Finally available online the video of the PFM concert at the Roxy Theatre, Los Angeles, August 1977

Finally available online the video of the PFM concert at the Roxy Theatre, Los Angeles, August 1977

  

Adam Gottlob restored and adapted the sound to the 8 mm shooting of director Louis Dosh.

Mainly focused on the album "Jet Lag", the video reveals itself as a rare, extraordinary and important document, which we hope PFM fans, all over the world, will be able to share soon.

Bernardo

 

PFM, Live at the Roxy Theatre, Los Angeles

11 August 1977

 

In August 1977, PFM was in the US for a tour just to promote their Jet Lag album released by Elektra Asylum.

Crossing various states such as Arizona. Texas, New Mexico and Colorado, the Italian band could not miss California with targeted concerts in San Francisco and, above all, in Los Angeles.

Here, at the Roxy Theater, the group played three nights in a row but it must be remembered that, every night, they were performing two sets, one at 8P00 pm and one at 11P00 pm!

PFM line up, at that time, just like on the above album, included three of the founding members, namely Franco Mussida, Flavio Premoli, Franz Di Cioccio plus, of course, bassist Patrick Djivas joined by vocalist Bernardo Lanzetti along with American violinist Greg Bloch (RIP).

As evidence of those performances at the Roxy, until mid-2021 only an amateur audio recording was known, somehow taken from an LA very special fan but, here, in 2021, as if by magic, a series of clips of an 8mm film came up, a very precious document even without audio ...

We hear directly the story from Adam Gottlob, the filmmaker who was able to recover, restore and complete the film.

Adam Gottlob, first on the left, and Mino Profumo, first on the right.

Adam Gottlob tells about “PFM live at The Roxy 1977“

I have designed and run The Genesis Museum for the last 25 years. We specialize in Genesis and Peter Gabriel archiving. With great fans like Mino Profumo, we have created a "virtual" museum, where thousands of Genesis collectibles (posters, photos, vinyl, tickets, programmes, etc) can be seen.

They are owned by me and the many people who have contributed scans/ photographs of their collection to the museum.

But in addition to collectibles, I have been involved with researching and restoring Genesis recordings, with a specialty in film/video recordings. Many years ago this was all on VHS, then moved to DVD, then Blu-Ray. Now I do most of my work on 8mm/16mm film scans in 2K/4K and my YouTube channel GMusic. We have worked on the Rock Hall induction ceremonies, Genesis documentaries and TV specials, and were even featured in Rolling Stone last year.

As you can imagine, finding these film documents is just about impossible. We are often talking about someone going to a concert 40 or 50 years ago with an 8mm camera and a few rolls of film. The chances of finding this person, the person still having the film, knowing where it is, the film still being undamaged, and then trusting us with their priceless films....it is so very difficult.

But since I have established The Genesis Museum, we have literally transferred hundreds and hundreds of films. We have a good reputation for making highquality transfers and returning the films quickly and safely. So, when we finally gain the trust of the film owner, they usually say "By the way, can you transfer all of my films?" So along with the Genesis films, we have transferred Zeppelin, Floyd, Rush, Yes, ELP, Jethro Tull, Gentle Giant, etc, etc....and now PFM.

After I transfer the films, I do the film editing and restoration. And for Genesis and Peter Gabriel, I can do the syncing. But for other bands, I try to find people who are experts on that band. I find people who know more about those bands to help me...with PFM, that person was you.

But in this case, PFM has very few recordings. Louis Dosch (the filmaker who lent me these film reels) knew he filmed this from The Roxy in 1977, but no one I contacted had the audio recording. And as you said, you played 3 dates in a row, and I was not 100% sure which date this was.

So, I found a Japanese bootleg PFM CD that was from The Roxy called "Out of the Ground" and I took a chance and ordered it. It was from August 11th, 1977 and it turned out to be a perfect match! So, I am not a PFM expert at all, but I thought with your help and Mino's help I had a chance. So began the project.

I started with the longer film segments, looked for areas of singing maybe, and tried to find where in the CD the match is. Each segment can take 5 minutes to find or an hour to find. But like a puzzle, the further I go, the easier the puzzle pieces start to fit. For example, when you have the bells on your hands, I know you are playing the "waltz" style portion of La Luna Nuova. I can see the cymbals and find a song that matches the crashes. And when I get stuck, I can ask you or Mino what I am missing.

Then I worked on the audio, because unfortunately this audio was not great quality, and had some distortion. I clean the film for spots and damage. I correct the color, add titles and credits, and make these silent 8mm films as good as they can be. Of course these are amateur productions, but there is still some magic there for real fans of the band. And especially for PFM, where so little footage exists, I think the fans will really be amazed to see it.

So... there you go :)

Adam

The footage is also a rare document showing Gregory Bloch (RIP) on the violin!