I love music documentaries. Unfortunately, I’m the only one in my household with this passion, so the viewing party is usually made up of just me and the cat, when everyone else is out, and she can be a bit picky. Sometimes her eyes get big and her ears go back in response to more experimental artists, and she has a particular aversion to howling feedback. I had to watch some of the King Crimson film on my own, even though she’s quite content to sit through the sirens-and-explosions TV genre my wife enjoys, dozing off during the dialogue and waking up when the gunfire starts.
Tonight, I’m watching alone again because I’m going to a screening of The Session Man, a film about the legendary keyboard player Nicky Hopkins, and the cat hates leaving home even more than she hates experimental guitar music.
You’ve heard Nicky Hopkins. Even if you don’t have any idea who he is, you’ll be familiar with his work. He recorded with the Beatles (both as a band and as separate solo artists), the Stones, the Who and the Kinks, playing on classic albums like Imagine and Beggars Banquet – in fact, over 250 albums in over 30 years. He was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame this year.
He started out as a classical musician, then got into rock & roll as a teenager. As a lifelong struggle with Crohn’s disease made touring very difficult, he focused on session work. The depth of Hopkins’ session CV means there’s a long list of distinguished admirers to sing his praises: as well as all the surviving Stones and Shel Talmy, there’s Harry Shearer talking about Hopkins taking part in the first Spinal Tap film.
It’s testament to Hopkins’ ability and influence that so many well-known names have great stuff to say about him – but what makes the film particularly interesting for musos like me is the other keyboard players enlisted to talk about what exactly made Hopkins’ touch, ideas and sense of rhythm so special. Mick Jagger explains that Hopkins mixed gospel and classical in a way no-one else did. ‘He started playing’ says producer and engineer Glyn Johns ‘and I’d never heard anything close to it’.
Keith Richards, among other musicians, tells us about how the keyboard is a kind of glue that holds the band together. ‘Nicky could meld things together without getting in the way,’ adds Dave Davies of the Kinks. Hopkins could hear a song once, and know what to do with it.
It’s clear the man has earned his place in the musical stratosphere, and actually the interstitial screens somewhat resemble the kind of explanatory videos you get at large museums, next to other precious cultural artefacts.
The cat would have liked it. Maybe we’ll watch it together – it comes out in UK cinemas 21 November and you can watch it at home with a beloved pet sometime after that. There’s no howling feedback.
The Session Man is in cinemas from 21 November.
Nicky Hopkins website| Instagram
Review by Hannah Boothby
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