Film and me: Chalk and cheese
The other night on BBC2 they showed the film Twentyfourseven. This was quite exciting for me as Neill MacColl and I did the music for this. By a series of flukes and, lets be frank, nepotism, Neill (who played guitar with me in the Bible) and I ended up writing score for almost three feature films It can take people years to work their way up to this. Writing music for features is often only a possibility after an apprenticeship in television or advertising. Being able to conduct an orchestra helps too. MacColl and I strolled into our first big job just because we knew the right person.
Fever Pitch was written by Nick Hornby and Nick Hornby happened to like our band the Bible. When in '96 a film was made of this fantastic book we were suggested as "composers". This meant that we had to "pitch" for the job. That is, do a demo; we were going to have to learn a lot of new words.
I was on tour at the time, which meant that Neill had to do the pitch himself. He came up with a piece for the scene where Colin Firth and Ruth Gemmell first snogged. He did a great job and got us the gig beating several other contenders. I've always felt slightly guilty as I have received royalties for this music (called First Kiss). I went back and looked at my statements and worked out that I have diddled Neill out of nearly £17.
The next stage was to "spot" the film. Oh how we laughed, "it's over there," we cried. What this really means is sitting with the director and working out where score is needed. At this point you have a rough cut of the film and you time each segment down to the frame (a twenty-fourth of a second). The director then discusses with what he'd like the music to "do". When you're in a band you might say, "Play something bluesy" or "How about a Beatlsey thing". With David Evans, Fever Pitch 's director, the instructions were much more specific. "We need to feel uncertainty at this moment", "Something nostalgic yet hopeful" and my favourite, "Nothing too post coital". These comments were surprisingly hopeful. Once it was tallied up there were about thirty bits to be written, in some scenes existing records would be used such as, Baba O'Rielly by the Who and There She Goes by the La's. No pressure of comparison then.
Neill and I wrote together, separately or plundered our store of old ideas. An instrumental version of my song Last Cigarette was used in one scene; a long discarded tune became Park Bench (used in a segment in a park, the action taking place on a bench. Our titles are nothing if not literal). After three weeks of demoing we were ready to record for real. We had ten days in the Church, a north London studio owned by Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics. We put together an ad-hoc band for these sessions (including the delightfully named Eric Pressley on bass). After getting the basic tracks down some of them had strings added.
Once it had all been mixed and approved it was time for our lovely music to be added to the film itself. We sat in a huge dubbing suite and watched in silent disappointment as the fruits of our labours were added to the soundtrack far too quietly. Thoughtless actors talked all over work, sound effects drowned out beautiful chord changes and some of the crowd scenes& oh well.
After several edits the film was ready to be shown at screenings. Chrissie Hynde came to one of these as the Pretenders were going to perform I'm Going Back over the end credits. Neill and I met her as possible producers. I was too scared to speak.
Months later it was time for the premiere. At last me and the missus would get the red carpet treatment. Sadly in this case the carpet was green so as to resemble a football pitch. After being roundly ignored by the paparazzi we entered the Leicester Square Empire to find ourselves surrounded by vaguely familiar celebs. I finally got to see my name up on the silver screen. And in bigger letters than the gaffer.
Fever Pitch did quite well and soon after we were invited to pitch for Twentyfourseven . A debut feature by 24-year-old Shane Meadows this wonderful black and white film about a boxing club starred Bob Hoskins and won many awards. We only had a fortnight to write, record and mix the whole thing. We had learned a lot of lessons from the first film and I feel our music was much more cohesive this time. I'm extremely proud to have been a small part of this film; it was all going to be downhill from now on.
Next came Our Boy starring Ray Winstone. Oh dear. I hated the script, the recording process was slow and laborious and I was soon bored out of my gourd. It came as no surprise to me that this mawkish tale failed to gain general release. To add insult to injury our music was removed before the film was finally shown on TV. After one more go (a tele-film about the millennium bug, oh blimey) the lure of the screen was gone for me. I like writing songs, touring, making records and having fun. I don't like staring at a monitor all day with a guitar in my hand. Despite being wooed by big name agents Neill and I went our separate ways. It's what he does for a living now and he's much better at it than I ever was.
It was all worth it though. If you watch the video of Fever Pitch turn the volume on your TV up full during the non-league match and you'll hear Honey Be Good by the Bible playing on the radio in the tea bar.
Boo Hewerdine.
