I rewatched this last night (bootleg DVD with Japanese sub-titles!) and was pleasantly surprised on how well it has held up - fine video choices, excellent interviews, good sense of pace. For me it works better than Crossfire Hurricane.

Is this the best Stones doc? And why has it not been released on DVD or Bluray?

A Laser Disc has been released in 1991, but I can't tell something about the quality or the standards of this system.

There's a LaserDisc to DVD transfer - [iorr.org] .

I have good memories of this as well.

I'd have to watch them in sequence to see if it's the best. Stones in Exile was good, though limited. Charlie Is My Darling is awesome. Gimme Shelter of course.

I think Crossfire Hurricane ends around the Steel Wheels Tour if memory serves so the timeline with 25x5 is a good match for comparison.

They really need to do a miniseries for the complete history.

<I think Crossfire Hurricane ends around the Steel Wheels Tour>

Sort of. However, ADTL from the Beacon is in there, too.

Is the shit. Crossfire, I was a bit dissapointed.

Crossfire ends 1981 besides a brief clip from Shine A Light movie

How about the Let It Bleed doc? If I remember right, it was very good. Borrowed quite a bit from 25x5 but was expanded to 2002.
[www.imdb.com]

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johnnythunders
I rewatched this last night (bootleg DVD with Japanese sub-titles!) and was pleasantly surprised on how well it has held up - fine video choices, excellent interviews, good sense of pace. For me it works better than Crossfire Hurricane.

Is this the best Stones doc? And why has it not been released on DVD or Bluray?

It was released on home video in 1990. By the time DVDs and blurays were invented, it was well out of date.

They missed a trick not releasing the 'Let It Bleed' documentary that coincided with their 50th anniversary that padre mentions above. Think it was only shown on ARTE in Germany and France (although theres an unofficial English version in circulation). It's superb.

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Gazza

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johnnythunders
I rewatched this last night (bootleg DVD with Japanese sub-titles!) and was pleasantly surprised on how well it has held up - fine video choices, excellent interviews, good sense of pace. For me it works better than Crossfire Hurricane.

Is this the best Stones doc? And why has it not been released on DVD or Bluray?

It was released on home video in 1990. By the time DVDs and blurays were invented, it was well out of date.

They missed a trick not releasing the 'Let It Bleed' documentary that coincided with their 50th anniversary that padre mentions above. Think it was only shown on ARTE in Germany and France (although theres an unofficial English version in circulation). It's superb.

Let it Bleed was for the 40th anniversary. Crossfire Hurricane was for the 50th anniversary and My Life as a Rolling Stones for the 60th.

I really love 25x5. Probably because I was very young when I First watched it and didn't know much of the archival footage. Let it Bleed was fun too. Crossfire Hurricane and My Life... I saw only once...there's nothing new except the Background music of CH which really should have been released separately.

The 2002 'Let It Bleed' documentary was originally a French/German TV-broadcast (by arte). The English version can be found here - [iorr.org] , [iorr.org] .

Rudi Dolezal & Hannes Rossacher (DoRo) also made a similar TV-documentary for German music television 'VIVA' in the 1990s (starts with a glass of whiskey on a trolley that rolls from the hotel kitchen to Keith).

The 1982 German documentary 'Die ersten 20 Jahre' (also by Dolezal & Rossacher) can be found here - [iorr.org] .

25 x 5 for my money is their best documentary. Crossfire was a little disappointing that it ended in 1982. It was almost like the band was admitting that they were great until 1982 and they aren't very proud of their latter day work. Just my take.

In the excellent "Let it bleed " DVD we have beautiful images of the famous yellow BLIMP (presentation fot the tour ) in intro and outtro....

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slew
25 x 5 for my money is their best documentary. Crossfire was a little disappointing that it ended in 1982. It was almost like the band was admitting that they were great until 1982 and they aren't very proud of their latter day work. Just my take.

Didn't it end with ADTL from 2006?

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DandelionPowderman

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slew
25 x 5 for my money is their best documentary. Crossfire was a little disappointing that it ended in 1982. It was almost like the band was admitting that they were great until 1982 and they aren't very proud of their latter day work. Just my take.

Didn't it end with ADTL from 2006?

I've seen it only once or twice, and it's been years since, but I recall ADTL started like 1978 or 1981/2 version and then swifted into 2006 one, like making the point that it's been the same ever since. Like the band having achieved some sort of eternal greatness. The meta-story was that by the late 70's/early 80's the band had reached a status of being loved by everybody (huge tours for huge crowds, etc), and there was not much to tell after that. The exciting, controversial years were done by then - you know, to get that status. At least that was my impression.

- Doxa



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2024-01-15 00:10 by Doxa.

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hockenheim95

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Gazza

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johnnythunders
I rewatched this last night (bootleg DVD with Japanese sub-titles!) and was pleasantly surprised on how well it has held up - fine video choices, excellent interviews, good sense of pace. For me it works better than Crossfire Hurricane.

Is this the best Stones doc? And why has it not been released on DVD or Bluray?

It was released on home video in 1990. By the time DVDs and blurays were invented, it was well out of date.

They missed a trick not releasing the 'Let It Bleed' documentary that coincided with their 50th anniversary that padre mentions above. Think it was only shown on ARTE in Germany and France (although theres an unofficial English version in circulation). It's superb.

