Latest news with #BPFallon:Rock'n'RollWizard
Sunday World
18-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Sunday World
BP Fallon on how a film has captured his incredible life in music
The music legend's life is documented in new film about his life and famous pals Both Shane MacGowan and Sinéad are sadly no longer with us, but both are surely there in spirit in a new documentary about the author and musician who's worked with a host of famous names. 'BP Fallon: Rock'n'Roll Wizard' had its world premiere at the Galway Film Fleadh yesterday, with a veritable who's who featuring in the documentary. Among those talking about their dealings with the Dubliner are Debbie Harry, Adam Clayton, Donovan, Imelda May, Iggy Pop, Bob Geldof, Robert Plant, President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins, Joe Elliott, Dr John Cooper Clarke, Glen Matlock, Alan McGee, Louis Walsh, and many more. BP with Willie Nelson The documentary is directed by Dubliner Alan Leonard, produced by Níall Carver for Speed Of Life Films with Alan Leonard and Fiona Graham also producing for Single Cell Films. 'The impetus was Neil Carver, I met him in the Shelbourne by appointment for afternoon tea, and he said he'd like to do a documentary 'on you as a musician',' explains BP, whose initials stand for Bernard Patrick. 'I said, 'Thank you, I'm in'. People would ask me about doing a documentary every couple of weeks. I always said no. But I said yes to this one, because my music would be in it.' Read more 'With this movie I've given them complete access to my photo archive, which is enormous.' Although born in Dublin, BP was schooled in Yorkshire and moved to London in the early 1960s where he got a job in Apple records and was thrust to the epicentre of the musical revolution. Sinéad O Connor and Shane MacGowan He then became a confidant and creative catalyst for some of rock's most iconic artists. At Apple Records, he worked alongside The Beatles before becoming publicist to T. Rex and a key member of Led Zeppelin's legendary inner circle. 'The first time [he met the Beatles] was 1963 in Liverpool. The drummer and the bass player. The bass player [Paul McCartney] signed my Cavern Club membership card and then in put in brackets 'The Beatles' in case I forgot the name of the group he was in. The first time I saw them play was in The Grafton Ballroom in Liverpool, they did two half-hour sets — it was August 1963.' He even got to star on Top of The Pops as part of John Lennon & The Plastic Ono band. 'I mimed bass on Instant Karma and played tambourine on Instant Karma, on two separate occasions,' he smiles. 'What I most remember about John was that he and Yoko were very kind.' BP moved back to Ireland in 1980 and remembers a young U2, who he would later go on tour with and write a book about. 'They were very ambitious,' he recalls. BP with Debbbie Harry On his BF Fallon Orchestra show on RTE Radio 2, which ran for five years in the 1980s, he had a number of firsts. 'I was the first person to play Sinéad on the radio; I was the first person to ever interview her on the radio actually,' he says. 'I was the first person in the world to play Fairytale Of New York on the radio, I was the first person in the world to play The Pogues on the radio.' BP turns 80 in August next year, but is still dreaming up plans. 'I'm putting out another album, putting out a book, lots more things to do,' he says. 'Thank God for life.'
Irish Independent
01-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
‘I said, Geldof, this is gonna hurt but it'll help, and scratched his back like a maniac. It gave him a sexual identity with the girls'– BP Fallon's life and times
Now, thanks to Speed of Life Films, the same crew who gave us the award-winning Heyday: The Mic Christopher Story back in 2019, there finally is one. The rollicking BP Fallon: Rock'n'Roll Wizard premieres at the Galway Film Fleadh on July 12 and the cast of contributors is, frankly, ridiculous. U2's Adam Clayton, Imelda May, Geldof, Led Zeppelin's Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, R.E.M.'s Mike Mills, Def Leppard's Joe Elliott, Debbie Harry and many others, including Michael D Higgins, all line up to give Beep his dues. And there could have been even more according to producer Niall Carver. 'As fans of rock and roll, you and I can look at BP and go, 'that's the greatest story people never heard', but turning that into a feature film is a tricky thing. If you had a commission for a multi-part series, you'd get to put all the people in there. Our director Alan Leonard made the film work.' That he certainly did, delivering an affectionate portrait of this PR guru, DJ, writer, photographer, musician, vibe master, and inspiration to anyone who fancies a life less ordinary. The documentary is made even more remarkable by the fact that it's all true. 'BP is rock and roll,' says old friend Dave Fanning. 'He was there when you and I were still in school.' 'I heard Move It by Cliff Richard when I was in Avisford prep school,' Fallon kicks off down the phone from his south Dublin home, locating his year zero as 1958 when he was about 12. 