THE SESSION MAN: NICKY HOPKINS
ARCTIC FOREST PRODUCTIONS/TSM FILMS
NOVEMBER 5, 2024
The most surprising aspect of The Session Man: Nicky Hopkins is that it wasn’t made much earlier than this decade. Nicky Hopkins was one of the most respected and sought after session players in rock history. He played piano in sessions for The Beatles, The Who, The Kinks, The Rolling Stones, John Lennon, Harry Nilsson, George Harrison to name just a few. The Kinks even wrote a song about him, “Session Man” from 1966’s Face To Face. He even toured with The Rolling Stones. Hopkins released a star-studded album in 1973 (The Tin Man Was A Dreamer). His role in rock ‘n’ roll is legendary. He passed away in 1994, which was a huge loss, but his work lives on in most people’s record collections. But there is a lot to The Session Man: Nicky Hopkins, it is part documentary and part tribute to a well-known, but little-discussed Hopkins.
Director Michael Treen interviewed a number of artists (Peter Frampton, Keith Richards, Jim Keltner among others) to tell Hopkins’s story. Included are interviews with his wife Moira, who provides a great deal of insight into Hopkins and not only his home life but also his working life. What Treen is able to get across very clearly is that Hopkins was not always comfortable in the spotlight and was more than happy with his stature as a much in demand musician for the biggest rock musicians of all time.
Archival footage of Hopkins is also utilized, and he comes across as a quiet, unassuming man who just happens to be gifted with the ability to be versatile and talented. One merely has to hear his piano solo for The Beatles’ “Revolution” and compare it to The Who’s “The Song Is Over” to hear how easily he slipped between genres, styles, and bands. When it came to the piano, there was really nothing that Hopkins could not do.
Treen, very wisely, uses some of the music which Hopkins contributed to, which illustrates just how talented this guy truly was. The rock stars speak very positively about him and how he quickly could grasp the song in which was being recorded. He was not free from his demons, and the documentary goes to great lengths noy to paint him as a saint, but rather a very talented person.
This is a wonderful, and straightforward documentary about an artist, musician, creative soul, and from all appearances a truly humble and nice guy. He has popped up in many other documentaries before, but here, he quite deservedly, is in the spotlight. The Session Man: Nicky Hopkins has done very well in film festivals and is finally being released on Blu-ray. This is an excellent and well-made documentary that even those who don’t know a lot about Hopkins will find interesting.
Artist Links
Background Photo Courtesy Of The Nicky Hopkins Family Archive
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