Let it Bleed was for the 40th anniversary. Crossfire Hurricane was for the 50th anniversary and My Life as a Rolling Stones for the 60th.

I really love 25x5. Probably because I was very young when I First watched it and didn't know much of the archival footage. Let it Bleed was fun too. Crossfire Hurricane and My Life... I saw only once...there's nothing new except the Background music of CH which really should have been released separately.

Thanks. Typo on my part. 2002 = 40th anniversary

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slew
25 x 5 for my money is their best documentary. Crossfire was a little disappointing that it ended in 1982. It was almost like the band was admitting that they were great until 1982 and they aren't very proud of their latter day work. Just my take.

The movie was subtitled 'The Rise of The Rolling Stones' so the premise was always to focus on the early years. If anything its maybe surprising it went as far as two decades into their career. Most critics dismiss pretty much everything after 1972.

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Gazza

The movie was subtitled 'The Rise of The Rolling Stones' so the premise was always to focus on the early years. If anything its maybe surprising it went as far as two decades into their career. Most critics dismiss pretty much everything after 1972.

As a left-wing conservative critic I insist to dismiss everything after 1974. With the exception of Memory Motel.

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treaclefingers
I have good memories of this as well.

I'd have to watch them in sequence to see if it's the best. Stones in Exile was good, though limited. Charlie Is My Darling is awesome. Gimme Shelter of course.

I think Crossfire Hurricane ends around the Steel Wheels Tour if memory serves so the timeline with 25x5 is a good match for comparison.

They really need to do a miniseries for the complete history.

they should have follwed the beatles anthology tv series with one of there own back in the 90's or 2000's

now so many of the people that could have contributed in interviews to it are dead it just wouldn't be the same

that being said i agree

they deserve at least several hours to tell there history

a very long ken burns style documentaries series is what they need



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2024-01-15 06:06 by ProfessorWolf.

25x5 is the the better documentary for me

any career retrospective documentary that leaves out the flatbed truck performance from 1975 isn't worth seeing

CH covers the same ground and both documentaries fall short in stopping around 1981. Possibly understandable for 25x5 as the early 80s were less than a decade away but it’s baffling that CH took the same approach.

I thought 25x5 was fantastic when it was first released

It was shown on BBC first around 1990 if I recollect correctly. Then issued as a home VHS circa 1991

Remember this was way way before the internet etc. Much of the footage which was used, had never been formally broadcast before. RnR Circus, Ladies & Gents, Muddy Waters gigs for example. It was like stepping into a Stones Aladdin's cave back then.

Also some of the news footage was great (Keef Toronto 77 for example) and well cut into the film.

And some of the interviews were brilliant. Keef was on top form, and many of his (now) cliched answers were new and hadn't been used by him before, so it was all fresh and exciting....."yooou'rrrre under arrest.....see you in 7 years babe"....

For me and my friends (all early 20s), it was our favourite music video for about 2 years. It had a big impact as we had been Stones starved all thro the 80s.

25x5 will always be special to me as it was the first time I ever ever saw some of the old footage. Which then got me researching it and buying VCR tapes from the ads in the back of RS magazine lol

Bit I think the My Life series was awesome. Some footage from the BBC I’ve not seen before. And Keith with his grandfathers guitar was sweet.

Still got the vhs. Cold beers and a pizza watching the Stones’ life story up to the time. Fun times indeed. Unlike the Crossfire Hurricane doc which could’ve been so much better had it covered up to it’s release.

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johnnythunders
I rewatched this last night (bootleg DVD with Japanese sub-titles!) and was pleasantly surprised on how well it has held up - fine video choices, excellent interviews, good sense of pace. For me it works better than Crossfire Hurricane.

Is this the best Stones doc? And why has it not been released on DVD or Bluray?

I don't think DVD or Blu-ray were available at the time of this release.

I suspect (imagine) the Rolling Stones will update 25X5 adding many more years of information to this project.

Like jigsaw69 said:
it was first shown on BBC2 as a Arena special around Christmas 1989.
I was only a fan for half a year, so I didn't have seen much archive material to that point. It was incredible!
Half a year later, around the Urban Jungle tour, it was released on VHS, which even a little more stuff on it (around 5-10 minutes).
I bought also a dvd on bootleg from the Way of Wizard label, but I didn't watch it in years.

I haven't watch it in a while but I think all the videos were edited. A new edition with the complete videos would be nice.

But most of it we already have complete right now:
The Ed Sullivan Shows, Rock 'n'roll Circus, Hyde Park, Gimme Shelter movie, Ladies and Gentlemen, Mick Jagger solo movie, Keith's Live at the Paladium, etc...

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GJV
But most of it we already have complete right now:
The Ed Sullivan Shows, Rock 'n'roll Circus, Hyde Park, Gimme Shelter movie, Ladies and Gentlemen, Mick Jagger solo movie, Keith's Live at the Paladium, etc...

Absolutely right but it still bothers me to see edited versions when I'm watching the documentary.
I want to enjoy the full song.

I think the TV version (90 min?) was edited and shortened compared to the VHS edition (130 min). I haven't watched any of them for a long time, but if I remember correctly the main difference was that the songs on the VHS version were much longer, can't remember if they were full versions. I have both versions on VHS, but need to fix the player first.