This Friday at the Watershed, Bristol – DJ Cheeba re-scores Plan 9 From Outer Space, the Ed Wood ‘classic’. It’s going to be nuts and may never get another outing, sadly I’m in Russia so can’t go along.
Film
Red Snapper have made a video, directed by Danielle Callesen, to the radio edit of my remix of ‘Mambety’. Check it out above and buy the EP here.
Here’s a short film of what went on at the Sarm Studios playback event of ‘Welcome To The Pleasuredome’.
For people who didn’t get a copy of the box set or were restricted by territory (N. America and Japan were excluded because of licensing laws) you can now order it through Am*z*n and elsewhere (although beware, some places are taking the p*ss with prices).
Imaginary film sequel art show opening at iam8bit Gallery in LA next week. More info and images here on the Entertainment Weekly site.
‘How Psychedelia infected Hollywood Sci-Fi’ last night at the BFI was another head trip along the lines of the Julian House / Ghost Box event earlier this year. The program ran: Yantra (1957) by James Whitney, Momentum (1968) and Samadhi (1967) by Jordan Belson, Catlog (1961) by John Whitney, Solar Express (1969) by Augie Cinquegrana, OffOn (1967) and Moon (1969) by Scott Bartlett and Cibernetik 5.3 (1965-69) by John Stehura.
Whitney’s ‘Yantra’ was incredible, being that it took him 10 years to complete by hand-drawing the animations onto small filing cards and the name Pat O’Neill was new to me, someone I’ll have to investigate further. The Sci-Fi season at the BFI is really turning up some great treasures at the moment.
Definitely going to see this next April, looks like it will inject the sci-fi quota that I wanted more of in ‘Under The Skin’.
(Quick disclaimer to avoid confusion: ‘Future Shock’ – the documentary about 2000AD – is completely unconnected to my own ‘Future Shock’ DJ mix sets. This is a happy coincidence but both stem, in part, from the short one-off tales in the comic called…‘Future Shocks’. I can see that it might get confusing as I’m now interviewing the director but it’s a small world and great minds think alike and all that. With that cleared up, let’s get to the interview which I conducted for the Front Row Reviews website.
I run into Paul Goodwin – director of ‘Future Shock! The story of 2000AD’ – outside the green room where I’m due to interview him at the BFI. We’ve never met but I recognised him from the many photos he’s posted on the Future Shock documentary blog, enviably posing with various legendary comic creators, looking like a kid in a sweet shop. Like any nerds of a similar age with a common love of a subject it’s easy to break the ice and I’m eager to find out what drove him and producers Sean Hogan and Helen Mullane to make a documentary about the Galaxy’s Greatest comic, the wonderful weekly dose of Thrill Power that is 2000AD.
(Paul with legendary artist Brian Bolland and producer Helen Mullane)
What made you think 2000AD was a good subject for a documentary, what sparked the idea?
Paul Goodwin: Like all good things it started in the pub! Sean and I go way back and we’d been talking about working together on a serious project for a while. We were both 2000AD fans in our wayward youth and I just said, you know, it’s crazy that someone hadn’t done this yet, and it’d be something that I’d drop everything to go and see! Sean immediately said he’d help make it happen if he could. He suggested bringing Helen on board and once we hooked up and Helen agreed to co-produce it became a real thing.
How old are you and when did you start reading 2000AD?
I’m 40. I picked up the odd random prog in the late 70’s when I was really young (for those of you not familiar with 2000AD ‘speak’ – prog = program i.e. issue). There was a huge choice of British comics at that time, but I never saved those or anything. Years later, the first stuff I actually remember reading was the Judge Child Quest, which a school friend showed to me. I specifically remember Fink & Mean Machine from the Angel gang, and trying to understand why Dredd had such enormous boots!
I just chewed up all the old progs like immediately, the Titan volumes and those Eagle collections (80’s reprints of older strips collected together before the term ‘graphic novel’ had even been invented), mostly bought from Forbidden Planet on Denmark Street or the little shop up Paradise Alley, remember that guy?.
Alas that was before my time, I lived outside of London and would come up at weekends but I definitely went to the Denmark St Forbidden Planet and remember the cramped little space before it moved.
