Confessions of a Pop Performer


Confessions of a Pop Performer is a 1975 British sex-farce film directed by Norman Cohen and starring Robin Askwith and Anthony Booth. It was written by Christopher Wood based on his novel Confessions from the Pop Scene. It is the second instalment in the Confessions series of films and continues the erotic adventures of Timothy Lea.

Plot

Sidney overhears a band in his local pub and aspires to be their manager, not so ably assisted by his brother-in-law, Timmy, both still window cleaning for a living. They rename the band Kipper and after a misfortune, Timmy joins the line-up and many sexual encounters follow as a result. Unfortunately, Timmy's natural talent is more mayhem than rock star and disaster ensues of mostly the semi-clothed kind.

Soundtrack

Confessions of a Pop Performer was the only film in the series to spawn a soundtrack album, with musical numbers produced by Ed Welch, and credited to the film's fictional groups Kipper and The Climax Sisters, the latter played by Diane Langton and Linda Regan in the film, although Sue Martine provides Regan's singing voice. All lead vocals for Kipper were sung by Maynard Williams. The album also includes music from Confessions of a Window Cleaner and in-character ‘Timmy Chat’ from Robin Askwith
Side 1
  1. "Confessions of Timmy Tea "
  2. "Timmy Chat"
  3. "The Clapham"
  4. "Oh Sha La La"
  5. "Accidents will Happen"
  6. "Timmy Chat"
  7. "I Need You "
  8. "Kipper"
  9. "Timmy Chat"
Side 2
  1. "Hell of a Fuss"
  2. "Pop Performer Medley
  3. "Timmy Chat"
  4. "This is your Life"
  5. "Charlie Snowgarden"
  6. "Timmy Chat"
  7. "Confessions of Timmy Tea "

Critical Reaction

The Monthly Film Bulletin said "Creaky gags, overly familiar slapstick routines, sniggering innuendo, grimly leaden mugging and a nervously regular injection of titillating sequences on the lines of the average German sex comedy: the follow-up to the huge box-office success of Confessions of a Window Cleaner is everything one has come to dread in British comedy. With hindsight, there seems to be a certain inevitability about this crossing of the Carry On series with the ethos of the working class anti-heroes that emerged in the early Sixties: Sidney James has found his younger alter ego in the charmless Robin Askwith, a kind of callow reductio ad absurdum of the early Albert Finney/Tom Courtenay characters. In this light, the trundling out of the gorilla suit from Morgan seems to be a particularly cynical nail driven into the coffin."
Variety wrote: "It's simple-minded stuff. Most of the jokes are laid on with a trowel, though some sight gags devised by Cohen and scripter Christopher Wood ... work well enough. The sex is invariably frenzied and ultimately monotonous. The ironic and unexpected are notably absent in all the nonsense. Askwith is reasonably appealing as the callow sex object, though it's hard to fathom his unerring magnetism for the femmes, even in this fantasy context. Booth is okay as the scheming brother-in-law, and both Doris Hare and Bill Maynard have winning moments as young Lea's parents. Sheila White is good as his sister. Technical credits are all proficient, and the film is well-paced for the market it figures to reach."
The Radio Times Guide to Films gave the film 1/5 stars, writing: "Robin Askwith abandons his window-cleaning round to help organise a tour for a band of no-hopers and finds himself knee-deep in groupies. Askwith struggles with a dismal script and comes off much better than Tony Blair's father-in-law, Anthony Booth."