I was asked to make a video for The Housemartins, a band from Hull that was signed to Go! Discs and distributed through Chrysalis Records, for their second single Happy Hour and it was agreed that we would shoot live action and also have the band reproduced as plasticine animated characters by a company called The Giblets. A storyboard was worked out in conjunction with the animators and we then filmed the live action in a pub in St Johns Wood Terrace called The Star. The video starts with the band dressed in suits at the end of the working day at the office; they then do a silly walk into the pub passing Phil Jupitus as they enter the bar (he was working as their press officer at the time). They choreographed themselves turning from gorky office workers into groovy northerners. Then we worked out a number of pub gags that would allow them to turn into animated characters and back again. We shot the live action section in a day but the animators took 3 weeks to shoot their section.
Happy Hour - 1986 - I was asked to make a video for The Housemartins, a band from Hull that was signed to Go! Discs and distributed through Chrysalis Records, for their second single Happy Hour and it was agreed that we would shoot live action and also have the band reproduced as plasticine animated characters by a company called The Giblets. A storyboard was worked out in conjunction with the animators and we then filmed the live action in a pub in St Johns Wood Terrace called The Star. The video starts with the band dressed in suits at the end of the working day at the office; they then do a silly walk into the pub passing Phil Jupitus as they enter the bar (he was working as their press officer at the time). They choreographed themselves turning from gorky office workers into groovy northerners. Then we worked out a number of pub gags that would allow them to turn into animated characters and back again. We shot the live action section in a day but the animators took 3 weeks to shoot their section.
The Housemartins - Think for a Minute 1986 - This is the second video I made for the band and was scripted by Paul Heaton who wanted to feature Hugh the drummer who was leaving the band (did he walk or was he pushed?) It was the second time I had worked with Simon Archer as my cameraman who did a rather good job. We went on to make many videos together
Caravan of Love - 1986 -Caravan of Love became a Christmas no1 for the Housemartins, the video shot in the Union Chapel Islington with ideas provided by Paul Heaton who got the members of the band to have crosses in their hair and to this day I still am not sure if he was taking the piss or has any Christian belief. The song is a cover of an Isley Brothers number
Five Get Overexcited - 86
Me and the Farmer - 1987 -Paul Heaton insisted we shoot the video up near Hull which was a nice couple of days out and I took Chris Morphet with me to be my cameraman - the mix of performance and dancing that had worked well on their earlier videos giving a cheerful approach to a somewhat critical opinion of farming. I get to play a cricket bat at the end of the video to be displaced by Norman for the final chord
Always Something There to Remind Me - 1988
Build - 1987 -The last single and video from the Housemartins - Another Paul Heaton composition lamenting the relentless building that takes place in the UK - For this video we went to Hull and employed some trainees from the local technical college to build a wall round the band as they played