybody because there’s one of me… and four of them.”

Unfortunately, happy families was not on the cards for B.B., and he was soon on his own again: “I didn’t like my stepmother,” he explains. “I later found out that she was a good woman. It was me. I didn’t understand her and didn’t like her.”

B.B. rode his bicycle from Lexington back to Kilmichael, a journey of about 100 miles. “When I got up there all of the blacks had left,” he recalls. “So, I went back to the Delta to pick cotton just as the war was starting. I fell in love with a girl called Martha, did basic training, and got married. I was 18. She was 17.”

King was already singing and playing guitar with gospel group The Famous St. John’s Quartet, based in Inverness, Mississippi, when a silly accident forced him to go on the run to Memphis, Tennessee. He somehow damaged the exhaust on a tractor and, fearing that the plantation owner would ‘kill him’, he took off.

One big misconception that gets on B.B.’s nerves is his relationship with Delta bluesman Bukka White, with whom he first hooked up on that unscheduled trip to Memphis.“Bukka was not my uncle!” shouts B.B., hoping he’s cleared this one up once and for all. “He was my cousin– my mother’s first cousin. My mother’s mother was a sister to his mother [laughs].”

Another popular misconception is that Bukka helped B.B. get a foothold in the Memphis blues scene on his first visit to the city. “No, he helped me get a job,” B.B. explains. “I worked for a company called the Newberry Equipment Company. That’s where Bukka was working, so he helped me get a job. I stayed there a long time.” It was, however, apparently Bukka who inspired B.B.’s sartorial elegance, telling the young musician something along the lines of “When you play the blues, always dress like you’re going to the bank to borrow money.”

Eventually, the misunderstanding over the broken tractor exhaust was settled, via a polite letter courtesy of B.B. and either $600 or $800 – the exact figure escapes him – and he returned home to his wife and job. He wasn’t back for long, however, before the lure of Memphis proved too strong to resist. This time, though, he was determined to make his way, and money, as well as a musician.

B.B. found a job on Memphis radio station WDIA – which was the first to be programmed entirely by African-Americans – on Union Avenue.

“I don’t know why, but all of the radio stations east of the Mississippi river started with a W,” says B.B., shaking his head. “All of them west of the Mississippi started with a K, I think. I never knew why it was like that but that’s the way it was.”

Speaking of initials, it was while working at the station that young Riley B. King first picked up his ‘Beale Street Blues Boy’ nickname – a reference to the local blues landmark, where he now owns a nightclub. The nickname was later shortened to ‘Blues Boy’, then ‘Bee Bee’ (as seen painted on his guitar amplifier in a photo from the time), before he settled on the now legendary B.B..

It wasn’t long until B.B. decided he wanted to make a record. “I got in touch with a group out of Nashville,” he recalls. “The record company was called Bullet. So, I talked with them, and had my boss out at the radio station talk with them, and they agreed to record me.”

B.B. recorded four sides at the WDIA station in May or June 1949, for release on the Bullet label. Miss Martha King, When Your Baby Packs Up And Goes, Got the Blues and Take A Swing With Me. All four tracks were recorded with pianist Phineas Newborn, Jr, guitarist Calvin Newborn, tenor saxophonist Ben Branch, trumpet player Thomas Branch, Sammy Jett on trombone, the brilliantly-named Tuff Green on bass and drummer Phineas Newborn, Sr.

The band were all top-notch cats. Sadly, B.B.’s self-penned tracks were way beneath them, with the man himself admitting they weren’t up to scratch. But as he says, “you can hear what I was trying to get to.”

B.B. soon found himself being pursued by the Bihari Brothers, the owners of Modern Records. “They found me,” says King. “I was still at the radio station. I stayed at the radio station long after I was sort of popular. Long after. They found me because of Ike Turner. He knew the Bihari Brothers and he sort of worked as a scout for them at the time and he knew me… And I knew him.”

Now, this might be teaching your granny to suck eggs but we should mention that B.B. King calls whatever Gibson ES-355 semi-acoustic guitar he happens to be using at any given time, Lucille. The reason he does that is the stuff of blues lore… and if you don’t know the story, you should.

Towards the end of 1949, B.B. is playing a date at a dance hall in Twist, Arkansas. It’s a cold night so, in seemingly typical Arkansas fashion, the hall is being heated by a barrel part filled with kerosene that has been lit, a fairly common practice at the time. While B.B. and his band are performing onstage, a fight breaks out between two guys nursing some type of beef. Of course, during the scuffle the blokes knock over the barrel of kerosene. The burning fuel spills out and the building is soon aflame.

B.B., along with anyone else with any sense, runs out of the building then remembers that he’s left his Gibson guitar on the stage. He runs back into the hall and grabs his guitar. The next day, King discovers that not only did two people perish in the fire, but the two men who were fighting were fighting for the honour, or otherwise, of a woman called Lucille. King christened the guitar he rescued Lucille, and every one he’s owned since, to remind him never to act so stupid again.

The Bihari Brothers set up some recording time with producer Sam Phillips at his Memphis Recording and Sound Service at 706 Union Avenue – the place that would soon become better known as Sun Studio, the home of Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins, and the original sound of rockabilly.

B.B. cut some sides at the studio – including Boogie – until the relationship between the Bihari Brothers and Sam Phillips soured. B.B. had his own bone to pick with Phillips: “He said something – and I’m quite touchy – he said Howlin’ Wolf was the best blues singer that he had ever recorded. I had been over there too, so I figured he didn’t give a damn about me.” [Phillips to his credit, maintained his belief that Howlin’ Wolf was the greatest ever, right up until his death in 2003.]

As it happens, B.B.’s first breakthrough hit was in the post. Recorded in the Memphis YMCA in September 1951, Three O’Clock Blues was a song that B.B. had been practising for some time: “I had heard Three O’Clock Blues from Lowell Fulson. I got to where I could sing it good, so the Bihari Brothers let me cut it and it was a hit. But what they did – they copyrighted the song as if I had wrote it, but I didn’t. So, it was a big selling record for me. I started then to begin writing songs myself.”

B.B.’s first bonafide classic the song made an impact on listeners way beyond the airwaves around Memphis.

“I first heard B.B. King on Three O’Clock Blues,” remembers Blues Breaker boss John Mayall. “I came out of the army in 1955, and up to that point I hadn’t heard him; or heard of him pretty much. Somebody that lived down the road, a West Indian, happened to have a 78 of B.B.’s record. I was just amazed at his high singing voice. That was the first thing that struck me; and just the way he was playing. It was something very different.”

For Eric Clapton, B.B. found his groove while working with the Bihari Brothers in the 1950s: “I think he found his voice early on with the guitar,” says Clapton. “If anything, it’s really just become more refined. He doesn’t have to play as much, as he did in the old days. He found a way to condense it. When I first heard him it would have been Sweet 16 Part 1 & 2 (recorded in Los Angeles in 1959). It’s a mono recording, and he’s obviously playing live with a big orchestra.

“I immediately recognised that he was playing guitar like he sings. His voice is answering the guitar. No other blues guitar player can do that in the same way. B.B. sings with his guitar.”

The relationship between B.B. and the Bihari Brothers ended when he jumped ship to ABC. The reason? The oldest one in the book: money.

“I have a friend named Fats Domino,” says B.B.. “He was on ABC and, at that time, it looked like everything he touched was a hit record. That’s when he told me I was with the wrong people.”

B.B. lost a certain amount of artistic freedom when he split from the Bihari Brothers, but his association with ABC gave him financial stability and lead to him recording one of the greatest blues records of all time, Live At The Regal. This is the record that drove a bunch of tone-hungry English kids crazy in 60s London – and this is the point in the feature where B.B.s famous fans take over the narration to discuss his influence, legacy and genius.

“There was a now-defunct blues record shop in Lisle Street in Soho, near the old Flamingo Club,” recalls former Rolling Stones guitarist Mick Taylor. “All the guitarists used to go there on a Saturday morning – Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, loads of people. They used to import American blues albums and singles. One of the first albums I ever bought was Live At The Regal, recorded at a famous theatre in Chicago. That was very influential… And an album that’s dear to my heart. That’s B.B. King in his prime.”

