And that’s what we saw that night in the Roxy in Townsville, a display of sheer energy, exuberance, showmanship and stamina that totally blew us away. Not that we were alone in that respect.
The highlight of the whole thing was the collapse at the end of the final number. Seemingly exhausted, Brown slumped to the floor, and a bevy of underlings emerged from the wings with a dressing gown, the way the guys in his corner swoop on a beaten boxer at the end of a fight, but Brown wasn’t finished. With the band still playing, he burst free, came back for another burst, collapsed, was led off again and repeated the routine until he finally condescended to leave the stage.
And the Rolling Stones had to follow THAT.
You might, based on what is written here, start to search for the footage of James Brown’s performance, and you might even find a DVD called That Was Rock which features part of the footage from the TAMI and TNT Shows. However you’ll be disappointed. For some reason, while Out Of Sight and Night Train are on the disk, they’ve neglected to include the fading boxer footage.
Of course, there’s always YouTube, where you can find Night Train, Please, Please, Please (with the fading boxer routine, cut back and forth between two performances) and there was what looked like the whole of the Ike & Tina Turner set from the Big TNT Show until a copyright claim by Dick Clark Productions, Inc. meant it’s no longer available.
Of course there’s a huge pile of film and television footage languishing in someone’s vaults waiting for DVD release.
Dave Clark from the Dave Clark Five reputedly bought the rights to Ready Steady Go years ago, and although bits and pieces came out on video in the eighties (including a great Motown special) there’s no DVD release. That doesn’t mean they’re not out there in some form, but a box set covering the full run of shows rather than someone’s selected highlights would be something worth looking for.