QUIET RIOT Drummer Frankie Banali Talks Documentary Film With Eric Blair; Video Available
May 2, 2014, 10 years ago
The Quiet Riot feature documentary Well Now You're Here, There's No Way Back: The Quiet Riot Movie premiered at the Newport Beach Film Festival on Tuesday, April 29th. Drummer Frankie Banali discusses the project with eric Blair in the clip below:
Quiet Riot topped the charts in 1983 with the first #1 heavy metal album (Metal Health) which sold over 10 million copies worldwide, and paved the way for successful metal bands like Mötley Crüe, Poison and Bon Jovi turning the '80s into the decade of heavy metal hair rock.
An unlikely and surprisingly personal narrative to conquer the loss of a friend emerges from an odyssey about the rise, fall and resurrection of an '80s metal band. The career of Frankie Banali, drummer of Quiet Riot, took a major sideswipe when his singer and best friend Kevin DuBrow died in 2007. In 2010 and at a cross roads in his life, Banali has to forge ahead and make a new life for himself and his daughter. At times both utterly tragic, and downright hilarious, the film follows him going through the emotional feat of trying to fill the void left by Kevin and get the band back together one more time.
The 105-minute character-driven documentary goes beyond the guts and glory of the common getting the band back together tale. Well Now You're Here, There's No Way Back reveals an unforgettable man who uses ambition, adaptability, relentless determination and principle to navigate through a business, and a series of obstacles that are attempting to control his fate.
“When Frankie Banali told me he was planning to meet with Kevin DuBrow’s mother to get her blessing to go on with the band and find a new singer, I thought this would be an extraordinary story for a documentary." First time director Regina Russell gained access to the private video and photo archives of the band. She followed them for four years and got interviews with many of the integral characters in the band’s history.
Production on the indie film was launched in 2010 after a surprisingly successful campaign on Kickstarter.com, in the crowdfunding website's infancy. The campaign raised $25,000 of startup capital from the band’s loyal fan base for over 30 years, and a whole new generation of young head bangers.
Well Now You're Here, There's No Way Back is produced and directed by Regina Russell, edited by Kelly McCoy and executive produced by Gene Raphael Miller.