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Duchy Parade Film's Latest Project
Hot off the presses, the latest project through Duchy Parade Film's doors is
a music video for the timeless Space Rock band Hawkwind. Featuring a new
version of the all time classic track Spirit of the Age.
The Track
The original recording of Spirit of the Age first appeared back in 1977 as
the opening track on Side One of the album Quark Strangeness and Charm. The
album featured several tracks that have become part of the band's staple
performance catalogue. At a time when punk was all the rage the album showed
the band on form and deserving of the sometime used title of Hawkwind as
Ambient Anarchists. The album remains a collector's prize. |
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The original Spirit of the Age is credited to the pens of the highly creative
partnership of Dave Brock and Robert Calvert.
Remixed, recorded and reworked by the current line-up of Dave Brock, Alan
Davey and Richard Chadwick as a thumping modern track, the music has lost
none of its energy or classic value but gained a new dynamism with its
scarily contemporary lyrical content. On the inner-sleeves of the original
release the band make reference to feeling of being 'back in touch with the
modern world.' In 2004 the track could not be more so, in an age of cloning
and talk of cryogenic freezing. |
In the beginning………...
The band approached Peter Kershaw at the end of last year about directing
the video.
"Amongst other feature projects I've been busy working on, I'm particularly
interested in a Sci-Fi story which Kris Tait was aware of, and I think it
was partly this that led her to approach me about making a video for the
single."
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© Hawkwind |
"What
I liked about the project was the fact that the band wanted to make the
video and release the single regardless of their music not being the kind of
pre teen music that seems to dominate the single charts. Hawkwind are a
serious bunch of musicians who write and perform their own music. They just
wanted to go for it and that appealed."
Working with Hawkwind you soon realise that actually, there are a lot of
people who have the odd album and more so, who have seen the band and never
forgotten it. Not all would you guess are the kind of hard rockers you'd
expect from a band that included Lemmy in its line-up. |
This new version of Spirit of the Age features the vocals of Matthew Wright.
Know through his column, radio shows or to television viewers as the sharp
presenter of C5's daytime news topical magazine show - The Wright Stuff.
Matthew had himself been one of the army of fans who had been birthed on the
heady mix of music, ideas, visuals and showmanship associated with the band.
"Once bitten they are in your blood."
Peter Kershaw talking over the shoot with Matthew Wright |
© Hawkwind photo by Alicia Clarke, Photographer |
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© Hawkwind
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Hawkwind have always been a band you experience, however you interpret that,
their shows have always been an event and the magic of a group of
professional musicians who don't take themselves just the music seriously.
For the sharp eared the single includes the vocal musical instrument of 80's
pop icon Lene Lovich. Lene adds an unexpected element to the music's bright
mix.
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The video
As a starting point, the video had a strong lyric base.
Read the Lyrics
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© Hawkwind photo by Melvyn Vincent, photographer
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The song divides naturally into two parts. Dave had decided to reflect this
in the recording of the track's lyrics with Matthew taking lead vocals on
the first verse and Dave himself on the second.
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Decisions over how to style the track were then informed by the fact
Hawkwind are the masters of Space Rock. Whilst many can claim to have
dabbled from Pink Floyd to David Bowie, Hawkwind remain the connoisseurs of
the sound.
Hawkwind's current line up with Dave on guitar, keyboards and sequencers,
Alan Davey on Bass and additional sequencer sounds, backed by the dynamics
of Richard Chadwick on drums and percussion give the band a solid bed of
musicianship. In short they can play.
Hawkwind has always been as strong visually as musically, and normally for
the full experience, you want to see them live. Visuals and lighting have
always been hallmarks of the band's appearances and you have the key
elements that informed the creative decisions on what we'd try to include in
the video.
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"As I understand it, as part of experiencing Hawkwind's music there has
always been a tendency to let the listener bring their own interpretation to
the table. So I didn't want to be too prescriptive to try and overdo the
narrative of the lyrics and have one of those naff actor's stories playing
out while the band fill in the background. In my thinking Hawkwind wanted to
be front and centre."
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As mentioned, as well as appealing to a wide audience and more so when the
band reaches the ears of new listeners, Hawkwind have a very large and loyal
fan base. With this connection, we decided to incorporate 'fan' involvement
into the making of the video.
A trade mark of Duchy Parade Films has been the mixing of live-action with
animation and new technology and techniques. Spirit of the Age was going to
be no exception. |
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The Makers
In contrast to today's 'spirit of the age' with normally massive music
budgets and long shoots for videos, the filming and budget elements on our
Spirit of the Age were all short and tight, giving the making process a fast
and furious pressure.
Duncan Storr is known to many Hawkwind devotees for his artwork on the
double album cover, Live Chronicles
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Although Duncan has in fact worked for countless bands on a number of album
covers and his illustration skills can be seen on countless sci-fi book
covers.
