Film
A 60-minute music documentary ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Island’ has been produced, featuring interviews with key players, fans and club-goers of the Eel Pie Island Hotel Club, who were there in the 50s, 60s and 70s. Watch trailer here: https://vimeo.com/346983333
Filmed over five years in London, Nashville, USA and Byron Bay in Australia interviewees included Pete Frampton, Rod Stewart, Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett, Andy Bown by Status Quo, Kinks drummer Mick Avory, Phil May from The Pretty Things, Gina Way, Eel Pie Club promoter, Martin Turner from Wishbone Ash, Cleo Sylvestre, Blues singer and actor, Top Topham from The Yardbirds, John O’Leary from Savoy Brown, Dave Brock from Hawkwind, Paul Stewart from The Others, Bob Hokum from The Great West Groove (founder of Ealing Blues Festival), Sam Cutler (ex-Stones Road Manager), Geoff Cole from the Ken Colyer Band, Bob Dwyer from Steve Lane’s Southern Stompers, Don Craine and Keith Grant from The Downliners Sect, Pete Hammerton from the Tridents, Davy O’List from Nice, Del Bromham from Stray, Blaine Harrison from the Mystery Jets, Nikki Lamborn and Catherine Feeney from Never the Bride, Steve Elson and members of The Counterfeit Stones, as well as inventor Trevor Baylis, promoter Caldwell Smythe, manager Kris Tait, as well as many others – fans and clubgoers.
Music performed by: The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds, Alexis Korner, Long John Baldry, The Pretty Things, Ken Colyer Band, Top Topham, Bob Hokum, John O’Leary, Art Wood, Never The Bride, Mystery Jets, Honey B Mama, The Downliners Sect, Ealing Blues Festival, Pete French, Hawkwind, The Nice.
We also reunited Sally Taylor, Maud Kent and Gillian Green (below), three women from the well-known photo of five teenage girls leaning on a bar at the Eel Pie Island Hotel in the 1960s, which features on the heritage board outside the Barmy Arms, to talk with them about their memories of the club.
Combining these interviews with original images and footage from the era, including extracts from the well known ‘Look At Life’ film made about Eel Pie, the documentary explores the history of how this small island in the River Thames became the focus of a R&B and rock ‘n’ roll explosion, and a formative part of the UK and international music scene.
“A colorful musical doc about England’s iconic blues and rock venue.” Broadway World
Praise for the film
Named a Sunday Time Critics Choice Programme, it was also Pick of the Week in the Radio Times, The Observer & the i.
The Daily Mail featured the film too in a typical tabloid way: The Isle of Vice that gave birth to British rock | Daily Mail Online
An earlier version was shown at film festivals in 2016 and won 4 awards including the top award (The Gold Remi) at WorldFest, the Houston International Film Festival.
In 2015 Rock n Roll Island had its World Premiere at London’s Raindance Film Festival in Piccadilly.
Read Garth Pearce’s piece in the Daily Express on Rod Stewart and Eel Pie Island and the documentary ‘Rock n Roll Island’ produced and directed by Cheryl Robson.
‘Congratulations to the team for a really excellent production.’ Clive Sibley
‘We really enjoyed the film. So much critically important music was able to be ‘born’ here, and so important to document this… for future generations to be inspired by’ Siobhan Pestano
‘I think the film is fantastic’ Mick Stone
