As my directing career seems to be gently coming to an end, I feel less and less shy about posting blasts from the past
This dates from some time in the late 1980's when my friend Dave Ramsden was managing a neo-punk band in whom he had great hopes, and as I too had great hopes at the time, we came to an agreement that if I could make a promo for less than £100, then we could all dream of stardom together.
It cost £89.00 in total, which covered lunch for the crew, batteries for the playback machine and a stick of lipstick. Shot by Ali Walker, who went on to do Queer as Folk, Taggart and many other prime time dramas, it also features some rare live footage of the band, shot by me on VHS (refer to Wikipedia if you're under the age of 25 and have no idea what that is) and then re-shot off monitors in slo-mo for a grainy, textured feel.
I remember meeting a member of another Scots band of the time, Win (You got the Power) who told me that they'd been in Barcelona and had seen this on a monitor in a bar somewhere and they thought it was really cool and like the Jesus and Mary Chain, which at the time was praise beyond price.
It was probably the only time it was ever shown anywhere, but as things do, it's finally turned up on YouTube, with the audio about 2 seconds out of sync, but hey, that's rock and roll!
Quis tempora, quo mores...
Comments