you had to be there....

Rating: 8/10 (5 March 2005)

You know what  virtually every review I've read of this film says it is a mess. But if you were a teenybopper in the glitter era of the Seventies  which it is portraying: Bowie, Mick Ronson, Iggy Pop, Lou Reed, Warhol et al  you'd be hard pressed to find a better account of what it was really like for the era's teenagers. Right down to teenager Arthur noticing that everyone else was running to the concert venue for no particular reason and joining in  just in case they knew something he didn't. It happened all the time!And of course the complete incomprehension of parents when faced with effeminate glittered- up pop idols. Bowie's on-stage antics with Ronson and his "retiring" from live performances ("it's a god awful small affair") Even the bit about the "gay" interviews . It makes me smile every time I watch it  and the rendition of the Roxy Music song Song for Europe is utterly superb.