B.B.’s 1965 Live At The Regal is a career-defining record in much the same way as his later anthem, The Thrill Is Gone. The album is an example of ‘as good as it gets’, thanks to a dynamite performance from B.B. and his band, captured at the Regal Theater on the South Side of Chicago on November 21, 1964. Aside from B.B., the line-up features top-line dudes: Duke Jethro on piano, Kenny Sands on trumpet Johnny Board, Bobby Forte (both tenor sax), bassist Leo Lauchie and drummer Sonny Freeman. B.B. works the crowd like a pro, pulling screams of ecstasy from the women and howls and hollers from the men.

Curiously, the only person that doesn’t get the album’s significance is B.B. himself. “I think it’s a good album, yes,” he says, calmly. “But it wasn’t like some people have said, that it was the best thing I’d ever done.”

But for guitarists like Mick Taylor, Live At The Regal is a masterclass in using the guitar as an extension of the voice.

“I thought about it a lot back in the days when I was still learning about blues playing,” says Taylor. “Learning the art of singing and answering what you were singing with a guitar phrase… I think that’s where B.B. King is a master. He has a great voice, and a great sense of dynamics. He could bring a song right down, and of course his band would follow him. Unlike Albert King’s band; if they missed a beat or were too loud, Albert would turn round and give them the evil eye… a nasty look. I’ve never seen B.B. King do that.”

“Live At The Regal was like this pivotal musical watershed that took me away from the British Blues – temporarily,” says Joe Bonamassa. “I had just discovered American blues for the very first time, after listening to the English stuff like Clapton, Peter Green, Paul Kossoff and Free, and every incarnation of John Mayall and the Blues Breakers. Live At The Regal was the first American blues album I really liked. It was lively, and big, and had horns.”

“B.B. King has been a huge influence on me,” says Free and Bad Company vocalist Paul Rodgers. “When I first met Paul Kossoff and he asked if he could get up and jam with me at The Fickle Pickle in Finsbury Park all those many years ago, the first things we played were B.B. King songs like Every Day I Have The Blues, off Live At The Regal. Paul introduced me to that record and we really sat and listened to it. One of the things that B.B. has is a great rapport with the audience.”

If B.B. was unaware of the effect his records were having on American kids in the late 60s, there’s no way he could have guessed the influence he was exerting over in London. Blues Breakers leader John Mayall had no trouble spotting which of his Holy Trinity of guitarists were feeling B.B.’s style the most.

“Of the three main guitar players from the English stable – Eric, Peter Green and Mick Taylor – I would say that Eric was most influenced by Freddie King; Mick Taylor was most influenced by Albert King; and Peter Green was most definitely a B.B. King devotee. He learned how to play as little as possible, and most effectively as possible, in the same way that B.B. can play one note and you know exactly who it is. So, that was Peter’s goal. I think he learned a great deal from B.B..”

“That’s dead right to me… Very observant,” says Eric Clapton.

Mick Taylor, however, is not so sure. “Well, John is entitled to his opinion,” he says. “But I actually think Eric was influenced by Freddie and B.B. King. B.B. especially.”

B.B. has his own opinion on the subject. “I think Eric liked me as a guitarist – he’s a good friend,” he says. “But I don’t think he idolised me like he did with Albert King and Buddy Guy.”

“There’s simplicity and honesty in B.B.’s playing,” continues Mayall. “What he can do with one note a lot of lesser guitar players would not be able to accomplish playing a million notes a minute. He’s been a great influence on a lot of people I know who have latched onto the fact that it’s not how many notes you play, it is how you play them in order to convey your feelings.”

The old ‘one note’ thing doesn’t half get on some guitar players’ goats, but if there is a blues player that is recognisable from a single pluck, it has to be B.B. King.

“Yeah, one note is all it takes for B.B.,” says Eric Clapton. “Often that’s exactly what he’ll do. He’ll slide up to hit the octave to make a point. It’s like an exclamation mark. He’ll sing a phrase, and to punctuate it and give it drama he’ll slide up and hit that octave with just the right amount of vibrato. It’s about economy and power, with the maximum amount of passion.”

“I’d say that’s true, yeah,” agrees Mick Taylor. “His sound is completely unique to him. One or two notes and I know it’s B.B.. Certainly no more than three! I think his vibrato sets him apart. Eric’s playing and B.B. King’s playing is similar in that in the sense that they have the same kind of vibrato.”

Eric Clapton remembers the first time he played with B.B.. Well, a reasonable chunk of it.

“It was during a period when I had become friends with Al Kooper,” he says. “He’d formed this band called Blood, Sweat and Tears, and their debut gig was at the Cafe Au Go-Go [in New York’s Greenwich Village]. So, I’d gone down with Al to see them play. I don’t remember how the jam with B.B. came about, but there we were, and I’ve seen pictures of us sitting on our amplifiers playing together.

“What I do remember – and it’s sad for the guy – the bass player with Blood, Sweat and Tears – a guy called Jim Fielding I think – managed to stay four bars ahead of everybody, you know, for about half an hour. I thought it was quite an achievement in itself. When you get to the end of a 12-bar sequence, someone will shout and everyone will fall back into the sequence. Well, this guy managed to remain out of sync the whole time.”

“I was 17,” says Texan slide guitar genius Johnny Winter. “It was a club in Belmont, Texas called The Raven. I heard it on the radio that B.B. King was gonna be there. So, I gotta hear this! I had a fake I.D. and got in.”

Johnny was a fan but he wasn’t there just to listen to his idol play.

“Yeah, I bothered him,” he laughs. “I wanted to see him, but I really wanted him to hear me. I kept sending my band members up to ask him if it was alright if I played.”

What Johnny and his friends didn’t realise is that B.B. was eyeing them with suspicion. “We were the only white people in the club, and he’d been having tax problems,” laughs Johnny. “He thought we were from the IRS! He finally let me play and I got a standing ovation.”

B.B. chuckles at the memory; he remembers the encounter well. Not only the fear of undercover tax men, but his first taste of the young guitarist’s playing: “Johnny was good,” he says.

Not only did Johnny and his mates put the wind up poor old B.B., he also forgot to bring any gear with him. “Yeah, I didn’t bring my guitar,” continues Johnny. “So I played Lucille!”

Johnny admits that B.B. went out of his way to accomodate him. “It was very nice of him to let me play cos he didn’t know whether I could play or not,” he says. I remember he kept saying, ‘We have arrangements’. I said, ‘I’ve heard all your records. I know all your arrangements.’

“B.B. asked to see my union card. He wanted to check me out. It took him a long time before he decided to let me play. I think he was so glad that we weren’t coming to bust him for his taxes; he didn’t care if I could play or not [laughs].”

“I met B.B. King on May 24, 1990,” says Joe Bonamassa. “I’d just turned 13. I was playing shows in upstate New York. When you’re that young and you play blues music you tend to get a lot of media. Especially how I looked – I was like this pudgy white kid with a Telecaster. I was attracting a decent crowd. Mainly curiosity seekers at that point – when I showed up to these gigs it was kind of like a circus.

"This one promoter rang my mother one time and booked me to open up for B.B. King, which was a thrill because about three years before that I had discovered Live At The Regal. To meet him that first time was extraordinarily special for me, because he was one of my musical heroes. When you’re that young and able to meet someone like that, it was really a special thrill.

"I just thought I’d play the show and then move on, but he ended up calling me back to his dressing room and we had a really lovely chat and I got to sit in with him that night. It was my big break and it totally changed my life. He plucked me out of obscurity. I’ve played shows with B.B. King pretty much every year for the past 22 years.”

When B.B. King passes on, sad as it will be, we’ll wager that he’ll be performing onstage, lounging around in his tour bus, or trundling somewhere between the two. While he’s not running at the speed he was when he played 342 shows in one year back in 1956, the man is 86 years of age and still tours his ass off. Like his contemporaries Chuck Berry and Jerry Lewis, the desire to hit the road is undiminished in B.B., regardless of age and ill health (in his case, King has suffered from Type 2 diabetes). He’s never happier than when he’s pulling into a new town and playing shows, spending hours chatting to fans and signing autographs.

While not many of the characters interviewed for this feature – and Jon Brewer’s brilliant film, The Life Of Riley – would expect B.B. to continue touring the world for much longer, all believe he’ll keep up his commitments in North America. For his part, Eric Clapton is adamant that B.B. will never really put Lucille back in her case for good, unless he really has to. As Slowhand says: “It’s his life. It’s what he does.”

