Well it’s been a while innit?
There have been genuine reasons for the extreme lack of activity on the blog (It’s not laziness, honestly) and it’s cool that people are still dropping by despite having chuff all new to read.
Firstly, work on THE THREE TENNERS continues. I’m almost done with recording the sounds I need. All that will be required then is to lovingly complete the aural design and get a hand with colour correction. I really don’t want to rush this film as it’s my EIFF entry for next year and those people go for quality…… usually.
We also had a fantastic directing workshop with up and coming Scottish director Morag McKinnon. Morag has just finished her first feature and was extremely helpful, friendly and informative. It was great to direct in front of a working director as what your doing really comes under scrutiny, even more so than it does when on set. Anyway, it went well and a certain amount of confidence was taken from the feedback.
Last weekend I was in Manchester letting off some major steam and what better way to do this than by going to an Oasis gig. They’re not everybody’s cup of tea, granted, but were the band of my adolescence and in some strange way, helped me through some even stranger times. I’ll always have a special place in my heart for those lads. I can’t wait to bounce my grandkids on my knee and enthrall them with tales of being halfway into a coma alongside 50,000 people in a field by Loch Lomond in 1995.
Manchester was like being back in 91’…. Falling out of clubs at 6 in the morning in the arms of 100 mates you’ll never meet again only to get get right back on it and basically kick your body all over the shop.
There’s a nice documentary about the whole Britpop era, as told by the protagonists themselves.
This well crafted film takes us from the Stone Roses gig at Spike Island, through the grunge invasion, into the rise of Britpop, Blur V Oasis, New Labour, Pulp’s rise from a decade of obscurity to the record breaking Oasis Knebworth gigs and finally, the crash of the dream round about their Be Here Now album. It’s not just a film about the music, but the impact it had on a society screaming out for something new.
I have to say, I was well placed for all those movements of the youth, being the age I am now. One doesn’t miss being 18 these days knowing what the kids have missed out on. I really hope they can get off their arses and get something going that isn’t comodified as soon as it becomes vaguely popular like some Simon Cowell inspired sell out fest.
If you were around at the time, whether you were into the music or not, you should check out this film. There’s some great moments with a beatifully lucid and retrospective Jarvis Cocker with alternative, leftfield views being provided by trip hop efficienado 3D from Massive Attack and Louise Wener. Hell, even Damon Alburn is tollerable.
Jarvis Cocker in what I genuinely believe, is his own bedroom
I’ll leave you, for now, with a couple of clips from the aforementioned documentary. First up is a little section on the birth of Oasis, secondly is some comment on how New Labour weren’t shy on jumping on the “Cool Britannia” bandwagon.
I won’t leave it so long next time.
Journeys in Cinema 