He ain't hairy, He's my surrogate brother.
Feb 8, 2007 9:16:50 GMT
Post by shanemeadows on Feb 8, 2007 9:16:50 GMT
I recently asked our leader if we could have a section on here for my Friend and lifelong collaborator Gavin Clark. Me and Gavin First met at Alton Towers in 1989'ish, He was working in a fast food shack and I was painting faces with Paul Fraser. Gavin had moved up north from maidstone with his future wife Judy (who was 6 months pregnant at the time) and was living on a caravan site near to Alton.
Around that time I was in a band with Paddy called 'She Talks to Angels' and really thought that we were like the best band of all time and would conquer the world in the early nineties, but then I heard Gavin play a song one day and it changed my life forever....
I had told Gavin about my band etc and he had said he had always wanted to be in a band himself. I was like, play us one of your tracks Gav, maybe you could do like backing vocals or summut. So he played a song to me and I was totally gutted. As I watched him play and sing I watched my own music career go up in smoke as I new he had more songwriting talent in his little toe than I had in my entire being on a good day with a prevailing wind. I didn't realize it at the time, but that day played a major part in me becoming a filmmaker. Although I was horrified, I was honest enough to know that my dream of becoming a rock star was simply that, a dream.
Well She Talks to Angels broke up and the band split off into various universities and dead end jobs, but my relationship with Gav and Judy continued. I had a 4 track recorder and would record Gav's new songs then play them to my new student friends in Nottingham. When I finally got chucked out of college and began making films, Gavin was the one who really got them and saw the potential in the films and in me as a filmmaker.
Within a few months of making shorts I was using Gavin's music on them and it is a relationship that has continued throughout my career to date. He wrote the entire soundtrack to Smalltime with his first band 'Sunhouse', Sunhouse also wrote a number of songs for 24-7, then when the band split and Gavin was in the throws of his battle with alcoholism he penned the classic 'If this is Love' for Romeo Brass before going into exile for a number of years (as he put his life and his family back together). When Clayhill was formed I was making 'Dead Mans Shoes' and used one of their demo recordings of 'Afterlight' over the scene of the gang arriving at the farm. Clayhill also have pride of place as the last song on 'This is England' with cover of 'The Smiths' song, 'Please, Please, Please'.
When I found out that 'EatSleep Records' had dropped 'Clayhill' and Gavin was going to start delivering pizza's again at 37 years of age I really did wonder what the world was coming to! The idea of Bob Dillon riding round Stoke on a Honda Bogseat delivering fast food in the snow this winter was wank and I asked Mark Herbert (of Warp films) if he would help me to raise some money to get a film off the ground and Gavin off the Honda and back in his living room writing songs again.
So the last few months, Me and Louise (my long suffering wife) have been making 'The Living Room' documentary whilst Mark Herbert and his team at Warp have been raising funds and working out the best way of getting Gavin 'Out there'. As always, I have shot way more than I intended but have finally got it all in the bag ready for editing. Warp are in the process of building a website dedicated to Gavin's solo 'Living Room' tour and Gavin himself is about to sign his first solo publishing deal and is writing again with Clay-hill and forming a new band as well, so I/We have a lot of new material to look forward to over the coming years.
Keep looking on this section of the forum for updates and news of a competition where you can host one of Gavin's 'Living room' gigs at your own house!
Long live the Poodle!
Around that time I was in a band with Paddy called 'She Talks to Angels' and really thought that we were like the best band of all time and would conquer the world in the early nineties, but then I heard Gavin play a song one day and it changed my life forever....
I had told Gavin about my band etc and he had said he had always wanted to be in a band himself. I was like, play us one of your tracks Gav, maybe you could do like backing vocals or summut. So he played a song to me and I was totally gutted. As I watched him play and sing I watched my own music career go up in smoke as I new he had more songwriting talent in his little toe than I had in my entire being on a good day with a prevailing wind. I didn't realize it at the time, but that day played a major part in me becoming a filmmaker. Although I was horrified, I was honest enough to know that my dream of becoming a rock star was simply that, a dream.
Well She Talks to Angels broke up and the band split off into various universities and dead end jobs, but my relationship with Gav and Judy continued. I had a 4 track recorder and would record Gav's new songs then play them to my new student friends in Nottingham. When I finally got chucked out of college and began making films, Gavin was the one who really got them and saw the potential in the films and in me as a filmmaker.
Within a few months of making shorts I was using Gavin's music on them and it is a relationship that has continued throughout my career to date. He wrote the entire soundtrack to Smalltime with his first band 'Sunhouse', Sunhouse also wrote a number of songs for 24-7, then when the band split and Gavin was in the throws of his battle with alcoholism he penned the classic 'If this is Love' for Romeo Brass before going into exile for a number of years (as he put his life and his family back together). When Clayhill was formed I was making 'Dead Mans Shoes' and used one of their demo recordings of 'Afterlight' over the scene of the gang arriving at the farm. Clayhill also have pride of place as the last song on 'This is England' with cover of 'The Smiths' song, 'Please, Please, Please'.
When I found out that 'EatSleep Records' had dropped 'Clayhill' and Gavin was going to start delivering pizza's again at 37 years of age I really did wonder what the world was coming to! The idea of Bob Dillon riding round Stoke on a Honda Bogseat delivering fast food in the snow this winter was wank and I asked Mark Herbert (of Warp films) if he would help me to raise some money to get a film off the ground and Gavin off the Honda and back in his living room writing songs again.
So the last few months, Me and Louise (my long suffering wife) have been making 'The Living Room' documentary whilst Mark Herbert and his team at Warp have been raising funds and working out the best way of getting Gavin 'Out there'. As always, I have shot way more than I intended but have finally got it all in the bag ready for editing. Warp are in the process of building a website dedicated to Gavin's solo 'Living Room' tour and Gavin himself is about to sign his first solo publishing deal and is writing again with Clay-hill and forming a new band as well, so I/We have a lot of new material to look forward to over the coming years.
Keep looking on this section of the forum for updates and news of a competition where you can host one of Gavin's 'Living room' gigs at your own house!
Long live the Poodle!