Progs were like 20p or something. Then I started buying it weekly from prog 500, which was the first jump-on prog that came my way. So my era of buying it regularly featured the John Hicklenton Nemesis, ‘Oz’ (Judge Dredd story involving skysurfer Marlon Shakespear aka Chopper), Bad Company and Slaine the King, stuff like that.
Real golden era stuff 
Basically I think there’s a real lack of decent behind the scenes material for the comics world, and I had always felt that 2000AD had inspired so many and influenced so much over the years that I really felt that the comic needed to be recognised for its impact. So that’s what we did, hopefully..!
Are the others involved in the production (Sean, Helen etc.) big 2000AD / comics fans too or did you have to bring them up to speed?
Yup, we’re all 2000AD readers, Squaxx I guess you’d say (more 2000AD speak – ‘friends of Tharg, the comic’s alien editor). Naturally we’ve all read the classic ‘golden era’ strips, but the variation in our ages meant we had all read it ‘full time’ at different points. So actually there’s quite a fun spread of our favourite characters and strips. This is very much a passion project for all of us.
Were 2000AD on board from the start and did they help with contacts or were you completely independent?
We are completely independent of Rebellion, who own the comic today. We did, however go and meet Matt Smith (current editor) and Jason Kingsley (owner of Rebellion) before we had shot a frame, it was crucial that we had their blessing to use their artwork, otherwise this would’ve been a very difficult story to tell. Like one of those shitty music docs about Zeppelin or whatever and they can’t play any of the band’s actual music! So Matt & Jason were very cool, laid back about the whole thing and thankfully gave us their blessing – further to that, Matt has really helped us out by sourcing high res artwork of some of the more tricky to get hold of stuff. Plus of course they appear in the doc!
How did you plan to fit 37 years into 105 minutes?
Ha ha yeah, that’s a funny question. Well, I figured there’s the basic chronological story of the creation of the comic, then I wrote questions that I thought would make interesting discussions and then it kind of expanded outwards from there. From the outset we knew it was vital to get an interview with Pat Mills in the can (veteran writer who helped start the comic and still writes for it today) – no Pat, no doc. Thankfully Pat is a real gentleman, he welcomed us into his home for an entire day and gave us so much fantastic material that we left there knowing we had the spine of a very cool story! So then we chose creators that best represented the various eras of the comic and proceeded to tour the country, the world in fact, sitting down and chatting with some of the world’s finest comic book talent. It’s been a pure joy to be honest. And we do actually have almost 37 years of footage backed up for special features!
Was there anyone who you couldn’t get or who refused to be filmed that you felt would have given a unique perspective on the comic?
Yes, it’s a shame that Alan Moore is not involved, being one of the most celebrated of 2000AD’s creators. We asked, and he politely declined to be interviewed, so that was that. It seems that Alan, along with a few other people would rather discuss their current projects, which I completely understand and accept. It’s a shame that some voices are missing from the conversation but in my opinion the documentary itself doesn’t suffer for it too badly.
What did you think of the new Dredd movie and do you think that it helped interest in the project?
I enjoyed Dredd very much! I love the way they resisted having Dredd deliver some James Bond shitty line after he pushes Ma Ma off the ledge and instead just says “yeah”. That felt very 2000AD. And I think what’s great about it is that no matter how you judge a film’s success, what you’re left with there is a cool, hard little film that will last forever to engage & inspire people long into the future.
As far as helping us in the production of ‘Future Shock‘, the film has now become an important chapter in the 2000AD story, so we have covered it as such. It seems that right now there are a fair few 2000AD projects being discussed, a potential Dredd sequel is always in the news, not least the celebrated period the comic itself is having and doing well in the US now, as well as our film so yeah I think it’s a good time to be involved in it all. It feels good, like there’s a real buzz around 2000AD right now!
Will there be some sort of DVD or Blu-Ray with extras that didn’t fit in at some point?
I hope so! There was a 3hr40 work print at one stage of the edit! We interviewed over 40 people for the doc ranging from 30 mins to a few hours each. There is TONS of stuff man, and if I was a fan waiting for this doc to be released, I’d want to see all those interviews too! We are looking for distributors right now so I hope that we can get all that stuff out to the hardcore fans one day.
