Back in 1983, Cameron Crowe had his directing debut with a documentary about Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, titled Heartbreakers Beach Party. For a long time, this film was out of circulation, and now, restored, it is set for re-release.
Earlier this year, Crowe was reunited with the 16mm reels of the film, which were long thought to be lost for decades.
The film depicts the band recording and promoting their fifth album Long After Dark, and its re-release will coincide with the reissue of the said album in October 2024.
Heartbreakers Beach Party features behind-the-scenes footage of the apocalyptic western music video for Long After Dark single “You Got Lucky.” It also shows Petty and the band on the road to promote the album – one scene that showed the group getting lost backstage at a venue purportedly inspired a similar scene in the 1984 film This Is Spinal Tap.
The film never made it to cinemas in the 1980s, as Crowe reveals in a press statement. “The fact that it was yanked from MTV after only one airing at 2:00 A.M. just shows that it was indeed an outlandish feast for fans in all the best ways,” he says. The film will be released in cinemas worldwide for two days only: October 17th and 20th.
The Long After Dark album will be reissued in October as a double disc and contains seven recordings that remained unreleased up until now. These include Petty’s “Never Be You,” which became a chart-topping hit for Rosanne Cash in 1984, as well as “Don’t Make Me Walk the Line” and “Ways To Be Wicked.” The latter was released as a single by Lone Justice in 1985.
You can get your tickets to the newly restored Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers documentary here.
