3 Chords and the Truth

Having just watched this film I’m surprised. When I heard about the film I was expecting a Spinal Tap type film, I was wrong. The film begins showing Anvil at their peak playing at a rock festival in Japan in the early 80’s. The rest of the film is completely different to the start. The film for the most part shows them as a fledgling group of guys in their 50’s still trying to be rock stars and at the beginning it is funny. But the tone changes when you see how excited they get when they get some European tour dates.


The tour they embark on starts off on a high at a festival. But it quickly descends into a farce with them playing to half filled and empty clubs. The fun and amusement makes way for the realisation that these guys are chasing smoke. They are never going to get that break and enjoy the success they want. It’s a shame really, the two main members come across as really polite and genuine people. One of them takes a job at a telemarketing firm, and he doesn’t get anywhere there because he has to be impolite and pushy to people on the phone.


In terms of the film there are three stand out moments for me. The first is somewhere in Europe they turn up 2 hours late for a show because they got lost trying to find the club. The club owner/manager lets them go on and play their two hour set. Then refuses to pay them because they were two hours late and the club had half emptied. Emotions run high for the band at that point and understandably so they did play the show and got nothing.


The second is when they are trying to get a distributor for their latest album. They go to a meeting with EMI in Toronto. The EMI representative turns off their album midway through the first song. While it was obvious to me that he was never going to take the band on. He does build up Anvil’s hopes to the extent that they leave thinking that they have a good chance of being accepted/signed by EMI. The disappointment that is on Lips’s face when they get the rejection note from EMI a few weeks later is gut wrenching. They perserve though and self distribute their album selling it directly to fans.


The last moment comes right at the end of the film. For the film it’s been built as these guys who can’t get a break. They go to Japan to play as part of a big rock festival over there. You believe that things are finally going there way. They find out their spot is the first on the day at 11:35am. The band starts to worry that no one will be there since they are the first band on and it’s so early in the day. This is shown right until they walk on stage dread that they are going to walk out into an empty arena…….they were wrong and the arena is packed full of anvil fans.


Watching their story begs the question is it worth it to be in the music business? There are a lot of films, books and other media that show how great it is IF you get that break. It’s refreshing to see the story of what might have been and the consequences of not making it big. These guys all have regular menial 9 to 5 jobs such as delivery drivers and are never particularly comfortable, given that a large portion of their income has to go on Anvil and the costs involved in keeping the band going.


Stories like this seem very common these days in the modern pop industry. Where bands have one or two hit singles and are then forgotten about. This is especially true of bands and performers that originate from reality shows such as the X factor. One hit wonders that are discarded and forgotten about as soon as something better comes along. For the moment I don’t know of any reason for people to try make it in the music industry…..seems more hardship than it’s worth since their is not guarantee that you will ever become successful.