Rockumentary: the 1964 “TAMI Show”.

TAMI SHOW
Steve Binder
1964 – USA – 123

If you have seen the movie “The Commitments” you will undoubtedly remember the scene in which Robert Arkins, in the role of the shabby manager Jimmy Rabbitte, to explain what soul music was show at band a film of James Brown. Well, not that performance And any one but much more probably the incarnation itself of soul, the R&B performance par excellence: James Brown al “TAMI Show”.

“TAMI Show” is a concert film produced by American International Pictures, shot on October 28 and 29, 1964 in Santa Monica at the hands of director Steve Binder who, thanks to his experience television atSteve Allen Show”created an entertainment show with the “young” slant of musical programs for teenagers, this time destined for the big screens of cinemas.

Binder was a true experimenter and for “TAMI Show” used Electronovision, a system developed by the television producer Bill Sargent Jr. to transfer the material shot on special high-resolution videotapes to film, which can be considered an ancestor of the current HD system. The process, delicate and sophisticated for at the time, allowed images to be enlarged without losing quality, making them excellent also for use in theaters.
The acronym of the title had two meanings, and they were used indifferently to advertise the event: Teenage Awards Music International And Teen Age Music International. Both acronyms immediately make clear the target of the film, decidedly adolescent. For its formula, for the promotional approach and also for the care and quality of images and sound, “TAMI Show” it is one of the seminal events in the field of video music, even more than concert film of the following years.

The film was conceived from the beginning as a product to be distributed in cinemas, consequently it underwent meticulous planning for that purpose. All the kids in the audience they had been invited with tickets distributed free of charge in schools, and the response was resoundingly enthusiastic, since the artists summoned to the Civic Auditorium in that autumn of 1964 were the main protagonists of the American charts of that period. Rolling Stones, Marvin Gaye, Supremes, Beach Boys, Gerry & The Pacemakers, Chuck Berry, Miracles and many others followed one another a lightning-fast ladder, of which it will remain forever sculpted the aforementioned performance by James Brown and The Famous Flame is set in stone. Brown, thirty years old at the time, was a formidable performer, his dances, stage gimmicks and the amazing band that accompanied him were something explosive which, if surprising today, at the time it seemed to come from another planet.
Keith Richards’ statement is quite famous and he often recalled how much to perform after James Brown at “TAMI Show” should be counted as one of the biggest mistakes of his career by the Rolling Stones. The choice, understandable given the popularity of band at that time, to use them as headliners at the end of the film, it was from director Steve Binder who wanted a grand finale with the band English who closes the show while all the rest of the crew and musicians dance together on stage. But, in fact, Richards had not wrong, and however strong their performance was, after that of Godfather of Soul looked faded and subdued.

Jack Nitzsche was called in as musical director and how The singing duo Jan & Dean was hired as presenter and they also performed the opening credits song, “Here They Come (From All Over the World)”, a surf-style bit in which they introduce the cast stumbling into the famous”epic fail” so the Rolling Stones “come from Liverpool”.
Three representatives of Berry Gordy’s label, Motown, who had inaugurated his long wave of chart successes that very year: Smokey Robinson’s Miracles, recently orphaned by Claudette Robinson, Smokey’s wife and the only female voice of the group who, for health reasons, no longer performed with the band continuing to work on records; Marvin Gaye, accompanied by Blossoms, in an incredible fantasy of his greatest hits; and the Diana Ross’ Supremes, who were the most successful girl group in the USA in those days.

All performances were enriched by the choreography of some GoGo Girls (and boys) who performed behind or next to the artists, under the direction of the choreographer David Winters, assisted by a young Toni Basil. Among the dancers, also Teri Garr in one of the first appearances films of what would become one of the most loved actresses of American cinema, at the service of masters such as Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese, although its most Inga’s beloved remains in “Frankenstein Junior” by Mel Brooks.
“TAMI Show” had a truly unexpected success so much so that, While it was still in theaters, AIP planned and budgeted a sequel, albeit less successful, entitled “The Big TNT Show”That came out the following year.
After appearing in American cinemas, the film disappeared from circulation until its twentieth anniversary when it aired on Canadian cable TV thanks to which they were able to to circulate some pirated VHS copies.
For an official home video edition we had to wait until 2010 when the Shout! Factory has released a DVD with the entire film, completely restored, both in the audio and in the the video one, and which also includes the restoration of the famous Beach Boys performance which, for reasons related to recording contracts, had been removed from all prints of the film until then.
The same version reappeared in 2017 in a DeLuxe edition which also includes “The Big TNT Show”and is now available on YouTube (you can find it below).