WORLD PREMIERE

Dir. MICHAEL TREEN | US | 2023 | 87 mins

The Session Man, tells the story of Nicky Hopkins, the highly gifted and prolific session pianist, and unsung hero.
Nicky Hopkins not only played with The Kinks, The Who, The Rolling Stones and The Beatles, he also played on solo albums of all four members of the Beatles in the early part of a stellar career that spanned over 30 years. During that time, he contributed to over 250 albums and a vast number of single releases.
Nicky’s legendary piano riffs and wonderful musical motifs helped ordinary tracks become extraordinary and iconic. So many of them remain popular today. The generations that followed The Golden Era of Rock And Roll soon discover those iconic tracks that made Nicky Hopkins a legend amongst his peers – tracks like “Revolution” by The Beatles, “Like A Rainbow”, “Sympathy For The Devil” and “Angie” by the Rolling Stones, “Jealous Guy” by John Lennon from his “Imagine” album and “You Are So Beautiful” by Joe Cocker.

The Session Man’s narrator, Bob Harris, former presenter of the BBC’s Old Grey Whistle Test, had no hesitation at the end of the film in confirming that, “Nicky Hopkins’ contributions made him Rock And Roll’s greatest Session Man.”

26 October 2023 at 18:20
LONDON - BARBICAN CINEMA 1

[www.docnrollfestival.com]

Is The Session Man somewhere in The Vault?

Or can anybody WeT it or provide any links?

He Played with the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and the Who — A New Documentary Tells His Story

Nicky Hopkins was arguably the most important session musician in classic rock. The Session Man pays tribute to his behind-the-scenes genius

By Brian Hiatt
September 30, 2024


Courtesy of Nicky Hopkins family archives

The haunting intro on the Rolling Stones‘ “Monkey Man,” the galloping keyboard solo on the Beatles‘ “Revolution,” the piano that anchors the Who‘s “The Song Is Over,” and countless other indelible classic-rock moments were all the work of one man: session keyboardist Nicky Hopkins. A classically trained player from Middlesex, England, who somehow also played like he had been raised in churches in the American South, Hopkins performed on nearly every Stones album from 1967 to 1981, was a founding member of the Jeff Beck Group, and played on solo albums by all four Beatles, among many other accomplishments. All of that and more is captured in a new documentary, The Session Man, which is set for digital release Nov. 5 on Amazon Prime and other platforms.




This exclusive clip from ‘The Session Man’ breaks down Hopkins’ work on Joe Cocker’s “You Are So Beautiful”

For director Mike Treen, a longtime TV producer, the film was a pure labor of love. “For all my years in the business, this is the one that I’m really proudest of,” he says. But getting funding for a film about a behind-the-scenes player, however prominent, wasn’t easy. “The hard bit for us is the distributors, the platforms,” he says. “They want films about Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Mick Jagger. So when you mention Nicky Hopkins, they go, ‘Well, he’s not a name.’ And you go, ‘But that is the point!’ So that’s why it’s taken us five years.”

It was easier to get the rock stars Hopkins helped out in the studio to participate: The film features interviews with Richards, Jagger, Pete Townshend, Peter Frampton, Bill Wyman, and Dave Davies, among others. As they help explain, Hopkins’ life was in part defined by a battle with Crohn’s disease that nearly killed him as a young man, and made touring difficult. So he settled in the recording studio for a decades-long run.

Hopkins did make an attempt at solo stardom, encouraged by his ambitious first wife, but it was never a natural fit. On 1973’s The Tin Man Was A Dreamer, he sang for the first time, and got musical assistance from George Harrison and Mick Taylor. “I think he was honest enough with himself to know that that’s not what he was,” says Treen. “But he let people persuade him and said, OK, I’ll give it a go.”

[www.rollingstone.com]

Morgan Fisher, one of the Mott, helped promote the screening in Japan in September.

He said:
I am now shocked to discover that Nicky Hopkins, who played the wonderful piano on "Jealous Guy", is not credited on the original LP cover of John Lennon's "Imagine".
His piano plays the most important role on this song!
Nicky's wonderful piano was a great and unknown teacher to me.
His fee was not commensurate with his talent (in the early 70's the guarantee for a session gig was £7).