The commentary on the DVD is very strange, they did one commentary for both Live It Up and for its sequel " Be My Guest".
I imagine Pete Townshend had seen this movie in the UK and I wonder if it had any influence on him when he wrote his rock opera "Quadrophenia".
According to the commentary the time period of Live It Up is just a little bit before the Mods vs Rockers riots era. The motorbikes and the messengers reminded me of "Quadrophenia" in which the lead character was a messenger. In this day and age, it was odd to see the young guys smoking during their scenes, but I guess in the early 60s, this didn't look out of place. When Hemmings wants to give up early, his father shows his support by insisting his son take the whole 30 days and not give up. Even the most resistant character to his son pursuing a music career here is Hemmings ' father, who has given him 30 days to finally break into the business or to get a "real" job.
versions of this same type of movie during this period seemed to always have the parents degrading that evil rock and roll. It was nice seeing the parents and adults being supportive of the kids in Live It Up. as the producer of The Tornados "Telstar", the first record by a British group to hit #1 in the U.S. Joe Meek is known as the Phil Spector of England and is best known to us here in the U.S. Record producer Joe Meek wrote all of the songs in Live It Up and according to the commentary, all the artists in the movie, except for Kenny Ball, were from his stable of performers. To make things even better The Smart Alecs song "Live It Up" was actually good enough that it could have been a hit in real life. A pretty simple plot that allowed not only The Smart Alecs to perform, but since the movie was revolving around music, allowed the insertion of other musical groups. They cut a demo, but it gets lost, the band has a "bust up" over this, but eventually all works out in the end. They even mention once during the movie that they would like to be as famous as The Beatles. The plot centers around a group of boys (David Hemmings, Heinz Burt formerly of The Tornados, Steve Marriott, John Pike) that work for the GPO (General Post Office) and in their spare time dream of becoming famous rock stars with their band The Smart Alecs. as "Sing and Swing"), even though it had a few spots that made absolutely no sense with the rest of the movie. Do I like British teen pop movies, pre- "A Hard Day's Night"? I can't answer that question, since this is the first one I have ever seen however, I certainly enjoyed Live It Up (released in the U.S.