Watts' review: Stones film

Rolling Stones drummer talks about Shine A Light

27 March 08 - The Rolling Stones’ drummer Charlie Watts has shrugged off praise about the upcoming band film Shine A Light.

Martin Scorsese's film about the band, which was filmed in 2006, gets its UK premiere on the 2 April but Charlie says the filmmaking process was not exactly complicated.

“He’s (Martin) a very good film maker – filming a good performance by our band – that’s it.”

Scorsese filmed the group over a two-day period at the Beacon Theatre in New York City.

Other performers

The film included performances from the White Stripes’ Jack White, Christina Aguilera and Buddy Guy and was integrated with rarely seen archival footage; one aspect of the film that Charlie was not overly impressed with.

“Well he uses a bit of flash back which I don’t really like much cos I don’t like seeing yourself 40 years ago saying something stupid!.”

Charlie did say how well it was all filmed though: “How good it is I’ve got no idea – to look at it’s a great. Mick looks fantastic and the theatre is….great.

“It’s like a little theatre performance and it’s very beautifully filmed – it is well filmed.

“We came off and said it was alright but you never see them back normally but – the way Marty has put it together – it looks pretty good…but…what it means to anyone I don’t know .”

Berlin Film Festival

Charlie went on to say that watching the film at the Berlin Film Festival was not as painful as he thought.

“We were in the posh bit, but in the front so you cant get up and leave cos everyone’s looking at you so we had to sit through it but actually about 5 minutes from the end I thought ‘ok that’s enough’.”

Shine A Light will be released in cinemas nationwide on 11 April.



Kelly Stooke