New York MC's and DJ's Fresh Daily, Scienze, Chuck Le Garcon and King I Divine along side Ipswich's Booda French, Chrome & Ill inspired performing live at the last ever Rapsploitation Session at The Swan Pub in Ipswich on 16/10/13.
Thanks to all who came along, and to everybody who attended any of the previous Rapsploitation Sessions over the past 7 years.
Here's the edit I made below...
This is a promotional short about The Swan Pub in Ipswich. The Swan is somewhere I have spent, and do spend many hours in, a sort of home from home. This video gives a brief lowdown of the place and covers part of it's musical history.
Ipswich would not be the same without it. Long live The Swan.
One of my oldest friends emails me out of the blue to say that she has a new band called Fledglings, they are playing their first ever gig back in Ipswich at the Swan Pub & could I take some photos for them? With pleasure!
Most people will remember Becky from fronting the very much loved band, Making Eyes At Elvis (formerly Charlie Brown). She's been residing in London and studying/working, there fore hasn't done any band stuff for around six years. It was an absolute pleasure to see her back behind the keys and singing her heart out once again.
I'm sure when people will talk about Fledglings they will probably say that there are of course some similarities between this band and Beckys past venture. However this band has an undoubtedly evolved sound, and some serious balls to boot. I couldn't help but hear some Mars Volta type moments in there set, as well as a little Modest Mouse, but mostly so much captivating originality. I genuinely cant wait for their next show.
Shot on medium format film through my beautiful Mamiya C330. Shot in Ipswich's Swan Pub, Jagermeister, fairy lights, and my homie Joe Halls looking far more serious than normal for a split second. No flash used, dark was the intention. This was on a day when Joe decided to not drink for a month. He made it about two weeks, for Joe this was a valiant effort. Some people are just born to lead the party.
So earlier this year around the beginning of march, my friend and Ideals drummer, Ben Ward, asked if I might be interested in making a music video for the band. It was only a few days later talking to my best friend, Nick Williamson, that I realized Ben had approached him about the project as well. We decided to work on something together, not really knowing when it would happen, but knowing it would.
After a lot of talking with Ben, I soon realized the band wanted something home grown, organic and relatively simple. So instead of a fancy studio in London, I arranged to shoot at a couple of locations in the bands (& mine and Nicks) home town of Ipswich.
We shot a big part of it in a friends empty, soon to be open bar/restaurant on the Ipswich docks. This currently nameless and under construction bar/restaurant was the perfect place to shoot, we transformed this huge empty space with lights, projectors and of course the band.
The other big part of the video we shot in Ipswich's renowned Swan Pub, a place where Ideals and many other bands and artists have played over the years. The bar is probably most famous for the Mumford & Sons show right before the band really took off. And also for Ipswich local singer/songwriter, Ed Sheeran, who has played here regularly over the years, and his last gig at the pub as support for Dels at the end of 2010 echos the same story as Mumford & Sons, as it was right before he REALLY took off!
So to pay homage to The Swan and it's deep roots in music, we shot in their infamous attic deep into the night. The small run down and unused room, with wooden floors as old as the building itself oozes character. Again, simply with a couple of lights and some creative sparks, we really made it into something even more special.
I shot a lot of photos over the course of the night to, as well as some sequences which Nick very cleverly incorporated into the video. I will post the photos up later on this week along with some new portraits of the band to.
I'm thrilled to have worked with a band which I'm not only a fan of, but have been friends with since school days. It's also been a great thing for me to get to work on such a good project with my best friend, Nick. This is our first project together since my skate video in 2007, let's hope its not so long until next time.
Any way, here is the finished video. Please watch it, share it and above all enjoy it. It's a great song. In my opinion one of their best.
Ideals- Eyes Open
Thanks to the following people for helping make this happen- Nick Williamson, Joe Halls, Callum Hewitt, Tom Barker & Hannah Maynard.
Ideals are- Andrew Major, Ben Ward, Simon Wilson & Ben Smith.
