Rock around the clock: Jeremy Deller's 24-hour film fest

Artist Jeremy Deller has curated a unique programme of music documentaries for Helsinki's IHME Contempary Art Festival. 24 Hour Rockshow runs non-stop over 28-29 March in the Finnish capital, and includes a host of obscure gems alongside well-known documentaries on the likes of the Rolling Stones and David Bowie.

Deller says: "Rock music is an art form that grew up in public - and, luckily, at times in the presence of the some of the best filmmakers of the age. This persuaded me to put together 24 Hour Rockshow - a midday-to-midday film event about rock music and culture in all its glory and misery.

"The main selection criteria was that the films were made 'in the moment' and are not nostalgic retellings of classic rock myths. The Rockshow will screen classics like Gimme Shelter and Cracked Actor, as well as lesser-known films like the The Rock and Roll Singer which have a degree of poignancy that will I hope touch the believer and non-believer alike."

You can watch The Rock and Roll Singer - which follows Gene Vincent's disastrous 1969 UK tour - in full below. We've also curated a selection of clips from Cracked Actor, Alan Yentob's 1975 documentary on David Bowie in America.

Deller says: "Rarely has such misery been dumped on an artist with a camera crew present as in this film, in which rock'n'roll pioneer Gene Vincent undertakes a humiliating tour of the UK in 1969, aged 34.

"Nothing goes to plan as the singer is shuttled between rehearsal rooms, hotels, TV studios and gigs by Teddy Boy throwbacks who have kept the rock'n'roll flame alight in his absence.

"Though the musical landscape had changed beyond recognition since his heyday, the fast practices of managers and promoters remain - and they drive Vincent to distraction with their reluctance to pay a bona fide legend.

"The tour was curtailed by the combined efforts of the Inland Revenue, Vincent's ex-wife, and Don Arden, the notorious manager and enforcer. He would be dead within two years."

Another highlight of the 24 Hour Rockshow programme is Alan Yentob's 1975 rockumentary about the extraordinary rock star David Bowie. Shot in 1974 and transmitted in January 1975, Cracked Actor follows Bowie in Hollywood as he begins to discard the elaborate costume and make-up of his legendary character Ziggy Stardust and assume a new, more enigmatic role.