Duncan worked on images of the frozen woman whose 'time held dreams' fill
the vocalist's mind.
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To give the android from the song an edge, the talented Award winning duo
Robert and Jan Jefferson devised memorable animated images, which had to be
created and filmed around the usual hive of high industry demands from their
own film projects.
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Since 'The Dark lantern' ( See other section on this
web-site), Robert and Duchy have been in discussion about adapting the
Lantern series with MTV in mind.
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For Dave Brock's lead vocals about cloning we needed a completely different
style of animation and a different feel to the imagery. This was provided by
the traditional drawn animation of David Bunting and the evocative imagery
of 'Dolly' the cloned sheep. |
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Style and Content
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We flow from imagery of a science lab with microscope and pipette dish into
the idea of the band playing in space.
Both Robert & Jan and Duncan's artwork was devised to give the opening to
the song a sort of almost nostalgic space rock imagery feel that accompanies
Matthew Wright's vocals.
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"There is a sense of macro and micro about the track - macro space travel
to micro cells and cloning. I wanted to reflect this mix in the video. Also,
much is made of 'imagined' and 'dreamed' about images in the mind's eye. We
edited the sequences in layers like elements to give the sense of the
animation as being in the mind of the vocalist.
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Duchy Parade Films are developing a Sci-Fi feature project with the
traditional drawn animator David Bunting so he was a natural choice for the
cloning imagery. Early on from talking to the band sheep came to the fore as
a theme with the now dead 'Dolly' remaining the most recognised image in the
popular imagination of cloning, as any visit to the science Museum in London
will demonstrate.
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David completed the images of Dolly just in time before going to work on the
special effects animation for the opening title sequence of Working Titles'
feature film, Thunderbirds. |
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Photo by Mark Goulding
As part of the 'elements', the added layers of the video, another Hawkwind
fan Mark Goulding, Dr Mark Goulding in fact, spent much time researching a
source and then ended up filming microscope produced imagery of liquid
crystals. In his hands and Professor John W Goodby of Hull University a
colourful and uniquely visual texture was produced adding the science and
again the microscope sense of cells dividing and living for a genuine
Hawkwind visual experience.
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© Hawkwind |
A large part of the film's look comes from the live-action. Our short window
to film the band actually performing came during the band's current UK tour.
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The look of the live-action came from the eye of Alistair McKenzie, lighting
cameraman. The overall design is a move from high contrast white lighting to
high contrast colour lighting with each member of the band and Matthew
having their own colour. We need the empty sense of black space around the
band for us to add the layer of space in the edit. |
To achieve some of the chorus work for the track which was going to involve
placing the band's heads inside a plasma ball, we also used blue
screen.
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All the elements were then shaken up and stirred into place by the skilful
hands of Tyne Tees Television editor, Peter Telford. And you have Spirit of
the Age the video. |
Dave Brock, Peter Kershaw and Huw Lloyd Langton
relaxing after the video shoot.
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© Hawkwind |
Exhibition the future….
Hawkwind (see website link) are playing over the spring/summer of 2004 in
Europe and returning to tour the UK in the autumn/winter.
The video will be used as part of the band's live lighting show and to
promote the single - Spirit of the Age and forthcoming studio album - Take
me to your leader. |
For viewers in Belfast the video was screened in early May during the
Spring Tour.
All that remains for you to do is to get out to your local Woolworths and
HMV and order a copy.
For more information on Hawkwind and on future screenings you can check out
www.Hawkwind.com
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Credits
HAWKWIND
Spirit of the Age
Produced & Directed
by
Peter M. Kershaw
Duchy Parade Films Ltd
Performed by Hawkwind
Dave Brock, Richard Chadwick
Alan Davey
with
Matthew Wright
&
Kris Tait
Lighting Camera
Alistair McKenzie
Camera
Simon Foggin
Assistants
Georgina Kiedrowski, Alastair Smith, Kerry Plummer
Editor
Peter Telford
Android Animation
Robert & Jan Jefferson
Dolly Sheep Animation
David Bunting
Drawings
Duncan Storr
Liquid Crystal
Dr. Mark Goulding
Professor John W Goodby
Sue Pulman
Psychedelic Effects
Neil and Marie
of Chaos Illumination
Production Co-ordinator
Mary Kershaw
Assistant Director
Paul Dolan
Production Assistant
Elizabeth Cashmore
Production Stills
Simon Cashmore
Make-up
Jenny Lamb
Electricians
John Haynes, John Mason
Ken Campbell, Ken Hird
Graham Sewell
Sound Playback
Charles Heath
Good vibes
Kevin Tait
Hawkwind’s
‘Spirit of the Age’
© Rock Music 2004
(P) Hawkwind 2004
Video © Duchy Parade Films 2004
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