Not every girl who fancied musicians during the 1960s and
early 1970s had the charisma or marketing chutzpah of Pamela Des Barres or
Cynthia Plaster Caster. Girls competed for the attention of rock musicians the
way girls vie for the attention – and pocketbooks - of entrepreneurs today. Most of the' 60s /'70s groupies, didn’t get a payoff or career boost, unlike
today’s girls. No, they were just in it for the adventure. And some of those
adventures weren’t much fun.
I Am A Groupie (aka
Groupie Girl) is a depressing recreation of the late '60s/ early '70s groupie
scene. The screenplay was co-written by Derek Ford and Suzanne Mercer. Mercer was a former groupie for the 2nd
tier British glam band Juicy Lucy, so that may be one of the reasons this movie is so realistic. It plays out like a dreary, low-rent version
of Almost Famous.
Bored small town girl Sally (Esme Johns) attends a rock show
and stays in the local dancehall after her friends have caught the last bus
home. She likes the looks of the band’s lead singer, and stows away into their
van while they load up after the gig. Sally hides in the back until halfway
through the trip and suddenly introduces herself to the band. They aren’t too happy to see
her, but make the most of it. When the band gets to their destination,
it’s not exactly the Riot House on Sunset. In a bleak overhead shot, we see
Sally walking around naked in the middle of four twin mattresses, each with one
of the band members. But there’s no morning shag for her; she’s ordered to get
the band coffee and cornflakes.
There's not much of an emphasis on music in Groupie Girl. The original music is instantly forgettable. All the songs sound like
watered-down Badfinger or the B-side from a 1970ish one-hit wonder band.
Sally wanders lackadaisically through the movie - or maybe the
character is just supposed to be permanently stoned. Sally does ingest an entire
hash cake near the end of the film, She passes out and avoids getting hauled
off to jail with the band and another groupie. She wakes up and wanders into a
room where a nice folk musician plays guitar. He warns her that she’s just being used and will
be tossed aside. At the film’s end, we find out he’s just as big of a jerk as
the other blokes.
The only other female characters in the film are groupies,
and catfights resulting in nudity ensue. There’s a sex party scene orchestrated
by an older guy, who convinces the hippie kids it will be fun. One of the band members slyly avoids a pushy older woman,
who’s obviously after him, during the free-for-all. In another scene, Sally is
demoted to #3 groupie as one of the band members dallies with twins.
In a final humiliation, she is, quite literally, passed from
one band to another in one scene with tragic consequences. This leads to a
cover-up by the band’s sleazy manager – and Sally is sent packing by film’s end.
Groupie Girl is a
somber and interesting period piece – much more watchable than you might expect,
given the subject matter. It’s Brit-psych exploitation with a serious thread
running through it. It reminds me of Up
the Junction and other films about working-class England
in the '60s and '70s more than soft core exploitation. Groupie Girl bears no resemblance to
the free-spirited “the music is all that matters”/"I'm a muse" credo of Almost Famous. The groupie scene in this film is the flipside to
all that feel-good, Band-Aid glamour. You can watch the movie for free on YouTube. (see below)