So finally, some fun, personal questions for you: who are your favourite writer / artist / characters from the comic? You can choose more than one if it’s too hard a choice
Agh! That’s a killer…
As a writer surely John Wagner‘s contribution to the world of comics is second to none. The sheer amount of crazy ideas, sci-fi prescience, comedy and deep political satire in Dredd alone represents a staggeringly high quality body of work. Also I personally think that Peter Milligan is one of the most underrated comic writers, it was a joy to interview him.
I agree, Wagner’s high turnover and hit rate are incredible and few can write Dredd’s dialogue like he can, something I think they got pretty spot on in the film version.
Artist? Hm, I’d probably say Steve Dillon drew my favourite Dredd, with that crazy jawline! I love artists that can communicate story with very few lines, and for me Cam Kennedy & Mike McMahon are masters of that kind of simplicity.
As for the strips, I really love Slaine for a couple of reasons: firstly because I used to skip over it before I realised how fantastic it was! I couldn’t get with the whole Conan thing or the magic or any of that stuff at all and then I actually read one, and it was brilliant, and of course I had to go back and raid my own back issues because they were so addictive! I love Pat’s crazy battle cursing, “I’ll bathe my axe in your blood” and all that stuff. And of course Mike McMahon‘s art on the ‘Sky Chariots’ story is breathtaking – that one page with the ships in formation and the eagle bringing a fish to the nest in the foreground. Genius.
But, Nemesis the Warlock is the one that has remained my favourite over the years. Totally unique, I have never read or seen anything like it. Pat Mills is just letting it all go with that book. It’s brutal and disgusting, epic, violent, funny and just fucking cool all at the same time. All the artists that drew Nemesis over the years needed to have such a bizarre unique style to make it work, but of them all I do think that Kevin O’Neill is one of the most important comic artists of all time. The designs for the characters and that world of Termight are unbelievable, where does it all come from?! Just brilliant, brilliant stuff. Credo!
I agree on that one too, there’s no one like Kevin out there and Pat has created so many memorable characters over the years as well as helping start the comic obviously. Well, I’m really looking forward to the premiere and, as a fan of the comic for 35+ years it’s clear that it’s in absolutely safe hands here.
Review of the UK premiere
I saw the film last night (after having refused a preview before the interview above as I didn’t want to spoil the occasion) and all I can say is that my suspicions were correct, Paul and his team were absolutely the people for the job. They managed to fit a huge number of creators and history into the film and yet cover a lot of ground in a very entertaining way.
Pat Mills is the binding element which, along with John Wagner and Alan Grant, is how it should be being that they where there at the start and are still writing for the comic today. The comics industry in the UK in the 70’s is covered and the scene set, the troubles that beset them all gone into, the ‘dark years’ of the 90’s and the saving of the publication when Rebellion stepped in to buy them are touched on too. They don’t pull punches and it definitely isn’t all a love-fest, the original Dredd movie is given short thrift as are the copyists who have ripped off characters wholesale.
One of the highlights of the film is Mills railing against ex-editor Dave Bishop, who readily admits his failures in a smart bit of tit for tat editing. There are many glimpses behind the scenes of what went on, how rights were bandied about with little renumeration and creators seen as just grist for the mill. All this is wrapped up in glorious artwork to remind you of exactly why the comic is such a British institution and the rock and synth-heavy soundtrack is perfect to underscore the whole thing. A few creators are conspicuous by their absence – Alan Moore refused to speak (no surprise there) as did Mike McMahon and, despite several instances of their artwork there was little mention of Ian Gibson, Ron Smith, Simon Bisley, Massimo Belardinelli, Brett Ewins or Steve Dillion.
But considering they had to fit three and a half decades into 1hr 45 minutes they did a wonderful job and the abiding message that came across is that 2000AD is a very British institution that once kicked against the status quo and has now become a part of popular culture. Tellingly Mills reveals that the nearest role model at the time was the French anthology Metal Hurlant and that he has always been loath to see the comic as a stepping stone to America. The Q&A afterwards with director Paul, producers Sean and Helen alongside Mills and Kevin O’Neill was further illuminating and I left happy that the legacy of the comic had been faithfully and entertainingly laid out for both fans and newbies alike.
The next showing is at the Leeds Thought Bubble Festival on November 15th where they’ll have a Q&A afterwards too. Follow their Future Shock blog here.
