Let’s Rock and Roll: Get Ready for the Midweek Music Series

This September, get ready for the Midweek Music Series, a curation of music-based films, carefully selected to encompass a variety of musical genres.
 
"We want to get these music movies in front of the people who love them," says Dave Windisch, Director of Marketing at Franklin Heritage, Inc. "We also want to be able to bring many different experiences to the theatre and introduce music lovers to something they may not have heard before. All of these movies that we're showing this year mean something to somebody on our staff, and we can't wait to share them with you."
 
It is guaranteed that each of these films will be an event— like you are going to see a concert! So, what is on the docket for this year's series? Let's take a look . . .

URGH! A Music War 
— ​Wednesday, Sept. 3 
Get the urge to watch URGH! A Music War featuring new wave musical performances from the Police, Oingo Boingo, The Go-Go's, Klaus Nomi, and many others before they were in the spotlight.
 
The Midweek Music Series kicks off with this concert film, a great collection of performances from big names as they were rising to stardom. The film captures each band performing at clubs from August to September in 1980.
 
"For me, it's like a sampler of stuff that was either going to change the world, or it fizzled and fell flat. There's a lot of 'it changed the world' music in this film," says Windisch.

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Prince: Sign "O" The Times
— Wednesday, Sept. 10 
Have an electrifying musical experience of Prince after his 1984 craze of Purple Rain in this 1987 Sign O' the Times concert film, which is widely celebrated for capturing the artist at his creative peak. Listen to tracks such as "If I Was Your Girlfriend," the anthemic title track "Sign O' The Times," and "U Got the Look," Prince's duet with Sheena Easton.
 
"You're not hearing ‘Purple Rain.’ You're hearing the Sign O' the Times stuff," Windisch says. "It is one of my favorite concert films, because it's just raw. So, it opens to a stage play, and then he just gets out there and starts ripping into his music. It's 90 minutes of Prince fury.
 
We are borrowing a print of Sign O' the Times from The Brattle, a theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is one of the only known 35-millimeter prints of the movie to exist. So, we're very excited to have not only this film on our list, but to be able to borrow this really rare 35mm print."

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Bob Dylan: Dont Look Back
— Wednesday, Sept. 17 
Travel back in time to 1965 and see Bob Dylan in Dont Look Back, which will give you a glimpse of what his tour life was like during three weeks in England in 1965.
 
"In this film, Dylan plays to the large crowds. He's blowing up. It's all focused on Dylan, from his stage presence, being in the media, to being the face of folk music," says Windisch. "During the film, he happens to walk by a guitar store, and he looks at this Fender in the window, and he's like, 'Oh, I think I might play that.' And you get to see the beginning of him experimenting with his electric guitar."
 
If you saw A Complete Unknown with Timothée Chalamet last year, you'll enjoy this Dylan documentary with real footage from the '60s. 

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24 Hour Party People
— Wednesday, Sept. 24 
Experience Michael Winterbottom's movie 24 Hour Party People, which rides the wave of a musical revolution. This musical comedy from 2002 begins by taking the viewer back to 1976 Manchester.
 
The narrative follows an ambitious but frustrated local TV news reporter, Tony Wilson (played by Steve Coogan), who is looking for a way to make his mark. During the film, Wilson witnesses a life-changing concert and persuades the station to televise one of their performances, and soon Manchester's punk groups are clamoring for him to manage them.
 
"Tony Wilson created a record label called Factory Records in Manchester in the ‘70s, and he was responsible for getting visibility for Joy Division, who are often noted as one of the most influential post-punk, new wave bands of that time," says Windisch. "From Joy Division, many other big-name UK bands were formed."
 
The movie then moves through the 1980s into the rave and DJ culture and the "Madchester" scene of the late 1980s and early 1990s. A dramatization based on a combination of real events, urban legends, rumors, and the imaginings of the scriptwriter, this movie caps off the Midweek Music Series and is definitely one you don't want to miss.
 
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Hopefully by the end of September, at least one person who attends the music series will get a little glimpse into a wide variety of music that could peak an interest that they would have not otherwise have been introduced to. Get your tickets now!