“He’s a trooper!” shouts Paul Rodgers. “He’s played almost every night of the week for years and years. I think he just takes Christmas day off or something ridiculous like that… amazing guy.”

Others that you would consider consummate road warriors are still blown away by B.B.’s relentless schedule. “I do about 120 gigs a year,” says Johnny Winter. “B.B. used to play almost every night when he was younger. He played like 350 gigs a year. I don’t know anybody that could play as much as he did. Playing keeps you young.”

When we ask the man himself if he’ll ever stop rolling down the highway he looks us in the eye and replies with a simple “No.”

Ask him how he’d like to be remembered and B.B. takes a little more time to reach for an answer.

“‘He was a pretty nice guy’,” he says eventually with a grin. “No… something like, ‘He was a son of a bitch but he was himself!‘”

This article originally appeared in Issue 2 of The Blues Magazine, published in August 2012. B.B. King died in May 2015. The Life Of Reilly is available to watch on streaming platforms.

Back in the days when God was a boy and bath nights were as much a weekly treat as they were a necessity, the local flea-pit cinema would occasionally open its doors late to deviate from its scheduled programming to indulge in all-night horror marathons, cult movies or concert films, catering for those whose tastes and interests ran counter to the mainstream.

It may seem rather quaint now in a time of information overload, instant-access entertainment and short attention spans, but for those who made the effort to rock up with smuggled beers, a packet of 10 fags and perhaps something more exotic, these encounters with the counterculture were as meaningfully informative and impactful as they were fun.

Ergo Pink Floyd's Live At Pompeii, which showed the generation that latched on to music in the 70s and 80s that there was so much more to the band than the imperial period that ran from the release of 1973’s The Dark Side Of The Moon to the final brick that built The Wall six years later.

Filmed and recorded live over several days in October 1971 in the ruins of Pompeii’s Roman amphitheatre with only the camera crew as the audience, these performances show a band in transition as they begin to find their direction and identity following the enforced departure of founder member Syd Barrett after his drug-induced meltdown.

With one foot in the band’s psychedelic past and the other pointing at the future, the updated and retitled Pink Floyd At Pompeii – MCMLXXII is a vital historical snapshot. Earlier material such as Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun and Careful With That Axe, Eugene are less concerned with the discipline of song structure – or indeed songcraft – as they are with creating music that enhances altered states of consciousness via the exploitation of sound effects and guitar pedals. Looking forward with the then-contemporary dips into Meddle via One Of These Days and the monumental Echoes (here split into two parts), Pink Floyd take off from the more disciplined launch pads of melody and purpose.

Visually cleaned up, and remixed by Steven Wilson, Pink Floyd At Pompeii – MCMLXXII is liberated from memories of scratchy sound and grainy visuals. Crucially, as a document of four hungry musicians working in common cause and without later bells, whistles and recriminations, this stands as Pink Floyd’s best live album.

Readers of a certain age may recall seeing Pink Floyd At Pompeii as part of a series of all-nighter screenings featuring various rock docs in the mid-70s – events frequently accompanied by a large alcohol intake beforehand. Inevitably, as the movies in the dark and warmth of the cinema ticked by, and the booze and the wee hours took their toll, falling asleep was often the outcome.

Happily there’s no danger of nodding off in front of this extended edition of Floyd’s historic performance exhumed from their archives. With the 85-minute feature film version and a 60-minute edit, lovingly restored from the original 35mm negative, and audio remixed by Steven Wilson in Dolby Atmos, 5.1 and stereo, this 54-year-old concert now boasts crisp audio that nicely complements the improved visuals. Vinyl fans will also covet the two-LP soundtrack accompanying this release.

Taking place in a deserted amphitheatre in October 1971 with roadies and director Adrian Maben’s camera crew looking on, the group roam through a memorable set including A Saucerful Of Secrets, Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun, Careful With That Axe, Eugene and a truly vibrant rendition of Echoes from Meddle – which the band had only finished mixing the previous month.

The performance, interspersed with studio footage and interviews, captures Floyd at a major transition in their career. While the music of Echoes has a foot in their psych/underground past, it also points to future elements they’re seen honing for The Dark Side Of The Moon, which will arrive just three months later.

Hindsight inevitably freights portions of the interviews with a degree of extra resonance. Roger Waters – seen in Abbey Road studios working on a record that would sell more than four million copies in the UK alone – scoffs at the then-media reports that rock was a dying art form, declaring, “The market in rock’n’roll is expanding at a phenomenal rate.”

Elsewhere, the ever-diplomatic Nick Mason, asked about the state of the band’s interpersonal relationships, states that all is well; but admits that the real danger to future cohesion could be “when one person finds that what he’s doing doesn’t interest him, or he feels he could do something better by himself.”

Even the amphitheatre’s oval in which the band play seems to foreshadow the famous circular projection screen that would feature in Floyd shows from 1974 onwards.

All told, this is a truly historic artefact.

Pink Floyd At Pompeii – MCMLXXII is out now in DVD, Blu-ray, CD and vinyl formats.

U2 fans can expect to hear frontman Bono share some of the most insightful, poignant and open-hearted stories from his life and career in a new documentary, Bono: Stories of Surrender, premiering on Apple TV + next month.

The documentary, filmed at the Beacon Theatre in New York, is described as "a bold and lyrical visual exploration of Bono’s one-man show by the same name, based on his celebrated memoir, Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story, and the accompanying book/theatre tour."

A synopsis for the film adds that it captures the 64-year-old Dubliner as "he pulls back the curtain on a remarkable life and the family, friends, and faith that have challenged and sustained him, revealing personal stories about his journey as a son, father, husband, activist and rockstar."

Along with never-before-seen, exclusive footage from the Beacon Theatre shows, the film features Bono performing iconic U2 songs that have shaped his life and legacy.

In a newly released trailer for the doc, Bono introduced the show as “the tall tales of a short rock star”, but it also features the singer talking candidly about his family.

"The last time I saw my mother alive, was at her own father's funeral," he says in the clip. "This sounds almost too Irish I know. My father’s response to this tragedy was to never speak of her again. I craved my father’s attention, so I sang louder and louder."

Watch the trailer below:

Last November, guitarist The Edge revealed that U2 are working on new music, but perhaps not the kind of music that anyone was anticipating.

Previously, Bono had told The New York Times that he wanted to make a “noisy, uncompromising, unreasonable guitar album”, stating “Right now I want to write the most unforgiving, obnoxious, defiant, fuck-off-to-the-pop-charts rock ‘n’ roll song that we’ve ever made.”

However, this does not appear to be where the band's thoughts are currently, if The Edge's comments to BBC Radio 2 DJ Jo Whiley on November 25 are to be believed.

“Bono and I are working on some crazy kind of sci-fi Irish folk music,” he said. “Which could end up becoming a part of the new U2 album. We’re not sure yet, we’ll see.”

Teasing that “a bunch [of] beautiful, Irish musicians” could be contributing, the guitarist added, “Part of our kind of process is to go so widely away from, off track, and the sort of the process of bringing things back on track is kind of how you get sort of unique sounding music.”

“We’re at that great phase where we don’t have to over think it, we’re just making music and loving that process. And then we’ll figure out where things belong afterwards.”

U2's last album of new material, Songs Of Experience, was released in 2017.

Metallica have released the teaser trailer for their new documentary Metallica Saved My Life.

The film – from director Jonas Åkerlund, who directed Lords Of Chaos as well as the music videos for Metallica’s Whiskey In The Jar, Turn The Page and Manunkind – will celebrate the band’s worldwide fanbase and focus on their personal stories. All four of the band’s members will appear, as will superstar actor Jason Momoa.

Screenings have been scheduled for cities across the US from April to June. See locations and get tickets via the Fathom Entertainment website.

Metallica comment: “As a few of you may know, we’ve been working behind the scenes the last couple of years on a new film that will be released later this year starring you guys! Metallica Saved My Life explores our world through the lives of fans who have supported each other through highs, lows, trials and triumphs for over four decades. And yeah, we’re in it a little bit too.”

They add: “Tickets are available now in all tour cities except Columbus and are limited to two per person. We’ll keep a close eye on sales and add screenings where possible should your city sell out quickly. If the film is not coming to your city or you can’t make it this time, never fear – the full documentary is expected to be released later this year.”

Metallica Saved My Life will be the third official film centred around the California metal titans, following 2004 documentary Some Kind Of Monster and 2013 action/concert film hybrid Metallica Through The Never.

