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Like so many other pop flicks of the time, Gonks Go Beat utilized its flimsy plot line in order to cram in as many musical performances as possible. Lulu, the Graham Bond Organization, the Nashville Teens, and a slew of unknown beat acts such as the Long & the Short all contributed song pieces, which were, in essence, the closest equivalent at that time to the pop video. But in an era where music was changing so quickly, Gonks Go Beat was old almost as soon as it was released, with many of the featured bands, and fashions, disappearing by the time it hit the screens. However, from a retrogressive viewpoint, the film's main popularity with a modern audience is due to the plethora of beat bands, '60s fashions, and swinging sequences that feature in it so strongly. The acting is downright appalling and the various subplots, which feature par-boiled commentary on the silliness of warring communities, are very thin: the "Beatland" and "Balladisle's" battle bore similarities to Gulliver's Travels' infinitely deeper and more subtle war between the Lilliputians and Blefuscuians' over the egg, and the bizarre "light" musical remake of +Romeo & Juliet (à la West Side Story) was clearly only a diversion from the music and secondary to the stars' teen faces. Kenneth Connor happily overacts, and whatever valid comments were trying to be made failed on all accounts (it must be remembered this was made at the height of the mods and rockers riots in the U.K.). However, as an artifact of the beat band era, this is essential viewing for the music alone -- however, as a piece of cinema, it's not really worth a glance.