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Jeff Stein interview on The Kids Are Alright



Jeff Stein interview on The Kids Are Alright

Interview with Rocky Mountain News
"I was a Keith loyalist. I've never seen the band since he passed away."
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/entertainment_columnists/article/0,1299,DRMN_84_2390379,00.html
Brown: On DVD, the kids are better than all right 
For Who fans, a filmmaker's endless search pays off big 
November 1, 2003 
Jeff Stein lived a fan's dream. In the 1970s he was in his early 20s. His favorite band, The Who, was at the height of its creative powers. And through sheer perseverance and a flat refusal to go away, Stein persuaded the band to give him the go-ahead to put together the now-classic concert film The Kids Are Alright. 
No matter that he'd never made a film. The band's blessing kicked off a search for rare footage of the band, much of which was unearthed and lovingly restored. 
It's a search that Stein can't shake to this day. 
When discussing the release of the glorious new DVD restoration of The Kids Are Alright, Stein is asked whether he ever hooked up with Dan Fong, the Denver photographer who professionally filmed The Who in 1970 at the old Mammoth Gardens and at Cobo Hall in Detroit. 
"Oh, now you tell me!" Stein says with a sigh. "Is it good? Have you seen it?" 
He tries to talk about the DVD, but his mind keeps going back to the fact that there's footage out there that he hasn't seen. 
"Wow. See, now I can't concentrate. I hate it when I hear (stuff) like that," he says with a laugh. "Wow. . . . That's too bad because that was a very rich period in terms of their stage performance. That period was sorely lacking. They were really at the height of their performing prowess. Tell him I'm grief-stricken. Tell him I need to know what he has." 
Then again, what Stein came up with on his own 30 years ago is pretty impressive itself. 
"I always felt that The Who was the greatest rock 'n' roll band in the world. I think The Kids Are Alright was an attempt to state my case," Stein says. 
It does so effortlessly, ranging from early TV appearances to full-blown concert scenes as the band evolves. 
Tracking down the footage was "a lot of dogged detective work," Stein says. "It was remembering rumors, stories, whatever, of Who television appearances. There were the obvious things like the festivals - Monterey Pop, Woodstock, Isle of Wight, even the Richmond Jazz Festival." 
Even when performances were confirmed, "so much stuff back then was erased," he says. "Videotape was often wiped for the next performance. 
"It was heartbreaking the things we never uncovered or were missing. Things just weren't archived as they are now. People didn't really know the value of this." 
What survived, he says, was "things that engineers, fans of the band who worked at the stations, actually absconded with and saved them for the ages." 
He did it at the right time. Bands these days have complained that it's too expensive to retrieve that footage. Led Zeppelin put out a DVD chronology of live performances. Instead of licensing older material, the Rolling Stones keep churning out new, latter-day DVDs. The Eagles are trying a career-spanning project but are stymied by the amounts of money people want for old footage. 
"I'm sure The Eagles could really afford it. Maybe we should have a bake sale for The Eagles," Stein jokes. 
There were some things he couldn't acquire. A famous Australian interview was denied to him because the Australian Broadcast Co. "had recently fired (the interviewer) and didn't want to give him any additional publicity," Stein says. 
Also, he says: "I never found any of the footage of The Who's more aggressive behavior that I would have liked to have in the film. Roger (Daltrey) knocking Pete (Townshend) out during the Quadrophenia rehearsals. Apparently things got so strident that the cameramen turned off their cameras, something we'd have never done. Roger decked Pete, who was lying there unconscious, with Keith (Moon) bent over his prostrate body, saying, 'Pete, Pete, if you're alive we'll do anything you say from now on!' That was a loss. 
"What really would have been the icing on the cake would have been when Pete knocked Abbie Hoffman off the stage at Woodstock." Audio exists, but apparently the film was being changed in cameras at that moment; the only footage he found is from seconds after the infamous incident. 
"It wasn't ever intended to be a puff piece. I didn't have the footage to demonstrate that aggressiveness that was a fundamental part of their music, their stage shows and their personas," Stein says. 
Stein himself hadn't viewed the film in more than 20 years, in part because of the tampering that went on when it was released on video and laser disc. Footage was cut and what was left was sped up to make the running time shorter. A bonus section on the new DVD shows the difference in quality of both audio and visuals. The film is presented perfectly restored, in stunning 5.1 surround sound and with a second disc full of extra footage, including "Oxcam" footage of just John "The Ox" Entwistle playing his parts. 
"It's magnificent," Stein says, noting that it looks so good because "we worked so hard to make the original prints look incredible, considering the varied source materials." 
Stein was brought in to do commentary when the DVD was nearly complete, so he didn't get to do the complete "director's cut" he'd have liked to have done.