It took me two years but I finally got around to seeing the brilliant Tony Wilson (the "twat") / Factory Records biopic 24 Hour Party People over the weekend. The movie captures the insanity of it all very well - the drugs, the excessiveness, the Peter Saville "art" of it all. It's such a great era in music history, and IMO the flick does a great job of capturing the whole mood. My enthusiasm for the movie carried over to work today where I played the soundtrack CD - it's such a good one! The film is split into two halves - the first half is mostly about Ian Curtis (the "genius") and Joy Division's rise and fall - so here's the mighty She's Lost Control. The second half of the picture focuses on the Happy Mondays (Shaun Ryder, the "poet") and how their lavish spending on drugs and studio time did the label in - the track that helped spawn "Madchester" was Hallelujah, here remixed most gloriously by Andrew Weatherall, Paul Oakenfold and Steve Osbourne. If you're one of the few peeps out there who haven't seen the movie by now, I heartily recommend it and the soundtrack.
4 comments:
Heartily seconded.
I put off watching it for a while as i was, am, and always will be a huge Joy Division fan...
I didn't last very long and caved in to see what heresy had been commited....
It was bloody brilliant, possibly one of the greatest films about music going... funny, sad, moving and brilliantly acted too....
Not too sure about the upcoming film about IC though...
can't see how anyone can top 24 HPP.
Simon
x
A great movie indeed.
i spoke to Denise Johnson of ACR and asked her about 24h party people. The A Certain Ratio guys didn't like it at all. ACR were shown as a bunch of losers... they deserved better! Strange thing; Martin Moscrop of ACR was musical advisor for the movie.
Try to get the dvd version for the load of extras. Tony Wilson's comment on the whole movie is brilliant!
Fons
I've got to see...I've been doing the same...for some reason I keep putting it off...almost like I don't want to see it...
I love ACR, especially their early stuff...sad to hear they weren't happy about it...oh well...
@Simon - I agree, it is one of the greatest music films going. I am planning on buying it so I can watch it many more times!
@Fons - Yeah, ACR got the wrong end of the stick in the movie - from everyone except Tony Wilson himself! You have to admit that the scene where he's putting the instant tan on them is pretty funny!
@guanoboy - see it!
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