Film: File Under Sacred Music
Event date: March 31, 2010 19:30
Tagged as: culture mad_pride punk social_struggles
Star And Shadow Cinema, Stepney Bank, Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE1 2NP
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In 1978 The Cramps played a legendary gig at Napa State Mental Institute, California ... Twenty-five years later, artists Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard set about remaking the infamous video of that show... This is FILE UNDER SACRED MUSIC
THE FILM Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard's File under Sacred Music takes as its starting point an infamous video that documents a live performance by The Cramps for the patients at Napa Mental Institute, California, on 13th June 1978. Captured on blurred and grainy black and white film, this unique social document has been swapping hands at record fairs and via the internet since the early eighties. Forsyth and Pollard began by re-enacting that legendary performance in order to film it and remake the rarely seen video document. They consulted closely with a number of mental health arts organisations, before inviting members from Core Arts, Sound Minds and Mad Pride to attend the performance and filming, which was staged on a specially constructed set in the Institute of Contemporary Arts Theatre in London on 3rd March 2003.
THE MUSICIANS To re-create the on-stage performance by The Cramps, Forsyth and Pollard went to incredible lengths to work with musicians who understood the full context and spirit of the project. Eventually, a band was constructed featuring ALFONSO PINTO from London-based punk band The Parkinsons as Cramps' vocalist Lux Interior, HOLLY GOLIGHTLY, a legendary solo artist as well as a founder member of Thee Headcoatees, as guitarist Poison Ivy, BRUCE BRAND, a key figure in the Medway scene, as guitarist Bryan Gregory and JOHN GIBBS from The Wildebeests and Holly's current band as drummer Nick Knox.
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