This isn’t the only landmark metal documentary to be announced in recent weeks. Last month, Iron Maiden revealed that an as-yet-untitled film celebrating their 50th anniversary will hit cinemas in autumn. Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich will appear, as will Gene Simmons of Kiss and actor Javier Bardem.

Metallica released their latest album 72 Seasons in 2023 and start a tour of North American later this month. See dates and details below.

Metallica 2025 tour dates:

Apr 19: Syracuse MA Wireless Dome, NY*
Apr 24: Toronto Rogers Centre, ON*
Apr 26: Toronto Rogers Centre, ON+
May 01: Nashville Nissan Stadium, TN*
May 03: Nashville Nissan Stadium, TN+
May 07: Blacksburg Lane Stadium, VA*
May 09: Columbus Sonic Temple, OH
May 11: Columbus Sonic Temple, OH
May 23: Philadelphia Lincoln Financial Field, PA+
May 25: Philadelphia Lincoln Financial Field, PA*
May 28: Landover Northwest Stadium, MD*
May 31: Charlotte Bank Of America Stadium, NC*
Jun 3: Atlanta Mercedes-Benz Stadium, GA*
Jun 6: Tampa Raymond James Stadium, FL+
Jun 8: Tampa Raymond James Stadium, FL*
Jun 14: Houston NRG Stadium, TX*
Jun 20: Santa Clara Levi’s Stadium, CA+
Jun 22: Santa Clara Levi’s Stadium, CA*
Jun 27: Denver Empower Field at Mile High, CO+
Jun 29: Denver Empower Field at Mile High, CO* 

* Pantera and Suicidal Tendencies support
+ Limp Bizkit and Ice Nine Kills support

Iron Maiden have unveiled details of an official documentary set for release later this year. Universal Pictures Content Group today announced that the film will be released in cinemas around the globe in autumn 2025 to coincide with the metal legends’ 50^th anniversary.

The long-awaited documentary will span through Maiden’s 50-year history with input from both members and ex-members of the group alongside famous fans such as No Country For Old Men star Javier Bardem, Metallica’s Lars Ulrich and Kiss’s Gene Simmons. It will also include the final interview with the band’s original singer Paul Di’Anno, who died in 2024.

As well as rare archive footage, the as-yet-untitled film will also feature brand new animated sequences featuring their legendary mascot Eddie. It will be helmed by Churchill At War director Malcolm Venville. Speaking about the forthcoming documentary, Iron Maiden manager Ron Smallwood said:

“We’re proud Universal Pictures Content Group has chosen to share the unique story of Iron Maiden with the world. We have given them unrestricted access to the band, our fans and musical peers. We trust that they will excite not only music fans but also anyone who loves a story of an underdog beating the odds to become and remain one of Britain’s biggest musical exports since our first record released 45 years ago.”

You don’t have to wait until then for your 2025 Maiden fix though – beginning in Hungary at the end of May, the band will embark on the European leg of their Run For Your Lives tour. It arrives in the UK for a run of five dates at the end of June.

The long-awaited and much-anticipated sequel to Rob Reiner's classic 1984 'rockumentary' This Is Spinal Tap is set to open in US cinemas on September 12.

The date was revealed as the first short teaser for Spinal Tap II: The End Continues is released, confidently suggesting that director Marty DiBergi's (Reiner) new film about the legendary English hard rock band will go up to 11.

According to an interview Reiner gave to Empire magazine last year, the sequel comes together after DiBergi - who's been teaching at the Ed Wood School of Cinematic Arts - discovers that Spinal Tap's core members David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean), Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest) and Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer) are putting the band back together to play a gig, and gets back in contact to ask if he can document it. Reiner also revealed what the three band members have been doing since the group fell apart.

"Nigel has been running a cheese and guitar shop in Berwick-upon-Tweed," he said. "He’s also been performing with a local folk band in the village that play penny whistle and mandolin, and he plays electric guitar with them. We show a little clip of that.

"David St Hubbins has been living in Morro Bay in California, and he’s been writing music for podcasts, particularly this one true-crime podcast called The Trouble With Murder. He also writes the music that you hear when you’re on hold on the phone.

"And then we have Derek. Derek is living in London and is now the curator of the New Museum of Glue. He’s curated glue from every country in the world, the whole history of glue, and he shows me around. He’s also been performing with a philharmonic orchestra, and he’s written this kind of symphony about the fact that the devil wears a bad hair piece. It’s called Hell Toupée."

Spinal Tap II will reunite McKean, Guest) and Shearer for the first time since the trio performed an acoustic set at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival.

Elton John, Paul McCartney, Lars Ulrich and Chad Smith are among the bonafide rock stars making cameo appearances in the film. And both Elton John and Paul McCartney contribute songs to the soundtrack, which also features a host of new original material by Spinal Tap, including a Derek Smalls meditation upon death titled Rockin’ In The Urn.

A UK release date for the film is yet to be announced.

The director behind Netflix's long-awaited Prince documentary has addressed his frustrations behind its cancellation.

Ezra Edelman, who is known for his work on the O.J.: Made In America film, recently spoke out about the controversial decision to axe the doc during an appearance on the Pablo Torre Finds Out podcast.

"It’s a joke," he says. "I can’t get past this – the short-sightedness of a group of people whose interest is their own bottom line. They’re afraid of his humanity.”

The scrapping of the nine-part docuseries was announced last month by Netflix following four years of work, after reaching a “mutual agreement” with the late musician's estate. Instead, the two camps agreed to work on a different project, and “develop and produce a new documentary featuring exclusive content from Prince’s archive”.

According to Variety, Prince's representatives believed that Edelman's documentary contained “dramatic” factual inaccuracies and “sensationalised” depictions of various moments from the star's life.

During the recent podcast interview, Edelman explains how he was sent a list of amendments by Prince's estate which were at conflict with his intentions for the project. He reflects, "You think I have any interest in putting out a film that is factually inaccurate?”.

Explaining how he had wanted to provide a more authentic depiction of Prince rather than focus solely on his musical career, Edelman continues, "Everything about who you believe he is, is in this movie. You get to bathe in his genius.

"And yet you have to confront his humanity. People had issues with how he treated people – he was emotionally abusive, he was physically abusive.”

There is currently no information on the status of Netflix's replacement project.

Watch the podcast episode below:

A feature-length documentary about Ozzy Osbourne is slated to come out later this year.

According to a post on the Black Sabbath singer’s social media channels, Ozzy Osbourne: No Escape From Now is currently in production and will be released via Paramount Plus.

Directed by BAFTA Award winner Tania Alexander (Gogglebox, etc.), the film will chronicle Osbourne’s life since he suffered a fall in 2019 that gave him spinal damage. He announced he has Parkinson’s disease in 2020 and retired from touring in 2023.

As well as Osbourne and his family, including wife/manager Sharon, No Escape From Now will feature Ozzy’s Black Sabbath bandmate Tony Iommi, Duff McKagan (Guns N’ Roses), Robert Trujillo (Metallica), Billy Idol, Maynard James Keenan (Tool), Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers), guitarist Zakk Wylde, producer Andrew Watt and friend/musician Billy Morrison.

Ozzy comments: “The last six years have been full of some of the worst times I’ve been through. There’s been times when I thought my number was up. But making music and making two albums saved me [2020’s Ordinary Man and 2022’s Patient Number 9]. I’d have gone nuts without music.”

Adds Sharon: “This film is an honest account of what has happened to Ozzy during the last few years. It shows how hard things have been for him and the courage he has shown while dealing with a number of serious health issues, including Parkinson’s. It’s about the reality of his life now.

“We have worked with a production team we trust and have allowed them the freedom to tell the story openly. We hope that story will inspire people that are facing similar issues to Ozzy.”

Ozzy will give his last-ever live performance at Back To The Beginning, an event set to also feature a set by the original Black Sabbath lineup for the first and last time since 2005.

The blockbuster show will take place at Villa Park in Birmingham, Ozzy’s hometown, on July 5. Metallica, Anthrax, Slayer and others will perform, as will a “supergroup” composed of The Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan, Rage Against The Machine’s Tom Morello and many more. Morello will be the musical director for the day while famed actor Jason Momoa (Game Of Thrones, Aquaman, etc.) will compere, and all proceeds will go to charity.

The long-awaited documentary charting the life and music of Sly And The Family Stone has been released on both sides of the Atlantic and is available to stream right now on Hulu and Disney+.