Another perfect DJ setting, playing Afro Futurist beats and electronics at the Watershed before a screening of Sun Ra‘s ‘Space Is The Place’ film last week. Sitting down, accompanied by visuals manned by DJ Cheeba and Tom from Lumen which had been also been mapped across the roof above. No dancing, just punters sitting, drinking and taking it all in and a great applause at the end. Thanks to everyone who came down – more gigs like this please. (Photos by Gareth O’Neill, DJ Cheeba, Ross Chester and Maddy Probst)
…and here’s a great poster for the Afro Futurist season that starts in November that I shot at the BFI in London the more before the gig.
Lovely poster, designed by Matt Needle, for the showing of ‘Slient Running’ at the Eden Project in Cornwall which happened yesterday. See Pete Thorton‘s review over on Front Row Reviews for more of what went down.
Love this retro take on the original Transformers intro with the new Angry Birds crossover game – ‘Birds Disguised as Robots in Disguise’.
Well that looks pretty great, wasn’t supposed to be released until next week but apparently ‘Hydra’ leaked it
Probably the weirdest Simpsons intro ever
Weirdly another thing with ‘Future Shock’ as a title, must be something in the air – although my mix title takes from both 2000ad and an early 70’s documentary. But anyway, I’ve been meaning to post this for ages but got sidetracked. Someone is finally attempting to tell the story of 2000ad in proper documentary form and they’re really going all out to do it.
So far I think they’ve spoken to anyone and everyone who’s ever been within walking distance of the comic in the last 37 years. Check the trailer above, read the production blog, it will be screening at Beyond Fest and Fantastic Fest in the US in the coming months but there’s no news of a UK premiere yet.
Following on from the themes of the first four ‘Environments’ albums, Five explores the space / time / dimension that exists when we die. The moment of departure. It includes appearances from Daniel Pemberton (BAFTA nominated / Ivor Novello winning composer), Raven Bush (Syd Arthur) and Riz Maslen (Neotropic). The Environment series originally began as an archive of previously unreleased recordings but Environment Five features thirteen all new songs recorded in the first half of 2014.
All pre-orders of the new album made through FSOLDigital will receive a bonus free 3-track EP on release! Here’s a new teaser video and album cover too – more info on fsolnews.blogspot.
My very good friend Roy ‘DJ Moneyshot’ Spencer recently interviewed Garry Cobain for the classic album series in this month’s Future Music, focusing on their ‘Lifeforms’ album.
Kid Koala‘s latest show is so multifaceted that it almost defies description, it certainly isn’t easy to sum up in one sentence anyway. In 2003 he released a 300 page silent graphic novel called ‘Nufonia Must Fall’ about a robot who falls in love with a girl (no spoilers there). He’s now translated it into a hour long stage performance that sees the story performed with puppets whilst being filmed live as Kid plays the soundtrack alongside The Afiara Quartet.
The puppets, or more accurately models / macquettes, came in different sizes and there must have been at least 10 different stage sets on pedestals which would be filmed before the camera moved on to the next on a tracking dolly. The puppeteers all wore black so as to be more inconspicuous and would change stage sets between filming as each scene was projected and edited live above the stage on a huge screen. All the while Kid Koala was soundtracking the performance alongside a string quartet, one minute playing keyboards then scratching, playing mandolin or affecting voices into a vocoder. At one point he was playing a keyboard figure with one hand and then needle dropping tones from the Spiritualized drone record ‘Pure Phase’ to form melodies.
The whole piece was incredible, funny and moving and the sit down setting of the Roundhouse on a rainy Monday night made it even more fantastic. It was also the antithesis of his previous ‘Short Attention Span Theatre’ shows of a few years ago, often moving as a glacial pace because of the limitations placed on the crew moving between scenes which took time to set up and assemble. Prerecorded inserts of the robot’s chest-mounted tape recorder or cut-away scenes involving hands performing acts that the models couldn’t were included where needed and bought time for the puppeteers and variety to the camera angles.
The music was an integral part of the piece and bought scenes to life, the themes repeating to form a fully realised score that built on the original soundtrack included with the book. I was close to tears at one point and realised that it was the music that had bought me there but it was also used as a sound effect with a particularly effective cello bow sound used to make the sound of the robot’s head turning in an elevator scene.
If you get the chance to see this then take it as it won’t be getting too many outings due to the size of the production. Sadly it was only on once in London before moving to a four night residency in Hamburg and then more in the Netherlands. Watching it on the web would only give you a portion of the experience, you really have to see it in all its multi-layered glory. We joked afterwards that a DVD of the performance would have more behind the scenes features than the actual main feature.
