My Name Is Ottilie BBC Four - Could this be the worst music documentary of all time?

 I have literally seen the worst documentary on music that I have ever seen. And I mostly only watch music related TV. 

“My name is Ottilie” Presented by a singer called Dana Masters whom I have to say I have never heard of. 

Now there has never been a Docco about Ottilie before, and there has only been a couple that have been made about Chris Barber. The best being a Radio 2 Docco a few years ago. 

The opening gabit of the whole thing was that that Ottilie was an unknown Blues singer. Firstly in her heyday she was more of a Jazz singer than a blues singer but I won’t split hairs about that. The point made that she was unknown couldn’t have been further from the truth. She was the singer in the biggest jazz band in the UK at the time. She sold a LOT of records both with the Barber band, and many solo releases. Though they were mostly Barber bands records where she took the title. Es the Paterson Girl Eps. She did make a couple solo records the album on Marmalade really was not great. But had a few nice moments. But she was a s big as the likes of Cleo Lane at the time. 

Dana talks to someone that wrote a book about Irish blues, who clearly didn’t know anything much about Ottilie then Dana looks at some photographs. Including one with Chris yet makes no mention of him. I strongly think she might not have even known who he was at the time of filming. 

It was 16 minutes into the programme before the first mention of Chris Barber, this show had a running time of 52 minutes. Its like making a film about John Lennon and not mentioning Paul McCartney. In the meantime the presenter has sung 2 songs. 

Then she talks to another ‘Expert’ whom makes the killer point that people might not know that the rock and pop of the 60s came out of blues and jazz. Really? Do people not have the internet, or know even the first thing about how music evolved? ? ? ? ? 

This is a Classic EP of the era. 

The we get to an archive clip of chris and a clip of the band, at last 20 minutes in you finally see her singing with the band she is most famous for being a member of.!!! 

Then randomly, it goes totally off track and we start talking about the Rolling Stones! Firstly a clip with someone that did a session with them, then we go to the 100 club and talk to Dick Taylor. Now I like Dick Taylor hes a nice guy and was there at the time and probably saw the Barber band, and probably played at Ken Colyers studio 51 and maybe Ken’s club in Heston. Thus far though Ken has not been mentioned, or Lonnie Donegan let alone any other band members. Remember Skiffle started the british Beat boom, Rock Island Line was the first skiffle Hit and was recorded in a session for a Chris Barber LP (new orleans joys) Chris is one of thee most important people in british music . Then there is some more interview audio mostly talking about Cultural appropriation stuff. 

The we get Dana singing with Jools Holland. Followed by a chat, this is the first time 28 minutes they talk to someone that actually met Chris Barber (BTW I Met Barber in 1995, and Ken Colyer in 1984). Jools also starts to talk about Chris bringing over blues musicians to the UK.   If you want reference to this the Muddy Waters Otis Spann recording from Manchester in 1959.  The Docco does have a few nice photos during the Jools interview. 31 minutes on, some guy with a funny beard mentions that Ottilie sang in Muddy Waters club. Can I also point out at this point the film as not mentioned the title of ANY song or album that Ottilie has sung or performed on. And briefly showed the sleeve of 1 compilation LP. 

Then we get a comparison to the Dankworths.  And talk to Jacqui There daughter. (there son Alec is a killer bass player BTW) . More chat about the times however they have twisted the story saying that Ottilie brought over musicians from the USA no it was CHRIS BARBER that did this. One of the main reasons why this was unusual was because of the Musicians Union rules at the time for American artists coming to the UK. 

Nearly 35 minutes in we FINALLY see someone that actually played with her. Stu Morrison though he was not in the band until much later on.  

This could have been a Psychedelic Masterpiece
 but is a pleasant album. 

Then we get some bloke randomly playing 12 bar blues introduced as ‘you are one of the few people that knew her’  to be fair his clip gives a tiny bit of context of the latter days of Ottilie. 

The Dana sings another song, with a trombone player. 44 minutes in still no mention of a song or album she recorded. Another later day Barber member gives a riveting interview. No really he basically says that she wanted to retire and she wasn’t happy. . . 

There has literally been nothing about her her actual story in this documentary at all nothing. 

Maybe there is nothing to tell? Or more likely as with so many films about music, the people that made it know nothing about the subject. The only redeeming feature at the clips of the interview from 1990, the person that did that interview does not feature until 50 minutes in to the film!! Why? She should have been in it from the start. 

The it gets very dark a chunk about Ottilie having an abortion Chris does not come out well here. If the legend is that he was a Control freak than that was probably correct. I sort of felt this actually when I met him. 

Then Dana sings another song!! T be fair Dana masters is a great singer but, this is a film about Ottilie patterson..  There is a few xlips of her in this film but why don’t they use more of it? 

Now there is a lipew ‘Ottilie patterson was the singer in the biggest band in Britain she was a star’ this is a total contradiction to the opening line. The it ends. 

If you were to take out everything that was the film not talking about Ottilie then it would have a running time of about 15 minutes or so. If that. 

This was a massive wasted opportunity, A biographic film about a major player in British music at the time with absolutely no information at all.