Sly Lives! (aka The Burden Of Black Genius) was revealed back in 2021 and the 1h 50m film has been directed by Roots drummer, producer and DJ Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson. It features interviews with artists including Andre 3000, Nile Rogers, Q-Tip, Chaka Khan, D’Angelo, Ruth Copeland and George Clinton.

A press release explains: “The film captures the rise, reign and subsequent fade-out of one of pop music’s most influential artists, but also shines a light on how black artists in America navigate the unseen burden that comes with their success.

“Drawing from his own personal experience and relationships, Questlove tells an empathetic human story about the cost of genius, framing the way we all engage with pop culture.”

Sly Lives! (aka The Burden Of Black Genius) is available from today (February 13) on Hulu in the US and on Disney+ in the UK.

How to watch

If you want to watch Sly Lives! (aka The Burden Of Black Genius) right now, just hop over to either Hulu or Disney+, search for the documentary and you’re all set.

A Hulu subscription with ads costs $9.99 per month, while the ad-free option is priced at $18.99. You can also pick up a sub with Hulu and Disney+ for $10.99 per month, or go for the Max Bundle featuring Hulu, Disney+ and Max for $16.99 a month.

In the UK, a Disney+ monthly sub with ads costs £4.99 a month, while you can get the standard package for £8.99 a month. A Premium subscription costs £12.99 per month and that ups the resolution to 4K UHD & HDR.

How to watch from anywhere

If you're outside the US or the UK on holiday or traveling with work and want to watch the Sly Lives! (aka The Burden Of Black Genius) right now, don't worry, as you'll still be able to watch wherever you are with the use of a VPN.

Virtual Private Networks are used to change the location of your IP address, enabling you to watch any show outside of a streaming territory. NordVPN is our service of choice and it's currently available at a great price and with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

How to use a VPN

1. Install a VPN. As we've mentioned above, NordVPN is Louder's current favourite.

2. Choose the location you wish to connect to in the VPN. If you're currently outside the US or UK on holiday and want to watch Sly Lives! (aka The Burden Of Black Genius), just select 'US' or 'UK' from the list.

3. Turn the volume up and relax. You're all set to watch this highly anticipated documentary.

Watch the trailer

A trailer for the highly-anticipated movie about pioneering Sly & The Family Stone founder Sly Stone has been released. Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius) was directed by Roots drummer and Tonight Show bandleader Questlove, and will begin streaming via Hulu on February 13.

According to a press release issued by Hulu, the film will examine "the life and legacy of Sly & The Family Stone, the groundbreaking band led by the charismatic and enigmatic Sly Stone. The film captures the band’s rise, reign and subsequent fadeout while shedding light on the unseen burden that comes with success for Black artists in America."

"It [the film] goes beyond saying that Sly’s creative legacy is in my DNA," said Questlove in 2021. "It’s a black musician’s blueprint. To be given the honour to explore his history and legacy is beyond a dream for me.”

Sly Stone emerged with 1967‘s Dance To The Music, demolishing socio-cultural boundaries by mixing funk with psychedelia and rock. Triumph at 1969's Woodstock festival put him on the road to becoming one of the first major rock stars of the early 1970s, but battles with mental health and addiction would slow his trajectory.

Multiple attempts to revive Stone's musical career faltered and failed. His most recent release, the 2011 solo album I'm Back! Family & Friends, was his first since 1975, and contained just three new songs. The last interview he gave was in 2007, although he surprised many by publishing a memoir, Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin), in 2023.

Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius) features interviews with Andre 3000, D’Angelo, Chaka Khan, Q-Tip, Nile Rogers, Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis, George Clinton, Ruth Copeland and Clive Davis, as well as band and family members.

Marilyn Manson: Unmasked’s director has thanked the accusers interviewed in her new documentary.

Ahead of the three-part miniseries debuting in the UK via Channel 4 tonight (January 14), Karen McGann says interviewees including actor Evan Rachel Wood face “jeopardy” for being outspoken against their alleged abuser.

Upwards of a dozen women have accused Manson (real name Brian Warner) of abuse. He has denied all allegations. Several lawsuits against the shock rocker have been settled, but cases led by Bianca Allen Kyne and Manson’s former assistant Ashley Walter are on track to be heard in court.

Regarding Wood and Kyne, who also appears in the documentary, McGann tells NME that they’d been “burned” by backlash from diehard Manson fans on social media.

“When the original story came out, there was a huge backlash and people trolling, saying that they were Manson fans, who just went after these girls in quite a strong way,” she says.

“[The accusers had] been burned by that experience, so the idea of doing it for a documentary felt really difficult. I’m really grateful to those who decided to come on the journey with us because there’s a lot of jeopardy involved for them.”

McGann also says that Manson may have been “hiding in plain sight”, his alleged actions masked by the controversial stage persona he’d created for himself.

“Manson is a fascinating subject in that he is the architect of his own mythology,” she adds. “So there is an opinion that maybe this is just a construct and then there are others that tell you, ‘This is hiding in plain sight.’

“The guiding principle for us, when we were making the documentary, was: ‘Did he say it? Yes, he did. We’ll show it to you and then you as the audience can make up your own mind.’ I really wanted to go, ‘I’m going to present you with the different sides of this thing and you can decide what you feel we as a society should do or not do about it.’”

Wood, Manson’s ex-fiancée, was the first person to publicly accuse Manson of abuse. Manson sued her and her friend Ilma Gore for defamation, distress and “impersonation over the internet” in 2022. However, large portions of the suit were thrown out by a Los Angeles judge last year, and Manson dropped the entire case in November.

In October, Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón said his office were investigating new leads and evidence related to the allegations against Manson. He hoped to make a decision about making a legal filing against the singer “soon”. He added that his office were “committed to making sure [Manson’s accusers] are treated with dignity and respect”.

Despite the ongoing legal cases against him, Manson is attempting to mount a musical comeback. He released his first album in four years, One Assassination Under God – Chapter 1, in November and is set to embark on a sell-out tour of the UK and Europe next month.

A three-part documentary about Marilyn Manson will air over three consecutive nights on Channel 4 in the UK this month.

A press statement from Channel 4, which will broadcast Marilyn Manson: Unmasked on January 14, 15 and 16, has the following synopsis: "From his meteoric rise as the self-proclaimed 'Antichrist Superstar' to the chilling abuse allegations that have engulfed his career, this series dives deep into Manson’s world to separate fact from fiction."

The first part of the documentary, titled The Birth of Marilyn Manson, covers former music journalist Brian Warners transformation into the controversial rock star.

The episode synopsis states: "From his shocking stage antics to his offensive backstage behaviour, Manson became a lightning rod for moral panic. Accused by many of being a malign influence on American youth, he faced backlash for allegedly inspiring violence, including the Columbine High School massacre.

"Manson used the controversy to position himself as a misunderstood artist and an advocate for listening to disillusioned youth."

Episode two, Allegations of Abuse, details the allegations against Manson and includes an interview with actress Evan Rachel Wood, a former partner of the musician, who shared revelations of her “horrific”time with Manson in the HBO documentary Phoenix Rising.

The concluding episode, The Reckoning, investigates the fallout from the abuse allegations plus wider implications for the entertainment industry. Manson has denied all allegations against him, and released a new album, One Assassination Under God – Chapter 1, in November.

Watch the trailer for Marilyn Manson: Unmasked below:

Nightwish have released a 45-minute documentary on the making of their latest album Yesterwynde.

The Finnish symphonic metal outfit's 10th album was released in September of this year via Nuclear Blast, and was described by Metal Hammer as "a showcase of Nightwish's incredible ambition."

The documentary, which can be viewed below, includes interviews with the band as the album was coming together in the studio.

Explaining what the album means to her, vocalist Floor Jansen previously told Metal Hammer: "To me, it’s a continuous awareness about the beauty of the planet we’re on and the positivity of us as a species.

"We get all this negative feedback about killing the planet and hurting each other, and all of that is unfortunately true. But there’s also a lot of beauty to it – humanity has achieved amazing things throughout history, and we should remind ourselves of that. That is sometimes forgotten in the speed of the life we live today."

In the same interview, Nightwish mainman Tuomas Holopainen said: "Yesterwynde has a very optimistic vibe to it. It celebrates life and humanity and mortality. The important things.

"The major theme of the album is time – going back in time, recognising your own mortality. Connecting to the past."

