Ron Blair

An intimate look into the personal lives of pop music's greatest and most influential artists.

The Old Grey Whistle Test is an influential BBC2 television music show that ran from 1971 to 1987. It took over the BBC2 late night slot from "Disco Two", which had been running since January 1970, while continuing to feature non-chart music. It was devised by BBC producer Rowan Ayers. According to presenter Bob Harris, the programme derived its name from a Tin Pan Alley phrase from years before. When they got the first pressing of a record they would play it to people they called the old greys—doormen in grey suits. The songs they could remember and whistle, having heard it just once or twice, had passed the old grey whistle test.

No description available.

A documentary series about pop and rock albums that are considered the best or most distinctive of a well-known band or musician or that exemplify a stage in the history of music.

Recorded on October 16th, 2002 at the Grand Olympic Auditorium, Los Angeles, this film features the band's 2002 album The Last DJ performed in its entirety. Also featured are several of the band's other songs, and "You Wreck Me" from Tom Petty's solo album "Wildflowers".

Directed by Peter Bogdanovich and packed with rare concert footage and home movies, this documentary explores the history of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, including Petty's famous collaborations and notorious clashes with the record industry. Interviews with musical luminaries including Jackson Browne, George Harrison, Eddie Vedder, Roger McGuinn, Jeff Lynne, Dave Stewart and Petty himself shed some revelatory vision.

A celebration of rock 'n' roll in the shape of a compilation of classic artists and songs, featuring the likes of Jerry Lee Lewis, Dion and Dick Dale who all featured in the Rock 'n' Roll America series, alongside songs that celebrate rock 'n roll itself from artists such as Tom Petty (Anything That's Rock 'n' Roll), Joan Jett (I Love Rock 'n' Roll) and Oasis (Rock 'n' Roll Star).

Tommy, a dogged lab tech of industrial food who, though once known in the business as "The Apostate", seems to have rededicated himself to producing scientifically engineered meat. A film about a dystopian future rife with genetic engineering, corporate corruption of government and rampant infection, is really about Tommy’s loneliness and the at-home experiment he conducts.

The latest addition to Eagle's critically acclaimed and highly successful Classic Albums series is Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers 1979 breakthrough album Damn The Torpedoes . The band s third album defined their musical style and took them into the mainstream hitting No.2 on the US charts and spawning the top 10 single Don t Do Me Like That . The DVD features newly filmed contributions from the band members Tom Petty, Mike Campbell, Benmont Tench, Ron Blair and Stan Lynch along with co-producer Jimmy Iovine and engineer Shelly Yakus as they analyse the tracks from the original multi-track tapes and through new and archive performances. Damn The Torpedoes has stood the test of time as one of the great American rock albums of its era and is a worthy addition to the Classic Albums series.

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, recorded live at the O’ Connell Center, in Gainesville FL, on September 21st, 2006.

Bob Harris introduces Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers in concert at the BBC Television Centre in London's Shepherd's Bush in 1978.

No description available.

A compilation of Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers' music videos.

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers return to Gainesville, Florida where it all started, to play their first hometown show in 13 years. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers perform classics with a seasoned stage presence and swagger that is a testament to their 30 years as rockers.

Taped for a two-part PBS Soundstage, Petty employs the Chicago locale as an entry into the blues and R&B that are at the foundation of rock & roll, and to a lesser extent, his music. This results in a fascinating and exciting show, where the extensive covers are just as interesting as -- and arguably more interesting than -- the few hits he gets around to playing.

From the lyrical juxtapositions of two generations of teenagers in "Free Fallin'" to the award winning "Mary Jane's Last Dance" featuring Kim Bassinger, Petty treated his clips as small films. The narrative "Into the Great Wide Open," which features Faye Dunaway and Johnny Depp, actually resulted in offers to make Petty's story/song into a full length motion picture. Petty's reaction was, "It already is." Here are the best videos of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, a powerful document of the early evolution of a new kind of art -- and some rockin' tunes by a great band. --Bill Flanagan, September 1995

On March 24th, 1980, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers performed for BBCTV Rock Goes to College, at Oxford Polytechnic.

A fifteen chapter web-documentary series directed by Justin Kreutzmann. The series is currently available exclusively on TomPetty.com for members of Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers' Highway Companions Club