| Live It Up! | |
| Director: | Lance Comfort |
| Starring: | Musical guests: Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen Gene Vincent, Patsy Ann Noble Acting roles: David Hemmings, Jenny Moss, Steve Marriott, John Mitchell, Dave Clark |
| Music: | Joe Meek (songs) |
| Cinematography: | Basil Emmott |
| Distributor: | Rank Organisation |
| Runtime: | 75 minutes |
| Country: | England |
| Language: | English |
Live It Up! (U.S. title: Sing and Swing) is a 1963 British musical film directed by Lance Comfort and starring David Hemmings, featuring Gene Vincent, Jenny Moss, the Outlaws, Patsy Ann Noble, the Saints, Heinz Burt and Kenny Ball and His Jazzmen. The film also featured Steve Marriott (later singer and guitarist with Small Faces and Humble Pie),[1] and Mitch Mitchell, later the drummer of The Jimi Hendrix Experience. It was filmed at Pinewood Studios.
Two years later, Hemmings and Comfort followed up with the sequel Be My Guest.
Dave Martin and his friends Phil, Ron and Ricky are Post Office messenger boys who have formed their own four piece rock 'n' roll beat group, the Smart Alecs. They pool their resources to make a tape recording of their original song "Live It Up". Dave is given a month by his unsympathetic father Herbert to get it published or give up his musical dreams. Sent with a special delivery to film producer Mark Watson, Dave gets into the studio where a musical is being made. He is stunned by a falling piece of equipment and is afterwards photographed with the star as compensation. Next day, when the accident and photo are publicised in a newspaper his friends upbraid him for not having mentioning their tape to the producer. He promises to approach Watson again but then discovers that it has vanished. Watson finds it at the studio and, with the group unknown, tries to interest Radio and T.V. in a mystery search. Finally with the help of Dave's girlfriend Jill and his father, Watson and columnist Nancy Spain are brought by taxi to meet the group and the Smart Alecs then make good.[2]
All music and lyrics by Joe Meek, with the exception of "Accidents Will Happen" by Norrie Paramor and Bob Barrett.
The song "Live It Up" featured at the end of the film is not credited because the "group" shown playing it (Hemmings and Heinz on guitars, Pike on bass and Marriott on drums) were not the actual recording artists.
The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Something of a festival of electric guitars and echo chamber effects, the string of musical numbers are chiefly in the current pop and beat idiom, though Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen contribute a couple of welcome items in traditional jazz style – even if one of these is a perversion of the Turkish March from Mozart's A major Piano Sonata. The slight story has one good moment in which the boys briefly consider, and quickly reject, the possibility of calling their group "The Maggots".[3]