Admitting that looking to the past was appealing, considering the state of the world today, Holopainen added that there was much to be grateful for about the present.

He added: “But it’s also incredibly good in many ways. And in many ways it’s better – the innovations of science and medicine, the child death rate.

"A small example: would you rather go to the dentist today or a hundred years ago? I want to emphasise that I’m not immune to the bad stuff that’s going on in the world. I’m aware of it and I do everything I can to help.

"But I think it’s good for our mental state to recognise the good stuff. And I think that we have the chance as a species to survive and get together. That’s the core message, the essence, of Yesterwynde.”

A new documentary series that explores the history of heavy metal music is set to stream on Hulu next year.

The series, with the working title Into the Void is being created by Vice Studios Canada, with Evan Husney and Jason Eisener involved in the project.

Husney and Eisener perviously co-created pro wrestling documentary series Dark Side Of The Ring, which covered the scandals, mysteries, and tragedies from the history of professional wrestling.

Husney says in an Instagram post: "New project alert. Super stoked to finally share what Jason Eisener and I have been working on for the past few years. Coming to Hulu in 2025.

"We both grew up as diehard fans of metal and have always been fascinated by the boundaries between fantasy and reality.

"The sonic worlds created by the genre’s boldest icons are rich with untold history and unimaginable trials and tribulations, and we’re excited to team up with Hulu to look beyond the mystique and show these legends as real people.

"A full episode lineup of the stories we'll be delving into will be announced closer to the show's release next year – we cant wait to share it with everyone."

The CEO of Metal Blade Records, Brian Slagel, is also part of the team behind the new series.

He says: "Excited this has been announced now! I’m part of the team creating this new series."

According to Deadline, the series will "chronicle the emotional sagas behind the most towering legends and unforgettable artists in heavy metal" and it will "go behind the stage into the real lives of heavy metal icons."

Elton John’s jaw-dropping success in the US peaked in November 1975 with shows at Dodger Stadium in LA. So where better to play his final US concerts (three headliners at the 140,000- capacity venue) in 2022?

The Dodger dates form a bridge over which Elton – in reflective rather than acerbic form, alas – faces his own mortality (“I don’t know how much time I have left”), his family and his career in this 100-minute Disney+ documentary, co-directed by husband David Furnish.

Narration-free, it’s live footage and interviews through the ages, anime-style animation and stills. We’ve been here before, but it’s a joy to hear of things like Elton and John Lennon hoovering cocaine in a hotel room, refusing to answer the door when old bore Andy Warhol knocked.

But when he laments that his father never saw him play (“God, I wish it had been different”), his childhood vulnerability resurfaces.

Elton John: Never Too Late airs on Disney+ from December 13.

Online drum education platform Drumeo has released a trailer for Drummer First, its upcoming documentary about Phil Collins.

"Over the last three years, I've been working with the Drumeo team on a documentary about Phil Collins – one of my drumming heroes," says Drumeo content director Brandon Toews. "I spent a few days in Switzerland with Phil and his son, Nic Collins, and we filmed a series of brand-new interviews shortly after Phil and Genesis officially retired."

In the trailer, Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith and Dream Theater man Mike Portnoy are amongst the talking heads paying tribute to Collins.

"Phil Collins' drumming has such a unique sound and style that you know immediately when you hear it," says Smith.

"He's really criminally underrated as a prog icon," adds Portnoy.

The most effusive praise comes from late drum educator Dom Famularo, who says, "The fact that we're living in the time of Phil Collins is almost equal to what it was like when people were living in the time of Mozart."

Collins also appears in the trailer, talking about his iconic drum fill on the solo classic In The Air Tonight, and about the fact that he no longer plays.

"If I wake up one day and I can hold a pair of drumsticks then I will have a crack at it," says Collins. "I just feel like I've used up my air miles."

Other musicians appearing in the documentary include Leland Sklar, Tommy Aldridge, Eloy Casagrande, Billy Cobham, Matt Cameron, Daryl Stuermer, Luis Conte, Simon Phillips, Todd Sucherman, Jonathan Moffett, Jordan Rudess, Brann Dailor, Liberty DeVitto and Chad Wackerman.

Drummer First will be available via Drumeo's YouTube channel from December 18.

A new Yacht Rock documentary has been released on streaming, available over at HBO Max. Not a HBO Max subscriber? Now might be a good time to change that, because as part of their early Cyber Monday streaming deal, they're offering new subscribers access to six months of HBO Max (with ads) for $17 – that's a pretty decent 70% saving from the standard price of $59 for six months. You'll have to act fast though, as this deal is only valid until December 3.

Check out the trailer below.

“This music is the soundtrack to our lives, whether we want it or not," says director Garret Price of the film. "It’s playing in grocery stores, pharmacies, doctor’s offices, elevators, our parents’ cars our whole life. I kind of took it for granted because it’s just there. I think a lot of people have abandoned this music and I’m hoping those people rediscover it.”

The documentary includes interviews with Yacht Rock's founding fathers, as well as artists and figures who've been inspired by the genre – some of whom may surprise you.

If you recognise director Price's name, it may well be because he helmed Woodstock 99: Peace, Love, and Rage, a 2021 documentary film about the ill-fated resurrection of the world-famous music festival – but there's a lot less carnage, mayhem and angry frat boys in this one. The Woodstock 99 film is also available to watch on HBO Max.

HBO Max is a good bet for music fans in general, as it happens. Among its music films available to watch are 2016 Oasis documentary Supersonic, the not-entirely Alanis-approved Alanis Morissette documentary Jagged, Kurt Cobain: Montage Of Heck and absolutely loads more.

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Original neo-prog survivors Solstice took to the stage at Fairport Convention’s Cropredy Festival in 2023, almost exactly 25 years after they last appeared there.

They’ve been experiencing something of a rebirth in recent years – but back in 1998, plans to record the set for a live album had to be abandoned when technical problems made the tapes unusable. So there seemed to be a certain closing of the circle in recording last year’s gig for both audio and video releases.

Already out on vinyl, Return To Cropredy now arrives in a fulsome CD and Blu-ray edition, packaged with a documentary, New Light, looking at the band’s 40-plus-year history.

The footage from Cropredy captures well the technical prowess of the band, the constant visual communication and interactions between everyone onstage and the pure joy and human qualities of the performance.

From the first moments of opener Shout, singer Jess Holland, along with backing vocalists Ebony Buckle and Dyane Crutcher, are already deeply invested and bouncing around – they’re seldom more than a hop, skip and a jump away from full dance mode.

For the audience it may have been easy to focus on the obvious antics of these three and on founder Andy Glass’s often exquisite guitar ministrations and occasional dervish twirls, but the video footage gives us insights to the rest of the band.

Witness the polished and consistent rhythm section of drummer Peter Hemsley and bassist Robin Phillips; and the colour and character provided by Steven McDaniel on keys and long-serving fiddle player Jenny Newman.

Sometimes hi-intensity prog-folk, sometimes light, soaring reverie and sometimes fresh funky pop-rock with world music leanings, Solstice are never less than joyously entertaining and utterly committed here.

The New Light documentary uses the pivotal addition of Jess Holland in 2019 as its jumping-off point to run through a very detailed history, based on interviews mainly with current members of the band, as well as early fans including Gregory Spawton, Steven Wilson and Prog’s own Jerry Ewing. It also includes copious old photos and live video clips.

A relatively unfussy production covers Solstice’s origins in and around Aylesbury, how they found their way into the burgeoning neo-prog scene of the early 80s, their survival through the late 80s and 90s playing to increasingly exclusive audiences, the make-or-break decision to get Holland to front the band and their genuine joy – and some surprise – at the momentum their subsequent career has attained.

It’s a warm-hearted tale of the power of music and musical community.

• Return To Cropredy / New Light is on sale now via Wild Thyme.

A new Beatles documentary has been released on streaming today (November 29), available exclusively via Disney+. Not a Disney+ subscriber? Now might be a good time to change that, because as part of their Black Friday streaming deal, they're offering new subscribers – as well as those who cancelled their subscription over a month ago – access to the Disney+/Hulu Bundle, which includes Disney+ (with ads) and Hulu (with ads), for just $2.99/month for a full year – that's a massive saving from the standard price of $10.99 per month.