'People might say, 'Oh God, Cliff Richard?' but Cliff then was raunchy. I heard this incredible guitar and I wanted to be part of this noise. I had no idea how to do it but it sort of panned out. Most of my life is like the unrolling of a magic carpet.' The first step on the ladder, or carpet as the case may be, was auditions in Teilifís Éireann while he was still in his final year at St Conleth's College. 'It was for this kind of Juke Box Jury pop show,' he remembers of his entry to Pickin' the Pops in 1964. 'I got hired to be on the panel, hit or miss kind of thing. I then had a profile that made it easy-peasy to meet anyone you wanted.' He was instantly famous in Ireland but London was where the action was and Fallon made his first assault on the place in 1966. He drove a bread van out of a depot just off Wardour Street which meant he could nip into The Marquee to see Jimi Hendrix. He returned home when the money ran out but London kept calling. All these Fleet Street journalists were very disappointed they weren't having huge sex on the bed Upon his return, a brass neck lifted him up another rung. John Lennon and Yoko Ono were staging their 'bed-in' peace protest in the Amsterdam Hilton at the time and BP took a chance. ADVERTISEMENT 'I hitched to Amsterdam, got on the house phone. John Lennon, please. Hello, I've come over from Ireland to interview you.' ''Can you come up now?' And that was that. I went back to the people I was staying with and said: 'Listen to this. John Lennon. Fantastic…' Weurghuuggg. The battery on the recorder had been [broken] so you either jump out the window or do what I did which is ring John and say: 'You know that stuff we did today?' 'It was really good,' he said. 'Yeah but it didn't come out.' 'Come around again tomorrow.'' 'I think I was probably light relief for them,' Fallon continues, casually recounting an episode that would have most music fans falling on the floor. 'All these Fleet Street journalists were very disappointed they weren't having huge sex on the bed. They threw all of them out and we talked about this and that and had a joint. It was a good trip, as they say. ' Fallon sold the story to Melody Maker with the proviso that they include a headshot in the byline. 'That was more important than the money because it gave me some profile in the British music scene.' Legendary Beatles press agent Derek Taylor threw work his way, including a brief job as Paul McCartney's weed taster. 'I've often wondered if Derek made that up in order to give me money. That is a job I took very seriously although after about the third jazz woodbine, it didn't make any odds really.' Lennon turns up again when Fallon was hustling around the BBC TV studios in 1970. The Beatle was there to preform solo single Instant Karma!. 'Lennon lent over and said: 'Are you getting up?' Never heard the song before but I enthusiastically banged a tambourine in his left ear and him trying to sing live. I thought I better be silent for the next take so I borrowed a bass guitar and did my thingy there. We'd worked out some Shadows steps but as soon as the music started, I forgot all about that.' There he is, enshrined for all eternity, giving it some welly beside a Beatle on Top of the Pops. If Fallon had retired there and then we'd still be talking about a great movie but he was only getting going. He'd met Marc Bolan at a party, although he mistook him for Cat Stevens because he'd taken a pill a roadie called Noddy gave him. My job was to make people famous Bolan was preforming with an acoustic guitar as Tyrannosaurus Rex and Fallon played him on his Irish radio show. 'I used to record it in the BBC, on the QT of course, and I'd leave the tape in reception for Terry Wogan to bring over. He was sitting on people's desks trying to get a gig but his dosh was still in Dublin so he had to go back every week and would kindly bring the tape for me.' Fallon was instrumental in getting Bolan up off the floor. 'It was obvious Marc wanted to be a rock' n' roller because that's what we were listening to.' Plugging in as T. Rex, Bolan 'became this extraordinary thing bigger than The Beatles'. Fallon, coining the term 'T. Rextasy' to get the job done in the press – 'it came to me on a train as a newspaper headline on fire' – was the PR man who made it happen. 'My job was to make people famous.' Mission accomplished, he was ready to move on. 'I'd done what I wanted to do.' A phone call from notorious manager Peter Grant provided the next step. 'I thought he was talking about Maggie Bell, a good singer but I'm looking for people on top of Nelson's Pillar. Then he said Led Zeppelin and I said: 'I think we should have a meeting.' One of the reasons I was brought in was because people put them in the same bracket as other bands who didn't have the magic of Zeppelin. Something happened when those four people played – alchemy basically.' Jimmy Page and Robert Plant attest to Fallon's importance within the organisation in the documentary. The stories of Zeppelin on the road are legion but it was even wilder than reported according to Fallon, who recalls one particular incident with drummer John Bonham. 