It’s a sunny day in London and we’re loitering on the South Bank, waiting to head to the BFI IMAX – the UK’s largest screen – for a special, promotional screening of The Rolling Stones Live At The Max. First released back in 1991, the film has received a comprehensive remastering and is now making its return to selected theatres over the coming weeks.
A special film in the band’s extended arsenal of live releases, Live At The Max captures the Stones on stage during the legendary Urban Jungle tour, which ran from August 1989 to August 1990, as the band promoted Steel Wheels. Shot entirely on IMAX cameras, it offers a spectacle which, if not the equal of the band’s shows, is at least worthy of them.
Drawn from three performances, the result is a ruthlessly edited, beautifully shot performance that captures the sheer scale of the band’s ambitions as they take to a Mark Fisher designed stage that is one-part Thunderdome, one-part Metropolis. Truly a work of art, it reminds us that, before the advent of giant screens, stadium bands went all out when it came to presentation but, even by most standards, the Urban Jungle set is a monster. And it is here that the IMAX framing works wonders, capturing the full breadth of Fisher’s innovative design.
However, for all of the cinematic long shots that allow us to bask in the scale of the event, it’s not just the spectacle that counts, and the film dares to close in on a band who, at that point, were just entering their third decade. It’s a necessary approach for the Stones who, for all they may appear larger than life, have never lost sight of the music that binds them together, and it requires close ups to see the little nods and smiles the band share as they reduce a series of enormous stadiums to rubble.
Not that the band entirely appreciated it at the time. As director Julian Temple recounts in a brief audio note aired prior to screening, on seeing himself in such painful detail, Ronnie Wood ran from the film’s debut. He needn’t have worried. What stands out now is just how much energy the band exude as they rip through a selection of enduring classics with all the energy of a band half their age.
Limited to a mere 90-minutes (the average Stones’ show runs to at least two hours), not everything the band aired that tour makes the cut. Instead, we get the very cream, delivered with a fire and fury that frequently finds us moving to clap at the end of individual songs, so caught up in the moment that we briefly think we’re actually there.
It’s the little details that count. The onstage monitor which simply reads “where’s Keith? Can’t be seen” during an emotionally charged You Can’t Always Get What You Want; the sight of Mick attacking an inflatable snarling dog with an oversized mallet during Street Fighting Man; the delight on the band’s faces during the disco-infused Between A Rock And A Hard Place from Steel Wheels; the spacey ambience of a rare 2000 Light Years From Home (filmed like an episode of Quatermass); or the appearance of Mick on a massive platform, towering over the audience (“it’s a bit Nuremberg”, admits Temple during his introduction), during Sympathy For The Devil. It’s here that the film comes alive, with Temple’s roving camera capturing it all in astonishing, sometimes overwhelming, detail.
Even Satisfaction, which sometimes feels dulled by familiarity, takes on new life in this film, the band turning in a performance that positively explodes from the screen. It’s the encore, of course, and it’s shot with breathtaking urgency as the camera follows the band back on to stage, before racing out into the audience and back, taking in the dizzying glory of it all as it goes.
Honestly, you have to see Rolling Stones At The Max in the theatre. The sheer scale of the event is absolutely unbelievable, the sound is pristine, and the remastering such that you could easily believe it was filmed this year, were it not for the dubious haircuts in evidence. We all know that the Stones are an incendiary live band and, while this isn’t exactly the real thing, it’s damn close.
A landmark film, The Rolling Stones At The Max is, at last, back in its rightful home – catch it while you can.