Focussing on the first time the Beatles touched down in the US some 60 years ago, the film zones in on the rabid reaction of fans to the band's arrival and their first stint in the US. As per the filmmakers: "On 7 February 1964, The Beatles arrived in New York City to unprecedented excitement and hysteria. From the instant they landed at Kennedy Airport, met by thousands of fans, Beatlemania swept New York and the entire country.

"Beatles ‘64 presents the spectacle but also reflects a more intimate behind-the-scenes story, capturing the camaraderie of John, Paul, George, and Ringo as they experienced unimaginable fame."

Does the world really need another Beatles documentary, we hear you cry? The answer is, 'yes, of course it does, you unbelievable heathen', but in case that answer alone doesn't convince you, this particular documentary is produced by Martin Scorsese and directed by David Tedeschi – the same fella who also worked with Scorsese on Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story. It also covers an earlier, more nascent time period in the band's career, when their star was firmly on the rise but they were still finding their feet both as musicians and as actual famous people – entirely distinct from that other Beatles doc by that other very famous filmmaker.

The film is available to watch exclusively via Disney+. Do I really need another streaming subscription, we hear you cry? Well in this instance you very well might, as the film won't be appearing anywhere else. However, now is an exceptionally good time to get that Disney+ subscription locked in.

Beatles '64 aside, Disney+ is actually a pretty good bet for music fans in general. As well as Get Back, the other Beatles documentary series made by Peter Jackson, it also has Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story, the Abbey Road doc If These Walls Could Sing, Taylor Swift's Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions and loads more.

This Disney+ Black Friday streaming deal will cost you $35.88 for the year, saving you $96 compared with the original price ($131.88).

The first ever fully-authorised documentary about Fleetwood Mac is on the way. The as-yet-untitled film, which is funded by Apple Films, is directed by Frank Marshall, whose previous credits include The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart, Carole King & James Taylor: Just Call Out My Name, and this year's Disney+ film The Beach Boys.

“I am fascinated by how this incredible story of enormous musical achievement came about,” says Marshall. “Fleetwood Mac somehow managed to merge their often chaotic and almost operatic personal lives into their own tale in real time, which then became legend. This will be a film about the music and the people who created it.”

"Fleetwood Mac are a musical phenomenon, their alchemy almost beyond comprehension," says Nicholas Ferrall, CEO of production company White Horse Features. "White Horse is grateful and humbled by the extraordinary opportunity to produce a documentary that dives deep into both the talents of each band member individually and the magic that is Fleetwood Mac as a whole. And to do this with the support and reach of Apple is quite wonderful."

According to a statement released by Apple, the film will explore "how the band’s trials and tribulations, personal resilience, and musical dexterity combined to create songs that have stood the test of time and are enduring masterpieces. It will take fans through the highs and lows of their brilliant career, illuminating the exceptional ingredients each member brought to the band’s uncommon alchemy – a musical union that sold more than 220 million records worldwide."

The film, which does not yet have a release date, will include new interviews with the surviving Fleetwood Mac members and additional unseen footage.

Other White Horse projects currently in development are a film about Lilith Fair, the groundbreaking female-led concert tour, and the long-awaited Keith Moon biopic.

Elton John and Brandi Carlile have shared a new single, Never Too Late, a duet inspired by, and specifically written for, the forthcoming Disney+ documentary chronicling Elton John's career.

Elton John: Never Too Late will stream on Disney+ on December 13.

The tagline for the film, co-directed by American film-maker R.J. Cutler (The War Room, Nashville) and David Furnish, the musician's husband runs, “He risked it all, to find himself”, and a synopsis from Disney+ reads: "The documentary follows Elton John as he looks back on his life and the astonishing early days of his 50-year career in this emotionally charged, intimate and uplifting full-circle journey.

“As he prepares for his final concert in North America at Dodger Stadium, Elton takes us back in time and recounts the extraordinary highs and heartbreaking lows of his early years and how he overcame adversity, abuse and addiction to become the icon he is today."

The song Never Too Late was written after John and Furnish screened an unfinished and as-yet-untitled early cut of the film for Carlile.

The Washington state-born singer/songwriter says, “I found the early cut of the documentary that went on to become Elton John: Never Too Late so moving. It was really amazing to see historic footage of Elton and the trajectory of his life. But as fantastic and as beautiful as everything was that we were all witnessing as fans, his life was also pretty lonely and difficult at times. And I thought that the documentary illustrated a really important sentiment, because he might not have ever found his serenity and his peace, but he did find it, and he found it later in life. And it is never too late - too late to find the love of your life, or to start a family, or to change your mind about anything.”

Elton John says: “When Brandi told me she was so inspired by the early cut of the documentary that she wanted us to to co-write a new song for it, I was thrilled. I’ve known for a long time how great she was but still, reading her lyrics and co-writing with her on the music was deeply moving. Especially given how personal it is to see, seeing my life on the screen, she just perfectly captured the essence of the documentary and why I stopped touring to spend more time with my family. I’m constantly astonished by her craft, she can channel my voice in a way only Bernie has managed to do before. I know Bernie helped guide Brandi on that. The standard of her musicianship, her songwriting, her passion for what she does are sensational. She truly is one of the greatest there is.”

Listen to the song, produced by Andrew Watt (Ozzy Osbourne, The Rolling Stones, Pearl Jam), below:

“You think about that more when you get to my age,” John says at one point in the film, as reported by the Irish Independent. “You think about life and death.... I don’t have to work after this tour. I will be working doing records and putting radio shows together, and doing other things, but travelling takes so much out of you. It is very tiring. I am used to it and I am a veteran at it… but this is where you start to think about mortality.”

Watch the film's trailer below:

A trailer has been released for the upcoming documentary charting the deep friendship of the two men behind the success of The Mars Volta and At The Drive-In.

Omar and Cedric: If This Ever Gets Weird will be released in US cinemas on 20 November. Watch the trailer below.

Directed by Nicolas Jack Davies, the film features footage captured by Omar Rodríguez-López over many years and explores the intense and sometimes tense relationship between Rodríguez-López and his bandmate Cedric Bixler-Zavala.

DIstribution company Oscilloscope Laboratories writes in the press material for the film: "Since their explosive breakout album in 2000, At the Drive-In – and then as their next incarnation, The Mars Volta – have fearlessly redefined the progressive rock genre.

"Fronted by Omar Rodríguez-López and Cedric Bixler-Zavala, two outsiders from El Paso, their unique style seamlessly fused jazz, punk rock, latin influences and experimental sounds into something utterly electrifying.

"But their immense artistic success gave way to deep personal fissures that ended their musical partnership in 2013, and inflicted wounds that would take more than a decade to heal.

"Culled from hundreds of hours of footage filmed by Omar over the past 40 years, Omar and Cedric: If This Ever Gets Weird charts the duo’s intense and profound journey as they navigate success, addiction, tragedy, betrayal, forgiveness and, ultimately, redemption."

After splitting in 2013, The Mars Volta released a self-titled comeback album in 2022 and a re-worked acoustic version of the same songs a year later.

The band have a number of tour dates lined up for this year and into 2025 as support for Deftones.

A documentary about New Zealand groove metal champions Alien Weaponry is coming to cinemas.

Alien Weaponry: Kua Tupu Te Ara – which also features Lamb Of God singer Randy Blythe, Testament vocalist Chuck Billy and Gojira members Joe and Mario Duplantier – will get a theatrical release in 2025, starting with New Zealand screens from February 6. Watch a new trailer for the film below.

Alien Weaponry: Kua Tupu Te Ara documents the first six years of the band’s career, as they rose from an outfit formed by brothers Lewis (vocals/guitars) and Henry De Jong (drums), then aged eight and 10, to international viral sensations.

Of the upcoming release, the band comment: “We are so excited for Alien Weaponry: Kua Tupu Te Ara to be coming to Aotearoa cinemas and to share this film with all our fans. The film captures our journey navigating the world of music, showing the highlights, the hardships, and everything in between.”

Kelly Rogers, CEO of the film’s distributor Rialto Distribution, also comments: “Alien Weaponry: Kua Tupu Te Ara is an absolute must-see for the fans, but we also believe the film will be an incredible watch for any filmgoer who love to see a true and authentic story of courage, inspiration and down-to-earth values. Alien Weaponry are a phenomenon, we are proud to share their story with Aotearoa.”