Another unexpected aspect of the show was that there was a near stage invasion as the end as people wanted to inspect the props, sets and characters that had been used, take photos and try to deduce how what they’d just seen had been done. It’s a rare show that can achieve such an effect on a crowd in this day and age, also, I forgot to mention – the whole night started out with a gain on bingo on specially drawn Kid Koala cards.
My jaw is on the floor here, looks great, sounds great, has everything I wanted in a Mad Max sequel right there – roll on May 2015. The colours are gorgeous and Brendan McCarthy’s influence on the vehicle design seems present and correct, Hardy looks and sounds the part and Charlize with short hair…
Still totally loving this album and the vinyl arrived this week along with their previous outing, ‘La Carotte Bleu’, which, while not as focused as the new album, has plenty going for it if you want to explore the band further. ‘Midnight Sun’ however pretty much falls into the ‘all killer, no filler’ bracket for me, a well-rounded record that has layers of detail which rewards multiple listens.
The LP comes in a heavy card gatefold with a tip-on jacket and inner sleeve housing one of five colour variants (I got purple as you can see). They’ve just released a new video for the opening track, ‘Too Deep’, which is a one take affair that rewards with the final scene. It’s also apparently an homage / rip off (depending on your point of view) of the French short ‘C’était un rendez-vous’ by Claude LeLouch but they cleverly riffed on the end scene.
Photo © Eilon Paz of Dust & Grooves, taken in my studio April 2013
Yes, it’s 25 years ago today that ‘Paul’s Boutique’ was launched into an expectant world only to be met with a mixture of acclaim, incomprehension and disappointment from critics and fans alike. ‘Licensed to Ill’ pt.2 it wasn’t and was such a departure it alienated a large proportion of their (newly acquired) audience immediately. The Hip Hop landscape had moved on by the summer of ’89 and the militant beats and rhymes of Public Enemy rubbed shoulders with De La Soul‘s newly planted Daisy Age or the emerging gangster rap of NWA. Suddenly the Beasties were back after a two year break in LA, sampling Disco, The Beatles, Psycho and rhyming about throwing eggs, street bums and plastering the album with stop-start skits instead of the Rock Rap they’d become known for.
Of course this was intended but it was largely out of step with what was happening in their field at the time. Hip Hop was still fiercely about looking forward as far as its own history was concerned and here were snatches of Afrika Bambaataa and Lovebug Starski. Also DJs and producers were still in the mindset of the rare and unknown sample, Rose Royce, Chic, The Beatles and the theme to Jaws weren’t exactly obscure yet here they all were. In fact the inclusion of The Beatles drew some discussion as no one had been so blatant before and it was speculated that their signing to Capitol was on the condition that they could sample liberally from the label’s huge back catalogue.
But time and hindsight are a great thing and here we are, a quarter of a century later, with the album acknowledged as an ahead of its time classic. To celebrate we have SM&A from Italy who have put together a‘Visual Companion’ to the album, made from existing videos, film clips, ads and other footage to make a long playing video. This has been a labour of love for months now and we met with Paolo from the team in Italy earlier this year on one of our 3-Way Mix excursions for the same album. I can’t embed it in the site at the moment so you’ll have to go to the link above to watch it.
Not only is there a film but now there’s another book from Dan LeRoy – author of the brilliant 331/3 book on said album – this time entitled ‘For Whom The Cowbell Tolls’. I was interviewed by Dan earlier this year for an updated version of the 331/3 book but this new title appeared out of nowhere on several sites last week and is something else altogether it seems. Having come across a huge stash of PB-related memorabilia in his research it seems Dan has now teamed up with a pop archeologist named Peter Relic and written a follow up book that reveals previously lost treasures and info about the album that will also be released on the 25th anniversary. I’m really looking forward to this as it’s come out of nowhere and promises much, it’s available through Amazon as a digital book initially though. In related news, Cheeba, Moneyshot and I continue with our tribute to the album and begin a series of weekend runs at festivals this summer before heading to Canada for a show at the SAT in Montreal on September 19th, our own mix not even 2 years old but having clocked over 150,000 plays.
So perfectly put and brilliantly animated.