'We all got on the plane and the next thing the pilot comes down to where we are with his little bottle and spoon. Bonzo waddled up to the cockpit to drive the plane and went loop the f**king loop. It was the most terrifying and exhilarating thing I've ever had happen to me. Thank God we all survived.' When Punk exploded in 1976 to knock things back into shape, Fallon – a Stooges and New York Dolls fan – loved it. 'Stuff like Tales from Topographic Oceans was just waffle to me. I actually brought Zeppelin down to see The Damned, good publicity for both of them. Then this Geldof fellow came along and what attracted me was that he wanted it so badly, he had an incredible knowledge of music, and was incredibly bright.' One can only imagine the difficulty other humans present had securing sufficient oxygen when Bob and BP were in a room together. Calling in a favour, Fallon got The Boomtown Rats their first serious British exposure on Marc Bolan's TV show. I previously interviewed Geldof, who grinned as he told the story of Fallon scraping his back before an encore so it would look like he'd just had sex. 'It's completely true,' Fallon confirms. 'I said, 'Geldof, this is gonna hurt but it'll help' and scratched his back like a maniac. It gave him a sexual identity with the girls.' In the documentary, Rats bass player Pete Briquette recalls Fallon's plan to drop actual rats on audience members. 'Under the guise of Blackhill Medical School, I ordered a couple of hundred rats in formaldehyde,' BP recounts matter-of-factly. 'The plan was to drop them off the Phonogram balloon on to punters. Thank God I was foiled. I drove around for weeks with a boot full of dead rats. It wasn't the most tasteful idea I've ever had.' Sinéad O'Connor was a complete and utter one-off with more b*****ks than a herd of bulls The 1980s saw Fallon back in Ireland, presenting the fondly-remembered and award-winning BP Fallon Orchestra radio show where both The Pogues and Sinéad O'Connor received early spins. 'I played a demo of Sinéad's, I've got it here. Frank Murray, The Pogues' wonderful manager, told me about them and said Elvis Costello might produce their record so I went down to Carlow to see. Everyone was leaping about but it's only when I sat down to listen to the records that I heard these extraordinary lyrics by this fellow who I remembered as Shane O'Hooligan back in the punk days. 'The angels sang through her,' Fallon says of close friend O'Connor. 'She was a complete and utter one-off with more b*****ks than a herd of bulls. There was something in Sinéad that reached people. It took her death for them to realise it fully.' In the early 1990s, Fallon was the resident DJ, in the back of a Trabant, and vibe master on U2's ground-breaking Zoo TV tour. Dave Fanning calls it 'a huge inveigle' in a career full of them. Adam Clayton reckoned it would be fun to have BP on the road. 'U2 invited me to write their programme, so I did and they said: 'If we asked you to come on the road with us, would you come?' They never asked but I ended up on the road somehow. A fantastic time and they treated me really well. 'I think that tour was quite possibly the apex of their career. Starting off with eight songs from the new album Achtung Baby and it worked because it wasn't 'sword and dove' music any more, it was 'those are cool trousers' music.' In the years that followed Fallon hosted rock and roll party/club nights under the Death Disco banner alongside the man-who-discovered-Oasis Alan McGee in London, New York, Dublin, Tokyo and beyond. Guest DJs included MacGowan, Gavin Friday, Kate Moss, and even Ronnie Drew among other members of BP's golden circle. Out of that came a meeting with Jack White. 'He came up to me in a club in New York and said: 'Would you like to come to Nashville and make a record for my label, Third Man Records?' Unlike with a lot of rock and roll talk, the ticket to Nashville arrived.' Fallon's first single was released by White, an admirable chap who consistently puts his money where his mouth is, in 2010, completing his unexpected crossover from poacher to gamekeeper. A band was the next logical step and BP's enviable phone book allowed him rope in such wiling luminaries as Nigel Harrison and Clem Burke from Blondie. BP Fallon & The Bandits released the debut album Still Legal in 2013 and he's still making music. 'A performer like him that brings the wisdom of the road into a performance, that's a great gift to the people who are present,' President Higgins offers. 'I ran into him after the Shane Concert [Shane MacGowan's 60th celebration in 2018],' says BP. 'We've been friends for ages and he was saying all these things so I asked would he say them on camera. I knew he wasn't one of these people who the next day would say no. He's the only president I know of who has a picture of Rory Gallagher and Phil Lynott on his office wall.' There's a line in BP's song Increasingly Often, 'each and every moment is a special one, not just some of them', which sums up his incredible life story and he has no regrets. 'No, I don't,' Fallon confirms. 'That's not to say there wasn't the odd wobble on the way. That's on the menu of the four-letter word called life. By and large, I've had an incredible time. I've lived my dream. And I still am.' 'BP Fallon Rock'n'roll Wizard' is at the Pálás Cinema, Cork on July 12.