The documentary, directed by Kent Belcher, had its world premiere at the Tribeca film festival in New York City in June. Belcher commented ahead of the screening: “After six years of travelling with, living with and filming the Alien Weaponry family, to finally be able to share that with audiences and showcase Māori culture in a vibrant and heartfelt way is just so rewarding. To have my first film as director premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival is an absolute dream come true.”

Alien Weaponry started in 2010 and have shared stages with Guns ’N’ Roses, Gojira, Knocked Loose, Black Label Society, Black Dahlia Murder, Employed To Serve and more. They released debut album Tū in 2018 and followup Tangaroa in 2021, both to positive reviews.

Alien Weaponry will tour North America with Kerry King (Slayer) and Municipal Waste from January to February. See dates and get tickets.

A documentary about late ex-Iron Maiden vocalist Paul Di’Anno is slated to come out next year.

Wes Orshoski – co-director of 2010’s Lemmy, about the titular Motörhead mainman – announced the project via Instagram on Monday (October 21). He hoped for the film to document Di’Anno’s fight through the health problems he endured in his later years, and expresses his desire for it to get screened at festivals next spring.

Orshoski writes in part: “As many know, I’ve been working on a documentary about Paul for the past several years, as he has been fighting to get back on his feet – literally, emotionally and professionally. It’s obviously quite sad that it has ended this way.”

He adds: “I’m very thankful for the experiences and opportunities I had with Paul, and because of Paul. And I learned a lot from him.

“The film will be out next year, and details will be forthcoming – the hope is for it to debut at film festivals in early 2025. I’m very excited for the Maiden faithful to see it. Once it is released you will see just how tough his life has been over the past decade and how hard he fought to change it. Maybe he’s finally found some peace.”

Di’Anno’s passing at the age of 66 was announced by his record label, Conquest Music, on Monday. The singer died in his Salisbury home, with the cause of death currently undisclosed. Health issues in his later years had left him confined to a wheelchair, but he continued performing live up until his death.

Maiden founder and bassist Steve Harris paid tribute to his former bandmate, saying, “It’s just so sad he’s gone.”

Di’Anno sang for Iron Maiden from 1978 to ’81 and appeared on their first two studio albums: Iron Maiden (1980) and Killers (1981). He was dismissed from the band due to his substance use, which was perceived as affecting his onstage performances, and replaced by Bruce Dickinson.

After his Maiden exit, Di’Anno sang for Gogmagog, Battlezone and others, and pursued a solo career. His last studio album released in his lifetime, the self-titled debut of Paul Di’Anno’s Warhorse, came out in July.

The singer spoke about the upcoming documentary about him in August, telling KNAC (via Blabbermouth): “We’ve had this in the pipeline for a couple of years now… [It’s about] everything. But you’ll see the determination sometimes and the despair. And it goes through the whole lot of emotions and stuff. It’s a bit strange.”

Elton John muses upon mortality in the forthcoming documentary film Elton John: Never Too Late.

The documentary, directed by American film-maker R.J. Cutler (The War Room, Nashville) and David Furnish, the musician's husband, looks back over Sir Elton's career as he prepares for his last-ever North American show, and shows the 77-year-old icon admitting, “I don’t know how much time I have left.”

“You think about that more when you get to my age,” he says in the film, as reported by the Irish Independent. “You think about life and death.... I don’t have to work after this tour. I will be working doing records and putting radio shows together, and doing other things, but travelling takes so much out of you. It is very tiring. I am used to it and I am a veteran at it… but this is where you start to think about mortality.”

The tagline for the film is “He risked it all, to find himself”, and a synopsis reads: “Elton John: Never Too Late follows Elton John as he looks back on his life and the astonishing early days of his 50-year career in this emotionally charged, intimate and uplifting full-circle journey.

“As he prepares for his final concert in North America at Dodger Stadium, Elton takes us back in time to recount the extraordinary highs and heartbreaking lows of his early years and how he overcame adversity, abuse and addiction to become the icon he is today.”

The trailer states, “The music you know. The story you don't.”

Watch the trailer below:

Elton John: Never Too Late will premiere on Disney+ on December 13.

A new documentary about the The Beatles first visit to America will be shown exclusively on Disney+ later this year.

Beatles ’64 is produced by Martin Scorsese and directed by David Tedeschi and will be available on the streaming service from November 29 and will feature never-before-seen footage of The Fab Four and their fans.

It’ll capture the hysteria surrounding their arrival in New York City, their debut performance on The Ed Sullivan Show and capture “the camaraderie of John, Paul, George and Ringo as they experienced unimaginable fame.”

Joining Scorsese on production duties on Beatles ’64 are Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Olivia Harrison, Sean Ono Lennon, Margaret Bodde, Jonathan Clyde and Mikaela Beardsley, with Jeff Jones and Rick Yorn serving as executive producers.

A press release adds: “The film includes rare footage filmed by pioneering documentarians Albert and David Maysles, beautifully restored in 4K by Park Road Post in New Zealand. 

"The live performances from The Beatles first American concert at the Washington, DC Coliseum and their Ed Sullivan appearances were demixed by WingNut Films and remixed by Giles Martin. 

“Spotlighting this singular cultural moment and its continued resonance today, the music and footage are augmented by newly filmed interviews with Paul and Ringo, as well as fans whose lives were transformed by The Beatles.”

Last month, it was revealed that a collection titled The Beatles: 1964 US Albums In Mono will launch around the world on November 22 via Apple Corps Ltd/Capitol/UMe. The collection spans a total of seven of the Fab Four’s records: Meet The Beatles!, The Beatles’ Second Album, A Hard Day’s Night, Something New, The Beatles’ Story (2LP), Beatles ’65 and The Early Beatles.

Each record has been cut from their original mono master tapes by Kevin Reeves at Nashville’s East Iris Studios, pressed on 180g vinyl, and feature faithfully replicated artwork with new four-panel inserts containing liner notes written by US author and Beatles historian Bruce Spizer.

A trailer for the upcoming Elton John documentary Never Too Late has been released. The film is set in the build-up to John's final North American show at Dodger Stadium in New York in 2022, and finds John looking back over his career. 

Never Too Late was first shown at the Toronto International Film Festival last month, and will have its first US showing at the New York Film Festival today (October 1) with Elton John in the audience. The film will also enjoy a limited theatrical run in the US and UK from November 15, before landing on Disney+ on December 13. 

"The documentary follows Elton John as he looks back on his life and the astonishing early days of his 50-year career in this emotionally charged, intimate and uplifting full-circle journey," say Disney+. "As he prepares for his final concert in North America at Dodger Stadium, Elton takes us back in time and recounts the extraordinary highs and heartbreaking lows of his early years and how he overcame adversity, abuse and addiction to become the icon he is today."

"There was an emptiness within me," says John in voiceover. "My soul had gone dark I'd gone dark. I wasn't a joy to be around I didn't have anything apart from my success and my drugs. I took a bunch of tablets and I thought I was going to drown. I was desperately wanting happiness and going completely the wrong way about it. It made me realise family was more important than anything."

Never Too Late follows the release of another Disney+ film, Elton John Live: Farewell From Dodger Stadium. The platform has fast become a favourite amongst music fans due to the presence of The Beatles: Get Back; McCartney 3,2,1; Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story; Bono And The Edge: A Sort Of Homecoming; Summer Of Soul; The Beach Boys and Camden documentaries and Pam & Tommy.

UK proggers Solstice have created a brand new documentary which looks at both the band's 40-plus year career as well as their more recent rise in popularity. You can watch a trailer for the new film below.

New Light, directed by Shaun Blake, charts the band’s journey from London’s Marquee Club through to the current line-up and features interviews with Steven Wilson, Prog Editor Jerry Ewing, Clive Bunker and Gregory Spawton.

New Light is available with the Blu-ray/CD and USB-A drive versions of the band's recently announced Return To Cropredy release, which is also available as a strictly limited edition run on 180g vinyl, released through the collaboration between Wild Thyme Records.

"Shaun first discovered the band working with us on the Sia album art and went on to suggest a documentary introducing fans of the new line-up to our backstory," explains guitarist Andy Glass. "Of course I loved the idea but understood the enormity of the task. Undeterred Shaun spent 18 months conducting interviews, shooting key locations and brilliantly weaving together the journey of a band that after 44 years finally seem to be getting somewhere."

The Blu-ray/CD and USB-A drive versions of Return To Cropredy will be available from November 8.

Pre-order Return To Cropredy.