While not quite a once in a lifetime event, last night at the Toronto International Film Festival was special as Talking Heads‘ David Byrne, Jerry Harrison, Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz appeared together publicly for the first time in 21 years. The co-founding members of the legendary band reunited to attend the world premiere of the the 4K Imax restoration of their iconic Stop Making Sense concert film and participated in a post-screening Q&A hosted by Spike Lee.
Spike Lee was extremely enthusiastic as his quizzed the band on the making of the Jonathan Demme-directed film in the Q&A that was broadcast worldwide. “This is the greatest concert film ever!” the filmmaker told the crowd. “I can say that! You might not want to, but for me, I’m going on record, around the world: this is the greatest concert film ever.”
Chris Frantz was thrilled at the occasion. “Talking Heads was such a good band,” Frantz noted. “I mean, excuse me for blowing my own horn, our own horn — it’s so good to be here with my bandmates tonight. It’s been a long time. … I’m grateful to be here tonight and to watch this and to enjoy it so much.” He also pointed out the contributions of the expanded members of the band used at the December 1983 concerts at Los Angeles’ Pantages Theater featured in the film including keyboardist Bernie Worrell, percussionist Steve Scales, guitarist Alex Weir and backing vocalists Lynn Mabry and Ednah Holt.
The tale of how Demme, who died in 2017, became attached the flick is a short one. “Jonathan came to see the show,” Frantz said. “He came backstage and said ‘I would love to make a movie.’ It was as simple as that.” Byrne revealed the thinking behind his famed oversized outfit featured in the film. “I was told that everything should be bigger onstage,” the frontman explained. “I thought, Oh, my suit should be bigger too.”
Jerry Harrison did the heavy lifting when it came to the band’s participation in prepping the restored version of Stop Making Sense for distributor A24. “I would say that one of the wonderful things is the fact that there is new technology,” Harrison said. “It meant we almost have a burden to adapt and to bring it up to what people can hear now in theaters. It’s a delight to see that we found the original negatives and so, therefore, we could bring it back to life as much as possible.”
“When I was watching this just now, I was thinking, this is why we come to the movie theaters. This is different than watching it on my laptop!” David Byrne exclaimed about the new print which arrives at IMAX theaters on September 22 for a one-week exclusive before going into general release on September 29.
Other topics hit upon were the logistics of shooting the shows, the major role editor Lisa Day played in the making of Stop Making Sense, the importance of volume to Tina Weymouth’s bass playing. The session ended with quested posed by fans. Spike Lee didn’t get into any of the past grievances that led the band to break up in 1991 and kept them apart since their 2002 induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. The filmmaker also didn’t ask what the future holds for Talking Heads but there were no signs they’ll be gathering again any time soon.
Watch footage of the Q&A shot by a fan below:
