Anvil! The Story of Anvil
Published by simon on December 28, 2009Most of my older friends know that was (and still am) a huge, huge heavy metal fan. Ever since I heard Enter the Sandman by Metallica on that Singapore radio on my cheap RM150 walkman i bought on the first weekend in college, I never looked back.
Which is why its 1am in the morning, I’ve just watched this brilliant movie and I simply have to blog about it. Its a documentary about a long forgotten Canadian band called Anvil and the movie is called Anvil! The Story of Anvil (yes I know its quite a mouthful).
The movie starts with footage from an old Japanese rock concert and the subtitles tell the story in a few succint lines:
“In the summer of 1984, some of the biggest bands in the world toured Japan together. Scorpions. Whitesnake. Bon Jovi. All these bands went on the sell millions of records. Except one… Anvil.”
What follows is the sad story of how the band failed to make it big despite those heady early days. The members have fallen on crippling times, working in oddjobs such as driving a truck and in construction while still keeping the band alive after 30 years, now reduced to playing local bars.
In its essence, the story isn’t about metal music, its about the underdog and keeping the dream alive (despite having zero hope at most times) and I love that kind of real life documentary movies (like this other one I blogged about before). The movie follows the daily lives of the two founding members, now aged 50 barely making a living for their family as their relatives try to explain what or how it all went wrong.
Suddenly this start to perk up - they get an invitation to tour Europe, and later get a chance to record another album with an award-winning producer, but these prove more complicated than it seemed, and at times they end up worse off than before. The movie ends of a positive note, though.
Perhaps this is an extreme case of keeping the faith and living the rock and roll life. Most people like us get on with our lives after entertaining the dreams your youth. We grow up, get a job, get married and have kids (well, not all of us) but by and large, we move on with our lives. Those who continue to persevere with their dreams, however successful they are, get my respect.
This is a great low-key movie that will appeal to even non-music fans. Wikipedia notes that it has begun to win numerous awards.
EDIT: Found the Official Trailer on youtube HERE.
AH! Great Movie this one! I must say..sometimes life does really begin at 40!!!! Or at least, when the biggest part of our responsibilities are on auto-cruise.
wow you watch a lot of movies! actually for them life begins at 50. i found out that they’re quite big now in the US thanks to VH1.
;D download lor. I meant, for alot of ppl, life begins at 40, because, financially, we are healthy, and also in terms of maturity..we tend to think of the process a whole lot more..than if we were in our 20s.
Having lived through that era of Metal in the early 80’s, I can tell you exactly what happened to Anvil. They went the way of dozens of other “Early 80’s Metal Bands” (Krokus, Armoured Saint, Saxon, Accept) & even Quiet Riot & Twisted Sister. None of these bands ever achieved success after 84-85 & here’s why… They basically spawned a whole new batch of Metal Bands who were “Better” groups like Motley Crue, Ratt, & Poison. These new bands were not only more talented, but they were better looking. By 84-85 MTV was becoming Huge & these newer prettier groups (Def Leppard, Cinderella, etc..) fit like a glove. The Metal scene changed drastically after that. True Hard Metal Bands like Metallica, Slayer, Pantera stayed true to core Metal fans, while the Pretty Boy Hair bands became Power Ballad Pop Stars (& got filthy rich doing it).
Its funny looking back at the old video’s & listening to the pre-84 Metal albums, its almost a joke. The Great bands of that time (Maiden, Priest,Motorhead, Ozzy, Dio, Scorpians) will always be Great & stood the test of time. The other bands like Anvil basically sucked……..& unfortunatley still Suck. I know that sounds kinda harsh, but its true. The Record Labels knew it, & the Fans knew it. I will admit they were influential to a lot of bigger bands, & were pretty cool in their Moment in time (80-83).
Unfortunatley their moment came & went quickly.
I’m happy for Anvil that they were able to make the documentary & capitolize from it, but what about the 50-100 other bands that were equally as successfull & influential. (Grim Reaper, Venom, Y&T, Mercyful Fate……..the list goes on & on)
wow thx for the insight. that kinda explains a lot. the glam rock bands were definitely more melodic and better looking.
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