video friendly

I’m in Rob’s garage talking drum loops with Stevie O and swirling oil around in a baking tray in the name of art and heaven forbid…fun, wearing a black suit of sorts and a Katherine Hamnett white cotton shirt. It’s the only one I’ve got so I’d prefer not to get it covered in tomato ketchup. Next! We’ve got an overhead projector and a slides machine circa 1963 that Steve is re-fusing. He’s also bought along his original collection of Star Trek slides. And no I never have never been to a convention though I’m not at all shocked to discover Steve and Rob have on probably more than one occasion…they are geeks after all, slightly recovered and less anal than they were but geeks none the less. It goes with the territory so they tell me. The slide projector makes shadows on the garage wall and we start filming voice to camera as Steve and Rob swirl patterns and modify light filters. The idea for the video comes from a torture scene in The Ipcress File. I’ve not seen it. I just do as I’m told and try to get the lip synching right in what is turning into a perfectly decent way to spend a Sunday afternoon. The video is for the song ‘Vinny Peculiar is Dead’, the first track on the new album. It sounds like our old school orchestra playing Johnny Cash. We end up faking a suicide that involves rope and a chair and a body double and I manage to dislocate something in my lower back whilst swinging from the rafters. The song is about the death of the alter ego known as [or just as possibly unknown as] Vinny Peculiar…which hasn’t happened yet still you never know what’s around the corner do you? Incidentally there are a couple of death themed songs on the new record but don’t let it put you off…most of the tunes are more upbeat than you’d think; like Supertramp meets XTC was a recent comment. Goodbye My Angry Friend is available now from this site but wont be in stores or via the download sites until the new year which gives the pronoia records press team a decent amount of time to pitch it to the world. When we look back at the footage at the end of the day we like what we see. VP